"Didn't I Meet You In Korea Once?"
Sixty-Ninth Year
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Of Over-Ambition
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
URSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1958 NIGHT EDITOR: JOAN KAATZ
Proposals for New Taxes:
A Challenge To State Legislators
WHAT KIND of men sit in the State Legis-
lature?
Rarely has any group had the opportunity
to answer the question as explicitly as those
men meeting in Lansing next month.
The problems facing the state are big. The
stature of the men facing the problems re-
mains to be seen by their actions.
FACING THE lawmakers is the challenge of
lifting the state out of its financial mess.
Tax revenue has been falling while needs have
been rising. The state treasury is running a
deficit and dragging on payment of bills.
Meanwhile, the state's population continues
to grow, increasing the burdens of the future.
For the last couple of years, the State Legis-
lature has declined to meet the challenge head
on. "Hold the line" has been the cherished
dike against new state taxes - and also, badly
needed services. From time to time, when the
pressures of expanding needs became too great,
legislators have usually responded with an act
here and an act there, leaving the state with
an irrational, topsy turvy tax structure.
Attempts to correct it or to gain additional
revenue have been put off, pending a complete
evaluation.
BUT NOW, after 15 months of work by econ-
omists from the state's universities and lay-
men on the Citizen's Advisory Committee on.
Taxation representing all segments of the econ-
anxy, the state has an excellent guide to re-
vising the tax structure. The proposed revisions
would put the tax burden on an equitable basis,
relieving the load carried unfairly by low in-
Come groups, and provide relief for marginal
businesses who would pay on the basis of prof-
its, which may have little relationshp to thei
now taxed property and machinery. And, the
changes would give the state an additional $140
million dollars in state revenue to meet the
needs of mental health programs, higher edu-
cation and the other functions which depend
upon state appropriations.
The thorough study of the tax structure by
the state's economists and the changes sug-
gested by the citizens' group have been pre-
pared and offered in an objective manner for
the common good.
It is to be hoped that the Legislature will
consider the recommendations in the same W.
jF ONE IS FORCED to express doubts, it is
because of past history. Nearly every new
tax proposal, especially if backed by Gov. Wil-
liams, has been greeted with the immediate, al-,
most reflex cry that business is being driven
out of the state. The subject of taxation and
the state's business climate has been a politi-
cal football, played with political brawn rath-
er than statesmanlike brain.
And objections will probably be voiced to
the new recommendations, focusing particular-
on personal and corporation income taxes.
Word of the committee's recommendations
were leaked last week, reportedly by someone
opposed to the provisions, and some members
of the committee have been considering a mi-
nority report.
"HOLDING THE LINE" 'is a fine slogan and
to be sure, economy in governmnt re-
mains important. But the unpleasant facts of
the state's economic life have to be faced and
the imperative needs for education and health
cannot be glibly sloganed away. Holding the
line against taxes can also mean holding the
line against progress and the fulfillment of
the state's needs.
The decisions of the next legislative session
should answer more than a few questions about
the state and about the members of its legis-
lature.
"FISH! I love you and respect!
you very much but I must kill
you before this day is out."
wheezes Spencer Tracy. the old
man, into the sea's tumult: and
indeed, after endless trauma, he
does.
But greater than the task of
killing the "beegest damn feesh in
the sea" was the problem of trans-
posing Hemingway's novel to the
cinema, for his little fable is no
more fitted for the screen than
the poetry of Dylan Thomas. A'
story so internal in its drama and
metaphysical in its interpretation
is ill-suited for a technicolor spec-
tacular.
"He was an old man," says the;
soundtrack. "and he had gone 85
days without catching a fish." An
old man, with a prideful, happy
humility, and a little boy whose
love is always present though he
must leave the old man. But at
last the noble marlin comes and
the old man and the fish wrestle
each other far out through the
Antillean seas. And then the
sharks, the ocean's scavengers, to
touch the salt of bitter realism to
the old man's triumph. But this
is no phyrric victory for we can
smile with the old man who was
not beaten but simply "went out
too far." This save for a single
flashback to the old man's young-
er, swarthy days is the entire
movie.
THE PROBLEM of transpos-
ing novels into films is an old and
essential one. Whether the cam-
era can demonstrate the same in-
nuendos and intelligences that
the pen can is debatable. But if
we are to accept the cinema as an
art form we must assume that
given the same themes and char-
acters as a novel, it can produce
a work as compelling and as
meaningful. So whither "The
Brothers Karamazov" and "War
and Peace?" And what on earth
happened to "The Old Man and
the Sea?"
The problem is further accent-
ed in the present film for lengthy
excerpts from the work are read
above the action. Much of the
time this is effective but in spots
it lapses into absurdity (witness:
Soundtrack - "The old man
smiled" and Spencer Tracy will-
igly smiles. soundtrack - "He
lifted the harpoon" and Mr. Tracy,
right on cue, obligingly lifts his
bloodstained harpoon.) But more
interesting is a comparison be-
tween the power of Hemingway's
lines and the perceptivity of
James Wong Howe's camera.
"Man can be destroyed but
never defeated" says the old man
and this is similarly true of Hem-
ingway's themes. The movie be-
comes a noble try, attempted by
gifted but over-ambitious men,
who, like the old man. "went out
too far." They have taken an epic
.nd made a travelogue.
-Eli Zaretsky
INTERPRETING:
European
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CAPITAL COMMENTARY:
The West
By WILLI,
Rides High
AM S. WHITE
/
-MICHAEL KRAFT
Editorial Director
Baylor May Set Example
IT IS ENCOURAGING to note that discrim- Saylor will consider the touchy integration
inatory policies at segregated, Baptist-sup- issue in the cool, civilized manner which has
ported Baylor University are being investigated. been urged, by all who favor a gradual inte-
Student concern has been expressed over an gration process.
incident in which a Baylor ticket official and What the outcome of this consideration will
police forced a University of Texas Negro stu- be, of course, can not be ignored. If Baylor
dent and his date to sit in the "Negro section" officials elect to continue the school's segrega-
at a Baylor-Texas football game. The two had Lion policy it will be rather a blow, though not
previously purchased tickets in the student an actual setback to the integration movement.
section. The fact that at least some people on the
Baylor campus, as indicated by the stand of
Protesting voices were heard, not just from its student newspaper, favor a policy reversal
the integrated University of Texas but from would leave hope atat at a later date the mat-
Baylor as well. Both Baylor and Texas student ter will be reconsidered.
newspapers editorially expressed their disgust A real victory may be chalked up, however,
at the incident. The University of Texas Stu- if segregation is erased at Baylor. With all the
dent Assembly sent a resolution to Baylor for- talk about turning public schools into private
orally protesting the incident. Baylor officials schools so that they may be operated as seg-
extended an apology and later made the an- regated institutions, it would be quite a slap
nouncement that perhaps some changes might in the face to see an already private college
be made. follow the direct lead of a public university and
And it was as easy as that. There were no then to operateing on an integrated basis.
burning crosses and no federal troops involved. -JUDITH DONER
j TODAY AND TOMORROW 1
WASHINGTON - Perhaps the
most fundamental shift in the
balance of political power of this
generation is unfolding wilh ever
rising significance in the .Ameri-
can West.
Alaska's decision in its belated,,
balloting to send two nev 'Demo-
cratic Senators here has. had far
more important results :than to
swell the Democratic majdorities
that had resulted from elections
held across the rest of the coun-
try on November 4.
It means of course, tlat the
new Senate will open in .Janlary
with 64 Democrats to 34 Repub-
licans. This is the largest margin
of Democratic control shmee the
high tide of the Franklin D.,Roose-
velt era.
*, .
MUCH MORE MEANI NGFUL,
however, is that Alaska, cmur 49th
state, has not joined in a headlong
western march to the De nocratic
party that will have consequences
extending many years into the fu-
ture.
Already, in the November 4 vot-
ing, Democrats have swept
through the Far West lfke a des-
ert sandstorm. They haLd seized
four entranched Republican Sen-
ate seats in Wyoming, California,
Nevada and Utah. They :now have
consolidated an almost tptal con-
trol of the whole vast' Prea run-
ning from the ice of northernmost
Alaska to the blazing heat of the
Mexican border.
Now a single Republi Can Sena-
tor, Thomas Kuchel of California,
survives on the whole Pacific
slope. Moreover, Dergoc rats- are in
effective control of Senate dele-
gations running all the way east-
ward to the Dakotas.
Already, too, Far Western Sen-
ators had held four of the most
powerful committee chairmanships
in the Senate dealing with the
national economy - Hayden of
Arizona, appropriations; Murray
of Montana, interior and insular
affairs; Magnuson of Washington,
interstate and foreign commerce;
Chavez of New Mexico, public
works.
* * *
THE IMMEDIATE RESULT of
all that has happened in Novem-
ber will be to give the West a de-
gree of Senate influence it has
hardly known in history. There
will be a sharp corresponding
fall in the influence in the Senate
of both the East and Mid-West.
And the ancient dominance of
the Senate by the South, particu-
larly in these times when party
control lies with the Democrats,
Inevitably will be much weakened.
Indeed, it would be vastly weak-
ened but for this fact: the South-
ern moderates who now master the
Southern Senate wing in general
have long been close to the West-
ern Democrats. The association
has rested in part simply on mu-
tual liking and in part on common
interest.I
These Western Democrats are
universally liberal in things like
public power, spending for public
wor.ks and agricultural subsidies.
They have an empire to build and
they represent for the most part
a have-not section of the country,
long subject to economic discrimi-
nation from the East. So, too, the
Southerners. And so the Southern-
ers, with a handful of Old Guard-
ist exceptions, find it easy to make
common cause with the Western-
ers. Each section believes, from
one point of view, in moving the
country forward. Or each section,
from the orthodox Republican
view, is quite expert in widely dis-
tributing money from the federal
treasury.
On a single issue, civil rights,
the Western-Southern comrade-
ship is far from close.
But even here, the Westerners
have never been willing to burn
the last bridge with the moderate
Southerners.
What is likely for the future isj
an increasingly successful West-
ern-moderate Southern coalition.
Actually it is potentially capable
of mastering the Senate-and it
will probably do so.
* * *
AT THE SAME TIME, the pow-
er of the West in Presidential
elections, thus in Presidential
nominating conventions, has not
risen with its Senatorial power.
This, of course, is because in the
Senate the smallest state has equal
representation with the largest,
whereas the Presidential electoral
vote of Nevada, say, is a small
prize indeed.
Finally then, it is entirely pos-
sible that we shall see a new con-
test for ultimate power over pub-
lic policies between the Western-
Southern Senate on the one side
and the Presidency that after 1960
is still likely to be dominated by
the interest and attitudes of the
East and Midwest.
(Copyright, 1958, by United
Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
AT THE STATE:
'Bad Plot'
Makes Good
"VJIE DECKS RAN RED" is
saved from falling into the
routine melodrama classification,
not by its perilous situations and
narrow escapes for the good guys,
but by the breathtakingly nefar-
ious plot of its bad guy, Broder-
ick Crawford, who plans to kill the
entire crew of the freighter, Bern-
wind, water log the ship, and then
ride her into port and collect half
the valuation of the ship and her
cargo - one million dollars.
Crawford bases his scheme on the
fact that in the past the courts
have awarded half the disabled
ship's value to the men who have
ridden the water logged boats in,
The Bernwind's crew is being
stirred up by Crawford who is
hoping that they will mutiny
when the captain dies, and James
Mason is chosen by the company
to be his replacement. Mason is
resented by the restless crew who
feel that the beloved first mate
should have been chosen. To add
to his troubles, the cook and the
steward have jumped ship and
are 'replaced by a New Zeeland
native and his wife, Dorothy Dan-
dridge, who is aptly described by
Crawford as "a well-stacked doll."
When Crawford begins to shoot
the crew as someone would kill
flies at a picnic, the decks really
do begin to flow with that stuff
thicker than water.
The best performances are
turned in by Crawford, a study in
sheer, unadulterated greed and
ambition, Stuart Whitman as his
accomplice with a weak conscience
and a strong trigger finger, and
Miss Dandridge who reveals, in
addition to her endowments from
Mother Nature, a fine dramatic
sense.
-Patrick Chester
Communtity
By J. M. ROBERTS
Associated Press News Analyst
IMMEDIATELY after World War
II three of Europe's smallest
and worst shot up nations
launched a movement which has
been spreading over the continent
in ever-widening circles.
Belgium, the Netherlands and
Luxembourg formed an organiza-
tion designed to eliminate econ-
omic frontiers and substitute co-
operation for competition. They
wanted their economic relation-
ship to be much the same as those
between the states of the Ameri-
can union.
They called the new organiza-
tion Benelux, and set out for wht
they knew would be a long haul,
They-established a common tar
iff system toward outsiders, and
virtually free trade between them-
selves.
Early next year two big melons
will be cut from what was once a
sickly litle vine.
The three small nations will be-
come virtually a single economic
state. The borders between them
will be almost meaningless. There
will be free movement of persons,
capital, goods and services. Finan-
cial and social policies, including
wages and prices, will be coordin-
ated.
BEYOND THAT, the general
idea will be extended through a
new organization including Bene-
lux with France, Germany and
Italy. Through their long years
of effort the three small nations
will be able to speak as one in
the new organization including
the larger nations.
Already the European coal and
steel community has been issuing
what amount almost to interna-
tional citizenship cards to work-
ers in that field.
It also operates Joint schools
for the children of members of its
staff, itself an important germ in
the growth of internationalism.
Business and industry are set-
ting the pace, but the more intri-
cate problems of internationalized
agricultural practice are already
being attacked.
The European economic com-
munity faces great problems in
its relations with traditional trade
partners such as Britain and the
United States.
Britain has fought a determined
but losing battle for establishment
of a broader free trade area so
that she would not be faced by a
continent-wide tariff setup. She
cannot submit her own economy
to the European community be-
cause of her preferential tariff ob-
ligations to the commonwealth.
There is a danger, especially
during the long years of adjust-
ment which are to come, that the
European community may take
trade repressive measures to pro-
tect itself in crises.'They are now
trying to compromise their posi-
tion with Britain and other coun-
tries.
The United States has balanced
these and other dangers against
the need for a unified Europe and
proffered constant cooperation.
Convinced that continent-wide
free trade has been one of the
chief sources of her developing
strength, the United States cheers
as Europe's traditional internal
boundaries come tumbling down.
',I
II
Gambit Begins Game
By WALTER LIP'PMANN
. ........ .
E ACH DAY makes it seem more likely that
the Soviet move in Berlin is the opening
gambit in an extensive diplomatic operation.
dealing with the whole German question. Al-
though the long note from Moscow, which
was sent last Thursday, makes specific propo-
sals about the status of West Berlin, its gen
eral tenor and the text around the proposals
suggests very strongly that the Soviet govern-
ment looks upon West Berlin as an instrument
for raising the whole question of Germany.
For there can hardly be any illusion in Mos-
cow that the Western powers will refuse to
evacuate West Berlin and to leave it sur-
rounded by the Red Army and with its com-
munications in control of the East German
government. The proposals about Berlin are a
talking point, not a serious offer. I say this
because Mr. Khrushchev has already said in
his press conference that the six months time
limit would not be rigidly adhered to if prom-
ising negotiations were under way. And if
promising negotiations are not under way, pre-
cautions have already been taken to see to it
that nothing portentous happens if authority
is transferred to the East German government.
Mr. Dulles has said that we might let East
German officials stamp the documents because
we would regard these German officials as
mere agents of the Soviet government. To this
the Communist boss of Eastern Germany, Mr.
Ulbrich, has replied that he did not care what
Mr. Dulles called the officials, provided they
stamped the documents,
All in all, then, there is no instant crisis and
we are at the beginning of a long game in
which the distance runners will do better than
the sprinters,
It is not probable, I think, that on the whole
German question there will be any really se-
Europe and back within, its own' frontiers. It
is reasonably certain that the Soviet govern-
ment has not convince ditself that it can with
draw its army without running a very great
risk of an anti-Soviet and an anti-Russian ex-
plosion among the satellites. Yet, at the same
time, there is good reason to believe that the
Soviet government lives in dread of another
Hungary, and realizes that there is a great risk
in the continuing military occupation of East-
ern Europe.
On our Western side a serious negotiation is
not likely to begin soon because policy is made
by Dr. Adenauer and Mr. Dulles. Their terms
one in which ,negotiations with East Germany
state and the extension of the frontier of NATO
to the Polish border. This is literally and ex-
actly a demand for the unconditional surrender
of the Soviet Union, and it is not a negotiating
position.
IT IS REASONABLE to assume that the So-
viet operation in Berlin is addressed to the
German successors of Dr. Adenauer and to
the American successors of Mr. Dulles. That
is why the gambit in Berlin is only the begin-
ning of a long game. Unless all signs fail, Dr.
Adenauer's successors in West Germany,
though they are as anti-Communist as he is,
will move away from his absolute position to
call for the liquidation of the East German
and with the Soviet Union can take place. If
and when this change occurs in Germany, the
American successors of Mr. Dulles will have
to change our position.
On the long view, perhaps the greatest risk
we are running at present is that we shall be-
come alienated from the Germans who will
succeed Dr. Adenauer. The risk is greater than
we realize .For our nfficial nolicv anti tha s
SECOND THOUGHTS
... By John Weicher
A Step Towards Contacts
&MIMIN WW MIIWM-
INTERNATIONAL VVEEK, is by
its very nature sul ject to sev-
eral serious limitationis which must
of necessity reduce its worth to
somewhat less than is desired by
everyone connected with it.
First and foremost, it is a Week
and only a week-in fact, it is
even shorter, exte'riding from
Tuesday to Saturday this year.
Very little can be accomplished in
eve days: lasting fr bendships are
aot formed, heart-:,earching po-
itical discussions bestween Ameri-
man and internation- l do not take
place, profound un'ierstanding of
world problems does not develop,
and so on.
Secondly, attention must be
called to the Week:'; people must
be made aware of it. The easiest
way is to bring in "name" speak-
ers with knowledge +of internation-
al affairs. These people can serve
to highlight the week as a round
of exchange dinneis, a dance and
a fair cannot do. Etowever, in the
process some atterdtion, perhaps a
great deal, must b( diverted from
the international students them-
selves to the speakers, thus obscur-
ing what the weelk is supposed to
bring out.
In addition, to, come off suc-
blocks are set up, it still can do
much.
*0* *
DURING THE WEEK, a start
can be made towards bringing in-
ternational and American stu-
dents together. Here the World's
Fair is the best place; students liv-
ing in apartments, or fraternities,
or dormitory floors where no for-
eign students live can meet for-
eign students if they want to and
talk to them a little, and learn
something, if not about them per-
sonally, at least about their coun-
try.
At the Fair, for instance, we
talked to an Ethiopian student
briefly, and noticed several other
Americans doing the same. Ethi-
opia has been a legendary place
since the middle ages and before,
as well as being remarkable in our
own days for attempting to fend
off Mussolini's bombers by camel
cavalry charges, in one of the first
premonitions of World War IL
But, we discovered, Ethiopia has
other merits, and considerable im-
portance in the present day. We
doubt if this information will ever
be of direct personal benefit to us,
but probably no one in 1934 ex-
pected Ethiopia to be important
then .ither And it can't hurt.
Ican students invited the Ethio-
pian out for a cup of coffee to dis-
cuss, for instance, the problem of
being a strongly Christian, pro-
Western country on the fringes of
the Arab world.
* * s
WHETHER ANY DID or not is
also beyond the scope of Interna-
tional Week. What is, is whether
International Week made this sort
of meeting more possible, whether
it served its catalytic function. On
the one hand, it did make inter-
national students more accessible
to Americans.
But, on the other, it created
some problems, too. Few of the ex-
hibits at the Fair were staffed by
enough students of a particular
country to make it possible for
one to leave his post and go for a
talk with an American-with some
exceptions, such as Iran.
This could be remedied easily.
But it is indicative of the problem,
suggested before, of organization.
In the process of getting the Fair
set up to promote cultural contact,
cultural contact is likely to get
lost in sheer administrative detail.
Perhaps greater ecort in the di-
rection of more events like the
fair, with such loose ends as the
shnrtae of international students
Senimore Says ...
" M1. '.:.AbaiC