&w Miiigan &itg
Sixty-Ninth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone xo 2-3241
'hen Opinions Are Fre
Truth Will Prevail"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
HURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1958
NIGHT EDITOR: JOAN KAATZ
Panbellenic Honor Code'
Needs Careful Reevaluation
"I Don't Think They Want Me In There"
(tkf
-S
-C
TORRE CASE:
Freedom of Press
Not Unmixed Blessing
By RALPH LANGER
Daily Staff Writer
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS often arouses much emotional response
from "patriots" and often a case involving the term is automatically
attacked.
The latest of these has apparently gone against the writer, perhaps
justly so.
Marie Torre. a television columnist for the New York Herald Trib-
une, lost her legal fight to get a contempt conviction reversed. The Su-
preme Court refused to hear Miss Torre's contention that if she were
forced to name her source it would violate the constitutional guairan-
tee of freedom of the press.
S m s
:MISS TORRE quoted a Columbia Broadcasting System executive
PANHELLENIC Association might do well to
stand back and take a long look at the
rushing restrictions now in effect.
In 1956, when SGC changed formal rushing
from fall to spring, Panhel was forced to
change the regulations concerning contact be-
tween affiliated and independent women on
campus.
Some of the purposes in moving the rushing
period from fall to spring were to let the pros-
pective rushees get "acquainted" with the
housds-i.e. to help them learn what each house
was like and not enter the rushing situation
blindly; to give them a chance to adjust to
the University itself before having to decide
whether or not they wanted to rush or pledge.
In order to achieve these two aims and to
allow for free contact among all students, thus
avoiding irritations and problems arising from
a strict set of rules on independent affiliate
relations, Panhellenic set up an "honor code,,'
The code puts all sorority women 'on their
honor not to pre-rush independent women
from the beginning of registration in Septem-
ber until formal rushing begins in February,
1958."
PRE-RUSHING is defined as "affiliated wom-
en influencing an independent woman in
her attitude toward a given house, persuading
an independent woman to join a given house,
and notifying an independent woman that a
given house would like to pledge her."
The code lets each womangmake her owny
A PENNY HERE, a penny there - and you
wind up with a $5 fine for obstructing
justice.
The student who, apparently overwhelmed
with the spirit of Christmas, braved Saturday's
cold and snow to help out his fellow man by
extending their parking meter time found to
his dismay and monetary loss that such action
is not looked upon kindly by local authorities.
Whatever his motives, they certainly could
not have been the intentional and malicious
obstruction of the due processes of law, but
good intentions seemingly count for nothing.
Who says it's Christmas? Don't reveal any
misguided attempt to promote "peace on earth,
good will toward man" -- Big Brother may be
final interpretation of what is and what is not
right.
Last year, with fairly effective communica-
tion and much stress on trust between sorori-
ties, affiliated women restricted themselves to
a degree-and in general the code worked out
satisfactorily.
This year conditions have deteriorated, par-
tially because there is no real threat to a
sorority that wants to ignore the code entirely.
There is only a monetary fine.
But, it is not necessary to pay a fine, merely
making a more liberal interpretation of the
code suffices.
CONTACT BETWEEN old friends is not lim-
ited. This means that sorority women can
entertain in their houses, as personal guests,
any person they met before school started this
fall. The loophole of what each affiliate regards
as an "old" friend is growing larger and larger
as the year progresses. Even though a house
does no actual entertaining, a prospective
rushee cannot help but be influenced in her
attitude toward a house if she knows the people.
This influence is defined as part of pre-rushing
and constitutes a violation.
Because of this loophole, there is no effective
way of restricting pre-rushing. Unless it can
be absolutely proven that an independent
woman is rushing and is invited to a house,
knowing no one in that house before sclool
started, violations of the code will go un-
punished . . . but not unnoticed.
Questions about the wisdom of inviting "old"
friends into sororities have met little opposi-
tion. In fact it seems common practice to have
many such friends over. In some cases the old
frends are legitimate, but in many they are not.
THE ENTIRE situation does little for Panhel-
lenic or the campus. Not only does it make
Panhel look bad-ideals of "cooperation" and
unification in striving "toward similar and
mutual goals" are being ignored, but it also
places too much emphasis on rushing, too early
in the year. Rushing is an abnormal situation
anyway. Why bring its pressures and worries
early? The "Panhellenic sisterhoodl" and the
code they set up based on faith does not allow
for internal rivalry and "code-bending." There
should be a little moire demonstration of the
faith and mutual trust and respect implied by
the code.
--ELIZABETH ERSKINE
Associate Personnel Director
W re 4
. , ... .,
as saying that actress Judy Garland
"terribly fat." and "couldn't make
up her mind about anything."
Miss Torre did not name the exec-
utive.a
In the resulting suit. Miss Gar-
land sued C.B.S. for $1,393.333.
During the trial Miss Torre was
asked to identify the source of her
information. She refused.
This is not new. Reporters have
been refusing to name confiden-
tial news sources for a long time.
Some of them have gone to jail,
as will Miss Torre if the court does
not modify the 10-day sentence
imposed.
Although some states have sta-
tutory protection for newsmen,
most do not. This is an indication
of judicial reluctaice to extend
the privilege of source immunity
to occupational fields. Some,
priests, doctors, and lawyers, have
this privilege, at least to some de-
gree.
Reporters have typically held
to their word and not revealed
confidences although the court
may hold them in continuing con-
tempt, according to Prof. John
Reed, of the Law School. Prof.
Reed said, however, that a couple
of episodes of this nature may re.
suit in sufficient pressure to get
the New York Legislature to adopt
statutory protection for newsmen.
DESPITE the obvious advan-
tages for newsmen possessing this
immunity there are certain dan-
gers to society as well. One is that
an individual might take advan-
tage of this immunity to make any
kind of statement and escape re-
sponsibility by refusing to name
his source.
Another is that courts are then
hampered in their search for jus-
tice. This is the primary and prob-
ably most valid argument ad-
vanced by the judicial group. It
is a valid one,
had "an inferiority complex," was
There is a need for certain
amounts of information obtained
by reporters to be disclosed to the
court in order to further justice.
The ideal system would be one in
which relevant information is re-
quired and vice versa.
This is now the case to some
degree. Courts do not, at present,
demand disclosure of information
merely for information's sake. And
in other cases the punishment is
merely token . . . to indicate that
the court can demand' information
but that the reporter's rights are
also respected to some extent.
THE DEFENSE in the Torre
case has contended that a great
part of the news, such as political,
economic and scientific news, is
communicated to reporters only
upon the condition that the source
not be disclosed. Therefore, disclo-
sure of the source means imme-
diate withdrawal of sources will-
ing to talk.
UNFORTUNATELY this speci-
fic case is a poor example. Miss
Torre isn't exactly a governmental
reporter who requires protection.
She is a gossip columnist who
prints occasionally uncomplimen-
tary statements about public per-
sonalities. Protection of a person's
right to make these kinds of state-
ments is not guaranteed constitu-
tionally, and probably shouldn't
be.
In addition, the million and a
third dollars suit is aimed at
C.B.S., not the Herald Tribune. In
other words, Miss Torre's story
could cost the network a fortune,
even though she is not one of
their employees, but a columnist
who merely said, "somebody over
there told me but I'm not going to
name him."
46o4?9W PiE 4.Ht4Vt1ToM
GERMAN ELECTIONS:
Willie Brandt Gains Wide Support
By REINHOLD ENSZ
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent
BERLIN (P)-Willy Brandt, the
two-fisted Socialist Mayor of
West Berlin, hates Communism-
and his citizens love him for it.
Faithful to their 44-year-old
mayor, the West Berliners in Sun-
day's election gave the Reds their
worst walloping and the Socialists
their biggest majority.
"We will never bow to Com-
munism," declared Brandt, key-
noting his administration's policy
for the next four years.
Then the 190-pound dynamo
bolted out of election headquarters
and got busy telling politicians
and ordinary folk how to steel
themselves for the cold war battle
with the Reds.
-* * *
'BRANDT IS JUST the man we
nteed for the troubles ahead."
That's -not a Socialist supporter
talking. It's a member of the oppo-
sition Christian Democrats, Deputy
Mayor Franz Amrehn, who adds:
The Christian Democrats will help
him no matter if we are in opposi-
tion or in coalition."
In the eyes of many West Ber-
liners, Brandt has taken on the
heroic stature , of Ernst Reuter,
Socialist Mayor who brought West
Berlin through the Russian block-
ade of 1948-49.
With his youth, forceful person-
ality and popularity, many politi-
cians are beginning to eye Brandt
as a possible successor to Chan-
cellor Konrad Adenauer - if West
Germany goes Socialist.
Brandt is no parlor pink Marx-
ist. Friends and enemies know him
as a hard-headed realist. Despite
his Socialist beliefs, the Mayor is
one of the first to credit free enter-
prise as the key factor in restoring
West Berlin as a symbol of free-
dom.
* S *
BRANDT HAS MADE some neu-
tralist Socialites unhappy by show-
ing appreciatin for West Ger-
many's membership in the Atlantic
Alliance.
Brandt, born Dec. 18, 1913, the
son of a poor worker in the Baltic
port city of Luebeck, started hat-
ing and battling totalitarianism at
the age of 7. As a young socialist
stalwart, he slugged it out with
Nazi toughs in street fighting.
With Hitler firmly in power,
Brandt skipped out one hop ahead
of the Gestapo and went to Nor-
way aboard a fishing vessel.
Controversy swirls around his
World War II record. Political foes
accuse him of fighting with the
Norwegian Army against the Ger-
man invasion. Brandt admits to
Red Cross work, but denies taking
up arms against his countrymen.
While studying at the University
of Oslo and working as a journal-
ist, the young exile dropped his
real name, Herbert Frahm, and
became Willy Brandt. He took on
Norwegian citizenship. After Ger-
many surrendered, Brandt re-
turned to Berlin to become a press
attache in the Norwegian Military
Mission.
HIS METEORIC ascent to politi-
readopted German citizenship in
cal power began soon after he re
adopted German citizenship in
1947. He won a seat in the West
German Parliament and bounced
into West Berlin politics as a city
legislator.
In 1948, Brandt married Rut
Hansen, a slim beautiful Norwe-
gian girl he had courted in Scan-
dinavia. The Brandts live quietly
in a two-family suburban house
with two sons, Peter 11, and Lars,
7,
Norwegian is spoken often in
the home. The furnishings, in
pleasant pastel shades, reflect the
Scandinavian influence.
"I see very little of Willy these
days," says Mrs. Brandt wistfully.
Obviously, the Communists wish
they could say the same.
INTERPRETING THE NEWS:
Mao Runs Chinese Risk
--KATHLEEN MOORE
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Be fore Congress Meets
Dy WALTER LIPPMANiNi
By J. M. ROBERTS
Associated Press News Analyst
PEOPLE familiar with Chinese
character and Chinese tradi-
tions are convinced that Mao Tse
Tung will not make his new com-
mune system stick indefinitely.
Stalin tried it with the Russian
peasants who were accustomed to
being giround down by their land-
lords and the royal overseers, and
he couldn't do it.
There is no reason to believe
that Mao will fare any better with
a highly individualistic people who
SINCE THE ELECTIONS, the same issue,
though in different forms, has risen in
both of the two parties. It is the perennial
and fundamental issue of who shall pre-
dominate-Congressional leaders or the leaders
who represent the State Houses and the parties
in the big pivotal states. The political interests
of the two sorts of politicians are not identical,
and personal interests play a very big part in
political alignments.
Owing to the rule of seniority and the one-
party system in the Southern states and in
some Northern states, the prime interest of the
Congressional leaders is to hold their places in
Congress. If possible, they would, of course, like
to control Congress. But in any event their
main object must be to keep their own seats,
Winning the Presidency and with it the big
pivotal states is not a paramount and vital
interest for the senior Congressional leaders.
On the other hand, in the pivotal states the
governors and the candidates for the Senate
and the House have a prime interest in win-
ning the Presidential election. It can happen,
as in New York this year, that a state election
runs contrary to the tide of the national elec-
tions. But that is the exception rather than
the rule.
IN THE DEMOCRATIC party, the conflict of
interest is centered on the rules of Congress,
on the right to filibuster in the Senate and in
the House on the ability of the committees,
especially the Rules Committee, to suffocate
legislation which, if it came to a vote, might
command a majority. The Congressional lead-
ers have more power if the rules restrain the
majorities which might otherwise prevail, not
only on questions of civil rights but also on
welfare measures.
The leaders who are based on the states want
to loosen the rules in order to win the votes of
the large urban and suburban masses in the
pivotal states. They are interested in the White
House and in the candidate for President, and
the national leaders of the parties work with
them.
The same conflict exists in the Republican
Party, and it takes the form of an issue between
the "savers" and the "spenders." Broadly
speaking, the .spenders comprise the Republi-
cans who hope to carry their own states and
to elect another Republican. President. They
are strongly disposed to rally to Mr. Rocke-
feller. The savers have their present champion
in President Eisenhower, though on the record
he is no °saver-as compared with former Sec-
retary Humphrey. Vice-President Nixon is in
a quandry. He knows that the next President is
almost certain to be cast in the image of a
progressive spender. He himself is deeply in-
volved with the professional politicians who are
known as unprogressive.
Although the conflict can be described in
terms of spenders and savers, it would be mis-
leading, I think, to suppose that, as between
Rockefeller and Nixon for example, the issue
is between the Left and the Right. Even now,
there are already signs that a movement is
building up behind Rockefeller which is essen-
tially like that which brought about the nomi-
nation of Wilkie, Dewey, and Eisenhower, and
defeated Taft who was the great representative
of the Congressional Republicans. A movement
of this kind gets its momentum from very pow-
erful corporations and financial institutions
centered in the big cities of the pivotal states.
It is a movement designed to elect, not merely
to nominate, a Republican. We shall be hearing
a lot more of It.
HAT GOES ON in the coming session of
Congress will, of course, deeply affect each
of the two parties. If the Eisenhower budget
and his legislative program are vulnerable on
the question of defense and if they look reac-
tionary to the mass of the people in the pivotal
states, Mr. Nixon's quandry will become even
more acute. Mr. Rockefeller's position will grow
stronger.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Readers Cite Obligation, Offer Suggestions-
Obligation . . .
To the Editor:
THE APPEARANCE of "Sigma
Kappa" in your headlines
Tuesday morning indicates to me
the height of rudeness on the part
of our so-called "campus leaders."
Foi- more than two years now we
have been awakened to Sigma
Kappa and personally I am be-
coming rather tired of it. But if
I am gettingtired of this issue,
how about the girls themselves?
Most of us in fraternities have
enough problems of our own with-
out worrying about whether we
will be officially alive tomorrow.
The continuance of this issue
makes me wonder if there are not
some "leaders" who are out to kill
Sigma Kappa-one way or an-
other.
It seems quite unfair to penalize,
Sigma Kappa during another very
important rush by imposing this
unnecessary situation upon them.
The University Administration's
ruling appeared to be the logical
and just conclusion, but now, un-
fortunately, some people apparent-
ly desire to drag the 626 Oxford
co-eds over the proverbial fire
once again.
In my opinion the Student Gov-
ernment Council has, if nothing
else, a moral obligation not only
to Sigma Kappa, but to the cam-
pus, to accept the Administration's
decision and thereby allow the
girls to rush on equal status with
the other sororities.
--John W. Hubbard
Suggestions . "
Under any kind of rational scru-
tiny, his editorial dissolves into
bad cliches and liquid metaphors.
He stuffs a little straw man full o
"conformity and mediocrity" and
then makes him go "sloshing,"
"surging" and "washing" through
"messy situations," "quagmires"
and the like. Mr. Langer succeeded
in his critical objective only by
offering up himself as an example
of how a liberal education can
completely miss its target.
Let me offer a few suggestions
for meeting the general problem of
editorial content:
1) Give us some "white space"
on the editorial page occasionally.
Confess in public that now and
then you don't have anything to
say. Go off and read a book with
the time you would otherwise
spend spinning out copy to fill the
space.
2) Get a little outside help. An-
nounce a forthcoming editorial
"theme" and invite contributions
from outside the immediate family
of staffers.
3) Within the family, don't let
seniority bury competence.
4) Give soine thought to crank
letters like this.
-Robert E. Barnes
Instructor in Sociology
Information . .
To the Editor:
HOW LUCKY you at the Univer-
sity of Michigan are to have
one of the best hospitals in the
world. Visiting it on Thursday
morning. I was delighted to see
how kind the director, the doctors
and the nurses were. The way they
Approaching nearer, I came
across a very serious mistake
which is worth checking as soon
as possible. He was identified as
"an Arabian physician" which is
a mistake.
I mentioned it to the director
who kindly promised me to check
it right away. Unfortunately, many
of those who have visited the hos-
pital so far may have already got
the wrong impression about the
identity of this famous Iranian.
So, as a citizen of Iran, I feel the
duty to write a little about it.
Avicenna, the great philosopher
and physician, was born in the
north of Iran in980 A.D. He lived
in Iran and died in Iran. His
tomb, built in Hamadan, a city of
Iran, is the shrine of scientists
and scholars. We celebrated his
Sen imore Says.
milleniary (according to lunar
reckoning) in 1951, at which many
doctors, as representatives of thei
nations, from all countries includ-
ing the USA, were present. I have
never heard him claimed to be "an
Arabian physician," even by Arabs.
I think this mistake has occurred
because Avicenna wrote his books
in Arabic. It will be relevant t%
mention here that in those days
Arabic was the religious and some-
times the literary language of Per-
sians. To show theit intelligence
and skill, many of our scholars
and scientists wrote their publica-
tions in that language.
--Nematollah Riazi-Kermani
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Letters to the
Editor must be signed, in good taste,
and not more than 300 words hi
length. The Daily reserves the right
to edit or withhold letters from pub-
heation)
for centuries have let the world
revolvet around the family and its
garden plot, rather than vice
versa. * * .
MAO IS TRYING to take mil-
lions of people away' from their
homes and villages and resettle
them in barracks on the job. Wives
work at assigned tasks, teams do
the housekeeping, and there are
no more private gardens.
"Individuality has absolutely no
place," says the Peoples Daily,
Communist Party mouthpiece. "No
longer does one find the phenom-
enon in which workers are mem-
bers of the working class only
when theyare working and free
people when they are off duty,
Now there is all-round party lead.-
ership over the production, life and
education of the worker masses."
That does not sound like the end
of individualism in China, but the
beginning of the end of Mao and
the Communists.
Chinese Nationalists believe that
nothing the Communists could
have done would have built up so
much revulsion-and eventually so
much revolution - against them-
selves.
Stalin and his successors had to
yield in the matter of garden plot
ownership and turn progressively
toward more "capitalistic" practi-
ces.
Mao had to do the same thing
several years ago with regard to
private loans for farming and
home development. Why his party
now reverses itself again, ignoring
both its own and Russia's lessons,
is not clear,
The Red development program
needs the work, all right, and
regimentation appears superfici-
ally to be a fine way to get it. But
the Kremlin learned that to really
get the work the Communist soci-
ety has to pay for it just like any
other.
14.1
* "
Editorial Staff
RICHARD TAUB, Editor
AEL KRAFT JO
orial Director
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DAILY
OFFICIAL
HN WEICHER
City Editor
DAVID TARR
Associate Editor
ALE CANTOR ........ Personnel Director
AN WILLOUGHBY...... Associate Editorial Director
LAN JONES ...,.. ,. Sports Editor
EATA JORGENSON ....... Associate City Editor
JIZABETH ERSKiNE....Associate Personnel Director
LRL RISEMAN.. .,.......Associate Sports Editor
COLEMAN .. ....... .,Associate Sports Editor
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