Seventy-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
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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.
TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: MARILYN KORAL
Immigration Laws Need
Major Revision
N SPITE of all the protests against discrimi-
nation being raised these days, it is gener-
ally forgotten that there is at least one area of
official United States policy where discrimina-
tion is the law of the land, the area of immigra-
tion.
The immigration law currently on the books
was first passed in 1924 and modified in 1953.
It sets up places for 150,000 immigrants over-
all, with each country having a quota based on
the percentage of persons of that national
origin living in the United States in 1920. The
population in that year was weighted towards
the English, Germans and Irish, consequently
these countries have the largest quotas.
Furthermore, there is a "national origin"
law which is designed to keep out Orientals.
Under its provisions, if half of a person's an-
cestors came from an Asian or Pacific nation,
that person is considered under the quota of
that nation no matter where he himself may
be living at the time.
IN ADDITION to being discriminatory the
quota system acts to keep down the number
of immigrants coming to our shores. For ex-
ample, the three largest quotas belong to Eng-
land, Ireland and Germany, which together
have about 109,000 vacancies. Yet on the aver-
age these countries send over around 53,000
people a year. The other vacancies go unfilled
because they are not transferable to other
countries which may need them. Italy, for ex-
ample, has a quota of around 5500, but her
backlog of people wishing to enter this coun-
try is estimated as 300,000.
Many people have felt that a new immigra-
tion law has been needed for a long time but
attempts to put one through have always run
into two major obstacles. The first of these are
the complaints of people in the labor movement
that all immigrants would do would be to push
qualified Americans out of work by taking em-
ployment for lower pay. This they say would
increase our unemployment problem. The sec-
ond objection comes from people who do not
want to see more people from "non-Nordic"
Europe, Africa and Asia enter this country.
However, the people who support a new law
now have President John F. Kennedy on their
side. In 1958, while still a senator, he wrote a
pamphlet on immigration declaring: "The
famous words of Emma Lazarus on the pedes-
tal of the Statue of Liberty read: 'Give me your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free' . . . Under the present law it is
suggested that there should be added: 'as long
as they come from Northern Europe, are not
too tired or too poor or slightly ill, never stole
A Similar
CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, which prides itself on
the basis of recent surveys with ranking
second in the nation in average education and
sixth in family income, had little reason last
week to be proud of still another area where it
is a leader.
According to national officials of the Urban
League, housing in this community is as rigidly
segregated as anywhere in the North.
Schools, too, while officially integrated, are
segregated in practice by neighborhood pat-
terns.Relatively few local jobs-particularly
"middle class" jobs-are filled on an equal
opportunity basis. Real estate men subscribe
to a "housing bill of rights" which, stripped
of its rhetoric, protests very little more than
the "right" of Negroes to be denied access to
the open housing market.
LAST WEEK, the community was reminded of
these and other cases of discrimination by a
list of ten "proposals" from the Champaign-
Urbana Improvement Association. Naming areas
where it hopes its committees will find progress
toward integration by July 29, the association
hinted that demonstrations or boycotts might
be necessary after that date against the worst
strongholds of discrimination.
And thus-after a false start in 1961 and
much uncertainty ever since-Champaign-Ur-
bana jonied the ranks of uncounted American
cities where patterns of racial injustice are un-
der attack.
If "all men of good will" will work together
locally for integration and equality, a promi-
nent local minister said at the week's end, dem-
onstrations will not be necessary here.
W'WEAGREE. And yet we are reminded that
men of good will did nothing about fair
employment for Negroes until the Improve-
ment Association picketed in 1961. And we are
aware that men of good will have not accom-
plished very much since.
Perhaps, however, the tide is turning. Local
patriots are right about one thing-this IS an
uncommon community. Saturated with Univer-
sity personnel, well educated, affluent, concern-
ed with its reputation as a progressive down-
state center, Champaign-Urbana may rarely be
eager to do the "right thing," but it is often
willing.
We note that the local Ministerial Associa-
a loaf of bread .. and can document their ac-
tivities for the past two years'."
LAST WEEK Kennedy proposed changes in
the law. He called for the abolition of the
quota sstem over a five year period and the
admission of applicants on the following basis:
1) The skills the immigrant has and their
relationship to national needs,
2) The family relationships between immi-
grants and persons already here, and
3) The priority of registration or in other
words, first come first serve.
He also asked that total immigration be in-
creased to about 165,000 a year, and demanded
an end to the "national origin" law.
Kennedy's proposals will run into the same
two objections other recommendations have in
the past; but these objections can be refuted.
The advances in the civil rights field right now
are proof that a majority of the population at
least accepts, if not fully believes, that the
rights of equal opportunity belong to all men
and not just "Nordics." Ever since the Chinese
Exclusion Act and the "Gentlemen's Agreement"
with Japan, this discrimination in our immi-
gration policy has hurt us internationally. The
large numbers of Eastern and Southern Euro-
pearis in our population today, the struggles of
the Negro, the admission of Hawaii as a state
and the close ties we have with Puerto Rico
are all evidence that the "melting pot" con-
cept of the United States is still applicable.
THE COMPLAINTS of the labor movement
are valid in that an increase in the number
of immigrants, all other factors being equal,
would probably result in an increase in unem-
ployment. But agitating against immigration
is not the answer. Instead of trying to keep
people out, their efforts should be directed at
trying to stimulate the economy, which is cur-
rently working below capacity level. Expansion
of our industrial output would create jobs for
both the presently unemployed and future im-
migrants.
With the exception of his first selection
priority which ties immigration to the defense
effort, President Kennedy's proposals are sound
and should be enacted. Objections to them will
be raised out of economic fear and prejudice,
but these can be met through the use of rea-
son and expanded economic policies. The Unit-
ed States was founded and build by immigrants,
and we have not yet reached the stage of na-
tional perfection where we can morally, eco-
nomically or culturally afford to close our gates
in a discriminatory manner.
-RONALD WILTON
Co-Editor
"Courage, Men, Till The Clouds Come Back"
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JAPANESE LITERATURE:
Postwar Years See Changes
AT THE CAMPUS:
Double Feature
Offers High Quality
" ERVAISE," playing at the
Campus Theater, was direct-
ed by ' Rene Clement along the
lines of Zola's novel "L'Assom-
moir" ("The Dram Shop"). It is
an intriguing film, to say the
least. The sets, designed by Paul
Bertrand, are more beautifully
authentic-I think-than those
of any other movie I have ever
seen; the strength they give the
picture's realism is enormous. The
acting is very satisfying, i.e., at
once compelling yet not overdone.
Gervaise (Maria Schell) is a
young laundress, who marries an
illiterate roofer named Coupeau
after her first lover, Lantier, grows
tired of her and leaves with an-
other woman. Coupeau, now step-
father to Gervaise's two sons by
Lantier, himself fathers a daugh-.
ter-who is given the name Nana.
But Coupeau changes. Confined
to his bed for a few months after
a roofing accident, he loses his
taste for hard work. He bullies
Gervaise, and he drinks too much.
Gervaise begins to hate him.
ONE DAY, Lantier comes back
to town, alone. At first he doesn't
even try to get near Gervaise, but
slowly his curiosity overcomes his
fears: he enters her house the
very night she is celebrating her
birthday. Everything of course be-
comes more strained and terrible
from that moment on, especially
since the drunken Coupeau begs
Lantier to take a room in the
house. Lantier accepts, and Ger-
vaise's contempt for her husband
is now so complete that she lets
Lantier make love to her again-
as they did once before, long ago.
But ultimately all of Gervaise's
gambles for security fail. One
night, Coupeau, in a crazed frenzy,
destroys the laundry with his bare
hands. And from this horror of
ruin, Gervaise turns to the hor-
rors of alcoholism. The short con-
cluding sequence, with little Nana
running away, and headed for
who-knows-what, is strikingly
similar to the final shots of Cle-
ment's masterpiece "Forbidden
Games" (1952). It would be a mis-
take to say that "Gervaise" is as
great as the earlier film by Cle-
ment, but to ask anyone to miss
seeing it at all would be a greater
mistake.
* * *
THE SECOND FILM on the
marquee is Jacque Tati's comedy
"Mr. Hulot's Holiday." It has been
shown on television a number of
times, and for this reason I can-
not, with full conscience, recom-
mend paying money to see it. But
this picture must contain some of
the most hilarious sight gags ever
assembled. The film has one abid-
ing fault, however. There is no
plot to speak of, no story or thread
of continuity. Even though the
short introduction to the movie
tells us to expect no plot, why
should one ever give up this right?
While "Gervaise" and "Mr. ,Hu-
lot's Holiday" are certainly at op-
posite ends of the comic-tragic
scale, each stands high in its
particular category of entertain-
ment and art.
-Gary Robinson
TANGLEWOOD -
'War Requiem'
Comes Across well
r Problem
gram. We note that Champaign Mayor Emmer-
son Dexter has scheduled a series of meetings
with local business, government, professional
and service leaders. We note that the Negroes-
led by Rev. J. E. Graves, who coordinated the
1961 demonstrations, and Rev. Blaine Ramsey,
state NAACP vice-president-are organized and
determined.
"There comes a time," a Champaign Roman
Catholic priest said last Saturday in a state-
ment to local newspapers, "when men of prin-
ciple feel that they must stand up and march
on the side of right with the Negroes."
The time has come.
-THE DAILY ILLINI
Progress,
THE CALL for "real integration" has been
the rallying point for northern Negroes. It
has been used to demand everything from fair
hiring practices, in the form of percentage
quotas, to fair schooling practices, in the
form of anti-segregational school district gerry-
mandering.
What this school district business means
is that a New York child will no longer be, able
to walk down two blocks to the school in his
district, but he will have to make two bus
connections to get to a school on the other
side of town. This is because the city fathers
have decided that a boy from Harlem has
mnore of a right to attend the good school in
his district than he does. The fact that his
parents have worked all their lives to buy a
house in this district so their son could reap
the benefits of a superior education notwith-
standing. Clearly something is wrong some-
where.
The cancer of prejudice has many symptoms.
Segregation is one of them. Southern Negroes
have a bloody fight on their hands to relieve
it, but only the most naive person believes
that the right to urinate in a white toilet is
anything but a beginning.
I1N THE NORTH, integration is not synony-
mous with civil rights. Militancy should be
directed towards demanding rights-such as
fair hiring practices, buying a house in a
hbttr schnn1 district and hino- aented o r
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer of
this article is a professor of litera-
ture at Chuo University in Japan.
The article is reprinted from the
Hakumon Herald, the English stu-
dent newspaper at that university.)
By SEIICHI YOSHIDA
THE EXPRESSION of "contem-
porary Japanese literature" is
very ambiguous and it is hoped to
be changed to "postwar Japanese
literature" after 1945.
It is very clear that there were
great changes before and after
that year.
Postwar literature achieved with
difficulty Democratic society ex-
pected of the Meiji Restoration.
In this sense, it was a radical
change which historians might
call as the "August 15th Revolu-
tion," though it might be consider-
ed merely as the realization of an
expected thing after all.
There are opinions (like those
of Mitsuo Nakamura) that it is
wrong to give an illusion that
"war has special action that
changes the quality of literature"
by opposing "prewar" against
"postwar," but it is a grim fact
that this time resulted in bring-
ing about a wider scope of free-
dom, although it may be "dis-
tributed freedom," and forced
changes upon the social setup.
At the same time, it strongly
agitated human thought and
consequently the spirit of litera-
ture.
4 . .
HERE ARISES the question of
difference between prewar and
postwar literatures. It relates to
the problem of "freedom" after
all. This freedom involves a free-
dom from Emperor system, a wide
scope of freedom of sex expression
and freedom from the complex of
the Communist Party.
As to freedom from the Em-
peror system, no explanations are
considered necessary.
r In point of sex expression, no
civilized nation in the world was
so strongly oppressed like Japan
in the past.
Even the publication of a trans-
lation of the most beautiful de-
scriptive scene in G. Flaubert's
"Madame Bovary" popular as a
"noble work" among the world's
classics was not permitted. How-
ever, after the censorship system
was abolished, freedom entitled to
civilized nations was granted. This
was certainly to be warmly wel-
comed, although it was a matter
of course.
AS TO "FREEDOM from the
complex of the Community Party,"
it may be said that the JCP dur-
ing the wartime was an under-
ground existence and great re-
spect was paid to the Communist
Party and its members. It was
similar to one paid to martyrs dy-
ing for their lofty ideals.
Whileholding Marxism, many
literary men declared their aban-
donment of political activities un-
able to endure oppression. These
converted men could hardly face
their former leaders who had en-
dured their hard prison life for
a long time, without a guilty con-
science and a sense of shame.
members are God nor the party
itself is free from its factional
strifes like other established poli-
tical parties in addition to the
decline of the past respect for the
party and its members. Further-
more, criticism against them grew
stronger on the grounds that their
policy and doctrine lacked inde-
pendence and the party itself was
managed under instructions from
the Soviet Union. All these things
affected the character of contem-
porary literature and, in some
sense, more than freedom obtained
in criticizing ithe Emperor system.
However, it became possible for
writers to pursue their own course,
discarding their cowardly pose,
such as feeling constrained by a
certaii kind of authority outside
of himself or cringing to others, as
assumed by those in the swartime.
It was nothing but steps to pave
the way for securing individualis-
tic literature to make clear the
dignity of human and individual
authority. However, in literature,
it is by no means to confine one-
self to private novels of lockout
nature or of retired old persons to
grasp these things as individuals.
*% * *
ON THE CONTRARY, deep po-
litical concern in a broad sense
should be shown in order to grasp
the relations of one's self and
environment, and those of indi-
viduals and civilian society. One
of the outstanding features of
contemporary literature is that
the recognition of politics in this
sense has become larger in scope
than in prewar days.
That is, the attitude of indivi-
duals to make social criticism or
face environment in some sense,
has become marked.
It, however, relates only to the
contents of thought. In point of
methods and techniques, an at-
tempt to reform fundamentaly the
realistic methods of the past has
come to be made. In other words,
it means more prominence to fic-
tions than to experience-first
ideas of the past.
The "plausible truth" that sup-
ports the reality of novels has been
the actuality of facts in Japanese
literature since naturalism. Actual
facts have had to be exposed in
their original form without order,
and when expressed based on the
bitter experience of authors, they
have been tended to be welcomed
all the more as the true confes-
sions of their actual life rich in
"plausible facts."
* **
AGAINST THIS, in the contem-
porary literature of Europe the
literary truth has been obtained
only by including the actual state
of events and humans into the
intrinsic regulations of the novel
world and systematizing them,
apart from the facts themselves.
By such manipulation, "crea-
tive works" can be produced, and
without this operation, facts mere-
ly arranged in order of time can
be no more than "records." In
other words, this "manipulation"
means "fiction." Naturally, literary
works are not "records of exper-
ience" and they should contain
"experiments" in some sense.
This way of thinking did not
exist with enough readers to sup-
port them.
Strange to say, proletarian writ-
ers mostly fail to develop selves
outside the natural features of
private novels, adhering rather to
their own simple personal exper-
ience. This may mean their late
start resulting from the negligence
of techniques, but at the same
time may be interpreted as the
antitheses of this faction of writ-
ers against genre novels whichj
stress mere formalities as the ob-
jective real novels and do not
criticize their self problems.
Genre novels pose, a problem
to popular contemporary litera-
ture. It relates to commonly called
"pure literature" which is some-
what intellectual amusement liter-
ature brought about as the result
of the development of postwar
journalism. It has the aim of satis-
fying many readers without think-
ing much.
Since this kind of literature
exists in any age and does not
serve as mental food, nor as land-
marks of age, no further mention
of 'it will be made.
In short, contemporary litera-
ture was able to obtain for the
first time .fair recognition of
literature in the true sense in the
history of modern Japanses litera-
ture. Naturally, at present it can-
not be said as having had suf-
ficient results, but it has many
possibilities that promise its future
development. The question that
lies ahead now is how to make
them sufficiently grow to bear
fruit.
"My subject is War, and
pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity.'
All a poet can do is warn."
Britten's Requiem differs from
the traditional setting, the Latin
libretto is interspersed with verses
by Owen in English. Thus the
Latin is sung by soprano solo
(Phyllis Curtin at Tanglewood)
with full orchestra and large
chorus, and some additions by a
boys' choir accompanied by a por-
tative organ. The verses of Owen
are sung by baritone and tenor
soloists (Tom Krause and Nicholas
DiVirgilio) accompanied by a
chamber orchestra. So far, not an
unexpected situation, since Britten
has often varied his musical forces
imaginatively to suit the situa-
tion.
THE ESSENCE of the Requiem
might be expressed as a musical
commentary on the War con-
cept: not on the glory and wonder
of war, but more on the vast loss
of life, a particularly grim feature
of World War I.
Just as one might question
whether the University of Michi-
gan contained perhaps too much
ON THE EVENING of July 26,
at Tanglewood, the "War
Requiem" by Benjamin Britten
had its first American perform-
ance, with Erich Leinsdorf con-
ducting the Boston Symphony and
assorted choruses and soloists.
The title page of the Requiem
contains an inscription from the
poetry of Wilfred Owen, a soldier
of the First World War who was
killed seven days before the Arm-
istice:
the
Survey Research and not enough
Research, one might question
whether the War Requiem was
more War than Requiem. In prac-
tice, however, the entire effect is
handled quite well, especially be-
cause of the division of orchestra
and soloists into two distinct parts.
The English verses follow the Lat-
in divisions of the Requiem natur-
ally enough; there are a =few of
the traditional Requiem effects,
trumpet fanfares, drum beats, etc,
but Britten's additions have creat-
ed something of more than pass-
ing interest.
Fortunately, the music shed at
Tanglewood is a good setting for
this Requiem. It is set in a large
well-kept estate in western Massa-
chusetts that nomally attracts
thousands of people each summer.
The shed itself is pie-shaped with
the orchestra at the "apex," lis-
teners spread throughout, spilling
onto the lawns where many sit
amidst formidable collections of
transistor radios, blankets, lunch
boxes, thermos bottles, mosquita
netting and perhaps a few ex-
posed X-ray films left over from
the eclipse.
Although a recorded version of
Britten's War Requiem has been
made, one would hope for an op-
portunity to hear this in concert
performance. The May Festival
people might be eventually per-
suaded to offer this work if it
proves to be of sufficient interest.
One cannot deny the significance
of the Requiem as a commentary
on War. The excellence of its
music should make the Requiem
a work of great interest in the fu-
ture.
-David Kessel
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