Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 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" ?' %~. --. c-w ATT t TEST A 1.' r: atd U- ~~-- 't2- z .- rC 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 s r 'lf f f{y.. Y _ f Y ' /' 7,r I