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Seventy-Third Year
gi gEDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHiGAN
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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.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP SUTIN
Bias Protests Jolt
smug Northerners
MANY SMUG NORTHERNERS for a long In Detroit, the NAACP has forcefully brought
time have felt that segregation and dis- attention to housing discrimination by its
crimination are problems belonging in the marches through that city and suburban com-
South, not in the comfortable, quiet North. munities.
This summer has brought a rude awakening Job discrimination has also been protested in
as Negro protests in most Northern cities have Detroit. Negroes have been "the last hired, the
thrown off the wishful-thinking shroud that first fired" for many years. They also make
has covered Northern discrimination, up the bulk of the welfare load. The board of
Many experts fear that cities like Detroit, education has ignored their educational needs,
Chicago or Philadelphia are worse tinderboxes persuaded by bias to disdain the difficult
of racial violence than Birmingham. They problems of inner city schools. Only a citizen's
worry that failure to alleviate complaints of committee report of two years ago has now
Northern Negroes or a future recession that begun to improve the Negro's chance for a
would throw thousands of Negroes out of work decent education.
will intensify racial conflict.
The protests of Negroes in the North! have NORTHERN ATTITUDES against the Negro
talen many forms and have many objects. In are long-held ones, reflecting with ven-
New York and New Jersey they have high- gence general antipathy toward outsiders. The
lighted "racially imbalanced" schools caused Negro's black skin has made him an outcast
by defacto housing segregation or gerryman- longer.
dered districts. Both states have now ruled Negroes could not vote in Michigan until
that such discrimination is no longer tolerable 1869 when the 15th Amendment nullified re-
and New Jersey.is even threatening to cut off strictions in the Michigan constitution. While
aid to one imbalanced district, favoring the abolitionist movement, most
Violence has flared in New York City as Northerners disdained Negroes. Like today,
Negroes blockaded a Brooklyn hospital con- sympathy was best reserved for far away.
struction site demanding more jobs in the Until World War I the Negro did not play
building trades. Scenes reminiscent of Birming- a significant part in Northern life. It was, for
ham were flashed across the nation- as New example, only in 1917 that the Chicago Board
York police dragged hundreds of protesters to
jail. In Philadelphia the building industry and of Realtors adopted the segregated block-only
post office have been the targets of Negro policy that has created the now mammouth
protesters. Chicago"Negro ghetto.
TEN STRAIGHT WEEKS of city hall picket- THE MIGRATION of Negroes seeking better
ing have marked intensification ,of the lives to the North has grown immensely
three-year drive for a fair housing ordinance since World War I to the point where Negroes
in Ann Arbor. The demonstrations have ex- now make up 20-30 per cent of most major
posed long-time racial problems. For example, cities. Housing segregation, a lack of proper
Ann Arbor's Negroes have lived in the same education and access to jobs have confined
general area for the last hundred years, them to ghettos.
bound by strict housing segregation. Two higher Now the Negro is breaking out. It is not a
quality housing areas within.the income ranges new phenomenon, but an intensified one.
for most local. Negroes are closed by this dis- Pressures are bursting old prejudices. Smug
crimination. However even the current fair whites should not be surprised.
housing draft ordinance will not open them up--PHILIP SUTIN
for qualified Negro buyers. Co-editor
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
yCritics iss Point
by Waiter L ippinann I
PLAYBILL:
'U' Players End Season
With Puccini Triumph
STUNNINGLY, "Madame Butterfly" came to life at Lydia Mendelssohn
last night in the final Playbill production of the summer season.
It is fair to say that the evening was a triumph for all concerned
from Puccini on down. Let us get down to specifics, however. The
first commendation must go to Butterfly herself, Barbara Ferrari.
Incidentally, before going further, please note that a different cast
two
<CHKAGo FIRE
STRATFORD:
Concert Shows Mature Bartok
is performing the opera today and
last night's troupe will be held
over, and mainly in minor roles.
Miss Ferrari, however, was the
mainstay of last night's perform-
ance, first of all because Puccini
wrote the opera around Butterly
and second, because Miss Ferrari
is exceptionally gifted both as a
singer and an actress.
BUT IT WOULD BE unfair to
single out only the title role.
Sharpless (Ralph Herbert, who
will play the role straight through)
and Suzuki (Betty Monette White
last night) sang well and with
conviction in the two chief sup-
porting roles. Benjamin Franklin
Pinkerton (Larry Jarvis) is a dif-
ficult role, as it involves being
more or less a villain, and not
even having the chance to really
play the part.
As for the various other minor
roles, they were performed with
more than adequate skill. Goro
(Gary Glaze), The Bonze (Samuel
Roberson) and Prince Yamadori
(Ira Zook), as well as the crowd
of Butterfly's relations, fitted in
admirably. Wayne Arden as Sor-
row, the little child, was excellent.
The orchestra, too, deserves its
measure of praise. After a some-
what overpowering start, the group
soon calmed down and provided
sustaining-and what is more im-
portant, in-tune-interest through-
out the evening. It is unusual to
find a college group that can han-
dle the problem of balance with
solo singers well,.and credit mustr
go to Prof. Josef Blatt, who con-
ducted the evening's performance.
* * *
PROF. BLATT made another
contribution to the opera as well:
his English translation of the li-
bretto of Illica and Giacosa was
used. It carries off the awkward
task of translation as well as most
attempts. There were a couple of
(ticklish spots here and there, but
on the whole what the audience
could get (which is always rela-
tively little, no matter what the
language) was convincing enough.
It is nearly sixty years now
since "Butterfly" first appeared.
To our ears, which recognizes that
four decades have passed since
"Wozzeck," this old war-horse
tends to sound a bit faded. It is
sometimes hard to place this Puc-
cini work in the twentieth cen-
tury; there is relatively little evi-
dence of the shattering waves of
change about to break on the mus-
teal world, and which in fact had
already begun to appear in the
work of Debussy.
YET, THERE ARE few modern
touches in the score, although the
ear is somewhat jaded now in
terms of what was modern to a
1904 audience. But we know that
"Pelleas et Melisande" appeared
in 1902, and a few impressionistic
suggestionsappear from time to
time, but just a few.
Despite its old-fashioned core
and somewhat vague handling of
the text, and beyond the slow spots
in the score, the figure of Butter-
fly, inevitably tragic, dominates
the opera and brings it to its
highest moments. It is no wonder
that it has remained a favorite of
audiences for six decades.
-Mark Slobin
Saturday: only four members of
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
To the Editor:
S UPPOSING Miss Hetmanski's
failure to comprehend or be
persuaded by Cathoic teaching on
birthucontrol to result from gen-
uine differences in conviction and
opinion, her imputation of hypo-
crisy in Catholic thought and the
tone of some remarks (editorial,
August 2nd) are still objection-
able. Of course it is true that
not all thinking people acept
Catholic doctrine on this mater,
but Miss Hetmanski would have
it that those persons who do are
"either hypocritical or nonsensi-
cal." A bold charge. But is Miss
Hetmanski's monopoly on reason-
ableness so secure?
Catholics and others who think
as the Church does on this matter
recognize a distinction and an Im-
portant difference between contra-
ception (the deliberate prevention
of conception) and abstinence
from the sexual act, total or per-
iodic. In the one case there is
interposed between intercourse and
a possible' conception some agent
designed to prevent that possibil-
ity; in the other case there- is no
such act. Miss Hetmanski may
believe the difference unimportant
but even she will grant there is a
difference. Catholics further dis-
tinguish between using a pill as a
contraceptive and using the pill
as a means of correcting a path-
ological condiction (Irregularity of
the menstrual cycle). Is tl s so-
phistic? Not more sotha using
any other substance, or doing any
other thing for two distinctly dif-
ferent reasons. Yes, it i true that
a regularized cycle may then be-
come the basis for a more ac-
curate use of rhythm; but that
does not bring us to the use of a
contraceptive, but back agai to
the original distinction between
contraception and abstinence.
There are no "spurious distinc-
tions" here. The argument is be-
tween Miss Hetmanski's school of
thought, which holds that contra-
ception may be morally correct,
and the philosophy espoused by
the Church which proceeds from
certain principles abone the na-
ture of man and of marriage to
concluc.e that contraception is In-
trinsically wrong,, can never be
jaistfied for any reason. Good
reasons may justify a couple's
avoiding conception by a mutual
agreement to abstain, totally or
periodically, from marital rela-
tions; again, may I call attention
to the rather easily perceived dif-
ference between performance of
the sexual act andrnonperform-
ance of it?
Miss Hetmanski is evidently sin-
cere in her opinions. It ill becomes
her to charge others with hypo-
crisy or lack of rationality.
-Prof. L. F. McNamara
English Department
(Letters to the Editor should be-.
typewritten, doublespaced and lUn-
ited to 300 words. Only signed let-
ters will be printed. The Daily re-
serves the right to edit or wt-
hold any letter.)
BETWEEN the first step, the partial test ban,
and any significant second step, there is
a great difference. The nuclear agreement
could- be made and indeed had to be made
between Moscow and Washington, the only two
full-fledged nuclear powers in the world. But
any significant second step is bound to deal
with some concrete issues which affect im-
mediately and directly other countries, none
of them as yet at least genuine nuclear powers,
but most of them, particularly France and
West Germany, having great political power.
Harriman and Khrushchev could negotiate
a nuclear test ban, and neither China nor
France could interpose a veto. But when Rusk
and Lord Home deal with second steps-be it
a non-aggression pact, Berlin, security ar-
rangements in Central Europe-they can go no
further than the French and West Germans
will allow them to go. By the same token,
Khrushchev can do little about Laos, Viet
.Nam, Korea or India, because in esatern Asia
it is Red China and - not the Soviet Union
which is the dominant power.
It may be, therefore, that the most useful
thing that could be done in this Moscow con-
ference of foreign ministers would be to -seek
a thorough mutual understanding of the prob-
lem of agreements which include the two coali-
tions. The fact of the matter is that the United
States and Great Britain-that is to say '"the
Anglo-Saxons"-can make no decisions for the
European continent and that the Soviet Union
can make none for eastern Asia.
IN REGARD to the treaty which was signed
recently, there are clearly visible opponents,
the Red Chinese; there are visible the ab-
stainers, notably General de Gaulle; and there
is an American group, its size as yet undefined,
which hates to vote for the treaty and would
much rather, if it could, vote against it.
The Chinese are fiercely opposed to any
Soviet agreement with the United States. They
hate especially the test ban which goes such
a long way toward eliminating nuclear weapons
in the cold war.
The Gaullist line, on the other hand, is very
different from that of the Chinese. The general
does not object to an agreement with the Soviet
Union. On the contrary,- he looks forward to
one. His point is that the agreement should not
be negotiated by the Anglo-Saxons with Mos-
cow, but, when France is sufficiently armed, by
France plus West Germany.
THE FEELINGS of the American dissenters
are more akin to the Chinese opposition than
Jackson's article in the New York Times Mag-
azine Sunday. The senator is one who expects,
so he seems to say, to vote for the treaty. But
he hates to do it and is waiting for something
to turn up in the hearings and the debate
which will enable him to vote against the
treaty. In the meantime, he is troubled by
"seven assumptions" which he thinks are false
and may be misleading us.
An important fact about the seven mislead-
ing assumptions is that none of them was,
made by the administration in negotiating the
test ban treaty on which the senator will now
have to vote for or against. The senator's
seven assumptions are drawn not from the
deliberations of the administration, but are out
of the more naive letters which come to him in,
his mail and by the popular talk which he
hears around him.
THUS, 1) the United States did not agree
to a partial test ban because it is assuming
"that the Chinese-Soviet quarrel reduces the
Communist threat to the West." Although it is
quite true that the quarrel does reduce the
power of international Communism, that is
not the reason we agreed to a treaty which
is based on Soviet acceptance of a proposal,
first made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower
and then repeated by President John F. Ken-
nedy.
It is not true that the Kennedy administra-
tion negotiated the treaty because 2) it assum-
ed that "we can win our way with the Russians
with a policy of inoffensiveness." While our
policy should certainly not be "offensive," that
has nothing to do with the test ban treaty.
As for the third misleading assumption 3)
"that, the arms race is leading straight to
catastrophe," the test ban treaty does not
pretend to end the arms race.
THEN, 4) "a test ban will halt the spread of
nuclear weapons." This is not an assumption
of the treaty. It is a hope which it is permis-
sible to have and to work for.
Next, 5) "a test ban agreement will neces-
sarily lead to growing East-West confidence
and reduced tensions. "I have heard of nobody
from the President down who had used the
word "necessarily" or who dares to think that
anything good will happen necessarily.
The next one 6) has to do with the use of
conventional weapons in the Cuban showdown
last year. It has nothing whatever to do with
the test ban treaty.
Finally, Jackson is deeply troubled because
he has heard people say 7) that our national
nallee shuld e more "flexsie."The sena.r
T IS A CURIOUS fact of the
musical history of the twentieth
century that most modern music
was written in a period of about
three decades beginning in 1905.
In that mad period of bold, new
courage and experiment which
straddled the roaring twenties the
modern musical idiom was dis-
covered, developed, explored and
exploited. Much good music has
been written since then, but much
of it is marked by a return to
romanticism and classicism. The
recent compositions of even so
bold an innovator as Edward Va-
Populr
'Cyranod
STRATFORD, Ont.-"Cyrano de
Bergerac" is suchtfoa popular
play that the Stratford theater
would undoubtedly be packed for
even a bad production of it. This
year's "Cyrano" is imaginatively
conceived and directed with that
comprehensive attention to detail
which characterizes all of the
Stratford performances. It jus-
tifies, if not rave notices, at least
the crowded auditoriums it con-
tinues to engender.
Competent direction and design,
however, are not enough to make
the evening a wholly satisfactory
theatrical experience. Some scenes,
particularly those at the pastry
shop and on the battlefield, are
sufficientlyacolorful and well-
paced to allow one to forget the
inevitably arise in the setting, but
comparisons to Shakespeare that
much of the play drags, and the
rhetoric and sentimentality which
amuse at first eventually seem
tedious and interminable.
THE ROLE of Cyrano must be
an actor's plum, but like many
other such parts, it demands more
than it appears to demand. Cyrano
is the play, and a brilliant Cyrano
can carry the long stretches of
bombast which are otherwise bor-
ing. Unfortunately, John Colicos
is merely adequate as Cyrano; he
lacks the magnetism and com-
manding stage presence necessary
to make the audience triumph
with him in his victories and weep
with him as he woos Roxanne.
Many of the best lines of the
play are muffled or thrown away
without inflection. "Panache," for
instance, the recurrent word des-
ignating that code of chivalry and
honor which governs the hero's
life, is emphasized only at the very
end of the play and seems, by that
time, anti-climactic. Most of the
famous duel in poetry of the first
act is virtually inaudible, and the
death scene-which should be a
tear-jerker-goes on and on.
THE SIEGE of Arras (Act IV)
provides the best moments of the
evening, probably because it con-
tains more' action than the rest
of the play and gives better lines
to minor members of the cast. Leo
Ciceri, Eric Christmas and William
rese sound far less extreme than
his works of 40 years ago.
Last Sunday afternoon at the
Festival Theatre in Stratford,
Ontario, we heard three works of
Bela Bartok, certainly not one of
the wild ones of the era but a
great composer. First was the So-
nata for Two Pianos and Percus-
sion, written towards the end of
the tridecade in 1937. It seems to
mark the retransition, being sim-
ilar in texture to Stravinsky's Les
Noces for four pianos and percus-
sion (with chorus), of some 30
years before.
Presumably pianos were scarce
in Hungary at the time. Also per-
cussion players. The score, as we
could see from our seats, includes
instructions for the arrangement
of the percussion battery and
pianos so that four perofrmers
will be sufficient. The use of a
third percussionist does no harm
musically, but it is sort of like
using both hands in the well
known Ravel concerto. I had
never heard the sonata in concert
before. It is exciting and touched
with humor and is worth more
playings than it has received in
the past. The performance was
vigorous and dynamic and com-
pared favorably with my some-
what battered recording.
The relatively early Violin So-
nata No. 1 seems a lesser work. It
gave mainly a chance to hear the
fine playing of Oscar Shumsky
with his beautiful instrument. His
tone and variation of it are superb.
One long quiet muted passage in
the upper register particularly dis-
tinguished the first movement.
AFTER intermission the Fine
Arts Quartet gave an excellent
reading of Bartok's Fourth String
Quartet, one of the greatest and
also most easily accessible works
of the period. How strange it must'
have sounded in 1928! Today its
idiom is fresh and energetic, but
not outre. It is, as the works of
Mozart, very much of its time and
very much better than most. It is
tightly knit through cyclic use but
not misuse of themes, full of hu-
mor remarkably similar in cad-
ence to that of Haydn, and superb-
ly structured in the composer's
"arch" form. The final iteration
of a ,development of a first move-
,ment theme is soul-shakingly
satisfying.
The Fine Arts Quartet has long
had a reputation as Bartok inter-
preters; Sunday's performance was
in that tradition. It is not so much
purity of tone in the usual sense
that is necessary for this quartet,
Rather are needed are great accu-
racy of pitch, rhythm, and dynam-
ics. Perhaps most important is a
sense of humor. These qualities
were present with power to spare
last Sunday.
* * *
THE CHAMBER music concert
Saturday morning was less suc-
cessful. A few years ago Saturday
morning provided us with a but
slightly formalized open rehearsal
of one of the workshops, which
a r e conducted concommitantly
with the public productions sea-
son. But familiarity breeds ossifi-
dantie performance. But the dy-
namic contents, both between sec-
tiois of the work and between
voices, are poorly planned. How
much more fun if, as at an open
rehearsal, the conductor could
have stopped the music and, tell-
ing the sopranols to come in more
quietly, repeated a certain passage,
and how much more informative!
THE SECOND work was the
late Stravinsky Cantata (1952).
This is a wickedly marvelous mix-
ture of musical formalism and tex-
tual decadence. The words includ-
ed a number of old folk songs in
divers arrangements. But the long-
est section was a long song for the
tenor, or origin unknown to me,
called "Tomorrow shall be my
dancing day." Suffice it here to
say that the dance referred to is
between Christ and the Church
and that the theme is treated with
all incestuous overtones empha-
sized. Donald Bartle's tenor, while
musically a bit shaky, was superb-
ly enunciated. The performance of
this work was good, but one won-
ders how well it could bear re-
peated hearings.
The program concluded with a
piano quintet of Dohnanyi, of
which I shall not bother you with
key or opus number. The more
minor works I hear of this com-
poser, the more I wonder how he
could have written one work so
fine as the Variations on a Nur-
sery Tune. The quintet seemed like
warmed over Brahms which had
cooled off again.
J. Philip Benkard
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