- axs+f :Nj m r all mal Seventy-First Year - - EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MiciG AN EWhere Opinions Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Truth Will Prevail" STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This mus t be noted in all reprints. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1961 NIGHT EDITOR: RUTH EVENHUIS Tf) REDUCE DISPARITIES: Central Curriculum Control Challenge Union Status As Private Club (LI)TORS NOE: hisis the fir4 of ahree.-part analysis of the needs of the nation's school sys- ty JIIT OPPENILEIM l)AIy Staff Writer VITHI ALL the recent fuss about Soviet scholastic achievement, it has become fashionably patri- otie to denounce the American system of education. Writers and educators wring their hands over the fact that American sehools are not produe- ng scienists, mathematicians and translators of the calibre of their Soviet counterparts. They cry for something to be done to remedy :he situation, but deplore the ef- ficient means by which the Rus- sians control their schools' out- put. The "essential features" of the Russian educational system, how- ever, are not in the least incom- patible with free education in a democratic society, and are used by several European countries, in- cluding Great Britain. Three of the main features are centrally controlled curriculum, ability grouping and state support, They could easily and profitably be applied to American school systems. ONE of the greatest problems of American students entering col- lege is the vast inequality exist- ing between various areas of the country. Some of the inequalities are revealed by the percentages of potential soldiers rejected by the armed forces on the basis of illiteracy. During the past ten years 19.2 per cent of all candi- dates for military training were rejected. Of these 2.3 per cent were from Utah, 9.3 per cent from Cali- fornia, 13 per cent from Michigan and New York, 22 per cent from Texas, 36.1 per cent from Georgia and 58.3 per cent from South Car- olina. In the July 1 issue of the Sat- urday Evening Post, a 13-year-old boy from Milan, Tennessee writes, "I will be in the 8th grade when school begins again in Septem- ber, and they will still be feeding us second-grade reading matter. "At least that's the way of it in Tennessee. I don't know about the civilized world." * * * BUT in'many parts of the "civ- ilized world" students are finding the same problem. In rural school districts, which cater to the needs of local students who will not con- THE MICHIGAN UNION'S STATUS as a pri- vate club-- announced recently when two non-members were asked to leave the Union Grill-is being challenged. The argument is simple. If the Union is in fact a "private club" as its General Manager Frank Kuenzel asserts, then membership ought not to be compulsory. Since each male student in the University has a sum deducted from his general tuition payment for Union dues which entitles him to life membership after eight semesters, and since the student is given no option in paying this sum, membership in the Union is clearly compulsory. (The University allocates a sum to the Union from the tuition fees in its general fund, but this sum is not based on per capita assessments, Therefore, membership fees are not paid di- rectly, but in effect each member contributbs through his tuition payments.) The letter recently sent to Union President Paul Carder by a student requesting the refund of the money deducted from his tuition pay- ment for use by the Union will, at least, bring the question to the attention of Union officials. Presumably, they will recognize a certain logic in the argument. They may even recognize that such a request pinpoints the practical fallacy of their contention that the Union is a private club. INHERE IS A practical fallacy in that the Union in reality functions as a public place. Non-members are permitted to use certain facilities (for example, the dining room, the barber shop and-until recently-the Grill) subject to none of the restrictions associated with private clubs. They are not required to acquire the status of a member's guest; they are not charged rates in excess of those which members pay. (All students - members and non-members - are exempted from state tax in the Michigan Union Grill, although life members are not). Their status in using these facilities differs in no observable way from the status of members. The fact is that the public uses the Union and that in this sense, the Union is a public place. Recognizing that the Union operates as a public place, it is likely that its officials will rely on its legal status as a basis upon which to excuse the arbitrary ousting of persons whom they consider "undesirable." It is upon this basis that the request of the author of the letter will likely be denied. The Union has a peculiar status within the University which, in turn, has a peculiar status under law. Hence, there is some question as to whether this now public, now private organiza- tion can legally operate as it does. MORALLY, however, and on the basis of com- mon sense, there is not a question. The Union functions as a public place. For all practicaly purposes, it is a public place. An argument to the contrary is theoretical and sophistic. Moreover, the phenomenon of a pri- vate club with compulsory membership is an apparent contradiction. Logically, if the Union wishes to be in fact (rather than in expedient theory) a private club, it is bound to meet the letter's request and refund the money of one who does not desire membership. The alternative is to deny the request, thereby denying its status as a private club.b -RUTH EVENHUIS I' ITo The Editorj U.S. Tesing Unjustifiable THE KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION recently warned that we may resume the testing of nuclear weapons if the Russians do not stop their trial runs. There is no justification for such a resumption of American testing. Ethical and practical reasons demand our continuation of the present testing moratorium. The two leading armed powers-the United States and the Soviet Union - have already stockpiled enough nuclear warheads so that either one of them could level all existence from this planet. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiro- shima had the explosive power of 20,000 tons of TNT. It killed 60,000 people and wounded another 100,000. The largest weapon yet ex- ploded by the United States was a hydrogen bomb with an explosive capacity of 15 million tons of TNT. It vaporized a Pacific island. The proposed development of a neutron bomb has recently been used as an argument for re- sumption of the testing. This new bomb does not rely on a fission-bomb trigger nor does it release harmful radiation. It kills by the re- lease of lethal neutrons-and has the dubious advantage of merely destroying human life while leaving homes, factories, arsenals and other military fortifications unharmed. This bomb is nowhere near the testing stage. Nuclear scientists disagree about its feasibility and the weapon is at present only ready for preliminary laboratory studies. ACONTINUED MORATORIUM on testing will not hinder the development of this new super bomb for several years. Even the resump- tion of tests when the bomb is considered ready for use seems a bit outlandish. How do you test' a weapon which will not destroy inanimate FROM OTHER CAMPUSES: Paths of MUCH HAS HAPPENED during the past few months to create a climate of gloom and frustration in the United States. Castro jeers at the Yankees, the Communist supported rebels advanced in Laos, and Ken- nedy returns from Vienna told by Khrushchev that the United States had better give in on Berlin. Visibly, and demonstrably, things have not been going too well for America lately in some areas. Also, the United States has recently seen the rapid growth of a quasi-secret political movement within its midst, the John Birch Society. While its purported goal is to save this coun- try from communism, we believe it portends something far more deep and disturbing.. Admittedly small at present, its position as a political force in this country has several frightening precedents in the Europe of the 1930's. OTH Hitler and Mussolini were able to ex- pand their followings, and come to power in situations that in some ways could be well likened to our own delay. Hitler's coup d'etat in Germany followed a war in which a people humiliated by Versailles, ond imnnerisho hu 'tbneavinn wer ol +nn objects unless you deliberately subject living beings to a merciless death? Practically speaking, the Russians may de- velop a. better bomb faster if we do not con- tinue testing but just continue stockpiling our hydrogen bombs. Once you reach the point of controlling means for total destruction, how- ever, what is the sense of adding to your capa- bilities? Resumption of tests of nuclear weapons will only continue to increase the amount of radio- active fallout about us. Now, we are continually assured that this amount is well below the maximum permissable dose, but the absolute amount keeps getting closer, while the Atomic Energy Commission keeps lowering its estimates of this "safe" amount. THE CALCULATED radioactive poisoning of our own people and the propagation of un- known infirmities on future generations is not justified under any circumstance. When it is done with no cause at all-"national security" is already "guaranteed" by our ability to an- nihilate everyone-it is a gross violation of any rational code of ethical behavior. A continued moratorium on nuclear testing, coupled within intelligent disarmament pro- posals, would demonstrate our desire to secure the world against nuclear bombardment or radioactive poisonings. As more and more na- tions acquire atomic bombs, accident or just plain folly will inevitably lead to disaster and nuclear holacast. We must prevent this from happening and the best way to start is maintain our stand of unilaterial test cessations. -MICHAEL OLINICTO . Defeat' ready to reject the democratic institutions of the Weimar Republic. Mussolini gave the Italian people much of the same. Over and over again he told a poor, and unhappy nation that they had, "Been stabbed in the back," by the Allies following World War I. Although we can draw no exact parallels be- tween the rise of Fascism in these two coun- tries, and the growth of the John Birch So- ciety in this country today, a few pertinent similarities should be mentioned. While the United States is far from being poor, and has not tasted the anguish of defeat, we are begin- ning to feel the discomfort of withdrawal. IT IS NOT PLEASANT to talk of shifts in world power, and to realize that we no longer have the voice in the United Nations that we once had. It is much easier to talk of in- ternal subversion, and sinister workings from within as others talked so well before of Inter- national Bankers crippling from behind the lines of battle. You can get mad and fight ene- mies right next door with far greater ease, than if you go half way around the globe to look for them in any numbers. Reading the Blue Book of the Birch Society, we find much of the same cast of thought tat dominates the totalitarian minds. To mention a few examples we refer to nassages in ihe book Union . . To the Editor: The following text is a copy of a letter sent by me to Paul Carder, president of the Michigan Union. "In attempting to defend the recent expulsion of two persons from the Michigan Union Grill, Mr. Kuenzel, gen- eral manager, has maintained that the Union is a 'private club.' This assertion surprised me and, probably, many oth- ers. Up to now I had thought that a male student's 'dues' were taken automatically from his tuition and that a male student had no choice in de- ciding whether to become a Union 'member' or not. But if the Union is a truly 'private club,' thlen membership should be voluntary, not compulsory, "I therefore submit my res- ignation from the Michigan Union. I would like my 'dues' for the summer session, which were included in my tuition, refunded as soon as possible." -Victor J. Streeter, Grad. Tro the Editor: IN YOUR ISSUE of June 27 you published an editorial entitled "Israeli Justice and U.S. Morality" which is based entirely on dis- torted facts. The maincontention of the editorial can be summar- :"ed by the quotation: "We do not like to hear of a man pun- ished only for doing his duty, for doing a good job." In making this statement the editorial complete- ly irnoes the evidence developed both inside the present Jerusalem trial and elsewhere-except for Eichmann's own statements in his defense before the Israeli tribunal. This is indeed a strange selec- tion of the available facts. There exists for example the autobipgraphy of Rudolf Hoess, commander of the concentration camp at Auschwitz and later dep- uty inspector general of all con- centration camps. In it he makes the following remarks: "Even when we were completely alone to- gether and had loosened up after a couple of drinks he (Eichmann) showed that he was completely obsessd with the idea of destroy- ing every single Jew that he could lay his hands on. He pointed out that we must complete this exter- mination as rapidly as possible without pity and in cold blood. Any compromise, even the slight- est, would have to be paid for bit- terly at a later date." Further evidence concerning Eichmann's guilt can be found in the affidavit of SS Hauptsturm- fuhrer Dieter Wisliceny given at the Nuremberg war crimes trial in 1946. Wisliceny was a subordinate of Eichmann. There are countless other affidavits and statements made by witnesses before the in- ternational tribunal in Nuremberg which all confirm Eichmann's re- sponsibility. There are finally Eichmann's personal memoirs. A few edited excerpts of these were published by LIFE last year. Here he confirms (for example) his re- mark made to Wisliceny a few days before Germany's collapse that he would jump into his grave laughing because it gave him great satisfaction to have the death of five milion enemies of the Reich on his conscience. Contrary to your editorial Eichmann was not merely following orders (and even then his prosecution would have been justified of course); but he was actually one of the top five persons in charge of the persecu- tion and murder of Jews, and he was the one person whose direct and only task consisted in carry- ing out this program. In addition it must be asked why his superiors.happened to se- lect Eichmann to carry out the mass extermination of Jews. Eich- mann's first major assignment was the one as head of the emigration office for Jews in Vienna which was created shortly after the in- corporation of Austria into the Reich. Eichmann's success in in- ducing a large number of Aus- trian Jews to emigrate was based on terrorizing the Jewish popula- tion. It was mainly this record in Vienna that recommended him to his superiors as head of the Jew- ish Affairs Section of the Gesta- po, entrusted with the so-called "final solution of the Jewish ques- tion." Consequently he was by no means the hapless civil servant who unwittingly stumbled into an assignment distasteful to him and then had to follow orders. But to the contrary he had qualified for his position by exceptional zeal, eficiency, and brutality, and was selected precisely because he had the right qualifications and the necessary enthusiasm for this par- ticular task. In conclusion I should like to say that your editorial misrepre- sents and partly ignores the avail- able facts. In so doing the ten-' dency of the editorial both con- cerning Eichmann's responsibility and Israeli justice is distinctly pro-Nazi. I want to protest in the strongest terms the presence on your staff of a student with such tendencies. There is no place on the editorial board of a student newspaper for a person who uses his position to distort the facts and engage in Nazi propaganda. -Ernest G. Fontheim Associate Research Physicist inue their education beyond high school, the college preparatory student suffers from an impover- ished curriculum Of course the vast difference in academic calibre is partly attrib- utable to the fact that in the metropolitan areas there is a denser population, a greater num- ber of students intending to go on to college, and, hence, keener competition. It is also true, however, that the schools in the metropolitan areas turn out better students because they have better facilities, higher standards, more complete curric- ula, better trained teachers and more funds. To raise standards and keep them uniformly high, a school dis- trict must begin with a large enough student base and suffi- cient funds to offer a variety of classes in an attempt to meet as far as possible the individual needs of all the students. IN HIS REPORT on the Ameri- can high school published in 1959, former Harvard president James B. Conant said that any high school with less than 500 students is too small to provide the essen- tials of sound secondary educa- tion. He proposed the consolidation of rural schools so that there would be a large enough base to support full four-year courses in mathematics, sciences and several foreign languages. A logical accompaniment to such a consolidation is a nationally controlled plan for curriculum su- pervision which would, insofar as possible, insure an equal educa- tion to students in all areas of the country. Such a plan would constitute a "curriculum laboratory" of the sort advocated by Thomas H. Briggs, emeritus professor of edu- cation at Columbia University. "Such a laboratory, beginning with interpretation of the desired objectives, woulduprepare the raw materials for courses of study which schools anywhere in the nation could adapt to local needs. "Individual schools can do something about curriculum re- form, and a few have done much to bring about some improvement. But no single school or school system has the potentials in mon- ey or in personnel, even if it has the concern, to develop the com- prehensive coordinated curricu- lum directed toward objectives set by the public, with, of course, the wisest and most convincing pro- fessional advice" WHAT IS NEEDED is a group of educational experts-perhaps members of the faculties of sev- eral leading universities - who could determine, not on the basis of the nation's military needs, but on the basis of what can reason- ably be expected of bright high school-age students, the best sort of fundamental curriculum. This curriculum could then be modified to meet the individual needs of individual communities. The local school board, often composed of citizens who have no real knowledge of the educational needs of the community, would thus be replaced by a national co- ordinating board of experts whose concern would be to raise the level of education of the entire coun- try. The function of the local school board would then become simply advisory. The group could meet with representatives of the national board and work on means of adapting thelnational curricu- lum to the locality's needs. Proposals such as this are al- ways greeted by a barrage of pro- test from those who argue that lo- cal autonomy is essential to the functioning of schools in a free country. As Robert M. Hutchins, former president of the University of Chi- cago, points out, "decentralization in education is weak in that it re- sults in provincial thinking and action. The tradition that educa- tion is a local matter with a cer- tain amount of state supervision and support must yield to the fact that it is a national concern." ' ? A S. -Daily-Larry Jacobs FIRST PERFORMANCE-The Stanley Quartet presented its first summer concert last night. They will perform again on July 19 and August 2. Stanley uatlet Spotty SANDWICHING a contemporary quartet between two works of the Classical period, the Stanley Quartet opened its summer concert series at Rackham last night. Starting with a Haydn quartet of Opus 76, a vintage opus for Haydn quartets, the group produce a pleasing chamber music sound despite some technical shortcoming and lack of tact in phrasing. Throughout hte Haydn piece, the lower strings carried through with a solid accom- paniment to first violinist Gilbert Ross's somewhat imperfect presen- tation of themes. After this rather leisurely open- ing, the Quartet switched to music that is a far cry from Papa Hay- dn's genial strains: Ross Lee Fin- ney's Quartet No. 8. Using various devices of contemporary chamber music-such as group pizzicato and glissando, with dissonance taken for granted-the work proved a difficult change of pace for the quartet. The Finney piece, in one move- ment, displayed a fouir-movement series of alternating moods, from slow and brooding to tense, back to slow, capped by a photo-finish' presto. The flutterings of a moth which had lost its way in the audi- torium provided interesting ac- companiment to the presto's hectic motions. MOVING BACK to Classical music and the Mozart C major viola quintet, the group picked up a guest artist, Lilian Fuchs, to supply thesecond viola part (one might wonder why the guest artist was not given the much more sig- nificant first viola part)'. Mozart's viola quintets are sprinkled through his works over a rather large range, from the early Koe- chel numbers until fairly late in Mozart's career. The C major quintet is not nearly as unconven- tional a piece of Mozart as are some of the earlier viola quintets. In the C major work, K. 515, one sees Mozart the "Hofmusikant," the court composer who is much more familiar than is the brooding tragic figure who appears in some of the other quintets. As in the Haydn work, Mr. Ross was in the spotlight, but the results were a bit disappointing. Discounting the time he lost his place in the first movement (which could haprcn to anyone, and often does) Mr. Ross lacked complete agreement inn- po with his colleagues and missed a free vibrato. The projected programs of the rest of the Stanley Quartet sum- mer series include two late Bee- thoven quartets, the Op. 130 and the Op. 135, as well as the first Bartok quartet. --Mark lobin " WISH to say for the benefit of the President : . . that in my judgment if he insists upon his proposal to lift the ceiling in regard to American military aid to Latin America, we will pay dearly in many parts of Latin, America . . -Sen. Wayne Morse CINEMA GUILD: Russtan Me lodrama "TEN DAYS That Shook the World" may also 'shake its audiences with laughter. The movie, which portrays vari- ous days of importance leading eventually to the October revolu- tion of 1917, suffers from an acute case of party-line nationalism that obscures many of its vir- tues. Understandable though this may be in a film made to commemor- ate the tenth anniversary of the Russian revolution, one finds it difficult to tolerate such a gross over-dramatization of history passing as art. The crowds all yell "Lenin, Len- in" ("The only man with a pro- gram to save the nation") as he arrives in Petrograd; the Bolshe- vik philosophy spreads like wild- fire amongst soldiers, farmers, women, children and sailors; and the, provisional government is a corrupt tool of the old order that has cheated the people out of their revolution. * * * WHATEVER TRUTH there may be in the film's view of history, it is so melodramatically done that the effect of sensitive cam- era work and at least one fasci- nating character portrayal is lost. Eisenstein uses his camera to produce a picture that, if it exag- geratescertainlyacarries feeling. If he has not captured the revo- lution itself, he has at least caught the spirit which he and many others must have felt at its suc- cess. The portrayal of Kerensky is very well done. He is depicted as the saviour corrupted by power, ;a Caesar or Napoleon. Eisenstein uses the juxtaposition of images and symbolism to de- pict him. One first sees Kerensky, then the picture changes immedi- ately to a bust of Napoleon. Ker- ensky stands before the chambers of the Czar; then like Caesar, he hesitates a moment and enters. As the movie begins, there is a warning not to take the story as actual history, to regard it as a "political cartoon." It is actually more a political melodrama. --David Marcus 4 " 4 I1 * i w.i 4J( s I4 FEIFFER r' ,Ai~ A ?If