Seventy-Second Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinions Ar FeeSTUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. 0 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.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: GERALD STORCH
e
Poverty Continues in U.S.
Despite General Affluence
REVOLUTION'S 10TH YEAR:
At Egypt's Anniversary
Much Still Left Undone
AMERICA'S DEVELOPMENT has made many
affluent but has kept many poor. We have
taxed the rich to redistribute the wealth a
little, but we have failed a lot to reach the
despondent. We clear slums and the slums
reappear a few blocks away. We build housing
projects but the housing projects do not
change the ways of men.
Poverty exists in the United States today.
It persists among 25 percent of our people.
According to Michael Harrington in his book,
"The Other America," some 40,000,000 to
50,000,000 do not have means of eking out a
proper level of subsistance.
This is not new, but the familiar America,
the America of the "affluent society" has be-
come increasingly blind to this situation. Pov-
erty has existed throughout our country's his-
tory. We have had bad city slums and sunless,
airless and ill-smelling tenement houses since
the industrial revolution swept the country.
The life of many Southern farmers is im-
poverished today, but it has been impoverished
since the Civil War. Many Negroes live under
cruel conditions today, but they lived under
crueler conditions when the institution of
slavery blighted half our land. Hoboes live
"in the gutters" today, but America's great
composer, Steven Foster, spent his entire life
in the gutters.,
THIS DOES NOT MEAN that the problem
does not need solving; this is even greater
reason for the problem to be solved. Previously
we hadn't the means to solve it; today, for
the first time in our history, we have the
means. It is vital that we use the means, for
if we cannot help those among us who are in
sad shape, how can we expect to help the
other 94 per cent of the world, most of whom
are in worse shape?
A complication arises because aspiration is
lacking among the poor of America. As Michael
Harrington notes, "If a group has internal
vitality it may live in dilapidated housing, it
may eat an inadequate diet, and it may suffer
poverty, but it is not impoverished. But the
new poverty is constructed so as to destroy
aspiration: it is a system designed to be
impervious to hope. The other America does
not contain the adventurous seeking a new
life and land These are the people who are
immune to progress."
It is difficult to help people when they are
addicted to the status quo, 'even though the
status quo is too far below the American norm
to be bearable. But it is necessary for us to help
the unfortunate who are unable to help them-
selves. The able, because they are the able,
have the moral obligation to aid the unable
by setting their sights on a better way of
life and giving them the means to achieve it.
WHO ARE these poor? They are the captives
of the economic underworld, the Negro
ghettos, the ghettos of the'aged and the mi-
grant labor camps.
The economic underworld consists of the
abscure millions who work at below-subsistence
wages. It consists of the 16,000,000 workers
not covered by the Minimum-Wage Law of
1961. It consists of many laundry workers,
dishwashers and others who receive less than
$50 a week in salary. It consists of workers
at the mercy of tight or unscrupulous em-
ployers and crooked unions and racketeers.
The Negro ghettos are found in cities where
liberal rhetoric is a prime prerequisite for
election to public office. These ghettos consist
of Negroes who get the dirtiest, the lowest,
the worst paying jobs; who are hired last and
fired first; the miscasts of a harsh system that
punishes most, those who deserve punishment
least.
THE GHETTOS of the aged are centers of the
deterioration of life. The economy rejects
these aged from useful service when they
reach the age of 65 while science prolongs
their life span. These ghettos are made up of
persons denied access to a healthy and active
life by a nation that venerates youthfulness.
They are made up by persons with no challenge
co meet except the challenges of sickness and
death and the lack of funds and strength.
They are made up of persons forced to become,
at best, dependent on their children and, at
worst, dependent on government welfare with
its slap to dignity.
The migrant labor camps did not disappear
with the passing behind of the 1930s and the
dissappearance of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of
Wrath" from the best seller lists. These camps
consist of persons who work ten hours a day
in hot fields for fifty cents an hour, who go
for days with little food when work oppor-
tunities are few. These camps are spontaneous
settlings of wanderers with no future beyond
the future that lies within a few days' walk.
Poverty in America is politically invisible;
there are few if any Congressmen and Senators
who say they speak for the poor-indeed, their
campaigns are financed to a great extent by
the rich. Poverty also is physically invisible to
the many who live in the suburbs and good
T HE THREE-FOURTHS soothe their con-
sciences with the housing projects that
spring up where broken-down slums once stood,
not realizing that these are little more than
a veneer covering the old unsanitary habits
that persist. The housing projects often do
little more than segmentize poverty, and fre-
quently more people are dislocated than are
accommodated.
The emotional torment of poverty is extreme.
Contrary to what may be popular belief, the
poor, rather than the middle classes or the
upper classes, are subject to more mental
illness than any other group. Statistics indicate
that there is three times as much mental
illness at the bottom of society than at the
top. Those of the middle and upper class
realize mental Illness for what it is, and
see the need and have the ability to treat it,
but for the lowest classes, mental illness is
often an indistinguishable part of their way
of life. Poverty is not a product of mental
illness as many people believe; mental illness
is greatly a product of poverty, of the grinding,
dirty life of the unfortunate.
Contrary to what may be another popular
belief, the poor get less out of welfare capital-
ism than the other groups. This is because the
poor are often politically alienated and for-
gotten and because the red tape of bureau-
cracy presents difficult barriers. Here are
people who are unorganized and without po-
litical power; here are people too timid to work
through pressure groups and incapable to
work through the politicalparty system.
Legislators have to depend in part on the
pressure groups that can deliver them votes.
Further, not niany lawmakers get letters from
those who are in greatest need of federal as-
sistance but unable to articulate this need
because of a limited educational background
resulting from their whole way of life.
THESE ARE the problems. Basic to all of
them is the complacency of most of those
who have, and the limitations of most of those
who do not have. There is this impediment:
affluent America likes affluence and seldom
is concerned about poverty; impoverished
America sees little opportunity of betterment
and has but feeble hopes at best. Harrington
suggests that in order to destroy this pes-
simism and fatalism that flourishes in the
other America, real opportunities should be
offered to these people, and the social reality
that gives rise to their sense of hopelessness
has to be changed.
This can be done if our attack on poverty
is comprehensive; we cannot overlook any
sectors, and they should all be looked at in
total perspective. It is good to keep all of the
problems in mind while working on any one of
them, for they are inter-related. Meeting these
problems requires creative solutions.
EVERY AMERICAN should be brought under
the coverage of social security, and the
payments should be adequate to support a
dignified old age.
A satisfactory minimum wage should be
extended to all.
Comprehensive medical aid should be avail-
able to all the needy. Congress should recon-
sider and pass President Kennedy's medical
care to the aged bill as a starter.
Civil rights should be granted all Americans.
Congress should pass strong legisation in this
field, since political rights are a component
of the elimination of poverty. Negroes who are
prevented from voting are prevented even
more from achieving legislative remedies for
their poverty.
Americans should promote private welfare
work more. They can give a little more, for
example, to the humane work of their churches
in home as well as foreign missions. They can
also encourage their church leaders to promote
home missions more.
Our leaders ought to eliminate partisan poli-
tics from the matter of a cabinet Department
of Urban Affairs and institute this department
as quickly as possible.
SYSTEMATIC LIGHT EMPLOYMENT should
be provided persons over 65 years of age.
If possible, the age of retirement should be
extended universally to 70, with the provision
that a persons can retire up to five years
sooner if he wants to, at no loss in amount of
retirement payments. Perhaps there should be
no standard retirement age at all.
Congress could establish a Youth Corps that
might be patterned after the highly success-
ful Peace Corps.
Cities could build halfway houses for the
poor instead of huge, impersonal housing pro-
jects-houses that could blend in with better
community life, that could cushion the shock
of transition, and that could provide the ex-
ample and leadership of social workers and
neighbors.
We can also seek to implement retraining
programs and to advance the sociological study
of poverty. And we could provide the unemploy-
.A .., +I-, fA, , r.xur. nnm a wn rka_ z..-
FULL FADOM FIVE-The Stratford Festival is presenting its 10th annual season, with George Mc-
Cowan directing "The Tempest." Desmond Heeley designed the Festival's production. Alfonso is played
by Max Helpmann (front, left) and Gonzalo by William Needles (front, right).
'The Tem p est' Poses Difficulties
QTRATFORD,.Ont.-An intellec-
tual drama in which the actual
conflict takes place within the
mind of one man, a man who,
through magic powers, controls an
island, its inhabitants and its
visitors, "The Tempest" is perhaps
the most difficult to stage of all
the Shakespeare plays. But it is
also Shakespeare's last comedy,
containing some of his finest writ-
ing, and the challenge it presents
to an acting company must be
strong indeed.
The Stratford Festival has taken
up the challenge this year, pre-
senting "The Tempest" as its third
production of the season. And the
difficulties of the Stratford stag-
ing begin with the very short first
scene.
Where Shakespeare ' presents
members of a ship's crew whose
efforts to fight a sudden, severe
storm are hindered by the comings
and goings of a group of nobles,
the Stratford setting reveals at
once the entire company of the
ship rocked and buffeted by storm
and sea.
* * *
THE PEOPLE are too many and
their costumes too interesting; for
all the turbulence of the scene,
it is difficult to follow what is
said and to find the individuals
who speak. While the result in
both versions is chaos, that of the
Stratford production is merely
bewildering.
Other problems in this staging
of "The Tempest" are more dif-
ficult to single out. The fourth act
masque seems less than enchanted,
and its Christmas tree decor is
unfortunate. Little else is done for
the play in the way of settings,
which is the usual, quite successful
procedure at Stratford. This play,
however, is not so well suited to
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Defends Court Decision
the bare Elizabethan stage as are
most of the histories and tra-
gedies, and the great burden of
making the drama convincing falls
entirely on the actors.
Fortunately, the Stratford play-
ers are well up to the task. Once
past the first brief scene, they
give a performance that brings
out the beauty and meaning of
virtually every line.
* * *
WILLIAM HUTT distinguishes
the very demanding and appar-
ently exhausting role of Prospero
with a performancethat vibrates
with the battle of vengeance and
virtue for the old man's mind. The
final triumph of the latter is the
most moving moment of the play,
occurring early in Act V in the
moment of silence that is Pros-,
pero's first reaction to Ariel's
"were I human"~ remark.
Bruno Gerussi captures the del-
icate shadings of the spirit Ariel
in a role that really wants a boy
or a man of smaller build. Gerussi
is further handicapped with a
fish-like costume that would make
a merman were he human and
which, while appropriate perhaps
to the island setting, seems hardly
suitable to Shakespeare's Ariel.
* * *
AMONG OTHERS in the cast,
Martha Henry (Miranda) and
Peter Donat (Ferdinand) are at-
tractive and sympathetic lovers.
John Colicos achieves well the
mixture of repulsiveness and pa-
thos that is Caliban's lot.
But Norman Welsh and Hugh
Webster, as Stephano and Trin-
culo, while effective, somehow fail
to realize the full potential of their
comic roles. Their scenes with
Caliban are less merry than they
might be. Here also Desmond Hee-
ley's costumes, good as they are,
do not achieve the real excellence
and appropriateness that one has
come to expect in the Stratford
productions.
George McCowan directed "The
Tempest," and if his efforts have
brought mixed results, it shold
be remembered that the play is
after all more a literary than a
dramatic work.
-Vernon Nahrgang
By SARABETH RICHMAN
Daily Staff Writer
COLONIAL powers have a habit
of leaving political vacuums'
behind them whenever they de-
part. This was also the case in
Egypt although their departure
from the country they had occu-
pied off and on from the late
1800's was not complete until
they were forcibly evicted.
Approximately ten years ago, a
"Committee of Free Officers," a
secret group formed in 1947, over-
threw the British-supported mon-
archy of King Farouk and forced
him into exile. A Revolutionary
Command Coucil of eleven young
officers assumed authority and
the world heralded the coming of
a new order to Egypt.
This military junta, headed by
Major - General Mohammed Na-
guib, announced certain goals,
both internal and external. Their
main concern was achieving inde-
pendence through a removal of
foreign control and replacing the
monarchy and its surrounding
social system.
* * *
NAGUIB, who was soon to be re-
placed by Gamal Abdul Nasser,
and his followers enacted sweep-
ing government reforms so 'that
today not a vestige of the old
political order remains. But, the
new order is not what the Free
World envisioned. Instead, the
revolutionaries systematically set
about to wipe out all political op-
position ,so that now there is only
one official party, which supports
Nasser. An .opposition is officially
unknown and the elections, with
only one slate of candidates, are
a farce.
The evolution from Farouk to
Nasser has not changed the ex-
tent of political freedom. If any-
thfng, there is less now then there
was before. The Communists, the
Moslem Brotherhood, and the So-
cialists all disappeared during the
three years in which the revolu-
tionary council had foreseen that
a "healthy democratic and consti-
tutional regime" would be formed.
Another of the proposal goals
was the revival of the economy
and the advancement of the so-
ciety through reform and growth.
Most of Nasser's reforms have been
frustrated. Take, for example, the,
Liberation Province in the western
part of the Nile Delta. This exper-
iment in irrigation and land rec-
laniation was doomed from the
start. Technical and agricultural
training in Egypt was so poor that
they did not know how to handle
a project of this sort.
* * *
THEN, OF COURSE, there is the
Grand High Dam at Aswan, which
involved Egypt in world politics.
Even when this magnificent proj-
ect is completed, the condition of
the farmers and peasants will be
no better than it was in 1952 with-
out the Dam, because the popula-
tion explosion has reached such
great heights in Egypt that the
number of mouths to be fed will
still be greater than the agricul-
tural output, even with the bene-
fit of improved irrigation.
Nasser's goals for Egypt on the
world scene have met almost the
same fate as his internal plans.
The hate campaign against Israel
cost Egypt a big price both at
home and among her Arab neigh-
bors. Nasser blamed the 1948 Is-
raeli victory on the policies of
King Farouk. There was no one
whom he could use for a scape-
goat in 1956.
The Egyptian military prepar-
edness which had cost the coun-
try much in terms of money, align-
ment with the Communists, and
neglect of domestic reforms, was
useless. For, after Israeli forces
successfully invaded the Sinai pen-
insula to eliminate guerrilla bases,
and made off with 5,000 Egyptian
prisoners, there was not much
Nasser could say, except to blame
the Israeli victory on the British
and French intervention which re-
sulted from his nationalization of
the Suez Canal.
a * x
AS FOR HER relationship with
the Arab world, the unsuccessful
United Arab Republic put an end
to the grand Egyptian dream of a
pan-Arab Middle East with Nas-
ser at the top. There is nothing
left today of theUnited Arab Re-
public except the name and the
long memory of the Syrians who
got the worse end of the deal.
In her dealings in the world
arena, Egypt has managed to an-
tagonize both the East and the
West by trying to play one off
aganist the other.
Nasser has insisted on cleaning
house and eliminating the Com-
munist party in Egypt. At the
same time he wants Russian aid
without Russian influence.
His by-play with the Commu-
nist powers has made him sus-
pect in the eyes of the West and
they alternately try to bring him
around by ignoring his demands or
trying to buy him out by "one-
upping" the Russians. Either way
it is a long, narrow and dangerous
tight-rope that Col. Nasser is try-
ing to walk. If he falls, so will
Egypt.
* * *.
THIS IS EGYPT ten years later.
The names have changed but the
situation remains the same. Their
wished-for democracy is still an
unknown word and the peasant is
as hungry as he was before. De-
spite ten years of threats of driv-
ing her "into the sea" Israel still
exists. There is no United Arab
Republic or even a unified Arab
world. Nasser is being threatened
on all sides-by the West, the
East, and competition from other
Arab leaders.
The name Nasser means many
things to many people, the West
cannot always sanction his actions
but they are forced to respect the
fact that he has his country's best
interests at heart. At least the
benefits of his regime, what bene-
fits there are, are not intended for
his pocket. Russia and the United
States have come to understand
that Nasser won't "play ball ex-
clusively for any team and have
learned to accept his brand of
neutralism.
TO THE ARABS, especially the
Egyptians, Nasser has become a
symbol of anti-coonialism and
"do-it-yourself." He has given the
Arab people a chance to regain
their pride after many years of
being a "white man's burden." His
attempts at Arab unification have
been in the interests of resurrect-
in ga once-powerful Arab nation.
His quarred with Israel is under-
standable in light of the British
mandate policy in the Middle East
and Palestine being the "twice-
promised" land.
In the final analysis, these last
ten years have seen the beginning
of a new way of life, not only for
the Egyptians, but for all the for-
mer colonial subjects.
To the Editor:
I DO WISH that Michael Harrah
would clear his editorials with
some one who has taken a course
in logic, or at least "thinking
straight." It is painful to read his
continual diatribes which border
on slander such as calling the ma-
jority of the State Supreme Court
"four stooges" of the Big-Labor
Democrat coalition. These four
men have been electedtbya ma-
jority of Michigan's voters and
their action is entirely in line with
the precepts handed down by the
U.S. Supreme Court (dominated by
Southern Democrats and Eisen-
hower Republicans) and the ac-
tions of other State and Federal
courts in the past six months.
Most of these are conservative and
far from pro-labor. But they do
read the laws.
On page 1 of the same Daily in
which Harrah's hapless harang-
uing occurs, I read that the Ver-
mont Supreme Court has just giv-
en the same ax to the Vermont
State Senate and called off the
present system. Will Harrah now
harass these rock-ribbed Big-Yan-
kee-Small-Farmer "stooges?"
, * "
MR. HARRAH's miniscule knowl-
edge leads him to confuse the fact
that what he would have to change
to keep the courts from protecting
the rights of the citizens to fair
representation in state legislatures
is the United States Constitution,
not the State Consitution. He also.
ignores he fact that the governor
and the state executive controls
the, operation of the state's ma-
chinery, not the Legislature.
He also conveniently ignores the
fact that the reason we have this
problem is that the fossils dom-
inating the State Senate, by their
unwillingness to do anything of a
constructive nature in the past ten
years, have brought us to this state
of affairs. Furthermore, most
states of the United States, from
the time of their entry into the
Union until now have provided for
equality of representation in their
legislatures. Michigan did until
1952 when the present crew of
seat holders devised a plan to hold
back the facts of life and preserve
their political lives.
IF BIG-LABOR Democrats were
scared stiff of losing big this year
to the compact governor and his
horse-and-buggy Senate mates,
then holding an election at large
would be the best way of ensuring
complete oblivion. I think the shoe
is on someone else's foot, and find-
ing it pinching, Mr. Harrah is
emulating Khrushchev's t a b 1 e
trouble? Let's just abolish the
court system and let the State
Senate run all legal problems. And
while we're at it, let's get rid of
the governor's office, too. The most
senior senator could fill that func-
tion just prior to retirement. Or,
better still, why not just expell
Wayne County from the State of
Michigan?
-Harold L. Orbach
Institute for Human
Adjustment
Prayer Case .. .
To the Editor:
MR. HARRAH'S editorial "Let's
Pray for a Referendum" pre-
sents an idea which is very dan-
gerousalbeit simple. Contrary to
Mr. Harrah's belief I feel it is not
constitutional for it misunder-
stands the whole concept of a
written Constitution incorporating
a Bill of Rights.
Mr. Harrah has proposed that
we have a nationwide referendum
to find out whether or not the
citizens agree with the school
prayer decision of the Supreme
Court. In effect he is saying that
the people can do away with the
First Amendment if they so desire.
That if a majority favored it they
could force the New York Times
to cease publication because they
disliked its editorials, or the Mich-
igan Daily because they disliked
Mr. Harrah's.
In the first place we must realize
that the meaning of any part of
the Constitution is open to inter-
pretation. This was realized at its
writing, and hence the Supreme
Court assumed the power. Like it
or not, it is they who have the
authority and we as citizens must
abide by their rulings. Anything
else would lead to anarchy.
* * *
SECOND we must realize that
the writers of thehConstitution
considered some rights so sacred
that they wanted to make sure
that they were not taken away
either because the government dis-
likes a certain situation or because
50 per cent of the people plus one
dislike it. These rights are con-
tained in the first ten amendments
to the Constitution. I fear that
Mr. Harrah failed to read the ma-
jority opinion in the case where
Justice Black said, "Our founders
were . .. (not) . . . willing to let
the content of their prayers and
their privilege of praying when-
ever they pleased be influenced by
the ballot box ..."
In any case the Supreme Court
has made its interpretation. They
have decided that the school pray-
"You Think We'll Ever Get Together?"
'L