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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP SUTIN
As Russia Turns More Mellow,
Tne U.S. Should Help It Advance
AT THE CAMPUS:
Bergman Festival:
Allegory, A rt Humanity
By JOHN HERRICK
BERGMAN IS BACK in force at the Campus for the next five days.
Saturday and Sunday is "The Virgin Spring" and "Through a
Glass Darkly." Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be "The Seventh
Seal" and "Wild Strawberries." If you haven't seen them, all are worth
seeing without a doubt.
It is extremely appropriate that these films should be shown
just across from the art (as opposed to the sales) section of the
THERE WAS A GREAT clamor and anguish
recently when a report seeped out of the
inner circles of the federal government, a re-
port testifying that "Moscow" is "mellowing."
Cries of protest arose: we are becoming too
soft with the Soviets, dissidents said.
Yet all indications are that the Soviet Union
is "mellowing," that life is becoming less re-
strictive in Russia, and that liberalism is be-
ginning to crack the cement foundation-Marx-
ism-Leninism-of that land. If these indica-
tions are correct, we have something to be op-
timistic about, and we should expect further
liberalization of the Soviet Union.
Life in Russia under the czars was authori-
tarian and restrictive. The Communists, after
their revolution in 1917, tried a strictly reg-
ulatory policy, but found it did not work well,
and began to ease off through the New Eco-
nomic Policy. As the 1920's passed, Stalin gained.
power and solidified his control over the party
and the country. He made the Soviet Union as
tight a dictatorship as the world has probably
ever seen.
BUT AFTER HE DIED in 1953, Khrushchev
gradually rose to prominence and became
the leader of the Soviet Union. But this was a
new Soviet Union-a Soviet Union with many
controls and restrictions lingering from the
past, but with many controls and restrictions
disappearing, or at least softening,
Thus the churches are functioning again;
a rebellion is ensuing among Soviet poets;
President Kennedy's views were reported in
full in the Soviet press after a Russian journal-
ist's interview of him; peace marchers from the
West walked through the country to Moscow
handing out their literature and gathering with
Russian people in Red Square to discuss dis-
armament; more and more Americans are be-
ing allowed to travel through Russia-12,000
last year. The fear of midnight arrest has
evaporated, and the secret police are less ac-
tive and their chief less powerful in the Krem-
lin.
Movement of people within the Soviet Union
is easier today and Russians have a little more
freedom of choice as to what they want to do
in life and where they want to work. Russian
college students are taking issue with the
philosophy and policies handed down from the
party, and letters to the editor decry the errors'
of administrators of government policy.
WE NOTE that the Russian people read more
than any other people in the world, and we
note that they are reading many authors of
the West, such as Jack London and Ernest
Hemingway. We note how the Russian people
grab up issues of "Amerika," our exchange mag-
azine, as soon as they are put on the news-
stands (while issues of "U.S.S.R." sell slowly
in the United States). And we note the great
erithusiasm with which our exchange students
are greeted and with which questions are asked
and views exchanged.
It is true that the Soviet press continues to
propagate the party line, but it is also true
that views critical of Soviet policy are expressed
at peace conferences held in the Soviet Union.
It is true that the economy is still planned,
but it is also true that some small, private busi-
nesses flourish. It is true that the party dis-
courages and disparages religion, but it is also
true that the party allows religions to function.
It is true that anti-Semitism persists in the So-
viet Union, but it is also true that a Jew has
just been appointed to one of the most im-
portant positions in the Soviet ruling clique
to help plan the economy.
SO ALTHOUGH many restrictions remain,
many have been lifted and probably many
more will be restricted in future years. We
should encourage this trend away from autoc-
racy and toward liberalization, and we can do
this in many ways.
We can continue to promote exchange pro-
grams, increasing the number of travelers
and students both ways. Only 2,000 Russians
visited the United States last year. This num-
ber should increase, just as the number of
Westerners visiting the Soviet Union should
increase. If possible, the American Field Service
and the American Friends Service Committee
should establish agreements with the Soviets
to include them on exchange student programs.
We can try to increase communications with
the Russian people, prompting the Soviet gov-
ernment to join Europe on Telstar telecasts.
WE CAN SEND more books to the Soviet Un-
ion, and send them good non-fiction such
as "The Making of the President 1960" as well
as fiction.
We can promote the educational race. The
Soviets, to compete with us, have had to in-
crease education, and this has resulted in a
generation of alert, questioning Russians.
We can continue to seek to achieve disarma-
ment, and this may cut down on suspicion, fear
and doubt.
We can give the Soviet Union foreign aid,
especially for their agriculture, because pros-
perity under tyranny breeds discontent with
the existing order. It is when a person has
eaten well that he can turn to other matters
such as the improvement of his government.
WE CAN SEEK to institute in the Soviet
Union (as well as in the United States)
courses in "Comparative Civilizations: Soviet
Communism and American Democracy." We can
seek to exchange professors with them and to
have debates between Soviet Communists and
American democrats. And we can try to get
the Soviets to let Americans teach American
history in Soviet schools. The teaching of Amer-
ican history in Soviet schools might be a mat-
ter for the Peace Corps, which we could send
there. '
We could publish "Amerika" (and they pub-
lish "U.S.S.R.") more often-perhaps once a
week or once every two weeks instead of only
once a month.
We can promote international youth festi-
vals to be held in the Soviet Union or, if'held
elsewhere, to always include Russians.
WE CAN SEEK the disengagement of the
Communist and Western military machines
wherever practical, while promoting disarma-
ment. Disengagement can also tend to lessen
suspicion.
We can seek cooperation of Soviet and West-
ern scientists on the mutual advancement of
knowledge and study. Together we can learn
more, and maybe there can be a little more trust
and a little less hostility, and also a bit more
liberalness in Soviet society.
These are suggestions; there can be many
more. Creative thinking can find means of
lessening tensions between the Soviet Union
and the United States. and of liberating the
Russian people from the oppression that still
lingers. As the Soviet Union becomes less re-
strictive, not only the Russian people but all
humanity will gain, and the hope for individual
freedom throughout the world will become
closer to a reality.
--ROBERT SELWA
UNDERSCORE:
Courts End Rural Dominance
street fair. For this is what Berg-
man does with the film screen.
He makes the picture say what
no words could, in much less time
than any attempt with words
could. One of Bergman's identify-
ing characteristics is an almost
complete lack of need for sub-
titles.
* * *
"THE VIRGIN SPRING" is one
of the two films on which Berg-
man's major reputation was made.
The other being "The Seventh
Seal." As with all Bergman films,
it is filled with symbolism, or to
be more exact allegory. In this
film the allegory is much more im-
portant to the author and direc-
tor as a formal device than it is
to the audience as a part of drama
and meaning of the film. Search-
ing for the symbolism in this is
like knowing which chapter in
Joyce's "Ulysses" is about the hu-
man liver. It may be nice to know
how the author kept the book
together, but it changes the value
of the book to the reader little
if at all.
It could be said that the allegory
makes the film more universal,
but honor, pride, religion, inno-
cence, and vengence are universal
without the backing up of an al-
legorical Calvary.
* *- *
BERGMAN'S CORE of actors
is in this film and all do such
fantastic jobs that it would be
unfair to single any of them out.
Even the horses, white for the
innocent virgin, in a robe woven
by fifteen maidens, about to be
raped and splotched for the preg-
nant bastard servant, who is more
elequent in her silence than even
Marcel Marceaux, seem to know
exactly where they're going and
what their purpose is.
Those who find fault with the
Book of Job and prefer Sartre
may find the faith and optimism
of this film a bit viciously senti-
mental, but it is certainly human.
And this is an intensely human
and faithful work of art.
"Through a Glass Darkly" does
not measure up to the standards
Bergman set himself in "The Vir-
gin Spring." But it does contain
many of the same qualities and
characteristics.
THE MOST NOTABLE of these
is the camera work which is ,still
fantastic. Unfortunately it appears
somewhat detached because the
entire film is lost somewhere in
the symbolism and allegory.
The same core of actors is pres-
ent and they are as good as in
Bergman's other works. But they
do not have near the script to
work with. This family on this
island may be insane, but they
have a lot they could say. And in
duplicating their insanity in the
script and the photography Berg-
man obscured, obscured with
beauty, but obscured their human-
ity and their reasons for existing
on the screen as people as well as,
maybe even rather than, symbols.
By PHILIP SUTIN
Daily Staff Writer
THE BELL is toling for the
rural-dominatedastate legisla-
tures of America, Last March 26
the United States Supreme Court
sent them into oblivion when it
decided in Baker vs Carr, the
famed Tennessee case, that re-
apportionment was not a political
issue and that the courts can de-
cide if districting violates the 14th
Amendment rights of the under-
represented city dweller.
To date, 18 states have been
forced to apportion their legisa-
tures or change some other part of
their selection procedure. Kansas,
with a situation very similar to
Michigan, joined the list just
Thursday.
Of the 18 cases, four states
stand out-Tennessee, Georgia,
Wisconsin and Michigan. Each
case has its own marked charac-
teristics, yet they outline the fight
for equal representation in legis-
latures.
* * *
THE TENNESSEE case is the
ground breaker and in many ways
it is the most gross. Violating the
state Constitution, Tennessee's
legislature had not apportioned in
60 years. A group of Memphis
residents, tired of seeing the Legis-
lature dominated by overrepre-
sented rural areas at the expense
of the cities, sued. After three
years of litigation, their case was
successful and the Tennessee legis-
lature is in the midst of redistric-
ing.
Georgia's case did not deal with
the legislature, but with theDem-
ocratic primary.uWhen the federal
court threw out the "unit rule
system"-an ironclad way of keep-
ing rural control-the Georgia leg-
islature tried evasive measures.
That failing, the unit rule system
was junked, putting the election
of state officials on a straight
population basis for the first time
since Reconstruction.
The Wisconsin case illustrates
what can happen when a Repub-
lican Legislature and a Democratic
governor disagree. Ordered to re-
apportion, the legislature came up
with a plan that was considered
too rural biased by Gov. Gaylord
Nelson. After the veto resulted in
a stand-off, the federal court ap-
pointed a "special master" to con-
sider reapportionment. Wednes-
day, the "master" Emmet Wein-
gert concluded that immediate re-
apportionment was not necessary
and the issue was postponed for
another year.
* * *
MICHIGAN PRESENTS a situ-
ation where the highly partisan
politics and the urban-rural split
are identical. No action has been
taken yet, pending a court decision
onl an appeal for a delay. But if
the appeal is denied, the nation
might witness the most violent
Elections
"KENNEDY'S ELECTION repre-
sented the break-through of
the new American-the new, eth-
nic, religious immigrant stock, the
big city man. So what hanened?
blow-up to date over apportion-
ment.
y A number of other states also
are in interesting apportionment
predicaments. Vermont must re-
shape its boundaries for the first
time since 1793. Alabama's legis-
lature is defying the federal courts
and Maryland urbanites lost an
appeal for a more urban domin-
ated Senate.
The pattern is clear. The long-
entrenchedrural Legislature must
catch up to the 20th Century and
consider the needs of an urban
nation. If they had, the current
apportionment would not be un-
der attack. Urban problems such
as education, welfare and muni-
cipal financing have long been
ignored or slighted by state legis-
latures. For that reason even the
federal government is bypassing
the states and granting aid direct-
ly to cities. On the whole the leg-
islatures are interested in low
cost, low service government no
matter what.
* * *
THE DEFENDENTS hope that
the newly - districted legislatures
will be responsive to their needs.
However, this is too much wishful
thinking. The growing suburbs
hold the balance of power in most
states and they are still in the
hands of the rural dominated
party-the GOP in the East and
Midwest and the Democrats in the
South.
Even if this were not the case,
candidates would have to be found
and elected who would be respon-
sive. This is the nub of the legis-
lative problem. State government,
especially legislatures, are the
backwater of American politics.
Few qualified men are willing to
run for a supposedly part-time
office that is taking more and
more of their time and money.
* * *
INSTEAD, legislatures are large-
ly populated with rising young pol-
iticians destined for higher na-
tional or state office, successful
but unimaginitive lawyers or party
hacks. Few good people are inter-
ested in the low-prestige, hard
working, time consuming job. The
pay is low, New York at $15,500 a
year is the highest, Michigan at
$8200 is high among the states in
legislative pay, and the sessions are
long. For example, the 1959 Michi-
gan Legislature was in session
from January to mid-November.
This year it met from January to
late June and has just reconvened.
Thus the problem becomes more
than just redistricting fairly al-
though that is a great help. Legis-
lative salaries must be raised
where the state treasury permits
and more qualified people should
be diverted from Congressional
and executive races to run for the
Legislature.
Reapportionment is no cdre-all
-it is merely a step in the right
direction.
MUSIC MAN
Salesman
Sells .Film
THE MUSIC MAN arrived at the
Michigan Theatre yesterday.
Despite some sour notes, Meredith
Wilson's songs and Robert Pres-
ton's skilled and energetic per-
formance make it a film worth
seeing.
Preston plays the fast-talking
salesman who sells band instru-
ments and uniforms with the
promise that he will instruct a
town's youth in music and create
a first class band. Unable to read
a note of music, his routine is to
pull out of town fast when the
band equipment, which is sold
cash-in-advance, arrives.
PRESTON'S performance is key-
noted by energy and style. He
knows he is in a musical comedy
and virtually never spoils the fun
by taking it too seriously. For a
few moments near the end of the
film he stands still and staid, but
as soon as he begins to move his
rubbery legs carry him back into
the swing of the fun.
Unfortunately, when Preston is
not on the scene the fun is much
slower ,indeed. The choreography
is unimaginative, and the secon-
dary comic roles have too little
material of worth to build on.
* * *
THERE SHOULD also have been
something more than fun. The
con man apparently cheats the
inhabitants of, the small Iowa
town, but in fact gives them
more than their money's worth
by bringing a sense of life and
purpose to the town. We are
given this moral in a short speech,
but nothing is made of it in dra-
matic terms.
The film is nearly three hours
long, and parts surely drag. For-
tunately, much of it has Preston
on the scene and Wilson's lyrics
and tunes on the sound track;
that part demonstrates that hav-
ing fun makes the time pass
quickly.
-Ernest Kramer
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
To the Editor:
WHEN THE BIRCH Society is
unable to answer a man with
arguments and facts, it calls him
a communist. Mr. Wetherhorn, in
his letter printed in your July 2
issue, unwittingly resorts to the
same technique when he calls un-
identified foreign students, pre-
sumably writers to The Daily,
"propagandists," people "trained
before they leave their home,"
"who have not learned that in
some countries ther is a policy of
fair comment and criticism,"
Does it not occur to him that
it is precisely when a foreign
student begins to feel that the
"policy of fair comment" is not
being applied to a problem in
which he is concerned, that, like a
red-blooded American, he becomes
indignant?
Does it not also occur to him
that a foreign student might not
necessarily be trying to spout pro-
paganda or to be "diplomatic"
every time he takes issue with
what he sincerely considers to be
the misrepresentation or the slant-
ing of facts, or the unstudied in-
terpretation of events?
WHY DOES he not also con-
demn American citizens who have
a stake in what they write? Or,
for example, is an American Zion-
ist more to be trusted with "the
intellectual approach to politics"
than a non-nationalist Arab stu-
dent of Politics in a discussion on
the Middle East?
If a newspaper article does not
take the "intellectual approach" to
a subject; as, for example, Mr.
Harrah's Supreme Court editorial,
it does not deserve the courtesy
of an "intellectual" reply-- unless,
of course, one is interested in
making propaganda. If sarcasm
is apropos in answer to Mr. Har-
rah, why should it be denied a
University student indignant at
the low intellectuality of, for ex-
ample, an article on the Middle
East? Because he is judged a
priori a brain-washed foreigner?
As a foreigner who has recently
written a letter challenging cer-
tain alleged facts and interpreta-
tions in an editorial on the Middle
East, my area of study, and one of
my homes, I ask Mr. Wetherhorn
to practice what he preaches, ex-
amine "words" and not "just the
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Kennedy Must Control Democrats
Keep Religion Out of Government
AN AMENDMENT, sponsored by 15 senators,
was introduced after the prayer ruling
was handed down by the court on June 25. In
effect, it states that nothing in the Constitu-
tion can be interpreted to mean that voluntary
participation in non-sectarian prayers is not
allowed.
Some people can't do without their public re-
ligious images.
Businessmen know the advantages of being
good "church-going" citizens. Small business-
men realize that their trade is dependent upon
their prominence in the community. Execu-
tives, especially of big electrical firms, realize
the sympathy being religious will gain for
them if they are ever brought before a jury.
To these people, it is important that religion
Editorial Staff
FRED RTTSSELL KRAMER...................Co-Editor
PETER STEINBERGER...................Co-Editor
AL JONES .............................Sports Editor
CYNTHIA NEU.........................Night Editor
GERALD STORCH.......................Night Editor
PHILIP SUTIN........................ Night Editor
DENISE WACKER......................Night Editor
Rnl CllPCC .fl
be a public affirmation that they are fine,
honest individuals.
IN POLITICS, religion is no longer a cam-
paign issue. But lack of religion is. To make
public a politician's failure to believe in a di-
vine being, as such, of any shape or form, would
be to torpedo his career.
Certainly no such candidate could ever be
selected to the Presidency. But isn't this reli-
gious discrimination?
Religion should not be a criterion for judging
people, because it is a false one. And yet it is
a commonly accepted criterion. Not only politi-
cians but also children (who can hardly be ex-
pected to have mastered the art) are expected
to pay lip service to a belief which may have
no meaning for them.
In the recent Supreme Court decision which
banned the daily recitation of a prayer, the
bad influence of such a prayer was recognized.
HOWEVER, CERTAIN SENATORS still treas-
ure public avowal of religious belief. The
Supreme Court decision, opinion, and interpre-
tation of the First Amendment do not appeal
to them, and they prefer to sit in judgment
themselves. To this end they have proposed a
constitutional amendment which would again
allow the recital of prayers in public schools.
Senators John Stennis (D-Miss) and A. Wil-
lis Robertson (D-Va), who favor an amend-
ment, seem to feel that the ruling "deconse-
ra,.+" mf n. vfarnm + Or,
By WALTER LIPPMANN
THE REPUBLICANS are, I be-
lieve, right when they say that
in his relations with Congress the
President's problem is how to rally
to his domestic program the large
Democratic majorities in both
Houses. Moreover, this problem will
remain if in November the Demo-
crats have a success in that they
do notalost any seats, and even
if they have a triumph and cap-
ture five or ten Republican seats.
I do not see how it can be doubted
that the resistance in Congress,
which involves about a third of
the Democrats and about all the
Republicans, rests on powerful
and stubborn feelings among the
voters.
Nobody knows, I suppose, what
is the actual division of the voters
between those who want the re-
forms and innovations and those
who do not want any more Federal
spending and Federal activity. The
resistance must, I should guess, be
near to half the voters. For it is,
I believe,an unwritten rule of our
constitution that important re-
forms and innovations will fail
unless they command at least a
two-thirds majority.
* * *
THE REAL QUESTION is why
so large a part of the public has
become, in Sen. Goldwater's sense
of the word, conservative. The pri-
mary reasons are, I believe, earthy,
not high-falutin and ideological.
The antagonism to government,
w ih a t h4 +. a + a ,~.~r~n.nnr ,c
eral feeling that government, es-
pecially the Washington govern-
ment, is a kind of enemy alien,
and that it should be cut down to
size.
The resentment over the tax
bite is aggravated by the chiseling
and the corruption and the injus-
tices which turn up in the ad-
ministration of the big spending
program-defense contracts, farm
price supports, stockpiling, un-
employment relief, public assist-
ance, etc., etc. Even though the
scandals are on the fringes, there
are enough big and little scandals
in almost every town and village
to nourish the feeling that govern-
ment is not only an enemy, but
that it is a corrupter of the
people's morals.
peP** * *
THESE ARE the main sources of
the opposition to big government
and big spending. This opposition
cannot, I believe, be overcome by
trying to win the votes of the
beneficiaries of a welfare measure
like medicare. Indeed, such con-
centration on welfare measures
obscures and distorts the meaning
of Kennedy's election and of the
New Frontier. Medicare, for ex-
ample, is highly desirable. But it
should not be made the crucial
issue on which the fate of the
Administration is staked. The cru-
cial issue in 1960 between the
Democrats and President Eisen-
hower turned on the charge that
the American position and influ-
ence in the world needed to be
nf a nmriA +hQo + r dn +bi
formula has not been found be-
cause it calls for measures which
the conservative opposition rejects
absolutely. Thus the sluggish econ-
omy, burdened down by the great
expenditures for defense, welfare
and development produces a con-
servative mood in the country.
There is, of course, only one
way in which the President can
induce the Congress to give him
the measures to get the economy
moving. That is by going to the
people and persuading large num-
bers of them that in a revivified
and dynamic economy lies their
best and their only hope of carry-
ing comfortably the necessary bur-
den of defense and the inescapable
burden of welfare and develop-
ment in our rapidly changing so-
ciety.
(c) 1962, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.
DAILY OFFICIAL
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'esponsibility. Notices should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3564 Administration Building
before 2 p.m., two days preceding
publication.
SATURDAY, JULY 28
General Notices
Th in]! iiprd hp CPBS ith
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