Sevenity-Second Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - UNDER AUTHORITY 6P BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Optninns Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. " ANN ARBOR, MICH. " Phone NO 2-3241 Truth W1l1 Prevail' 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 BULLETIN The Daily Official Bulletin is an official publication of The Univer- sity of Michigan for which The Michigan Daily assumes no editorial '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 A I