Seventy-Second Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinion- Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MIcH. * Phone NO 2-3241
Truth Will Prevail"
r
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP SUT
Irnendenti,11s Humanism
Light Path of Isolated Man
IN
WHY DO MANY Americans engage in sit-ins,
freedom rides and peace demonstrations?
Why do members of the Student Non-Violent
Co-ordinating Committee prepare Negroes to
register to vote? What stirs social workers?
Why do many students neglect their studies to
campaign and crusade and go to meetings and
conferences.
And why does moonlight inspire romance?
Why do families go a -great distance to a
favorite spot to have a picnic? What inspires
fishermen to put up with bugs and mosquitoes
in order to sit quietly in a lonely boat?
There is no single all-embracing answer to
these questions, but there are shadows of an-
swers. And perhaps some of these shadows lie
in two feelings and philosophies that, like
individual men, are autonomous yet inter-
dependent: transcendentalism and humanism.
THE TWO BEST commentators on transcen-
dentalism were Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Henry David Thoreau. These Americ.an philos-
ophers loved nature and saw humanity as in-
timately bound up with nature. There is valid-
ity in their philosophy, and perhaps an analysis
of transcendentalism will give up an under-
standing of modern humanism and of the
stirrings among active young Americans today.
We are physically alone in the universe. To
our knowledge there is no other form of life
like human beings anywhere else in our solar
system. The environments of Mars and Venus,
the two closest planets, could permit only basic
life form to survive. Mercury is too hot and
too cold for life to survive, and the other planets
are too cold, and have poisonous gases.
There may be life elsewhere in the universe,
but it appears that we shall never see it. Even
if we devise space vehicles that could travel
at the speed of light (this is all but impossible)
it would take many years for us to reach other
stars, and if some of these other stars would
have planets revolving around them (another
hypothesis) there would not necessarily ,be life
on these planets. And the opportunities of com-
munication with life elsewhere in the universe
are also nearly zero, for it would take thousands
of years for any messages of ours to ever
reach any other civilizations.
SO WE ARE ALONE in the universe. It is this
isolation that binds us together-that binds
a man with mankind and with plants and lower
animals and with earth. This is the unity and
the oneness that transends the organic with
organic and inorganic of our planet.
Transcendentalism may be the serenity felt
by a persons sitting fishing in a rowboat in
the middle of a lake on a dark night with the
illumination of the moon and the stars and the
nearly complete silence mellowed by the call
and chant of distant birds.
It may be the feeling that one who belongs to
the University might sometimes get walking
under the arches of the trees on the long walk
across central campus at night. It may include
the feeling that "this is the best place in the
world to be at this given moment."
INTERTWINED with this feeling is the feeling.
of humanism, which transcends the spirit of
man from one to another. It is the kind of
feeling you might get at a conference when,
after a day of speeches and group discussions
on how to overcome bias and prejudice, you
group together to sing "We Shall Overcome."
In this way humanism is part of the brother-
hood motif of democracy.
It is this feeling and this motif-even when
experienced intensely just once but felt inter-
mittently occasionally afterward-that lingers
through the years and inspires those who sit-in
and crusade and do social work.
But this feeling is negated by the unthinking
common acts of *men. It is negated when you
visit your friends and they shake your hand
and invite you in and sit you down and ex-
change a few words with you but do not turn
off the television program they were watching
and remain preoccupied with the program and
its performers whom they do not know instead
of with you whom they do know.
IT IS NEGATED by students in classrooms
who hunch over their notebooks taking down
-often in perfect outline form-their notes,
preoccupied with doing a good job of copying
what the professor is saying instead of listening
to him. And this negation and lack of rapport
is encouraged by professors who read facts
from their notes instead of speaking from with-
in themselves. It is smll wonder that knowledge
is such a dead thing to most students, a thing
to capture for a test but to shut close with their
books at the end of the semester and relegate
to a bookshelf instead of to life.
Probably the greatest school was Plato's
school. In his school knowledge was a living
-thing, invigorated by dialogue. In his school the
spirit of one man transcended to another.
The school of Emerson and Thoreau was the
forests and fields of America. The schools of
William O. Douglas have been the Supreme
Court where he has aided in the transceding
America which he has explored and written
about.
THE SCHOOL of Americans working today
for integration and equality and civil rights
has been the cafeterias where Whites alone
were served and the schools closed to Negroes.
The viewpoint opposite to all this holds that
altruism is shallow and that service to mankind
is foolish because mankind merely uses you and
after you are of no more use to mankind it
will drop you and because you were so wrapepd
up in service to others there is little left of you.
This view tends to disrupt the unity and fra-
ternity of men, and perhaps the best answer to
it is that mankind's loneliness leaves him no.
real choice but to try to make the best of his
existence by promoting his ideals and thereby
moving a little closer to a supposed state of
happiness. And it might be said that empathy
and concern for one's fellow man gives mean-
ing to life and struggle and is in this way more
fulfilling than selfishness and pure self-interest.
BENJAMIN Franklin said visit your friends.
Emerson and Thoreaus said visit the for-
ests. A New York Times editorial said go to the
movies or dancing or eat something or drink
something or read a good book. And the young
militants go to Washington, D.C., to promote
unilateral initiatives in disarmament and ride
to Jackson, Mississippi to promote desegregation.
The meaning of life may partly be found in
doing all of these-a meaning made important
by our physical isolation in the universe, a;
meaning that transcends men and nature.
-ROBERT SELWA
a
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Claims Grad Students
Not Narrow-Minded
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
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13.
1. "LE6fISLA - .-t
To the Editor:
A LITTLE knowledge is often a
bad thing. Robert Selwa dem-
onstrated that beautifully in his
editorial in Saturday's Daily. He
derogated Ph.D. dissertations,
claiming they took too much time
and were too specialized.
It is a sorry state of affairs when
an unlettered (literally) and art-
less person presumes to pass
judgement on scholarly works of
which he knows nothing. One of
the dissertations he castigated in
his editorial was about self-stimu-
lation in the rat; now the motiva-
tion of behavior directly through
brain implantations is one of the
newest and most exciting phases
of psychological endeavor, and
chances are this dissertation will
be read by several dozen people
just at Michigan, not to mention
other parts of the academic com-
munity.
In addition, Mr. Selwa appears
to have adopted the erroneous
idea that beyond the MA a student
only engages in tedious research
on one tiny area. Nothing could
be further from the truth - at
least at this University.
* * *
I HAVE an MA and am working
on a Ph.D. so I feel slightly more
qualified than Mr. Selwa to evalu-
ate the knowledge gained during
each course of study: the MA, for
most fields, is just the first neces-
sary foundational step to be taken
before a person is an expert in a
given field.
MA degree holders can be great
teachers, but this is no more im-
plicit in the degree than that all
Ph.D. holders are restricted, nar-
row-minded individuals. In fact,
it appears that persons without
any degree at all sometimes
emerge as the most narrow-mind-
ed and uninformed.
-David E. Silber, Grad
Saskatchewan....
To the Editor:
REFERRING to Michael Har-
rah's editorial regarding the
Saskatchewan medical problem, I
think that a few facts should be
set straight.
First, nobody is denying that the
proposed plan is socialized medi-
cine. The name "National Health
Program" is just a name chosen
to describe the service being of-
fered to the people of the Province.
Second, the doctors coming into
Saskatchewan are certainly not
going to support the doctors in
their battle. They are trying to ad-
minister some emergency aid to
the affected people.
* * *
THIRD, the statement that
"sickness is a very personal thing
each case is different" is
completely irrelevant. Are the doc-
tors going to punch IBM cards
and cure you? No, they will use
the same methods as now, that is
treatment and medicine.
Fourth, nobody will "wait until
the government opens shop on'
Monday" for treatment. Doctors
will operate just as they do now
and a rotating staff will be on call
each and every night and week-
ends.
Fifth, did it ever occur to Mr.
Harrah that the "civil servants"
who will be doing this job are the
very same doctors that are prac-
ticing medicine now?
-Stan Lubin, '63
Barbarians . ,
To the Editor:
YOUR city editor, Mr. Michael
Harrah, shows an utter lack of
understanding in the Saskatche-
wan medical feud.
When the Saskatchewan Medi-
cal Insurance Act came into effect,
the doctors walked out. And al-
ready several deaths have occurred
as a result of inadequate medical
care. Is this then the stamina Mr.
Harrah praises in some members
of the medical profession?
The doctors believe there is no
guarantee for private practice but
this is not so. Doctors may prac-
tice outside the act with the agree-
ment of the patient. However, if
a patient belongs to the medical
care program the only government
"interference" consists in paying
the bill.
* * *
SURELY this is no worse than
"socialized education." T h o s e
without children pay taxes and
support the education of children.
No one argues with this.
Why shouldn't taxes from the
healthy contribute to the healing
of the sick?
Under the Saskatchewan system
a patient may go to the doctor of
his choice. Neither the doctor nor
the patient are assigned to one
another. Neither does the Sas-
katchewan government set out to
dictate the actual practice of
medicine.
* * *
IN THE British system, which
is the basis of the Saskatchewan
scheme, incidents have occurred.
But they are only incidents. Do
these incidents not occur every
day when a physician is, after all,
only human.
Mr. Harrah does not understand
that the American and British
doctors who have gone to help in
Saskatchewan aren't the * same
breed of men as those on strike.
Theirs is not a dollar or power
complex, but a humanitarian
cause not unlike that of the late
Dr. Tom Dooley.
The "personal humanity" Mr.
Harrah wishes to be defeated is
that "we are our brother's keep-
er." To deny this is to deny our
humanness.
What kind of society do we live
in then? Must we be barbarians all
the time?
--Al Sugarman, '64
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14
A
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Recession Requires Tax Cut
By WALTER LIPPMANN
ON THE QUESTION of a tax
cut, with which the President
is now wrestling, the undecided
issue is whether to ask for it this
summer or to wait until next win-
ter. The issue is as yet undecided
for one reason only. There is some
doubt whether, in the few weeks
that are left before adjournment,
the chairmen of the two key com-
mittees, Rep. Mills and Sen. Byrd,
will allow Congress to vote. The
significant thing about their veto
is that almost certainly the two
chairmen will not have it next
winter. For by that time, if, as it
now seems probable, out sluggish
economy has begun to recede, tax
reduction will go through Congress
by acclamation.
The chance of a Mills-Byrd veto
this summer, which is what causes
the President to hesitate, is pri-
marily due to the fact that as yet
recession is only indicated and is
not yet being experienced. Can the
President induce Congress to act
to prevent a recession, or are we
doomed to wait for a recession
and then try to reverse it? The
fundamental question is whether
we have a government which can
act with foresight, which can take
the stitch in time that will save
nine.
Since the Wall Street crash at
the end of May there has been a
sharp and rapid change of respon-
sible and expert opinion. The
crash alerted those who watched
the economy, causing them to ask
whether the Kennedy recovery of
1961 was going to peter out before
it went much further. There had
been a very few who had predict-
ed this last January when the Ad-
ministration, using what had
proved to be erroneously optimis-
tic estimates, adopted a restrictive
and deflationary fiscal policy.
** *
THE unfounded optimism ended
a few days after the crash. The
business reports which have come
in during June and the first half
of July show that with a few ex-
ceptions, automobile sales and
residential construction, the re-
covery is sluggish and is slowing
down. Employment and industrial
activity, profits, inventory re-
placement, and capital investment
are so sluggish that the recovery
appears to be nearing its end. It
would seem that by the onset of
winter there will be a recession.
Prof. Samuelson says that the
peak of total profits was in fact
reached at the end of last year and
that the rate of unemployment,
which has never gone below 5.4 per
cent, will from now on be rising.
We are not, let us repeat, as yet
in a recession. But we are on the
verge of one. This is the critically
important time for the govern-
ment to act in order to stimulate
the expansion of economic activi-
ty. The longer it waits, the strong-
er will the medicine have to be.
It has already waited six months
too long, and so it will need to use
strongeF medicine today than it
would have needed last January. If
it waits until the recession has ac-
tually begun, the chances are that
the comparatively agreeable medi-
cine of a tax cut will not be
enough, and will need to be sup-
plemented by more government
spending.
* * * .
THE REASON for this is not
complicated and it is of great sig-
nificance to the question of wheth-
er to cut taxes now or to wait six
months. The immediate effect of a
tax cut is to stimulate consumer
buying. If this takes place when
industry is working somewhere
near full capacity, the consumer
demand will stimulate industry to
modernize and enlarge its plant.
This capital spending will sustain
the recovery. On the other hand,
if the recession is on, with unem-
ployment rising, with plant utili-
zation declining, the additional
consumer purchases will not tend
to stimulate capital investment. If
the recession is bad, it may take
very drastic measures to overcome
it.
On the merits, therefore, and
ignoring all the political conse-
quences, the case for acting at
once is a very powerful one.
Despite all this, despite the
weight of expert and responsible
opinion, the President is hesitat-
ing because he dreads the conse-
quences of asking for a tax reduc-
tion and being refused by Con-
gress. It is true that if he tries for
it and fails, he may be vulnerable
to the demagogic charge that he
has shaken public confidence and
brought on the recession he tried
to avert. In 1957, when the com-
ing of the third Eisenhower reces-
sion was indicated, President
Eisenhower was, so I understand,
advised to reduce taxes. He re-
fused, not only because he did not
want to enlarge the deficit but be-
cause he was afraid that to talk
about preventing a recession would
bring it on. So the President wait-
ed. The result was an enormous
budgetary deficit, the largest in
time of peace, a painful recession,
and, we may add, a mighty contri-
bution to the Republican defeat in
the election of 1960.
* * *
FOR President Kennedy it is, I
believe, a greater risk not to try
than to try and to fail. If he tries
boldly for an adequate tax cut to
avert the recession, he will gain
much if he succeeds. He will have
an excellent prospect of prolong-
ing the recovery, of moderating
the eventual downturn, and of
proving decisively, that he does
know how to get the economy
moving.
If he tries and fails to carry
Congress with him, he has as Pres-
ident ample means to make the
country realize who is responsible
for refusing to apply preventive
medicine. The country under-
stands how much better is pre-
vention than cure. For the Presi-
dent to act when on the merits of
the problem he ought to act, to go,
to the Congress now, to go to the
country now, has its risks, and
there may be some political un-
pleasantness. But it will be still
more unpleasant to have a reces-
sion that the Administration knew
how to prevent and didn't prevent,
and along with the recession more
unemployment, more idle plant,
sinking profits, and a still steeper
decline in the stock market.
The President should, I believe,
make the decision and cut the
Gordian knot. He should present
a simple and temporary but fully
adequate reduction of corporation
and individual income taxes to
take effect not later than Sept. 1.
For the best way to handle a nettle
is to grasp it firmly.
(c) 1962, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.
STANLEY QUARTET:
Fine Selections Playing
On Sugar' and Socialism...
T HE BASIC structure of the national econ-
omy is undergoing a rapid and thorough
ghange. The trend of this transition is definite-
ly toward a greater degree of economic control
by the government. Quite legitimately, this,
trend is often met with agonized cries of
"creeping socialism," from American taxpayers.
It is true that the middle-class majority of
the population must bear the brunt of econom-
ic change where it hurts most: in the pocket- .
book.
Moneyed capital, however, has felt the pinch
of government intervention in business for
decades. Large corporations presently experi-
ence a tax which consumes over fifty per cent
of their profits. Consequently, big business has
gotten into politics in a big way.
As an example it is possible to cite the re-
cent sugar bill, passed by the House and Sen-
ate with bi-partisan approval. The bill provides
for the control of sugar prices, production,
import and foreign sources of supply; a half-
billion-dollar-a-year tax on consumers, and
the rate of expansion for this industrial agri-
cultural complex.
THE PRIMARY economic interests of the
United States organized, and together dic-
tated, how to divide the sugar-market most
nrofitably among themselves (Coca Cola and
Hershey, for examples). It is therefore very ap-
7)ropriate to note that the flooor manager of the
Sugar Bill in the Senate was Senator Kerr, of
Oklahoma, a multimillionaire oil and uranium
tycoon.
Underlying all of our nation's economic de-
velopment is the continual search for more
and more profit. In order to create bigger
profits, it is necessary to possess greater fi-
nance-capital. Consequently, larger and larger
stockholding corporations are formed, with
more finance-capital available.
EVENTUALLY, the basic economic units of
the nation grow to the point where it- be-
comes impossible to speak any more in terms
of individual free enterprise. Such is the point
which the economic organization of the United
States is rapidly approaching.'
During the days of Teddy Roosevelt, trust-
busting was the vogue in government circles
to head off coagulation of economic units. How-
ever, this was the age of the great imperialist
expansion on the part of America. Therefore,
an economic balance was maintained internally,
by external compensation for government strin-
gencies within our borders.
It is now next to impossible to revert to
this stage of economic development, faced with
the political awakening of the lesser nations.
The only alternative left is to tighten the belt.
"CREEPING Socialism," is merely the result
of government reaction to the increasing-
ly monopolistic nature of the economy. Where,
in most cases, government officials are sin-
cerely interested in maintaining the free-enter-
prise system, to preserve economic balance,
they are forced to adopt measures which smack
highly of government control.
As one would expect, this unhappy state of
affairs causes the middle class to react in the
direction of laissez faire capitalism. Obviously,
laissez faire is not the answer to our economic
3
1
t
THE Stanley Quartet gave an-
other concert last night in their
series of summer chamber music
programs. The pleasure these men
obviously derive from their work
was matched by that of an en-
thusiastic though average-sized
audience.
Their program opened with a
Quartet in F Major by Mozart.
The quartet, subtitled the
"Prussian," was written about one
year before Mozart's death and
suggested dynamic, harmonic and
melodic effects reminiscent of
Beethoven. The Stanley group
highlighted the "romantic" ele-
ments beautifully, playing with
fortitude yet finesse. Mozart's
playful fourth movement con-
tained a facetiousness often asso-
ciated with Haydn and Beethoven.
It suffered somewhat in precision
during the performance but lacked
none of the appropriate play-
fulness.
* * *
THE SECOND composition on
the program was Webern's Quar-
tet, Opus 28, written in 1938. The
transition from Mozart's work to
Webern's is not an easy one to
make.
Again, the Stanley Quartet was
equal to the jump and performed
with care and musicianship. The
extremely concentrated idiom of
Webern's work requires from the
performers and listeners an almost
psychological inspection of one's
own feelings, a Freudian analysis.
Indeed, the music seems to reflect
a highly introspective period in
our century.
The concert concluded with a
sensitive performance of Brahms
Quartet in C Minor, Opus 51 Num-
ber 1. In contrast to the beautiful
and elegant quartet by Mozart and
the strident, super-concentrated
work by Webern, Brahms' full-
bodied composition comes on
strong. His opening motif is writ-
ten for the four strings in unison
fortissimo, forecasting a hard
evening's work for the performers.
As one listener phrased it, "the
players won the contest."
--Delmer Rogers
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