Writes Judic on Driving Rules
ntione Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD Mr CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Will Preval" S
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Bwc. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phonet NO 2.43241
non - discriminatory basis. Mr.
Blanshard states that while Cath-
olics agree there should be "a
wall of separation" between church
and state, the church has the ul-
timate authority in defining where
this wall is to be. This is not true.
By ratifying the Constitution and
the First Amendment and by ad-
hering to the judicial interpreta-
tion thereof, Catholics have ac-
cepted the state interpretation of
where the wall of separation ac-
tually is.
Mr. Blanshard cites three Su-
preme Court cases which form a
"kind of charter of religious non-
establishment in t h e United
States." From the Everson Case
(1947), he quotes from a long
dictum by Justice Black within
which is: "The establishment of
religion clause of the First Amend-
ment means at least this:
Neither can (a state nor the fed-
eral government) pass laws which
aid one religion, aid all religions
or prefer one religion over another
. . ." Yet the decision in this case
upheld the constitutionality of re-
imbursement of money to parents
for funds expended by them on
transportation for their children
to and from schools, including
parochial schools. Mr. Blanshard
does not note that Justice Black's
strong statement was to a cer-
tain extent ignored by the deci-
sion of the case.
In the Zorach Case (1952), the
court allowed released time for
religious classes away from public
school buildings if the taxpayers
were not asked to support them
in any way. Majority opinion in
this case pointed out that no state
coercion was involved but only an
accommodation of public school
schedules to a program of outside
religious instruction. Moreover, the
majority cited numerous instances
of Church-State cooperation and
argued that the First Amend-
ment does not compel the state
to be positively hostile to reli-
gion. Thus the trend in Constitu-
tional Law appears to be away
from the Jeffersonian concept of
a hostile wall of separation which
Mr. Blanshard so heartily en-
dorses. Mr. Blanshard is a law-
yer. That he has given a fair
analysis of the cases dealing with
separation of Church and State is
debatable.
Mr. Blanshard introduces a
statement made by Archbishop
McNicholas in 1948 by saying (it)
"starts off with the most famous
trick sentence in Catholic propa-
ganda: We deny absolutely and
without qualification that the
Catholic Bishops of the United
States are seeking a union of
church and state by any endeav-
ors whatsoever, either proximate
or remote." Mr. Blanshard con-
tinues by saying: "Now the aver-
age reader looking at that sen-
tence casually would think that
Catholic bishops accept the sep-
aration of church and state in the
American sense of those words.
They dd nothing of the kind."
Mr. Blanshard takes issue because
he claims McNicholas says in the
same statement that no court has
prohibited the payment of public
money to aid the children in paro-
chial schools. According to Mr.
Blanshard the latter view is in-
consistent with the separation of
church and state "in the Ameri-
can sense of those words" and
makes the McNicholas statement
a "magnificent and successful
sample of double talk." It is not
clear what Mr. Blanshard means
by "the American sense of those
words" because the Supreme Court
-F. H. Schlee, Grad.
On Anonymity.«.
To the Editor:
CONTRARY to the opinion ex-
pressed by Mr. Goldberg in
Sunday'sletter to the editor on
anonymity, we believe that ideas,
and not their author, should be
on trial. The anonymous writer
is writing in the most pure form:'
To express an idea. Mr. Goldberg
admits that "it is sometimes pra-
tically impossible to express cer-
tain opinions without incurring
severe penalties or ostracism." It
is equally impossible to express
some ideas without receiving un-
wanted laudation.
For these reasons, we believe
that writers of letters to the edi-
tor of the Daily have the right
to request that their names be
withheld. This does not decrease
the value of the ideas expressed,
and furthermore, these ideas can
still be evaluated on their own
merit and then be accepted or
rejected.
WOULD MR. GOLDBERG, or
those who hold similar opinions,
condemn writers who avoid stand-
ing behind their ideas by using
pen names? George Eliot hid be-
hind the mask ' of anonymity to
present her ideas to the public,
but this is no reason that we
should reject her ideas. Knowledge
of the author makes no differ-
ence. The authors of many of our
greatest literary classic are un-
certain. These works include "The
Odyssey" and the "Old Testa-
ment." Are the ideas contained
in these works to be rejected
merely because the author is un-
known?
The Daily can certainly require
people to send in a signature with
their letter, but to make it manda-
tory for the name to be printed
with the letter is a different
thing. We cannot afford to stifle
ideas by placing their authors on
trial!I
-Richard Lloyd, '61
-Gerry Andeen, '62
'U'Players Open
With Concert Reading
THERE ARE REASONS FOR and against giving Christopher Fry in
a concert reading. It is true that here his verbal pyrotechniques are
more easily taken in hand by the actors and the audience. It is also
true that many of Fry's dramatic points are made within the struc-
ture of his language; with the gestures of the characters restricted to
turning pages, these points, at their best, do blossom into poetry.
But it is the very delicacy. of Fry's drama, his introspective de-
velopment, that demands stagecraft. Fry, in his own behalf, contribut-
ed spectacular offstage business but these become more and more pre-
tentious and irrelevant to an audience whose belief in action has been
suspended.
* * *
THIS PARTICULAR PLAY, chosen as the University Players'
opening production, "The Firstborn," has profound faults which could
very well do with some allaying
force. In the, first scene-Pry does
what he is best at, creating mood.
The mood is epic, yet austere.
A sense of great things in the air,
yet lacking, as one character puts
it, "expectation." Prophecy is
matched by disbelief, as youth is
by age, as life is by death. This
is the passive turmoil of Egypt
bound to history.
The inevitable force of history
brings doom in the form of Moses.
Moses, to Fry, was not so much
a man possessed by God as by
the future. It is a demon which
he does not completely under-
stand for he has emotional ties
with the past. He has been raised
in Egypt and doted on by the
Pharoah's sister.
* * *{
BUT MOSES' CONFUSION be-
comes that of ,the audience as
these emotional ties are glossed
over and Moses' reason for his in-
ner torment becomes vaguer and
vaguer as he becomes more and
more melodramatic in his speech-'
es: Both Fry's metaphysical and
emotional development take vari-
ous sharp turns before the end
of the play and since he regular-
ly fails to inform us of them the.
last scenes are a shambles of viv-
id boredom.
* * *
NOW IN ALL OF THIS, in the
heavy verbalizing, in the expres-I
sionistic mood, in the growing
confusion of emotion and meta-
physics there are quite a few trapsI
for actors.
Fry demands, for instance, ab-
solutely correct characterization..
The actor must build his char-
acter with every line he speaks
in mind or it will show up with
gaudy results in the end. He also
asks for, I think, more pure en-
ergy than most playwrights since
Shakespeare, but again in the
right direction.
There is the danger of misplac-
ing the energy, but there is also
the danger of letting the lines
soak up the energy and speak for
the character. In this latter trap
Howard Green, who plays Moses,
has placed himself. He has a beau-
tiful voice that wraps up the lines
with ease but nothing comes
through.
At the other extreme is Peter
Goldfarb, whose portrayal of the
Pharoah's son is electric with en-
ergy but weak in direction. All
his energy is aimed at portraying
ineffectuality and ends up be-
coming ineffectual. In the last
scenes, instead of making a tragic
discovery, he is merely ineffective-
ness ineffectually coming upon
ineffectuality.
-Robert Kraus
THEATRE WORLD:
Record
OfSeasont
THEATRE WORLD, Season
1959-1960. Edited by Daniel
Blum. Illustrated. 256 pp. Phil-
adelphia: Chilton Co. $6.
THIS YEAR'S edition of Theatre
World, like each annual issue,
both a souvenir book and photo-
graphic album of the recently-
completeal New York theatre sea-
son and a reference book and in-
dex to the plays and players of the
season.
As souvenir book, Theatre World
for the 1959-1960 season offers
more thuan 500 photos of the lead-
ing actors and actressen and scenes
from ;he plays and musicals that
had their moments on the stages
of Broadway and off-Broadway
(and as far away as the Stratford
Shakespearean Festival of Strat-
ford, Ontario) during the past
year,
As referene- book, it gives fats
and figures of performances and
players of plays that opened on
Broadway during the season, closed
during the season, ran through the
season, or didn't arrive at all dur-
ing the season (the latter having
opened-and closed-in "out of
town" tryouts). There are 19 pages
of terse biographies of players and
sevciral more of obituaries. The
book is indexed.
* * *
THEATRE WORLD is certainly
the principal record of the theatre
year; all the more serious, then,
are its omissions, and it ignores
both the Metropolitan Opera and
the productions of the City Centel
Opera and Ballet companies.
The neglect of the Met may be
excused on grounds that an ade-
quate photographic and statistical
record may be found in Opera
News or elsewhere. But the City
Center companies have no such
house organ and therefore no such
record for the public to view. Eight
pages in 'Theatre World would be
enough to cover the new produc-
tions of the year at .ity. Center.
And although coverage of City
Center activities would make it a
more accurate and more inspirit-
ing bock, Theatre World for 1959-
1960 rem ins a good reference and
an attractive souvenir. That the
past season in the theatre was a
particularly grim one makes the
book none the less interesting,.
-Vernon Nahrgatil
"Later On, I Might Take A Little Dip"
DAILY OFFICIAL BULEfTIN
The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The
Michigan Daily assumes no editorial
for Rhodes Scholarships next year or
the year after. Mr. Pfaff will be here
on Fri., Oct. 21 and the meeting will
be at 4:10 p.m. in Room 2013, Angell