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April 18, 1964 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1964-04-18

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' ~Sentj-7fhird cear
EDmTED AN MANA NT UT STUDENTS OF THE UNI'VEsiT OF MIcHiGAN
- - INDE A UTHORITY OF OARD uC CONTROL OF STUDENT PULIcATIONS
Where opinions A" * STUDENT PUEScLATnONS BLDG., ANN A IO, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
T!ruth will Prevst--
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in al, reprints.

TURDAY, APRIL.18, 1964

NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATTINGER

Proposed Metamorphosis
For More -Dynam1ic Council

THE GLARING fault of Student Govern-
ment Council is the complete lack of
connection between its structure and
function. The structure of a governmental
body should cater to the demands of func-
tion. If the two are not interrelated, the
organization is rendered totally useless as
is, quite obviously the case in SGC, with
few exceptions.
The function as stated in its constitu-
tion is "to provide meaningful student
participation in the formulation of, im-
provement and promotion of the educa-
tional goals of the University."
The present structure, on the other
hand, provides no way of meaningful stu-
dent participation in anything. As it now
stands, Council is a small and isolated
group of 18 people trying to fulfill a very
broad and far-reaching goal. They are
simply not adequate to the task of acting
for 16,000 undergraduate students. They
are too small and do not have well-estab-
lished lines of communication with the
top of the University administration.
Working under such a structure, impetus
cannot help but evaporate and the Coun-;
cii is left picking around the edge of the
problem, unable to see the woods for the
trees.
DFPENPING ON the interpretation of
function two possible alternatives to
the present structure are feasible.;
"Meaningful student participation" could
'be interpreted as merely providing the
students with a means.of communication'
with the administration. Then the struc-
ture of the Council should be changed
solely to facilitate direct communication
of such a kind. Many radical changes
would be necessary.
There would be basically two phases of
operation: reviewing student proposals
solely to clarify them and determine the
part of the University t o which they
should be directed. It would have no pow-
er to veto. Methods of keeping tabs on
each proposal would be necessary: regu -
larly-published and distributed bulletin

in addition to individual communication
with the students.
FAR MORE ambitious way of restruc-
turing, however, would result from a
literal interpretation of "participation."
Again, radical structural changes would
be essential. The body would have to
number between 75 and 100 people, and
be divided between meetings into com-
mittees. The Council itself would be only
a voting body..
The expansion would serve a number of
ends. First it would enable the students
to do more thorough work on proposals
before they were passed on to the ad-
ministration for perusal. Equally import-
ant, it would give the strength of num-
bers to each proposal which went to the
higher bodies of the University..
Thus, the scope of the group would be
greatly increased. There is no reason
why students of the University, being the
group most vitally affected by its policies,
should have no voice in their formula-
tion. Thevigor of youth is not a bad coun-,
terpart to the wisdom of age. Such action
could be taken with the support of a large
body such as the one proposed.
N0 PLAN, HOWEVER, can be effected
without a radical change of attitude
on the part of the students. The Council
is young; young governments always have-
faults which can be eliminated only by
vigorous work on the part of their mem-
bers. Studeits on 'the Council relaxed
their vigil too soon and allowed SGC to
fall into' an apathetic morass.
Pitiful as it seems now, the Council
is the students' link to the organization
and operation of the University. If they
let it atrophy, they will lose a rare chance
to help formulate the , educational sys-
tem under which they are beinig prepared
for life. Rather than sitting smugly in
their seats adding amendment to amend-
ment and squabbling over the use of com-
mas, they should work to find a structure
that will sustain itself from year to year,
that will protect student interests and
aid in the constant search for improve-
ment within the University.
-KAREN KENAH

LETTERS:
Verdict on
Tragedy in
Cleveland
To the Editor:
IT IS a great pleasure to see
Mike Harrah back at his old
stand again, and one of his recent
efforts (an editorial entitled "The
Tragedy in Cleveland") -deserves
comment.,
My compassion, too, "is with the
young minister and his cause,"
but unlike Mr. Harrah, I cannot
see any justice in the idea that
"the organizers of the demonstra-
tion should be prosecuted as will-
ing accessories to murder or man-
slaughter." Take that word, "mur-
der." Is Mr. Harrah saying that
one of the demonstrators pushed
the minister under the treads of
the tractor? Was it in any sense'
a "willed" event, i.e. deliberately
caused with malice aforethought?
But later on in the editorial: "I
can only feel that he got, tragical-
ly andunintentionally, just what
he asked for."
Now assuming that Mr. Harrah
does not mean that the minister
threw himself under the tractor to
make himself a martyr, this can
only mean that the dead man had
been taking a chance on accidents
such as this. But murder or man-
slaughter? Don't you cross the
street every day with the chance
that you might get accidentally
run over?
SO NO ONE is really to blame
except perhaps the minister, who,
to paraphrase Mr. Harrah, brought
it onto.himself.
Ah, but now the prize statement.
"I can only agree with Sen. John
Stennis of Mississippi who seeks a
halt to the Senate's civil rights
debate until the street violence
subsides." I enclose an editorial
from the Washington Postwhich
answers this better than I can:
In suggesting that President
Johnson and Congress call off
any further consideration of the
civil rights bill until demon-
strations and violence cease,
Sen. John Stennis seems to have
forgotten the other side of the
question. It might be wholly
reasonable to suggest t h a t
marching in the streets be
suspended if this were an or-
dinary debate in the Senate
moving to a certain resolution
of the issue on its merits. But
the fact is that Sen. Stennis
and his colleagues are putting
on a demonstration on' their
own.
When Senator Russell com-
plained recently about support-
ers of the bill in some cities
sitting down in the streets, we
remaided him that his senatorial
contingent is sitting down in the
legislative highway. Foes of the
civil rights bill cannot have it
both ways. If they insist on ob-
struction and minority coercion
in the Senate they can scarcely
expect the forces supporting the
bill to be content with patient
waiting.
If the filibustering Senators
wish to talk turkey, they should
offer a quid pro quo. They might
reasonably say that if demon-
strations in support of the bill
_ are abandoned they will end
their own demonstration and
allow the bill to come to a vote
on a specified date. That would
doubtless be a quick and effec-
tive remedy for what Sen. Sten-
nis was talking about. Surely
the Senate of the United States
ought to be in the lead in ad-
vocating and practicing orderly
procedure. As soon as assurance

is given that the will of the
majority will prevail, we surmise
that termination of demonstra-
tions on the outside would be no
problem at all.
WHILE MR. HARRAH is busy
at The Daily expressing his com-
passion and sorrow, there are some
people who will go out and risk-
more than dirty fingers from a
typewriter ribbon gotten while
scribbling editorials, for the cause
of civil rights.
--Steven Hendel, '63
Letters to the Editor should be
typewritten and doublespaced. Only
signed letters will be printed, but
names may be withheld upon re-
quest. The Daily reserves the right
to edit or withhold any letter.

By WALTER LIPPMANN
S HEWORLD does move, and
- there 'is no better proof of it
than this war on poverty which
President Kennedy designed 'and
President Johnson has begun to
wage.
A generation ago it would have
been taken for granted that a war
on poverty meant taking money
from the "haves" and turning it.
over to the "havenots." For until
recently it was always assumed
that there was only so much pie,
and the social question was how to
divide it.
But in this generation, one
might say in the past 30 years, a
revolutionary idea has taken hold
in the advanced countries of the
world. The size pf the pie to be
divided can be increased by in-
vention, organization, capital in-
vestment and fiscal policy, and
thenawhole society, not just one
part of it, will grow richer.
THIS revolutionary idea, which
has been discovered, tested and
demonstrated in this century, is
at work in every industrial society
regardless of its basic doctrine and
ideology. It is transforming not
only capitalism as it was known a
generation ago, but it is trans-
forming also socialism and com-
munism as well.
The socialist parties of Western
Europe,. for example, have aban-
doned the Marxist conception of
the class struggle, and there is
every reason to thin} that in the
Soviet Union the Marxist-Lenin-
ism is. giving way to the modern
idea of an affluent welfare state.
And although the less developed
countries are as yet unable to
apply the idea, it is recognized by
the leaders of all the more en-
lightened ones.
ThenKennedy-Johnson campaign
against poverty operates in this
historical context. The basic as-
sumption is that the American
economy can readily produce the
means to reduce poverty-which
was estimated as the lot of one-
third of the nation when Franklin
R6osevelt took office and is now
down to one-fifth. The real prob-
lem is' to analyze correctly the
causes of the poverty that remains
and to learn by experimenting how
to reduce those causes.

THE FIRST QUESTION of
course, is to define what is meant
by poverty. The answer is bound
to be some kind of rough statis-
tical standard. But as nobody is
proposing to use these figures to
hand out money to individuals, an
estimate of average need for an
average family will do for an un-
derstanding of the size of the
problem.
The official measure which has
been adopted is to regard as poor
a family of four whose total in-
come from all sources is less than
$3000 a year.,
This is not enough money to
maintain a decent standard of
living for the family: If the family
spends 70 cents a day per person,
it will spend a little over $1000 a
year on food. That leaves $2000.
It is estimated that $800 will
be needed for housing-rent or
mortgage payments, utilities and
heat. This leaves $1200. That 'is
less than $25 a week for the whole
family for everything else-for
clothing, transportation, recrea-
tion, medical care, insurance.
Though $3000 a, year would be
affluence in a village in India, it
is harsh poverty in the United'
States.
THERE ARE 47 million families
in the United States, and at least
9 million of these families-nearly
one-fifth of them, consisting of
30 million persons-are poor.
The figures make the real situa-
tion look better than it is. There
are contained in the 9 million
families over 5 million, consisting
of more than 17 million persons,
who have a total income per f am-
ily of less than $2000.
There are also the lonely in-
dividuals-more than 5 million of
them-with incomes of less than
$1500 a year.
THE NEXT STEP is to investi-
gate the reasons why these 9 mil-
lion families are poor. The modern
studies of poverty 'have demon-
strated-I think beyond dispute-
that the greatest of all causes of
poverty is a lack of education.
The next greatest cause is dis-
crimination, which makes a non-
white family two-and-one-half
times as likely to be poor as a
white family.

Another great cause of poverty
is poor health. Another is the ab-
sence of a full-time wage-earner,
due to the age of the parents or
to - the fact that 'the family is
broken.
* * *
THESE BEING the main causes
of poverty, it is evident that it is
possible to reduce them-granting
that they cannot all be eliminated
-by improving the schools and
the public health facilities, by
combatting racial discrimination
and, where necessary, by public.
relief.
It can be said' that all of the
poor are not deserving poor, which
can also be said of at least as
many of the non-poor. But it can-

not be argued that all the chil-
dren who are condemned to go
to our worst schools are receiving
all the education they are capable
of absorbing.
The truth is that we ought to
spend more on the schools in
neighborhoods where the families
are very -poor, because the schools
must play a major role in -over-
coming the handicaps of living in
a congested slum.
There is no reason to doubt
that, if we take the measures to
counteract the causes of poverty,
we shall in some degree reduce it.
The effort will pay off well, not
only for the poor, but for all of
us. For there is nothing so good
for a nation as to become interest-
ed in doing good works.'
Copyright, 1964, Los Angeles Times

TODAY AND TOMORROW:
The. War on Poverty in a Moving World

EUROPEAN COMMENTARY:
New Station Threatens
BBC Radio Mouopoly'

By ERIC KELLER
GREAT BRITAIN has been the
last major European market
to be unexplored by commercial
radio broadcasting. The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
has had a firm grip of the nation's
radio broadcasting picture since
the early twenties. Three non-
commercial programs have been
serving the country's cultural, re-
gional and recreational needs. Pro-
grams are very varied and often
provocative, and have been in-
creasingly so in recent times. BBC
is not afraid of attacking govern-
ment policies or political parties
in home programs, and in general
there has been a fine balance be-
tween entertainment and instruc-
tive programs.'
However, commercial interests in
the radio field have been com-
pletely excluded by BBC's mono-
poly. Only Radio Luxemburg with
its powerful transmitters has been
able to invade the- English privacy
every night from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
with a commercially-sponsored
and English-announced pop music
program.
Such commercial influx has been

FELLINI'S '8V2':

Virtuoso 's

Cinematic Sonata,

Different When We Do it

SUPPOSE FOR A MOMENT in a purely
hypothetical situation that the Cuban
government needed cranes and the Amer-
ican industry supplying the cranes need-
ed the business.
Now suppose that the American econo-
my needed the trade to supply some prod-
uct consumed in the United States, such
as sugar.
Finally suppose that the Cubans agree
to pay in this commodity, which the
Americans need. Thus the Americans gain
the needed good, and the Cubans gain
the cranes.
IF IT SOUNDS FAMILIAR, it should. It
can either' be applied as is to the Brit-
ish government, or, with a minor change

in words, it can apply to the wheat deal
the United States made with the Rus-
sians.
The British last week contracted with
the Cubans to sell heavy cranes that the
Cubans need. Previously the British con-
tracted to sell 50 buses to the Cubans.
Each time the United tSates raised pro-
tests, trying hard to stop the trade.
Yet while this nation issued the state-
ments condemning the British action, it
went out and sold millions of bushels of
grain to Russia for "other reasons."
SOMEHOW when the subject included
home, the perspective apparently
changed drastically.
--J. WEILER

At the Campus Theatre
IT IS NOT my job to explain a
film. If I have a specific brief,
it is to suggest (no more) why a
film might be good or bad, boring
or enjoyable; occasionally I can
be more categorical, but I have
always to bear in mind that the
pleasure derived from a film, like
any "interpretation" of what one
has seei, may frequently-and
widely-vary from one individual
to the next.
THE CRITERIA of value in
film are-more than in most arts
-still inexact. Thus a work as
controversial as Fellini's "8V1" de-
fies the categoric judgement. It is
the work of a virtuoso, certainly,
but there is profound critical dis-
agreement as to whether the tunes
he plays amount to a second
Liszt sonata, or merely a cascade
of scintillating nonsense.
The story line suggests sub-
stance, It works on three levels:
one, the present reality in which
Guido, a film director, is grappling
with a creative block, a swarm of
hangers-on, colleagues, etc., and
an impasse 'in his personal life;
two,, the unreal substance of
Gdido's dreams and fantasies; and
three -: quite distinct - his
memories of childhood. The action
switches unexpectedly, but always
clearly, between them. Guido has
retired (with entourage) to a pop-
ular watering place, where wife
and mistress collide, and he feints
at every shadow in a fruitless
attempt to produce the script for
an- overdue film. Wherever in
reality things go wrong, he sub-
stitutes an optimistic fancy, until
all strings are pulled together in
a finale which solves personal and
professional problems alike.
* * *
THERE'S NOT much point in
delineating Fe'llini's astonishing

command of film. The strength of
his images reminds one by turns
of Resnais or Eisenstein (in the
early spa sequences, full of
Marienbad figure composition and
lighting, as well as striking Rus-
sian close-ups), of Truffaut in
the harem fantasy, or Beirgman in
the final dance. Even the bedroom
quarrel of husband and wife has
the uncommunicating coldness of
Antonioni, the same baited ten-
sion. But the firmest references
are to Fellini's own earlier films,
with beach sequences reminiscent
of "I Vitelloni" or a circus motif
drawn (in' particular) from "La
Strada."
Many modern directors, tired of
narrative as their conventional
cohesive thread, turn to thought
association, Truffaut and Resnais
in particular. Fellini, though,
seems to be yearning after a more-
purely cinematic device: associa-
tion by images. An allusion to
Suetonius and Caesar ushers in the
bath sequence, full "of togaed
towels and dignified movement,
and a cardinal. who speaks Latin
all the time. Or, most obvious of
all, Guido's roving eye at one
point chances on a woman climb-
ing down a grassy bank, and he
is immediately reminded of an-
other woman, seen at an identical
angle . . . the gypsy Saraghina.
There are also purely verbal as-
sociations; and even "The Ride
of the Valkyries" turns up at,
different points in the film to
underline a similarity of image.
*A * *4
"8%" is presented almost en-
tirely as satirical comedy. It has,
as Fellini admits, "no philosophic
premise whatsoever," and none of
the characters, with the exception
of Guido, is allowed to develop
beyond a stylized cameo, cast per-
fectly to type. This fortifies the

episodic structure of the film, and
releases Fellini for his pursuit of
image and technical legerdemain.
It's therefore possible to charac-
terize Fellini's technical virtuosity
as the self-sufficient triumphant
purpose of the film-very much as
one applauds a Bellini aria or a
baroque organ. But . . . a non-
abstract movie is too closely con-
cerned with the people whose
images are so manifest on the
screen for this dehumanized ap-
proach normally to succeed. The
audience is associated in their mo-
tions and emotions, and if the
film fails to develop them, it is
frustrated.
The audience, moreover, has a
tendency to layer a gratuitous
significance over any episode that
is left in the air, even though it
may have been offered by Fellini
as an image, purely for its own
sake. "8%" does not avoid this;
and the opening dream sequence
is an example of something which
adventitiously evokes expectations
of symbolism, surrealism and so
on. Or, for example, we may
question the androgynous priests
of Guido's childhood. Are they
just a satirical gesture, or should
we look for a heavier meaning?
In "Marienbad" a similar vir-
tuoso approach largely succeeded
because the invention was less
fertile, and the chief protagonists
too pallid to draw our sympathy.
In "81/" the characters are vi-
brant and brilliantly observed,
their predicaments are poignant
and real; but they are left in their
moment of creation-pure art, if
you like, but very frustrating. It
is as if Fellini's invention knows
no bounds, he has crammed every-
thing in. If he had settled for a
narrower goal, I think his film
would have been the more satis-
fying.
-Robin Duval

limited, until recently at least,
when all of a sudden "Radio
Caroline" appeared on the radio
dial. "Radio Caroline" broadcasts
pop music all day long, some of its
announcers speak American Eng-
lish, some sloppy British English,
and its signal is strong all over
England. Even the surrounding
North Sea countries are able to
pick up Radio Caroline's signal.
BUT BRITISH and European
broadcasting authorities are qute
distressed by the new station. It
is a troublesome addition to the
already overcrowded and nearly
uncoordinated broadcast band.
The trouble with the nw station
is that it cannot be legally cen-
sored by any nation, as it is locat-
ed on a boat which is anchored
outside the British territorial
waters. Lying at least three miles
off the coast, it 'is subject to,no
country and can operate as freely
as it wants to. The only boycott
English authorities can and do
impose.is a ban on radio telephone
communications with the English
mainland-except in case of emer-
gency.
Radio Caroline is neither first
nor will be last in such radio
pirating (as it is officitlly dub-
bed). It follows the track of the
dollar sign established by the
radio boat.-"Veronica" off the
Dutch coast which destroyed Ra-
dio Nederlands' broadcast mono-
poly over most of Holland. Third
in a row will be "Radio Atlanta"
which is due to be in operation
soon. Broadcasting on all of these
stations follows the general pat-
tern of most United States broad-
cast band stations with predom-
inant emphasis on pop entertain-
ment and background music.
A general advertising War is ex-
pected to be rising between Radio
Caroline, Radio Atlanta and Radio
Luxemburg. Such competition, all
too familiar to U.S. listeners, is
something nearly 'unprecedented
on the European scene, and espec-
ially unknown on the British Isles.
MOST national ' broadcasters
are unimpressed by such a trend.'
One long-time broadcaster of Radio
Nederlands remarked to me: "When
Radio Luxemberg went commercial
with its, Dutch programs every-
body thought that was it. When
Radio Veronica came on the air,
the same happened again,-and now
Radio Caroline claims to be the
'nec puls ultra.' But that's just a
fad. You'll discover, what remains
of all is Radio Nederlands."
But it is apparent that govern-.
ment grip of European broadcast-
ing is now quickly diminishing. It.
may be poignant that this is hap-
pening at a time when many U.S.
broadcasters fear stricter FCC
control following former FCC
chairman, Minow's famed speech
over the "vast wasteland."
But on the other hand, such
radio pirating could in the future
be an unfortunate development on
the Western scene as well. Imagine
highpowered Russian or Chinese
propaganda boat stations outside
American coasts, disturbing the
relaxing U.S. listener with Com-
munist propaganda on the broad-
cast band. A somewhat similar,
highpowered shortwave transmit-
ter is already in use for the Voice
of America ...

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X

H ypothesizing the Trimester

THE ADMINISTRATION must be prais-
ed for its infinite wisdom and all-
transcendent foresight in preparing to
initiate the trimester system.
Mudrakiing
YESTERDAY A GROUP of red-hot
campfire boys mutilated, as they do
every year, a plot of grass and discolored
a tree between Haven Hall and the Gen-
eral Library. Yet the University never
takes action against this group. In fact
there is no effort at all to repair the an-
nual damage.
As a result of these shenanigans, what
aesthetic beauty there is in a prime area
on campus is destroyed. The mud remains
and no grass grows when the mud is
finally absorbed. Left behind is always the
reminder of their-"initiation."
If Michigama wants to continue to
command an audience on their central

The students must be congratulated on
their about-to-be-born status as Super-
students.
Superstudent (alias 555 735 6) is the
omnipotent, mind-of-steel brainchild who
thrives on spinach, books, more books and
-praise the Board! - the superterrific
three day long spring weekend in the
three and a half month semester.
QUESTION: WHY? Where do we go from
here? Aren't 27,000 enough? No, not
quite, replies the faceless bureaucracy to
the faceless student; there are millions
outside waiting to be educated.
Be practical; we retort, think of the in-
dividual for a change.
The greatest good for the greatest num-
ber, they quote from somewhere.
WE CAN'T DISAGREE. In fact, we want
to extend this concept one step fur-
ther. First of all we abolish weekends.
Why stop here? Everybody wastes time
every day . . . how about night classes,

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