lt iat Ball
Seventy-Third Yewr
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSrrY or MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
Truth Will Prevail"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in at; reprints.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: EDWARD HERSTEIN
Seeking a Liberal Education:
A Lost Crusade?
HOSE WHO WILL SEEK a liberal edu-
cation are unfortunately a dying spe-
cies of American man. Hopefully, enough
of the rest of the race will realize its es-
sential kinship with that species and join
with it to remake society.
It's not simply that "it's getting darn
hard to get a liberal education ...any
more." The prospects are extremely dim
of it ever becoming possible to get a lib-
eral education - that indefinable at-
homeness with the whole rich scope of
the human endeavor. It's necessary today
to hold on for dear life to the few oppor-
tunities which the University and society
still allow one to make for oneself.
And there are fewer and fewer today
who do hold on. The great majority have
given up. They may escape into anti-n-
tellectualism -or into over-intellectualism,
but all have yielded to the intense pres-
sures just to learn one thing well and
then let it support them for the rest of
their lives.
Those that still hold on are the peo-
ple that have not yet found a niche in
life, and probably never will, and would
be worthless if they ever did. This is not
-to say that they are lost and undefined
blobs; they simply refuse to be categor-
ized, classified, compressed into neat little
units whose limbs are a kind of key that
will operate only one machine in a row
of thousands of other machines.
NOR ARE THEY retarded children at-
tempting to rationalize their inabil-
ity or lack of desire to learn something
behind a pose of broadmindedness and
noncommitment. They know a great deal
about a great many things-and what
they know they understand, and with a
sensitivity that is neither born nor nur-
tured in today's university of specializa-
tion and "distribution requirements" or
in today's society of overdeveloped tech-
nology and underdeveloped minds.
A true individual begins and grows
only through dialogue with other minds
and through an unflinching awareness of
his own mind. He grows from the fertili-
zation of independence and curiosity, of
sensitivity and frankness, of intimacy
and introspection.
That such conditions exist for the un-
dergraduate outside his field of concen-
In Perspective
SEVERAL DISTURBING events took
place this week on the Diag. It start-
ed a week ago Friday when the annual
mob of Mlchigamua red Indians held the
spotlight. The climax occurred Friday
when a rock and roll band, in full swing,
took over the central campus for two
hours.
Roudy honorary fraternity initiations
and enthusiasm-generating bands have a
place on the University campus. But that
place is not the Diag, not within earshot
of the two libraries and the majority of
the University class buildings.
These organizations do not have the
right to annoy large numbers of students
and instructors. Library study and classes
have precedent over undergraduate in-
sanities.
WHEN SUCH OCCURRENCES are al-
owed to hamper extensively the edu-
cation process at the University, the ques-
tion of University perspective arises. It
would seem the University prefers its
students to frugue, be splattered with
brick dust or watch these odd events
rather than participate in the education-
al process-the basic reason for the Uni-
versity's existence.
The proper place for these events is
away from the central campus area, per-
haps on the athletic fields. They should
not be held on the Diag again.
-JOHN KENNY
Acting Assistant Managing Editor
Acting Editorial Staff
H. NEIL BERKSON..................Editor
KENNETH WINTER ................ Managing Editor
EDWARD HERSTEIN...........Editorial Director
ANN GWIRTZMAN............. Personnel Director
tration-or even in it-is open to grave
doubts. For those who do not find it in
courses but will not give up the search,
this state of mind must be sought out
alone or, hopefully, in the company of the
few others who also have decided not to
fit themselves into the many niches that
society and the university offer at such
little initial cost.
For these people the university is only
a framework, a backdrop. The real drama
is played out, as was stated in this col-
umn Sunday, in "bull sessions, participa-
tion in student organizations, picket lines
and sports, individual reading and just
sitting back and thinking."
THESE PEOPLE are the remnants of a
time when such activities were not the
only way to become educated. Just where
the chronological dividing line falls is
hard to say, but before 1900, or 1750, per-
haps only way back in the time of the
Greeks, one could make a liberal educa-
tion for oneself out of the courses a uni-
versity offered. Of course, if a broad
mind could be born at a university, only
a few would have the leisure during the
rest of their lives to use and feed it. Sup-
posedly, technology frees us for the pur-
suit of this goal, but in actual practice a
man rarely grows out of the shell into
which he was forced in order to obtain
enough skill so that he would have leis-
ure in the first place.
And so some simply, and with all their
energies, refuse to be put in a shell at
all. To those who have already been ac-
culturated, who think they believe all
the bunk about being specialized, the rest
seem to be escapists, wishy-washy mis-
fits who are continually deluding them-
selves. There is some truth in this: they
are definitely seeking escape. But they
have something to escape to.
Those who will not give up the search
are at another disadvantage: they are
conservatives in the true sense of the
word. They are trying to preserve some-
thing that no one else seems concerned
about. They are almost yearning for the
good old days.
ALMOST. The good old days doesn't
mean everyone for himself and the
most brutal, the most cunning take all.
If the past had no machines to enslave
man, it also had no machines to free
him. (The present has mainly machines
to enslave man, but at least it has ma-
chines and therefore the potential to
free him.) If individualism was the most
important feature of the past, there was
also far less enlightenment about the
possibilities of harnessing resources and
ideas to help the majority of the popula-
tion to be economically and spiritually
better off. If the past didn't have univer-
sities of 28,000 and didn't have to try to
enforce a liberal education, there was al-
so less understanding of the world for a
man to attain.
No, it is not just a return to the pas-
toral past for which a few people today
still hold out. Nor is it something as easy
as doing away with distribution require-
ments. It is something bordering on a
wholesale reshaping of social priorities.
The only unfortunate thing is that so
few people today still envision such a re-
shaping. Those who do are not alone, but
they often must be content with practic-
ing their precious individualism, inde-
pendence and discontent apart from the
rest of society. There seems little hope
that the roller coaster on which we are
all riding down a precipitous slope can be
brought to a halt and tediously dragged
back up the incline. Such is the nature of
a burgeoning technology and an acceler-
ating specialization.
AND SUCH IS the nature of the few
who still hold out, that what they have
or search for the rest of society cannot
do without. Cannot, that is, if man is to
remain man, if he is not to harden into a
standardized cog whirling around in a
gigantic machine that simply keeps it-
self going and never moves anywhere.
Cannot, that is, if there is anything of
value in fulfillment for the individual.
This is why the species is dying, and
why it is so immeasurably important. If
it is not to die off, that species will have
"As A Lawyer, I'd Be Glad To Help You
Make Out A Will"
a
Cc LhvAT [
CA s AC
J 4
YOUNG DEMOCRATS:
Convention PointsrU
Rising Political Trend
By ROBERT SELWA
FEW DELEGATES at the Michi-
gan Young Democrats conven-
tion last weekend realized it, but
the convention gave a push to a
ball that has already started roll-
ing and that affects the future of
the American party system.
What is involved is seating of
delegates at the Democratic Na-
tional Convention this summer.
The most significant resolution
passed at the MYD convention
dealt with this. The background:
A move has begun in Mississippi
this year to fight the seating of
that state's regular Dixiecrat dele-
gation to the Democratic National
convention. They would be replac-
ed by Freedom Party delegates-
leaders of a civil rights party or-
ganized last year.
Mississippi's regular Democratic
Party is right-wing, segregationist
and oppressive. It cast its elec-
toral votes for Dixiecrat candi-
dates in three of the last four
Presidential elections instead of
for Harry Truman, Adlai Steven-
son and John Kennedy. A similar
action is being developed for this
year, even with Lyndon Johnson
in the White House. In addition,
Mississippi Democratic state legis-
lators have been working on "elec-
tion reform" bills which would
put the Republican Party out of
commission in that state.
THE MYD Resolutions Commit-
tee voted 16-1 to oppose seating of
the Dixiecrat Democrats and to
favor seating of the Freedom
Party delegation. The one dis-
senting vote came from a person
who urged working through reg-
ular party channels.
The great significance of the
Freedomdelegationandits MYD
support is the possibility it offers
for re-alignment of the Democratic
Party. In the North the party is
strong on civil rights; in the
South it supports segregation. The
Republican Party, which has been
weak and almost nonexistent in
the South ever since Reconstruc-
tion, has not capitalized on civil
rights in Mississippi and other
Deep South states. The Republi-
cans of Dixie have been segrega-
tionist like the regular Democrats.
AS A RESULT, civil rights
forces have had to go it on their
own. In Mississippi they have had
to organize the Freedom party.
The party is unofficial but is a
focus of inspiration and effort. In
the 1963 gubernatorial race the
party collected 80,000 unofficial
votes in an election process that
the party set up and conducted it-
self.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Observing the Rites of Spring
The combined vote of the Free-
dom Party and the Republican
Party was greater than the vote
of the regular Democrats. The
regular Democrats ran Paul John-
son who made a point of "out-
segregating" his opponents. His
was a plurality, but if his op-
ponents could have all had the
franchise and could have united,
he would have lost.
HENCE the potential seems to
be there for a coalition of moder-
ates and liberals reflecting a ma-
jority or' a near-majority and
fighting its way to eventual vic-
tory. The importance of seating
Freedom Party delegates at the
Democratic National Convention is
that the potential for a coalition
will become a possibility that can
be realized. The importance of the
MYD resolution is that it en-
courages and strengthens the move
to replace Dixiecrats with civil
rightists in the Democratic Party.
The resolution, argued vigorously
and passed overwhelmingly, could
represent the first official outcry
in what could swell to be a chorus.
It will need follow-up, however,
within the YD's and in such de-
vices asstudent letters to Sen.
Pat McNamara, the head of the
Michigan delegation at the Demo-
cratic National Convention. If it
is followed up, the future of the
Democratic Party and of the civil
rights movement will be enlarged.
For the movement will be able to
link with the party, and the party
will be able to become a more
unified agency for social reform.
The possibilities are yet unrealiz-
ed, but the potentialities are now
developing.
Maximizing
.Pro fits
CORPORATIONS may not have
souls but they sometimes seem
to have a sense of humor.
In 1957 there was a conference
at Redstone Arsenal to discuss a
rising volume of complaint about
Western Electric's missile profits.
Its vice-president, Fred Lack,
pleaded "that Western is regu-
lated by the Public Utility Com-
mission (sic), who constantly look
over their shoulders. If the gov-
ernment profits were reduced, the
commission might suggest that
telephone profits' be reduced."
We had to go on paying more
for missiles so we could go on
being charged more for telephone
calls.
-I. F. Stone's Weekly
To the Editor:
WELL, IT'S spring again and
the young bucks of Michi-
ganua Sphinx, Vulcans-and var-
ious other denominations-have
run about doing their vicarious
best to get brick dust all over
themselves, other younger bucks,
the campus, spectators and so on.
Were it not for some more ser-
ious aspects of these fertility
rites, the entire affair might be
no more serious than a kindergar-
ten fingerpaint frolic.
* * *
EACH YEAR to demonstrate
for all and sundry their virility
and/or lack of concern for the
niceties of democratic practice,
these groups initiate a specific
number of young bucks into the
subtle mysteries of their clande-
stine pasts in the following way.
First, the tribal witchdoctor,
skilled in the use of paper and
ink, bat's-eyes and what have you,
reads through the lists of persons
who hold leadership or secondary-
leadership positions in various
campus organizations. He rules
out the persons who are obviously
female.
The young bucks are then dis-
cussed and selected by the group
as being likely targets for a paint-
in.
* * * .
THEN TAPPING occurs. This
involves: 1) Taking the person
tapped out of the apartment, Uni-
versity residence, lavatory or tree
in which he happens to be se-
creted at the time; 2) Stripping
his clothes off; and 3) Pouring
water, brick dust and what have
you all over him; with 4) the
group doing its level best to scare
off any evil spirts (non-liquid)
that happen to be lurking about.
Then the person tapped is told
he is.honored.
The victim is encouraged to
struggle (as at the Michigamua
initiation where he is called a
"squaw" if he doesn't fight back;
sound like elementary school?),
but, supposedly, not to the point
where his shyness discourages his
more aggressive counterparts. A
sort of enlightened passivity
seems to order, since such organ-
izations seem to bristle with the
more athletic scholars.
Finally the tribe goes scamper-
ing off for more fun.
* * * ..
OF COURSE, youthful spirits
being what they are, the entire
atmosphere is not one which is
conducive to an inorinate amount
of sobriety. And accidents will
happen. This year one of the
buckier older bucks (these can be
differentiated from the others by
the fact that they have the brick
dust on before they go running
about town) injured his arm
while jumping from the tapping
truck.
More serious injury might occur
-one loyal son of dear old what-
everitis-might have his academic
career interupted or his life ruin-
ed due to an injury resulting in a
permanent disability.
THE DAY after tapping, the
entire tribe parades their initiates
out onto the diag for more brick
dusting and mild sadism.
Despite the fact that a clear
SGC regulation to the contrary
exists, public areas in and around
the diag are still covered with
brick dust, remain trampled, etc.,
several days after the procedures.
In addition to the vandalistic
nature of the whole syndrome, the
noise and hullabaloo which inter-
upts early afternoon classes is
an obvious affront to any lec-
turer who has the audacity to
teach a class while this indispen-
sable activity goes on.
* * *
T H E DURABILITY of the
Michigamua - Sphinx - infantilist
tradition owes, in part, to the
fact that many of the larger mug-
wumps around the University, as
former members of these groups,
smile beneficently in their direc-
tion.
Yet-if indeed this attitude is
descriptive of the University-why
the cries of alarm (dismay?) when
a group of students try to have
the 'M'-seal for their very own?
Why cries of alarm at those less
elitistic and more heterosexual
practices-the panty raids? Is the
University hypocritical-or does it
realize that students, within the
framework of the panty raid, may
eventually turn upon the source
of many of their frustrations, the
bureaucracy?
In any case, the University has
a choice to make: either it elim-
inates the more obviously danger-
ous aspects of tapping and regu-
lates the extent to which these
activities compromise the aca-
demic atmosphere in adjacent
lecture halls; or it, like the pros-
pective buck, continues to present
its ruddy round bottom for all to
see.
-Stephen Berkowitz, '65
Picture Errors
To the Editor:
THE PICTURE on page 6 of the
April 22 Daily, titlled "Hyman
Rickover," was in fact a picture
of John Marshall Harlan, associate
justice of the United States Su-
preme Court. Several weeks ago,
an article on the Michigan Su-
preme Court's decision on state
apportionment was accompanied
by a picture of Judge Talbot
Smith. Judge Smith formerly sat
on the Michigan Supreme Court,
but he has been a United States
District Judge for some time now.
Judge Otis Smith is presently a
member of the Michigan Supreme
Court.
-Jerold Israel
Professor of Law
World's Fair
To the Editor:
KAREN KENAH'S editorial "At
the Fair" which appeared in
the April 23 Daily chose to discuss
the question from the point of
view of the fair and its intentions,
hopes and aspirations. As usual
there are two sides to a coin, and
I should like to look at it from
the other side. Even on Miss
Kenah's own grounds, however,
'GORKY':
Psyching
Out
THE RUSSIAN Club and the
psychology department w i ll
jointly sponsor a showing of the
films "The Childhood of Maxim
Gorky" Wednesday night at 7:30
in the Natural Science Aud.
I am accustomed to reviewing
movies for The Daily on the basis
of their artistic merits. Unfortun-
ately, this film has little to rec-
comend itself along these lines. It
is not an egregiously bad film, but
there is no artistic justification
for dredging it out of the Russian
archives.
a a .-
THE FILM does have some in-
terest for psychology students.
Erik Erikson devoted considerable
space in his noted study "Child-
hood and Society" to an analysis
of the Russian character. For his
text, he used this film, which he
analyzed in great detail. "Child-
hood and Society" is used in sev-
eral psychology courses in the
University-hence, the co-spon-
sorship of the film by that depart-
ment.
Frankly, I am only superficially
acquainted with Erikson's book
and do not feel the least bit qual-
ified to discuss the merits of his
thesis. Nor do I feel it necessary
or appropriate to pontificate at
great length upon the film's artis-
tic short-comings.
All of which raises the problem
of filling the space allotted me on
this page. I should never have re-
viewed this movie in the f i r s t
place, but I did, and here I am.
THE INTEREST of this film is
limited to a specific sphere of
academic study. Unfortunately, I
stand outside that sphere. If you
stand within it-that is, if you
are acquainted with Erikson's book
and are curious to see his source
material, then see the movie. If,
however, you stand outside it,
then by all means stay home.
-Sam Walker
it can be argued that civil rights
demonstrations, far from being
out of place at the World's Fair,
are a fitting complement to the
effect of achievement she claims
the fair is meant to provide, in
that they exhibit how much re-
mains to be done in an essential
area of human endeavour.
But more pertinently, Negroes
cannot now afford, and should
not be expected, to make studied
analyses and subtle distinctions,
as to the sphere of activity into
which they will take their fight.
They have been patient a long
time. Now, when they realize that
waiting can no longer help them,
even their new militancy and their
determination have not sufficed
to convince the large majority of
human beings.
As a result, senators can still
feel justified to filibuster over a
watered-down civil rights bill, and
large numbers of other American
citizens can still stop to insist that
this favor that Negroes are asking
be asked in a way, and at the
times and places most convenient
and least embarrassing for whites.
** *
WHETHER the taking of their
demonstrations and resistance
will spoil the fair, must, under
the circumstances, be of neg-
ligible importance to American
citizens oppressed by the policy
of exclusion perpetuated by the
system. Ther aim must be to bring
their cause continuously before
America and the world until it
can no longer be denied.
As for the argument advanced
elsewhere, that the intended stall-
in would lose the civil rights
movement many supporters, clear-
ly this applies only to marginal
supporters (who may very well
form a large number) who do not
believe in the cause anyway, and
are just looking for an excuse to
deny their support.
-Dawn Elvis, Grad
Film Festival
To the Editor:
THE BELATED remarks about
the film festival by David
Zimmerman deserve some criti-
cism. He states that Manupelli's
films, and in particular "My May,"
"lack the dramatic sense, the
ideas, to make good short films,"
and continues a little later (in
referencehto "My May"): "To in-
terpret these films, to say some-
thing correct (much less intelli-
gent) about anything beyond bare
technique is impossible."
It may be difficult to say some-
thing correct about "My May" but
it is not impossible. The film is
obscure and the viewer cannot be
certain that his interpretation is
exactly what Manupelli had in
mind when he made the film. but
that is not essential. The film had
structure and ideas. The film had
a beginning, a middle and an
end. The situation was different
at the beginning and the end: the
middle shows how this change
took place.
THE BEGINNING scene was
that of a lovely woman in a white,
Victorian style wedding gown
walking through a sunny woods.
The final scene was that of a
very chic woman in a white sheath
getting into a shiny Cadillac con-
vertible and driving away. The
middle part of the movie is a
series of contrasts between the
characters mentioned in the first
and last scenes. (One might call
it a transition from the initial to
the final state.)
Contrasts such as that at the
end of the first scene when the
woman in the wedding gown must
cross over a fence, the woman con-
tinuing the walk in modern dress;
the woman casting away her
wedding dress thengclothed only
in a bikini; this woman in a bi-
kini and the tatters of the wed-
ding dress; these and others from
a series of contrasts very beauti-
fully and skillfully carried out to'
establish a theme perhaps con-
nected with personal experience
in love, or perhaps with the social
development of woman. They are
all part of a very definite transi-
tion which imply that there was
a "mind behind the camera."
-Denis Donnelly, Grad
FEIFFER
$
I PIPE coMq
ROOM-. I
7ftfrK- I
M~XT COMA'
00ur T!U I
FIwp-g: ourl
TNT' ORXR6.
I
7
(U YG~T COMM'
XII 10~ TH6
WOOJT COME
CUr T1l.&
TAE WORW
H~AM6 5MJ~
TO MC.
W&6 AMCu.
WC06 LS656.
4.,
Tao0 MUCHF Ro
OtJE WM. I
C00AW. I
s.-" TAW TO
60 TO A
Room. we:
THIK 6W
WNtJT Come
OUT TWU
WK cF16-
L'PEP OUT
m C CRXR
4
to
At
)IROPJIJ COWES. W5
HWIOK-1T5 Too IALCF4
OR A SMAU GROUt?
Z6 CAVT DO0 1T
ME~J.
P
W5 G ooLr
WO5 7AW TO
PM5Y2. ~A
AV*%--Nft
0 ll
..,
TH~~-4INKS fACC
AW-Cl -.-
AA
W~ ALSO
VW1.3<fli
rr~*i
me tC6 0
W65TO(-f
i
I
a
I
4.