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. 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