Seventy-Second Year
EDITED AND" MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
tUNDER 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"
POET ROBERT FROST:
He Takes the Road Less Traveled By
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1962
NIGHT EDITOR: FRED RUSSELL KRAMER
City Council Election Results
Show Dissatisfaction with GOP
By FAITH WEINSTEIN
Editorial Director
IT'S INTERESTING, talking to a
national monument. And Rob-
ert Frost is certainly as much a
national monument as the Lincoln
Memorial or Mount Rushmore.
Frost is 88, quite deaf, and past
his poetic prime. But age has not
altered his vibrant interest in all
life, and all poetry, and it has
not removed his way with a story.
His deafness makes conversa-
tion with him difficult. But con-
versation isn't really necessary. A
simple question, a suggested topic
shouted into his ear, will set him
off on a series of reminiscences,
theories, ,comments on poetry and
poets which will go on indefinitely.
He is never boring, he never loses
his blunt, straightforward charm.
* * *
HE DOESN'T take his sudden
sanctification by the forces of
government, or his picture on the
cover of Life Magazine very ser-
iously. His fame rests extra-
ordinarily lightly on him; unlike
many of the poets of his genera-
tion, he is thoroughly unself-
conscious and completely unpre-
tentious.
"The government is making a
movie of me," he will say, "They're
trying to make me into Nanook of
the North. It's a little unsatisfac-
tory. They always want me to be
farming and walking in the woods
-standing against beeches and
talking to myself."
"I never talk to myself."
* * *
FROST SPEAKS from a world
that is not quite here and today,
and yet he is far from the muddled
mauderings of age. He lives in the
world of his entire experience-
the early years of the century are
as vivid, and clearly as real, to
him as his current lecture tour.
His memory is rich and incred-
ibly detailed. He remembers Ezra
Pound from 1912 London-"he ran
a real she-bang there"-making
and breaking poets, arguing fierzly
with the other poet-rebels, reciting
ANN ARBOR REPUBLICANS are still in full
control of the Ann Arbor City Council after
Monday's election; everybody expected that
they would be. But -the election statistics
should be more than a little upsetting to city
Republicans who have long regarded City
Council as their own private property.
In the first ward, Mrs. Eunice L. Burns, a
Democrat defeated Republican incumbent Mrs.
Gayle D. Flannery; but this isn't any surprise.
The first ward is largely Negro. Mrs. Flannery
hasn't done anything substantive for her con-
stituents. In spite of her position as the City
Council's representative on the Human Rela-
tions Commission, she has opposed a Fair
-Housing Ordinance and cannot be construed
as a strong advocate of direct civil rights
action.
Further, she comes from a district that is
usually Democratic and whose other Council-
man has been the only Democrat on Council
for the last year.
IT IS MORE SIGNIFICANT that Democratic
support is growing in other wards in the city.
Handicap?
BYRON R. WHITE was a Phi Beta Kappa, a'
Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of the Yale
Law School and a clerk to the late Supreme
Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson.
Yet White has an image which overshadows
these intellectual achievements and which
would be favorable in almost any instance
except the one he may find himself in-the
robes of a Supreme Court Justice.
The image of White. is that of a speedy
halfback crashing through the line for five
yards on a muddy field. A sports background
has been an asset to politicians, and even
Presidents are remembered for their interest
in sport. But a Supreme Court justice _is con-
sidered primarily as an intellectual scholar
and a human being secondarily. The only
justice to surmount this image is William O.
Douglas, champion of the great out doors. It
is too early to judge the contribution White
will make to the Court, and whether he will
join the Warren or Frankfurter bloc. But his
qualifications are quite acceptable.
-HARRY PERLSTADT
In the third ward, incumbent Republican Coun-
cilman Robert Meader's victory margin was cut
to 177 votes from his more than 400 vote
margin in 1960. The Republican incumbent,
John R. Laird, of the fifth ward also found
his victory margin trimmed by 50 votes.
Clearly, there is some dissatisfaction. Clearly,
these districts, wealthier than the first, are
not beset by the same racial discontent that
led to victory of the Democrats in Mrs. Burns
victory. In fact, many of these districts ac-
tually oppose the Fair Housing Ordinance. As
one fourth district voter said, "Here in the
fourth ward we're for liberal action all over
the country-except in the fourth ward."
WHAT THEY are protesting, and the real
reason for Democratic gains, is the do-
nothing attitude of the Ann Arbor Republican
Party. Everything from airports to race rela-
tions is treated in the same "wait and see"
light. The unsuccessful Mrs. Flannery said in
her campaign that "The major problems of
Ann Arbor have already been confronted by
the City Council and sound solutions have
been proposed." These sound solutions generally
take the form of studies-of the downtown
area, urban renewal, property purchases and
race relations.
Mrs. Flannery's constituents didn't think
her solutions were so sound. These studies, even
if completed, rarely are implemented. Rarely
do they ever confront problems directly and
.many of the major problems are overlooked.
THE COUNCIL squeals like a stuck pig when-
ever it is faced with further University
purchases of city land but does nothing. Little
consideration ha been given to the conse-
quences of Ann Arbor's eventual absorption
into the 'Detroit urban complex; the down-
town area has degenerated into a second rate
shopping center offering little or nothing to
consumers; and Ann Arbor is increasingly
degenerating as slums spread.
A static attitude will not solve these very
real problems. If the Democrats ever surge
in Ann Arbor-as they did in 1956-it will be
because the Republicans have failed to meet
the need of a growing city.
-DAVID MARCUS
KATHERINE VOGT
MICHIGAN'S TAX PROBLEMS:
State Income Locked
In the wrong Drawers
By FRED RUSSELL KRAMER
Daily Staff Writer
(Second in a Series)
MICHIGAN has plenty of money.
This year, Gov. John B.
Swainson's budget plans on taking
in $1.2 million. The problem is
that funds have to be channeled
into areas where they often aren't
needed.
The result has been that the
state sometimes can't pay its com-
mitments, a situation it found it-
self in during the "payless payday"
of 1959.
* * *
THI DEFICIT invariably comes
in the general fund of the budget
-the part which is left over when
"earmarked" money not under
control of the Legislature has been
siphoned off.
The general fund this year has
$478 million,' but if there is a
deficit here, the earmarked funds
can't be used for relief. This is the
nub of Michigan's periodic finan-
cial crises.
The general fund comes from
various sources:
" 43 per cent from sales and use
taxes.
0 16 per cent from the business
activities tax.
S13 per-cent from corporation
franchise taxes.
0 18 per cent from liquor and
cigarette taxes.
0 10 per cent from other taxes
and revenues, including a substan-
tial sum from fishing and hunt-
ing licenses.
The money is spent for a va-
riety of state-wide services and
debt repayment. One-quarter goes
to education, and half is return-
ed to local governments.
** *
BUT there is a lot of money in
the coffers. The overall budget
shows a surplus of $35 million.
But within this budget is the gen-
eral fund, which will be in the red
by $96 million by the end of June.
The budget provides $64 million
for capital outlay. Under this fig-
ure, $54 million must be spent on
highway construction. The re-
mainder is used for construction of
new classrooms, hospitals and of-
fices.
The state is hampered by con-
stitutional limitations which ear-
lier legislators pushed through un-
der political pressures.
Among them is a 15 mill limit on
property taxes persdollar of real
estate value. Also, state indebted-
ness is limited to $250,000 except
for emergencies such as invasions
by a foreign power, or military aid
to the federal government.
AS A RESULT of such constric-
tion, general fund crises can only
be solved by Juggling the appro-
priations and taxes.
Obviously, a $96 million deficit
can't be managed with a $250,000
debt limit. So the constitution is
partly responsible for the fact that
the Legislature often resorts to
stopgap taxation or appropriation
cutbacks to solve a financial cris-
is. A more flexible debt limit would
mean a more stable and equitable
tax structure.
But earmarking is often due to
more recent legislators. They
yielded to local pressure and lock-
ed up large sums in specific treas-
ure chests. So, at present, over
two-thirds of that $1.2 million in
Gov. Swainson's budget is ear-
marked.
* * *
BESIDES THIS, legislators
haven't applied the state consti-
tutional rule that taxes must take
an equal percentage of each citi-
zen's financial worth. The only
part of personal property not tax-
ed is automobiles. (Apparently an-
other concession to a strong lobby
in Lansing.)
Besides such inequities in tax
base, almost all the state's taxes.
are highly regressive. People in
lower income groups pay between
12 and 20 per cent of their incomes
to the state, while the highest in-
come groups pay only five to seven
per cent.
* -.*
THE BIGGEST THING wrong,
however, is not the inequity of the
existing tax structure, but the
probability of the addition of fu-
ture inequities by partisan legisla-
tors letting political pressures over-
come the true interests of the peo-
ple of Michigan.
This is basically why Michigan's
tax climate is unhealthy. It isn't
the high corporate income tax
which keeps industry away, but
fear of an inequitable tax being
passed with littleswarning to solve
a short-range cash crisis.
Thus, the system is unfair, and
can't meet the growing demand
for services in a growing state. If
Michigan is ever to have- a favor-
able financial climate, free of cris-
es and elastic enough to grow with
the state ,a completely new tax
structure must be created.
TOMORROW-Proposed Solutions
to the Tax Crisis
his poems aloud in crowded res-
taurants.
"I remember once, when Ezra
decided he would teach me jiu-
jitsu," he recalled. "We were in
the middle of a restaurant, with
people all around. He suddenly put
his knee in my stomach and threw
me over his back. But it did it
gently-he was just showing me
and he came down with me. I
learned a lot of jiu-jitsu from
him."
But in spite of Pound's eccen-
tricities, Frost has admired him.
He says, "If he can write, he can
write, and nothing else matters."
HE REMEMBERS Amy Lowell,
as well, but chiefly from her
later days. She once came to Ann
Arbor on a lecture tour when
Frost was 'poet-in-residence at the
University. "She insisted on stay-
ing in Detroit, because she had
to have all night service," Frost
says.
"I went in to see her and there
were feathers all over the room.
She had been tearing up the pil-
lows and stuffing one into the
other. Thehpillows weren't fat
enough for her."
Later, just before the Ann Ar-
bor reading, Miss Lowell decided
she wanted something. Shepoint-
ed to a person in the group around
her and said imperiously "Boy!"
Frost took her aside and explained
to her that the "boy" was an
older student, head of the society
which was sponsoring her read-
ing, and a good writer in his own
right.
She went up to him a quite
contrite, Frost says. " I'm sorry
I called you "boy"' she said. 'You
can call me girl.'"
FROM HIS OWN recollections,
it is clear that Frost was never
cut out for the bohemian life cf
these young poets who were so
determined not to be Victorian.
"They were a party," he says,
"I've never belonged to any party."
And so, after a few hectic weeks,
he moved out to the country.
"I'm not a bohemian anyway."
And in spite of the efforts of
John Ciardi and others to fit him
into English-American symbolist
tradition, he never has belonged
to any party. In an era of re-
bellion, bitterness and artifice in
poetry he has remained secure,
essentially happy with life and
devoted to the things of th earth.
At a time when poets seem to
spend most of their time in in-
tense self-consciousness, inspect-
ing the detailed convolutions of
their own minds and styles, Frost
is able to advise the young poet
to "Write. Bedifferent. Don't try
out your, work too suddenly on
others."
* * *
FROST SEEMS to have walked
the sane balance between the ex-
cesses of his age. He dislikes free
verse-he told some of his pupils
once that "writing free verse is
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-SPRING RECESS
The student automobile, regulations
will be lifted at 5:00 P.M. Fri~, April 6,
and will be resumed again at 8:00 A.M.
on Mon., Aprii 16. office of the Dean
of Men.
(Continued on Page 5)
-Daly-Ed Lange
Robert Frost
like playing tennis with the net
down." He uses short lines and
tight rhymes and likes the couplet
form best. These disciplined forms
come most naturally to him. "I
never fuss a poem into existence"
he says, "If it doesn't go, I drop
A poet in an age of symbolism
and deliberate obscurity, Frost has
maintained the courage of his
clarity. He has written his own
poetry in his own way; he has
lived his life without bitterness.
AS A POET, as in his poetry, he
has taken the road:'
less traveled by
And that hasrmade all the differ-
ence."
TODAY AND TOMORROW
where Are' We Today?
By WALTER LIPPMANN
LOOKING BACK, it can be said, I think, that
in the first round at Geneva, which ended
last week when the three foreign ministers
went home, all was accomplished by diplomacy
that diplomacy could accomplish. There was a
recognition on both sides that the existing bal-
ance of forces prevents them from making war
and from making peace. Neither side is strong
enough to impose its own terms on the other,
and there is no compromise in sight which
both sides can afford to sign. Both the Soviet
Union and the Western powers are living in a
military stalemate in Geremany and in a poli-
tical standstill.
FROM OUR point of view the situation has
improved during the past year. The big dif-
ference is that as late as last June, when the
President saw Chairman Khrushchev in Vien-
na, the crisis in Berlin had a time limit, in the
nature of an ultimatum. Unless by the end of
1961 the West agreed to the Soviet proposals
for West Berlin and East Germany, Mr.
Khrushchev would sign a separate treaty with
East Germany, and then we would be faced
with the ugly task of dealing with Herr Ul-
bricht about access to West Berlin.
The threat was withdrawn during the Rusk-
Gromyko conversations in September. There
were, I think, two reasons.
One is that the President had convinced Mr.
Khrushchev that he would retaliate if Mr. Ul-
bricht interfered with access and that, there-
fore, the Soviet Union could not divest itself of
the risks in Berlin by signing a separate treaty.
In fact, it would merely place its most vital in-
terests in Mr. Ulbricht's hanids.
The other reason is that by building the wall
Mr. K., although it cost him dearly in the
propaganda contest, reduced drastically the
threat of West Berlin to the East' German
satellite. It ceased to be an escape hatch, it
ceased to be a show window, and it has become '
a much less efficient place for intelligence work
and political operations.
THE NET RESULT is that for the time being
the status quo in West Berlin is one that
both sides can live with. But not forever, and
almost certainly not for very long. West Berlin
remains, as Gen. Eisenhower once called it,
"abnormal." It is surrounded by the East Ger-
man Communists who have the power to make
life very difficult indeed' for the inhabitants.
The best proof of this is that the West Ger-
mans and the people of West Berlin require
constant public assurance that we are still
more brothers, and that leaves him with three
brothers-in-law and a wife. Gen. Clay cannot
spend the rest of his life in West Berlin.
Sooner or later, the freedom of West Berlin
will have to be guaranteed in an international
covenant which makes it an international city
under the specific protection of the great
powers, the general protection of the NATO
and the Warsaw alliance, and of the United
Nations.
But that eventual solution, although both
sides know that it is coming, cannot now be
spelled out in a treaty which everyone con-
cerned with Germany could sign. The Soviet
government cannot sign a paper which recog-
nizes that West, Berlin and the corridors to it
are not under the sovereignty of the East Ger-
man state. And we cannot sign a paper which
says in black and white that there are two
German states.
All that both sides can now do is what they
appear to have done, which is to deflate the
Berlin crisis without reaching a Berlin settle-
ment.
IT HAS LONG been clear that no general dis-
armament policy can be negotiated unless
and until there is a settlement of the German
question. Neither side dares to disarm while
there is an unresolved vital conflict that could
lead to a world war. At the most, there may be
possible some pacifying, agreements on the
fringes between the NATO and Warsaw alli-
ances, an agreement about outer space, a tacit
agreement about spheres of influence in South-
east Asia built around the neutralization of
Laos.
As for nuclear testing, it has been evident for
at least a year that there could be no agreement
because both sides want to make more tests-
the Soviet Union because they are behind us in
the nuclear art, wy because we want to stay
ahead of them. There is, as the papers have
been saying in the past few days, some reason
to hope that the time may not be too far off
when both sides feel that they have learned
about all that can be learned from testing in
the atmosphere.
The general situation-no war, no peace-is
tolerable but uncomfortable. It is very messy
for anyone who insists that things should be
black or white. It is nerve-wracking. And yet,
considering that the struggle we are engaged
in is the mightiest which has appeared in the
modern centuries, our own position is suffi-
ciently good that, while we must be wary, we
are entitled to be confident.
GILBERT & SULLIVAN:
'Patience' Erratic
But Effective.
THE. GILBERT & SULLIVAN SOCIETY'S production of Patience"
was generally charming-and only slightly marred by the fact that
none of the male leads could sing.
"Patience" was a good choice for the company. It is an extremely
clever spoof of the Aesthetic Movement, with some of the best lines
and funniest songs in Gilbert and Sullivan.
Too frequently, however, the lines had to be funny in spite of the
actors. Although well directed by Roger Staples, clever blocking couldn't
hide the fact that the bevy of Imaidens were less than sprightly and in-
frequently more than wooden.
* * **
LAVETTA LOYD is an effective Patience, with a lovely voice and a
tolerable manner. Archibald Grosvenor, played by Dick Hazzard, is a
fine figure of a man-it is unfortunate that he can barel act, and sings
with what seems to be a built-in mute.
The undisputed stars of the show were Tom Jennings as Reginald
Bunthorne, and Dana Krueger as the Lady Jane.
Jennings was expected to be good-he has been G&Sing for as long
as I can rememiber, and hasn't been seen in a minor role since the last
time he played in "Patience." He gave an unusal rendition of Bun-
thorne-very tense, very fast with a liberal sprinkling of Major-General
Stanley. He is very funny, but not precisely my idea of Bunthorne.
Dana Krueger, however, is the perfect Lady Jane. She has a fine
contralto voice, and plenty of bounce to back it up-her every entrance
brings life to the sometimes dull stage. She is the only maiden who
corpulently over her cello, never overplaying or losing her part.
come. She flounces hilariously around the stage after Bunthorne; sighs
corpulently over the her'cello, never overplaying or losing her part.
THE FUNNIEST SCENE in the play is the patter song "So Go to
Him and Say to Him" between Bunthorne and Lady Jane. They sing,
they dance, they make funny faces at each other, and the result is
marvelous.
The Dragoon- Guards are the typical G&S chorus, better directed
than usual and quite competent. In the first couple of marching
sequences they are beautifully out-of-step, which is very funny, whether
or not it is deliberate.
Musical Director Felix Pappalardi does a nice job with the music-
the orchestra is better than usual, and the choruses sound very good.,
-Faith Weinstein
AT RACKHAM:
Faculty Quality High
I Modern Concert
THE MUSIC SCHOOL'S Contemporary Music Festival closed last
night with a varied and interesting faculty concert.
First, it should be remarked that the quality of performance was
uniformly high; it would be very difficult to single out individual per-
formers for special notice.
Opening the program was Elliott Carter's "Sonata" (1952) for
harpsichord, flute, oboe, and 'cello, played by Bruce Wise, Nelson Hauen-
stein; Florian Mueller, and Jerome Jelinek. The work achieves a sur-
prising flexibility and color in the harpsichord part, and keeps a con-
stant interest through contrasting the harpsichord with the other
instruments. Additional color comes from the contrast between the lone
string instrument and the woodwinds.
WITH A SHARP SWITCH, the program turned to Michael Col-
grass's "Variations for Four Drums and Viola" (1957), performed by
violist Robert Courte and James Salmon. Here against contrast of sonor-
ities provided a good deal of interest, and rhythmic and melodic elements
helped. Nevertheless, the work seemed to go on too long for its own
good; certainly the audience failed to recognize the theme by the fifth
or sixth variation.
After the unaccustomed sounds of the Colgrass work, the Walling-
ford Riegger "Concerto for Piano and Wind Quintet" (1953), with its
more conventional instrumentation, lightened the atmosphere. Per-
formed by Wallace Berry and the University Woodwind Quintet, the
Concerto proved a highly diverting, very personal work, using elements
of twelve-tone composition and many contrapuntal devices.
AFTER INTERMISSION came the "Fantasy for Violin and Piano"
(1955-56) by George Wilson, a composer on the staff of the music school,
and Hindemith's third piano sonata (1936). The Fantasy, played by
A Toast To The New 'Algeria
-IolI