Seventy-Second Year
4 EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 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 all reprints.
NEW APPROACHES:
Languages: U.S. Education Gap
Y. FEBRUARY 16, 1962
NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAML HARRAH
Community Center Fight:
Gradualists vs. Activists,
)BODY KNOWS why Walter Hill was fired
as executive director of the Ann Arbor
imunity Center. The board of directors
stuck to its refusal to make public any
:ific reasons for his dismissal. But it
sme clear at the center's annual meeting
inesday night that Hill's firing has crys-
zed a long-standing controversy in the
Arbor Negro community over the proper
oach to civil rights.
he community center is, and has been, the
al focal point of the Negro community.
n though the center is a social organization,
views of its directors , on race relations
of great importance. The center is one
he most important contacts between the
;e and Negro communities.
he executive director co'ies into direct
.act with Ann Arbor's community leaders.
many white Ann Arbor citizens, the com-
dty center represents the city's Negro
ilation, and the director symbolizes the
rations of the Negro community.
EIAT ANN ARBOR Negroes want is quite
simple: full status in the community. For
s, the center has represented a gradualist
oach to race relations. The late Douglas
iams, who ran the center for over 20
s, was a moderate. Although he favored
housing legislation and fair employment
rams, he moved slowly to avoid animosi-
He believed in a program of "education,"
rg steps only after a long process of pre-
ng the white community for change.
hen Hill came into office barely six months
community leaders realized that he rep-
nted a much. more militant approach to
problem. He backed the National Asso-
on for the Advancement of Colored People's
rams for legal action. He also planned to
expand the center's activities, including a
program to aid Negro youths to prepare for
better jobs.
C LEARLY the NAACP has the backing of the
Negro community. Three "protest" candi-
dates were nominated from the floor and
elected overwhelmingly through the influencN
of tle NAACP. Clearly, this also indicates that,
Ann Arbor Negroes are sick of "Uncle-Tomism"
and are asserting that they intend to run
their own affairs instead of existing by the
paternalistic grace of the white community.
Negroes are becoming more and more aware
of this. Gradualism and education have failed
to produce action. The NAACP is a compara-
tively conservative group when one considers
the actions being taken in the South today by
groups like CORE. But the Ann Arbor NAACP
does realize; at least tacitly, that equality can-
not be achieved without creating animosity.,
WHITE ANN ARBORITES, and especially
their politicians, take great pleasure in
mouthing equalitarian ideals; but objectively
they have done very little to live up to them.
Ann Arbor housing is still segregated. Fair
employment practices among businessmen are,
practically non-existent.
Negroes want these rights, they want equal
status. How can gradualism give them equal
status when it depends on the good will of
those who are exploiting them?
The, newboard of directors will probably,
retain Hill. This will serve notice to the
white community that a new era in race rela-
tions has come to Ann Arbor. The Negroes'
goal is no longer to placate the whites in
hope of being granted' concessions. Instead,
it will be a more militant approach, an 'ap-
proach of asserting rather than begging.
-DAVID MARCUS
By JUDITH OPPENHEIM
Daily Staff Writer
THE IMPORTANCE of language
study is not simply a fact, but
a well-recognized fact which has
been the subject of great concern
to American educators for several
years.
While students of other coun-
tries, notably the Soviet Union,
are often fluent in two or three
languages other thandtheir own
by the time they graduate from
high school, American students as
a rule are not required to have
more than a two-year proficiency,
in another language before they
graduate from college. Non col-
lege-bound students may go
through life without ever learn-
ing a word of any language but
English.
OPTIMUM FACILITIES for,
foreign language instruction are
seldom found in high schools' out-
side large cities or districts with
consolidated schools and sizeable
enrollments. Big city schools near-
ly always offer instruction in
French, Latin, Spanish and some-
times German or Russian begin-
ning with the ninth grade or
sometimes a year or two earlier.
But in smaller districts where
there is a shortage of funds, a
small student body and a lack of
qualified teachers, students are
forced either to forego language
instruction altogether or to study
a mere smattering of grammar
and elementary conversation
taught by a person who has
neither the formal credit nor the
knowledge to conduct a language
class.
In some of the Southern states,
fewer than five per cent of all
high school students are ever ex-
posed to a language and literature
other than their own.
STUDENTS are not always an-
xious to study a foreign language
even if instruction is available.
Language practice is often pictured
as tedious and useless, .particularly
by novelists and' cartoonists por-
traying students laboring in stuffy
classrooms to decline impossible
French verbs or follow, in Latin,
the fortunes of Caesar.
A prevalent attitude that it is
a waste of time to study foreign
languages is part of the general
complacency complex from which
the United States was jolted by
the launching of the first Sputnik,
and from which the country has
since been slowly and painfully
emerging.
* * *
IF THERE IS ever to be a
recovery, it must include the field
of language study, because is is
no longer true that everyone in
the world feels a need to learn
English. Many foreign students
are now turning to Russian and
Chinese for a second language.
Americans who must communicate
with foreign visitors through an
'interpreter are at an increasing
disadvantage.
There is no substitute for a face-
to-face conyersation or for read-
ing an artile or book in the
original language. Translation is
a very poor second and, in a world
which is to be kept intact or
destroyed by some instance of
understanding or misunderstand-
ing at any one of hundreds of
vital spots, there is no room fr
second best understanding.
* *.*
DIRECT COMMUNICATION is
necessary not only at high diplo-
matic levels, but also on the
simplest every day level of con-
versation between students, rela-
tives and friends and even small
children.
Steadily increasing enrollment
of both high' school and college
language departments even after
students have completed require-
ments is proof recognition of the
Tribunal
IT WAS Conservatism that con-
demned McCarthy at last, in
the Senate and then in the coun-,
try. The well-meant exertions of
Liberalism in the end did more
harm than good. For in their un-
derstandable zeal, the Liberals,
wanted to convict McCarthy in
the Senate without a hearing.
The Conservatives were only
barely able to avoid this unfair
action; instead they caused the
appointment of a select commit-
tee which, in full due process,
brought about the censure.
William S. White in Harper's
need for increased foreign lan-
guage study.
The shift in teaching methods
from the tiresome and distaste-
ful memorization of grammatical
rules to early and continuing prac-
tice of conversation is equally en-
couraging.
* * *
STUDENTS beginning German,
Japanese, Chinese, Russian or any
of the romance languages ot the
University spend hours repeating
phrases to learn conversational'
patterns before they are given
any formal instruction in gram-
mar.
Heads of all these departments
report that students seem to gain
a r great deal more from this
method of instruction than from
the "old-fashioned" method and
that their active command of the
language is tremendously increas-
ed by the end of the first year.'
Nevertheless, students who have
gone through the public high
schools and are used to an analy-
tical approach to all studies, in-
cluding English, find it very un-
settling to spend too much time
repeating sounds without a very
clear idea of the formal rules be-
hind the sentences they are prac-
ticing. During the first semester
it becomes difficult to keep them
from becoming uneasy- and frus-
trated or simply bored.
** *
THE ADVANTAGE to this new
"oral-aural" approach to lan-
guage is that it allows a student
to pick up a language just as a
baby picks it up: by imitation and
repetition until he becomes famil-
iar with speech patterns and can
use them unconsciously.
But college freshmen are not
babies and it is not fair to expect
themto be content with this ap-
proach to learning since it con-
tradicts everything they $vere
taught in high school and leaves
them with games where they ex-
pected academic studies. -
This discomfort is certainly
worth enduring if the student
eventually emerges with a greater
grasp of a foreign language.
But, if he were taught a foreign
language by this method early in
elementary school, beginning with
the third or fourth grade or pos-
sibly even earlier, he would find
it an enjoyable, natural and easy
way to learn.
* *, *
IF THIS METHOD were em-
ployed, a student could have up
to ten years of study in one or
more foreign languages before he
graduates from high school, and
there would be no need for colleges
to struggle with elementary
courses except for students who
wishedgto begin a second or third
language.
The University could then re-
quire an eight-semester proficiency
of its students, offer more ad-
vanced and specialized courses
and turn out students really able
to converse and read in their sec-
ond languages. As the situation
stands, a two-year proficiency is.
of little practical value and -is
quickly forgotten unless the stu-
dent makes a deliberate effort
to keep up his reading and won-
versation.
* * *x
LANGUAGE STUDY beginning
in grade school sounds like a pipe
dream when American educators
speak of it wistfully. But in for-
eign countries it is taken for
granted. Preventing institution of
such a program are insufficient
funds and the unwillingness of
certain suspicious politicians to let
the government control the cur-
riculum.j
If funds were available, every
elementary school could offer
language instruction beginning
with the early grades. Schools
should be equipped with language
laboratories, which younger child-
ren consider fun and not an or-
deal as University students do.
*. * * .
WHERE the individual school
district or state cannot afford
such equipment, it should be fur-
nished by the federal government
along with salaries for language
teachers in areas where there is
a shortage. '
The government should offer a
substantial inducement in the
form of scholarships or grants to
students willing to study language
teaching in college and after-
wards teach in areas where they
are needed.
The plan is expensive but not
impossible.. All its execution really
demands is the determination that
something must be done quickly to
keep American students from be-
ing inclosed in an ever-narrowing
vacuum in a world where national
and linguistic ' boundaries are
gradually dissolving and the need
for communication is becoming
greater and greater every day.
Me lodraina
A deqrate
EVERY SO OFTEN a reader ex-
presses his opinion that re-
viewing has again fallen to an
all-time low in immaturity, inanity
and lack of perception.
The problem is complex, and
certainly cannot be solved in one
or two articles devoted to the
subject. Perhaps we do need to
consider one or two points, though
-namely the matter of criteria
and subjective judgment. Take,
for example, the Ann Arbor Civic
Theater's current production:
"Night Must Fall."
FIRST OF ALL, what can we
reasonably expect from a group
of this nature? They are ama-
teurs who produce plays for the
love of it, hoping at the same
time to provide others in the
community with an enjoyable and
entertaining evening. If they pro-
duce plays o literary merit, so
much the better, but do we hiave'
a right to expect this of them?
Taking the play itself first, it
is described as a "classic modern
mystery - melodrama." Classic,
maybe, but melodrama without a
doubt. It has all the tricks of the
melodrama: the stunning curtain
lines, the sting of music, the
startling discovery, the quick cur-
tain and so on.
In the suspense and melodrama
lies the strength of the play-and
also its weakness. There is a thin
line between the breath-taking
and the corny, and this is danger-
ous theatrical ground. Sometimes
the cast managed these moments
with ocnsiderable skill, but other
times they just didn't come off.
After a rather frantic first act,
with most of the characters at-
tempting devious routes arounda
poorly situated sofa, the actors
settled down to build the play
piece by piece-rather than trying
to establish mystery and melo-
drama in 15 minutes.
S . * *
FRANCIS SHIPSTEAD as Mrs.
Bramson began to grasp more of
the dimensions of the role, and
as soon as Ellen O'Brien could be
heard, she too began to fill in a
well-conceived character. The role
of Dan is a difficult one but Steve
Friedman took the wisest' path,
choosing to underplay many scenes
which could easily have become
ludicrous.
Most important, however, there
were a good many gasps from the
audience (in the right places) and
after all, that's what really counts
in this play.
--Richard Burke
,' S
" , ", ..
+ 1 J 1 :
, ; .
Tulp Pulpit
By RICHARD OSTLING, Associate Editorial: Director
KU)
,a
(
E ALL KNOW politics is a funny business.
The new trend is for politics to be the
iness of the funnies. The comic strips in
newspapers are becoming subtle editorial
Ims.
[ilitary strips are reading more and more
manuals on anti-Communism. "Terry and
Pirates" may soon be re-christened "Terry
the Pinkos." Buz Sawyer, Smilin' Jack,
. even Winnie Winkle have had their
,pes with various Red menaces in the last.
months.
he most famous forum is "Little Orphan
ie" Ben Bagdiklan commented recently
"The New Republic." The main political
thpiece in Harold Gray's 37-year-old nar-
ve is Daddy Warbucks, a vague character,
> appears at the depth of Annie's perils
dinner jacket, diamond stickpin and hom-
r, delivers a lecture against high taxes and
welfare state, and then again abandons
.ie while she enters another cycle of star-
on and torture, and he goes off to pur-
se Africa."
ri the liberal bandwagon are Walt Kelly,
Jules Feiffer.'Al Capp and Litchy parody
worst in both wings with Sen. Jack S.
gbound and Sen. Snort.
ne of the more interesting publications
als kind is "We the People," a tricolor tome
states' rights put out last month by the
isiana State ,Sovereignty Commission. 'It
he aim of the state to distribute the comic
rs to high school seniors and juniors, and
each the adult audience in public libraries.
he book attempts to show, in 22 panels, why
egation is Louisiana's business and nobody
,.
EN AN ARDENT FAN of "Peanuts" would
lave to admit that comics are simple. This
hy politidal references in newspaper comic
is don't amount to anything. The comics
>lify ideas; they are simple to read. These
also two reasons why this Southern comic
is interesting.
the first place, anybody who thinks
stitutional law can be, summarized in a
LI comic book obviously doesn't understand
whole business, or is watering it down to
'ort a lame idea. The Southern view on
e independence is certainly reasonable,
it can't be' substatiated quite so con-
ently. (Not that Constitutional issues can't
implified to some extend. Heaven help us
e must read Supreme Court briefs to know
s going on.)
ien there's the other side of it: What
Editorial Staff
JOHN ROBERTS, Editor
ILIP SHERMAN N FAITH WEINSTEIN
City Editor Editorial Director'
sort of education are students getting if the
state uses such methods of propadanda? This
comic books hints that it's the South and
North that are separate but notfequal as far
as education is concerned. It isn't quite on the
Shazam! Zap! "Aaargh" Blam! Zowie! level,
but three-quarters of the words are of one
syllable.
If this is what Louisiana considers proper
reading for high school seniors, we can only
guess what the seventh grade Civics classes
are being fed!
THE STORY in the comic book deals with a
boy starting a neighborhood club and
chatting with Pop about it. At first, the talk
is about what the Constitution says about
reserving powers to the states, but the plot
soon thickens:
Pop: "There are some people who think even
our state owned schools, and a lot of other
things, all ought to be run out of Washington.
Some would even like to control membership
of private groups.."
Bub: "Aw, Pop, Y'mean they could make us
put 01 girls in our club? Not girls!"
Pop: "So far, son, you can pick your own
friends. But some federal judges have ordered
races mixed in schools, whether either wanted
it or not."
This dialogue isn't too misleading (except
that the Southern white is a bit more scared
of Negroes than boys are scared of girls).
BJT SOME' of the statements are downright
inaccurate. Some try to refute the argu-
ment that as long as Negro schools have been
kept separate, they have not been equal: "But
colored people have nice schools. Lots of them
are better than ours ..."
Asked by his son if we haven't got along
pretty well up till now, Pop replies "You bet
we have." But the "we" in mind must be
"we whites," not "we Louisianans."
Then there's Dad's analysis of who's trying to
rock the boat on this integration thing: "Some
of them are, well, just not very practical. Some
are Just trying to get votes, to get more
power. Some, like the Communists, just want
to stir up trouble, to weaken us." The first
statement has some truth in it, if explained,
but the second and third charges' show the
"authors" of this little number don't know
what's going on under their very noses, who
is doing it, or why.
WITH THEIR DISCOURSE completed, Hylas
and Philonous take off to do some fish-
ing. In the last panel, Pop turns to the reader
with forthright eyes and says "if the federal
grabbers for power will just let us work out
our own problems, race relations and a lot
of other things will be happier again."
There's no doubt in my mind that the race
problem has to be solved by Southerners, and
that a lot of Northern activity just causes
resentment and muddies the water. I also
"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Fraternities' Future
in Supporting Values
.#
=s
,
{.
-
,.
To the Editor:
FRATERNAL LIFE lacks much
that should be desired. This
is evident from mere existence of
the murmur that fraternities are
on the way out. It is true that
Communists would promote such
a murmur.: This is because fra-
ternity, like a family, isua close
knit group which promote nigh
ideals. Besides this, fraternities
provide a medium for the under-"
standing of human behavior. This
understanding is essential to free-
dom and peace.
Fraternities are needed more
than ever to show men that at
the core of every human being
there lies a humble self. Frater-
nities are needed to prove to men,
that they can live together honor-
ably as brothers. With brother
helpingsbrother, fraternitiesprove
that it is worth our time and
effort to understand one another.
This understanding comes from
the actual practice of fraternal
life.
If fraternities offer these values
how can a murmur of their fad-
ing out even exist? Fraternities
offer many young men their first
freedom. They are, on the 'whole,
responsible only to the norms
of the fraternity which they
choose themselves. However, new
members naturally find the re-
sponsibility in the hands of the
older members. They also some-
times find older members with
enthusiastic roudiness. These two
factors can sometimes produce a
yelling wild hyena type of in-
dividual who has no :sense of social
responsibility.
THEREFORE, men rushing fra-
ternities should seek those fra-
ternities which have codes of
gentlemanly conduct, not neces-
sarily written but followed. In
this way rushees will create a
greater demand for men of humble
conduct and soon lagging fraterni-
ties will retaliate with an added
supply.
.A second deficient area is
scholastic honesty. Many frater-
nities provide valuable study dis-
cussion groups and supplimentary
materials. These greatly aid under-
standing and retention. However,
other acquirement of University
materials and exams which are
the moral standards of the stu-
dents.
We live in a world groping for
solutions to the complex problems
of non-combatibility and war. The
understanding of people's good
intentions cannot be obtained
through any other means than
close asociation. This understand-
ing can provide the truth; it can
provide the 'basis that would be
the beginning of a worldly solu-
tion. Michigan fraternities, this
is the challenge!
-Robert S. Bristol,'63
Dribble . .
To the Editor:
To THE TUNE of "The Victors"
and the coach's "we'll improve
with every game," it seems as if
each year 'is. merely a going
through the motionsby a;handful
of "representatives" who decor-
ate the Yost Field House basket-
ball court.
It seems most unusual that after
a volley of losses during the span
of the last three campaigns, that
the "Champions of the West" have
only been able to claim, "we'll be
better." TheiUniversityrsages
found a solution two years ago.
They imported a new coach to
revitalize the lackluster proficien-
cy of the basketball team. To date,
Coach Strack's record reads eight
victories in thirty-two games.
Any school which professes to
stress scholastic achievement and
good representation in athletic
competition, and has no pride
whatsoever, in its' delegates, cer-
tainly seems to have compromised
with its principles. Granted, only
one can be best but to accept the
role of "patsy," "habitual loser"
and "basement dweller" is beneath
the dignity of any genuinely proud
person, group or institution.
This year's quintet features an
unusual brand of basketball-in-
adequate shooting, poor rebound-
ing, and inept ball handling. When
one man can outrebound a team,
and when errant passes and er-
rors in the fundamentals of bask-
etball are the rule rather than
the exception, something is wrong.
Loyal rooters might say one is
a poor fan if he can only support
a winner. However, credit is only
given where credit is due and as
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DAI LY OFFI !CIAL BULLETIN
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(Continued from Page 2)
constitution of the Student Govern-
ment Council-Wolverine Club.
Approved: Proposed amendments to
the constitution of Assembly Dormi-
tory Council, with the qualification
that in Articles I, II, and II wherever
the phrase 'independent women" ap-
pears it shall be followed by "of or-
ganized living units of the University."
Approved: That permanent recogni-
tion be granted to Young Americans
for Freedom.
Approved: That student Government
Council extend the temporary recogni-
tion of the Committee for Improved
Cuban-American Relations until Sep-
tember 30, 1962.
Accepted: Resignation of John vos
Adopted: Amendment to Student
Government Council plan reading as
follows:
9. Initiative and Referendum
A. Any member of the student body
may initiate legislation to be adopted
by Student Government Council or to
be brought before the student body for
its approval at the next regularly sched-
uled election. A petition specifying the
provision (s) of the Council plan un-
der which the initiation of legislation
arises, with not less than one thousand
student signatures, shall be required for
the initiation of legislation. Once the
petition has been submitted, the Coun-
cil must eitller adopt the legislation
or submit it to the student body for
their approval a the next regularly
scheduled election. A majority of those
voting on' the issue will constitute
and H of the Council Plan, or to
changes in the Council Plan.
B. Student Government Council
may, by a 2/3 vote of those present and
voting, remand legislation arising un-
der provisions D, F, G or H of the
Council Plan (Section 4) or under
Section 8, over to the student body.
Any member of the student body may
petition to have legislation already
passed by Student Government Coun-
cil brought before the student for its
approval at the next regularly sched-
uled election. The petition shall con-
tain not less than one thousand stu-
dent signatures, and shall specify the
provision (s) of the Council Plan un-
der which the referendum arises. A
majority of those voting on the issue
will constitute 'adoption except in
cases of changes in the Council Plan,
when a 2/3 vote of those voting on the