Seventy-First Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS ere Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MIcH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Truth Will Prevai"W Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. "The Grip's Wrong! .. Watch Your Left Arm!.. Look At The Ball! .. Widen Your Stance!.. Bend Your Knees!" -o y- LCAa i I 3 1 V i rLr eiUJ A oI.: Women To Demonstra For Peace, Test Ban Y, NOVEMBER 1,1961 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT FARRELL Security from Universities Smothers Artistie Creativity AMONG THEIR VARIOUS ATTACKS and defenses, participants in last weekend's Es- quire Symposium methodically picked apart the university's relation to the creative writer. The criticism flowed down two justifiable channels: the inconsequential nature of crea- tive writing courses and the stultifying effect of the academic community on the sensitive writer. ABOUT THE BEST thing you can say about writing courses-and the symposium par- ticipants all said it-is that they are harmless. They have never (as limited statistics show) ruined a potentially good author or probed hidden depths of ability in shoddy ones. With an intelligent and experienced teacher, a student can learn some of the techniques of writing, particularly in the field of drama, and, to a lesser extent, in poetry. He -also stands a good chance to have, a play pro- duced by the local speech department and can leave his alma mater with a list of the "right" editors and agents to contact safely tucked inside the beribboned diploma. RECOGNIZING the limitations of such courses, universities usually resort to the use of "practice in the writing of . . . " to describe their offerings in this field when they get around to penning the usually-exciting course descripitions for their catalogues. Creative writing courses have an optimum effect only when they promote and encourage the talent of a young writer with clearly recog- nized potential. His teacher here must be an editor, not another writer, someone along the lines of Wolfe's editor Perkins, who can devote selfless time and energy to improving another's work. ~ Too often, however, a university will hire an author with a large public audience or whose work has met high critical acclaim, scratch his name in the frosted glass of an office door, and slip him a couple of writing courses. Devotion of one's own energy to the better- ment of another's words is an anathema to most serious writers. The drive which leads men to pour out thousands of words they long to see between dust jackets is probably* one Freud would explain along the lines of an ego manifestation. This kind of drive would not permit a writer to consider another's work more important than his own. The more serious problem of the writer and the university, however, is the academic ten- dency to smother the artist in security and CITYSCOPE:s NAACP: Adva SOMETIMES IT IS DIFFICULT to see where , the local National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People, is doing anything to advance the colored people. The latest glaring incident of their in- dolence came up at the last meeting of the Ann Arbor Human Relations Commission. The conduct of the group was' presumptuous, dis- courteous, and quite possessive. Their conver- sation would have made the casual observer believe that the HRC had been set up simply to serve the interest of the NAACP. Specifically, IRC member Rev. Lewis pro- posed the formation of a citizens' group com- posed of representatives of local service groups and other organizations, including the NAACP. The objective of this committee would be to further and aid the HRC in its work of al- leviating discrimination. It goes without say- ing that those members who would compose the citizens' committee would be willing to work on the matter of alleviating discrimina- tion and anxious to do something about it. AN NAACP SPOKESMAN haughtily doubted whether his group could participate on a committee, "where we would be outnumbered." Of all the narrow-minded, inconsiderate, short- sighted, and downright thankless remarks, that one takes first prize. Presumably the NAACP would gladly aid in any effort which has as its aim the eradication 'of discrimination. But the NAACP chose instead to prejudge a group which has not yet been formed. Editorial Staff JOIN ROBERTS, Editor complacency and eliminate the ranking hon- esty from his work. An enormous opportunity for protection is offered by the colleges. But underwriting the poet or novelist with a sound financial base and providing him an office in which to retreat cuts him off from reality and, thus, weakens his work. MORE THAN ANYTHING else, an author needs time and the university perhaps would provide him with this essential. As educational costs rise and budgets remain fixed, however, it becomes increasingly dif- ficult for a University to sponsor a poet or playwright-in-residence whose sole duty is to do as he pleases, divorced of the necessity to teach so many students how to count iambic pentameter or give lectures explaining the meaning of his published cadences. At the Symposium Nelson Algren claimed that the university "depoetizes and journalizes" the writer. He pointed to Carl Sandburg whose formal schooling was minimal, but who wrote the most poetic biography of Lincoln. Trapped in a university community, Sandburg might have written just another story 'of Lincoln, accurate in every detail, but lacking the rhythm and color of the Pulitzer Prize vol- umes. Algren also pointed out that most of Amer- ica's literary geniuses had Tittle formal edu- cation. For every Whitman, Twain or Dreiser there is only the rarity of a Henry James. One reason for this is that people who go to college have little time to read anything be- yond their texts and are generally unaware of what Western civilization' has produced. Those writers who have missed out on a formal education often act on the incentive to read continuously and have a working knowledge of the develpment of man's thought through the past 2,500 years. BECAUSE WRITING is essentially a lonely Job and writers are so highly individualis- tic, it is stepping on treacherous ground to offer general statements about what they can do or where they can work. Past experience and the present structure of universities, how- ever, shows that creative authors do not create other creative authors nor can they benefit from .university residence unless they have complete freedom. Outside of offering money (bequeathed by alumni) for good unpublished manuscripts, the universities have done little for the Ameri- can writer. There is no reason to believe they ever will. -MICHAEL OLINICK ances Nothing The only way the NAACP could possibly have been outnumbered on the citizens' com- mittee would be on the basis' of race, an ir- relevant criterion by NAACP's own standards. It is somewhat difficult to understand the remark. It was narrow-minded, for it assumed, since the group would not be predominantly Negro, that NAACP interests would be "out- numbered" It was inconsiderate, since it re- jected an honest effort to help NAACP interest without even being tested. It was short- sighted, since it failed to see the possibilities of this citizen's group (racial betterment by private effort), and it was thankless, since it rejected an honest attempt to something con- structive about, racial discrimination. I am told that the sum and substance of the NAACP remark was that they considered the committee suggestion just a stall, and they wanted action. In that case, they should have said so. IT WOULD SEEM that the NAACP is not interested in contributing anything helpful beyond an initial gesture; they'd rather just~ sit and yell. And their yelling is that of a rebuked child. They submitted a proposed housing ordinance to 'the HRC earlier this year. It was, in that form, unacceptable-the reasons have not been disclosed. I assume it was too aggressive to win approval of the City Council. So instead of rising to the occasion and improving upon Rev. Lewis' suggestion for a citizens' committee, which could conceivably be of value, they choose to reject it and lam- bast the commission for doing nothing about their original ordinance, which was dead and gone. BUT TO TOP IT ALL OFF, they demanded (not requested) that a housing ordinance be submitted to the Common Council imme- diatelyt if not sooner, "even though we know the Council will not accept." In short they were quite demanding when it came to someone doing something for them, but they were quite reluctant when it came to doing something for themselves. It would be difficult to say that the NAACP INSTITUTES AND' CENTERS: The Growth of the Colletive Brain By ROBERT FARRELL Daily Staff Writer IST, ISR, MHRI-The University is becoming almost as bad as the federal government. The multiplication of little, au- tonomous University centers is not merely administrative shenani- gans, but indicates instead a ma- jor structural change in the or- ganization of academics at the. University and elsewhere in the country. In the years since World War II the boundaries of the old aca- demic disciplines have become more and more blurry. Social psychology, Far Eastern studies, communication sciences-all these are new fields, and they all draw on personnel from several of the older academic areas. THE DEVELOPMENT is ap- parent at the university parti- cularly in the social sciences and humanities, probably because of the immense Institute of Science and Technology which gets the money which might otherwise be devoted to smaller units. But the physical sciences, too, have shared in the development of interdisciplinary groups fo- cused on, problems rather than AFRICAN POLICY: New Road to Reality By RONALD WILTON Daily Staff Writer THE UNITED STATES may fi- nally be on the road to a more realistic policy towards the Afri- can nations. This possibility has been implied in the speeches of Assistant Sec- retary for African Affairs G. Men- nen Williams following his latest trip to that continent. Williams'said that the challenge to U. S. foreign policy was more than in, the lending of economic assistance. U. S. policy must "in- volve the wholehearted commit- ment to the burning desires of Af- rican people for self-determina- tion and independence; for dignity and equality," he said. * * * SIMILAR STATEMENTS have been made before, but somehow our actions have never followed them. In 1958, when France held a referendum in her overseas ter- ritories to give them the choice of complete independence or lim- ited autonomy within the French Community, the nation of Guinea was the only one to choose the former. France immediately can- celled all aid and halted all trade between the two countries. The leader of Guinea, S6kou Toure, appealed to the U. S. for aid, but as we were reluctant to offend France we withheld it. Hav- ing no place to go, Mr. Toure ap- pealed to the Soviet bloc. Guinea was immediately branded a Com- munist satellite by the West when that appeal was accepted. THERE ARE OTHER examples to cite. Again for fear of offending France, the U., S. refused to es- tablish any contact with the Al- gerian rebels until Williams him- self talked to their representatives on his latest trip. France is still using some American arms, which were supposed to be used against the Russians in a full scale war, to suppress the Algerians. Another NATO ally, Portugal, is doing the same thing with re- gard to rebels in her colony in Angola. A decision to help Ghana in the building of a large dam on the Volta river is being held in abey- ance pending the report of a com- mission sent by President Kennedy to examine Ghana's recent in- ternal shift to the left. " We did not support Patrice Lu- mumba, who was the legally elected Prime Minister of the Con- go with most, of the Conoglese occupied with the threat of Com- munism." The possibility of Af- rica going Communist is not as great as some people fear. This becomes apparent when one stops to examine a few facts. Most of the new African states waged some sort of poltiical struggle to gain their indepen- dence and ' in most cases their present leaders were in the van- guard of their struggles. They are very jealous of their indepen- dence and have not gained it merely to switch from one set of white masters to another. Furthermore, some of these leaders have plans for possible federations between their country and others with themselves in control, plans which would be im- possible were they to go Com- munist. These countries are also not go- ing to accept the change of posi- tion from big fish in the neutralist pond to little .,fish' in the Com- munist ocean. * * * WILLIAMS' WORDS on the subject are heartening, all the more so because his trip and his speech were cleared by the State. Department. A new policy designed to suport the independence of the still-colonized areas as well as giving understanding to the as- pirations of those nations which have just recently received their freedom would be living up to that message of the American revolu- tion we have been hearing se much about from Washington lately. The Communists would be one of the few groups who would not welcome it. DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN (Continued from Page 2) Wrobleski will discuss a paper by D. G. Champernowne on "Sampling Theory in Autoregressive Sequences" in 3201 Angell Hall. Applied Mathematics seminar: Prof. B. R. Seth, U.S. Army Research Cen- ter, University of Wisconsin, will speak on "Asymptotic Phenomenon in Finite Deformation," Thurs., Nov. 2, at 4:00 p.m. in 311 West Engineering. Refreshments in 274 West Engineer- ing at 3:30 p.m. Placement PLACEMENT INTERVIEWS, Bureau of Appointments--Seniors & grad stu- dents, please call Ext. 3544 for inter- view annointments with the following: techniques. The Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology abounds with little institutes, centers and laboratories for this and that. The new system provides a double identification for many faculty members and garduate students-one with the depart- ment, one with the institute or center. The departmental organ- ization is based essentially on tech- niques or study-how the work is done; the institute one, on the problems considered rather than the method used. For example, it is possible to study communication through mathematics, philosophy, electri- cal engineering and physiology, and representatives of all these disciplines will be found in the cybernetics and communication science centers across the coun- try. WHAT DOES IT all mean? To a great extent, the new sys- tem an be seen as a solution to the problem of the growth of knowledge. It used to be that one man, with' a little application, could learn all there was to know about any problem he got interest- ed in-today, it would, take several lifetimes. So instead of Gauss-mathema- tician, astronomer, theoretical and experimental physicist-four men get together to work on the problems which cut into these areas. Even then, they don't get as far as Gauss-mostly because it would take too much time to com- municate thoroughly with each other. Since neither men's brains nor there lifetimes are growing with their backlog of information and there are no great new inovations in education allowing faster, more complete learning, a group of in terested men get together and try to pool their brains and edu- cations. To some extent, it works. Not too well, but better than anything else yet attempted. Perhaps even- tually, a method will be found for true sharing of knowledge, but as of now, the center for X seems the best solution. OF COURSE, there Is also an extremely praEticalaspect to the formation of centers-money rolls in to them so much faster than to separate individuals. Foundations like financing groups of good men formed to study something much more, than giving grants to individuals study- ing it-even if the individuals are working at the same university and very likelyin close communi- cation. Nongood thing comes without its drawbacks, however. The insti- tute system has two great ones: 1) It takes extremely good scholars away from the job of bettering their techniques of study into application of them. Instead of creating new mathematics, the mathematician is finding new uses for old. Useful, yes, but not what his job was. 2) The proliferation of new units in an academic community adds to the administrative cost. - in varying amounts. No matter how strictly the creation of new build- ings and the staffing of new of- fices is regulated, there is some overlap-and some extra cost. In an era of scarce money-suffered thoeno he +e ntre wmrld thie To the Editor: E INVITE the women of Ann Arbor to join housewives all over the United States who are in a spontaneous and unorganized way bearing public witness in their local communities on Wednesday, November 1, to their concern for the cessation of nuclear testing by all nations and for the initiation of positive steps to get the Peace Race underway. A few of us in Ann Arbor, acting as concerned women and under no organizational sponsorship, pro-' pose to stand for an hour from noon to 1 p.m. outside the County Court House in downtown Ann Arbor under the banner "Peace is the Only Shelter." -, , . THERE WILL BE no demon- stration and no speeches, but an hour of silent meditation to let our community know that we do not accept the present policies of preparation for total destruction, with its corollary policy of pre- paring shelters that will not shel- ter. If you cannot or do not choose to express yourself in this way, you can as an American woman demonstrate your vital concern by discussing what you as a citizen can do with your neighbors over coffee, take the hour and write td Pres. Kennedy, at the White House, Senator Philip Hart, Sen- ate Office Bldg., or Rep. George Meader, House Office Bldg., Wash- ington, D. C., call you clergyman or some local official to express your concern, or spend time in prayer and mediatation in your church. ;. Let us support and reinforce all those who are striving against terrific odds to achieve world law and a just and enforceable peace. -Mrs. Kenneth Boulding Flaws in 'Splendor'.. .. To the Editor: IF "flaws only magnify master- pieces," as Mr. Milan Stitt claims in his 'review of William Inge's Splendor in the Grass, "an uncompromising modern inter- pretation of Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality," then Mr. Stitt's review is more magni- fied than anything Wordsworth could have ever written. We hardly see what is so un- compromising about this film, nor do we think that the butchering of great poetry can be justified by calling it a "modern Interpreta- tion." The movie compromised Wordsworth's Ode by putting it into an absurd context,, and, by clinging to the poem as a means of appearing philosophic in. tone, merely sucks all life and meaning from it. Yet, Mr Stitt seems to feel that Wordsworth's lines have been skillfully condensed (Kansas - style) into those stirring, yet "simple" words of the main char- acter, "'You just gotta take what comes.' .* .. MR. STITT continues that the "advice from a mother," "iron shots from a doctor," and "empty words from a minister," are "trag- ically beautiful in their, simplici- ty." But how can anyone think they are anything more than trag- ically trite in their stereotypy? Stitt amazingly manages to jus- tify the abundance of such stereo- types by calling them "abstrac- tions of ideas." He feels that Inge marvelously remained faith- ful to Wordsworth's poem by in- geniously placing "flaws" 'in the movie, so that it would not sur- pass the quality of Wordsworth's poem, since, as Mr. Stitt states: "It has been said that there are flaws in 'Intinations of Immor- tality'." The Edward R. Murrow-type psychiatrist, the frustrated medi- cal student who just couldn't cut into his first patient and is now pounding wood, the hero's Freudi- an attack of pneumonia on the basketball court, the heroine's masterful but drawn-out attempt to drown herself," her final stole final acceptance of her situation after being readjusted by psycho- logical guidance, and thehero's finally finding the true path of life in farming and returning to .the earth, etc., It well into the sort of shallow, pseudo-psychological themes at which the movie tedi- ously pounds. -Sherman Silber, N63 Howard Kleckner, '63 'Trial' and Error... To the Editor: DO NOT wish to quarrel with the very kind review which the local production of Messrs. Fine & Greene's The Trial received, but -a few words should, I feel, be said about this adaptation. In spite of its dramatic title, Kafka's work is very much a nov- el, and thus, very much not a play. This fact was already brought out clearly by such' great- ly superior attempts at dramati- zation as the ones by A. Gide and J. L. Barrault (of The Trial), and by M. Brod (of The Castle); it was devastatingly confirmed by the present effort. For the subtlety of the work does not lie so much in what the characters actually do or say, as in the tantalizingly ambiguous manner in which the author pre- sents them to his reader. A rath- er gauche narrator in the play is no substitute for this all impor- tant dimension. . * 4. 4 I HAVE ,no explanation for the curious fact (proudly reported in the notes) that 'the present ver- sion ran for a hundred perform- ances in New York, but I venture to say that this was not because of Fine & Greene, but in spite of them. They seem to me to have successfully combined being com- mercial and amateurish. Their guiding principle evidently was that all pages are created equal before God and the bewildered adaptor. The result of this ill-conceived piety towards the text is that the relatively inconsequential scenes (i.e. the ones-withFraulein Mon- tag, the bank client, everi the laundress) appear long and bor- ing, while the important ones (es- pecially with the painter, the ad- vocate, the priest) are shrunk beyond all recognition to the un- derstandable confusion dnd frus- tration of the audience. Particularly the central scene, in the cathedral-ini the novel the one where all the apparent non- sense suddenly comes into focus and becomes sense-was scandal- ously and irresponsibly distorted. Except for the pocketbook of Messrs."Fine & Greene, I cannot see what interests could possibly be served by performing such a specimen of parasitic slander. For those who were as disap- pointed at what they saw as I, there is good news: Kafka's novel is still in print. For those who thought that in going to the ply they had "done their afka," the news is less good: what they have "done" is, at best, Fine & Greene. -Prof. Ingo Seidler Dept. of German 0.I AT HILL AUDITORIUM- Orgvanist Draws 'Appreciative Audience' JNTERNATIONAILY-FAMOUS organ virtuoso Alexander Schreiner, on campus for the past few days, climaxed his visit last night with a recital in Hill Aud. The size of his audience revealed that local organ recitals are gradually becoming more popular and appreciated. Schreiner surprised many be his sure technique and choice of clear colors, not always present in performers of his generation. 'The p'ogram began with the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C rmajor. After the pedal cadenza, which contained a few minor in- accuracies, Schreiner continued with a choice of stops in which one manual tended to over-dominate the other. It is apparent that Schreiner is used to more resonant acoustics, since the articulation in the Adagio seemed choppy on the Hill Aud. instrument. The fugue was brilliant' and exciting. Listeners expecting an historically accurate performance, ,'however, were unhappy by the use of swell shutters and the crescendo pedal, devices which Bach did not have in the organs he played. * * * ,* MENDELSSOHN'S ORGAN SONATAS have not been played as often recently as they have in the past, possibly because they are in the tradition of the piano sonata of his day, rather than in a polyphonic style more suited to the organ. Schreiner has said that Mendelssohn, whose pedal technique was lacking, wrote for the organ in such a manner that the left hand was always free to take over difficult pedal passages. The impressive performance of the Sonata in F minor, however, showed that the organ sonatas tends, to be under-rated. Schreiner was perhaps best in his playing of four fantasy pieces by Louis Vierne. The first two were, quiet and impressionistic, and the performer employed some of the infinite variety of colors which are inherent in the organ. The third, "Water Nymphs," had running namcca.rp +hrenifhn+ which were remarkably' ell-ex..cuted.rThe "Card-. -I PHILIP SHERMAN City Editor HARVEY MOLOTCH Editorial Director SUSAN FARRELL ....... ........ Personnel Director FAITH WEINSTEIN ............... Magazine Editor MICHAEL BURNS .................... Sports Editor PAT GOLDEN ................ Associate City Editor RICHARD OSTLING ...... Associate Editorial Director DAVID ANDREWS..........Associat EdSports Editor CLIFF MARKS ..............Associate Sports Editor Business Staff CHARLES JUDGE, Business Manager