c 4dstiptwn &digt sevxyd-Fiftb Year EIMrrEz AND MANAGED BY "Si ME 11 OF THE UNIVE srrY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITYX OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STrUDENT~ PUBLICAMnNS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The Way To End Academic Isolationism mooh-WA-;. - - MR pinions Are P 420 MAYNARD Sr., ANN AiS, Muw. e wiliPrap NEws PoNE: 764-0552 itorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This 'must be noted in all reprints. Y, 28 JANUARY 1965' NIGHT EDITOR: LAUREN BAHR It's Time To Curtail U.S. Aidto Egypt DURING RECENT congressional debates on aid legislation many harsh things. were said about the United Arab Re- public and its president. The January issue of "Foreign Affairs" reported one senator saying that "Col. Abdel Nasser... has been responsible more than any othera single individual for keeping the politi- cal cauldron boiling in the strife-torn Middle East.. . pouring oil on whatever brush fire breaks out." Indeed, during the past two years there have been five instances of UAR meddling which particularly disturbed Americans. There was Egypt's support of Yemen, Al- geria and then Cyprus. Then came per- haps the most serious instance in Febru- ary, 1964 when Nasser called for the ending of British and American base rights in Libya. He aroused a public, furor in Libya that directly challenged an important American interest. Finally, there is the current Egyptian campaign against the South Arabian Federation and its British sponsors-an area remote from the UAR and without visible impact on its security. THIS CONTINUOUS "keeping the pot boiling" by Egypt causes serious prob- lems for the United States. Not only does it have a number of specific interests in the countries involved, but its policy has been to promote tranquility among Middle Eastern states. Directly opposed to this policy is the UAR's continued hostility to Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East. Herein lies the keystone of the Arab attitude which refuses to consider even a remote possibility of peace discussions. In so far as the Arab-Israeli dispute is a constant source of tension and conflict, its lack of solution is a constant threat to tranquility, progress and stability in. the Middle East. The August issue of "Atlantic Monthly" reported that Nasser intends to build 'be- tween 800 and 1000 rockets.for an as- sault on Israel, and that he is experi- menting with the production of weapons of genocide of both nuclear and sub-nu- clear type. Such developments may sound like science fiction, but "there is noth- ing fanciful about this intention," ac- cording to the report. COMPLIMENTARY to this intention is Nasser's desire to build a firm alliance with the Soviet Union, a desire which was plainly advertised during Khrushchev's visit to Cairo in May. The Soviet Union can be of immense use to Nasser in the 'economic and military fields. But of much more importance is the future dip- lomatic role of the Soviet Union in the Middle East, which will be designed to counter and finally to eradicate West- ern influence in the area. Russia can now set to work to turn the Middle East into a bastion against Western "imperialism," to outflank the Central Treaty Organiza- tion, to open the road to penetration of India and Africa. The United States which provides one- third of the foodstuffs Egyptians con- sume, continues to bolster President Nas- ser's regime despite his recent boast of aiding Congolese rebels with arms; de- spite his permitting such diplomatic in- dignities as the malicious sacking of the U.S. embassy and the burning of the John F. Kennedy Library; despite his failure to apologize with diplomatic repore; despite his assertion we could go "jump in the lake" and take our foreign aid along if we objected to his efforts. APPARENTLY we don't care how much he disturbs the'peace or to what ex- tent he opposes U.S. policy. The U.S. has given Nasser close to a billion dollars in the past eight years in line with its "Food for Peace" program. But the use to which this valuable money is put in the UAR goes far from furthering any program for peace. We continue to provide Nasser the means necessary to provide his people, with a subsistence diet so that he can develop weapons against Israel and aid the Communist bloc in furthering chaos in the Congo. With the largest and most modernly equipped Arab army, the most powerful and sophisticated propaganda system, and wide appeal among the Arab masses, Pres- ident Nasser poses a threat which cannot be ignored by any nation having interest in the Middle East. The United States can help avert such danger if she will stop supplying declared enemies of the U.S. with the means to oppose American policy. It is difficult to make a case for the continuance of American economic as- sistance unless the Egyptian developmen- tal process .is tightened and foreign ad- ventures curtailed in the interest of in- ternal development. -PHYLLIS KOCH To the Editor: ROBERT JOHNSTON, w h o wants to scrap the literary college, seems to be involved in a contradiction. On the one hand, he deplores "departmental isola- tionism" and on the other hand he wants to structure things so that similar disciplines will work together, physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities, which seem to be even more isolated than now. I should think that the alter- native to disciplinary isolation is interdisciplinary study, namely courses which will relate ideas belonging to social science to those of physical science or art, for example. Fortunately, such courses already exist, neatly grouped together in the College Honors program. In these courses, Prof. Wyatt, psychology, will give you the Freudian perspective on liter- ature; Prof. Seager, English, will tell you what he thinks it means to be an American and will offer additional anecdotes and opin- ions covering several centuries; Prof. Hall, English, will guide you on a sophisticated romp through representative examples of all the fine arts of the mod- ern period. There is, or was, a course in physical sciences relat- ed to the perspectives of the humanities. I have heard that Prof. Boulding's "General Sys- tems" offer a similar interdisci- plinary approach. * * * IT SAYS in the catalogue that these courses are open only to students in the honors program, but, luckily, that is not strictly so. Sometimes you need a per- mission slip from the professor in charge of the course you wish to take, and if you can demon- strate a certain amount of in- telligence and a larger amount of genuine interest, the permis- sion slip isn't too hard to get. There are two main advantages to such courses; first, you can develop an overview, some theory of your own which will grandly unify the entire state of things; an occupation, by the way, not to be sneezed at. Secondly, very often the professors involved have undertaken to teach these courses because the subject mat- ter corresponds to a particular intellectual bug of their own. Thus, you will get an energetic and highly opinionated approach -nearly always the best kind. If you want to argue you will have to be equally energetic and have a viewpoint of equally highade- velopment. * * * I HAVE very little faith in this mystical thing "structure" I am inclined to believe that if "structure" exists it is probably a result of 'the way things are' rather than a cause. Disciplin- ary isolationism exists because most students want it that way. The Daily has published the re- suits of a number of surveys showing that m o s t students merely want to develop highly specialized skills in one field that will land them a good job later. OK. Interdisciplinary p e o p l e should face the fact that they are in a distinct minority, and simply concentrate on seeing that their minority' interests are pre- served somewhere. In fact, they are so preserved. Possibly the.College Honors and similar courses should be opened to more students, but it is not clear that there is any great clamor for this. These courses are, in my opinion, the best in the University, but, if we believe the surveys, few would think so. In any case, no giant restructuring is needed for this particular reason. The opportun- ity is there, available without too much effort. Those who want the interdisciplinary approach should be willing to make that effort. -Martha MacNeal, '64 71 'pp' i i" 1 i i',' -' l ti 7 y '' "-x; , , .' r{ ' ra ' 4. '. v'} , :' ; ,, _ ' "~ Y. , :3. ' :" L', !'j' l : 4 : :. air fiF, ;i s ti i;1 fir;st-run features at our local cinemas, even at next year's price of $1.50, but they are first-run problems to the student body, and whether that body lives or dies depends more on education than whether Mary Poppins is really worth $1.50. The type of learning implied in Prof. Loescher's prospectus is dif- ficult. It takes far more time and mental energy than a "take it in and spit it back" form of educa- tion. The question facing us be- comes "To repeat or not to repeat but interpret instead." As evi- denced by the reaction to History of Art 102, the typical University student is content with the for- mer and vehemently rejects the latter, mostly because it is "harder." And yet the majority of people at the University will rise or fall as post-graduates according to their ability to interpret. They will be presented a body of facts and requested to produce a concise, meaningful and original conclu- sion or answer consistent with the precedent data. * * * IF SUCH are the demands of the outside world, why should University students, supposedly in preparation to live in and cope with that world, demand any less of themselves? Just to make it "easier" now? Fine. But what of the "tomorrow" which must come. We are reminded of our "psy- cho-social moratorium," 'w h e r e the house-and-car-buying, insur- ance-paying, child-raising prob- lems 'become, to most of us, "otherpeople's 'problems," the other people" being, in the most immediate case, our parents. Lucky for us that we will never leave this moratorium and become parents ourselves. What I would like to know is: must this moratorium also include creativity and mental expansion? To many students the answer is an unqualified yes. THE ANSWER may not appear in capitalized form when it is given. Yet its emphatic exposition iat words. is well-deserved, for it is these ae," and very students who complain of the r to what downfall of education, yet balk at all attempts to reverse the down- . Skinner ward trend. in which The status of a University edu- bertarians cation will begin to rise only when the party the students come to accept the oderates" basic postulate that advances are party, it made only with new interpreta- e greatest tions of new creations, that rote since the memorization', which does have its own small place in any academic scheme, is not the cure-all which ad, 166E many are deluding themselves into believing it to be. 'Where Until .that time, we can only hope that we are not mutilating too' badly that gift of reason ,, which Nature saw fit to present to ** o*B.y Man alone, and accepting, what ed to Baby should be rejected while we reject fraid of all that might benefit, x f . .s, . 1~ I~"j . . Sidewalks To the Editor: IF YOU were one of the people on the Diag, Monday, Jan- uary 26th, you are probably won- dering who was responsible for the terrible shape the sidewalks were in. It was sort of funny to watch students on the way to their eight o'clocks for they re- sembled circus clowns asthey slid and fell on their way to class. But by four o'clock that afternoon much of the humor was gone and the ice was still there. On behalf of the blind stu- dents, students who use wheel- chairs and elderly professors who use the diag daily, I think that who ever is responsible for main- taining the sidewalks should next, time see to it that something more substantial is done than spreading on a thin layer of sand. There is no excuse for the' ice still being on the sidewalks by four o'clock that afternoon. Will the University have to face a substantial law suit before it is prepared for these unusual conditions? I hope this will never happen again. -William F. Penz, '65 Republicans To the Editor: CAL SKINNER has done it again. In The' Daily, Jan. 23, he had an editorial in which he did con- siderable injustice to the liber-1 tarian elements in the Republican party.. He starts by asking: "How vital is the two-party system . .?" Maybe he should also ask the question: "How vital is the two- party system when one party is the spitting image of the other?" He is worried about the dear old GOP, but what good is the GOP if it consistently imitates the op- position party? This time the people had a choice, and just because 60 per cent of them chose wrong is no reason to go back to the, old me-too nonsense. In the thirdparagraph he says: ". while the conservatives are willing to accept Bliss . . they are not willing to unify behind him." Why is it only the liber- tarian element in the party that is blamed for the disunity? In this last election, the disunity was caused by the other side. "PEACE MAY exist on the sur- face, but the battles will continue." You bet they will. As long as there is an element in the Republican party that believes in individual freedom and another element that goes along with the other party, there will be a fight. Maybe the statist element should join the other party and stop trying to sabotage ours. Mr. Skinner then goes on to predict all the horrible conse- quences of a third party. Need- less to say, the fault is entirely with the libertarians since they are not willing to swallow their beliefs in free enterprise and lim- ited government and join the crowd onthe left. There is noth- ing sacred about having only two major parties on the' scene, and when a sufficient number of lib- ertarians come to feel that both parties are controlled by groups with ideas of planned democracy and gradual socialism, then we will form a third party.- He predicts a "drastic change from what Americans are familiar with." Of course it's all our fault. Did he have to forget that 'there are now "drastic changes" tak- ing place in our system of gov- ernment, but he probably would not consider them so drastic. I forgot for a second th like "drastic," "extren "unreasonable" only refe our side might do. I am sure that if Mr wrote another editorial he assumed that the lit took firmer control of1 and that the so-called "n7 were to form a third would be considered the blessing for America end of the Indian wars. -Walter W. Bro To the Editor: "WHERE Has"Educati "Whatever Happene Michigan?" "Who's A Prof. Loescher?" No, such topics will never be -David A. Rives, '65 'A NIGHT AT THE OPERA': Marx Bros. Film Fails To Exploit the Medium Aftermath of the Rights Act WHEN ALL OTHER recourses failed him, the segregationist used to resist the federal enforcement of civil rights with the indestructible argument: "You can't legislate integration." However, six months after the passage of .the most far-reaching 1 civil rights guarantee ever underwritten' by a Con- gress, the validity of this argument is clearly shaken. Despite resistance to the civil rights act in a number of rural areas, and de- spite the inefficiency of federal agen- cies in ferreting out the discriminatory pockets, the overall pattern of south- ern compliance indicates integration can be legislated. THE FOCUS of congressional dissension over the bill was Title II, which for- bade discrimination in public accommo- dations, and Title VI, which threatened to cut off all federal aid programs to discriminatory recipients. But the dire consequences which the filibusters predicted have not materializ- ed. One recent canvass of southern atti- tudes on Title II indicated general com- pliance in large cities and rural areas along major highways., Even more significant was the dis- covery that cities with active civil rights movements were spurred to more rapid acceptance than locales where citizen ini- tiative was left unprodded. In such places as Albany, Ga., and Birmingham, Ala., sites of violence and massive arrests in past years, compliance came more swift- ly in areas which had taken token steps toward integration through moderate ci- tizens councils. The civil rights act was expected to THE ACT HAS, of course, fallen short of the unlimited effectiveness its back- ers envisioned last summer. But the bill's defects seem to be primarily a function of bureaucracy. The recent splurge of civil rights activ- ity has prompted a massive propagation of civil rights enforcement agencies. Un- fortunately, the growth has been very uneven and poorly coordinated, so that the big corporation is overwhelmed with overlapping bureaucrats while the small business is practically ignored. As -one magazine put, the racial em- ployment practices of a single business could involve a host of agencies from the President's equal employment committee to the National Labor Relations Board. Another problem in enforcing civil rights is urging the Negroes to stop being submissive from habit. The civil rights legislation could not forbid Negroes from sitting in the backs of buses. The bill only gave them physical desegregation; it could not mentally integrate them. In- deed, the southerner has been much fast- er to yield the Negro his rights than the latter has been to press for them. FOR ALL THESE weaknesses, the civil rights act remains a tribute to the power that law has in this country. This seems to be the keystone of its success, As one southerner commented, "The South has as many law-abiding people as any other region." While the filibuster raged last sum- mer, many people wondered whether the South was willing to face its reality or whether it was an anachronism which modern legal weapons could not elevate to the present. At the Cinema Guild ALTHOUGH equipped with sev- eral good laughs, the Marx brothers' "A Night at the Opera" is an uneven production which fails to take full advantage of the film medium. Many of the jokes rely upon Groucho's masterful style and delivery. He has been hired by a wealthy widow to introduce her. into high society. "All you've done since I hired you," comments the wealthy widow, "is draw a big salary." "That's more than most men can do these days," Groucho replies. GOOD CHEKHOV WELL DONE: 'U' Players Succeed with 'Uncle Van ya' At 'other times, slapstick situa- tions provide the comedy,as when dozens of people find themselves crowded into Groucho's tiny steamship suite. But there seems to be too many lengthy exchanges of dialogue,; too many slowly con- structed slapstick scenes, in short, too many static situations for a movie. Often the presentation seems to be nothing more than filmed vaudeville. * * * AN ALMOST immobile camera reflects the lack of movement through much of the film. Rather than turning his camera to follow the action, the director usually switches to a new, stationary camera. The central plot concerns a conceited male opera star, the female opera star whom he pur- sues, and the aspiring young tenor whom she really loves.. Groucho, Harpo and Chico befriend the young tenor and become involved in his efforts to win the girl and a starring role in the opera. The humor in the film suffers from the separation of the comic figures and the central plot fig- ures. As a result of this separa- tion, all of the figures lack deep character development. Hence the audience r e m a i n s unconcerned with their problems and unin- volved; with their lives, The comedy of the film is thus sim- ple and largely superficial-slap- stick or wit. THE LAST sequence in the film -the actual night at the opera- provides enough excitement and humor to atone for many of the faults seen earlier. The director seems suddenly aware of the po- tentialities of the film medium. He expands his scene and injects plenty of life-giving action. Har- po, whose delightful facial expres- sinns make him one of the more THE UNIVERSITY Players' first attempt at the production of a complete Anton Chekhov play is very successful. "Uncle Vanya," running through Saturday at Lydia Mendelssohn, is good theatre. Working with the material of a playwright whose genius lies in the exploration of human processes and problems at the expense of solutions is no easy task. But the Players are offering a fast moving, understandable, technically smooth production. Under the direction of Richard Burgwin, the actors displayed an aura of professionalism. The naturalness with which the actors car- ried themselves, the stage business and the tonal variety in the voices combine to give the production an easiness not always as- sociated with students. THE DELICATE nature of Chekhov and his subtleties as some- times lost, however. The play was interpreted more as the interaction among individuals than as a critique of society as a whole. There was verbal reiteration of the theme that society needed to be remolded, but the intense action on stage focused the audience on the individual discontent. Chekhov blames a sterile intelligentsia, "stupid, boring" country li i-P nSanduse lesnesfnor- the frustrations of his characters.