14t Alktlgan Batty Seventy-Third Year 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. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP SUTIN The Liberal Student Movement: Creeping lHiberalism . t Y ,..-'-,i i , , , r A i . ( f " LABOR CAMPAIGN: Unions May Ruin Swainson's Chances By PHILIP SUTIN FACED WITH their toughest opponent in years, state Democrats and their union supporters seem to be arrogantly booting away their opportunities and losing supporters at a time when they desperately need them. Republican gubernatorial candidate George Romney has made, serious inroads in traditionally Democratic areas and with the few in- dependents who could swing the election either way. According to a recent Detroit News poll, the number of undecided voters has shrunk from approximately eight per cent to one per cent of the electorate- and most of these votes went to Romney. Romney has picked up support from the Wayne County, outstate urban, managerial and more than 60 other voter categories listed in the News poll since a similar sampling made last May when Gov. John "THE LEFT is in complete decadence, a prisoner of words, caught in its own vocabulary, capable merely of stereotyped replies, constantly at a loss when faced with the truth, from which it nevertheless claimed to derive its laws. The Left is schizophrenic and needs doctoring through pitiless self-criticism, exercise of the heart, close reasoning, and a little modesty." -Albert Camus, "Resistance, Rebellion, and Death" THE SO-CALLED "student movement," as it continues to grow, is enormously privileged in the United States. We who would battle for integration, disarmament, freedom from colonialism wherever it appears, and all the rest, are privileged simply in the fact that we are permitted to express ourselves against many of the powers that be. We like to call those powers "conserva- tive," and ourselves "liberal." And yet the stu- dent movement now and then exhibits its own kind of anti-intellectual conservatism-a con- servatism especially vicious because it threatens a perversion of the broadest ideals for which we stand. The essence of intellectual liberalism is constant, fundamental re-evaluation .of ideals and premises, means and ends. Thus liberalism is not a goal, it is a process and a method. Intellectually it is the most grueling of methods, admitting only one absolute, that there are no absolutes. Liberalism requires that everything be constantly under ;question, even as we act; that the mind be constantly in turmoil; that all ideas be admitted to the dialogue, and, most important, that the dialogue itself is of higher value than its possible resolution. From this concept derives the political tra- dition of freedom of speech and thought, which the student movement so stoutly defends. HISTORICALLY, political liberalism, even in some of the more dubious forms it takes today, has grown out of a long and searching intellectual tradition. As students, we are ob- ligated to master the intellectual tradition as well as its present political implications. As students, (for we have chosen to be students) we are obligated to listen and think a little more than we talk. And as liberal students, we are especially obligated to listen to and think about the ideas with which we disagree. But some members of the "student movement" have decided, in complete contradiction of the intellectual philosophy of liberalism, that they are in possession of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Therefore nothing else matters, except that this "truth" be com- municated as forcefully as possible, with little time wasted in further questioning. We must, of course, act, and take the chance that we may be mistaken. But we do not have to act in the exclusion of further thought. A case in point is Voice Political Party's symposium on the arms race last May, at which Herman Kahn spoke. Voice lined up Prof. Ken- neth Boulding and Prof. J. David Singer to op- pose Kahn's views after he had spoken, but did not offer Kahn (or others of his persuasion) a chance for rebuttal. A Daily editorial duly took Voice to task for this perversion of free- Disgraceftul WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY history pro- fessor Alfred H. Kelly has disgraced his profession and his university with his contribu- tion to the Senate subcommittee hearings for the ratification of Thurgood Marshall, a Ken- nedy appointee, as judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The controversy over Marshall's appointment arose from the fact that he was not only a Negro but also one who had been militantly in- volved in civil rights issues. Southern conserva- tives looked for a loophole in Marshall's repu- tation for which to condemn him. Having failed with their ever-ready label of Commu- nist, they looked for anything at all, however trivial, to pin on Marshall to prevent the ap- pointment. Unfortunately for the dignity of the Senate, the reputation of university professors, and of Wayne State University, Kelly furnished that triviality. " WANT YOU to understand that when us colored folks takes over, every time a white man draws a breath he will have to pay a fine," Kelly quoted Marshall in a paper he wrote. The paper was seen by members of the subcommit- tee who then sent a lawyer to get a statement from Kelly. Despite declarations of what was obvious from Marshall-that is, that the statement was an old Negro joke and had been made in jest- this was used as the main issue of the sub- committee hearings. That such a kangaroo court was allowed to take place within the hal- lowed halls of the United States Senate offends the dignity of every free man. Fortunately for the judiciary of the United States, Marshall's appointment was ratified by the Senate. His ability and experience in the dom of speech, and Voice members Robert Ross, Nanci Hollander, John Roberts, and Dick Magi- doff responded in a letter to the editor that "we take sides and are proud of it." Granted, Voice has every right to take sides. But nobody, not even Voice, has the right to prevent the opposition from taking sides to an equal extent. Herman Kahn could not have prevented Voice from making, its position clear. It was a small incident, and perhaps Voice has learned from it. But as the student movement grows in power and influence, the implications become disquieting for the whole liberal cause. ANOTHER case In point was the reaction of many Daily staff members on the day last fall when Dean of Women Deborah Bacon finally resigned. In the city room of The Daily there were great shouts of exultation, back- slapping and laughter, and triumph all around. It is certainly true that her conduct in office had been inexcusable, and that her resignation was a good thing for the University and for the cause of individual rights. But Dean Bacon herself is a human being, and last October she was a tragic figure simply because she had not behaved in accordance with the principles of humanity. The triumph should have been tem- pered with a large measure of regret; regret not that she had resigned but rather that she had been the kind of person who had to resign. And her critics should have asked themselves the searching question: Why was she that kind of person? Then we might have been on the way towards finding some of the real answers of the human condition. Similarly, is it not an interesting phenomen- on that the National Student Association found itself able to solve the most difficult problems in the world in two and a half weeks this sum- mer? Obviously most of the delegates arrived with their opinions securely pre-formed. A little more serious study and a few less "reso- lutions" might allow us all the chance for a greater and more realistic impact on our world. Persons of liberal political persuasion cannot afford to assume that they are the only ones who possess insight, integrity, and courage. The left wing of the student movement has its own contradictions - for instance the con- demnation of "paternalism" on University cam- puses issuing from the same mouths that advo- cate socialism on the national level. We ought to define our terms more carefully; we ought seriously to worry about where welfare ends and control begins. As students, we ought to worry about how far, in fact, we can be relied upon to govern our own lives and to theorize about the government of others. After all, we came to the University in an admission of our own ignorance. NOTHING CAN be labeled intrinsically wrong simply because it is traditional or old-fash- ioned. There is a certain honor which we all owe to traditional concepts - the honor of serious appraisal. If we are liberal humanists, the mere fact that other human beings have believed in a certain idea gives that idea signi- ficance and dignity. It is absurd to accuse conservatives of hypoc- risy, dishonesty, and motives based solely on the desire for personal gain. Laissez-faire capit- alism, for instance, is based soundly on a very real and very important moral ethic. Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged," for all the poverty of her literary technique, has popularized the capitalist ethic with amazing skill and clarity in her novels. It is a courageous and logical ethic, and must be reckoned with honestly as the fruit of a long classical intellectual tradi- tion. The opposition deserves our wholehearted respect, if not our agreement. We need the courage to recognize the flaws in many of the things we support. We need to be able to muster a certain amount of healthy contempt for our friends the "underdeveloped countries," who condemn us as "materialistic" out of one corner of their mouths and then ask us for the products of our "materialism" out of the other. We must be able to face the civil war in Algeria with genuine discourage- ment, and to recognize that revolution not se- curely based in a long intellectual-political tradition as was our own is of somewhat du- bious value from the very beginning, however valid its moral force. WE MUST HAVE the honesty to realize from the Marjorie Michelmore postcard incident that some Africans have as yet no concept whatsoever of freedom of speech and opinion. The tragedy of Marjorie Michelmore is not that some Nigerians were insulted, but rather that she had to apologize and beat a hasty retreat simply for speaking the truth As she honestly saw it. We must see clearly and critically just where our ideas will lead us, and where they will not, and we must never fail to count the cost, not only in our own coin, but in the coin of honest human beings of all opinions. Most of all, we need to respect the drama and the meaning of the human dialogue. We are not the only participants, or the only heroes. Much of importance is being said even though it is not we who say it. Other minds are reaching just as far as ours in the inter- pretation of freedom and justice, and these FITZGERALD BOOK: The Gentle Art of Rushing By ELLEN SILVERMAN "SHOULD A FRESHMAN join a fraternity or remain independ- ent" is the question at hand in a new book by John Fitzgerald, A Complete Guide to College Frater- nity Rushing and Pledging. Unfortunately Fitzgerald's pro- fraternity bias shows through im- mediately and his attempt to be neutral fails miserably. But once past the wishy-washy introduc- tion section and in the sections devoted to rushing and pledging, the book comes alive with all of the intriguing means by which one can get into a fraternity, and be Greek, not barbarian. As one who will never have to go through rushing of this type and never has in her years at the University, I assume that I am as inexperienced in this as the "greenest" male who entered this semester. But I assure him, this book will certainly open doors. It is a complete guide to the following: Who should write intro- ductory letters for hih, and who shouldn't; what to wear, what to say and what to do at parties are especially helpful for the man who is determined to make a frater- nity. FITZGERALD easily slides over such delicate issues as fraternity discrimination and the role of a social fraternity with ritual and juvenile practices on a college campus, subjects which critics at- tack violently. For those truly inexperienced in the art of rushing, and indeed Fitzgerald makes it all an art, there are interesting tips on what student organizations to join in or- der to attract the attention of fra- ternity men and interest them in you. (In a side comment, Fitzger- ald notes college newspapers are usually not the place to start in activities, since they are normally anti-fraternity.) The book is also helpful in giv- ing information which the unwary freshman may not find elsewhere. Fitzgerald lists all of the possible costs of living in a fraternity and then warns, " . . fraternities are notorious for underestimating the expenses which membership will involve."Y * * * IN THE FINAL analysis, how- ever, it is the specific little hints which Fitzgerald offers that makes his book a must for prospective "gung-ho" Greeks. On clothes: "If you are invited to an informal party, throw a jacket into your car ... Atie thrown in your pock- et is insurance at a very low prem- ium." On conversation: ". . . humor being what it is, and rush meet- ings being what they are, stay away from it.". On conformity: "This is not a plea for rigid adherence to group norms . . . nor is it advice to avoid speaking your mind on any impor- tant issue. But this book is a prac- tical guide to securing fraternity membership, and it is a plea to the seriously interested freshman to forego the enunciation of any rad- ical or 'kooky' behavior ..r All in all the book is a great aid if you are determined to enter a fraternity come Hell or high water. But if you are interested in joining a fraternity because you like the members and want the companionship then you would probably be better off in going in- to rush being yourself, and come out with membership because you were liked for yourself, not for your tricks of the trade. : . IF YOU ARE a freshman who is unsure of the rushing system or procedures for fraternity rushing and pledging you are better off going to a mass meeting or talk- ing to responsible people within the University who cr answer your questions. Save yourself the time and mon- ey-Fitzgerald isn't worth it. B. Swainson was ahead. Romney's gais have allowed him to pull ahead of the governor-the first Republican to lead the poll in 14 years. . . r INSTEAD OF TRYING to pick up these votes, the Democrats and their union allies seem intent on alienating them. The campaign thus far has been marked by mis- statements and mistakes that are costing Democrats votes. Incredib- ly, these occurred after the Dem- ocrats had been warned by the August primary where Romney outpolled Swainson by 120,000 votes. The main culprits have been the Democrats' union allies who seem to think arrogantly that Romney is a jerk and doesn't deserve com- mon courtesy. They also uttered insensitive statements that have driven business and professional votes from Swainson to Romney. The first insult occurred at the state Democratic convention when AFL-CIO president August Scholle made a disparaging remark about auto dealers like Romney selling the state a bill of goods. Although Congressman-at-large Neil Staeb- ler immediately tried to calm the nerves of these businessmen, Dem- ocratic strategists have found cam- paigning more difficult as a result of Scholle's inept blast. * * * ROMNEY TOOK advantage of more labor arrogance to make a hero of himself at Labor Day fes- tivities. As usual the GOP asked the union sponsors to give their candidate speaking time at their annual Detroit rally. As usual, the unions refused, citing a closed pro- gram. However, this year Romney attended the rally, sitting in the audience chatting with nearby unionists. This act of persistence probably netted him a number of labor votes he otherwise would not have collected. The D e m o c r a t s themselves have made fewer such mistakes than the anions. The most glar- ,ig error was Swainson's address to the national. Jewish War Vet- erans in Detroit. Invited as gov- ernor to give a non-partisan speech, Swainson instead denounc- ed the "Neanderthals in the Leg- islature" and urged the Michigan residents to vote for him. The JWV had no choice; they had to give equal time to Romney. The GOP candidate gave a non-partisan speech stressing the dangers of far right organizations-a topic. of much concern to the Jewish War Veterans-and his fight against them. Thus Romney enhanced his heroic, mature image while Swain- son looked like an adolescent who didn't know what to say and where. Otherwise, the Democrats are trying hard to overcome the blun- ders of their union allies. When Scholle becomes too extreme, Dem- ocratic spokesmen like Staebler try to soothe ruffled feelings. When Romney is rebuffed by la- bor groups, the party speaks of Swainson's courage in his fight against the Legislature. The Democrats are trying to win voters beyond usual labor support- ers. They have set up independent and businessmen's committees for Swainson. Yet these efforts will fail if arrogantunion actions swing these potential votes to Romney. It is time the unions took stock of their political manners. Their discourtesy and ill-temper is only costing them votes. Unless they change their tactics, the unions at election time will find the gains of 14 years wiped out and Romney holding the governorship. LA NOTTE: A rtless Art? BETTER late than never, Mich- aelangelo Antoioni's "La Notte" arrived with bells last Friday. It falls quite well into the recent tra- dition of films with a plotless plot, and concerns a writer, Giovanni (Marcello Mastrolanni), and his wife, Lidia (Jeanne Moreau). For one reason or another their mar- riage has soured, and the film ex- amines the way they fight the sit- uation during one day and night. Because no reasons are given, though, a lot of emotions and be- havior become difficult to under- stand or even believe. This defect is bad enough to constitute one of the movie's major shortcom- ings. The main claim made for the plotless plot by its encouragers is that movies which utilize it man- age to develop a character slowly and fully; like Herman Hesse peel- ing one of his onions. The main difference is that Herman Hesse can do it and Michaelangelo An- tonioni can't (or at least hasn't so far). This fact voids the movie of almost all dramatic significance, but certainly not of all interest. What is left is a magnificent technique, brilliant control over that difficult realm of factors which are definitively cinemato- graphic, which give movie-making its own identity as an art form, instead of making it merely a re- cording of a play. ANTONIONI'S finest talent is his feeling for the rhythm of the changing compositions. This is a dimension which esits only in film; its closest parallel is to be found in music; the "harmonic rhythm," or rate of change of un- derlying harmonies. Anyone who has ever tried to harmonize a Bach chorale knows what I mean. Antonioni uses the screen to lay out scenes of exquisite beauty (who can forget the last shot of "L'Avventura,"or, in "La Notte," the nymphomaniac against the hospital wall, as stunning in black and white as the greys of the last pan shot) and he arranges and changes them temporally with re- spect to the plot line like a good jazz pianist backing a horn man. THE USE of symbols in this movie struck me as being a little corny. Visually, they are primarily sexual: phallic fence posts and some rockets, or the nympho- maniac blowingrout Giovanni's match. The auditory symbols are about civilization sterilizing life: traffic jams, electronic music be- hind the credits, and so forth. Then, of course, that expectable and terribly annoying helicopter, hallmark of heaven in the foreign film. Antonioni's special effects are superb and innovations. For in- stance, his juxtaposition of the compact game a deux with the same game as a crowd scene. Or, very significant, the dialogueless- dialogue in the rainy car: words cannot be heard but are perfectly clear from the gestures. At this juncture in movieland the plotless-plot and dialogueless dialogue don't quite add up to the artless art many accuse it of, but they come dangerously close. -Dick Pollinger LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Form, Not Bias THERE SEEMS to be a degree of misunderstanding on the part of a Daily reporter in sum- marizing the present work of Stu- dent Government Council. The ar- ticle which appeared on the front page of the Freshman Edition en- titled "Council to Consider Soror- ity Bias" has ambiguous phrases and misrepresents the situation in which the sororities are involved. The question is not bias, nor discrimination, but rather the sub- mission of statements summariz- ing membership regulations in a set form. It was found by the past president of SGC that some of the sororities failed to file a statement in the proper form; some of these did not submit another statement with additional information. Con- cerning the latter: some of the or- ganizations feel there is a princi- ple involved - namely that stu- dent groups should not have the power to judge and control such organizations. Since a group like SGC changes membership every six months, what is adequate or sufficient today may be inadequate tomorrow. Several years ago the members of the Panhellenic sys- tem were asked by the Student Af- fairs Committee to submit to the Administration copies of their constitutions. All sororities com- plied. Now it appears that this is not sufficient and more informa- tion is demanded. Sororities ques- tion "What will be next? How far will student authority go?" This is a question concerning the form of a statement and not discrimination or bias. This is a question of dealing not with the Administration but with a student group. -Jean Seinsheimer, Alpha Epsilon Phi -Fran Cousino, Delta Delta Delta -Joan Nash, Gamma Phi Beta -Gay Heiden, Kappa Delta -Kay Velker, Sigma Kappa -Kay Ozier, Phi Mu FEIFFER I FIRT zulI j( II1U.IL1 7 , i ~L1 ~ L IlII ~*hutft / t I . I ti n t I CO50iW. L{Ot) F11 tOV6 AVV ?I Lfou tve G,,, fw-\ -W1 1- I eF(UMflIJP. a.-LAUL'5