Seventy-Third Year EDrFED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Opinions Are FreeSTUDENT 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. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4,1962 NIGHT EDITOR: GERALD STORCH PROPOSED SPEAKER POLICY: New Bylaw Violates University. Precepts Professional Theatre Faces Challenge W ITH THE arrival of the Association of Producing Artists to the University com- munity, a link is being established between the professional theatre which Broadway audiences know and the often bland, mediocre fare to which Ann Arborites are accustomed. APA brings with it the skill and polish of performers who have had long tenure on Broadway, as well as in theatres across the country, movies and television. On the whole, their names are not, to the average reader of "The New York Times" drama section, es- pecially well known, but they bring with them experience, dedication and the ideal of artists commonly known as "art for art's sake." The last attribute is a trite phrase for a scarce commodity. Today, on Broadway and off, the performer must be concerned with a myriad of factors which may hamper or aid his performance: technical workers, producers and directors, getting and keeping an aud- ience, and, most important, obtaining the financial backing to put on a show. The repertoire group, which composes the APA, 'solves many of these problems. It is an "organic unity," according to artistic director Jaywling THE CITY OF ANN ARBOR is making money again, hand over fist, as the jaywalking dol- lars roll in. Those dedicated servants of public justice, fondly known as the cops, wait with nonchalant smiles as you peacefully cross a street with no moving automobiles in sight, and then they make out a dandy little ticket worth $1 ($2 after three days) to the cause of civil or- der. The reason? The pedestrian light was the wrong color. Now, I have no great gripe against being generally protected by my avowed friends, the neighborhood policemen. My mommy always told me that they would take care of me when I was lost, and I believed her. But I find it downright insulting when it is assumed that an inanimate lighting fixture knows more about the movements of vehicles.along a street than I do. My mommy also taught me always to look up and down both ways before I crossed a street. I find it preposterous that the fair city of Ann Arbor should seek to replace my mommy's infinite wisdom with the automatic blink of a traffic light, and then have the auda- city to charge me good money (which happens to belong to my parents) for choosing to obey her instead of it. MOMMY ASIDE, I resent being deprived of freedom of will, particularly since I take reasonable care to base my actions on an ac- curate appraisal of the facts of traffic, motion. After years and years of crossing streets, I hon- estly believe that I know how. My mommy doesn't worry about me any more. Why should Ann Arbor? Ann Arbor obviously has faith in my eye- sight, because it. has generously set out traffic lights for me to perceive. I maintain that if my eyes can be trusted to see Ann Arbor's traffic signals, they can likewise be trusted to see the thunderous bulk of a vehicle bent on my de- struction. If I want to risk my life, I respectfully sub- mit that that is my business. I would like to be permitted to mind it. And I wish the Ann Arbor police would devote themselves to more serious business, before I lose my respect for the law altogether. -MARTHA MacNEAL Ellis Rabb; it is a self-contained unit, in which each part works for the good of the whole. It's financial worries, the "angel" every pro- duction must have, are solved by the University, which is supporting it until the APA becomes a self-supporting unit, through ticket sales. The three-year contract, easily breakable by either the University of APA, nevertheless provides a security which actors seldom have. IT IS THIS security which allows APA the privilege of attempting "art for art's sake." The company does not have to be primarily concerned with their next performance or their next audience. By selling season tickets, and by having a fairly secure contract, they can concentrate on the art of acting. They do not have to primarily be concerned with selling their play choices or with presenting gimmick productions. Instead they can con- centrate on doing the most competent job they can. However, the future does not loom all rosy and perfect for APA, or for the entire Profes- sional Theatre Program, for that matter. The Schnitzers' pet project will have to undergo the test of a community which has long been considered a cultural center and will have to perform up to expectation, for they are pro- fessionals and not to be patted on the head and excused as might the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre. The town's dowagers and some students, who in the past have been sufficient to support Ann Arbor's theatre, now will have to be sup- plemented by a larger audience who will attend a greater number of performances than before. The general concensus, however, is that the more good theatre there is, the more audiences will become accustomed to attending the theatre. Eyentually, Ann Arborites and students will go to the theatre as normally as they would to the movies, the Professional Theatre staff hopes. IN THE meantime, however, APA-as well as the rest of the Professional Theatre Program --will have to prove itself. The first selection of plays is well chosen, at least as far as var- iety. The combination of George M. Cohan, a young British writer named Whiting, play- wright-in-residence Baldridge, Henrik Ibsen and eighteenth century Richard -Sheridan is certainly smorgasbord. The academic value of this program is un- questionably worthwhile. One of the Profes- sional Theatre's main goals is to supplement the cultural and academic offerings of the University. What better way is there than actually seeing a Shakespearean play to under- stand the play in its fullest. In this aspect, APA is invaluable to the University. ON THE national level, the coming of reper- toire theatre to this University means a new beginning for theatre throughout the country. In the United States, the arts are not govern- ment subsidized. Actors, playhouses and play- wrights are left to fend for themselves and in many large cities, including New York and Chicago, the number of theatres has sharply declined. Movements such as Tyrone Guthrie's theatre at the University of Minnesota, the Phoenix Playhouse, and the University's Professional Theatre Program bolster theatre in this coun- try, bringing it to areas of the United States which previously saw only summer stock, tour- ing companies or community theatre. APA, and companieslike it, will act as a link between Broadway and the whole outer realm, in this country so often on the far, black edges -MARJORIE BRAHMS By ROBERT SELWA THE REGENT'S proposed bylaw on outside speakers violates the ideals it sets up. The proposed bylaw cites the "obligation of the University to be a free forum for ideas." The University should "foster a spirit of free inquiry" about "a wide var- iety of issues" with the views ex- pressed being subject "to critical evaluation." This is fine, and the bylaw even goes so far as to establish a Committee on Public Discussion to arrange to bring speakers "with a wide variety of viewpoints" to the University. But then the limitations begin, negating the ideals to which the Regents have just dedicated the University. "Restraints on free inquiry," the proposed bylaw con- tinues, "should be held to that minimum which is consistent with preserving an organized society in which peaceful, democratic means for change are available.,.*. "The speaker must not advocate or urge the audience to take ac- tion which is prohibited by the rules of the University or which is illegal under federal or state law. Advocating or urging the modification of the government of the United States or of the State of Michigan by violence or sabotage, is specifically pro- hibited." The bylaw holds the sponsoring organization responsible and "sub- ject to the prodecures and penal- ties applicable" if the above pro- vision is violated. * * * AT FIRST glance this may not seem to be precensorship. There might seem to be some distinc- tion between preventing a speaker from presenting an idea, and giv- ing out punishment after the idea is presented. This distinction was made in Old England, on the thesis that all ideas should be pre- sented once, but that once is enough if the idea is supposedly dangerous. T h e distinction persists in Western civilization in matters of libel. The law does not prevent a libelous statement from being made, but then the person or in- stitution responsible is immediate- ly subject to prosecution if the libelled party desires. The law is now constituted like this on the premise that the fear of subse- quent punishment in most cases will prevent a libelous statement from being made. In short, sub- sequent punishment will provide a suposedly voluntary but actually coerced precensorship. When the threat of subsequent punishment is applied to the realm of ideas and opinions, the same type of supposedly volun- tary but actually coerced precen- sorship results. And this is what the proposed new bylaw consti- tutes: a facade of voluntary pre- censorship coerced by the threat of punishment. It is like telling a soldier that unless he refrains from criticizing the food, he will be forced to wash the dishes. THE PRECENSORSHIP is ex- ercised in particular on speakers who would advocate the overthrow of the government. This is nothing new. It goes back most directly to the Alien Registration (Smrith) Act of 1940 but also goes back to the sedition acts of 1917 and 1798. In all three instances, the legisla- tion was directed toward prevent- ing (in the words of the Smith Act) any person from advocating, advising or teaching the duty, ne- cessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence or by assasin- ation of a public leader. In each circumstance the legis- lation was the result of a war at- mosphere; today it is the Cold War with the Communists that spurs maintainence of the Smith Act and enactment of a bylaw that in essence prohibits the ad- vocacy of violent overthrow. American history bears out two well known examples of when ad- vocacy has lead to serious trouble -neither occurring at the periods of hysteria that sprawned restric- tive legislation on speech. The ex- amples are Shay's Rebellion, 1786- 87, and the assassination of Presi- dent William McKinley in 1901. * * * IN 1786, the Massacusetts legis- lature adjourned to evade the pro- tests of discontented farmers. Popular discontent resulting from the economic stress of the period then erupted at village meetings. Crowds turned into mobs as the idea of overthrowing the govern- ment caught on. The rebellion was put down with bloodshed by the state militia. In 1901, 28-year-old Leon Czol- gosz, a half-demented malcontent according to W. A. Swanberg, at- tended a lecture given by Emma Goldman, the anarchist. This lec- ture inspired him to shoot the President. McKinley died a few days later. But even in these two circum- stances, repression of the advo- cacy of violently overthrowing the government would not have done much good. If thengovern- ment would have tried to suppress the farmers from expressing their opinions, the rebellion might have erupted more quickly and more violently. If E m m a Goldman would have been prevented from urging violent overthrow, Czolgoszo in his tortured frame of mind may have decided by himself to domas he did. The idea could still have come to him from the anarchist literature he read; and even if all governments throughout all his- tory had: suppressed all anarchist speech and literature, the idea still could have originated for Czolgosz within himself. Shay's rebellion could have been prevented not by suppression of the advocacy of violent overthrow but by courageous confrontation of this idea and the conditions that led to its fomenting, confrontation' avoided by the cowardly legislators' of Mass'achusetts in 1786. * * * WHEN THE University takes on the role (as it has since 1920) of the suppressor of the idea of vio- lent overthrow, it becomes as the Massachusetts legislators, fleeing from discussion and debate. Fur- thermore, the University in effect. tells students and faculty: "We can't trust you to hear all ideas. You are so weak and easily misled that if someone told you to overthrow the government by violence, you just might do it. So we must protect the government from you by preventing you from WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT . .. banned by 'U' hearing in public on campus the idea of violent overthrow. We must draw limits to the scope of your intellectual inquiry, f o r while you may be able to read the idea and not be moved by it, you are sufficiently unstable to fall for it when it is spoken." A. ban is a deed of di trust. It signifies a lack of confidence by the University in the faculty and, students whom it has so carefully selected as the most intelligent to teach and learn here. The Uni- versity is being hypocritical not only with its own ideals ("this ob- ligation . .. to be a free forum for ideas . . . to foster a spirit of free Inquiry. . .") but is also being hypocritical in regard to its ad- mission standards. * * * WERE THE issue merely that of permitting for the first time a Communist to speak on campus, the situation would not be so grave, for Communists have come to Ann Arbor and have spoken to mass meetings of students off campus many times. But the issue is far more than this: it centers around the deed of today's Re- gents in putting in new words the same old ban that past Regents have maintained for 42 years, a ban supplementing restrictions be- gan in 1914. Consider these state- ments:' 1914, the Regents: "The use of Hill Auditorium for free discussion of all topics is not now necessary nor expedient." 1916, the Regents: "Speakers shall preserve an attitude of strict neutrality in regard to the present European situation." 1920, the Regents: "The use of Hill Auditorium may be granted to student organizations for lectures or addresses .. . under guarantee that during such addresses there shall be no violation of recognized rules of hospitality, nor advocacy of the subversion of the govern- ment . .. 1935, President Alexander G. Ruthven: "Perversive activities of a few professional agitators" will no longer be tolerated and "per- sons responsible for organizing or conducting meetings contrary to this rule will be dealt with promptly and vigorously." 1949, the Regents: "No address- es shall be allowed which urge the destruction or modification of government by violence or other unlawful methods, or which advo- cate or Justify conduct which vio- lates the fundamentals of our ac- cepted code of morals." IS IT unique for a University to prevent vistors from advocating the violent overthrow of govern- ment, when it has already pre- vented a former President of the United States, William Howard Taft, from discussing the League of Nations? No, it is not unique- and the proposed new bylaw could be used to punish any organiza- tion that brought a follower of Henry David Thoreau to advocate his ideas of civil disobedience ("The speaker must not advocate ... action . . . illegal under fed- eral or state law."). The Regents justify their re- straints in the proposed bylaw as "consistent with preserving an or- ganized society .in which peaceful, democratic means for change are available." This repudiates democ- racy in the name of democracy; free inquiry is no longer free in- quiry when it has limitations. There is a contradiction in saying that freedom of inquiry must be restrained in order to be main- tained, for it is no longer main- tained when it is restrained. Fur- thermore, an organized society re- mains organized through the pow- er of the state to prevent unlaw- ful action, not through suppres- sion of ideas, which only results in martyrdom and a greater spirit of rebellion. 4. * * IN AMERICA, the democratic process has made possible the maintainence of order, while abor- tions of that process -- as with Shay's'Rebellion-have resulted In the disturbance of order. If the Regents would be true to their excellent ideals of free inquiry and critical evaluation, they should drop from the pro- posed bylaw, part 1A of section 8.11A which prohibits certain kinds of ideas.. There should be no barrier between any idea and the University community. I I, ; i Higher Edu c ao In Missisbippi - .; . New Homeco THE GALA event of Homecoming is seriously ill if not close to death. If it survives it will be through the work of the Union, the League and this year's Homecoming chairmen. In the last two years Homecoming has lost close to $1,600.-There was poor attendance at the all campus dance last year. The lack of interest in last year's alumni picnic caused it to be omitted from this year's schedule of events. In the ,past the Union and the League have handled the administrative end of Homecoming while Student Government Council has taken care of the finances. However, this year the Union and the League are taking care of both of these responsibilities. ROBERT FINKE, president of the Michigan Union, and Margaret Skiles, president of the Women's League, agreed that if Homecom- Editorial Staff MICHAEL OLINICK, Editor JUDITH OPPENHEIM MICHAEL HARRAH Editorial Director City Editor CAROLINE DOW...... .......Personnel Director JUDITH BLEIER ............... Associate City Editor )min Format' ing is highly unsuccessful this year that their organizations would probably hand it back to SGC. However, certain optimistic observers believe that Homecoming would still exist even if this year's program is a failure. As one Union board member noted, "Homecoming as we presently know it would probably not remain; but what would remain would be something which would be greatly changed." Homecoming has already been greatly al- tered. The costly and ill attended all-campus dance has been replaced by live entertainment in Hill Aud. Following the program at Hill Aud. will be two dances to be held at the Union. The Homecoming committee has planned for a twist band downstairs and an eight to ten piece band upstairs. Many other innovations have been introduced by the committee. IF IT IS to be changed again, the new pro- duct woulud raise the question of whether or not Homecoming would be worth saving. These questions would only have to be answered if Homecoming was a failure this year. If .attendance at their first mass meeting is any indication, this year's event will not fail. At this meeting, between three and four hun- dred students showed up. They represented the various fraternities, sororities, and residence halls. APA PREMIER: Scandal' Superb, Cast Excellent FOLLOWING MONTHS of publicity consisting of rave reviews from all Broadway critics, years of planning by the University, and waves of expectation from the University community and the theatre world in general, the Association of Producing Artists; prodigal child of the University Professional Theatre Program, began its fall drama festival last night at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre with a performance of Sheridan's "School for Scandal." Interest was exceedingly high to see if this company could possibly live up to the reputation which proceeded them. No one need have worried. The opening production of the APA was, in a word, triumphant. Displaying a cast of uniformly brilliant actors, the company quickly dispelled the doubts of the staunchest of skeptics by moving effortlessly through the intricacies of Sheridan's cbmedy of manners in a production which dazzled the eye, pleased the ear, and evoked gales of laughter from the opening-night crowd. The star of the evening, fortunately, was Sheridan. "School for Scandal," the finest comedy of manners between Congreve and Wilde, is hardly a museum piece. But in the hands of this highly skilled company, the extremely intricate balance of characters is maintained superbly, and the play itself becomes not mustily amusing in the academic sense, but down-right hilarious, exactly the result Sheridan desired, in his day, and a tribute to the lasting brilliance of the play. The set is tasteful and simple, one room changed to many through use of swiftly moving backdrops, and stylishly sparse furniture ar- ranged before our eyes by a staff of delightfully choreographed ser- vants who efficiently order the set while they flirt, gossip, and spy. IN A CAST where brilliant and established actors abound, one is at a loss to evaluate the performances which deserve special notice. All were excellent, and it is a tribute to the director and to the cast that such a total feeling of ensemble can be attained by so many actors of "Star" calibre. Anne Meacham as Maria, Enid Markey as Mrs. Candour and Cavada Humphrey as Lady Sneerwell were delightful and totally effective in comparatively minor roles, although it was curious to watch Miss Humphrey seemingly pull slightly away from the cast in the second act and into {a more personally oriented melodramatic Lady Sneerwell. To have an actress of the calibre of Miss Meacham playing a relatively inconsequential ingenue is a credit to this company. Of the men, David Hooks' vigorous Sir Oliver Surface was thoroughly consistent as were the performances of Keene Curtis as Sir Benjamin, and Clayton Corzatte as Charles Surface. Will Geer's Sir Peter Teazle was a wonder to behold. The role of Sir Peter is almost always amusing, but hardly ever endearing. Playing with his customary warmth and gusto, Mr. Geer delivers a performance which must be cited as the final word on this character- ization. Doing the most remarkable things with her face and hands, and humming just a little distractedly, Rosemary Harris captivated the audience with a light and airy Lady Teazle which gives definition, development and pure delight to every line. The scenes between these two distinguished actors were totally charming. * * * * FINALLY ELLIS RABB must be singled out in two capacities. In his role of Joseph Surface he never really has an opportunity to take '4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Asks Inter-Racial Space Twins, To the editor: IN THE realm of space tech- nology President Kennedy and the American people have an op- portunity to perform an event that will blazon the skies and strike streamers into the dark reaches of space more than any scientific "firsts" of the Russians. Times of a great national crisis or rejoicing have somehow a way of eliminating or reducing the prejudices of the common masses. It was at a time of crisis when great naims andi traic places l ike same capsule under the Gemini (Gemini means twins) project, the entire nation-young and old alike --will be glued to the TV or radio, breathlessly taking in every word uttered and every development second by second. It is then that the common masses tend to for- get their prejudices and accept great changes. * * * LET NOT one kid oneself to feel that it is not possible to find a Negro astronaut as good as a white one. All astronauts come a white and the other a Negro.. Then all boys -and girls, men and women, across. the country and across the world, will lisp the names of two Americans, one a white, the other a Negro, all in one breath without any prejudice. And let there be an American Negro astronaut in the team that makes the first American trip to the Moon. When the ends of earth were pioneered, racial prejudices were carried with it. But when the ends of uncontaminated space are "colonized," let racial pre- A