Sev nty-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
bere 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 al, reprints.
3SDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATTINGER

Crisis Gives Students
'Blue Ribbon' Opportunity

"What A Dirty Trick, Sneaking Up On Us
From Behind Like That."
-.-C
- i
-;
mw
qI
-Volk
S

INDIA
Government Most
Cope with Details

I A TIME when Regents, administra-
tors and faculty seem bent upon keep-
students deftly contained within nar-
v academic and activity spheres, the
ue /ribbon" Citizens Committee on
;her Education has offered a remark-
e opportunity for students of this state
express their wishes and needs directly
the policy makers.f
Phis opportunity is vested in a "student
ticipation project" which will organize
tudent committee to prepare a formal
ort on Michigan's higher education.,
ds. The purpose of the report-and'
s is the crucial point-will be to make
ormal written and oral presentation
ore Romney's Citizens' Committee on
;her Education, a group charged by the
'ernor to prepare a set of concrete
ns for the .development of Michigan's
per educational' system in the next
ade.
HAT UNDERLINES the importance of
the student participation project is
willingness of the "blue ribbon" com-
tee to Jsten. As the prospectus notes,
e opportunity has presented itself for
higan students to participate in the
g-range planning that will shape the
cational policies of the state for years
ome."
'here only remains the issue of whether
students in public higher education
oughout this state can work together
a meaningful consensus-and do it
hin the year that the Romney commit-
will be working.
.s an expediter and unifier, the United
tes National Student Association is do-
the original organizing although the
ject is to include representatives from
institutions-including those who are
affiliated with USNSA.

Representatives appointed by the vari-
ous student councils specifically for the
project will meet at the University late in
November. They will then elect the guts
of their.project-a 5-7 man steering com-
mittee which will work on a continuing
basis for roughly one year to prepare the
report under the general supervision of
the plenary group.
The completed report should be ready
by late next year only a short time before
the blue ribbon committee send its own
report to Romney.
BUT TIME, although a catalyst to dis-
aster, will not be the project's ulti-
mate downfall-if one there be.
What endangers the project is what en-
dangers any student step into unexplored
territory--the problem that having been
delegated to trivia throughout their ac-
tivity histories, how do students suddenly
adopt to a really worthwhile and poten-
tially power-lending situation?
"The point is," the prospectus states,
"that the Citizens Committee is willing to
take the student report seriously." This is
one instance where student insights and
viewpoints-unbiased by personal finan-
cial concerns that would beset adminis-
trators and faculty members-can have a
very valid reception.
But the responsibility to make the in-
sights valid is as enormous as it will be
difficult to achieve. Michigan students,
unsophisticated by nature and untested
by administrative design,.must rise to the
test.
Students must show the Regents, the
administrators and the faculty that it will
be citizens and students-not educators-
who resolve the crisis in Michigan higher
education.
-LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM

A

By WILLIAM CUMMINGS
SURENARA DEY'S RECENT
visit focuses our eyes on the
central problem in India's devel-
opment: the myth surrounding
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Neh-
ru's Plan. The broad principles of
Nehru's Plan have been limiting
the action of India's leadership
for the past 13 years, and the re-
sulting inflexibility may yet cause
that nation's death.
The reason behind this is that
action does not naturally follow
upon such a plan. Any social sys-
tem poses stubborn opposition
which only the most imaginative
administrative technique can con-
quer.
DEY IS only a minor figure
in Indian politics though as head
of the community development
program, he has one of the most
demanding leadership positions.
His task has been to create on
the village level of India a complete
network of political and social
institutions that will meet with
the acceptance of the peasants
and raise their productivity.
His sparse record of achieve-
ment is cause for concern. For
example, surely more significant
initial leaps could have been
achieved in agriculture. India's
average yield per acre in her
crops varied from one-sixth to
one-tenth of that in the United
States in 1951. Though he has
been leading the community de-
velopment program for 13 years,
this comparative statistic remains
the same. The respectable 2.5 per
cent economic growth rate that
Dey quoted is accounted for in
the industrial sector of 'India's
economy.
IN OUR COUNTRY a leader is
judged on his performance. It is
stale to say that India's bureau-
cracy is at fault. A bureaucracy is
a tool which a dynamic leader can
energize to achieve his goals. The
lack of imaginative leadership of
Dey and some of his cohorts is
the source of India's poor per-
formance.
Ultimately the blame rests on
the shoulders of India's Prime
Minister Nehru. He is the man
who has both created the Plan'
and been dictating the course of
action. His position of omnipo-
tence in Indian politics was es-
tablished with the death of the
two other principle revolutionary
leaders, Pandit Pant and Mahatma
Ghandhi. Upon their death, he
was able to introduce his first
Five Year Plan, a very modern
assimilation of Marxism and de-
mocracy.
* * *
NEHRU'S MINISTERS found it,
dangerous to do more than follow
the guidelines. He was a man who
ignored criticism from his foes,
and exchanged criticism with his
friends-for their dismissal.
A domineering head in a democ-
racy isa contradiction. Three
years ago, Indian politicians
awakened to their nation's stag-

nation under his leadership and
challenged his Plan. Nehru re-
luctantly decided to respond to
the growing opposition. His first
concession was in "defense" ma-
neuvers to appease critics of his
China policy; thus the excursion
into Portuguese Goa and a widely
approved conquest.
The act was fatal. Towering
Nehru's feet got the mud of popu-
lar trivia on them. And he has
been wallowing in the mud ever
since. Two events of the recent
past are remembered by the
American public.
EARLIER THIS YEAR Nehru
apparently had satisfied himself
that there would be no serious
objections among his countrymen
if India allowed the Voice of
America to build a giant generator
on her soil. India would receive
the use of this generator for all
but four hours each day, which
were reserved for American pur-
poses, and thus could reach a
much broader audience than with
the existing All-India Radio fa-
cilities.
The announcement of the nego-
tiated contract in India raised im-
mediate protests, and Nehru broke
the contract. Surely, he could have
sounded out 'the, opposition be-
fore applying the ink on the con-
tract.
A second case of equivocation,
this time caused by American
popular pressure, was on the Bo-
karo steel project. After repeat-
edly emphasizing the dire need
for a new steel mill at Bokaro,
and gaining the consensus of In-
dian business leaders that the mill
would be financed only through
capital loaned from the United
States government, Nehru dropped
his request for aid.
His consideration of President
John F. Kennedy's foreign aid
difficulties in this act would have,
been well received if his steel
minister didn't add as a postscript
India's intent to raise capital else-
where and continue the project.
The statement made Nehru appear
indecisive and cause one to wonder
if he did not seek foreign aid un-
der false pretences.
THIS RUMBLING is even more
apparent within India. Nehru's
recent attempt to closet himself
within a cabinet that speaks only
his political language indicates his
It is one thing to tell a country
where it should go and another to
lead a critical political system in
that direction.
THEY SAY it is difficult to
teach an old dog new tricks.
Nehru is a tired 74 and looking
increasingly feeble in his attempts
to learn the game of active poli-
tics. One doubts that his faithful
clique of "yes-men" are any more
receptive to creative ways of run-
ning the political system if Dey is
a fair sample. Are there any youth
in India who can learn in their
stead?

4


JUST IN SCHOOLS?.

E

The. Fraternity Image;

T THE PAST, the fraternity system has
been generally characterized by what
ght be called "perpetual Peter Pan-
n": the desire on the part of its mem-
s to avoid social and personal respon-
ility and to live life in a virtually un-
ferentiated haze of beer, vandalism
d sorority girls. Fortunately for the fra-
nity system, the present crop of fra-
nity leaders is concerned with chang-
some aspects of this fraternity "tra-
Ion."
the Babbitt-like outlook of the frater-
y system-which was more character-
[s of it in the past then it is today-
s produced an image of the "fraternity
y" that is hard to live down.
the passing.,of the "myth" out of ,the
pular imagination is hampered by the
t that the classical prejudices regard-
the system are reinforced by vocal
norities that tend to shape the atti-
les of the fraternities. Thus the "fra-
nity boy" presents the image of being
re conservative and middle class in his
itical- views, lacking in social commit-
nt, and anti-intellectual in his educa-
nal outlook, than his non-affiliate
interpart.
HESE GENERALIZATIONS are not as
true as they were 50 years ago, but they
vain nonetheless. For instance, when
npus politicians talk of a "fraternity
e," they are describing a real entity.
Len they speak of a "fraternity party"
y are referring to a very specific sort
social function. When a member of one
ternity says that the members of some
ises are "animals," he is referring to
lations in a spectrum of values that,
ietheless, has strong common ele-
nts.
'wo years ago, "Gargoyle," the campus
nor magazine, was reorganized after a
se in publication. The "humor" con-
j £j'I
Editorial Staff
RONALD WILTON, Editor
AVID MARCUS GERALD STOROH
Mtortal Director City Editor
MARA LAZARUS ......Personnel Director
LaIP SUTIN..............National Concerns Editor
L EVANS................Associate City Editor
tJORIE BRAHMS ......Associate Editorial Director
)RIA BOWLES................ Magazine Editor
JNDA BERRY..............Contributing Editor
E GOOD ...........................Sports Editor
E BLOCK ..............Associate Sports Editor
BERGER ................. Associate Sports Editor
ZWINCK. .......Contributing Sports Editor

tained in the magazine was specifically
directed toward the "fraternity" audi-
ence, and in it we see something of a rep-
resentation-perhaps an imperfect one-
of some of the common values of that
group. The dominant themes remain; po-
litical and social conservatism, immatur-
ity, and anti-intellectualism.
THE FRATERNITY SYSTEM has under-
gone changes in its economic and reli-
gious base. Notably, the Jewish fraterni-
ties have been, more or less, accepted in-
to the system. This change, however, has
not involved a widening of viewpoint be-
cause the integration of these groups into
the system has been conditional upon the
acceptance of the group ethic. Thecom-
position of the system has shifted, but the
values have remained the same.
The fraternity leaders at least have
been concerned with aspects of this "im-
age." The new rush booklet "Fraternities
at Michigan" represents a conscious ef-
fort on the part of its editors to develop
an emphasis if not on the intellectual at
least on the "academic" aspects of the
University. They have perhaps been a
little overzealous in creating the "new
look." Witness IFC President Clifford
Taylor's statement in "Fraternities at
Michigan" that the "complete abolition of
all written discriminatory clauses by the
houses on this campus and the complete
abolition of all forms of physical mis-
treatment in pledging" has been effected.
But responsible leaders of the fraterni-
ties on this campus are beginning to
realize that the bigotry, prankishness and
the tortuous moral hedonism that is part
and parcel of the fraternity psychology
will not survive the social forces now be-
ing unleashed in American society.
BUT MORE THAN resolution is neces-
sary to bring change in the "System."
The littering of the Michigan State Uni-
versity campus by some members of one
fraternity, reportedly with the tacit ap-
proval of most of the other members of
the house, indicates that fraternity
hooliganism is not dead. The fact that
three of the budding young artists of the
building set apprehended by MSU police
were members of another fraternity
which has been engaged in deliberately
remaking its image demonstrates that
more than a facelifting is necessary.
This is not to say that all fraternityj
members fit the stereotype; indeed, many
do not. It is true. however, that much of

Socie ty's
(EDITOR'SNOTE: The following
article is a reprint from the Oct. 5,
1963 "New Republic.")
By PAUL GOODMAN
IN 1900, 6.4 per cent of American
17 year Olds graduated from
high school, and perhaps another
10 or 15 per cent would have
graduated if they could have af-
forded it. This was not prestige
schooling, for only one in 400
went on to college. Now who, in
1900, were the other 93.6 per cent?
They were not called dropouts;
they went on to every career, from
shopkeeper, mechanic and farmer
to big entrepreneur, author, poli-
tician and including engineer, ar-
chitect and even lawyer. My guess
is that those who stayed in school,
or would have stayed, were ap-
proximately Dr. Conant's 15 per
cent of the "academically talent-
ed." Obviously with such students
there would be no problem of
blackboard jungles. The curricu-
lum that they were taughtwas
conservative but it could experi-
mentally evolve; it was culturally
valuable in itself and also tended
toward college entrance, hope-
fully for more and more students,
as society could progressively af-
ford it.
In 1960, however, 60 per cent
of American youngsters were grad-
uating from high school; and the
others were now "dropouts." What
occurred during this expansion?
We merely, as usual, took an
existing framework and aggran-
dized, standardized and bureau-
cratized it.
BY AND LARGE, until, say,
1945, the expansion was fairly
harmless. The underlying motives
were noble, benevolent, or at worst
foolish: a democratic ideal, the
need to occupy the young in-
creasingly excluded from'the labor
market, the quest for prestige.
Certainly the affluent society
could afford keeping the kids in
school. The academic types were
probably not much hurt-smart
kids can adjust to anything, ex-
cept being debauched by base
rewards. And so long as the at-
titude was easy going, the others
did not suffer more than bore-
dom. Unfortunately, however,
there came to be established the
misconception that being in school
was the only appropriate way of
being educated.
Academic talent, the ability to
profit by going to school, is a
special disposition, neither better
nor worse than any other. It does
require good intelligence; yet high
intelligence, grace and inventive-
ness need not be academic at all.
A school is fundamentally a box
with seats facing front. (Visiting
the schools as a member of a local
board in New York, I found that
the desks were no longer bolted
to the floor, but they were still
nicely lined up as of yore.) School
implies studying and a long at-
tention span, and it demands a
verbal and book-loving disposition.
"Curriculum" is, in principle, a
set of abstractions from actual
industries, arts, profession and
civic activities, and these abstrac-
finv nr . - ii. t F i _ n an

1*8

SUDDENLY in the past decade,
however, there has begun a f an-
tastic overestimation and bribery
of the scholarly disposition, which
has snowballed since Sputnik. It
is a, moral, emotional and intel-
lectual disaster. Instead of the
previous easy-going pace-with
"enrichment"-that was generally
tolerable though rather stupid,
there is strict grading, unscholarly
speed up, fierce competitiveness.
The majority are entirely sacri-
ficed for '"education"; all must
go to school-or drop out of the
economy.
The damage is universal. Intel-
ligent youngsters, whether book-
ish or non-bookish, can of course
perform, but for the non-bookish
the performance is a second-best
activity and the achievement is
fraudulent. The slower are tor-
mented and humiliated. But in
my opinion, the authentically
scholarly are even more injured;
the competition, the speed up and
the rewards create false values
and destroy the meaning of their
gifts. The studies are no longer
presented as though they were
intrinsically valuable. Bright
youngsters "do" Bronx Science in
order to "make" Harvard. In fact,
the motivation of society is narrow
and anti-intellectual; it is to give,
at public expense and eventually
at the parent's expense, apprentice
training for the corporations and
the armed forces. President Ken-
nedy, in his 1963 message -on edu-
cation, explained to us the moti-
vation to explore the unknown: it
is "for economic, military, medical
and other reasons!" (A professor
at Yale complained to me that,
though his students included many
excellent mathematicians who had
"mastered" the subject, not one
of them would be a good astrono-
mer. How was that? "They don't
love the stars," he said.)
EVEN IF the speed up, etc.,
were the social need, it is un-
necessary. Given a decent atmos-
phere, the academically disposed
will perform anyway, without the
grading and competition. The
creative, whether in the arts,
sciences or professions, do not
especially thrive by formal school-
ing; for some it is useful, for some
it is hurtful. Hopefully, an in-
creasingly automated industry will
require fewer, not more, second-
rate-academic clerical and tech-
nical performers. The majority
are being cruelly miseducated and
hoaxed; they will not get jobs
relevant to what they have been
put through. Dropouts are cajoled
by the promise of future rewards;
but what if these amount, finally,
to an increment of $5 a week-
is it worth the torture?hWould a
kid not be wiser to choose the
streets, if only they would stop
making him feel worthless?
As things are set up, of course,
there is no alternative, there is no
future for those without the school
diploma. The urban poor must
fi ,cl -n H oso . <. hi- -1

-on tle part of the highly in-
telligent-by "underachievement,"
for they do not want to "achieve"
in this way.

educational Hoax

* *

educators ought to be to explore
and invent other ways of educat-
ing than these schools, to suit the
varieties of talent and to meet the
needs of a peaceful future society
where there will be emphasis on
public goods rather than private
gadgets, where there will be in-
creasingly more employment in
human services rather than mass
production, a community-centered
leisure, an authentic rather than
a mass culture and a citizenry
with initiative rather, than one
increasingly bureaucratized and
brainwashed.
* * *
THE MOST PLAUSIBLE ex-
pedient for expanding education
is toecreate enterprises that ful-
fill social necessities and can also
be educational opportunities for
youngsters. These would provide
alternative choices instead of fur-
ther schooling; and we could spend
on them some of the money, now
misused for schools. (It costs $750
a year to keep a youngster in a
New York high school.) There are
plenty of educative opportunities:
improving 50,000 ugly small towns;
youth work camps in conservation
and urban renewal; countervail-
ing mass communications with
hundreds of little theaters, little
radio, local paper; technical ap-
prenticeships within the industries,
paid by public and corporation,
with the aim of making workmen
who understand what they are
doing and can be inventive; sub-
sidizing small farms, to make
them economically feasible and
reverse the rural ratio to some-
thing nearer 30 per cent, instead
of the present absurd eight per
cent; community service like
Friends Service and Peace Corps.
In such concrete activities, di-
rectly useful in society, millions
of youth could find educational
opportunity more tailored to their
needs. Are they less cultural than
the average classroom for the non-
bookish kid?
Probably even more important
educationally, adolescents could
then try out, instead of being
stuck on the present inexorable
12-16-year ladder of lessons and
recitation (really a fantastic situ-
ation). Many "late - bloomers"
might then choose to return to
more formal academic study, their
spirits not having been perma-
nently blighted by schooling that
was inappropriate to them and
that they went through unwilling-
ly. (The advantage of this was
evident among many on the GI-
bill between 1945 and 1950.) For
many others, who have chosen
work camps, farms or paid ap-
prenticeships, but who then want
a more liberal experience, we could
copy the Danish Folk Schools de-
signed for ages 18-25.
* ,, *
TO SUM UP: all should be edu-
cated and at the public expense,
but the idea that most should be
educated in something like schools
is a delusion and often a cruel
hoax. Our present way is wasteful
of wealth and human resources
and destructive of young spirit.
The better way is to expand social
needs that are also opportunities
,- n-tntin s .r-nn.a nfnA if



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Nobody Has
To Take It'

To the Editor:
AM WRITING as the bearer of
a host of epithets thrust at
me in extremely insulting fashion
from the mouth of a disarmingly
grinning envoy of the reincarna-
tion of David, Noah, and others
in corrupt modern America. I am
not, however, insulted at being
called a thin-skinned, white liberal
Jew. Nor am I writing to object to
the appearance of Mr. X (that is
his last name, I presume?). Every
revolution (and there is a social
re volution going on today in this
c untry) produces its extremist'
splinter groups.
There are always some people
who are dissatisfied with the pace,
the method, the leaders, the means
or the end. These groups split off
from the main stream to go their
own way, proceeding from valid
premises and just grievances but
twisting (or merely changing) the
conclusions or the basic aims of
the revolution. Please permit these
broad and somewhat hasty gen-
eralizations.
* , *
I WA$ PLEASED with the
chance to see such a movement's
chief representative. I wasuap-
palled at his program because I
have a completely different con-
ception about the nature of man,
about the nature of therrevolt
(Negro or black, whichever you
will), and about the possibilities
for reconciliation. I did not at-
tempt to argue with Mr. X because
I don't think that two people can
approach a problem without some
agreement as to fundamental def-
initions: Mr. X's are based on a
rather unique interpretation of
the Bible and a deep-rooted bit-
terness; mine are based on a
conglomeration of Judeo-Christian
assumptions including such un-
acceptable precepts as equality
and love.

the roar of approval which greet-
ed each of Mr. X's snotty remarks
about the Jews in America, I am
apparently wrong. Foremost in
the hearty shouts of hilarity (the
audience made more noise laugh-
ing at the anti-Semitic jokes than
at any other pronouncement of
the evening) were a number of,
Jewish students.
What's wrong, children? Are
you, too, anti-Semites? Or were
you simply shocked at your first
exposure to overt anti-Semitism?
Well, I was shocked at your re-
action-and at the general au-
dience reaction. We all turned out
to hear the race bigot and it turn-
ed out that we were bigots too.
* * *
AS MR. X SAID, the Irish can
take it, the Polish can take it,
even the Italians can take It, but
the Jews are thin skinned; they
can't take it. Dammit, Mr. X, why
does anyone have to "take it" in
America? The answer is that no-
body does; and when it's dished
out, one has to fight it-yes, fight
even the Kennedy administration
with its dragging feet-but do
fight. Don't run off to that fertile
bit of Zion.
--Peter Eisinger, '64

1

f

'Fink'

"_PINK" and the double pejorative
"rat fink" are the latest words
to be pulled from anonymity or
specialized jargon into common
usage.U nited States teen-agers
sprinkle their name-calling with
the term, unware of its bitter
origins.
According to the lexicographer
Bergen Evans of Northwestern
University, "fink" probably was
first used during the bloody