Seventieth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Education and the Space Age hen Opinions Are Free Truth Will Prevail" We'll have to move, Mother. This neighborhood isn't what it used to be. Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. LIBERAL EDUCATION: Distribution Courses Serve Good Purpose I .Y, OCTOBER 11, 1959 NIGHT EDITOR: THOMAS KABAKER Reasoned Anti-Communism Ma Ma Utimte S r vvalR a )EACE, COEXISTENCE, total disarmament, United Nations police and inspection teams, ultural exchange-these are terms which have aken on the unfortunate ring of a policy of owardly appeasement. Many Americans shy way from such talk, which to them smacks f selling one's soul to the devil. For those who el guilty about such survival-oriented poli- .es, it becomes necessary to picture the alter- atives. It is possible for the United States to insult [r. Khrushchev and company at every oppor- unity. Americans may accuse him of lying hen he speaks of coexistence, and they may efuse to meet with him at the summit, arming iemselves to the hilt to fortress our defiance. et, now, having renounced this agent of hu- Ian suffering, may we feel less guilty? What ould follow? First, the Russians and the United States, ould continue the race for arms supremacy, id eventually, a most cherished fiction-that ie threat of retaliation is an effective deter- nt to aggression-would be exploded.. 'HE HISTORY of technology promises us that the present. guided missiles and nuclear ombs are not the last word in military might., or are present radar screens and anti-missile ckets the last word in defensive procedures. ne new, major breakthrough might put either ie Russians or the United States far ahead i destructive capacity with a speed and com- leteness which would make retaliation only an npty threat. Meanwhile, the economic debilitation and 1e austerity imposed upon the civilian popu- ,tion, which would accompany an all-out arms ice must also be kept in mind. More important, a totalitarian state is able 3 mobilize its population and scientists to a uch greater degree than would be possible i a democratic society. The odds that Russia uld break through first are awfully high to sk betting against. HE SUCCESS of the tracking and guiding. systems used in the Soviet moon shot leave doubt that even at present; Soviet missiles in deliver nuclear warheads within five miles . the center of any American city. And al- lough the United States set up a. fairly elabor- to system of bomb shelters, they cannot count on more than seventeen minutes of warning, hardly enough time to round up the population. If some did make it, they would eventually need supplies, but the fallout would mean death within a wide range of the actual strike. Never again in their lifetime would they be able to drink water or milk uncontaminated by radio- active fallout, which means leukemia, genetic damage, and (as our Japanese allies still re- port 15 years after Hiroshima) death from the' effects of fallout. And what of the unfortunate people of Hun- gary, Poldnd, the U.S.S.R.? What of our allies in Western Europe? Total warfare will destroy most of them. The couuntry which has for 50 long defended constitutional democracy, fought for the one system which makes every effort to protect the innocent, will destroy a much great- er number of innocent persons than guilty ones. Our hasty retaliation will certainly be less well aimed than the coldly planned Soviet attack. It may or may not get Mr. K. and party-and if it does, so what? It will almost undoubtedly be too late. FACED WITH such alternatives as exist, many of the most brilliant and idealistic thinkers of- our time, including Norman Cou- sins, C. Wright Mills, Linus Pauling, and Ber-. trand Russell, all firm lovers of democracy and opponents of totalitarianism, have devoted themselves to the ideas of peace, co-existence, total disarmament, United Nations police and inspection teams, and world government. Their argument is that destroying human ci- vilization is, to say the least, an immoral and senseless way of opposing Communism. Yet, we are very liable to do this, merely by letting events proceed on their present course. There are times for true believers in free- dom to fight and die for their beliefs. There is also a time for such people to stay alive in ord- er to preserve hope of a continued struggle for their ideals. The longer road to slight relaxation of the mutual concessions, and extended cultural Soviet grasp upon the people of Hungary, the road that goes through diplomatic friendships, exchanges in a completely demilitarized atmos- phere, is a slow and tiring one. Yet, truly cour- ageous persons are fighting with all their re- sources for this alternative. And for people who value the worth of human life there is no other way. -MARK PILISUK By KATHLEEN MOORE Daily Staff Writer A BASIC UNREST, tabbed the "school dilemma" by the Sat- urday Review, has been growing in educational circles ever since Sputnik catapulted into space and jarred American complacency. The dilemma lies in how the educa- tional system can be improved and modernized without sacrificing ei- ther the broad basis in liberal arts or the specialization so often need- ed to earn a living today. Although the most burning dis- cussions center on the high schools, .the nation's colleges and universities are not neglected. Lit- erary college distribution require- ments at the University, for ex- emple, undergo constant reevalua- tion and, revision, as many stu- dents found to their chagrin this fall when they elected suddenly nonexistent courses. ,Specialization is necessary, even In, the liberal arts and within di- visions of it-one can concentrate on international relations or par- tisan politics in political science, study literature or composition in the English department, and the areas from which the history ma- jor may choose to focus are many. * * * BECAUSE OF THE panoramic offerings open to him in his owns -Dailv~--res Richman SHOULD BE REALISTIC: Technical Education Justified for Full Li fe. By NAN MARKEL Daily Staff Writer WHY NOT go to engine school? Technical education can de- velop individual creativity as well as liberal education. A bubble) chamber is as much a creation as a painting. Technical and vocational edu- cation enable men to live well- rounded lives. For work itself is, a primary part of existence. A man spends at least a fourth of his working life at his job. Work- ing forty hours a week, this leaves only 128 hours for leisure and sleep. 'USUALLY creativity takes place in the vocational framework. Even if a man creates nothing, he can make himself satisfied by doing a job well. A man may spend all his life putting parts together in an as- sembly line. Walk past his line some day, he will fit them togeth- er with amazing speed, showing off for visitors. He doesn't do much, but what he does he does well - and he is proud of it. A more challenging job done well brings even greater satisfac- tion. In engineering, in physics, in writing a novel, a job is best done when done creatively. Many fields, such as advertising, de- mand creativeenergy; without it you're fired. ** * VOCATIONAL training means a man has a better chance of do- ing his job well.. Sure, you can't tell someone how to create. But he must know the fundamentals be- fore he goes on to more advanced work. Einstein knew elementary algebra before he knew relativity. There is a place for liberal training. A humanistic orientation pts life and work in perspective. A little, or a lot, of culture goes a long way to answer 'What am I doing? Where am I going?' At its most superficial, "culture" can definitely enrich leisure time. And a little humanistic knowledge can direct a man's creative ac- complishments, influence a scien- tist to break down atoms for peace' rather than bombs, influence a novelist to write "War and Peace" rather than sex novels. (Unfor- tunately the human perspective which can come from a liberal training can also be overcome by offers of money for bu il d in g bombs and writing sex novels.) * * * MANY EDUCATORS overrate the importance of liberal educa- tion, because they assume that vocational knowledge will come one way or another and they don't have to worry about it. Liberal arts are stressed just to assure lib- eral arts of a place in the educa- tional picture. But can it be assumed that vo- cational. knowledge will come, somehow? For assembly line work, yes. But for building a bridge or turning out a newspaper or sitting on Wall Street, no. The English lit. special- ist is best fitted for teaching Eng- lish literature, and not very well fitted to do anything° else. Witness the numbers of college students who at graduation can think of nothing to do but return to the academic life. Their train- ing solely in the liberal arts means that they are ready only to find work in the realmof liberal arts. * * * THEY STRUGGLE to find jobs in the "world" and usually do. But why struggle? For women, especially, a voca- tion is a good thing. Creativity aside, it has less idealistic im- portance. Often young married women must work to pay their husbands' way through college. If they're trained in the liberal arts, "they can always teach," but not all women are, suited for teaching. Many women today are left with empty lives when their chil- dren mature and disappear. ' The worthwhile life, the "heroic' life which humanists deify, finds final expression in life work. And most people do not work in liberal' arts. field of interest, the student often finds it hard to understand why he is required to "waste his time" on three semesters of a natural science or even two of English composition. Yet the University in- sists, and insists that students in other, more specialized under- graduate colleges, take at least a handful of electives from literary college offerings. One reason for the policy may stem from the idea that life be- yond the college campus prob- ably won't be so neatly compart- mentalized - the engineer, nurse and advertising executive will be rubbing elbows, at least socially, with people from other fields with other interests. To form any kind of satisfying social relationship, the people involved must have something in commin, perhaps an acquaintance with the works of the same poet, or varying degrees of knowledge on the red shift theory in astronomy. Another concideration might concern growing internatioial as- pects" of modern life. High power communication and travel media constantly bring the contrasting cultures of the world into closer and closer contact. The chemical engineer assigned to the Near East some of its customs and tradi- may find it convenient to know tions'- perhaps the major beliefs of Islam or attitudes toward mer- chants would come in handy when dealing and working with the peo- ple there. And the history or English ma- jor certainly can't be harmed by an introduction.to the methodolo- gy employed by scientists, even though he will never apply their techniques himself. DISTRIBUTION requirements, -in other words, force the student to sample a variety of academic disciplines besides his own so that he may discover for himself the diversity of knowledge and ways used in seeking that knowledge. He is exposed to contrasting cul- tures, attitudes toward modern civilization and methods of work with the hope that he will profit from the experience by learning' to appreciate the way of life of his neighbor, both here and abroad. Students, after they have com- pleted that third semester of na- tural science, often begin to voice the idea that the time may not have been wasted after all, even if they have no desire to take any more such courses-they seem to feel that learning how the geolo- gist goes about his study of the earthy is, perhaps, more interest- ing than they had anticipated. Bringing the contrasts between the diverse fields of study more sharply into focus is the concern of the literary college committee working to improve distribution courses. It might well be the con- cern of the educators now tangl- ing with the dilemma of what they feel is either too little or too much specialization-keep special- ization, but add a bit of the cos- mopolitan too. ; AX LERNER: The End of the Pro-Consuls ON HER 75TH BIRTHDAY: Mrs. Roosevelt a 'world Symbol' NEW DELHI-The big fact in the British elections has been the role Britain will play of peacemaker. Thrusting minor issues aside, the major one has been fought out in the shadow of the coming summit conference: who could best talk with Khrushchev-Macmillan or Gaitskill? " I suspect that the American elections will turn on the same hinge: who can best talk with Khrushchev-Nixon or Kennedy, Rockefeller or Stevenson? The difference between the two :ountries is that while the American President for some years to come will be'meetiing in sum- mit talks with the Russian Chairman ("two or three a year" is Khrushchev's estimate) and will be tussling directly with him because these are the two Great Powers, the role of the Brit- sh Prime Minister will be to mediate between the two and ke p the talks from breaking down. The real issue between Labor and the Qon- servatives in the election has been whether this could best be done by a Party whose leader explored the road to Moscow but is trusted in Washington, or by a Party whose semi-Marxist radition (now drastically diluted, to be sure) nakes its leaders understand the thinking of he Russian leaders better, and therefore able o interpret Moscow and Washington to each other. - Put thus the difference gets pretty thin. Yet his (along with intangibles like the feel of prosperity, the Jasper affair, the look of Mac- nillan and Gaitskill on TV, the debate over the Gallup Polls) is what elections get decided on. WHEN I WAS in London during the Eisen- hower visit my mind went back to my pre- rious trips to England. I first saw London in December, 1944, when I came there as a cor- espondent, just off a troopship, in a blackout. 'or the past decade I have kept coming back, >f ten timing myself to the Labor Party annual :onference. I have been reviewing in my memory the or-' leals I have suffered for the sake of attending hese conferences. I think of the dreary water- ng places I have had to stay in (for some rea- on the British always do their Party planning n some version of Atlantic City), the leathery neals I have had to eat, the Victorian (or Ed- vardian if I was lucky) rooms I have tried to leep in, the initerminable debates I have trieC o follow in vast draughty halls, the intricacies and intrigues of British Party politics I have sought to decipher. I remember the awkward dances that always ended the conference, with Herbert Morrison and Clement Attlee( now both become Lords) pushing their partners around the floor in a graceless effort to show that after burying their knives in each other all Laborites are -jolly lads and lasses together. If you ask why I didn't also attend the Con- servative conferences, the answer is that I live under an American Constitution, and that would have come under the head of cruel and unusual punishment. But another answer is that the Labor Party had the more interest- ing men, and I felt closer to them-men like Harold Laski; Nye Bevan, Sam Watson, Rich- ard Crossman, Stafford Cripps, Jim Griffiths, and Hugh Gaitskill. I found in the Labor lead- ers both the discipline of ideas and the.,passion for politics and debate which has always drawn me and will always draw me, no matter in what part of the world. THE NEW EMPIRES of our time-the Ameri- 1 can, the Russian, the Chinese-are vast power-structures built on a massive base of ter- ritory and resources. The British Empire was one of the few in history which was built on a slim base, so that a handful of people from a 'few rocky islands had somehow, found the magic to conquer and rule half the world. When Disraeli presented Victoria with the title, Em- press of India, making a dowdy English ma- tron the ruler of a sub-Continent thousands of miles away, with hundreds of millions of dark- skinned subjects, the British were in the noon- day of their power. Twilight came swiftly. Today the time of the pro-consuls is over. The British diplomats with whom I have talked as I travel about are usu- ally cultivated and able men, but-like the French-they present that thin edge of ironic futility that men have who feel they are on the rim of power, not at the center. The attitude of the British leaders of both parties toward America is still the "Athens complex", much like that of, the Greeks at the time of the Ro- man empire, who saw their mission as one of guiding the power of Rome by the values and wisdom of Athens. THEY HAVE LEFT an impressive residue on the world. Here in Indiathe whole massive experiment in democracy would be impossible By JUDITH DONER Daily Staff Writer "SHE WASN'T the President's wife-she was Eleanor Roose- velt." So spoke Prof. William Haber of the economics department, of the evolution in the personality of the woman who had once been too un- sure of herself to give a dinner party and too meek to fire an inept maid for her children. Prof. Haber's is a knowledgeable opinion, for he has had personal contact with the woman who cele- brates her 75th birthday today. "She was the real spark plug be- hind the creation of the National Youth Administration (NYA) born in the depths of the depression," Prof. Haber related. It was while working with the NYA that he and Mrs. Roosevelt became acquainted. Prof. Haber later served as state director of the organization. Mrs. Roosevelt was deeply dis- turbed about what was happening to youth during the depression of the thirties, he reported. As she traveled all over the country, she invariably got into conversations about young people. She feared that their idleness and the economic problems of their families would plant seeds for a difficult future in the minds of the 'nation's youth. FOR THESE REASONS, the NYA born: It was, in fact, a Works Pro- gress Administration (WPA) for youth, Pof. Haber explained. "Hun- dreds of thousands of students con- tiinued in high schools and col- leges on NYA stipends, in return for certain kinds of work." Prof. Haber remarked that the NYA creation was just an example of the universalism of Mrs. Roose- velt's interests and her mind. "She gives me the impression of pos- sessing tremendous intuitive pow- ers--sensing and feeling what oth- er people learn by research and reason," he explained. Genuinely and deeply disturbed and involved in the fate of refu- gees and hurt people everywhere, Mrs. Roosevelt has become an in- ternational symbol of the kind of goodness and humanitarianism which has so long been associated versal recognition of her humanity --made it possible for her to have an influence beyond her mere membership." This influence had a lot to do with the kinds of resolutions on health, on the conditions of wo- men workers, education, and child labor introduced, discussed and passed by the United Nations, Prof. Haber said. * * * CHARACTERIZING HER as a woman of infinite patience when it comes to answering questions of young people, Prof. Haber recalled that she spoke for over an hour and answered questions for anoth- er 30 minutes in her most recent Hill Auditorium appearance. "Considering her age and her trayels, I sought to protect her against further questions from stu- dents who wished to enter the louunge where she was resting," he explained. "But she heard the com- motion outside the door and in- sisted that the students be allowed to enter." "One student with a chip on his shoulder and antagonism in his voice wished to know what she told the Soviet people about Little Rock on her Moscow trip," Prof. Haber said. "It was interesting to watch the tension in his face-and the seren- ity in hers." he observed. "Why I told them the truth, of course," Mrs. Roosevelt answered., "I told him that we are all dis- turbed about what's happening in Little Rock-that the matter is being discussed by the press, radio and television. "I TOLD THEM that the integra- tion decision clashed with -a long tradition in the South so that it was inevitable that it would take some time before everyone accept- ed the Supreme Court's view-as most already did. "I told them that in time Little Rock will be like a bad dream, and that the whole country will support the views of the court on integra- tion. "The Russians understood," she added. And so did the student question- er," Prof. Haber declared. "It was a delight to see the tension on his face relax. "I wish I could teach that way." V' ' - To The, Independence* To The Editor: THE TEACHING practices of our University call for a serious and unbiased appraisal. In general (every general state- ment will have exceptions) the practice adopted not only in the undergraduate but also in the graduate school is as follows. 1) The professor teaches and.dis- cusses in the class material per- tinent to the course. 2) He assigns home-work to be handed in. 3) The home-work is graded and affects the final course grade to a larger or less degree depending on the individual professor's discre- tion. 4) The 'blue books' and final ex- amination are set by the same pro- fessor teaching the course, and as such, they are apt to (and mostly do) contain similar, if not identi- cal, problems and topics discussed by him in the class or given for honie-work. The following consequences im- mediately result from the above background:, 1) A student is forced to at- tend the class for the home as- signments which affect his course grade. This it is claimed, perhaps rightly, makes the student study regularly. Yet it suffers from the far greater disadvantage of bind- in +he studenttoina sudnvina knowledge of the particular prob- lems and topics discussed in class is at a great disadvantage in blue books and examiriations to the student who may not have such a masterly command ovor the. course content but possesses a forehand knowledge of the particular prob- lems or topics discussed in class. THE FOLLOWING extremely practical plans can remedy the above academic ills: - 1) The blue books and examina- tions should be set by a professor in the department different from the one teaching the course. The p a p e r - s e tjt e r shotild have no knowledge whatsoever of what particular problems and topics were discussed, in the class except the broad limits of the course cov- erage. This will give the same aca- demic fairness to all students whether they attend the class or not. 2) Home assignments should be given and corrected (not graded), but they should not be counted for the course grade. Such a practice, denying no benefit to such stu- dents who may need the necessary practice through home-work and- its correction, will force no stu- dent to a school-boy type of stu- dying schedule. The risk of stu- dents getting through the course wth superficial knowledge got by last minute cramming can be eliminated by so setting the exam- Ination papers that only students N i "MEG'. WMM " dv' "m 0 .1 Eff M: NUMBER.