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October 18, 1959 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1959-10-18

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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

Cuba's

Roau

Criticizes

IAI

hen Opinions Are Free
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.

By CARLO S TODD
Havana Times Columnist
IF YOU ever feel that you must
look and listen to Minister of
State Raul Roa in a televised ap-
pearance, I suggest that you first
take a massive dose of tranquil-
izers. The constant fidgeting,
twitching and jumping of the
Minister is as catching as a yawn;
and I was a nervous wretch by the
time he wound up his question
and answer program this week.

Speaking with the staccato tem-
po , and rapidity of Morse code,
the minister of state first tackled
the Inter-American Press Associ-
is being subjected to systematic
discredit by government officials
and the state controlled newspa-
pers. The reason for this is simple.'
The IAPA foolishly bound Cuba
into the same package as Santo
Domingo, Nicaragua and Para-
guay, when they spoke of inves-
tigation of freedom, of the press.

The IAPA should know better. We
are unique.
Speaking of the IAPA, Roa de-
scribed it as a "hybrid animal, like
the Centaur." He admitted, if
grudgingly, that newsmen do show
up at the Association's meetings
who are sincerely concerned with
freedom of the press; and then
qualified that statement by say-
ing that there were those who
went solely to defend the interests
their newspapers represent.

MDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1959

NIGHT EDITOR: KENNETH McELDOWNEY

Raul Roa is a hard man to pin
down with a question. A person
respect for his own intelligence, he
who has a tremendous amount of
will have his little mental calis-
thenics. He presumes that he
has hoodwinked his interrogators,
when they have merely let the
question go by without insisting
on a direct answer. With a ges-
ture, with an expression, with a
nod, he will let you in on his little
private club of something that
tries to be artful irony and suc-
geeds in being as subtle as a pistol
shot in the dark.

AS I SEE IT ..*By THOMAS TURNER

"I'm Sorry, Sir. It Seemed Like a Cute Idea"

'RESHMEN COATED with paste and cov-y
ered over with pretty auumn leaves were
exhibition on State street at an early hour:
terday morning.,
It was a climax of another skirmish be-
en the underclassmen in .the 'proc.' war.
3 first-year men were defeated at every turn,
the sophomores put up their 'Black Friday'
ters and prevented the freshies from plac-
'profane hands' upon the edicts.
The sophs were first in the field and were
ily engaged in pasting up their posters
en the 'tens' appeared. The freshmen were,
to rout and eight of their number made
soners.
To this octette of freshmen was delegated
job of carrying the soph paste buckets.
en they had completed this task they were
eved of most of their apparel and given a
h in paste.
'HE FINISHING touches Were put on with,
dry leaves.
Then, looking very much like primitive men,
captives were liberated. They wasted little
e in traversing the distance between State
eet and their homes."
With these words The Daily gleefully de-
bed the class rivalry in Ann Arbor in 1906.
'hat same month students rioted at the
,r Theatre, doing $2,000 damage by throwing
les and stealing a projector besides.
he Tribe of Michigamua was four years
in 1906, and little brother Sphinx had
been founded.
'hese were the days of "I Want To Go
k To Michigan" and "Varsity."

WORLD WAR ONE shook things up a little
here as on campuses across the country,
and World War Two delivered the coup de
grace. Traditions fell.
Michigamua, Druids, Vulcans, Sphinx and
Triangles survive, as do their anemic female
counterparts, but seem self-conscious about
their anachronistic appearance.
The old songs are still around, but no one
except fraternity pledges and members of
the Glee Club know the words.
The Forties and Fifties have seen new forms
of student expression evolve-the panty raid,
the food riot and the all-campus student gov-
ernment have become "traditions" of a sort. In
none of these areas need the University take
a back seat to anyone.
BUT WITHOUT a doubt the sum total of ex-
uberance has declined Traditions have been'
discarded as immature without having been
replaced by any appreciable measure of ma-
turity. Stolid self-interest perhaps, apprehen-
sive concern with seeming responsibility per-
haps, but not maturity.
This the University's' alumni cannot under-
stand.
They return to Ann Arbor on warm hazy
football Saturdays, and even on the damp ones
like yesterday. They troop into the huge bowl
and watch the silent students, and cannot un-
derstand them.
Students who laugh at the stereotyped alum-
ni are right, of .course.
But the allums are right too, for having fun
is by no means inconsistent with getting a good
edudcation.

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HIS OPINION of Jules Dubois?
Roa described the controversial
Chicago Tribune man saying,
"You have to look further than
what he appears to be." That was
the. answer to 'the question, poth-
ing else; although Roa embel-
lished his reply with a touching
scene of a Venezuelan delegate in
tears at ,an IAPA meeting some
time back.
Cuba was heard, finally, at the
IAPA meeting in Mexico City dur-
ing Batista's time, though, wasn't
it? These are the kind of pills that
the minister does not take to-
kindly. Historically, he had to ad-
mit reluctantly that Cuba's case
was heard by the IAPA at the
time; but-he had to get this in--
it took a tremendous amount of
time and trouble to obtain a rul-
ing in favor of Cuba.
Switching to another subject,
martyrs and Cuban Memorial Day
(December 7), Roa observed curi-
ously, "The cult of death should
not be, passive; but active,dynam-
the observance of mourning for
ic and belligerent." Still jumping
about, he termed the recent OAS
agreement signed in Chile by the
foreign ministers of that organi-
zation as 'tonly wet paper," a
statement certain to endear him
with colleagues who attended that,
conference.
Roa was asked pointblank if he
saw the hand of the U.S. behind
the recruiting of mercenaries for
Trujillo which has allegedly been
going on in some Latin American
countries. In a bright burst of
subtlety, the head of the diplo-
matic corps of Cuba said that his-
tor' reveals (many and frequent
instances of U.S. intervention in
Latin America, true of course.
* * *
THE MINISTRY is preoccupied
with the economic underdevelop-
ment of Latin American countries,
recalling Dr. Castro's famous f or-
mula given at the Conference of
the 21 last April, i.e., political un-

;*..
r' ''
. 1:

I -
S

Hazing on the Way Out

AZING OF fraternity pledges is on its way
out at the University..
he California student who choked to death
raw liver, the Alabama boys who were hos-
alized recently after being paddled, have no
nterparts on this campus. Any form of
ysical mistreatment" of pledges is forbidden
ording to the bylaws of Interfraternity
ncil.
azing is nonetheless a widespread problem
he United States; nationally publicized in-
nts sporadically draw' attention to it. And
defined structure of a fraternity is at least
much national as local.
follows from. this, if not from the dictates
the individual social conscience, that the
ing problem deserves recognition and a
onsible evaluation from fraternity chapters
;he University.

WHY CONTINUE hazing? At its none-too-
constructive best, it gets a lot of work done
around 'the house at the expense'of near ex-
haustion on the part of actives and pledges
alike. At its worst, it has proved destructive to
,health, property and-most important-ethical'
values of those concerned.
Rationalization of hazing as tradition is
common but hardly justifiable. As a unifying
force among pledges it" leaves much to be
desired. There are more efficient ways of carry-
ing out odd Jobs.
The ambivalence regarding hazing on na-
tional and local levels must be resolved on the
level of the individual. The main distinction
between hazing and standard pledge activities
is one of attitude. Only the pledge or active
involved can examine the values which dictate
his attitudes within the context that makes
them valid or invalid.
-JEAN SPENCER

- A

'erbocc is aw ay due to ilsness ChtLs, 9 P ht er P s hims C o

rest is caused by economic under-
development. This proposition is
going to be brought up at the OAS
meeting in Quito early next year,
said Roa; and that business of a
thirty billion dollars fund for Lat-
in America to be provided by the
U.S. (which Castro also created
like Minerva) will most certainly
be included in the discussions.
A tall order for the man who
made certain that Cuba abstained
-the only Latin American coun-
try to do so-from voting against
Communist China in the United
Nations last month, thus proving
to the world what everyone
knows: that Cuba is sovereign and
independent.
Roa complained that Eisenhow-
er had not consulted Cuba on the
trip of Soviet dictator Khrushchev
to the U.S. The question that pops
up is: did Khrushchev consult Roa
on his trip?
PRESS:
Flare- UIp'
it Cuba,,
By MILTON GUSS
Editor, The Times of Havana
THE BIG NEWS in Cuba this
week was made by the news-
papers, themselves, as Avance and
Diario de la Marina traded punch-
es with Prime Minister Fidel Cas-
tro. Revolucion also got into the
act with a haymaker aimed at the
"falangist Marina." And the rep-
ercussions were felt all the way
up in the New York Times Tower
and possibly in the preliminary
sessions of the Inter-American
Press Association in San Francis-
co.
From a journalistic point of
view, the flareup must be viewed
as a healthy sign. And unless Cas-
tro upsets the applecart with a
violent reaction between now and
the opening of the IAPA conven-
tion, he could emerge from this
ruckus as the undisPuted winner.
There has been a lot said-and
even written-here about freedom
of the press, or the lack of it. As
near as I can figure out, nobody
in his right mind would compare
the present situation with the
news blackout that existed during
the Batista regime-with or with-
out censorship. Regardless of your
politicalaleanings, you must ad-
mit, in all fairness, that newspap-
ers are NOT prevented from pub-
lishing material of their choice.
However, there had been justi-
fiable complaints against the pres-
sure exerted - afterwards by Cas-
tro in his television blasts. And
some individual writers :have indi-
cated th'at their personal reputa-
tions were jeopardized by loose
charges of "counter-revolution-
ary." And it has been pointed out
that the threat of a Fidel-inspire
"boycott" could ruin a paper ti-
nanciaily.
* * *
THE CUBAN PRESS, in my
opinion, has not yet lived up tO
its obligation of printing "all the
news without fear or favor." Re-
gardless of how you word that
motto of the New York Times, it's
a prerequisite of press freedom
which must be met by the news-
papers in question. The' Cuban
papers, I maintain, have fallen far
short, of that objective.
There has been a lot of double-
talk about the non-existent plot
against Cuba by American publi-
cations, even in some Cuban pa-
pers who were themselves actually
guilty of selling their country
down the river during the Batista
re'gime. They always throw up
their arms in protest every time
Fidel mentions this-they prefer
to forget it. But history is not ob-
literated that easily "and proof of
their guilt is readily accessible in

their own back f les-by what they
wrote, and what they did not
write. Even since the first of the
year, there has been an amazing
reluctance on the part of most
papers to live up to their high
sounding mottoes.
THIS WEEK, however, things
perked up a bit as Avancehand
Marina held their ground and de-
fended their right to criticize.
There were some powerhouse
punches in those papers, as well as
in the Times (which, incidentally,
has never been subjected to any
pressures). If ever there was liv-
ing proof of freedom of the press,
there it was in Cuba this week.
Fidel blasted the papers on tele-
vision, but instead of resulting in
a public boycott it served as a
shot in the arm to their circula-
tion. Before the end of the day,
Marina and Avance were selling
for as high as a dollar a copy.
There were protests from some
writers that they were branded as
"cturiter - revolutionaries." B u t
these writers, who had defended
the revolution in the past, lost not
one iota of journalistic dignity.
Whatever sacrifice they may have
made could be chalked up as a
contribution to freedom of the
press., As Jules Dubois has said:
there is no substitute for courage.
And there was a considerable

BRITISH ELECTIONS.:
Conservatives Ahead, but Labor Not Dead

X LERNER-

A Swarm of People

I

EW DELHI-India's population today is 415,
million. Two years ago it was 400 million.
ut while the rate of increase now is about
ven million a year, it will not stay that way,
scause of medical progress in cutting the
ath-rate. In ten or fifteen years the rate of
crease may go up to 15- million a year or
'en more. Long before that time the problem
feeding so many people will have to be
ced.
We can get a glimpse of of the dimensions
that problem from the report of a team of
nerican experts, on the food problem in India.
hey estimate that at the current rate of
pulation increase and food 'production, by
66 there will be a deficit of 28 million tons a
ar of basic food grains.
Population and food-these are the two spec-
rs in whose shadow this nation now lives,
en more sinister than the shadow of Chinese
perial power on India's northern borders.
'LOOD AND PESTILENCE, war and famine,
were the ways by which Nature, as Mal-
us saw it, 'coped with- the ,otherwise un-
ecked population increase, and with the
essure of births against food supply in his-
ry. With the family planning movement a
w set of checks were brought in-the Neo-
althusian ones.
But these newer checks are not yet operating
th any force in India Except for .floods
rich have been inundatiing large tracts of
rm soil and making people homeless and
ngry, the old checks are not operating
her. The only solution is a two-pronged at-
k on the problem of overpopulation-through
ising the food production and through the
utrol of the birth rate.
Neither is easy. At present India depends
avily on the American wheat surplus stocks,
pplemented by purchases of Canadian and
stralian wheat. If the Indian earth is to
:duce more, it must be aided by fertilizers
d the technology of agricultural science.

either, directly or through cooperatives. They
must also decide to offer the farmers a guar-
anteed price for their crops, or else the risk
will not seem worth taking.
Neither of these crucial steps has been taken.
The control of the birth rate will prove even
harder. As you go through the cities you find
a number of clinics for family planning, es-
pecially in the slum areas. But despite the
fact that the government encourages them, the
facilities are still far from adequate.
THE REAL DIFFICULTIES are partly tech-
nical and partly psychological. There is no
agreement in America, as to whether the oral
pills developed by American scientists are likely
to be fit soon for use on a mass scale. As one
man put it, who has been involved with the
problem for some years: "We know what the
pill will do, but we don't know what else it
will do."
Thus at present the difficulty is that we
have no way of predicting the side effects or
the long-range effects of the use of the pills.
But most authorities believe that medical re-
search will sooner or later make a breakthrough
on it. What is more important is the communi-
cation problem-the question of how to get
through to the mind of the simple village wo-
man, teaching her to apply what has been
made available.
IT IS ON THIS psychological, or communica-
tion, side that the great drive in the next
five years will have to be launched, and drastic
progress made. I have said that there are no
formal religious prohibitions. Yet there is a
vague feeling among many' of the village and
city women that they are not fulfilling their
divinely appointed womanly role unless they.
have children without stint. There is also the
matter of community standing-the fear of
some women that unless they keep on present-
ing their husband With children, others may
think that the marriage is not a going concern.
Finally there i the nird trdiHn- rnnfAdan

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Stone is a
British graduate student from Ox-
ford. University. Recently he spent
considerable time in the United
States doing research on his doc-
toral dissertation on American poli-
tics. He is now in London writing
his thesis.)
By LESLIE STONE
LONDON -- So "peace and pros-
perity" won after all. The Con-
servatives have achieved the im-
possible -- three wins in a row,
each with an iicreased majority.
In the new Parliament Mr. Mac-
millan's party will have an abso-
lute majority of 100 and a lead of
107 seats (365-258) over the main
Labor' opposition.
After the election eve talk of a
neck and neck struggle, the news-
papers quickly hoisted headlines
proclaiming a "Tory Landslide" or
"Labor Rout." Some claim to.see
in the election the death of Brit-
ish socialism, and the Beaverbrook
press gently enquires whether the
Labor party can ever again hope
to win a general election. It must
be said straight away that most of
this talk is extravagant and ab-
surd.
As the campaign drew to a close
it could be seen that it was very
much a bread and butter election.
The Conservatives of course, at-
tempted to use the image of Mac-
millan the peacemaker and the
Laborites pounded away at the
Government's record in the Mid-.
dle East and colonial Africa. But
apart from the defection from the
Tory ranks on these latter issues
by two or three respected jour-
nals, neither side gained much
advantage from the exercise.
ON THE FRONT doorstep, it
was domestic affairs that the un-
decided voter was most eager to
discuss and it was in this field
that the election was won and lost.
Lord Hailsham, the Conservative
chairman, claims that the "finan-
cial irresponsibility" of the Labor
party brought about its downfall.
Certainly it now seems that La-
bor was never able to convince the
electorate that it would be able
to afford its ambitious program of
social reform. Where was all the
money coming from to pay for the
increased pensions, new 'schools,
hospitals and roads? The proposal
to tax capital gains and tighten
up on the scrutiny of business ex-
pense accounts failed to excite the

hoping for at least four per cent-.
never got home. People evidently
decided to play safe and stick with
a winning team.
*1 * *
THE MAIN' talking point in
Britain at the moment is the fu-
ture of the political Left and there
is bound to be much soul search-
ing within the Labor ranks on the
coming year. As everyone seems
to agree, the party fought a vig-
orous campaign from which its
leader emerged with vastly in-
'creased stature as a publicrper-
sonality and potential Prime Min-
ister.
The intensity of the present dis-
appointment felt by Labor sup-
porters is a measure of their high
expectations of victory. There is
no doubt that many had con-
vinced themselves that they were
going to win: the wilder ones
talked as though it would be 1945
all over again. But in the bruised
atmosphere of defeat Gaitskell
has refused to panic. He prefers
to talk of having received a set-
back, nothing stronger, and any

reappraisal of- policy will be con-.
ducted in a thoughtful, sober at-
mosphere.
* * *
IN ITS NEW GUISE as a non-
doctrinaire party of the Left,
highly critical of the two major
party machines and determined
to supplant Labor as the alterna-
tive to Conservatism, it doubled
its total number of votes, but,
failed to increase on the six seats
it held in the last Parliament.
Many political experts profess
to see in this the beginning of a
real Liberal revival which will
sweep the Labor party away or at
least force it to compromise in its
program. There may be something
to the second half of the argu-
ment, but at this stage it is hard
to see the Liberal vote as much
more than a vote of protest cast
by : dissatisfied members of the
middle class in Conservative
strongholds.
NO ONE should really have been
surprised by another Conservative,
victory. Despite widespread illu-
sions to the contrary, Britain is

a very conservative country. Only
twice in this century (through the
Liberals in 1906 and 'Labor in
1945) has a progressive patty won
a working parliamentary majori-
ty: the Tories have been in office
most of the time and their pres-
ent preponderance in Parliament
cannot compare with the crush-
ing majorities of-the 1930's.
And a significant feature of' the
election was the unevenness of the
swing. The government' made
gains in the South, London and its
suburbs and the industrial Mid-
lands. But in the regions hit by
Sunemployment such as the Lanca-
shire cotton towns, North Wales,
Glasgow and Western Scotland,
Labor managed to recapture a.
handful of seats and increase its
majorities in others.
This pattern gives proof of the
potency of the prosperity issue, as
those parts of the country denied
their share of the increased pick-
ings registered' their displeasure
with the conduct of affairs. In
these areas, at least reports of the
Labor party's death are grossly
exaggerated.

i

485 BILLION THIS YEAR:
Smoking Continues To Increase.

By SHERMAN SILBER
Daily Staff Writer
IN RECENT YEARS, the harm-
ful effects of smoking upon
health have received widespread
publicity. Yet, according to statis-
ics recently released by the De-
partment of Agriculture, American
cigarette consumption has still
soared to unprecedented heights,
r a

DAILY
OFFICIAL
BULLETIN

and is expected to continue rising'
steadily.
Despite constant attempts of the
American Medical Association, the
American Cancer Society, and
countless individul medical men
to inform the public of the dan-
ger involved in excessive smok-
ing, the average American .citizen
will have smoked 188 packs of
cigarettes this year. The number
of cigarettes being turned out in
1959 will set a record of about. 485
billion, fifteen billion greated than
last year. Furthermore, the cigar-
rette output is expected to rise by
about eighteen per cent in 1965
and by fifty-three per cent in 1975.
Smoking seems to be gaining
popularity especially with the fe-
male set. In fact, a good part of
the great rise in cigarette con-
sumption can be attributed to the
remarkably steep increase in the
number of women smoking, and
also in the amount of cigarettes
they smoke. Today, 40 per cent of
the regular American smokers are
women, each of whom average

=dollars a year are spent on inform-
ing the impressionable 'public how
to become regarded as "thinking
men," how to enjoy a "real cigar-
ette", or all about the "most im-
portant quarter-inch in smoking,
today."
If the popularity of smoking,
were to dissipate, and health stan-
dards raised, millions of people
from agriculture, the cigarette in-
dustry, advertising, radio and tele-
vision, not to mention the match
producing industry, would be out
of jobs.
Many amazed non-smokers can-
not understand what benefits cig-
arettes could possibly have to of-
fer but they are not alone. Few
smokers understand either. Some
will attempt to justify smoking by
claiming that the taste is enjoy-x
able, others that the tar they in-
hale relaxes their nerves, and still'
others that it gives them some-
thing to do with their hands.'
* * *
BUT ASIDE from these ration-
alizations, there doesn't appear

The Daily official Bulletin is an
official publication of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The
Michigan Daily assumes no edi-
torial responsibility. Notices should
be sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3519 Administration Build-
ing, before 2 p.m. the day preceding
publication. Notices for Sunday
Daily due at 2:00 p.m. Friday.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1959

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