PAGE FOUR

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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Defending Fraternities

CAPITALIZING on the sorrow of the coeds
who had "busted hearts" because they
didn't receive a bid from the right sorority
or none at all" and the men who got "the
same treatment," the City Editor's Scratch
Pad appeared on this page attacking fra-
ternities and sororities simply because there
are more people oq this campus who wish
to join than these groups can take.
Opening his column with a sympathetic
commentary on the plight of those who are
not invited to join a fraternity group, Mr.
Dickey uses this unfortunate fact to argue
that the present Greek-letter organizations
should be abolished.
Unquestionably a problem does exist
when more persons than can be ade-
quately handled wish to join these groups.
But the solution of this problem cannot
be arrived at by "rebound reasoning"
which in this case dictates "don't let
anyone join."
Yet the City Editor applies "rebound rea-
soning" when without further consideration
of the why's and wherefore's of rushing, he
goes off on a tangent to ask if we should
allow the existence of groups which choose
their members 'on the basis of false values?'
The present system of rushing is simply
the means by which these groups choose

their prospective members. There is no
reason why they should not be allowed
to make this choice any more than there
is reason to control a person's choice of
his friends.
Regardless of how much a rushee might
wish to join a particular fraternity or sor-
ority, it is not to be expected that all rushees
would fit in that society. People just don't
click in every group.
The pseudo-solution offered by the City
Editor is to have small housing units, sim-
ilar in size to the Greek-letter houses, but
operated by the University as dormitories.
To prove his point he cites the example of
the "experiment" in Chi Phi Lodge last year
when an assortment of independents and
men from various fraternities lived together
in a spirit of high comaraderie.
It is true that random groups of this
sort are often successful, but it is equally
true that many similar conglomerations
split into cliques and unfriendly factions.
The surest way to insure a congenial spirit
in any group is to allow it to choose its
own members.
The fact that many societies limit the
number of members of each chapter, so that
the true fraternity spirit may be realized,
and that a University regulation limits sor-
orities to 60 women restricts the membership
of the Greek-letter groups.
If the present fraternity set-up presents
the problem of too many rushees the ques-
tion cannot be solved by restricting or elim-
inating the system, but rather by expanding
it.
- tuart Finlayson


- -_ ,

Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writers only.
NIGHT EDITOR: EUNICE MINTZ

Negro Reporter

THE PHILOSOPHY of certain southern
representatives in Congress seems to have
risen to the Congressional press gallery or
so one could interpret the recent action of
a standing committee of newspapermen in
rejecting the application of Louis R. Lautier,
Washington correspondent for the Atlanta
Daily World, only Negro daily in the United
States.
The five-member committee which reg-
ulates admission tq the gallery, voted four
to one to bar Lautier. They based their re-
jection on a rule of admission laid down by
Congress which requires an applicant to de-
vote the major part of his time to daily
news coverage.
It is true that Lautier also represents
the Negro Newspaper Publishers Associa-
tion, which supplies news to weekly papers.
It is a matter of degree, however how
CROSS RUFFS
By Saul Grossman
LAST MONTH the Union ran a bridge
tournament to select a team to repre-
sent the University in an Intercollegiate
match to be held in Chicago. Over 70 teams
signed up for the local tournament. On the
whole, the bidding and play were of high
calibre. The major weaknesses shown by
most teams were due to inexperience in
playing duplicate bridge.
There is a weekly duplicate played at the
League Thursdays at 7:30. I suggest that
more student teams play in these games for
the needed exprience. The Union could per-
form a service in developing student ability
by running a duplicate one evening or after-
noon a week. How about it, Union V.P.'s?
Today's hand illustrates the difference
between rubber and duplicate bridge in both
the bidding and the play.
North
S 10 8 7 4
H 6 4 2
D K 10
C 8 6 4 2

Lautier devides his time between daily and
weekly papers. The action of the news-
paperman's committee would appear to
be a technical evasion.
A representative of the Negro press has
never been admitted to the pres gallery,
although with a membership of 700 corres-
pondents almost every other daily news-
paper and press association throughout the
country is represented.
Lautier hopes to break this precedent.
He has disclosed that he plans to petition
Congress anew for admission to the gal-
lery facilities and, if this fails, take the
matter to court.
That newspapermen who are an important
link between Congress and the people should
display such open intolerance is discourag-
ing. It is another sign that racial prejudice
exists among not only the unenlightened and
bigoted, but also among men who should
know the facts of life.
-Harriet Friedman
-Joan Katz
I'D RATHER BE RIGHT:
Tory Tears
By SAMUEL GRAFTON
WRITTEN AT SEA-The British crisis is
real enough, but some of the Tory tears
'are not. You have to watch out for a certain
build-up that is going on. I have heard a
Tory say in a London restaurant: "See, I'm
taking my bit of sugar home. We've become
a nation of petty snitchers. I grab matches
whenever I see them." And I have heard a
waiter, unable to contain himself, cut in on
this with: "Oh I say it's not quite that bad.
I've just had two wonderful holiday weeks in
the country lots of good food and good beer."
My Tory friend muttered grimly: "He's prob-
ably Labor. He's defending them."
The Tories of Britain stand in some
danger of fouling their own nest. One said
darkly: "We don't really have press free-
dom here. Oh, it looks as if we do, but we
don't." He winked heavily. "The papers
get instructions," he said, hints as to
what to play down." I don't believe it,
and I record it only as a sample of where
anti-Labor Party sentiment is leading
some Britishers; not into strong opposi-
tion, but into a kind of feeble malice. The
Tories are full of these whispers, the dry
sighings of a dark grove of despair.
They enjoy talking about how hungry they
are. One sees them in the cafes of the Con-
tinent, putting on tremendous gloats when
good food appears. They theatricalize them-
selves, just a touch, in a way very unlike
their behavior during the war; they do com-
edy swoons over the sight of a beefsteak
and so on. Well, all right, British food is
rather bad, and skimpy. But it is low-priced,
and restaurant meals are unrationed. There
is nothing to keep a really hungry man
from having two dinners in an evening, and
snack bars are open all day.
Besides, all of Mayfair is on the loose,
traveling to America, Bermuda, the Ba-
hamas, the Continent, etc., and there is a
tidal wave of food parcels and goodies
running through the West End. The liners
are hard put to it to handle the quantities
of such stuff disgorged on British docks,
along with first class luggage.
The odd point is that the British poor,
who don't have these resources, aren't com-
plaining. They are, under strict rationing
and price control, eating rather better than
before the war, and they know it; and one
comes out of Britain with the feeling that
if w ar tn henl'sayv yainw the term of

DOMINIE Sap:,
A CATHOLIC PRIEST appeared recently
before a Congressional committee on
industry and labor. Top scientists eloquently
preach the sacredness of persons. The radio
preacher from NBC returned last month
from Russia to report thousands of converts
in Moscow under the teaching of American
Southern Baptists. Dr. Fosdick, just when
doubt is everywhere, came out with a strong
book on faith, entitled 'It's a Great Time
To Be Alive," The Federal Council of
Churches last week held a conference in
Pittsburgh where management and labor
fought it out with pastors for referee, and
a Connecticut shoe company has just made,
in the company, a department of religion
with $100,000 as that department's budget.
The secular and the sacred may yet be fused.
The question at issue is, can all be made
sacred or must all be demoralized? Perhaps
there is a deeper unity running beneath the
contradictory events of our era. We believe
so. When that deeper unity can be more
fully realized the vast expectancy of tradi-
tional belief will lift at the same social load
to which our technological forces are devot-
ing their new found powers. Then mankind
will move ahead perceptably.
In 1944 the John Dewey Society, not often
engaged in religion, published a unique book
entitled 'The Public Schools and Spiritual
Values," John Brubacher, editor. On page
64 they assert: "On the whole, we believe
these so-called 'secular' developments are
deeply spiritual in character." "The secular
movement is not the cause of change but
a result."' Taking seriously the integrity of
our universe, as set forth by the Greeks, the
Jews, and the Chinese, as Deity, modern
scientists by induction have derived what
they call Law. Is it not as divine now, in
the minute readings of the physics labor-
atory of 1947 A.D., as then in the over-all
observations of Isaiah, Socrates, or Con-
fucius, 500-1000 B.C.? Basically this integ-
rity is one, not many. Happy is the man
who can worship at his work whether that
work is a sermon on a text of scripture or
a test upon an hypothesis to be proved or
disproved. One we call sacred the other
secular. That is an arbitrary classification
now outmoded. Not until we have discarded
such faulty values can the new age now
waiting to be born, come to life.
Here is an engagement as vital as the
battle of Stalingrad. The grand strategy of
that seige, east and west, which there de-
feated the Nazi machine was far reaching.
As that decision gave western democracy
one more chance for the four freedoms, by
means of a United Nations organization,
so one day the intellectuals of our revised
world, telescoping the continents of diverse
values will defeat the complacency of tra-
ditional goodness and give religiousness, in
its modern context, a chance to make all
life, every honest research, and each thor-
ough engagement for the many ,with special
privilege to none, the victory of being sacred.
Now it is the office of every black-robed
priest at his altar to join with every white-
smocked biologist among his specimen, his-
torian grappling with vast detail to reach a
trend, or educator caught between falling
budgets and rising demand for skill in guid-
ance of the young. Together they must in-
sist that gown and smock are a single staff
in a common struggle. All of it should be
religious.
In his chapters entitled 'The Last Re-
prieve," Edwin M. Poteat, a theologian, says
"Today a World Congress on Morals is due.
Not under theological or philosophical aus-
pices, however. We are not now being asked
for such guidance. Maybe that's what the
world needs but this is no time to insist on
ot. Such a conference should give itself to
the discovery of the universals of human be-
havior. Studying man as an organism and as
a social being and using the methods of em-
pirical science, the qualities implicit in the

generic id might possibly yield themselves up
for statement as the basis for a universal
ethic. To this end the best minds in history,
anthropology, psychology and physics should
be conscripted. Such a group might come
upon smoething even more important than
nuclear energy."
The "conference on Science, Philosophy
and Religion" of the Universities of America
is the beginning of just such a group.
-Edward W. Blakeman
Counselor in Religious Education
W HEN IN THE nearer course of human
events David E. Lilienthal has been con-
firmed as chairman of the Atomic Energy
Commission he can sit back in his chair
and catch his breath and look back on his
life and consider how it has been his lot to
be brought into contact with the problem
of power in various forms. As head of TVA
over many years he must know pretty near-
ly everything that there is to be known
about water power and electric power. As
co-author of the Acheson-Lilienthal report
and interim head of the Atomic Energy
Commission he has been learning much
about atomic power. And now, after five
weeks of Senator McKellar, he has a very
clear idea of what is conceivably the highest
concentration of power known to nature;
namely, Senatorial power, also described as
Senatorial privilege.
-The New York Times

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"lof. ziggety!' A real one at last!"

Letters to the Editoro...'

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Because The Daily
prints EVERY letter to the editor
(which is signed, 3001 words or less
in length, and in good taste) we re-
mind our readers that the views ex-
pressed in lciters are those of the
writers only. Letters of more than
300 words are shortened, printed or
omitted at the discretion of the edi-
torial director.
Inconsistency
To the Editor:
RECENTLY a 'Christian Stu-
dent," in a letter to the De-
toit News, ascribed to me activities
entirely inconsistent with my 43
years of activity in Michigan. This
misinformed youth describes
Michigan and Wayne as "Godless
institutions," and implies that I
support this view. I know of no
University. even those officially
Roman Catholic, Hebrew, or Pres-
byterian, etc., more truly religious
than Michigan.
An attack was made on the
Public Schools of Detroit and
Michigan as not educating prop-
erly their students. The teachers
of Detroit and of Michigan are
largely graduates of the Univer-
sity of Michigan. If the allegations
are true then we have failed.
The allegations seem to have
been connected with some at-
tempts to secure public funds for
parochial schools. The implica-
tions appeared to be that the pri-
vate and parochial schools were
successful and that the Public
Schools were not. My defense of
the Public Schools suggested that
the Detroit Board of Education
secure from the Bureau of Sta-
tistics the record at Michigan of
students of the private schools,
parochial Roman Catholic and
Protestant, and of the Public
Schools. Such records in the past
have revealed that the Public
Schools led, and the parochial
were far below the standards set
by the public and even private
schools.
I understand that the current
record has been placed before the
Detroit Board of Education, re-
vealing the same situation at pre-
sent. Doubtless the newspapers
which suggested that the Public
Schools were failing could, if they
so desired, prevail upon Univer-
sity authorities to let the Public
know the facts.
I am in my forty-third year of
service to the State of Michigan
in the University of Michigan. I
know that our Publiic Schools in
Michigan rank with the best
schools in the world. In theprep-
aration of professional men and
women of all classes (except the
clergy) by any test of actual
achievement, Michigan Public
Schools and the University will
rank far ahead of any schools not
supported by public funds. The
U. of M. records and such hand-
books as American Men of Science,
Who's Who in America and Who's
Who in Education give statistical
evidence if any complete study
were made.
-Louis C. Karpinski
Mariannas
To The Editor:
GENERAL MacARTHUR made
the statement the other day
that the prime reason for keeping
such islands as the Mariannas and

BILL MAULDIN

the Marshalls was "to keep some-
one else from getting them."
Although General MacArthur
probably had Russia in mind when
he used the term "someone else,"
the Soviet Union has recently ap-
proved American trusteeship of
these islands.
In this writer's opinion, both the
United States and Russia have
missed the boat completely. They
have let slip by one big chance to
put teeth into the United Nations
and thus avert World War III.
This chance was to offer these
vital Pacific bases to the proposed
international police force of the
UN.
The proposed international po-
lice force will be helpless unless it
has bases of its own from which
to operate, and the UN will never
be, able to prevent large-scale
wars unless its international police
force can force aggressor nations
to comply with international law.
'The old League of Nations had
no teeth. The Washington disarm-
ament conferences and the Kel-
logg-Briand pact had no teeth.
The UN will also have no teeth as
long as nations want to acquire
island bases "to keep someone else
from getting them." By acquiring
them, the United States may be
able to defend itself better against
possible attack (just as the Soviet
Union will be able to defend itself
better if it obtains control of
Spitzbergen and the Dardanelles),
but such action serves only to
multiply the mistrust and suspi-
cion that already exists.
Rather than accept the princi-
ple that what land a country gains
from an enemy in war is his by
right of conquest, let us be the
first to put teeth into the UN by
offering these bases to the pro-
posed international police force.
-Walt, Hoffman
Coinmenting
To The Editor:
R E: THE LETTER by Bob Als-
paugh commenting on Marion
Burton's attack on Lois Kelso's
article on sororities.
Anyone has more humor than
Kelso.
-Rosalyn Long
Reply to LaRue
To The Editor:
AM WRITING in reply to the
letter of Carl M. LaRue, ip re-
gard to the government helping
the veteran. Mr. LaRue had some
good ideas on that subject but I
believe he was too modest in stat-
ing them. I have the following
suggestions to add to 'his. They
are as follows; the government
should:
1. Give all veterans a two-weeks
vacation with pay regardless of
their occupation.
2. Provide all veterans air trans-
portation to and from home dur-
ing all school vacations.
3. Provide an old age pension
for . all veterans who are twenty-
five years old.
4. Require all teachers to give
veterans only A's, in order that
they might have more time for
recreation.
5. See that veterans have morn-
ing classes only, so that they can
play golf in the afternoon.
6. Furnish every veteran a car.
However, their choice should be

limited to either a Lincoln, Cadil-
lac or Buick model. (All accesso-
ries included).
Of course the veterans won the
war singlehanded. They came to
the aid of their country, now is
the time for the country to help
them. After all, the world owes
them a living. The above sugges-
tions are the least that could be
done .
WHO ARE WE KIDDING?
-Eldon H. Stahl
Rare Facts
To The Editor:
RE: Classified advertisement No.
2, appearing in The Daily of
March 4th:
Just what in hell is an off
shoulder skirt?
-Frederick J. Buckley
Elect ricity
To the Editor:
TIME is a valuable commodity to
any student-to married stu-
dents living in Willow Run it is
doubly valuable because of the
many activities to which it must
be apportioned. My husband and
I are both students trying to carry
fifteen and seventeen hours. Be-
sides studying and the usual ac-
tivities of a single student we must
each spend one hour a day com-
muting. We must also keep an
apartment clean and livable, shop
for groceries and cook our meals,
wash and iron our clothes, and
keep a fire. going to heat the
apartment. To add another hour
of work each day for building a
fire in a cook stove in order to
cook our meals and heat water
will just about be the straw that
breaks the camel's back.
As I understand the theory of
electric wiring, when lines are
overloaded the proper size fuse
will blow. The fuse boxes at Wil-
low Run are locked and few per-
sons are so thoughtless of their
own and their neighbors safety as
to tamper with them. We have
used an electric hot plate and
strip heater as long as we have
been here, as have a great many
other students. Wefhave not yet
blown a fuse. Therefore, we must
not be overloading the line and
causing a fire hazard.
We students are quite willing to
pay for the extra electricity that
we use. The five dollars a month,
which would doubtless be ample,
would be well worth the conven-
ience. It seems to me that the
university authorities would be
serving their students better if
they would try to make some such
arrangements with the Willow
Run authorities rather than
spending their energies prosecut-
ing students who are merely try-
ing their best to fully utilize the
time they are spending to get an
education.- I
-Margaret C. Wilson
Answering McFarland
To the Editor:
ON WEDNESDAY, Feb. 26, a let-
ter concerning Palestine, writ-
ten by Irwin H. McFarland, ap-
peared in The Daily.
Mr. McFarland seems to have a
few misconceptions which I should
like to clear up.
He mentions the Atlantic Chart-
er principle of 'self-determina-
tion." The Jews have been denied
this right for hundreds of years,
during which they were forced to
be a minority wherever they re-
sided. The Palestine Mandate,
granted to Great Britian by the
League of Nations on condition
that she facilitate the establish-
ment of a Jewish nationalhome-
land in Palestine, recognized the
need of the Jewish people for self-
determination.
As for the Arabs being a major-

ity in Palestine, the partisan im-
migration laws which have mini-
mized the increase in Jewish pop-
ulation, andhthe attraction to
Arabs of the high wages in Jewish
factories and farms have brought
about an unfairly created Arab
majority. Moreover, any decision
made by the Arabs would be de-
termined by feudal lords without
the consultation of the Arab mas-
ses. Would this be the democratic
way?
The suggestionhthat the larger
nations lower their immigration
quotas to permit homeless Jews
to enter is unrealistic. None of
the larger nations is at all likely
to ease immigration laws enough
to make a difference.
For the European Jews the
choice is not between Palestine
and some other country; it is be-
tween Palestine and death.
--Gladys F. Rinkind

fore he makes such rash state-
ments when comparing the 46th
Recon group with his own group.,
I served in Alaska in the cold-
weather-testing-detachment f o r
the Army Air Forces which test-
ed everything from B-29's to nose
protectors. One of our last pro-
jects entailed taking data for the
organization of the 46th Recon.
Taking a photograph at from
30 to 60 degrees below zero de-
pends not only upon camera
mechanism and film, but also up-
on the operation of numerous
other factors. Planes, the quality
and quantity of fuel and lubri-
cants, the condition of and the
availability of equipment, and the
ever important human element
must all be considered not only by
themselves but also in terms of
their reactions to sub-zero weath-
er.
My hat is off to the 46th Re-
con.
-Lawrence Kavenau
Unnecessary Gift
To The Editor:
IN REPLY to Messrs. Dean and
Maloy in their articles "Citi-
zens First" and "Vs. Rogers Bill"
must consider the subsistence al-
lowance as an unnecessary gift.
it would seem to me that they
For those who are not troubled
with monetary problems, perhaps
it is a gift.
I believe the subsistence allow-
ance should be increased. I do
not consider it as a gift. Rather
let us consider it as a method
whereby our ocuntry can insure
its future world leadership by hav-
ing the foremost scientists and the
most capable leaders. The veter-
ans becase of their ages and their
experiencestare those most quali-
fied to do this. Now, whenever a
veteran has to drop out of school
because of lack of money, our
country loses a potential world
leader.
And for those who complain of
the price, I would say to them
that world leadership is cheap at
any price. And I would ask them
to suggest a better method or be
prepared to accept the results of
defeat. --H. W. Jacques.
Academic
To The Editor:
IN THE DISCUSSION about the
present investigation of Com-
munistic activities, the fear has
been expressed that academic free-
dom may be restricted at some
time in the future. It does not
seem to have occurred to anyone
that it may have been restricted
already, nor that one of the aims
of the investigation may be to
frighten into silence those who
have left wing views of any com-
plexion whatever, Communist or
otherwise. If the recently formed
Committee on Academic Freedom
is really concerned about aca-
demic freedom, let me suggest
that they conduct a poll among
faculty members on this question:
"Do you feel free at present to
teach anything that you think is
the truth?" Or is this question too
explosive for the Committee on
Academic Freedom?"
-Darnell Roaten, Teaching
Fellow, Department of
Romance Languages
P.S. I am not one of those dan-
gerous "you-know-whats." I am
ashamed to confess such ignorance
but so far as I know, I have never
even talked to one.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a typo-
graphical mistake, a letter in yes-
terday's Daily from Mrs. Joyce L.
Howard was improperly headlined,
"Who You Kiddin, Kid." No flip-
pancy was intended.
For more Letters to the Editor,

see Page 2
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West

S
H
D
C

5
A
Q
A

10 7 5
9 7 6 5
K Q

East
H K Q J 9
S Q 6 3
D J 4 3 2
C J 5

South
S A K J 9 2
H 8 3
D A8
C 10 9 7 3

Both sides vulnerable. The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
Pass Pass 1 S Double
2 S 3 H Pass 4 H
Pass Pass 4 S Double
Pass Pass Pass
South, vulnerable, would never have bid
4 Spades in rubber bridge as long as there
was even the slight possibility of setting 4
Hearts. But at duplicate the sacrifice offers
a better chance for a good score. The oppo-
nents would get 620 points for a game but
only 500 for setting the Spade contract 2
tricks.
The opponent* cashed 3 Club tricks and
2 Hearts off the top of the deck and led a
third Heart which South ruffed. Sitting
South on this hand was Prof. William Pal-
mer, one of the top players on the faculty.
He realized that he had to win the balance
of the tricks or his sacrifice would turn out
to be a gift to his opponents. He played the
Ace of Spades, then a low- Diamond to the
King in dummy, and led a Spade to the
Jack in his hand. The winning finesse held

Fifty-Seventh Year
Edited and managed by students of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of4
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Paul Harsha ......... Managing Editor
Clayton Dickey............City Editor
Milton Freudenheim..Editorial Director
Mary Brush .......... Associate Editor
Ann Kutz ............ Associate Editor
Clyde Recht .......... Associate Editor
Jack Martin ............ Sports Editor
Archie Parsons.. Associate Sports Editor
Joan Wilk.............Women's Editor
Lois Kelso .. Associate Women's Editor
Business Staff

Alaskan Group *.

* 0

To the Editor:
HAVING READ the letter ap-
pearing in The Daily on Wed-
nesday, February 26, concerning
the mapping of Alaska, I think
that Mr. Monroe should acquaint
himself a bit more fully with the
subject of Acrtic operations be-

Robert E. Potter .... General
Janet Cork.........dBusiness
Nancy Helmick ...,Advertising

Manager
Manager
Manager

BARNABY


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Member of The Associated Press

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