I 4fIt~tL
PFiaiUI4;
A QUICK LOOK-SEE at college papers
around the country in the past week
tells us that America's student population
has reacted with shock and indignation to
the Czech coup and the resulting clamps
on academic freedom.
But a searching look at the campus here
uncovers nothing more than a passive indif-
ference, and this is one of the leading uni-
versities in the country.
We've got a network of political action
groups on campus. At regular intervals they
declare themselves all for freedom, against
thought control, for civil liberties. They
get up fine, literary statements on free-
dom. Each group seeks to outdo the other
in its diatribe against sin.
But a democracy goes under in central
Europe. Students who are indignant, as
we would be indignant, march to the Pres-
ident's palace to urge Mr. Benes not to give
in. They are shot and clubbed by the action
committees who would rather not have the
students reach their president.
And here in Michigan, the fighters for
academic freedom are silent.
In New York's City College, at Ohio
State University, out in California, students
have condemned the Gottwald government.
They have indicated to their freedom-loving,
fellow students in Europe that Americans
are not passive to their plight and will fight
for a restoration of their values.
But the organized students of the Uni-
versity of Michigan say nothing.
Two NSA interim representatives to the
International Union of Students in Prague
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily stafff
and represent the views of the writers only.
have resigned because the Union sanctioned
the Cottwald governnient's tactics. One of
the representatives is Jim Smith, who was
here last ycar to tell as all what the NSA
stood for.
We've got an NSA chapter here on cam-
pus. Do its own members know what it
stands for? So far, we've heard no applause,
even from the local NSA, for the action
of Jim Smith and William Ellis.
Here on campus, too-or off campus,
if you prefer-we've got an organization
that has suffered a breach of academic
freedom. MYDA has lashed out often
against restrictions on its freedom to op-
erate. This group more than any other
understands what the whole Cezechoslo-
vakian student population is up against.
Members of MYDA, like the rest of us,
have read that the Gottwald government is
restricting higher education in Czechoslo-
vakia to those who profess loyalty to Prague.
And these members have said nothing about
it. Does MYDA seriously hope for sympathy
in its fight for rerecognition, its fight for
academic freedom, when it sees only its
own narrow struggle and cannot link it with
a worldwide battle for freedom?
There are the "hold-tightists" among us
who tell us to wait for clarification of the
mess in Czechoslovakia before we make any
bold contention that freedom is in jeopardy
there. These are the people who would wait
for the Gottwald information services to
get into functioning trim and prepare a neat
rationalization of what has been going on.
But it's going to be awfully hard to
rationalize away the plowing under of
freedom of thought-the suppressing of
common values there. And it's going to
be awfully hard for campus political
groups to rationalize away inaction in
this situation.
-Ben Zwerling.
NIGHT EDITOR: LIDA DAILES
Halting Disruption
THE FURORE created by the. recent Su-
preme Court decision against released-
time in public schools for religious educa-
tion is reminiscent of the "Monkey Trials"
of some years back. The present decision,
however, may stir up a controversy of much
greater consequence than the Bryan-Darrow
debate on evolution.
When the Urbana. trial began, more than
two years ago, Vashti McCollum was suing
to have religious training banned from the
schools, testifying that her son Terry was
INeitable
T WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN.
When radio stations gave their support
to the Taft-Hartley Act last summer, they
didn't foresee that they might be taking
some of the jam off their own bread.
The Federal Communications Commission
is now holding hearings in Washington to
decide whether or not to revise the ban
of seven year's standing on radio editorial-
izing. According to Jack Kroll, director of
the CIO Political Action Committee, how-
ever, if the ban is rescinded, stations may
find themselves violating the self-made
Taft-Hartley Bill they fought so hard to
help pass.
Section 304 of the law states that ex-'
penditures by corporations, as well as by
unions, in political campaigns is forbidden.
This would directly apply to the big radio
corporations.
Whatever happens to the ban, one is re-
minded of the old saw about "biting" the
hand that feeds you."
Yes, it was bound to happen.
-Fredrica Winters.
"embarrassed" and "ostracized" because she
would not let him attend these classes.
Although she herself is an atheist, Mrs.
McCollum introduced witnesses to testify
that this training discriminated against
Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Je-
hovah's Witnesses, Friends, Fundamental-
ists, Christian Scientists and other minor-
ity groups.
Losing the case, she appealed it through
higher Illinois courts, and finally up to the
United States Supreme Court, which early
this week declared the Urbana plan uncon-
stitutional and branded it as an attempt
to break down the harrier between church
and state,
Released time for religious classes is a
fairly new idain. the history of this coun-
try, originating in 1913, in Gary, Indiana.
F'ron there it spread until, in 1947, only
one state, New Hampshire, refused to per-
mit church classes on school time. Nearly
2,000 communities, with over a million and
a half -students, now have some kind of
released-time plan.
How these communities will be affected
by the Supreme Court decision remains to
be seen.
But the testimony brought out in the
McCollum trial is only indication of the
havoc that can be wrought in the class-
rooms when religious groups are divided
and inevitably set against one another. For
there can be no religious education that is
not sectarian education, and separate
classes divide and break down the demo-
cratic unifying spirit of the schools.
The Supreme Court decision will do much
to halt the spread of a movement that
can only lead to disruption in the class,
room.
-John Morris.
ONE OF THE MORE nauseating develop-
ments of the past few days has been
the ever-louder talk of war. The stalwart
warrior, Walter Winchell openly predicts
war within a few month. Congress puts a
"rush" label on the ERP: and draft boards
in Kentucky are being reorganized as a
"matter of preparedness."
There are some, no doubt, who rub
their hands in glee-the people who said
in '42 and '43 that they "hoped the war
continued for a long time." There must
be others also, who have been shouting
these last two years, "We've got to lick
the Russians, and it had better be sooner
than later."
In the midst of the hysteria, sit other
heads, cooler, less sanguine, their opinions
tempered by the enormous bellyfull of war
they .got in the heartbreaking, terrifying
six years of the war. In this group are the
men who fought. Among American young
men, many of them had gone with misgiv-
ings, but sure in the conviction that this
war might be the last. This war had, after
all grown out of the mistakes of an older
generation. Our generation would be wiser,
we would avoid the mistakes of the past
and build a flourishing peace.
Sumner Welles, former Under-Secretary
of State wrote a book entitled "Time for De-
cision," in which he outlined the pitfalls
dotting the way and told how to avoid them.
Walter Lippman told of the infant United
Nations, and people began to cast off fear.
It was going to be a rosy world indeed.
But somewhere along the line the mech-
anism was derailed. Here were our states-
men in Washington and the other cap-
itals of the world repeating the very
mistakes we had been warned against.
We railed at Communists and gave lip
service to democracy, but sent arms and
money to fascist governments. And those
we did not help, we certainly did not
harm.
The unhappy result of the "Truman
Doctrine" was a growing disaffection by
the peoples of the world. They saw nothing
to be gained from having fascism foisted
upon them. They wanted peace and raw ma-
terials and food to rebuild themselves, and
got anti-Russian propaganda instead. UN-
1,RA was abandoned because it might en-
courage social experiments in Europe. Life
magazine tells us we do not have to put
open restrictions on social experiments, but
suggests it may be done subtly in the ad-
ministration of the Marshall Plan.
It should not be so impossible, then,
for us to understand the recent events in
Czechoslovakia and Finland. and the older
stories in Hungary and Yugoslavia.
The difficulty will lie in rationalizing
the new war that so many are gleefully
planning, and inviting us to start. The
youth that marched off to war so un-
grudgingly in 1939 and 1940 will not be
so willing again. They will see it as the
result of stupid blunders and bankrupt
diplomacy. The words freedom and de-
mocracy will not do to describe the aims.
-Jake Hurwitz.
Definitionls
THE CONSERVATIVE definition of a lib-
eral becomes more evident as time goes
on. Conservatives envision the liberal as a
fellow traveler, a Communist, or a dupe
of the Soviet underground in the United
States. Their picture is formed for them
by the hundred and one Thomases, Rankins
and Hearsts.
But fact is contradictory to belief. In ac-
tuality, the liberal does not regard the ac-
tions of Stalin or Molotov in much different
light than the Young Republicans. No liberal
or progressive has come to the defense of
the Russian coup in Czechoslovakia as the
newspapers would lead us to believe. Rather
liberals have been noted for detesting fas-
cism, Red, German or American.
The liberal can not be too shocked by
Russian action in Czechoslovakia because
he has seen the American regime in
Greece. The liberal cannot be too dis-
turbed by Commnunist sponsored strikes
because he has seen British sponsored
massacres in Palestine. lie cannot be dis-
turbed by the censoring of Russian mu-
sicians because he has seen American art-
ists and writers attacked and hounded by
the Un-American Activities Committee.
The liberal skin is thick. He has born
the brunt of a thousand attacks by thej
radical right wing groups. He has been
smeared as a Communist agent by every
forthright "American" in the country. He
goes right on standing for the principles
on which the movement was begun some
three hundred years ago.
The conservative who seeks fellow-trav-
eling in the liberal action is cutting his
own throat. It has been the liberal move-
ment since America began which has saved
the nation. This does not remove the need
for a conservative force, it merely points
out that liberals are American as well, but
that they can't see even the United States
having its cake and eating it too.
-Don McNeil.
-'
.~
- ' v
s v
^r
"Ya never can tell under artificial light. Wait'll ya see her
in th' daytime."
Letters to the Eitor ...
EDITOR'S NOTE: Because The Daily
prints every letter to the editor re-
ceived (which is signed, 300 words
or less in length, and in good taste)
we remind our readers that the views
expressed in letters 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.
* * .
Dascola rial
To the Editor:
ITE FAMOUS, or as you wish,
infamous Dascola trial has
come and gone. Gone too from
many of us is the hope that in
Ann Arbor "freedom" and "equal-
ity" were not words without
meaning; that perhaps that ray of
light which gives men courage and
enables them to fight on in the
face of adversiiy, could be found
in a small, dingy courtroom where
Dascola stood trial before a jury
of his peers. After a day of tes-
tinony and armg oent which con-
clusively proved how openly the
defendant had disregarded the
law, this all-white jury, as some
of us had expected, returned a
verdict of not guilty. During the
trial the defense attorney stated
that the citizens of Ann Arbor
didn't need students to tell them
how to run the city. How well-off
would many of these Ann Arbor
citizens be without the presence of
20,000 students?
This is, as perhaps few years in
our history, a year of decision. In
other words. it's soul searching
time. How long can you as a stu-
dent in search of truth allow per-
secuted minorities to wallow in
the mire of hopelessness and de-
spair, making them easy prey for
any "radical" or "subversive" group
while you sit idly by doing noth-
ing? It's verdicts like that re-
turned in the Dascola case which
drive hundreds of Negroes into
the ranks of Communism each
year.
... It's up to the student body
to show the citizens of Ann Arbor
that it is capable of running the
campus, even if its suggestions on
how to democratically run the
city are not appreciated. This can
be done by refusing to patronize
the E. Liberty shop, and urging
your friends to do likewise; by in-
quiring at the 'Ensian office why
Dascola's shop (with the attend-
ant free publicity) was chosen as
the place to display 'Ensian pic-
tures. The Daily has yet to ex-
plain why Dacsola's ads, asking
for all patrons except Negroes, are
still welcome in its pages. Since
the University is considering the
advisability of changing its policy
of banning political speeches in
University buildings, it might be
prevailed upon to reconsider its
policy of non-interference in com-
munity affairs. Other universities
have seen fit to take such action.
Remember, your decision can
come too late!
-Carroll Little.
Elliot 1)ecson
To the Editor:
FEEL THE ENCLOSED 'open
wire' to Prof. Frank Richart,
University of Illinois, Champaign,
Ill., expresses the sincere attitude
of the University of Michigan stu-
dents toward the Big Nine's re-o
cent decision on 'Bump' Elliott.
"Prof. Frank Richart
University of Illinois
Big Nine's recent ruling declar-
ing Chalmers Elliott ineligible is
not only unfair to Elliott, but a
grave injustice to the competitive
spirit of American sports and
what it symbolizes."
-Clarence 11. Baxter. Jr.
Answer Ru mn an
To the Editor:
JEWS STILL ARE seeking for
places to live. Evidently Wadi
S. Rumman is an "expert" in in-
ternational affairs, and he could
easily give some information to
the thousands of Jews as to the
OTHER PLACES THAN PALES-
TINE where they would readily be
admitted. In case Wadi S. Rum-
man is interested in going through
with such a humanitarian task,
I may inform him that all those
people are il camps for displaced
people
Should anybody detect bitter-
ness or sarcasm in this letter, I
want to make it clear that those
displaced people really would ap-
preciate such information.
As for the encouraging state-
ment: WE CAN SAY THAT
THERE IS NO MORE PERSECU-
TION OF JEWS NOWADAYS, al-
low me Mr. Wadi S. Rumman to
keep a most significant silence.
-saac M. Litvak.
A Non-Zionist Jew.
Misinformation
To the Editor:
JF THE MEMBERS of the US-
AAF Intelligence in the Middle
East have and get the kind of in-
formation that Mr. Lapin is trying
to enforce upon the readers of
The Michigan Daily, then we the
people of the Middle East better
quit trying to clarify and explain
our problems to the Americans.
Mr. Lapin is writing nothing
but nonsense about Egypt and the
Christian Egyptians.
The Christian Egyptians-about
1 not 3 millions-form that part
of the Egyptian population which
did not adopt th Moslem religion
over 1,300 years ago. There was
no discrimination in the past,
theredis none now and there will
be none in the future-neither in
Egypt nor all over the Arab and
Moslem World.
We the Egyptians and Arabs,
do not allow you Mr. Lapin or
anybody else to impose himself
on our affairs, especially if you
are the prejudiced type .
Mr. Lapin, I will not try to an-
swer your misinforming letter in
these few lines, but I defy you
and your kind to come to any
open meeting sponsored by any
group you choose and you bring
your references if you have any,
and then I will be very happy to
show our American friends what
kind- of information they get from
their ex-members of the USAAF
Intelligence in the Middle East.
Shall I hear from You? I hope!
-A. M. Effat.
Whose Failure
To the Editor:
TH1E IRA should send a tran-
script of the Dascola Trial to
.
77
t t
a"
admit's un der t i h l a Ile 1 ra
neit her tool); nor ability to cut,
hair for ia lai c Dori ie of'the
])opllation.
-D. Roger NMaleau hton.
To the Editor:
rrHIS LETTER concerns some of
my confe sed and:]prejudiced
"prOile"ive" friends. I am re-
fei'iing to those who daily beat
their chests about the infringe-
ment s upon civil liberties in this
country but who cannot see <be-
cause they dont ant to see the
even greater infringement on civil
liberties which recently ocLurred
in Czech oslova kia.
While cori'ectly protesting
against the un -American activi-
ties of the J. Parnell Thomas
Committee, my good friends have
failed t oecogniuze the very sim-
ilar but more ruthless activities
of the Communist Parnell Thom-
ases in Czechoslovakia. Reading
beneath the "lies" in all the Amer-
lean papers, they imagine a dirty
capitalist lot (by the part of
Benes) to overthrow the govern-
ment and naively assume that the
Communists were acting merely
to put down an armed rebellion.
Isaid that some of my "pro-
g ressive" friends were confused.
What they have forgotten (or
maybe they never learned) is that
the suppression of civil liberties
does not necessarily come just
from parties on the Right. It can
and has come from tthe heft as
well.
Anyone who passes off the ar -
rest of leaders of opposing parties,
the expulsion of university stu-
dents for not passing a "loaly"
check, the suppression of opposi-
tion newspapers, the forbidding of
critical writers to write, the bann-
ing of twenty-seven foreign pub-
lications, the physical taking over
of government ministries by Com-
munist-led "Action Committees,"
and the forcing of al missionaries
to leave the country, as all neces-
sary to the preservation of the
Czechoslova k goveruent has lost
the capac'ity to be an objective.
If he icannot se le strikilg sim-
ilarity between these acts and the
methods used by Hitler in Nazi
Germany (and, incidentally, the
acts of the J. Parnell Thomases
in our country-even the suppres-
sion of MYDA itself), then I say
he is a "progressive" who no long-
er thinks clearly.
To argue as some do, that
Czechoslovakia is anoier country
far away and does not -oncernu s,
is to fall into ta same isolation-
ist mriind-osr-os--huuseiness trap
that allowedl ecr to seize con-
trol in Gerniany, the Rhineland,
Austria, and Czechoslovakia be-
fore. (How long will it be before
we realize that freedom every-
where is inter-related?).
--Walt Hoffman.
Garg Placed
To the Editor:
THE PURPORTED 'feature-lift-
ing' from The Gargoyle (of all
places) by those Wisconsin folk
has caused many of us to gasp:
"Just how low can they stoop?"
-Arthur Graham.
Communist Sries
To the Editor:
DETROIT newspaper has
. launched a series of articles
exposing an alleged Communist
plot to overthrow the American'
government after fomenting disor-
der and confusion; in order to
bring this country under the com-
plete domination of a foreign
power, the Soviet Union.
The evidence, accumulated af-
ter months of intensive investi-
gationsconsists of vague general-
izations referring to nearly every
previous historical crisis (for that
scholarly tone) and a mass of out-
right lies based on the testimony
of unnamed authorities "compet-
ent to know the facts" .. .
This newspaper has held, since
April 15, 1947, nineteen answers to
questions concerning the CPUSA
submitted by it to Carl Winter,
Michigan state chairman of the
CP. To date, they have not con-
sidered this "desirable material"
for printing.
For the record, the Communist
Party of the United States bases
its program only on the needs and
interests of the American people.
This applies both to opposition
to imperialistic economic penetra-
tion and milit ary adventures
abroad, and to the monopoly cap-
ital attack on American living
standards and civil liberties in this
country. As for "confusion and
bewilderment" and "economic
chaos," Communists realize that
such conditions. when people are
demoralized and desperate, far
from leading to socialism, actually
workers' demands for wage in-
creases ndl urging ionopoly con=
trols. American Communists work
to st,,ve off the day of economi*
an1d political chaos, to Soften its
effe-ct u1ponl those who will be
har1destfhit.
This latest full scale campaign
to distort the aims of the Com,
niunist Party is admirably timed
to coincide with the session of the
Michigan legislature that begin4
Mrch 16. Fie hilly now in lthe
nationsl Cong ress which seek to
outlaw the CP indirectly will be
duplicated here. The expose is the
kickoff for an "open season oil
Reds" that can have only dis-
astrous consequences for civil lib-
erties in Michigan. Only the clear i
est possible understanding of the
issues involved, accompanied by .
protests from aill sides, will pre-
vent passage of legislation which
will imperil everyone's right to
free political expression and activ-
iL .
-Bill Carter,
Ralph Neaftus Club.
Dean Pr(iised
Blur MA-I- DIN
4he -Michigan S ae Board-of -Ex- play into the hands of dem
amners of Barbers. Surely the who would lead us into
people of h1e state deserve to be
proected from unqafied bar- In fact, by fighting to
h ala, whto democratic rights su
F imeserve
t
To the Editor:
11ATS OFF TO DEAN Peake and
the Committee for Revision of-
the curriculum . . . for a promise
kept and a job well done!
During tIie student-faculty con-
ferences last ;semester, when we
discussed this revision, I am sure.
that some of us had the feeling
that we were just being given a
chance to air our gripes and that
would be the end of it.
At these meetings there was a,
sincere pleading that a way be
provided for those people who
didn't want to specialize to get-
a good liberal education at Mich-
igan. It is to the credit of the
Committee that they have been"
able to bring this about by making
changes in the curriculum as its
exists . , . and not having to scrap
the whole syvstem and start from
scratch.
It will be interesting to note
the number of people who take
advan tage of this new program'
Sfoithire are those-of us who
believe t hat s pecializ.,ation, while,
absolutely necessary voluntarily, is
not the criterion of a good edu-
cation. We will now have a chance
to see how many people come to
college to learn how to live, as
against how many come to learn
how to make a living. It should
prove an interesting observation.
-Sherman C. Poteet.
LENERAL MACARTHUR'S an-
nouncement that he would
accept the nomination for Presi-'
dent must inevitably be contrasted
with Gen. Eisenhower's removal of
himself from the race. The Mac-
Arthur statement arises from the
entry of his name in the Wis-
consin primaries. It comes while
he remains in the uniform of the
United States Army and while he,
holds the important post of
American commander in Japan.
Gen. MacArthur evidently has
no compunction about going di-
rectly from the Army to the White
House. There is nothing in his'
statement remotely resembling the
soul-searching scruples of Gen..
Eisenhower. Whereas Gen. Eisen-
hower was humble almost to a
fault, Gen. MacArthur's state-
ment, couched in lofty phrases,
indicates his eagerness to get into
the campaign ...
The nation, we think, will feel
no special elation as a result of
the Tokyo communique.
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch.,
+ MUSIC +
Operas
A SPLENDID CONTRAST between the
operatic traditions of the 17th century
and those of the present day was given last
night at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre by stu-
dents of the School of Music in conjunction
with the speech department.
"The Telephone," an operatic comedy
in one act by the contemporary American
composer, Gian-Carbo Menotti was the
initial feature on the program. Maryiane
Albright gave a splendid performance as
Lucy, hopeless telephone addict, while Ber-
tram Gable tompleted the cast playing the
part of the neglected lover.
Although the music is written in the mod-
ern idiom, the main melodic lines are still
delivered in the classical tradition estab-
lished by the Italian School of Opera.
The treat of the evening, however, came
with the presentation of Henry Purcell's
long neglected opera, "Dido and Aeneas." Al-
though orchestral versions of the music
from this opera have been presented from
time to time, last nigim's production marks
only the third time which this opera has'
been officially presented in this country.j
This rare work, with its crystalline melodies
and purest classical iorm is without a doubt,
one of the finest English operas ever writ-
ten.
The part of the Trojan Prince was taken
ba~r Jac k-Je nsen wh ip Arlee c ln be repo'r
Brailowsky Concert
ALEXANDER BRAILOWSKY, who ap-
peared last night in recital here, would
probably insist that the artist, or at least
the performer, must be an extrovert. He
probably believes that a dreamer will make
a poor concert pianist, that if a pianist
will think always of how what he is playing
sounds to his audience, he is on the road
to parnassus, and that at the end of this
road lies the gratification of his audiences'
wish.
These are the conclusions that can be
drawn from watching this man at his re-
cital last night in Hill Auditorium. He was
no dreamer. Not once during the perform-
ance of any number did he reinove his
eyes from the keyboard of his piano. His
eyes and posture showed only an intense
interest in his task and a striving for per-
fection.
His tone was beautiful, and his blending
was unusually good, but it seemed a little
too planned.
This lack of imagination was painfully
absent from every number he played. His
Liszt Hungarian Dance No. 6 did not dance,
did not have the lilt and movement and
emotion of the Hungarian dance. His Cho-
pin Waltz in E-flat was too rapid and
rhythmless. In the Beethoven Appassionata
Sonata he never once left this physical
realm, and if he does not lead, how can we
Bally
Fifty-Eighth Year
1,
Edited and managed by students of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
John Campbell........Managing Editor
Dick Maloy..............City Editor
Harriett Friedman .. Editorial Director
Lida Dailes..........Associate Editor
Joan Katz ............ Associate Editor
Fred Schott..........Associate Editor
Dick Kraus ............Sports Editor
Bob Lent ......Associate Sports Editor
Joyce Johnson.......Women's Editor
=Jean Whitney Associate Women's Editor
Business Staff
Nancy Helmick......General ManarWg
Jeanne Swendeinan ,... Ad. Manager
Edwin Schneider .. Finance Manager
Dick Halt....... Circulation Manager
Bess Hayes ................. Librarian
Telephone 23-24-1
BARNAY.. . N.V. a
r
follow?
Others may not
Mr. O'Malley, my Fairy Godfather,
is coming to sec Uncle Ralph about
advertising that bottle of eyewash-
I suppose a
kid his age
believes that
Bornaby. Time for bed.
The Sandman is coming-
That's
Hello, Barnaby ... Meet
an old friend of your
Fairy Godfather's...
rvlernber of The Associated Press
The Associated Press is exclusively
entieled to the use for re-publication
of all news dispatched credited to it or
have found it so, but to
I