THE MICHIGAN DAIIY b THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 0 THUSDYNOEME_24 Tapping Time AND ONE DARK night the heavens parted. Down came the manifold host of mys- tics, each clad in the sign and garb of his particular cult. Down to the campus came they and raised a great clamor to the ocal Nimrod's. It was tapping time once more for the University's honoraries. Ferreted from their reluctant hiding, the wheels rolled eagerly to the altars, forges and bonfires where they performed the oc- cult rites of their proposed order. They were immersed in enchanting fluids, graced with becoming monikers and clubbed with all manner of lethal devices. The earth echoed and the heavens re- sounded with the thump of backslapping in the rarified air of the upper altitudes. A night and day were spent in encomiums. Now the ordeal is over. The chosen march forth with badges gleaming and are easily recognized by the great works their societies perform. The campus sa- lutes them: Vyizzderzomanimorhorsizazzezd and e r ar - horsiz. -Rich Thomas School Spirit Problem Child NOW THAT a good old-fashioned brand of Rah-rah, complete with all sorts of ral- lies and contests, has been somewhat pre- cariously established at the University, we can await the appearance of another Grip- manish demagogue to sow the seeds of an- other, and better, crop'of school spirit. That most students learned of Rah- Rah's revival with the same enthusiasm with which they greet the announcement of another bluebook might have indicated a widespread regard for the more serious aspects of education at this University. But when the Daily launched its "If I Were Dean" contest, designed to channel a con- stant undercurrent of criticism into a con- structive course, little-4almost nothing-- happened. Now Michigan students can look at the athletic inferiority of such a school as Harvard with justified disdain, but when it comes to genuine school spirit that in- stitution puts Michigan to shame. Not that the campus at Cambridge is the scene of frequent pep meetings or tugs-of- war; Harvardites care less for beanies and ON THE H Washington Merry-Go-Round WITH DREW PEARSON I WASHINGTON-It looks as if President Truman would soon have one of his former assistants whom he didn't particu- larly like, back in Washington-this time in the Senate. He is William Benton, former Assistant Secretary of State, who will prob- ably be the new Senator from Connecticut following the retirement of GOP Sen. Ray- mond Baldwin on January 1. Gov. Chester Bowles has virtually decid- ed to appoint Benton, a Democrat, to Bald- win's seat. Benton, who had the difficult job of set- ting up the State Department's new propa- ganda office, pioneered the Voice of Amer- ica radio program. He also went in for an art exhibit, which was sent to various for- eign countries, and it was this which got him in the hair of his chief in the White House. Truman didn't like modernistic art, and didn't hesitate to say so. In fact. he took the trouble to write Benton a confidential letter describing modern art "as merely the vap- orings of half-baked lazy people.. . . There is no art at all in connection with the mod- ernists, in my opinion," Truman told his subordinate. -BENTON'S FINAL TRIUMPH- BENTON also had a tough time with cer- tain Congressmen, especially penny- pinching John Taber of New York, who cut he heart &ptc jji W rptons. Ir js in- teresting to note, however, that Congress later came round to the realization that Ben- ton's propaganda program was one of the most important things the State Depart- ment was doing. Despite this, General Marshall, on becom- ing Secretary of State, asked for Benton's resignation, and the tough-talking former advertising executive retired to Connecticut where he kept busy with the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he owns, and Muzak, the company which pipes music into hotels and restaurants all over the United States. If Governor Bowles carries through his present intention of appointing his close friend to the Senate, Benton will now vote on the appropriations of State Department officials who once conspired to fire him. However, Benton bears no grudges, and when the Democratic Party was having a tough time raising money in 1948, he came through with a contribution for the Presi- dent who once eased him out of Washing- ton. * * * * -THANKSGIVING IDEA- THE MORMON CHURCH has adopted a Thanksgiving Day idea which larger church groups, or even those affiliated with no church, might want to adopt. Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. NIGHT EDITOR: PAUL BRENTLINGER When the National Interfraternity Con- ference holds its annual meeting this week, the eyes of a great many Americans will be watching it. For this organization will be discussing the question of discrimination. The Dartmouth Interfraternity Council has now urged that "a real step" be taken to- ward abolition of restrictive clauses. Other stands against racial discrimination have recently been taken by fraternity groups on many campuses, including 'Michigan, Wis: consin and Swarthmore. We applaud the students who are fihting tht artificial and unwanted restrictionsimposed on them by a tradition that is as unworthy as it is un- iemocrtic. --The New York Times The Mormons are doing without one full meal at this time of the year and donating the amount they would spend for that meal to someone who cannot afford a Thanks- giving dinner. In many cases they are giv- ing the money to the Community Chest. Behind this Mormon gesture is not only the idea of helping one's fellow man, but also the idea that the hunger pangs of one who goes without a meal makes him think a little more about the sufferings of others. * * * -AMATEUR DIPLOMATS- MOST PEOPLE have the idea that diplo- macy is something to be left to those trained in foreign languages, international problems, and the niceties of the social sa- lons. But 24 Negroes from Howard Univer- sity have just done a great thing for their country by touring Scandinavia to counter- act Paul Robeson's propaganda. The 24 colored students had been study- ing dramatics at Howard, and after a clerk from the Norwegian Embassy saw their pre- formance, he suggested that they visit Nor- way. With a little help they made the trip, and started off by presenting Henrik Ibsen's "Wild Duck" right in Isben's Norwegian homeland. Robeson, traveling through Scandinavia a few months before, had told how Ameri- can Negroes were downtrodden, lynched, and =uidernourished. Many believed him. Therefore, when the Howard University students arrived, they played to full houses, many in the audience curious to see just what kind of culture could come from the American Negro. The result was enthuisastic acclaim from Oslo dramatic critics. According to "Mor- genbladet:" "The acting was honest and straight-forward with an air of sincerity." "Verdens Gang" added: "The visit proved that the 'colored' Howard University has a literary interest and generally cultured stu- dent milieu on a plane which any Euro- pean or other university has reason to envy." From then on, the Negro students played before sellout crowds. They attracted so much attention, in fact, that they were in- vited to tour Denmark and Sweden-where they met the -same enthusiastic reception. Now they are winding up performances in the American zone of Germany, have been asked to fill engagements in France and Hol- land. Though unknown and unappreciated in their own country, these young Negroes have scored a triumph abroad-not merely for their acting but, more important, for their people-to-people diplomacy. * * * -WALL STREET BRUSHOFF- WALL STREET bankers are in for a big brushoff when Cameron S. Cobbold, president of the Bank of England, visits the U.S.A. early next month for a discussion of world trade and monetary problems. In the past, Montagu Norman, Lord Cato and other Bank of England tycoons always dealt directly with Wall Street when they had business in the United States. They ig- nored Washington except for social teas. However, the British government has in- structed Cobbold to give Wall Street bankers the go-by on this trip and do his talking with the Federal Reserve Board in Wash- ington. He will make only a token, cour- tesy call in New York after his business in Washington is finished. Federal Reserve insiders report that the British banking official is not coming here for another handout for his govern- ment, but to exchance ideas on how to stim- ulate trade by a freerer exchange of curren- cy and of private investment capital be- tween the U.S. and Great Britain. (Copyright, 1949, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) bonfires than do the students at this Uni- versity. But long before The Daily ever dreamed of its contest, Harvard students, showing genuine concern for the quality of educa- tion they were getting, formed a special committee within their Student Council to study the grand question of how a Univer- sity should be run. This year the committee published the re- sults of their efforts in a small, well-writ- ten, and incisive pamphlet. The most star- tling thing they reported was the interest with which the student body greeted the project. Of 200 questionnaires sent out by 'the committee, 150 came back, most of them fully answered, and filled with serious in- telligent answers. What the questionnaires discovered is not startling. The students blasted the lecture system, condemned many examina- tions as "bear traps," and bemoaned the size of classes. But throughout their criti- cism, they avoided mere bitter griping in favor of intelligent appraisal and helpful ideas, even displaying strong approval of some phases of their education. All this effort, and it was a sizeable proj- ect, is apparently within the realm of the Cultural and Educational Committee of the Student Legislature. But that group has busied itself this semester with the heavy problems of Rah-Rah, the maintenance of the student expert system, and the regula- tion of campus posters. What this University needs is a body of 20 or more students, well-equipped with time and energy, to set about with a proj- ect that will report what students think about the University and how it could be improved. This committee could arrange open for- ums, prepare questionnaires, meet with the administration, talk with teachers, work in a hundred different ways toward the im- provement of education, both liberal and technical, at the University. It's hard to believe that there aren't 20 students out of the 20,000 enrolled here who give a darn for the state of their Uni- versity. Life for many a future student here could be a lot better if a few students would aban- don disinterest, apathy, extreme devotion to their studies, or whatever you want to call this Michigan attitude, and start to exam- ine the real problem of University life, which is getting an education. If nothing happens, as is very probable, everybody can reiterate his faith in our fine football team, discuss the prospects for next year, and start making plans to send his sons -to Harvard, where school spirit finds expression in some thing more valuable than tugs-of-war. -George Walker The Amercan W HAT AMERICA does, not, of course, in a moment, but with incredible rapidity, is to obliterate distinctions. The Scotchman, the Irishman, the German, the Scandina- vian, the Italian, even, I sppose, the Czech, drops his costume, his manner, his language, his traditions, his beliefs, and retains only his common Western humanity. Transported to this continent, all the varieties developed in Europe revert to the original type, and flourish in unexampled vigor and force. It is not a new type that is evolved; it is the fundamental type, growing in a new soil, in luxuriant profu- sion. Describe the average Western man and you describe the American; from east to west, from north to south, everywhere and always the same-masterful, aggressive, unscrupu- lous, egotistic, at once good-natured and brutal, kind if you do not cross hire, ruthless if you do, greedy- ambitious, self-reliant, ac- tive for the sake of activity, intelligent and unintellectual, quick-witted and crass, con- temptuous of ideas but amorous of devices, valuing nothing but success, recognizing nothing but the actual, Man in the concrete, undisturbed by spiritual life, the master of methods and the slave of things, and there- fore the conqueror of the world, the unques- tioning, undoubting, the child with the muscles of a man, the European stripped bare, and shown for what he is, a predatory, unreflecting, naif, precociously accomplished brute. G. Lowes Dickinson "The Divine Average" IT IS DISTRESSING to contemplate the fact that, despite the universal depen- dence on the lecture system, the real key- notes to education-learning to think, learn- ing to read, and learning to work efficiently in groups-are aims that are achieved less in the lectures than anywhere else. -From "Harvard Education 1948," published by a special committee of the Harvard Student Council -