PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21; 1949:
PAGE FOUR SUNflAY, NOVEMBER 2Z. it~9~
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By LEON JAROFF
ONE OF THE OLDEST traditions at the
University is the annual battle between
the administration and the student body
over the scheduling of classes on the Friday
and Saturday immediately following Thank-
sgiving.
But, through the years, despite the al-
most solid opposition of students and fac-
uJ.ty, the administration has stood resolute,
secure in its knowledge that Education and
Reputation were being furthered.
We must all admit that Reputation has
been furthered.
And interested persons outside of Ann
Arbor, like the members of the State Leg-
islature in Lansing, probably believe that
the cause of Education has been furthered.
But we in Ann Arbor know better.
Anyone who attended a post-Thanksgiving
Friday or Saturday class at the University
must have recognized it for what it was -
a complete farce.
If anything is gained during one of these
class sessions, it is 53 minutes of sleep.
NOTHING VENTURED
INSTRUCTORS, facing half-filled and
quarter-awake classes, make feeble at-
tempts to foist knowledge upon their resent-
ful charges while students, unprepared to a
man, try vainly to keep awake.
Qccasionally a compromise is reached
and the topic of conversation, switches to
turkey or football. But more sensible in-
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writ ers only.
NIGHT EDITOR: DOLORES LASCHEVER
ROLLING STONES
... by Harold Jackson
That Fateful Friday .. .
WE FIRST wrote the following impressions
of the Friday after Thanksgiving two
years ago. In the intervening time we have
seen nothing to change our opinion of that
loathsome day one iota:
"Discords and sour notes were universal
as only the valiant returned to face the
University's academic music.
"The return of the faithful began late
Thursday afternoon and continued all night.
"Despite sunlight, long and lifeless faces
supported by upturned coat collars were
visible everywhere as students with eight
o'clocks tramped through the chilly dawn
with.the ringing exhuberance of a Georgia
chain gang.
"A sharp biting wind was nature's reward
for devotion to higher learning and all
morning long she bounced stinging, powdery
snow off pale faces and red noses. Great inky
overshoes slogged through slushy sidewalks
and from four to six feet above them chins
were high but spirits low.
"In classrooms, turkey-stuffed carcasses
were eased tenderly down on hard benches.
Bleary eyes watched dully as vitamin-
packed instructors alertly checked the roll
and knifed smart "ah-ha's" at yawning,
empty seats.
"Most students agreed that the tattered
threads of education weren't picked up too
successfully. Only a token grab at them was
apparently made by many, for by nightfall
Ann Arbor's outskirt roads were again
clogged with students heading back "over
the hill" and back to that half-finished tur-
key."
They Ain't So Dumb ...
O exceptions to the traditional pro-
fessorial dryness are the history depart-
ment's Drs. Slosson and Aiton. Take, for ex-
ample, their recently expressed attitudes
toward examinations.
Slosson: "An essay question on a test is
like an accordian. It can be expanded or
contracted at will, and the chief component
is-wind."
Aiton: he didn't SAY anything. He report-
edly wandered into a proctorless examina-
tion, calmly took out a pair of binoculars,
and began scanning the room to "reinforce"
the honor system.
* * *
Seeing Freddy Home ...
A RECENT University alumnus named
Fred is convinced that the next time he
gets married-it will be in Eastern Siberia
well away from his fraternity brothers.
Fred invited all his Ann Arbor buddies
to Detroit for the wedding last weekend
and was pleased by the way they enjoyed
themselves drinking toasts to the bride
and serenading the newly-weds.
But he was not pleased when the good-
natured brothers followed them to the
Hotel Statler, tricked the room clerk into
revealing Fred's room number, and spent
,he entire night partying in the hall and
pounding on his door.
structors, realizing the futility of it all, de-
cide beforehand that classes will not meet
during these days.
What does the administration say in the
light of these oft-repeated facts?
One of its chief arguments is that the
faculty would be "loathe" to further reduce
the number of teaching days. Yet most
faculty members admit to their students
that this is nonsense since nothing is ac-
complished on the post-Thanksgiving Fri-
day and Saturday, anyway.-
* * * .
DISCRIMINATION?
THE ADMINISTRATION further states
that an extended Thanskiving weekend
would "discriminate" against the student
who could not go home because of cost or
distance.
Picture, if you can, a giant protest rally
held by these students to protest the an-
nouncement of a long Thanksgiving week-
end.
Other administration arguments against
the extended weekend fall equally flat.
Whatever the administration decides, it
should act quickly to prevent the recur-
rence of the shameful imitation of edu-
cation so noticeable on Friday and Satur-
day.
If it cannot see its way clear to add a
day-and-a-half of vacation to the University
calendar, the administration should take
concrete steps to see that the days are well-
used. Attendance of both faculty and stu-
dents should be enforced and penalties in-
flicted upon those who do not comply with
the rulings.
Of course, it would be so much easier to
open the floodgates.
Academic Blot
r HE INK MANUFACTURERS' lobby prob-
ably forms the most potent campus pres-
sure group today. But the group is so well
organized and operates so subtly that the
average student is completely unaware of its
power.
This semester, as in almost every semes-
ter in the University's history, the 11W
lobby has succeeded in attaining its little
known ends--dispensing huge quantities
of their backers' product throughout the
pages of mid-semesters.
Now the naive student generally regards
the mid-semester as a contemporary off-
shoot of the Medieval torture device. He in-
dignantly maintains that they are inflicted
by a sadistic faculty or an administration
bent on keeping him out of harm's way
through piles of busy work.
So the "borderline case" or the average
student relaxes his educational efforts
long enough to assimilate huge quantities
of insignificant details and immediately
dispenses them with the proper variety of
blots and crossed out passages in the quiz-
book.
It is unfortunate, of course, that the stu-
dent who needs a boost more than any other
gets this slap in the face just as he is begin-
ning to grope his way around in a course.
Perhaps he will eventually flunk out of
school-the innocent victim of a force he
could not comprehend.
The wise student sees midsemesters for
what they generally are, but realizes that
there is little he can do against the power-
ful IM group. So he, too, slows the pace
towards his educational goals and sub-
mits to an hour of writing which seldom
produces more than an ink-stained fore-
finger.
But he gets revenge after a fashion-he
chooses his words economically and does not
dot his i's.--Jo Misner
Bill Mauldin
MATTER OF FACT
by JOSEPH and STEWART ALSOP
WASHINGTON-The behind-the-scenes story of Clark Clifford's
impending departure from the White House is the same dreary
story that has ended with the departure of so many other able, badly
needed men from the government. The simplest way to summarize it is
to say that the Clifford family cannot, or at least will not, eat roots.
Until Clifford volunteered for naval duty in 1943, he had been a
successful young trial lawyer in St. Louis, making somewhere between
$20,000 and $30,000 a year. As a naval lieutenant (jg), he made $200 a
month. Even after his wife and three daughters had made considerable
reductions in their scale of life, most of the Clifford savings went dur-
ing the war.
* * * *
THEN Clifford's former client, Jake Vardaman, called him to Wash-
ington just as the war ended, to serve as assistant naval aide at the
White House. Before long, Clifford had moved on to the more import-
ant tasks of Presidential speech-writer and political adviser. Since the
job was very big, it seemed worth sticking to. The Cliffords sold their
peasant house in St. Louis, and spent the proceeds. Even so, with a
salary of $12,000 a year, no perquisites, and three daughters to educate,
the Cliffords found that the house money did not last long.
By the beginning of 1948, Clifford therefore was forced to
begin borrowing from an older friend in St. Louis who had taken
an interest in his early career. Since then, the borrowing has con-
tinued, until the debt is now considerable. At the same time, one
daughter has entered college, and another has reached college age.
For all these reasons, Clifford told the President he would have to
return to private law practice immediately after the election in
November a year ago. He only stayed the extra year in response to
the President's request, and in order to finish organizing a staff
that might carry on his work.
There is no conceivable reason why the richest country in the
world cannot pay its public servants adequately. Whether they be great
wartime administrators, like John McCloy, or Presidential staff officers
like Clark Clifford, it is shabby that able men should, be forced to
leave our government because they have been forced to run into debt.
It is also fantastically uneconomical, because the able men are inevit-
ably replaced by less able men. And there is no worse folly than giving
big jobs to little people.
* * * *
SUCH is the obvious moral of Clifford's departure. His going also hes
current political implications, which are less apparent but still
vastly significant. In the plainest terms, Clark Clifford is the sole con-
vinced Fair Dealer among the President's immediate councillors. And
what may happen to the Fair Deal after Clifford has been replaced is
anybody's guess.
Certanly the President's right-wing cronies will now attempt
to alter Truman's course. Most probably, the President is too
deeply committed to change at this late date. Thus ructions are to
be anticipated, while the Fair Deal continues.
On the other hand, even if the loss of his political strategist does
not mean that the President will try a new strategy, there is another
vital fact that must be faced. You can agree with Clifford or disagree
with him. But at a minimum, he is intelligent and competent. Men of
his calibre are uncommon around Truman. And the departure of
Clifford must therefore be considered, again at a minimum, as another
stage in the increasing mediocrity of this Administration.
(Copyright, 1949, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.)
"It started when he seen a picture of one of them big wide
Hollywood beds."
TO THE E DITOR
The Daily welcomes communications from its readers on matters of
general interest, and will publish all letters which are signed by the writer
and in good taste. Letters exceeding 300 words in length, defamatory or
libelous letters, and letters which for any reason are not in good taste will
be condensed, edited, or withheld from publication at the discretion of the
editors.
Something for the Birds
A T LONG LAST something has been done
for the caged birds of America.
They are latest in the ever-growing list of
groups, causes and events to be commemor-
ated by the dedication of a week in their
honor.
At least, so we are informed by an or-
ganization calling itself the National
Caged Bird Committee which has just con-
cluded the celebration of the First Annual
National Caged Bird Week.
Now one may well ask if there is any harm
in remembering the contributions which
our little feathered pets make to the break-
fast table and the Sunday morning organ
hour, by dubbing a week after them.
On the surface the answer seems to be no.
After all the cats have a week and so do the
dogs. Business women are at present com-
memorated every year for seven days and
even a long-slumbering Englishman, named
Guy Fawkes is venerated by English moppets
every Nov. 5. Why therefore shouldn't caged
song birds have a week to be remembered
by?
There is no reason at all, except that the
whole business seems to be getting out of
hand and caged birds seems like a good place
to call a halt.
After all, we have just finished with
American Education Week and American
Art Week, and it was only a month ago
that we were celebrating Better Parent-
hood Week. Religious Education Week
rolled to a halt only seven weeks ago and
not too far in the background are the em-
bers of the last national Fire Prevention
Week.
If this trend is allowed to continue un-
checked it is not difficult to envisage a time
when everything from penned aardvarks to
pet zuisins will have its own special week,
necessitating no doubt some adjustments in
the calendar.
-Dave Thomas
ON THE
WashingtonT Perry-Go-Round
wITere nW PEARtSON
WASHINGTON-Now that loquacious Sen-
ator Ed Johnson of Colorado has dis-
cussed various atomic matters on television,
it is possible to speak frankly about the awe-
some race to develop death by the atom.
Although the United States now has
an A-bomb many times more powerful
than that dropped on Hiroshima, never-
theless it is true, as Senator Johnson says,
that scientists are working on a bomb more '
devastating than anything so far conceiv-
ed by the mind of man.
This is a hydrogen bomb. The present A-
bombs are made of plutonium. But hydro-
gen is what makes the sun burn, and a hy-
drogen bomb would literally burn up large
portions of the earth's surface.
One difficulty in making a hydrogen
bomb is producing the detonation instru-
ment to make it explode. This will require
unheard of heat, and it looks as if about
the only thing that could make a hydro-
gen A-bomb explode is the present plu-
tonium A-bomb we have today.
Another important chapter in death- deal-
ing which scientists are working on fever-
ishly is the nature of the nucleus of the
atom. Today, only a small portion of the
potential energy in the atom is used in the
current atomic bomb.
However, scientists now expect to achieve
sufficient understanding of the nature of
the atom to enable them to double and
triple the explosive power of the bomb
without increasing the amount of plu-
tonium required.
Finally, American scientists have develop-
ed instruments to detect radiation which are
so sensitive they can pick up traces of an
atomic explosion at a distance up to 10,-
000 miles. In fact, following the test explo-
sions at Bikini, physicists at Cornell Univer-
sity, Ithaca N.Y., were able to detect radia-
tion from the explosion in the clouds above
Ithaca.
* * *
DEMOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS
POLITICAL OBSERVERS who watched
the recent convention of Young Demo-
crats at Chattanooga came to the conclu-
sion that the real problem faced by the
Democrats is not the Republicans but the
basic split within the Democratic Party.
This spit - over civil rights - tore the
Young Democrats just as bitterly at Chat-
tanooga last week as it did the old Demo-
crats at Philadelphia in 1948.
The only difference was that Young
Democrats from Mr. Truman's home state
used the methods of his old friend, Tom
Pendergast, to try to kill any support for
Truman's civil rights. Jim Meredith and
young State Senator Wilson Gilmore, both
of Missouri, were among the leaders and
at one time the Young Democrats of Cali-
fornia were actually threatened with being
ousted if they insisted on fighting for civil
rights.
Another anti-civil rights battler was Bill
Primm, son-in-law of the late senator Josiah
Bailey of North Carolina, formerly with the
Democratic National Committee. Primm, to-
gether with retiring president Roy Baker of
Texas, stacked key committees with civil-
rights opponents and it took a vote on the
floor of the convention to overrule them.
Primm actually advised the Michigan
Young Democrats: "If you won't stay away
from civil rights, it's going to hurt the future
of Governor G. Mennen Williams," while he
told the California delegation: "You lay off
civil rights or we can still keep you from get-
ting your charter."
(Copyright, 1949, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
If I Were Dean .. -
To the Editor:
\ 'HAT'S THE matter with the
college education of today?
To sum it up in two simple Ameri-
can words-it stinks! Plagued by
drunken brawls, sex-minded youths
and an era of athletic monsters
one rarely reads of the prowess of
scholastic achievements usually
indicative of past college per-
formances.
A few colleges in the United
States have managed to emerge
unsoiled by this dilemna of hypo-
critical arrogancy. The University
of Chicago, under the stern guid-
ance of Dr.'Hutchins, broke from
this trend in 1941 and has done a
wonderful job in the defeatism of
delinquency vs. education. Do you
need proof of the tremendous ad-
vance this institution has attained
in the annals of scientific and
literary research?
Think back to the four year era
of your college training. Did you
read books or wonder who you
were going to date the coming
weekend? Was your research in
laboratories or in arboretums? Can
you point with pride to one thesis
that helped advance any educa-
tional theory whatsoever. Is this
the kind of flamboyant fling your
children will enjoy? I dare say
not.
One hears the words "socialized
medicine" spoken much too care-
lessly and with ever growing ease
today. I am certainly not an ad-
vocate of this theory but if it is
to comeswhy not socialized educa-
tion first? Who are we to decide
which minds are to be trained and
which aren't? Is an education
based on the size of pocket book
our parents have or is it not true
that in this free democratic gov-
ernment all humans are endowed
with an equal chance of self pre-
servation and promotion of their
own powers of achievement?
Millions of dollars each year are
being tossed recklessly into the
hands of ungrateful youths who
do not realize until too late what
is required of them to merit this
wealth. A pitiful number of under-
privileged are held back precious
years because of financial draw-
backs. Enough of these under-
privileged youths could be found
in one month to fill the largest
university in the United States.
What a pity one must starve these
minds behind a shovel and broom
while the defunct social climbers
are behind a Cadillac or a girl.
We are no longer capable of
coping with the simple machinery
of yesterday, idling in neutral
through a debauched educational
system. You have heard this
phrase used time and again in
the past in one form or another.
Well, hell! You and I can do
something about it now. Think,
talk, act and sleep on the idea of
a free, unbiased world that was
created 173 years ago. It's rotting
under our feet and we are encom-
passed in its weak structure. Are
you able to discuss intelligently
the atomic theory, Babson's eco-
nomics or the latest development
To the Editor:
TAKING THE DAILY at its word,
I would like to put on paper
some organized, and some unor-
ganized, criticisms of this Univer-
sity. The administration has ex-
pressed the hope that the opin-
ions sent to The Daily will pos-
sibly be helpful. I am afraid that
nothing in the letter could pos-
sibly be useful in forming Univer-
sity policy, because I am con-
vinced that the ills of Michigan E
(and other universities) are in-
herent in their structure.
In the first place, the Univer-
sity must be put in the proper
context. All universities are busi-
nesses in a capitalist economy.
This means that they must both
convince the consumer of the
worth of their goods, and must
compete.
The important fact to note here
is that while most other businesses
sell tangible goods, the ones sold
in the university are intangible.
I think that a great many of the
evils of the schools can be traced
to this fact. The, administrative
routine of the school is mainly
concerned with giving a sem-
blance of tangibility to their
wares. Thus has developed the
system of grades, credits, diplo-
mas; and the technics of examina-
tions, attendance and assign-
ments. While knowledge can not
be put in a show window, an en-
graved piece of paper saying BA
can.
Along with this is the fact that
the university is not ruled by edu-
cators, but by business men. This
really is rather peculiar. A Uni-
versity seems to be the only enter-
prise in which the board of dir-
ectors cc not necessarily experts
in the cominocuty to be merchan-
dised. It is in line with the above,
and with the general anti-intel-
lectual myth of America that pro-
fessional educators are command-
ed by men whose qualifications
are that they belong to the politi-
cal party in power and that they
are a success in some other field.
The ideal system, from my point
of view, would be a university
consisting of buildings, libraries
and other equipment, autonomous
faculty and anyone who wanted
to come and study. The students
would be free to stay as long as
they chose, and to leave when
they chose. Recruits for the fac-
ulty would be chosen by the fac-
ulty, prerequisits being knowledge
of a subject and the ability to
teach it. The University would be
government supported, but would
not be under government control.
Many problems would be over-
come by this system, not the least
of which is the ambiguous notion
of "democratic education," which
is rapidly becoming equivalent to
no education at all. I think that
the number of students would be
radically reduced, as soon as pros-
pective students learned that all
they would get out of attending
is knowledge.
Such anomolies as 97,000 seat
stadiums used nine times a year,
coupled with overcrowded class
rooms, housing problems and de-
plorably low salaries would no
longer exist. The need for such
stadiums would vanish when the
need for publicity that goes with
competition and the need for pri-
vate investors no longer existed.
But anyone following this line
of reasoning can see the conse-
quences. I think it makes a good
parlor game to enumerate the
changes that would ensue. The
game might even have an educa-
tive function.
-David Segal
To the Editor:
HAVING spent five semesters in
literary college, I feel rea-
sonably well qualified to say that
its problem (and there is a very
definite one) is not in its depart-
mental programs, but in the atti-
tudes of the students themselves.
A large percentage of students
in lit school can be divided into
two groups on the basis of class-
room attitude: those who are
working for the grade and those
who are partially to totally apath-
etic. Unfortunately, many students
who would prefer to approach
their courses with a healthy, in-
telligent seeking state of mind,
are swept into an attitude of cyni-
cism by the winds of conformity.
(It is too bad that the term "eager
beaver" has acquired such an un-
favorable connotation, being so
aptly descriptive of the ideal
characteristics of a genuine stud-
ent.)
Fortunately, there will always be
a group, in any college, who want
above, all else to learn. If only this
group were in the majority at the
literary, 'college, the problem
would inidoubtedly cease to exist.
Since iy transfer to the School
of Music, it has been a constant
source of pleasurable astonish-
ment to. observe its totally differ-
ent atmosphere. The relationships
of students to each other and to1
members-of the faculty, and facul-
ty members to each other, are
characterized, both during and af-
ter school hours, by the under-
standing and congeniality one
would normally expect to find
only on suimer vacation.
Certainly music students are
not basically different from lit
school students. They can't be con-
sidered more fortunate simply for
being musicians. Presumably, ev-
eryone is studying what he is by
preference over anything else.
The biggest question, of course,
is "what can be done?" Quite
frankly, I don't know, but I do
care, because, after all, it is pri-
marily a students' problem.
My heartfelt sympathies to Dean
Keniston for having the thankless
job of changing people. Perhaps
he should assemble the psychology
department and march on Burton
Tower. At least that would make
The Daily, which is probably more
than this letter will do.
-Dave LeClair
t gat Rat
only a
Yes,
system
stink!
in cancer curement? There are
few who can.
readers, our educational
of today certainly does
-Wm. C. Emory, '47
* * *
Fifty-Ninth Year
Edited and managed by studente of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
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Philip Dawson..E.....Editorial Director
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Don McNeil.. Associate Editor
Alex Lmanian......Photography Editor
Pres Holmes ......... Sports Co-Editor
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Allan C amage ...Assistant Librarian
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10 1
BARNABY
rarnaby, is there any of your
turkey left? A qizzawd or an
You had tickets for TWO turkeys
dinners. Didn't you eat them?
You mean McSnoyd, the
Invisible Leprechaun? =
T hose two free tickets he gave
me were for LAST YEAR'S
As long as I missed a real Thanksgiving
dinner, we'll make this occasion as
Here are some old newspapers. I learned
to fold paper hats in kindergarten-
And when your family paused to count
their blessings, I presume they were