PAGE rotTR. THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1950 CAGE FOUR FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1950 G.'13. Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, self-acknowledged king of the modern English theatre, died Wednesday night at the age of 94. There is no one to assume his throne. The irascible old wit, during his sixty years as a play- wright,, suceeded not only in creating a mod- ern and intellectually respectable drama, but also in endearing himself to the world. His consummately acid disposition made the stu- died insult a thing of wry beauty, and he delighted in using it at every opportunity. In his later years, Shaw assumed an al- most legendary standing. The very mention of his name brought associations of Shaw as a vegetarian, as a Fabian socialist, as a fiery old recluse, as a misogynist, and above all, as a colorful and eminently intelligent playwright. The ancient and disrespectful sage will not be forgotten any more than Shakespeare, whose rightful successor he typically con- sidered himself to be. Although he is no longer around to heap recognition on him- self, the rest of the world will happily as- sume this job. -The Editors Michigan Forum Speak up! Or listen . . ..Or make it possible for your fellow students to share their ideas with each other and with the nation's political and cultural leaders. The Michigan Forum is your chance to do something big, something good, some- thing that will last long after you've closed your last textbook and become that most anoftymous of all animals, an alum. The Forum is beginning its second year of operations. And while it's in its infancy, the Forum needs your help if it is to sur- vive and grow. The Michigan Forum is based on the plan of the Oxford Union, which has long brought the leaders of English public life to.Oxford to debate side by side with students on the major and minor issues of the day. Topics will not always be political. Liter- ature, sports, movies-whatever interests students will be fair game at the Forum. To add freshness to the programs, every other debate will be on a topic.which won't ON THE OHWashington Merry GoARound WITH DREW PEARSON -CLEVELAND - The hot and hectic Ohio Senatorial campaign has now boiled down to a battle of labor versus capital, the farm belt versus the city. This class-warfare angle is unfortunate, because the. issue goes much deeper and involves the future leadership of the Republican Party. The Ohio race is not merely a race be- tween a. hard-hitting GOP Senator who had the courage to espouse the Taft-Hartley Act; and a nice but colorless Democrat who cham- pions labor. Actually the issue is also whther the Republican Party is to beome once more the progressive party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, or whether it is to lapse back to the international creed of the Mc- Kinleys and the Herbert Hoovers. The fact that this basic issue is not de- fined inr the Ohio Senatorial race is partly the fault-of the Truman high command. For the truth is that Truman's political ad- visers originally wanted Taft to win. They figured that he would be much easier to beat than Eisenhower in the race for the White House in 1952; therefore, it was better not to run a strong Democrat against Taft this year. ' But whereas the White House failed to grasp the basic issue in Ohio, Arthur Van- Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are 'written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. NIGHT EDITOR: RON WATTS The Weekend .in Town EVENTS Oi' INTEREST ABOUT CAM- PUS: FOOTBALL A preparedWolverine team will come to grips with Champaign's highly-touted Illini tomorrow at the stadium. Kickoff at 2 p.m. DRAMA William Shakespeare's fairy-land comedy, "Midsummer Night's Dream," presented by the speech department. The Little Symphony Orchestra will play the Mendelssohn score, while Ann Arbor youngsters cavort as elves and pixies. At 8 p.m. today and tomorrow at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. See review tiis page. CONCERTS Third in the regular Choral Union Concert Series, George Szel and his Cleveland Or- chestra will present a program at 8:30 p.m. Sunday at Hill Auditorium. DANCES The world of 2050, complete with giant robots, will loombefore dance partners at "Capitalistic Capers," presented by the busi- ness administration school. Carlton Ryding's six-piece band will play from 9 p.m. to 1 alm. today at the League Ballroom, resplen- dent with a fuchsia-chartreuse color back- ground. MOVIES THE BICYCLE THIEF, termed by many critics the best movie of 1950. Director De- Sica runs through the emotional gamut from A to Z. Presented by the Student Legisla- ture Cinema Guild, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. today and tomorrow at Hill Auditorium. See review this page. JAMAICA INN, starring Charles Laughton, is the Orpheum's weekend offering, starting today. The beloved English actor is cast as as a schizophrenic gangster, called his "greatest characterization." *' * * ALL ABOUT EVE, with Anne Baxter and Bette Davis, tells of an aging actress and her limelight-usurping understudy. Top- notch dialogue. Tomorrow and Sunday at denberg, who worked beside Taft for years, grasped the issue long ago. Vandenberg once summarized this to me during the height of the first inter-party battle over the Mar- shall Plan. "Taft is so able, so tireless and so head- strong," said the ,Senator from Michigan, "that he carries the McCarthys, the Ma- lones, the Jenners and the Kems right along with him. That pack of isolationist jackals meets with Taft almost every night to plot against me and the Marshall Plan. I am not sure whether I can lick them."j Vandenberg did lick them in that particu- lar fight. The Marshall Plan, which had more to do with defeating European Com- munism than any other factor, was passed. But Vandenberg is old and sick now. He makes no pretense of trying to hold a whip hand over the "pack of isolationist jackals" whom he used to lick when it came to cru- cial votes on the bipartisan foren policy. (Copyright, 1950, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) "THE BICYCLE THIEF" The man whose bicycle is stolen in "The Bicycle Thief" is the powerful embodiment of the "common man." In particular, he is the European man faced, in the midst of a disintegrating post-war economy, with the need for a job. That's the focus of the first scene of the movie ... on the job. Anxiety and frustration are the rhythmic key emo- tions. ELmpathy with the man who gets the job and can't hold it because he loses his bicycle creates a silent tension pitch as high and sharp as a scream for action. The man has a true nobility. Without stereotyping, without saccharinity, the movie carefully, beautifully, completely touches on his deep, implicit love for his wife and little boy. The silent eloquence of facial expres- sion, body movement,*music and camera em- phasis at the precise moment make an ele- mental human poetry of the father-son re- lationship. Telling use of silences and of the people themselves as actors gives all of the "people themselves as actors gives to this story of a city laborer all of the monumental reality of the French farm film, "Farre- bique." When the man, for instance, tells his child of the theft of the bicycle without which he cannot keep his job alternates shots of his face and the child's face filled with a strangely adult understanding convey more violently than words the deadly gravity of the situation. They are equals, and their communion passes the power of words. Later, the man in his anxiety strikes the child un- deservedly. Camera play abetted by silence allows the eye to comprehend to the full their slow, unworded reconciliation through gesture, glance, walk and position. Over the man tower the old imponderable circumstances of office, bureaucracy and un- seen control. He is the bottom point of an inverted pyramid of forces, some of them corrupt, all of them impersonal, wayward, fateful. The man is honest, but he is small, infinitesimal compared with the high, broad weight of the pyramid. He is alone. He ap- peals to each of the forces that might lead him to the bicycle again: to the business, to the law, to superstition, which has taken the place of religion by default, to the gang, and, finally, to the thief himself. Business is impersonal; the law is distant and busy; the blackmarket is a secret unto itself, tacit- ly allowed by law; the superstitious experi- ence is degrading; the gang is merciless; and the thief escapes all retribution. At the end of the day the man returns dome, empty-handed. No bicycle, no bread. "Is work a right or a privilege?" is written large on the screen in the terms of his search and his honorable failure. The final terrible blow which ends the film by impelling the mind forward to a resolution it cannot face is the simple last shot of the man and his child walking slowly homeward. His honor be revealed to the speakers until the meet- ing. This is calculated to make the de- baters think on their feet. The first Forum debate of the year will be held Tuesday. The subject is one which is vital to nearly all of us: Resolved, That Students Should Be Given Special Consider- ation Under a Peacetime Draft. Each of the four speakers will talk for 10 minutes. Then they will quiz each other.. Following this, the session will be thrown open to the audience. All pertinent and im- pertinent questions and opinions will be wel- comed. After the debate, the audience will vote on the resolution, with the results of the voting to be published. Those attending will also have'an opportunity to write down their comments on the debate and on the speak- ers. You can help the Forum in any of three ways: as a debater, as a Forum member, or as a member of the audience. Debaters need no previous experience. A quick tongue and a sense of humor will come in handy, however. Forum members will arrange the debates- choosing topics, obtaining speakers, public- izing the meetings. Any student who is eli- gible for extra-curricular activities may be- come a Forum member. Anyone interested in any phase of the Forum may contact Audrey Smedley at 3-1561 for further particulars. The Forum is beginning humbly. Its first meeting will feature an all-student panel, although plans are already under- way to have prominent outside speakers here for a debate before Christmas. And though the Forum must begin modestly, that doesn't mean it can't begin with spar- kle and wit and life. With a topic as con- troversial as the drafting of students, the first session promises to crackle with strong opinions strongly expressed. As interest and participation grows, the Forum will be able to guarantee the au- diences to draw top speakers here. The first important speaker's name will cause others to come. Sooner or later someone is bound to make a speech that will arouse the whole nation's interest, be it on Russia, the GOP or old age. Then the Forum will be on its way to winning the respect and interest of the country. In years to come, Michigan alumni may well have reason to look with pride on the Michigan Forum, a place for students and the nation's leaders to exchange opin- ions and learn and grow. But for 'this to happen, work is needed. Time is needed. And you are needed. -James Gregory. At Lydia Mendelssohn .. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM pro- duced by the Speech Department, directed by Valentine Windt. THE OVERALL impression of this initial production of the Speech Department's 1950-51 season is one of carefree enchant- ment and hearty burlesque. With great skill the group has captured the spirit of Shakespeare's fairy world of the witching hour. Aided by excellent performances by Reid Shelton as Oberon, King of the Fairies, and by John Waller as the prankster spirit Puck, the kingdom of imagination qnd fancy is given free reign throughout. To say that these two actors excelled, however, is not to detract from the re- mainder of the cast, all of whom did extremely capable jobs in the roles as- signed them. If fault is to be found in the production it lies in several questionable interpretations of minor characters, in the use of Men'del- ssohn's Incidental Music and in the tedious pacing of action. Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's best comedies and as such needs little if any of the extranleous charac-. terizations that were added to the English tradesmen, the tailor and the joiner. If addition was thought desirable it could have at least been in good taste. The final scene df the players is also stretched a bit too far. It could have been depended more on Shakespeare rather than on Abbot and Costello. Mendelssohn's Incidental Music has an apt title. For twenty minutes after the curtain time and preceding the curtain opening The Little Symphony plays the overture. The composition does redeem itself, however, by adding greatly to the mood of the fairy scenes. The drag in action is due tp proper.cut- ting of Shakespeare's text without equal subtraction from Mendelssohn's score. There are therefor several musical interludes dur- ing which the action comes to a complete halt while the light crew displays its ver- satility at changing the backdrop into a continuous galaxy of color. The subsequent slow pacing tends to sep- arate the three subplots. rather than weave them into the unity for which they were intended. An odd inconsistency lies in the costum- ing. The Athenians parade before a back- ground of Ionic columns while clothed splendiferously in Elizabethan dress. "I've Shrewdly Managed To Get Him To Join Us" OF ,b_ - - l stn iesaW~l~Y (YON tlS~ S Alpha Delta Phi, Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Kappa Kappa Alpha Rho Chi Chi Phi Delta Chi Delta Sigma Pi Delta Tau Delta Hayden-Cooley House Hinsdale House Kappa Nu Lambda Chi Alpha Lawyers Club Michigan House J. Raleigh Nelson House Phi Alpha Kappa Phi Chi Phi. Delta Phi Phi Delta Theta Phi Gamma Delta Phi Kappa Sigma Phi Kappa Tau Phi Sigma Delta Phi Sigma Kappa Pi Lambda Phi Psi Upsilon Sigma Alpha Mu Sigma Nu Tau Delta Phi Theta Chi .. C'Qi 06totk Cdit op .. [ (Continued from Page 3) DAILY- OFFICIAL BULLETIN The Daily welcomes communications from its readers on matters of gen- eral interest, and will publish all let- ters 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 tasteI will be condensed, edited or withheld from publication at the discretion of the editors. SL Funds.,. To the Editor: AFTER THE appearance of the two articles on the Philippine fund fiasco, I though that the matter would quickly die. The mistake was made two years ago by a legislature composed of al- most entirely different personnel, and student government has cer- tainly made tremendous progress since the incident. In addition, it was the Student Legislature itself which uncovered the error, and measures have been taken which guarantee against the recurrence of such a debacle. However, yesterday's attack by a member of SL on Jim Brown, Daily managing editor, in my mind is uncalled for and in ex- tremely poor taste. The Philippine fund blunder cannot be placed on any one former legislator except, perhaps, those in the office of treasurer from the time of the de- bacle until last spring, when the misallocation was discovered. True, the. SL has done and is' doing a lot of extremely worth- while things for the students at Michigan, but when there is a misappropriation of funds by any governing body, that error deserv- es publicity. I agree withnArnold Miller (and. almost everyone else not on the Daily) that the story was grossly overplayed and further believe that the headlines and editorializ- ing of the article were misleading to one unfamiliar with the situ- ation. However, I do not condone in any manner whatsoever the per- sonal slurring attack on Jim Brown. While on SL, Mr. Brown proved himself to be a fine legis- lator, and his excellent coverage of SL activity last spring certainly is an outstanding example of his confidence in student government. If the 27 members elected this fall are as capable as Jim Brown, the continued progress of sound student government will be as- sured. Vive l'SL! -Dave Belin Cabinet Member of SL * * * SL Funds... To the Editor: IT IS TOO BAD that such friends of the Student Legislature as Hansen, Oberreit and Miller felt compelled to drag an irrevelant issue into the Daily's description of the Philippine fiasco. They seem to be pinning some faith in logic which runs, or rather rambles, like this: Brown was on the Legislature. The Legislature fouled up. Brown is now editor of the Daily. Therefore, Brown should be very careful to see that nothing bad about the legislature is print- ed while he is Editor. Could this be one point where a little dishonesty would be a good thing, gentlemen? Anyone who tries to view the function of a newspaper in will, if he is not suffering from well directed personal stings, admit that one thing a paper must do is keep the governing officials on their toes. It might be hackneyed, but it is not far wrong to say that a newspaper should, and some- times does act as a "Watchdog." For years the Daily has taken this function on itself. Just ask t h e Administration. Whenever editors felt that the University was in the wrong, they have not hesitated to say so. What reason could there be for drawing the line on student activities? The Daily has been, and I be- lieve still is, pro-student govern- ment, in that editors have confi- dence in student leadership. This does not mean that if student government gets its wires crossed, The Daily should keep quiet about it. Former legislator and present Daily Editor Brown undoubtedly knew he would walk into state- ments like those which appeared in Thursday's Daily. It took guts for Brown to say "I made a mis- take along with the rest of the legislature," and he should be commended for saying it and still coming through with the "Ex- pose." Incidentally, Gentlemen, a bet- ter definition of Expose without quotation marks would be "Tell- ing the public that which . they should know, but did not know." .In this case, The Daily has ful- filled its function successfully. -Al Blumrosen .53L Ten-Cent Programs .. . To the Editor: INDIGNATION--thoroughly jus- tified-has been the general re- action to the recent arrest of seve- ral student vendors of ten-cent football programs. Many guesses have been hazarded as to the real reason for the action. The Daily letter by Mr. Leonard Sandweiss last Sunday did a neat job of ty- ing this abuse in with the over- all picture of student exploitation which has long since become a "way of life" in Ann Arbor. But one thing surprises me; and that is that no one seems to have smelled a rat in the police action itself. Is the Ann Arbor Police De- partment (or any city police de- partment, for that matter) so pa- ternally benign as to make a reg- ular practice of going about ar- resting groups of people just to give them a lecture on the error of their ways? You can bet thatI if a law hasyactually been violat- ed, it is not typical police pro- cedure to lecture the culprit and turn him loose. Of course the charge that the students were dis- rupting traffic is just too silly to be accepted as the real reason for the arrests. And it is my guess that the charge of not having .a vendor's license was just too thin ice to walk on comfortably ac- counting for the "generous" atti- tude of the police in letting the students off "easy." Perhaps some of those law en- forcement officers-their chief at least-were uncomfortably aware of an Amendment passed by the City Council at its meeting on September 5 of this year. Accord- ing to the Ann Arbor News (Sept. 6, p. 15), that Amendment states that "any person engaged in the selling of goods on private pro- perty only on football Saturdays shall not be deemed to be engaged in business as defined and pro- hibited in the original ordinance." True, the Council had refresh- ment stands specifically in mind when it passed this Amendment. But it would seem that the pro- gram vendors would be money ahead if they just rented one of those auto parking spaces on a Main Street lawn and stayed off city property,.. Of course, it hurts Mr. Crisler and theAthletic Administration ("The taxpayers don't give us a penny") to have competition for their ridiculously nigh-priced pro- gram. But do the police arrest super-market proprietors for un- derselling neighborhood markets? The next three Sturda-s are football days in Ann Arbor. We hope to see enterprising students out with their econonically-priced programs. -Sherman Poteet . . * Theta Delta Chi Triangle Zeta Beta Tau Nov. 5 - Phi Delta Phi Phi Rho Sigma Stockwell Students interested in examina- tions for positions relating to Jun- ior Management Assistants in- cluding Junior Social Science As- sistants, U.S. Civil Service, see bulletin board, Political Science Department. These examinations are for students interested in ca- reers in the Department of State. Presumably the passing of the ex- aminations would establish civil service eligibility. Faculty, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts: Meeting, Mon., Nov. 6, 4:10 p.m., 1025 An- gell Hall. AGENDA 1. Consideration of the minutes of the meeting of Oct. 2, 1950. (pp. 1614-1620). 2. Consideration of reports sub- mitted with the call to this meet- ing. a. Executive Committee - Prof. B. D. Thuma. b. Executive Board1 of the Grad- uate School - Prof. F. K. Sparrow. c. Deans' Conference - Dean Hayward Keniston. 3. Services available in the Eval- uation and Examinations Division, Bureau of Psychological Services. Dr. E. J. Furst. 4. Discussion:' Courses open to freshmen. 5. Announcements. 6. New business. Lectures University Lectures in Journa- lism: Blair Moody, of the Detroit News Washington Bureau, will lecture before a journalism as- sembly Fri., Nov. 3, 3 p.m., Rack- ham Amphitheatre. S u b j e c t "Building Strength for Freedm." Open to the public. Concerts Music of 17th & 18th Centuries, played by the String Orchestra, conducted by Gilbert Ross, 8:30 p.m., Mon. Nov. 6, in Lydia Men- delssohn Theatre. The program will include compositions by Pur- cell, Geminiani, Bach and Mozart,. and will be open to the general public without charge. Events Today International Radio Round Ta- ble: Auspices of International Center and WUOM. Discussions are held every Friday at 2:30 p.m. on WUOM and are broadcast on the Voice of America to foreign countries. Subjects for discussion: Peace and the Atomic Energy- Nov. 3. Students interested in partici- pating in the programs may con- tact Hiru Shah, Moderator of the Roundtable, 2-1644 or Charles Ar- nade, Organizer of the Program, International Center. Modern Dance and Ballet Clubs: (Continued on Page 6) -V Voting... To the Editor: PROCEDING from our theory that representative govern- ment requires the participation at the polls of every qualified voter, the Young Republican Club has collected informatiop on absentee voting regulations from all of the 48 states. As a follow-up to the booth which we maintained on campus, on the eighteenth and nineteenth, we will be happy to provide,. to any person, needed information on the, absentee balloting procedure, at any time before the Novemhber 7th election. Such information can be obtained by contacting the writer at 609 East University. --Lyle Thumme Campus ActionhCommittee Young Republican Club Individualism .. . To the Editor: ALL THIS talk of 'individualism' and 'society' and 'the state' and 'the leader' - as if these can ever exist in such total isolation from each other! Yes, there is a latent nihilism in communism and fascism and monarchy; but a one-sided embhasis upon sheer in- dividualism or a static individual- ity can lead to a nihilistic dogma from which there is even less chance of escape. The herd instinct can assert itself in innumerable ways. So democracy is the perfect syn- thesis of individualism, the state, society, and leadership? Well then, put aside all this fancy terminolo- gy for a moment, take your eyes off the paper, and look around * . . How democratic is democracy? Perhaps we could stand, if noth- ing else, a few elementary lessons in semantics.a -E. W. Menzel Jr. 'Fric-Frac' .. To the Editor: I WISH TO congratulate Leonard Greebaum on his review of the French film "Fric-Frac". I found it balanced, thoughtful and ac- curate. As a matter of fact, it was just the kind of review I would have i t "I i t S S i e Sixty-First Year Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of Student Publications. Editorial Staf Jim Brown.........Managing Editor Paul Brentlinger.........City Editor Romna Lipsky........ Editorial Director Dave Thomas.......... ... Feature Editor Janet watts. ...... Associate Editor Nancy Bylan. ... ....... Associate Editor James Gregory.......Associate Editor Bill Connolly...........Sports Editor Bob Sandell.....Associate Sports Editor Bill Brenton....Associate Sports Editor Barbara Jans...... .Women's Editor Pat Brownson Associate Women's Editor 'Business Staff I Bob Daniels..... .... Business Manager WalteraShapero Assoc. Business Manager Paul Schaible.....Advertising Manager Bob Mersereau....... Finance Manager Carl Breitkreitz... Circulation Manager Telephone 23-24-1 Member of The Associated Press t The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication e of all news dispatches credited to it or written myself, if I ever took the Otherwise creded to thso newspaper trouble to do more than make' matters herein are also reserved. snide conments on The Daily's Entered at the Post Office at Ann snid coment onArbor. Michigan as second-class mail reviews. matter. Bruce M. Arelier Subscription during regular schocl -Bruc M. Aelier year. by carrier, $6.0: by mail, $7.00. 6 BARNABY . - -- - Look, Mr. O'Matley! I caught it! And~it was dragging something- Launcelot McSnoyd! I might have known. ... Look, McSnoyd, you and your clownish feathered friend are interrupting a very ckmar/ Soitainly I got a treasure, kiddo. And I'm consoining myself with it right now- L 31