w:_THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY
A Question of Ethics
DORIS FLEESON:
Independent
Democrats'
"Always Glad To Loan My Neighbor A Shovel"
-,~ m 4 -.
A THREE-MAN disciplinary committee
has meted out punishment both unjust
and unwise in its recent expulsion of en-
gineering student Robert J. Lapham.
The student broke his contract with the
NROTC after becoming a conscientious
objector and at first stated that he did
not feel obligated to pay back the Navy
for benefits he received while in the
NROTC. This action was termed "un-
ethical and irresponsible" by the engineer-
ing college Committee on Discipline.
The committee has said that it is con-
cerned with the ethics of students. Appar-
ently they feel that breaking a contract made
in good faith is unethical even though any
contract may be declared void - by mutual
consent.
Having become a conscientious objector
Lapham could not honestly continue to re-
main a member of and receive financial aid
from the Navy while he no longer believed
in the codes established by a military insti-
tution.
F LAPHAM is to be penalized in an educa-
tional iTnltution for acting on a decision
made on the basis of his conscience, there is
something wrong with that institution. The
primary aim of an educational institution
is to encourage its students to develop their
ability to think. Even such a specialized part
of a university as an engineering college
must recognize that the vocational training
is only one facet of education. The full de-
velopment and use of the individual's in-
tellectual capacities is a more important
aim of a college education.
In many cases this process results in
some changes in thinking and action. If
a student has the same opinions on all
matters at the end of four years in col-
lege as he did at the start, the education
has not been of much value.
By penalizing a student for acting on
some basic changes in philosophical thought,
the disciplinary committee has ignored this.
Of course, a student should not join the
NROTC with the feeling that it is his prerog-
ative to change his mind at any time and
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writers only.
NIGHT EDITOR: BOB KEITH
The Weekend
leave, but a case involving some really sound
reason for leaving should be considered as
such, and not handled according to some
firmly molded all-encompassing rules.
* * *
THE COMMITTEE was also influenced by
Lapham's initial statement, later re-
versed, that he did not intend to repay the
Navy for its investment in his education.
The NROTC contract, however, makes no
provision for repayment of funds by those
who do not complete the program. Any
money paid back by those breaking the con-
tract is placed in a special "conscience"
fund, which is not used for the NROTC pro-
grams. Since actual repayment of the
money invested in his education was im-
possible,'any disciplinary action by the
school on this point seems to be clearly out
of bounds.
Repayment of the funds is a matter to
be decided by the individual in his rela-
tions with the Navy, and not to be judged
by the school.
It has been brought out that during his
interview with the committee, Lapham
made an unfavorable impression, and that
the decision to expell him was influenced
by this. Perhaps the committee's charge of
"irresponsible action" was based on this im-
pression. If so, the committee is again off
base. It is their function to review the evi-
dence at hand, and to act on that, not to
condemn on a single personality impression
of a student at the disadvantage of being
placed in a defensive position.
More important than Lapham's indi-
vidual case, however, is the question of
the power vested in the three professors
who make up the engineering college Com-
mittee on Discipline. Decisions regarding
student conduct are made on the basis of
some unwritten code of ethics, and appar-
ently what these ethics are is determined
by these three men.
The University does have, as the pro-
fessors stated, some responsibility for the
ethics, as well as the academic well-being
of its students. It does not, however, have
the right to ask students to comply with
an unwritten set, of standards. Neither
should it allow three men to decide what
these standards are, and what constitutes
living up to them.
There are some basic rules governing the
conduct of students, and a student commit-
ting a serious breach of one of them can
expect disciplinary action to follow. Lap-
ham has not broken any of these rules.
The disciplinary action taken in his case
was an arbitrary rule of three men who
seem to have incorrectly interpreted social
and individual ethics, and have a short-
sighted view of how a university should deal
with its students.
-Roma Lipsky
Janet Watts
ettePJ TO THE EDITOR
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.
WASHINGTON - A growing number of
Democratic Senators have begun to
show a marked independence of late which
is reflected in the nation's headlines.
What it portends is the kind of aggres-
sive struggle for the Democratic nomina-
tions for President and Vice President
that the party has not experienced in 20
years.
It proceeds from several well-founded
assumptions.
One is that President Truman as of now
does not intend to run again and that it is
best for his party that he should not.
Another is that Vice President Barkley,
now, 73, positively does not want to be
renominated but will retire gracefully at
the end of his term.
* *- * *
STILL ANOTHER is that the best way to
disassociate the next Democratic ticket
from the current slurs and scandals is to
give it a new look for which plenty of fresh
crusading faces are available.
They are figuring prominently in today's
newspapers and are central figures in the
kind of colorful stories that the great mass
communications of America - newspapers,
radio, television, movies - impress swiftly
and indelibly upon the public mind.
What is so significant politically about
their activities is that all are more or less
critical ,of the administration and of the
war effort for which Mr. Truman is re-
sponsible. Such detachment from the for-
tunes of their President is new and shows
clearly how the political wind now blows.
In the present state of affairs-the war,
the struggle to prepare the country, the
sacrifices that will be increasingly demand-
ed-anything that will make these aspiring
men appear more statesman like is apt to
pay off better than strict party adherence.
Having so narrow a margin of control in
congress, President Truman is not, of course,
in a position either to demand or to enforce
any adherence not willingly given.
* ** *
SEN. PAUL DOUGLAS of Illinois, a little
older and more seasoned than some
others, forged Ahead early with his portrait
of a liberal who refuses to be soft..
Douglas annoys the White House no
end and his colleague often but the
capitol sight-seers always ask to have
him pointed out. He could prove too
much of a maverick for a national con-
vention, always dominated by regulars,
but he has strength with the Democrats'
labor and liberal allies.
Currently breathing on his neck:
Sen. Lyndon Johnson of Texas, chairman
of the preparedness sub-committee, a triple
threat with his crucial manpower bill, crack-
downs on the military, and his inside post
aS whip.
Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, chair-
man of the crime committee, who has been
long on the road with his gaudy attraction,
a tour about to stage a brilliant New York
climax.
Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas, a
slow starter but photogenic. In his RFC
investigation, he is producing not only mem-
orable mink-coat and girl-meets-wolf stories
but an important exposure of how Wash-
ington's independent agencies and commis-
sions are breaking down.
Sen. Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, new
to the Senate but an able veteran of the
Hlouse, is off to a bright midnight-ride
start with his investigation of the Mary-
land election.
Others who can be counted upon for plain
and fancy elbowing of the current headlin-
ers include: Sen. Brien McMahon of Con-
necticut whose rivals grumble that his con-
stituents think he makes the atomic bomb
personally; Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama
and a lincolnesque appearance, who is mov-
ing up in foreign relations; Sen. Clinton
Anderson of New Mexico, the former secre-
tary of agriculture; the colorful Sen. Robert
S. Kerr of Oklahoma, and the articulate
Sen. Humphrey of Minnesota.
(Copyright, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
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More B. S...
Suggestion . .
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To the Editor:
To the Editor:
C
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1
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ON TE
W~ashington Merry-Go-Round
with DREW PARSON
In Town
BESIDE IRON CURTAIN, Adrianople, Turkey-I have just inter-3
viewed a Bulgarian refugee who lived six years behind the iront
curtain and then fled to safety across the Turkish borders one hour
before I talked to him. He was almost like a man coming out of a
dark attic and seeing the modern world for the first time in years.
He did not know for instance, exactly what the United Nations
was. He thought the Korean war was won by America, having heard1
the Voice of America broadcast that MacArthur was bringing U.S.
troops home by Christmas. He had been told also that people in Greece
and Turkey were living on grass and leaves because America was
starving them under the Marshall Plan.
The most significant, immediate news he brought was that
the Communists had come in an automobile to Oseno, a village
near him last week, to notify the people that Britain and United
States were about to attack them. Therefore all villagers must
rally in defense of the homeland. This dovetails with other tell-
tale signs that Moscow may be alerting for war.
Osman Omer, the peasant I interviewed, was dressed in a sheep-
skin coat, had a city-bought hat, shoes and other earmarks of a mo-
derately well-off farmer. He was born in Bulgaria. Though his fa-
ther migrated there from Turkey 75 years before, it was partly be-
cause of his Turkish ancestry that he was hounded by Communists.
Finally he sold his eight acres of land and fled. The Communists ap-
parently are either dispossessing or harassing the landowners to make
way for collective farming.
* * * * .
- BULGARIA CHANGED OVERNIGHT BY REDS -
OSMAN OMER told me, in reply to a long series of questions, that
Bulgaria changed overnight after the Russians entered.
"The first thing the Russians did was to change our money," he
said. "We had to turn in all our money and get new money, thus they
knew how much money each man had. I was allowed 12,000 levas for
my family of three.
Then every farmer was given a crop quota and if he didn't
raise that much and turned it into the government, he had to
buy it from someone else or go to, jail for one year. My cow didn't
have a calf so gave no milk and'I had to buy my quota of milk
on the market and give it to the government. another time. My
wheat crop was short so I bought a gasoline can of wheat to fill
my quota.
"There was no use hiding anything from the Communists," Os-
man continued. "They sent their inspectors around immediately after
the crops were harvested."
"Are there many Russians in Bulgaria?" I asked.
"Not now or at least we don't see them. At first they were every-
where. Then they trained Bulgarian Communists to take over. Re-
cently I heard from Varna however that Russian troops had moved in
so many numbers that there was a shortage of bread."
"What is the percentage of Communists in Bulgaria?"
"About 10 per cent, maybe 5 per cent, chiefly people who want
good jobs in case of war."
N ERSTWHILE opponent has
recklessly flouted my ability to
°ommand my emotions. (One
would suspect, if one were una-
ware, that student elections were
upon us.)
To his initial query, i.e., "How
an B. S. :Brown compare Han-
lon Won't Go with such univer-
sally acclaimed masterpieces as
A Midsummer Night's Dream and
King Lear?", I indignantly re-
tort:
I can.
I did.
And what's more, I am going to
repeat my perceptive comment,
unafraid, stalwartly flinging my
quill into the breach with steady
hand:
"In the past . .. . I have re-
commended several productions.
By all odds, "Hanlon Won't Go"
deserves that special recommen-
dation AS A PLAY which I would
assign to such recent productions
as "La Boheme," Midsummer
Night's Dream," and the Oxford
Players' presentations of "King
Lear" and "The Alchemist."
I have spoken.
How dare this criticizing indi-
vidual question my innate pre-
rogative of fearlessly setting my
own standards? Universal acclaim
is mob-like in character. The
words of infinite wisdom which
I, dauntlessly, have written are
the glorious product of democra-
tic individuality.
Is this not the true American
tradition? Can we abridge the
freedom of the individual to ex-
press his innermost thoughts?
Without endangering the demo-
cratic process, can we carelessly
infringe upon the freedom of the
press?
I'm confident my idols, Pegler,
Sokolsky and Lewis, Jr., would
stand behind me in this trial and
tribulation. I sense an invasion of
my rights, and I am a native-born
American, too.
I cannot sit idly by and allow
freedom to be flushed down the
drain.
I suspect my critic of question
able political leanings-his dia'
lectical attack is fraught with
danger.
A recurrence of the type lette
shall force me to an irrevocable
decision-to demand an investiga-
tion.
The dignity of rugged indivi-
dualism must be maintained.
-B. S. Brown
* * *
Stockwell Ruling ...
To the Editor:
HERE HAVE been certain mis
conceptions on the new ruling
on conduct in the Stockwell lounge
it seems. This is written not t
defend or criticise the rulings, bu
solely to clarify them.
In the first place, no definit
rulings have been issued. Instea
the girls were told to treat th
lounge as their living room, bu
to remember that it is also th
D'ing room of five hundred othe
girls. And these girls might b
entertaining members of thei
family.
The suggestion about keepin
two feet on the floor was mad
not to save the upholstry, but a
a hint for keeping within th
bounds of good taste.
Furthermore, there are n
"monitors-on virtue . patrols i
the lounge; eagle-eyed for fee
which are not on the carpet, an
other such examples of gross imi
morality." Instead, the girls ar
expected to be mature enough t
respect the standards of decenc
without being told exactly whE
they are.
PRESIDENT Alexander Ruth-
ven's pleasant chat with the
students at Gulantics last Satur-
day night brought home an ur-
gent and timely question to our
minds: Who will be the next
president of the University of Mi-
chigan?
Whether it is the place of stu-
dents to offer a suggestion, or
whether we may be able to sway
the verdict of those who will make
the choice, we cannot be certain.
But we feel we cannot sit back
and just wait without doing our
best to point out the needs of
Michigan in this department.
What Michigan needs is spirit!
Good old school spirit which will
make every student proud of his
school in all ways. Spirit which
will get capacity crowds to every
pep rally, athletic event, program
of student entertainment, and so-
cial event. Spirit which will make
everyone wants to remember his
college years with an Ensian, as
well as a few issues of the Garg-
oyle. Spirit which Michigan has
sacrificed for academic prowess,
yet which it can regain without
damaging this coveted prestige.
Sir, we believe we can suggest.
the one and only man for ourk
next University president. He is a
man who has already done much'
to enliven our school spirit. He is
a man who can once again re-
store the friendly and congenial
atmosphere we have lost, of which X
other colleges in Michigan boast.
He is a man who will see the stu-
dents' needs, and will work with
them in doing everything in his.
power to throw off the shackles t
which have kept Michigan from
preserving these desired attri-
butes. Yes, we have the man;
let's every student get behind our
friend H. O. "Fritz" Crisler, and
I make him, through overwhelming
decision of the student body, the
next president of the U. of M.
Students, let's make our cry:
"We want Pritz!"
-Chuck Vinkemulder, '53
Roy Wagner, '52
Milt Meier, '54E
EVENTS OF INTEREST IN TOWN THIS
WEEKEND:
SPORTS
BASKETBALL-Michigan faces Indiana
tomorrow; they're near the top of the lad-
der, but were last year, when we beat thwn.
At the Field House, 7:30 p.m.
HOCKEY against Michigan State at the
Coliseum, 8 p.m. tomorrow. Even tiddle-
de-winks between the two schools should
prove interesting, though this should be a
good match.
GYMNASTICS with the University of Illi-
nois tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sports Bldg.
s s
DANCES
ASSEMBLY BALL, to a "Show Boat"
setting, tomorrow night. Features Phil Bres-
toff and orchestra, imported from Detroit;'
a girl-bid affair; Little Club will serve re-
freshments. At the League, 9:30 p.m. to 1
a.m. today.
WINDY WHIRL at the Union, with Frank
Tinker's orchestra, tomorrow from 9 p.m. to
*midnight.
MUSIC
BEETHOVEN SONATAS will be perform-
ed in a faculty recital tonight at 8:30 in th'
Rackham Lecture Hall; performers are Ma-
bel Rhead Field, pianist, and Gilbert Ross,
violinist. Auspices of the School of Music.
* *' *
DRAMA
BILL of ONE-ACTS, two of them stu-
dent-written, tonight at 8, Lydia Mendels-
sohn Theatre. See Review this page.
ARTS THEATRE CLUB production of
Sarte's "The Respectable Prostitute" and
Noel Coward's "Red Peppers." Said by all to
be excellently staged and acted. Sarte's op-
us, the major work of the evening, concerns
race relations in the South and their effect
on the title character of the play. At the
Club's own theater, 2091/2 E. Washington St.,
8:30 p.m. Admission only to Club members
and their guests.
MOVIES
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOIN", starring
Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesay. Presented
by the SL Cinema Guild and the Student
Religious Association. See Review this page.
BITTER RICE, said to be served piping
hot, at the Orpheum tonight, tomorrow
night and Sunday.
THE MAGNIFICIENT YANKEE, starring
Louis Calhern and Ann Harding, is a gentle
comedy of character centering on the char-
acter of the late Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes. At the Michigan starting tomorrow.
VENDETTA, introducing Howard Hughes'
latest star, Faith Domergue, is set in Cor-
sica in 1825. The Daily reviewer called it
"little more than a fairly near miss." To-
nigh+ + + ,.tihgan.
.4
D~ RAMA
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,
At Lydia Mendelssohn..
THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS: Final Returns
by James Gregory; Morgue Duty, by Al-
bert H. Nadeau; and The Flies, by Jean-
Paul Sartre. Presented by the Department
of Speech.
NONE OF THE three one-acts being of-
fered this week at the Lydia Mendel-
ssohn seemed to me to be worthy of much
hopeful comment, and only one of them
attained to anything like the merest level
of competence.
Leading off was a student-written play,
Final Returns, by James Gregory. In it
Mr. Gregory is concerned with the prob-
lem of whether justice exists all by itself
somewhere, inflexible and immutable, or
whether it is somehow often modified by
the circumstances which surround it.
Unfortunately, Mr. Gregory makes much
more of this problem than he needs to.
He peoples the story with an unnecessary
number of characters, permits too many
of them wordy and repetitious speeches to
explain to each other and to the audience
why they think what they think, and re-
solves the whole thing with a synthetic
bit of melodrama. One is left with the
impression that Mr. Gregory is unwilling
to trust his audience to see anything all by
themselves.
Participating in the performance were,
among others, William Hadley, Richard
Teneau, and Lloyd Kaiser. Their perform-
ances were uniformly poor.
Final Returns was followed by Morgue
Duty, a brief ghost story by Albert Nadeau,
another student. It proved to be the only
item on the bill which aroused the audience
from its doldrums. It did this by suggesting
that odd things can happen even to the
most phlegmatic of morgue attendants.
There is automatically a kind of nervous
humor in making jokes in the presence of
a large number of corpses. Mr. Nadeau
capitalizes upon this fact, much of his wit
running along the "one nice thing about
dead people is that they're so quiet" sort of
thing, and follows it up with a reasonably
entertaining situation involving bodies be-
ing taken for living persons, and vice versa.
Arsenic and Old Lace is about the best
example I can think of of how funny you
can be with death, and Mr. Nadeau's humor
is never of that quality.
The reasonably simple roles of the three
morgue attendants were undertaken by
Arthur Nevins, Paul Bagrow, and John
Daugherty, all with a certain amount of
- - - nac
Best Hope
WHEN WE come to realize the
nature of the conflict and the
issues that are at take, we too
will know that we have still to
fulfill our promise to mankind.
We will know that now, more truly
than when Lincoln spoke, "we
shall nobly save or meanly lose
the last, best hope of earth."
-Henry Steele Commager
1
V.
4'V
* * *
I
- BULGARIANS DO NOT WANT WAR -
"TO WHAT EXTENT would the Bulgarian army fight?"
"Not much," was Osman Omer's opinion. "Nobody in Bulgaria'
wants war except the Communists. Young Communists have been giv-
en the best jobs in the Bulgarian army and they would fight but a
lot of others are given construction jobs because the Communists
know they won't fight."
I asked Osman if he ever listened to the Voice of America.
He said he didn't because all radios were confiscated but fre-
quently he learned from others what the voice said.
Osman was vague about the United Nations, said he thought it
was a combination of countries fighting on one side in Korea with
about twelve nations excluded. He did not seem to know that the
C
IINIEMA
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7
La n
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Architecture Auditorium
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING with Wen-
dy Hiller and Roger Livesey.
HAVE ANY OF you kids seen J. Arthur
Rank lately? If he could be persuaded
to use his considerable influence with the
Home Office to get me out of the Hebrides
and safely back home to mother, I'd appre-
ciate it.
For the past month, I've been buffeted
about by the twin forces of the eternal
Scottish gale and elemental Scottish pas-
sions; participated in one of the most mon-
umental binges in cinema history; listened
to the skirling of the pipes and watched the
swirling of the kilts until I'm nearly; dizzy.
Frankly, I think we've overstayed our visas
just a wee bit.
This is not to say that, taken singly,
these pictures have not been good, but
rather that a change in pace is to be
United Nations functioned regarding other matters aside from Korea. No hapless lass is dragged be-
Apparently he had not heard about our December reverses in Korea fore the council and put on so-
perhaps because he didn't listen to the Moscow radio. cial probation. Instead she will
"To listen to Moscow," he said, "You had to belong to the Com- be talked to, if she is a habitual
munist party and be admitted to the clubhouse where they sat and offender, and reminded that any
listened to the radio. resident of the dorm is respon-
* * * sible to the other residents for
- FRIENDLY TOWARD AMERICANS-BRITISH - eeyong the lounge a place w er
SMAN SAID that Bulgarians had the friendliest feelings toward without being embarrassed.
Americans and British and were awaiting for these two nations to Also we would like to make
liberate them. clear that the house directors are
not members of the council. They
This feeling was held by most people, he said despite con- serve solely as advisors without
stant Communist propaganda that America was bleeding Greece vote or veto.
and Turkey white under the Marshall Plan and that people In Stockwell has been able to with-
those countries were starving. stand other crises within the last
"Finally," Osman said, he "became so harassed by Communists" decade, and it is the feeling of
he decided to try his luck in Turkey. "All. my neighbors said, 'Let us its residents that it will be able
know how you find things in Turkey and we will come too,' concluded to withstand this one too.
the man who but one hour before had passed through the iron curtain. -Eva C. Stern
(Copyright, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) Inge C. Wolff
Sixty-First Year
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Jim Brown .......Managing Editor
Paul Brentlinger............City Editor
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Dave Thomas ..........Feature Editor
Janet Watts.. ...,.,,..Assoclate Editor
Nancy Bylan..........Associate Editor
James Gregory........Associate Editor
Bill Connolly............Sports Editor
Bob San dell.... Associate Sports Editor
Bill Brenton.. . .Associate Sports Editor
Barbara .lans..........Women's Editor
Pat Brownson Associate Women's Editor
Business Staff
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'4
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t.
BARNABY
Mom, will you give Gus the Ghost
some new sheets for the ones that
got stolen? ... My Fairy Godfather
says if you don't Gus can sue us.
Oh, an imaginary Ghost can't win q law
suit over some imaginary sheets, Barnaby.
f He hasn' a ghost
i was afraid your folks might
take just suchyan unrealistic
view of their predicament! It
makes things difficult! Tsski
i
A'