_____ THE MICHIGAN DAILY
md -
Black
How They
THE appearance of twenty self -conscious
black-capped coeds on campus yesterday
is a good time for a discussion of Mortar-
board-not from the standpoint of its pur-
pose, which only national headquarters
seems to understand fully, but in regard to
its most celebrated function, harvesting the
new crop.
,Mortarboard perpetuates itself by select-
ing a maximum of 20 juniors on the basis
of recommendations from the heads of all
campus groups with coed participants and
from current Mortarboard members. Those
who do not meet the honorary's scholastic
requirements are dropped from the list.
The remaining candidates are discussed on
the basis of their comparative leadership
and service. Each choice must be unani-
mous.
The residences and activities of this
year's new group, like those of their pre-
decessors, reflect two characteristics of
Mortarboard constituency which have
subjected the organization to both just
and unjust criticism.
One of these traits is that of the twenty
new members, only six are independents,
these being split between two small houses-
Martha Cook and Betsy Barbour. Similarly'
last year five out of eighteen members were
independents, four of them from Martha
Cook.
Independents who have "studied'the affi-
liate problem" argue that as long as there
are a majority of sorority women in Mortar-
board, they will continue to maintain as-
cendency by pushing new affiliates into the
group. This isn't the case at all. In fact,
the affiliation or non-affiliation of the can-
didates is a factor not even considered in
the discussions.
The disconcerting fact remains, however,
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writers only.
NIGHT EDITOR: RICH THOMAS
Student Queries
THE NEWLY PROPOSED language re-
quirement deserved better treatment
from the student body than the criticism
it received at Tuesday's Literary College
Conference.
The proposal, though it would not af-
fect anyone now on campus, would require
future graduating students from the
literary college to have a proficiency in a
foreign language equivalent to a fourth
semester of study.
In effect, the Conference accomplished
what it set out to do, to test student reac-
tion, but what bearing that reaction will
have on the content of the requirement plan
is hard to see. For if the faculty went along
with the student opinion expressed, they
would have to scrap not only this require-
ment proposal, but all academic require-
ments in all fields.
If the Conference revealed anything, how-
ever, it showed that a large number of stu-
dents still do not know why they are here
and that the University has not yet suc-
ceeded in teaching them the answers.
Such topics as earning a living after grad-
uation, the necessity for taking subjects
outside of majors, the need for better teach-
ing methods, better counseling services, bet-
ter classroom facilities, all came up in a
discussion over language requirements.
And at the bottom of the student com-
ments was a hostile attitude, not just toward
this University, but toward the entire edu-
cational system from kindergarten up. It was
an attitude that was not calmed by assur-
ances that the problems were all realized by
the administration and that planning was
going on to corect them.
Despite the many good reasons that the
faculty presented for having a language
proficiency requirement--and the reasons
stemmed from academic conjecture to actual
facts and figures-the majority of students
left the Conference still doubting if any
value would come from the plan.
The problem for the University thus
becomes manifold. It will not be sufficient
to enact the proposed requirement-and it
should be enacted-without also making
it quite clear to the students just what
the reasoning behind it is.
The importance of educating students as
to the whys and wherefores of college is
generally realized by the University. The
Conference itself was a step in that direc-
tion. But now further action must be taken
by the faculty to clear up the haze in stu-
dent's minds not just about the language
requirement, but about the ' entire liberal
arts curriculum.
-Leonard Greenbaum.
Color Standard
WE HAVE small sympathy with the de-
mand presented the other day to Secre-
tary Dean Acheson by a group of Negro
leaders that he appoint a Negro as an Assist-
ant Secretary of State. It may be true that
Caps:
Get There
that with a few notable exceptions, sorority
women are better known than their inde-
pendent competitors. This is not because
they are necessarily more active than inde-
pendents (about as many independents as
affiliates get recommended for Mortar-
board), but they do tend to strike out for
broader and more noticeable goals, campus
leadership positions which along with re-
sponsibilities bring a goodly share of pres-
tige. Many active independents, on the
other hand, are the unsung valiants of the
Committee, or pass unnoticed in a series of
dormitory positions. It is one of the weak-
nesses of honoraries that these women are
not recognized.
EVEN more disturbing than sorority pre-
dominance within Mortarboard is the
residential distribution of the eligible inde-
pendents almost entirely among the small
dorms. The real reason for the absence of
large dormitory residents on the Mortar-
board recommendation lists is not that they
get "lost in the shuffle," as so many critics
think, but that majority of Mortarboard
potentials migrate from Observatory Street.
in their sophomore and junior years, either
to sororities or to small dorms,
Most of the women who leave the large
'dorms for reasons other than the desire
to affiliate do so because they want to
get closer to campus and the center of ac-
tivity. They do so because the inertia and
lethargy they find in the large dormitories
with their transient and chiefly freshman
population, stifles their enthusiasm and
squelches their energy.
One of yesterday's Mortarboard-wearers,
who recently transferred from Alice Lloyd
to a smaller dorm, told me that living in the
large dorm became more and more unbear-
able for her. And she wasn't small-talking
about skimpy meals or inadequate closet
space. As an extremely active participant
in campus affairs, she had nothing in com-
mon with her Lloyd House acquaintances
and living in the dormitory was a frustra-
tion.
* * *
THE second characteristic of Mortarboard
membership which constitutes a source
of criticism and even friction, is the heavy
emphasis placed on League activities. Mor-
tarboard has at times suffered the reputa-
tion of being a happy pasture where retired
JGP veterans can graze; that non-League-al
coeds, such as those in religious, political,
publication or music groups, are brought in
only as a token acknowledgement of the
World Outside.
This conception is a somewhat distorted
one, for in the last analysis a Mortarboard
candidate cannot ride in on the basis of
League activities alone, She must first
qualify for membership. But more often
than not, League work supplies the quali-
fications. Such hullabaloo is made, for
example, about Frosh Weekend,, Soph
Cab or Junior Girls Play, that a non-par-
ticipant is left to feel she has not properly
done-and-died for the advancement of
womanhood.I
Because Mortarboards are selected in thei.
junior year, JGP outranks the other possible
extracurricular pursuits in tapping discus-
sions. That the Central Committee of the
show deserves recognition cannot be dis-
puted, but the luminescence of JGP radiates
over chairman and chorus member alike.
Certainly the chorus members work hard to
make JGP a good show. But so do many
other coeds in other productions. A JGP
chorine spends an estimated 40 hours in
rehearsal over a five week period. By com-
parison, a coed in the chorus of any Gilbert
and Sullivan Society production, for ex-
ample, puts in some 65 hours of rehearsal
time during a period of three months.
But despite this difference, at a Mortar-
board tapping discussion, the listing of Gil-
bert and Sullivan Society as an activity
qualification counts about as heavily as
chairmanship of a dormitory French table.
*~ * *
AS A second evidence of the heavy import-
ance of League activities in Mortarboard
membership selection, there is that interest-
ing superfluity known as Miss Mac's list.
As its title suggests, it is a list of names of
coeds in League activities prepared, at the
request of Mortarboard, by Miss Ethel Mc-
Cormick, Social Director of the League.
Although requests for recommendations
are sent to chairmen of all League activi-
ties, Miss Mae's list is deemed a necessary
complement to these sources. Mortar-
board feels that she, as supervisor of the
social activity of "all women on campus"
is the best person to present them with
what is presumably an overall picture of
,coed activity, Yet despite the fantastic-
ally wide scope credited to Miss Mac, there
were several Mortarboard prospetives---
both in the League and out-whom she
knew nothing about.
During the tapping meetings, members of
Mortarboard who have no League record
must conduct vigorous talking campaigns to
persuade the remaining majority that the
number of woman's activities is not every-
thing. It is not, in most instances, difficult
to pile up a long list of League activities,
for, although there are some important ex-
ceptions, a great many of these affairs take
place within a limited period of time after
which the participants are free to go into
more League events. For the most part,
the League long-listers seem to have no
MATTER OF FACT
By JOSEPH ALSOP
T EHERAN-Here in Teheran, where every
incident of the current crisis is pregnant
with menace of future disaster, this reporter
is constantly reminded of a scene long past.
The time was during the Iranian crisis of
1946; the place, the gloomy Secretary of
State's chamber in the British Foreign Of-
fice; the speaker, old Ernest Bevin.
First Bevin disclosed that the British
cabinet had just decided to occupy south-
ern Iran if necessary, rather than let the
Soviets seize the British oil resource
through a puppet government-a fact
worth remembering today. Then, haltingly,
roughly, yet convincingly, he expounded a
great scheme of social reform and econo-
mic improvement, to halt the progressive
deterioration of the whole Middle Eastern
structure.
But finally, with an air of deep discourage-
ment, he abruptly dismissed the subject,
saying, "the trouble is it would all cost money
and I have no money to spend."
One suspects that this has been the real
secret of the failure of British Middle East-
ern policy in these last years-that the root
cause has been the cruelly narrow margin of
resources and power on which the British
have had to operate since the war. At any
rate, the British have certainly failed. Until
the harsh shock of the Iranian vote for oil
nationalization, the Foreign Office, despite
Bevie's imaginative sense of the situation,
permitted itself to be bullied by the Anglo-
Iranian Oil Company. Until the sane rude
awakening, the officials of the Anglo-Iranian
company talked smugly about the Iranians
"coming to heel when they began to feel a
pinch for cash." And so the match was
lighted in the powder magazine.
But meanwhile, what of the United States,
which has the margin of resources and power
that Britain lacks? What is at stake here is
not just a British oil company, but the whole
Middle Eastern oil resource, the West's vital
strategic position in the Middle East, and
the world balance of power. An explosion
here can defeat the whole policy which has
already caused the American government to
lay out so many billions in other parts of
the world. Why then has American policy
done nothing to guard against this Middle
Eastern danger?
* * *
SINCE 1945-46, when Iranians and most
other Middle Easterners regarded Ameri-
ca as their great hope and reliance, it is not
too much to say that we have committed
every error in this region that was possible
to commit.
We have raised false hopes. Here in
Iran, for example, former Ambassador
George Allen spoke airily, during the 1946
crisis, of an American aid program of
$250,000,000. Again, when the unfortunate
Shah visited the United States, he seems
to have been encouraged to suspect that
he could arrange large American credits.
Even the arrival of the present Ambassa-
dor, Henry Grady, with the record of
Greece behind him, aroused great expecta-
tions. But while billions have been poured
out in Europe, no serious sums have been
made available to safeguard this vital
Middle Eastern flank of the West.
We have intervened in local politics, but
have intervened fruitlessly. There is very
little doubt that the influence of former Am-
bssador John Wiley had much to do with
the \choice of the late Gen. Razmara as
Premier of Iran. (The British, who had an-
other candidate, evidently accepted Razmara,
as second best.) Yet once Razmara had been
installed, we gave him none of the active aid
that might have made his effort a success.
* * *
WE HAVE NOT developed an independent
policy, but we have not really worked
with the British either. All our Ambassadors
in the Middle East are instructed that the
area.is primarily a British interest. But
while this instruction has controlled the
broad lines of our action, we have man-
aged to create a damaging impression of
Anglo-American disunity. For instance, in-
stead of coming crudely to grips with the
oil problem in London and keeping our
mouths shut in Teheran, we have not in-
sisted on our view in London, while Ameri-
can officials here have made a bad business
worse by publicly criticizing the British at-
titude.
It would all be very different today, if
in 1946, we had seized pon Ernest Bevin's
imaginative scheme, which was indepen-
dently originated at the State Department
at that time by George Kennan and others.
It would also be very different if the slight-
est attention had been paid to the
anguished warning of our successive Am-
bassadors, down to and conspicuously in-
cluding Ambassador Grady. Until very re-
cently, a very small American investment,
plus an intelligent, determined and united
application of American and British in-
fluence, would have been enough to reverse
the whole trend here.
Instead, a course of reckless folly has
brought us to a situation where the price to
be paid wil be considerable, and the risks to
be run will be great, if serious action is to
be taken to escape inevitable disaster.
(Copyright, 1951, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.)
Mind Over Matter'
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teQtte'd 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.
Asian Situation .. .
To theEditor:
MR. SATYESH BANERJEE could
never have been more wrong
than when he stated that 'Mac-
Arthur was a symbol of colonialism
in Asia." He went on to say that
the distinguished General"does not
desire the prosperity of the Asian
countries and wishes to see them
subject nations," and that, "he is
blind to the new life that has come
to the Orient."
It was a shock to know that such
a person is so completely misin-
formed.All of his statements were
contrary to the facts. Does he im-
ply that America's intention in the
Far East is for expansion? Does he
imply that MacArthur was placed
in command by America in order to
pursue this aim? Does he mean
that the General is still in ignor-
ance of the conditions existing
there despite, the long years he
spent in the Orient? Also, hasn't
he read the newspapers for the last
two weeks?
For Mr. Banjee's information, I
would like to point out that Japan
is not being colonized, and the
Philippines was neither subjected
nor colonized by America and her
"symbol." The Philippines has
gained its independence after it
was guided to the path of Democ-
racy and prosperity. Equality is
guaranteed for all. Complete free-
domis enjoyed by all. There is no
caste; system or discrimination.
There is no food rationing and
there is no threat of hunger. All of
these are the aftermath of Ameri-
can influence and faith in a MAN,
and what that MAN represents
during the darkest hours. What
could be more reassuring than that
Japan is being led down the same
path? The peace treaty is being
prepared.
The aids extended, and the prin-
ciples of Democracy .introduced,
are enough to substantiate the
honesty of America's intention.
MacArthur understood all these
and his competence is beyond
reproach.A person has to live in a
land where America has lent a
hand to understand.
-Conrado Vinuya
* * *
Heaven's Fall .
To the Editor:
THE CONTEXT fro n which the
inscription on the Law Quad-
rangle has been taken ("Let jus-
tice be done though the heavens
should fall.") proves to be rather
revealing in regard to modern con-
cepts of law and morality.
According to Seneca, one Lucius
Calpurnius Piso '("Frug") sen-
tenced a man to death for murder
on circumstantial evidence. At the
time of execution, however, the
man supposed to have been mur-
dered appeared. The centuion
took the liberty of postponing the
execution and took the suspect to
Piso to explain the new develop-
ment.
- Piso condemned all three men
to death. The suspect was execu-
ted because his sentence had al-
ready been proclaimed; the cen-
turion because he disobeyed or-
ders; and the man supposed to
have been murdered because he
had been the cause of death to two
innocent men. Piso closed the
hearing with the words: "Fiat
justitia ruat coelupn." ("Let jus-
tice be done though the heavens
should fall.")
We humbly suggest-in the in-
terests of a broader morality -
that the inscription be quickly
and artfully removed.
-Sid Goldberg,
Seymour Baxter
* * *
War or No War .. .
"Onward, Men!"
To the Editor:
IF THERE is to be a war, then
there should be total, "all out"
war, until that war's aim is ac-
complished. As has recently been
emphasized: war's very purpose is
victory, not to prolong indecision.
In this age, there is no justifica-
tion whatever for fighting a lin-
gering war, for committing troops
piece-meal to slaughter. These-
f ore, if total war is not to be
waged, no war is justified, at all:
i.e. the United States and the
United Nations should immediate-
ly and unconditionally withdraw
from contact with the enemy, and
so from Korea.
The President and the State De-
partment have made their deci-
sion that total war shall not be
--yet. Thus, any loss of life, any
destruction of materiel, and any
further suffering of civilian popu-
lations in Korea is apparently only
for some fantastic political man-
euver. To say that this is pretty
costly and bloody politics is a gross
understatement.
General MacArthur wanted to
prosecute efficiently a war he was
told to fight. Militarily, that is
sound. If the war is not to be
fought efficiently, it must stop
immediately. And if it does not
stop immediately, the blame for
its continuation falls squarely up-
on those individuals and, bodies
of government, both here and
abroad, who were instrumental in
the removal of MacArthur from
command.
-George W. Byers
* * *
Bevan*
To the Editor:
IN ALICE Bogdonoff's editorial
yesterday "Bevan's speech and
the U. S." she praises Bevan and
expresses the hope that Americans
will heed Bevan's warnings.' Fur-
thermore she gives Bevan credit
f o r realizing the , danger of
"squeezing" out social legislation
for arms production.
But then in the last sentence
Miss Bogdonoff completely con-
tradicts herself by saying-"Bevan
can be admired hereas one of the
few national leaders who has
acted in the name of peace while
neglecting to raise the social con-
ditions of the democracies-"
-Ann Jackson
(Editor's note)-This apparent con-
tradiction is the result of a typogra-
phical error. The sentence should
have read-"Bevan can be admired
here as one of the few national lead-
ers who has acted in his distress at
the frantic paradoxical race to arm
in the name of peace. one of the
most dangerous policies which Britain
and the U.S. can follow is neglecting
to raise social conditions which will
make peace worth while."
BARNABY
M-bsrf,lipordm rl
IIdon't stand for folksj
I ! Ican seer bin,
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