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AfIJ la iU.tf.eJI.AlN DAILY
.rUaoi,DA MAY 0X947'a,,
IU...
"ampus Queen Referendum
E CAMPUS QUEEN referendum con-
ducted in the recent Student Legisla-
election was a sad example of a farci-
pinion poll.
nstead of simply asking, "Are you in
or of having campus queen elections?"
author of the poll twisted the question
that it read, "Are you in favor of the
versity prohibition against the election
campus queens?"
stated, the question slanted the issue,
prejudiced and confused a good many
rs. It placed emphasis on a so-called
ersity prohibition, one which is not ev-
,n absolute regulation, but rather an
ritten rule and a campus tradition. Many
s, seeing "University regulation," auto-
cally reacted with a "no," sensing some
of "paternalism" without noticing the
al point of the poll.
oreover, the sentence construction put
orials published in The Michigan Daily,
written by members of The Daily staff
represent the views of the writers only.
TIGHT EDITOR: WENDY OWEN
it in a'class with the type of question stu-
dents groan about in a psychology 31 exam.
Those against selecting campus queens had
to vote "yes," while qtteen advocates had to
cast a negative vote. In confused haste many
voters inadvertedly checked an answer they
did not mean.
Finally, instead of simple "yes" or "no"
answers, the votes had to be cast in terms
ranging from "strong yes" to "strong no."
This is slightly less than ridiculous, unless
the SL has devised some unusual weight-
ing system which would fairly evaluate the
significance of each answer.
Final vote tabulations showed several hun-
dred more votes cast against the University
regulation than for it. Theoretically, this
would put champions of queen elections in
the majority.
But inadequacies invalidate the referen-
dum as real evidence of campus viewpoint.
If SL wants to know actual student opinion,;
it will have to conduct a more scientific
and unbiased poll. Meanwhile, neither advo-
cates for nor against the ascendency of
campus queens should use the poll as evi-
dence to push their side of the question.
-Donna Hendleman
MATTE R
By STEWART ALSOP
.
WASHINGTON-The threatened rupture
of the Anglo-American alliance, drama-
tized by Gen. MacArthur's recall and An-
eurin Bevan's resignation, has much deeper
roots than most people realize. For the fact
,i that the British planners and military
chiefs are more and more inclined to chal-
enge the basic concept on which American
strategy rests, and thus in a sense, to chal-
lenge also the basis of the Anglo-American
Nlliance.
The heart of the matter is that Ameri-
can strategy is now squarely based on
atomic bombing of great population cen-
ters-and the British Isles themselves are
fatally vulnerable to just this form of at-
tack. This is certainly one reason why the
British have already proposed, at least
m
ffCURR)ENT MOVIES
At The Michigan,...
YOU'RE IN THE NAVY NOW, with
Gary Cooper and Jane Greer
ESPITE THE strangely familiar ring of
Its title, this is not a "Don't Give up the
Ship" picture or a "Sink the Army, Sink the
Army Gray" picture. It is instead a bright,
'nforced comedy that carelessly avoids all
the old pitfalls and comes up a definite
seeper on the lighter side of Hollywood'
current output.
formerly titled "U. S. S. Teakettle," it is
briefly the story of a crew of ninety-day
wonders aboard an experimental steam-run
sub chaser. That is virtually the entire plot,
and for the most part, it proves an entirely
adequate framework. The very fact that it
rnwakes no attempt to be a laugh-a-minute
job lends to a leisurely air that is always
persuasively convincing. The New Yorker
Magazine who printed the original story
would probably even recognize it.
Gary Cooper does one of his best jobs in
a long time, adding to the suspicion that he
never should have extended himself toward
"greater" things. Jane Greer is Navy-wife
type, but never annoyingly so. Millard Mit-
chell gives his, usual competent performance.
Eddie Albert, Jack Webb, and Dick Erdman
are Cooper's fellow officers. They all seem
healthy and interested without being aggres-
sive about it.
-Bill Wiegand
Poetical Solution
Robert Frost is a fine poet, a splendid
poet, an excellent poet. But as a solver of
the world's problems-no.
Frost's solution of everything, set down
in an interview, is to give every man in the
world 20 acres of land, let him work them.
Perhaps it sounds good at first hearing.
All men would have the sense of getting back
to mother earth and'to fundamentals again.
They'd be able to revel in the feel of the
good soil, the scent of the fresh-cut hay, the
low sweet hum of the bees, the glory of the
sunrise, the taste of spring-fresh water.
Surely then all would be peaceful in the
World.,
But would it be? Because none of those
hings would come automatically, after all.
'here'd be the plowing to do, and the seed-
ing. There'd be the constant cultivation to
keep down the weeds. There'd be contention
with rainstorm and snowstorm and hail-
storm and drouth and tornado and locusts
and aphids and weevils and blight and hog
holera and distemper and blackleg. There'd
be the battle to get the hay in the barn
efore it rained but not so soon before it
ained that it would ferment. There'd be ...
_',,I why.an n9 Am ae -hnivA nfi
informally, that if war comes, American
atomic bombs should not be used against
Soviet or satellite cities, except in retali-
ation for Soviet attacks on American or
allied cities.
The British are urging, that, unless the
Soviets first use their atomic stockpile for
population bombing, the American stock-
pile should be used only against communica-
tion lines, special isolated targets, and tac-
tically against enemy troops in the field.
This proposal is based on the assumption
tlpat even in war the Russians probably
would not use their bombs against allied
cities if they knew this would cause devasta-
ting retaliation against Russian cities.
*a* *
THIS MAY BE wishful thinking, but in
the terribly exposed position in which
the British find themselves, wishful think-
ing is natural. The British also advance a
'second, and very powerful argument for their
proposal. This is based on a point made by
the great American expert on Russia, George
Kennan, in a recent issue of "Foreign Af-
fairs."
"We in the outside world," wrote Ken-
nan, ". .. will never prevail in any strug-
gle against the Soviet power unless the
Russian people are our willing allies. That
goes for peace, and it goes for war."
The British argue-and Kennan would
doubtless agree-that the Russian people are
not going to be "our willing allies"" after
thirty million or so Russians have been kill-
ed by our atomic bombs. They argue that
mass population bombing, except in retalia-
tion, would be as fatal an error as Hitler's
savagery in Russia, cementing the people
around the regime, and thus ending all hop
of quick or decisive victory.
Unfortunately, there are very cogent rea-
sons why the British proposal will almost
certainly be rejected. For one thing, there is
the nature of the bomb itself. In certain
special circumstances, the atomic bomb can
undoubtedly be used effectively as a tactical
weapon. Yet the brutal fact is that the ato-
mic bomb is inherently suited, not for use
against isolated targets and troops in the
field, but for use against the massed popu-
lations of great cities.1
* * *
IN HIROSHIMA and Nagasaki, the three
primary effects of the bomb-blast, heat
flash, and radiation-caused only a small
fraction of the casualties. The great bulk of
casualties are caused by the city itself, when
blast collapses buildings on top of people,
and when both blast and heat flash start
terrible fires. The cruel truth is that the
atomic bomb is only a really revolutionary
weapon when it is used in this way-to
cause great cities to destroy their inhabi-
tants.
Used in any other way, the bomb is no
longer a decisive weapon. Heavy industrial
machinery is not essentially damaged by the
blast of a modern bomb, even under a mile
from ground zero, the point above which the
bomb is exploded. A soldier in a slit trench
would almost certainly live to fight another
day only a mile from ground zero, and a
tank would remain essentially intact well
under half a mile from ground zero.
Even assuming that many hundreds of
bombs were available for tactical use, or
against isolated targets-and each bomb
represents a very heavy investment-the
effects could not be decisive. A weapon
with a killing radius of not much more
than a mile cannot stop a numerically su-
perior army advancing across a fluid front
of many hundreds of miles. Thus to ac-
cept the British proposal would be the
equivalent of very sharply reducing the
American atomic stockpile. And the Am-
erican atomic stockpile s the central
military asset of the West, and the only
real existing deterrent to Soviet aggression.
The fact is that the follies of past disarm-
ament have reduced this country and its al-
lies to total reliance on a willingness to use
the atomic bomb, in the most ruthless way,
for the awful purpose for which it is in-
ho.a ..lo .4~1 ari a t h mle rentmrn.ep .
DORIS FLEESON:
Ohio Inquiry
WASHINGTON-Sen. Robert A. Taft fears
the Greeks bringing gifts.
The Senator from Ohio and his friends
have steadily pooh-poohed the Monroney
subcommittee's investigation of the Mary-
land election and insisted much worse things
were done to Mr. Taft. "Why doesn't the
committee look at Ohio?" they have asked.
As politicians they should have learned
that rhetorical questions sometimes get
unexpected answers. The subcommittee,
on motion of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith
of Maine, has voted to explore the Ohio
election.
The Capital Cloakrooms now report that
the presumed beneficiary of this attention
was taken by surprise and is not troubling to
conceal his suspicion that something less
than pure camaraderie inspired it. Senator
Wherry of Nebraska, minority floor leader,
acted as his G-2 in an effort to uncover
the facts.
Senator Wherry has been assured that the
subcommittee had before it certain material
from Mr. Taft plus complaints which tended
to show that the tactics and practices used
in Maryland prevailed also in Ohio. Ad-
mittedly Senator Taft did not ask for a
similar investigation but left the questions
raised in a state of suspense where they
could be drawn upon when oratorically use-
ful.
Mr. Wherry is in politics too. Subcoin-
mittee members did not have to explain
to him that, when they brought in their
Maryland report, they did not propose to
be beaten over the head with complaints
about their omission of Ohio.
The Ohio campaign was harshly fought;
some of the Taft exhibits of comic books,
photographers, etc., which he attributes to
the CIO, are vulgar and disgusting.
Last November's vanquished Taft oppo-
nent, Joseph T. Ferguson, has an underdog
story of his own to tell, however. He will be
able to show that recorded contributions of
the Taft campaign reached the staggering
total of $2,066,591.87. This is 23 times what
the Senator will earn during his six-year
term. Only in Pennsylvania, also the scene
of a hard-fought battle, was it exceeded.
Labor reported $250,000 spent for Fer-
guson. The Democrats were letting labor
carry the ball and expending the bulk of
their money and effort on the State ticket.
It takes very little experience with Senate
investigations to realize that they do notl
always take the direction intended nor are
they easily kept within limits at first en-
visaged for them. Senator Brewster of Maine,
for example, once shot an arrow into the air
intended .for Howard Hughes and Elliott
Roosevelt; It landed on Senator Brewster.
Senator Taft is a candidate for Presi-
dent next year and is already fighting the
handicap that he is too entirely the choice
of the haves. Besides, Senatorial investi-
gations take an inordinate amount of
time on the part of everyone involved in
them; it is time Mister Republican can
ill afford as the Senator moves into its
crucial tests.
The more astute politicians of the Sen-
ate are meanwhile gazing at the woman
Senator from Maine with new respect. It
has occurred to them that the Republican
leadership might have been well advised to
have allowed her to work off her investigat-
ing zeal on the expenditures subcommittee
from which Senator McCarthy was permit-
ted to depose her.
(Copyright, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, hni.)
Cyclical
His tory
THE LIFE OF A college professor, once re-
garded as one of serenity and security,
is anything but that nowadays.- ,
He is assailed by preachers and patriots,
by busybodies and Bryans, until his only
safety lies in not having any opinions and
in confining his teaching to the multipli-
cation table.
During the last few years there have been
at least three lines of attack upon the inde-
pendence and self-respect of teachers both
in our colleges and in the public schools.
During and after our participation in the
World War there was a surveillance of
teachers with a view to driving out those of
pro-German, pacifist, or radical sympathies.
This ate into institutions of even the highest
scholastic standing, like Columbia UnTver-
sity, and later led to the iniquitous Lusk
bills-fortunately defeated-for the control
of public-school teachers in New York.
Then there developed the attack upon text
books of American history and their writers,
aimed in general at the suppression of all
facts-no matter how well authenticated--
which tended to "belittle" the heroes or ex-
ploits of the Revolutionary War. In response
to this attack a good many publishers-more
careful for profits than for their integrity--
modified their textbooks.
Finally came the medieval attack upon
modern science, which led to widespread
meddling, including a state law against
text books teaching evolution in Tennes-
see and a ruling by the North Carolina
state Board of Education that evolution
should not be taught in the public schools.
Now the circle seems to have been com-
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.
McGee ...
lia..
ON THE
Washington Merry-tGoRound
with DREW PEARSON
W ASHINGTON-Before President Truman made his tough decision
to fire General MacArthur, he asked General Matt Ridgway for
a confidential opinion as to whether UN forces could hold against
the expected big Communist offensive.
Truman took this precautin, first because it had been known
for some time that the offensive was coming, second because he also
knew what a catastrophic torrent of criticism would be heaped on his
head if after relieving MacArthur, UN forces suffered a staggering
defeat.
Gen. Ridgway cabled back that his forces could hold. He went
further and stated that he could hold against any enemy attack for
sixty days-even without reinforcements. The Pentagon, reporting this
to the White House, said they had complete confidence in Ridgway,
so Truman shot the works with MacArthur.
There are several important reasons for this confidence, all going
to the tremendously improved fighting quality and command of Am-
erican troops.
Last December a Chinese army only half as big as that facing us
today, was thrown against the UN. It was not one million men as Mac-
Arthur announced. Yet that relatively small Chinese force threw the
8th Army for a headlong retreat of more than 120 miles. Furthermore
the Chinese army of last December was poorly equipped with small
arms and almost no heavy artillery.
Today, twice as many Chinese are attacking, equipped with twice
the firepower of last December. Meanwhile UN forces are only slightly
bigger than as of last December.
Chief change between now and then, however, is in American
fighting spirit and strategy, for which Lt. Gen. Matt Ridgway deserves
most of the credit. Here is what he has done:
-AMERICAN GUERRILLAS -
1. PREVIOUSLY THE MECHANIZED American forces were road-
bound and easily outflanked by the Chinese, who swarmed
through the backwoods and rice paddies, usually keeping off the main
highways. Ridgway has now moved his infantry off the roads, and
trained them to fight on the Communist's own ground. Instead of
relying on trucks and jeeps, Ridgway has hired South Korean bearers
to haul supplies to G.I.s who are dug in off the highways. Ridgway
also has used guerrilla-trained American rangers to harass the enemy
behind their lines.
2. Ridgway has moved cautiously, and patrolled every step of
the way, instead of racing ahead pell-mell, as Lt. Gen. Edward Almond
and the late Gen. Walton Walker did last November to see whose
troops could reach the Yalu river first. Ridgway also keeps tight liaison
between his front-line commands, in contrast with the Eighth Army
and Tenth Corps last November which were forced to keep in touch
with each other through Tokyo, a thousand miles away.
3. Ridgway has reorganized his command down to the company
level. This got rid of incompetent officers and gave the men new con-
fidence in their commanders.
4. Ridgway has also bolstered the South Korean troops, who fight
ferociously against North Koreans but flee in panic from the Chinese.
Ridgway gave the South Koreans a taste of victory over the Chinese
by integrating South Korean and American units and throwing them
into battle side by side. Ridgway also assigned South Korean soldiers
to count the Chinese dead. This has helped, but not overcome the
South Koreans' psychological fear of the Chinese.
* * * *
-CONGRESSIONAL PROCRASTINATION -
HOURS - EVEN MINUTES-are vital to a starving person. Yet
Congress dawdled months before agreeing to consider legislation
to feed the hungry mouths of India. Behind this inaction is another
story of how the American people rise to the occasion when their
Senators and Representatives fail to act.
It was a growing floodtide of gifts to the Indian embassy, from
people in all parts of the United States that caused isolationists in
Congress finally to consent to vote on the Food-for-India bill.
However, the isolationist bloc, led by GOP Rep. Clarence Brown
of Ohio, put up a vigorous battle before the legislation was finally
jarred loose from its dusty pigeonhole in the House Rules Committee.
NOTE-Both the Senate and House are now set for a final vote
on the wheat-for-India bill. The House bill provides for a loan of
$190,000,000, while the Senate bill provides for $200,000,000 of food, of
which half is a loan, half an outright gift. Herbert Hoover proposed
that all the food be in the form of a gift.
(Copyright, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
To the Editor:
THOSE students and faculty who
responded so magnificiently to
the appeal of the McGee Commit-
tee to write to President Truman
and Governor Wright to save the
life of Willie McGee may well be
proud. Since that time the move-
ment to save McGee from death
has gained a national significance
with international repercussions.
I would like here to give a brief
and partial account of the world-
wide protest as it stands, to date:
In the United States, Labor,
Civic, Religious a n d Student
groups went to the aid of McGee:
Labor-The Nat'l CIO Executive
Committee; Ford Local 600, UAW;
Dodge Local, UAW-CIO; Chicago
Packinghouse Workers, CIO; In-
ternational Mine, Mill and Smelt-
ers Union; Warehouse Workers
Union; NY Newspaper Guild;
Cleveland UAW Council; Gary,
Indiana Steel Workers; Deluth,
Minn. Steel Workers (CIO); AFL
Bakers Union, Bklyn.; Marine
Cooks and Stewards Union, Fur
and Leather Workers; United
Electrical Workers, 1000 NY Labor
Leaders.
Civic Groups-The National As-
sociation for the Advancement of
the Colored People; The Nat'l
Lawyers Guild, The American Ci-
vil Liberties Union; The Civil
Rights Congress; Milwaukee City
Council; 26 members Los Angeles
County Democratic Party.
Student Groups - The Student
Legislature, students from Hunter
College, NYU, Bkln College, Co-
lumbia University, New York City;
(SL wrote a letter to the Univer-
sity of Mississippi Student Gov-
ernment indicating its support of
Clemency for McGee.)
Religious Groups - The AEM
Bishops Council; Baptist Ministers
Conference, Religious leaders all
over the country. Among those
individuals of note who have re-
sponded to the call to "Save Mc-
Gee" are: Walter White, Presi-
dent of the NAACP; Albert Ein-
stein; Rep. Powell (D, NY) who
demanded impeachment of the
Federal Judge who denied MGee
a hearing; Thomas I. Emerson,
President of the National Lawyer's
Guild; Sen. Langer (R, ND) who
called the McGee case "an out-
rage."
The International Response-
Eleven Australian Trade Unions;
42 members of the French Na-
tional Assembly; Students from
the University of Paris; The Con-
federation of Workers of Latin
America (1,000,000 strong); The
National Parliaments of Nigeria
and the Cameron.
I repeat, this is only a partial
list and the protest is growing.
Willie McGee is once more
scheduled, to die-on May 8th.
President Truman has the power
under the Federal Civil Rights Act
to insist that McGee receives "fair
and equal treatment before the
law." He will use this power if he
knows that Americans and people
the world over so desire him to use
it. Letters, cards and telegrams
to President Truman, The White
House, Wash., D.C., will inform
him of this desire. We students
have acted once. We must do it
again and insure, once and for all,
Justice and a new trial for Willie
McGee.
-Art Buchbinder '51
ce ** * *
McGee s
To the Editor:
SOMETIMES I wonder if we stu-
dents aren't living in a dream-
world. When we bandy about the
phrases "dignity of the individual"
and "human freedom" so glibly,
we tend to lapse into some ideal
realm divorced from, all reality--
we can even forget that here a
negro still must struggle to win
the most elementary human
rights.
There are persons in Mississippi
who want to kill Willie McGee on
May 8, upon a charge for which
he never had a fair trial, accused
of a crime for which :no white
man has ever received the death
penalty, un d e r circumstances
strongly indicative of frame-up.
McGee's lawyers have evidence,
backed up by the testimony of
witnesses, to show that the State's
case is based on a lie, a lie con-
cocted to protect the reputation
of one white woman. No court
has passed on the validity of this
evidence, one way or the other,
because every court in the land
has refused to hear Willie McGee's
cause.
True Americans will stop this
injustice. ,.President Truman is
The Tumult And The Shouting Dies;
The Captains And The Kings Depart
authorized by Federal statute to
order an investigation into the
case, and is obliged by all morality
to use his influence for justice.
Let us get down-to-earth and
write to President Truman and to
Governor Fielding Wright (State
House, Jackson, Mississippi.)
If we continue to let these
things go on, we are all guilty.
-David R. Luce, Grad.
* * *
Peace Plan.
To the Editor:
OUR, COUNTRY has been slight-
ly shaken by the removal of
General MacArthur from com-
mand of the U. S. Far Eastern
Military Forces. A large part of
the people have allied themselves.
with either MacArthur or the Tru-
man camp, Those who follow Mac-
Arthur believe that the quickest
overall peace will result by bomb-
ing Manchuria and gending
Chiang's forces with U. S. aid to
the mainland of China. These
people fail to realize that such a
procedure will almost certainly
precipitate an all-out war of East
vs, West. Even if the Chinese-
Russian treaty of 1950 did not
bring Russia into the war imme-
diately, then full war with China's
475,000,000 would be a long-drawn
out and horrible event for both
the Chinese people and the Amer-
ican soldiers.
The section of the people who
adhere to the Truman-Acheson,
foreign policy also fails to realize
the war potentialities of such a
scheme. The plan is to support
all anti-national liberation forces,
keep the war going in Korea and
to force armament programs upon
all Western European nations.
This policy will be certain to lead
to all-out war if unchecked.
The North Korean government
has recently offered a truce with
the following terms: (1) All for-
eign troops to be removed from
Korea, and fighting stop; (2) Af
Korean elections to be held under
U.N. supervision to form a united
Korea. This plan seems to be
an honorable road to peace for the
U.S. However, the American press
and radio practically has ignored
the offer and the Administration
has rejected it.
Only if enough people are ga-
thered into a "peace force" which
will oppose the foreign policies of
Truman and the "MacArthurites"
can war be prevented.
,-Stephen Swale
Racing Note ..
That horse named Repetoire
looks more and more like a real
Derby favorite. And as much like
a typographical error as on the
first day its name appeared in
print.
-St. Louis Star-Times
£ir1~ijun UIL!
..
XetteP4 TO THE EDITOR
WARM
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I
Sixty-First Year
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BARNABY
Don't worry, li'l pardner. I'll
I amble right down to that Elves,
Y' Leprechauns, Gnomes and Little
u-kee rk j-.
And then will Tennessee
Hennessy really get to be
Albert's Fairy Godfather?
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Our organization is very exclusive.
If just ONE of us happens to feel that
for some reason on applicant doesn't
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