THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 17, 1951
I.
Airing the Draft Issue
"But First A Few Words From Our Sponsors ---"
Current
**s s
s C *
Student Exemptions :
Pro and Con
Confusion
T HE CONFUSION that exists over the
present draft laws has been a major
cause of public distaste toward conscrip-
tion. While a few people are charmed by
the prospect of giving up future, plans, or
at the least, delaying them, the uncertainty
of individual status has become an added
handicap. No one is qutie certain of where
he stands from one day to the next. At
no time is a registrant able to orientate
himself toward a definite future unless he
takes the dubious course of immediate en-
listment.
If he does not enlist he is subject to
daily rule changes. Yesterday there was
a 30 day postponement after graduation.
Today February graduates are allowed
another semester of school. Tomorrow
there may be no such beneficial plans.
The uncertainty, however, is not a unique
quality possessed only by registrants. Pity
the poor draft boards who must, in accord-
ance with these daily changes, re-open each
person's case and go through the individual
records again and again. And many of the
new rules are in no.way as simply phrased
as' reported by newspapers. Each regula-
tion is a verbiose tangle of unqualified state-
ments.
Also, within the same day two new regu-
lations may be received, the first rescinding
the previously established policy, and the
second regulation rescinding the first. The
result is that the board, despite its sincere
desire to help registrants and the consistent
courtesy extended to all who seek advice,
is almost as confused as the public.
Because of this, interpretation by the lo-
cal board becomes as important a factor as
the law passed by congress. The political,
economic and social viewpoints of the board
members cannot help but be a deciding
factor in deferments.
To correct this situation we don't have
to clean house in Washington or ferret
out perverts in the State Department. What
we do need is a simple and direct statement
of draft laws and draft board policies. While
English majors are considered non-essential
personalities, the presence of a few clear,
concise and accurate writers in the Selec-
tive Service organization would be a na-
tional blessing.
This should be followed by a continu-
ousinformation program for draft offi-
cials, registrants and the public as to
what these clarified laws are.
We cannot control the whims and fancies
of the Defense Department or of Congress
but we can insist on clarification not only
for the benefit of registrants but also for
the sake of those who must administer the
draft laws.
-Leonard Greenbaum
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
MANY DRAFT OFFICIALS seem some-
what prejudiced against college stu-
dents. This is particularly true of Col.
Glen Arnold, Michgan's Selective Service
Director.
It was Arnold who, after receiving or-
ders to defer February graduates for 30
days so that they might find essential
jobs, declared that he was sick of seeing
college men get all the breaks while men
who can't afford to go to school are
drafted.
As it is, many college, students have a
hard time discovering just what "breaks"
they are getting. The February graduates
are being allowed to find essential jobs not
for their own personal benefit but to fill
gaps in our national defense program. And
statements such as Arnold's don't make
their lot any easier.
It has been argued that simply defering
students for the academic year is a big favor
to them. Some people have pointed out
that students are just lucky in having rich
parents who foot the bill while they have
-a four year spree.
But these critics overlook the fact that
with increasing college enrollments the
playboy element has a minor role in campus
life. The majority of students are hard
working people, many of whom work for
their dollars in the same way as those non-
students who draw the compassion of Col.
Arnold.
What is worse, the "don't give college-
men a better break" people fail to see the
importance college graduates now play as
national leaders. They fail to see that
disrupting college life today may discour-
age many students from returning to cam-
pus after military service.
It would be beneficial to the country and
to the biased persons themselves if they
were set straight in their thinking. It
might be well if college students were ex-
empt from the draft until graduation, or
if in-service college training were re-
established.
The best lobby for students would be the.
college administrators and educators, who
after a brief struggle. of ideas about con-
scription, seem to have currently withdrawn
from the draft law battlefield. These peo-
ple are the natural connection between the
college student and the general public.
They, better than any other group, can help
bring about the much needed change in
people's attitude toward the subject of col-
leg students and the draft.
-Vernon Emerson
IT SEEMS EVIDENT from all the breaks
that General Hersey has been giving the
college men that he must have been a col-
lege grad himself.
Thanks to the General, the college man
was first deferred until the end of the
current year, then he was able to join any
branch of service at the end of his de-
ferment in the spring, and'now the Feb-
ruary college graduate is going to have a
30 day period after graduation to find
some job in an "essential" industry. And
if he can't find a job he may return to
school until June.
All these exemptions have led many to
justly charge that people in the institutes
of higher learning are not carrying their
fair load of military service. Is it illogical
to reason that a university man does not
owe as mUch service to his country as the
person with an eighth grade education?
A rather nasty result of this deferment
policy is that a group of intellectually elite
will be able to duck the draft pleading that
their brains are of much more value to the
United States than their marksmanship
ability.
Often the ability to carry the financial
obligations, not the intellectual aptness, are
sufficient to classify a student in a "vital"
medical or legal school. In other words, the
economic position of the family would in
some cases be important in determining
if certain individuals might be drafted into
the armed services.
The citizens of this country should realize
that military service has always been one
of the burdens that we must bear. In a
democracy we like to believe that all citi-
zens from all classes and groups carry the
burden equally. Militaryservice is one of
the obligations that we assume in payment
and protection of our democratic privileges.
If this country is truly in an immediate,
acute national emergency that some of
our leaders would lead us to believe, Gen-
eral Hersey's "kindness to collegians"
program is an unfairly discriminatory
policy. When the danger reaches the
dimensions of a national emergency, we
must be willing to drop our education
temporarily and stand behind our coun-
try.
If the situation is not a national emer-
gency, then we should completely review
our present policy for drafting 18 year-olds,
college students in the midst of their edu-
cation, married men and vetrans.
-Ron Watts
s~sPWAK
Q~i K7sm' O
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0
etteA' 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.
Timely Appeal
To the Editor:
IN THESE DAYS of emotional,
social, and economic stress, the
great American solution is the
training program. Beginning with
the ROTC and ending with the
civil service (or vice versa, depend-
ing on one's military viewpoints),
the greater majority of the popu-
lation is engaged in some sort of
plan determine to educate the
novice.
Therefore, we, on the "Gargoyle"
staff feel that it is our patriotic
duty, as Americans, to further this
great institution and have thus
drawn up the plans for a compre-
hensive try-out and training pro-
gram designed to make humorists,
advertising executives, and capi-
talists out of the Michigan
Schnook. However, we have run
into one great difficulty. The
Michigan Schnook appears de-
termined to remain just that. And
so, we appeal to him, here in print,
as a citizen, an American, and a
patriot to attend the "Gargoyle"
try-out meeting on Monday. Feb.
It is your patriotic auty.
-Peg Nimz
Service for 18 Year Olds
Drafting
Women
T HE HOT ISSUE of drafting 18-year-olds
is now causing much consternation on
Capitol Hill. Anguished howls at the pros-
pect are arising from mothers, educators,
scientists, and industrialists.
On the other hand, our military leaders
and mobilization-heads feel it is essential
to a smoothly-flowing, long-range pre-
paredness program.
And the second group has, from an over-
all point of view, the more compelling argu-
ments.
The Pentagon Universal Military Service
plan, which in a nutshell provides for two
years of military service for each male
citizen at the age of 18, calls for every man
to give up two years of his life to his coun-
try. ,It is only fair to exact that price with
music
.
HERE HAS BEEN a lot of talk about
drafting women.
We hope it will continue to be just talk
Drafting women for compulsory military
training would be a step unwarranted un-
-less the nation were prostrate in the face
of a world struggle.
This does not mean that women should
not and will not do their part in the current
national emergency and any succeeding
one. The days when women stayed home
to tend the fires while their men went off
to war are long since past, and the woman,
in her sphere, is just as important as the
man in the defense set-up.
And, as proved by the last war, her
sphere is pretty large. It includes women
who sign up voluntarily for military serv-
ice, war workers, government workers,
teachers, doctors, nurses, nurses aides,
bandage rollers, USO workers, cab drivers,
clerks and members of any other occupa-
tion whose ranks will be filled by women
when the men are in the services.
Mrs. Mildred McAffee Horton, World War
II Commander of the WAVES has accused
policy makers of "putting women in the
category of a national luxury instead of an
available asset.'
This is ridiculous. People are never lux-
uries. And as Mrs. McAffee should know
in case of emergency women will voluntarily
fill in where they are needed.
If a voluntary system should fail, then
a compromise between military and volun-
tary service could be effected. This could
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the least possible interruption to the normal
continuity of his career.
At the age of 18, most men would be
caught just as they emerged from high
school. This marks a natural break in
one's life--there is no college career to in-
terrupt, there is no job to leave. The void
which immediately follows high school
graduation could be filled by a khaki uni-
form with a minimum of personal hard-
ship.
The need for a consistent policy to re-
place the haphazard, hit-or-miss drafting
and accompanying hysterical enlistments
is obvious. If a boy could plan on two
years of Army life at the age of 18, then
the uncertainties and worries which have
been so damaging to teen-age morale
would be ended.
Little credence can be given to the pious
cries of maudlin matrons to "Leave Johnny
at home till he's grown up." There is no
magical metamorphosis at the age of 19
which suddenly changes the youth from
faltering boy to resolute man.
But more serious objections can be raised
on other grounds. A large drop in college
enrollments, although o n 1lytemporary,
might prove disastrous to small, endowed
institutions and bring about an educational
crisis when the inductions and discharges
reached an equilibrium and the volume of
applicants returned to normal.
The probable solution for this difficulty
would be for the government to bail out
the hard-pressed colleges one way or an-
other. The most likely method would be
through a reinstitution of some sort of re-
vised V-12 and ASTP programs. Or per-
haps outright subsidization would be neces-
sary. The costs would then have to be
written off as an essential part of our de-
fense effort.
Another problem would be the interrup-
tion of the normal flow of college-trained
technicians, already in short supply, into
industry and government. Just how great
the effect of a temporary choking off of
the supply of trained men in technical
fields would be hard to predict. The short-
age caused would no doubt be painful, but
it would seem that the long-range im-
nortance of gettinx such a comprehensive
ON THE
Washington Merry-Go-Round
with DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON-GOP backing for Chief Justice Fred Vinson as
Secretary of State if and when Dean Acheson resigns was indi-
catd at a private luncheon gajiring by no less than GOP Sen. Owen
Brewster of Maine this week.
Brewster's statement is significant because it happens to
coincide with some backstage talks among Democrats-namely,
elevating Acheson to the Supreme Court and replacing him with
the Chief Justice.
What the Republican Senator from Maine told the Harvard
Alumni Luncheon Club in Washington was:
"I advocate replacing Dean Acheson with Chief Justice Vinson
and I made a pilgrimage to the White ,House to discuss it with Mr.
Truman. I also discussed it with Justice Vinson. The Republican
Party as a whole would be solidly behind this proposal.f
"As I said," continued Brewster, "I talked to Mr. Truman, of
whom I am very fond, and he put on his humility act which he does
so well. Both the President and Mr. Vinson listened carefully. I
understand that Mr. Vinson is number one on the list if Secretary
Acheson resigns, and that Mr. Vinson would accept if asked.
,
"If Justice Vinson came in and dug us out of the hole we
are in and stopped the threat of war I wouldn't care if it would
build him up as a successor to Mr. Truman. le would deserv to
be President if he did that."
Note-The White House inner circle has long felt that if Presi-
dent Truman does not run, he would endeavor to promote the Chief
Justice as his successor.1
UNITED ELECTRICAL WORKERS
THE UNITED ELECTRICAL Workers' Union is now so pro-Com-
munst that it recently admitted two Russian newsmen but simul-
taneously barred the American Press from a district meeting in
Chicago. 0
As a result the only news of the meeting was broadcast over
Radio Moscow. Quoting two Russian writers named Filippov
and Rassadin, theSoviet Broadcast reported: "The representative
of the central executive of the U. E., Julius Emspak, delivered a
short report in which he proved how the aggressive policy of the
U.S. government, carried out in the interest of monopolies, is
loading more and more burdens upon the shoulders of the Ameri-
can people."
The broadcast then dramatically continued: "A great silence falls
upon the conference hall. The chairman calls upon the delegate to
the second world peace conference, Harold Ward (financial secretary
of U.E. Local 108), who in his speech appeals to workers to fight for
peace in a more active and energetic way . . .
"An elderly man rose to his feet," the Moscow narrative went on.
"He reported that a the works where he is employed, the manage-
ment has recently increased even more the speed of the conveyor
belt. 'It is becoming increasingly difficult to work, and workers are
so worn out at the end of the day that they are hardly strong enough
to get home,' he said. He called upon the workers to fight against
the sweated labor system and against the increase of the work week."
Perhaps the United Electrical Workers prefer to join the starved
slave labor of Russia.
TIDE OF TOYS
W HETHER OR NOT you agree with Herbert Hoover about sending
a land army aboard, the American Legion has touched both the
root and the heartstrings of the European problem by building friend-
ships among children.
That's why hundreds of Legion posts are pouring the tide of
toys toward pier 38, Philadelphia, after which the toys will be
shipped to Europe and distributed by CARE, the organization
which has done so much to bring food and friendship to the Euro-
pean people. Here's how the tide of toys is flowing:
Toledo will surpass last year's total of 10,000 toys with a 1951
total of 22,000. The Toledo Boys Club even sacrificed part of its
Christmas Vacation to making brand new toys . . . Miami has chl-
lenged Denver, Memphis, Omaha and the bigger Legion posts to beat
them this year. But Omaha, the world's largest Legion post has al-
ready piled up a pretty good start. .. Sears, Roebuck at Wilmington,
Del., is donating $600 worth of toys, with the state of Delaware
contributing 10,000 toys ... In Boston, American Legion theatrical
post No. 270 has established headquarters for their toy drive on the
famous Boston common, and newspapers and radio are cooperating
to make this campaign a success . . . Biggest campaign so far is in
Buffalo where about 80,000 toys are being shipped in eight boxcars
to Philadelphia. * The tide was so great that mayor Joseph Mruk
opened up Buffalo's memorial auditorium with railroad siding facili-
ties for packaging and shipment . . . Note-Don't forget to send a,
letter of friendship with your toy.
(Copyrght, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
Cinema Guild.
"
To the Editor:
AS A WELL-fetched up young
man it seems to me only fit-
ting to thank you for the kind
words in Wednesday's Daily. And
as a practical man, it seems doubly
fitti.g to do so concurrently with
the Cinema Guild's Hill Auditor-
ium showing of "Tight Little Is-
land."
While accepting the editor's bou-
quet with a modest blush, I would
like to take this opportunity-to say
a few words on the aims of our
organization and on the general
film situation in Ann Arbor.
Many long years ago the Art-
Cinema League set up shop. It was
Orpheum
Reviewt
17AJOR BARBARA, by
George Bernard Shaw, with
Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison,
Robert Morley and Robert New-
ton.
THE DRAMATIC tracts of the
late George Bernard Shaw
happily contain as much wit as
they do insight. Mr. Shaw's dis-
concerting talent for carrying
some of our most cherished con-
cepts to their ridiculous "logical
conclusions" maks us laugh not
only at the concepts but at the
human nature that conceived
them and makes pathetic at-
tempts to live by them. His sage
derision has seldom been easier
to take than it is in this delight-
ful eulogy to money and material
well-being.
Besides using this film to
state that poverty corrupts, the
Irish dramatist also takes some
caustically comic swipes at
hypocrisy, love and piety.
Though he mauls some of the
conventional vices (in an imp-
ishly tolerant way), he is at his
pungent best of course when he
acidly pans the virtues. It is
perhaps Mr. Shaw's (or maybe
the world's) personal tragedy
that the good sense so often
gets lost in the good fun. In
any case MAJOR BARBARA
has a full quantity of both.
Wendy Hiller, as a conscienti-
ously forthright Salvation Army
major who gains a new opinion
of what is good from her million-
aire, munitions-making father,
leads a wonderfully capable cast
through this adequate and un-
pretentious production. Shaw's
words and philosophic gymnas-
tics are the action of the play,
the rest is background, and that's
the way they've handled this mo-
vie. The sets and physical action
are appropriately unobtrusive,
while the words keep things mov-
ing with customary Shavian brisk-
ness. In fact about all that could
improve this splendid English
film is a prologue by George Ber-
nard Shaw.
-John Briley
successful because it brought films
to the campus with an eye to the
kind of society it serviced. The best
proof of its success is the lighted
marquee of the Orpheum Theater.
The Orpheum has increased the
problems of a campus art film
group by offering competition not
only for customers, but for movies.
Several films we had hoped to
bring have already been booked by
the Orpheum.
A campus art theater is more
than a money-making proposition.
The S.L. exists to serve the student
body. The Cinema Guild as a sub-
sidiary of the S.L. is also a service
organization.
The University is a cultural
center, hence the few movies that
are worthy of attention in any giv-
en year should be shown here as
soon as possible. If we can show
them without putting ourselves in
financial jeopardy we feel it our
responsibility to do so. Last se-
mester we brought "The Bicycle
Thief." This semester, March 9
and 10 we are bringing Jean Coc-
teau's "Orphee," and April 20-21,
"T h e Rockimghorse Winner."
These are expensive movies and a
greater financial risk than some
others that would certainly sell as
well or better.
Movies like these should be
brought to Ann Arbor. If we do
not bring them and the Orpheum
does, that is the next best thing.
In the near future even the rmost
reactionary elements will be forced
to admit the movies to -the realm
of the arts. This is an unfortunate
thing because the movies will im-
mediately become less popular. An
extensive barrage of films lik
"Tight Little Island," will be the'
best kind of counter-propaganda,
films that are art films, but .not
militantly so.
-Dick Kraus,
SL Cinema Guild Manager
Letter to Ruthven .«.
To the Editor:
BECAUSE THE entire expenses
of the recent showings of the
Rose Bowl films were paid for by
Dr. Ruthven's discretionary fund
the following letter was sent to
him by the Student Legislature:
Dear President Ruthven:
On behalf of the Student Legis-
lature and the "M" Club, I would
like to thank you for your munifi-
cent aid in financing the recent
Ann Arbor showing of the Rose
Bowl films. I am sure that the
more than 15,000 students and
townspeople who had the privilege
of seeing them would also join me
in my gratitude.
-George Rounell, Jr.,
President, Student Legislature
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4,
Hk BUDAPEST QUARTET opened their
recital last evening with Four Fugues
from Bach's "Art of the Fugue." These es-
says in four-part counterpoint ranged from
moderately dull to mildly interesting; ex-
cept for the final fugue, they were too simi-
lar in texture, tempo, and dynamic range to
wholly engage the ear. I missed a necessary
contrast between fugues which one more
interested in the particular musical problems
that Bach was solving might have overlook-
ed. Needless to say, the playing of the Quar-
tet was superb.
The Budapest's playing of Bartok's Sec-
ond Quartet made forcefully explicit the
emotional meaning of this great modern
work of art. There was despair without pa-
thos, capriciousness without archness. Most
wonderfully played was the lovely section to-
ward the close of the first movement when
the first violin plays a quietly lyrical melody
over-cello pizzicati. Equally moving was the
close of the last movement when thex cello
plucks out its two final notes.
Y,
J'
Sixty-First Year
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I
BARNABY
t trust you hod no difficulty
toting your Fairy Godfather's
Naturally, a Private Eye of my
ability realized that. As soon
My secretive clients, who
left the $99,987 retainer
There's their car! Parked
across the road now! And
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PER