THE 11?IICHIGAl wT I AII.Y
FRIDAY, OCTO$ER 12, Y95I
TH IHGA AL FRDYOTBE 215
By CHUCK ELLIOTT
WHEN THE Student Legislature tried to
get some action taken on the curtail-
ment of library hours they were unable to
get positive cooperation within the admin-
istration. This was outlined in some detail
in these columns yesterday, and a certain
conclusion was drawn-that the adminis-
tration should be more willing to accept
student views than they have been recently,
or else there is no excuse for SL's existence.
We still maintain the conclusion drawn
yesterday, but in light of recent develop-
ments should ,like, to clarify our stand
somewhat.
" In a fit of what appeared to be frustration,
the SL unanimously voted, on Wednesday
night, to withdraw from the Student Affairs
Committee and the President's Conference.
SL is represented in the first group by two
members, a third of the total student mem-
bership, and thus occupies a rather promi-
nent place in deciding policies which closely
affect the student body as a whole.
The boycott was carried off in order to
~ 'ake the administration conscious of the
mpdrtance which SL believes that it has;
But by withdrawing, in what seems to
us a rash manner, the SL has abruptly
cut itself off from positions which had
been gained for it by years of mediatory
action between students and administra-
tors. Further the positions which SL saw
fit to throw into abeyance were valuable
onies, having a value beyond their surface
appearance.
SL officials maintain that they had no
other choice; that there was nothing else to
do, since administrators steadfastly refused
to listen to them. This may be true: however,
precipitate action of this nature can scarce-
ly be regarded as the key to the solution.
Administrative circles will probably be less
dismayed by the boycott than SL confidantly
hopes, and if any action is forthcoming it
will likely be much the same as would have
happened anyway.
Yesterday afternoon, Len Wilcox, SL
president, announced that he had talked
with Arthur Brandon, Director of Public Re-
lations, who told him that conferences be-
tween library officials and the administra-
tion had been going on for some weeks. Ap-
parently, then, action is being taken, and
though SL had, admittedly, been given the
run-around in trying to promote that same
action, an identical end point may be reach-
Sed
Did SL walk spectacularly out of the
SAC, then, simply because they had been
by-passed? This, if true, makes SL look
flighty and the administration sullen,
neither of which is very promising.
At this point, both sides seem to be more
or less at fault-the administration for un.
cooperation and the SL for light treatment
of some rather valuable property. The ad.
ministration, however, will have much less
trouble extricating itself.
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writers only,.
NIGHT EDITOR: HARLAND BRITZ
Tintmabulation
;THIS BANG is fn anti-progress plea. Ever
since I cam eto this place bang, they've
been building, tearing down bang and re-
pairing. Bang, bang. I've only got one more
bang, bang, bang year left, so I think bang
my nerves may hold up bang, bang till next
summer. Bang, bang, bang. But think of the
professors. BANG.
'm getting hoarse, so bang, bang, bang,
bang ... can't talk much longer .. .bang,
bang ... why doesn't somebody .. bang
. .. callitoff bang, bang .. . if only fora-
daybang, bang . . bang? ... justaday? ..
would giveustime . . . ? . . , to gather
ournerBangous strength ~ . . bang, bang,
bang.
BANG, bang bang, Bang, BANG, bang
S., . ONE, BANG, MO-BANG-REWORD
.. BANG BANG . .. IT'S THAT ..
. ' ... THEY, (Excuse Me), they
BANG, BANGBANG . .. BANGETYBANG
. .. AH BANGBANG HELL, STU-BANG-
DENTS . . . BANGETYBANGETY ..
BANG, CLASS DISMI-BANG .
BANGETY BANG BANGETY BING,
BANG, BOOM!
-rich thomas
The SL Boycott
THERE ARE TWO things wrong with the
Student Legislature's- boycott of SAC
and the President's Conference. First, their
action was not severe enough; second, the is-
sue on which they chose to take a long need-
,ed stand against the University is micro-
scopic.
Ostensibly the purpose of the walkout is
to protest the closing of the library. Ac-
tually it is against the continual disregard
of student opinion and the ineffectiveness
of SL as a campus force.
For despite the numerous piaises for stu-
dent government and the polysyllabic ad-
jectives heaped on the theory of training'
community leaders, SL is a collective hoax.
It is a facade behind which University of-
ficials make whatever decisions they deem
necessary for the students. Never has SL
accomplished anything that the University
did not want, unless it was Tug Week. When-
ever SL favored measures which the Univer-
sity did not, there occurred President Ruth-
ven s veto of the anti-bias resolution or the
continuation of the speaker's ban.
A growing awareness on the part of SL
leaders led to the emotional outburst at
Wednesday night's meeting. They are be-
PepR al
HERE'S SOMETHING about a win-
ning team that's eminently satisfying
even to the academicians and "de-em-
phasizers.""
This has bcome ever more evident dur-
ing the past few weeks, as a certain feel-
ing of hollowness has dented campus spir-
it, among the most sincere scholars as well
as those who put sports above all else. '
Tomorrow, when the Wolverines enter
official Big Ten competition for the first
time this season, they will have every
chance to compensate for the flubs in the
two previous scrimmages.
They will do thir best if they know they
have an enthusiastic student body behind
them. And the quantity and depth of
that enthusiasm, so vital to the team and
to the general tenor of University life,
will depend oui how much spirit can be
generated at tonight's pep rally.
Besides, there won't be any more pep
rallys if tonight's flops.
Anyhow, it will be a good opportunity to
see President Hatcher roll up his pants.
-Percy Shrdlu
ginning to realize that what they have
working so many hours for is a vague
something called honorary prestige; that
for all practical purposes they are impo-
tent. They are not even recognized as the
voice of student opinion and therefore can-
not speak, suggest or whisper with any
tone of authority. In fact the only action
SL can take of its own accord is negative
action. It just has no power except over
itself.
Now the University is faced with two alter-
natives, neither of which present much of a
problem. They can either ask SL back and
treat its members with deference or they.
can let them stew by themselves on South
Forest. Should the University reopen the li-
brary weekends it will not prove that they
have granted any further recognition to SL.
The issue just isn't that significant. And if
the latter alternative is followed, SL will
eventually return to SAC to regain the op-
portunity of expressing its personal opinion.
For again the issue of extra library hours
fails SL. It is not the cause over which nor-
mally apathetic students can remain excited
for any length of time. And once the en-
thusiasm for getting bigger and better li-
brary hours departs, the whole protest
against an impregnable administration will
go with it.
Thus no matter what happens SL will
not have proven even to itself that it is
any bigger or any more important than it
feared.
The answer for SL therefore, if they had
wanted to resolve their problem once and for
all, was to place themselves in an unequivo-
cal situation. The only way they could have
done this was to dissolve completely, call an
end to Student Legislature as it now exists.
This would admittedly destroy the frame-
work of student government that has been
built up over the past six years, a framework
to which many students devoted their sin-
cere, honest labor.
But it would also place the University
in the position of choosing once and for all
whether it really wanted to create a self
governing student body or whether it was
merely going along for the ride, a theory
that has found wide acceptance among
students.
And were the University to let SL dis-
appear once and for all the University would
be the only loser. No longer could it boast of
a freely elected discussion group that per-
formed so many clerical duties free of
charge.
-Leonard Greenbaum
"What This Outfit Needs Is A Guy Like Eisenhower"
_ 5
G tR N
$(
rJOSEH L-P
EIN OWFI co,.,PLEL
To DNCi-.RCF ptAIFT R ..'
WASHINGTON-An envenomed struggle is now going on in the
White House for the chairmanship of the Federal Power Com-
mission, just vacated by the President's poker crony, former Gov. Mon
C. Waligren of Washington. Wallgren, who turned the power com-
mission over to the industries it is supposed to regulate, wants his
tradition carried on by Irvin Hoff, a member of his own West Coast
crowd now serving in the office of the Washington Senator, Warren
Magnuson.
The man who captured the power comnmission for the na-
tural gas producers, Sen. obert S. Kerr of Oklahoma, and the
brains of the Kerr faction on the commission, Nelson Lee Smith,
rebacking William Tarver. Tarver is an official of the Defense
Petroleum Administration who is both reliably sympathetic to the
oil and natural gas people, and so discreetly obscure that his
nomination will pass unnoticed.
Meanwhile the few people in the government who still believe
the President meant what he said about the Fair Deal are struggling
to persuade Truman to select what mnight be called an anti-Wallgrent,
anti-Kerr nominee. They are being obstructed, of course, by the usual-
inhabitants of the White House woodwork. But the President, also as
usual whenever the issues are made clear to him, is said to be leaning
the right way.
* * * *
THE INTENSITY of the stakes in this contest for a Federal job few
Americans have ever heard of, can best be gauged by the stakes
that have changed hands already. As soon as Wallgren was named
chairman of the Federal Power Commission, he enacted by simple ad-
Iministrative ruling Sen. Kerr's bill to free natural gas producers from
commission regulation, which the President had just vetoed. This was
in the case of the giant Phillips Petroleum Company, with its total
gas reserves of 14 trillion cubic feet, and its contracts with five major
pipeline companies distributing gas fuel to homes and industries all
across the nation.
The effect of the Wallgren ruling, of course, was to permit the
increased gas prices being demanded by Phillips. In his minority
opinion, Power Commissioner Thomas Buchanan estimated that
these gas price increases would cost the customers of just one
pipeline company, the Michigan-Wisconsin, a total of $5,000,000
annually, or $125,000,000 for the life contract. For the people of
Detroit alone, the bill was put at $1,770,000 a year. Former Power
Commission ChairahLeland Olds has alo esiaed tat th
Phillips Company alone by no less than $700,000,000. And of course
the power commission ruling in the Phillips case means similar
golden results for all other gas-producing companies like Phillips.
Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Phiillips
should have shown friendship to Sen. Kerr, proponent of the Kerr bill,
worker for the Wallgren appointment, and large owner of gas and
oil properties in his own right. And in fact, at the time when the Kerr
bill was expected to become law, Phillips transferred 100 sections of
proven gas acreage to the Tascosa Corporation, a specially organized
subsidiary of Sen. Kerr's company, Kerr-McGee. Phillips also entered
into a most unusual contract with Tascosa for exploitation of this
acreage.
According to an official memorandum from the Phillips Company
files, this transfer and contract will result in a long-run profit to
Tascosa, also chiefly owned by Sen. Kerr, of at least $1,297,000 and
more probably upwards of $2,000,000. The author of the Phillips mem-
orandum remarked that "if the 100 wells (on the Tascosa, acreage)
were drilled in the normal manner," these handsome profits would be
"kept within the Phillips Petroleum Company." This seemed to puzzle
the poor man.
* * * *
MEANWHILE the Phillips case also has still larger meanings for the
future. The "integrated" pipeline companies, including Panhandle
Eastern, employing as counsel John Scott, an ex-law office associate
of Democratic National Chairman William Boyle, have now come be-
fore the Federal Power Commission. These companies own their own
gas wells as well as pipelines. They say, "If Phillips can charge what-
ever the traffic will bear for gas at the wellhead, why can't we?"
The question seems logical. But if it is answered in the af-
firmative, the chances are that this will be the entering wedge for
a return to the Harding era standard of "fair value" for natural
gas rate-making.
If this happens, in turn, it will also be the entering wedge for
abandonment of the great Louis D. Brandeis' standard of "prudent
investment" for electric power rate-making. Thus the process that be-
gan with Mon C. Wallgren can end, not with a mere additional annual
bill of a couple of hundred millions for natural gas consumers, bu t
an additional bill of maybe $1,000,000,000 or more for electricity users.
Such are the stakes, such is the background of the contest in the
White House, which makes any R.F.C. influence peddling downright
timid by contrast.
(Copyright, 1951, New York Herald Tribune, Tnc.)
XetteP4 TO THE E DITOR
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, defamnatory 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."
Rent Committee
Rent Comtmitee.. ..
To the Editor:
HERE ARE A few statements
in your article of October 9
which seem to be misleading re-
garding the citizens' Rent Con-
trol Committee, its operation and
its make-up. For instance:
1) Although t h e committee
maintains that all complaints are
handled in strictest confidence,
sources have indicated that many
tenants are afraid to enter pro-
tests because of the requirement
that their names and addresses be
included.
2) The investigatory procedure
generally involves resolving the is-
sue in the presence of a landlord
who may effect reprisals against a
tenant.
3) Powerful real estate interests
are represented on the committee.
Discussing these points in turn,
I feel certain qualifications should
be made.
Point 1. A primary purpose of
the Committee is to exert media-
tory and social pressures towards
the correction of any unjustified
increases in rent. It would seem to
be impossible to do this unless the
Committee knew who was com-
plaining. Furthermore, it would
seem to be a travesty on fairness if
the viewpoint of the landlord were
not obtained before a decision in
favor of a tenant was made. This
refusal to consider anonymous
complaints may reduce the num-
ber of rent protests, but I can
hardly believe the Daily would
have the Committee make deci-
sions in any other fashion.
Point 2. From my experience,
this statement carries a false con-
notation. Admittedly, I took my
regular vacation (I hope deserved)
shortly after appointment to the
ommittee and thus have not par-
ticipated in all of the investiga-
tions. However, I have served on
one investigating sub-committee
and I can assure you that the ten-
ant was not required to make his
complaint in the presence of any-
one not a member of the board.
True, the other member of the in-
vestigating sub-committee was ap-
pointed by the Mayor to represent
landlord interests, but surely The
Daily would not recommend that
Committee investigations be per-
formed by two board members ap-
pointed to represent the same in-
terests.
Point 3. The make-up of the
Committee is as follows:
Representatives of landlords..2
Representatives of tenants... .2
Representatives of the public. .3
The Chairman, Mr. Detweiler, is
a public member. Landlord inter-
ests are and ought to be repre-
sented. This representation is no
more powerful (usually less so due
to lack of attendance at meetings)
than the representation of the ten-
ants.
In fairness to The Daily I should
add that the article referred to
here is better in many respects
than your last efforts into this sub-
ject matter when some of the very
fine members of our .City Council
were almost given the McCarthy
treatment.
-Ronald S. Johnson
Public Member,
Citizens' Rent Committee
. . .
Re Swathut...
To the Editors:
F OR ONCE we here were able to
concur with the review of the
Michigan Daily, in re Gladys
Swarthout. A perceptible simi-
larity existed between the Miss
Swarthout of Tuesday night and
Lauritz Melchior, whose voice en-
tertained us last year. Bth had
performed at the Metropolitan.
Both wore, at their appearances
here, gaudy ornaments around
their precious throats. (Tricks of
the trade?) . Both, the analogy
continues, have superannuated
voices, sent to Ann Arbor, where
they are tolerated, to pasture.
Perhaps the most appropriate se-
lection of the whole evening was
The Bird and the Beast, which
was performed with an overtone
of bovine contentment, warming
the hearts of all the hyperemo-
tional maniacs in the audience.
Although these nursery pyrotech-
nics might evoke some response in
an infantile mind, they failed to
satisfy our more mature esthetic
sense and our hard-earned money.
It is a pity that sdme people can't
quit while they are ahead. Let
us hope that the diva is diverted
to even iore bucolic audiences,
perhaps in some distant land.
Again, three cheers for the Daily'
reviewer. Hip. Hip . .
Wilbur H. Freedman
-Simon Dresner
-Paul L. Goldiner
,--Mark B. Sandground
SL Boyctt .. .
To the Editor:
THE explosive boycott of the
Student Affairs Committee and
the President's Conference by the
Student Legislature is a negative
rebellion that may do little good.
Walkouts have been tried before-
L Gromyko and company afford-
ing the most publicized examples
-and although the momentary
effect has been great, the long
range effect has been nil.
However, were this negative ac-
tion of SL implemented with a
positive force, I believe that the
administration would be much
more likely to consider student
opinion on current issues con-
fronting the campus.
It is with this in mind that I
propose that the SL go directly
to the one source to which the
administration will listen: the
state legislature.
We can be assured that the ad-
ministration won't give the legis-
lators in Lansing the "run-
around" that they have been giv-
'ing student government these past
months.
Such a visit to Lansing, howev-
er, should be more than a mere
gripe session. Two Ideas should
be placed before the legislators:
1. We students realize that there
is a shortage of funds to operate
the University, and we feel the
legislature should be more cog-
nizant of the situation.
2. We students feel that the
University has not allocated its
available funds in the best in-
terests of the students, who after
all are (or should be) the pri-
mary concern of the University.
Let's have POSITIVE action!!
--Dave Belin
* * *
Critic Dejended ..
To the Editor:
WAS moved to write my first
bletter to the editor by Ara Ber-
berian's comments to the music
critic, in the Oct. 9th DAILY. To
her credit, Miss Berberian does
not make the mistake of accept-
ing blindly the statements of mu-
sic critics. But in this laudable
attempt to form her own judgt
ment, Miss Berberi n goes to the
extreme of excluding the music
critic's right to criticize. Miss
Goss's remarks were all pertinent
to her purpose in writing a cri-
tical summary of the , concert.
They expressed her own opinion,
based on sound musical know-
ledge and'experience. The r.esult
'las an article from which Miss
Berberian might learn the value
of taste and restraint.
-Barbara Schal
I RESPECT faith, but doubt is
what gets you an education.
-Wilson Mizner
1'
x
IN A LETTER appearing on this page, Prof.
Ronald Johnson, public member of the
citizens' Rent Control Committee, attempts
to qualify certain statements made about
the committee in our interpretive article of
Oct. 9.
Although the three points that Prof.
Johnson makes are generally correct in
fact, there is some doubt of their relevance
to the issue at hand, i.e., that the low num-
ber of complaints received by the com-
mittee is'or is not a reflection of the pre-
sent rental situation in the city.
Point 1. While Committee Chairman Jo-
. seph H. Detweiler has denied that requiring
tenants to include their names in their
complaints is a "major factor" in the scarcity
of protests, numerous calls received by, a
local newspaper and information from
another Committee members indicate the
opposite.
Point 2. The Daily does not recommend
any method of handling protests. Two re-
porters were merely observing that landlords
and tenants are brought together to settle
rental disputes. Another member of the
Committee has testified to this.
Point 3. If we had stated that real es-
tate interests were numerically over-re-
presented on the Committee, Prof. John-
son's refutation might be considered well-
taken. But even Prof. Johnson cannot deny
the flat statement that real estate inter-
ests are represented on the Committee and
that they are powerful. Most tenants ac-
quainted with the amount of power which
the real estate block exerts in this com-
munity would be naturally reticent to leap
into the lion's mouth. Attendance at Com-
mittee meetings is hardly pertinent to
power.
It might be added that, far from even pro-
viding an indication of rent conditions in
Ann Arbor, the Committee has shown its ex-
istence to be of dubious value. The original
"watchdog committee" set up by the City
Council after rent decontrol went into ef-
fect last July was an afterthought designed
to soothe the consciences of the Council ma-
jority, which apparently was uncertain as to
the wisdom of its action.
The transfer of the duties of the "watch-
dog committee" to a citizens' group was.
somewhat of a step forward. This body,
which was instructed to investigate com-
plaints of rent gouging and keep up with
the facts on the rental situation, is made up
of two representatives of the landlords, two
tenant spokesmen, a merchant, an indust-
rialist anid the University's Prof. Johnson.
1
I
Because of the few investigations which
the Committee has been called upon to
make, it is clear that it should devote its
time to the valuable service of delving into
the facts and coming up with a conclusion
on the question which has long plagued
the City Council-is there a shortage of
rental housing?
._ 3w s V.P V6.
CIINIEM
_S 3'A A & V A d, A £ tA o 0._ A e& f 2.G 8 y A A . A A A A A _ A A. A A AANAAw_ AA A& A AA wiwJS..wA . A$A3A4. d
Several members of the Committee have
reported that they are doing so now on an
informal, superficial Level. Such "action" cer-
tainly does not testify to the worth of the
Rent Control Committee.
-Barnes Connahle and Crawford Young
Covffee Lounge
flARRASSED AND strained University
students lucky enough to have morning
classes in the Business Administration
Building will undoubtedly profit by a new
project being carried out there this year,
The project, initiated by the Business Ad-
ministration Council, is a morning coffee
lounge where students can relax between
classes with a coffee and doughnut's snack.
This is good for morale-especially for those
who miss breakfast or suffer from mid-
morning hunger pangs.
But why should this system be limited
only to the Business Administration
Building? Surely one or two other build-
ings on campus could find a room for a
similar service. It has proved successful in
the Business Administration Building,
and the amount of money collected be-
tween 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. will be used to
buy drapes and furniture for the lounge.
Although other buildings do not have the
use of the small kitchen provided in the
Sixty-Second Year
Edited and managed by students of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board of Control of
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Chuck Elliott .........Managing Editor
Bob Keith........ ... ....City Editor
Leonard Greenbaum, Editorial Director
verin Emerson........Feature Editor
Rich Thomas ..........Associate Editor
Ron Watts ............Associate Editor
Bob Vaughn .........Associate Editor
Ted Papes.............Sports Editor
George Flint ...Associate Sports Editor
Jim Parker ... Associate Sports Editor
Jan James . .....Women's Editor
Jo Ketelhut, Associate Women's Editor
Business Staff
Bob Miller ..........Business Manager
Gene Kuthy, Assoc. Business Manager
Charles Cuson ... Advertising Manager
Sally Fish ...........Finance Manager
Stu Ward ........Circulation Manager
Telephone 23-24-1
Member of The Associated Press
The Associated Press is exclusively
entitled to the use for republication
of all news dispatches credited to It or
otherwise credited to this newspaper.
Al rights of republication of all other
mtters herein are also reserved.
Entered at the Post Office at 'Ann
Arbor. Michigan, as second-class mail
matter.
Subscription during regular school
year: by carrder, $6.00; by mail, $?,00,
A
A rchitecture A uditorium
VOYAGES SURIPRISE, a French film
with English titles.
HANGING around the catalogues for
years, this uninhibited picture about
one of the dizziest pilgrimages ever made
turns up as the first Gallic entry on the
Cinema Guild fallprogram. Paced well and
directed handily, its high spirit and wild
abandon come off without a hitch. The
word "comedy" was invented for such a
picture.-
ordinately happy for the most part. This.
is largely due' to the fact that most of
them are passengers aboard a wayward
sightseeing bus that has no fare and no
destination. It is, in fact, just about the
most fiendish machine seen on the screen
since the space ships in the old Buck
Rogers serials.
If there is any sense injecting logic into
the matter, the picture might have been
better if a few individual characters had
been more completely focused upon. In
retrospect, the film takes on a sense of
"1
A,
-Mark B. Sandground~~~~~~ yerfycrir 6.0 ymi,$.0
e.a
So if the big problem of apace travel
is finding sufficient power to take off, -
my magic wand should do the trick!
My Fairy Godfather only has to wave
his magicwand and make a WISH-
And theres nothing
I"YTi
I Well,,nowlet's start devising
some efficient scientific way
of harnessing all this power-
Fl
n
t i
-