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 -