OUR THjE MIClHiGAN DAILY
SL El ections
A SHORT announcement which appeared
in Sunday's Daily may be the key to the
administration's ability to laugh off SL as
a relatively insignificant student organiza-
tion.
The fact that the petitioning deadline
for the Student Legislature had to be ex-
tended because so few students had shown
sufficient interest to run that almost all
the petitioners were assured of election by
default, has obvious implications.
This situation combined with the fact that
less than half the student body shows up
each semester for the all-campus elections
gives the administration an excellent ex-
cuse for thinking that there is little interest
in student government and that SL is not
representative of student opinion. Thus, they
feel justified in ignoring the actions and re-
commendations of SL whenever they see fit
to do so.
This record of non-participation is especi-
ally poor for a college community. Here if
nowhere else, there should be a vital inter-
est in self-government. Whether this lack of
student interest represents genuine apathy
or just plain laziness isn't apparent.
However, through the work of a relatively
few individuals who have seen the need for
a student government, SL has advanced to
the point where its position of authority is
recognized in theory if not in practice.
A framework has been constructed that
can be developed into a practical, workable
student government with definite power. But
this goal oan never be reached unless suf-
ficient numbers of students show their in-
terest in working on the legislature or in
electing fellow students to represent them in
the body.
If a large number of students run for
SL and show their sincere interest and
eagerness to serve by volunteering for the
pre-election training program; and if an
overwhelming percentage fo students flock
to the polls to elect their representatives,
the University is bound to realize that it
is dealing with a group of serious legisla-
tors, heavily backed by the majority of the
student body.
This realization would cause the admin-
istration to seriously consider the acts and
recommendations of the Student Legislature.
Alan Luckoff
r
MATrTER
OF
FACT
By STEWART ALSOP
1 . w.wrr s r iw
BrERIN-Germany today is the land of the
astonishing paradox. The Western allies,
for example, are now humbly begging the
haughty Germans to rearm, when logically
the Germans should be begging the West for
the means to defend German soil. Again, the
Kremlin is reaping extremely important po-
litical advantages by loudly demanding a
"solution" of the German problem which,
taken at face value, would spell intolerable
disaster for the Kremlin.
The simple process of passing from the
allied sector of Berlin into the Soviet
sector makes this second paradox visible
to the naked eye. You go through streets
lined with well-filled shops and comfort-
able cafes, past buildings rebuilt with
fierce energy from the rubble, through an
atmosphere of reborn vitality amazing in
this smashed and encircled city,
Then suddenly you are in another world.
Here there is a dinginess and ruin, dirty
shop fronts half-filled with shoddy goods,
long weary potato queues, the streets silent
and sullenly empty. Only the gigantic, men-
acing Soviet war memorials, and the endless
white-on-red banners (war is peace, free-
dom is slavery, black is white) lend a note
of color.
,Now go back to West Berlin, to an ad-
dress known all over East Gremany, where
the refugees are received. The tide to the
West is an unending flood--16,)00 to West
Berlin alone, in eighteen months. "Three
,hundred and twenty today," a weary in-
terrogator tells you, interrupting his ques-
tioning of a scared German boy "including
seven Czechs and nine People's Police. About
average." You look at the weary faces, gray
with the special pallor of the People's demo-
cracy, of the waiting refugees, and suddenly
the seemingly optimistic intelligence esti-
mates, of an overwhelming anti-Communist
vote in any free election anywhere in East
Germany, become real and believable,
y ET THE PARADOX remains. The Krem-
lin is scoring notable political successes
by instructing such stooges as Communist
chief Ernst Grotewhol to scream "unity"
and "free elections" at suitable intervals.
INTERPRETING THE NEWS:
Answer to Stalin
By J. M. ROBERTS, JR.
Associated Press News Analyst#
PRESIDENT TRUMAN made his reply yes-
terday to Joseph Stalin's recent claim
that Soviet Russia has been forced into the
Atomic arms race by fear of the United
States.
The President merely pointed out that
the United States had offered to submit
its atomic power to international control
- DORIS FLEESON:
Truman
A chies
W ASHINGTON-When President Truman
said of the solicitors for funds for a
Truman library that they were excellent
and dear friends but sometimes friends were
overzealous, the press restrained itself v ith
some difficulty from voicing an amen. Most
reporters like Mr. Truman and admire his
courage, but they do not relish the seemingly
endless vista of Truman friends with a tal-
ent for making unfortunate (or worse)
headlines.
Mrs. Roosevelt at the height of the at-
tacks on her for her travels wrote a piece
called "In Defense of Curiosity." Mr. Tru-
man's explanation in defense of his loyalty
to unworthy people who diminish his sta-
ture and impair his great projects would be
equally interesting.
The President gave a clear hint of what
it might contain when he disclosed for
the first time his support for a Truman
archives in his home town.
He doesn't like that word "memorial;" he
stressed that it would be a kind of annex
to the main Federal Archives building here
. in the capital.
The Truman Archives, he said, are des-
tined to contain all the records of his ad-
ministration so that historians can read and
judge. He spoke of this with serenity and
good humor as if he had it perfectly settled
In his own mind that he would be pleased
with the verdicts they arrived at.
The inference is plain that, to him, cur-
rent headlines are out of perspective, that
in the great sweep of history the mink coats,
Boyles, Finnegans, Vaughans and deep
freezes cannot stand up to the Truman Doc-
trine, Marshall Plan, NATO, etc., etc. On
other occasions, as on Thursday, he has
identified himself with Presidents who had
personal troubles similar to his but came
out all right in the history books.
The President explained that, while
Congress had provided by statute for this
type of auxiliary archives, it has not ap-
propriated any funds to set them up. This,
he said, was the reason friends had begun
the present project.
It was of course foreordained after Mr.
Roosevelt set the pace with his memorial
long before Russia had an atomic bomb,
and that the offer still stands.
"We are ready now, as we always have
been, to sit down with the Soviet Union, and
all the nations concerned, in the United Na-
tions, and work together for lifting the bur-
den of armaments and securing the peace,"
Mr. Truman said.
He might have gone on to say that the
United States and all the other countries al-
ready have agreed on the proper system for
atomic control. Only Russia has held out for
her own proposal, one which would be bind-
ing on nations of good will, but which would
mean nothing to a nation bent on banditry.
The President did not speak as one who
hoped that his words would mean anything,
any more than he attached any sincerity to
the recent Stalin statement, which he did
not mention directly.
As observers see it now, Russia is not going
to agree to give any international authority
control over anything she does, much less
her war preparedness program. She intends
to catch up with the United States in the
atomic field if that is possible.
As a corollary, she may entertain some
hope that America might be led to scuttle
some ships, while other nations scuttled some
blueprints, in an effort to avoid a naval race.
It would seem that Russia would by now
have seen enough of American determina-
tion to realize the futility of such a hope.
But the Kremlin seems strangely obtuse at
times.
Poeltyeeir
HJERE ON campus the Tenth Annual Po-
etry Week has arrived in almost as much
obscurity as envelops most student poetry.
By ignoring Governor Williams' proclama-
tion naming Oct. 12-18 as Michigan PoetryI
Week, the University has failedagain as aj
center of intellectual thought and artistic
creation.
English department spokesmen from both
the University and Michigan State College
said that they didn't realize the observance
was going on at all.
Just about the only bright spot on cam-
pus, poetically speaking, will be the ef-
forts of the small group that turns out a
quarterly magazine called Generation.
They are now engaged in sorting out the
less unintelligible of the poems submitted
for publication in the magazine which has
been compared to everything from the
"epitome of intellectualism" to the "epi-
tome of a satire on intellectualism." (They
confess to neither,)
If there has been any other action planned
toward the observance of Poetry Week, it has
been shrouded in the secrecy which many
students feel is befitting any effort to ap-
preciate poetry.
It is this attitude which has smothered in-
terest in poetry week and, for that matter,
in National Posture Week and Wine Week
and whatever else we are supposed to ob-
serve, appreciate or abolish within the next
There should be no mistake about it. The
Soviet unity line is no mere propaganda
maneuver which can be safely laughed off.
Grotewhol'a latest "unity appeal" had the
immediate effect of strengthening the hands
of such West German nationalists as Dr.
Kurt Schumacher; of causing West German
Chancellor Konrad Adenuaer sharply to up
his terms for German rearmament; and of
threatening the allied-German negotiations
at Bonn with another in a long series o
nearly total collapses,
The fact is that German unity is the
basic impulse of all Germans, East and
West. As long as the Soviets are permitted
to dangle the unity prize before German
eyes, West German rearmament, if it
comes at all is dead certain to be reluctant,
ineffective, and indecisive, because it will
seem to compromise the chance of unity.
And the fact is that it should, logically,
be easy to call the Soviet bluff.
For it is a bluff. It can only be a bluff. A
really free AllGerman election would mean
such public stripping away of Communist
fig leaves as would shake the whole Soviet
system to its foundations. Only a basic
change of Soviet policy resulting from the
extreme pressure of changed circumstances,
moreover, could cause the Russians to risk
the loss of the colonialized East German in-
dustry, the East German uranium mines,.
and the expansively-built fighter bases and
forward positions, which permit the Soviet
to threaten all Europe. Above all, the Soviets
cannot risk a unified anti-Soviet Germany-
and anti-Soviet is precisely what a unified
Germany woulci surely be.
Yet the bluff goes on working. The So-
viets and their Communist stooges con-
tinue to seize the initiative, while the
Western response continues to be defensive
and unpersuasive. It is as certain as such
things can be that the next Soviet step
will be a direct "unity" approach to the
Western powers, and equally certain that
the West will again be caught on the de-
fensive and off-base.
The basic reason seems to be that the
policy makers in the West have been con-
centrating so exclusively on the elusive West
German defense contribution that no one has
decided just whatterms for German re-uni-
fication would be acceptable. The SovielF>
have thus been permitted to pose as the pa-
trons, and to portray the West as the enemy,
of German unity.
* * *
OBVIOUSLY THE WEST could not agree
to German unity on the basis of an
American withdrawal across the Atlantic
and a Soviet withdrawal to Poland. Ob-
viously we could not agree to a totally un-
realistic "neutralization" of Germany. But
the vast majority of Germans do not want
German unity on these terms either.
Surely it is time to make up our minds
on what terms we would accept German
unification, and then to launch an all-out
political offensive on these terms. The only
immediate effect would be to explode the
Soviet "unity" line. But until this explosion
occurs, a really decisive West German de-
fense contribution is manifestly impos-
sible. But this is not all.
"No one with a sense of history," remark-
ed Berlin's brilliant Mayor Reuter to this
reporter, "can believe that the partition of
Germany is permanent.. Sooner or later, in
one way or another, the two halves will
come together." This is the fact which, while
wisely concentrating on the rearmament of
the West, including West Germany, we are
unwisely tending to forget. It can be rather
safely assumed that the men in the Kremlin,
who certainly have a sense of history, are
not forgetting it.
(Copyright, 1951, New York Herald Tribune, Tnc.)
F RRENT MOVIES
Aft The 'State ..
JIM THORPE, ALL AMERICAN. with
Burt Lancaster.
MOST MOTION PICTURES stand at least
a reasonable chance of turning out
either very well or very badly. Tribute films,
however, seldom have such a happy oppor-
tunity. Ninety per cent of them are awfully
indifferent and "Jim Thorpe, All American"
does not stray far from the fold.
Made for people who like to bathe in
legends, these features have all the ob-
vious dramatic flaws from the time that
they are undertaken. They depend for
their appeal upon outrageous events that
are supposed to be dramatically tenable
because they have actually occurred. What
they produce in all but the most avid
"legend-bathers" is a kind of dull atten-
tion that is a poor substitute for a drama-
tic identification. It is entertainment in
the same way as a freak circus.
Jim Thorpe, as played by Burt Lancaster,
is a pleasant enough freak. But from his
first appearance at Carlisle University to the
final inevitable testimonial banquet, he is
remote and unrealized. His athletic feats, his
marriage, even the death of his son, are
the well-rehearsed events of a pat biography.
They are marked by inflexibility in direc-
tion (from an ordinarily good director, Mi-
r r .. e
0+,r T' w raa asr-.
ON THE t
Washington Merry-Go-Round E
with DREW PEARSN S
W ASHINGTON-Ordinarily there is no filibustering at the Gover- I
nors' conference. However one was staged this time at a closed-
door session by Governor Ernest Gruening of Alaska.
Hitherto, the Governors' Conference has always unanimously
adoptied a resolution backing statehood for Alaska and Hawaii.
The resolution has to be unanimous to pass the Governors'; though
when the resolutions committee ok's a resolution it usually passes
automatically without objection. When the Alaskan-Hawaiian
statehood platform came up in executive session this time, how- x
ever,,there was a chorus of "ayes," followed by one lone "no."
The Governors looked around to find that the dissenter was "Hum-
mon" Talmadge of Georgia.
Asked for his reasons Gov. Talmadge, explained:
"My state will never consent to the admission of four new senators
not pledged to oppose cloture."
What the Georgia Governor had done was to express out loud
the private reason why most Southern Senators recently have
opposed Alaskan-Hawaiian statehood-the fear that four new
senators might upset the South's ability, through cloture, to fili-
buster against civil rights.
Immediateyl Gov. Gruening jumped to his feet. It was near the end
of a long meeting. The Governors were anxious to get home.
"I should like to point out that the statehood resolution always
has been adopted at previous Governors' conferences," the Alaskan
Governor said. "The Governor of Georgia has complained of federal
abuses. But he has no idea the ordeal the people of Alaska and
Hawaii suffer at the hands of the federal government. In effect we
are minions of an absentee government.
"I have a great deal to say on this subject," continued Gov. Gruen-
ing, as his fellow governors got more restless. "In fact, I think I can
speak for about four hours."
At this point Governor Driscoll of New Jersey quietly got up
and whispered in Talmadge's ear. There were other whispered
conferences. Finally the presiding officer announced: "I under-
stand. the Governor of Georgia would like to change his vote,
provided his views on the principle involved are recorded."
Talmadge assented. Governor Jimmie Byrnes then said that he
would like to put South Carolina on record likewise.
This made it unanimous for Alaskan-Hawaiian statehood, and
the conference adjourned.
**
-EMPTY SENATE-
ONE OF LIFE'S most disappointing moments for likeable Sen. Hom-
er Capehart, the Hoosier Republican, was during the foreign-aid
debate.
The music-box senator from Indiana arose with a thick, pre-
pared speech on his desk. The words of his ghost writers had been
carefully rehearsed for this big moment.
But before his oratory was 15 minutes old, the chamber was well-
nigh deserted. Senators retired to the cloakrooms, newsmen vanished
from their roost.
Finally, Capehart's Indiana colleague, noisy Bill Jenner, inter-
rupted:
"You are making a fine speech, but you're wasting your
breath," he said. "You are not changing any votes. The press will
not report what you are saying. You might as well take your seat.
Capehart's deep, discouraged sigh was heard across the chamber.
Glumly, he said: "I shall be very glad to take your advice."
-NATION'S BAD HEALTH-
DISTURBED BY the large numbers of 4-F's being rejected for mili-
tary service, President Truman is seriously considering a "physi-
cal fitness" program for the nation.
Truman has been steamed up on the idea since a recent chat
with Congressman E. H. Hedrick of West Virginia, a physician and
former county health officer, who has devoted most of his life
to promoting community health and recreational activities in the
West Virginia coal fields,
What Truman has in mind is a voluntary system of physical edu-
cation, including diet training, that would be open to civilians of all
ages, but particularly young working people. Schools and colleges
meantime would be encouraged to expand their own physical-training
courses.
Dr. Hedrick already has introduced a bill which the President
is expected to approve. It calls for a fitness program, partly fi.
nanced with federal funds but under the local guidance of veterans'
organizations, fraternal and athletic clubs and other volunteer
groups.
There would have to be some general supervision from Washing-
ton. However, Hedrick's bill leaves it up to the President to select the
administering agency. Some agency with established local tie-ins, as
the office of education or civil defense, would do the job, in order to
keep expenses down.
(CopyrIght, 1951 by The Bell.Syndicate, Tnc.)
BARNABY
" A Sensational Announcement, Falk !---'
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These blueprints show
how your clever Fairy
Godfather has adapted
Newton's Third Law of
Motion to the Power of
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