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 !---' ; \ 1 \ - , These blueprints show how your clever Fairy Godfather has adapted Newton's Third Law of Motion to the Power of U