t
PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1951
I
Restaurant Economics
PERHAPS the cumulative difficulties now
pinching the pockets of Ann Arbor res-
taurateurs should be made the subject of a
lecture or series of lectures in the Monroe
Street Skyscraper or the Economics Bldg.
For the current situation illustrates neat-
ly more than one cardinal precept of busi-
ness and economics. The economic appli-
cations take their root in student attitudes.
Students made no bones about it
week they have little sympathy for
operators,jthougl most agreed that the
taurants' problem was real and serious.
this
the
res-
In the minds of an irate student body,
"some" becomes easily confused with
;,."any",and many" soon passes for "all."'
'ius "all "Ann Arbor restaurant owners
,hiVe appeared smug, overly cocky with
the assurance that'the goose would keep
on laying. Now the succession of golden
eggs has halted and may not resume for
many years.
In these years some eating establishments
will succumb to financial necessity. This
is, as economics texts would have it: there
are not enough customers to maintain them
all "in the style to which they have been
accustomed."
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writer only.
This must'benoted- in all reprints.
NIGCT EDITOR: CAL SAMRA
But the operators who will go under are
for the most part operators who deserve to
go under.
Those who have given the students de-
cent food at reasonable prices aren't being
hurt much now and will probably remain
unaffected unless enrollment drops far
below its present ebb.
What should make the restaurant's plight
of interest to business students and econo-
mists is the fact that it is a practical ex-
ample ofrthe supply and demand principle.
There are not enough students who want
prevailing restaurant meals at prevailing
restaurant prices. With too many restaur-
ants for available patronage it has become
a buyers' market.
Aside from this economic aspect the situ-
ation points up a problem familiar on the
national level and one which is bound to be
a hot issue for many years to come. The
problem-as expressed in the setting up of
a Tennessee Valley Authority or a Recon-
struction Finance Corporation-boils down
to this: should government or its agency
(in this case the University) provide what
private enterprise cannot or will not?
It is with these two aspects in mind that
we recommend the case to the BusAd School
and to the economics department for dis-
cussion. The spectacle of restaurant owners
eating the bread of financial woe and the
reasons behind this state of affairs should
be informative and worth their while to
ponder.
--Zander Hollander
w VV VV W VV VV V VVV V V V V I1 V V V V W VV IfVV V919 VV VVV 1119 VVV VV1
CIINIEMA
A~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~- i a &AAAAAAAA&AAAA A a , a AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
At Hill Auditorium ...
METAMORPHOSIS with Jeremy Le-
pard, Dana Elcar, Pat Newhall, Bette
Ellis. A film adaptation by William Wei-
gand frov a story by Franz Kafka, pro-
duced and directed by William Hampton.
REFUSE to predict how you or your fel-
low audience are going to react to this
unique movie. It is so unique that I dare
not venture anything like a universal judg-
ment, presuming to nothing more than a
description of my own feelings about the
film. One point we will all agree on, the
producer's promise that "you have never
seen a film like 'Metamorphosis' is ful-
filled.
DORIS FLEESON:
amorea About
McGrath
WASHINGTON - Attorney General J.
Howard McGrath has handed President
Truman a detailed account of the manner
in which President Coolidge handled the
Teapot Dome scandal and has given his
personal assurance ith it that he would
not only agree to a similar inquiry into the
current tax disclosures but would welcome it.
The Attorney General verified these facts
Tiirsday in. responseto a question.
K "If the'President sees fit to take such a
Q01'se, o any similar steps to get the
whole story and punish the guilty, I shall
,wrecomeit,"' he declared. "In anything
that he 'does he can be assured of the
complete cooperation of everybody in the
E Department of Justice."
A McGrath's attitude brings appreciably
closer action by President Truman to erase
the spreading stains of corruption in gov-
5rnment.
By his move, the Attorney General fur-
-her stands out as the first key figure in
;the Truman Administration to call for a
letached and impartial scrutiny of Wash-
ngton corruption, even though it will mean
n this instance that the searchlight will be
urned upon his own department.
° His friends will not be surprised by this
vidence of McGrath's confidence that his
Own integrity will withstand any test. They
had feared that, being gentle and consider-
Ate by nature, he might shrink from the de-
ided possibility that his friends and close
ssociates would be involved.
The Attorney General, however, is a
liberal internationalist by conviction, not
.for reasons of political expediency, as well
,as an honest public servant. Apparently
3he is now convinced that~public confidence
Chas been impaired and must be restored in
the interests both of good government
and of the administration policies in
'which he deeply believes.
The new national committee chairman,
rank McKinney, supports the general pro-
position that the Administration must clean
Its house dramatically and in such a man-
fer that the public will have confidence in
$he results. He has promised that the com-
inttee will cooperate and not interfere to
rotect its own.
(Copyright, 1951, by The Bell Syndicate, Inc
The uniqueness of "Metamorphosis" is
basic-it grows out of the nature of the
original Kakfa story.
In the first place, the story simply isn't
dramatic, and very few movies have been
made which don't organize the actions of
their characters into an introduction, rising
action, crisis and resolution and falling ac-
tion. "Metamorphosis" is one of these few.
It is a symbolic tale physically representing
the mental horror of a commonplace life.
Gregor Samsa is an ordinary salesman,
who with dumb wistfullness has often pon-
dered eluding the economic and social ne-
cessities of life, and who wakes one morn-
ing to find that he has escaped them alto-
gether. In fact, he has been transformed
into a giant insect, and the horror of his
aberration soon becomes apparent. As in-
sect and outcast, Gregor represents many
people or groups-the homosexual, the Jew
or any minority living in close contact with
the majority.
Added to this unusually sustained emo-
tional line is an unvaried scene of action.
Only two roomswere involved in the film-
ing of the story-Gregor's bedroom and
the Samsa living area. In an art media
whose greatest advantage over the theatre
is variety and scope of setting, it is seldom
that a story is undertaken that can and
must be photographed In two rooms.
A final problem posed by the story is how
to go about constructing and filming a
credible human bug. It is in answering this
question that Producer Hampton and his
fellows achieved the remarkable success they
have.
Their obvious choice was adopting the
"camera-eye" technique, filming the entire
production (except for a prologue and epi-
logue) through Gregor's eyes. In doing so,
they not only were spared constructing and
manipulating before the cameras a five-foot
long facsimile of a bug, but the resulting
technique practically forces you into total
sympathy with Gregor and his plight. For
without your sympathy, Gregor's pathetic
situation would lose all significance and the
brutality with which his whole family even-
tually comes to treat him might become
merely a man to beast brutality.
Composer Ed Chudacoff's dissonant mu-
sic, performed by a small, mixed ensemble,
is extremely appropriate. Without it, the
slow sequences at the beginning of the film
would lag sadly. As it is, the opening scene,
in creating monotony and suspense in a
sloe-eyed fashion, is a little too long.
Scenarist Bill Weigand's formal, mock-her-
oic dialogue, and the cast's equally formal
interpretation, may strike you as stiff and
somewhat stilted, but I feel it achieves its
irony-heightening purpose quite well.
In total, it is the honesty and literalness
of the film adaption of Kafka's story which
serves the movie best. Since the uniqueness
of the story would have been impossible to
overcome without destroying the meaning,
Director Hampton was wise in sticking as
close to the original story as he did.
Although my overall impression of "Met-
amorphosis" is that it is an interesting and
highly successful film, there is one factor
which will greatly effect your own opinion.
The technical errors, an understandable re-
sult of the $5,000 budget, and the limits of
16mm sound and pictorial quality can ser-
iously interfere with your enjoyment of the
movie. But only if you let them.
-Rich Thomas
FATTER OF FACT
By STEWART ALSOP
TEHRAN, Iran-This place is rather like
a madhouse in which a fire has been
started. The occupants, in their moments
of lucidity, are perfectly aware that the
madhouse is burning, and that all will short-
ly be consumed in the flames. But all are
paralyzed-by irrational fears and hates,
delusions of grandeur, or simple inertia and
stupidity-so that no one is capable of put-
ting the fire out, while there is still time.
There is not a great deal of time. The
best current guess is that the fire in the
Iranian insane asylum is likely to get out
of control before the winter ends, probably
some time in February. For at about this
time, according to present projections, the
Iranian government should run complete-
ly out of money. The Iranian government
will thus lack the means to govern.
For the last several months the govern-
ment of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the
chief incendiary in the Iranian madhouse,
has kept itself going by a curious economic
process, rather like a cow drinking its own
milk in order not to starve. The govern-
ment has been living off about fourteen mil-
lion pounds sterling, which previously form-
ed part of the backing of the Iranian cur-
rency.
This reserve has been used as a substi-
tute for the lost oil revenues. It has been
used to pay Iran's vast hordes of incred-
ibly incompetent officials, as well as the
army, the internal security forces, and the
70,000 idle oil workers. But now the cow
is, inevitably, going dry. In a matter of a
few weeks, the last pound in the sterling
reserve will be spent.
For some weeks more, the Iranian govern-
ment will undoubtedly be able to keep going
somehow. It can dip into the gold reserve
and the crown jewels which also form part
of the backing for the currency. But of
course this process will quite soon reduce
the Iranian currency to utter worthlessness
and the Iranian economy to complete chaos.
THUS, bar a miracle-which can only take
the form of American financial interven-
tion-the day is certainly coming when the
Iranian government will be absolutely fiat
broke. No one, of course, can tell precisely
what is likely to happen then. But it is
not too difficult to guess what might happen.
There will certainly be mass unemploy-
ment and mass misery in the cities, where
the hordes of government officials will be
turned loose, and in the oil areas where
the 70,000 oil workers will suddenly find
themselves without any means of livelihood'
at all. This circumstance will in itself
give an enormous impetus to the Tudeh,
the outlawed Communist party, the only
really organized and disciplined political
force in Iran.
This will happen at a time, moreover,
when the internal security forces, including
the army, will be tending to disintegrate,
simply for lack of pay. There are those
here who believe that in these circumstances
a sudden coup d'etat by the Tudeh, more or
less on the pattern of Czechoslovakia, will
be the most likely outcome.
* * * *
OTHERS CONSIDER more probable a
somewhat more gradual and orderly
shifting of this strategically vital country
into the Soviet orbit. Partly because Mossa-
degh is sure of victory anyway, and partly
because of an odd streak of idealism in his
peculiar character, the forthcoming elections
are expected to be, if not exactly free, at
least less neatly arranged in advance than
Iranian elections habitually are. It is thus
considered entirely likely that a number of
adherents of the Tudeh party, doubtless
wearing transparent false whiskers, will be
elected to the Iranian Majlis.
This will give the Tudeh the legal toe-
hold which it has so far lacked. In the
period of economic crisis which lies ahead,
the Tudeh might thus gain power grad-
ually, by more or less peaceful means.
Assuming-and it is a reasonable assump-
tion-a Soviet policy of all aid to the
Tudeh short of open, armed intervention,
the Communist take-over here might be
both relatively non-violent and very rapid.
Dr. Mossadegh, who is an exceedingly
shrewd man in a mad sort of way, is count-
ing on precisely this-the American realiza-
tion of the danger to his country-to bail
him out. It is, indeed, a remarkable tech-
nique which he has developed, a sort of
blackmail by the threat of suicide. It is an
extraordinarily effective technique, which
has faced the Anglo-American allies with
an awful dilemma. But at least one thing
is clear. The threat of a Soviet take-over
here can only be dealt with in one way,
by a strong, joint Anglo-American policy,
firmly adopted before it is too late-before
the fire in the Iranian madhouse gets wholly
out of control.
(Copyright, 1951, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.)
THE WEEKS NEWS
. . IN RETROSPECT
HE MOVEMENT for deempha-*r topic in proper order, i e. later.).
sis in college sports picked up Meanwhile a Communst air build-
some strong verbal support at the up was becoming alarmngly evi-
University this week. A forthright dent as MIG's outnumbered and
challenge to Michigan to lead the outflew U.S. Sabres in several tan-
way in putting athletics in its Y gles this week. Said Air Force
"proper place on campus" was is- .Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vanden-
sued by retired dean of the liter- berg in Washington, the appear
acollege Hayward Keniston.* ance of the MIG-15 in large num-
Prof. Keniston recommended bers over the peninsula underlines
that the now powerful Board in the unpleasant fact that "Soviet
Control of Intercollegiate Athle- .Russia has solved many of the
tics be reduced to a "recommend- probems connected th e r
igbody" working with the Fa- ' duction of jet aircraft." The U.S.,
culty Senate. Determination of it seemed, is still trying.
eligibility for athletes and sports BUBBLE, BUBBLE-The kettle
should be handled by the Office of BBL
Student Affairs, he said. simmered and spewed from Cairo
A member of the Board, Prof. to Tehran this week as bloodshed
Harry C. Carver, attacked Fritz returned to Egypt for the first
Crisler's "control" of, athletics. .time since the Ismailia truce and
And at week's end, former All- <: over 5,000 students rioted through
American swimmer Prof. Allan the warren-like streets of the
Seager urged the outright bIranian capital. A more peaceful
varsity sports and using the foot- :">:_: :::' :.:;.:.. .::::~, :;{::.?:';?4>::..: but equally significant develop-
ball stadium as a flower garden. ment came in Syria where a pro-
Action by top administrators . Army ex-colonel, Adib Shisshekli,
was expected to come out of two muscled in on aged President Ha-
potentially newsworthy confer--~ chem Bey Atassi, after pulling last
ences before Christmas. The Board week's coup, in which pro-Rus-
wil m e twih P esd nt H the : }?.:::.*4iv: .:.,v::-:..: i:.:., .. i::: 1 .::":,..: ....... , .-a. \..in M ro f D waiiw s uel
nd m y c o m e u p w ith a " e c iso n D a ily - B ill H a m p to n r em o v e da r o m t h e Dp r mi es h i . t
which will rock the nation," an "PLEASE . . . ?" looked like new elections were
informed source held. * * *coming in Damascus, with Shis-
In another meeting, the Faculty community watched a string of buckets and their bills in mer- shekli about to win all the mar-
mtteet isynvestgate o t athletic Michigan communities - every chants' cash registers. All in all, bles.**a
situation and make recommenda- other one with a population of it was the same as every other HOSTAGE AIRMEN--After two
tions to the Regents. more than 13,000-adopt "home Yuletide season-save snow, Kor- weeks of chilly silence, Moscow
S" rule" instruments which increased ea and T. Lamar Caudle. finally decided it did know what
METAMORPHOSIS - F r a n z municipal power. * * * had happened to an American
Kafka's Metamorphosis, the hor:- But Ann Arbor's charter re- Int.. , n tionaletransport which wandered over
fying tale of a man who changed mained-and very naturally so. *** the fringe of the Iron Curtain.
into an insect, will be flashed The city was exceptionally well Dil ion The unarmed craft, the Soviet
across the Hill Auditorium screen governed despite the shackles of radio chortled, had been forced
tomorrow and Tuesday in the first the antiquated document. In 1942, like a war to kill peace rumors. down by Red fighters over Red
feature-length sound production the people voted to keep the dust Commando raids, both Red and Hungary and had been carrying
made on an American campus. on the charter, but since that time UN, sky victories, both Red and equipment for "spies and sabo-
The world premiere will spotlight there have been indications that UN, and buildups, both Red and teurs." Nothing of the kind the
the artistic touch of English a new broom may sweep clean. UN, made It look like the start of United States protested, warning
teaching fellow and Daily cartoon- Last week, the City Council vomed another long, hard winter. Talks that every effort would be made
ist W. J. Hampton, director and to put the question to the people were hung up, snagged, snarled to free the plane's captive crew.
producer of the epic film, again, and generally confused over in- Just what the U.S. can do is prob-
* *r i* o*A*'*r spection teams (the Reds wanted lematical-a more likely result
CHARTER REVISION-In the XMAS-Christmas was nearing. Soviet satellites), exchange of pri- would be Hungary's forcing new
horse-and-buggy era of the 1880's, Stores burned the midnight oil, soners (we were worried about U.S. concessions as ransom for the
Ann Arbor was granted a special decorations cropped up and-odd- atrocities, wanted to discuss re- airmen.
charter by the state legislature. ly enough-the sun came out. Stu- turn of prisoners now, Reds want- -Barnes Connable and
During the early century, the dents put their coins in Galens aed to discuss this embarrassing Zander Hollander
maCeonatiea6mi t Raequm e
The world premiere will spotlight there have been indications that UN, and buildups, both Red and teurs." Nothing of the kind theI
4 *
,:
Sand & Fellahin ...
To the Editor:
TN REPLY to Mr. Hilmy's letter
of December 4 to the editor, I
would first say that I, unlike he,
have never had the opportunity
to drink at the fountainhead of
the Middle East's troubled waters,
Egypt; ye; I have had the oppor-
tunity to make a study of history
--of more than a few years' dura-
tion. No where, not in any pri-
mary or secondary source have I
been able to find even a logical
inference that at any time in three
thousand and more years of Egyp-
tian history one of the factors mo-
tivating social action was a "love
of a free life," as Mr. Hilmy puts
it. Rather I find that her history
has been characterized by an al-
most endless succession of tyran-
nical despots, differing from one
another only in name or order of
chronology -- whether pharaoh,
khedive or king.
I hold as little brief as Mr.
Hilmy for the ruthless exploitation
of hapless peoples from without
as well as from within. I am not,
and would not be, a proponent or
an apologist for imperialism, re-
gardless of the national banner
under which it swaggers. But for
the 'good' and 'real' reason of hon-
esty, I am compelled to repudiate
most of the intellectuals, business
men, politicians, etc. of points East
who in their attempts to gain
American sympathy and dollars
for the realization of their plans,
now pose as latter-day embattled
farmers of '76, fighting for every
free man's right to basic civil lib-
erties and for constitutional, rep-
resentative government. Mr. Hilmy
knows that the amorphous base of
Egyptian civilization, the fellahin,
are less significant to the ruling
classes, than a grain of sand. At
least sand by enroaching on culti-
vated fields can cause trouble, but
these dispossessed masses can do
nothing but be born like an animal
in a ditch or a mud hunt, till the
soil with their whole bodies, re-
spectively, like a worm, and die-
just sinking deeper into the soil
which they never left.
History needs not repose as a
dead weight around the neck of
progress. Nations like individuals
can by sincere effort effect radical
changes for the good, but this self-
same history shows again and
again that when an articulate, po-
litically powerful minority crown-
ing a voiceless mass demands free-
dom from imperialistic domina-
tion, they usually mean freedom
for themselves to exploit their
reference to instances of Ameri-l
can war-conduct violations during1
World War II. This stand is, of
course, his perogative. However,
he is not only badly mistaken in+
his evident estimation of my in-+
tegrity but is in error, too, in his
interpretation of my intentions.
No defamation was meant for the
U.S. Army which I served faith-
fully and with pride.
I meant only to point out that
few conflicts are waged between
pure good and pure evil, white
against black. Regardless of
training or doctrine no individual
exists free of innate weakness, of
potential malice, No organization
is wholly free of those who would
pervert its avowed intents, given
sufficient incentive. Only in hum-
ble recognition of the essential
frailty of all men can we antici-
pate, with well-grounded hope,
the advent of a happier, more tol-
erant new day.
In my heart, Capt. Furman, I
feel that there can be no libel in
truth; one rules out the other. I
spoke from personal experience.
The Capt. "demands" that I "sup-
port my statements or withdraw
and apologize." I refuse to do
either. I do not choose to "state
names, dates, and places," now or
at any future time, since the per-
sons in question are now beyond
the punishment of any temporal
authorities. Nor would I have the
time or inclination to "prepare and
present a factual case." Whether
or not Capt. Furman brands me
as an "irresponsibleliar" is of
incredibly small account to me.
It is my abiding conviction that
there is a greater Agency who will,
at the appointed place, pass judg-
ment on my worth.
Capt. Furman's interest is cer-
tainly admirable and not without
reason; but his position, however
noble, is both illogical and imprac-
tical. Even were the persons in-
volved available for questioning,
the process of investigation would
be an ill-advised gesture. Time
and change have wrought much.
My position is entrenched; my
statements stand. If, by my si-
lence on the facts, themselves, I
am exposed to name-calling, I ac-
cept that situation, knowing that
truth prevails. Honesty knows no
compromise. I only hope that
Capt. Furman's intense interest in
the honor of the American G.I.
was just as fervent during the war
as it is now.
-Robert C. Hafner
* * *x
Restaurant Food .,..
ly stew-this same array facing
them day after inexorable day
would answer all their questions
for them, and save Daily space for
other things. It makes no differ-
ence whether the surroundings are
the Hail-fellow of Ye Old Campus
Hangout, or the soft music of The
Moderne Shoppe, go where you
will, there's no escape.
I see hope only in the xfollowing
program:
The owners must (1) Replace
their amateur cooks with profes-
sionals, (2) chisel that 1921 menu
from their duplicating machines,
(3) scrape the callouses off their
own palates.
When this has been accom-
plished they may expect business
to pick up.
--Dan Waldron
* * *
Canonici's Eye. .
To the Editor:
UNTIL Mr. Aldo Canonici's arti-
cles appeared in the Daily, we*
were under the impression that
the day of the naive visitor to
America had disappeared. We
would be embarrassed to have the
Americans think we don't know
any more about their country than
what we learned from the movies.
Perhaps Mr. Canonici's boat left
too soon for him to find out any-
thing more than what the pam-
phlet introducing America to for-
eign students could tell him to ex-
pect. Perhaps he thought there
was some mistake in the informa-
tion.
We can hardly believe that a
European or any other foreign
student coming to this country,
particularly a student on a Full-
bright scholarship, would not take
the trouble to acquire, a little
knowledge of American culture if
only to avoid embarrassing him-
self with his ignorance. Almost
any American will wonder wheth-
er he knows anything about the
country besides its name if he
expresses his astonishment over
its habit of maintaining old tradi-
tions along with the new. That
idea practically announces itself
in the very name "America".
We do not see why he has such
difficulty explaining to himself
what the "real America" is. All
the inconsistencies he attempts to
explain are a part of the real
America. And Mr. Canonici, you
would do well to find out whether
there was ever another couple who
so loved their university that they
came back to spend their honey-
moon there. Your statement, "I
don't think this is an infrequent
occurrence," was a big joke for the
Americans.
You must pardon us, Mr. Cano-
nici, if we express the hope that
your opinion has never represented
anybody else's but your own. Your
exclamation of surprise and your
bewilderment startle us, for we
had thought that a certain amount
of scholarship and information
were almost prerequisite for a for-
eign student coming to this coun-
try . .
-J. G. Castel, France
-W. Graeter, Germany
4
I
4S
Sixty-Second Year
Edited and managed by students of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board of Control of
Student Publications.
1.
DAILY
OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
Editorial Staff
Chuck Elliott .........Managing Editor
Bob Keith................City Editor
Leonard Greenbaum, Editorial Director
Vern Emerson........Feature Editor {
Rich Thomas........Associate Editor
Ron Watts .........Associate Editor
Bob Vaughn ..........Associate Editor 4
Ted Papes ................Sports Editor
George Flint ...Associate Sports Editor
Jim Parker ... Associate Sports Editor
Jan James!.......... Women's Editor
Jo Keteihut. Associate Women's Editor
C
.. .
RARNABY
,j
(Continued from Page 2)
Respighi, Pines of Rome; Brahms, Sym-
phony No. 4 (Munch).
Coming Evens
r. - iif e...+ + at *. 'SI.,, .1.,xv from
:A9
IMy slts! I do believe these
I wvmbis~ terrisea ,,*ccr,*i
Up on my pla net, Mr. Baxter, eons ago
IIv speie end volved brains equipped for I
----JI ac I
Business Staff
Bob Miller ..........Business Manager
Gene Kuthy. Assoc. Business Manager
Charles Cuson ... Advertising Manager
Roll MCI, _ .. CFln.n n A Mn Affe
f5
i