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