THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, I' 2l ______________________________________________________________________________________________ I ____________________________________________________ I w Local 600 i + AF JN CONJUNCTION with the Inter-Arts festivities this weekend, a student art show is featured in the North and South Galleries at the University Museum, replac- ing the two Museum of Modern Art peda- gogic displays. This is the best student art show I have seen in five and a half years on the campus. You have until March 27 to see it The, show consists chiefly of paintings, with a liberal sprinkling of ceramics, sculpture, mobiles, drawings, and the like. There are, happily enough, many good works in each of the media, but on the whole, the paintings are the most satis- factory. The canvases of Jamie Ross are certainly among the best present; his severely disci- plined In Memoriam is the best item in the show. The interesting thing about Mr. Ross is that he isn't in the School of Architecture and Design. (He is also responsible for the nice mobiles, but they are not nearly so effective as his oils. John Goodyear is represented by two "blue" canvases that are very good, but I can't help regretting that he has offered none of his drawings for sale. Actors, a ST+ watercolor by Helene Lazarus, is vibrant with color and tastefully composed. Many other excellent paintings are on display, and it would be useless to try to catalogue them in this space, but I must recommend especially the efforts of Steve Kash, Marianne Gil- more, and Carolyn Pickle. Nearly all of the pieces on exhibit are for sale and, judging by the price list posted in the North Gallery, they are, modestly eviuated by the artists. Even so, I am afraid that a good many of the oils are out of the average student's price range. Perhaps the show will also attract the attention of off-campus collectors; unless one is interested primarily in ar- tists' names, the student work is, penny for penny, a better buy than most modern art available in the galleries. Some of the contributions are overcom- plicated a bit, some a little too contrived, but for the most part the artists have achieved an extraordinary level of aesthetic achievement; any slight failings are more than justified on the grounds of inexper- ience, and if you want ,to see who the artists of tomorrow will be, go to Alumni Memorial Hall today. -Siegfried Feller BOOKS MR. PRESIDENT: Letters, Documents, and Interviews of President Truman. Edited by William Hillman. IN AN EFFORT to have "the people know the Presidency as I have experienced it and to know me as I am," Harry S. Truman has made a move unprecedented in Anieri- can political history. In a presidential elec- tion year, when neither office nor incumbent is ever clearly characterized, President Tru- man has had a frankly partisan biography of himself published and has supported his conception of the Presidency with his own private papers. The results are both varied and interesting. The initial limitations of the book are patent. No material covering the period after 1949 was taken from the President's personal diary for both political and security reasons. Mr. Hillman-substitutes direct in- tei'views with the President concerning cer- - tain important occurrences after 1949, and, since many of the interviews took place in the past year, the President's views are def- initely sharpened by hindsight. This pro- vides a valuable tool for rationalization, and its potentialities caotainly could not be whol- ly ignored. The emphasis on President Tru- man's plan to put Collectors of Internal Rev- enue on a civil service basis points to a right-down-to-press-time revision and edit- ing. Judge Truman's record of clean, efli- cient government in a Pendergast-ridden area is almost monotonously repeated. This Is in keeping with the personal tone of the book, for Mr. President is a story of men, not issues. Foreign policy is dismissed with generalities about world peace and the security of the United States; Point Four is briefly recommended as an Implementa- tion of that policy. The President is content to state his main tenets of government. How these principles have been articulated in the past is sporadically explained, and pre- dictions on future policy are never made. There is even little mention made of the controversial and important figures that surrounded the President. The two incidents of real importance center around James F. Byrnes and Henry Wallace. Truman relates how he read his Secretary of State a vigor- ous order to immediately convey to the Pres- ident, all information concerning agreements made by Byrnes in Moscow. According to the President, Byrnes had failed in briefing his superior. Wallace is only drawn into the book by indirection. There are repeated references to a "Mr. X" who is "a one-hun- dred per-cent pacifist," and who advocates the placing of atom secrets in the hands of the Kremlin's "political adventurers." In the main, however, the correspondence and anecdotes are about the routine chores of a new type of political leader. President Truman has written more letters than any other President. Although he claims to be preponderately influenced by the Jefferson- ian and Jacksonian theories of the Presi- dency, he insists on being more than the tribune of the people. In a very real sense, he is a "super public relations man" at- tempting to achieve a type of people's rep- resentation which he believes Congress can never attain. There is also another important part of Truman's conception of the Presidency which is implicit in much of the book. After thirteen years of having a "national" lead- er, a person irregular in his party contacts and casual in his administration, President Truman welt that the country's governmental system needed considerable reorganization. The President takes pride, with some justifi- cation, in his creation of the Central Intel- ligence Agency and a streamlined process fnr sreenine hil nresented for the Ppi- Truman's hard work and self-imposed edu- cation. Captain Truman's exploits in World War I are minutely described and his slow political progress is recounted with great relish. His relatives from Independence are pressed into the mold of typical small-town folk. In stressing his differentiation from his predecessor, Mr. Truman seems to draw a robe of triumphant mediocrity about him which hardly does him full credit. His know- ledge of history and music is presented in scattered fragments, but his Missouri back- ground is played up to the hilt. President Truman's desire to identify with the common man leads him to two extreme statements which have unhappy conse- quences for the content of the book. The first, that "The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse," may be a acceptable catch-phrase for egali- tarianism, but it is hardly democratic and certainly not courageous. Then, speaking of Tom Pendergast, he unflinchingly backs the convicted boss of Jackson County with "I never deserted him when he needed friends." President Truman sees prevention of war and inflation as the two notable successes of his administration. He does see other areas where improvements are to be made in the American governmental system, and his proposals are definitely unique. The President believes the House should be elect- ed for a four year term concurrent with that of the President, so that off-year election discords can be prevented. With his eye on the Southern dissidents, he proposes that the Senators and Representatives should have twelve-year limitations on their service in Congress so that the hold of the seniority system on important committees can be broken. President Truman also advances the con- tention that impeachment proceedings should be improved and become a regular part of the legislative process for obtaining responsible government. Finally, he main- tains that "There should be a real liberal party in this country and I don't mean a crackpot professional liberal one. Opponents to liberalism and progress should join to- gether in the party of the opposition." While the latter pronouncement may be regarded as merely a partisan utterance, the first statement would indicate that the President has not completely mastered what he con- siders to be his two strongest fields-history and administration. Whatever disposition may be made of these suggestions, however, it becomes clear that the President bases them very directly on his axioms of responsible, representative government. In this sense, Mr. Truman may here be called altruistic, since he offers them convincingly without hope of any immediate personal gain. As in many other instances, he offers here some proposals which can only be interpreted as a direct reflection of his moral beliefs and his faith in this system of government. Furthermore, it is difficult to be cynical about the small-town milieu which produced these beliefs and sustains their sincerity. Mr. President cannot be read without the feeling that the author has a strong sense of his own and America's his- torical position. His rise is still the Great American Drama, and he deserves his day in court. And after he has had his say, what then? Will he run again? Although Truman quotes Plutarch's saw about "statesmen breaking down," he gives no real indication of his intentions. Perhaps the format of the book itself could give soje indication. There are fifty-four pictures of the President, hordes of color pictures, and enough charts and graphs to make Mr. President look like a farewell commemorative. Or, if it sells, the book could well mark a refreshing innovation in WALTER REUTHER'S take-over of the administration of Ford Local 600 marks the end of one of his bitterest battles and paves the way for his unchallenged suprem- acy within the union. Five officials at the top of Local 600 were relieved of command because of a provision in the UAW constitution which bars Communists or persons subservient to Communism from holding 'local or inter- national union office. Charges that the union was Communist-dominated came out at hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee in Detroit last week. But even though local president, Carl Stellato, agreed that there were Commun- ists Inside Local 600, Reuther did not give him a chance to carry out reforms or try to remedy the situation. Officially, the take-over was made by the international UAW-CIO, but Walter Reu- ther is the UAW-CIO. For more than a year, Reuther's strongest opposition has come from Local 600, under Stellato's lead- ership. At the union's last national conven- tion, Stellato fought to prevent Reuther from raising union dues. Stellato, a "Reu- ther man" when elected, is now one of the union chief's most intense rivals, and his re- moval smacks more of politics than of an earnest desire to rid the local of Commun- ists. The rivalry of the two men is heightened by the fact that if Stellato could rid Local 600 of Communists, his standing in the in- ternational union would be greatly increased. He would be the biggest threat to Reuther's power-and presidential office. The union officials have already been relieved of their jobs, although they still "hold" their titles. More than 300 more will be weeded out from the top according to Reuther. This is about all he needs to be rid of his most formidable opposition. Then reorganization of the local will fol- low-at Reuther's direction. Theoretically, Stellato and the other oust- ed officials can run again in a special elec- tion which must come within 60 days, ac- cording to the union constitution. But even if Stellato should run again and be re-elect- ed, there is no assurance that Reuther could not have the local president "relieved of his duties" again on similar charges. Reuther cannot afford to have Stellato raise more havoc with his personal plans. -Arlene Bell Open .House TRADITIONALLY, as many candidates as residents show up at the Student Legis- lature open houses in the men's andwomen's dorms. This poor attendance leads to ran- dom voting on the part of many indepen- dents, random election of candidates and finally, random complaints about student government. Sincere hardworking representatives are necessary for a good Student Legislature. But such representatives will not be elect- ed, except by chance, unless the students are acquainted with the candidates and their platforms, and can vote selectively. The S.L. open houses serve as a convenient meeting ground for the candidates and the electorate. The agenda usually consists of a short speech by the candidate, followed by questions from the audience. The speakers can be asked to define nebulous campaign slogans or present a specific program. The voter inevitably leaves the meeting better informed. Open houses this week will be held at the followingdormitories: Tuesday, Tay- , lor House, S.Q.; Wednesday, Betsy Bar- bour House and Mosher Hall; Friday, Jor- don Hall and Martha Cook Bldg.; and Sunday, Stockwell Hall. It will be worth while to drop in. -Sid Klaus Arts Festival TODAY, the final program in the Fouith Annual Student Arts Festival will be presented. Produced by the Inter-Arts Union, the Festival serves as a concentrated exhibi- tion of student creative work in all fields of art. The first festival was given in 1949, just after the formation of Inter-Arts Union.. Since then, the IAU has continually encour- aged campus artistic work, directing its ef-I forts through such media as Generation, the Modern Dance Club and the Ballet Club, and other similar projects. At the 1951 Festival, IAU was able to present the first student written operas produced on campus. Features of other festivals have ranged from original musical compositions to exhibitions in the fine arts. The fact must be faced, however, that the general run of students on this campus scarcely pay these activities the attention they should have. This year's Festival ends today with two programs o fdance and discussion, to be presented at 8:30 p.m. in Barbour dance studio and 2:30 p.m. in the West Gallery of Alumni Memorial Hall, respectively. Here is a fine opportunity to get in on something good-which deserves all the support it can get. -Perry Logan GOP Integrity THE CAMPUS erupted Thurs- day night. For seven and a half hours more than 2,000 stu- dents, (many of whom claimed to be from the University of Michi- gan) ran amuck. Men stampeded through every women's dorm on campus-the women retaliated by parading through the quadrangles. At first the crowd was good- natured, but later in the evening its character gradually approached near-violence. Though the mob almost disbanded several times, new life always seemed to surge through it. The boys were loath to relinquish their evening's en- joyment. Ten Ann Arbor policemen were patient observers of the melee. They wisely refused to interfere, one policeman explaining, "We'd only succeed in getting our uni- forms muddy." A tired, sweaty group of stu- dents finally straggled home early Friday morning after being drenched by the rain and watei from a fire hose wielded by husky Betsy Barbour residents. The morning after, the damage was totalled: Two hundred dollars worth at Martha Cook, a few win- dows broken in the South Quad, two minor injuries. The administration regarded the affair calmly. Officials reported that no disciplinary action would be taken. Student opinion was widely divided-some thought the riot disgusting, others looked upon it as good college fun. Local .. . * Jersey Governor Alfred Driscoll had "broken ,his word" to be neutral by endorsing Eisenhower, Sen. Robert Taft angrily quit the coming New Jersey election. IS YOU IS, OR IS YOU AIN'T- Democratic party chairman Frank McKinney, after spending three days with the President in Key West, told reporters that Truman would probably not run again if the Korean war is settled. The thought he said, was an "impression" he had gotten. Not too impressed himself, the President lashed back at McKinney-declared hotly, "Korea does not enter into the politics of this country at all." DISASTER - Spring struck a deadly blow this weekend when twisting tornadoes ripped through four southland states, sweeping, everything away in ghastly gusts of wind. As the storms hit a partial lull yesterday, horror- struck victims began to dig them- selves out of the rubble. By mid- day a populace had counted more than 200 dead, 1,000 injured. * * * A WAR NEARS ITS END - Six and one half years after the guns of World War II were silenced by the Japanese surrender in Tok- yo Bay, the Senate approved a treaty of peace with the Nippon- ese government. International. AND ANOTHER DRAGS ON - The picture of Korea, was the same as usual last week, as hints of a "compromise" on the POW issue proved to be initiated only by an "Unsatisfactory" new Red plan. Donna Hendleman and Sid Klaus was more than a million dollars less than the University's original request of $18,575,000. The ad- ministration said Friday it hoped the amount would get a final boost before final passage. * * * National.. . MINNESOTA SWEEPSTAKES - General Eisenhower scored an upset last week as he galloped through the Minnesota primary, and, with a write-in show of strength which surprised even his backers, placed a close second to favorite son Harold Stassen. * * * OUT FROM UNDER - Taft men found little to be happy with last week. Protesting that New Y -Daily-Bill Hampton "About that history test " *. THE WEEK'S NEWS . ..IN RETROSPECT . . 16,000 TURNIPS - Though set- BUDGET CUT-Up in Lansing, ting a new county record, the Uni- the University budget for the next versity's two week blood drive suc- school year received another jolt ceeded only in collecting a third of as the House Ways and Means its 3,000 pint quota. (Latest fig- Committee pared $200,000 from ures show that more than 17,000 Gov. Williams figure, which itself students are enrolled at Michigan.) /tteO'4 TO THE EDITOR 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, defamatory 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. CM Vote Yes . ,. To the Editor: THE QUESTION of free speech has been of increasing import- ance and controversy on the Uni- versity of Michigan campus re- cently.. Five student organizations --the Young Republicans, Young Progressives, Young Democrats, Students for Democratic Action, and Civil Liberties Committee -- have joined in a drive to support a "Yes" vote on the following ref- erendum, to be taken in the all- campus student elections April 1-2. "Do you oppose the empowering of the Lecture Committee to re- strict any recognized campus or- ganization in its choice of speak- ers and subjects?" Any outside speaker, whether he is to discuss politics, religion, sci- ence, philosophy, or the popula- tion trends in Washtenaw Coun- ty, must gain the formal approval of the Committee, which is placed in the unfortunate position of having first to define subversion and then of having to prophesy whether a proposed speech might possibly fall under this definition. It is,by necessity, an ambiguous assignment; further, it cannot help but lead to serious injustice. The Committee can never really know enough about a person to label him; it must resort to short- cuts: the Attorney General's list (declared unconstitutional by the Supi'eme Court), accusation by the Un-American Activities Commit- tee, other assumptions of guilt by association -- anything, in short, which indicates opposition to the majority viewpoint. In this sense, they have been charged with an unworkable responsibility. Only one excuse for the Lecture Committee can be presented with any validity: that students are incapable of thinking for them- selves, and must be carefully led around dangerous ideas. This is openly contrary to every philoso- phy which says students are going to be citizens, and must learn to cope with all ideas in all stages of their maturation. More than any overt restriction of the free- dom of speech, which it certainly represents, the operation of the University Lecture Committee dir- ectly prevents students from grow- ing up in a very important way. For these reasons, we are unequi- vocally opposed to its existence. -Dick Phillips for the Civil Liberties Committee Blood Drive -.. . W HY had only 885 pints of blood been donated as of Wednesday night? Why, with only two days left, have less than 5% of the campus population bothered to donate? - 1 - _ _, - - .- . . . - - __ , _ - _ . Why, do we bother to ask these questions? Because you can still register and donate today! Bob Leopold & Art Graham M*. * * Mr. Giraffe . . PICTURE TO yourself the fol- lowing scene: an official of a University questioning a student about whether he had been at a dinner at which a certain Mr. X spoke. The dinner was booked under a Mr. Giraffe. The frighten- ed student admits he was at the. "questionable" dinner at which some unfashionable ideas were prsented. Now they have him. "Who invited you?" If you "co- operate" you will be safe. (All you lose is your status as a human be- ing.) If you refuse to tell who was there, you 're "unloyal" to the Uni- versity. You try to "get out of it" gracefully and honestly. You raise the real questions which are in- volved: freedom to pursue the truth, freedom of speech, a desire to understand the Jewish ques- tion. No, they would have none of that. Stick to the straight and narrow. Tell us who invited you, who sponsoredit. who was there. Help us find a rule which can be interpreted as having been broken. Help us, as it's really not so easy to find something as you might think. No, this did not happen in some foreign land. Substitute Arthur McPhaul for Mr. X, Mr.' Henry Gerard for Mr. Giraffe and the Negro question for the Jewish question and one might say that it happened to me at the U. of M. campus a few days ago. Is there anything to worry about? I leave that up to you. Respectfully, -Robert Schor Sunshine Special . . HAVE read about the "Sunshine Special" with some interest in the pages of the Michigan Daily. This Florida trip is ostensibly being offered to any student of the University. It is to take place during spring vacation. The question immediately raised is whether this really ex- tends to all students or if the in- vitation is for whites only. Res- ervations in the "luxurious hotel for $2.00 a day" obviously cannot apply to Negro students. Negro students will be segregated on the train, will not go swimming with the rest of the "Sunshine Special," cannot eat at any of the same res- taurants. The Wolverine Club and the Senior Class, by sponsoring a trip to Jim Crow Florida, are adding fuel to an already deplorable situa- tion. Such sponsorship allegedly AT JUST ABOUT the time when spring fever hit a thousand male students on campus last Thursday, manifestations of a sim- ilar nature were being revealed in Hollywood some three thousand miles away. The annual Academy Award Oscars were being bestowed, and evidently most of the eleven- hundred-odd voters in the indus- try had gone light-headed and sentimental all at once, judging by the results. The Academy hoveled so many statuettes inhe direction of the people responsible for the technicolor musical, "An Ameri- can in Paris" that even Hum- phrey Bogart, who got' pushed forward somehow in the melee, has been photographed wreathed in smiles, and looking as if he contemplated a fast buck and wing-just to keep in the spirit of the thing. The MGM musical not only won best picture, best costume design, best art direction, best musical score, and best cinematography awards, but also copped the Thal- berg Award for producer Arthur Freed and a special award for Gene Kelly (because he is a nice guy.) For the topper, they gave the scenarist, Alan Lerner, a prize for the best story and screenplay. At last reports, no tribute had yet been paid to Oscar Levant's piano teacher. This seems all very well in one way. "An American in Paris" show- ed some imaginative choreography, performed a lot of staple Gershwin 0 r with vim and vigor, and managed a tasteful and sensible use of tech- nicolor-for a musical. Also, it had a ballet, sine qua, non. The rest of the picture, however, con- sisted wholly in blowing around the "romantic Paree" cliche, ground- ing it occasionally on the devas- tating wit of Oscar Levant. The prize screenplay handed you a potluck artistic conflict to hold, then pretended it was all resolved by the twelve-minute ballet. Maybe it is hairsplitting to be so fastidious about a musical comedy. For all that, "American in Paris" was an entertaining picture. But this has been a great year for the films, especial- ly a great year for Hollywood, so it is a particularly unfortun- ate footnote that the people of the industry have bowed not In the direction of the superior products of the year, but towards what have been referred to as Shop Girl Dream Worlds. A movie like "A Place in the Sun" has demonstrated a signifi- cant advance in the whole poten- tial of the film, for instance. A technically brilliant, remarkably integrated picture, it is one of the best things any country has ever done. In every department, its sensitivity and its subtleties were exceptional. The freshness and depth of its symbols and the uni- versality of its impact have given an additional poetic dimension to the fine novel from which it has been adapted. "Detective Story" for dramatic coherence and attention to detail registered on film better than any stage adaptation that I can re- member. For sheer versimilitude, it was equalled perhaps onlyby "Decision Before Dawn," a very different picture, that captured in many the same respects the dra- matic feeling for the influence of time and place on a character in conflict that the Kingsley play did. What reservations I have about "Streetcar Named Desire" and "Death of a Salesman" does not forbid their recognition as competent adaptations of good plays. The former unfortunately loses itself too often in the In- conclusive vagaries of its char- acters, most of whom apparently received Oscars as a result. "Salesman," an ultra-conserva- tive adaptation, transcends the merely clinical too rarely. Still, these are only the much- publicized nucleus of the lot. Re- member *"Red Badge of Courage" for its lyric originality; "Fourteen Hours" for-its documentary tight- ness; and 'The Brave Bulls" for its honesty. On a lesser level, and despite their flaws, also notable were "Ace in the Hole" for its dev- astating implications; "The Well" for its structure and editing; "Strangers on a Train" for its glos- sy excitement; "The Thing" for making science fiction palatable; an 're rha Aatn r gPSLSn" for Thel- I r' , 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...............CityEditor Leonard Greenbaum, Editorial Director Vern Emerson ..........Feature 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 Stafff Bob Miller ...........Business Manager Gene Kuthy, Assoc. Business Manager Charles Cuson ....Advertising Manager Milt Goetz......Circulation Manager E