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April 26, 1952 - Image 4

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'9

PAGE FOUR

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

SATURDAY, APRILU, 1952

I I

Weaning of an American

Ghost *Titer

Text of address by Alistair Cooke, chief
American correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian, given at the 29th annual honors
Convocation at the University of Michigan
in Hill Auditorium where 613 undergraduate
students were honored for scholastic achieve-
ments.
W HAT I WANT to talk about, as frankly
as possible in a short time, is the prob-
lem of how to bring up young Americans to
fit into a world in which, for the first time
in history, the United States is the chief
world power and the latest, perhaps the
last, inheritor of Western civilization.
This is going to be difficult for many
reasons, and in the beginning painful. But
other nations, notably the Greeks, Rom-
ans, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British
have done it at one time or another. And
it should not be beyond the reach of a new
generation of Americans who will cherish
their past while seeing very clearly that
they have to break with it .. .
Americans have been telling themselves,
ever since 1787, that they were the grandest,
freeest, most enlightened, ingenious and
powerful people on the face of the earth. In
the earliet days of the Union, when this
was a poor, and divided, nation, this boast
was not much more than whistling in the
dark. Then, when it was certain that the
Union would last, they began to flex their
muscles in front of a mirror and try to
prove it. This narcissism resulted in the war
of 1812, and only the preoccupation of the
major powers of Europe with the nuisance
of Napoleon prevented the United States
from learning the hard way, and the humil-
iating way, what it means to start a war
when you have no money, few arms, and
nothing but sass to keep you going.
For a time after the Civil War, Europeans
paid a quite novel respect to Americans,
since they were obviously of the race that
produced chivalry and intelligence of Lee,
Jackson, Sherman and Grant.
But this soon died down, or shall we say
dissipated itself on the less serious level of
an interest in American sharp-shooting,-in
the circus shows of Colonel Cody and the
marksmanship of Annie Oakley. The British
could not for long contemplate with wonder
any other image than their own. They were
now In the rich, ripe harvest of the Victor-
Ian twilight, though to them it was high
noon, and the sun would never set. They
were at the peak of their power, their riches,
their influence-and therefore, especially
abroad, their arrogance. It should have been
a warning to the United States, which was
learning fast from Britain.
By the turn of the century, the United
States was half-way through a stirring
period of twenty-five years, during which
thirteen millions of poor people from the
south and centre and east of Europe were
pouring into New York, to man Its factor-
ies, to mine its endless seams of coal, to
lead the ore from its prodigal mountain
ranges, and to forge its steel. Please re-
mind anyone with an Anglo-Saxon name
who sobs to you about the decline of
'true Americanism,' and the enterprise of
the old Yankee farmer, that it was the
Italians and Poles and Russians and Ger-
mans and Czechs who gave to this coun-
try the labor that surpassed the British
production of steel and coal, that built
the workshop in which America manu-
factured its unequaled riches and mater-
ial power.
Even forty years ago America had much
to teach Europe in technology and industrial
research, in medicine and legal education,
in the running of libraries; and it was well
on the way to Its present industrial suprem-
acy. But Europeans knew for certain only
that America produced musical comedies,
slang, chewing gum and violence. America
resented this condescension, and rightly. But
Americans in their turn could not under-
stand why Europe was so disrespectful of
America's new riches. Were not riches the
trappings of power? The European was un-
moved, and rightly. For riches may be the
raw material of power among nations, but
they are not the finished product .. .

THE POWER of Britain came not only
from the treasure that flowed into the
island but from the riches that flowed out.
I don't mean only the capital that their
manufacturers were willing to risk in over-
seas investment, without eighteen carat, ar-
mor-plated, guarantees from the goverrn-
ment. I mean the riches of the national
character: the pride of four generations of
able and philosophic men in going to far
places and enduring hideous climates if that
was the duty they were called to. Many of
them, to be sure, were puffing soldiers, of a
now unfashionable kind. There were others:
doctors, lawyers, tax collectors, engineers,
every kind of civil servant; who renounced
the ambition to be rich early in life and
gave themselves to the overseas service of
their country and-far oftener than you will
now hear-to the unselfish service of the
diseased and the poor in the native lands.
They felt as proud as you do of their coun-
try's ways. They loved its landscape and
cherished it, though they would enjoy it
only for the last.few years of their lives. It
was their Mother country. But they grew up
to reconcile themselves to the deprivation
of mother's milk .. .
... no nation ever comes to power, and
keeps it, and uses it well, merely because it
accumulates vast material wealth and

ness, to call on the best and most endur-
ing qualities of their people.
This country does not have to import food'.
And perhaps if we had never invented the
long-range bomber and the snorkel sub-
marine, we could curl up and snuggle close
to the Motherland, and let the rest of the
world sink into any slavery the most power-
ful outsider was preparing for it. Unfortu-
nately, the world has shrunk violently in
your own time, so violently that the English
Channel, only eighteen miles wide, was a
surer rampart for the British during the
Napoleonic wars, and even the First World
War, than the Atlantic Ocean is today for
the people of Chicago.
In such a world, we need allies. And you
are the generation that will have to forego
the 'pleasures of riling the British, regretting
the French, and joking about the Italians.
You will have to do something that no pre-
vious generation of Americans has had to do.
Instead of looking on Europe as a pictures-
que breeding-ground of the first Americans,
and a continent well lost, you will have to
learn to make new ties with that continent
and to live again with Europeans as equals.
This may sound very un-American to
some of you. But much that now passes
for Americanism, indeed the fetish of the
word itself, is no more than the bawling
of a child that cannot bear to leave the
nursery, the warm protection'of the moth-
er, and the mirror which shows it that in
the little world of its own there is nobody
so beautiful, strong or free. Now the walls
of our comfortable, teeming, vigorous,
and safe America are down. Now we have
to match ourselves with others. If we say
we are the heirs of the Western tradition,
we had better learn more soberly what
that tradition is all about and why it be-
came one. If we flex our muscles today,
none of our allies will love us for the Ro-
man sheen of our biceps. But they will
respect us if they know we are defending
what was best about Roman justice, and
which passed to the British, and which
has come down to us as the common law.
When we recite to them, as we do so often,
the opening sentences of the Declaration
of Independence, they are unmoved, unless
we prove that the liberty of other peoples,
and dependent peoples, is as precious to us
as our own. They are already not too
impressed with the strength of our demo-
cracy in America itself, when so many
cowards run around showing that they
don't really believe in democracy as a
weapon, and have come to rely rather on
a subpoena.
I have tried to trace for you the history of
America's psychological relation with Eur-
ope, which is rooted, asyou must see, in an
old and entirely natural sense of inferiority.
And then to look at the sort of world in
which a dramatic reversal of power has made
it essential for us to purge ourselves of that
complex and its most obvious symptoms: of
bombast, and self-glorification, and having
to be top-dog, and feeling that no command
in the North American alliance dare be en-
trusted to any but an American. Another
symptom, and it is a galloping symptom with
us today, is wishing that other nations would
become like us. No nation is given leader-
ship to sell or coax a subordinate into the
leader's ways. We have to learn to respect
other peoples' cultures, and to discover, what
historoy has so often demonstrated, that real
friendship springs from the awareness of
differences and the respect for them.
IN THE OLD DAYS, before 1939, when we
boasted, the European smiled with a toler-
ant and sometimes superior smile. Now his
own way of life is depressed or insecure.
Now, when we boast, he is full of fear, for
since we have boasted so often of things we
did not in fact possess, he's not sure we are
telling him the truth about the incompar-
able things we have.
We tell him, for instance, that no other
nation can point to a Bill of Rights sign-
ed, sealed and delivered-by that courage-
ous generation of men in the 1780s who
have given us-in spite of the wonders of
the hydramatic drive and the deep freeze

-the best things we have. It is true. No
other nation among our allies has a writ-
ten Bill of Rights. So? Well, unfortunate-.
ly, it is not the traditions you print up
and frafine that matter. It is the ones you
live by. The British and the French never
wrote down the guarantees of their free-
dom, of the right of assembly, or freedom
of religion, and the press, and thought.
But, as you may have noticed in the past
few years, their instinct and practice in
these things has been more tenacious than
ours. It is not in England, but in America,
that many states have suspended the right
of assembly. It is not over there that
hundreds of school boards have screened
what it is safe for students to read, as if
the doctrines they fear undoubtedly had
the power to seduce young Americans into
obedience. What an insult that is to the
virtues of our democracy. It is a view of
virture as sickly as that of the fearful
Nineteenth Century parent, who respected
the character of his daughter so little
that he felt she was only safe with young
men of the parent's choosing. There is a
warning in this analogy. The young men
the father thought were safe and sound
were often so priggish and dull that the
daughter in desperation leaped into the
arms of almost any forbidden ruffian who
would come and take her.

Rights says that 'all persons born or natur-
alized in the United States' it mehs 'all
persons' and not Protestant whites wiho can
show a driving license and a paid-up mem-
beship in the country club. And when it
says that no state shall 'deprive any person
of life, liberty, or property without due pro-
cess of law, nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws,' it means no more but no less than
that. It says, and means, 'any person,' what-
ever his color, wherever he came from, what
ever his creed.
Europeans are not impressed by the elo-
quence of our Constitution except as we
live it. Every college fraternity that makes
a point of barring Jews makes a present of
one more talking-point to the Commun-
ists. By so much as you are against the
Catholics by habit or principle, by just so
much you are less of an American
These are some of the features of the
world you will live in, and the anxieties of
the rest of the world as it sees America.
vault into the saddle of leadership. You may
say you never asked for it. 'I never asked to
be born' is a protest that all children make
at some time, in a moment of sarcasm o
bewilderment or humor. And it would come
very understanadably from you, whose life
splits almost exactly into two halves: each
of which has been spent in two periods of
history as different, and decisive, I believe,
as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
I don't envy you the complexity of this
new world, but I do envy you the opportunity
to meet it. You have one great advantage
over us who came before. In the past twen-
ty years you have seen the rise of two tyran-
nies, one bearing the cloak of national pride,
the other the banner of equality for all men.
Up until 1930 'tyranny' was a word in a his-
tory book, a rather grandiose echo from the
late Eighteenth Century. But you have had
the chance to see that there is a profound
and irreconcilable difference between a so-
ciety that tolerates variety in its people, and
one that binds them into conformity. A ty-
ranny by any name is just as sour, and you
should study their origins and history, even
if this means that you must be seen carry-
ing around, at one time or another, a copy
of 'Mein Kampf' and a copy of Karl Marx.
Tyranny comes in many forms, and its
most remarkable natural gift is a talent
for protective coloration. 'The people' said
Edmund Burke, 'never give up their liber-
ties but under a delusion.' It would not
come to America as declared Communism
- or Fascism. It might even describe itself
as Americanism. You must learn to recog-
nize the signs, and especially the habits
of mind. One is intolerance. Another is
fanaticism. Another is the conceit of be-
lieving that your ideals and plans are '
unique.
Beware of the dogmatic man and the self-
righteous. 'A fanatical belief in democracy,'
says a modern philosopher, 'makes demo-
cratic institutions impossible, as appeared in
England under Cromwell and in France un-
der Robespierre' ...
You will come to understand what is fun-
damentally unreliable about the bitter re-
actionary and the violent leftist: they are
both suffering from the same disease,-an
exaggerated fear, perhaps, of authority. One
of them bridles at all authority he did not
himself appoint. The other abandons the
struggle by giving himself up wholly to the
Fuehrer, the Savior, the big strong man who
will put all things right. They are two ways
out of the same trouble . . .
But you have the chance to take thought,
to cool off, to get used to your flattering
status and to feel yourselves into the un-
comfortable discovery that power is not a
parade, it is a pile of new problems and a
life of responsibility. Remember most of all
that what weaker nations demand of the
strong is neither charity nor the display of
muscle and power. But magnanimity.
You may have expected me to bring you
a recipe for painless weaning. I told you it
cannot be painless. And it would be presump-
tious of me to suggest to any one of you,

who all have your own characters, by what
method or how quickly it should be done. I
have tried to point out to you the signs, as
I see them, of the coming American maturity
and the omens that delay or might frustrate
it. If you achieve a half of these virtues,
some of which I have implied were lacking in
your elders, then you will have no trouble in
honoring your Motherland while becoming
calmly 'reconciled to the want or depriva-
tion of the mother's milk.'
I have no doubts about your energy, opti-
mism, and endurance. But those are not
virtues, they are the animal reflexes of a
healthy species. The Nazis had them. Nor
do I think this next generation will lack in-
ventiveness, sincerity or courage. Those too
can exist in nations where liberty is snuffed
out. So I hope you will not think me old-
fashioned if I wish you good luck with
another quality, if I go back for the last
word to an old man, wise many centuries
before Britain or America was discovered;
and to the line he gave to young men about
to meet the test of their maturity: "Good
luck have thou with thine honor, and thy
right hand shall show thee terrible things."
New Books at the Library -
Crawford, Marion-Elizabeth the Queen.

SECOND SEMESTER
EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS
HORACE M. RACKHAM SCHOOL.OF GRADUATE STUDIES
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SCHOOL OF NATURAL RESOURCES
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
SCHOOL OF NURSING
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
JUNE 2 - JUNE 12, 1952
NOTE: For courses having both lectures and recitations, the
time of class is the time of the first lecture period of the week;
for courses having recitations only, the time of the class is the
time of the first recitation period. Certain courses will be examin-
ed at special periods as noted below the regular schedule. 12
o'clock classes, 4 o'clock classes, 5 o'clock classes and other "ir-
regular" classes may use any examination period provided there
is no conflict (or one with conflicts if the conflicts are arrangedj
for by the "irregular" classes).
Each student should receive notification from his instructor
as to the time and place of his examination. In the College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, no date of examination may be
changed without the consent of the Committee on Examination
Schedules.

t etteP 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.
nical advancements and the way
of life in America, the Turks have
To the Editor:ibeen sending their youth to be
OHN Briley's review of Othello educated in the universities of the
attacks Bob Laning and Y. Jo United States rather than in Eur-
Willoughby for "hammy" and ope, as was the case up to World'
"Hollywood" performances. I War IT. As a result, since 1939 the
should like to report that I found' number, of Turkish students has
Laning's porptrayal the most be- greatly increased in the American
lievable Iago I have seen. Mr. universities. However, even with
Briley felt it wanted motivation, this increase. the number of stu-
yet I found it honestly motivated dents educated here is far below
throughout by the force at the the quota of technically equipped
very core of Iago's spirit-the de- men which Turkey needs so badlly.
sire to do evil. The reason for this inadequacy
Apparently what Mr. Briley asks is that, in the first place the Tur-
is a stronger external cause-effect kish Government has to spend
motivation than Shakespeare put over half of its budget for na-
into the play. True, he has pro- tional defense to safeguard the
vided a couple of excuses for Iagos freedom of the country. Natur-
actions, but they are so weak they ally, the government is unable to
could not possibly account for appropriate mo're scholarships for
the monstrous events which take higher education abroad.
place, in any production. This Secondly, the high exchange val-
point is so generally understood ue of the dollar prevents many
in Beginner's Shakespeare it can willing parents from sending their
hardly have a place in any serious sons to American universiti,
review of a production; yet Mr. Thus, in order to attain effective
Briley seized on it, bewildering results in Turkey from the Mar-
himself into a cry of "ham!" shall Plan aid, more opportuni-
Well, if Laning's performance is ties and scholarship facilities
"ham" then the word is henceforth should be made available to Turk-
transformed. He has given it a ish students.
power and dignity which removes Of the American universities,
it permanently from the careless the best known in Turkey is the
arsenal of reviewers, and makes it University of Michigan. The num-
mean "rightness and truth of por- ber of students attending this uni-
trayal." versity increased from 15 to 54 in
For he manages to make Iagof 13 years.
human. He makes him the perfect In 1940 the Turkish Club of the
serpent, to be sure. He slithers. University of Michigan was offi-
He insinuates evil into every crev- cially established. At the begin-
ice. But he makes him human. ning of this semester, new officers
He makes him human in spite of were elected and the constitution
the staggering load of evil he was revised. The members of the
bears. He causes the realization to club plan to take part in the acti-
dawn that this monster is not a 'vities of the ISA, Community
beast, or devil, or (in Mr. Brilley's Chest and various campus organi-
words) a medieval vice, but a hu- zations as much as time from
man being! studies will permit. Upon the
Only at the last when he has agreement reached at a meeting,
carried his machinations to their the Turkish students participated
limit does he thrust himself bodi- in all campus blood bank drives
ly upon his victims. Roderigo and to aid the wounded soldiers of the
Emilia fall then by his hand. United Nations fighting in Kor-
(Even this Laning does with a ea. The members of the Turkish
cleanness and lack of theatrics Club are glad for the opportunity
which is amazing.) Yet Mr. Briley to participate in the academic and
calls for "underplaying." I wonder social life of a university commun-
what advice he would have for ity and wish to express their ap-
Jose Ferrer, who played the part preciation of the facilities afford-
much more flambuoyantly. Be- ed them by the university and
side it, Laning's portrayal is the especially the International Cen-
essence of restraint and subtlety... ter.
Doxie or not, there was a -Turkish Club !
warmth about Miss Willoughby's Halil Kaya, President
portrayal which I never knew Em--
ilia could possess. For the first
time I saw her as a woman of
individuality and life, which Miss
Willoughby draws vividly and, if +lfltl
we consider the often coarse na-
ture of her lines, most accurately.
She leaves the pale, half-lighted
ranks of serving ladies and be-
comes a vital, spirited creature.
For this very reason the wit and
wisdom in her later lines are all
the more belevble. For precedents
in low-brow serving ladies, Mr.h
Briley, see Nurse, Romeo and Ju-
liet.
The Arts Theater Othello is a:
production of extraordinary vital- Si ty Second Year
Edited and managed by students of
ity, intelligence and warmth. Flaws the University of Michigan under the
it may have, but they should not authority of the Board in Control of
be confused with its virtues !IStudent Publications.

Time of Class
(at 8
(at 9
(at 10
MONDAY (at 11
(at 1
tat 2
(at 3

Time of Examination
Saturday, June 7
Tuesday, June 10
Monday, June 2
Wednesday, June 4
Friday, June 6
Thursday, June 5
Thursday, June 12
Monday, June 9
Wednesday, June 11
Tuesday, June 3
Friday, June 6
Thursday, June 5
Thursday, June 12
Wednesday, June 4

9-12
9-12
9-12
9-1;
2-5
9-12
2-5
9-12
9-12
9-12
9-12
2-5
9-12
2-5

TUESDAY

(at
(at
(at
(at
(at
(at
(at

8
9
10
11
1
2
3

These regular examination periods have precedenceover any
special period scheduled concurre'htly. Conflicts must be ar-
ranged for by the instructor of the "special" class.

Spanish. 1, 2, 31, 32
Russian 2
German 1, 2, 11, 12, 31
Chemistry 4, 21
English 1, 2
Psychology 31
Sociology-Psychology 62
Economics 51, 52, 53, 54. 102,
153 (sections 2 and 3)
Sociology 51, 54, 90
Political Science 2
French 1, 2, 11, 12, 31, 32,
61, 62
Speech 31, 32

Monday, June 2
Monday, June 2
Tuesday, June 3.
Wednesday, June 4
Saturday, June 7
Saturday, June 7
Saturday, June 7
Monday, June 9
Tuesday, June 10
Tuesday, June 10

2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5'
2-5
2-5

Wednesday, June
Wednesday, June

11
11

2-5
2-5

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
SCHEDULE OF EXAMINATIONS
June 2 to June 12, 1952
NOTE: For courses having both lectures and quizzes, the time of
class is the time of the first lecture period of the week; for
courses having quizzes only, the time of class is the time of the
first quiz period.
Certain courses will be examined at special periods as noted
below the regular schedule. All cases of conflicts between assign-
ed examination periods must be reported for adjustment. See
bulletin board outside of Room 3209 East Engineering Building
between May 14 and May 21 ror instruction. To avoid misunder-
standings and errors each student should receive notification
from his instructor of the time and place of his appearance in
each course during the period June 2 to June 12.
No date of examination may be changed without the con-

t

sent of the Classification Committee.
Time of Class Time of Eaxamioation
(at 8 Saturday, June 7
(at 9 Tuesday, June 10
(at 10 Monday, June 2
MONDAY (at 11 Wednesday, June 4
(at 1 Friday, June 6
(at 2 Thursday, June 5
(at 3 Thursday, June 12

TUESDAY

(at
(at
(at
(at
(at
(at
(at

8
9
10
11
1
2
3

E.M. 1, 2; M.I. 82; Spanish
Draw. 1; M.I. 135; German
Chem. 4, C.E. 21, 22
P.E. 11, 12, 13
P.E. 31, 32, 131; Psyc 31
Ec 53, 54, 102, 153 (Sec 2, 3)
C.E. 1, 2, 4; Draw. 3; M.I.
136; Eng. 11
Draw. 2; E.E. 5; French
Irregular classes may use
vided there are no conflicts.

Monday, June 9
Wednesday, June 11
Tuesday, June 3
Friday, June 6
Thursday, June 5
Thursday, June 12
Wednesday, June 4
*Monday, June 2
*Tuesday, June 3
Wednesday, June 4
*Thursday, June 5
*Saturday, June 7
Monday, June 9
*Tuesday, June 10
*Wednesday, June 11

9-12
9-12
9-12
9-12
2-5
9-12
2-5
9-12
9-12
9-12
9-12
2-5
9-12
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5
9-12
2-5
2-5
2-5
2-5

--Dan Waldron
Turkish Club . .
To the Editor:
T HE friendly relationship which
has always existed between the
Turkish Republic and the United
States Government, has been ce-
mented by their belief and mutual
support of the democratic way of
life and the policy of "peace at
home, peace in the world." The
close alliance of the two countries
has resulted in the friendship of
their peoples as well. The Turkish

Editorial Staff
Chuck Elliott ........Managing Editor
Bob Keith ..................City Editor
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
Bnstnen Staff
Bob Miller ..........Businemn Manager
Gene Kuthy. Assoc. Business Manager
Charles Cuson ....Advertising Manager
Milt Goetz......Circulation Manager

any of the periods marked* pro-

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Courses not covered by this schedule as well as any necessary
changes will be indicated on the School bulletin board.
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Courses not covered by this schedule as well as any necessary
changes will be indicated on the School bulletin board.
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Individual examinations by appointment will be given for

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