PAGE FOUR

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1953

PAGEFOURTUESAYMARC 10,10C


Religion and Ethics

By SID KLAUS
Associate City Editor
BARBARA Ward Jackson, as the first an-
nual Mott Lecturer on religion, sent
the series off to a bounding start. She not
only fulfilled her primary role as speaker
in an admirable fashion, but she also en-
tered into campus life 'with an amazing
vitality-talking before a political science
class and the Economics Club and meeting
and exchanging ideas with a great number
of students.
The Mott Lectures, which she delivered
Tuesday and Thursday evenings, were en-
titled "Are Today's Problems Religious?"
and "Moral Order in an Uncertain World."
In reality, they were not separate talks,
but divisions of the same lecture. Mrs.
Jackson, though only reading from notes,
did a masterful job in developing her line
of reasoning, and, judging from the discus-
sions at the receptions following the lec-
tures, she succeeded in provoking a good
amount of thought on the basic questions
of religion and morality.
She began the first lecture by describing
the basic principles which are held in com-
mon by all the world's religions: (a) a belief
in God-as the Ground and Source of all
reality; (b) the concept of the human soul,
which serves as the point of contact between
man and the "Ground"; (c) the existence
of a moral order which transcends all so-
cieties and expresses the Law of Life, and
(d) the concept of personal responsibility
(that free will exists, and that man can
choose between good and evil.)
She also pointed out that in Western
thinking there has been an attempt to
unify all matter and create an order where
-man, who is both mind and matter, can
come to terms with himself. An attempt in
medieval time at this synthesis failed, she
said, because of the inadequacy of science.
In this century, man has attempted to view
things in a scientific light, and the result
has been the upsurge of materialism-and
the tendency to pervert a faith in a mater-
ial society into a faith in a communistic,
or other type of totalitarian society.
To-the question of whether materialism
necessarily leads to totalitarianism, she
answered that ratiofially it would not have
to, but history has shown that it always
has. Mrs. Jackson went on to demonstrate
that our ideas of liberty and justice have
been profoundly interwoven with our relig-
ious background. She regarded religion as
an attempt to put order into society, and
while it has failed at times in trying to
lead man to the Good, it is preferable to
no religion. She also maintained that
. Mr. Dooley Says:
ON THE APPOINTMENT of Charles Wil-
son and other leaders of large corporate
enterprise to the President's cabinet, and on
reading in the back pages of the Detroit
Free Press that all anti-trust cases listed
with the Department of Justice (which must
include the case against du Pont, large stock
holders in General Motors) have been can-
celled by the new administration, one is re-
minded of the words of Finley Peter Dunne's
"Mr. Dooley," written when the Sherman
Anti-Trust Law was about ten years old. "Iv
all th' gr-reat evils now threatenin' th' body
politic an: th' pollytical bodies, these crool
*. organizations an' combinations iv capital is
perhaps th' best example iv what upright an'
arnest business men can do whin they are
let alone. They cannot be stamped out be
laws or th' decision iv coorts, or hos-tile
ligislachion which is too frindly. Their des-
thruction cannot be accomplished be dim-
agogues. "Th' thrusts are heejous monsthers
built up be th' inlightened intherprise iv
th' men that have done much te advance
pro-gress in our beloved counthry. On wan
hand I wud stamp thim undher fut; on th'
other hand no so fast."
-David Lynch in The Concentration
of Economic Power

WASHI
WASHINGTON - As a result of Stalin's
death, the Eisenhower Administration
has decided, at least for the time being, to
reverse one of his campaign pledges regard-
ing Soviet Russia, namely to use "every
psychological tactic" to free "the nations
conquered by Communism."
Reason for the reversal is fear of rock-
ing the boat at a delicate international
moment and giving the new leaders in the
Kremlin an excuse for drastic action.
The reversal is partly based upon a go-
slow recommendation from. Allen Dulles,
head of Central Intelligence, who incidental-
ly now differs with his brother, John Fos-
ter Dulles, and his Buffalo campaign speech
of August 27, that we should encourage
"quiet" revolutions in Red-dominated coun-
tries.
This reversal may be a wise one at this
time-at least so far as the U.S. Govern-
ment is concerned.
However, it is also important to consider
the possibility that Stalin's death may be

there are absolute values, and while wisely
refraining from attempting to rationally
argue the point, she showed that the same
"good actions" of "sages and saints" have
been looked upon with admiration down
through the ages. She denied that this
Good comes from the conditioning of
society.
In explaining why mankind is not Good,
(with these truths being so self evident) she
said that it was easy to slip from religion to
hypocrisy and that human vitalities, usual-
ly channeled by religion are at the present
time, in part at least, controlled by nation-
alistic influences, with the result that in a
moral sense, they are not being controlled
or channeled at all. She concluded her lec-
ture with the admonition that we must ac-
cept the challenge of communism on a moral
basis, and that our goal should not simply
be to defeat the Communists for safety's
sake, but to look upon winning the struggle
as a Good in itself.
Though Mrs. Jackson made an excellent
presentation, she actually proved that to-
day's problems are moral, rather than speci-
fically religious in substance. This raises
the question, which she did not fully answer,
of whether morality can exist, in a practical
sense, apart from religion. For while a reli-
gious attitude is indefinitely preferable to
a materialistic one, one does not necessarily
have to carry out the traditional religious
rituals to be moral.
In this third alternative, man would
forego the traditions and the other than
moral-directed beliefs of religion, while
still maintaining a faith in the transcen-
dental moral order which Mrs. Jackson
showed encompasses all societies. This
faith in an absolute, rather than a rela-
tive Good, or belief in man is the all
important point which distinguishes it
from materialism or humanism. Even a
belief in the orthodox, omniscient, omni-
present God could be replaced simply with
this faith in a moral order. Possibly this
type of belief could be corrupted to ma-
terialism more easily than the orthodox
religions, for a slight corruption of the
individual might cause the human vitali-
ties to seek a more substantial faith than
a set of abstract principles. This is its pri-
mary disadvantage.
And too, belief in a set of moral values
would not replace the hypocricies of religion
that Mrs. Jackson mentioned-such as hid'
ing immorality under a cloak of habitual
church going-for the "moralist" could sub-
stitute conspicuous humanitarianism for true
belief in the Good. But faith simply in a
set of moral values would prevent a sin-
cere error of many church goers, who wor-
ship religious tradition rather than religious
ethics.
Moreover, a belief in moral values alone
overcomes a significant difficulty of re-
ligion-that religious teachings sometim ;
conflict with facts. For traditional religion
is inextricably bound up with supernat-
ural doctrines, and these doctrines in turn
often warp fact. When science has proved
one of these mystical doctrines to be false,
the doctrine has to be explained away or
changed somehow, usually in a manner
which is damaging to the religious faith
itself.
The big question, of course, is whether
ethics anti religion can be separated in the
future on a practical basis, after being so
closely connected in history, as Mrs. Jack-
son pointed out. However at the present
the question is whether or not faith in
transcendental morality rather than in a
traditional religion should be accorded a
respected place in our society.
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the writer only.
This must be noted in all reprints.
NIGHT EDITOR: HELENE SIMON

A RT
At Alumni Hall :. .
STAFF ARTISTS OF THE BIG TEN.
SOME THIRTY-FIVE oils and water col-
ors by staff members of the Big Ten
schools comprise the current exhibit at
Alumni Hall. The exhibitors have not both-
ered to tell us anything about the artists by
way of accompanying text; whether they
are professionals or amateurs, instructors
of painting or Botany or Math. Most of
the works, however, have a very accomplish-
ed look about them, with only a few sug-
gesting Sunday painters.
This University is represented in four
painting by Professors Kamrowski and
La More, Mr. Wilt, and the late Profes-
sor Lopez, all of the College of Architec-
ture and Design. The latter's painting,
entitled "Young Man in Costume," is a
wonderful example of the quiet intensity
of the painter's work.
The complex linear division of the sur-
face of the figure into what are almost fa-
cets of a cut stone is continued in the back-
ground to become a series of receding spa-
tial planes, the whole effect contrasting
sharply with the emotion of the head and
hands which are rendered quite realistically,
and the softness of the pastel blues and
greens broken only by the deep crimson of
the young man's cape.
Something of an errie organic quality
pervades the work entitled "Nu a Cheval"
by Gerome Kamrowski. It is an abstraction
of attenuated snake-like shapes and lines
which achieve much more than a two di-
mensional surface division. Rather, these
shapes have te effect of growing and in-
terweaving in a sort of dense undersea at-
mosphere of their own.
As in his painting called "Flight" which
I remember from a previous exhibition,
Chet La More achieves in "Cloudscape"
a feeling of atmospheric lightness and
space through the simplest means. The
greater part of the canvas is in light tones
of gray, broken by horizontal lines sug-
gesting clouds, and the hazy orange ball
of sun. Orange overtones in the gray and
a few strategically. placed white lines
around the sun complete the effect quite
well.
Richard Wilt's painting, "The Defend-
ers," explores the use of myriad dots of
color, here not as an impressionistic device,
but rather for their effect as texture and as
deliniators of form. The figures of the
young children in this one are at first
glance lost in their environment of intense
color and abstract shapes. They are in fact
part of their formal environment, and func-
tion as such. The effect is a good one but
not as good as some of the artist's other
works I have seen which seemed much
more subtle and selective in color, and ex-
plored further the effects of light inherent
in the pointilistic approach.
One of the happiest paintings in the
show comes from Michigan State College.
It's by George Wexler and is called "Un-
crowned King." It is painted in dazzlingly
bright yellows and oranges, and is like
"Young Man in Costume," broken into fa-
cets of flat color, here mostly for textural
effect.
On the more completely abstract side
are two very attractive paintings from
the University of Minnesota and the State
University of Iowa respectively. The first,
"Between the Sun and Me" by Cameron
Booth is as the title might imply an ab-
straction of brightly colored and simple
shapes very pleasing to the eye. The sec-
ond, by Byron Burfort, is much darker,
being done mostly in black, but no less
pleasing. You can call it what you will;
it has no title.
The show does include, as I have men-
tioned, some amateurish works, which prob-
ably suffer more from comparison, and a
few that belong between the covers of the
Saturday Evening Post, but the majority
make it one of the most varied and inter-

esting shows seen lately.
--Stu Ross

"You Were Always A Great Friend Of Mine, Joseph"

ettep4 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,

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MATTER OF FACT:

New Russian Set-Up
Hints at Triumvirate
By JOSEPH and STEWART ALSOP
WASHINGTON-Reading the riddle of the Soviet government is
due to be a fashionable game for many a long day. Only very
tentative answers are given, as yet, by the small group of American
experts who truly know the Kremlin and its personalities. For what
these answers are worth-and they are at least worth more than the
positive answers achieved by mental telepathy-they are crudely as
follows:
First, Georgi Malenkov is Chief of State but not as yet Dic-
tator, the most powerful but not as yet all powerful, boss but not
as yet tyrant.
Second, allotment of other posts suggests an intricately adjusted
balance of power, which may break down.
Third, the design has plainly been made with particular defer-
ence to the Red Army, which may conceivably play a major role in
any breakdown of the power balance, as armies often do in tyrant-
states.
The new design with these peculiar features is considered to have
been the personal han.diwork of Stalin. It is too complex to have been
produced in a few frantic days of jealousy-charged leaders' meetings,
in the anxious ante-room of Stalin's death chamber. Most probably
Stalin actually reorganized the Soviet government and put the re-
organized machine to work in the shadows, before the party Congress
some months ago.
The light has now been let in, precisely because this is re-
garded as a time of emergency. Stalin himself stayed in the
shadows until the emergency of the last war, when he assumed
formal responsibility as Soviet Chief of State. In the same man-
ner, his former subordinates have now emerged from the shadows
in the emergency of Stalin's death, to take formal responsibility
for their respective sectors of the vast state organization. Thus
Vyshinski, who was Foreign Minister in name only, has stepped
down to let Molotov become Foreign Minister in name as well as
in fact.
What has happened must be better for Stalin's generation. Of
Stalin's two old friends and comrades in arms, Molotov as Foreign
Minister has a dangerous responsibility but little power; while Voro-
shilov as the new "President" of the Soviets has a front-man's job.
The younger men have the real levers of power in their hands.
The main levers of power are held by Malenkov of course, who is
the recognized Chief of State and stands at the head of the state bu-
reacracy; by Beria, the Interior Minister, who has behind him the
terrible power of the Secret Police; and by Bulganin, the War Mini-
ster, who has the Red Army, Air Force and Fleet under his control.
As Malenkov has long been manager of patronage, Malenkov un-
doubtedly has his own men in key places in the police and in the de-
fense forces. But he is not thought to enjoy Stalin's former full
power over them.
The very nature of the design hints at a triumvirate in which
Malenkov has first place, just as Caesar had first place, most of
the time, in the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. The
idea of a triumvirate is further confirmed by the obvious attempt
to conciliate the Red Army. Not only has Voroshilov, whom the
soldiers love, been given his conspicuous frontman's place. More
significantly, Marshall Shukov, the world war two hero whom
Malenkov is reliably reputed to detest, has suddenly cropped up
as Deputy Defense Minister.
There are many uncertainties as to details of the new design.
Malenkov and Beria may still be partners, as in the past. But this is
doubted. Malenkov may have formed a new partnership with the
coming man, Khrushchev. This ruthless figure, who stamped out the
Ukranian insurgents after the war, has now been given control of
the Communist Party bureaucracy. But the existence of a Malenkov-
Khrushchev alliance is also doubted by some.
Again, it is expected that the old politburo system of policy-
making by committee will now be revived. But will the successor to
the Politburo be the very similar presidium of the Communist party,
now reduced to ten members and three alternates? Or has the party
at last yielded first place to the state? In that case the true successor
of the Politburo will be the smaller presidium of the Council of Min-
isters, composed of Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Bulganin and the So-
viet industrial production-chief, Kaganovich.
Such problems cannot now be resolved. Indeed, no one can
even foresee whether the ensuing power struggle will be serious,
or who will come out on top in the end. It is a strange drama,

SPA Meeting .. .
To the Editor:
LAST WEEK the Society for
Peaceful Alternatives present-
ed its "Program for Peace" to the
Ann Arbor community and the
University campus. We sought to
offer, through guest speakers and
panel discussion, some of the ma-
jor contemporary views held by
those interested in peace.
Throughout this semester we
plan to offer similar programs de-
signed to stimulate thought and
concern of a peaceful settlement
of the current international crisis.
In order to present a well-bal-
anced program we need the sug-
gestions and criticisms of all those
who have a particular view to-
wards peace. We meet tonight at
7:30 in the Michigan Union. Elec-
tion of officers, group evaluation
of our last program, and making
plans for the remainder of the
semester will comprise the eve-
ning , . . All are welcome,
'-Executive Council, Society
for Peaceful Alternatives
Paul Dormont
Arthur Rose
Sid Weiner
Academic Freedom' .-
To the Editor:
HAVE been following very close-
ly the actions of the House
Un-American Activities Commit-
tee. It seems that this committee,
headed by Rep. Velde, and Con-
gressional Investigating Groups
in general, have been picking up
momentum.
It was my belief and hope that
as soon as the Republican Ad-
ministration took office,,.these hys-
terical witch-hunts would die off
for lack of victims. It seems, how-
ever, that just the opposite has
happened. Mr. Velde, McCarthy,
Jenner, and Co. have turned on
their own Party's Administration.
The most shocking and disquiet-
ing aspect of the situation now
facing us is the intrusion of these
power-mad inquisitors into the
field of education. Academic free-
dom is the very foundation of our
democratic, concepts. It must be
desperately defended. The odius
Congressional Investigations into
the "Voice of America" and the
State Department were bad
enough. But when McCarthy and
Gang assume the power to dictate
their idea of conformity to our ed-
ucators, the line must be drawn
by a strong and determined op-
position. Professors and teachers
should not be made to testify
publicly before a Congressional
Committee. And when they re-
fuse to answer questions put to
them by these committees, they
are clearly within their constitu-
tional rights. A statement issued
by a group of prominent College
Presidents sustaining professors
who refuse to. cooperate with the
investigators would be very influ-
ential. The Presidents, who are of
unquestionable loyalty, are in an
unassailable position, and are the
logical 'choice to lead the fight.
Of course subversive elements
should be removed from our in-
stitutions of learning. But this
should be done by a more effective
and less noisy organization, such
as the F.B.I. We shouldn't allow
reckless and hysteria-inspiring
tactics defeat our purpose. Let's
not burn down the house to get
the rats.
-Arthur Cornfeld

Ukrainian Heritage...
To the Editor:
CONTRARY to a statement made
by Mr. H. G. Raju in a let-
ter to the Editor, the Ukrainian
group numbers not five but four-
teen students. Mr. Raju is welcome
to our next meeting (March 19,
7:30 p.m., Madelon Pound House)
where I should be glad to intro-
duce him to my friends.
All of us are proud of our Ukrai-
nian heritage and cherish Ukrai-
nian culture and traditions. We
believe in the brotherhood of na-
tions and this is why we so glad-
ly cooperate with the International
Center and the ISA. Many of us
have personally suffered from two
bad dictatorships (communist and
fascist) and we would be among
the first to turn against any such
evil. But in the ISA, contrary to
Mr. Raju's claims, we see nothing
of it. Actually, we admire the great
deal of good will on the part of
the ISA people.
--Olexa Bilaniuk
President of the Ukrainian
-Students' Club
'Hideous' Murals...
To the Editor:
HEARTY congratulations to the
Michigan League for having
the good taste to remove those
hideous murals from the "esthetes'
corner" of the Round-up Room.
We students sincerely appreciate
the casting off of the cast-offo
from a dance of a bygone era.
-Dennis Liehty, '54
Beverly Everett, '56
Leonard Baswell, '54
Sixty-Third Year
Edited and managed by students of
the university of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of
student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Crawford Young. Managing Editor
Barnes Connable........City Editor
Cal Samra..........Zditorial Director
Zander Hollander......Feature Editor
Bid Klaus. .....Associate City Editor
Harland Britv..........Associate Editor
Donna Hendleman.....Associate Editor
Ed Whipple,..........Sport Edtr
John Jenks......Associate Sports Editor
Dick Sewel.....Associate Sports Editor
Lorraine Butler......:,.Women's Editor
Mary Jane Mills Assoc. Women's Editor
Don Campbell .... Chief Photographer
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Al Green.............Business Manager
Milt Goetz.....Advertising Manager
Diane Johnston.... Assoc. Business Mg.
Judy Loehnberg...Finane Manager
Harlean Hankin. ..Crculation Manager
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10

ON THE
NGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
with DREW PEARSON

moment in postwar history-a moment
when the world could take a tremendous
step toward removing the threat of a
ruthless military power-a real step to-
ward peace.
It also may be a time when private Am-
erican citizens, working with Soviet refu-
gees, could accomplish more, and with
greater international safety, than the gov-
erment.
UNREST IN RUSSIA
HERE ARE some of the facts to be con-
sidered:
1-It is well known that unrest is ram-
pant inside the satellite countries. Purges in
Hungary and Czechoslovakia all attest to
this. My own observations at the edge of
the iron curtain in Berlin last month con-
vince me ferment is more intense than ever
before.
2--In the Soviet Union itself, irrespec-
tive of satellites, there is also great unrest.
3-The Soviet Union, actually, is a con-
glomeration of 14 republics which are over-.
whelmina, nn-Russa nl, two reu_-

increases, and the Russian war potential,
its factories, its railroads, its atomic-
bomb stockpile is strengthened. Further-
more, a new generation arises in Russia
which knows little of the outside would,
and has no conception of the fact that the
peoples of Russia and the United States
once were the best of friends.
The one and only reason for the iron
curtain ,of course, is to prevent that friend-
ship.
All of this points to the problem of pene-
trating the iron curtain with effective peo-
ple-to-people friendship propaganda.
As a small laboratory test of penetrating
the curtain, this columnist went to the edge
of the Czechoslovak border in the summer
of 1951 and, in cooperation with the Cru-
sade for Freedom, launched weather bal-
loons carrying 11,000,000 friendship leaflets
to the Czech people.
This was small-scale propaganda and
some people called it a crackpot opera-
tion. However, the results were electrify-
ing. The Prague radio screamed with

CURRENT/MOVIES
At theMichigan..
ANDROCLES AND THE LION, with Jean Simmons and Vic-
tor Mature.
IN THIS PLAY, Shaw made a superbly intelligent estimate of Chris-
tianity that treads with equal vigor on the toes of churches and
states. Gabriel Pascal's movie version, while is occasionally dilutes
the play's acidity, manages to be good Shaw and good cinema too.
The situation involves a heterogeneous group of Christians with
a group of Romans who wish, for a variety of reasons, to throw them
to the lions. Even the lions have complex motives.
Jean Simmons manages the most important role very well.
As Lavinia, the rare Christian who can see a real point in mar-
tyrdom, she gives an aim larger than comedy to the picture.
Besides, her rendering has a tenderness and humanity that Shav-
ian heroines often lack. In a brand new suit of armor, Victor
Mature plays a Roman captain who is willing to be persuaded by
Miss Simmons. When being cosmopolitan and self-controlled, he
is convincing enough, but shades of Valentino, those romantic
clinches!
It is genuinely to this pictures' credit that it can rise above Alan
Young's version of Androcles. Young's ingenuousness-the kind that
marks a second-rate actor-makes it impossible for him to capture
the abjectness and humility which the part of the little tailor should
have. Most of the time he is just a wise guy, and one hopes his lion
will all of a sudden take a bite out of him. Aside from Young, the
supporting cast is capable of doing justice to Shaw. Even wild-eyed
Robert Newtoi, fresh from Blackbeard the Pirate, makes an inter-

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