PAGE FOUR THE MICHIGAN DAILY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1953 II Foreign Policy By Congressional Committee IT HAS BECOME increasingly evident that Senator Joseph McCarthy is determined to wield his influence on American foreign policy via his Senate permanent investi- gating subcommittee. A review of his actions during the past month indicates that the militant Sena- tor from Wisconsin is encroaching on State Department affairs in a -manner which is proving highly embarrassing and damaging to the department. First, McCarthy launched his committee into a probe of the Voice of America. As- suming an authoritative position concerning propaganda methods used by the Voice, he accused the government network of harbor- ing Communists and fellow travelers who were broadcasting subtle anti-American scripts. Like his other vocal efforts, these accusations were unfounded. Nonetheless, under pressure, the State Department immediately made several con- cessions to McCarthy regarding use of cer- tain scripts. Major concession was a di- rective to the Voice ordering the stopping of use of quotations by American Commun- ist writers praising the United States. The Voice was thus robbed of an effective device. Meanwhile, State Department mor- ale reached a low ebb. In this case, as in others, McCarthy ig- nored the fact that the State Department has a Loyalty Board of its own to pass on "security risks. The second instance of McCarthy's bold maneuvering for power regarding foreign policy matters was his abortive attempt of squelch the appointment of Charles (Chip) Bohlen as ambassador to Russia. Bohlen had been nominated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles with the ap- proval of President Eisenhower. But McCarthy wasn't to be swayed. He accused Bohlen, one of the top Russian ex- perts in the State Department, of being a "security risk." His chief grievance against the presidential nominee was the role play- ed-at Yalta by Bohlen and his influence at the Teheran and Potsdam conferences, which McCarthy phrased as "an ugly record of the great betrayal." He ignored the fact that Bohlen was nothing but an interpreter at these conferences. The bulk of the defamatory evidence against Bohlen was in the form of anony- mous letters and an unidentified man who claimed to detect "immorality" in the nominee through a sixth sense. However, both Senator Taft and Sena- tor Sparkman, who investigated a complete summary of all Bohlen's FBI records, found nothing to keep Bohlen from fulfilling the top diplomatic position in Moscow. He was, so to speak, "clean as a hound's tooth." Fortunately, Bohlen was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate, but McCarthy at least succeeded in undermining confidence in him (and the State Department) in many quarters. The most recent McCarthy venture in- to shaping American foreign policy was his committee's secret negotiations with Greek ship-owners to curtail the ship- ment of supplies into Communist China and North Korea. In this case, McCarthy deliberately undercut the State Depart- ment. The agreement was effected with- out the knowledge of the State Depart- .ment, because, McCarthy claimed, the ac- tion taken was of a "highly secret and delicate nature." Again, the officious Senator was tres- passing into a realm which is definitively State Department business, as was evidenced by the vehement protests of Mutual Secur- ity Administrator Harold Stassen. These three incidents seem to point to the conclusion that McCarthy is bent on pulling the reins of the State Department and guiding it along a course consistent with his own ideas on how to conduct Am- erican foregn policy. If Eisenhower and Dulles do not crack down on McCarthy soon-and very soon, the Senator may establish a chain of similar precedents which may doom the State Department to control by Congres- sional committee. It is absolutely imperative that the for- mulation and execution of American foreign policy remain the responsibility of the Sttae Department, regardless of McCarthy. --Lois Malkin Poetry by Tape Recorder A SQUARE, maroon leather machine took an unobtrusive spotlight at the Genera- tion-sponsored poetry reading during the Inter-Arts Festival last weekend, and from its depths emerged the voice of a student poet telling the tale of "A young but al- ready determined Roc." The audience in the Round-up room of the League hushed the rattle of their cof- fee cups and became the guinea pig audi- ence to an innovation conceived by Don- ald Hope, the graduate student in charge of the program. Hope had sought a way for poets to recite their works in the solitudethat would simulate the condi- tions in which the works had been com- posed; without an inhibiting audience; without the distractions which the dress, manner or bearing of the reader might have on his audience. He hit upon the tape recorder. His decision to record the readings to be played back at the presentation itself offer- ed an effective and successful precedent. In past years, the poems have been read by a trained reader rather than the poets themselves. The quality of the program had thus been dependent on the perception and interpretation of the reader. In many cases, the reader's ability has revealed a scope and quality in a poem which might escape aI visual reading; yet at other times, a lack of sensitivity to the poet's intentions re- sulted in unsuccessful renditions. Surely, it is the poet himself who knows best the tone, inflection and mood he intended. By removing the inhibiting audience and facing only a small, impersonal mi- crophone, many of the poets performed in an unrestrained, delightful manner that they would have hesitated to use in front of a staring, live group. A selection was read over and erased and read over again till the finished recording was without flaw or flub and as close to perfection as possible. The audience was given mimeographed copies of the poetry, was allowed to read the poems first for their own interpreta- tions and then to have their understanding modified by the poet's recorded interpre- tation, combining a visual with an audio reading. Unfortunately, the acoustics of the rear section in the Round-up room are extremely poor and what had been loud in the re- cording room was sometimes inaudible at Saturday's performance. * * * ALONG WITH the current trend in stu- dent apathy, so little interest was shown in the Festival thatonly a handful of people were around when it came time to produce and direct it. In this case, the poetry pro- gram had been organized and recorded by one person, working with the poets them- selves. Poets rarely make good engineers or electricians; perhaps this explains the lack of any amplifier that might have solved the audibility problem. Occasionally, the recording did not allow a long enough break between poems. and the audience was rushed from one mood to a completely opposite one. Such mechanical difficulties can be eliminated quite easily, however, in the future. The question does arise as to what to do about the poet who does not read poetry well. One or two of the performers Saturday were somewhat ineffective, and it is pos- sible that a trained reader working with the poet might have done more justice to the work than the poet himself. On the whole, however, the poets did exceptionally well and varied from Richard Laing's con- versational "So you warned me not to bring that frog to the party" to the almost mono- tonical monumental renditions by Herbert Mandel and the sing songy musical reading by Joseph Green. It was interesting to note that of the 45 or 50 people present, at least 10 were poets and their wives and only three mem- bers of the faculty thought to attend., Of these 50 people, only about a dozen remained for what proved to be a most wonderful coda to the program; Mabelle Haueh, who charmed the group with an in- formal talk on Chinese literature, a lively, amusing, quite lovely story told in delight- ful English and a poem chanted in Chinese. --Gayle Greene . ellenr to the Ccitor. b ON THE Washington Merry-Go-Round with DREW PEARSON I : WASHINGTON-The new Republican Jus- tice Department has started out by not pulling any punches regarding the prose- cution of Republicans, including Republi- can Congressmen, As a result, Congressman Earnest Bram- blett, Republican, of Pacific Grove, 11th district of California, faces grand jury ac- tion on charges made by this column last fall of taking kickbacks from his of- fice staff. The grand Jury action is being ordered by another California Republican, Warren Ol- ney, now, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, who as counsel for the California crime commission did more than any-other one man to clean up crime in that state. Since coming to Washington, he has helped to crack down on one notorious figure in the California gambling world, Emelio Georgetti, whom the Democrats did nothing about. Olney also caused havoc in the Justice Department by asking the resignation of four Democrat lawyers in his criminal di- vision who dragged their heels regarding Congressman Bramblett. 'Ordinarily, Justice Department attorneys do not like to tangle with Congressmen, let alone prosecute them. This writer supplied most of the evidence to the Justice Depart- ment in the case of ex-Congressman Parnell Thomas of New Jersey before it prosecuted, also part of the evidence regarding ex- Congressman Andrew May of Kentucky, and published the original kickback information regarding Congressman Walter Brehm of Ohio. All were convicted: BRAMBLETT'S OPERATIONS IN THE CASE of Bramblett, this column reported last fall that Mrs. Margaret Swanson, listed as working on the Congress- man's payroll from September 1949 to Jan- uary 1951 never worked in his office. She drew the top salary in his office, $4,700, but did not work for the Congressman either in Washington or in his home district in California. She is the wife of Irving B. Swanson, Republican clerk of the House of Representatives and a close friend of Bramblett's. Another secretary, Vivian De Witt, was approached by Bramblett with an offer to boost her salary from $3,400 to $5,000 a year provided she would pay him $5,000 cash in advance. She refused, and shortly there- after left the Congressman's employ. Another secretary working for Congress- man Bramblett, Mrs. Dee Bundy, was given a salary increase in January 1951 from $2,200 to $5,000. She denied giving any kickback, said her sudden increase was due to extra work. Her husband, incidentally, was also listed on the Bramblett payroll. Mrs. Bramblett also drew $3,400 a year though was seldom seen around the office. The above information was turned over to the FBI by this columnist last fall, and the FBI, after a careful investigation, submitted the evidence to the Justice De- partment. There, lesser officials inherited from the Democratic Administration, re- commended against prosecution. Some of them may have reviewed the facts too hastily. But at any rate they initialed the recommendation not to prosecute. Their new Republican chief, Warren Ol- ney, however, himself a Californian and a Republican, reviewed the case against his fellow Republican and decided it should go to a grand jury. (Copyright, 1953, by the Bell Syndicate) Boston Pops . To the Editor: REGARDING the "checkered ta- blecloths and beer" atmosphere of the Boston Pops performances, it should be noted that this des- cription does not refer to the class of music presented but rather to the surroundings of Boston per- formances. During the spring Pops season, the seats are removed from the main floor of symphony hall and innumerable tables and chairs are moved in. While sitting at' these tables (with checkered ta- blecloths), one may order a wide variety of refreshments (including beer) from waitresses, while lis- tening to and watching the or- chestra. Hence the term: Check- ered tablecloths & Beer atmos- phere. -Persse O'Reille Out of Context .. . To the Editor: WHILE I FEEL flattered to be quoted in the same column with a New York Times reporter, I feel that I must come to the res- cue of Michigan engineers and the profession by explaining that the meaning of my statement (quoted in Thursday's Daily) was radically changed by quoting it out of con- text (an occurance common, even in the Daily). In the March Technic, I tried to show how culture can be valuable to the engineer in furthering his social and business relationships, and in helping him to lead a rich-t er, fuller life; even though he has no need for any culture in his en-l gineering work, itself. I also put; forth the opinion that the culture developed by engineers outside of class is more valuable to them9 than that gained by students in other fields who are required to take more cultural subjects. I think a survey would show that a greater percentage of en-t gineers participate in cultural ac-; tivities (as well as most other ac-, tivities) on this campus than any i other group, in spite of their heav- ier scholastic burden. -Dick Curry * * * 'Puerile'Campaign . . SINCE the Daily persists in its pleonastic lament on student apathy, it seems essential to re-1 call the theme so pert(inent)lyI milked by Donald Hope in his let- ter of 21 March, that is: "the stu- dents aren't all out doing a lot of fool things that don't mean any-, thing."; Which is fine-or would be if it were so. But as a partisan of that declining genus which might be called poets-without-blinders; Mr.1 Hope undoubtedly knows that thel students are in fact still doing a great many fool things that don't mean anything-that this, indeed, is their major activity.j In reading the election posters' now flowering in our environs, I find that only two candidates for the legislature have taken the1 trouble to state what they stand for. I submit that in the language of any reasonable man this can but mean that there are only two candidates worth voting for. In view of such nonchalance it is of course not astonishing that the legislature has been rendered im- potent by the administration. This rejection of the relevant is rivaled only by boundless enthusi- asm for the trivial-e.g., the vacu- ous vigor of quasi-drillmasters browbeating a stoic initiate as he walks his post on the library steps, or the diligence of doughty dam- sels cutting paper-dolls in some obscure corner of "that woman- place, the League." All this to be recorded with appropriate nausea by that propagator of puerile my- thologies, the women's page. Granted there are some worth- while pursuits available (music, dramatics, political and profes- sional clubs, among others). But if, as our poet suggests, the stu- dents are really withdrawing into pensive little groups, if (God par- don my heresy) they are actually thinking, those few of us who can only applaud the demise of extra- curricular activities. Perhaps it is yet possible that an American uni- versity look more like a univer- sity than a three-ring circus. -Jack Danielson African Safari .. . To the Editor: CA SAMRA'S contemptuous at- titude towards an unidentified "young man from Nigeria." is an insult to every foreign student. The Nigerian student comments have been labelled "absurd" and "libelous" because he has had the' courage to express ideas the Daily disagrees with. As I can gather the Nigerian student wanted to protest against a show in which African life is de- picted as it is not. This is an ab- surdity. It is libelous to say that Africans are not primitive, that they do not eat people. Why, ev- (I 4,.= 1~' \ ' 'fit .. Y J Y+ ; . "' .., . ..i 1 ,'' '1"'