PA R FOUR THE MICHIGAN DAILY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1853 PAGE FOUR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1953 a I Politics in a Bureau A HIGHLY combustible mixture of politics and science was brewed last week in the test tubes of the National Bureau of Standards by Secretary of Commerce, Sin-, clair Weeks when he forced the resignation of Bureau director, Dr. Allen V. Astin. The dismissal, which caused over 30 Bureau scientists to threaten resignation in protest, was based on charges by Weeks that Dr. Astin was "not sufficiently ob- jective" and lacked a "business point of view" because his agency has repeatedly refused to endorse a commercial product, AD-X2, which, its manufacturers claim, will lengthen the life of a storage bat- tery. The question of the storage battery came up in 1949 when the New York City Better Business Bureau asked the Federal Trade Comission to have the, Bureau of Stand- ards conduct a study on the battery addi- tive because the New York bureau suspected the AD-X2 manufacturer of false advertis- ing (This is routine procedure for the Trade Commission to send to the Bureau of Standards for impartial scientific analysis any article in commerce which is the object of unfair and deceptive trade practices.) However, there is much more involved in this case than the question of whether a certain battery additive is effective or not. The integrity of the Government's chief scientific research body has been challenged, along with the basic concept of the role of the federal government in controlling and regulating commercial practices. For fifty years the Bureau of Standards has done the bulk of the government's sci- entific research in physics, chemistry, ma- thematics and engineering and has proved indispensable in the development of com- plex war machinery. The Bureau has also been, since " its inception, the guardian of the standards of weights and measurements on which industrial and scientific processes depend and without which commerce and industry would be rendered chaotic. In the past the Bureau has been espec- ially privileged in being one of the few government bureaus free from political pres- sures. In the case of Dr. Astin consideration for a single pressure group was rated higher than the position of both the Bureau and the respected scientist. It should be apparent to the Adminis- tration that science and politics is an ex- plosive -combination here and that the Bureau will be seriously handicapped in its research if it is not absolutely exempt from political bias. It is the Bureau's job to be impartial, and a "business point of view" seems highly irrelevant to the Bureau's primary scientific purpose. Not only was political pressure introduced to the Bureau, but its basic purpose was questioned in the Astin dismissal. Secretary Weeks himself said, in reference to the case, "I do not see why a product should be denied an opportunity in the market place." There is no point of view quite so outdated as that which holds that the Government should not be able to protect the consumer and the ethical business man against fraud and unethical compe- tition. This is an invaluable function of government which has evolved in the past 50 years and which must be maintained in the general public interest. As a result of the furor arising from Dr. Astin's ouster, the Senate Small Business Committee will hold hearings soon on the case. It is hoped that the Committee will recognize the implications of the scientist's dismissal and make the proper recommenda- tions to the government -Aice Bogdonoff i *I. BOOKS + -q ALL THE YOUNG SUMMER DAYS by Bernice Kavinoky-Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc. ER VOICE was soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in a woman." Gentle- ness, madame-a most worthy virtue! Pri- thee, a bit of subtlety! I Bernice Kavinoky had been taking notes-in her Shakespeare class when King Lear was being examined by a worthy University professor of her day, she might have benefited from some of the Bard's sagacity. Perhaps, however, she was too busy.win- ning two major Hopwood awards in one year-one in poetry, another in drama. Per- haps being a house wife and mother, active in theater work and writer of short stories, one act plays and lyric poetry has kept her pretty occupied in recent years. For surely she has chosen to ignore the virtue of subtlety almost completely in her first novel, just released last week: "All The Young Summer Days." In an attempt to give depth to characters "shehas not developed in any other way, Miss Kavinoky persists in spelling out the obvious in capital letters. Perhaps Miss Ka- vinoky feels, as does this reviewer, such as- siduous reiteration is necessary to prevent the reader searching the book too deeply as the characters and action would collapse completely under close analysis. With a tightly controlled structure (each chapter or group of chapters is another summer at the lake in the years from 1926 to 1933 with the exception of one winter interlude) Miss Kavinoky has writ- ten a novel about the Hellers and the Adlers, summertime lakeside neighbors. Michael Heller and the three youngest Adler. children (Marion, Bea and Jon their foster brother) play and play act together with Marion always assuming the role of princess to Bea's sometimes rebellious lady- in-waiting. As part of an obsessive scheme to control things and keep things as they are, Marion takes it for granted that Mi- chael will be her husband. One day, how- ever, Bea appears in a blouse which falls se- ductively off two shoulders and Michael dis- covers Bea is (1) beautiful (2) well develop- ed (3) the object of his love. He proposes. Then 20-year old Michael tells 18-year old Marion he is going to marry 17-year old Bea whereupon 18-year old Marion flings herself from his motorboat aiming right for the propellor and entangling herself there- In. Next chapter: "I knew she wouldn't let me have him," says Bea. 4I was only kidding," says Michael to Marion, swathed in bandages. "I will marry you after all." He does. A few chapters later Bea becomes lusty, bitter, cynical, never too far from Michael and his frigid wife. Jon keeps hanging around too. He wants Marion all for himself, as Books at the Library Arfelli, Dante-THE FIFTH GENERA- TION. New York, Scribner's, 1953. Headstrom, Richard - THE LIVING YEAR. New York, Ives Washburn, 1953. Herbert, A. P. - WHY WATERLOO? Garden City, Doubleday, 1953. froyan, William - THE LAUGHING MATTER. Garden City, Doubleday, 1953. mother and child. As second best, if he can't have her himself, he will go to any measure to help her keep her husband around the house, passing out abortive capsules and holding people's heads under water till they stop breathing. With all the subtlety of a twenty-one gun salute, it. is revealed that Michael's dis- torted sense of loyalty and respbnsibility is an outgrowth of the stronge sense of duty he has for his wispy haired doctor mother who has been deserted by her artist hus- band for a younger woman. Michael knows only two reasons to love: beauty and res- ponsibility. For certainly Bea is little else as a character but beautiful, although Miss Kavinoky has given her some wonderful lines of poetry to speak. The poetry too, too obvious a gift. If we are inclined to respect Michael at first, for his loyalty to his mother, we can perhaps pity him in his compulsive decision to marry Marion. But as the weak, shallow, superficial person he is, we cannot pity him even in his horrible final fate-encircled by dry virgins for eternity. The reader is continuously confronted with inexplicable metamorphoses - with children who are too old or too young or adults who are not. The minor characters-especially Jessie and Dr. Heller-are well drawn but remain static. They are exactly the same, don't age or alter in the seven year period covered by the novel. The poetry that won Miss Kavinoky her Hopwood is here however, often quite beautiful even though occasionally start- lingly incongruous. So is dramatic irony that enhaneps several sections.. Miss Kavinoky is to be commended on her excellent handling of a Jewish element. The Adler's are Jewish, the Hellers TIight or might not be, but hooray for the author, she has chosen neither to exploit this Jew- ishness to fight a cause, deliver a message or as a source of conflict. It isn't often that we find Jewish characters being treated as people instead of martyrs to a literary cause. -Gayle Greene F WE ARE to play the game of co-exist- ence with Communism successively, we must know where and under what set of conditions we have the best chance, and where we have none. One thing is sure: There can be no possible sharing of respon- sibility between Communist and democratic parties within the government of a country. This has been tried all over Europe, east and 'west; invariably it has ended in dis- aster. In the countries of eastern Europe, thanks to the Red Army, the Communist leaders throttled the democratic majorities. In west- ern Europe the Communist Parties had to be thrown out of the Governmentsbecause they were a state within a state, with no purpose other than sabotage. Incidentally, this is the reason why there is no hope for Germany to be peacefully reunited, any more than there is for China or Korea. I By contrast, we have learned that co- existence between Communist and demo- cratic governments, no matter how frus- trating, can at times yield results. This was the case when diplomatic negotiations with Soviet Russia resulted in the lifting of the Fresh Frosh IN THE SPRING young men turn their thoughts to many things. At Michigan, young women turn their thoughts to win- ning the annual Frosh Weekend. Great effort is expended by freshmen coeds in their quest for victory. Competi- tion this year is reaching a fever pitch. Diag stunts, clever costumes, nifty beanies and assorted music are part of the plans being carried out by the competing sides. Unfortunately,'some of the more exuber- ant women have turned to wielding chalk as an attention winning device Proud engi- neers have found tleir sacred engineering arch becoming a prize billboard for chalk written messages imploring all to attend the gala events this weekend. It becomes increasingly difficult to cri- ticize high school students who mark up public buildings when a. segment of the University community resorts to the same thing. --Eric Vetter It Can't 'r . Happen Here " AM VERY SORRY that you failed to meet your 10 a.m. appointment on Tues- day morning March 17, 1953. However, be- cause you did miss the meeting you are re- quired to write a 1,000 word theme on the subject, Ways of Improving the Men's Resi- dence Halls. This theme must be in Presi- dent Elliot's office by Friday noon, April 3, 1953, or you will have to be dismissed from school." This is a copy of a cruel letter received by a student who missed a meeting called by Michigan Normal College authorities to discuss scholastic standing and behav- ior of residents in the men's dormitories. A copy of this letter recently found its way into the Normal News. Fortunately, ours is a University of discre- tion It is the policy of the University to allow each student the utmost freedom of action in matters relating to his conduct. It can't happen here-or can it? -Larry Sukeni DREW PEARSON: Washington Merry-Go-Round - WASHINGTON-Probably the most im- portant backstage feud in Washington is between two auto tycoons who are bat- tling over the nation's mobilization policy. They are General Motors' ex-boss Charlie Wilson, who quit the auto business to be- come Secretary of Defense, and Studebaker's present boss Harold Vance, who was offered the job of Defense Mobilizer but couldn't afford to give up his Studebaker ties. How- ever, he agreed to serve as a special consult- ant. These two captains of industry have clashed behind the scenes over broaden- ing the country's production base. Wilson has found that he can save an estimated billion dollars out of his budget by stop- ping the construction of defense plants. Vance has warned this would cost more in the long run, might even jeopardize the nation's future security. Both men have tried to keep their dis- pute out of the papers. However, Wilson ar- gues privately that he would rather stock- pile planes and tanks than defense plants and machine tools. He claims that more money has been spent on industrial mobili- zation than weapons of war since the Kor- ean outbreak. "A number of plants have been built that shouldn't have been built," he keeps re- peating in closed-door conferences. "I don't agree with (ex-Secretary of Defense) Lov- ett's theory that you need two plants to produce a thousand tanks when one plant could do the job." He also wants to strike $500 million out of the budget for stockpiling machine tools. "I see no reason to stockpile machine tools," Wilson declares flatly. * * * SAFETY FROM ATTACK HOWEVER, VANCE takes the long-range view that the more plants we have, the greater output will be in case of all-out war. He warns that we should not store too many production eggs in one basket, should scat- ter as many plants as possible around the country. This would make it more diffi- cult for Russia to cripple defense produc- tion by surprise attack. Vance also claims it would be cheaper in the long run to stockpile machine tools, than .try to stockpile the planes and tanks that the tools produce. When the stock- piled planes and tanks become obsolete, Vance points out, they would have to be scrapped. It would be more economical, he argues, to keep the machine tools .on hand and simply redesign them to keep up with modern improvements. Most of Wilson's military experts agree (Continued from Page 2) l Preliminary Report on the Student( Bobk Exchange Survey." The University Extension Service an- nounces the following courses: Person- al-Use Typing. This intensive six-week1 course presents the basic principles of touch typewriting for personal use and is designed for those who wish to learnf the keyboard and the use of the touch system. A brief introduction is given to simple manuscript and letter writ-1 ing. Six weeks. $5.00. Instructor: Phyl- lis A. Caulfield. Number of registrations is limited, but there are still openings for several students. The course be- gins Wed., Apr. 15, at 7 p.m., in RoomI 276 of the School of Business Admin- istration. Summer Field Course in Gardening.- "Gardening Taught in Gardens." Eight noteworthy gardens in the Ann Arborf area will be open to students through; the courtesy of their owners. The course provides examples of superiorI plant selection, skilled culture, andI models of good home landscape de-1 velopment. Eight weeks. $6.00. Instruc- tor: Ruth Mosher Place. The first ses-1 sion of the class will be held Wednes-1 day evening, April 15, at 7:30. in Roomi 176 of the School of Business Admin- istration. Concerts Organ Program Cancelled. The Thurs- day afternoon program by organ stu- dents, previously announced for 4:15,I April 16, in Hill Auditorium, has been' cancelled. However, the evening pro- gram will be presented as scheduled, at 8:30. Recital of Organ Music, under the direction of Robert Noehren, University Organist, 8:30 Thursday evening, April 16, in Hill Auditorium. The program will include works by Buxthude, Bach, Franck, Lubeck, and Walther, played by Bertha Hagrty, :Phillip Steinhaus, Kathleen Bond, Esther McGlothlin, Jane Townsend, Lois Batchelor, and John McCreary. The general public will be admitted without charge. Carillon Recital. The first of a series of spring carillon recitals will be play- ed by Percival Price, University Caril- lonneur, at 7:15 Thursday evening, April 16. The program is as follows: The Bells by William Byrd; three 18th cen- tury songs, Where E're You Walk, Plaisir d'amour, and The Lass With the Delicate Air; Sonata 5 by I. J. Pleyel; carillon compositions by Uni- versity students Wilson Sawyer, Jane Stone Bertagna, and Karl Magnuson; three Irish folk songs, The Girl I Left Behind Me, The Londonderry Air, and The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls. Events Today U. of M. Research Club will again have as its guests the Women's Re- search Club and the Science Research Club tonight at 8 p.m., Rackham Amphitheater. The general subject wil he The Impact of Atomic Energy on Research. There will be three papers: Dr. Henry Gomberg (Science Research Club), "The Nature of the Physical Problems"; Dr. Muriel Meyers (Wo- men's Research Club) "Isotopes in Medicine"; and Dean E. Blythe Stason (Research Club) "Legal Aspects of Re- search in Atomic Energy." The American Chemical Society, Uni- versity of Michigan Section, will spon- sor a talk by Dr. E. W. R. Steac'e, Pres- ident, National Research Council of Canada. He will talk on "Free Radical Reactions," in 1300 Chemistry Build- ing, at 8 p.m. Trhe Undergraduate Botany Club meets at 7:30 p.m. in 1139 Natural Science Building. Dr. E. E. Steiner, of the Botany Department, will talk. Ev- eryone Invited. Board of Representatives. Meeting to- day at 4 p.m. in the League. Literary College Conference. Import- ant Steering Committee meeting, 3 p.m., 1010 Angell Hall. Roger Williams Guild. Midweek Chat at the Guild house today from 4:30 to 5:45. Baptists drop in anytime for a bit of refreshment. The W.A.A. Folk and Square Club will meet from 8 to 10 p.m. in the w.A.B. Everyone welcome. Delta Sigma Pi will meet at 7 p.m. tonight at 927 Forest. Russky Chorus. There will be a meet- ing of the Russky Chorus at 7:30 in the Bell Tower, ninth floor. Those en- rolled in Russian classes are invited to attend. 16, at 7:30 pAn. in Room 3-A of the Michigan Union. Mr. J. W. Braithwaite, of the Marquardt Aircraft Corp., will speak on "The Development of Ram Jet Power." Refreshments will be served. American Societysfor Public Admin- istration Social Seminar will meet Thurs., Apr. 16, 7:30 p.m., West Con- ference Room, Rackham Building. Pro- fessor Wallace S. Sayre will speak on "Some Political Aspects of Administra- tion." Informal coffee hour will follow. Members and all interested persons are cordially invited. Michigan Crib, Pre-Law Society, in- vites all interested students, faculty members, and the general public to hear Mr. Edmond F. Devine speak on "Politics and Law" on Thurs., Apr. 16, at 8 p.m. in Room 3-D of the Michigan Union. Mr. DeVine is Prosecutor of Washtenaw County and Lecturer on Criminal Law in the U. of M. Law School. Phi Beta Kappa. Initiation Banquet, Mon., Apr. 20, Michigan Union, at 6:45 p.m. Dr. Lyman L. Bryson, Columbia University, and Director of the CBS program Invitation to Learning, will be the speaker. Reservations should be made at the office of the Secretary, Hazel M. Losh, Observatory, by Friday afternoon. Members of other Chapters are invited. Michigan Student Christian Convo- cation, East Lansing, Sat., Apr. 18. Bus will leave Lane Hall at 7:30 a.m. Make reservations at Lane Hall before Thurs- day evening. International Center Weekly Tea for foreign students and American friends Thurs., Apr. 16, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Ukrainian Students' Club. Meeting Thurs., Apr. 16, at 7 p.m. in the Made- lon Pound House (1024 Hill St.) Guests are welcome. Kappa Phi. Supper meeting Thursday at 5:15. Election of officers will be held, so it is important that all mem- bers and pledges be present. Roger Williams Guild. Yoke Fellow- ship meets at 7 a.m. Thursday in the Prayer Room of the First Baptist Church. All Baptist students are in- vited to attend. La Petite Causette will meet tomor- row from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the North Cafeteria of the Michigan Union. All interested students are invited. Christian Science Organization. Tes- timonial meeting Thurs., Apr. 16, at 7:30 Fireside Room, Lane Hall. Alpha Phi Omega will meet on Thurs., Apr. 16, at 7 p.m. in the Michigan Un- ion. All members are expected to at- tend. T etteT TO THE EDITOR ~;v ~Rai ~PIY --Herblockc DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN ,.,. .- ' .. -,.._. , .s " , t ~ ' MATT0 R OF AC By JOSEPH and STEWART ALSOP WASHINGTON-"I speak my piece; and then it's up to them." This is the way President Eisenhower has defined his 'relations with Congress to a recent visitor. All those around the President bear wit- ness to his determination to "cooperate with Congress." This is a laudable intention-but only so long as Congress is equally deter- mined to cooperate with the President. The existing relationship between Congress and the Presi- dent presents, in fact, a curious anomaly.- Every sign suggests that the President's popularity with the voters is immense, and that he has a big potential majority in Congress for any legisla- tion the Administration really wants. Yet the Administration has not yet made up its collective mind just what it really does want. And thus the Congressional reactionaries are seizing the legislative ball and starting to run with it. Take one specific example. On April 7th, the President "spoke his piece" when he asked Congress to extend for one year the reci- procal trade agreements act, which expires on June 12th. As the President said in his message, this is a matter of crucial importance, since it will determine the- Administration's whole future economic policy. There is no doubt that the President himself adheres strongly to the increasingly influential wing of the Republican party which favors freer world trade. Yet the Republicans who hanker for the era of the Smoot-Hawley tariff are still very powerful in Congress, and they are also repre- sented in the Administration. In the past, when a tariff act was about to expire, Democratic administrations have sent their own legislation to Congress early, in order to batter down the protect- ionist opposition. This time, true to the Presidential theory of "leaving it up to them," no administration bill was submitted. In this case, "them" turned out to be the Republican mem- hers of the House Ways and Means Committee, by and large as Smoot-Hawley-minded a body as there is on Capitol Hill. No word having come from the White House, on March 30th Rep. Richard Simpson, with the powerful support of Committee Chair- man Dan Reed, introduced his own bill. This bill, which will be the point of departure for Congressional consideration of trade policy, is a remarkable piece of work. In the first place, it strips the President himself of his power to review recommendations of the Tariff Committee, casting him in the role of messenger boy for Congress. It increases the membership of the Tariff Commission, the obvious intention being to pack the com- mission with reliable protectionists. And it provides juicy bonanzas for powerful special interests. It provides, for example, steep sliding scale duties on lead and zinc. This provision is reportedly a triumph for one of the Presi- dent's own appointees-Assistant Secretary of the Interior Felix Wormser. Wormser was formerly an official of the country's big- gest lead and zinc smelting companys, and president of the Ameri- can Lead Institute, which has long clamored for this kind of tariff protection. Another provision sets a low ceiling on oil imports. This has the backing of a powerful coalition, including John L. Lewis's mine union, the National Coal Association (which collected in the last three months of 1952 about a third of a million dollars to press this legislation) and the independent oil producers. The interest of the coal men is obvious, since fuel oil is competitive with coal as a source of power. The chief interest of the oil producers is to prevent any possible threat to the oil price structure, now largely protected by state regu- latory commissions. This legislation would steeply increase the cost of power to American consumers in many localities. It would create economic chaos in such friendly, oil-producing countries as Vene- zuela. And it would destroy American export markets worth hun- dreds of millions, and even billions of dollars But the point is not whether this is good or bad legislation. I 4 f M The point is that it is the worst possible start for the adminis- tration's foreign economic pro- gram. Moreover, this bad start could very easily have been avoided, if the Administration had simply sent its own legisla- tion to The Hill in good time. This is only the most recent ex- ample of the Administration's tendency to leave a legislative vacuum, into which the Con- gressional reactionaries delight- edly rush. ti The explanation seems simple enough. When President Eisen- hower took office, he was instant- ly confronted with an endless ser- ies of complicated and crucial issues. Even among his own ap- pointees, there was no agreement on these issues, as the part played in the tariff episode by Felix Wormser suggests. It was far too much to expect that the President would instantly take firm and fi- nal positions on all these matters, many of them unfamiliar to him. Indeed, he would have been wrong to do so. In this situation, some faltering was inevitable. But the sooner this period of decision- forming and self-education ends, and the sooner the President de- cides that his own party in Con- gress has an equal duty to get along with him, the better for all concerned. (Copyright, 1953, N.Y. Her. Trib., Inc.) 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..........Editorial Director Zander Hollander...;....Feature Editor Sid Klaus.......Associate City Editor Harland Britz........Associate Editor Donna Hendleman......Associate Editor Ed Whipple................Sports Editor John Jenke.....Associate Sports Editor Dick Seell......Associate Sports Editor Lorraine Butler.......Women's Editor Mary Jane Mills, Assoc. Women's Editor Don Campbeli.....Chief Photographer Business Staff Al Green.......... ..Business Manager Milt Goetz.......Advertising Manager Diane Johnston....Assoc. Business Mgr. Judy Loehnberg...Finance Manager Harlean Hankin...Circulation Manager Telephone 23-24-1 Member of The Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or otherwise credited to this newspaper. All rights of republication of all other matters herein are also reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as second-class mail matter. Subscription during regular school year: by carrier, $6.00; by mail $7.00. V I IProtest .. . To the Editor: MANY OF your readers, I trust, will have been dismayed to discover, on returning from vaca- tion, that the Orpheum is now functioning only on week-ends, Friday through Sunday. Further- more, the powers that be have de- cided to close the theater for the summer even earlier than usual this year. The effect of these de- cisions on the local film-goers diet is obvious. The official Butterfield Party Line is that their distributors can- not supply a sufficiency of the type of film the Orpheum usually runs. This is so transparent a falsehood that no further com- ment is needed except, perhaps, a disbelieving grunt. Since the Or- pheum makes money, there re- mains only one plausible explana- tion. The other three theaters in Ann Arbor (all part of the Butterfield chain) are operating on too slim a margin of profit to suit the owners, if not actually in the red. Perhaps the corporation be- lieves that by closing the Orph- eum, its customers will be forced to attend the other movie houses, 7 d o V, V I