PAGE FOUR THE MICHIGAN DAILY 'J YiUH6y)rlI:, Di: ,Lividarti, 11, 19J;Z 'U Fraternities & Bias Clauses JUST A YFAR AGO the "Acacia Plan" was first ratified by the Interfraternity Coun- cil with the hope, supposedly, that an edu- cational rather than a coercive program could most efficiently remove bias clauses from the constitutions of campus frater- nities. For several months after its passage, absolutely nothing was done to implement the Acacia Plan and it became obvious that the measure 'was being utilized as 'a cover-up for clause-ridden fraternities. After the present slate of officers took over, a different attitude toward the plan was evidenced, and IFC president Pete Thorpe took the program to the Big Ten IFC-Panhel conference where it received approval. Then the Big Ten Counseling and Information Service was set up on the Michigan cam- pus to administer the program as it should have been done locally some months before. This happened in May. Acacia promptly asked the IFC's as- sistance in removing its clause and was assisted by the new organization. Not one of the 13 other houses with clauses both- ered to ask for help, however, and have given no evidence of their desire to co- operate in the program thus far. Although several fraternities reported progress toward clause removal at their sum- mer conventions, and Thorpe has desig- nated this fall as a "study period" during which the potentials of the plan may be analyzed and the current bias clause situa- tion on other campuses reviewed, the lack of interest generating from affected houses is disappointing. 1 Furthermore, when the IFC does finish its study, the fraternities need not accept help and are under no responsibility to do anything about their clauses. Though IC officials grimace in horror at the mention of "pressure," four fraternities on the Wis- Ws consin campus just signed up for the Big-Ten program when a 1960 time limit was imposed on houses with clauses. The greatest weakness of the Acacia Plan has proven to be its failure to prom vide any obligation for the fraternities to sincerely carry through with established IFO policy. If fraternities decide not to accept the IFC's help this spring when the Big Ten Service presents its findings and offers support to each affected house on this campus, a revamping of policy will be clearly called for.. Any change that such negativism is bound to inspire would necessarily be a move in the direction of initiating compulsory cooperation among the houses with clauses. Assurances that "something will be done" fall flat after continued inaction, and satis- factory corrective action may well lie only in the direction of a time limit or some other measure of that type. Since the Acacia Plan was designed to prove that clause removal can be effected without such pressure, the houses with clauses should consider the consequences which would result from ig- noring their responsibilIty in this matter, -Harry Lunn BEHIND THE LINES * A Note to President Hatcher By CAL SAMRA of Narcissus egocentricity which is direct- Daily Editorial Director ed inwards towards the group, rather HIS WRITE has some very vivid, though than outwards towards the University. unpleasant, memories of a day two This ice of complacency could conceiv- years ago when President Alexander G. ably be broken by the individual frater- Ruthven vetoed a Student Legislature bill nities themselves, but, so far, there is no which would have required fraternities to evidence that they plan to do so. remove their bias clauses by 1956 or lose This writer does not intend to drag out the University recognition. I remember a cer- old arguments for the SL motion. It makes tain SL President who broke down and cried no great difference whether the clauses are at the time. George Roumell had pushed the removed by "coercion" or by an educational plan with the energy of a monomaniac. The process. The important thing is that they veto was a crushing blow to those in sym3- be removed. pathy with the plan. Aside from the obvious principle involved, the University should have a definite inter- The same thing happened the following est in this problem. For, by erecting arti- year. This time SL offered a more water- Icial barriers, these fraternities are, in ed-down bill requiring fraternities to at- effect, divorcing themselves from the Uni- tempt to remove the clauses at their na- versity, and hindering this institution's ef- tional conventions by 1956 or lose Uni- forts toward unity and harmony. versity recognition. Your veto of a bill Finally, the unpleasant fact remains that which had tremendous campus support those whom fraternities reject on grounds fell like a guillotine on the heads of stu- of creed or color often need the help of a dent leaders. Most everyone threw up his fraternity far more than those whom they hands in despair. Since then, an issue accept. which once meant so much to so many The issue, then, has far broader impli- has been rarely considered. cations than one would suppose at first As the result of your veto, the problem has glance. been thrown into the laps of the individual If, by next fall, there is no notable fraternities. It was hoped that these four- progress made by the fraternities in the teen fraternities would make every effort to removal of the clauses, its would seem that remove the clauses on their own. a time-limit measure would be entirely To date, there has unfortunately been a warranted. In that event, your veto of the grinding lack of progress in this respect. The SL motion would bear serious reconsider- fraternities in question have apparently re- ation. lapsed into the vortex of indifference. An air of finality about anything is not It must have been evident to you when healthy in a college community which rec- you vetoed the SL bill that the fraternity ognizes an empirical approach to its prob- system, by its very nature, nurtures a kind lems. Field Pack .tetteP4 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 wili be condensed, edited or withheld from publication at the discretion of the editors. ,e' s G ayenM. ... + S v _. .. .... ___. .... 1. ..:..3.3t _ _ .. :YS'1 MATTER OF FACT. Union Opera NO COVER Union Opera. CHARGE-33rd Annual 4AGNIFICENTLY conceived and superbly performed, this year's version of the Union Opera offers Ann Arbor audiences one of the top entertainment specials of the year. It is difficult to single out any one factor that made the show so memorable. Fred Evans careful direction brought out every nuance in Howie Nemerovski's clever book. The individual performances were marked by superb casting, well-nigh professional act- ing and keen stage sense. The story concerns the Dean of an bast- ern Girls school, who inherits half in in- terest in a Chicago version of the Latin Quarter. In order to win over her partner, a crude, but loveable hood, she poses as a "revolver mollie" and wins both his con- fidence and his affections. As the two principals, Irv Tobocman and Bill Schreiner stood out as clever and imag- inative performers. Tobacman, a sort of jun- DRAMA THE BIRDS OF ARISTOPHANES, present- acted as a foil to Rosen's clowning, and ed by the Department of Speech. provided more than a few laughs himself. Of, the minor actors-almost all of them a FINE CAST and imaginative staging were good-a few practically stole the show have been combined to produce one of during their brief appearances. A poet, John the most delightful local dramatic presen- Haney, probably Aristophanes' satiric por- tations in some time. Admittedly this ver- trait of Sophocles or Euripedes, strode about sion of "'he Birds" is not completely true ' he stage affecting Byronic poses and utter- to Aristophanes; the original form of the ing profound poetic sighs to the delight of play would have made it at points quite in- everyone. Teetah Dondero, as the small- comprehensible and dull to the modern au- time goddess Iris, and Carlaine Baldef, as dience. Rather the comedy has been almost Juno, both received their share of laughter; rewritten, using modern jokes and refer- and James Umphrey brought down the house ences wherever Aristophanes would have ap- as an over-zealous messenger, a parody of peared cloudy or obscure. the traditional tragic figure. The stage setting of "constructivist" de- As a result the play moved quickly and sign showed imagination and skill, al- seemed in most part to capture the fancy though its occasional wobbles ominously of the house. One of the most enthusi- threatened a collapse at any moment. The astic, and therefore convincing players choral dancing was good, but because of was Ken Rosen, who acted in the role of the "beaks" they wore the members were Pithetaerus, the mortal who grew tired of not able to deliver their lines clearly. life in Athens and went to live with the However, these few flaws were not able bird-king. He has a natural talent and zest to mar the overall effect; "The Birds" is a for acting which make him stand out in a satirical farce which merits attention both cast of excellent performers. His partner as an effort and as an evening of delight- Eulpides, played by Conrad Stolzenbach, ful entertainment. --Tom Arp C URRE NTm M\OVIES for Jimmy Durante, rasps his way through the script with confidence and high aud- ience appeal. Schreiner captures both the initial prudery and later gangland sophisti- cation of the Dean turned moll. They both put their musical numbers across with a happy vivaciousness. Lloyd Evans captured the imbecillic wit of a Judy Holliday in his fine portrayal of Ice Pick Sadie. Jay Mills, as Tobocman's St. Louis counterpart, carried his lines and musical numbers with ghsto. Bud Strout's slinky cigarette girl brought down the house. Andy White again displayed his dazzling talent as an acrobatic tap dancer and his per- formance should delight both the Michigan Theater audiences and those on the road. Don Rosenberg's comic dancing was de- lightful as was that of Don Ghareeb, who seemed tied down with a poor role. The performance was at all times fast moving, a tribute to the fine direction of both the singing and dancing choruses and of the principals. Such light songs as Paul McDonough's "Etiquette" and "The Twenties Were Fabu- lous Days" and Red Johnson's "Prison Days" and "Let's Live a Little" were catchy and well sung. Of the slower numbers, only McDon- ough's "You, Just You" stood out. It was nicely rendered by Gordon Epding and Andy Cooley, who had seemed shy in their earlier numbers, Space doesn't permit me to mention all the others whose efforts made the show so sprightly. But their product will be remem- bered as one of the zippiest, funniest and beautifully staged of all Union Operas. -Harland Britz Books at the Library Buckler, Ernest - THE MOUNTAIN AND THE VALLEY. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1952. Gosnell, Harold F.-CHAMPION CAM- PAIGNER: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. New York, Macmillan Co., 1952. Keyes, Frances Parkinson - STEAM- BOAT GOTHIC. New York, Julian Mess- ner, 1952. Lea, Tom-THE WONDERFUL COUN- TRY. Boston, Little, Brown, 1952. Sarton, May-A SHOWER OF SUM- MER DAYS. New York, Rinehart & Co., 1952. Wilder, Robert-AUTUMN THUNDER. New York, G. P. Putnam's, 1952. THE CONSPICUOUS fact about the inter- national scene today is the passing of power from western Europe: for the first time for many centuries western Europe is no longer the center of the globe. Even our conventional geographical terminology has become obsolete and inappropriate. In a world whose focus of power is in Washing- ton, our modern Far East lies somewhere in the countries of the so-called Iron Curtain, and our Far West along the eastern coast- line of Asia. The vast land mass of Europe and Asia located between these two lines has become a terra incognita almost im.. pervious either to our military or to our mis- sionary efforts, and resembling one of those no-man's-lands of early maps which the cartographers used to decorate with the comprehensive and sweeping inscription Truman's Farewell Speech By STEWART ALSOP WASHINGTON-Washington is a city peopled by ghosts. The new great-the men who will soon wield immense power in this capi- tal of the free world-are almost all elsewhere. The former great, the movers and shakers of only a few weeks ago, now seem actually to have shrunk in physical size, and even to have become faintly trans- parent, so that one looks nervously at a Cabinet officer, to make cer- tain that the furniture behind him does not show through. The ghostliest of all the former great is, of course, President Truman. And it is symptomatic of the Washington atmosphere during this curious interregnum that the chief business these days in the White House, that epicenter of world power, is the writing of a speech for the President. This is to be Truman's Farewell Address-and President Truman evidently hopes that it will be called just that in the future. For the speech is being written with the history books firmly in mind. No other Truman speech has received such careful thought and anguished attention. This is the speech, apparently, for which Truman hopes he is to be remembered, and in the light of which his seven-year tenure of office is to be judged. Much thought is being given in the White House to the appropri- ate form for the farewell address. One school of thought favors an address to Congress, between the time when the new Congress con- venes and Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President. The halls of Congress, it is argued, will provide the appropriate aura of dignity and history-in-the-making. The trouble is, according to a second school of thought in the White House, that very few citizens will hear the President's historic words, since an address to Congress cannot be delivered at a good radio-listening hour. This second school favors a farewell address in the form of a fireside chat, at a time when the citizens will be handy to their radios. Clearly, if Truman's farewell address is to have the' impact over the years which he hopes, both the violent partisanship which has characterized Truman's political utterances, and the dullness which has often marked his more serious efforts musta be avoided. Advance reports suggest that the note of humility which marked the President's public statements seven long years ago and which has since been buried under the famous Presiden- tial cockiness will be introduced again in the farewell address. All in all, Truman's farewell address should be worth hearing, if only as a final ;measure of the man who, almost wholly by accident, has been President of the United States during seven of the most exciting and most dangerous years in American history. One even suspects that the now ghostly President's familiar fiat voice and posi- tive tone, of which so many people have grown so tired, may arouse a certain odd sense of nostalgia and even some sense of loss, in some of his hearers. (Copyright, 1952, New York Herald Tribune, Inc.) Howard Fast.. .. To the Editor: THIS IS in answer to Howard Fast, Schor (a recent letter writer to the Daily) and others. 1) Why do you consistently sup- port the victims of "American op- pression"-the Rosenbergs, etc.- and yet consistently ignore the victims of Soviet oppression - Slansky, Zionists, etc. 2) Why-Howard Fast-do you lament (quite properly) the bars that under Nazism nearly "a hun- dred professors lost their posts, that "more than three hundred American professors" have been removed, for political reasons. Yet nary a tear do you shed over the fact that a multitude of Czech professors were purged, and the rest required to pass loyalty", tests. 3) Why were there thousands1 of American tourists in Paris last summer, (and in any other place they could get into), but not a single Soviet tourist anywhere. Is it that oppression does not interest you except when it can be used to attack America? Is it that long ago you have burnt your humanitarian bridges behind you to remain on the Shone) of Pro-Sovietism. Is it that you have become like the Nazi "intellec- tuals" who found time to mock "decadent" America while remain- ing anaesthetic to the odors of the crematorium. , -R. Mitchell Howard Fast .. . To the Editor: AFTER HEARING Howard Fast at a closed meeting at the Unitarian Church, it is rather ob- vious that he bears the same rela- tion to true art as Lysenko does to true genetics. While his talk was pitched to a student body politi- cally immature and literarily un- informed, he nevertheless manag- ed to create a sense of personal ridiculousness in his black and white interpretation of Soviet and American writing. Unbelievably, he held that no anti-Communist writer could be a true artist. He was unaware that Balzac-an arch reactionary-was considered by Marx to be worth a thousand Zolas. In his contention that the artist could not produce without freedom (which of course the ar- tist has in the Soviet Union), he was unable to explain why the great Russian writers wrote under the despotism of the Czar and not under the Soviet Union,awhich, DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN (Continued from Page 2) Counterrevolution in Monetary Theory and Policy." All staff members and stu- dents in Economics and Business Ad- ministration are invited. Others who are interested will also be welcome. The Modern Dance Club will meet at 7:30 in Barbour Gymnasium. Wil the members and all others interested in the club please attend. U. of M. Aviation Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. in 1500 East Engineering Building. Anyone interested in learn- ing to fly and getting cross-country time, both at reduced rates, are cordial- ly invited. For any additional Informa- tion please call Dick Fox, 3-0521, Ext. 310. Israeli Dance and Folk Group. Organ- ization and future programs will be discussed, along with a regular program at 7:30 at the Hilel Building. Refresh- ments. Everyone is invited. International Center Weekly Tea for foreign students and American friends, 4-6 p.m. Kappa Phi. Cabinet meeting at 5:15 in the Wesley Lounge. All cabinet mem- bers please be present. Coming Events Motion Pictures, auspices of Uni- versity Museums, "Beach and Sea Ani- mals," "Born to Die," and "The Sea," 7:30 p.m., Fri., Dec. 12, Kellogg Audi- torium. No admission charge. The Newman Club is sponsoring a Christmas Party Warm-up Fri., Dec. 12, There will be caroling, dancing, etc., 8:30 to 12 p.m. All Newmanites, facul- ty, and friends are invited. Hillel. Friday evening services will be held at 7:45 at the Hillel Building at 1429 Hill Street, Following services .Na- than Pearlmutter, RegionalsDirector of Anti-Defamation League, will speak on "Anti-Semeticism in America." International Coffee Hour (Depart- ment of Conservation). Foreign and American students are invited to dis- cuss "Foreign Investments and Inter- national Development" at an informal coffee hour Fri., Dec. 12, 4:30 to 6 at 300 West Medical Building (Office of Dept. of Conservation). All welcome. Wesley Foundation. Christmas Party, Fri., Dec. 12, Wesley Lounge. barren as is the current American literary scene, is an avowed desert from an objective critical criteria. Mr. Fast was less than honest in the question world. He twisted and evaded. He tried to convey the impression that the Russian writ- er was free by the example of Ilya Ehrenbourg who vitriolically cri- ticized a literary commissar-no doubt an unusual act of bravery in the Soviet Union and one not like- ly to be undertaken except by the well-known who are firmly en- trenched-for his poor taste and bad writing. When I pointed, out that Ehrenbourg could criticize an individual but not communism, Mr. Fast passed quickly-and with his usual smoothness-to the next question. In the incredibly short time that Mr. Fast was supposed to be dis- cussing American writing and pub- lishing-he validly charged the latter with cowardice and cower- ing before native totalitarians- he rang in the whole communist line from the capitalistic exploi- tation of the war in Korea to the World Peace Congress staged in Vienna. The Unitarian church is to be commended for giving Mr. Fast a chance to speak with a roof over his head. It is unfortunate that Mr. Fast could not speak before an open meeting. Presumably the University of Michigan has teach- ers of literature who would have made a shambles of Mr. Fast's contentions. It is by driving the Fasts into private meetings that we give the notion to the public that they have ideas too pqwerful to be refuted in debate. -E. R. Karr YP Troubles*... To The Editor. IN THE DAYS of old when The Daily was bold, the Y.P.'s were investigated once a year. It came regularly, just like the Mondoon. Towards the end of the Spring se- mester, just when it came time to settle down and cram for exams- the inevitable would happen: "Y.P. Responsibility To Be Re-exam- ined" (Daily, very typical). Then the merry-go-round would start to revolve. The S.A.C., the Lecture Committee, The Office of Student Affairs, The Sub Committee on Discipline, a whole glittering building full of administrators; one, some or all would simultane- ously start to investigate this one little student organization. In the end the answer was always grudg- ingly the same; "The Y.P.'s are O.K.-that is so far, tentatively, ahem, as long as they maintain their-ah-integrity." But now a new precedent has been set, it's only the first semes- ter and the heat is on the Y.P.A already! About what is the fuss this time? First it was the oe standby of "responsibility," but- now it's a question of "tightening internal procedure." To be sure there are valid criticisms of Y.P.A. and some of S.A.C.'s points may be well taken-but why always pick on the Y.P.'s? Anybody who is in the know will tell you that there are student organizations which only meet once a semester, and then without a quorum, that there exist organizations almost com- pletely out of touch with their faculty sponsors, that some rec- ognized organizations have far less than the,30 member minimum. Are the Y.P.'s troubles due to other, perhaps more political, rea- sons? Heavens No! Banish the thought, we here at the University are very impartial in politics! To many observers, then, the yearly, or perhaps semesterly now, Y.P.A. investigations form an unexplain.. able paradox of nature. -Valentine Birds It r MAGAZINES At the State THE THIEF, with Ray Milland T HAS BEEN some years since the day when Warner Brothers uncorked the Vi- taphone and the Amazon of words com- menced to flow. Although Hollywood has not always had a lot to say with the voice Warners gave it, the mixed blessing of sound seems here to stay. Recently, how-' ever, an independent producer, Harry Pop- kin, got together with writer-director Rich- ard Rouse to try doing a film the old way, The result is "The Thief," an atomic spy movie of far more than ordinary skill and interest. The ads are quite honest; "not a word of dialogue is spoken.' Ray Milland, a mererly sporting it on its lapel. Its designers have understood that the silent film gained a certain intensity by its absence of dia- logue. so it has approached the film strict- ly from the level of the protagonist, and left the tired documentary techniques to others, It also has various advantages that the films of the silent era did not have, most im- portant of which is a sound track for built-in musical score and rich special effects. This helps no little. The "silence" bore one other advantage for "The Thief." It expressed through its "silence" the complete friendlessness of its central character. Lacking the warmth which a human voice could have commu- nicated, the plight of the hero must be deenly felt. His symbolic isolation from AS USUAL THIS MONTH the art work in Gargoyle is far superior to the written material. The most noteworthy of the drawings is a parody on the typical girlie calendar-in this case, the "Garga Girl." It stands out as the best feature of the whole issue, in both ori- ginality and execution. For the rest of the magazine the drawings for advertisements, and the pseudo-advertisements, form the most enjoyable portion. They are in two distinct and antithetical styles: simple, direct and bare; and highly ornate and complex. The pity is that in the simpler cartoons, excellent while they remain in good taste, occasionally the style is so debased as to produce the center two- page detail of the interior of a department store, a juvenile and obvious attempt which is hardly funny. Perhaps the best of the stories is the one aptly entitled "0 Henry, Won't You Please Come Home," a parody on both Conan Doyle and 0. Henry. While there are the customary fiat puns and repeated jokes, the author does seem to be acquainted with the works of both his models. He takes 0. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" and gives it a dash of Sherlock Holmes, seasoning the whole with the Gargoyle's own special brand of humor; admittedly a potpourri, but the most enjoyable one in the issue. The other stories include the case-history of a neurotic young man, descriptions of a few nonsensical party games, the old "Who Stole My Dinosaur?" done up as a play, and a Mickey Spillane ver- sion of the Santa Claus story. There is for the most part no deviation from the old pattern of unsubtle wise-cracking. It might be pointed out to the Gargoyle that there are more humorous things than sex and violence. Vulgarity can evoke laughter up to a point, and from there it may be shocking but it is not funny. Up to now the gag technique of Gargoyle has relied mostly on parody and vulgar suggestiveness. Parody is successful if the author knows what aspect of another man's work he is go- ing to poke fun at, and sticks to his theme. Some of the greatest Sixty-Third Year Edited and managed by students 0C 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 Jenks......Associate Sports Editor Dick Sewelli.Associate Sports Editor Lorraine Butler........ Wowen's Editor Mary Jane Mills, Assoc. Women's Editor Business Staff Al Green...........Business Manager Milt Goetz.......Advertising Manager Diane Johnston. . .. Assoc. Business Mgr. Judy Loehnberg .... Finance Manager Tom Treeger......Circulation Manager t"