100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

January 10, 1953 - Image 2

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1953-01-10

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

TWO

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1953

HAPSBURGS AND RUSSIANS:
Vienna-Old and New

DRAMA

.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Elliott, a former Daily
managing editor now studying at the University
of Edinburgh in Scotland, is presently touring
Europe.)
By CHUCK ELLIOTT
V IENNA, AUSTRIA-We were heading for
Istanbul. But the money started to run
very thin as we crossed Austria, and we
found a cheap pension in a dirty section of
Vienna, and this New Year's Eve, Silvester
abend, the middle of our world is this heart-
city.
It's very difficult to be orthodox about
Vienna. Everything about it, the mere
mention of the name, seems to demand
the extraordinary. The capital of Mittel-
Europa ... Strauss and Schntzler, Freud
and The Third Man ... the unforgotten
guady romantic splendor of the Hapsburgs
... faces of a culture lumped in the mem-
ory of reading into something expected,
something much beyond reality or even
the possibility of reality.
But you cling to the expectation, .in the
train in the night. The American zone of
Austria ends at the Enns River, several
miles east of the city of Linz, and perhaps
three hours from Vienna. The train stops,
the conductors open compartment doors all
down the length of the train, and stand
waiting. There isn't any noise. Then the
Russians come through, checking your travel
permit and passport. Somehow, you had
imagined them to be all colorless; but they
are quite human, a little young, maybe, al-
most bright in their long grey coats with
red shoulder bars and astrakhan fur hats.
In broken German, interpreted by a wor-
ried conductor: two American girls with typ-
ing errors on their travel permits are asked
to leave the-train We learn later that they
spent three hours with the Russians in the
guard hut waiting for the next train. They
didn't know when to expect it, because the
Russians were using Moscow time. A ser-
geant asked them for American magazines.
He was trying to learn English, which he
had little opportunity to practice, and show-
ed them a primer with some of Stalin's
speeches translated into English. He grin-
ned and said to them "I like you" when
their train came.
The snow is gone in Vienna-perhaps
none had fallen yet-and the parks and
streets are very bleak. The dream of old
Vienna fades away easily and stolidly
until you have to think hard to remember
its associations with this place. And you
begin to walk, to walk around the Ring-
strasse, the great open boulevard that
girdles the Innerstadt, the old city; to
walk through the narrow cobbled lanes
of the Stadt itself, the international zone,
which in December is held by the Rus-
sians; to walk along the rich streets, by
the beautiful shops. taking care not to
trip over the crippled and deformed beg-
gars who crouch on the crowded side-
walks.
Across the Donau canal, in the Russian
sector of the city, is the Prater, and the
Volkprater amusement park. On the map
it looks plump and full-things have. a way
of doing that on a map, especially parks
printed in green ink. On an afternoon we
went there. The Volksprater was literally a
shell, all the more striking a ruin for hav-
ing been a playground rather than an apart-
ment block. It was quite empty, and there
appeared to be nothing left but the huge
Ferris wheel towering above the bareness.
We walked through an open gate in the
fence, trying to discover whether the wheel
was running. We were about to leave, dis-
couraged by the lack of paint and apparent
disuse when a little man came out, smiling.
"You ride, bitte?" We entered the big car,
along with three Italians who had also been
nosing around the place; the little man,
still grinning happily, bolted the door, then
ran into the control house and stood just
inside watching as we slowly rose to the
top of the circle ...
You can go anywhere freely within the
city proper. But across the Danube is the
Russian occupation zone of Austria. At three

o'clock one 'day, we began to walk to se
the Danube, through the Russian part of
the city. We lost our way, and by the time
we approached the Red Army Bridge, it was
already rather dark. To the left of the
bridge, in a little open park, was a big red
obelisk with an eight foot wide red neon
star on top of it. The Russians were re-
building the bridge, and were not quite
finished, though it was in use; it had evi-
dently been shelled or bombed out either by
the Germans as they went out or the Rus-
sians as they came in. In the middle was a
guard house full of Russian soldiers. We
thought it better not to pass. Standing
there, we saw a truck cross toward the city:
it was carrying perhaps fifteen Red army
men with machine guns: and we realized
that this was the border of the western
world, this, one yard away, was the Iron
Curtain. The Danube ran smooth and
brown beneath in the twilight.
Vienna may no longer be the seat of a
deep and integrated culture, infused with
the romance of past and living greatness.
Civic neuroses and cultural disintegration
are much more prevalent. But to us, as
Americans, it does represent a kind of
political crux. At eleven o'clock this morn-
ing, December' 31, official control of the
international zone was handed over to
the Americans by the Russians. Crowds
began gathering in front of the Justice
Palace at ten. On one side of the open
area, American soldiers and civilian tour-
ists, on the other about a hundred Rus-
sian soldiers. Most of the Americans had
cameras, and the Russians laughed and
joked and made faces when the cameras
were pointed at them. The few Red sold-
iers who had cameras only took pictures
of their own band.
The Russian military band marched up,
cracking the -heels of their high boots on
the pavement, followed by a group of sold-
iers goose-stepping even more smartly. Then
came the American band and guard, their
white caps bright in the grey morning light.
They all ranged themselves. The Russians
presented arms, making a beautiful racket
with their rifle butts on the ground, and
flashing a few sabres conspicuously. The
Americans followed suit, minus sabres. The
Russians presented arms again. So did the
Americans. The pageant grew, and spec-
tators surged in the surrounding streets.
Suddenly, everything was quiet as the two
representing officers came forward in the
center, the Russian wiry, youngish, intelli-
gent-looking, and still goose-stepping sev-
erely, the American, a big, tall man, walk-
ing naturally. They saluted, shook hands,
saluted once more, and retumned to the
guard troops. More presenting of arms. The
Russian band broke out with their national
anthenM, a very spirited piece of music, and
when they had finished stood at attention
for The Star Spangled Banner. With that.
the ceremony was completed, except for
marching away. The Soviet band formed
once more a few moments later near the
Russian headquarters and continued to play!
inspirational music for a half hour or so.
The finality and decorum of a military
ceremony is bound to be deceptive, but it
was somehow encouraging to recognize that
after experts predicted 1952 as the year of
crisis it was still possible to see such a cere-
mony, despite the phoney pomp, conducted
peaceably between the two great powers of
the world. So far as Vienna itself is con-
cerned, well ... the beautiful city of twenty
or fifty years ago is quite thoroughly gone.
Whether or not it is true to say that it is
dead depends on one's willingness to see
death rather than a deep-seated elemental
incoherence. It is a question of whether
the culture has irreparably decayed or
merely become unfocused and broken by
political events. At any rate, it is quite
likely that something new will come out of
the wreckage, when psychoses are finally
mastered, and when Vienna stands on its
own feet once more instead of on the un-
connected and sometimes individually un-
steady feet of the Four Powers.

Arts Theater Club: COME OF AGE by
Clemence Dane.
THE PLAY this time is essentially experi-
mental, intending, according to the auth-
or, to "present emotion in doggerel, the
slang of poetry." The use of this medium is
an attempt to show how the colloquial
language of the 1930's can be transferred
to the stage and be expressive of the mental
torpidity of the era. When this language,
"jazz" as one of the characters terms it,
is called upon to reveal profound thought
and feeling, it must either achieve a gro-
tesquely realistic effect, or fail altogether.
The basis of the story is a bargain be-
tween Death and Thomas Chatterton, an
18th century poet who died at the age of 17
before, as he says, he has been able to ex-
perience the "pleasure and pain" of life.
Death allows him to return to earth until
he has come of age and learned the secret
of life and love which he missed in his
first existence. The Boy lives through what
seems to him a real love, discovers his secret,
and then, disillusioned by the shallowness
and superficiality of The Woman, pays his
debt for his experience to Death. It is a
highly modified version of the Faust theme,
and in the final scene with The Iy's belief
that The Woman has really devoted herself
to his love for his sake approaches the
ancient Greek legend of Alcestis.
Perhaps because of opening night mis-
haps, the play as a whole moved too slow-
ly. To capture the rhythm of the verse
and the hectic mood of Miss Dane's "Jaz,
the lines might better have been read in a
sharp and senseless staccato, and with
something of the silliness that theydcon-
vey. The second act party was tedious,
mostly because of this lack. The actors
fully achieved the tragic effect of the
action, but tended too much to overlook
the weird expressiveness of the lines
themselves; they seemed almost hampered
by them. The music also appeared to dis-
regard the fact that this is an experi-
mental play. Rather than the slow, es-
sentially morbid incidental melodies which
were presented it requires a lively jump
rhythm as inane as many of the lines.
These were the qualities with which Miss
Dane was experimenting; tounderplay
them is to make the play like so many
other polite but violent modern tragedies.
Of the actors Beth-Sheva Laikin and
Dick Davalos carried most of the burden.
Miss Laikin has already shown herself
capable of just about any job the Club
chooses to give her; her performance here
was finely done. While her interpretation
of a superficially light role had a tendency
to become overweighted at times, her ability
to convey ambiguity in a character and her
excellent choice of physical actions to ac-
company her lines made her an outstanding
performer. Dick Davalos, a relative new-
comer to the Club, was well suited to his
role. He brought to it the hesitancy and
occasional bursts of lyricism that it called
for; as an adolescent experiencing his first
love he was alternately petulant and eag-
erly adoring, and seemed to grasp his part
to an extent that none of the others did.
-Tom Arp
(CINEMA]
4rchitecture Auditorium
ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY, with Wal-
ter Huston and Edward Arnold.
PERHAPS no American writer made such
extensive use of national legends as Ste-
phen Vincent Benet. "The Devil and Dan-
iel Webster," as this particular story is bet-
ter known, is one of his richer excursions,
borrowing the Faust myth from another
culture to combine with native ingredients.
The film version has had the advantage of
Benet's collaboration on the screenplay.
Unfortunately, however, legends are

fragile things and this onedoes not come
off quite as well as it might. There are
many good moments; there is a certain
coherence to the piece, but it is particu-
larly deficient where it should be strong-
est-on the lyric level. It engenders a
certain energy with its central theme: "It
is every man's right to raise his fist
against his fate." But the vigor and nat-
ural optimism of the story are repeatedly
dissipated with patent romantic pathos
and shadowy Hollywood "supernatural-
isms."
Consequently, the picture is unable to
bring together the Faustian allegory with
the American myth until the very last min-
utes of the picture. The climax scene which
pits the devil against Daniel Webster in
the contest for the hero's damnation or
redemption meets the mark. But it must
move from a standing start since it has
received little lyric impetus from what has
gone before.
Walter Huston plays Scratch with his
usual aplomb, although the conception of
the devil as a self-satisfied businessman
is over-familiar by now. His antagonist,
Daniel Webster, is finely done by Edward
Arnold. Beyond that, however, James
Craig is sadly miscast as the New England
farmer and Anne Shirley as his wife is

"Anything Yet About Me Moving Somewhere?"
9.
--
-s -*
~ir4ws__

XettePJ 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.

Y

College Probe . .
To the Editor:
[ESSRS. LUNN and Reader ne-
. glected an important point in
their editorial denouncing Mc-
Carthy's proposed investigation
into our schools.
It was men, like McCarthy, who
correctly opposed federal aid to
education because they believed
this aid would bring federal con-
trol over our schools. However,
the Wisconsin Senator seems to
have no fear of federal control
over schools through Congression-
al investigations.
McCarthy is able to stomach
self-contradictions because he
doesn't let hypocrisy interfere with
ambition. He fully knows that
both federal aid and federal in-
vestigations are equally dangerous
to our schools. Yet he is ready to
praise investigations and damn all
aid.
When contemplating the pro-
posed investigation, one is forced
to ask himself in the privacy of
his mind (which the Senator has
not yet managed to invade), "If
McCarthy comes to campus, can
thought control be far behind?"
-Bernie Backhaut
* * *
Pobe,...
To the Editor:

ON THE

WASHINGTON
MERRY-GO-HOUND
WITH DREW PEARSON

WASHINGTON-New Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson
recently dropped in to see the man whose shoes he will fill, to get
a few tips regarding his new job.
Benson seemed especially interested inhousekeeping details.
"How many secretaries do you have?" he asked Charlie Bran-
nan, who steps out as Secretary of Agriculture on January 20.
"Two," replied Brannan.
"How much do they get?"
"Would it make any difference," asked Benson, "if I had
one male secretary, instead of the two girls, and paid him $10,000?"
"I suppose not, but don't let the civil service commission catch
him near a typewriter," replied Brannan, having in mind the civil
service ruling that no one punching a keyboard can get much over
$7,000.
Benson next wanted to know how many cars and chauffeurs
he would inherit from Brannan.
"Two are assigned to the Secretary of Agriculture," Brannan
replied.
"Can my wife and family use one of them?"
"Only on state duties," replied the outgoing Secretary of Agri-
culture.
"Well, can one of them take my children to school?"
"I suppose so," said Brannan, "But don't let Jess Larson
or Drew Pearson catch you." (Larson has charge of allocating
cars to government officials.)
Benson then wanted to know if his children, of whom he has six,
could drive one of the cars to school themselves, without the chauffeur.
Secretary Brannan did not attempt to advise his successor on
this point.
-sGOP DRINKING CLUB--
WHEN THE LAST Republican administration was in power, Con-
gress looked out over one of the most potent lobbying offices in
Washington-headquarters of Bishop James Cannon, head of the
Methodist board of temperance and social service.
All during the days of Hoover and' Coolidge the capital re-
mained dry, as did the rest of the nation. And it was not until
the Democrats came into power under Roosevelt that liquor
flowed-except illegally-anywhere near the capital.
Under the new Republican administration, however, it is going
to be different. This week end a new club opens up right across
from the House of Representatives office building, so close that you
can throw a stone through one of its windows, or run across for a
quick drink between votes.
Instead of looking out on the stern headquarters of Bishop
Cannon, Republican congressmen will be able to drop in on a plush
lounge, little tables around a bar, and a total of thirteen rooms for
conferences and relaxation.
This delightfully appointed oasis in the middle of a rela-
tively dry area is called the Capitol Hill Club and is organized,
not by the hard drinking Democrats, but by the dignified Re-
publicans for their exclusive use.
The House itself belonged to former GOP Congressman Charley
Dewey of Chicago, though originally it was the home of Peggy
O'Neil, the belle of Andrew Jackson's administration. There are
several unique, if not amusing, aspects connected with this ritzy
new bar right under the noses of congressmen.
-TOO MUCH DRINKING-
IN THE FIRST place, Congress voted in 1837 to banish the official
bar from inside the halls of Congress. It did so because Daniel
Webster and to a lesser extent Henry Clay spent most of their time
there. Inebriation absorbed more time than legislation.
At about the same time, the ring of saloons around the na-
tion's capitol building was also dried up, including Pendleton's
famous house of fortune. This was operated by a well-known
lobbyist who made it a practice to entice congressmen into his
rendezvous and get them so plastered or so compromised that
they did his legislative bidding.
In those days there was one saloon to every ninety people in the
city. But all bars were abolished from around the Senate and the
House and remained banished until the Democrats returned after
Herbert Hoover.
Now, however, the most distinguished leaders of the Republican
party have kicked in to set up the Capitol Hill Club,
(Copyright, 1952, by the Bell Syndicate)

I WOULD LIKE to urge all of the
readers of The Daily to write
their Senators and Congressmen
and ask them to proceed on to
their job of legislating. With the
present rush of Congressmen and
Senators into the investigating
business, there will be very few
left to do the job which the Con-
stitution has set up for the Con-
gress to do. With all of investi-
gating committees, except the one
investigating the conduct and
election of Senators, going strong
and fast, I wonder if anyone is
thinking about positive legislation
in Congress. For example I have
heard that approximately 190 Re-
publican Congressmen have ap-
plied for positions on the House
Un-American Activities Commit-
tee. It does take time to write good
legislation. Give Eisenhower the'
support he needs.
--Blue Carstenson
Red Series ...
To the Editor:
THE SERIES on red front organ-
ization may serve as some
warning to the political innocents
and idealistic babes-in-the-woods,
whose need for an outlet for re-
bellion'and protest makes them
the main targets of campus com-
munism.
However, I believe that few of
the individuals you named are
really communists and most of
them would probably become de-
tached from the party the next
time the party line takes a sharp
turn. Naming them has the effect
of causing the waverers among
them to be reinforced in their
loyalty to the group being "per-
secuted."
A more difficult task would be
to print a series giving the answers
to the various points of current
red doctrine. You could start with
the contention that there is no
freedom of the press in the U.S.
The reds will gladly supply you
with their propaganda, or you
could use the Daily Worker and
National Guardian as sources.
The results to aim for would be
to sharpen your readers' percep-
tion of what communism is about,
and enable them to distinguish
between communists and genuine
American radicals in the tradition
of Paine and Jefferson. It should
be possible to protest and rebel
without serving Stalin.
Such a series would have a more
permanenteffect than the naming
of front organizations. The reds
have never had difficulty find-
ing attractive names for their
fronts, and by the time you name
them all, they will probably have
a new set of names.
-Leonard M. Naphtali
* * *
Red Series .. .
To the Editor:
IN REGARD to the recent series
of articles by Zander Hollander

we cannot help but feel that we
are obtaining a biased interpre-
tation of the facts. The use of
emotionally charged phrases in a
journaligtic style which resembles
that of the Chicago Tribune does
not impress us as the type of news
coverage which would present a
clear pictu're. We resent the use
of propaganda techniques instead
of an objective presentation of the.
facts. If Mr. Hollander has such a
clear cut case to present to us,
the facts would speak for them-
selves; there would be no need for
him to interpret them for us.
That is unless Mr. Hollander has
assumed that we are incapable of
intelligent evaluation of such ma-
terial.
If your motives are sincere, Mr.
Hollander, we feel that you will
not object to complying with our
request that the entire "secret"
report of the LYL be presented to
the public. If the length of the
report is such that it cannot be
printed in its entirety then we
request that it be made available,
at The Daily, to all interested
persons.
-Jean Lussow
Norma Stecker
* * *
Red Series .. .
To the Editor:
HOLLANDER must be a phony.
Here I've worked my fingers to
the bone getting a nice little cell
started, and he doesn't even men-
tion it.i McCarthy ought to be a
little more careful about who he
hires.
-Tom Gilmore, '54
At a poorly attended meeting
on October 17 the Huntington
(West Virginia) Post of the Amer-
ican Legion adopted a resolution
demanding that the trustees of
Marshall College investigate the
background of all the speakers to
be heard on a college-sponsored
forum. It also called attentionto
the fact that the names of Max
Lerner, Margaret Bourke White,
and Paul Engle, who had agreed
to speak, appear in the records of
the House Committee on Un-
American Activities. In response
to this demand, the president of
the college promptly announced
that the forum series would be
canceled. But the student. senate
and the faculty just as promptly
passed resolutions calling upon
the Forum Board to reinstate the
series. By a vote of approximate-
ly 500 to 10 the membership of
the forum then adopted similar
resolution and the series will now
be resumed.
In commenting on the mem-
bership's action, the student news-
paper notes that "witch-hunters
.. . are as great a menace to our
freedom as any Communist or
Communist sympathizer. At least
we know what to expect from the
Reds. But these witch-hunters,
who are probably extremely patri-
otic though misguided Americans,
would take away some of our
cherishedfreedoms in order to
dig up their red herrings." The
students and faculty of Mashall
College obviously do not intend to
permit the administration to be
intimidated by off-campus pres-
sure groups. A few more actions
of this kind would go far toward
erasing the unpleasant impres-
sions created by the indecent ous-
ter of Dr. Luella Mundell from
the State Teachers' College at
Fairmont ...
-The Nation,
December 20, 1952

r+
t-
t.'

MATTER OF FACT:
Adlai as Dernocratic Leader

By JOSEPH AND STEWART ALSOP
ADLAI E. STEVENSON has made up his
mind that the Eisenhower administra-
tion is going to need a responsible, but ag-
gressive and articulate, opposition. He has
further made up his mind that he is the
man to lead this opposition.
According to those close to him, Stev-
enson has reached this decision only slow-
ly and reluctantly. In the last few weeks
of the recent campaign he was absolutely
confident of victory. Therefore his crush-
ing defeat was a far greater shock to him
than was generally realized. At first, he
was inclined to fold his political tent and
silently steal away. But he has now re-
covered from this initial shock, according
to his friends, and is already to lead his
party in the fray, if his party will have
him.
His first planned move towards becoming
the real, rather than merely the titular
leader of the democratic opposition is-
oddly enough, at first glance-to go abroad.
He presently plans to leave, probably in
March, on a round-the-world tour, return-
ing about June. He will spend most of this
time in the far east. His tentative itinerary
takes him to Japan, possibly Korea, South
East Asia, India, the Middle East, and fin-

an opposition leader in the first few months
after General Eisenhower's inauguration,
simply because there will be no effective op-
position. During this honeymood period, it
is reasoned, it will be better for Stevenson to
be in the news, but out of the country.
This is shrewd political timing. But
there is a more important reason for
Stevenson's round-the-world plan. He is
,convinced that the next two years will be
more crucial on the foreign front than
any since the war. Therefore the really
determining issues of the immediate fu-
ture will be the great issues of American
foreign policy, especially in Asia, and on
these issues leadership in both parties will
stand or fall.
Although he knows Europe well, Steven-
son has never been in Asia. Long before
Eisenhower made his promise to go to
Korea, Stevenson had planned a quick trip
to the Far East, if he was elected, to "get
the feel of the situation." He now has a
chance to fill this gap in his experience at
a more leisurely pace and more completely.
And when he returns, he will be able to
speak out with the authority of first hand
observation on the great issues of American
policy.
He intends to speak and write extensively

DAILY O FFICIAL BULLETIN

armem igg-. 'Vg~
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 Jenks......Associate Sports Editor
Dick Sewell... . 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

i
1

The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of the University
of Michigan for which the Michigan
Daily assumes no editorial responsi-
bility. Publication in it is construc-
tive notice to all members of the
University. Notices should be sent in
TYPEWRITTEN form to Room 2552
Administration Building before 3 p.m.
the day preceding publication (before
11 a.m. on Saturday.)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1953
Vn.a LVXITT nX.77

University Senate. Through a mis-
take in addressing, the minutes of the
University Senate meeting on Dec. 15,
1952, were not sent to a group of Sen-
ate members who should have, received
them. Will Senate members who have
not received the minutes call Ext. 381
and leave their names so that copies
may be sent.
Academic Notices
Doctoral Examination for Henry

chine Methods of Computation. Dr.
Lawrence Klein, Survey Research Cen-
ter, will speak on "The Need for High-
Speed Computation in Economics," at
4:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 12, in 420 Ma-
son Hall.
Events Toda y
square Dance Section of the Faculty
Women's Club will hold its January
dance Saturday evening, Jan. 10, at the
gymnasium of Tappan Junior High

I

1 '12 9A t t

Back to Top

© 2025 Regents of the University of Michigan