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