Sixty-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
STODENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241
'Advertising for the American
Taste'
-1956
Opinions Are Free,
th Wtll Prevail"
torials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or
the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
DAY, APRIL 20, 1956
NIGHT EDITOR, LEE MARKS
Regents Cannot Overlook Student,
Board Advice on Rent Hikes
TODAY the University Regents will consider,
among many other things, a proposed raise
of $20 in Residence Halls room and board
rates.
Similar rent hikes have been almost annual
affairs for the last four years, but action tak-
en earlier this week shows that the present
proposed raise and all future raises are not
going to be mildly approved byall bodies con-
cerned.
Neither the Inter-House Council 'nor the
Residence Halls Board of Governors gave an
unqualified "yes" to this latest proposal.
Both these bodies refused to continue their
actions of past years. They have decided that
self-liquidating Residence Halls and periodi-
cal rent hikes are infeasible and demoralizing,
and that these systems cannot continue unin-
vestigated.
Furthermore, the Board of Governors has
asked to have its position in determining Resi-
dence Halls fees clarified. The present Board
refuses to continue "rubber stamping" appro-
vat where the effect of its approval is uncer-
tain.
It is with the Regents today that the cer-
tainty of the Board of Governors and the IHC
remains; the Regents have the opinions and
feelings of the students and of the Residence
Halls Board before them.
WHAT IS TO become of this advice, what
use the Regents will make, of it, can only
be determined by the Regents. They now know
where the Residence Halls administration and
occupants stand on the problem of annual rent
increases.
Should the Regents today do no more than
rubber stamp the propdsed raise "yes," they
will be overlooking the judgment of the Inter-
House Council, and the opinion of the Resi-
dence Halls Board of Governors.
The students of the IHC and the members
of the Residence Hall Board qualify to be
taken seriously.
-VERNON NAHRGANG
Krush and Bulge'
KRUSH AND BULGE, the fun-loving, free-
loading rover boys and wandering sales-
men, are off hitting the highspots again.
Communist Party Secretary General Nikita
Krushchev and Soviet Premier Nikolai Bul-
ganin, whom the British have aptly monickers
ed 'Krush and Bulge,' are now in the United
Kingdom to peddle their wares. Their homey
tactics remind one of the drummers of patent
lpedicine and snake oil remedies during the
Wild West days in this country. The brand
of m'nedicine the boys carry is good for any-
thing that ails the world, looks okay, tastes
suspiciously as if it contains something other
than what is advertised, and will, in all proba-
bility, choke the drinker, if it doesn't do some-
thing worse to him.
This trip, though, it looks like Krush and
Bulge are getting a little different reception.
than that to which they have been accustomed.
On their last jaunt, to southern Asia, people
turned out by the millions and cheered their
every move and word. Even when they com-
mitted serious social errors, the boys weren't
chastised 4adly and succeeded in convincing
a lot of people that they really have the salve
for the earth's ailments.
But this time they are up against a some-
what more sophisticated and skeptical audi-
ence. The reception at the airport, while dig-
nified and according to striped pants diplo-
matic protocol on the part of Sir Anthony
Eden and his offcials, was pretty much in a
gay carnival spirit with a dose of honest curio-
sity as to what Krush and Bulge actually look
like.
After all, it's not every day one can see a
couple of-world wide celebrities and national
leaders hamming it up. The holiday atmos-,
phere amongst the people indicates that while
everyone's eyes are on them, Krush and Bulge
aren't being taken too seriously.
SIR ANTHONY and the government also have
plans for the jovial visitors which call for
a different program. Instead of cavorting
about the countryside drumming up sales,
Krush and Bulge will be presented, in a series
of conferences with Britain's leaders, with some
rather important questions, including the
settling of differences over the German uni-
fication problem and arriving at some solu-
tion to the Palestine conflict.
The rover boys may have to do some thinking
and earn their board instead of getting a free
sight seeing excursion.
With all the travelling Krush and Bulge do
out of Russia, one wonders who's running
things while they're gone.
If President Eisenhower takes a couple of
days off to go golfing in Georgia, somebody
screams that he's not doing his job. Mr. Ste-
venson took a cut at his opponent for the
Democratic presidential nomination Senator
Kefauver for neglecting his Senatorial duties
while campaigning. Secretary of State Dulles
is always under fire for gallivanting about the
world instead of tending to the operation of
the Department of State.
Do Krush and Bulge suffer the same thing
from their envious but less fortunate col-
leagues? Probably not, at least not out loud.
But that's the advantage to being on the top
of the pile in a totalitarian hierarchy.
-DICK HALLORAN
Culture and
-The Salesman
By EDWARD STANLEY
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Edward Stanley
is the manager of Public Service Pro-
grams for the National Broadcasting
Company. Previously he spent ten
years as a newspaperman with the
the Associated Press sa well as news-
papers in the West and South.)
ATELEVISION network leads
several lives, or lives in several
worlds, at least, in order to main-
tain its existence. One of these,
certainly, is its function as anIm
portant factor in the unique
American distribution s y s t e m,
which is by all odds the most re-
markable and successful the world
has yet known.
It is rather startling when you
stop to think about it, that within
a very few years this new medium,
television, is now pressing the
traditional media for primacy. It
is this aspect of television which
holds the gi'eatest professional in-
terest-I hesitate to say fascina-
tion-for the world of advertising.
I should like to point out, how-
ever, that as individuals we are
all greatly interested in what I
describe as superior programs,
about which more later. It is at
this point, the recognition of tel-
evision's power and efficiency as
an advertising instrument, that
our paths merge.
Anyone who examines without
bias the vigorous and increasingly
exciting pattern of television in
America, where it is conducted by
highly competitive private indus-
try and supported by advertising
(which does a further good) and
that of other countries with gov-
enmental or quasi-governmental
controls, would be forced to the
conclusion that the fare here is
infinitely superior, rich and wide-
ly varied.
Any week there are more good
programs than any of us has time
to look at. If we were not in com-
petition for the.audience in order
to sell things to them, I wonder
whether this would be so.
THERE ISN'T. any question that
television sells a lot of goods.
It is amazing, far beyond any ex-
pectations. But important as is
this sales function-not merely
vital-this isn't the sole, nor even
the principal responsibility which
television has.
No one would maintain that the
chief responsibility of the printing
press and moveable type was to
sell things. It is certainly useful
in that respect, but its great re-
sponsibility - for which in this
country it was blessed with the
First Amendment to the Constitu-
tion-is to communicate facts and
ideas. So it is with television. All
of us in this industry, which em-
braces the advertising world With
great affection, have a prilary
responsibility to make this tre-
mendous new medium of commu-
nication of the greatest possible
value to the American people and
not to permit it to degenerate into
a living room toy. And while we
are doing this we have to hold the
interest and the attention of the
truly mass audience or go out of
business. In truth, we have to
reach a high proportion of the
American public every day. A na-
tional magazine with two or three
millon circulation every week can
canter along very nicely. A net-
work would die.
So, here is the problem. How to
upgrade our programming con-
stantly, that is, introduce ele-
ments of culture into our entire
program schedule, and still hold
the interest, the intense interest
of the giant audience. We have to
do both to satisfy our social ob-
ligations.
Well, it has been notorious in
our folklore that cultural pro-
grams are for small agglutinations
of egg-heads, the size audience
you could engrave on the head of
a pin. Just as it was notorious
that Shakespeare could never
draw a full house, the kind of full
house we have to maintain our
usefulness (i.e., pay the rent) as
a part of the distribution machin-
ery. Ballet, opera, serious drama,
for the birds. But I am sure you
are ahead of me now.
WE HAVE DEVELOPED a the-
ory which has decisively influ-
enced the entire industry. Its most
descriptive characterization is the
value-theory of television pro-
gramming, and it rests on the idea
that no one ever went broke over-
estimating the intelligence of the
American people.
Our belief is that in order to
hold and continue to attract the
mass audience we must program
up and not down. We must con-
stantly seek to increase the re-
ward we give a vewer in return
for the time he gives us. And we
can do this only by increasing the
depth of experience, both in the-
ater and real-world, by continu-
ously extending the areas of in-
terest, of excitement, of under-
standing and of response.
I think we do know for sure
that there is no bottom to the
hunger of the American people
for richer experience, and that
EDWARD STANLEY
.. . the hunger is there
being set for a great revival of?
learning, such as followed the
Middle Ages. And it may very well
be this time that it will be a great
popular revival of interest in the
cultural world.
Television makes it easy, in the
privacy of your own home, and
popular, because we are a popu-
lar medium, because what you
watch on television your friends
and neighbors will be watching
also. Certain it is, in any case, that
this new great instrument of com-
munication, with all its impact,
not yet fully measured, will bring
about vast personality changes in
the American people. We are go-
ing to have more time-more lei-
sure time, many of us-and it
would be a pity to waste it all.
"It Says Here That Grace Kelly Got Married"
The artist in America has come
into his own. He may be odd, but
he is pretty well understood and
respected. A president and prime
minister have made the Sunday
painter respectable. Robert Frost-
and Carl Sandburg are among the
most beloved figures of our time.
And all of us could add, other
names.
I suppose culture has some such
appeal. Maybe that explains this
running tide. But I doubt it, and
so do you. We have no tight little
intellectual elite in this country,
some one per cent of the people
for whom we produce a special
program. The basic tenet of de-
mocracy is that the opportunity
for. knowledge and self-improve-
ment is open to all the people. The
fact is that the hunger is there,
-and we have not begun to satisfy
it.
The point that is of special in-
terest to us this morning is that
theysspeak of the educated man.
And I submit, for television and
movies and billboards and picture
magazines, that's status!
What I would like to encourage,
as you may suspect, is the
thoughtful consideration of the
superior program be it Class A
time, or B, or C, as being also the
superior vehicle for the salesman.
We may be able, if it becomes
universal, we may be able to lift
the intelligence level of the whole
American people in a single gen-
eration. We aim at nothing less.I
tom. 1.
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The Worm of
Self-Consciousness
(Condensed from Advertising
Conference Talk, April 19)
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Miss Mead is the
present Associate Curator of Ethnol-
ogy, American Museum of Natural
History in New York. She has spent
most of her years since her university
work in the study of primitive and
contemporary cultures, and has writ-
ten such books as "Coming of Age
in Samoa" and "Male and Female."
By MARGARET MEAD
THE WORM of conformity is
gnawing away at the core of
American culture. So say the pes-
MARGARET MEAD
we've hitched our wagon
to neon lights
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simists. What do they mean and
what responsibility rests on adver-
tising for this lamentable state?
Do they mean that more mag-
azines have pretty girl covers,
that there are more kittens on
calendars or more future junior
executives wear neck ties? Not
exactly. Rather, more people are
conscious when they see a pretty
girl on a magazine cover that
there is a pretty-girl-on-a-maga-
zine-cover, instead of just seeing
a pretty girl.
More future junior executives
know, as they tie their ties, care-
fully, or choose their reading mat-
ter or brand of whisky, that this
is the kind of tie, magazine and
whisky favored by those junior
executives who get on.
We are like silk worms spinning
endlessly from our own immedi-
ate behavior, a silk in which we
then wrap ourselves - plus the
most minute self consciousness
about each thread of the wrap-
ping.
IN THE PAST, young people
modeled themselves on tales of
heroes and saints, the ambiguity
of the image of greatness provid-
ing just the necessary spacious
ness for the imagination to work
In. Today, young people read the,
weeklies to find out what they are
wearing, hoping, thinking, fearing,
believing. It is then possible to ad-
just oneself-a lot or a little-
(this can be done with heels, or
haircut)-to fit the image of one's
age, sex, class, and level of aspi-
ration.
Back to this immediacy, this re-
flexiveness, lies the survey, the
general desire to adjust all mar-
ketable materials-films, TV, ra-
dio, advertising copy, to what is.
So -first there is a survey which
shows the rank order of babies,
pretty girls,, kittens and puppies,
among a given clientele at a given
period in history. Then this rank
order is translated into reports on
the basis of which everyone mak-
ing magazine covers or calendars
meticulously observes the rank or-
der.
Then two things happen, the
rank order becomes doubly pic-
kled, so. that people not only re-
spond to each stimulus as appro-
priate, but now know which cover
has-this month-a number two
stimulus instead of a number one.
So we develop layers of built in
sales resistance, but it is built of
the stuff which we resist and like
the response of the too hostile
subject who yields immediatly to
hypnosis becauese he can be trip-
ped by his own hostility, even as
we decry the methods of which
we are conscious, we have includ-
ed them.
LIKE THE CHILD, who became
a Stevenson fan in 1952-"be-
cause Time was against him, ,an
yet had to say good things about
him," or the taxi driver who made
money betting on Truman in 1948,
"I read Time and I can read be-
tween the lines. They don't like
to be wrong, I felt the hedge," we
except our directives indirectly
flattering ourselves on our sophis-
tication.
We have hitched our wagon, not
to a star, but to neon lights and
Hooper ratings, with a reading
every five seconds to be sure the
rope is correctly, evenly taut.
It's not good enough.
AT THE MICHIGAN:
'Good bye
All Heart
"NEEERSay Goodbye" is what
is known in Hollywood as a
"woman's picture;" that is, it is
the kind of film that lady shoppers
usually visit in the middle of a
buying spree, quite often to relieve
their aching feet.
"NEVER SAY GOODBYE" tells
the story of a young doctor; Mike
(Rock Hudson), who marries a
German nightclub pianist, Lisa
(Cornell Borchers), in 1945 Vien-
na. They have a child and are
completely happy until a misun-
derstanding separates them.
Seven years later they meet
again in an American nightclub.
She flees and is hit by an auto-
mobile. Mike nurses her back to'
health and takes her home to
Suburbia. Their child, an unusu-
ally sensitive girl (Shelley Fab-
ares), however, refuses to acknow-
ledge Lisa as her real mother for
some thirty minutes
ALL THE SCENES are played
against a hauntingly poignant
musical background. The dialogue
has some thirty years of exper-
ience to recommend it: e.g., a
housekeeper, when asked if the
girl has had any trouble in accept-
ing hernew mother, replies, "A
little trouble. She went to pieces
completely."
Hudson looks extremely virile
but domesticated Miss Borchers,
who was marvelous as the foster
mother in "The Divided Heart,"
a
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SGC and Public Interest
.x ,
LACK OF INTEREST in Student Government
Council has finally become a target for
concrete action. An attempt to increase in-
terest in what SGC is doing by improving com-
munication between SGC and students is cur-
rently being prepared.
It is called the post-election districting sys-
tem. In this program, housing units will hear
an SGC member speak on student government
problems and will join in discussion to convey
student opinion to the Council member.
The campus is being divided into districts
for this purpose, so that each member will
speak to housing groups within his district.
This would mean that each SGC member
would speak to four or six groups a month.
The presumption that the lack of interest in
SGC is caused in part by the poor communi-
cation between SGC and the students seem
valid. But it is questionable whether the post-
election districting system and its "Speakers'
Guild" will help the situation very much.
It does not seem realistic to think that a
round of speeches will increase interest. It
seems more likely that the program will be-
come a victim of the apathy it is attempting,
to cure.
THE REASON is that there is a basic cause
behind the disinterest in SGC. The dis-
interest is but a symptom of something deeper.
That something deeper must be corrected be-
fore the disinterest will disappear.
This basic something arises out of SGC's
structure. Although the Council pretends to
represent student opinion, it does not, in fact,
do so. Each SGC member represents only his
own opinion. There is no way he can put his
finger on "student opinion."
dates are elected from the campus at large.
There is no defined or definite responsibility
for a member of SGC.
The result is that SGC seems distant to most
students. It is something that does not touch
upon his daily life despite exceptions, like
the sorority rushing issue. As a consequence,
there is no good reason for him to be interested
in SGC or in what it does.
this is a district system FOR elections, not
after.
A DISTRICT SYSTEM would do the follow-
ing things:
1. Make each SGC member responsible to a
slecific group of students from which and by
which he is elected and whose interests he
would represent. r The United States Congress
is elected on this principle. It is the demo-
cratic principle that the best for all is derived
from the clashing of special interest groups
if each is adequately represented.
2. Bring SGC closer to students, their lives
and their interests.
3. Sharpen competition for seats by narrow-
ing the area of competition.
4. Encourage more good people to run for
SGC by eliminating some of the initial diffi-
culties that scare some away, like requiring
350 signatures.
5. Put self-interest to work for SGC instead
of attempting to edgcate students to an all-
campus interest.
6. Provide conditions more conducive to the
emergence of a party system, which would
further stimulate interest in SGC.
7. Inject a more glamorous and exciting at-
mosphere into elections. While this is not a
proper end in itself, it is a proper means to a
greater interest in SGC, if channeled along con-
structive lines.
Instead of lack of interest bringing poor
student government which in turn brings lack
of interest, we would have more interest bring-
ing better student government which in turn
would stimulate more interest. In short, by
correcting a basic deficiency in SGC structure,
we could reverse the direction of the vicious
circle to our advantage.
IT IS DESIRABLE to have the -clashing of
special interests that would arise under such
a system. Good legislation is formed through
the reconciliation and compromising of special
interests. It is impossible to have an all-
campus interest in a legislative body.
A district system is the realistic approach.
-#I
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND:
Newsmen Allow Censorship
By DREW PEARSON
I
THE AMERICAN Society of
Newspaper Editors, meeting in
Washington this week, will be in-
terested in the findings of Con-
gressman John Moss, the diligent
California Democrat who, more
than any other public official, has
been digging into press censor-
ship.
Moss took a trip to Europe last
summer to ascertain whether
American newsmen overseas are
having trouble getting news from
American diplomats and generals.
He found that most correspon-
dents feared reprisals if they criti-
cized the officials on whom they
depend for stories.
"I found," says Moss, "that it's
hard to get newspaper people to
put their experiences in writing,"
Back in Washington Moss has
also had a hard time getting news-
men to cooperate. He got excel-
lent news tips from them per-
sonally and orally, but they didn't
want to testify or stick their necks
out in any way that might bring
retaliation from government offi-
cials or close up their news
sources.
Note-Moss has tried to keep
politics out of his censorship in-
vestigation. He says Republicans
aren't to blame for the growing
suppression of news about the
government. Nor are the Demo-
-'..' is.
heard to remark, apropos of a
second term:
"I had to say Yes because they
told me they didn'thhave time
to build up another candidate."
Between the time this story was
written and the date of release,
wires began to buzz around the
White House and the UP office in
Washington. Jim Hagerty, the
able, all-seeing White House Press
Secretary, was alerted. Suddenly
Lyle Wilson, UP Vice President inj
charge of the Washington Bureau,
ordered the story killed.
THE STORY ran in early edi-
tions of the Washington News, a
Scripps-Howard newspaper whose
executives own or control the
United Press, which indicates that
editors and publishers are not al-
ways the guilty ones when it comes
to voluntary censorship.
Wilson, explaining the kill, said
he had ordered it because it was
overheard as the President passed
down a White House corridor, and
"it was impossible to determine
to whom the President was talk-
ing."
Merriman Smith reiterated that
the story was accurate. In report-
ing it, of course, he was fully
aware of current Washington re-
ports that the President really
does not want to run again and
might step down from office later.
considerable vigor against the side
of his golfmobile.
The incident was revealing re-
garding the health of anyone suf-
fering from a heart condition or
high blood pressure, since loss of
temper and excitement is some-
thing which doctors 'warn a pa-
tient to try to avoid. It was some-
thing the public was entitled to
know regarding a man who might
run for President again. However,
no other newspaperman, of the
many at Thomasville whom I read,
reported the incident.
IT'S HARD TO believe, but in-
ternal Revenue has granted tax
exemption to a clinic that 'the
Food and Drug Administration has
accused of peddling quack cures.
Food and Drug brought legal ac-
tion forcing the Electronic Medi-
cal Foundation to stop selling an
electrical contraption in interstate
commerce which was supposed to
cure a host of ailments, but which
Food and Drug charged was medi-
cally worthless. At the same time
this agency stopped the clinic
from selling the gadget, Internal
Revenue made the same clinic tax-
exempt.
(Copyright 1956, by Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
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LETTERS.
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