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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, October 16, 1955
Sun&v October 16. 1955
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
"Now, 35, suppose you owned a grocery ...
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Dignity And Sensationalism
In
The English Press
-Daily-Hal Leeds
"A MILLION DOLLARS...
. . ..T 0 ANYONE .,..
" ,WHO SAVES...
...MY WIFE ...*.FROM THE FIRE"
Showman
Dykstra
By JIM DYGERT
Daily City Editor
IT SEEMS like any other lecture
until the professor removes his
glasses, leans one hand on the
front corner of the desk and an-
nounces, "There are no outside
readings in this course. The text,
Dyks--, er, Business Law, by Dyk-
stra and Dykstra, I find quite suf-
ficient."
As it turns out, the text is not
sufficient. Dykstra the author
needs help from Dykstra the show-
man, and, except for two or three
lectures a semester, gets it.
"I've been told," says Prof. Ger-
ald O. Dykstra, who teaches busi-
ness law in the business adminis-
tration school, "that law could
be quite dry." Not by Dykstra, his
students unanimously agree.
AS A MATER of fact, students
come from all 15 schools of the
University for "Dykstra's course."
It shouldn't be long before the
Time Schedule succumbs to the
nomenclature, and the business
school builds an addition with
larger lecture halls for Dykstra.
One day a photographer stalk-
ed in with purpose to take, as
Prof. Dykstra cautioned his aud-
ience beforehand, "a picture of the
crowded conditions in the class-
room." It wasn't just a joke. Some-
one was sitting on the floor.
Dykstra's popularity, of course,
is very easily understood by any-
one who has watched him teach
with "hypos." These are hypo-
thetical situations or actual inci-
dents from which arise questions
of law.
BUT HE doesn't stop at relating
the "hypos." He acts them
out. There is one case having to
do with shoplifting in which a
woman shopping in a department
store runs outside to catch a
friend who is passing by.
She neglects to leave behind her
a washrag that is still technically
owned by the store, an observa-
tion that leads the floorwalker to
apprehend her for shoplifting.
Dykstra illustrates this by dash-
ing down the aisle of the lecture
hall with outstretched hand clut-
ching his handkerchief and wav-
ing to an imaginary friend in the
'orridor. By the time he gets out
the door, the class is wiping away
tears of laughter.
"A CERTAIN amount of show-
manship is needed to keep an
audience's attention," explains
Dykstra. His performances are
premeditated, as a device for
"making education as painless as
possible" and "helping students
remember legal principles a n d
their applications." Who could
forget the washrag case?
He remembers a University Law
School professor who used to em-
ploy the device, and Dykstra "just
kind of fell into it" when he be-
gan teaching business law and re-
lated subjects at Ohio University
in 1936.
Originally his career was a law
practice in Cleveland, started af-
ter he gratuated from Law School
here in 1930. He returned to Ann
Arbor in the summer of 1935 to
brush up on some business cours-
es. "You've got to do so many
things to build up a law practice,"
he had found,
HE STAYED for a masters de-
gree in business administration
and before he could escape back
to his law practice, Prof. Earl
Wolaver convinced him teaching
was his vocation and pointed out
an opening at Ohio University to
prove it.
Dykstra went to Ohio for four-
teen years. Then the University
asked him back in 1950 to teach
business law along with Prof. Wol-
aver, who died before Dykstra got
here. So he took over the teaching
of business law at the University.
Besides teaching he writes books,
with the help of his wife, the
former Lillian Green whom he met
in Law School here. Together they
have written six textbooks, one of
which will be published the first
of next year.
" USINESS LAW" - the text
heinds "quite sufficient"-
has been around since 1949 and
weighs, he admits tohis class on
opening day, "five pounds." Yet
he insists it be brought to class as
I
By GEOFFREY DE DENEY
HE ENGLISH newspaper system
is peculiar in that it is centered
on London with its eight or so
morning papers and three evening
papers. Apart from the Manches-
ter Guardian, which is really a
national paper, no provincial news-
paper, even in its own locality, has
half the influence of the London
dailies.
This gives the English press a
character of its own - each paper
is forced to concern itself with the
nation as a whole and to compete
more violently with its competi-
tors than in countries where a
local circulation is assured.
The competition is made sharper
by the fact that few families read
more than one morning paper.
Dignified readers of The Times
look askance at equally dignified
readers of the Manchester Guard-
ian, both of which are papers con-
taining the greatest amount of
comment and foreign news and
with proportionately small circu-
lations.
Thesmiddle classes divide their
loyalties, according to political
affinities, between the Daily Tele-
graph, the Daily Mail, and News
Chronicle.
Finally there is the popular,
sometimes called the gutter, press.
This consists of the Daily Mirror,
the Daily Sketch, and the Daily
Express, the first two being Labour
in sympathy and the third con-
servative, much to the embarrass-
ment of that party. These two
papers enjoy the largest circula-
tions by complete dependence on
sensationalism.
SENSATIONALISM in the Eng-
lish press is probably much the
same as it is elsewhere. The prime
elements consist of playing up the
sex interest (Englishmen can't talk
about it to each other so they read
about it in their newspapers),
relying on emotionalism, and con-
spicuously displaying an absence
of values. This is one of the chief
faults of the Englishpress and has
earned it a bad name in many
quarters.
The English press of a certain
category goes about its job with
lustful eye and drooling jaws and
suggests a more than purely re-
formative interest. The chief fault
in these papers is their lack of
perspective. I'm as happy as the
next man to see daily photographs
of Marilyn Monroe caught bending
but at times one craves for genu-
ine information, and then gets
pictures of kittens and puppy dogs.
The headlines are two inches
high, the print large, but the sub-
stance very small. Twice the editor
of the Daily Mirror has gone to
jail for libel, and his memoirs are
entitled "Publish and Be Damned.'
This may give some idea of the
paper's attitude. The Sketch is
its fiercest rival and copies its
method slavishly.
The Express is of a different
category. Its accent on sex and
sentimentality is less, but its opin-
ions are possibly more jaundicec
and more vicious. Their policy
seems to be "we don't care hos
good you are, we can malign yo
somehow." But however much one
dislikes these papers, one musi
admit that they do the job the3
set out to do consummately well.
The daily papers have nothing
on the Sunday papers for the vic
of sensationalism. News of th
World is the most notorious in this
respect - 90 'per cent of its cop
consists of the reports of se
crimes and the divorce courts
This paper received its greates
blow in 1927 when publication o
precise details of evidence in di
vorce proceedings were prohibited
But its imprecise details leav
little to the imagination.
One or two other papers, such
as the Sunday Empire News, are
worse if awrthing, but with a much
smaller circulation. The Sunday
Graphic is the equivalent of the
Daily Mirror, and the same applies
to the Sunday Express and its daily
alternative.
THERE ARE two checks on sen-
sationalism in the English
press. The first is the common law
of libel and obscenity, whereby a
person can protect his reputation
and whereby the crown can prose-
cute anything tending to deprave
the minds of the young. There is
unfortunately a great deal of
elasticity in this definition. While
the News of the World gets away
with a weekly dose of salacity,
"The Decameron" is banned in
other parts of the country by
Puritan magistrates.
The other check is maintained
by the Press Association, which is
a professional committee attempt-
ing to maintain the standards of
the press. But its sanctions are-
moral only, consisting of the effect
on public opinion that its criticism
of low class journalism may have.
It is a recent establishment, but
already a step forward towards
higher standards in the press.
However, the English press is
not uniquely sensational by any
means. It is simply that this is
the element which first strikes
one and is most disturbing. Other-
wise there are many excellent
features, and some peculiarly Eng-
lish. Thus the front page of The
Times is filled only with small
advertisements, and the headlines,
such as they are, are in the center
pages.
Then the largest English paper,
again The Times, never contains
more than 16 pages. Comic strips
are limited to one or two in all
except for the adult comics, the
Mirror and the Sketch. Most
papers have their own cartoonist,
some of whom are excellent -
others pedestrian.
Political cartoons are the ex-
ception rather than the rule. Poli-
tics, generally, probably enter into
the English press as much as in
the American, but there is less
personal attack on politicians, and
more general criticism of policies.
The Daily Mirror was generally
condemned when it endeavored to
charge Churchill as a war monger
in 1951.
Small items of local news are
to be found in all papers, but
generally only of the man-bites-
dog variety. Genuine local news is
only to be found in the weekly
local paper, as a 'result of the
centralization of the English press.
THE BEST reporting to be found
is in The Times and Manches-
ter Guardian. The only sensation-
alism in these papers is in the
sports reports, and then only of
the highest literary quality. There
is no lack of articles of serious-
interest and well-informed editor-
ial comment.
Criticism of the arts and humor
also finds its place. The Guardian
has a tendency to make intentional
puns in its headlines ("June Babies
Flood Wards" once appeared at
the head of a comment on the
rising birth rate), and even The
Times once appeared with a law
report headed "Libel on Tomb-
stone Grave Charges."
These elements make The Times
and the Guardian far and away
the finest English papers, perhaps
the finest in the world. Probably
the Guardian is the best, avoiding
a certain dullness that The Times'
restrained policy results in.
None the less, there is plenty to
entertain and divert in both pap-
ers. The difference is perhaps that
the intelligent Londoner would
read The Times while the intelli-
gent man from anywhere else in
The for eastern influence
has spread to your
leisure hours. Look
fresh and exotic in our
gold accented fashion
designed of no-iron
drip-dry cotton enriched
with striking
black and gold-colored
India prints. Coral
or aqua. lOto 20.
10.95
going. for1
brunch -
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coat
*;
ar
the world would read the Guard-
ian. The Sunday equivalents of
these are The Observer and The
Sunday Times, both very fine pap-
ers with larger book review and
art sections than in the daily
papers.
AS FOR the rest of the English
press, with the exception of the
Daily Telegraph (though some
would not except it), it is not
really to be taken seriously. Like
many American papers, news is
secreted between the interstices of
the advertisements, and many are
only taken for the sports pages
and to provide a barrier against
conversation in the subway in the
morning.
The truth of the matter is that
the press does not have any con-
siderable influence on public opin-
ion in England, which is just as
well when the only accurate item
in some papers is the date. This
was noticeably apparent when the
whole London press went on strike
for a month this year, and life
went on unchanged. The English-
man reads his paper, but forgets
it quickly. And like many other
things in England, tradition goes
a long way.
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Spotlights a collection of
distinctive styles for Fall -- The man
who selects his fall wardrobe from
Rabideau-Harris has decided that fashion
is very definitely a man's world, too.
He is quite right, never before have men
been offered such a variety choice of
colors, patterns, and appealing fabrics.
"suitable reference material."
First day of the semester is al-
ways a riot. Not knowing the nam-
es of his students yet, he goes by
seat number, saying, "Now 35,
suppose you own a grocery store
and I come in for a loaf of bread
and tell you, 'Say, 35 . . .'" or
"Suppose, 78, you were walking
across the new bridge north of
town and you saw a bald head
floating on the river and you look-
ed down, and said, 'Is that you
Dyke?'"
And so on for fifteen weeks.
But Dykstra is also a disciplin-
arian. You walk into his office.
announce your name and hear,
"Oh yes, you were absent Mon-
day."
So you stay out of his office and
just go to his lectures.
)NE ITEM contained by nearly
every paper is a gossip column.
The three London evening papers,
The Evening News, The Star, and
the Evening Standard, in fact con-
sist largely of gossip columns. The
movements of the Royal Family
are closely followed as well as
the name of afiyone connected with
them. Particular attention is paid
to the Royal children, so much so
that the Queen recently requested
that Prince Charles should not
be made the center of undue
publicity. Princess Margaret is al-
ways sure of a.mention.
The Evening Standard concen-
trates on the debutantes. It is
possible by paying a certain sum
to the paper to ensure that a deb's
name is mentioned at least once a
week.
But people of genuine interest,
and who llave some achievement
to their credit,.also receive a men-
tion. Even The Times has the
equivalent of a gossip column. Its
announcement of engagements is
closely watched and every couple
who hopes to cut any sort of fig-
ure must have their engagement
included in its columns.
Then the results of certain pub-
lic examinations are made in the
Times, along with army appont-
ments, church appointments and
University affairs. Consequently,
if you happen to belong to one of
the groups concerned, The Times
can be one of the most gossipy
papers there Is.
NI
RABIDEALJlIAkRI s
"Where The Good Clothes Come From"
119 S. MAIN ST. ANN ARBOR
Store Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday 9 to 5:30-Monday 9 to 8;30