Sunday.March2. 1958
THE M{,
AN DAILY MAGAZINE
Sunday, March2, 1958
THE MICHIGAN- DAILY MAGAZINE
......,.......1 ..........,. , ,
Organic Architecture
Rumania
Tod ay
Modern Life Must Find Expression in Homes Frank Lloyd Wright
Party and Government RelationshiF
Observed in Communist State
A TESTAMENT. By Frank Lloyd
Wright. New York, 1957: Hori-
zon Press, 255 pp. $12.50.
By BERNARD H. STOLLMAN
"So, my boy, do not trouble
yourself as to whether or not
others understand your words
as you do. Seek rather to un-
derstand yourself-regardless
of words; and in due time, if
so t be written in the great
book of destiny, others will
perceive in your works more or
less of what' you, more or less
adequately, have thought, felt,
lived, loved and understood."
-Louis Sullivan
THOUGH many controversial
characters have passed upon
the American scene in the past
sixty years, few have been the
cause of as much heated debate
as has the Chicago architect,
Frank Lloyd Wright. His name
has become a household word
throughout this country as well as
many other parts of the world.
Though most Americans know of
him, very few have any idea why
he should be a topic for discussion
at all. He is popularly pictured as
a self-proclaimed radical, a su-
preme egotist who has little use
for the work of others.
A Testament is, in many ways,
the culmination of the more than
sixty years that Wright has been
practicing his profession. The
ideas presented in it are not new;
the book contains nothing Wright
has not stated previously in his
books or lectures. It contains none
of the close analyses of American
civilization present in Genius and
the Mobocracy and The Future of
Architecture nor does it examine
the materials of building as close-
ly as did The Natural House.
Basically, A Testament is an
outline, a brief summing up of
everything Wright has ever writ-
ten and said. Yet his generaliza-
tions are more poetic and less di-
dactic in tone. He speaks not to
convince but simply because the
statements are true, lasting, in-
evitable. This is not the teacher
cautioning, it is the master
prophesying.
Though accused of being a self-
appointed radical and the origi-
nator of a new kind of architec-
ture, this is not wholly true. Few
realize "organic" architecture had
its beginnings in the late 19th cen-
tury under the hand of another
less well-known architect. Wright
himself never received a degree in
architecture; the closest he ever
came was a course in civil engi-
neering at the University of Wis-
consin. However, Wright had no
desire to be an engineer. In his
senior year he left school and went
to Chicago to look for a job with
an architectural firm. It was there
that he met and worked for Louis
Sullivan, undoubtedly the great-
est architect of the period.
Though H .H. Richardson had
hinted at it with his Marshall
Field Department Store in 1885, it
was Sullivan who first originated
the idea of "organic" as applied to
architecture. He was sickened by
the restatement of classical and
renaissance themes. He wanted an
architecture that was distinctly
American, an indigenous one that
expressed the American concept of
By CAROL PRINS
Daily Magazine Editor
RUMANIA, tucked away within
the confines of Central Europe,
has been the scene of invasion and
conquest from the time of the
Emperor Trajan in 101 A.D.
through centuries of subservience
to Goths, Vandals, Turks and
Russians to a more recent con-
quest by Russian Communist coup
In February 1945.
Conquest came a a result of
bulk of the legislative work is
performed by the Presidium of
the Assembly which is elected
from and by the Assembly. The
17 nan group is the "collective
president of the Rumanian
People's Republic." Actually the
Presidium is completely subservi-
ent to the Party whose wishes it
faithfully carries out.
It-was the relationship between
the Rumanian Worker's Party and
the government of the Rumanian
I
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MUEHLIG'S HAS MAJESTIC'S DISTINCTIVE
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6 SHIRT
WRIGHT WORK-The latest achievement of the noted architect
is located near 7 Mile Road in Detroit. Says author Stollman, "it
leaks, but it wouldn't be a Wright house unless it did."
freedom. Wright soon realized that
what "Lieber Meister," Wright's
name for Sullivan, was suggesting
was not just a possible solution to
the problem of the meaning of
architecture. It was the only solu-
tion; the reality or essence of
architecture, not simply another
way of looking at it. The history
of-architecture simply had been a
search for this truth - democracy
offering the first real opportunity
to bring it into concrete, physical
form.
However, introducing the public
to organic architecture proved to
ulation votes. Don't you know
the world smiles at you" was the
professor's query to the Ru-
manians.1
The pattern of a one party to-
talitarian dictatorship is revealed
in elections for -the President of
the Presidium of the Grand Na-
tional Assembly of Rumania held
following the death of President
Grodza. Party First Secretary
Gheroghui-Dej simply got up and
proposed then Foreign Minister
Maurer for the post. Formallyit
was an extremely democratic
process. There were seconding
speeches. and a very, very secret
ballot. The delegates dropped
written ballots into a deep closed
box. The result, of 470 voters, 470
ballots were cast for Maurer.
Pollock pointed out though
there is a certain amount of con-
sent in the electoral process, it is
a case of a small well organized
minority dominating the situation.
This minority constituting about
10 per cent of the total population
of the country is in the main
youth group leaders, some wqrkers,
privileged bureaucrats and hard-
core party members.
RUMANIA is definitely a police
state ,with Russian troops sta-
tioned there although not visible
to the observer. Large numbers
of Rumanian soldiers are seen in
the cities 'and countryside how-
ever.
The minority policy of the gov-
ernment was discussed at some
length by Pollock. German minor-
ities numbering well over 400,000
of the total population of 17 mil-
lion have existed in Rumania since
the 13th century. "Marks of Ger-
man civilization are evident in
such towns as Sigisoara or Chers-
burg which reminds one-a little
of Nuremberg," Pollock comment-
ed.
The Hungarian minority exists
in an autonomous region in the
center of Rumania and numbers
one and a half million. Jewish,
Serbo-Croations, U k r a i n i a n s,
Greeks and Turks make up small-
er ethnic groups.
THE POLICY of the government
at the present encourages and
attempts to preserve the ethnic
minorities. The reason, Pollock
says, is that the country despite
its attempted industrialization is
still dependent on agriculture. Un-
rest among cultural minorities
would upset the economy and the
security of the ruling party. The
"new-economic course" introduced
in 1953 features an attempt to in-
crease agricultural production by
direct government payments to
farmers. The government realized
its dependence on the peasantry
which includes a large portion of
minority ethnic groups for its
economic welfare.
Economically the country
doesn't seem to be hurting too
much, Pollock noted, saying he
did not see any distress. People
appeared well-clothed and well-
fed. He did note queues at food
stores however, which usually in-
dicates shortages. Shop windows
were not filled and such luxury
items as women's nylon stockings
sold on the black market for $8
dollars (U.S.) a pair.
HEN questioned about Ru-
mania's "ripeness for revo-
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KOR(ET OF CALIFORNIA
<I.
an ultimatum delivered to King
Mihai, the reigning monarch, and
an impressive display of military
force by Russian troops. The ul-
timatum placed Rumania and.
Bessarabian Communists in con-
trolling positions in government.
A puppet government under Rus-
sian stooge Groza marked the be-
ginning of Rumanian enslavement
to Russian authority.
The internal and external work-;
ings of a country under such all-,
embracing domination by the So-;
viet government has been the sub-
ject of inquiry and discussion by
Western scholars and others in
the free world.
James K. Pollock, chairman of
the political science department,
recently visited the small island
of Latinity among the Slavonic
peoples of Czecoslovakia, Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia, at the request of
the State Department of the
United States, and as the guest of
the Rumanian government.
His "revealing experience be-
hind' the Iron Curtain" resulted
from an exchange of American
and Rumanian political scientists
investigating political and govern-
mental problems in the two coun-
tries. In 1956 three Rumanians
visited the U.S. to observe the
presidential elections.
The Rumanian government is
patterned after the Russian Soviet
state. It is a one party state in
which the Rumanian Workers
Party -- the Communist Party -
is in effective control of both na-
tional and local government ap-
paratus.
The front organizations, the se-
curity and armed forces are com=.
pletely under Soviet and -Ru-
manian Communist control and
their primary function is to ad-
vance the program of the regime
and to maintain it in power.
THE FORMAL Rumanian gov-
ernment is composed of legis-
lative, executive and judicial
branches: The unicameral Grand
People's Republicw hich interest-
ed Pollock while in the small na-
tion. '
AN ILLUS TRATION of the
scholar's study of government
and power relationships is seen in
nominations for local and regional
counclis.
Pollock smiled "e v e r y t h i n g
clicked during the nomination
of candidates." The nomination
was made and unanimously ac-
cepted. Put to the vote it received
all of the votes of those present.
Pollock questioned, how is it pos-
sible to gain a percentage of af-
firmative votes such as this?
"Even in Belgium where men must
vote or get fired from their jobs
only 92 per cent of-the total. pop-
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