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Page Six
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
Sunday, March 30, 1958
Sunday, March 30,1958
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
RUSSIAN BORDER PENETRATED
A Presidential
NomineeJ
BY TWO
UNIVERSITY
COEDS
Democrat Looms Strong Contender
By DAVID KESSEL
ONE AFTERNOON last year,
two University coeds were sit-
ting at a quiet table in the Union
Grill. Suddenly they decided: why
just sit there? Let's go somewhere.
How many people have -made
similar decisions, only to forget
them an hour and six lemonades
later?
No so, this time. The two girls
actually walked out, went home,
packed eight trunks and set out
for the mysterious land of intrigue
and danger: Russia.
Actually, it is fairly easy to
travel to Russia, if you're a stu-
dent, if you haven't been con-
nected with any off-color organi-
zations and primarily if you have
plenty of money.
So Izora Corpman and Patricia
Doss, two literary school juniors
from Detroit and Saginaw re-
spectively, set out on a trip which
is now described in no uncertain
terms.
The plane ride from Willow Run
to Helsinki, Finland, was unevent-
ful, but long. Non-stop? "We may
have gotten out once or twice,"
says Pat, "I don't recall."
THE PLANE landed in Helsinki
late at night. "The city," says
Pat, "was damaged considerably
during the war, but much has been
rebuilt." She remembers the im-
pressiveness of the new Olympic
Stadium there, but memories of
the train ride to Leningrad are
pretty grim.
Their description of the journey
sounds like a Burton Holmes
nightmare: coaches like cattle#
cars, soot blowing in through win-
dows, rotten fish sandwiches, and
guards at the Russian border
searching baggage and confiscat-
ing cameras.
"We got some pictures of the
guards," says Izora.
Imagine the plight of a Univer-
sity administration faced with
coeds who can sneak pictures of
Russian border guards. Small won-
der Dean Bacon has been looking
tired, lately.
THE LENINGRAD station was
full of people who, Pat claims,1
must have found out somehow,
that two American girls were ar-
riving on the train. They were
whisked off to a hotel by the secret
service and put on ice for the
night.
Leningrad provided Pat and
Izora with their first glimpse of
the Russian scene: parks filled
with people, cultural opportunities
everywhere, but housing, and es-
pecially clothing, poor.
Izora bought a hat at a depart-
ment store which she still has and
occasionally shows to close friends.
A woman in the store spoke ex-
cellent English, which she claimed
to have learned from a friend.
"She spoke far too well for
that," observes Iz, who suspected
the woman was a spy, planted by
the NKVD. But then, she suspect-
ed everyone who followed her for
a block and a half.
PAT DROPPED in at a puppet
show being shown in one of the
extensive Leningrad parks. "The
houses are so crowded that every-
one goes to the parks whenever
they can," she says,
The puppet show entertained
the crowd, but not Pat, who doesn't
speak Russian. She wandered off,
eventually becoming the center of
a gathering of about 40 curious
Russians, a few of whom spoke
English.
"A teacher asked me about
workers in the United States, but
wouldn't translate for the crowd
David Kessel, a graduate
student in biochemistry, a fre-
quent contributor to the Maga-
zine, reveals in this issue the
experience of two University
coeds during their recent trip
to the U.S.S.R.
equivocates. For the issue of Pro-
hibition combined itself with that
of Smith's religion in the mind of
the voter in a way difficult to
conceive of happening to Kennedy
regarding any issue,
SOCIOLOGISTS W. F. Ogburn
and N. S. Talbot, writing in
Social Forces, attempted to ascer-
tain the extent to which the vari-
ous strikes against'Smith actual-
ly worked against him. Selecting
173 counties at random from the
states of Massachusetts, New
York, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Colorado, Montana and California
they polled voters. Then they
coi piled their data to show the
effect each factor would have on
the Democratic vote if it alone
were increased ten per cent.
Factor:
Foreign born
Urban population
Democratic voters
Catholics
Wet Voters
Increase:
.5%
-.8%
1.8%
2.8%
4.1%
ted by Kansas journalist William
Allen White, the cranks on religion
and morality of the Anglo-Saxon
Protestant. native-born American
variety leveled charges of drunk-
enness in public, of support of
state prostitution and of gambling
against Smith.
The classic story of the Pope
digging a transatlantic tunnel
from the Vatican to Washington,
D.C. in the event a Catholic be-
came president was widely cir-
culated. And as a result Alfred
E. Smith of New York carried only
eight states.
The chances of young Senator
Kennedy meeting the same fate
today have been and continue to
be widely debated. Several im-
portant changes since 1928 are
obvious, however, and were out-
lined by Helen Hill Miller in New
Republic.
FIRSTMrs. Miller points out, in
1928American' Catholic were
mostly immigrants: Irish, Ger-
mans, or southern and eastern
Europeans. Such a composition of
the Catholic population, coupled
with the fact Smith was from the
Catholic-Jewish melting pot New
York City, aroused all the nativism
of non-metropolitan America.
Second, the Ku Klux Klan was
in full revival in the Twenties, a
more powerful factor on a na-
tional scale than the White Citi-
zens Councils could possibly be.
For one thing the Klan itself was
strong outside the South-one of
its citadels was Indiana. For an-
other, anti-Catholic prejudice was
a major concern of the Klan, in
contrast to the situation today
when there is no organization with
the ability or inclination to dis-
seminate anti - Catholic propa-
ganda on such a wide-spread scale.
Further, she continues, Catholics
are no longer a minority or even a
well - defined group outside the
South. She lists admittedly im-
perfect statistics for the 50% of
the United States population with
church affiliation. In New England
three-fourths are Catholic, in the
Mid-Atlantic states five-eighths,
in the North Central states five-
twelfths in the South only one-
fifth, but one-half in the West
with the margin slightly higher on
the Pacific coast.
(OBVIOUS OBJECTIONS can be
raised to these figures. Chief
among them is the fact that the
half of the population not pro-
fessing any affiliation is over-
whelmingly Protestant in back-
ground and can be expected to
have the same type of prejudice as
active Protestants.
DESPITE the "handicap" of rich
family background, which has
been overcome by presidents from
George Washington to F. D. R.,
Senator Kennedy has gained a
great deal of support from coast
to coast. A liberal with a voting
record called "83 per cent liberal"
by the' Americans for Democratic
Action, he is well-received by con-
servatives who know his father.
He is acknowledged by Democratic
leaders in Kansas and Oklahoma
to be the leading presidential can-
didate. Recently he supported the
Supreme Court at a Jackson, Miss.
dinner and won a standing ovation
for his speech, not to mention the
blessings of Gov. James P. Cole-
man. The South had lent him
considerable support for the vice-a
presidential nomination. Midwest
support is quite significant, how-
ever, since his vote against 90 perl
cent of parity rigid farm price
supports had cost him his place]
on the 1956 ticket.
KENNEDY'S supporters and the
Senator himself realize his
boom is gathering speed and he
needs good Republican competi-
tion in 1958. "If the Republicans
run against us, he'll eat the slate,"
a Kennedy advisor said.
And Kennedy will still have to
enter primaries to demonstrate hisl
strength outside the East. He faces1
also the jinx that only Warren
Ha
re
Se
sic
wi
P0
po
fa
ed
cle
ma
tic
co
St
wl
ke
to:
He
so perfect
for that Easter
dtown. South .. .
THE KREMLIN--While in Moscow, Pat and Izora photographed
the Kremlin, visited the Stalin-Lenin Mausoleum and suffered
through a heat wave.
Thus, according to Ogbugn and
Talbot, Prohibition as a voting
issue was the most significant fac-
tor in defeating Smith, nearly half
again as important as his religion.
These findings, however, are
subject to two obvious criticisms.
First they ignore the South, five
states of which went Republican
in what seems more anti-Smith
voting than pro-Hoover. Second,
the body of anti-Catholic prejudice
is not directly proportional to the
number of Catholics in the popu-
lation, although this enters in.
BE THAT, as it may, Smith was
subjected to a whispering cam-
paign unlike any ever seen. Abet-
a
''
when I told him they were far
better off than Russian workers,"
says Pat. She heard a soldier shout
something about wanting to visit
America, but he was shouted down
by the crowd.-
At the Opera one night, Izora
observed a basic propaganda
theme : "The plot of the opera
concerned peasants otherthrowing
the bourgeosie."
Also a curious custom: During
the intermission, people in the
audience walked around in a large
circle in the lobby, talking."
Her high heels attracted much
attention from onlookers, since
Russian shoes are large and un-
wieldy, almost indescribable.
Throwing cigarettes on the lob-
by floor was distinctly no good,
Izora discovered when she did, and
got so many fierce stares from,
soldiers she retrieved the butt and
tossed it in the basket provided
for such refuse.
PAT RECALLS her strangest ex-
perience in Leningrad: walking
down a street, she wandered into
a shop after buying a ticket at
the door. The room was filled with
people waiting for something; a
few eating ice cream. She had no
idea what the place was, everyone
seemed to be waiting quietly, and
a large variety of cats were walk-
ing around and jumping on the
tables. She left without ever dis-
covering where she had been.
Probably at a cat show.
The girls were taken to the train
for Moscow by a flock of Russian
students, many presumably planted
by the police. Earlier in the day,
a friend had taken Pat to see a
famous Russian film star. "He was
ugly," was her comment.
THE TRAIN to Moscow was filled
with Chinese Communists and
North Korean soldiers who all put
on pajamas en route to better
withstand this 11-day journey.
The excellent Russian Vodka was.
found to be most useful in forti-
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