"It Looks As If Somebody Had Pay TV"
NITg Sd$dl;an E&Zih
Sixty-Eighth Year
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UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLbG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241
Opinions Are Free
b Will Prevail"
>rials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This nust be noted in all reprints.
i, FEBRUARY 16, 1958
NIGHT EDITOR: RICHARD TAUB
Vocational High Schools
Suggested for This Country
ROF. IVAN ROZHIN'S declaration here Fri-
day that Soviet institutions on the college
l do not compare with those of the West
aes as quite a shock in the midst of all the
r-tearing over the Sputniks.
'et Prof. Rozhin went on for over an hour
support this charge. He outlined in detail
eaucratic confusion which has put similar
;itutions under a variety of different gov-
mental bodies. He described Moscow favor-
n which gives the Russian Republic a dis-
portionate share of colleges and the best-
ipped colleges.
ni answer to questions from the audience
f. Ruzhin toldofstudent distaste for the
ocrisy needed to stay in favor, and thus
be able to do graduate work.
et what do all these criticisms mean in the
g run? Are they, and the similar statements
le by Vasky Prychodko on Soviet secondary
cation, not comparisons of the difference
ween a democracy and a totalitarian state?
h speakers in the Ukrainian Student Club
nposium admitted the quality of Soviet tech-
al education to be high. This is hardly
azing, since they had close to 1200 pounds
satellites up there circling the earth before
successfully launched our 30-pound job.
; might then be helpful to compare a
icism of U.S. secondary schools, which have
n bearing the brunt .of the attack, with
chodko's statements. U.S. News and World
iort recently devoted cover space and a
aber of pages to an article by Prof. Arthur
tor of the University of Illinois on "What
nt Wrong with U.S. Schools."
HE BASIC TROUBLE, Prof. Bestor began, is
the persons running our public school sys-
i lost sight of the main purpose of education
amely, intellectual training. Educationists
ame so intoxicated with the idea of mere
they were ready to lower standards to
leve it."
'ourses in "life adjustmept," according to the
nois educator, replaced basic disciplines such
math and science. Reading, writing and
hmetic must be stressed; at the same time
3 Rs are elementary school subjects and
h schools must push physics, chemistry and
her mathematics.,
Ietting to the core of the problem, Prof.
tor pointed out that a high school student
in no position to make such a decision-he
sn't know how important the subject may
to him. Furthermore, he can't really know
ether he likes a subject until he has actually
k his teeth into it."
rof. Bestor blamed lack of student incentive
the quality of teaching and on the fact that
eve average students are lumped in together
a the mediocre and worse. No one expects,
declared, that all Russian high school stu-
ts take five years of physics, 10 of mathe-
ics, or five of a foreign language. But those
> graduate do, he pointed out.
ow do the Russian high schools, which
st be getting results, compare along the
% suggested by Bestor?
Prychodko told of Soviet trouble with the
same problem facing the U.S.--lowering stan-
dards. During the period 1952-55, he said,
between one-third and one-half of all students
in Soviet secondary schools flunked out. The
answer of the government to this problem was
to lower standards, but by de-emphasizing hu-
manities, not by eliminating math or science
requirements.
Incentive never quite becomes an issue in
USSR, as it does here, because superior students
are given a choice of intellectual discipline,
then kept to it, while the less talented just go
to work in the factories.
Prychodko recalled that at one period in
their muddled development Soviet schools had
had the problem of quality of graduates on a
much worse level than we do now. In 1930 they
used a brigade system, in which the brighter
students dragged the duller through to gradua-
tion. As often happens, however, practicality
overcame socialist theory and now the Soviets
do not attempt to make precision instruments
of everyone.
Some of the same points can be made con-
cerning Prof. Rozhin's criticism of Soviet higher
education. The Communists have never been
loath to sacrifice theory for expediency. It is
true Russian colleges and technical schools are
more numerous and better equipped than those
of far-off Uzbekistan SSR, but many Uzbeks do
not speak Russian, many, have nationalistic
feeling, many are not too enthusiastic Com-
munists. Why educate them as well as the Mus-
covite Russians, who are most likely to produce
scientists at a reasonable expense? On the
other hand, if an Einstein were born in Uzbeki-
stan or Siberia, the government would see- he
were adequately taken care of. From a purely
practical view, given a limited education budget
one must put it where the greatest returns will
be gotten.
All of this brings the issue back to us. What
do we do now?
We could don white robes, cry "Death before
dishonor" and jump over a cliff. We could don
our horned helmets and take up our maces-
and-chain, feeling it is preferable to be a live
Goth to being a dead Roman.
Prof. Bestor of Illinois suggests a middle way,
a method which seems to be working well for
our European allies. It is the vocational high
school. Steps have been taken toward vocational
training in American high schools, but in most
cases the bright are held back by the slow.
We simply aren't stiff enough in sorting out
the less talented.
What is important, is that we effectively
utilize what resources we do have. American
high schools graduate approximately the same
number as do those of USSR. As Prof. Bestor
declared, our government should institute na-
tional examinations of the college board type
and limit federal subsidies to basic subjects as
opposed to agriculture and driver training. In
this way we'll get our money's worth.
--THOMAS TURNER
.;. . .', -- -_________________f
t/
*i., MEM 6
rT ' Jr 0P sl I Pc+4 ' _T Co.a
LONG-RANGE PROGRAM:
Prominent Educator
Outlines Reform Plan
By G. K. HODENFIELD
Associated Press Education Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS- America's high schools are teaching space age
mathematics with horse and buggy methods, a leading educator has
charged.
Dr. Howard T. Fehr of Columbia University said some concepts of
mathematics being taught today originated in the 17th and 18th cen-
turies. They are no longer valid, he said, and should be discarded.
Fehr outlined to the national convention of secondary school
principals a long-range program of reformation. He called for special
and separate courses for the superior, average and below-average stu-
dents; new material and better textbooks, and emphasis on training and
Lv+9
A
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND:
Ies .Texan Headache
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON - Jack Porter,
the reckless Texas letter writ-
er who bragged about the $100,000
Texas political fund to get the
natural gas bill passed, has caused
various headaches for the White
House.
He first broke into the headlines
in 1952 when Sen. Jim.Duff of
Pennsylvania went to Texas to
corral Eisenhower delegates for
the Chicago convention. His
chummy relationship with Jack
Porter caused John Bennett, an-
other early Eisenhower booster,
to call Duff on the phone.
"Are you in Texas to get dele-
gates or to put Jack Porter on the
front pages?"' he aysked.
"You're in Washington, I'm in
Texas," Duff replied, and that
ended a friendship between the
two Eisenhower rooters.
PORTER GOT INTO the news
once again when Eisenhower
wrote him the "Dear Jack" letter
promising that tidelands oil would
go to Texas. Oilman Sid Richard-
son made a special trip to Paris
to sell General Eisenhower on tide-
lands oil. This was the cue for
Texas oil millionaires to dump all
sorts of money into the 1952 cam-
paign.
They had reason to gripe later
over the fact that Ike's Justice
Department hasn't gone along
with the entire tidelands giveaway.
Porter continued in the good
graces of Eisenhower, and Ike ev-
en talked to Helen Reid, then pub-
lisher of the New York Herald
Tribune, about the campaign to
make him GOP National Commit-
teeman from Texas in opposition
to Henry Zweifel.
Eventually Porter's propensity
for writing letters began to worry
the White House. The recent let-
ter asking for $100,000 at a testi-
monial dinner for ex-speaker Joe
Martin in. order to pass the Natu-
ral Gas Bill was not his first let-
ter-writing faux pas.'
Porter also wrote every post-
master and federal job-holder in
Texas in 1954, asking them to con-
tribute to the GOP for the cost
of "processing" a job. Many con-
sidered this in violation of the
Hatch Act, but the Justice De-
partment did nothing about it.
Close to Roy Cullen, the big
Texas oilman, Porter pplashed
money all over the country for
various candidates, and it was
never fully known whether he was
contributing for himself or for
Cullen. One of his most famous
contributions was $5,000 to John
Butler of Maryland when the late
Joe McCarthy helped Butler de-
feat Sen. Millard Tydings.
*' * *
SHORTLY BEFORE scowling
ambassador Georgi Zaroubin re-
turned to Moscow, he attended an
unusual dinner party at the Swiss
Embassy.
For weeks last fall Nikita
Khrushchev, Zaroubin's boss in the
Kremlin, had pounded at Turkey.
He accused Turkey of mobilizing
troops, of threatening to invade
Syria, of being the tool of the cap-
italist United States. It looked for
a while as if Russia was on the
verge of,.bombarding Turkey.
At the Swiss Embassy the other
night, however, who should turn
up as dinner, guests but both the
Turkish Ambassador, Ali S. H. Ur-
guplu, and Ambassador Zaroubin.
Swiss Ambassador Henry de -Tor-
rente was carrying out the tradi-
tion of Swiss neutrality.
Also at the dinner was genial
Homer Capehart, the cherubic
senator from Indiana. Capehart,
as usual, was full of good humor.
The Turkish and Russian ambas-
sadors were charming and polite,
even engaged in animated and
friendly conversation with each
other. The party was a success.
At one time, Senator Capehart
joshed the departing Russian
ambassador.
"I suppose I'll never get another
visa to enter Russia," he said.
"You are a hundred per cent
right," replied Ambassador Za-
roubin, "unless you bring Mrs.
Capehart with you."
-Headlines and Footnotes-
John Ashton resigned as presi-
dent of the Men's Republican
League when other Republicans
invited rabble rouser Gerald L. K.
Smith to be the Lincoln Day
speaker at the League's luncheon
in San Diego. He said Smith's
anti-Semitic views were out of
harmony with those of Abraham
Lincoln..,
Gen. Julius Klein, the Chicago
lobbyist, has been boasting that he
can deliver Congressman Mannie
Celler of Brooklyn. . . . He got
Celler to insert a laudation of
Klein in the Congressional Record
to prove it.. ..,
Despite internal troubles in In-
donesia, popular Indonesian Am-
bassador Moekarto Notowidigdo
continues to run one of the most
efficient embassies in Washing-
ton. . . .
HERE ARE SOME of the things
able Ambassador Llewellyn Thomp
able Ambassador Llewellyn
Thompson has reported to the
State Department from Moscow:
Contrary to newspaper reports,
Nikita Khrushchev doesn't get
loaded at cocktail parties. He
drinks somewhat, but holds his
liquor well.
When he sounds off to newsmen
it is not because he's tight, but
rather becausse he wants to plant
some ideas in the press of the
Western World. Khrushchev is
extremely careful in what he says,
even rehearses in advance. He likes
to waltz up to groups at a cock-
tail party and sound as if he were
slightly i n e b r i a t e d-but, says
Thompson, it ain't so.
(Copyright 1958 by Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
re-training math teachers on the
high school level.
Fehr said short term "crash
programs" might do more harm
than good and that the problem
should be attacked on a long range
basis.
He proposed this revised sched-
ule of mathematics instructions,
based on the recommendations of
a commission of mathematicians
that studied the problem for three
years under a grant from the
Carnegie Foundation:
Geometry and algebra should be
introduced in the seventh and
eighth grades. The program should
be so designed that superior stu-
dents could complete it in one or
one and one-half years, then go on
immediately to the four-year high
school program.
The four-year high school course
would be about one-half algebra,
one-third geometry and one-sixth
analysis and statistics. For the
small per cent of exceedingly cap-
able students, the program could
be covered in three years, allow-
ing a fourth year of analytic geo-
metry and calculus "of true col-
lege quality."
Fehr emphasized, however, that
"a course in calculus is regarded
strictly as a college mathematics
program and should not be taught
in any high school except to the
most able students, and only by a
teacher qualified to teach college
mathemaitcs."
Within his proposed six - year
program, Fehr called for an over-
haul of the courses themselves to
do away with "a hodge-podge of
many unrelated subjects" and "a
re-hash and stew of everything
under the sun."
Immediate steps should be tak-
en, he said, to produce as quickly
as possible mathematics textbooks
that are basically correct and up-
to-date.
Fehr also outlined a number of
ways in which the current short-
age of qualified teachers in the
field of mathematics could be met.
Colleges and universities pre-
paring students for careers in
teaching should toughen their sub-
ject matter and tighten their re-
quirements, he said. College pro-
fessors themselves should be giv-
en refresher courses so they could
pass on new developments in the
field.
High school teachers should con-
tinue their education during -eve-
nings and on Saturdays, and in
summer vacation period institutes
-and local and state school dis-
tricts should help finance this pro-
gram.
Fehr said it would be unwise and
unnecessary in this day of teacher
shortage to pull qualified teachers
out of the classrooms, where they
are badly needed, and send them
off to year-long refresher courses.
Colleges and universities should
concentrate on producing new and
younger teachers of mathematics,
Fehr said, and qualified teachers
in related fields should be trained
in mathematics.
Waste
OF ALL high school graduates in
the top 30 per cent of their
class, only half ever go on to
college. About one in five students
in the top quarter does not even
stay in high school long enough
to graduate.
-Time
LEITERS
to the
EDITOR
Still Kicking
To The Editor:
WOULD LIKE to take issue with
Mr. Tarr's recent, editorial
(Daily, February 11) in which,
among other things, he discusses
the recent debate between the
Young Democrats and the Young
Republicans.
First of all, Mr. Tarr contends
that "only one of the speakers ap-
peared well prepared." I feel that
both of our debaters were well
prepared and that both did an
outstanding job in stifling the
"generalities" of the GOP de-
baters.
As to the YR debaters, I can
only say that their difficulties
were no doubtbdue to the fact
that the Republican Party, both
in this state and nationally, has
no valid issues whatsoever upon
which to base an appeal for public
office.
* * *
SECONDLY, as to Mr. Tarr's
suggestion that more debates be
held in the future, I can assure
him that the Young Democrats
would be delighted to debate the
YR's on the great issues of the
day, including the Republican re-
cession, our defunct foreign policy,
our missiles unpreparedness, and
the inadequate support of educa-
tion in America.
Thirdly, Mr. Tarr states that we
"have not died completely." No,
Mr. Tarr, we have not died com-
pletely! As the major political
club on this campus, with our
club's membership at the highest
point in its history, we are not
completely dead!
* * *
WITH OUR new program of
weekly meetings featuring discus-
sions of major political issues by
faculty members and visiting po-
litical personalities, in conjunction
with our regular political activities.
we are not completely dead !
In fact, Mr. Tarr, with the pro-
spect of 34 more crucial months
of Republican Administration in
Washington, we expect a phe-
nominal increase in the member-
ship of the Democratic Party, not
only on this campus, but all over
America.
If this is death, then we look
forward tototal annhlation.
-Joe Sanger, '58, President
Young Democratic Club
.1
'I-
.
1
ti
"I
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS:
Parenthood, Regent Discussed
DAILY
OFFICIAL
BULLTIE
The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of the Univer-
sity of Michigan for which the
Michigan Daily assumes no editori-
al responsibility. Notices should ne
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3519 Administration Build-
ing, before 2 p.m. the day preceding
publication. Notices for Sunday
Daily due at 2:00 p.m. Friday.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1953
VOL. LXVIII, No. 95
[HIS WEEK the rushing season gained steam
in the sororities, and it will pick up more
'hen - the fraternities begin their "spring"
ishing.
Nye would hesitate to offer any advice to a
ishee-man or woman-choosing between in-
ependent and affiliated living, since of these
)ur ways of campus life no single man or
oman really knows more than one.
But as an outsider we. would offer some ob-
rvations about the nature of the affiliated
rstem, which have the advantage of perspec-
ve and the disadvantage of lack of intimacy
ith the system, and which should be accounted
r discounted accordingly.
Selectivity, as any rushee knows, is the heart
the affiliated system at the University. It is
ie basis upon which the system attempts to
sure the compatability of its members, and
le process of selection can be as painful or as
easurable as its results.
Some may want to choose between affiliated
nd the various forms of independent living on
ie merits of the idea of selectivity as a basis
r choosing those with whom one lives, or on
ie efficacy or desirability of the affiliated sys-
m's unique method of selection, i.e. one may
gue that careful selection of house-mates is
r is not the key to rewarding living, that rush-
.g and hashing as a means of selection does or
>es not lead to the most rewarding combina-
ons of men and women, that it does or does
ot justify in its rewards to those who are se-
eted the cruelties it inflicts upon those who
> not.
JUT ASIDE from the general issues which any
rushee must face in evaluating the system as
whole, the crucial issue would seem to be the
sis, rather than the means, by which com-
tability is attempted. The matter of arbi-
ary bases for selection-the constitutional
But such restrictions are just one example of
a more general problem-does the affiliated
group see its compatability as deriving from
the similarity or the diversity of its members,
i.e. does it select members whose characteris-
tics-religious or racial backgrounds, academic
and extra-curricular interests, social class,
physical dimensions and psychological needs--
complement or duplicate those of the rest of
the members.
We would suggest that it is impossible to
group the more than 60 fraternities or sorori-
ties one way or another on this question; but
we would also suggest that there are great dif-
ferences among the 60-plus, and that the per-
sonal development, educational experience and
sustained interest which the group does or does
not offer the person entering it depends very
much on how it meets his problem.
THIS WEEK saw what might actually be de-
scribed as a revolution. Arthur Miller said in
his 1953 Holiday Magazine article, "The Michi-
gan Daily keeps bewailing apathy' among its
students ..I- went back to the Daily building
and looked up the papers of my day, '34 to '38.
I was surprised and amused to read that the
Michigan student was a lizard, apathetic, unin-
terested in campus affairs." This week saw'Nor-
man Thomas lecture to a full house in the spa-,
cious Rackham auditorium on a Friday night;
it saw a debate between the YDs and YRs; it
saw dozens of students cluster around Senators
Morton and Humphrey in South Quadrangle,
although their lecture series debate was no
better attended than most of the presentations
this year, even if it was livelier.
This week saw the YD's and the Political Is-
sues Club join the Congregational Disciples,
the Student Association for Intercultural Liv-
ing, the Human Relations Board and the IHC
integration committee in their concern over kes-
',
'PEOPLE SEEM TO SHY AWAY':
Mistaken Identity Creates 'Social Leper'
(Editor's Note: More than 15 years.
ago, John J. Egan was declared in-
sane in a case of "almost incredible
negligence." Now, he's legally cleared
in all but the minds of neighbors and
prospective employers. This is his
strange story.)
By FRED POWLEDGE
CLINTON, CONN. OP)--For the
better-part of 15 years, John J.
Egan has lived in the shadow of a
maddening nightmare.
He spent five of those years in
and out of mental institutions in
what the U.S. Court of Claims
called a case of 'mistaken iden-
tity and almost incredible negli-
gence" on the part of the govern-
ment.
And, for the past 10 years, he
has been fighting to convince
neighbors and employers he is not
only sane, but was never insane
in the first place.
EGAN'S RECORD is legally clear
now. But after 15 years, he's a-
broken man. He has no job and
firmary when a fight broke out
between an enlisted man and an
officer. One of the brawlers was
being treated for mental troubles.
Egan started to separate -the
two. The next thing he knew, he
was being restrained and a needle
was going into his arm. When he
woke up, the tragic mistake had
happened. As far as the Navy
Department was concerned, he
was insane.
The Court of Claims, ruling on
the case last month, found that
witnesses to the fight had lied to
make it easy on the enlisted man.
They said the fight never hap-
pened. The Navy concluded Egan
imagined it.
Egan was shipped back to the
States and began the rounds of
various government mental insti-
tutions near Washington. No one
in the institutions believed his
story. Most insane persons are
sane to themselves.
« a T.T irn?.a rnr r - t , ,..- - ,.ii-* I
case. He was officially released
from the mental institution in
1943, a year after the Samoa mix-
up.
Then another Egan came into
the picture.
A search of records showed a
John J. Egan had been discharged
from the Army on mental grounds
in 1942, the year Egan transferred
to the Marines. The names were
the same and the serial numbers
were similar. The Marine Corps,
thinking the two men were one,
discharged Egan. He appealed and
lost.-
Egan, now a civilian, found a
job with the Veterans' Administra-
tion in Hartford. The VA learned
that his military record was 'not
clear. They fired him on Christmas
Eve, 1945.
* * *
HE APPEALED and was rein-
stated; then fired again. In 1948,
his case was reviewed by the Sec-
stitutions. even though their rec-
ords may be clear.
Egan didn't quit fighting. His
attorney took the case to court
and, after an involved legal pro-
cess, the Claims Court ruled that
Egan was due a captain's back
pay for the five years he had been
declared insane.
The Claims Court also termed
Egan's mistaken identity an "as-
tounding piece of misinformation
and carelessness" on the govern-
ment's part.j
Money has been coming in,I
slowly and gradually. Egan, has a
a pension from the Social Security
Administration. His service back
pay will start soon. His wife does
bookkeeping for a local firm. John
Jr., 16, has a part-time job. That's
all.
EGAN THINKS a boat would
solve a lot of his problems. He
wants to try lobstering on nearby
Long Island Sound. The govern-
ment will not hire him for civil.
Lectures
Dr. Enoch Callaway of the Psychi-
atric Institute, University Hospital, Bal-
timore, Md., will present a University
Lecture in the Auditorium of Chii-
dren's Psychiatric Hospital on Tue.,.
Feb. 18 at 8:00 p.m. The topic will bo
"Focus of Attention." Sponsored by the
Department of Psychiatry of the Medi-
cal School.
Division of Biological Sciences: Dr.
Rene J. Dubos, member of the Rocke-
feller Institute, Consultant in Biology,
will speak on "Social Patterns of Di.
sease" at 8:00 p.m. in the Rackham
Amphitheatre, on Tues., Feb. 18.
Concerts
Faculty Concert: Gustave Rosseels,
Lecturer in violin and Chamber Mu-
sic, and Second violinist of the Stanley
Quartet, and Benning Dexter, Assoc.
Prof. of Piano in the School of Music,
will appear in a joint recital at 8:30
p.m. Sun., Feb. 16, in Lydia Mendel-
ssohn Theater.The program will include
Bach's Sonata in A major, Hindemith's
Sonata in D major, Op.. ll,' No. 2, and
Franck's Sonata in A major. Sponsored
by the School of Music, Open to the
general public without charge.
Academic Notices
National Zeta Tau Alpha Competitive
Scholarship. Eligibility: undergraduate
women. Qualifications: B average or
better; genuine need. Preference to up-
coming. seniors and studeints in Edu-
cation. Amount $300. Apply Office of
the Dean of Women.
w_ 4 ' ;
A -'