"It Looks As If Somebody Had Pay TV" NITg Sd$dl;an E&Zih Sixty-Eighth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 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 -'