PAGE FOUR Editorial Opinion East-West As Premier Khrushchev's December 31 showdown date on West Berlin creeps closer it is quite evident that both East and West intend to make this free city a doctrinal touchstone. 4t is here that the West can achieve a tremendous boost for democracy, but it is here also where the West comes closest to entering another war. Khrushchev says he wants a "peace treaty" with East and West Germany and the withdrawal of all military forces from West Berlin. If this does not come about, he says, he will sign a treaty with East Germany and turn over to it the fragile access routes that connect the city with Western Germany. The Kennedy Administration is making it quite clear that no matter who controls these routes, the Allies expect to continue having free access to Berlin. As the situation is intensified by proposed control measures by the East and defense increases by both East and West, two issues are emerging upon which the West can gain much psychological and political advantage. The first of these is the plight of the East German. Extreme food shortages and lack of acceptance of col lectivised farming have caused much resentment behind the city's Iron Curtain. Berlin is the only chink in the Kremlin's iron armor. Here, for little more than a nickel, dissatisfied Easterners can take a subway to the West section.. Last week more than 7,000 East Germans decided to move to the city's more prosperous half. These immigrants are a drain to the economy of the Eastern Sector and a thorn in the side of Communism. A half million unfilled jobs await these people, a cost of living that is almost 30 per cent lower awaits them and most of -all, a freedom that is all too conspicuous by its absence in the Eastern half. By encouraging people to move to West Berlin the Allies . can slowly suck the blood out of the Communist movement in Germany. A concerted effort should be made to draw these people out. Khrushchev is so worried that he has strengthened restrictions on travel to the West Sector, to consumer purchasing and to currency exchange. The other issue which the West must employ to its own advantage is the self-determinetion' issue, the right of East Germans to have free elections. Stalin agreed to it at Yalta 'and Potsdam and Khrushchev, himself, agreed to it at Geneva. What happened to these promises? By pressing this issue the West might easily turn the tables on the chubby Premier. This just might be the trick to get the non-committed neutral nations to sanction the Kremlin. But the issue will have to be much harder pressed than it has been. So far the neutral nations have not expressed any concern over East German self-determination. They have remained conspicuously quiet on this explosive question. It is obvious that they are fence-sitting and afraid of losing their neutral standing by being labeled pro-West or pro-East. But this situation can be altered by convincing them of the injustice of the situation and stressing Rus sia's failure to live up to its promises. By a concentrated effort using The Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other propaganda organs and by repeatedly bringing this issue before the United Nations, the West might not only be able to swing the neutral naljons but may also spark a self-determination movement in East Germany, itself. The neutral nations could, in effect, be made to side with the West on this topic and yet not lose their neu trality. They would not become pro-West, but pro-self determination—and this would be a sizable blow to Com munist practices in not only Germany but in many of the satelite countries. If these two issues can be turned to our advantage, the showdown in December will be far from what Khrush chev planned for. The West will have out-maneuvered him and his position will be far from solid. He, of course, could push the situation over the brink and into war, but evidence seems to indicate that he is not quite ready for that yet. And if the present East Berlin situation can be used as an index, he may be busy plugging the dike from his side of the Curtain. A Student-Operated Newswire? Toliggiatt Successor to The Free Lance, eat. 1887 Pulaivhed Tuevday, June 13 and every Thursday thereafter from June 2! through Auguat 11. The Summer Collegian Iv a student-operated newspaper. Entered as 'frond class matter July 5, 1934 at the State College, Pa. Pout Office under the act of &larch 3. 1579. b/Pil Subscription Prices Fifty rent. for 10 Tearer RICHARD LEIGHTON WAYNE HILINSKI Editor .444 D * " Business Manager Touchstone SUMMER .COLLEGJAN, STATE..OOI,LEGE, ,PENNSYLVANIA Dateline Washington Attempting to extract specific information from a busy politician can be a pain f u l yet educational process. Last summer, for example, this reporter was told a story she wrote would be worthwhile for the United Press Interna tional news wire only. if some Congressman would say what she was illustrating. The exact topic of the story has long since been forgotten but the trials involved and the mistakes made proved valuable training. First mistake: picking the senator to try to quote for name rather than political out look. Barry Goldwater's con servatism was making news at post-convention time, but this intrepid novice was lured by the man's prominence, rather than what he might say. She traveled from the UPI office to the Capitol. Flying much too far above ground, she kept her appointment out side the Senate chamber with the Arizona Republican. She made several unsuccesful attempts to ease Goldwater around to saying something she could quote to start her story. And after even more unsuccess ful attempts to keep her mind on the story in the first place, she came to earth with a thud —figuratively, that is. Only then did the young dreamer realize her two funda mental errors. First of all, Gold water was much more adept at dealing with the press than she with him, and, more important, he wasn't about to agree with her in the first place, Still undaunted, she tried to build a story on his comments. Not startling enough not even mildly so, the editor said. So she switched strategy, re vised the interview questions and selected another target more carefully this time. She choose a more liberal Republi can. (Vaguely speaking, the story was about southern Dem ocrats and their roles in Con gress.) Congress had just closed up shop for the summer. So at home that evening, the report er called several senators who were clearing up last minute office work before evacuating Washington to mend political fences at home. These men, too, were equally skillful at avoiding the issue while sounding like they were n't. Through with her tele phone calls, the reporter had a page lull of notes "full of the, sound and the fury, signifying nothing." One last `ditch try at a work (Continued on page six) A Bad Book Thought Good By STEPHEN R. BLUM Contributing Writer The book reviewers are, for a change, almost unan imous. They all seem to feel Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" is a great . book, a contribution to American literature. I should like to offer a considered disagree ment for, you see, not only do I feel it is a bad book, but I also think that it is full of obscenity of a rather non literary sort. Tropic is another in the growing line of literary efforts which, along with trying to be a good piece of creative writ ing, is trying to rid this coun try of its Neo-Victorian pru dishness that so well manifests itself in what we call the "double standard" of morality. We have the' "say" standard, and then there is the often al together "do" standard. This is about the only message that I can get out of Miller's Kerouac like sentences. Let there be no mistake: if this be the message than I ful ly agree with it. I just don't think that the way which Mill- accents Going to the Dogs The Great Dane-Beagle battle is half over now. The Senate has sent the House a bill designating the Great Dane as the official dog of the Commonwealth. 'Whether or not the bill passes the House becomes immaterial when you consider the fact that this very important issue actually was pressed into a winning vote in the Senate by one industrious lobbyist, Mrs. Henry Peirsol, styled Great Dane Lobbyist, put up quite a battle in the Senate. She came up a gainst some for midable com petition from many sports men' s groups (and, lest we not forget, even from this col umnist). LEIGHTON But her flambouyant tactics won out. Her introduction of three dogs (Great Dane, Poodle and Beagle) to the Senate chamber was an unprecedented succ e s s. She evidently im pressed the stoic Senators by parading this canine entourage before them. Soon after this dog walk the Senate paSsed the Dane bill. When the vote was announced. Mrs. Peirsol got up and planted a kiss on one of her ardent supporters, Sen. Martin Silvert, D-Phila., much to the enjoyment of his col leagues Now Mrs. peirsol is a crowd pleaser and evidently capable of influencing the legislators. Why don't we hire her? She couldn't do much worse than our lobbyists, and, besides, it might make our budget a fun thing for the Harrisburg set. Can't you picture the legisla tors waiting expectantly every two years to see what she will do. They would he assured of a show, and if they passed a reasonable allocation, they could all line up and be kissed by the lovely lobbyist. She might try a variation of her dog walk. She could lead into the chamber a professor dressed in his shabbiest suit, a senior who will have to quit if there is a tuition raise and a high school student who was refused admittance because there just isn't room for him. Why, the lobbying possibili ties are infinite. She could sprint gaily down the aisles waving a Back the Budget Banner and lightly tossing fire crackers at sleeping legislators. Yes, I say hire her. If we can get her enthused enough I'm sure she will be able to im press the State with the im portance of our cause. She has what it takes, to get .attention er's book makes this point is anything other than a sensa tional usage of lewdness. The book is almost a moment by moment autobiography of the trials and troubles of , the fledgling artist in Paris. The garishness, the ugliness, and the impersonality of this man's Paris are all there, along with a rather phenomenal occupa tion with what is politely called the carnal. George Orwell in his "Down and Out in Paris and London" did a far more skillful job of portraying th e not-so -young artist who has become an ex patriate and who is seeking, in city of the Lost Generation, to both become lost and to find value and identification which the world so far has not of fered. Miller's main point seems to be that things can be ugly and still a person can find happi ness. This mesage is brought to the reader in multivarious forms, most of which seem to indicate that happiness is just a synonym for sexual inter course. Miller goes almost as far as advocating ugliness as value, which gets dangerously close to THURSDAY, JULY 20. 1961 dick ieighton focused on important issues. We might even be able to succeed in getting legislators to think that our budget is just as important as having a State dog. Letters Parking Lots Disillusioning TO THE EDITOR: Being a new student from Ogontz this sum mer, I was quite disillusioned by the fact that a student liv ing in West Halls must travel cross-country to a distant park ing lot somewhere near the ani mal barns. But to add insult to injury I was appalled by the condition of lot No. 53. Not only is this lot corroded with pot holes ranging from three to six inches in depth, but the surface is such that any dark colored car exposed to this dust-filled at mosphere for more than a day is in dire need washing. My inquiry here is why are not some of the fees collected from the students, faculty, etc:, for the privilege of parking on campus used to make this and other lots safe and usable. Also concerning lot No. 11 which is located off Borrowes Road, this lot has unrestricted parking after 5:30 p.M. daily and on various times on week ends. Since this lot is never filled in the, summer by those assigned to it I see no reason why a limited number of stu dents are not allowed to park there. However, upon restrospection perhaps the reason for this is that this lot is probably deemed unsafe for student parking; for a few nights ago I suddenly found myself get ting off the ground and check ing my leg to see if it was stilt intact. It seems that there are sev eral holes (probably used for drainage) big enough to catch' an unwary foot and holding it for what might be a serious ac cident. Again I ask what are these parking fees we must pay being used for? as a group of one, am tak ing it upon myself to inform the administration that these problems I have presented are not unreal and can be seen any day of the year --- if one cares. —Francis B. George% '62 *Letter cut the theological doctrine of re demption through total suffu sion in suffering. There is just no end to the episodes that Miller experi enced. Some of Mese episodes are guaranteed to give any 16 year old erotic dreams, but I doubt that the episodes will impress anyone other than an adolescent. Style is something that ap parently Miller is not familiar with, he at one and the same time tries to imitate, with dis mal failure,it.seems _to me, the interior monologue and then, without any transition, jumps to the passionate prose that reminds one of, Whitman. Too many things 'about this book suggest that it has to have a legal battle, a glib introduc tion from Karl Shapiro, and a very high price even for a hardback, in order to insure popularity. • The fact that the book' had been banned, its publishers, Grove Press, never r' t " t '- ing all comers, as if this, in itself were enough to was. sales. Censorship is one , thing, and we are not concerned with that (Continued on page six)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers