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Pag Two
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
Friday, January G,
4
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"There Are Some Surpluses I Don't Mind"
Porgy A nd Bess Is Must
For The Music Lovers
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.. Jn its sixty-eighth year of editorial freedom, unhampered by restrictions -from
either (he, administration or the student body. ,
-
TiTErDATt.Y Tar Heel is the official student publication of the Publica-
Hons Board of the University of Nortl Ggroljng. Richard Qi crstrret, Chairman.
- Si;:
All editorials appearing in The Daily Tar Heel are the personal expres
sions of the editor, unless othertcise credited; J hey are not ftcccssarily represen
tative, of feeling on the staff, and all reprints or quotations must specify thus.
January 6, 1961
Volume LXIX, Number 78
An Appraisal Of The Honor System:
Invalid, Ineffective And Unjust
The student body of the Univer
sity of North Carolina cannot con
tinue to subject itself to the va
garies and inconsistencies of the
honor system, campus code and
student judiciary. Despite procla
mations of good intent and prom
ises pf more effective operation in
the future, these entities have suc
ceeded in only one respect: thy
have proved themselves totally
inadequate to the job delegated to
them. '
The basic precept of the honor
system is that students are capable
of governing themselves, of deter
mining the relative importance cf
moral and social offenses, and of
determining the force of punish
ments. This is not a valid precept.
At the age of twenty years
(which we may assume to be the
average age of students on the
judicial bodies) no individual is
sufficiently prepared in the law or,
and " of far more importance, in
knowledge and understanding of
human nature to pass judgement
on his fellow beings.- No matter
how fair his intentions, he simply,
is not ready for such a burden.
We elect the officers of the judi
cial bodies in popularity contests;
the name and the face are of more
importance to the student elec
torate than the capabilities. Fra
ternities and sororities vie among
themselves to get members places
on one of the courts. Once elected",
an individual assumes a mantel of
respectability which derives not
from personal factors but from the
nature of the post. The glow ot
this mantel is transferred by asso
ciation to his group, thereby mak
ing his membership an asset. It is
a good rush gimmick.
We assume that we arecapable
of governing ourselves, yet patent
ly refuse to take part in the gov
erning process; in past years as
much as ninety-five per cent of the
infractions reported and acted
upon have been turned in not by
students but by members of the
faculty and administration. There
is a liaison between the Honor
Council and the Office of Student
Affairs which gives evidence that
even the Council knows it cannot
rely solely on student action and
conscience.
We are asked by this system to
report the violations of our fel
lows; yet we, like all human beings,
have an innate distaste for any
system which requires that we
"rat" on our friends or even on
people wo do not know. No pre
cept is valid which goes against
human nature, and this one cer
tainly does.
The honor system is ineffective.
Despite the emphasis placed on
trial, punishment and redemption,
we have seen in the past and will
continue to see in the future that
honor system punishment is total
ly unable to arrest the crimes at
which it is aimed. Cheating, lying
and stealing still go on; those who
have cheated before will cheat
again; the campus is not rid of
those who would cheat, lie or steal.
We do not believe that our honor
system is a good system, or effec
tive system, or a just system. We
have not wanted to believe this;
we had long hoped that we could
continue to find faith in this sys
tem of self-government. We no
longer can.
It is- our belief that the system
must be drastically changed or
totally abolished. This editorial is
only the beginning; there is more
to be said.
Cuba: Tempest In A Teapot
Matters between the United
States and Cuba are rushing with
inexorable and frightening speed
toward an Apocalypse of the Amer
icas which may have the potential
to shatter any illusion of hemis
pheric solidarity that remains.
This tiny little island, seething
only ninety miles from the south
ernmost point of Key West, has
displayed recently a most remark
able ability to disregard the ra
tional and embrace the frenzied.
Whipped to a fever pitch by, Fidel
Castro, master artist of the sham
and half truth, the Cuban people,
have fallen vicitm to the self-glori-
m
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11
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JONATHAN YARDLEY
Editor
Wayne KIng, Mary Stewart Baker
Associate Editors
Margaret Ann Rhymes
Managing Editor
Edward Neai, Riner
Assistant" To The Editor
Henry Mayer, Lloyd Little
News Editors
Susan Lewis Feature Editor
Fiiank Slvsser Sports Editor
Harry W. L.LOYD......Asst. Sports Editor
John Justice, . Davis Young
Contributing Editors
Tim Burnett -Business
.Manager .
R chard VxmxB-..Advertising Manager
John Jester . Circulation Manager
C sables WHEDBEE-Subscription Manager
The Daily Tar Heel is published daily
except Monday, examination periods
and vacations. It is entered as second
class matter in the post office in Chapel
Hill, N. C. pursuant with the act of
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Tbz Daily Tab Heel is a subscriber to
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u illzes the services of the News Bu
rt au of the University of North Caro
li la.
Published by the Colonial Press,
Cianel (1L $. C.s .
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fication that embodied Nazi Ger
many. Castro, puppet dictator of the
Americas, has given vent to a ser
ies of irrational fantasies about
United States warmongering' that
sound like a press release from
Pravda; he has shown himself to be
a venal, mendacious little man,
caapble of rousing other men's
minds and sympathies by lies and
expletives.
the severance of diplomatic re
lationships came too late; for too
long we allowed ourselves to ac
cept diplomatically the barbed in
sults hurled at us from across the
narrow sea. We are now commit
ted to those forces which oppose
Castro and all that he aims to do
in South America. We can only
hope that this commitment has not
come too late.
Now that he is free of the slight
est pretense of friendly relation
ships with the United States, Cas
tro may feel more justified in open
ly welcoming Russian missile bases
and arms. This, he may say, will
be necessary to thwart the "Ameri
can invasion" that he 'claims is
being planned for the eighteenth of
this month.
We can be sure that whatever
Castro aims to do will not be to
the best interests of our people or
our allies in tfris hemisphere. We
must arm ourselves physically and
mentally to meet the challenge of
the puppet. It may be a strong and
vital phallenge. - .
i ff t lily . i lintr
Milt m''r S?
Wade Wellman
Eichmanns Case: A Study In Vengeance
The plot of what Allen Lerner
has called "America's best-loved
operetta," PORGY AND BESS"
is almost as unf amiilar as the
songs are popular. It is the story
of the Negroes who live in Cat
fish Row. Porgy, a cripple who
begs from a goat-cart, returns
one night to find a crap game in
session. On the outskirts of the
crowd hang Sportin' Life, a dope
peddler; Crown, a ruffian; and
Bess, Crown's woman the neigh
borhood outcasts.
A fight erupts between Crown
and another man and ends in the
man's death. The crowd scatters
before the police arrive; Bess is
forced to flee to Porgy's hut be
cause nobody else will hide her.
The two fall in love and she stays
with him. .
They are beginning to live
happily ever-after when Porgy
commits a fatal error by insisting
that Bess attend a picnic without
him. The entire neighborhood,
minus Porgy, goes on the " 'scur
sion" to the picnic island. Crown,
who is hiding there, grabs Bess
as she is hurrying back to t the
boat
111 and exhausted, she finally
makes her way back to Catfish
Row where Porgy tenderly nurses
her through the sickness. She has
scarcely recovered when Crown
comes back to reclaim her. Tra
gedy is averted for the moment
when he vanishes into a hurri
cane which is raging outside.
Early the following morning,
however, he returns to kill Porgy,
who somehow manages, however,
to throttle his attacker.
Another police investigation en
sues; Porgy is forced to go to the
station and identify Crown's
body. While he is gone, Bess runs
away to New York with Sportin'
(Editor's Note: This is the
second installment of a three
part article discussing the
seizure, trial, and sentencing
of Nazi Colonel Adolph Eich
mann. Eichmann was illegally
seized in Argentina by the Is
raeli government some time
ago. He is to stand trial in an
Israeli court on charges of
"crimes against the Jewish
people" during World War II.
He is purportedly responsible
for the slaughtering of some
six million Jews under Hitler's
Third Reich.
A LTHOUGH everyone concedes
that the seizure of Eichmann
was illegal, there is much dis
pute in this country as to the
State is a sovereign principality,
and holds ecclesiastical jurisdic
tion over the entire worldwide
Catholic communion. If Eichmann
had directed his massacres against
European Catholics, would the
Vatican now have the right to
take him covertly from a foreign
country and put hirri on trial be
fore a high ecclesiastical tribu
nal? Does the now-sovereign
Congo Republic have the right
to take jurisdiction in the perse
cution of Negro minorities in the
United States?
ANYONE WHO upholds Israel
in the present controversy should
logically answer both these ques
tions in the affirmative unless
it is held that the usual stand
ards of propriety do not apply to
moral justice of the act, and per- Israel. And it can't be seriously
serious breach of propriety. What
will be done with Eichmann is a
matter of conjecture. People tell
me that Israel can't execute him
now without incurring much
worldwide disapproval. Some
say, also, that the humiliation of
Eichmann has already satisfied
the Jewish thirst for revenge. In
that event, the Israelis can still
make the gesture and return
Eichmann to Buenos Aires, with
due apologies to the Argentine
state. Whether they will do this
is problematical, but there is
nothing impossible about it.
Bob Silliman
The Daily Tar Heel solicits
and is happy to print any let
ter to the editor written by a
member of the University
community, as long as it is
within the accepted bounds of
good taste. NO LETTERS
WILL BE PRINTED IF THEY
ARE OVER 300 WORDS
LONG OR IF THEY ARE
NOT TYPEWRITTEN O R
DOUBLE SPACED. We. make
this requirement purely for
the sake of space and time.
Life, the dope peddler. Porgy re
turns from the station and set
out in hopelessly following hw.
The movie version of George
Gershwin's Porgy mid Bess is a
celebration in stereophonic sound.
The six-speTiker sound system
enhances not only the presenta
tion of the music but also the
drama of the spoken lines. The
choreography is as vivid and
colorful as the sets, especially in
the show's most outstanding
number, "It Ain't Necessarily So."
The acting does not always match
the excellence of these features.
Dorothy Dandridge performs her
lead role with her usual compe
tence, but Sidney Poitier, her co
star, is slightly disappointing as
Porgy. Perhaps the standards he
set for himself in Something of
Value and The Defiant Ones are
too high for even an actor of Mr.
Poitier's caliber to equal con
sistently. Sammy Davis, Jr., por
trays Sportin' Life, the sinister
and conniving Mephistopheles, to
perfection; while in another sup
porting role Pearl Bailey almost
steals the show as the sympa
hetic, strong-charactered cook
Maria. Equally at ease in lines or
lyrics, these two exhibit better
acting and more stage presence
than any other members of the
cast.
On the other hand, however,
Porgy and Bess has some of the
most execrable bit acting seen
since the days of Tom Mix west
erns. Another consistent distrac
tion is the remarkably wretched
dubbing. Although Diahann Car
roll plays the part of Lisa, she is
not permitted to sing "Summer
time." Anyone who has heard her
recording of this song will agree
that to dub in someone else's
voice on "Summertime" consti
tutes disrespect for both the
number and her talent. Perhaps
the major objection to this pro
duction would be that it is done
as a stage show instead of as a
movie. This misfortune makes it
necessary for many characters to
be standing around unnaturally
and rather self-consciously a
good deal of the time and makes
the whole movie less realistic
than it could be.
All things considered, however,
Porgy and Bess remains a must
for those who enjoy good musi
cals. Norwood Pratt
haps some speculation over Is
rael's motive in putting off the
trial until spring of 1961. On this
campus, most people seem to ap
prove the abduction. I asked a
classmate last summer if he
thought Israel was justified. He
shot back, "Hell yes, and I hope
they string him up from the
highest scaffold in Palestine." A
lady who runs one branch of the
library admitted the breach of
legality but added, "I'm glad they
got him." The most frequent at
titude! is that the deed was un
lawful but still, in light of Eich
mann's crimes, justifiable. In
other words: "It violated inter
national law, but the motive was
revenge, therefore it was proper."
MOST CHALLENGING, how
ever, is the theory of "mental
satisfaction" mentioned at the
start of this article. When mental '
satisfaction is obtained at the ex-
pense of legality, its defenders
are caught in a paradox. It is
sometimes urged hat the personal
spitefulness of the Nazi murder
ers, coupled with the intimacy
of the Jewish family and their
long history of oppression from
Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler, entitles
them to special consideration.
But the argument collapses when
subjected to analogy.
For instance, the Vatican City
maintained that the Jewish state,
in deference to the peculiar psy
chology of its people, should be
exempt from the code of interna
tional law. By flouting the Ar
gentine government, and by the
calculated insolence of Ben-Gu-rion's
response to Frondizi, the
Israelis showed either that they
feared a request for extradition
would be rejected, or that their
contempt for legality is such that
the diplomatic rights of a sover
eign nation mean nothing to
them.
EICHMANN is to be tried for
"crimes aaginst the Jewish peo
ple," but this is an unrealistic
wording of the charge. He was
guilty of crimes on a monstrous
scale against humanity; his speci
fic targets were people of Jewish
blood, but the overall design was
to eliminate or reduce all popu
lation groups that did not meet
Nazi race standards hence the
savage iniquities in Poland and
Russia. One wonders, again, if a
man who waged an annihilation
war against European Catholics
should be tried at once by an
international court for crimes
against humanity, or seized arbi
trarily fifteen years later and
tried in Rome for crimes aaginst
the Catholic communion.
Israel has been guilty of a
Playing With Fire: Nuclear Club Grom
Cuban Visitors Unprotected
The break in diplomatic rela
tions with Cuba means that
American citizens wishing to
travel: or stay in Cuba for pleas
ure or business must do so with
out the protection of the U.S.
government. -
Within the framework of previously-imposed
restrictions, tlie
same situation applies to U.S.
citizens who trade with Cuba.
The United States already has
embargoed the shipment of some
items such as arms and potential
war materials to Cuba. This will
be continued.
The quota for Cuban sugar im
ports to this country already has
been cut to zero for the first
quarter of this year by President
Eisenhower. This undoubtedly
wilKbe continued for the rest of
the year at least.
State Department legal experts
said that U.S. citizens are still
free to travel to Cuba if they
wish, so far as this government
is concerned. But the department
strongly advises against it,5 and
the red tape involved may be
considerable. Citizens already in
Cuba cannot be ordered to leave
by this government.
The diplomatic break does not
in itself, make it mandatory for
all Americans to leave Cuba or
all Cubans to leave the United
States. However, the State De
partment has said it is "desir
able" for Americans to come
home. .
SEVERAL YEARS AGO Au
thor Neville Shute wrote a chil
ling novel called On the Beach
which rather graphically related
the events in the aftermath of a
nuclear war between the United
States and Russia. The book
comes to mind with the announce
ment that France has exploded
an atomic bomb in the Sahara,
and that the small nation of
Israel might also be in possession
of a similar bomb, thus making
them the two newest members of
the "Nuclear Club."
According to Shute's fictional
account, the US-USSR conflict
was triggered by a small nation.
Both large powers thought the
other had set off the blast, and
sent retaliatory forces. The re
sultant explosion finally climaxed
in the extinction of the human
race. Although On the Beach was
a product of Shute's imagination,
it came so close to what might
happen given the context of
world events that many Ameri
cans that read the book or saw
the movie shuddered.
LAST SUMMER we were for
tunate enough to talk with for
mer Secretary of State Dean
Acheson. In answer to a question
on the use of nuclear weapons as
an instrument of national policy,
Acheson had a rather startling
reply: "Let us say that there
were a medium-sized nuclear at
tack on the United States," hy
pothesized the greying Secretary,
"that would knock out about forty
million people. That certainly
isn't everyone." Acheson's point
was that most Americans rule
out the danger of such an attack
on , the grounds that it would
mean. the extinction of every per
son in every nation. His personal
point of viewwis that the U.S.
should embark on a program of
building bomb shelters. This, ac
cording to Acheson, would de
crease sharply the number of
fatalities.
THERE IS, OF COURSE, an,
other answer to the nuclear
puzzle. The United Nations has
sought for many years to control
the use of atomic weapons, most
ly in the form of moratoriums on "
the testing of bombs. Although
there are many loopholes in the
program, it is at least a first step
in the control of nuclear arma
ments. "
Until , there are definite "rules"
on the usfe of nuclear energy,
howeyer, we shall continue to
live with the fear that somebody
somewhere might push the
wrong button, and modern civil
ization would, in a blinding flash
become history. We recall with a
chill that the Strategic Air Com
mand was set on red alert by a
flock of birds that showed up as'
"blips" on a radar screen. This,
admitted Dean Acheson, is the
greatest fear of our top mili
tary: that World War Three
would be started because some-
one in an insignificant radar post
made a mistake.
STRANGELY ENOUGH, a
planned nuclear attack - would
most likely come from a nation in
a stage of rapid mobilization
such as Communist China and
not an established power such as
the Soviet Union. Russia has a
vested interest in her industrial
accomplishments, and would be
reluctant to risk, her gains in an
all-out war. On the other hand,
Red China, a "have not" nation,
would have much to gain from
defeating her capitalist enemies,
while putting very little on the
line insofar as her achievements
are concerned. It is nations in the
building process that must be
feared, and not nations that are
reaching the apex of their influ
ence. And we are left with the im
pression that we are all little
children, playing with matches
that may burn bright into the
night.
UPI Foreign News Commentary
Arabs Cry For Retaliation
The shrill cries of Arab women
urging their men to violence
echoed across cabash rooftops in
Oran, Bone and Algiers this week.
Algerian Rebel Premier Ferhat
Abbas called on Algerian Arabs
to "thwart the designs of the
enemy" in the "sham referen
dum" called by President Charles
de Gaulle to start Algeria on the
way to'independence or continued
ties with France.
Reinforced French troops mov
ed up in reply to reports that
Arab extremists were stockpiling
bottles, stones, clubs and knives
in 'anticipation of violence.
This was the far frompeaceful
setting as De Gaulle moved into
the climactic stage of his plan to
Some 30 million Frenchmen
and Algerians are being asked to
vote yes or no this weekend on
De Gaulle's two-stage plan to re
store Algerian peace.
The first step would be to "Al
gerianize" local Algerian govern
ments to remove them from Eu
ropean domination. The second
would be a plebiscite in which
the Algerians would vote for
total independence, for a con
tinuation of their present role as
a province of metropolitan France
or for semi-independence inside
the French African community.
At home, De Gaulle has thrown
the entire weight of his own im
mense prestige behind his plan
close the wound which annually ' which he says is the only road to
costs France one billion dollars! peace.
drains it of its young manhood
in a War whicH has dragged on
for more than six years and pre
vents France from carrying but
s He has issued a thinly-veiled
warning that failure to accept his
plan or to approve it by only a
lukewarm margin could lead to
its NATO pledges for the defense his resignation, leaving France to
of Europe. its own fate a, he did in 1946.