!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH U,
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
PAGE TWO
Spring Fipst
Carolina Front
Ft'ohf tonight il the time for the annual
little pilgrimage to Hill Hall to hear Rob.
ert Frost.
There's an essay-"The Other Frost'-b?
Woman's College's Randall Jarrell, perhaps
the best of all coimmentators on Mr. Frost,
that we especially! like. Mr. Frost, says Mr.
Jarrell, is knowii to everybody who ever
read any American poetry "the conservative
editorialist and 'elf-made apothegm-joiner,
full of dry wisdom1 and free complacent, Yan
kee enterprise, tre Farmer-Poet this is an
imposing private j role perfected for public
use, a sort of OK'mpian Will Rogers out of
Tanglewood Talqs." "
But this, continues Mr. Jarrell, is only a
tiny corner of tl
Frost. Naturally,
e real portrait of Robert
klr. Tarrell. a ooet himself,
- j f j - i
knows a creat deal more about Frost than
most of us do; and he maintains that the
"Farmer-Poet" landle doesn't fit Frost at
all. "These views! of Frost," it seems to him,
"come either frohi not knowing his poems
well enough or ' from knowing the wrong
poems too well.'i
I
We agree; In any anthology, you'll come
across "The Roail Not Taken" and "Mend
ing Wall" good poems, of course, but not
at all representative of Mr. Frost's world
icv. The easy and cordial superficiality of
"Road Not Taken" is eclipsed in works like
"Design" and "Neither Out Far Nor In
Deep" which cojivey a deep, almost terrify-
14 1 r r.l
mg, ana .vrnoiaesque picture ot tne urn-
verse.
Mr. Frost, in short, is a poet who thinks
and writes about man, the heart of man, and
human life andj to a deeper degree than
whether good ferjees do or do not make good
neighbors.
His annual visit here is always something
to reckon with,
many springs tor
jand we trust it will be for
come.
Cliche Club
It's a curious season, Amid the Frost visit,
the baseball practice down at Emerson, the
Graham Memorial cherry trees, comes a
chilly rain moje like January than mid
Ma icIk
And to add to the confusion, there is the
60 point type on page one bearing the poli
tical tidings. !
After several years of 60 point headlines,
we find it possible to become a little cyni
cal about the plaudits and promises and par
liamentary procedure routine. t
One could Iejam, for example, from yes
terday's front page that one nominee was
"tlie finest candidate in the finest party in
the finest University in the finest state . 7 ."
and had "a brilliant grasp of the world about
him."
One candidate piomised to be "responsi
ble," another to "uphold the University's
principles," another to "serve to the best of
his ability," another to "try to do a good
job if elected."!
How well qualified is the candidate? "Em
inently." What! will his campaign be like?
"Clean and hard." What kind of support
will he get? "Overwhelming."
All is for the best, we suppose, in the most
political of all possible milieus. But we're
tempted to look around for a lazy, no-good,
dishonest, unqualified rascal with a dull
grasp of the world around him and cast our
"overwhelming" one vote his way, just as a
matter of "principle."
p .
The official -student publication of the Publi
cations Board of the University of North Carolina,
where it is published
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- tHji-iil jit fo&ti
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:!ditor
Even The Vets
Of Politics
.
Are Surprised
Louis Kraar
EVEN THE old-timers in cam
pus politics the graduate and
1 1 T- a w students
who somehow
' keep a light
finger in the
' j campus politi
cal
pot-
were.
Monday and examina
tion and vacation per
iods and summer
terms. Entered t&
second class matter at
the post office in
Chapel Hill, N. C, un
der the Act of "arch
8, 1879. Subscription
rates: mailed, $4 per
fear, $2.50 a semester;
delivered, $3 a year,
$3.50 a semester. '
CHARLES KURALT
-yu j j shaking their
i heads yester-
.day.
'A (Manning
-iMuntzins's
presidential hopes took on a new
light with Don Fowler's filing
as an independent. Ed McCurry,
the University Party presiden
tial candidate, was also worried
Here's why Muntzing and Mc
Curry were worried:
First of all, Fowler will offer
formidable opposition. He gave
Muntzing a good race for the
SP nomination, and many of the
same supporters that he had in
that SP meeting are enrolled on
his petition.
And, secondly, a run-off elec
tion seems almost unavoidable.
A majority of all votes Cast are
required for the election of a
candidate. With three candidates
as well-known and as energetic
in campaigning as Muntzing,
McCurry, and Fowler, the stu
dent body will be greatly di
vided. That's why Muntzing and Mc
Curry and their backers are
not too happy about Fowler's
candidacy.
Managing Editor
FRED POWLEDGB
Associate Editors
LOUIS KRAAR, ED YODER
Business Manager
TOM SHORES
Sports Editor i
News Editor
Advertising Manager
Circulation Manager
Subscription Manager
Assistant Business Manager
Assistant Sports Editor
Photographer .
Society Editor
B ERNIE WEISS
Jackie Goodman
Dick Sirkin.
Jim Kiley
Jack Godley
Bill Bob Peel
Ray Linker
Boyden Henley
Susan Andes
EDITORIAL STAFF
Bill O'Sullivan,
' Tojm Spain, David Mundy, Paul Chase
SPORTS STAFlj' Al Korschun, Bob Colbert,
Chuck Strong, Marshall Waldman
BUSINESS STAFF Joan Metz, Carolyn Nelson,
I Jack Weisel, Bill Thompson
Night editor for this issue
.Eddie Crutchfield
KENAN HISTORY Professor
Hugh T. Lefler the other day
answered a question long in the
minds of students who have lis
tened to his effective rapid
fire lectures.
The question: how a Southern
er (Dr. Lefler) developed such
a fast delivery.
Lefler's answer: "I used to
teach at Pennsylvania, which is
located in the center of the city.
Every time I would get wound
up in a lecture, a streetcar
would come roaring along. So I
had to learn to out talk the
streetcars."
A COLUMNIST for the Em
ory Wheel (an Atlanta, Ga. lib
eral arts university) included in
his list of the "ten worst movies
of 1954" the film "The Barefoot
Contessa," one of my favorites.
His only comment was, "A
fairly good movie, but it had
the most disappointing scene of
the year."
THE STUDENT party's Mon
day night session took on a na
tional political convention air as
the vice-presidential choosing
got underway.
Bob Harrington and Sue Fink
were up for the post. And party
members asked Harrington and
Miss Fink who had backed
Fowler previous to Muntzing's
nomination "Will you. pledge,
whether you are nominated or
not, to support the SP slate?"
SPEAKING FOR Harrington,
Dave Reid (whose academic dif
ficulties kept him from running)
declared frankly: "Neither one
of these candidates are my first
choice, as you know.'
Politics needs more of this
type candor.
WITH POLITICAL campaigns
so close at hand the deadline
in yesterday's paper "Fiction
Contest Deadline Just 2 Weeks
Away" seemed ironically ap
propriate. Perhaps this spring will be
different and candidates will be
Moderate in their promises to
voters. It'd be a pleasant change.
TARNATION, CAMPUS hum
or magazine, will come out with
something entirely new this time
when it hits the dorms and
houses in a couple weeks.
I caught a preview of it the
other. day. And all I can say is
that it's going to be different.
The Script's The Thing: Cast And Crew At An 'American Adventure' Production
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SOUND MAN PHIL GOODMAN
ACTOR JACK SPOONER
ACTORS PHIL JOHNSTON
& BOB THOMAS
TECHNICIAN GEORGE BRENHOLTZ
e Were Dealing With The Soul Of America"
if in i
ramarnzm
mt m Mi r f
m an s u
By John Ehle
("American Adventure" is a series of radio dramas about the American people pro
duced by the University's Communication Center. It is written, by John Ehle and directed
by John Clayton and carried on transcription by radio stations coast-to-coast. The latest
series of programs begins on the campus station, WUNC, Thursday night; this, we thought,
would-be a good time to ask John to write down the purpose of "American Adventure."
lie responded with the following letter. Editor.)
When we consider how soon it was ago that
reores
f Ad
Editor:
I hope you read this letter when you are
in a reasonably jovial mood, if such moods
are permitted editors. It is not that there is
anything light, or ever interesting about it,
but that the weight I feel as I approach this
subject would not be so obvious ta you then.
It is a heavy task, writing about America,
and you have asked what our purpose was in
the 26 recorded American Adventure dramas
which John Clayton directed, and which the
Communication Center is now ready to dis
tribute nationally.
And I could tell you simply, state it so
that no questions would occur unless you are
particularly interested. I could say, for exam
ple, that we were interested in dramatizing the
basic values of the American people.
Certainly no one would care to go on from
there.
But the fact is that these values are the
life-source of the nation, and that we were
dealing with the soul of America. And I must
state it like that, because it is the way I feel it,
and once having brought up this matter of the
soul of this nation to which we look as citizens
with anxiety and hope, and at which the world
looks from various viewpoints and with many
emotions then I'm afraid you might ask
"Yes, and what is it this soul of America?
And I cannot answer you. I have written 23
dramas about it, and I would not think of put
ting down here what the soul of America is,
even to me. Oh I know; rather I feel. And 1
do not hesitate to state my feelings because I
fear the extremists both left and right who are
bound to attack any definition, for attacking
is their outstanding characteristic.
Through A Glass
Darkly
Rather, my reluctance is tased on a respect
for that which is best seen when seen through
a glass darkly, not face to face. The soul of
the country is not one thing, or so it seems to
me, but is many things, so cross-pollinated and
grafted one to another that a clear state
ment belies the subject.
We have grown objective, haven't we, so
much so that we have reached the point where
we feel we can analyze anything. Doubtless
there are those who believe that even so sim
ple a thing as the human hand can be under
stood only when dissected, when its parts are
separated and weighed, when its movements
are plotted. On the contrary. I believe the
hand is made to reach, to touch, to hold, that
that is its highest understanding, and is the
one which is commonly known.
The fact is created by the spirit, not the
spirit by the fact. ,
So it is with the soul of the nation, I think.
It is understood in action. It is a living organ
ism, made to operate with courage when cour
age is "neded, with boundless love, with suffer
ing, with anxiety, with fear, with confusion, and
with a dedication to basic truths which come
from other men long dead and buried, but
living still in that true life which touches us.
The soul of the American people is often
bantered about by one authority or another,
left wingers and rightists, extreme liberals
and conservatives, as if by words they can de
fine it to serve a particular purpose. It is
designed to serve no such purpose, but it
stands as a composite of all that the people
are and believe it to be.
America is her demagogues, as well as her
visionary statesmen. She is housewives and
farmers, businessmen and miners. She is
mothers and sons, the living and the dead and
the newly buried. Slavery is older on her soil
than Plymouth Rock; yet freedom is the way
she tries to follow.
Show me the man who would explain her
simply. I would like to ask him a question or
two. Oh, there may be some in Hollywood,
who explain her every week or so to a world
audience. They have the Hollywood point of
view, which makes all things possible, and
they polish her grandly. They paint the picture
' of America proudly. '
But who are the, people they paint? Do
they change their babies' diapers? Most Amer
icans do. Do they grow potatoes, chop weeds,
crop tobacco, pick cotton, work in steel mills,
build ships,- or do anything else which Ameri
cans do? No, America is not a motion picture
concepts It's not so clear, not quite so wealthy,,
is much more human, and has a better plot.
a handful of men and women, scratching
themselves and hungry, stepped ashore to look,
into an utterly dark continent, and there be
gan to do the impossible to clear a million
trees and plant crops when we know that that
was only the week before last as time is count
ed in centuries, then how can we explain the
wealth and power that America now struts ia
youthful stridings before the world? What a
proud thing has taken place here! What an
achievement! Where is it equalled?
No, I do not want it to be explained simp
ly. Please do not touch it with a scalpel either.
Do not put a footnote lo this drama. Let us
not reason it out. Let us feel it. And if we
fx I, I - .
II llllliT' H I ll ilMMMMfcllHIIIIIM MIIMUT m ij
WRITER JOHN EHLE
cannot, then of what value are explanations
carefully made?
Rather, let us seek ways to grasp the truth
of the country closer, remind ourselves of
what we know in order to make it even more
meaningful.
The Spirit Of
Joe Palmer's Beard
In American Adventure we looked in his
tory and in newspapers to find men and wo
men of this country who revealed facts of this
American spirit, and we dramatized critical
events in their lives, in the belief that Ameri
cans would respond to what were their own
true feelings.
One of them was Joe Palmer of Massachu
setts, who decided he would wear a beard.
His fellow citizens decided he wouldn't. Ev
erybody back then knew wearing beards was
of the devil. But when they charged Joe Pal
mer to shave, he refused in a booming New
England voice, his eyes blazing over that rich
growth of hair that hid most of his face. He
would wear the beard. So they attacked with
razors. He fought them off. They sent him to
jail. For over a year he stayed there, denounc
ing them from the jail window, refusing to
shave, defending himself from attacks of fel
low prisoners. Finally the people relented, let
him go. He walked out of the jail, his beard
flowing longer than before, still a free man.
Joe Palmer was part of the American spir
it. So were the townspeople, some may say,
and have numbers on their side, and be quite
right.
Then there was the legendary Johnny Ap
pleseed. who went about giving away all he
had. Naturally this struck many of his fel
low Americans as being unnatural. They wanU
ed him to settle down, build a house, marry,
rear, a family, lay by for the winters and for
his old age. A girl he loved came to seek him
out, asked him to stop his wandering and be
come respectable, but Johnny chose to go on his
way. So we remember him to this generation
because of that quality which, by settling down,
he would have sacrificed.
Those who tried to induce him to settle
down were good solid Americans, and part of
the American spirit But so was Johnny Ap
pleseed. One final example: ,
Back. in the. late, depression there was a
young Tennessee carpenter . who wanted to
build a house. He. lived in a shack in a shack
town that had sprung up on free land along
a river bank. He had no job, no money. But
he couldn't bring himself to live in a shack,
didn't want his mother and his brother to
live in a tumbling down place that was held
together by rusted nails. So he built a house.
With ingenuity and courage he worked, until
finally it stood, straight and true and clean,
a monument to his spirit. His fellow citizens
heard of it, traveled long distances to see it.
looked with amazement at this symbol of what
could be done by an undefeated man. There
was something basic about that house-builder,
almost tear-provoking to them.
They Were Out
Of Step
So in 26 dramas, we wrote about the Amer
ican spirit, the inner values. Some were about
Jefferson, Lincoln, Lee, Jackson, and other
outstanding Americans. Some were about com
mon people, who were not common, after all.
It has occurred to me since the series was
finished that a large percentage of the men
and women who seemed to represent the Am
erican spirit were actually exceptions to their
own societies. They were out of step.
If there remains anybody who dares to be
out of step today, let him take some hope
that in a future generation somebody may
write a short play about him.
Of course, if he is soundly motivated, he
may be remembered more grandly than that,
even in his own day. For we cannot all be as
strong as the strongest, and most of us must
single out certain ones of the strong among
us, hold them up, and shout "Here we are."
For it is by the strong that all of us want to
be remembered.
And rightly so. We should hold them up
and claim them as ourselves. For I believe a
people is more than what it is. A people is
what it is plus what it dreams of becoming.
It may be that we will never become what we
dream, but the hope of the nation depends
on dreaming, anyway.
Today there is a vast army of people poll
ing us to see what we are. This is valuable,
of course, but where is the pollster who is in
terested in what we want to become? Surely
we have not decided individually that we are
perfect, or that we have created the perfect
country.
What is the perfect country? What is the
modern American dream?
We come from a nation of dreamers. No
country has ever had greater faith in the com
mon man, in the worth of humanity and the
value of aspirations.
What a tremendous day might come if once
more this nation caught a glimpse of its own
highest visions.
Before a dream, a wilderness of confusion
and doubt might fall. Without it, a people
could conceivably fight each tree in the wil
derness each person until the trees conquer
them.
Do we have a positive crusade, we Ameri
cans? I am asking. I don't know of it, but we
may.
What is it?
Because we live in a materialistic coun
try, some believe that truly visionary plans
are not practical "now. But Americans have al
ways been materialistic. What is more mate
rialistically inclined than was the pioneer?
From dawn to dusk he was trading and build
ing things cabins, fences, chairs, cribs chop
ping wood, brcding animals. Half of this na
tion was opened up because of a gold strike.
Settlers didn't keep going west because of the
sunsets. ''
But they reached great heights on occa
sion, and so may we.
A Deep Thirst,
And A Striving
If a fault exists, perhaps responsibility must
fall on the leaders. It would seem that a high
Dereentase of our statesmen, at least, are
bound by their own machinations as they en
ergetically try to control thissort of a type
of a kind of thing that has been created, lest
it run away with them. And our leaders in
other fields are prone to seek comfort by blam
ing the people for lack of taste and vision. But
the people do not lead the people; they follow
leaders. Are some of our leaders criticizing
the people for .being leaderless?
Many of our better artists, for example,
who might be exploring and interpreting the
hope of man's soul, are intrigued by the more
despondent and commonplace aspects of mod
ern life. Some have a greater emphasis on
technique than, content, assuming, as perhaps
artists may in these necessary periods- of ex
perimentation, that the method of expression
4
1
j -
DIRECTOR JOHN CLAYTON
is more important than what is expressed. The
people do not respond warmly to cither tech
nique or disillusionment.
No, the fault does not lie entirely with the
people. The people are present, and I do not
believe people change so radically in a gen
eration or two that they become deaf to their
own high values. , Thejr are deaf to them only
when they are not stated, or when they are
stated so that they cannot be understood If
you state them clearly, the people will either
follow you or stone you, or both, but they will
not ignore you.
The American people know, below the sur
face, in that area of the human being which,
chiefly matters, that an individual is of. tre
mendous value and is born free. They do not
confuse a man with animals, or with clay
not the common people. They know full well
that a man has a fraction of the patience of
God but an even greater dissatisfaction thai
he was born to be dissatisfied. They know he
wants to move forward, even though he falters
on the way. There is among them a deep thirst
for beauty and a striving for goodness. Most
of them recognize with the slightest sugges
tion that a man is free, not because the Jaw
says so, not because the government permits
it; not because it's nice to get out on tail, but
because a man is a creation of God, conceiv
ed in dignity, and that no other man has the
right to stand between him and his creator
or his creations.
I do solemnly maintain that thc people of
America believe these things are hue emo
tionally believe them.
Yes, they will throw a Joe Palmer into
jail on occasion; they will also let him out,
and when they do, it is to recognize in him
the spirit-that should be theirs, also.
And so with us. Which is a way of saying
that I think America has the same heart she
had a generation or two ago.
She Is Still New
And Unfinished
I must also say before I'm done, because
it is the framework of the rest, that I believe
the best understanding of America begins with
the realization that our country is young yet
that she is stiU'ncw and unfinished" and that
she -remains man's greatest adventure in time,
and space.
It is this adventure that should rnn,r.,
lead us on with the promise of added grc
ness 3 10 come out of it. I'm sure that this
was in Earl Wynn's mind when he placed th
facihUes of the Communication Center behind
these productions, in the mind of Robert
Schcnkkan when he wrote the proposal which
obtained the first of two Ford Foundation
Agency grants, and in the minds of the nine
professors of the University who so ably serv
ed as consultants for this series: Professor
Bernard Boyd, John Gillin, Fletcher Green
Everett Hall, Wrank Hanlt. Clifford I von
William Poteat, Clemens Summer, and the late
Howard Odum. u
But the opinions expressed in this letter
are, of course, my own. I have di-'resi ,
siderably from the series itself, whlch vv s "t"
concerned so much with specific problems f
our day-real or imaginary-as with the in
herent values of the people of the comur
which are lasting. -uunir,
Thirteen American Adventure dnmv )
been released, as you know. The otho P
have been recorded by Joh n , th,rteen
staff of some sixty actors ad Itec 3
the whole Chapel Hill conl t V''
now ready for distribution. arc
I nope they will be heard hv nih
can. state. better-and will "So L u "ho
greatness of our country. ' llt(1,Ki:tly the-
us.
ut-