Page . Two SCARLET AND BLACK Friday, April 27. l962 firarlvt anti Tfilark Boston weighs NSA pro and con GRINNELL COLLEGE Grinnell, Iowa A weekly newmper published each Friday iii chi collelxa year by ihe crinnsll Committee on Student Publications, r, Andrew Brown, chairman. Represented for nuiionnl advertisinl by uriicnni Advertising Service, rnc., adhere Yublixhers be.» resenmiive, 420 Madison Ave, New York, N. y. Entered as n crcund clnss miner at rhn Post Ofl‘ice nc Grinnslb lowr, under °‘ inc not at March a. life. Subscription we “.50 per school o o c o “L v Jim Hnmcid George Buck Larry Sninckrr . snni oinssmnn . Len Cnlodneyi Jim limos . Susan a. Robert: . usseli rpksr, Ccmiyn sins Barbara Hunt. Gcrninine Rooney refer M. Miller . .Vohn i-inrlun Turner chcer Lev-inc ruuncc llmim. Assistant News anion Snoris Editor: . Copy sailor . chief rhomcrnpncr Eireulntiofi Manager l . Judon uyouz unuur . uy Ail Scissmsn l , Much Business Au; , Leslie Brusletlen, Sue Mole psychology We can not applaud the equivocal stand taken by the Board of Trustees on whether or not to build a fall-out shelter at Grinnelll While it seems likely that no such project will be now undertaken, it seems that the Board avoided its responsibil- ity as an influence on national opinion when it did not come out in opposition to the entire shelter program. Like Hanson W. Baldwin, who is military editor of the New York Times, the mole psychology behind fall-out Shel» ters doesn’t appeal to us. Whether or not sllelters will save lives, he points out, is an open question. The best of the experts disagree on the immediate effectiveness of a shelter program. Dr. James Van Allen and other physicists at the State University of Iowa have stated that “it is extremely dang- erous to give the impression to the public that the build— ing of fallout shelters will enable the average citizen to survive a nuclear attack." The dangers of such a false promise are two-fold, according to Baldwin. First, he says, it might create a false sense of security, distracting us from carrying out projects which offer greater promise of real secur y. And second- ly, he points out that such a program, with its insistent emphasis on radioactivity, would add to the national psy- chosis — “fear of the invisible killer” i which already handicaps oul- diplomacy. From a strategic point of view, according to Dr. J. David Singer in the October, 1961, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, tlle fall-out sheltel‘ program “has almost nothing to offer as a device for reducing the probability of nuclear attack.” Instead, such a program could increase internar tional tensions and lead the enemy to believe we are pre- paring a first strike. Finally, we agree with Editor Baldwin. “A shelter pro- gram cannot be justified on the basis of individual life- saving, but solely on the basis of national security. And that is precisely where the present program seems to fail. It is not worth the $7 billion it would cost or the effort involved.” Not so serious Wednesday's Spring Riot was not the spontaneous and irresponsible student outburst that rumors and publicity seem to have labelled itl Student demonstrations — especially those of the springtime variety i are a common occurence on campuses around the country, And not all of them are as harmless as the one staged here. The Riot was the product of months of planning by an unofficial student committee, Although the affair had no authorization from the college, authorities wisely saw the Value of a planned affair controlled by various student leaders. Spring demonstrations are traditional at Grinnell and the planned affair was regarded as a substitute for the potentially dangerous parity raid type of outburst which has greyed the heads of so many student deans on campuses everywhere. The fact that ten students were fined may seem to some to introduce a note of seriousness into the whole thing. But we are assured that the fines resulted only be— cause the ten failed to ensure that their actions would not disturb anyone. No malicious damage was inflicted to property in the incident. The fines were levied only because the students had technically violated laws which have been abused by vandals in the past. Agent X3-5 This week an uncredentialled and unpedigreed stranger from the Cent ill Intelligence Agency interviewed interest- ed seniors for positions in his organization and revealed a glimpse of life on the cloak and dagger level. That the mystery man’s written communication with the college was on plain letter paper is our only factual information, but some campus observers suggested that the man was mashed, carried the proverbial violin case, used a portable lie detector on student applicants, whipped out hurried memos in invisible ink and had as his recruitment slogan, “Fight Castro : . U-Z can join the CIA." Un~ fortunately, our lelld’s quick departure prevented the S&B from verifying these speculations. Larry Smucker News Co—editol' by A1 Boston (son President) This coming Wednesday night the Student Senate will decide whether the ‘Grinnell Student Government Association will uphold last week's decision to continue its membership in the National Student Association (NBA). The fact that NSA provides this campus with a potential source of benefit and that it costs the students a little over $300 yearly makes this issue one ,of the most important to come before the Senate. When lGrinnell rejoined NSA more than a year ago, after an absence of several years, the move was taken in hopes that certain benefits would accrue to the school. irirsi, lGrinnell would be play ing a role Within the only na- tional organization of college students, thus providing this campus, greatly interested in na- tional affairs, with a forum for its opinions. Secondly, the Grinnell campus could utilize the vast informa— tional resources of the NSA, thereby providing student ol‘ganz izations and individuals with a ready supplement and impetus for their interests and projects. With such benefits in mind, we cannot term our one year in leA a successful one. Ale though the National Student Congress each summer provides the students of member schools with n focal point for iheir opinions, the structure of the Congress and the practices of some member schools are such that the actual opinions of col— lege students many times re. main unknown. Also, no one can claim that NSA made u great impression in campus life in general, Too few people even realize its ex» istence, let alone its potential. I ‘helievc this is rlue to our luck of experience in dealing with such an organization. Having just rejoined NSA, it was difficult to perceive im- mediately what we were to do with it. ‘Granting that our year of NSA memlbership was not successful, I would caution against the idea that continued membership with- in NSA cannot lbe beneficial. Such a conclusion is premature. The National Student Congress has various undemocratic aspects io its procedures, 'but it does provide a forum for siudcni opinion. If this opinion is not truly representative, the place for reform is on individual colr lege campuses. The lGrinncll Student SEnate last fall voted to have delegates to the Nation- zil Student Congress elected by a campus-wide vote. Other schools, ioo, are working for re- form and the pcssibililies of success are not dim for this coming year. More importantly, however, I feel that the Grinnell campus Can benefit by our association in this organization. in the eslub. lishment of an NSA committee, our NSA coordinaior, aware of each organization’; projects, will at all times know to whom to give incoming information. Also, these people will be free to re- quest information from the NSA headquarters. I feel that through such co- ordination of interests, our mem- bership in NlSA can be a true benefit to fliis campus. After a membership of one year, we are in no position to make such a Conclusive decision concerning NSA. as withdrawal would cer- tainly be. Perhaps NSA should ’be on probation, but so should we as a member campus. If NSAhas not worked this yrnr,pai~iofihe fault stems from our failure to utilize more fully its potential. 1 would urge the students of Grinnell and the representatives to the Student Senate to support Grinnelrs continued membership in the National ’Student Asso- ciation. catty-:1 To the Editor: Two years ago the ”share-a- meal” program was instituted at Grinnell College. In an effort to continue the program. tomorrow evening we will be eating a German mcai instead of the reg ular steak dinner. Substituting one foreign meal for the Saturday steak dinner will save enough money to pay for the board expenses of a for- eign student for a full year at Grinnell. The philosophy underlying this program is three-fold: i) As students of Grinneli. we will be indirectly sharing a small part of our financial resources with a foreign student; 2) we will be sharing in his culture and customs by eating his food; and 3) we will be sharing our educational facilities and culture with him when he comes to study here next year. Faculty members and their families are cordially invited to participate in this meal. We sincerely hope that mem- bers of the Grinnell community will participate enthusiastically in this program, not as a great physical sacrifice but as an ex- pression of good will and inc terest in furthering a foreign student's education and oppor- tunity. Board of Religion I. a. c. Cosmopolitan Club hunghts out of Season During Wednesday's well- planned, constructive and posir tive riot, a saboteur took liber- ties with the fusebox, so I tried graumblingly and Abe Lincolne like to read a good book for fifteen candlelii minutes and then gave in to dark thoughts, The following “Worst" Awards of the Year are the products of this pessimism. Worst cartoon: Paul Court- Wright’s gibe at the Washington protest in November. Worst booking by the concerts committee: the bad singing and inanities of the Brother’s Four. Worst joke: First Brother Four, “Know why my girl re» minds me of Pavlovian psy- chology? Second Brother, “No." First Brother, “Because every time 1 ring a bell she‘s ready." By Larry Smucker Worst administrative blunder: an equivocal policy toward a pernicious scheme, the fallout shelter. Worst Rosenfield lecturer: the ’ol “realist,” Worst movie: the minor league La Dolce Vita, “The Savage Eye,” whose scene in the faith- healing tabernacle lacked. brev- ity among other things. Worst cloak and dagger ef— fort: “Connie” of the Council on Soviet-American Friendship casing the union from behind an oversizcu “New York Times.” Worst outrage by townies: city police accusing the “Chute terbox" entrepreneur of pushing dope and demanding an investi- gation of cigarette butts, Worst bit of annoyance and _ hypocrisy: as ever, the cumpus SMUCKER (Could. to p. 3, col, 2) Paul Ashley hears good and bad “folks" at concert by Paul Ash‘ley "The nrnciice of "reviewing" . . in general hns nothing in common with the art of crib icism." William James. Since I hope to criticize I will get the review over by saying that I thought the folk concert was a very good event and hope another will be held next year. It has taken me three years to decide iliai Pete ’Seeger’s not having Caruso's voice doesn’t matter. Seeger is doing shine. thing else, something in which a good voice would be extra baggage, and perhaps harmfully extra. Last Saturday's folk cone cci-t reminded me, however, that there is a Cut-off line. I suppose the only real cri- terion for a folk singer is how much the folks want to hear him: Being a folk, then, I would like to explain whnt it is that Pete Cohan, Sam Schuman, Maria Cortinn and Mary Edmondson have which made them the high points of the show. After “Bob Hope“ finished, Cohan came out in a shirt that looked like my grandmother's bedroom wallaper, gym shoes without socks, and a pair of rot- tell blue jeans: The audience sensed immediately that this was a folk singer, but the real reason why becamc clear later in the first half when Clark Dlmond and Schuman sang “Doctor Freud.“ Thcuiffcrencc was that Dir mcncl, Lightbom‘ne and Mark Martin were performing while Cohen and Schuman were sing. ing: When they got on I felt like singing along, but with Dimond (who got better as the program progressed) all I wanted to do was run up on the stage and stretch his Vocal cords for him so hc could hit those low notes without such :i terrible struggle, stop trying so hard, relax, and have a good time. Besides this stage presence, which is sort of creating the illusion that one is not perform- ing, there were other differences which separated the cast memr bci-s. On one end there were some voices so bad that no audience should be subiected to them and on the other end there were peo, ple like Miss Edmondson who had voices far above the cut-off linc. Another differentiating factor was versatility, which is perhaps only a careful choosing of the material. Julie Newman, for ex- ample, although she sounds much like Joan Baez, was very good on n dirge or a slow bcl. lad, but as soon as she tried anything loud or fast her voice. got scratchy and thin. This thinness was another dif- ference, for there were some; like Light‘bom‘ne and Miss Newman, who had small voices,‘ others like Martin who had loud voices, and still others who were able to be either strong or soft, as the song demanded. And this is important. ' The especially good people seemed to be better able to tell how the song asked to be sung while ihc others, although this does noi” apply to Miss New man, dapted the song to their capabi ties. A folk song is not a serious art form. On one level the , only possible reply to that siutement is “so what?" but on another level it makes an important point _ a folk song is to feel whereas n serious art . form is to understand and feel. Folk songs come off much better when approached with primitive joy or grief than with sophistication or urbanity. The» better singers last Saturday knew this, and because they did they reached lhc audience either in its belly or its laughing place, but not its mind. The)- could, for a couple of hours, umnkfully, i-csl, .