THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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AGING EDITOR .............GEORGE O. BROPHY JR.
Editor.. ...... - +........ Chesser M. Campbell
man Editorial Board......................Lee *Woodruff
A Editors-- H.W. Hitchcock
T. H. Adams' - wE.McManis
enaud Sherwood T. W. Sargent, Jr.
arEditor.................................3J. A. Bernstein
Editor:.. B. P. Campbell
rials.............T. .TJ.Whinery,aL.A.Kern, S. T. Beach
is.............................. ....:.ay.Robert Angell
en's Editor............................... . D. Lane
raph .. ....., .............. ..Thomas Dewey
cpe ................................Jack W. Key
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y B. Grundy M. A Kaver Dorothy Whipple
es Oberholtzer E. R. Meiss Gerald P. Overton
rt E. Adams Walter Donnelly Edward al ambrecht
eston McBain Kathrine Montgomery H. E. Howlett
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Assistants
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J. Hamel, Jr. N. W. Robeirtson M. S. Goidring
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A. Cross R. G. Burchell W. Cooley
bt. L. Davis A. J. Parker

needed spur; and, much more important, round
pegs in square holes are just as possible in school
as in outside life. There are students whose failure
may be the very index to a poor choice of life work
and the starting-point for success in the right voca-
tion.
Under the Princeton system, a 'flunker" is looked
on as one who tried, but may have started in the
wrong branch, and for this reason is deserving of
another chance. For example, the Princeton sys-
tem permits students who have failed the first se-
mester to transfer to another department. If the
student makes good, he can continue in his new
course. If, however, he is not capable of meeting
the requirements after his second trial, then he is
dismissed from the university.
Such a system, neither too lenient nor too radi-
cal, is indeed a worthy example for other Ameri-
can universities. It is fair policy in every sense ol
the word, giving to the student an opportunity to
prove his worth, and also allowing the authorities
sufficient time and reason to judge the case.
RETURN DEBATES TO FAVOR
A recent editorial in the Daily Illini scored the
unsatisfactory manner in which debates were con-
ducted this year. Michigan students feel no less
keenly the error which was made in inaugurating
no-decision contests. The first debate at Illinois
this year under the new system was well attended
due to a general interest in debate work at that
school. However, a later debate conducted in the
same manner brought slightly more than a hand-
ful to the meeting. There could scarcely be any
doubt as to the reason for this great slump in at-
tendance.
Michigan was no exception. For the past sev-
eral years debates here have not attracted a great
deal of attention, but his latest innovation is the
straw which has broken the camel's back. The
contests at Michigan this year have been character-
ized by small attendance, a lack of enthusiasm, and
a general let down in the interest which usually sur-
rounds a debate.
Furthermore, in addition to the general discontent
which has been displayed by those who merely lis-
ten to debates, an equal feeling of dissatisfaction
has been expressed by those who participate. While
it is no doubt true that many things can be said in
favor of no-decisions contests, it is to be hoped that
those who have the power of deciding this question
will not overlook that the college student's interest
lies largely in the decision at the end of the con-
test; and that next year they will allow debating to
again assume its rightful place among other Var-
sity contests.
1he Telescope

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Persons wishing to secure information concerning news for any
J"Uo of'The Daily should te the night editor, who has full charge
4f all news to be printed that night. _____________
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 1921.
Night Editor-T. W. SARGENT, JR.
MENCKEN VS. RANKIN
There are critics and critics - some of them
good, many of them bad - and they attack their
vbrk in a myriad of different ways. Some do it in
he interests of showing to their readers just what
he good and bad points of a book may be and then
Iraw from the points brought up, a conclusion
which is worthy of the high calling which they rep-
resent. But there are others, men whose narrowed
viewpoints fail to look beyond the little sphere of
:heir own likes and dislikes - whose judgments are
>ased almost entirely upon personalities and whose
>pinions in the last analysis, lose much because they
are not temperate.
To the latter class belongs H. L. Mencken, co-
editor with 'George Jean Nathan of the Smart Set.
For several years now, Mencken has been termed
>y many one of our most brilliant critics, yet a
rather exhaustive survey of his works, as a whole,
would seem to stamp him, not as the fearless,
iconoclastic critic which he appears at first sight,
iut more especially as a man whose egotistical per-
sonality simply serves as the vehicle through which
:o foist his critical judgments upon the public at
arge, attracting attention not so much through any
;articular merit which they may have in them-
selves, as by a use of the uncommon and rather ill-
:hosen epithets with which his works are charged.
Frankly, Mencken would not countenance for a
noiment in another author the banalities of speech
:o which he descends, nor would he allow the
:easeless repetition of those epithets which have
struck his fancy. Go through his works. Afte
you have read one of them, you have taken the
xneat from all, and unless your mind be of that pe-
:uliarly-constructed, Menckenesque variety, you
will soon tire of the ever-recurring refrain of
balderdash", "bosh", "piffle", "twaddle", and "yoke-
is h ".
Menckens estimate - it cannot be called a criti-
:ism - of Prof. T. E. Rankins "American Author-
ship of the Present Day, 1890-1920" is more than
ever the characteristic outburst of a small critic.
Cne does not turn to nice points of usage in forming
a true estimate of a book, and neither does a critic,
who is worthy of the name of critic, utterly con-
:emn a book simply because it fails to conform with
his previously informed opinions.
TWO CHANCES FOR FLUNKERS
What is a flunker, and with what consideration
should he be treated? This question is one which
has been perplexing American university authori-
:ies for many years, and has often been the cause of
ong debate usually resulting in no definite solution.
Princeton has lately thrown a new light on the mat-
:er by the recent adoption of a policy for the ben-
fit of those who fail to pass the number of courses
-equired to remain enrolled as qualified members of
he student body.
Michigan has, admittedly, no place for the man
vho is not conscientiously desirous of securing an
ducation. But first semester conditions are often
idverse; the lesson of one failure may be just the

Commencing MONDAY APRIL 25

Bargains'i n Sets, in both

Leather

and

Cloth

Is It Coming to This?
The saddest words of book or talk,
"We girls can't canoe after 8 o'clock."

Al

You're right, Clarice, when you say that astron-
omy might well be called a heavenly course.
Dear Noah:
Can you explain the mystery of why one's shirts
come back so frayed and torn after being sent to
one of the local laundries? Phil Andor.
The only explanation we can offer, Phil, is that
the local laundries must use a mangle only on the
clothes.

Fillfn

Travel

Juvenile

at

And d'ja ever see some
Queen sitting off by herself
In the general library
Studying the dictionary and
Go up to her and politely ask
"Looking for Happiness?"
And then have her freeze you
And reply, "No, Solitude."
So have we.

retl edcdPie

He Loves Me - He Loves Me Not
"How do you know he's an Illinois man?"
"I just heard him talking about Michigan."
Our Daily Novelette
I
Yellow fumes and a sickening odor pervaded the
dingy attic in which the experimenter worked. He
was a young man, but he wore a look of anxiety and
a pallor of fatigue clouded his features. Before
him an iron cauldron filled with golden liquid sim-
mered quietly on the fire. In the dim recesses of
the room could be seen strange bottles, weirdly
coiled turing, fantastic arrangements of wire, rods
and boilers, even an array of grotesque instruments
hanging from the smoky ceiling.
His haggard face suddenly went tense as with a
nervous hand he selected one of the yellow rods be-
fore him and allowed it to sink slowly into the seeth-
ing fluid. It, too, became golden as the rest.
"Eureka," he joyously shouted, "success at last.
I've finally been able to dissolve those sticks of glue
the paper hanger left behind."
His borrowing has caused a loss
To him as well as me,
For I have lost the money loaned
And he his memory.
Famous Closing Lines
"A sweeping reduction," he muttered as he noted
a sale on brooms . NOAH COUNT.

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