Feature Section 'C' 4r 4w A6V 4A4tr t an ~I~aiAg . Feature Section VOL. XXXV. No. 92 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 1925 EIGHT PAGES ACTIVITIES--IS HEIR VALUE PRACTI CAL? ? 4, The In and Outs Of Work On The Michigan Daily Reviewed With An Eye To Determining The Actua it Amount Of Practical Experience Which It Offers Some Personal Experiences Of The Writer Which Show The Service Of The Paper To Reporter And Campus ' '. T By Robert G. Ramsay Foreword Mark Twain, in one of his lucid moments, said that the only persons entitled to use "we in writing were editors and those afflicted with tape worm. The writer of this article begs to announce that his 'use of the word finds its justification in the right to which his profession entitles him. To analyze a thing which one holds dear is to ruin that thing, and exile it forever from the happy dream land of youth: to turn upon beauty the search- light of scientific truth, to attempt to dissect it into comiponent parts as a scientist will separate the organisms which make a grasshopper, would mean to kill all the beauty and wonder with which the object is endowed. To attempt to discover and re- port the wherefore and why of an emotional ex- perience is to rob it of all its emotional value, lev- ing in the hand of the too eager inquirer, only the dead, dried, leaf, where once bloomed a glowing, vital flower. And so to attempt to tell to unsympathetic minds the secret power which draws one in communion in a great enterprise, is to mistake, for the wispered confidences fall upon uninterested ears; for that reason, an attempt to explain what The Daily can mean to one, to show what a hold such an activity 'can keep on one, is bound to meet with miserable failure, because there will always be some persons, unsympathetic with the student who cries out definitely to the protesting faculty, "Take your books, your mathematics tables, your scietific research; let me research in human nature, let me know, not Greek,not Latin, but people!" Following so closely upon the first imprints of the report made by a member of the faculty to othei members of the faculty in which he joins the great, untiring mob of pedagogues who storm the fortress of the modern student, in a vain attempt to bring back same of the forgotten "culture" and force upon his unwilling head the same dead antiquities which were administered to him without the sugar coating now customary to such doses, an article of this na- ture would seem an attempt at a direct answer. But the writer has neither the consummate impudence nor the ability to frame an answer to such a work, and if he did, he begs to report that he is aware that such a move on his part would be neither wise nor welcome. However, it might be well at the outset of this, which seems to be a hurried assembling of the forces of outside activities to repel the invastion of the regular curricular tedium of college going which seems imminent, to state the position of the writer, not that it will be of any general interest to the campus, nor of any material aid to the Regents when they assemble to settle this pressing question, but to make plainer if possible, some of the points that must be obscure. In an article of this sort, which purports to be a description of the outside activities which clutter the campus, with special emphasis upon the work of The Michigan Daily, it is necessary to give some consideration to that part of a student's work for which we are ostensibly here, and to find a proper place in the activity round of a day foi everything. It is true that the old order of things changes, and it is not always the nuggets which remain after the stream has been panned. The day of the fabled scholar who reads his Iliad over his morning cup of coffee (if this is the mark of a scholar) seems eternally past, his place is taken by a callow youth who rapidly surveys the sporting page of the Morn. Ing Comet; education has changed, and the emphasis is.no longer upon the conjunction of a Latin veri, but upon more fundamental considerations; the whole idea of culture has changed; the emphasis is not so much on the mechanics of education as upon education itself; the outward finish and veneer which comes from superfiical knowledge of art and learn- ing will no longer satisfy; the age is producing men of personality where it once directed all its arts to the declension of a Latin noun. A new type has come into being, manifested in the maligned character of the flapper and of the detested tea hound, who are no more nor less than their grandparents before them, but subject to the incrimination of the moss backed scholar. Such people assume for everyone the same interests whicv cause them to spend their life in books; they go on the ragged assumption that every one hopes to be r. college professor, and would give every one the edu* cation prerequisite to such a position in life. They hold culture to be something tangible in the shape o_ some book knowledge or some formula; it is in- tangible, uindefinable, formless, manifesting itself in personality rather than in learning. Upon this conception and on this conception alone, can it be argued that extra curricular activity has a value in college life. We might cite hundreds of examples where the work in extra curricular activity, and especially on The Michigan Daily, proves itself to be a work of real value. From the Old Museum Door "HOPPING" CARS LSU 1 OTTt Toques URGES FRAAI[NITIES TO o3[oL Dsy29 Yea l . IN COURTk*.' 4 ,O-EYE ~su AS r , TLAS& Athle1e'a FR4ATERNITY PINS ao , ' I Ii LAIU, ar ~students Packed At Random Deny FI1154MIi1a J s" Pixie Courses" Exist At MichiganiUIL ( A ~ ~ ~ ~ ~x~ TY bs I' ' ~ x Tckt s OnSale TltF["rsTf1ifiN PD WOmen L e us'NuS UNDAYMAGAZINqE J-~ DATE S[T II t ackard Dancing Academy % GuetXeuerdt s CumLIAIJRG ROBRTF N Q a P' 0rsS jnkin9g Song \ + + F vu ITlPILLMMT; TUJXEDO~' 1EL) io0UA 4LUvI UU Y Es, ,,sI .0 C0bitTECrush Hats L~e~lo oo~ Camps Peiodcals ~j9~Proes~oS M activity, it might be the subject of some surprised conjecture, that he would shout out fror the lns!- tops his firm, belief that he is getting more, is ac- complishing greater things out of the class room than in it. This statement would seem doubly hsz:i:adai after the devastating attack upon the cultural status on the campus, but it is a belief which becomes firmly rooted in every worker in extra curicular activity. The person who comes to the Univeraity prepared only to take what it offers of (uitarai training and gives nothing in return in the shape of a contribution to its cultural background, is not worthy of any consideration. Those who spend their days poring with "machine like assiduity" over books, whose energy is expanded in ardent seekig after high marks, whose measure of succca;s is an "A", are sorry spectacles. They mistake the mark or a scholar; they mistake an "A" in a course as in- dication of real genius, when in fact it is usually the reward meted out to plodding mediocrity. The ilk to which they belong, and the teacheIrs which they finally become, are those who look to Oxford as the source of all culture, attributing to that noble in- stitution virtues which if they looked hard enough they would find at home, for they do not have to go to Oxford; their acres of diamonds are on their own campus, but they close their eyes to that fla:, andi bray sentimentally about the culture and atmnosphere of other places. It is the same hallucination which paints the old days in the alumnus' dream, and imputes to these golden days glorie.;, meanings, values and wonders which they could not. possibly have possessed. There are those who scoff at the idea of a prac- tical value to any work which The Daily nihtt do; we turn from these unhappy and unin maginative per- sons with a sense of extreme pity, to direct our at- tentions to a more select and sympathetic group. To these treasured souls, we lead out with the state- ment that more than any other thing, the Daily is the most important factor in shaping opinion on the campus. Those most thorouil y vaturated with the type of conceit which must eventually surfeit The Daily worker will fling to the summer winds the in- fluence of any other body on the campus, and name The Daily as the prime mover in every undertaking which has marked the spasmodic interests of stu- dent life. Most of the movements which have stirred the campus have received their origin, or their sponsorship, from The Daily, with such results that it is safe to say that nothing would be done without the Michigan Daily, so great is the power of the press. But it is its importance to the individual which must justify its present status in the social and we might add, the political life of the campus. Its importance and its value to the campus is demon- strated to us every day: let some one not get his paper in the morning, and immediately a howl is raised; let it make some statement regarding poli- tical situations, thereby treading on the toes of cer- tain militant members of the community, and im- mediately, there is an indignant response which opens a perfect avalanche of correspondence; we have ample proof that The Daily is read, and read thoroughly, and it is but a step farther in our reason- ing to arrive at the conclusion that it is of dis- tinct value to the campus as a prime mover and supporter of all the various projects which takes a student's time. The personal practical value of such work is a, we have said-its only justification. It is not so easy to prove to persons, skeptical of its worth as a labor- atory of practical journalism, that it has this per- sonal value in practicality. The romantic hum of a large newspaper office, the lazy nonchalance of the reporters, the atmosphere charged with indolent expectancy, the traditional cloud of blue smoke, thrown out in puffs and rings from those emperors of the typewriter, are lacking in The Daily office, and thereby hangs the cue for the charge that it is all amateurish here. But The Daily has' something which no other office has. It brings to the publica- tion of its paper an enthusiasm, which no other office can have, because it is run by students ana for students; the veriest cub thrills'at the sight of. his two inch story more than the professional who glances rapidly and indifferently through the col- umns of the New York Times, because the one does his work from the love of the work, the other looks at it only as a job and sees in the two column story, beefsteak and onions for supper that night instead of the customary toasted rolls. Has it a practical value to the individual Is it a practical job to be the head of an organization of 70 men and women? Is it a practical job to be the head of an organization which yearly brings in pro- fits mounting into the thousands? Is it a practical job to organize such an institution on an efficient plan delegating to some the work of writing, to others the pleasure of publication? Is it a practical job to dictate the policy of a newspaper? We have always said that one of our principal duties in connection with The Daily is to answer the foolish questions asked us during the course o,. the day, with regard to The Daily and any of a hun- dred other things that might enter the head of an eager freshman. One of the questions most frequent- ly asked by the new tryout, and one which we al- ways delight to answer, so deep is our conviction on the point, is "Will The Daily be of any real ser- vice to me in the newspaper world? Will it give me something of real newspaper work?"-this same question of practicality. Our answer is always an unequivocal, unreserved statement that The Daily does somewhere nearly approximate its boast of be- ing a laboratory of practical journalism. Nowhere except in the sacred precinct of a large newspaper office can one get such training. This does not mean to discount the value of the theoretical training in journalism, but for one who has undergone the fiery ordeal of actually reading proof, pricking out the inky symbols which blur before the eyes, all the time that the lynotype machines are droning out their everlasting staccato of falling matrices, the method taught In the class room must seem a dilutd imitation of the real thing; for one who has been taught the suspense attendant upon the makeup of a sheet, for one who has actually seen the lead sink into its proper place under the deft hand of the makeup man, and has seen the paper assume the form which exists in his mind, the lesson taught in a class room must be a sorry attempt. Experience is a great teacher, and one night in the machine room of a newspaper will teach the inquiring youth more than a month of assiduous study. ' There are problems which face the student work- er on a campus paper which are as practical as those which h must face in his later work. The man who has charge of a sports extra, who waits anxiously for the final score to be shouted over the wire, who rushes with the brimming forms to the press, who stands by mutely helpless when the pape rips, while a glorious boom announces the fact to the pressman that the web is broken, the men who rush the paper out onto the streets to be sold to the crowds pouring from the athletic field, have not al, these undergone practical experience of a newspaper man? May we cite one case from personal experience It was the night of August 2, 1923, a night that will, go down in the history of the world even as it is, written indelibly upon our memory. The paper was made up, the press was whirring out the fresh copies and piling up in the receiver the fresh warm sheets of paper, still damp from their journey ov'r _ the inky forms. The first copies had made their ap- pearance, announcing to the world the glaa. news that President Harding was well on the road to recovery. It was 11:30 o'clock that night, and the office was deserted save for ourself. The telephone rang insistently, its harsh reverberations literally making our head ache. The message it brought was no less terrible. The .message which rang out over the wire from Detroit, as it rang over the whole land, was this: "President Harding died tonight at 10:30." Like Mark Twain, we will draw the curtain of char- ity over the scene which followed, for it neither re- flected glory nor credit to the writer. In our ex- citement of the moment, we made mistakes which will be the byword of The Daily as long as the pres- ent generation exists here. But it was all in the way of actual experience. The extra which was published that night, for which the writer has always received unjust credit, was selling on the streets half an hour before any other paper had made its appearance. Listen, you objectors, you per- sons who hold that such work is merely play, was that not a practical experience? In another field, not relative to the mere mechani- cal tedium of putting out a paper, is the work on The Daily Practical. We often wonder if The Dail as a whole appreciates the presence of the faculty, and the opportunity which for that reason, present itself. a thing which for the Daily is almost a common place, but which would be highly valued by any other paper. On the Michigan campus there are as- sembled men of national repute, experts 1r every line of endeavor, who are always willing to help The Daily with advice. To meet these men in such a way is in itself an education, and many of the friend- ships which exist betwen faculty men and students are begun by the introduction afforded through The Daily. In this broad field of interviewing, there is ample scope for activity, the activity which most nearly approaches " real newspaper work. Every door is open to the newspaper man; at least so it seems to the rosy dreams of a reporter, and until he gets a cold rebuff, he goes on the assumption that he is welcome everywhere. It is strange, the lengths to which people will go to get their names in the paper, and the pleasure that will beam forth upon their faces as they hear the grateful news that at last they are important enough to be interviewed. Here is evident the power of the press. "I am from The Michigan Daily" is the magic pass word which 'will admit one almost anywhere, and which with few exceptions will insure one a cordial welcome,. We recall once, when we were very young and very, very green, being sent to interview a local mercnant It was obviously his baptism into the art of being in' terviewed (for it is an art) and it was also pain- fully obvious that it was our maiden attempt at such a task. But it soon became apparent that he, in the flush of his embarrassment, was not aware o° the surpassing nervousness that marked our man- ner; we discovered that we had him completely bluffed; after that delightful discovery, the after- noon, was for us at least, a complete success. With much halting and stammering, with corrections and interlinings, with as much care as if his statement ! danc atjowop History When the eight hundred members of the Junior class of 1925 gather with their friends and guests next Friday, February 6, on the occasiou of the an- nual J-hlop, they will be observing a custom na'mot as old as the University. Tradition has it that in 1842, when the little band of men who 'omiosed the faculty of the University of Mlichiian at its inception first met together, the first question which came up for discussion was as to which class was to be al- lowed the privilege of giving an annual ball which should be a distinctively college affair. However, the discussion dragged on for years, with various classes giving small dances from time to time. The first great step toward a (distint-tive party came in 1868, when the graduating class gave a "Senior Ball" the night before Thanksgiving Day. Little is known of this early forerunner of Michigan- Hops, but that it was a success is affirmed by the fact that it was repeated in 1869. '70 and '71. At this. tim*e the function (lied !out, and the senior class lost, its opportunity to be hosts to Michigan's great=- est dance for in 1873 there appeared on the soctal calendar the first "Junior Hop," -a "swell affair" in the opinion of the ancient Inlander. For a number of years, the J-Hops were con- tinued, all of them successful in every way except financially. A need of a better organization to ob- tain financial backing was necessary, and the ries- Under fraternity control, it remained, as formerly, a college affair, the societies merely reserving the right to display their emblems over their individual booths. They managed the entire dance, the general chairmanship rotating between these nine fraterni- ties. From this time until 1895, the dance was known as "Junior Hop of the PalladiumF raterni- ties" and was the social event of each year. During these years, the Hop was given in a building called "The Rink," later the Ann Arbor Armory, on the site now occupied by the Detroit United Railway waiting room. A gymnasium for the University was a much hoped for, but little ex- pected, building. However, these balls at the Rink were impressive affairs. Gibson's Art parlori served as reception rooms for the guests.- With the appearance of the U. of M. Daily in 1891, more detailed information is available. On April 4, 1891, the day after the Hop, The Daily reported that the decorations surpassed anything attempted thus far. "The aesthetic taste displayed in use of the colors was not so very good," the story read, "but the general effect was pleasing." Schremser's Society orchestra of Detroit furnished the music, and on the program are found the "waltz, galop, schot- tische and promenade." 300 guests and 100 specta- tors attended the Hop. In 1891 the agitation for a gymnasium was stimu- nasium was finally under construction. By this time, four other fraternities had appeared on the campus, and with the Independents, were.clamoring for a hand in the direction of the Hop. The Palla- dium clung to their privileges and the foundation of the battle of 1896 were laid. In the issue of Febru- ary 27, 1892, The Daily announces: "Owing to the discourtesy of the chairman of the Hop committee on invitations to the Junior Hop in not sending The Daily a press ticket, we are unable to present our readers with an account of last night's affair. We are sorry to see this 'position taken. It shows an exclusive spirit not at all becoming and widens the breach already existing between the Fraternities and the Independents." However, this hard feeling was forgotten in 1893, with the first Hop in the new gymnasium, partially completed. The annual concert of the Glee and Ban- jo club was given' from 9 until 10:30 'o'clock, when the grand march was held. 204 couples were danc- ing, and the running track was crowded with specta- tors. Booths were provided for the chaperones and the nine Palladium fraternities. The Daily pro- nounced the ball the "swell event of the year," and described the souvenirs, upon the covers of which "in raised letters, was the inscription, "Junior Hop of the Secret Societies, April 7, 1893." The Palladium was still in charge when the 1894 Hop was given, on the evening of March 27. 300