FOUR THE MICi-IIGi\N 1 It, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17', Y1999 FOUR THURSA-,- -- - -------, Published every morning except Monday during the Ulniversity year by the Board in Control of Student Publications. Member of Western Conference Editorial Association. The Associated Press is exclusively en- titled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and the local news pub- lished herein. Entered at the postoffice at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as second class matter. Special rate of postage granted by Third Assistant Post- master General. Subscription by carrier, $4.00; by mail, $4.50. Offices: Ann Arbor Press Building, May- nard Street. Phones: Editorial, 4925; Business, 21214. EDITORIAL STAFF Telephone 4925 MANAGING EDITOR KENNETH G. PATRICK Editor............Nelson'J. Smith City Editor........ ...... j. Stewart Hooker News Editor............Richard C. Kurvink Sports Editor...............W. Morris Quinn Women's Editor..............Sylvia S. Stone Telegraph Editor..............George Stauter Music and Drama...............R. L. Askren Assistant City Editor...........Robert Silbar Night Editors oseph E. Howell onald 3. Kline Lawrence R. Klein George Charles S. Monroe Pierce Rosenberg Georgey F.Simons C. Tilley Reporters Paul L. Adams Donald E. Layman Morris Alexander Charles A. Lewis C. A. Askren Marian 'McDonald Bertram Askwith Henry Merry Louise Behymner Elizabeth Quaife Arthur Bernstein Victor Rabinowitz Seton C. Bovee Joseph A. Russell Isabel Charles Anne Schell L. R. Chubb Rachel Shearer Frank -E. Cooper Howard Simon Helen Domine Robert L. Sloss Margaret Eckels Ruth Steadman Douglas Edwards A. Stewart Valborg Egeland Cadwell Swanson Robert J. Feldman Jane Thayer Marjorie Follmer Edith Thomas William Gentry Beth Valentine Ruth Geddes Gurney Williams David"B. Hempstead Jr. Walter Wilds Richard Jung George E. Wohlgemuth Charles R. Kaufman Edward L. Warner Jr. Ruth Kelsey Cleland Wyllie BUSINESS STAFF Telephone 21214 BUSINESS MANAGER EDWARD L. HULSE Assistant Manager-RAYMOND WACHTER Department Managers Advertising..................Alex K. Scherer Advertising...............A. James Jordan Advertising.............. ..Carl W. Hammer Service ....... ..........Herbert E. Varnum Circulation............. ..George S. Bradley Accounts...............Lawrence E. Walkley Publications.................Ray M. Hofelich Mary Chase Jeanette Dale Vernor Davis Bessie Egeland Sally Faster Anna Goldberg Kasper Halverson George Hamilton Jack Horwich Dix Humphrey Assistants Marion Kerr Lillian.Kovinsky Bernard Larson Hollister Mabley I. A. Newman Jack Rose Carl F. Schemm George Spater ' Sherwood Upton Marie Wellstead Night Editor-Charles S. Monroe THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1929 A CASE OF POOR JUDGMENT Highest praise should be given, to the contest for one-act plays byF student playwrights recently stag- ed by the Division of English. It is an endeavor which should re- ceive the hearty support of the campus and of all those people who believe in the existence of literary talent anywhere but in Green- wich Village and the snobbish strongholds of Yale and Harvard. It is unfortunate, in the light of the excellent results which have been obtained, that the backers ignored the two first principles of a good contest; to wit, to select judges who have no possible con-. nections with the contestants, and to avoid any appearance of haste or premeditation in the selection of the winners. Both of these rules were so openly ignored that the campus has every right to doubt the openness and the representa- tive quality of what was called "an all-campus contest." The fact that a professor served on the judging committee thatI selected five plays out of six from his class in playwriting is unfor- tunate. We are sure that there was nothing wrong with the select- ing. But the case from its very appearance is dubious. And when onq adds to this the fact that only twenty-eight hours elapsed be- tween the closing of the contest and the announcement of the win- ners, the validity of the selections is open to a very fair doubt. The Daily is pledged whole- heartedly to the encouragement of a campus theater, and will do everything in its power to bring about a state of healthy campus dramatics. It sees in the idea be- hind this contest the germs of an annual or semi-annual event which will make the campus theater a part of the student body, and not just an amusing spectacle put on for its edification. It is sincere in the sponsoring-of this activity and it awaits the outcome and the production of the plays with the greatest interest. But, with the rest of the campus, The Daily challenges the way in which this contest was handled. For the best interests of campus dramatics it seems wise that some statement of the conduct of this contest be forthcoming. Only in this way can progress be held and the sympathies of the campus en- listed. VIRGINIA SPEAKS the liberty of publishing here ex- cerpts from President Alderman's letter: "The situation as regards drink- ing is not ideal, or even satisfac- tory, in American institutions of learning, and I am confident that no honest president of such an in- stitution will deny this statement. The same remark may justly be made of American urban society in general, and it may be remembered that universities are in definite measure the resultant of social forcedi playing upon them, how- ever hard they may strive to lead and elevate these forces .... "There is a stubborn drink- tradition in American college life, which I greatly deplore. I believe the' prohibition laws have helped and are helping to break down this tradition, but they have brought their own particular troop of grave problems, which as yet, in both general society around us and in colleges, remain unsolved. Drinking now tends to become more an occasional excess, induced by excitement and emotion, than a constant habit. The whole move- ment, however, is upward and not downward, a process of improve- ment and not deterioration .... "In this connection I wish to re- fer to the Virginia-Carolina foot- ball game, which has been criti- cized for exhibitions of excessive drinking . . .. There were thou- sands of young men there who were not students, some of whom, I fear, came to get drunk rather than to see the game. It would be mani- festly absurd to tag every drinker as a student. The assumption that you, Governor Byrd, or I, or Mussolini himself, could insure perfect sobriety on such an occa- sion is not an intelligent assump- tion. "I have stood and do now stand fo prohibition, and have faith that the slow process of national dis- cipline will yet emerge triumphant- ly, under honest leadership, from the present confused and menac- ing situation. "A student here will promptly report his best friend if he lies or cheats, but he will not report him for taking a drink of liquor or neglecting his work. That is his code of honor, and who shall describe it as an unworthy code? "There remains another matter in the open, etter addressed to you by the Superintendant of the Anti Saloon league, upon which you ap- parently ask my advice. It is the proposal 'that dthe secret service men of the federal prohibition unit be allowed as free and uninter- rupted access to the University life as bootleggers are now report- ed to have.' Bootleggers are not al- lowed any access to University grounds or University life. They are a nefarious tribe and do, of course, gain access by nefarious ways. I obviously would welcome any help from any source that could be legitimately used. All American universities need help in battling with this problem. But I think there is no law that exempts the domicile of a student from the same supervision that officers of the law may exercise over the home of any other citizen. The law officers have this right now, for that matter, and could and ought to exercise it. "We would willingly cooperate in curbing this evil in ways that do not transform this University into an institution of espionage by the president and faculty. "The dormitories of the Univer- sity are those which Thomas Jef- ferson built for a student popula- tion of a few hundred, and hold a mere fraction of the great student group of today. I have again and again plead for more. At present the student group is housed over an area of several square miles, all of them, it should be said, in the homes of worthy people. The lack of adequate dormitory facilities manifestly increases the difficulty of disciplinary problems. "It is fundamentally unwise to attempt minute supervision of the daily lives of students, though sympathy and interest in them should and do exist. Their testing hour has come. They must one day learn to use their wings, if they have got any, and their day has now come. "The creation of a satisfactory public ,Dpinion among students against the use of alcohol, is neces- sarily a slow process, but it is the only enduring process. High- minded American youth cannot be drilled and tossed into good be- havior like soldiers in an expedi- tionary force. They grow into this state by example, persuasion, en- vironment, and character." . This frank and honest exposition of student drinking by a Univer- sity executive is nothing if not re- freshing. It recognizes the problem fearlessly and describes how it may be met. Above all it denounces faculty espionage and mollycoddl- ing the college man with a just- ness that demands the attention of every student on an American campus today. In the facing of this problem the individuality and the independence of the American student are at stake. ratification is that it shows con- fidence in our own statesmen, but further than that there is little to be said in favor of the signing ofc such a pact, unless it be that the psychological effect on some people made it worth while., To even think that all the im-t pulses and hatreds that cause wart between nations can be wiped out1 by a pacifist movement culminat-e ing in a treaty is as absurd as to1 think that the American public's thirst for beverage could be elimi- nated by the- terms of the Eigh-! teenth Amendment. Although war I is not quite as common as alcohol, a sealed document will probably have the same effect on put-t ting an end to war, as "prohibi- tion" has had in putting an end to drinking. War is rather an old institution to be crumbled by the rumblings of one generation of1 pacifists. The United States is primarily a' peaceful nation. We have seldom been known to enter a war just for the fun of it, or for the terri- torial gain that might be ours. We are not the ones to advocate war at specified intervals, neither are we the ones to turn a deaf ear to the dictates of common sense, and eliminate, partially or wholly, all defense preparations, on the advice of a class who simply shudder at the facts of life, and keep a shaded eye on their own Utopia. American needs defense power sufficient to guard against a situa- tion which might arise should the treaty, due to unavoidable circum- stances, become a "mere scrap of paper." The treaty has no reserva- tions, but it is interpreted by the foreign relations committee to mean that each country has re- served to itself the right to deter- mine and execute its own defense program. In other words, the signers do not have to go to war, but if they are forced into it, go ahead. Inconsistent as it may cound, the most sensible thing that the Con- gress could do would be to back up the treaty by passing the bill for the enlargement of the naval power. We might guarantee world peace by making it known to all nations that to start a war with the United States would be little short of national suicide. No harm has been done by the mere ratification of the pact, nor has much been ac- Icomplished; but a great deal ofj harm might be forthcoming were we to discard adequate defense powers, consisting of ships, arms, and men, in favor of something far less substantial in the form of a rather "lady-like" treaty. FIRE The death of Mrs. M. B. Sheley on Tuesday afternoon as the re- sult of inhaled smoke and the ac- companying fire shock when her home was burned the previous night should call attention to the inadequacy of the Ann Arbor fire department to cope with sudden emergencies. Mrs. Sheley was unconscious when she was removed from the burning building by students who effected entrance wile firemen attacked the flames from outside. That her's should be the first death as the result of fire to take place here over a period of years [is a record to which the local fire department, no doubt, will point with some degree of pride. Even momentary recollection, however, of the more important fires which have broken out in the past three or four years is sufficient to recall that this record is in no way due to the efforts of the city's fire fighters. Instead, it becomes readily ap- parent that fire hazards in Ann - Arbor due to the absence of a com- petent fire company are unusually great. Whether the Sunday after- noon's entertainment that was furnished the student body and townspeople when flames broke out in the. Arcade theater and a little later in the Parrot restaurant came as the result of a lack of equipment or of a lack of organi- zation and fire-fighting ability, it is not easy to say. There can be no difficulty, how- ever, in recognizing that the pres- ence of millions of dollars in Uni- versity buildings and equipment in Ann Arbor,occupied during many hours of the day by hundreds and sometimes by thousands of stu- dents, is every reason for the in- stitution of those missing factors, what ever they may be, which will Smake it possible for the Ann Arbor fire company to successfully cope with dangerous fires of any nature. Preparedness of this sort is a good investment in plain common sense. -o- "Influence Of Diet On Stature Is Seen In Experiment In India And China" is a headline in theNew York Times. Do they have to go there to find that out. 0 AWstudent at theUniversity of West Virginia writes on "How I Should Act If I Were a Girl." They must have an opera at West Vir- ginia also. 0 "REDEMPTION" Critical reaction to Moissi's in- terpretation of Fedya in "Redemp- tion" and the general Reinhart school of production seems to gen- eralize itself into the remark that by comparison, the art of acting in this country is still rather deplo - ably in the diaper stage. Like all generalizations such outbursts areI more enthusiastic than true. Which is not another way of de- fending American productions or domestic acting. Reinhart's manner, however, owes its effectiveness to his frank admission of the technical limita- tions of the stage as it is now, and his Spartan fortitude in clinging to the ideal of drawing every bit of emotion possible out of the actor. If this is expressed as his rebellion against the tyranny of the spoken word it is merely an in- version of the first principle, and his success is abundantly proven in the clarity with which the drama of "Redemption" penetrates an audience not entirely familiar with the German language. In his staging Reinhart is simplicity it- self. He prefers to omit the un- essential detail, to simplify the ne- cessary adjunct to the actor's per- formances, and to use baldly and unaffectedly his lights and other technical devices when their use - fulness conflicts with the natural desire to keep the machinery of art hidden. In the power of the effect produced this technique far surpasses the more western F convention of a completer natural- ism. But its highest virtue lies in applying it to suitable types of drama. In "Redemption," with its allegorical theme, its episodic form,. and its melodramatic treatment,: it is eminently successful. Imagin- ation forbids the western method of production, after seeing Rein- hart's success, but enthusiasm must be tempered by this awae- ness of its limitations. But "Redemption" has the addi- tionally important factor for its success, Moissi's genuis for inter- pretation. And here again the conventions differ. In the lines of dialogue German gutturals thund- er with drama (excluding Rein- hart's liberties with the 'script, and the original German version which is vastly dissmilar from that, used by Barrymore in 1918-1919), where the English lines would have rattled in the 'clipped- speech' manner. But a more es- sential difference lies in the Con- tinental idea that interpretation should spring from the actor's whole body, assisted by the tones of his voice. In this school an actor can consider himself as an athlete, more than a mannered puppet. I The voice becomes an instrument; not a vehicle. From that point of view, Moissi's performance was superb. He has apparently absolute control of his body, and what is more, he has awareness of the im- plications inherent in attitude and general physical movement and makes use of them. With these important powers the face as an instrument of expression loses the primary importance which our actors give it. Moissi's realization of this modified his actions so much that he was able to tell two! stories at the same time. With his body and his voice he told the im- mediate emotion each line of dia- logue carried; with his face he con- veyed the general mood that un- derlay each scene, and as the play progressed it became obvious that the character of Fedya was assum- ing, in addition to his significance as a human being in a tradgedy of human relations, the further symbolism of Christ and His sacri- fice on the cross. Only very complete control of the actor's instruments, dominated by a brilliant sense for their use, could have achieved Moissi's success. Reinhart is further to be con- gratulated in his dramatic hon- esty. The entire cast was made up of very capable actors who provid- ed an admirable background for the progress of the Fedya drama as Moissi unfolded it. There were no weaknesses in interpretation to bear witness to economy in pro- duction, and if Reinhart finds his tour less profitable in money than in laudatory criticism this will be one of the important reasons which discriminating critics will appre- ciate. One of the debatablepoints is the liberty a producer may take with a manuscript. Certainly the Thomas version, prepared for; Barrymore, differs almost funda- mentally from that prepared by the German translator. John -Barrymore plays with great success! the more Italian type of swash- buckling hero who still has his soul pretty much at heart. To this end the play was clipped of what might be considered an excess of! introspective action, John prefer- ring to strut than to think. Moissi, on the other hand, succeeded soI magnificently with the sensitive i Fedya'swonderings about himself that critical opinion cannot avoid deploring the American distortion of Tolstoi's essentially spiritual conception of his character. F~nr fthoestudent wihoi has znot the Music A, d Dramia Strh A Read the Classified Ads mom I 4' QUALITY. a u Ne Un Ski To] Ho Ha 4' QUALITY. S 0. - &b RO 4' UAUT Shoe Skates!I kates! stor Johnson's Tubular Hockey ion Hardware Shoe Skates . $7.50 I . . . . . . . $5.00 ' ies from boggans . . . . . . . . . $1.75 to $5.00 S .. . . $8.00, $10.50, $12.50 q 0 ckey Sticks, 25c and up. rdware and House Furnishings. Jno. C. Fischer Co. 4QUALITV.O I '_ 99 'M K a.lp T -IA'F'S the telephone"Hello" iiiMadrid. In London, it's"Are you there?"But in many foreign countries, Americans find a universal language in the telephone salutations. It's good old "Hello"-a subtle tribute to the fact that the telephone is an American invention. And so it is with elevator service. Even though they say "Diga" in Spain, the architects of the magnificent new Madrid Telephone Building unhesitatingly said "Otis" because Spain demanded the last wordin elevators. You will findin Madrid the same type of Sig- nal Control Elevators that are now installed in those monumental telephone buildings in America, in New York, Cleveland, St. Louis and San Francisco. 4 ,. .,...__ _ .- , (