PAGE FOUR
THE MICHICAN
DAIL Y
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1929
r
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Published every morning except Monday
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MANAGING EDITOR
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Editor......................George C. Tilley
City Editor................Pierce Rosenberg
News Editor .............. George E. Simons
Snorts Editor........Edward B. Warner, Jr.
Women's Editor............Marjorie Follmer
Telegraph Editor.......... George Stauter
Music and Drama ........William J. Gorman
Literary Editor ...........Lawrence R. Klein
Assistant City Editor....-Robert J. Feldman
Night Editors
Frank E. Cooper Robert L. Sloss
William C. Gentry Gurney Williams, Jr
Henry J. Merry Walter Wilds
Charles R. Kaufman
Reporters'
Charles A. Askren William Page
Helen Bare Gustav R. Reich
Louise Behymer John D. Reindel
Thomas M. Cooley Jeannie Roberts
W. H. Cranc Joe Russell
Ledru E. Davis Joseph F. Ruwitch
Helen Domine William P. Salzarulo
Margaret Eckels George Stauter
Katherine Ferrin adwell Swanson
Carl Forsythe Jane Thayer
Sheldon C. Fullerton MargaretLThompson
Ruth Geddes Richard L. Tobin
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ack Goldsmith Charles S. White
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Assistants
Howard W. Baldock
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George Patterson
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Anson oex
Robert Williamson
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Lee Slayton
Roger C. Thorpe
William R. Worboys
Jeanette Dale
Bessie V. Egeland
Bernice Glaser
Helen E. Musselwhite
Hortense Gooding
Eleanor Walkinshaw
Alice McCully
Dorothy Stonehouse
Dorothea Waterman
Marie Wellstead
han remain with a precarious sit- c
uation.
This combination of forces has
worked admirably at Michigan. As
consequence a high number of
aluable aides to the University
have been attracted elsewhere. It
s highly commendable, therefore,
that President Ruthven proposes
to ameliorate the faculties' rela-
tions with the University through
a policy of paying professors upon
the basis of their value to the in-
stitution, not merely what is neces-
sary to keep them at Michigan, and
of maintaining that the personnel
should not be sacrificed for physi-
cal expansion.
Regarding the office of president
generally it is interesting that the
proposes that he proposes that the
president should serve as chairman
of the faculties, instead of trying
to function as a "combination of
educational expert, spanker of re-
calcitrant youngsters, business ex-
ecutive, salesman and medicine
man for the country at large." The
objective therein set forth reflects
in a high degree the perspective
of a man who, irrespective of his
sudden rise to high administrative
sympathetic, yet firm, hard at the
pulse of the entire University.
FIRST UTTERACES.
Men high in public office can
number no more valuableally than
unanimously friendly press.
The support of the press has
strengthened many a beleagured
cause, and its opposition has often
served the public well by breach-
ing the walls of an undeserving one.
Well-wishers of a man entering
upon a public career can hope for
him no greater champion that a
friendly press; nor can one wish
him a worse enemy that a mis-
trustful press.
The pressis not one newspaper,
but thousand:; of them; not one ed-
itor, but thousands of them.
Over the face of the earth, news-
papers have organized their news-
gathering services, the better to
serve their readers. One newspaper,
one editor, can no longer claim to
act capably as the mouthpiece of
any person whose utterances may
properly be considered public prop-
erty. The sole purpose of such or-
ganizations as the Associated Press,
the United Press, and others, is to
transmit promptly and accurately
news of general interest. The em-
phasis placed upon promptness by
these organizations is attested b
their elaborate mechanical mean
to speed transmission to every par
of the country.
Correspondents gather in center
known to be productive of new
in order that the public may be
served ,quickly.rA concidence is safe
Iwith them, for they achieve mor
than a dubious "scoop" by solidfy-
ing their relationships with new
sources.
It is not fitting that one smal
unit of this enormously influentia
system should deem itself a suitabli
organ for broadcasting the words o:
a universial appeal.
0
THE MYSTIC CIRCLE
In early American legend ther
is a tale of a certain William Penn
who by royal grant from His Ma.
jesty the Kink was to be allowet
as much land as he could wall
around in a day. Naturally, h
hired a speedy Indian to do thi
work for him and the result wa
Pennsylvania.
On the other hand, there is n
such legend to enrich Ann Arbor'
name, yet much the same sort o
f restriction had been placed on it
fraternities-excepting the fac
e that they have been given no op
portunity to define their own limit.,
The arbitrary boundaries which fol
low Cambridge Road to Washtenai
and more or less circle the city
I beyond which fraterities may no
d build, are unfair both to the town
e people and to the fraternities.
If (and many no doubt will doub
- vouch for the truth of the state
t ment) fraternities make undesir
able neighbors, it is unjust to re
- strict them to the most densel
peopled sections where the great
est number will be made to suffe
their undesirability. Further, land
owners outside the mystic circle wh
may wish to sell their houses t
these objectionable organization
e have no possible buyers in this fielc
From the standpoint of the fra
ternities and sororities, the situ
ation is even more complex. An;
wishing to expand by buying o
. building larger houses are unabl
s to do so either because the price o
- property in the restricted area i
prohibitive or there are no lot
available. Other societies whici
have bought homes beyond the lin
Music And Drama
1
i
V 0
CONTEMPORARY MUSICAL
JUDGMENTS
"History of Music" by Cecil Gray,
Alfred Knopf Inc., N. Y. C.
I
(Editor's note: The following re-,
view is the first of a series which
is intended to be a fairly systema-
tic survey of the more important
contemparary books and music and
the drama)
This latest history of music by
a prominent London musical critic
proves rather interesting because
its author hates all historians and
is indeed very seldom one himself.
He is indignant at "the almost ex-
clusive preoccupation of musical
historians with questions of formal
and idiomatic evolution," attribut-
ing to it the strongest and most
irrational prejudices of musical
criticism. He is not interested in
influences and trends and culmin-
ations, all of which are in a sense
data for the scientist and permit
the unimpassioned objectivity of
the historian. His concern is more
with musical talent and genius, en-
tities the explication of which re-
quire the more sensitive talent of
the critic.
Cl
C'
Night Editorl
CHARLES R. KAUFMAN 1
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6. 1929
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
With a lengthy exposition of
President Ruthven's tentative so-
lution for the problems confront-
ing the University now made pub-
lic, the new President's measure
may well be estimated. It is signi-
ficant that each tenet of the Presi-
dent's policy is tempered by judi-
cious conciliation, common sense,
and practical idealism. It is equally
significant that each crux in Dr.
Little's career has been dealt with
categorically, to the effect that Dr.
Ruthven is now known to possess
the tactful, diplomatic administra-
tive qualities he was reputed to
have.
Of salient importance is the at-
titude which he has adopted to-
ward exclusively student interests;
namely, a modification of the au-
tomobile regulation in favor of
graduate students, less cumbersome
disciplinary machinery under the
direction of centralized authority
judging cases by a few rules, with a
modicum of paternalism, a more
stringent selective requirement for
admission to the University, and
the enhancement of cultural and
techincal advantages through som
such agency as a University college
These proposals reveal a rather
penetrative appereciation of immi-
nent student needs, and if brought
to maturity they should be of in-
calculable help in promoting stu-
dent cordiality toward the new ad-
ministration.
In the interim since Dr. Little's
resignation, Michigan's academic
morale has experienced numerous
jolts. During the past nine months
a dozen highly trained and valuable
scholars have left their University
many of them excellent teachers,
eminent in their fields, and of long
standing at Michigan.
A school with an uncertain ad-
ministrative future is attacked as
legtimate prey by other universi-
ties for the purpose of inducing
away its faculty men. These over-
tures nicely complement the second
Gray is really much more the I
critic than the historian. With the
critic's illuminating power of gen-
eralisation he speaks of the out-.
standing personalities in musicale
history. He doesn't evade judg-s
ments of value; nor are his those1
firmly endorsed by tradition; theyt
are individual. And there lies the1
peculiar value and interest of ther
book; it is a faithful record of the a
shifting viewpoint of modern mu-t
sical criticism. The depreciation ofk
the Beethoven of the Fifth Sym-c
phony, the Emperor Concerto, The c
Appasionata Sonata; the beliefc
that the real and valuable Brahmsi
is the miniaturist, the Brahms of
the Songs; the enthusiastic praiset
of Moussorgsky as "the greatest
musical psychologist of all time";l
-these are a few of the more ob-(
vious judgments that we r):cog-I
nize as modern.]
The most valuable chapter in the
book is undoubtedly the one on
"The Viennese School." There, Gray1
shatters convincingly that very
persistent legend which has it that
Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
form a perfect line of development
in which each sums up all that has
gone before him and adds some-
thing of his own, each representing
a higher pitch of perfection in
style, form, and genius. The myth
was extremely unfair to Haydn and
Mozart from the point of view of
musical genius; and harmful to
Beethoven because it confused the
real nature of his struggle and
achievement. Gray has cleared the
question nicely by explaining Mo-
zart's ease and satisfaction with
moulds presented him and Beetho-
ven's striking difficulties and ex-
periments with architecture not in
terms of one having greater gen-
ius than the other, but by point-
ing out the difference in the type
of musical genius each possessed.
The chapter is clear, concise, valu-
able criticism.
Before Bach Gray is helpless. He
calls him the "Faust of music who
sold his soul for artistic omnipo-
tence" and proceeds to enumerate
ecstatically the varying demands
which Bach so facilely meets.
These few pages resemble the
mountains of adulation DeQuincey
granted Shakespeare and as crti-
cism they are equally empty of
value.
Some of Gray's judgments are
much more provocative. His bril-
liant attempt to rescue Berlioz and
Liszt whom all unite in decrying
from their present low ranking is
one example. "Les Troyens," Ber-
lioz's two-part musical drama he
declares to have "the majestic dig-
nity and restraint of Sophocles and
a Vergilian serenity and sweetness."
Or, "there are in Liszt's huge and
unequal output enough gems of
first-water to build him a crown of
imperishable glory equal to that of
any composer of his age."
Right at this spot is illustrated
the fallacy of making a one vol-
ume History of Music anything but
a History. If a writer proposes to
offer a judgment of value as as-
tonishing as the one on Berlioz and
Liszt, then the few pages that he
has in a one volume History are no
place for it. A generalization, when
so startling, is not sufficient. The
judgment cries for a whole book
crammed with musical illustrations
and specific references, following a
logical line from a presenation of
ontemporary writing, is ushered in
weetly and kindly by benevolent
Villiam Lyon Phelps, identifying B
,he spirit of poetry with youth,
vishing the publication "a great
leal of that delectable commodity 7t
-success," and calling the under-
;aking "gallant." The introduction -
s just too touching. But it is true.
the editor, a Michigan graduate,
ndoubtedly acquainted with the
uccess of similar attempts on this
ampus, is certainly "brave" to
tart a magazine proposing to rely
almost solely on undergraduate
brain-children. It is a precarious
"expression of faith," deserving
support. Those on the campus feel-
ing that they need only to be dis-
covered should welcome its appear-
ance. It intends to give them a
monthly glance at themselves or at
others like themselves from neigh-
boring universities; and such
glances should conduce to the self,
criticism that may eventually make
writers of them.
The first issue needs no apology;
it contains interesting writing. The
most important piece is undoubt-
edly Leo Kirschbaum's story, "Ro-
senzweig." It is a serious and real-
ly absorbing attempt at presenta-
tion of a character through vivid,
highly subjective dicsription of its
numerous settings. Of the oddities
and mannerisms of the character,
the whims of personality, Kirsch-
baum has nothing to say. He uses
only his extraordinary powers of
observation and a vivid, telegraphic
descriptive prose to stimulate our
imagination to picture Rosenzweig
and convey his own conception of
the significance of the character.
This convention is a bit clumsy in
his hands. He confuses the point
of view often, now talking definite-
ly of Rosenzweig himself and then
losing himself in Rosenzweig's vi-
sion of his surroundings. In the
specifically descriptive writing
there is too little order and ar-
rangement of details even for the
stream of consciousness technique.
Very probably the story is a fail-
ure. But as an example of con-'
scious and consistent experiment
with a technique of character pre-
sentation, it is interesting and im-
portant.
Charles Peake, another Michigan
graduate, has the next longest
piece of writing, a one-act play
called "Undertow." It pictures
"yellow journalism" undermining
an innocent man until he commits
suicide. It is difficult to convinc-
ingly hinge a suicide on the yells
of paper boys without a more elab-
orate presentation of the man's
character than the one-act form
will permit. Hence the play prob-
ably does not deserve production.
But it contains interesting writing
and reads smoothly enough to be
decidedly worth publication.
Professor Jack contributes Part
One of an article on James Joyce.
He is indignant at that group,
steadily increasing in number, who
(in Virginia Wolf's words) "feel
in order to breathe they must
break the windows" just because
more capable writers like Joyce and
Gertrude Stein have appeared so
magnificent doing the same thing.
"Their imitativeness is deplorable"
because "they are vulgarizing the
most interesting writing of the
day." The rest of the essay is a
specific application with illustra-
tions in Joyce's work o T. S. El-
iot's brilliant generalization in the
now famous essay "Tradition and
the Individual Talent." "To be a
good temporary you must first be a
good traditionalist" is Professor
Jack's way of putting it. He holds
that Joyce's "contemporary accep-
tance of futility, desolation, de-
bauchery," in Ulysses was but a
step in his development; that in
some of his later work he is achiev-
ing "that merging of yesterday and
today in the word-synthesis"
which Eliot declared to be the con-
dition of all the great literature
that this age would produce. The
article continues next month and
is to be followed by essays on other
contemporaries.
The Book Review Section notice-
ably needs improvement. There is
no excuse here for any deviation
from a fairly high standard of ex-
cellence. The books chosen for the
first issue were unimportant; the
revifws were not at all valuable nor
Telephone 22541
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