THE MICHIGAN DAILY Irridav. March 27. 1031 ..:... ..THE MICHIGAN DAILYa I A:101 ublished every morning except Monday ng the University year by the Board in trol or Student Publications. ember of Western Conference Editorial ciation. he Associated Press' is exclusively entitled he use for, republication of all news dis- hies credited to it or not otherwise credited this paper =and the local news published in. ntered at the postofice at Ann Arbor, higan, as second class matter. Special rate ostage granted by Third Assistant Post.- te: General. abscription by carrier, $4.00; by mail, $4.5o. Eces: Ann Arbor Press Building, Maynard et. Phones: Editorial, 4925; Business, 21214. EDITORIAL STAFF Telephone 4925 MANAGING EDITOR Chairman Editorial Board 9ENRY MERRY FaXK E. CoopsR, City Edito,' s Editor ...............Gurney Williams orial. Director.........Walter W. Wilds ts Editor.... .....Joseph A. Russell nen's Editor.:*.......'Mary L. Behyrner c, Drama, Books......:..Wm. . Gorman stunt City Editor..'.Harold 0. Warren tant News Editor......Charles R. Sprowl grapd. Editor ..........Geor eA. Stauter Editor................... .E. Pype NIGHT EDITORS each Conger John D. Reindel S. Forsythe Charles R. Sprowl id X. Nicho Richard L. Tobin Harold 0. Warres SPORTS AssrsTANTs don C. Fullerton J. Cullen Kennedy Charles A. Sanford REPORTERS Thomas M. Cooler Morton Frank Saul Friedberg Frank B. GilbretW Roland Goodmaa Morton Helper Bryan Jones Denton C. Kunzi Powers Moulton Wilbur J. M era Brainard W. T~ies Robert L. Pierce Richard Racine Jerry E. Rosenthal Karl Seiffert George A. Stauter Tohn W. Thomas John S. Townsend Mary McCall Cile Miller Margaret O'Brien Eleanor Rairdon Anne Margaret Tobin " Margaret Thompson Claire Trussell n Blunt tte Demblts Feldman iGallmeyer y G. Grimes Lev Any Magee ;a Manchester BUSINESS STAFF Telephone 21214 . HOLLISTER MABLEY, Business Meige, K aSrn H. HALVERsON, Assistant Manaar4 dyriigDEPARTMENT MANGEin Avertising .. ....... Charles T. Kline advertising ............. Thomas M. Davis dvertising.............William W. Warboys ervice....... ...Norris J.Johnscn ublication............Robert W. Williamson irculation ............. Marvin S. Kobacker ,ccunts ......... . . ..homas S. Muir siness Secretary...........Mary J. Kenas Editorial Comment While isolated cases of college professors in high governmental positions have long been known, it is only with the rise of large city universities that political activity by men in academic circles has be- come at all common. Life in a busy metropolis, contact with business men, politicians, and radical refor- mrhas worn away much of the old academic aloofness. Professors are less sensitive about being asso- ciated with the temper and confu- sion of petty politics; they have learned how to compromise with- out losing their ideals. It is in the lower levels of politics that the n e w development has shown itself. Despite the frowns of many of their colleagues, scores of college professors h a v e thrown themselves into the game of poli- tics with all its crassness. They are working within a machine or with an opposing alliance to attain some higher standard for their ward or city. -CORNELL DAILY SUN- Campus Opinion Contributors ae asked to be brief, confiningbthemsel esktodless that. 300 words if possible. Anonymous co- miunications will be disregarded. The names of communicants will, however, be regarded as confidential, upon re- quest. Lettersspublished should not be construed as expressing the editorial opinion of The Daily. To the Editor: The current visit of Dr. Gustave A. Blumenthal to Ann Arbor has been the cause of much campus comment of late. Dr. Blumenthal was invited to come for an all- campus forum address; after the addresses many students expressed desires for personal conferences. As a result, Dr. Blumenthal elected to stay over for a few days to ac- commodate those who wished to see him. I desire to say a word concerning the position of the Student Chris- tian association relative to the in- vitation to Dr. Blumenthal. Our position is merely that of an out- sider. We do not profess to formally aprpove of all of Dr. Blumenthal's methods. In fact our position is similar to that of the board of re- gents of the University to public pronouncements of officials of the University, namely that p u b i c statements of opinion are not to be taken ex cathedra, unless for- mally endorsed by the board. This same position is taken by other as- sociations. Dr. Blumenthal's record was in- vestigated in "Who's Who in Amer- ica," which is generally considered as a reliable source of information. With evidence indicating that he had served as the first director of the United States vocational bureau in Washington in 1914 gave us the information which was considered sufficient justification to warrant our extending him the invitation. The S. C. A. does not want to go on record as sponsoring every word spoken from its platform. However, we do wish to make it evident that, through the medium of these open forum discussions, the S. C. A. is sndeavoring to render a service to. the campus. The fact that Natural Science auditorium was filled to overflowing for the original lecture, and the further fact that students' demands for conferences have °aused Dr. Blumenthal to prolong is stay in Ann Arbor, seems fully o justify the original invitation for the all-campus forum address. I Jule Ayers, '33. Editor'snte:TDr. Blumentha's~ III MUSIC ANDDRAMA~i ;. "Y R. Begley on Bishop am Brown rt Callahan am W._ Davit ard H. Hiller Hoiasigton W. Verner an Atran n Bailey hine Convislei ne Fisligrund thy Le Mire )thy Laylin Assistants 0 Prle Kightlinger Don W. L yon William Morgan Richard Stratameier Keith TIrer Byrou C. Veddet Sylvia Mille' Helen Olsen iildred Postal *r Marjorie Rougb Mary E. Watts Johanna Wiese FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1931 Night Editor-RICHARD L. TOBIN TURNING THE TABLES Ohio State university is the latest to indicate that the traditional tables will be turned, with the in- auguration of a plan for the re-; mainder of this semester to permit undergraduatestor pass judgment upon the merits or deficiencies ofI faculty members. Questionnaires have been sent out at the sugges- tion of the university's Student Senate to ascertain the seniors' honest and frank opinions of their individual professors and instruc- tors from the standpoint of their attitudes toward students, their success in stimulating scholarship, and their general teaching ability. Several encouraging facts result from a cognizance of this new plan. In the first place, Ohio State stu- dents have obtained the aid and official consent of the administra- tion in their endeavor. The execu- tive body of the university desires to learn what members of its fac- ulty are not only popular among TONIGHT: Student Recital in the School of Music auditorium at 8:15 by Burnette Bradley, soprano and Robert Crandall, pianist. EXHIBITION OF COMMERCIAL ART A Review by Cle Miller. Under the auspices of Audac, The American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen, a world of lean verticals, yawning circles, and bulky planes has been created on the third floor of the Architectural school where their exhibition of commercial art is being held. Inter- ior decorative plans, textile designs, advertisement sketches, and furni- ture designs make up the body of the show. Commercial art often brings a reaction of condescension on the part of the aesthete. The common attitude towards this type of artis- tic endeavor is that the artists are selling their souls for a materialis- tic necessity. However this is not the case, on the whole, as the art is represented in the current exhibi- tion. The best work of this archi- tectural and utilitarian art shows a mastery of principles which will inevitably forward art in a better channel. There is a new under- standing of the leanness of splen- did verticals; the subtlety of sim- plicity and the great power that lies in a lack of detail; a union of varying geometric shapes without the resistance which is so often imposed when an unskillful modern slashes cubes and circles together. These artists understand the effect which a single decorative figure will create when it is free of any clut- tering competition. The tendency to use broken sur- faces and to emphasize the vertical is not always pleasing in its result for often the artist finds himself involved in great towering bulks which give us an uncomfortable feeling of toppling worlds. Leon Carrol and Jacques Darcy undoubtedly express the under- standing of this new simplicity in the most convincing manner. To create a restful atmosphere without monotony and still employ a pau- city of decoration and wide barren surfaces is a challenge to anyone. The decorative wall panel that the two men have designed done in low relief and in very few planes is an exquisitely simple piece of work. With great luminous semicircles curving through the top of the panel, shot with arrows that broad- en into large bands at the bottom of the panel, and flanked on either side by two powerfully simple fig- ures, the panel compels one's at- tention. Leon Carrol also does flower panels whichareacharacterized by a delicate strength and which model the natural forms into beau- tifully conventionalized s h a p e s. Speaking of patternized natural forms, recalls the excellent designs which appear in the textiles. Rob- ert Schey chops up his geometric figures and whittles down the natural forms until he produces provocative patterns. Marguerito Margentine attacks her problems of design in much the same way, but in color, she is out of step with the rest of the exhibitors. She does not know the knack of being artis- tically original; her color schemes turn out either drab and uninter- esting or else repulsive with their freakish lack of harmony.j For the most part the new artists are masters of color. They are in- teligently daring. We find the re- ,turn of the" Eastern influence in alternating wide bands of color for wall decoration; and the return of beautiful wall panels of Japanese inspiration with unwieldy graceful figures, and influenced by th~e Per- sian litheness in treating animnal bodies we find slender fauns dashed across the screens and panels. For the most part the furniture is unsatisfactory in design. The effect is either of an unclothed skeleton, an overstuffed clumsiness, or a false puritanical stiffness. The steel furniture makes one shiver in apprehension of the return ofi the ungainly organ-pipe brass beds. A conventionalized lotus bud in the form of a lamp is no more reassur- ing; for the artist produces a figure more like that of a plucked turkey than that of a lotus bud. However the design which was offered for a kitchen table was beautiful in its proportions. A rounded elipse for the top and thin metal strips band- ed together to form the supports made an artistic creation. And that for the kitchen! Of the advertising schemes pre- 1 About Booksi AN ELUSIVE GENRE THE NATURE OF COMEDY: by Willard Smith: Richard Badger Co., Boston, Mass.: Price $2.00. The late W. P. Ker in his essay on "Moliere," when he caught him- self making dogmas about the na- ture of comedy which would make the beloved English romantic com- edy and the Restoration Comedy alike vicious hybrids, hastened to add that besides Thalia the Muse, who' watched over comedy, Diony- sus was perpetually interested in comedy and always capable of in- terfering. Meaning, of course, that one shouldn't dogmatise about the nature of comedy. Similarly Jean Paul Richter thought the only merit of the long list of philosophic defi- nitions of laughter was in their be- ing themselves comic. T e author of the present work- which is a reworked Harvard Ph.D. thesis - acknowleges the problem. And his book only -reaffirms the in- solubility of the problem by its utter lack of any original thinking. But the book has a very genuine use- fulness in that it offers a compact and complete orientation intothe thinking that has been done about the nature of comedy. All the phil- osophers from Plato to Boris Sidis are examined with exemplary thor- oughness for their views on laugh- ter, its nature, causes, and function. Loosely the theories seem to fall into two categories: those who hold (with Plato and Hobbes) that the predominant essential of laughter is a feeling of superiority; and those who assert (with Aristotle and Schopenhauer) the primal ingredi- ent to be a sense of contrast, "the annihilation of expectation." Mr. Smith favors the combina- tion of these two, with odds given to the first. But comic laughter he wishes to confine to laughter at the "spectacle of moral disproportion,j the display of the flaw in an in- dividual character against a normal social background." That, of course, is only the generalisation Bergson made with Moliere as his particular. The English comic genius quite de- fLies such neatness. The functions of laughter are classified under the headings: the release of nervous energy, the play- instinct, and social correction. The b9*o closes with three careful chap- ters on the evolution of comic forms in classical, French, and English stages. W. J. G. AWOVE THE DARK TUMULT by . Hugh Walpole. Doubleday Doran and Co. Review copy courtesy Slater's book store. The Old Master in a holiday spirit has presented us with a vol- ume which compares favorably with! any of his more serious works. Hugh Walpole's "Above the Dark Tumult," written in the interlude between the publication of "Rogue Herries" and its sequel, "Judith Paris," is strongly reminiscent of his remark- able depiction of a certain red- haired man. ily Pons Sensational French Prima donna of the Metropolitan Opera Company Wednesday evening concert il1da Burke A star of the Chicago Civic Opera Company Thursday evening and Friday afternoon concerts Soprano Cy%-rena Vanm Gordon Contralto Chicago Civic Opera Company star Saturday evening concert Eleanor eynolds Contralto FESTI Chicago Civic Opera Company and Staats Operas of Berlin and Vienna Thursday evening and Friday afternoon concerts FederickJagel Metropolitan Opera Company Thursday evening concert Walter Widdop British National Opera Company Saturday evening concert Chase aroiueo Chicago Civic Opera Company Saturday evening concert Nelson Eddyr American Opera Company Thursday and Saturday evening concerts Fred Patton Metropolitan Opera Company Thursday and Saturday evening concerts Tenor 11111 - Tenor Baritone m CONCERTS tIa .1, 14 915, 16 Baritone Bass Soprano II Ruth Bretoll Renowned woman virtuoso Saturday afternoon concert Violinist Ign ace Jan Paderewski World's most renowned pianist Friday evening concert Paller Christian Leading American Organ virtuoso Friday afternoon concert Earle V.1 oore Conductor of Choral works Pianist Organist Musical Director Frederick Stock Orchestra Conductor students but efficient i room. Work of tabulat done by the administ so eager is the execut- acquire the information Other universities an the country have triedi similar questionnaires, ulty members are and not ranked among th cient ain the students' has the method been q ful because of the obvi+ popularity and persona which favors one profe more efficient colleagu sultant data is not, pr much use, for no Univ dent will ever be expec a student questionnair sideration in hiring or his faculty personnel. But the experiment IF ance in its initiative b organization and its support by the adminis gardless of whether orn received is of immedia the executive group, th turning the tables on fa mnent of the student bod Ohio State to a solution question-complete ha tween faculty and stude n the class- name was listed in Who's Who in ion is being America until 1915, after which date ration itself it was omitted. ive group to n. To the Editor: d colleges in Is the student interest, as recent- to learn, via ly manifest, in the lectures of an im- which fac- ported psychoanalyst, who claims I which are Jto be able to 'size you up' in half ,e most effi- an hour and tell you what occupa- eyes. Never tion you SHOULD follow, an indi- uite success- cation that there is an extreme ious fault of need on this campus for a genuine- al attraction ly scientific and humanized bureau ssor above a of vocational counseling - a place e. The re- to which students could go and not actically, of be pigeon-holed into a 'type'? ersity presi- When 350 students will sit for eted to take over an hour and eagerly listen to e into con- a lecturer expound on the 'type' r discarding suited for this or that occupation, and when many of them are willing Sto pay five dollars to find out what )y a studen- they should do as a life's vocation, y a student it must be an indication that there immediate are scores of students on this, or tration. Re- any other, campus who are still un- not the data decided and are genuinely interest- te value to ed in their choice of a life career. ie theory in Does this University need a voca- aculty judg- tional counseling bureau or office? dy may lead The answer is left open, but the of the real opinion of the writer, crystallized rmony .be- from his observations on the cam- t h pus and listening to students who There is a strange, wild charm about this latest book which almost approaches the eerie in some pas- sages. Again Mr. Walpole paints an inimitable gallery of portraits, sketching them at first with bold, firm strokes, and filling in the out- lines with colors, both gaudy and delicate. So intense is the drama of the situation that although the whole story occurs within the brief span of a few hours, the reader is left with a feeling of having seen a life time of events.J Picadilly Circus is as much a character in the plot as it is the background, for it refuses to serve merelyas a scene of action, and obtrudes itself a living, potent force, into the lives of all the actors in the little drama. Several of the characters are so sharply etched that they seem vaguely familiar, and their is a Dickensonian quality about Pen- gelly, the villain who is too wicked to live, and so dies at the hands of the noble madman, John Osmund. He is so vile that he challenges comparison, for his wickedness ex- ists in the very fibres of his being, and it has an infectuous quality which makes it all the more dan- gerous. Hench, with his crazed at- tempts at reforming the world, the great blonde Osmund, who seems to be half god and half child, and the two refreshingly normal lovers make variety a keynote of the char- acterizations.l Sric elanarter Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Conductor or Orchestral and Miscellaneous programs Assistant Conductor ouva11ghee Children's Conductor Supervisor of Music, Ann Arbor Public Schools U~niversiyty Choral Union Thursday and Saturday evenings. Three hundred voices. Chieago Symphony Orchestra Entire Festival week. Seventy players CFi dtreyn's tFestival Chorus Friday afternoon concert. Four hundred voices orisnGod o in English Mussorgsky Saturday evening concert St. Franeecs of Assisi Thursday evening concert Pierne Old Jonny Appleseed (children) Friday afternoon concert Gaul SEASON TICKETS, $6.00, $7.00, $8.00 (if Festival coupon is enclosed deduct 1114