THE MICHIGAN DAILY
upon a sum as magnitudinous as the present na-
tional budget.
President Roosevelt was swept into office on the
top of a Democratic wave that promised to re-
member the Forgotten Man. The Chief Exec-
tive immediately began a program of public
spending that aimed to bring back the memory
of the Man in the Street.
The program was supposedly an attempt to
alleviate a temporary crisis. Its life was defi-
nitely limited. That was as it should be. Some-
thing needed to be done. The President is doing
that much and should be commended. The cost
was great, but the results were more than worth it
Two years and more have passed, and the orgy
of public spending goes on. Despite executive
promises when the measures were railroaded
e through Congress in the spring of 1932, the na-
tional government still finds a market for its
millions. Such a lavish display of public spending
cannot go on forever. The day will come when
it must be paid - paid out of the pocket of the
Man in the Street.
The Forgotten Man may be remembered too well.
Insanity is reported to be less prevalent among
primitive groups than among civilized nations. We
knew the white man had been shirking his burdens
lately.
[The SOAP BOX
Letters published in this column should not be
construed as expressing the editorial opinion of The
Daily. Anonymous contributions will be disregarded.
The names of communicants will, however, be regarded
ase onfidentiai upon request. Contributors are asked to
be brief, the. editor reserving the right to condense
all letters of over 200 words.
Normal School'Facts'
To the Editor:
In your editorial of Sunday, Jan. 27, on the sub-
ject of "Normal School Retrenchment" you at-
tempt to bring out some facts. For instance, you
say, "There is no other field of education in the
state where retrenchment has not already gone the
limit." Where did you get that "fact"? Michigan
spent during the year 1934 over $13,000,000 for
the construction of new highways. Furthermore.
since 1930 the operating revenues of the teachers
colleges have been cut 40.5 per 'cent, while the
operating revenues of none of the other state insti-
tutions of higher learning have been cut more
than 32.2 per cent and one institution was cut only
16.4 per cent. The limit that you speak of has
apparently been approached more nearly by the
teachers colleges already than by some other in-
stitutions which cost the state far more.
You say in your editorial, "A large percentage
of the students in Michigan normal colleges come
from other states." Where did you get that "fact"?
Actually there were enrolled in residence in teach-
ers colleges of Michigan last year 4,673 students,
and of that number exactly 135, or less than three
per cent, came from outside the state.
You say that "A large percentage of normal
school students come from all parts of the state
and do not necessarily attend one school simply
because it happens to be in the vicinity of their
home." Where did you get that "fact"? An actual
survey of sources of students made for Western
State Teachers College in 1929 showed that of the
entire student body 35 per cent came from within
a radius of 25 miles, 70 per cent came from within
a radius of 50 miles, and 85 per cent came from
within a radius of 100 miles.
You say that "No Michigan normal college is
crowded with students," and that appears to be
the only one of your "facts" that is a fact. But
it is also a fact that the University itself is not
crowded wih students. Would you advocate closing
the University temporarily because its attendance,
is slightly under what it has been in other years?
Since the fourth normal school was established in
Michigan some 30 years ago the population of the
state has doubled and the number of public school
teachers has more than doubled. It takes many
years to develop an organization like a college, and
to close one, or more, of them even temporarily
would mean that its replacement would necessarilyI
take a long time.
We do not question your right to campaign
against the teachers colleges, if that seems to you
to represent a proper editorial policy, and we do
not know what arguments the governor has for
closing some of the teachers colleges, but we submit'
that fair play toward the teachers colleges, and
also toward the constituency which The Michigan
Daily serves requires the presentation of facts
which are more authentic than those which
appeared in your editorial.
I am an'alumnus of both Western State Teachers
College and the University of Michigan.
-Franklin L. Everett.
Sen. Carter Glass is lecturing to the Senate to
abolish the "and/or" in legislative documents. He
is right, and what's more, we think the Senate
should have to listen to the Virginian and or agree
with hin.
IAsOthers I
Professors Local No. 00
PROF. LOWELL J. CARR, University of Michigan
sociologist, recently urged the unionization of
all professors and affiliation with the American
Federation of Labor. "The place of the teacher,
as well as everyone else who works for a living,
is with his fellow-workers and friends -in the
union of his craft, affiliated with the A.F.L.," he
said.
The need for organization among college pro-
fessors may be a problem of great moment, but
the natural reaction to Professor Carr's suggestion
is one of amusement. It would be difficult to
imagine professors with union cards or going on
strike: for a six hour day or in sympathy with the
steam fitters. If there is to be a union of college
professors, it must have a professional, sounding
title. its motives, however mundane. must annear
T
}
COL LEGlATE
OBSERVER
11
I
By BUD BERNARD
Here is an interesting story concerning the well-
known poetess (?) Gertrude Stein. It happened
on a balmy spring day years ago at Johns Hopkins
during final exam week. Miss Stein and the phi-
. losophy professor were the principal characters.
On the date of the philosophy examination our
heroine merely handed in a postcard on which she
scribbled:
"Dear Professor James: I am so sorry but,
really, I do not feel a bit like an examination
paper in philosophy today."
She then left the room. The following day Dr.
James sent her a postcard saying:
"I understand perfectly how you feel. I often
feel like that myself."
Here comes the surprise. Underneath this note
he gave Miss Stein the highest mark in the course.
Out of the n,:aelstrom of final exams comes
a story that will go down in history at Cornell
University. It concerns a certain freshman in
a chemistry lecture course. The yearling
worked diligently for his final exam. He took
it and then to his horror noted that his pro-
fessor was giving another one the next day.
There seemed to be nothing to do but take it-
which he did. Not until later did he learn that
the professor had two sections in the same
course. The freshman scored an 83 on the
first examination and 54 on the second. Which
one counted on his final grade is still un-
known.
In one of the English courses at Ohio State
University in which an ultra-sophisticated co-ed
monopolizes class discussion on trivial matters
every day, the neglected ones grew weary of such
performance and when she began saying that
Webster agreed with her, the class (except for the
co-ed of course) walked out in the middle of the
hour. Congratulations, you walker-outers, for your
spirit. Down with apple polishers!
A professor of mathematics at the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma had lost his slide rule and
put an advertisement up on the bulletin board
to the effect that he would like to have the
thing back. The next day the following note
appeared beneath the professor's note. "Dear
Sir: Please throw five dollars over the ceme-
tery fence and you will get back your slide
rule. There will be further details later."
A course in elementary fishing was recently add-
ed to the curriculum of the University of Califor-
nia. Practice is held in the university swimming
pool.
THINGS I'D LIKE TO SEE
MAE WEST singing in a church choir - An
exchange dinner between the KAPPAS and
the THETAS - FLOYD GIBBONS and
STEPIN FETCHIT finalists in a speech con-
test - WALTER WINCHELL being the father
of triplets and the time of the event breaking
against his deadline.
A Washington
BYSTANDER
THE IDEA of providing an official source for put-
ting the "administration" stamp on bills sent
to Congress does not seem to have made much
progress. It was one of the little side jobs Donald
Richberg was to undertake as New Deal coordina-
tor.
Maybe the auto code ruction kept him too busy;
or maybe presidential stategy in dealing with Con-
gress makes a considerable degree of mystery
desirable. Or maybe it is just that house and senate
Democrats do not fancy going to the Richberg
feed box any more than some cabinet members
seem to go.
For whatever reason, the first major job of Con-
gress, the multi-billion dollar works bill, got
through the House under a drastic gag rule and
was battered about long in a Senate committee
without the actual writer of the original draft
becoming known. Similarly, the next highly con-
troversial draft bill to carry out Roosevelt stated
"principles," the economic and social security
measure, got before both houses with nothing to
show Roosevelt attitude on its details.
NEXT AT BAT was to come the highly inflam-
matory and voluminous banking bill. Hardly
a line of it was not filled with controversy. The
draft sent up to the hill was the product of assorted
government financial experts. And again, no one
knew where the White House stood on even major
details. The President himself called it "tentative."
It would be well enough, perhaps, to have an
official "administration" stamp and stamp wielder
in minor matters. It would tie the president's
hands too tightly for his comfort if applied to
really big bills.
WHAT is much more important is that the House
discloses increasing restiveness over the fact
that most of the administration "trading" has been
done with -the Senate rather than the House.
House Democrats, under gag rules or otherwise,
frequently have been dragooned into voting down
ideas they would have liked to have sponsored for
personal political advantage only to have the
White House yield on the point in the Senate.
Senate sponsors got whatever benefit there was.
As an illustration, House Democratic command-
ers talked of the necessity for a strict gag rule on
the security bill to prevent a Townsend plan rider
in the House. Yet, not even the most optimistic
Townsend plan booster in the House would predict
favorable action on it in either house at this ses-
sion .or by this Conngre. Thev talke1 hanut wha+
(or
ARE NOW BEING TAKEN
FOR THE SECOND SEMESTER
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