THE MICHIGAN DAILY
them as well as views of their fellow alumni, all of
them now qualified to speak from experience.
It is always interesting to see how the views of
these men may have changed since the days of
their academic training. In any case, all will have
definite ideas about the benefits of business school
training. Here is where Saturday's conference
should prove of most benefit to the faculty.
At the luncheon Saturday five speakers, each of
them having M.B.A. degrees from the University,
will join in givinga discussion on the topic, "Some
Critical Comments on Business Education." No
one should be better qualified to evaluate their
education than those who have purposely spe-
cialized and who then have consciously put it to
test. It will be valuable to see how closely the
views of these men and the curriculum of the bus-
iness administration school coincide. Here, cer-
tainly, will be practical criticism.
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
as confidential upon request. Contributors are asked to
be brief, the editor reserving the right to condense
Civil Liberties
To the Editr:
As a strong believer in and willing defender of
democracy I beg to submit the following passage
from an article in the Atlantic Monthly of May,
1935, "So Conceived and So Dedicated," by Wil-
liam F. Russell, dean of Teachers College in Co-
lumbia University: "Our safety in the United
States, and the progress of our people toward a
happy life, depend upon the degree to which we
can effect a compromise between our desires. No
philosopher is going to think it through to our
satisfaction. No political scientist will suit us with
a plan. Our only hope is full, free, frank, open
discussion from all sides, open propaganda, open
influence upon the press, upon public opinion, upon
our Congress and legislators and, upon our gover-
nors and President. Whoever thinks, let him
speak. Whoever would muzzle another, let him
stay his hand. Then shall we have all the forces
in full play. Where we have too much liberty
and too little equality, we can readjust. Where
we have too much equality and too little liberty,
we can modify. There may be areas where we
have neither. Then we can abolish and create.
Let the whole orchestra sou d forth. Then in time
we can hope that this nation 'conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal,' may begin to achieve here on earth
that happy combination of the opposing ideals
which will yield the best of each - and at long
last reach the goal for which our ancestors have
sacrificed and struggled and prayed these many
years."
I also call attention to a recent speech on free-
dom by Secretary Ickes of New York City. This is
what Mr. Ickes said in part: "We have the paradox-
ical situation of self-proclaimed patriots demand-
ing that constitutional rights be denied to those
very persons for whom those rights were writen
into the Constitution . . . Why do we persist in
driving underground sects and cliques and groups
to which added power to do mischief and greater
determination to accomplish their bizarre and ab-
surd ends will accrue from the very fact of sup-
pression? Surely our institutions are not so poor-
ly grounded that they may not be exposed to the
buffetings of criticism, even if it be both unfounded
and intemperate."
By suppressing freedom of speech, freedom of
the press and freedom of assembly we destroy de-
mocracy. In other words we follow the methods of
Fascism and Communism - methods which de-
mocracies condemn every day in the year.
-M. Levi.
As Others See It
Academic Freedom
(From the Ohio State Journal)
THE MOST DANGEROUS THINGS in the Af-
rican jungle are not tigers, lions and other
such feral beasts. They may, indeed, be avoided to
a great extent. But invisible germs and small
insects bring fever and other disorders and take
the lives of many who never have much to fear
from four-footed carnivora.
Similarly, American society need not greatly
fear open and avowed sedition, communism and
anarchy. The carmine hue of these things is
so readily distinguishable that whenever it is
flaunted it is readily taken care of. The real
menace is the slightly tinged pink that some-
time is hardly any coloring at all, and seems to the
casual observer to be entirely white.
There must be in all free republics an academic
freedom. There should be no enforced censor-
ships that thwarit the spread of progressive ideas.
We believe in America, in freedom of the con-
science, in religious consideration, freedom of
speech, liberty in political thought and action, an
unmuzzled press and a forum and pulpit around
which no restraining guard is to be placed.
But we also believe that these great liberties
should not be abused or made the occasion for
the spreading of false and destructive principles.
And communism, knowing that it will not be al-
lowed heoe to show its deep redness, resorts to
insinuation, the placing of small and not easily
detected leaven in the loaf, and the debasement
of the real quality of academic freedom.
There is more than a suspicion that in many
colleges and universities daily a lot of pinkish doc-
trine is disseminated. It is disguised and sugar-
coated, generally, but it is taken into the mental
system of the students along with wholesome
intellectual food. The quantity often is small, but
the results are beginning to be apparent in a
moral, mental, and intellectual indigestion.
Academic freedom must be preserved, and it
is necessary for that preservation that the schnn-
--- -
COLLEGATE
OBSERVER
By BUD BERNARD
This contribution comes from "Josie College"
'35:
CO-ED'S SONG
I've learned the art of wasting time,
I've flunked three courses too,
I can string a college man along,
It isn't hard to do.
I consume at least three cokes a day,
(No text books taught me this)
I cut my classes once -a week,
And sleep all day in bliss.
Oh, yes, I think I've learned a lot,
So witness while I state
That I think my education's through
And I'd like to graduate.
The revenge of one professional fraternity upon
another at the University of South Dakota strikes
a new, original note. The first group inserted
a want ad in the student publication which read,
"Wanted-100 men to clear the debris from the
stadium." They gave the address and telephone
number of their rival house. The avalanche of
job seekers had the victims in a sweat for the next
48 hours, until the plot was finally revealed.
At a national convention of a well-known
sorority in Kansas City, several women were
competing for the national presidency. During
the thick of the political fight, the husband of
one candidate sent a great massive bouquet of
flowers for the platform, which knocked most
of the girls ga-ga. The husband's work was
well done, for the wife was chosen.
Then the next day, the convention was billed
$40 for flowers from the florist where hubby
had done the purchasing!
They have introduced a new note into the
library system at Bucknell University. No longer
will spring-drugged co-eds and males have to
thumb through the files until they hit something
that might suit their fancy. The enterprising
librarian has arranged all the books! according to
"moods." If you are feeling a bit sickish and un-
settled, there's the love shelf; should you feel dis-
illusioned and sour about it all, there's the gall
and bitterness shelf. Emotions made easy, we
should say.
* * * *
According to many there are few enough bright
spots upon the rather dreary path of "higher edu-
cation" so that when one comes across something
like the following program from a standard eco-
nomic text, "Labor Problems in the United States,"
one suddenly feels that life, after all, may be quite
interesting:
"Industry cannot be held responsible for old
age. Regardless of the nature of industry,
men are bound to grow old if they live long
enough."
-,
A Washington
BYSTANDER
Li
I
By KIRKE SIMPSON
WASHINGTON, May 8.
THE TRAGIC DEATH of Sen. Bronson Cutting
of New Mexico did not mean much so far as
party lineups in the Senate went. But to his "in-
dependent" colleagues on the Republican side,
his loss was a heavy blow. He had proved himself
long ago in their eyes.
His independence was no matter of political ex-
pediency, born of the depression. He was a party
"irregular" of proved courage and skill back in
pre-depression times. His voice in progressive,
inter or intra-party councils in the Senate will
be even more missed than his vote.
W HEN CUTTING came to his Senate seat, that
question of his independence was a highly
important one. He succeeded a Democrat, Sen-
ator Jones, when the latter died. The then gov-
ernor justified his appointment on the ground that
a state-wide demnand dictated the selection, fea-
tured by veterAn sentiment. It was the young
publisher's first political office. And there awaited
in Washington a party division in the Senate
that made his party label vital to continued Re-
publican nominal control of that body. There were
47 Republicans, including Cutting, and 46 Demo-
crats with two Republican seats, those of Smith
of Illinois and Vare of Pennsylvania, challenged
and vacant.
The first test came on the question of vacating
Smith's seat. Cutting made his maiden speech on
that.. His vote was with the minority for Smith;
but what he said paved the way for the record of
independence that followed which made Cutting
an important figure not' in the Republican inde-
pendent group alone, but in every intra-party lib-
eral maneuver in the years that followed. He was
"reluctant," he said, to make his first speech "in
favor of seating a man who I think is unfit to be a
senator," but also reluctant "to override the rights
of the states."
BRONSON CUTTING was another of those New
York blue-stockings who have come to figure
so prominently in recent years in American na-
tional politics. Born to wealth and social posi-
tion, educated at Harvard at a time when that
seat of learning still was a foremost center of young
liberalism, he carried to the Southwest much the
same philosophy that Franklin Roosevelt drew
frnm the same nsore.
G ARGOYLE