P'AGE FouR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, DEC. 10, 1936
UU
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
RO-M
1936 Member 1937
ssocided Collegiate Press
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Board of Editors
MANAGING EDITOR ...............ELSIE A. PIERCE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR..........FRED WARNER NEAL
ASSOCIATE EDITOR........MARSHALL D. SHULMAN
George Andros Jewel Wuerfel Richard Hershey
Ralph W. Hurd Robert Cummins
Departmental Boards
Publication Department:nElsie A.rPierce, Chairman;
James Boozer, Arnold S. Daniels, Joseph Mattes, Tuure
Tenander, Robert Weeks.
Reportorial Department: Fred Warner Neal, Chairman;
Ralph Hurd, William E. Shackleton, Irving S. Silver-
man, William Spaller, Richard G. Hershey.
Editorial Department: Marshall D. Shulman, Chairman;
Robert Cummins, Mary Sage Montague.
Sports Department: George J. Andros, Chairman Fred
DeLano and Fred Buesser, associates, Raymond Good-
man, Carl Gerstacker, Clayton Hepler, Richard La-
Marca
Women's Department: Jewel Wuerfel, Chairman: Eliza-
beth M. Anderson, Elizabeth Bingham, Helen Douglas,
Margaret Hamilton, Barbara J. Lovell, Katherine
Moore, Betty Strickroot Theresa Swab.
Business Department
BUSINESS MANAGER ..................JOHN R. PARK
ASSOCIATE BUSINESS MANAGER . WILLIAM BARNDT
WOMEN'S BUSINESS MANAGER .......JEAN KEINATH
Business Assistants: Robert Martin, Ed Macal, Phil Bu-
chen, Tracy Buckwalter, Marshall Sampson, Newton
Ketcham, Robert Lodge, Ralph Shelton, Bill New-
nan, Leonard Seigelman, Richard Knowe, Charles
Coleman, W. Layhe, J. D. Haas, Russ Cole.
Women's Business Assistants: Margaret Ferries, Jane
Steiner, Nancy Cassidy, Stephanie Parfet, Marion
Baxter, L.NAdasko, G. Lehman, Betsy Crawford, Betty
Davy, Helen Purdy. Martha Hankey, Betsy Baxter,
Jean Rheinfrank, Dodie Day, Florence Levy, Florence
Michlinski, Evalyn Tripp.
Departmental Managers
hack Staple. Accounts Manager; Richard Croushore. Na-
tional Advertising and Circulation Manager; Don J.
Wilsher, Contracts Manager; Ernest A. Jones, Local
Advertising Manager; Norman Steinberg, Service
Manager; Herbert Falender, Publications and Class-
ified Advertising Manager.
NIGHT EDITOR: WILLIAM SPALLER
Planning
Without Doctrine .. .
SOON AFTER HE jumped from
politics to molasses, Rexford G.
Tugwell, in an article in the New Republic, out-
lined for us his program for the next four years
in national planning. The views which he
adopts certaintly are not the communistic prop-
aganda Mr. Bingay had led us to believe
they would be, and if views such as these
would embarrass President Roosevelt to the ex-
tent that Tugwell was asked to resign for polit-
ical reasons (though this is pure conjecture)
then the position of President Roosevelt on the
vital issue of the relation of government to
business becomes even more of a paradox.
The thesis of Tugwell's article is that a pro-
gram of economic planning is possible in a
democratic society without a doctrinaire system.
This is the time, in the "breathing spell," for
the program of economic planning to be dis-
cussed: "The purchasing power of consumers has
to be enlarged until it suffices to take off the
market the goods that an expanding industry
can supply. Otherwise employment will lag,
debts will again increase and the two-unem-
ployment and debt-will again bury us in dis-
aster."
We have even taken certain steps in the di-
rection of ironing out the cyclical variations in-
herent in free private enterprise: "the control of
security and commodity exchanges; the better
balance of agricultural and industrial incomes;
the steady carrying of income through work-
relief and resettlement grants to the lowest in-
come groups; the appraisal policies of the Farm
Credit Administration and of the Home Owner's
Loan Corporation, which may steady speculation
In real estate; the encouragement of higher
wages and shorter hours. These and some other
advances have been made. But the most im-
portant of them are dependent on a large fed-
eral budget, which may or may not be maine#
tained, and on considerable reform of the tax
system.
"Even if all these were maintained in full
effect, which is doubtless too much to expect,
there is reason for concern so long as industry,
the great force in our economic life, continues
its unplanned and directionless course. This is
where planning is really needed to prevent fu-
ture trouble and it is also the most hopeless from
the planners' point of view. Even is the well-
known objections of our courts were out of the
way, which of course they are not, there remain
the obstacles of lack of knowledge and of un-
willingness of the administrators concerned to
statesmanship of a like sort. Management is
seeking nothing, apparently, except the enlarge-
ment of profits; and labor nothing but an incres-
ing share in them. This is not an asmosphere
in which one who is concerned for the nation's
welfare can hope for very much. Yet there is
the great fact of the election staring all of us
in the face. Our leaders have been told that
their concern for the common man, and federal
intervention to implement it, is approved. The
arguments for states' rights and for the sacred-
ness of certain other institutions, made certainly
with extreme emphasis and with the directness
of accusation, have been repudiated. The fact
of this mandate and this rejection must have its
effect on the minds even of die-hard indus-
trialists. Perhaps in time the demand for eco-
nomic statesmanship will sink in. Perhaps it
will be approached with certain face-saving for-
malities and with appropriate indirection, slowly
and awkwardly. As to this I am not sufficiently
gifted with prophecy to say."
With the central aim of achieving economic
stability through democratic means no one will
quarrel, but there are certain basic assumptions
implicit in Mr. Tugwell's argument that deserve
further consideration.
In the first place, to speak of operating with-
out a doctrine requires qualification. While it
may be true that labels-communism, socialism,
etc.-are loose and subject to various degrees
of interpretation; while it is also true that "a
system built up without deference to preconcep-
tion, and.therefore without hostage to doctrine,
may have greater survival value and may even
work tolerably well in doing the things that
must be done as we go along"; yet to speak of
abandoning doctrine is a meaningless expression.
From the suggestions embodied in the article,
Tugwell's philosophy seems to be a modified so-
cialism. The term is not important in itself,
but the conception is. To operate by a "plan-
less plan" has no meaning; one either intends
to preserve free private enterprise in part, in
whole, or not at all, and the actions of the gov-
ernment must be consistent with that end.
Secondly, there is an assumption which Mr.
Tugwell makes which is not to be accepted with-
out further proof. "If what our business men
are interested in is the administration of a huge
and smoothly running system of production,
their future is a bright one; if they are inter-
ested still in gambling, and in keeping society
insecure so that there may be uncertainties to
provide gambling risks, their future is not so
bright. If democracy is to succeed, it must re-
duce risks and bring each citizen greater faith
in the future. It is on this ground that com-
petition with dictatorship will be carried out."
This is, everyone will grant, perfectly true. But
to hold that vested interests will, acting accord-
ing to an enlightened selfishness, give up certain
of its privileges and profits is to overlook the
action of capital in the last election. Roosevelt,
through his attempts to ameliorate the evils of
the capitalistic system through moderate adjust-
ments, could not succeed in convincing the prime
beneficiaries of that system that their ultimate
welfare rested upon those adjustments. They
constituted the opposition. Is it likely that they
will recognize the necessity for these changes
under any other conditions--except when forced
to do so? Consider the specific measures which
Mr. Tugwell might have suggested( but did not)
-wage and hour minimum legislation, price fix-
ing, settlements of labor disputes, government
operation, regulation or control of key indus-
tries-can we believe that vested industry will
benevolently acquiesce to any of these measures?
There are some who insist that we have not
felt the full force of reaction. Certain moderate
concessions have been won from vested inter-
ests by the New Deal, but the same yielding atti-
tude will not be met when the demands become
more basic, when emergency 'conditions do not
prevail.
(T FORUM
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 betbrief, the editorsareserving the right to condense
all letters of more than 300 words and to accet or
reject letters upon the criteria of general editorial
importance and interest to the campus.
A Program For The Church
To the Editor:
I was much interested in the editorial in Tues-
day's Daily on the relationship of institutional
religion to democratic society. I was interested
especially that the writer of the editorial stated
that "in the Protestant Church there is an oli-
garchy the authoritarianism of which becomes
increasingly evident with the passing of time."
Unfortunately there is much truth in this. There
are well-meaning and sincere people belonging
to the church who apparently hold fast the no-
tion that religion should not be introduced into
the business, industrial, and political world, and
sad to say, many of these people have developed
a false idea of the obligations ministers have
to society at large. They often demand that
the clergy limit their teaching of religion to
private devotions and personal experience, and
insist that the preacher refrain from mention-
ing that part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which
has to do with man's behavior in social, polit-
ical, and industrial affairs. Recently some of
these sincere people who hold this point of
view made, through the circulation of pamphlets,
such demands upon many Protestant ministers;
so much so, in fact, that a group of Episcopal
clergymen in Michigan felt called upon to state
their position on what they felt to be their
own obligations and the obligations of the\
Church. I quote part of their statement, not
only because it is of interest, in view of your
editorial, but also because it aims at a solu-
tion of the problem of the relation of organized
BENEATH ****
*~#~*~IT ALL
&, - y Bonth iWillinm? ""
DEAR BONTH:
I've just noticed that you are writing a
column, and that plus the thought that I owe
you a letter, prompts me to recall what a swell
time you and I and the rest of the gang had
our freshman year over on East U. Sometimes I
wish I hadn't flunked out that first June.
Remember Mrs. - who used to come
into your 'suite' and tell us about the evils of
drink and then point to her husband and say,
"Now there's an example."
That was befor e Repeal and in Jimmy Palace's
hey day, when every Friday afternoon, five bells
spelled the end of chem lab and the begining
of the week-end. First it was ice and mix at
the drug store, and then back to somebody's
room and mix it up with that "Special Jamaica
Rum"' or "guaranteed Seagrams."
Remember rushing. What an awful ordeal!
We used to think it was the most important
thing in the world then. I'll never forget the
night we sat up and talked Bob into pledging
with us. He was always the conservative of the
bunch, but probably the smartest too.
I heard from Chuck De Baker not so long
ago and he apparently is doing very well. I won-
der what ever happened to Carroll Sweet, Mutt's
roommate. He was the guy who was nuts about
toy sail boats and sometimes had spells.
Upton has finally gotten out of Michigan I
understand. He gave up all his upcle's dough
to go back to Cripple Gulch and tend an or-
chard.
I hear Al Dewey was elected President of the
senior class. Good old Al, he could always get
away with murder with those rosy cheeks of his.
He used to room -with Parky, and teach him
about life in a big city as I recollect. And Walt
Carrigan, is he still arourd?
As I look back over that year at school, I think
it was probably the best of my life. What
parties we-used to throw, and somehow or other
we always got our work done, except me who
wouldn't have done it if we were chained in a
convent.
Somehow or other I don't think I'd like Mich-
igan now.. There have been a lot of changes
since 1933, I guess..'I hear the fraternity parties
are pretty awful, now.. No drinking in the
houses, none of those old cocktail parties up on
the third floor that were about as harmless as
anything you'd ever find, and yet a hell of a lot
of fun. Why in the world the University ever
banned those is beyond me. There used to be
so many people in every room that you couldn't
sneeze without disturbing the whole crowd.
I've been out for a couple of week-ends this
fall - when you were out of town at the games,
I guess, and I certainly noticed a difference.
Things seem much more serious than they did
three years ago. People don't appear to be
having as good a time as they used to. They
look worried and as if they'd like to break loose
from it all. Maybe I'm all wrong, but I'm glad
I got in my year at Michigan when I did.
Yours as ever,
D.R.
religion and cannot be defended as Christian.
Cities have their slums. The slums tend to
produce low moral standards which in turn
breed criminals. Should the minister confine
his work to that of converting sinners and re-
forming criminals and do nothing, or say
nothing, about economic conditions which tend
to produce the slums? Should religion deal only
with crime as an effect and do nothing to do
away with the causes of crime?
Does the social responsibility of a true Chris-
tian end with his contribution to the community
fund and the gift of his old clothes to the
poor?
To talk this way to the clergy is just as
rational as it would be to say to the physician,
'It is true that an epidemic is raging, but you
must confine yourself to the healing of people
suffering from this disease and pay no attention
to the unsanitary conditions back of the epi-
demic. In case of yellow fever forget the
mosquitoes. In case of rabies, do not bother
about chaining up the dogs causing the trouble.
To bother about such things is poor judgment
on your part. You will have more business and
bigger income 'if you confine yourself to the
healing of the sick and let the cause of it
alone.'
"We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ
touches life at every point where there is a hu-
man soul in any kind of human need. We be-
lieve that His Gospel will cleanse and transfigure
every relationship in which human souls are
brought in contact with each other whether
these relationships be social or economic, relig-
ious or political. We believe that the light of
the Gospel of the Christ must make pure the
heart and mind of the level of the individual;
must purify the relationships of class and caste;
must stimulate and clarify the conscience of
the nation; and, on the plane of international
relationships, this same Gospel of the Christ
must provide the foundation and the spirit for
the future peace of the world. Therefore be
it resolved:
"That, as clergymen, we maintain it to be
both our inalienable right under God, and our
bounden duty in the service of His church, to
point out the social as well as the individual
sins of humanity; and that, as ministers of Jesus
the Christ, we are bound by our ordination vows
to give our thought, our time, and our energies,
no less to the removal of social wrongs than
to the causes of individual sins. This we, as
Christian ministers, hold to be our duty to do
and to teach and that we stand ready to fulfill
MUSIC
Program Notes, II
BOSTON
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
By WILLIAM J. LICHTENWANGER
"SCHERZO IN G MINOR" from
the Octet, Opus 20 - Mendels-
sohn (1809-1847. The first product
of Mendelssohn's musical maturity,
his first work which has held its
place on its own merits, was the
String Octet written in 1825 - a year
before the famous Overture to "A
Midsummer Night's Dream" - when
Felix was still in his seventeenth
year. The scherzo movement, unlike
most of its kind, is in duple time,
and is of the same airy, fanciful
nature as that better-known scherzo
written years later as a part of the
complete Midsummer Night's Dream
music. According to Mendelssohn's
I sister, Fanny, his motto for the
Scherzo to the Octet was the fol-
lowing stanza in the Intermezzo of
Faust:
"Floating cloud and trailing mist
Brightening, o'er us hover;
Airs stir the brake, the rushes
shake -
And all their pomp is over."
This movement alone was orches-
trated by the composer himself when,
at the age of twenty, he paid his
first trip to England, and was played
at a concert of the London Philhar-
monic Society as a part of his First
Symphony, replacing the Minuet and
Trio originally written for that work.
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor -
Beethoven (1770 - 1827). Several
years ago a nation-wide poll was
conducted by one of the leading sym-
phony societies of the country to
discover the favorite musical com-
positions of therAmerican public. In
the symphonic race the winner - by
something resembling a Rooseveltian
majority - was Ludwig van Beetho-
ven's Symphony No. 5. Less tangi-
ble than the mere fact of the Sym-
phony's popularity is the reason for
it. Perhaps the intriguing mystery
attached to the first movement's
four-note theme -which Beethoven
once referred to, seriously or not, as
I 'Fate knocking at the door" -has
enhanced the work's attractiveness
for some people. It is more likely,
however, that the reason for the
Symphony's great popularity is to be
found in the fact that in it Bee-
thoven expresses musical ideas of
immense and vital appeal in a direct,
concise manner which makes the
work clearly understandable by the
musically unlearned as well as by
musical scholars.
The first movement, "Allegro con
Brio," with its incessant, impelling
repetition of the four-note thematic
figure, has long been considered a
supreme example of the use of the
structural pattern which underlies
most of the greater works of musical
literature - the "sonata-allegro," in
which two themes of contrasting na-
ture are successively presented, then
torn apart and "developed," and fi-
nally summarized and restated in a
"recapitulation." In this case the
subordinate theme is derived from
and usually accompanied by the
characteristic figure of the prin-
cipal theme.
The second, or "slow," movement
is an "Andante con Moto" and is an
irregular specimen of the other gen-
eral type of large musical form-
the "rondo," in which repetitions of
a principal theme are interspersed
with themes of contrasting mood and
keys. The lovely, flowing principal
melody is first presented by the
cellos and violas, then followed by
a more martial theme in the wind
instruments; the remainder of the
movement consists largely of varia-
tions upon these two themes.
The third movement is a Scherzo,
of which the main theme is based
upon the same four-note figure as
the first movement. Between this
movement and the final "Allegro" is
a long "bridge," in which this figure
is muttered over and over again,I
first by the strings and then by the
kettle drum; and flially, with a!
rapid crescendo, the whole orchestra'
bursts into the triumphant strains
of the Finale. The climactic effect
of this last movement is heightened!
by the addition to the orchestra of
the orchestra of three trombones -
the first appearance of this instru-
ment in Beethoven's symphonic
scores.
Concerto for Pianoforte No. 2 in
E Major - Sowerby (1895- -). A na-
tive of Grand Rapids, Leo Sowerby
r-ceived much of his musical edu-
cation in Chicago, from which he
went to Italy, in 1921, as holder of
the first fellowship of music at the
American Academy in Rome. Al-
though he studied for a number of
years in Europe, Mr. Sowerby's mu-
sic shows little trace of European
influence; his style is highly original
and makes use of many of the har-
monic and rhythmic devices of mod-
ern American jazz. According tc
Mr. John N. Burk's notes in the
Program Book of the Boston Sym-
phony, "The work is one movement,
with a semblance of three part form
.s.The concerto opens with the
first theme, which is in two parts -
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
PublucationI n the Builetin is constructive notice to an members of aw
University. Copy received at the office of the Assistant wo tlf Preul4do
until 3:30; 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
(Continued from Page 2)_
Exhibitions
Paintings by Edgar Yaeger and
"All-American" prints under the'
auspices of the Ann Arbor Art As-
sociation, open to the public after-
noons, 2-5 p.m. through Dec. 15 in,
the small galleries of Alumni Mem-
orial Hall.
Photographs of Persian-Islamic
Architecture exhibited by the Re-'
search Seminary in Islamic Art, In-'
stitute of Fine Arts. Open to ,the
public daily from 9 to 5 p.m.; Sun-
days 2 to 5 until Dec. 15. Alumni
Memorial Hall West Gallery.
Events Of Today
University Broadcasting: 2 p.m.
An Art Pilgrimage to Famous Mu-
seums, No. 9. Miss Adelaide Adams
and Miss Marie Abbot:
German Journal Club will meet
on today at 4:15 p.m. in
Room 302 Michigan Union. Dr. Eat-
on will speak on the subject' "Holberg
and Germany." All interested are
invited to attend.
English Journal Club 'will meet
this afternoon at 4 p.m.
in the League. The program, open
to the public at 4:15 p.m., will be a
colloquium on the subject, "Recent
Renaissance Scholarship." Mr. Jack
Conklin will review Hardin Craig'sI
"TheEnchanted Glass, or The Eliza-
bethan Mind in Literature." Mr. A.
K. Stevens will review Willard Farn-
ham's "The Medieval Heritage of
Elizabethan Tragedy." Mr. Wallace
Bacon will review Caroline Spurgeon's
"Shakespeare's Imagery." General
discussion will follow.
Engineering Council:
a meeting tonight at
Computing Room.
There will be
7:15 in the
Michigan-Purdue Debate: The Un-
ivserity of Michigan and Purdue
University will participate in a de-
bate tonight in the Lydia Mendel-
ssohn Theatre at 8 p.m. The ques-
tion for discussion is: Resolved, that
all electric utilities should be gov-
ernmentally owned and operated.
Michigan will uphold the affirmative
and Purdue will uphold the negative.
The public is cordially invited to at-
tend. There is no admission charge.
Zeta Phi Eta: Due to unavoidable
circumstances the meeting has been
cancelled until next week. Watch for
DOB notice.
Fencing: The Women's fencing
club will meet today at 4:15 p.m. in
the basement room of Barbour Gym.
Please try to be there promptly.
Polish Engineering Society: All
Polish Engineering students are in-
vited to attend the first meeting of
the Junior group of the Polish En-
gineering Society to be held at the
Michigan, Union today at 7:30 p.m.
Room 319-21.
4 1
T H SCREENV
AT THE MAJESTIC
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
There was general consternation
when Warner Brothers induced Max
Reinhardt to Hollywood to produce
Midsummer Night's Dream. Could
Shakespeare be adapted to motion
pictures, and more -than that, could
Shakespearian pictures be sold to the
general public? While there is doubt
among some scholars as to whether
the Warner's production is faithful
Shakespeare, there is no doubt that
it is a successful, delightfully enter-
taining picture.
Max Reinhardt's creative imagina-
tion was given free reign with Warn-
er Brothers' facilities. The company's
star performers were put into service,
along with the ballet corps. And
Reinhardt visualized scenes of wood-
,land fantasy, executed by expert
cameramen, that would probably
make even Shakespeare applaud. The
company put out its very best to in-
troduce Mr. William Shakespeare to
its audiences.
Dick Powell is Lysander-fortu-
nately, there is not too much of him
'in this picture. Olivia de Haviland
makes a pretty, spirited Hermia, but
if you can imagine a more beautiful
Queen of the Fairies than Anita
Louise, I don't know where you will
find her. Mickey Rooney is a splen-
did impish Puck. And the group of
would-be performers with James
Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Hugh Herbert,
and Frank McHugh, present some of
the most hilarious scenes I have seen
in pictures. Cagney is Bottom, and
has an excellent Jekel-Hyde scene
while his head is being transformed
into that of an ass. But Joe E. Brown
takes honors in side splitting comedy
with his performance before the
Duke of Athens.
The accompanying Mendelssohn
Juniors, School of Music: Don't
forget the meeting at the School of
Music Auditgrium Thursday, Dec. 10,
at 5 p.m.Irlportant.
State Street Freshmen: General
caucus of all State Street Freshmen
at the Michigan League tonight at
7:15 p.m. Come and meet your can-
didates.
"The Good Old Summertime": Be-
cause of the Boston Symphony Con-
cert this evening, the performances
of this new comedy by Play Produc-
tion will be given this afternoon at
3:30 p.m. Performances also Friday
and Saturday evening att8:30 p.m.
Box offices open daily at 10 a.m.
Phone 6300.
Yeomen of the Guard: All women
who wish to be in the chorus must
come to a final tryout at the Labora-
tory Theatre this afternoon at 5 p.m.
Rehearsals of Act I for the entire cast
Sunday at 2 p.m., Tuesday at 8 and
Wednesday at 7:30. Everyone must
be present.
Hillel Foundation: Dr. S. Goudsmit
will speak at the regular Thursday
evening Fireside Discussion. His
subject will be "The Jew in Science"
(Continued on Page 8)
THEATRE
By PROF. KENNETH ROWE
A first-night audience sat in Lydia
Mendelssohn Theatre waiting for the
curtain to rise on an unknown quan-
tity, a premiere of Martin Flavin's
"The Good Old Summertime" pre-
ceding its opening in New York Dec.
28. A perfectly balanced cast of 10
people built up a group portrait of
the Fred Perkins household, and
Sarah Pierce and William Rice car-
ried the climatic scene in which the
meaning and drama of the whole
build-up is brought to a focus to the
curtain on the first act. The au-
dience sat tense and silent, and then
burst into the kind of spontaneous
applause that is usually reserved for
the final curtain of a play.
I do not know what the expectation,
of the audience was. I had read the
script a few hours before, and forgot
my expectations in the reality of the
play as projected by Play Produc-
tion's actors from the stage. That, I
think, is the best one can record both
for a play and for a production. A
good play in the hands of a good
director and cast grows into a life in
the theatre than can never be fully
foreseen from a script.
After that first act curtain there
was no doubt about the grip of the
play upon the audience. 'The co-
operation of the audience (for the
audience takes part in what is
created in the theatre) was felt, I
think, on the stage, and the cast
gained in confidence and grip in
meeting the challenge of a first pro-
duction. All the parts are good
parts, and an harmonious distinc-
tion was achieved in every interpre-
tation. In the space permitted I am
inclined to mention especially those
who were meeting expanded oppor-
tunity in Play Production perform-
ance, the utterly convincing and
delicate rendering of the part of the
grandmother by Margaret Grable,
and the dramatic sincerity and ef-
fectiveness of William Rice in the
sustained part of Dave, the young
husband.
"The Good Old Summertime" is
not a play primarily about the de-
pression, but a play about the effects
of the depression on the Perkins fam-
ily, crammed together jobless under
the one roof remaining in the family.
The depression is the background, the
opposing environment, for familiar
characters striving after intimately
appealing human ends. Broad so-
cial and economic considerations are
hardly touched upon, and the con-
ditions since 1929 are viewed as a
test of character. Some are whipped
and some are not. Joe disintegrates.
the gallantry of Sally and the em-
barrassed, defiant courage of Dave,
and their love for each other are
strained to the breaking point, but
hold. Mr. Flavin reveals a glory in
the sheer tensile strength of a simple,
normal human relationship. Pressed
a little further, the beauty in the
lives of Sally and Dave might have
been irrevocably broken for them-
selves, but not forrtheaudience.
Mr. Flavin does not take such a
course, nor does he solve the prob-
lem of Sally's and Dave's lives satis-
factorily. He merely sends them
away to Chicago with a pat on the
back and an illusory suggestion that
all will be well. Economic reflections
will tend to crop up upon reflection.
Perhaps for the emotional siutation
in the theatre, his cheery, if not
happy, ending is satisfactory, but it
is good theatre rather than good
drama.
There has been enough meat in the
play, however, without the ending,
not only in the central drama of Sally
and Dave, but in the whole entangle-
ment of humor and tendarnec ath