MJ THE MICHIGAN DAILY WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15, 1937 THE MICHIGAN DAILY New York's P. R. Poll Viewd By Student Of Election System It Seems To Me By HEYWOOD BROUN t-' _r-.,n F I e nn- r-em -,----~ Li ._._ iwy j 'D 4Th LofS1X n' 4 3 ~ n jgHMUMKjIG..WA .60 4-esa xn~gunuru Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of Student Publications. Published every morning except Monday during the University year and Summer Session. Member of the Associated Press 'The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper. All rights of republication of all other matter herein also reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan as second class mail matter. Subscriptions during regular school year by carrier, $4.00; by mail, $4.50. Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1937-38 REPfEENTi rO FQIR t .- ...- NationalAdvertisingService, Inc. Gellege Publish-ns Representative 420 MADIsoN Avre.NEW YORK, N. Y. CCcAGO - BOSTO-o~ LOS hN4GELES - SAN FRANCISCO Board of Editors MANAGING EDITOR ..............JOSEPH S. MATTES EITORIAL DIRECTOR..........TUURE TENANDER CITY EDITOR ..................WILLIAM C. SPALLER NEWS EDITOR.................ROBERT P WEEKS WOMEN'S EDITOR................ HELEN DOUGLAS SPORTS EDITOR ......................IRVIN LISAGOR Business Department BUSINESS MANAGER ..............ERNEST A. JONES CREDIT MANAGER ...................DON WILSHER ADVERTISING 'IANAGER ....NORMAN B. STEINBERG WOMEN'S BUSINESS MANAGER ........BETTY DAVY WOMEN'S SERVICE MANAGER ..MARGARET FERRIES Mt___________1. NIGHT EDITOR: JOSEPH GIES .1. I The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of the Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. Tom Mooney In The Land Of The Free.. O F ALL THE CAUSES celebres that have served to shock man from his torpor none can ever merit the brilliant page in history than the story of Tom Mooney. A selfish group of people sent this man into 21 years of the torture of existence behind iron bars while he and those who sent him there know conclusively that he is an innocent man. He is as innocent as Captain Dreyfus-cleared in the eyes of the world, justified only by the force of public opinion stirred up by Zola and other true lovers of justice and democracy. Tom Mooney has never been any more guilty of that for which he was convicted than Sacco, and Vanzetti, victims too of a selfish social order that in its hysteria simply had "to find someone to pay." This labor leader who was unimpeachable, in- corruptible in his loyalty to what he believed in, after 21 long, dreary years in a California jail, will finally have an opportunity to stand before the eyes of his people in~all his innocence when his case comes up soon before the United States Supreme Court on a writ of habeas corpus. His lawyers will claim that he was denied the due process of law when he was convicted. A subcommittee of the Senate judiciary com- mittee is scheduled to begin public investigation today of the resolution asking the governor of California to pardon Mooney, whose two de- cades, a whole generation, in jail, was spent because he was convicted on evidence universally accepted as false. What a devastating commen- tary on "the land of liberty and justice for all." That Mooney was convicted on perjured evi- dence has been affirmed by Judge Griffin, who presided at the trial, by the nine out of the ten living jurors who convicted Mooney, by the cap- tain of detectives and the captain of police who prepared the evidence against him. Read what government officials said of the trials: John B. Densmore, former United States director of employment, said in a report to Sec- retary of Labor William B. Wilson, "The reading of the testimony is apt to cause one to wonder at many things. These things are calculated to cause in the minds of the most blase a decided mental rebellion." The Wickersham Commission under President Hoover denounced the laws under which Mooney and his friend Billings were convicted as "shock- in: to one's sense of justice." "Gigantic frameup" is what the trials were called by Draper Hand, a San Francisco officer Who tutored witnesses for the prosecutor. So important has the case become that a gov- ernor of a great state visited Mooney in his cell last week. That man was the fearless governor of Minnesota,. Gov. Elmer Benson. No more fitting words than his can be uttered on this great miscarriage of justice. When certain people in powerful positions wanted Mooney in prison-wanted to get rid of him, because he was what they termed a labor agitator-it was possible to start the machinery of government working with a clocklike precision to get him there. Now, however, that he has been proven innocent, it has been found impossible to start the machinery of government moving again with equal speed and precision to make him a free man. The mills of justice indeed grind slowly. But I want to say quite categorically-and By RICHARD M. SCAMMON On Nov. 3, 1936, over 40 million American voters trooped to polling booths all over the United States to re-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt as President, to choose governors, senators, con- gressmen, and countless other public officials and to settle local issues ranging from million- dollar bond issues to Sunday movies. Among these local issues was one upon which the voters of New York City were asked to express their collective will-a new city charter for New York. This proposed new city charter was the result of the investigations conducted by Samuel Sea- bury into the ramifications of Tammany-con- trolled government in America's largest city, in- vestigations which led to the resignation and flight from America of Mayor Jimmy Walker and to the defeat, in 1933, of the Democratic organ- ization by a Fusion anti-Tammany coalition headed by Fiorello H. LaGuardia. Soon after his election as chief executive of New York, Mayor LaGuardia named a Charter Commission, head- ed by Thomas D. Thacher, to draft and submit to the electorate a new charter for the city, and it was the work of this Comniission which was voted upon in the 1936 general election. The Charter Commission, beside drafting a new in- strument of government for the urban area, de- cided to submit to the voters a new system of election by which the members of the City Council-known under the old charter as the Board of Aldermen-would be chosen. P.R. Measures Political Views This new system, Proportional Representation, or simply "P.R.," devised to secure a City Council representing the voters in proportion to the strength of their various political views, as measured by their numbers, was placed before the electors as a separate issue, apart from the City Charter as a whole, and provision was made in the Charter itself for the use of the old system of election should P.R. fail to be adopted by the city's voters. This provision was never used, how- ever, for P.R. was approved by a 375,000 ma- jority and the City Charter. by a margin only slightly less. These two reform measures were approved by New York's electorate despite the opposition of the Democratic machines in all five of the bo- roughs into which the New York area is divided. Though the Democratic candidates for Presi- dent, Governor, and various other state and local offices received huge majorities, P.R. and the new City Charter were also successful in obtaining the support of the voters. In part, this was due to the continuing reaction in New York against Tammany and all for which it stood as a menace to decent government, combined with a feeling that these new ideas represented something new in reformism which certainly could be no worse than the old machine-dominated governmental system. In part, the adoption of the new City Charter and P.R. was due to the activities of a rather small group of reform leaders in conduct- ing a pro-Charter, pro-P.R. campaign. In part, it was due to the fact that the politicians, though they had told the faithful party cohorts to op- pose P.R. and the Charter (and by so doing had made as many votes for the P.R.-Charter mea- sures as against them), were unable to conduct a very vigorous anti-reform campaign because of their preoccupation with the national, state, and local campaigns. Their activity, as far as continuous routine campaigning was concerned, was largely desultory and last-minute in char- acter. Despite court attacks both before and after the decision of the voters was rendered, P.R. was never effectively challenged on consti- tutional grounds (as in California and Michigan) and was used to elect the New York City Council in the November, 1937, city election.t N.Y.'s Modified Hare System Briefly, the system of P.R. established in New York-a modified Hare system-provides that the voter, instead of casting a single vote (by marking a cross or pulling down a lever) for one of two candidates for the Councilmanic post in the particular district in which he resides, votes a series of choices from among a list of candi- dates seeking election from the borough in which the voter lives, each of the city's five boroughs forming a single election district for this pur- pose. The voter is handed a special Councilmanic ballot containing the names of all the candidates in his borough, this list of candidates in the last election varying from 99 in Brooklyn to seven in Richmond (Staten Island). From this list he selects the name of the candidate whom he would like most to see sit on the City Council and marks the figure one before the name of that candidate on the ballot. In front of the name of his second choice for Councilman he places the figure two, before his third choice the figure three, and so on, marking as many choices as he wishes. After the close of the polls, these ballots are collected from the various polling places in each borough and are brought together at a central counting place-one for each bo- rough. In these central counting places-usually armories-the ballots are counted as to the first choice marked on each. When all the ballots have been so separated and the total number of valid votes cast in each borough is known, the various boroughs are given seats on the City Council in the ratio of one for each 75,000 valid closed. You may keep Tom Mooney's body Moldering in his cell until death overtakes him, but you cannot keep Tom Mooney's spirit from taking wings over the nation and haunting American public life with the cry for justice. Mooney must be given a full and unconditional pardon. Edward Magdol. votes cast, with an extra seat for a remainder of at least 50,000. Each borough is guaranteed at least one member, a proviso inserted in the P.R. law to provide Richmond, smallest of the New York boroughs, with representation which it might not otherwise possess. Under this system Brooklyn, which cast 695,021 valid ballots, elect- ed nine Councilmen, its proper proportion of the total membership of 26, the latter figure being determined by adding the number of members to which each borough is entitled under the op- eration of the one-member-for-every-75,00- votes rule. New Apportioning Method Used This system of a Council of varying size, based on the number of votes cast ensures that, while the total number of members may vary, the old apportionment which gave extra seats to Man- hattan while under-representing Queens, Brook- lyn and the Bronx is done away with for a sys- tem of continuous re-apportionment. With this continuous re-apportionment the evils of gerry- mandering and under-representation of newly populated areas are ended, and each borough is given a number of City Council members com- mensurate with the total vote cast in that bor- ough. If, during the counting of first choice votes, any candidate manages to secure at least 75,000 of these first choice votes-the quota necessary for election-he is at once declared elected, and subsequent ballots marked with his name as first choice are credited to the second choice marked thereon. This particular provision did not ef- fect any of the Council members elected in the November balloting, for no candidate obtained the requisite quota of first choice ballots, all members being elected on the votes transferred from defeated candidates. Once the count of first choice votes is finished, candidates with less than 2,000 first choices are declared defeated. 'Their ballots are transferred to the second choice marked upon each one of them, it being pre- sumed that ,the voter's first choice being unable to secure election, he would wish to see his sec- ond choice benefit from his particular ballot; if his second choice were beaten, he would wish his third choice to benefit from his vote, and so on down the list of choices which the voter has marked upon his ballot. If the number of members to which a borough is entitled is still not filled, then the lowest remaining candidate is declared defeated, and his ballots are trans- ferred as were those of candidates with under . 2,000 first choice votes. This process continues until the necessary number of candidates have obtained a total of 75,000 first and transfer votes each, or until all but the necessary number of Council members have been eliminated. Politicians Try To Block P.R. During the various court fights brought by the opponents of P.R. to stop the application of the proportional principle to New York City, it became obvious that the politicians were seeking to eliminate P.R. and return to the old system of 65 Aldermanic districts, the candidates for the seats in which could be hand-picked by the ma- chine. though the voter might not wish to see either of the party hacks seeking his franchise actually sitting in office. The Board of Elec- tions, consisting of two Democrats and two Re- publicans, each nominated by their respective party machines, delayed until the last minute making any of the necessary administrative ar- rangements to make P.R. effective, evidently hop- ing against hope that the courts would rule it out on some grounds. In the selection of proper personnel to count the ballots at the five borough central counting stations, the Board of Elec- tions took no steps whatever to obtain trained persons until finally the Municipal Civil Service Commission stepped in to insist on some sort of examination being given to prospective counters, to determine if they had any qualifications for the job they were to do. These elections officials, .nominated again by the Democratic and Re- publican machines, were found to be woefully weak in even a rudimentary knowledge of the P. R. system which they were supposed to ad- minister, and it was necessary to lower the pass- ing grade on the examination so that the requisite number of politically-backed election officials could be secured. Borough Halls Scenes Of Fights During the count itself, the borough counting halls were frequently the scenes of wild alterca- tions between various officials, counters, and candidates. Starting on their counting job very slowly, evidently seeking to prolong their ten- dollar-per-day job as long as possible, the can- vassers set up a tremendous protest when some of their number were discharged for soldiering on the job. In some cases it was necessary to keep continuous check on the counters to see that they got their work done and to cover the clocks lest they spend their time in clock-gazing. Pro- gressing slowly due to the inefficiency of the po- litically-appointed counters and to apparent ef- forts at sabotage by the politicians, the ,count was further disturbed when some thousands of ballots cast in the Bronx were impounded for alleged fraud, the count in that borough could be photostated for examination by experts. In one borough police were kept on duty to check sus- pected malpractices; in another a canvasser was discharged when it was discovered he was a rela- tive of one of the candidates. What with stupidity and inefficiency on the one hand and sabotage and fraud on the other, it is to be wondered that the count was ever finished. For the 1939 election it is planned to have P.R. voting machines available to cut down the time taken in counting by 75 or 80 per cent, and, if it is pos- STAMFORD, Conn., Dec. 13. - Forty-nine years passed and in that1 time I never received a college degree,1 attained an elective political office, or achieved any community honor what-t soever. Things looked pretty black.c Newspaper comrades such ast Swope, Woollcott and Adams became doctors of philosophy, literature and law. An old radio buddy, Bruce Barton, who used to be on my General Elec- tric program, got elected to Congress. A girl who was in the chorus of "Shoot the Works" received honor- able mention in the All-Arizona Bathing Beauty Contest. A lad at whom I used to scream "Copy,' was voted the fifth most successful sce- nario writer in Hollywood. My mother was just nosed out for the vice-presidency of the D.A.R., and is still demanding a recount on the ground that the dirty so and so ganged up on her. My sister be- came a leading figure in the Demo- cratic machine in Larchmont, N.Y., and my son is third assistant man- ager of the football team at Swarth- more, Pa. Uncle Frank was a dele- gate to the last district convention of the Lions, and the Grand Jury in- dicted Aunt Fifi. ' * * Outside The Laurels But I remained in the ranks, un- honored and unsung with never a medal or a decoration with which to bless myself. Visitors sometimes re- mark the large gold wash vase which stands upon the high shelf in the stu- dio, but when they examine the in- scription they find that it was award- ed by the New York Daily News for a chorus girls long driving contest. And then they sniff, and assume that I married just to get possession of my wife's dowry. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when the morning's mail informed that I was invited by the Stamford Community ChristmashDecoration Committee to be one "of a limited number of special guests to inspect the illuminated areas." And more than that, my invitation isn't mimeo- graphed but personally addressed. On The Level By WRAG "A sight-seeing tour will start from Leighton's Half Way House on the Poast Road at the Stamford-Darien. Town line at 6:30 p.m. stopping at the Stamford Town Hall for shortl community exercises, and hence to the Yacht Club." Rights For Ment This is the night I'm going to de- mand a latch key or else. Naturally I hope that the phrase "limited num- ber" will be rigorously defined in regard to us special guests. The Stamford Community Christ- mas Decoration Committee itself con- sists of a mere handful of public spirited citizens. There are only 58 members, beginning with "Belmont, Gus," and ending with "Woitke, Miss Clara." I am as democratic as the next fel- low, I hope, but if they attempt to put anything more than a couple of hundred special guests into the bus, one member of the limited number will refuse to ride. Stamford isn't such a big town. Asj a guest it is not within my privilege to attempt to run the show, but there shouldn't be any objections to a few consructive suggestions. The caval- cade should be routed in such a way as to pass the homes of various prom- inent citizens who failed, for one rea- son or another, to get invited. Before each such house we should stop for a minute to sing a Christmas carol, and then give the occupants a fish horn salute as we shout, "You didn't make Hatbands would be unseasonable, but the S.C.C.D.C. should provide those of us whom it delights to honor with green brassards and the red in- itials L.N.O.S.G. standing, of course, for limited Number of Special Guests. And before we quit the Yacht Club we should organize. In the days to come when friends: assail my ears with the clanking of Phi Beta Kappa keys, I will smile serenely, for I will be buoyed up withI the snooty feeling that not one of these educational royalists belongs to Stamford's exclusive Two Hundred. Sam Krugliak and Waldo Abbot Jr. win the most embarrassing predica- ment of the week for their sojourn to Detroit to buy dice for the new "Michigarg" game. They parked their car in the wrong spot and it was hauled to the pound by cops. After they had located their car, the boys approached the cop in charge and told him that they were "two boys who are working our way through college, and we came all the way from Ann Arbor to buy 2,000 pairs of dice." They had to do more explaining than Einstein, but the cops finally let them go. The two worst puns of the year are attributed to a couple of Duke students who were over- heard while leaving the stadium after Pittsburgh had beaten Duke 10 to 0. The first said, "Pitt is a horrid word." And the secondustudenthadded, "Yeah, and to quote another old adage, 'Silence is Goldberg'." * * * The biggest laugh of the week comes from Ohio Wesleyan where a group of students were on a crimin- ology tour through the U.S. Indus- trial Reformatory at Chillicothe, and one of the prisoners yelled out through the bars, "Is there a Phi Gam in the crowd? That's my frac!" The most glorious sacrifice of FORUM Scare Headlines To the Editor: It is a well known fact that when reading a newspaper one should at- tempt to use his intelligence in in- terpretation of the news. The Unit- ed States has beenforced into more ~than one war by newspaper propa- ganda concerning the sinking of a vessel. Although conditions may not 4 be so crucial at this point, later de- velopments may prove to be. The scare headlines as used by De- troit papers in publication of the in- cident of the sinking of an American ship in Japanese waters have a marked influence on public" opinion. In fact, a certain professor on cam- pus told his classes today that the U.S. has been disgraced by acting as it has over this affair; and that we should take action through arms, if necessary, to prevent recurrences of this kind in the future. Such an at- titude is typical of the reader who does not think intelligently while reading news stories, but whose emo- l the week was made by a Detroit minister who refused an offer to 'have his sermons sponsored over the radio. The offer was refused, according to the minister, because the sponsoring company wanted to substitute the name of their product in place of "Amen." DAILY OFFIC[AL BULLETIN WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15, 1937 VOL. XLVIII. No. 68. To Members of the University Staff: Those who have not yet filled out and returnedrthe confidential personnel blanks are urged to do so before the holiday vacation. The contemplated study cannot be start- ed until the blanks are all returned and it is therefore hoped that those blanks not yet in our hands will be sent in at once. A. G. Ruthven. The Automobile Regulation will be lifted for the Christmas vacation period from 12 noon on Friday, Dec. 17, 1937 until 8 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 3, 1938. Office of the Dean of Students. Closing hour for women, including freshmen, is 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 16. Dean Alice C. Lloyd. Presidents of Fraternities and Sor- orities are reminded that member- ship lists for the month of November are due on Dec. 15 in the Office of the Dean of Students. To Mmbers of the Faculty, Staff, and Student Body: Attention of everyone is called to the Lost and Foundepartment in the Business Of- fice, Room 1, University' Hall. In- quiry concerning lost articles should be made promptly at the above men- tioned office. Articles found on the campus and in University buildings should be turned over immediately. Those articles not called for within 60 days will be surrendered to the finder. Shirley W. Smith. Women Students desiring work in private homes during the Christmas vacation please communicate with Mrs. Bacher, Office of the Dean of SWomen as soon as possible. Pre-Forestry and 'Forestry Stu- dents: Announcement is made of the annual contest for the Charles Lath- rop Pack Foundation Prize in For- estry, the conditions for which may be secured from the Recorder of the 'School of Forestry and Conservation, 2048 Natural Science Building, Top- ics, which may be decided upon in consultation with members of the faculty of the School, must be filed in the office of the Recorder not later than Dec. 18, 1937. The Bureau has received notice of the following Civil Service Examina- tions: Naval Architect, $3,800 a-year; U.S. Maritime Commission. Assistant Marketing Specialist 1Meat Grader), $2,600 a year; Bu- reau of Agricultural Economics, De- partment of Agriculture. . Senior Physiologist (Poultry), $4,- 600 a year; Physiologist (Poultry), $3,800 a year; Associate Physiologist (Poultry), $3,200 a year; Assistant I Physiologist (Poultry), $2,600 a year; Bureau of Animal Industry, Depart- ment of Agriculture. Principal Consultant in Child Wel- fare Services, $5,600 a year; Prin- cipal Consultant in Medical ;Social Work for Children, $5,600 a year; Children's Bureau, Department of Labor. Assistant Fisheries Statistical and Marketing Agent, $1,800 a year; Jun- ior Fisheries Statistical and Market- ing Agent, $1,620 a year; Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Commerce. For further information, please call at the Office, 201 Mason Hall. Bureau of Appointments and Occupational Information. Comprehensive Examination in Ed- ucation: All candidates for the Teacher's Certificate are required to pass a Comprehensive Examination in Education, covering the fields of work definitely prescribed therefor. Such an examination will be held Saturday, Jan. 8, 1938, from 9 to 1 o'clock (and again from 2 to 5 o'clock) in the Auditorium of the University High School. Students having Saturday morning classes will. come to the afternoon meeting. The examination will consist of three parts. Part 1 will be a ques- tionnaire inquiry which will give the School of Education important in- formation for guidance purposes but which in no way will affect scholastic marks. Part II will consist of an objective test covering matters treat- ed in courses A10, Cl and D100. Part III will consist of two essay type questions dealing with applications. The first of these questions will be "State the philosophy of Education which you hold, i.e., your convictions or fundamental beliefs regarding ed- ucation." The second of these ques- tions will ask that you apply this philosophy to some one or two speci- fically stated problems of the schools. -(These problems will be given out in particularized form at the time of the examination). Student Cooperative house: All men interested in living at the Rochdale Student Cooperative House, 640 Ox- ford Road, this coming semester, are requested to fill out applications for admission not later than Dec. 17. Applications for admission may be had by calling for them at the House. ,W .f . ;'i. V nf t, RADIO By TOM McCANN There have been a couple of rumors -wild ones at that-in the past two days that have upset us to a miser- able degree. The first one dealt with Hal Kemp and Duke Ellingtonuplay- ing for the coming J-Hop, but the second one iscstill more of a utopian nature, and that is, believe it or not, that the Interfraternity Council has signed Jimmy Lunceford and Hud- son-DeLange for its party, in the early part of January. Well, they say'it's the silly season, but when someone says that the bril-! liant Lunceford ensemble and the sweet swing of Hudson-DeLange are going to furnish the music for a dance right here in Ann Arbor, it's almost too good to be true. Jimmy Lunceford, of course, will be remembered for the great entertain-) ment he provided for the Hop of twol years ago. This was his-first western' appearance, and since then he has played before the nobility of Europe and thousands of others in America. The Hudson-DeLange orchestra is the newest sensation in the East. When you describe its music as sweet swing the conotation is not that of the schools of Lombardo-Garber or Kyser-Kaye; it's the swing of real musicians, done in a milder tone. To the Editor: Board in Control of Physical Education, Attention: Ralph Aigler, Chairman, Ann Arbor, Mich. Sirs: Since you do not want a football coach, may I suggest Anthony Eden, a diplomat, for the position formerly held by Kipke. May I also suggest that should a few specks of sportsmanship be left' in the rug under your table or in the corners of your room, that they be placed on a culture plate. You need1 anything they will produce. Respectfully, -P.B. G.O.P. Picking Comnmittee To Draft Party Program ST. LOUIS, Dec. 14.-(M-The Re-