FOUR THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, MAY 7, 1939 FOUR SUNDAY, MAY 7, 19391'11111 11 11 THE MICHIGAN DAILY r Max Lerner Lauds C. A. Beard's Interpretation Of Constitution The Ninth Article In The New Republic's Series: Books That Changed Our Minds At The Year's In California End DAILY OFFICIAL1 BULLETIN (Continued from Page 2) x 1 '- , i o w-CuRg a 0 A 1 , ,ervmw t+w..vem w ..roao o[ 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 Oniversity year and Sumni r 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 matters herein also reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as second class mail matter. 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Baxter NIGHT EDITOR: WILLIAM ELVIN The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of the Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. To The New Staff.. .. ITIS with sincere wishes for a suc- Lcessful and pleasant year that the outgoing editors offer their congratulations to the new leaders of The Daily. Carl Petersep, the new managing editor, Stan Swinton, city editor, and Elliott Maraniss, editorial director, have all served the paper well as night editors and deserve the honor and recognition that has been givei them. Their Influence on student affairs and their contribution to the University as a whole will be considerable and undoubtedly con- structive. Though we regret that our term of office has ended, we want to say, "Take over, fellows, and best wishes for a swell year!" -Robert Mitchell Salve Et Vale * * HE LAST DAY of an editorial writ- er's tenure is a sentimental affair. He is allowed by tradition to drop the formal and modest. "we" and to croak like Cassandra about the future. He is privileged to wrap in mellow phrases the short past which has comprised his college years and he gives himself the dubious pleasure of surveying in one pontifical sweep the present in which he is enmeshed. So forgive and forget: this only happens once a year. On first impulse I would like, on graduation day, to pick up my text books and throw them as powerfully as I could, right smack at the cen- ter of the center door of Angell Hall. In that gesture I should finally be able to express my disgust at the failure of the University to turn out thinking students. In that futile, foolish pitch I would make articulate my contempt for an educational system which swallows adolescent children from the high schools and disgorges them unspoiled and unchanged after four years of so-called higher training. All this on first impulse. For I know that Angell Hall is only a symbol and an innocent one. The fault lies rooted far deeper than in a silent, mas- sive, gray building, far deeper than in the men who move within its walls. The fault lies in- terred in a vicious socio-economic system which rewards hypocrisy and calls it strategy, which exalts expediency and calls it wisdom, which laughs at truth, justice, fraternity and dismisses them with the word idealism, which is afraid of change and brands those who wish it "Com- munists." Whether the educational system of a capital- ist democracy can ever educate its citizens to think clearly, truthfully, intelligently, so clearly, so truly, so intelligently that if they desire radi- cal change through democratic processes they shall have it, I don't know. The Marxists, and I use the term with respect, did not in the past think so. What their attitude is today, I do not know, for they have had to modify their tactics to battle a far deadlier enemy than bourgeois democracy. In that fight which is democracy's fight, they have adopted a different attitude, a philosophy which aims at upholding democratic processes. In that adaptation to changed circum- stances they may have changed also their form- At Columbia University about a quarter- century ago, crowded classrooms were listening to an assistant professor in his early thirties ex- pound strange doctrine. His name was Charles A. Beard and he was a tall rangy young man from Indiana, with a sharp aquiline profile, looking half farmer and half Roman philosopher. When he talked he threw back his head and half-shut his eyes, but his doctrine was such as to cause the ghosts of generations of Constitu- tion-mongering professors to hover uneasily over his classroom. The study of American history, he said, was cluttered with myths that had more relevance to filial piety than to the real past. He was concrete. Instead of repeating Bancroft's . sunny banalities on the guiding hand of Provi- dence in the affairs of the young Republic, which led to the conclusion that the Almighty must have been a Federalist, he analyzed a batch of Treasury statistics, or dug up some pamphlets by John Taylor. He was unafraid to incur the. charge of irreverence. He refused to convert his job into a pastorate for a herd of academic sacred cows. * * * Stimulated By Social Movements The fact is that Beard's book was no literary mutation. The intellectuals were writing in re- sponse to new movements for social justice- populism, trade-unionism, socialism, muckrak- ing, the "new freedom," the "new nationalism." And these movements were themselves a response to the powerful compulsivescof the new technol- ogy and the new system of class relations. . The book . . . was "An Economic Interpreta- tion of the Constitution." The title itself was enough to startle the academic and political ty- coons: the very juxtaposition of our great Sacred Writing with so secular a phrase as "economid interpretation" conveyed to many the sugges- tion of outright blasphemy. And the book pulled few punches. It set out to explain the formation of the Constitution and the founding of the new government, not on the doctrinal plane of the "federal" as against "states' rights" doc- trine, nor on the traditional plane of "compro-\ mises" between sections and between small and large states, but on the plane of economic in- terests. * * * Economic Motve Primary The book became thus an inquiry into the proposition that "the direct, impelling motive" in the formation and ratification of the Consti- tution "was the economic advantages which the beneficiaries expected would accrue to themselves first, from their action." To test this he set about making a survey of property interests in 1787, both in realty and personalty. It led to the hy- pothesis of an opposition of economic interest between the small farmers, the debtor class and the unpropertied urban dwellers on the one hand, and on the other the landed proprietors (Hudson Valley partoons and Southern slave- holders) and the groups with personalty in- terests (money loaned or seeking investment, state and Continental paper, manufacturing, shipping, trading and capital speculatively in- vested in Western lands.) The interests of the propertied groups often clashed. But, whatever their differences, on one thing they were agreed: dents filing merrily along, blankly oblivious to any purpose which could give their day-by-day existences meaning and direction, I feel a murky, black despair. Where can one start, what can one change, how can one overcome the all-permeat- ing indifference which sabotages Spring Parleys, and Student Senates, Peace rallies, and protest meetings, which permits an outmoded curricu- lum to persist in its ineffectiveness, which allows incompetent teachers to prattle away their ill- digested and dis-organized subject matter, which carries along with the utmost nonchalance a time-wasting, if harmless, system of extra-cur- ricular inactivities. Certainly what is needed, on the part of teach- ers as on the part of students, are an open- mindedness, a readiness to disassociate oneself from his particular vested interest, a faith i democracy, and the courage and inspiration to fight militantly for democracy's ideals, the brav- ery to ask and fight for change when it is called for. if they were to survive, then what was needed was a strong central government that would check radical state legislation, put down the open insurrections against property, create a unified tariff and monetary system and set up checks upon the action of the majority. The political leaders of these propertied groups were compelled to resort to an extra-legal coup -a Constitutional Convention which adopted a revolutionary program and put it through in de- fiance of the provisions for amendment in the Articles of Confederation. The groups represent- ing important personalty interests in the state legislatures quietly and carefully engineered the selection of their own delegates to the Conven- tion. In the amazing Chapter V on "The Eco- nomic Interests of the Members of the Conven- vention," which is the heart of the book, Bear examines in detail the economic interests and experience of each delegate and immediate per- sonal economic interests the small farming or mechanic classes," while at least five-sixths (including the Convention's leaders) "were im- mediately directly and personally interested in the outcome of their labors at Philadelphia, and were to a greater of less extent economic bene- ficiaries from the adoption of the Constitution." The document they constructed, for all that it was couched and defended in terms of political doctrine, was in all its implications and in its deepest meaning an economic document. The state ratifying conventions were chosen, because of property disqualifications or indifference, by a vote of not more than one-sixth of the adult males. They were certainly, in their leader- ship, representative of the same economic groups as the members of the original Convention. The whole process of ratifying this document had the same aspects of a deliberately maneuvered coup by the propertied interests as the calling of the Convention itself. Thesis Writing Beard is the only American historian since Turner whose historical method has been wide- ly recognized as taking the shape of a "theory" or a "thesis." This may be because he has always been more than a historian. He has always had one foot, and the firmer one, planted in political science: which may prove the meaninglessness of both labels, or may prove Robert Lynd's 6ontn- tion (in his "Knowledge for What?") that a historian is always a better historian when he is something else to start with. We see now 'that Beard's inquiry into the origins of the Constitu- tion was only the first of a series of panels on the theme of the role of the economic in American culture.* * * Such doctrine, quite apart from the initial shock it gave in 1913, could not help leaving a more continuing mark on American thought. It was for many a harsh awakening from afake American Dream. The premise even of the muck- rakers had been of an original Eden, and a fall from grace-to be remedied by the atone- ment of reform. But Beard laid bare the basic struggle between democracy and capitalism and. traced it back to the origins of the American state. Eden had never been Eden. The triumph of the oligarchs that Beard's contemporaries were witnessing was thus not contrary to the spirit of 1789 but a logical culmination of it. And what was true of the origins of the gov- ernment was true of later crises in its history. The slogans of the propertied groups took on for many people a new meaning. The Supreme Court issue was especially affected. For if it was true that the Constitution itself was the product of class interests, it would follow a for- interpretation. Then what became of the divine tiori that the same interests were operative in its right of judges and their Lucretian place aobve the mortal battle? Nor were the Socialists, de- spite Beard's protestations, slow to draw their deductions. The book, writes Joseph Freeman in "An American Testament," "was a byword among Socialist agitators who liked to quote established intellectual authorities . . . . (It) establishe beyond question the Socialist contention that the United States was a class society whose fun- damental laws are class laws for the benefit of the bankers and manufacturers as against th workers and farmers."g Accurate Distinction Beard has often disavowed this claim' that his book proved the Socialist thesis. While I thinl he has under-estimated the effect of Marxism on the climate of opinion from which he drew his doctrine, he has undoubtedly been accurate in distinguishing between Marxist thought and' his own. He has traced his own intellectual gen- ealogy back to Madison, Hamilton, Webster, Calhoun and Emerson: and beyond them- to Harrington and Aristotle. There has been, he' contends, a tradition of economic emphasis in native American political thought. This is a healthy reminder for those who equate "eco- nomic" with "un-American." Under the stress of the attack on him, Beard has increasingly un- derlined this dissociation. * * * The fact is that Beard, like other social think- ers in his tradition, has never made up his mind on the central problem of the role of the eco- nomic in history. His book on the Constitution was the closest he came to a formulation. In some ways it was oversharp, in others not sharp enough. It was oversharp by making the eco- nomic interpretation a theory of men's motives rather than of men's ideas. Spurred no doubt by a desire for definiteness and precision which is not to be found in the history of ideas, and by a need to protect himself against the charge of vagueness, Beard cut out for himself too big a job=-to show that the members of the Conven- tion stood to gain in immediate and personal WHEN timid undergraduates enter the office of The Californian and express a desire to become members of the staff, they are first handed a mimeographed pamphlet setting forth the fundamental facts they must digest before they can be useful. The first paragraph of that pam- phlet says: "The Californian is a com- pletely student managed and student edited newspaper, and is allowed full independence of editorial opinion within the limits of truth and re- sponsibility. The editorial freedom of The Californian is the paper's most cherished possession." Ordinarily a newspaper which en- joys editorial freedom woud not make such an ostentatious announcement,. containing as it does a warning, an admonition, and a boast. But those who are familiar with The Californi- an and its recent history know the circumstances under which the state- ment is made. Not Always Edit Freedom The Californian has not always had editorial freedom. To go through the files of ten or twenty years back, one is struck by the monotonous tone of the editorials: "Keep the lawns clean," and "How about some school spirit" seemed to be the extent of expression. It is difficult to attribute such in- anity to mental capacity. Most cer- tainly, even in those halcyon days, college editors had reasonably com- plex intellects. The only and obvious conclusion would be that Californian editors were beset by official taboos and blue pencils. But as the University grew and took its place among the great edu- cational institutions of the world; The Californian began to show a virile and robust mind of its own. Editors ventured to suggest that perhaps changes would be made here and there, and the public found that California students did not have such juvenile limitations after all. Free Press Essential And as years wore on, the new out- look was popularly accepted. It be- came altogether evident that a free press and an expressive press was just as essential to a great University as to a great country. Unhappily, such reasoning was not unanimous, nor destined to survive eternally. After the collapse of the post-war days of plenty and the coming of depression, a certain intangible rest- lessness came over the nation. New philosophies sprang up, many of them to grow and prosper in the new light of pragmatism. Opinions divided, mninds and men parted company for the sake of differing ideals. In that huge reshuffle of intelli- gence, the college press in general took a vigorous part; so vigorous, in fact, that many were soon muzzled and suppressed by the hands of superior powers. A chosen few es- caped, The Californian among them. Passing Along The Torch Those who guided The Californian along its course of freedom had no misconception of its position, how- ever, and editor after editor, in their "swan songs," passed along the torch of freedom with a plea and a prayer for its safety. Their writings had an air of misgiving. They seemed to sense the approaching storm. Thenhcame the deluge, consisting for the most part of clouds and thun- der. An editor of The Californian, a progressive and liberal-minded think- er, had dared to suggest that perhaps things were not so good and beauti- ful as people thought. He set forth his opinions as his own. His only sin, if' such it was, amounted to a sincere and truth-seeking analysis of ac- cepted ideals and traditions. To many that was heresy and damnable blasphemy. In haste and secrecy a clique of busy-bodies in and about the Executive committee drew up a high-sounding manifesto and attempted to railroad it into opera- tion. Few people were fooled. Under- neath the superficial justices of the proposal were technical phrases which would irreparably and efficiently steal away The Californian's editorial free- dom. Hushing Men With Ideas The censorship plan was obvious- ly aimed at one individual, the edi- tor, yet those who fostered the idea were altogether willing that future editors of the paper should be bound and gagged if they could but hush the man who dared have an idea of his own and to express it. . The fathers of censorship were greatly astounded at the wrath they had called down upon their own heads. The' plan was so ridiculed, abused, damned, and belittled that it was withdrawn as hastily as pride would permit. The would-be censors were somewhatsurprised that so many students, faculty members, and common citizens upheld the philoso- phy of Voltaire. The staff of The Californian is much wiser for its experience. It knows who are its friends, and who merely pretend to be. It will not again be caught unaware or unprepared to protect the freedom which is its "most cherished possession." The Californian will continue to be free, and to deserve that freedom. Future editors will express their be- liefs without fearful reserve; they * will represent those opinions only as their own and will accept responsi- bility for them. They will recognize that the voice of opposition is as privileged as their own, but they will insist that "the other side" must ac- 1 cept the same responsibility as they i do. A free editor of a free newspaper passes his baton into capable and free hands. -The Daily Californian pictures, "Youth of "China" and 'Voice of Peace" will be shown. Coming Events Ann Arbor Independents: Rehear- als for Lantern Night will begin Monday, May 8, and will continue each night next week, from 4 to 5 it the League. It is important that you be there Monday or Tuesday. The Junior Class of the Engineer- ing College will hold a meeting in Room 348, on Wednesday, May 10, at four o'clock. All members of the Class are urged to attend. All League House Presidents and girls are requested to attend a very important meeting on Wednesday, May 10, at 3:30 p.m. in the League. German Table for Faculty Mem- bers: The regular luncheon meeting will be held Monday, May 8, at 12:10 p.m. in the Founders' Room of the Michigan Union. All faculty mem- bers interested in speaking German are cordially invited. There will be a brief informal talk by Professor E. A. Philippson on, "Rassenkunde und germanische Religiongeschichte." Physics Colloquium: Dr. L. J. Las- lett will speak on "Some Work in Copenhagen; the Danish Cyclotron," at the Physics Colloquium on Mon- day, May 8, at 4:15 p.m. in Room 1041 East Physics Bldg. Conferences on the Nervous System: Under the auspices of the Depart- ment of Anatomy, a series of confer- ences on the nervous system will be held with sessions at 10 a.m., 2 and 4:30 p.m. on Monday, May 8, in Room 4556 East Medical Building. All in- terested are cordially invited to at- tend. University Women: There will be a canoeing party on Monday, May 8, at 4:15. Those who wish to go must have passed the swimming test. Please sign up in Barbour Gymnasium or the Women's Athletic Building, or call Jane Brichan at 6944 before Monday noon, Camp Craft Classes: Both Camp Craft classes will meet at 4:20 p.m. at the Women's Athletic Building on their respective days this week. Iota Sigma Pi will have a meeting Tuesday evening, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Graduate School. Plans for initiation are to be discussed. Churches First Methodist Church, Dr. C. W. Brashares will preach at 10:40 a.m. on "Uniting Methodists" at the Morn- ing Worship Service. Stalker Hall: Wesleyan Guild meet- ing at 6 p.m. at the Church. This will be an Installation Service for the new Student Council. Fellowship hour and supper following the meeting. St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Sun- day: 8 a.m. Holy Communion; 9:30 a.m. Junior Church; 11 a.m. Kinder- garten; 11 a.m. Holy Communion and sermon by the Rev. Henry Lewis; 4 p.m. Student Picnic at the Saline Valley Farms. Cars will leave Harris Hall from 4 to 4:15. The Westminster Guild: 6 p.m., the Westminster Guild will meet for supper and a fellowship hour. At the 7 o'clock meeting Professor A. K. Stevens of the English Department of the University will speak on the topic "Democracy in the Church." First Congregational Church, State and William Sts. Minister, Rev. Leon- ard A. Parr. Public worship at 10:45. Dr. Parr It Seems To Me. I By HEYWOOD BROUN Governor Lehman quite properly has vetoed a bill which would have exempted caddies from the protec- tion of workmen's compensation laws. "The occupation of a caddy is a somewhat hazardous one," wrote the V Governor, "and there is no justi- fication for de- priving these em- ployees of the benefits of work- men's compen- sation law. This b i 11 is disap- proved." The best legis- lation of all physical. It keeps the lads out in the open air. But that's good for adults, too. Carrying a heavy golf bag over a championship course is too tough a job for a growing boy. And I think the Governor puts it all too mildly when he speaks of the occupation as "somewhat hazardous." There are those who venture forth upon the links as dangerous as any hammer thrower. Getting out of the line of the drive of such a one is purely im- possible. And caddies do not build character. Where on earth would they get it? Surely not from the average member. Save in the case of the highly talent- ed, man does not appear at his best upon a golf course. Even under gray skies the boy who Easily said. There is no way, no program, no instrument, no process which can accomplish this. That is the truth and the trouble. It depends on some of you who read this. For the rest, this same message must be repeated, and incessantly. It must be repeated as I have repeated it from those who have said it better than I can. Once you have understood and accepted these, not as a code to be engraved on a bronze tablet and hung over the doorway, but as something to be woven into your soul and spirit the greatest barricade is taken and fallen. There are many here at Michigan who have thrown off their indifference, who have dug and fought against implacable enemies. They are the members of the American Student Union, and yes, I dare, the Young Communist League. But the latter is a small group with a definite philosophy, which is at several basic points too distasteful for my timid soul. Not that one must reject it ipso facto because the horrendous word "Communist" is attached to it. At least let him, look at it objectively, intelligently, without ruff- ling his hair. The ASU has no philosophy except a faith in democracy. There are some communists in it, with a small and capital "C." Don't be afraid of them. They do not growl or bite; they are in fact very likable people. The Student Union is a live force. Its program is the collective expression of would be to make the craft of caddy- ing one open only to adults. And nat- urally I feel the same way about newsboy, and carriers. In respect to "the little merchants" it has been said that association with the news- paper industry in even the humblest capacity serves to build character. Newsboys, we are told, get to be President. However, there must be something wrong with the theory be- cause reporters don't. And the only editor in the White House was less than a howling success. In the case of caddies it is ad- mitted that the benefits are largely bers of the Convention but their pro- perty attitudes. To be sure, their at- titudes might be inferred from their holdings-but it was a roundabout procedure and one that laid Beard open to the charge of stressing the crass aspects of men's motivations. His enemies made the most of it. * * * But these criticisms should not blind us to the importance and in- fluence of the book. Its importance lay in the directness with which it cut through the whole tissue of liberal idealism and rhetoric to the economic realities in American history-and therefore in contemporary American life as well. * * * Beard's book on the Constitution is one of those books that become a legend-which are more discussed than read and which ,arries the clubs is likely to hear blue, will preach on the subject, "We Have language, and he will see men seizedi The Meanns- t?" T n nhrwi. nhrd.. with the gambling fervor in its most virulent form. There are persons, otherwise upright, who will kick a ball out of a bad lie simply through the temptation of the fact that the match is for a dollar Nassau. Again there is the matter of count- ing the number of strokes consumed upon the 610-yard thirteenth hole. The caddy who observes this com- putation must come away with the notion that the average American business man is either mendacious or just naturally not good at figures. And often 'the boy, whose own moral nature is in a formative state, is sub- ject to grave temptation when invit- ed to become an accessory after the fact. "Bill here says I shot an eleven. I claim it was only ten. I'm right, ain't I, boy?" It is much easier to be candid about cherry trees than chip shots from the rough. George Washington Jones1 realizes where his tip lies, and he is likely to reply, "That's right, boss," even though he knows that both were wrong and the big duffer consumed fifteen. It would seem to me that the caddy- ing craft would produce inferiority complexes in the young. It is true that I know some pro golfers who were 1ilC IVICaLla-.out,: Ille c11V1us ulluir directed by Donn Chown will sing and Mrs. Hope Bauer Eddy will sing for the morning solo, "Sheep and Lambs" by Sidney Homer. Miss Mary Porter will play the following organ numbers: "The Guardian Angel" by Bierne-Gaul and "Glorificanlus" by Gaul. The meeting Gof the Student Fellowship will be an outdoor affair with games and picnic supper at the home of Mrs. Ray Steiner on Geddes Road. First Presbyterian Church, 1432 Washtenaw Ave. 10:45 a.m., Morn- ing Worship Service. "Living With 3urselves" will be the subject upon which Dr. W. P. Lemon will preach. Palmer Christian at the organ and di- recting the choir. Disciples Guild (Church of Christ) 10:45 a.m. Morning worship. Rev. Fred Cowin, Minister. 6:30 1.m. Music Appreciation Hour. Prof. Leonard S. Gregory of the Uni- versity School of Music will discuss some of the May Festival Music. His talk will be illustrated with records. The program is open to all interested students. 7:30 p.m. Social hour and refresh- ments. I I!