PAGE FOUR 0 TIHE MICHIGAN DAiILY SA DAZT MARC R23, 1940 a THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sylt Incident Anid Objectivity. " ~- - I IOL TT( U 3'4T.r LO'SMLTAE Gy~wlL w ' U.S (4"R,1Wm . ui titu 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 matters 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; 'Py mail, $4.50. REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVER,.SING BY National Advertising Service, Inc. College Publishers Representative 420 MADISON AVE. NEW YORK, N. Y. CHICAGO * BOSTON * LOS ANGELES - SAN FRANCISCO Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1939-40 Editorial Staff Carl Petersen Elliott Maraniss Stan M. Swinton Morton L. Linder Norman A. Schorr Dennis Flanagan John N. Canavan Ann Vicary . Mel Fineberg . Managing Editor Editorial Director . City Editor . Associate Editor . Associate Editor SAssociate Editor *Associate Editor . Women's Editor . Sports Editor . Paul R. Park Ganson P. Taggart Zenovia Skoratko .eJane Mowers . Harriet S. Levy Business Staff Business Manager . Asst. Business Mgr., Credit Manager+ Women's Business Manager Women's Advertising Manager Publications Manager . . . O BJECTIVE and critical analysis of all foreign war dispatches: this was the criterion and ideal, set forth at the outbreak of hostilities, by virtue of which we could insure the continued neutrality of this country. News- papers, including The Daily, incorporated this proposition as an integral part of their editorial policy, while radio commentators and editorial writers analyzed and explained structure of a "neutral attitude." Yet when the novelty of the war wore off and the brass bands of neutrality began to tire, our determination to critically analyze all dis- patches weakened; we took it for granted, then, promptly forgot it again, falling back into a state of mental gullibility. An excellent example of the type of news story which should be scrutinized from all angles are the conflicting dispatches which have reached American news columns concern- ing the recent bombing raid on the German island of Sylt. First reports, filed from England and passed by British censors, painted vivid pictures of the Reich's proud air base, razed by British bombs and reduced to a smouldering waste-land pock-marked by the deadly hail of explosives. Quick to deny the sweeping claims of the Bri- tish was the German military authority. The raid was not denied, but its epochal success, as claimed by the London bureau, was discred- ited. To prove this contention, Nazi military au- thorities graciously offered to take neutral ob- servers to the island in order that they migh) report back eye-witness accounts of the actual damage inflicted. Selected were three Amer- ican newspapermen, whose reports, as printed yesterday morning, upheld previous German reports. "Only two of the buildings which we saw showed signs of extensive damage," the report states, and "we did not see evidence of direct hits on hangars, nor were we able to discover on our inspection trip across the (Hindenburg) dam, indications that any British bombs had hit the causeway." On first sight, these "neutral" reports seem to clear the issue. Further evidence, however, indicates that even these same reports are not as objective as they appear on the surface. Emphasized in a radio newscast relayed from the Berlin bureau of an American broadcasting company were several salient points which tend to question the objective nature of the eye- witness accounts. First, it is pointed out, the newspapermen were ferried only as far as Ham-. burg by airplane. There they boarded a special' train which took them to the island over the Hindenburg Dam. Again, once on the island, these reporters were taken on a carefully planned tour of the island. Why, the question immediately rises, were they not shown a general view of the is- land from the air? Then too, reports from Denmark stated that fires were seen on the north side of the island; yet, as reported in the radio-cast, the tour carefully avoided this end of the island, show- ing mainly futile damage inflicted upon the sand dunes at the southern extremity. In view of these contradictions and denials, the objective reader can conclude but little. From a strictly neutral point-of-view we can see that the damage inflicted probably was not as great as British accounts would picture it; on the other hand, we cannot accredit the accounts filed by the trio of reporters as being strictly neutral. The one important conclusion at which we can arrive through the welter of contradictions is that we must at all times critically view all foreign dispatches, no matter how plausible or how authoritative they may sound. We must not be misled into a subtle gullibility by the trickeries of propaganda bureaus. - Karl Kessler NIGHT EDITOR: LAURENCE MASCOTT The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. Fraternity Men And The Future . . . AST WEEK, a Michigan fraternity alumnus came back to Ann Arbor to deliver a little oration to the newly-initiated men, and e briefly summarized the problems of fraterni ies when he said that relations with the University administration is the biggest and most vital problem facing the modern Greek letter organization. This same line of attack was used yesterday by Dr. Fred T. Mitchell, dean of men at Michigan State College, when he spoke to a large assem- bly of fraternity men and faculty in the Inter- fraternity Council's Greek Week program. Nor is the problem new. President Ruthvend in his annual report last year, stressed the need for closer working relationships between adminis- tration and fraternities. The Greek Week was designed with just this in mind. Thomas B. Adams, Jr., president of the Council, got te idea for a Greek Week at the National Inter4 fraternity Conference last year in New York, and after observing the results of similar pro- grams at other schools, decided that the first step in improving relations here would be t have a Greek Week stressing just that problem. There is much room for improvement, but the Council alone cannot do much without the support of the individual houses. Apathetic and self-satisfied, the average fraternity man doesn't think very far beyond his own immediate acti- vities and problems. Maybe he is uninformed, but after the program of yesterday and today, there should be no excuse for his ignorance. The avenues open for the individual houses to cooperate and improve working relations with the University are many. Some houses, but not very many, make a policy of inviting facultymen to dinner at regular times, so planned that the visits do not conflict with their own plans. Others have faculty teas, or merely depend on their alumni in the faculty or administration for support. However, the few who do have any functional plans for bettering relations are such a small minority of the houses on campus that most facultymen think of them as mere eating and sleeping places, filled by young men who come to college for fun or to make personal contacts. This is not the case, for some of the brightest students in the University are fraternity men. Why the members don't wake up to the fact that improved relations would help them and strengthen their position on campus is obvious. They simply are too much wrapped up in their own affairs to pay any attention to the world outside their own four walls. They have meet- ings and discuss relative merits of one form of rushing, or else argue about the date for the Spring formal. But there is never a men- tion of what can be done to improve the posi- tion of fraternities in general. When President Rutliven issued his report last year, he thought, and to a certain degree rightly so, that it would stimulate the fraternities to act to improve themselves. He pointed out that the fraternity house was an excellent place to foster cultural development, to learn the finer things of life. But he also pointed out that fraternities have failed miserably in this respect. Perhaps the fault lies in the leadership of the individual houses; surely there is no cause for complaint as far as the Council is con- cermed-thev sonsor enough things. But their THEATRE By JAMES GREEN The Hillel Players presented last night at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre a well-acted and well-produced version of Irwin Shaw's play about the revolt of the world's little people, "The Gentle People." The play itself is far from faultless, but Shaw's competent handling of character and situation combined with the considerable talent shown by the Players made this their best effort in the last five years. The plot of the play is a simple one. Two old men, victimized by a petty racketeer, are finally goaded into murdering him. The daughter of one of the men, too, is a potential victim, and it is the danger to her that provides the catal- yzing agent. On this structure Shaw attempts to rear a social philosophy; that the gentle people can only have the peace that they de- sire by fighting violence with violence. Goff, the gangster, is made the symbol of all the oppression of the ruthless ones of the earth. To be meek before them is not enough. Only when they die can the ordinary and good people live. In the character of Goff the prime faul of the play is manifest. Shaw, in his attempt to impersonalize and generalize the forces of+ oppression, makes Goff himself a victim of a system in which violence and oppression are implicit. He is evil because he has known only evil. But in the lives of Jonah and Stella Good- man, and Phillip Anagnos, Goff is all evil. Thus we are given two sets of conflicting evidence about him, and the revolt itself becomes mean- ingless. Goff himself is a victim. The triumph of the little people is not triumph at all. Whole armies of Goffs menace them. All social P4Li- losophies may be in their nature a mixture of optimism and irony, but the mixture in "The Gentle People" produces a diffuse, and at times, a sprawling effect. Strictly speaking, it is not a propaganda play, but Shaw's doctrine is implicit in it. However, there is much more to the play than confused philosophy. Confused or no, the statement of the philosophy in character and action is always vital and dramatic. Shaw knows and under- stands the lives of the gentlepeoplenand their speech and action is real. Herbert London and Roy Rector, as Goodman and Anagnos, were outstanding in a cast that always had a firm grip on the material at hand. Upon London, as the chief protagonist, depends a great part of the action, and his handling of the part gave to it the full depth that it requires. Norman Oxhandler, as Goff, never succumbed to the temptation to the cheap dramatics that a less competent actor could find in the part. After a shaky beginning, Joan Sack, as Stella Goodman, settled down to a very understanding interpretation of the part.' Eugenia Paprin and Samuel Grant contributed the outstanding bits. Sheldon Finkelstein, as Stella's boy friend, was at times a bit careless of the scenery, but other- wise good. Grace Dunshee, the director, working under considerable handicap,. deserves much of the credit that this always interesting production must have. Even in its few thin spots, the wheels of the machinery never showed through. Robert Mellencamp's sets were, as always, effective. In the past four years, the Hillel Players have presented student-written plays. Without going into the fundamental merits of such perform- ances, it is certainly true that there was a finish to last night's publication that would have been hard to achieve with a student-written play. 1e 'EDITOR Cromwell's 'Floater' To the Editor: In our strictly "Spoils System" diplomatic service, it's too bad that every once in a while one of our necessarily wealthy would-be diplo- matists has to pull such a 'floater' as Crom- well did in Canada a few days ago. Though I personally am of the direct oppo- site opinion as our envoy-extraordinary (extra- ordinary envoy in this case) let's assume that he is dead right in his stand . . . even if Eng- land and France are carrying the burden of saving 'our democratic world' for us (or demo- cratic capitalism, or whatever expression he used) it is entirely beyond his station as a for- eign service agent to so much as whisper the idea in public-our neutrality, however unneu- tral, is nevertheless official, and Cromwell would do well to observe the admirable dignity and discretion and 'silence' of Sumner Welles. As a political realist I recognize that men must either be born rich, become rich, or marry mon- ey in order to pull down one of our fancier embassies or legations in which to hang their dinner jackets ;and until our Foreign Office can convince the powers that vote funds of, the foolishness of saving pennies on Ambassa- dors' and Ministers' salaries, that's the way it's going to be. My only suggestion is this: A man of that type should be very careful to study the ex- cellent career men he is bound to find surround- ing him as his immediate staff when he arrives at his post . .. if he's a good man, it's possible that a year might make him a fairly competent diplomatist. Though other evidences point to Cromwell as a sincere student of economics and govern- (This is the third and concluding article in a series dealing with the operation of the Associated Farmers of California, its organization, opera- tion and threat to American democ- racy.) III. Stormtroopers In U.S. By DAVID LACHENBRUCH In Santa Rosa, during the 1935 apple harvest, the workers struck against unbearably low wages, and on Aug. 1 two speakers at a mass meeting of pickers and packing- house workers in Santa Rosa were "jerked from the platform" by a mob of 250 Associated Farmer "vigi- lantes" who broke up the meeting and "engaged in a free-for-all fight with the workers." 'Later the vigi- lantes demanded of relief and WPA authorities that all strikers be stric- ken from the rolls, in order to starve them back onto the job. On Aug. 23, a group of vigilantes seized Solomon Nitzberg and Jack Green, who had participated in the meeting, dragged them through San- ta Rosa streets and commanded them to leave town. When they refused to do so they were kicked, beaten, tarred and feathered. The mob pour- ed rifle bullets and tear-bombs into Nitzberg's house in order to bring him out. That evening was referred to as the "wildest scene in the his- tory of Sonoma County." The leaders of the tar-and-fea- thering mob consisted of a local banker, the mayor, several motor policemen, a member of the state legislature, numerous American Le- gionnaires and the president of the local Chamber of Commerce. Hearst's San Francisco Examiner next day shouted patriotically that "the tar and feather party was hailed in So- noma County as a direct American answer to the red strike fomenters." Mr. Hearst, it is interesting to note, owns a 300,000-acre ranch in Cal- ifornia. 'Gunkist Oranges' Worthy of mention is McWilliams' article entitled Gunkist Oranges, which appeared in the Pacific Week- ly, in which he gives an eye-witness account of the squashing of a strike of 2,500 union Mexican orange pick- ers in 1936, in which "Orange Coun- ty was virtually in a state of seige, with highway traffic under police surveillance; 400 special armed guards, under the command of for- mer 'football heroes' of the Univer- sity of So. California masquerading as amateur storm troopers, were recruited; over 200 workers were ar-t rested at the outset of the striket and herded into a stockade, or bullE pen, in which the court proceedingsi . were conducted; bail was fixed1 at a prohibitive figure; and, when attorneys entered the county to de- fend the workers they were arrest-i ed on petty traffic charges, followedc about by armed thugs and threatened< in open court . . . Guards with riflest and shotguns patrolled the fields and 'protected' strikebreakers, and thel sheriff instructed these guards, most- ly high school and college youngsters, 'to shoot to kill'..." The Lost Angeles Times next day screamed triumphantly that "old vi-7 gilante days were revived in the or- chards of Orange County yesterday as one man lay near death and scores nursed injuries." The strike, of course, was broken, and the men went back to work in three weeks at practically the same wages, with slight increases "in some cases." The greatest display of the united strength of the Associated Farmers was at the Salinas lettuce packers' strike in September, 1936, where the last stronghold of farm unioniza- tion existed. Officials Disappear The Associated Farmers together with most of the propagandized townspeople "took one side," and 3,000 white workers, some small shopkeepers and city laborers and about 500 Filipino field workers who joined the strike took the other side. The first amazing Nazi-like move in Salinas was the sudden disappear- ance of the Chief of Police and tl County Sheriff from public office. They were supplanted by a "general staff" recruited by the Associated Farmers, and Colonel Henry San- born, publisher of a reactionary jour- nal, The American Citizen, who held no official position whatever, was given full command. Thisnlittle adventure in strike- breaking cost about $225,000, which was raised by an assessment of three dollars on each car of lettuce shipped from Salinas, ultimately paid by the housewives of America. Col. Sanborn was given a salary of $300 a month. Over 200 tear-bombs were fired at strikers. The sheriff soon "emerged from his temporary retirement" in time to deputize 2,500 men who armed themselves with shotguns, rifles and clubs and proceeded to rain blows and shots on the pickets. Special guards stationed on rooftops blasted THE ASSOCIATED FARMERS Sowing Seeds For Grapes Of Wrath : the picket lines with machine gun fire and tear gas bombs. Fake "ar- son" and "dynamite" plots, remin- iscent of the Reichstag fire in Hit- ler's ascension, were hatched by the police, and numerous arrests made. The San Francisco Chronicle, most impartial of the California papers, carried a fair and accurate report of the strike. Later, Chronicle edi- tor Paul Smith visited Salinas him- self and observed the war-like ap- pearance of the town. The Chroni- cle's photographer and reporter had been threatened with lynching if they "didn't get the hell out of Salinas." After a month the Associated Fer- mers added another murderous vic- tory over labor, and the union was crushed. The attorney for the union, during the strike, sent the following tele- gram, which very aptly summarizes the situation: "Sinclair Lewis should be informed that it DID happen in Salinas. It was directed from outside the affect- ed zone of Monterey County. It em- braces all civil governments, includ- ing courts. The State Militia and State Highway Patrol are directed by a civilian local committee acting as the head of a provisional dicta- torship. It indicates long prepara- tion, prior rehearsal and the work of men who know law and under- stand public psychology, as the aver- age citizen is not conscious that it has happened . . . In semi-agricul- tural and .semi-industrial communi- ties it could crush any strike, how- ever peaceful. Significant that the army of this provisional government tore Roosevelt campaign buttons off the lapels of citizens and trampled them under foot on the streets of Salinas, freely expressing their un- expurgated opinion of the present administration. Hearst's stooge, Col. Sanborn, admits he is in command. Organized labor will do well to in- vestigate." Organized labor has not seen fit to investigate, but Congress has through the LaFollette Committee, which is looking into the matter of anti-labor organizations in the state of California. This Committee should have its report ready soon. Carey McWilliams, when in Wash- ington a few days ago, said, in ref- erence to the migrant labor situa- tion: "Hell is going to start popping before long," and that as long as fascist organizations continue to rule California, the workers "are not go- ing to take it lying down." DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN Poll Tax Versus Democracy. 0 0 O N WEDNESDAY, March 27, the 96 members of the United States Sen- ate will be faced with the problem of determin- ing whether or not democracy in the United States should be extended to include all people, or retained merely for those who have attained a certain economic status. For on that day the Geyer Anti-Poll Tax Bill goes before the Senate. This bill, which would abolish the extremely undemocratic practice of demanding payment of a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in fed- eral elections, would, if passed, enfranchise more than 11,000,000 Negro and white Americans who are now being deprived of the right to vote in eight southern states. Although the fifteenth amendment to our Constitution specifically states that the "right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged or denied by the United States or any state on account of race, color or pre- vious condition of servitude the continuance of poll taxes presents a picture which seems to deny the existence of democracy in America. The 11,000,000 people who have been deprived of the right of franchise in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, comprise almost 64% of. the men and women over 21 years of age in those states. If these statistics are broken down to a state basis the per cent of ordinarily eligible voters who actually voted in 1936 would be as follows: Mississippi, 16%; Tennessee, 30%; Vir- ginia, 26%; Georgia, 20%; Arkansas, 18%; Tex- as, 26%; Alabama, 20%, and South Carolina, 14%. According to the Report on Economic Con- ditions in the South issued in July, 1938, to the President by the National Emergency Council, the South, although the poorest section in the (Continued from Page 2) "Chemical Action in Electrical Dis- charges" at 4:15 p.m. Monday, March 25, in Room 303, Chemistry Build- ing. Professor Lind is the National President of the American Chemical Society. The meeting is open to the public. Today's Events Interfraternity Conference progi am for today: 10:00. House Presidents, Guests, and Faculty Meeting in Small Ball- room, Union. 12:15: Guests and Faculty Partici- pants to Fraternity Houses for lun- cheon. 2:30. Panel Discussions Resumed, Michigan Union. The Disciples Guild will meet at the Guild House for a trip to the Dunbar Community Center this after- noon at 3 o'clock. Suomi Club members are invited to the Nurmi-Maki reception at the In- ternational Center tonight at 10 o'clock. Graduate students, and other stu- dents interested, are invited to listen to a radio broadcast by the Metro- politan Opera Company of Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," to be given Sat- "Tristan and Isolde," to be given today at 1:50 p.m. in the Men's Lounge of the Rackham Building. Coming Events Seminar in Bacteriology will meet in Room 1564 East Medical Building Monday, March 25, at 8:00 p.m. Sub- ject: "Reversibility of Antigen-Anti- body Reaction." All interested are invited. German Table for Faculty Mem- bers will meet Monday at 12:10 p.m. in the Founders' Room, Michigan Union. All faculty members inter- ested in speaking German are cordi- ally invited. There will be a brief informal talk by Professor Albert H. Marckwardt on "Etwas von den Fili- pino-Sprachen." Physics Colloquium: Mr. N. B. Nic- hols wmilltalk on "The Dropping Mer- guests and a change of the meeting will be discussed. date off Graduate Outing Club will meet Sunday, March 24, at 2:30 p.m. in the rear of the Rackham Building. Program consists of a hike to the Ann Arbor water softening plant, and skating for the last time of the sea- son at the Coliseum. Supper at the club rooms. All graduate students, faculty, and alumni invited. The Fellowship of, Reconciliation meets Monday in Lane Hall at 7:00 p.m. Sirajuddin Kadri will talk on his experience in the non-violence movement in India. American Student Union meeting Tuesday, March 26, 8 p.m., Natural Science Auditorium. Herbert Witt, National Executive Secretary of the ASU, will speak on "Is Roosevelt for Peace?" Michigan Wolverine Social Hour Sunday evening will feature an "Eas- ter Amble." Schubert's Unfinished Symphony will be played from 6:00 to 7:00 and the music of Orrin Tucker from 7:00 until 10:30. International Center: On Sunday, March 24, a Symposium on Interna- tional Education will be presented at the Center at 7 o'clock by the fol- lowing representatives of institutions outside the continental United States: Mrs. Francesca Thivy, Madras Wo- men's College; Miss Ruth Ciu, Hwa Nan College, China; Deogracias Bor- longan, University of the Philippines; Fakhri Maluf, American University Syria. The movie at the Center on Ion- day, March 25, at 7:15 p.m. will be "Washington's Virginia," showing among other Virginia scenes, Mount Vernon, and the Williamsburg Res- toration. Congress has selected the following men for committee positions. A meet- ing of all committee men will be held Tuesday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 306 Michigan Union. Anyone finding it impossible to attendthe meeting will please contact David Panar, 2-2143. Jack Braman, Douglas Aldrich, Ezio DeLorenzi, Kenneth Matson, Charles Reisdorf, R. M. Reid, Paul U. ~t-r+oR oland Palmauist. Paul W. worship services at 10:30 a.m. Rev. E. C. Stellhorn will deliver the ser- mon entitled, "The Easter Miracle." Trinity Lutheran Church will hold its worship services at 10:30 p.m. Rev. H. O. Yoder will speak on "I Am the Life." There will also be a sunrise service at 6:00 a.m. Disciples Guild (Church of Christ): 6:00 a.m. Students will meet at the Guild House for an outdoor sunrise prayer service. 10:45 a.m. Morning worship, Rev. Fred Cowin, Minister. 6:30 p.m. A panel of four stu- dents will discuss the lectures of the last two meetings on "Preparation for Marriage." Unitarian Church: 11 a.m. "Here Speaketh the Dead;" vocal and in- strumental music. 7:30 p.m. Round Table discus- sion, "Science and Immortality," by Professor Shepard, psychology de- partment. First Church of Christ, Scientist: Sunday service at 10:30 a.m. Sub- ject: "Matter." Sunday School at 11:45 a.m. Student Evangelical Chapel: Eas- ter services at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Reverbnd John Bratt of Grand Rapids will be the speaker. Baptist Church: 9:30 a.m. Graduate Bible Class. 10:30 a.m. Morning Worship and Baptismal Service. Sermon topic, "The Power of the Resurrection." 7:30 p.m. Easter Play, "The Dawn- ing," by Lyman R. Bayard. First Congregational Church: 7:00 a.m. Easter Early Morning Service, followed by the Student Fellowship breakfast. 10:45 a.m. Public Worship. Dr. L. A. Parr will speak on the Easter theme: "The Faith We Declare: 'The Best Is Yet to Be'." 6:00 p.m. Student Fellowship Sup- per, followed by a talk by Dr. Parr on "Personal Triumph." First Methodist Church: Morning worship services at 8 o'clock and at 10:40 o'clock. Dr. Charles W. Bra- shares will preach on "Easter."