wr PAGE FUL T WE MCHIIGA N DAILY SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1940 THE MICHIGAN DAILY The Editor Gets Told: Professor Rowe Discusses Student Theatrical Work At The University -..x..9.iuii , Edited and managed by students of the University of Mitchigan 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 preserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as second class mal matter. Subscriptions during regular school yeaz by carrier, $4.00; loy mall, $4.50. REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVEN,.SING VY 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 Flneberg Managing Editor Editorial Director . . City Editor . Associate Editor . Associate Editor . Associate Editor *Associate Editor . Women's Editor . Sports Editor Paul R. Park Ganson P. Taggart Zenovia Skoratko Jane Mowers * Harriet S. Levy Business Staff Business Manager . Asst. Business Mgr., Credit Manager+ Women's Business Manager Women's Advertising Manager Publications Manager To the Editor: With Morty Q.'s column which was published Thursday and Mr. Green and Young Gulliver con- tinuing through the week, the literature of drama is appearing in The Daily faster than I can keep up with it. However, I should like to be permitted to add a few words. I was so impressed by the constructiveness of Young Gulliver's column of Tuesday morning on production of our student-written plays that I am prompted to offer some elaborations on the facts and point of view. Before proceeding to that, however, I must take issue with Gulli- ver's one point of what brings playwriting stu- dents to Michigan. Twelve years ago the administration of the University had the fore- sight and imagination to introduce courses m playwriting and since to maintain and foster their development. Although the Harvard 47 Workshop and the Carolina Playmakers were already well-known, the University of Michigan was still a pioneer in the field of playwriting for that time. There are now around 70 such courses among 100 leading colleges and univer- sities. The University of Michigan, in its a'ttrc.c- tion to talented students, reaps the benefit of accumulated accomplishment and prestige. The students do not come here, as suggested by Gulliver, to study under men, but come, expect- ing to depend primarily upon their own aptitude and interest, to work in the favorable situation for study of playwriting and writing plays which has been developed here. I was most attracted by Young Gulliver's emphasis, as it seemed to me, on the community rather than the instructional point of view. That laboratory production belongs to the teach- ing of playwriting is obvious. As a matter of fact, the English department for several years has been staging under the sensitive and in- formed direction of Dr. Frederick Crandall (re- ferred to by Mr. Leavay in a letter published by The Daily) with the cooperation of the speech department and Play Production, three plays a year for instructional purposes. These pro- ductions are carried on in one of the Speech Society rooms of Angell Hall for the students. The plays are done without costume, make-up or scenery, for most plays the best kind of pre- liminary testing. One-act plays by students have, also been done occasionally in Play Production's laboratory work. These provisions are splendid in kind but not yet adequate in quantity. How- ever, although we still have a long way to go toward meeting our needs for instructional pro- duction, we have taken steps in the right direc- tion. But let us depart now from the utilitarian function of production of student-written plays, and consider again Gulliver's well-made point. Drama is a social art which belongs to a com- munity. We tend to forget sometimes that a University is a community as well as an organ- ization for instruction and research. In terms of present facilities and production programs it surprises me that this university community does not demand to experience more of what its members are thinking about in dramatic form. (I believe that the five publicly produced NIGHT EDITOR: MILTON ORSHEFSKY The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. Untermeyers Lectures: Real And Honest Force... S OME liked him; some did not. Some scoffed and called him a "chautau- qua of art"; some admired him and were im- pressed by him. But whatever the reaction, most of the people who heard poet Louis Untermeyer during his three-week lecture series here agreed that he expounded a salutary doctrine for American art. Beneath the facade of wisecracks and clever phrase that Mr. Untermeyer could not seem to repress, there was evidenced in his six talks a sincere belief that America has finally dis- covered its nativity and is on the threshold of artistic maturity. It was not Mr. Untermeyer's discovery. He did not claim it to be. His aim was not so much to point out an easily discernible fact or to pat pro-American artists on the back for the work they have done, but to impress upon his audience, upon young writers and seekerA after-culture, that they remain American. Mr. Untermeyer told lucidly and authorita- tively of the contrast between the American art of yesterday-the art of the imitative period when native poetry was an Olympian product and native music had its source in foreign con- servatories-and the natural, home-to-America art of today. He won converts. There was no propagan- dizing, no homiletics. When his statements needed proof he brought in the syncopated, dynamic rhythms of Vachel Lindsay's poems or the America-mirroring rhapsodies of Gersh, win, and the audience was won over willy-nilly. His lectures were a real and honest force for Americanism. They were the antithesis of the brass-band chauvinism that is palmed off on us by zealots of the Dies Committee ilk. They expressed an Americanism which one could ai plaud without wondering what might lie beneath the red, white and blue frosting. - Hervie Haufler Appropriations Cts Threaten Laws' Effect . . 4 I WO DAYS AGO the House of Rep- resentatives cut the administration of the National Labor Relations Board by more than $300,000 and that of the Wage-Hour law by more than $1,000,000. Although quoting figures arouses little in- terest, although the above statment may sound prosaic, the truth clearly remains that these appropriations slashes are equally as serious and as emasculating as the proposed Smit' amendments. For without enforcement these measures are as effective and binding as the prohibition amendment was in the "golden twenties." With- our enforcement, laws requiring manufacturers to bargain collectively and to pay a minimum wage rate are today meaningless. Lacking gov- ernment compunction, these laws-basic to the position of American workers-are reduced to the category of the oddities found in Amer-' ican Magazine's "It's the Law" column. The National Labor Relations Act recognizes the principle of collective bargaining and makes it mandatory for the employer to enter into bargaining agreements with his employes. Un- der the Wage-Hour act the minimum wage will reach the sum of 40 cents an hour seven years of -n -h ~aQ -o ~,of h ant n lt a movmil original plays to which Gulliver referred were all good box-office.) This country is growing out of the post-pioneer stage when culture was thought of as something acquired, aid is realizing culture as a state of being. A young composer and a young director have each talked with me recently about the rising movement for a true American culture in music, music growing out of the community and integrated with it. I have heard the same for painting and sculpture. And likewise, I am sure there is an American dramatic culture in progress. Through requests to serve as judge in contests, I read in a good average year around twohundred plays written in other Michigan communities. The average city the size of Ann Arbor in Michigan sees public production of more of its own plays than we do here. I can think of no single institution more integrating to cultural values in a community than a fully creative theatre. When a play is produced, it launches upon a community a com- mon experience which at once unifies and arouses discussion of ideas. But must all plays arrive via Broadway? It is, after all, rather fantastic to think that every play must be still-born unless an investment of twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars can be found for its production, and it becomes one of the hundred and twenty-five or thirty plays chosen each year in New York out of approximately forty thousand manuscripts, as part of a desperate gamble of agents and ptoducers to figure out the mood of the month of the Broadway audi- ence. And it is similarly fantastic that the ex- perience of drama of communities throughout the vast spaces and varied background of this country should be determined by that process local and commercial to New York City. There is a growing democratic impulse of healthy self-sufficiency and cultural self-respect throughout our country. Other communities are forsaking the fantastic demand of a thirty thousand dollar investment before they will risk two hours on a play in a theatre. It would seem natural to expect that a university commu- nity which is a center of thought and so valued elsewhere, would have an especial respect for and interest in its own thinking. It was a plea- sure to meet in Morty Q.'s comments on "Key Largo" Wednesday morning a fresh response and independence of New York as the ultimate criterion of drama. In the midst of a constant interplay of ideas, political, economic, social, scientific, ethical, and philosophcal, a univer- sity play represents an orientation of the au- thor's thinking and an attempt at practical ap- plication in a sector of life bounded by the play. I think it might give a helpful direction to our view on plays here at the University of Michigan if we were to get the habit of speaking of original or community-written plays rather than student-written plays. The authors, un- dergraduate and graduate, are representative of a very wide range of youth and maturity and interests and experience. There is a blend- ing here of a Michigan culture and a cosmopoli- tan culture. Not to refer to work in progress, last year the plays that were finished theatre jobs, ready for production, included one which was rich with varied scenes of Michigan, a drive-away station in Detroit, Benton Harbor fruit market, cherry orchards and quiet farm country, the Indian and blueberry country of the north, through which moved a strange character seeking self-destruction and finding salvation; a play of the heroic, picturesque, and tragic days of the pioneering of Colorado; a comedy of a summer writers' conference which blends beauty and romance with wise and satirical wit; a play of scientific lie-detection in legal and judicial procedure and the ethical problem of defense of the guilty for the criminal lawyer; a poignant play of the meaning of old age and the nature of personal identity. Each of these plays was written with skill and the subject dealt with maturely by someone thor- oughly familiar with the material. A university theatre program holds the possi- bilities of historical plays, original plays, and Broadway plays. The entire production program of some universities now is of original plays. It is very seldom that one can have everything. If I were not a teacher of playwriting, but were a member of the community teaching in some pther field, or a student in relation to his fel- low-students, and had to make a choice, I am sure I would prefer a program of historical and original plays and leave out the Broadway plays. The iroadway plays are published and that phase of contemporary thinking is available through_ reading or often through the motion pictures. Community production may be the only opportunity for experiencing these other plays, and besides, there is something stirring about the immediacy of a play completed one mqnth, in the theatre the next. Some of our plays have been selected for Broadway produc- tion, but no one knows in advance which it will be, and when it happens there certainly could be a special pleasure in having seen the play first as a part of one's community with fresh and independent critical responses. What is most important to us, however, is that whether or not the plays penetrate the Broad- way maze, there are some plays available here that are as good and even better than some which we come to know by way of Broadway success, and there are others not so well done that by the content and our community relation to the play may be of more interest to us. I have the pleasure of knowing these plays, and am trying to pass it on. Here at the University of Michigan, with the finished productions to which Professor Windt and his staff have accus- tnpr3 ,, in Pnv Pm,.-,nn ad hpRimmp FEDERAL HOUSING' Administrator Nathan Straus of the USHA announces that the Gov- ernment's $800,000,000 housing pro- gram will probably cost at its peak about $13,400,000 a year instead of the $28,000,000 authorized un- der the present law. The explana- tion is easy to understand. In the first place, the Government bor- rows the $800,000,000 at about 13 per cent and lends it to local housing authorities at about 3 per cent. The housing authorities get the money cheaper than they could hire it in the open mar- ket and the Government makes a banker's profit. In the second place, according to Mr. Straus's figures, the USHA is now contributing about 2.8 per cent of the cost of the projects toward annual maintenance charges, as against the 3.5 per cent which the law permits and which it was supposed would be necessary. This reduction is made possible by economies in operation and man- agement. The present law requires that local housing authorities shall raise at least 10 per cent of the cap- ital cost of projects from sources other than the Federal Govern- ment. Actually they are doing bet- ter than this and Mr. Straus be- lieves that eventually 30, 40 and even a larger per cent may come from these non-Federal sources. These figures not only promise more housing for a given amount of subsidy. They also hold out hope that we can narrow the field within which public housing is nec- essary. Every economy in construc- tion and management simplifies the ALL RIGHT, so spring is here. So what? Last week it looked as though we were in for a long, hard winter. And Gulliver didn't mind. Why? Because he'd rather have winter than spring. Let's clear things up. The boys at Columbia used to have an old drink- ing song which ended something like this: "This walking around without touching. the ground is getting to be quite a bore." Music furnished on request. Now there is nothing which Gulliver would enjoy right now more than being able to walk around without touching the ground. It's simple enough. Y. G. has one pair of shoes; the right shoe has held up very well since last July, but the left shoe suddenly decided to spring a leak. A leaky shoe is like red flannel underwear-ok for the icy weather, but worse than useless when the thaw comes. In the past three days Gulliver has developed an odd, pI- geon-like walk; if you see anybody problem of the private builder as well as of the public housing au- thority. The limited-dividend cor- poration, for example, ought soon to be able to offer good homes at lower rents than those now avail- able. If this can be done the USHA experiment will benefit a multitude of families who do not live in pub- lic housing projects but who will campus and which look deep enough pay less for their accommodations to have dangerous undertows. because private enterprise has learn- Donations of hip boots, hand knit ed in this case from public enter- woolen socks and handkerchiefs to prise. stuff into the leaky toe will be - The New York Times gratefully acknowledged. scrambling around campus on his heels looking like nothing more than a champion walker practicing up for the Big Meet. you'll know it's Gulliver. T'S GETTING to be a terrible strain. One big rainstorm will wash Y. G. out so completely that he won't show his face on campus until finals. - So far he has had to change his socks twice a day- three times, if he wants to go out of an evening. But in order to change your socks you have to go home (you can't walk around with a spare pair in your pocket and slip into Angell Hall smoking room to change them), and in order to go home you have to wade through several tons (conservative estimate) of muck. And in the meantime, you walk around emitting strange, squidgy noises, and feeling stray bits of animal and vegetable mat- ter making their little homes in between your toes. So you wiggle your way over to the Union showers and spend a pleasant half hour picking out cigarette butts, dead leaves and crumbs of mud from your toes. Phooey on it. As hazardous as is the condition of Gulliver's win- ter coat, he would sooner see ice form again on the diagonal than pick his way gingerly around those water holes which clutter up the DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN GULLIVER'S CAVILS (Continued from Page 21 South Gallery, Alumni Hall; 8:30-5:00 one week ing March 30. Memorial only, end- Far Eastern Drama*: Enter Wang Ching-wei . . . NEW and tremendously significant phase of the war in the Far East begins today, with the inauguration of Wang Ching-wei as president of the government for Central China. On the success of this govern- ment hinges the probable outcome of hostilities in China. Wang, of course, is another of the puppet rulers Japan has been setting up in conquered areas throughout China. He is probably the most able of these puppets; he has held prac- tically every big job in China, showing ability in all of them. Throughout the course of the war, moreover, Wang fought Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on the issue of carrying on the struggle. Wang's ostensible position was this: the war can't pos- sibly lead to anything good; China can't win the war, even granting that she=can't be totally defeated; it's better to come to' terms with Japan as soon as possible, as such capitulation would probably induce Tokyo to grant a greater degree of autonomy to China. More. than a year ago Wang openly split with Chiang, fled the capital, and sopght refuge at Hongkong. Since that time he has become closer and closer to the J4panese, ynti he is now returning to Nanking 4s their actual pup- pet ruler. Chiang's government naturally has branded Wang a traitor. A Chungking official announce- ment has warned that all agreements concluded by Wang would be considered not binding. The burning question boils down to this: Has Chiang's comparatively short campaign to cre- ate an unflinching nationalist feeling among his people taken effect on a permanent basis? Or have centuries of disunity taken their toll on the country, leaving it vulnerable to Japanese inroads, and leaving it too numb to see through Tokyo's disunion schemes as exemplified by Wang? If Wang is able to muster considerable sup- port, it will be a tremendous blow to the Chung- king government. If, on the other hand, Wang finds only meager support for his government, it will mean that Chiang's nationalist education has taken effect, that the Chinese have awak- ened to their urgent need for strong union, and that Japan's chances of completely crushing China are gone. Lm_ a n7 ~.l of Architecture, Schools of Education, Forestry and Conservation, and Music should fill in grade request cards' at Room 4, U. Hall between April 1 and April 5. Those failing to file these cards will assume all responsibility for late grades which may prohibit graduation. Physical Education for Women: During the week of April 1, skill tests in the following activities will be given: Fencing: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30 to 4:00, Barbour Gymnasium. Badminton: Monday and Wednes- day 1:30 to 4:15, Barbour Gymna- sium. Swimming: Tuesday and Thurs- day, 7:30 p.m., Union Pool. Riding: Monday and Wednesday, 3:20, Barbour Gymnasium. The University Bureau of Appoint- ments and Occupational Information has received notice of the following United States Civil Service examina- tions, applications to be filed by April 22. Senior Animal Geneticist, salary $4,600. Animal Geneticist, salary $3,800. Associate Animal Geneticist, salary $3,200. Assistant Animal Geneticist, salary $2,600. Associate Coal Price Analyst and Investigator, salary $3,200. Assistant Coal Price Analyst and Investigator, salary $2,600. The Bureau has also received a bul- letin of Illinois State Civil Service examination notices, open to citizens of Illinois. The list includes exami- nations for social workers, engineers, statisticians, physicians, nurses, bac- teriologists, librarians and others. Residence may be waived in some cases. Complete announcements on file at the University Bureau of Appoint- ments and Occupational Information, 201 Mason Hall. Office hours: 9-12 and 2-4. Military Ball Banquet Tickets: The cost of military ball banquet tickets may be deducted from the April com- mutation checks. Tickets may be ob- tained any afternoon at the ROTC headquarters. Women's Team Bowling Tourna- ment: All tournament matches must be completed by Friday, April 5. Be- cause of limited accommodations reservations must be made early. The hours for reservations are: 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon, 7:00 and 8:00 in the evening. Academic Notices Final Examination for Hygiene Lectures for Women will be given at the regular class period on April 1 and 2 in Natural Science Auditorium It is important that students attend the section in which they have en- rolled. Exhibitions Exhibition, College of Architecture Lectures University Lecture: Professor C. H. Behre, Jr., of the Department of Geo- logy at Northwestern University, will lecture on "The Role of Minerals in the War" under the auspices of the Department of Geology at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, in the Rack- ham Lecture Hall. The public is cor- dially invited. Mathematical Lecture: Professors 0. Zariski of Johns Hopkins Univer- sity will give a lecture on Wednesday, April 3, at 3 o'clock, in 3011 A.H. on the subject, "Local Uniformization of Algebraic Varieties." Lecture: Mr. Luther Tucker, who has spent the past two years admin- istering relief in China and was re- cently released from a Japanese pris- on, will speak at Lane Hall, Monday, April 1, on "Why Chinese Relief" at 4:15 p.m. and on "Chinese Universi- ties Carry On" at 7:00 p.m. T' Oday's trew~s Suomi Club meeting tonight at 8, Room 305, Michigan Union. He-She Bridge Tournament will be held in Room 305 of the Union at 2:00 p.m. today. Men's and women's teams may enter at the Michigan Union Desk. University Day Guides and visitjng students will meet in the Union Lobby at 9:30 this morning. All Girls interested in living cheap- ly and cooperatively are invited to a joint tea given by the Alice Free- man Palmer and Katherine Pickerill Cooperatives today from 3:00 to 5:00, at the Katherine Pickerill Coopera- tive, 328 East William St. For infor- mation about cooperatives, phone 2- 1454 or 2-2218. Graduate Students, and other stu- dents interested, are invited to a radio broadcast by the Metropolitan Opera Company of Wagner's "Die Walkure," to be given today at 1:50 p.m. in the Men's Lounge of the Rackham Building. -An April Fool's party and danc will be. iven in the Congregationa Church tonight at 9:00. All young people cordially invited. Small charge Graduate Dance will be held in the Rackham Building, tonight 9:0.0 tc 12:00. All graduate students are in vited. "The 0itic": Last performance to- night at 8:30 at Mendelssohn Thea- tre. Tickets still available for. Sheri . dan's riotous comedy which is offere l I as Play Production's final produc - tion of the season. Phone 6300 for reservations. Coming Events e~ German Table for Faculty r~em ace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. Program: Glacial Studies in Great Lakes and Hudson Lakes Region" by George M. Stanley, Asst. Prof. of Ge- ology. "Motion Pictures of Living Em- bryos" by Theodore C. Cramer, De- partment of Anatomy. Seminar in Bacteriology will meet in Room 1564 East Medical Building Monday, April 1, at 8:00 p.m. Sub- ject: "Trypanosoma cruzi." All in-- terested are invited. The Graduate Education Club will meet on Wednesday, April 3, at 4:00 p.m. in the graduate library of the University Elementary School. Prof. R. W. Sellars of the Philosophy De- partment will speak on the "Philoso- phy of John Dewey." Discussion will follow of "Educational Implications of Dewey's Philosophy" by Prof. S. A. Courtis. All graduate students in the School of Education are invited. Refreshments. Flying Club will hold a meeting Sunday, March 31, at the Ypsilanti Airport. Car will leave Union at 2:15 p.m. Attention all campus organizations: General Committee of the Spring Parley will meet on Sunday, March 31, at the Michigan League. Each campus organization is invited to send a representative to this meeting to help make plans for this year's Parley. International Center: Sunday eve- ning at 7 o'clock Mrs. Ammu Swam- inadan, one of the internationally recognized leaders of the women of India, will speak on "Women's Part in the Indian Nationalist Movement." Moving pictures in technicolor of the beautiful Magnolia and Cypress I Gardens of Charleston, South Caro- lina, will be shown at the Center Monday evening at 7:15 o'clock. * Varsity Glee Club: All men going o the Spring Trip must present health cards at regular rehearsal Sunday at *4:30 p.m. Special rehearsal Mon- day at 4:00 p.m. Reserve Officers: Major Robert N. Kunz, Signal Corps, will speak on "Signal Communications in the In- fantry Regiment "at 7:30 p.m. Mon- day, April 1 in Room 222 of the P Michigan Union. All members of the I Michigan Union. All members of the Officers Reserve Corps and the R.O.T.C. may attend. e Michigan Anti-War C nmmittee will 0 meet Sunday, March 31, at the Michi- - gan Union at 3 o'clock. All members urged to attend. The Michigan Wolverine Social Hour Sunday night, will be called - "Fools' Paradise." The Detroit Mus- d ic Appreciation Society's recording of - Beethoven's Fifth Symphony will be r played from 6:00 to 7:00 and the re- cordings of Benny Goodman from 7:00 until 10:00. The Women's Research Club will - meet Monday night, April 1. at 7:30