PAGE FOUR. THE MICHIGAN DAILY T TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1939 . ------------ THE MICHIGAN DAILY Freedom OfLatin American Peoples Is Hailed As Impetus To Democracy 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; by mail, $4.50. REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL. ADVERSING BY National Advertising Service, Inc. College Publishers Representative 420 MADIsoN AvE. NEW YORK, N. Y: CHICAGOB SOSTON'* Los ANGELES - SA FRAt cIS Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1939-40 Editorial Carl Petersen . Elliott Maraniss . . Stan 2M.'Swinton Morton L. Linder . . Norman A. Schorr. Dennis Flanagan , John N. Canavan Ann Vicary . . . Mel Fineberg Staff Managing Editor Editorial Director . A 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 Stafff Business Manager. Asst. Business Mgr., Credit ,Manager' Women's Business Manager Women's Advertising Manager Publications Manager NIGHT EDITOR: ROY BUEHLER The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. A Letter To Santa Claus .. . (Editor's Note: The Daily editorial page has a regular space for letters. but the following is sometinrg found on one of the desks, not meant for publication we are quite sure. We disclaim all responsibility for the fact that our Mr. Linder still thinks there is a Santa Claus.) DEAR SANTA CLAUS, I had promised myself I wouldn't write to you this. year because you were so nasty to' me last Christmas. Remember, you didn't bring me that red racer or the boxing gloves? But, I'm going to forget all that be- cause I have some pretty important things to ask of you. Bring the usual stuff, of course, but, in addition, see what you can do with some of these: 1. Bring a little rational thinking to the men who have plunged Europe into a futile and needless war. Make them see that marching one nation against another isn't going to solve any of the real problems. There will be another treaty and there will be more injustices and there will be more wars. Bring them a notion of equality and make them understand that every man has an inalienable right, not only to freedom and justice, but also to take part in and benefit from the great abundance in the world. 2. To the people in this country, bring a posi- tive notion of unalterable peace, a peace not merely the lull between wars, but a peace that is permanent, the normal situation. And bring to these people some realization of the fact that unemployment, slums, poverty and suffering are not necessary evils to be accepted with a pitying shrug, but rather outgrowths of a rotten and vicious culture where greed and selfishness have corrupted the society. And make them know that America is the one remaining hope in this mad world for a true democracy, that it is up to them to guard it and to build it so that no force, however strong, can possibly overthrow it. 3. Bring to the publishers of our large news- papers and magazines some idea of truthful, unemotional reporting and undistorted news stories. Make them see that theirs is the re- sponsibility of informing the. people correctly, and it is absolutely not within their province to stir up mob emotions. .And remind them that according to all principles of journalism, the advertisers come second to the news readers. 4. To our own state of Michigan, bring back the civil service and bring a little straight think- ihg and administrative order to some of the tangled departments and agencies. And above all, make the legislature or the Governor or somebody see that those crippled children, who were put out of the University Hospital because necessary funds weren't appropriated, are taken care of. Make them understand how inhumane and cruel it is to turn out these children without the medical care they need so badly. Show them that it is not real economy to cut the budget at the expense of human lives. 5. To the voters who will elect a President next year bring the ability to overlook all emotional campaign appeals, but to elect that one whom they think will give .the most progressive and true democratic government, one whom they are sure will continue the unfinished and abandoned reforms attempted .by the present Administra- tion. Especially, do not allow them to b fooled by rash promises 'of a' balanced budget or an end to unemployment. And do not allow them to be taken in by "he kept us out of war" talk. By DOUGLAS FOWLE For some time Secretary of State Cordell Hull has found much deserved praise coming his way. Largely through his efforts has a solid amity between the United States and her hemispherical neighbors been established. But what has been won is a great deal less valuable than the American people realize. Let's bring back to mind a little history of our attitude toward Latin America. Until the present decade the United States had for a good many generations considered it her right to intervene in Latin American affairs when- ever any of the weak governments there seemed to have lost control. Then, out of a pretty clear sky, this right was renounced, and a new prin- ciple of non-intervention was adopted. This much we all know. What followed, howevr, is not commonly known. There happened to be a number of revolutions that strangely enough took place. Seven South American countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela fell victims to dictatorships at this time. Moreover, they had bedfellows in Guate- mela, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua of Central America. And of Latin America's 20 so-called republics, 11 had now fallen under dictatorships. Natives Win Power America as a whole could never have expected such a turn of events, because she did not know what was actually going on. The American people never knew that by the beginning of this same decade the masses in Latin America had begun to feel and use the power of their num- bers for the first time. Only a few men with wealth at stake were much aware that the Latin American people were beginning to out- number all opposition at the polls, so that there seemed little likelihood of the conservative ele- ments ever again winning the elections. But these few interested men realized that if America was to continue her old policy of in- tervention, the then democratic forms of gov- ernment in Latin America would be preserved and the masses would keep gaining strength as the ruling group. And these men had six billions of dollars invested to our south. They were most anxious to avoid the very type of thing that occurred just a while ago, when Mexico, with a government quite responsive to her ,masses, expropriated "American" oil wells. So instead of maintaining the dollar diplomacy through the right of intervention, our State De- partment turned to the latent method of re- taining the same by the new plan of non-inter- vention. And, with no United States to inter- fere, the ultra-conservative minorities of wealthy landowners thereupon instigated uprisings and seized governmental power from the people. Un- deniably, that was just what certain Americans wanted. But things did not end here. For when the Roosevelt administration landslided into Wash- ington in 1933 it was finally realized that dic- tatorships across the oceans were taking more and more of Latin America's trade. American big business and Washington now believed the time for intervening and setting up more friend- ly governments in Latin America was past. The only scheme with which to fight the influence of the foreign fascist governments appeared to be a concerted effort to follow their lead and do our own winning of friendship. The effort was earnestly started at the Pan-American Confer- ence of 1933, when America emphasized her new doctrine that "no state has the right to inter- vene in the internal. or external affairs of an- other." Indeed, this doctrine seemed to please the Latin American governments as much as anything. United States Wants Friendship And so, our "democratic" government found itself striving to win the friendship of the dictatorships it had made possible,-in order to compete with foreign dictatorships. This is the paradoxical kind of friendship we have now won. However, and this is the sad part, but the part that counts, direct efforts to win over the DomMinkSay By DR. EDWARD W. BLAKEMAN Christmas smothered beneath sales, advertis- ing, forced charity, bazaars, greetings many; amusements meaningless, and gatherings pro- fuse or formal, is upon us. How shall a Univer- sity student, for whom life is precious, approach the day? Shall we deck the tree, hasten to her door with a remembrance, join the Carollers, seek out aged friends, or deliver holly as guarantee to some sick benefactor. All of these perhaps., That is well. None of us can overlook the fact that eleven million families, during the year just passed, have had to live upon less than one hundred twenty-five a month, that several millions face permanently idleness, that social workers are jaded by the long lines of applicants, that crime mounts and hospitals for the mentally ill are crowded. Yet he serves best who knows God, believes in the power of good to vanquish evil, and can project his ideal into the real world. Let every believer exert the power of the ideal, embody in his own character that ethical love which purifies human society, and claim God's promise as we join in faith to sing "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear . O'er all the weary world: Above its sad and lowly plains, They bend on heavenly wing, And ever o'er its Babel sounds Thy blessed Latin American people themselves have not been so successful. Hull introduced a series of radio broadcasts to offset European ones. But most American programs are heard at untoward hours, frequently have no special appeal, and do not register clearly. Fortunately, talking pictures are making Latin Americans conscious of their neighbors to the north, although this is not to our credit since the English language is merely a bit more common than foreign ones. Some day the whole of Latin America may acquire the habit of turning her eyes northwest to North America instead of northeast to Europe. But the change will be gradual. Old customs, old ties and old traditions are hard to break- and old suspicions hard to remove.. Latin America Warming Up Surely we can never speed the change by imitating the tactics of the fascist powers, bid- ding against other nations for influence with the little gilt-braid Hitlers and Mussolinis whose regimes infest the Latin American countries in defiance of the will of the people." The Latin Americans, it should be known, have been far more favorably impressed by the late trend in our own government toward legislation for the people than they have ever been by the "cold- blooded, calculating, mercenary, uncultured Yankee upstarts" many of them have contacted. Americans must realize that the only way we can exercise sound influence in Latin America is by standing squarely with the democratic and progressive forces in those countries. In the people themselves is the real Latin American bulwark against penetration of foreign ideology. Whenever given the chance to express a true opinion, they have indicated the desire for more democracy. If the Latin American people even win the, right to govern themselves, the new surge of democracy would give a much needed impetus to a crusading movement that has bogged. It would deliver half the world complete in democ- racy. It would mean a great community of nations, 'with each individual government and people interested earnestly in the welfare of the other. It would make the Monroe Doctrine, as never before, a watchword to be supported with our last dying breath. Drew Person Robert S.Allen WASHINGTON-Navy sleuths have been gum-shoeing around to find where the leaks have been coming from regarding defects in the brand new U.S. destroyers. Naval officers do not deny that the defects exist, but are hot under the collar that the facts leaked out. Meanwhile, some of the civilians who work on naval design in the Navy Department, think the Annapolis men might well check up on the small amount of money spent by the Navy on research. At present, the Navy is spending a huge amount on construction, but relatively little on laboratories to test out and improve that construction. In fact, civilian naval engineers are paid so little that there is constant temptation to accept higher pay from the private shipyards. The private yards spend all kinds of money on re- search for new design, while the Navy spends all kinds of money on building ships on insufficient- ly proved design-which of course, may turn out to be a terrific waste. Inside fact is that most naval research today is after mistakes are made, rather than before. For instance, the Navy's civilian research experts will be sent a defective engine, built in a hurry. And they will be told to ascertain why it became defective. Building Trades Crack-Down In other words, instead of using research in advance to avoid mistakes, the Navy does its building first, and then leaves it to the research men to pick up the pieces. And when the civilian research men do suc- ceed in correcting the faults in an already built engine, about all they get from the admirals is a letter of congratulation. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold is playing no favorites in his anti-trust crack- down on labor leaders. . Nothing is being said about it, but certain CIO chiefs are under grand jury investigation and headed for indict- ments. The AFL has been yelling bloody murder since Arnold indicted some of their moguls in his clean-up of the building industry; while heavy undercover pressure has been brought on the President and Attorney General Murphy to call off Arnold. But these efforts have been unavail- ing. Arnold not only is proceeding against other AFLers but is moving in on the CIO. Dies Doings Only un-American committee members knew it, but heroic Chairman Dies was sulking at his home while Mrs. Roosevelt attended the Youth Congress investigation . : . Dies staged this run-out just 24 hours after his Madison Square Garden speech, in which he demanded that the Roosevelt Administration declare its stand on the Committee. . . . After Mrs. Roosevelt had declared her stand, Dies slid off to Texas . . . GULLIVERS CAVILS By Young Gulliver A LOT OF PEOPLE had the good fortune last Sunday to see the Murnau picture, The Last Laugh, at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Gulliver has seen a goodly number* of moving pictures, and he counts The Last Laugh as among the top five. F. W. Murnau was a great director and a great artist. His un- timely death in Hollywood in 1931 robbed us of a man who considered the cinema as a genuineart form and who labored to make each film that he directed a work of art. The Last Laugh is a work of art; it represents the apex of the art of the silent film, and after you have seen it, you can understand why historians of the film say that the advent of sound in 1927 set film art back a good ten years. We are only now beginning to see talking pictures that can boast of anything approximating the unity of mood and technique of. The Last Laugh, which was made fifteen years ago. There is absolutely nothing in the picture (excluding the last few minutes) which can be looked upon as extraneous, either to the simple story or to the exigencies of film technique. Of how many recent pic- tures can that be said? INCIDENTALLY, Emil Jannings, who did so magnificently by the leading role of The Last Laugh, is now in Germany. Gulliver happened. to see one of the movies he made for the Nazis a few years ago. It was an impossible picture, long, dull, and shot through with nauseating Nazi ideology. Jannings might bet- ter have died with Murnau in 1931. YOUR daily ration of humor: Half the population of the state of Ohio is starving to death. The United States extends $10,000,000 credit to Finland for food relief . . . Premier Mussolini sends fifty planes to Fin- land to defend what he has referred to as the rotting corpse of democ- racy . . . Generalissimo Franco condemns Bolshevik bombing of Fin- land .m Nine-tenths of the people who are being vocal about Finland, including those who have not been vocal about Spain and China, are suffering from a quick rush of fat to the head. TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1939 VOL. L. No. 661 Noticese Student Tea: President and Mrs. Ruthven will be at home to students Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6a p.m. Juniors and Seniors, College of Lit-C erature, Science, and the Arts, who expect to qualify for the Teacher's Certificate, but, have not yet regis- tered with the Teacher's Certificatex Committee should do so immediately. Those concentrating in Group I (Lan- guages and Literature) should see Prof. C. D. Thorpe, 2214 Angell Hall, MWF, 11-12, TuTh 2-3; in Group II (Science), Prof. Paul S. Welch, 4089 Natural Science Building, WF 11-12;T and in Group III (Social Studies), Prof. B. W. Wheeler, 316 Haven Hall, TuTh 3-4. Seniors: College. of L.S. and A., School of Education, School of For-t estry and Conservation, and School of Music: Tentative lists of seniors have been posted on the bulletin board in Room 4, U. Hall. If your name does not ap- pear, or, if included there, it is not correctly spelled, please notify the counter clerk. Student Loan Committee meeting on Thursday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. in Room 2, University Hall. All appli- cations for loans to be considered for the meeting must be filed in Roomk 2 by Wednesday afternoon and ap- pointments made with the commit-1 tee. Library Hours: During the vacation period the General Library will be pen daily from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m. eginning Dec. 16, except on Dec. 25 nd Jan. 1, when it will be closed all ay, and on Dec. 23 and Dec. 30 (Sat- rdays), when it will close at noon. The Departmental Libraries will be1 open from 10-12 a.m. on Saturday, )ec. 16, and regularly each day from 10-12 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. Monday hrough Friday, beginning with the week of Dec. 18. The Graaate Reading Rooms will loe at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, andj bserve the usual holiday schedule thereafter: 9-12 a.m. and 1-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9-12 on Saturdays. The Automobile Regulation will be lifted for the 'Christmas vacation period from Friday noon, Dec. 15, un- til 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Senior Aeronautical Engineers: Thej Material Division of the U.S. Army, Air Corps, at Wright Field, Dayton,1 Ohio, desires to obtain the names and qualifications of senior students interested in employment as civilian engneers; A limited number of ap- plication blanks may be secured in the office of the Department of Aero- nautical Engineering. Official an- nouncement of a Civil Service exam- ination for which February and June graduates would be eligible has not as yet been announced, but the Ma- terial Division wishes to have on hand information pertaining to those men who may become qualified sometime within the coming year. International Center: Immigration eports from students from foreign ountries must be in the office of the DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN DANCE By JOHN MALCOLMN BRINNIN To those who have decried the archaic themes and effete manner- isms of the continental ballet, the published purpose of Mr. Lincoln Kir- stein's Ballet Caravan has offered promise of a new vigor and reorien- tation to the American scene. How. that promise is being realized was demonstrated last night in a per- formance of three representative ballets at Lydia Mendelssohn The- atre, and the verdict of even the most favorably predisposed must be in the negative. In Air and Variations, danced to the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach, the balletomane was afforded a fluid sequence of four- teen variations in the classical man- ner not, to be sure, marked with the needle-point precision of the Rus- sian ballet, but with a freedom and warmth that, on first glance, seemed to strike a definite note of inde- pendence. However, the possiblilties of this freer idiom were unrealized, and as the variations progressed the particular excellence of the music took dominance from the dancers. The most successful of the variations here were those danced by Marie Jeanne and the ensemble; the least, those in which the men added neither vigor nor the finesse of continuity. Unfortunately, the low point of the evening's performance was reached in the heralded Billythe Kid. Here the bareness of any integration of American vernacular caused an im- mediate shift of suggestive weight to the heavy and unimaginative cos- tumes. When the choreography should have incorporated essences of Americana in both individuals and in attitudes, it was allowed to loosely fill the stage with superficial panto- miming. Whatever drama may be inherent in this brief story of Billy the Kid was unexciting as portrayed here, given incidental interest only in easy attempts at burlesque of the stock wild-western characters. Cer- tainly all the elements for an Ameri- can classic were presented, but loose- ness of structure and the trappings of programmatic dancing robbed them of any freshness they might have contributed. There was some redemption for the company in Charade: Or the Debutante. In satire that neverthe- less but nipped at the foibles of the Mauve Decade, the stage was gay with filigree from the side-burns of papa to the ridiculous lamp-shade perched on the head of the veiled enchantress. However, those whc looked for a sharpness of method be- nternational Center by Dec. 15. This nformation is required from the niversity by the United States Gov- )rnment J. R. Nelson. Dictaphone Station will be open after 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 22, only o receive work, and will be closed >n Saturday morning, Dec. 23. The Station will remain open on all other days during the University Christmas Vacation. It will be ap- reciated if those desiring work to e completed during the first week f the new year will leave their copy with instructions before Dec. 22. Choral Union Members: Choral Union rehearsals will be discontinued unti 1 after the holiday vacation. Members are respectfully informed that tickets for the Boston Symphony Orchestra concert will be given out Thursday from 9 to 12 and 1 to 4 to such members who are in good stand- ing, and who return at that time their copies of the "Messiah." After 4 o'clock no tickets will be given out. Academic Notices Psychology 33 Make-up Examina- tion will be held Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m. in Room 2125 Natural Science Building. Concerts. Organ Recital Postponed: On ac- count of conflict, the organ recital by Palmer Christian, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 13, has been postponed until after the Chris'- mas vacation. Exhibitions Paintings by William Gropper and prints by the Associated American Artists shown in West Gallery, Al- mni Memorial Hall, daily, 2-5, until Dec. 15. Auspices of Ann Arbor Art Association. Exhibitions, College of Architecture and Design: Photographs of tools, processes, and products representative of the Department of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. Dec. 1 through 14. Open daily, except Sunday, 9 to 5, in Third Floor Exhibition Room, Architectural Building. Open to the public. Lectures University Lecture: Dr. Martin P. Nilsson, Professor of Classical Ar- chaeology and Ancient History, and formerly rector, University of Lund, Sweden, will lecture on "Rural Cus- oms and. Festivals in reek., Reli- ion" (illustrated with slides) under the auspices of the Department of Greek at 4:15 p.m. today in the Rackham Amphitheatre. The public is cordially invited. University Lecture: Dr. Veit 'alen- tin, Lecturer at University College, London, will lecture on "Austria and Germany" under the auspices of the Department of History at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14, in the Rack- ham Amphitheatre. The public is cordially invited. University Lecture: Dr. Michael A. Heilperin, formerly of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, will lecture on "Liberal and Totalitarian Methods in Internatiow- al Economic Relatiqns" under the auspices of the Department of Ec- onomics at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, Jan, 5, 1940, in the Rackham Lecture Hall. The public is cordially invited. Extracurricular Medical School Lec- ture: Dr. Clarence D. Selby, Medical Consultant of General Motors Corp., will speak at 4:15 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 14, in Rackham Lecture Hall on "The Relationships of General and Special Practice to Industrial Medi- cine." Medical School classes will be dismissed at 4 p.m. to permit all medi- cal students to attend. The public is cordially invited. Today's Events Botanical Journal Club meeting to- night in Room N.S. 1139. Continued Fractions Seminar will meetttoday at 4 p.m. in 3201 A.!1. Dr. Scott will speak on "C. F. and the Pad6 Table." Biological Chemistry Seminar vill meet in Room 319 West M-,Pical Building, at 7 tonight. Subject: "Bio- logical Methylation." All interested are invited. Romance Languages Journal Club meeting today at 4:10 p.m., Room 408 R.L. A new chairman will be elected. Tau Beta Pi dinner meeting tonight at 6:30, Michigan Union. The meet- ing will be over in time for the Kal- tenborn lecture. Cercle Francais: Song rehearsals tonight from 7:15 to 8 p.m. in 408 R.L. Ann Arbor Independents meeting 4 E a i r : ' e Seeing Isni't elieving Now is the time to believe nothing. News originating overseas is not to be swallowed by Americans, regard- less of the man who wrote the news or the press service distributing it. The English are as capable of dis- torting truth as the Germans, and there are no natioris between Eng- land and Germany which would not< benefit from American participation in the current conflict. As soon as American sympathy swings to one, side or another our chances of peace are diminshed immeasurably. Those who send out and originate propaganda have been trained in the psychology of mass appeal, even as our advertisers are employed in peace time. They play on our emotions, and it is a well known fact that America, like any other country, will make mistakes which will be re- gretted later if emotions rather than reason govern any of her moves. There is no nation, much less the United States, which can afford to step into an, international 'breach and attempt,to settle it by force of arms. Once again corpses lie near Flanders Fields, and the fact that some of these corpses are not yet American is no fault of the organized and government-controlled press services in belligerent nations. So long as ,death is profitable, so long as trade areas and trade routes must be kept open, so long as war- fare is the means which man has chosen to settle his differences, it is necessary that we be our own censors. -Denver Clarion to marry archaic form with new ide- ology cannot be wholly answered until they have perfected the letter