THE MICHIGAN DAILY MICHIGAN DAILY A Letter To Our Readers Regarding ObjectionsTo TheDaily Editorial I -1 > 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 Rejresentaive 420 MADISON AVE. NEW YORK, N. Y. CNICAGO BOSTON* LOS ANGELES - SAN FRANCISCO Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1939-40" Editorial Stafff rl Petersen , ott Maraniss . m M. Swinton . . . rton L. Linder rman A. Schorr tinis Flanagan . . in N. Canavan . . n1 Vicary 1 Fineberg . Business Staff Managing Editor Editorial Director . City Editor Associate Editor . Associate Editor Associate'Editor Associate Editor Women's Editor Sports Editor ness Manager . Business Mgr., Credit Manager nen's Business Manager men's Advertising Manager iications Manager Paul R. Park Qanson P. Taggart Zenovia Skoratko Jane Mowers Harriet S. Levy NIGHT EDITOR: LEONARD SCHLEIDER The editorials published in The. Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. lege Texts I War Headlines " " . W~7HEN college students came to the University ten days ago they joined with thousands of others iri our nation in a cry for ,peace, neutrality, and security. They plead- ed that there might be some way that they might keep our nation out of war. University life is only six days old now, but already students ate being lulled into _a sense of security in a world where there is no security. The gray print of the philosophy book has re- placed the headlines of war dispatches. The struggle for grades is moving ahead of the struggle for peace. That is one of the most dangerous conditions that youth can face as his country is struggling to keep its head above water. In Germany there are- no classrooms filled with college students. In Britain young men and women are being plunged into intellectual darkness. French youth has replaced'- books with bullets. And in America there is every danger that the shadow of darkness moving across the globe may soon reach our own homes. The time of optimism has passed. Every United States citizen, every college man and woman, is faced with an immediate crisis that requires his constant courage, discernment, and deter- mination. This is reflected in the college press, which almost unanimously employed its opening-of- the year editorials to call warnings of the future. Almost without. exception they are urging stu- dents everywhere to study the causes and effects of the war, and to exert every .pressure to stay away from the battlefield themselves. The college press still realizes the peril of the situ-. ation, but the students are forgetting. Campus life is acting as a drug. Statistics show that the marriage rate among college-age men and women increased by more than 15 per cent last month; that attendance in Universities and colleges .has been reduced sharply in many parts of the country because of complexities, of the conflict across the waves; and that enrollment will probably drop again next semester. Even in America the war is real. Every university man and woman owes it to his nation, to his family and to himself to gather facts, discuss them, learn the processes of analy- sis, and help think out the problems of the world. The culture and facts which they teach on the other side of State Street will mean nothing if our nation does not live beyond the next few years. -It is imperative that textbooks and gun-bullets be examined in a new role this semester. -Paul Chandler Pendergast's Parole Plea An application for parole next month has been filed by Thomas J. Pendergast, former Kansas City political boss'serving a fifteen-month sen- tence in Leavenworth penicentiary for income tax evasion. The Federal Parole Board, on Sept. 16, rejected. the application of R. Emmet O'Malley, former state official who, like Pendergast, was caught in the 1935 fire insurance payoff scandal and given a year and a day for evading payment of income taxes. The board's action in this case was proper. Now let it tell Pendergast, in the same manner, that serving five months of his extremely light -...-F.....;...:. _.." zsnaw s -- in+ ;+ . nl e By ELLIOTT MARANISS and CARL PETERSEN The main objective of the editorial publishec on the front page of Tuesday morning's Daily was to bring to the attention of the University- community the necessity for thinking seriously and intelligently on the crisis engendered by th present European war. If the amount of mail received here at The Daily since the publication of that editorial can be considered representative of general feeling, that objective has been achieved. Tuesday's editorial, of course, also contained tentative suggestions for an effective peace poli=c for the United States. In brief, the editors' position was this: the war in Europe, like all modern war, is the inevitable result of the entire complex of rivalries, political and economic, that the principle of national sovereignty, upon which all contemporary states are founded, sets in motion. Behind the power-political moves of the present war, behind the eloquent statements that it is a war to defeat Hitlerism, to restore democracy to Germany, or to achieve "lebens- raum" and restore national honor, are the fac of economic nationalism and imperialism, with their concrtnitants of heavy armaments, tariffs, subsidies, hindrances to migration, and the fight for access to raw materials. In such a war, w believe, the United States has no legitimate in- terest. But the United States, too, is an imperial- istic nation, with vested financial interests abroad; and if we are to avoid being drawn into the war, we will have immediately to begin re- orienting our economy away from production based on the sale of surpluses abroad, to an economy that is concerned with raising the na- tional standard. of living. Neither of the current neutrality proposals, we believe, can effectively keep us out of war, because neither of them realistically grapples with the causes that are likely to lead to our involvement. Answer To Prof. Slosson During the last week, The Daily has been able to publish- only a few of the many letters we. received. We are taking this opportunity to clarify our position by answering a few of the objections to our proposal that were voiced in those letters. In his short note, published Wed- nesday, Professor Slosson raised three main points: it is contradictory, he said, for us to state that we hate and fear fascism and yet insist upon non-intercouse with the nations that are fighting fascism; isiolationism, he declares, will not lead to peace because it divides the world instead of uniting it; and, finally, he indicates that it is "dishonorable" for us to condemn Chamberlain for deserting Spain, Ethiopia, and Czechoslovakia, and to couple that condemna- tion with a "declaration of indifference". to the fate of Britain, France and Poland. In regard to Professor Slosson's fear that our hatred for fascism and our refusal to help Eng- land and France "destroy" that system is con- tradictory, we again refer to the fact that this Fraternities And the University . HIS YEAR, more than any other in the pest, has seen a vastly improved working relationship between the Interfrater- nity Council and the University. The Universi- ty realizes that fraternities face a situation this year never before encountered. For the dormi- tory system seems to have become a permanent part of Michigan student life and therefore must from now on be reckoned with as such. One of the rules of the residence halls, as the dormitories are now called, is that all residents must take their meals there, and that there wi be no refund for any meals taken outside. This fact alone, was realized last year as a big ob- stacle to fraternities. For no longer may pledges begin to eat at the houses as soon as they have become pledges, The policy of most houses was last year, in the case of dorm boys, to ask them to eat at the houses at least twice a week. This year when the majority of pledges are likely to be dorm boys, no little difficulty will be experil- enced in asking them to bear the expense of two meals, when they may eat only one. However, this point seems to be the only one that the University has begrudged the fraterni- ties. During orientation week, the Interfratern- ity Council was granted the use of Hill Audi- torium for a special fraternity night, and the' turnout was encouraging. Moreover, the num- ber of students registered for rushing this year topped last year's figure by more than 100. The University too, is pleased by the improve- ment that has been shown in the scholastic standings of pledge classes. Dean Bursley com- mented upon this at the pledge banquet last spring. Another encouraging sign has been the practical absence of rushing rules this year. -William Elmer Spreech Clubs To Arms.. W ANT OF FUNDS to finance faculty supervision is forcing the speech de- partment to abandon intramural debating for women after two years of successful experience. "Speech is the index to the mind," said one author, and it seems that the returns of training afforded by intramural debate squads should at least balance the meager costs necessary. The Varsity squads, it is true, present opportunity for the training of a limited number, but dur- ing the entire year not more than a dozen may receive this experience. The intramural teams, on the other hand, have trained between 30 and 40 women for each of its two annual rounds. In these circumstances, therefore, it seems the is not a war against fascism; it is not a people's war, it is not a war that is likely to result in a peace that would attack the vital causes of war, just as the last war and its peace treaty did not. Given the leadership of Chamberlain and Dala- dier, given the imperialistic status of Great Bri- tain and France, given the fact that the Nation- alist government of England, is, itself, an alli- ance against the anti-fascist sympathies of the British people, only incurable idealists (see Harold Laski's quixotic piece in this week's New Republic) could expect a democratic reconstruc- tion of Europe: the only way to get rid of Hitler, as the popular saying truthfully goes, is to get rid of the factors which made him possible. No Democratic Peace In our opinion, it seems extremely unlikely, to say the least, that Hitler, Chamberlain, and Daladier are fighting a war to insure a lasting, democratic peace. It is not likely, despite Mr. Laski's expectations, that out of the ashes of this war will arise a Europe in which the vari- ous nations will have pooled their sovereign- ties in a United States of Europe; will have guaranteed to their citizens the maintenance of democratic government and the essential lib- erties of democracy without distinction of race, religion, nation or color; will have agreed to pool their defense forces for the purpose of mutual security; will have agreed to plan a cooperative economic life upon the basis of a customs union and joint arrangements in rela- tion to currency, migration, and labor standards, will have agreed to arrange for rapid transfer to national ownership of the vital instruments of production, with reasonable compensation to previous owners. And only if the treaty follow- ing this war provided for just such a set-up would the spectre of fascism be driven out of Europe. Professor Slosson's contention that "isola- tionism" will not lead to peace because it divid the world instead of uniting it, stems, as far as we can make out, from his opinion that since the Allies are fighting a righteous war we must support them to the best of our ability. In answer to that, we refer to the basic point of our own position that this is not, by any means a holy war intent on driving the forces of fascism from the world. In regard to the paradox of our "dishonorable" desertion of England, France and Poland in the light of our concern for Czechoslo- vakia, Spain and Austria, it must be remembered that the latter three countries were the victims of direct fascist aggression aided and abetted by the conciliatory, and, at Munich, the direct par-; ticipation of Great Britain and France. We absolutely abhor the idea of a Europe con- trolled by Hitler and fascism. But we also doub very sincerely the value of supporting a war that will not, as a matter .of fact could not, do.any- thing to prevent another Hitler from arising. And Goering would be no improvement over Hitier. Rosa And Duesenberry One further communication to be considered in this discussion is that of Messrs. Rosa and Duesenberry, published in Thursday's Daily. In it they demand a reexamination of Tuesday's editorial on three points; discover whether our proposal has any chance of becoming a factor in the present neutrality discussions; discover whether Mr. Roosevelt's proposal or the status quo is to be preferred; discover whether our non-intercourse policy is actually preferable to the President's proposals. Messrs. Rosa and Duesenberry point out, quite rightly, that a program advocating complete "non-intercourse" has little hope of considera- tion at the present session of Congress. On that basis they insist that discussion of such a pro- gram is fruitless. But we must emphasize, as strongly as we can, our program is one designed to keep the United States out of war. We are un- compromising in our determination to keep this country free from the present conflict. We re- fuse to accept Messrs. Rosa and Duesenberry's recommendation that we make the best of the lesser of two evils-the presidential cash-and- carry program. We intend by this series of dis- cussions to stimulate thought, to lead it into channels that mean peace for the United States, not to compromise on half-way measures that give us no security. We agree with Messrs. Rosa and Duesenberry that the status-quo is onerous, that even "cash- and-carry" as a short-run proposal is preferable to it. But we must still maintain that our stand presents a better guarantee of peace for the United States than does "cash-and-carry" with its potentialities for American involvement, and we await with interest Messrs. Rosa and Duesenberry's further communications in which they intend to prove the impracticability of "non-intercourse" and the merit of ."cash-and- carry." Youth In The Air As a memorial to that gallant flier, Capt. Frank Hawks, the Air Youth of America has been organized under the auspices of Winthrop Rocke- feller to help the millions of boys and girls now flying model airplanes. This hobby-sport which began about 1907, just four years after the Wright brothers proved that man could fly, has some 2,000,000 youthful devotees now. No one who recalls how the old "pushmobile" meets and races helped to make this a motorized nation will doubt that flying model planes can be made a powerful force for an air-minded America. The new sport deserves the stimulus of a national organization, and Mr. Rockefeller's friendship for Capt. Hawks promises to have a happy result for the country. It is a noble memorial to a great flier. --chicago Daily News German liner, the Bremen! IT WASN'T so much the fact that there was a trans-atlantic liner in the Union pool, which is fairly sur- prising in itself; but Mr. Q. was so sure that the Bremen had been found floating around in a bottle of Jack Dempsey's New York Beef-house. But there it was; lurching back and forth, looking as if it were readying to make an ocean crossing. Mr. Q., being a naturally curious person, decided to postpone his long-postponed swim and go on a little inspection tour. It was quite deserted: not a soul. So Mr. Q .walked around, eagerly taking in all the interesting details. It was in the captain's room, however, that he came across the amazing in- formation disclosed above. There on the desk, was a little bundle wrapped in light brown paper with blue specks, tied with double-strength orange cotton thread. Cautiously he fin- gered the bulky package, finally, with a little difficulty, snapping the thread. The unwrapped wrapping paper revealed a pile of perfumed letters. Mr. Q. shuff~led through them, quickly discovering that this was the long-missing "Black Paper," the correspondence between the four munich-men who were now, trying to arrange another peace meeting. * * * THE CONTENTS of these notes are really amazing and Mr. Q. passes them on to you as the biggest jour- nalistic scoop in history. The first is written in Hebrew, which Mr. Q. translated since the linotypers trad- ed in their Hebrew characters for a matrix of sanscrit, and runs as fol- lows: Dear Benny: I don't care who wins, but the peace conference must be held in Berlin. Everytime we've won a war in France, we've lost the darned thing at Versailles or Paris. I lost- a collar button there once too. Anyway, we have a peachy new game here you simply must play. Instead of giving them castor-oil in the concentration camps, we make them eat pickles with a persimmon wine chaser, and then sing the Horst Wessel; all they can do is whistle. Besides the overhead on the old Olympic Sta- dium is furchtbar. We can al- ways stick England for the rent on the old place. Keep this secret, Ben, but I've got a pint of coffee hidden away. We can split it some night, just like old times; it isn't cut a bit, Love, Adolph. The next one was a Tree verse nar- ative, which Mr. Q. has paraphrased. Dear Eddie: I've just received a letter from 'Dolf-he does take the most roundabout way since you and he aren't speaking-and he wants us all to meet in Berlin for a few quick ones after the game is over. I really think he wants another one of those poker games, but I don't think you and Nevvie would exactly relish another one of those; you both lost your shirts when he used his deck last time. So why don't we all meet at Rome? We can run over to Capri on weekends, and, if the news- papermen bother us, I have a well-oiled system of getting rid of them: we have a special one- way ticket rate. My daughter, Edda-you know, that's Galeaz-a zo's wife-is so anxious to meet1 all of you again. She has a special recipe for coffee, if you'll bring the coffee. I'm sending a copy of this to Adolphsand Nevvie. As ever, Benny.l The third correspondence in "The Black Paper" was a short typewrit- ten note as follows:-s Dear Nevvie:$ fl.......-..".c l fh. annmiyhi -ministration. -i OF ALLIieDALY. T HINGS! Dy MrtswQ, ERRY TRADE MARK IT'S A GOOD THING these type- writers are back to normal and By DREW PEARSON a have stopped being creative because When Senator Taft of Ohio re- Mr. Q. has stumbled upon the big- turned from his recent trip to the Pa-I gest story of the year. Just hold tight cific Coast, he told Senator Byrnes and hang on while he discloses the of South Carolina, who is leading most amazing bit of information that iRoosevelt's fight to amend the neu- ever came outofra padded feed-box. trality act: "The big thing you've got Now get this straight : ANN ARBOR, to lick is the Catholic Church." IS GOING TO BE THE SCENE OF' THE NEXT PE~ACE CONFERENCE! At the time Senator Taft said this, T Th' PE:nAECOr.NERENCyEu he was probably right. The pressure That's right : Ann Arbor. Now if you of the Catholic Church was then far will just catch your breath, Mr. Q. will explain how he uncovered this greater than the scattered and much story-of-the-century. less effective lobby of some Protestant He was walking along the street groups. Many members of the churlji minding his own business, eyes glued hierarchy, dominated by Irish who mmdin hisown usinss, yes lue ate England, were on their way to to the sidewalk for any stray nickels, making of the neutrality embargo self n front ofsudden he found Himanother fight similar to that against in, read the papers and magazines i oyalist Spain. on the desk, roamed downstairs to Undoubtedly the attitude of the the taproom, finally winding up slap- Church had much to do with the ping down a dime to go into the stand of Senator Walsh of Massa- Union pool. He undressed slowly, chusetts, and probably caused the admired his powerful physique, took backing and filling of Senator Lodge, a shower,' and started for, the pool. who changed his mind on neutrality And there it was! There, bobbing several different times. In fact, Cath- up and down at the far end of the olcresureesa on thenHouse tank, the west end, was the missing of Representatives, was so strong that _it created mueh conern in the Ad- ,. t_ r i i i Y Y 1 f r h V with a national radio hook-up. He is making thsi speech on the instruc- tion of Cardinal Mundelein. Note-On the afternoon following Bishop Sheil's luncheon with Roose- velt, Senator O'Mahoney of Wyoming, who is close to the Church and who had been very much on the fence re- garding neutrality, suddenly an- nounced that the was standing with Roosevelt. Catholic Lobby Despite the neutrality position of many high-placed Catholic leaders, it remains a fact that the most violent of all the opposition to lifting the embargo comes from Father Coughlin and other groups within the Church. The Sunday Visitor, a Catholic weekly sold at churches all over the country, recently published a strong front page editorial and an article by Gertrude M. Coogan, formerly as- sociated with Father Coughlin. Copies of this were sent to a large number of Congressmen. In. Cleveland Archbishop Schrembs recently sent out a pastoral letter which was read in all churches in the Cleveland archdiocese denouncing at- tempts to lift the embargo. In Brooklyn last week priests took a strong stand against Roosevelt on the embargo, and friends of Al Smith say that this had much to do with his sudden decision to deliver a radio broadcast supporting the President. All members of Congress testify that far and away the strongest pres- sure against them, either Catholic or Protestant, is brought by Father Coughlin. About one-half of their neutrality mail is from Coughlinites, while even more potent are the Coughlin delegations which have been storming Capitol Hill.'. When Congress opened, delegations from New York (the Christian Front)' and Massachusetts (the Paul Revere Society) packed the halls- in rowdy mood. --As they entered the House Office Building- to talk to New York Congressmen, one husky young dele- gate called out: "Don't smash the furniture, boys, we're going to take over this place soon." At the same time it caused certain New Dealers to act very vigorously in cooperation with such Catholic lead- ers as Cardinal Mundelein, Bishop Sheil and Dr. Sheehy, with the resu'l that the Catholic Church is now about as split over neutrality as the forces within the Church for lifting Protestants. There are now powerful the embargo. White House Luncheon It was no accident that Bishop Sheil of Chicago had luncheon with the President last Wednesday. The Bishop had just flown the Atlantic on a Clipper plane, after visiting Rome, where he had an audience with the Pope. - It was also no accident that he had conferred with Roosevelt just before he left the U.S. for Rome. Im- mediately after Bishop Sheil left Rome, Osservatore. Romano,. Vatican- City.newspaper, published an editori- al strongly supporting Roosevelt. Finally, it is no accident that Bishop is opening the Catholic Youth Conference in Cincinnati tomorrow MA INGTOR REGISTERED nd ROBERT S. ALLEN MUSIC By RICHARD BENNET MUSIC AND THE MODERN WORLD What do we really mean by "the music of today?" If we are not to take refuge in the ivory tower of pedantry or idealism, we must admit that today's music, at least in the United States, has come to mean jazz, swing, and the neo-blues. This is the music that is now the almost unin- terrupted diet of the screen, the ra- dio, and the dance hall. It accom- panies the cafe meal and the war news from Europe. It is the sine qua non of the Republican Party and the American Student Union. In while; you'll be feeling like a new man when you leave here. Answer soon. Your pal, Eddie. The fourth was a carbon copy of a long note, running some 24 pages, of which Mr. Q. has made a synopsis, to wit: Messrs. Hitler, Mussolini and Daladier: Gentlemen: I have before me M. Daladier's note of the 5th, together with copies of earlier letters from Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini. Apparently there is some dis- agreement over the place for our next peace conference. I don't* see how it could be held anywhere but in London, where the dense fog will form a suitable back- ground for our collective mental state--sort of a camouflage, don't y' know. However, since the disagree- ment exists, may I suggest we all meet this weekend "somewhere in Portugal." If we have any spare time, we can catch the clipper from there and spend the night in New York. The lifts in those buildings do fascinate me, and petrol is so cheap. Peace be with me, N. Chamberlain, Esq. The next note was a copy of the minutes of the meeting "somewhere in Portugal." To make a- long note less boring, it told, in effect, how there was no agreement upon a suit- able place for a peace-pact. So they finally brought out a huge map of, the world, hung it on the wall and played "stick the donkey." The first place on the map to get stuck three times was it, they decided. So, after 16 days and nights of sticking, Adolph finally pinned the tail on a little spot near Lake Michigan for the third time. Upon closer inspection, the short, it is the music of the American people. It has come to be their stan- dard of musical judgment (witness Otis Ferguson in The New Republic); without it there would seem to be no tonal literature except, of course, that of the past and a few eccentrics of today whom nobody listens to any- way. It would therefore appear to be the business of the music critic to concern himself with this music if he is to, be at all effective in the life of musical America. And yet, one accepts this state of affairs with a good deal of misgiving, For can it be that a people making their plea for world democracy and freedom in the imminence of uni- versal chaos are really content with the narrow formalism (or anarchy, depending on your point of view); of the popular song and the swing band? Granting that popular music serves one function and probably serves it well, yet is it necessary that that which began as play become an opi- ate of the American people? Indeed, in an age of rampant racial hatreds, depressions, and war is the music of today to be. taken as the true expres- sion of the attitude of America to- ward the imperative problems con- fronting us on every hand? It cer- tainly is not. And since it is not, this art of music has become a lie. - It leads one to suspect that man- kind is being deprived of contact with the greater implications of the tonal art and is being pummeled into a state of immobility as regards the unvoiced hopes and fears of his fellow men. Who is to blame? It is dangerous to say.. But one thing is certain: there is a terrible hiatus between the ex- pressed wishes of the American people for a free and democratic government and the kind of expression those wishes are popularly receiving in American music. There is, in the United States, a minute group of composers who have been struggling to break through the sham of popular music and express in the musical language of the American people the sound ideals that this nation would like to see pre- served. These composers--Siegmeis- ter, Eisler, Copland, Riegger, Gould, among others-should be the domin- ant force in modern American music and would. be if they were but given half a chance. They are fighting, along with their European confreres Milhaud, Prokofieff, Birykov and the like, the exclusiveness of the ultra- super-refined snobbish audience as well as the regimental commercialism