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June 03, 1941 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1941-06-03

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PAGE FOUR

T HE M IC H IGA N D A ILY

TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1941

- -_.I

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

t

Edited and managed by students of the University of
Michigan under the authority of the. Board #n Control
of Stadent Publications.
Published every morning except# Monday during the
University yearrand 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 the regular school year by
carrier $4.00, by mail, $4.50.
REPRE8ENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTISiNG BY
National Advertising Service, Inc.
College Publishers Representative
420J MADISON AVE. NEW YOR K. N. Y.
CHICAGO *"OSTOLN OSLos ASIGELE" SAN FRACCO
Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1940-41

Editorial Staff

Emile Oe1l
Robert Speckhard
Albert P. Blaustei
David Lachenbruc
Bernard Dober .
Alvin Dann
Hal Wilson .
Arthur Hill
Janet Hiatt
Grace Miller
Daniel H. Huyett
James B. Collins
Louise Carpenter
Evelyn Wright'.

r

* . . Managing Editor,
* . . . Editorial Director
n . . . . City Editor
h . . . . Associate Editor
. . . Associate Editor
* . . Associate Editor
Sports Editor
Assistant Sports ;,Editor
.Women's Editor
S . Assistant Women's Editor
Business Staff
. . . . Business Manager
. . Assistant Business Manager
. Women's Advertising Manager
. . Women's Business Manager

NIGHT EDITOR: GLORIA NISHON
The editorials published in The Michi-
gan Daily are written by members of The
Daily staff and represent the views of the
writers only.
A Headache
For Frtai.. .
T HE HEADACHES of the British gov-
T ement are being caused by more
than the Axis these days. One, of the most
ticklish and perilous problems which confronts
the Foreign Office is the Irish question, the nec-
essity for keeping the Free State placated and
friendly to the English cause. Their task is
made doubly difficult by the fact that Eire,
which at present holds dominion status, would
like very much to include under their autonomy
the northern section of the isle, Ulster, which
is a direct British dependency and considered
a part of the United Kingdom.
This powder-keg situation so close to England
itself has fortunately been fairly subdued since
the war began, but in the past few weeks a new
factor has arisen which threatens to be so ex-
plosive as to actually perpetuate civil strife be-
tween the Nationalists and Orangemen. Ever
since the Germans have included Ulster in the
bombing schemes, there has been a clamor on
the part of the Ulstermen for the British gov-
ernment to introduce conscription there as it is
applied in England. The main reason for this
measure seems to be the need for A.R.P. and
civil defense service men which the Ulster gov-
ernment has at present no power to call up,
and which are badly needed in view of the dam-
ages done to Belfast and other large towns. The
English themselves approve heartily of the mea-
sure, especially since factory damage has in-
creased unemployment in Northern Ireland and
sent many young Orangemen over to England to
find emplbyment at the rate of 500 per week.
English families whose sons are fighting in
Crete, Africa, and the Near East resent the fact
that these men are taking over their jobs at
big wages.
BUT 'ItHE IRISH FREE STATE opposition to
the proposed draft plan runs uncomfortably
high. They consider it a step away from their
goal of afuture United Ireland. That the British
are aware of this fact is seen in the hesitation
thus far to put the proposal through, mainly
because of the presence in Ulster of some 300,-
000 Nationalists supported by Eire's strongly
anti-British prime minister, Eamon De Valera.
These Nationalists have long been agitating for
union with the Free State, and should any dras-
tic move be taken in the opposite direction it
is the general opinion, voiced even in the Dublin
press, that'civil war may result in Ulster. Such a
civil war would naturally involve the Free State
as De Valera would probably send an army to
back up the Nationalist group in the north.
The significance of such a situation to the
British is plainly seen. At present Ireland con-
stitutes the Achilles Heel in the defense scheme
of the United Kingdom against a Nazi invas-
ion. A blitz-invasion of the Emerald Isle would
be, according to military experts, a much easier
task than a staggering blow aimed directly at
England. With the Free State at least partially
friendly, however, it would allow English troops
to help them meet any possible attempt at con-
quering Ireland. But if the island were torn by
civil war, an English army would have the im-
possible and twofold task of preserving a sem-.
blance of order in a country which didn't want
them as well as staving off the dreaded might of
a Nazi attack. ,

The Reply Churlish
by TOUCHSTONE
DON'T KNOW who the guy is, but I think I
know what he is, and I hope he doesn't have
any friends to tell him so. I was sitting peace-
fully in the coffee joint the other night, fighting
with my dyspepsia and trying to talk about
something of world-shaking importance, when
all of a sudden, looking in at me through the
front window, is a face, but I mean a face. Now
I am not ordinarily a man of action, nor could
I be said to have in my makeup that great
curiosity which is the blessing and bane of many
a born reporter's existence, but believe me, I
was up out of my soft leather bench and tearing
the door open to look after the' retreating back
of that person in less time than it should have
taken, on account of my blood pressure.
That face--it is a rubber mask, somebody said
-is such a thing as shouldn't be seen even by
nasty old ladies or spoiled children. It looks
sort of like a zombie, except it has been dead a
lot longer. And to make things nicer, the guy,
if I can abuse humanity by calling him such,
wears a black shroud around his head, and
makes a sort of madman laughing noise at peo-
ple when he gets their attention, and he always
° gets their attention. I stood at the door, with
Cap, the head night man beside me, and we
watched after the ghoul as it strode along with
long, low "steps, scaring the bristles on every-
body's neck. We swore some, because I had al-
most spilled a cup of coffee on the ice cream
suit, and he had left a hamburger to its own
resources on the grill.
AFTER AWHILE the reports from my spies
began to come in. The ghoul, or vampire,
or whatever it was, had been over on Maynard
Street, trying to be the ghost of freedom or some-
thing, but even the staunchest advocates of
freedom didn't wat anything like that going
around being the ghost of anything, and so the
face had gone out to scare some more people on
an emotional rather than a political basis.
What kind of a guy goes around with a face
like that? Answer, a very very irresponsible guy.
There are certain things too obscene to do. There
are certain gags which can have really calami-
tous results. I really mean it would not have
been very humorous (ha ha, oh you funny man)
if the face had happened to leap waving his
arms at a coronary case, or a woman enceinte.
Sometimes it is good to think about these
things, not only from the point of view of the
persons who might be hurt by them, but strictly
from the angle of the personal drubbing,and
perhaps even jail term that might arise out of
that good gag if there were a miscarriage, or a
heart stopped beating.
4LL RIGHT, GAGSTER. You had a lot of fun,
and you succeeded in scaring a lot of people.
Just like Hallowe'en. But when you get that old
publicity feeling the next time, when you want
to be noticed, and have a certain element of the
student gentry admiring your nerve, and calling
you 'crazy and all that old college stuff, don't
put the face back on. Come around to me here
at the office, and give me your life history, and
family background, and I will write a story about
you, and even print your name, and maybe we
could work a picture-of you, not the face. In
other words, kid, there is a certain brand of hu-
mor which we of the trade label as "two bit,"
and aren't you a scream, and ha ha ha ha, boy
what a card.
* * *
FINAL NOTE for the lighter vein.. The Lambda
Chis have a large white dog, called Major by
his intimate friends, who are many. Latest de-
velopment there is that one George Bosch of
said house has acquired a small black cat. The
cat's name: Minor. Add notes. This happened
once before, and it is believed that Major, either
from jealousy or hunger, ate the last one. So
long until soon.
Bang,S ang, Bang!

ANYTHING CAN, and freqiyently does, happen
at a Dies Committee hearing, and the open-
ing session on Red influences in the American
Peace Mobilization was no exception.
Hardly had testimony begun in the large cau-
cus room of the House Office Building when a
loud bang rent the air. It was only a photog-
rapher's flash bulb exploding, but everyone
jerked in his seat as though a gun had been
fired.
The hearing came to an abrupt standstill.
Acting Chairman Joe Starnes of Alabama in-
terrupted his questioning of a committee investi-
gator to glare at the photographer, busy
extracting glass from his face.
The proceedings had hardly got under way
again when there was another, louder crash on
the opposite side of the room. The wind had
blown shut the huge oaken doors.
When the tension once more subsided, Starnes,
by this time grinning broadly, shattered the quiet
with a loud bang of his gavel as he called for
order.
-Pearson and Allen
Foundw
At the end of September 1939, German radio-
casts reported the alleged sinking of a British
aircraft carrier and urged Englishmen to ask the
Admiralty, "Where is the Ark Royal?" Since
planes from the Ark Royal now are stated to have
launched the torpedoes which brought down the
battleship Bismarck, it may be assumed that a
number of Nazis now know where the Ark Royal
was on May 26, 1941.
- The Christian Science Monitor

-
L E TT ERS
T O THE EDITOR
A Little Quiet
To the Editor:
WONDER if there is any room on campus
(dodging the missiles of the ASDL, ASU, all
the little and big Fascists, Reds, and other self-
admittedly true Americans) for those few, who I
presume exist, really wishing to weigh the ques-
tion of war without being subject to the ridicule
and scorn of the others?
This letter is not meant to be an answer to the
question of war and defense, but rather is it a
plea to those "liberalists" and "upholders of de-
mocracy" who have shown themselves to be as
narrow-minded and pig-headed as their respec-
tive opposers.
Judging from recent letters to the Editor, it
seems to me that the ASDL and the ASU are just
using the present world situation as an excuse to
jump at each other's throats. Each argues the
cause of the Four Freedoms yet neither concedes
any of these freedoms to the other.
How often have I read and heard the state-
ments of both anti- and pro-war organizations
pleading for clear thinking and unprejudiced
decision; and then each group does a turn-
about and states that its policy is definitely the
only one.
Undoubtedly in order to be influential, each
side has to present its ideas insistently and dog-
matically. Through debate and rational discus-
sion much in the way of clear understanding can
be accomplished. But according to the various
"inevitable" prognoses, each group must be liv-
ing in a separate world.
Entering the war means the downfall of
civilization-
Isolation means ' "' '' "" " "" ''
Defense means ' ' "' '' " " " "
Ee gad! I'll be very glad when the semester
is over, and I canget home to the big, noisy,
confusing city where I'll be able to find a rela-
tively quiet and undisturbing spot in which to
think over the whole situation.
- David Protetch
Robevt$.AN-
WASHINGTON-Two weeks ago the Vinson
"anti-strike" bill was dead turkey. It had been
put to quiet death in committee and even its
sponsors weren't talking about it anymore. To-
day the same bill is militantly back on the legis-
lative calendar, practically certain of passage
by the House. and with a 50-50 chance of Senate
approval.
O RGANIZED LABOR 'can thank one small
group for this complete reversal: The AFL
machinist local in San Francisco which broke its
contract and staged an outlaw strike tying up
desperately needed ship construction in Califor-
nia. This walkout of 1,700 key workers stopped
work for 12,000 other men who hesitated to cross
the picket lines, and halted the building of eleven
Here is the inside story of the strike--one of
the worst blotches on labor's record:
In order to ensure labor stability and obtain
maximum production, OPM's labor division es-
tablished uniform wage-hour standards for all
the shipyards on the West Coast-$1.12 an hour
base pay, time-and-a-half for overtime, and
the closed shop.
Previous wage scales ranged from 96 cents to
$1.04 an hour, some plants recognizing the
unions, others not. But under the new master

agreement, pay was uniformly increased and all
yards were unionized. It was a big victory for
labor.
Among the leaders who particip .ted in the
negotiations were Harry Hook and E. F. Dillon,
business agents of the San Francisco AFL ma-
chinists, Hook making the final motion that the
agreement be recommended to the San Fran-
cisco Metal Trades Council. Later, the machin-
ists were represented at the Council meeting
which accepted the agreement, and international
officers of the machinists signed the contract.
Of f And On Hook
ONE MONTH LATER, under the leadership of
the same Hook and Dillon, the San Francisco
machinists struck for $1.15 an hour and double
pay for overtime. Walking out at the same time
was a CIO machinist local in nearby Oakland,
the only craft union in the CIO and completely
under the domination of longshoreman Harry
Bridges.
The Hook-Dillon type of leadership was fur-
ther demonstrated during Governor Olson's at-
tempt to settle the strike.
After several long conferences, Hook and Dil-
lon gave their word not to oppose the Governor
if he addressed a mass meeting of the machinists
to urge them to return to work. To make sure
there was no misunderstanding, Olson got the
approval of the strike committee to make his
plea.
After Olson made his speech, both Dillon and
Hook took the platform and militantly argued
against him.
New Racket

THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF TALK about the youth of
this country, and what they feel about this war-if
anything. I went over to Brooklyn and met a few
hundred of them, last week, boys and girls in college
there. I went to talk about the war.
My first reaction was that I had never talked to a
group as alert and responsive. Maybe the kids who
were off playing tennis or had gone to the movies
didn't care. But the ones who came to a meeting, an-
nounced as a discussion on the war, cared more than
any group I've met-not excepting men and women in
'the Government in Washington.
I am thinking right now of one young man who
seemed to me to typify a whole group. I have met him
lots of places in the last six months--in casual con-
versations in the street, in after dinner arguments,
and even in editorial meetings here on PM. I have met
him in Chicago and Washington and up in Boston.
He is in his early 20's. He is intelligent and tense and
he gives the impression of being handsome because
his eyes are alive and bright. He is very young, but
I it's not the kind of young that you make fun of. It's
the kind of young you respect for its vitality. It's the
kind of young that gives you comfort if you're 40, be-
cause it reminds you that there will be plenty of energy.
left in the world when you are tired.
The young man who summed up all these things
to me said:
"I feel strongly against all - the things you feel
against. But how can we fight for a cause that toler-
ates share-cropping in the South and gets fat on the
I ignorance and superstition of India and doesn't car-
just doesn't care-about a miner's baby dying because
it hasn't enough food or medicine?"
He said this very well, clearly and with passion.
THERE'S NO REAL ANSWER to this young man-
for he's beating his fists against life itself. He is
beating his fists against greed and stupidity and cal-
lousness to other people's misery. Or, rather, there is
no way to reply because he himself is the answer. His
savage rebellion against things as they are but ought
not to be-and don't have to be-is what the world
must always rely on youth to give it.
The tragedy of Fascism is not the tragedy of burned
books and wise men barred from universities. All the
books are never burned and the wise men suffer, but

pass on their wisdom. The tragedy of Fascism is the
tragedy of turning the hot rebellion of the young from
resentment against injustice and inequality and inhu-
inanity and channeling it into the pathetic spectacle
of young men in rubber boots paddling through a rain
of legd and chanting "Heil Hitler!"
LL MY SIDE HAS TO OFFER this young man-
and he was not on my side- is a war in which he
may be killed-for the right to go on feeling passion-
ately about the injustice of man to man-and making,
in his generation, that little increment of progress
which is all one generation can make.
,The answer I did give him was all right as far as it
went, but it didn't go far enough. I said words to this
effect:
"We are against the same things, you and I, and
I think I know what you mean about all the bad
things on our side. But if thinking about them makes
you so unhappy that it paralyzes you, look out that
it isn't turning you into something I don't think you
like: a puritan. There is none of us perfect. Everyone
has thoughts of which he is ashamed, commits acts
he would rather not remember. And everyone feels a
sense of guilt about these things. But you will not be
very useful to the world or yourself if you spend all
your time and energy thinking about what an imper-
fect person you are. Or if you dedicate your life to
solitary meditation or atonement.
"If you ask me if it isn't bad, in fighting Fascist
armies abroad, to forget the things that are wrong with
our world at home-I will not only agree that it's bad,
I will go further and bet that it's impossible. There is
only one fight, here and abroad. The finking of a
submarine that preys on commerce and the signing of
a contract for collective bargaining in Detroit seem
to me cut off the same bolt."
THOUGHT IT ALSO TRUE that if getting a decent
break for share-croppers was what absorbed him,
he had no choice but to fight Fascism abroad-because
if we ever lost the fight abroad we would have little
chance to go on with the fight here-not in our time.
There's not much fighting for the right to bargain
collectively going on in France, these days.
But when the young man I have met so many places
sees and understands that, he won't be arguing with
me any more.

n Intense Young Man
As Others Ralph Ingersoll, editor of the New York newspaper PM,
See It answers youth's query about fighting abroad while defects
still remain: in this country.
Ralph Ingersoll in newspaper PM, May 27, 1941.

Hauf ler, Former Managing Editor,
Tells Story Of Reorganization Plan

ALTHOUGH I am a "has-been" as far as The Daily
is concerned, I have asked the new editors to give
me space to describe, as exactly as I can, the history
of the plan which has led to the packing of the Board
in Control of Student Publications. The facts them-
selves, I think, make an editorial. They show that this
plan has been whipped through the University's legis-
lative machinery by a group of men who were so de-
termined to put it into effect that they were willing to
use any means to get it over its hurdles.
For years now-even since depression-bred young
people have begun to think "provocatively"-a good
smug collection of the older generation has been gath-
ering the slips and foibles of The Daily, has built upon
them a remarkably solid hatred of it and has been
crying that something must be done about it. The
cries were loud and angry when I was a freshman;
they will continue so until The Daily is crushed.
These cries were going on then, even though the
publications board was acting in a way that certainly
must have pleased the Daily's enemies. At the end
of my freshman year the Board appointed an editor
whose only qualification was that he was conservative.
There were more capable journalists, but they were
also more radical.
That incident was important. It caused the stu-
dents who believed that appointments ought to be free
of political or racial discrimination to determine to do
something about the Board. At the time, the Board
appointed its three student members without consult-
ing anyone, and usually selected men who did not
cause trouble. The disgruntled liberal staff members
worked out a plan by which the campus should elect
the student members of the Board.
The Administration went to sleep and allowed the
measure to pass, so that the next trio of student mem-
bers, instead of being yeomen, were more apt to argue
with the faulty men than to agree with them.
ALTHOUGH THIS WAS IRRITATING, it was not
fatal. The faculty still voted as a bloc and had
things its own way.
There came a vacancy among the faculty members,
however. The Administration looked around for some
man who would fit readily into the niche left by his
predecessor. They wanted a man who would cause
no trouble.
Again the Administration went to sleep. Instead of
being just another faculty man, the new Board mem-
ber' committed the heresy of voting now and then with
the three students.
Not that he is, or ever was, pledged entirely to stu-
dent interests. It was his vote, for instance, that got
me suspended for a week. He has simply remained a
free agent. If he thought the faculty men were right,
he voted with them.
In short, the Board in Control had been changed
from a unified Administration bloc to a group in which
the students occasionally got what they wanted. At
appointment time, for instance, editors were elected
on merit, capability. Political views and racial dis-
tinctions played no part.
Meanwhile the cries that "something must be done
about The Daily" became very loud. It became some-
thing of a fad to hate The Daily, a touchstone of
whether or not you were a good conservative. Many
of these men did not read The Daily; they merely
hated it, I believe, because such hatred had become
an accepted part of the behavior expected of them.

done. A committee of three professors-Marin, Duf-
fendack and Allen-was appointed to investigate. This
committee takes credit for thinking up the Board re-
vision plan that has been put into effect.
The first time we of The Daily heard of the plan
was one day last spring when Professor Marin called
some of us in for a conference. He painted the pro-
posal in glowing terms. "No, this is certainly not a
move directed against the student members of the
Board," he said. "Actually we want men appointed
who will agree with the students, who will prove
friendly to The Daily." He made pleasant-sounding
promises.
After these preliminaries, the plan was submitted
to the Council. As far as I can determine, there was
some shady business here. The Council recommended
that the plan be submitted to the Board in Control of
Student Publications. Some of the Council members,
friendly to The Daily, agreed1 to pass it merely because
they thought that the Board would reject it.
The publications board would have rejected it-if
the members had been permitted to vote on it. Dean
Stason described the plan tq the Board, but-since it
was evident a majority of the Board disagreed-no
vote was ever taken.
ALITTLE LATER the Council's recommendation
read "to the Board of Regents" instead of "to the
Board in Control of Student Publications." Council
members are unable to explain how this change in
wording took place.
Dean Stason's report to the Regents said- that the
plan had the support of the publications board. This
was objected to. Dean Stason struck it off before
passing his statement on to the Regents. The Regents
proceeded to pass the measure without consulting the
Board, without knowing-at least by any written re-
port-whether or not the Board had had a chance to
consider its own revision.
The passage took place at the meeting on December
13, 1940. Despite our frequent requests for informa-
tion about the plan, it was not made public until May
1, 1941-and then by means of no official announce-
ment. What happened was that the Board in Control
had to meet in order to make its laws conform to those
adopted by the Regents. The Regents said, in effect,
we have made this change; will you please go through
the formalities of agreeing with us? The letters to
the Board members tipped us of The Daily off to what
had happened and we were able to piece together a
story. Only by this circuitous route was the action
made public at all.
The Board in Control did not rubber-stamp the
plan. It passed a resolution asking a hearing with the
Regents.
During the interim, we of The Daily put up a be-
lated but determined fight. We asked faculty men to
declare their opposition. Most of them expressed their
sympathy with our fight, some of them were willing
to jeopardize their hopes of promotion by makingl
statements for publication. Almost 4,500 students
signed petitions.
THUS BUTTRESSED, we had hopes that something
might come of the Board's hearing with the Re-
gents. The hearing was a farce. The only two Re-
gents who met with the Board were Kipke and Lynch,
two inveterate enemies of The Daily. Our petitions
and faculty statements were so much paper.
So this fight ends. I wonder what the Regents et al

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