'I
t iE
JCHIiGAN DAILY
SA -T1~r - ,
T
Mows"
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Letters To The Editor
I Could Swear I Smell Smoke!
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 newpaper. All
tights of republicationofeall 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.
REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTIJING EV
National Advertising Service, Inc.
College Publishers Representative
420 MADISON AVE. NEw YORK. N. Y.
CHICAGO"H BOSTON * Los ANGEs - SAN FUANCISCO
Member, Associated Collegiate Press,, 1940-41
Editorial Staff
Hervie Haufler
Alvin Sarasohn
Paul M. Chandler
Karl Kessler
Milton Orshefsky
Howard A. Goldman
Laurence Mascott
Donald Wirtchafter
Esther Osser
Helen Corman
. . . . Managing Editor
Editorial Director
City Editor
* . . . Associate Editor
* . . . Associate Editor
. . . . Associate Editor
.* . . . Associate Editor
. . . . . Sports Editor
. Women's Editor
* . . Exchange Editor
Business Staffj
Business Manager .
Assistant Business Manager
Women's Business Manager
Women's Advertising Manager
Irving Guttman
Robert Gilmour
Helen Bohnsack
Jane Krause
NIGHT EDITOR: ROSEBUD SCOTT
The editorials published in The Michi-
gan Daily are written by members of The
Daily staff and represent the views of the
writers only.
15 Months To Think
About his Beliefs . .
I N THE RECENT DEISION handed
down by Federal Judge Earnest A.
O'Brien in Detroit in which Thaddeus Szyman-
ski was sentenced to 15 months at Terre Haute,
the judge, it seems, forgot the dignity of his
robes, and delivered a scathing rebuke which
was undignified and exceedingly unpatriotic
In assuming the attitude he did, Judge O'Brien
denied the very things he thinks are worth
fighting for.
Szymanski is a "classic example of the old
saying that a 'bit of knowledge is a dangerous
thing'," and, he continued, "because you are
superficially bright, you think you are wiser,
better and have higher principles than the
government that protects you to enjoy liberty."
That sounds more like an argument of an advo-
cate of fascism than of a judge from Detroit.
It says tha't the state is the highest good and
that an individual should subordinate his be-
liefs, his actions, his thoughts, his entire body
to the government. That's not the basis the
U.S.A. was founded on; that's not what it says
in the Constitution in the Bill of Rights.
Continuing with his rebuke, Judge O'Brien
says, "It is the basest ingratitude for a person
to willingly take the benefits and protection of
government and then obstinately refuse to -con-
tribute what he can for his country's protec-
tion." Certainly everyone who lives in America
is glad that he is not living in the inferno that
is Europe today, but does that make Szymanski
less an individual who believes and can think
independently? Here again the judge forgets
that in a free country the individual is not a
means to an end, but is an end in hiiself.
The government seeks to attain the greatest
good for all, but, tragically enough, it can and
has been mistaken in its efforts to do so.
The crime "which brought this stern reprisal
on Szymanski is that he believed; he believed
that tlhre is a better way than war to bring
about a better society- a society in which
good and happiness for all may be a fact. "War
and its antecedent, preparation for war," Szy-
manski says, "is a complete negation of all that
is good in life. Its' futility has been repeatedly
demonstrated throughout man's history. Its
greatest tragedy has been that, in innumerable
instances, the best in human nature has been
tricked into the service of the worst. The ends
it has purported to attain have been rendered
impossible by the very means it has employed."
And history has proved that war is devastating,
that it results in nothing good. It was only a
short time ago that America lost thousands of
its finest young men; but now a new ideal has
to be fought for and more men will die - hoping.
For 15 months Szymanski will be in prison;
it won't change him because, as he says, "the
freedom of heart and conscience, no man, no
power on earth can touch." To believe as he
does, and as strongly, that the "ideals of fel-
lowship and good will toward all men" is of su-
preme importance in a creative society is a
better, less tragic, way of achieving happings
and the greatest good. He may be "impractical"
and a dreamer; very few people believe what
he believes. But as an American he has a right
to follow the dictates of his own conscience.
Szymanski has done what he as an individual
Pro Bill No. 1776
To the Editor:
The Congress is soon to decide the fate of
the momentous Bill No. 1776-"A Bill to Fur-
ther Promote the Defense of the United States,
and For Other Purposes."- UIder its provisions,
President Roosevelt is empowered to command
the manufacture of any defense article - wea-
pons, munitions, aircraft and vessels -which
he can sell, exchange, transfer, lease or lend to
any country "notwithstanding the provisions of
any other law". The need for immediate pass-
age is clear-cut: The United States must ex-
tend to Britain, with her weak purchasing power,
all the essential aid.
However more often than not symbols, ritual
ind folklore hinder clear-thinking; and the sym-
bol in this instance is the balance sheet. "But
aren't we giving Britain goods she can never
pay for?" is a question persistently asked. "The
debts of World War I haunt us still and it would
be foolish to throw away billions of dollars
again." Since the fate of Britain depends upon
enlightened American opinion, we must consider
some issues very often overlooked.
The two statutes that block American aid to
Britain are the Johnson Act and the Neutrality
Act. Under the Johnson Act, private loans can-
not be granted to countries at war; we realized
that the money lent was spent on war materials
and did not add one bit to the national produc-
tive wealth of those 'countries. The only way
out was for the United States to accept over
a long period of time a surplus of imports over
exports; however this was made impossible be-
cause our economy was geared to an export sur-
plus and because tariff rates were raised to their
historical peak. Shipment of arms, ammuni-
tions. and implements of war to countries where
a state of war existed was forbidden by the Neu-
trality Act of 1937; materials non-essential to
welfare could be sold to those countries only on
a cash and carry basis. The shibboleth of peace
was then isolation; today we have realized the
remarkable fact that the globe is continuous
and, whole.
Now the time is to consider how Britain has
paid us for purchases to date. Gold, bank bal-
ances and securities, Gold, however, has added
nothing to our national real income, since the
Government has solidly packed it away within
the strong vaults of Fort Knox. Yet it is con-
sidered a source of real danger. In the first
place, the gold inflow might add to the reserves
of 'the whole banking system and thus form
ground for a possible inflationary movemen
Although the Roosevelt Administration acts in
good faith, nevertheless such a person as Chair-
man Eccles of the Federal Reserve Board has
proposed methods to sterilize further this Ken-
tucky bullion. But this is not all. A German
victory would claim the gold standard among its
many victims, and the gold in Fort Knox will
comfort only those who visit their dentists more
than twice yearly.
As Secretary Morgenthau testified Monday
before the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
the British resources in this country are wholly
insufficient to buy war materials. And natur-
ally our happy purchases of Scotch, woolens,
leather and Lloyd's insurance will never be
capable of furnishing the British necessary pur-
chasing power within this country.
The balance-sheet mind can be appeased.
True, that Britain can never repay us in eco-
nomic symbols for the aid to be extended under
the proposed "lease-lend bill"; however, we can
follow the sugggestions of George Soule: Since
international trade consists -primarily in the
exchange of goods and services, let us include
within the word "services" the activities of the
Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy and the
British army that are trying to stop the dy-
namics of Nazism. We can put a dollar-for-
dollar value on every plane shot down, every
ship sunk, every building ripped, and on every
human life destroyed.
Those familiar with the German "Revolution
of Nihilism" know that Britain is fighting our
1940 - China Gains
Against Axis . .
BORROWING an old occidental cus-
tom, the government of free China,
under the leadership of President Chiang Kai-
shek, issued on New Year's Day an encouraging
review of that nation's war efforts during 1940.
In the past year, the Chinese leader said,
the Japanese suffered 384,000 casualties. No
mention was made of Chinese losses, which is
not strange. But he did state that China's
armies, now numbering five million men, are
better equipped and better trained than ever
before in history.
During the year, the report continues, the
Japanese captured 66 cities from the Chinese,
but the Chinese in turn recaptured 89 from the
Mikado's troops - a net gain of 23 cities. Japa-
nese progress in China was slowed to a virtual
standstill. Prior to last year invading troops
gained two and a half miles a day against
Hankow, and nothing net last year. China, on
the other hand, has reoccupied two provinces
taken by armies from the Land of the Rising
Sun.
But, Chiang Kai-shek added, these are not
the greatest gains. The reopening of the Burma
Road was one of them, a diplomatic victory for
wily Winston Churchill and a great aid to the
Chinese. The consolidation of the Chinese na-
tional spirit was listed as a second, and closer,
friendship with the United States as a third.
Regarding the last, the President of the Chinese
Republic feels that Japan must depend to a
battle along with hers; victory is the only pay-
ment for aid we should- demand. And the ar-
chaic symbol of the balance sheet of tangibles
must be blotted out by the new, fresh symbol
of "services rendered".
- Newell Malter
Justice For Evil
To the Editor:
"We must so lead the world in the next few
years that peace will again come -not the
peace of appeasement but a peace in which de-
mocracy shall survive, in which the trade routes
of the world shall olce again be opened, because
the birds of commerce carry with them the
seeds of democracy, of peace, and of individual
opportunity." So wrote Wendell Willkie in a
recent plea for approval of the President's
Lease-Aid Bill.
This statement supports the contention of
Secretary Hull that "mankind is faced not with
regional wars but with an organized ruthless
and implacable movement of steadily expanding
conquest by nations not restrained by considera-
tions of law or principles of morality; nations
which are desperately struggling how to seize
control of the oceans as an essential means of
achieving and maintaining their conquests of
other continents."
If we accept the premises which these out-
standing national figures from opposite political
parties begin with, one cannot but regret the
utter lack of realism in Mr. John O'Hara's prop-
osition that "real Christians" must work for
peace by loving one's enemies and turning one's
left cheek to him that strikes thee on thy right
cheek. Such a policy which would have us turn
over the control of the high seas to the total-
itarian powers as tribute for a little temporary
peace is unthinkable.
Nations such as Holland, Norway, and Bel-
gium scrupulously observed neutrality only to
find that the program provided not lasting
security. Events of the last two years prove
that a nation can have peace with the Nazis
only at the price of total surrender.
Yet there are those among us that would
have the United States use its influence for a
"negotiated peace." To call it that, is as our
President said, "Sheer nonsense. For is it a
negotiated peace if a gang of outlaws surrounds
your community and on threat of extermina-
tion, makes you pay tribute to save your own
skins?"
As Hitler himself once proclaimed - there
can be no ultimate peace between our philosophy
of government and their philosophy of govern-
ment.
Therefore Mr. O'Hara, as a "real Christian"r
I cannot reconcile myself to the Nazi philosophy,
of paganism nor can I believe that it is possible
for me to love my enemy. For non-resistance,
in a world of men formed by natural selectionr
and the struggle for existence, is an invitation
to aggression and enslavement; a people that;
loved its enemies would be wiped off the face
of the earth.1
As Confucius once said, "With what, then,
will you recompense kindness? Return good for
good, AND FOR EVIL, JUSTICE."
-Fred Niketh, '41L
An Open Letter
To FDR's Wastebasket
Dear friend, to whom in these days all ra-
tional appeals are being referred, I write to you
out of despondency and bitterness; for I rep-
resent a large group of our country's youth
which does not believe in the hysterical actions
of your owner; which believes that it is being
plunged into death and destruction and toward
the demolition of every hope; which knows that
such a fate is unnecessary, useless, and a tre-
mendous crime; yet which can gain no audi-
ence, no recognition, no consideration, and is
now being branded insane, psychopathic, cow-
ardly, and even rotten.
I write to tell you that your owner is damn-
ing our generation to spiritual and moral, as
well as physical, poverty; that by forcing the
very cream of the country's manhood into com-
pulsory subjugation and preparing them for
foolish carnage in the name of a dozen hypo-
critical ideals, he is shattering every vital re-
source of America's spirit, wrecking the free-
dom he professes to defend, and closing the
gates of our nobility, which earlier and wiser
men than he have opened.
I write to tell you how I envy you, my friend,
my fortunate friend, for the quality of yori'
acquaintances, and for your capacity and toler-
ance. When I think of the ideals that men have
written to you, of the strength- and judgment
of the men from whom you gain your correspon-
dence, yes, of the beauty and inviolability .
their beliefs, I envy you, for undoubtedly none
other in the land can claim such a wealth of
friendships.
But I am sorry for you, dear Waste Basket,
dear democratic companion, for you have no
eyes with which to see the intense necessity of
protest, you have.no ears to hear the unanswered
appeals of the young who are being sacrificed,
no mind to comprehend the growing tragedy,
no heart to tell you that there are fearful
wrongs being done that must be righted.
And I am sorry for all the young men who
shall die again overseas, needlessly, cruelly, for
another fantastic falsity; because you, dear
Waste Basket, our President's chief confidante,
possess no tongue with which to assay the dim
chance of persuading him tot end his irrational
belligerence.
Dear friend, dear democratic pal, you alone
in the White House hold the real fact, the real
'ti
.
ATIONA ,
'S
5"
N
5.
N
e "
/
,'
.v- / 71
- r' I'll
.. ___
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Continued from Page 2)
in Lane Hall to list and discuss dif-
ficult questions confronting pacifists.
The meeting is open to all.
Lutheran Student Association will
meet at Zion Lutheran Parish Hall
at 5:30 p.m. Sunday for social and
supper hour. The group will leave
the Parish Hall at 7:00 p.m. to par-
ticipate in a joint meeting with the
Congregational Students at the First
Congregational Church.
The Hillel Forum Series is pre-
senting Professor Frederick L. Schu-
man, Professor of Government at
Williams College, at the Rackham
Auditorium on Sunday, January 19 at
8:15 p.m., in a lecture on the sub-
ject "Can America Escape War?" Ad-
mission is free and the public is
cordially invited.
The Gamma Delta Student Club
will meet Sunday at St. Paul's Luth-
eran Church at 5:30 p.m. for a fel-
lowship supper and social hour. At
6:30 p.m. Professor Bruno Meinecke
of the Latin Department will give an
illustrated talk on "Musical Instru-
ments." All students invited.
Bethlehem Evangelical-Reformed
Student Guild will have supper at
the Church at 6:00 p.m., Sunday,
January 19. Dimitri Teofilaktides
will talk on "Turkey Since World
War I."
Churches
First Methodist Church: Student
Class at 9:30 a.m. with Prof. George
E. Carrothers. Worship Service at
10:40 a.m. Prof. Hornell Hart of
Duke University will speak on "Chris-
tianity in an Age of Science." This
speaker is being sponsored by the
Henry Martin Loud Lectureship. Wes-
leyan Guild meeting at 6:00 p.m. Dr.
Hart will speak on "Life Ought tc
be Thrilling." The members of the
Baptist Guild will join us for this
meeting and for the supper and fel-
lowship hour following.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church:
Sunday, 8:00 a.m. Holy Communion;
9:30 a.m. High School Class, Harris
Hall; 11:00 a.m. Morning Prayer anc
Sermon by the Rev. Henry Lewis;
11:00 a.m. Junior Church; 11:00 a.m.
Kindergarten, Harris Hall; 7:00 p.m.
College Work Program, Harris Hall.I
Speaker: Prof. Palmer A. Throop.
Topic: Religion and Ethics. Re-F
freshments.
Presbyterian Church: Sunday, Dr.C
W. P. Lemon will speak on "TheN
Safest Mind Cure" at 10:45 a.m.
The Westminster Student Guildi
will meet for supper at 6:00 p.m. At
7:00 p.m. a panel discussion, led by
the law students of the Guild, on
"Religion and Economics" has been
planned. 1
The Sunday Evening Club will have1
several Central and South American
students leading an informal dis-
cussion about their country and its
customs, at 8:00 p.m.
Zion Lutheran Church: Church
Worship services at 10:30 a.m. with
sermon by Rev. E. C. Stellhorn on
"Is Jesus God?"
Trinity LutherantChurch: Church
Worship Services at 10:30 a.m. Ser-
mon by Rev. Henry O. Yoder. Theme
"Jesus Blesses Marriage and the
Home."'
Unitarian Church: 11:00 a.m. The
Billings Lecturers, Professor Eustace
Haydon, of the University of Chica-
go. "Humanism, and Life Questing."
7:30 p.m. Round Table Discussion;
Prof. Haydon will answer student
questions on Religion.
Monday, 12:15 p.m. Luncheon at
the Michigan Union. Prof. Haydon
will speak on "The Survival Qualities
in Religion."
Disciples Guild (Christian Church):,
10:45 a.m. Morning
Fred Cowin, minister.
Worship, Rev.
6:30 p.m. Disciples Guild Sunday
Evening Hour. Rev. Chester Loucks
of the Baptist Church will speak on
"A Faith for Our Generation." Dis-
cussion, social hour and refreshments
will follow.
8:00 p.m. Comunity Church Serv-
ice. Sermon by Rev. Fred Cowin.
Ann Arbor Society of Friends meets
on Sunday in Lane Hall. The Study
Group will continue its discussion of
the Quaker Meeting at 3:30 p.m.
Meeting for worship at 5:00 p.m. Busi-
ness meeting, 6:00-7:00 p.m. All in-
terested are invited.
First Church of Christ,
Sunday morning service
Subject: "Life." Sunday
11:45 a.m.
Scientist:
at 10:30.
School at
St. Paul's Lutheran Church: The
morning worship service begins at
10:45. Rev. C. A. Brauer will preach
on "Jesus, the Light of the World."
First Baptist Church: 10:30 a.m.
Unified Service of Worship and
Study. Sermon: "How to Become
a Christian.'
6:00 p.m. The Roger Williams Guild
will join with the Wesleyan Guild
in the Methodist Church to hear.Dr.
Hornell Hart talk on "Life Ought
'to be Thrilling."
6:30 p.m. The B.Y.P.U. meets in
the church parlors to discuss "What
Science Has to Say About Race." Miss
Phyllis Seibert is in charge.
8:00 p.m. The Cooperative Even-
ing Service will be held in the Dis-
ciples of Christ Church. Rev. Fred=
ericek Cowin will preach.
10:00 a.m. Students'
L. Pickerill, leader.
Bible Class. H.
RADIO SPOTLIGHT
WJR WWJ CI KLW WXYZ
750 KC - CBS 920 KC - NBC Red 1030 KC - Mutual 1240 KC- NBC Blue
Friday Evening
Saturday Evening
6:00 Stevenson News Music; Oddities Questions Of Hour Day In Review
6:15 Musical Revue; News NHL Hockey Players Sandlotters
6:45 World Today S. L. A. Marshall Topical Comment New World News
7:00 People's Platf'rm Pastor's Study News-Val Clare Town Talk
7:15 People's Platf'rm Passing Parade Tiny Hill Orch. News Ace
7:30 News To Life Yvette, Songs Sons of Listeners'
7:45 News to Life Art's Human Side the Saddle # Playhouse
8:00 Marriage Club Knickerbocker N.H.L. Hockey The Green
8:15 Marriage Club Playhouse Game': Hornet
8:30 W. King Orch. Truth or Boston Canadian Society
8:45 King Orch; News Consequences vs._Toronto Of New York
9:00 Your Hit Parade National Barn NHL Hockey: Gabriel Heatter
9:15 Your Hit Parade Dance with at Toronto National Defense
9:30 Your Hit Parade a Corny Contact News; NBC
9:45 Sat. Serenade Cast -Musical Symphony,-
10:00 Sat. Serenade Uncle Ezra's Chicago Theatre Alfred
10:15 Public Affairs Program Wallenstein,
1 "In ank,.. T ,,nnarA 'D'I in n Npwna I Gues
OrYas
FROM DAILY FILES
25 Years Ago
Jan. 18, 1 -16-"Why war at all?"
was the challenge flung out by Eu-
gene V. Debs, socialist leader, before
a capacity crowd at Newberry Hall
last evening. "This world," he as-
serted, "has always been ruled by a
I