THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, 04
mWI
Dafly
I.
rt
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REPRUS*INTR POR NATIONAL ADVISRTIBING S
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CHICAGO "..OSTON + LoS AOLS . SAO FSANCIKO
iber, Associated Collegiate Press, 1941-42
Editorial' Stafff
le Gel6
rt 'P. Blaustein
Id Lachenbruch
.n Dann .
Wilson .
iur Hill .
et Hiatt .
ce Miller
inla Mitchell
.
.
.
S. - Managing
. . . . City
. . . Associate
. - - Associate
* . . Sports
. Assistant Sports
- - . Womien's
. Assistant Women's
. . . Etchange.
Editor
Editor
Editor
gditor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
el H. Huyett
a B. Collins
e Carpenter
n Wright
Business Stal
Business 'Manager
. . Associate Business Manager
. .Women's" Advertising Manager
. . Women's Business Manager
NIGHT EDITOR: GLORIA NISHON
I-
The editorials published in The Michigan
Daily. are written by members of The Daily
staff and represent the views bf the writers
only.
efense Setup Needs
~entralizaio . .. -
HE UNITED STATES defense set-
up is still lacking Even President
osevelt's latest creation, the Supply Priorities
i Allocatons Board does not go far enough in
ieamllnling the national defense program.
SPAB, headed .by Vice-President Henry 4.
allace, is, of course, a tremendous step in the
ght direction. Two of the major headac es
tached to national defense have been the
oplems of prioritiesand centralization of the
ntrol of the entire program. The Supply Pri-
Ities- and Allocations Board will come close
solving these problems; Similar to the British
'nistry of Supply, it has the power to deter-
Spriorities and the use of materials, fuel,
wer and other commodities for the satisfying
the defe gram, lend-lease aid and civil-
,n needs. Decisions on the more than 20,000
loritie sapplications a week will be made by
bnald M. Nelson, OPM Priorities Director and
.AB executive secretary.
Under the oldtdefense system priorities were
ider varied control. Edward P. dStettlnus was
iss of raw materials and commodity produc-
n in OPM. Nelson as procurement head, Leon
enderson as head of the Office for Price Ad-
inistration and Oivilian Supply, now merely
.e Office of Price Administration with the
vilian Supply branch part of OPM, and John
Biggers with processing control, all had a
nd in priorities. Even the Interstate Com-
erce Commission and Maritime Coimission
th their comma nd of delivery priorities played
important role. The Army and Navy Muni-
ns Board handled military priorities..
OST OF THESE AUTHORITIES are now
discontinued. Military priorities will be,
.ndled by SPAB along with transportation
iorities. This should solve the priorities "bot-
mneck." It should facilitate not only our own
,tional defense effort but also lend-lease aid
the natioiis fighting Hitler.
However, SPAB does not represent the solu-
n to the second problem-the problem of cen-
alized control. Bernard M. Baruch has long
en an advocate of the system with one-man
ntrol over all the national defense program.
iticism has been leveled in the past at the
Lginal Advisory Commission on National De-
ise and the Office for Production Manage-
mt for their lack of real executive authority.
is same criticism can be directed against
'AB. No board can do the coordinated work
ssible under a single executive authority. Ad-
ttedly there are opportunities in SPAB for
alert official to assume, unofficially of
urse, powers that would be delegated to one
preme defense boss. Nelson or Vice-President
allace may fill the bill.
Nevertheless, this is a remote possibility. Pres-
nt Roosevelt ought to take matters 'into his
n hands and give supreme authority to Nel-
n or Wallace or even to William S. Knudsen,
?M director. Only such a centralized control
>ng with the new priorities authority will
eamline the preparedness drive and speed up
W-lease aid.
d- George W. Sallade
wn fall Of Yoga
rt wasn't much of a fight-that one in New
.A .- - _" T...X ... id
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Attack On U.S. Impossible
To the Editor:
AGAIN, in Tuesday's Daily, those two spectres
of the interventionists were recalled with
glee,: the imminence of an invasion by Ger-
many, and the imminence of native fascism
under the America First banner. How false
such deliberate perversions are has been pointed
out time and time again, but the truth bears
repeating.
Almost every competent military authority in
the country has agreed with the reports of Con-
grespional committees affirming the impossi-
bility of successful attack on a prepared Amer-
ica. Military forces from Europe would be oper-
ating three thousand miles from their bases,
many of them unwillingly compressed into serv-
ice. Our forces would be fighting near home,
defending their liberties and families. Hitler's
forces would constantly be menaced by the
threat of reyolt in 'Europe, hampered by'sabo-
tage, crippled by the destruction which this war
is wreaking in Europe.
And all this is assuming that the German
army would never attempt a battle it could not
finish. It has not attempted an invasion of
England because it couldn't succeed; it has won
in every battle it has attempted. England can-
not defeat Hitler's aggregation; neither can the
new Aglo-American imperialism combined, any
more than united Europe could defeat the
America's. Hitler will be defeated as Napoleon
was defeated, as the Kaiser was defeated, by
the cracking up of his empire from within. And
the signs' of the collapse are already apparent.
INVASION ,IS IMPOSSIBLE; but those who
seek our entry into the war muckrake those
who lead 80% of our people by calling them
traitors, pro-Nazis, and less printable names.
Lindbergh, Hoover, Landon, and the rest who
express the sentiments of the American people
are in favor of complete defense for this hemi-
sphere; are opposed to the excesses of Nazism.
They favor a constructive -policy of genuine
Americanism as it has been expounded since
Washington and Jefferson first indicated a real
pro-American policy of staying out of Europe's
eternal wars.
These men who genuinely lead our people are
not those from whom native fascism and dicta-
torship are to be feared. Those who deny de-
rnocracy by acting in gross disregard for the
wishes of the people are the real dangers; those
who sabotage our nation by promulgating a
anti-American policy against the best interests
of the nation are the real traitors. Roosevelt
and the pro-war minority in control of our press,
radio, and movies' are concentrating power in
the hands of the New Deal government in Wash-
ington so that it now acts by subterfuge to cir-
cumvent the wishes of Congress and the people,
instead of serving those interests. This present
disregard for democratic principles is not Amer-
ica, it is fascism and dictatorship in the Mak-
ing. And Lindbergh, Nye. Alice Roosevelt Long-
worth, an the America First Committee are
tie real patriots who are leading the fight
against this already-forming dictatorship.
PARTICIPATIOlN°in the war will not only sac-
rifice needlessly millions of American lives,
billions of dollars worth of productivity, and the
sound cultural ideals of our people; it will also
cement inextricably the power of the New Deal
circle which now regards/ so lightly democratic
principles. There is where the real danger lies,
When the fever of war stirred up by special
interests dies down in the calm of peace, it will
be seen how our people were forced into war
against dictatorship by the forming dictatorship
in their own land. By a regime which is follow-
ing each nod from Churchill regardless of the
interests of its own people (see the editorial in
last week's Saturday Evening Post).
MAY THE GOD OF HOSTS help us to obey
His commandments by staying out of this
needless, un-Christian war; and help those who
lead His people in crying out against it.
- Allan Hillton (pseudonym)
Fascism Is Basic Issue
To the Editor:
O-ANYONE who has picked up The Daily
during the past few days, the inescapable
conclusion must have been reached that Swan-
Cer, Mintz and Mantho have left for Great Brit-
an to carry on with positive actions their ter-
rific pro-war barrage.
If war is to be declared immediately; if we
are;to start sending ships and troops all over
the world; if Dakar, Suez, South Africa, and
Ka]limazoo have to be invaded at once, then
men like Swander, !Mintz and Mantho undoubt-
edly are on their way. Because only men who
are willing to sacrifice their own personal exist-
ence could so totally disregard human lives and
values.
M. and S. say that the only hope for a free
nation and world is WAR. Obviously these
writers are motivated by sincere and honest
convictions. They have looked ahead and sin-
cerely feel that the end result, freedom, justifies
the means of attaining it, war.
So, if they realize that one must look ahead
and examine end results, before formulating
positive actions, then they must see the logic of
a position such as Irving Jaffe set forth in
Thursday's Daily. Jaffe obviously is not an iso-
lationist. Neither is this writer, Jaffe is con-
vinced that Hitler must be obliterated. So is
this writer. But there are several primary con-
siderations that must be analyzed and answered
before war and its subsequent fruits are to be
accepted. IRquote from Jaffe's excellent editorial
which is a far more lucid effort than I could
hope to achieve:
OIt Takes Real
Guts To Quit
By TOM THUMB
IT MAY TAKE COURAGE to stick to a thing,
but it takes far more courage to quit.
Sounds like the rationalization of a slacker,
but if you're not too conventional to try think-
ing a little, you'll come to the conclusion that
usually when people quit a job, a task, a way of
living, they're demonstratiig courage and guts
far in excess of those who continue in their
planned paths, allowing inertia to take its nar-
row course.
Take, for example, the case of a high school
boy who gets a job as a soda jerker at 25 cents
an hour. This is the first time he's ever had a
job; he's told his parents, his friends, even his
teachers, that he has a job and is going to make
good. Everyone is watching him, but after sev-
eral days 9f it he decides that it interferes with
his studies, his sleep and thus, his health. To
continue with the job would be foolhardy, but
easy. Easy compared with quitting.
Just think of the terrific amount of courage
it would take to quit. It would mean losing
the faith olf his friends, his teachers and per-
haps his parents. It would mean facing the boss
who has decided that he'd "take a chance on a
boy with an honest face." It would have a dev-
astating effect upon the boy's character, and
the boy knows that.. Deciding to quit takes.
courage.
BUT consider an entirely different kind of
case. A man has worked for an advertising
agency for ten years. He makes "good money,"
but he considers advertising a dishonest, lying
business. -He despises his work more and more
and he would liketo quit. if he continues with
the company he will live to a comfortable, if
dishonest, old age and will be able to retire with
a good income at 65. But i he reasserts his
ideals and resigns he will have to look for a new
field to enter. He will have lost many of his
friends (of the fair-weather variety) andwhen
he finds a new job he'll have to start at an ex-
tremely low salary. It takes a lot of guts to quit.
The human animal is naturally conservative.
To remain in one path of action is natural. It's
must easier to "give in" to inertia and stick to
what you're doing than it is to depart from the
beaten path, to break away from the fold guided
only by your convictions.
Just as it's hard for a gangster to depart from
a life of crime, it's difficult for a congenital Re-
publican to vote Democratic, Socialist or Com-
munist. But the latter case is more criminal
than the former. Not thinking is a far greater
social crime than stealing silverware or -killing
a man. Allowing your mind to become or remain
sterile is worse than murder-because it's noth-
ing more than slaughter-it is the destrucion
of democracy.
DEMOCRACY is founded on the premise that
people'can think for themselves and that
everybody is somewhat' of an individualist. De-
mocracy is not a blind game of follow-the-
leader. Democracy trusts people to have the guts
to think foir themselves and to act in accordance
with their ideals.
In Germany, Italy, Japan they worship the
Status Quo. With upraised hands they heil it.
The unfortunate part of the story is that we
too are becoming Status Quo-worshipers. The
dollar-mark is our swastika. Not intentionally,
not because we want it that way, but because
the vast majority of us don't take time out to
think-don't have the courage to think-or if
te do, we haven't the guts to act-to better;
our position-not financially, but idealistically.
IT MAY TAKE COURAGE to stick to some-
thing, but it takes real guts to quit-whether
it's a job, a habit, a chain of thought or a social
system-it takes real guts to quit.
Let's assume that there are two animate ob-
jects. One is Mr. Fascism who is the teacher,
and the otheris Mr. Hitler who is the prize pu-
pil. If we lose our foresight and scream out and
try to crush Mr. Hitler the pupil, who is merely
symbolic of the teachings of his master, what
are we really accomplishing? The important
aim and ideal is to get the guy behind the scene.
Not the loud-mouthed transient pupil. There
have been, Mr. Hitlers before, and there will be
many more in the future. In fact, we have many
little Hitlers right here in America now. The
vital and significant issue is not to crush the
symbol, but to kill the source. And so there is
more to the situation than merely killing off
Hitler and his present movement. How are we
going to prevent another such situation to occur
again in another 20 years? We crushed the last
Mr. Hitler, the Kaiser, but failed to get Mr.
Fascism. He's the guy we're after and he's the
guy we've got to get once and for all.
So this idea of dismissing all anti-interven-
tionist talk as "oh just another isolationist eh!",
has to be dismissed once and for all. There are
a great many people like myself who have no
sympathy for Wheeler, Lindbergh, the America
First Committee, etc.; we are merely not jump-
ing on the bandwagon until we know just where
the wagon is gbing, how fast, and who is going
along for the ride.
Is it too much to ask 'of Mr. Roosevelt, and
Churchill, to point out more specifically just
what they have in mind after this war is over?
And is it unfair to question whether these prom-,
inent gentlemen are in favor of total disarma-
nent, a World Court of some form or another,
but definitely with strength? Is it unfair to ask
and wonder whether these illustrious statesmen
plan another Versailles Treaty? That would be
unwise and disastrous, and just another inter-
national fiasco of which we were -the recipients
once before.
Daily Editor Describes Trip
Across Atlantic In Convoy
(Editor's Note: Robert Speckhard. appointed editorial
director of The Daily last spring, writes here the first of E
a short series of impressions concerning his summer trip
to England by convoy. He is now in washington arrang-
ing a more extended return visit during which he will
regularly dispatch personal interpretations of tie British
war effort to The Daily.)
By ROBERT SPECKHARD
GETTING A JOB on a convoy was easy, even for a
landlubber like myself, whose only previous claim
to nautical experience were three ferry rides across
Lake Michigan. I even had a pick of jobs, for they
were pleading for crews in Halifax this summer and
still are. I turned down the first offer-stoking and
coal passing-on the grounds that, as this would be
my first time at sea, and maybe my last, I should like
to see the sea. The next offer was that of galley-boy
on a Norwegian ship, and I accepted, in a ceremony
before the Norwegian consulate which involved my
signing a, string of Norwegian-language documents,
the full import of which I could onl guess.
The ship lay in Halifax basin along with approxi-
mately 60 other ships of all nationalities and descrip-
tion. She was a motor-ship, about three hundred feet
long, weighing 8,000 tons with an equal weight of pig
and scrap iron below deck as cargo. It had just ar-
rived from Boston where it had received its cargo and
had been armed for the trip across. How soon. that
would begin no one knew, but rumor suggested three
or four days, which passed quickly, the day-time being
engaged in testing the anti magnetic-mine cable, the
machine guns and the 1914 American 3-inch naval
gun which was mounted above the poop deck to serve
against submarines. A bit of lifeboat' drill was also
thrown in. Night-time was spent at the Citadel on
the heights of Halifax, the old 18th century fort serv-
ing as the only wet canteen in town-a solace where
service men could come to fortify their spirits.
THERE WAS no shore leave Thursday night and
Friday morning early we left. The convoy filed
out of the Narrows in single file forming into a loosely
shaped rectangle outside, and we were off. A thick
fog came up as we sailed eastward up the Nova Scotia
coast and the ship soon lost the convoy; at approxi-
mately the same time I lost my dinner; the sea was
rough but it was rougher inside-I was soon in a mood
to do desperate things, like jumping overboard, but I
summoned enough courage to eat again, and again
and again which finally tired my stomach into sub-
mission and I became well again. To complete the
symmetry of the story, I found my sea legs and our
ship found the convoy at approximately the same time.
About a week of rough weather and the convoy
-was off Cape Farwell, the southern extremity of
Greenland. We could only travel about eight or nine
knots, the fastest speed of the weak sisters in the con-
voy, which now numbered about 90 ships, gained by
the addition of convoys from Sydney, Nova Scotia and
Bermuda. The weather was brisk, like late October in
Ann Arbor, but the days were longer than any I had
ever experienced before, the late northern sun lighting
the sky sufficiently for reading newspaper print at
11:30 p.m. Reading, incidentally, was the main form
of recreation outside of attempts at conversation with
the Norwegian crew; radios were not allowed in the
convoy as they .afford enemy submarines an excellent
means of locating their prey.
We didn't openly encounter any submarines on
either trip, although one of our destroyer escorts
dropped a depth charge late one evening off Iceland
when it was thought that a submarine had been de-
tected. It turned out to be an error, but a very under-
standable error when one considers that the listeners
on the detecting devices must pick out the sound of a
submarine's motor, with the purriig of 90 other steam
or diesel engines of the convoy as an accompaniment.
One can understand too how much easier it is for a
lone submarine to pick up the sounc of an approach-
ing convoy, stalk it until late in the evening or dawn
and then sweep yin like a wolf and pick off a couple
of sheep with a few well-placed torpedoes. The shep-
herd's job-shared by destroyers and corvettes-is a
difficult one.
A DIFFICULT JOB TOO,. one might expect, is for
a sheep to get any sleep, but the experience proves
otherwise. In the first place, the combination of salt
air and work is a good prescription for insomnia; and
secondly, since the decision to risk one's life has al-
ready been made there is simply no use of worrying
about it further. Once we had reached Iceland head-
ed toward Scotland, however, it was the better part of
valour to wear your life jacket to bed, even though
one awoke with cricks in the back, because the ship
would have gone down in two or three minutes if hit
by a torpedo, loaded as she was with pig and scrap
iron. We had been issued rubber suits to be used to
weather the near-Arctic waters, but no one intended
to use them, prefering to take his chance in the cold
water rather than sink on the ship while engaged in
putting on the rubber suit. They are alright for use
on a ship traveling, light, for then one may have as
long as eight or nine minutes before the ship slbts
below the waves.
We didn't see Iceland, though we could have seen
its highest mountain, Mt. Hekla, had not a thick
blanket of fog interfered. The island serves, as is now
well known, as the most strategic point on the whole
convoy route. The 600-mile leg from Iceland to Scot-
land is the most dangerous of the whole trip, for Nazi
submarine and bomber bases are situated only a few
hundred miles away in conquered Norway; Iceland
serves as a base for the British airplane and naval
patrols which ceaselessly search the sky and sea for
the expected raiders. Twice during the four-day
journey through these waters the air warning was
signalled through the convoy; the enemy didn't show
up, thanks to the British patrols. The tenseness cre-
ated by these incidents was dissipated by an overly-
ambitious anti-aircraft gunner opening fire on a Brit-
ish patrol ship which the gunner thought belonged to
the enemy. (British flying boats have orders to circle
the convoy: the one in question was doing so, but the
over-zealous gunner evidently thought otherwise; no
one was hurt.)
ALL THE INCIDENTS weren't so happy: a deckhand
on a British tanker directly ahead of our ship in
the convoy suffered an accident while working. Doc-
tors from the troop ship in the convoy tried to save
him, but the next morning all flags in the convoy were
at half-mast while he was given a burial at sea. But
this sadness had its antidote too, that very evening in
fact. I was out on deck late in the evening watching
the sky fade when the chief officer came stomping
down off the bridge, cussing a blue streak of English
invectives with a decided Scandinavian accent. The
object of his remarks was an English ship that was
pulling ahead of us, leaving us one of the tail-end
ships of the convoy, a most vulnerable spot. The Eng-
lish captain had asked if he might pass, and sea cour-
tesy demanded that his request be honored, but not
without a most beautiful display of verbal fireworks.
FIREWORKS, fire, or any other kind of light was
strictly taboo, of course, on board ship as soon as
it became dusk. Members of the crew on duty made
the rounds of all port-holes making certain that they
were tightly closed; all ports were pinted several
times during the trip to insure the black-out. The
black-out was inconvenient, perhaps, but at least
well compensated. by the good food (quantity and
quality) that was served on the ship. The traditional'
food allowances of peacetime have been abandoned:
a captain who is skimpy with the food, will, indeed,
have a skimpy crew, for there is always a job else-
where in the war-time merchant navy. Even if all
conditions are A-1, a captain is still faced' by a very
fluid labor market, for now is the time when wander-
lust is a pleasure that can be engaged in without inhi-
bition. In some cases the desire to transfer is not
motivated by wanderlust, but rather, by a desire for
a safer job; for example transfering from an oil and
gasoline tanker, where the most appropriate life-
saving equipment is a parachute, to a general cargo
ship. But who can blame a man for wanting a chance
to save his life in the open sea rather than in a flam-
ing lake of petrol?
On the fourteenth day we sighted the sheer, rock
cliffs of the Hebrides, and then followed three more
days of devious journey through the mine fields of
te Minches and the Irish Sea to Liverpool. God! how
good it felt to be making port,'even if the port were
still miles away, as yet only located by the mass of
barrage balloons that float over every mhetropolis of
England day and night.
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1941
VOL. LIL No. 11 '
Publication in the Daily Official,,
Bulletin is constructive notice to all
members of the University
Notices
To the Members of the University
Council: There will be a meeting of
the University Council on Monday,
October 13, at 4:15 p.m. in Room
1009 A.H.
Louis A. Hopkins, Secretary
Smoking in University Buildings:
Attention is called to the general rule
that smoking is prohibited in Uni-
versity buildings except in private
offices and assigned smoking rooms
where precautions can be taken and
control exercised. This is neither a
mere arbitrary regulation nor an at-
tempt to meddle with anyone's per-
sonal habits. It is established and
enforced solely with the purpose of
preventing fi'es. In a, recent five-
year period, 15 of the total of 50
philosophy. And as long as that can't
and won't come to pass, I can't and
won't accept a war that can't and
won't accomulish the defeat of Mr.
fires reported, or 30 per cefit, were
caused by cigarettes or lighted mat-
ches. To be effective, the rule must
necessarily applyto bringing lighted
tobacco into or through University
buildings and to the lighting of cigars,
cigarettes, and pipes within buildings
-including lighting just previous to
going outdoors. Within the last few
years a serious fire was started at
the exit from the Pharmacology
building by the throwing of a still
lighted -match into 'refuse waiting
removal at the doorway. If the rule
is to be enforced at all its enforce-
ment must begin at the bdilding
entrance. Further, it is impossible
that the rule should be enforced with
one class of persons if another class
of persons disregards it. It is a dis-
agreeable and thankless task to "en-
force" almost any rule. This rule
against the use of tobacco within.
buildings is perhaps the most thank-
less and difficult of all, unless it has
the support of everyone concerned.
An appeal is made to all persons us-
ing the University buildings-staff
members, students and others-to
contribute individual co-operation to
this effort to protect University
buildings against fires.
This statement is inserted at the
request of the Conference of Deans.
Shirley W. Smith
Miss Smith. (Please note that one
more copy is requested than in pre-
vious years). A uniform type of
paper is used fof communications
to the Board of Regents, a supply of
which may be procured at the Office
of the Vice-President and Secretary.
Faculty, College of Engineering:
There will be a meeting of this Facul-
ty on Thursday, :October 16, at 4:15
p.m., inRoom 348, West Engineering
Building.
A. H. Lovell, Secretary
Pulitzer Prizes in Letter: A nomi-
nation form for the Pulitzer Prizes in
Letters has been received at the Presi-
dent's Office. The Prizes in Letters
are for "novels, plays, histories, biog-
raphies and Volumes of verse." Mem-
bers of the fagulties who desire to
make nominations for these Prizes
may secure the official forms through
Dr. Frank E. Robbins, 1021 Angell
Hall.,
To all Departments: Please notify
Mr. Peterson of,-the Business Office
the number of Faculty Directories
that are needed in Sour department.
Herbert G. Watkins
Graduate Students who expect to
receive degrees at the end of the cur-
rent semester are required to file for-