Tilt I is I -. ,
Fifty-Third Year
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
regular University year, and every morning except Mon-
day and Tuesday 'during the 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 otherwise credited in this newspaper. All rights
of republication of all other matters herein also reserved.
Entered at the Post Ofice at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as.
second-class mail matter.
Subscriptions during the regular school year by carier
$4.25, by mail $5.25.
Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1942-43
feEPRE9ENTED FOR NATIONl. AVERTIdBNG Y
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College Publishers Representative
420 MAISaON rAvE. NEW YORK. N.Y.
Ch$ICAGO " VOSTOR * LOS ARGELES *SAN FRANCISCO
Editorial Staff
Here Is The Story Of'
B oardo Da-iy Dispute*
"So Der Fuehrer knows best does he!"
homer Swander
Mortqn Mintz
Will Sapp
George W. Sallade
Charles Thatcher.
Bernard Hendel"
Barbara deFries
Myron Dann
Edward J. Perlberg
F'red M. Ginsberg
Mary Lou Curran
Jane Lindberg
James Daniels.
Managing Editor
Editorial Director
. City Editor
Associate Editor
Associate Editor
Sports Editor
Women's Editor
Associate Sports Editor
Business Staff
Business Manager
. Associate Business Manager
. . Women's Business Manager
Women's Advertising Manager
*. Publications 'Sales Analyst
Telephone 23-24-1
NIGHT EDITOR: MORTON MINTZ
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views of the 1friters only.
FACTS NEEDED:
Silence Will Not Clarify
Dahistromi, Wenger Case
THE FINDINGS of the Senate advisory commit-
tee on the action taken Dec. 30 against Profs.
Carl E. Dahlstrom and Christian F. Wenger have
been in the hands of President Alexander G.
Ruthven and the executive committee of the
engineering school since Jan. 8. It is within their
power to reveal the circumstances of the case.
Profs. Dahlstrom and Wenger, who have entrust-
ed the matter to the authorities, do not feel that
they can properly disclose the circumstances.
This is as it should be, but because the case is
important to the faculty and to other members of
the University, our plain duty is to make every
effort to get the facts.
The action taken against Profs. Carl E. Dah-
strom and Christian F. Wenger on Dec. 30 was
first called to our attention in PEM locker-room
talk. By that time, the story had pretty well
made.the campus rounds and all sorts of rumors
about the how and why of the affair were briskly
accompanying it.
T IS NOW a matter of record that the engineer-
ing English I classes taught by these men
were interrupted and dismissed while in progress.
The de'scription of the interruption, as given by
students in the classes, has been confirmed by
at least one University official.
We find it difficult to justify the way in which
the whole matter has been handled. It is at best
indelicate when two associate professors, mem-
bers of the faculty for more than 20 years, are
treated before their students as if they were ju-
venile delinquents.
The common gossip in faculty circles is that
personal friction and disagreement about teach-
ing policies brought things to a head. Prof. Carl
G. Brandt, department chairman, officially sup-
ported the latter point in a'public statement,
printed a short time ago. He asserted in part,
". ..the course, as it was being taught by Profs.
Dahlstrom and Wenger, contained almost no lit-
erature and did not meet the requirements for
reading essays, plays and other forms of litera-
ture. Their classes also did not conform to the
composition requirements as they had been estab-
lished by the department. Further, they have
failed to use in their classes the texts prescribed
by the department as a part of the standard
teaching program." This explanation also has
been upheld by President Alexander G. Ruthven.
UT the entire picture has not been presented
to the public. From the beginning Profs.
Dahlstrom and Wengr deemed it unwise to tell
their side of the story. This was particularly un-
fortunate when we consider that the official
stand on the case has remained completely undis-
cussed.
The two professors decided to entrust consid-
eratien of their case to the faculty Senate's ad-
visory committee, which in this instance had the
power only to submit a report and-recomnenda-
tions to President Ruthven, the executive engi-
neering committee and the men concerned. The
Senate committee also believed it judicious not
to release its findings.
This, positively does not mean, however, that
secrecy should prevail. The committee's findings
are of great interest to the University. Further,
anything less than the complete story on the
THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT in
our nowopen fight with the Board in
Control of Student Publications is that it
is not something which blew up over the
week-end and it is not centered around the
failure of the Board to appoint Leon Gor-
denker to a senior position.
This fight is a fight which has been
going on for months and it is one which
involves not just The Daily staff but ev.
ery reader of The Daily. The outcome of
the fight will decide whether you are going
to have a relatively free campus press, or
whether you are eventually going to have
a paper put out by students whose every
action will be conditioned by the knowl-
edge that they may offend an omnipotent
Board.
When it became undeniably apparent that The
Daily was in danger of losing its freedom, and
that the students were in danger of losing their
right to express their opinions freely, we deter-
mined that an open fight was necessary. We be-
lieve it is the only way to meet the Board's petty
bickering, sleight-of-hand censoring, and its ob-
vious refusal always to use objective criteria for
promotion and criticism. Most important of all,
we believe an open fight will decide whether The
Daily shall be bent to the Board's will or whether
it shall continue' as a STUDENT newspaper.
THIS article will attempt to explain in fairly
comprehensive fashion why we believe the
Board has not fulfilled its duties nor lived up to
its responsibilities.
In the first place, the members of the Board
have nearly always been willing to take the word
of anyone else over that of The Daily editors.
They have all-too-willingly listened to and at-
tempted to appease persons who were known to
dislike The Daily or who had a personal axe to
grind.
In practice this year it seems to have been a
preconceived notion of this Board that in any
controversy, regardless of the question or parties
involved, the student editor must necessarily be
wrong.
We consider it significant that in virtu-
ally every instance of a complaint by an
outside party against The Daily the Board
has refused to defend the editors-often
without even consulting the editors.
Specifically: (and in each case the Board
created a large furor over these incidents.)
In August they received a complaint from the
president of the American Broach and Machine
Company concerning a Daily editorial. Without
giving the writer a chance to present his side of
the case, the Board censured him severely, and
termed the editorial "virulent." Then, without
consulting the whole Board, Chairman Q. E.
Densmore sent a profuse apology to the Broach
Company. Later the secretary of the Board ad-
mitted that "virulent" was too strong a word.
When a professor who has for years
fostered movements to increase control of
The Daily, recently sent a long letter com-
plaining about a number of Daily editor-
ials, the Board's minutes declared that the
letter "typified" faculty complaints. Actu-
ally it was no more typical of general fac-
ulty reaction than letters The Daily re-
ceived on the other side of the question.
The same minutes say that Homer Swander
and Morton Mintz "did not succeed in convincing
the Board that personal attacks and hysterical
editorial reactions were in good taste, in the best
interests of the University or necessary to effec-
tive editorial writing." Neither Daily editor ever
attempted to convince anyone of any such thing.
The Board then instructed its chairman "to
report that it was in complete sympathy with the
criticisms. .."
WE DO NOT object to criticisms either from
the Board or from the outside. But we do
object to the manner in which the Board has all
too often arrived at these criticisms.
AS WAS pointed out in Sunday's front-page
editorial, most of the Board members have
shown a singular lack of interest in, and know-
ledge of The Daily. This has hampered their
ability to properly evaluate criticisms of the pa-
per and to appoint new editors. Few of the fac-
ulty members of the Board knew the incoming
seniors by sight until the day of appointments.'
Although it should not have been necessary, we
have repeatedly invited the members of the
Board to the Publications Building in an attempt
to help them learn how the paper is put together
and to foster better relations between the staff
and the Board. This, to our knowledge, is how
they responded to our invitations:
Chairman G. E. Densmore-has been in
the building several times, but nearly al-
ways to complain about something.
Prof. Hobart Coffey-has visited us
twce, both times to look at scrapbooks just
before appointments.
Prof. Merwin H. Waterman-is secre:
tary of the Board and, as such, is in the
building a good deal and has many times
come over at night to see the paper as it
was being put together; has shown a genu.
ine interest in The Daily.
Prof. Carl E. Burklund-aside from two
or three times to look at scrapbooks has
visited us only once, that tite to complain
about a headline he had not liked; he
stayed perhaps twenty minutes.
do know The Daily. But we do know that
since we have been here they have shown
little interest in the paper.
The three student members-Karl Kess-
ler, James Allen and Hoe Seltzer-
are not only veterans of several years work
with student publications, but throughout
the year they have paid frequent visits to
the building, and shown keen interest in all
problems.
T IS OBVIOUS that in the case of at least three
faculty members there has been little or no
attempt to meet and to understand the students
or to learn the organizational set-up of The
Daily. We believe we have the right to expect
more from men who are on the governing board
of a student paper and who are continually deal-
ing with the lives of student journalists.
Board members would never admit that they
have ever censored The Daily. Yet they have cen-
sored it-and they are still censoring it-in ways
so indirect that it is nearly impossible to combat
them. The senior editors this year have been
called before the Board many times and severely
criticized for various editorials. In each case the
Board insisted that it was all a matter of "ethics"
or "taste" or "good judgment." But if you play
around with these words long enough it is all
too easy to jump over to criticism of ideas and
opinions.
The Board's interpretation of "good
judgment" seems to be never to print any
editorial or story which is critical of a Un:-
versity policy or act or person, or which
would ruffle any influential citizen of Ann
Arbor.
For instance, the type of thing we have been
warned not to print includes the following:
1. A column asking that the University not
accept any scholarships or grants which have
racial or religious qualifications. In this case th
Board found "false implications."
2. A "number" of editorials and columns criti-
cizing the part of big business in the war. The
Board spoke of "name calling" and "unneces-
sarily abusive language." This could have been
claimed legitimately of only one editorial-cer-
tainly not a "number."
3. The "unreasonable handling of the racial
discrimination question in an editorial dealing
with colored dishwashers . . ." The editorial
claimed that the Cunningham Drug Store dis-
criminated in its hiring policy, and the writer
used as evidence two advertisements which had
appeared in the Ann Arbor News. The Board
found this discussion of local prejudice "unrea-
sonable."
4. The aforementioned editorial on the labor
policies of the American Broach and Machine
Company, which was termed "virulent" by the
Board. Virulent is defined by Webster as "poison-
ous or noxious." The editorial in question was
neither.
5. The stories on the two engineering profes-
sors who were recently relieved of their teaching
duties in Engineering English I. One Board mem-
ber called us to tell us that he and another mem-
ber thought we should not run anything on the
action until we talked with Prof. Carl Brandt,
who was involved. At the very time he told us
this we had ample reason to believe that Brandt
was at his side.
6. Editorials criticizing President Alexander
Ruthven and his war policies, even though the
Board of Regents was doing the same thing.
7. We were also warned against calling anyone
an "isolationist" or a "dunderhead" when prac-
tically every other paper in the country was
using the terms freely.
IN SOME of the above cases there were also
legitimate matters of accuracy, good taste and
ethics involved, But in every case we believe the
Board stepped into the realm of ideas and many
times hinted at drastic action when our views
did not coincide with theirs, although ideas were
never named as the reason.
We have never laid claim to putting out a per-
feet paper-no paper is perfect-and feel that
much of the criticism we have received from time
to time was justified and helpful. In a letter to
the Board last-August we said:
"We realize we have been guilty of sev-
eral serious errors for which we are sorry-
We promise you that in the future we shall
increase our efforts to attain complete ac-
curacy and fairness in the columns of The
Daily. We realize that we are constantly
on trial in the eyes of the Board, the Uni-
versity and the students and the last thing
we want to do is to be unfaithful to the
trust which has been placed in our hands.
We meant what we said then and we
mean it now. We have tried to putout the
best Daily we know how and we feel we
have been handicapped by a Board in Con-
trol which has shown too little interest in
the students and the organization and too
much interest in keeping us from express-
ing our beliefs.
If the present trend of Board policies continues,
you will soon be reading,a Daily which says only
what it is told to say, and it will not be able to do
that very well.
-Homer Swander, Managing Editor
-- Morton Mintz, Editorial Director .
- Will Sapp, City Editor
Free Milk
~2 27A &cJiior
Fight for Democracy
To the Retiring Editors:
Fellow members of the State of
Michigan University: Permit me as a
faculty member to congratulate you
upon the valiant efforts which you
have made to make The Daily contri-
bute to the democratic way of life in
our community in these difficult
times. By this period in your educa-
tion you may have learned that in the
opinion of somewhat duly constituted
authorities there never is a time when
it is really right to fight, as you have
done, for the democratic way. You
will be told many times and in many
places: "This is no time to rock the
boat."
Within the short span of life of the
youngest of your group literally mil-
lions upon millions of fine humans
have paid with their lives for their
devotion to the democratic way. If in
this University or elsewhere you have
learned-that consecration to that pur-
pose of your lives, even to the end of
life, is the proudest achievement pos-
sible of any American, and equally of
any human, then you are truly edu-
cted. -Louis Karpiski
'Everything to Admire'
To the Editor:
While knowing nothing as to the
particular, controersies editorially
discussed' on the, first page of Sun-
day's Daily reading it has determined
me to offer a short, unsolicited com-
ment. I have been an attentive reader
of The Daily since 1921 and have al-
ways admired its journalistic skill,
though I have often had occasion to
deplore the ignorance of world affairs
shown by the editors and columnists.
This year, for the first time, I have
found nothing to criticize adversely
and everything to admire. As a former
journalist myself, as a member of the
faculty, as a student of national and
world politics, I give as my opinion
that Homer Swander has been the
best editor in the past twenty-two
years that I have known thet paer.
-Preston Slosson
DAILY OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
TUESDAY, JAN. 19, 1943
VOL. LIII No. 79
All hotices for the Daily Off.ieail u-
letin are to be sent to the Ofice or the
president iii typewritten form by 3:30
p.m. of the day preceding its publica-
tion, except on satur; y when the no-
tices should be submtted by 11:30 a.m.
NOtces
classes in all schools and colleges
will be suspended on the morning of
Saturday, Jan. 23, -to permit students
and faculty members to attend the
Midyear Graduation Exercises.
-Alexninder G. Ruthven
Midyear Graduation Exercises:
The Midyear Graduation Exercises
MUSIC
FOR ABOUT five minutes during part of the program. Among these the
Josef Hofmann's concert last above-mentioned Valse was the most
night his technique and the niece he successful and the Berceuse a close
was playing were in accord. The piece second. I cannot entirely agree with
was the Chopin Valse in A-flat major,
and the accord began and ended with Mr. Hofmann's fleet interpretation of
it. the latter, but it was at least a con-
The program opened with Handel's sistent conception, unsentimental and
Theme and Variations in D minor, adroit. The B major Nocturne, how-
There was some excuse for Mr. Hof- ever, was defeated by difuseness and
mann's uncompromisingly hard, un- a dull casual approach; while the
rounded tone insofar as this was most
likely originally written for harpsi- "Military" Polomnise hid itself in
chord. However the playing lacked thundering petulance and inaccuracy.
organization, lacked indeed what one HE SECOND half of th
would most expect from a pianist of E SECOD alf othe ng
suchexpeiene,-athorty.was modern and short, beginning
such experience,-authority. with Sgambati's Nenien. Then came
NEXT, Mr. Hofmann played the a Prokofieff March which was see
"Waldstein" Sonata of Beethoven enough to accommodate Mr. Hof-
and this, I am forced to say, was an mann's attack and charming enough
entirely unsuccessful job. The hard to survive it. As a conclusion Mr.
tone grew even harder. I should say Hofmann played two of his own com-
that he had his mind on energy rath- positions, which were evidently de-
er than .on the formal use of that signed to show off with: the Elegy for
energy. Nor did he seem to have any "touch," the Kaleidoscope for virile
faith in the ability of the music to nimbleness. For this last, he galloped
live; his playing was in the nature of over the keyboard so madly and, my
a series of violent injections rather dear, made such a lot of noise.
than an examination of the vital pos- The encores were a predictable
sibilities that could be realized under miniature of the best and worst quali-
his fingers. ties of the concert.
A Chopin group concluded the first -Chester Kallman
will be no preliminary procession.
Further details will be announced"
later.
Ticket Distribution - Midyear
Graduation Exercises; Hill Auditor-
ium, January23: The admission tick-
ets for, the Midyear Graduation Ex-
ercises are ready for distribution now.
Each of those whose names appear on
the list as entitled to receive a degree
at the end of the fall term should pro-
cure one ticket for himself and he
may also have two others for relatives
or friends. Apply at the Information
Desk in the Business Office, Room 1,
University Hall. Please present your
identification card.
-Herbert G. Watkins,
Assistant Secretary
Pre -Medical and Pre-Dental Stu-
dents: All students who eventually ex-
pect to apply for entrance to a medi-
cal or dental school are requested to
register in Room 1009 Angell Hall as
soon as possibvle.
-Burton Thuma,
University Armed Forces Rep.
Automobile Regulation: The Uni-
versity Automobile Regulation will be
lifted from noon on January 30 until
8:00 a.m. on Feb. 8 for all schools.
Exceptions will not be made for indi-
viduals who complete their work in
advance of the last day of class exam-
inations.
-Office of the Dean of Students
The Departments of Ancient and
Modern Languages will meet today at
4:00 p.m. in the East Conference
Room of the Rackham Building.
Agenda: Discussion of the proposals
submitted by the committee at the
meeting on January 12.
All members are urged to be pres-
ent.
Attention February Graduates:
College of Literature, Science and the
Arts, School of Education, School of
Music, School of Public Health-Stu-
dents are advised not to request
grades of I or X in February. When
such grades are absolutely imperative,
thex wn~rvnmust hbenmade un in timep
uates from the College of Literature,
Science, and the Arts, and the School
of Education for Departmental Hon-
ors should send such names to the
Registrar's Office, Room 4, University
Hall before January 30, 1943.
-Robert L. Williams
Students who plan to enter one of
the following professional schools:
Law, Business Administration, or For-
estry and Conservation at the begin-
ning of the summer term on the CQm-
bined Curriculum must file ran appli-
cation for this Curriculum in the Of-
fice of the Dean, of the College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, 1210
Angell Hall, on or before March 1,
1943. After this date applications will
be accepted only upon the presenta-
tion of a satisfactory excuse for the
delay and the payment of a fee of
$5.00.
Degree Program for Honors in Lib-
eral Arts: Students interested in en-
tering the Degree Program for Honors
in Liberal Arts in the spring term
should leave their names with Miss
Davis, Room 1208 Angell Hall, by
Thursday, Jan. 21.
Pack Prize. Contest: The date for
turning in essays for the.Pack Prize
contest has been extended to Wednes-
day, Jan. 20, at 4:30 p.m.
-Dow V. Baxter, Chairman
Pack Prize Committee
Lectures
Lecture: Dr. Fred J. Hodges, Pro-
fessor of Roentgenology, will speak
to the students in the Department of
Biological Chemistry on "Therapeutic
Uses of Radioactive Substances" to-
day at 4:15 p.m. in the Rackham
Buildig. All interested are invited.
Mathematics Lecture: There will
be a lecture on "Valuation Theory"
by Dr. 0. F. G. Schilling of the Uni-
versity of Chicago tonight at 8:00 in
the West Conference Room, Rackham
Bldg. Anyone interested is invited.
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