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ACADEMY:
Discussion Groups Turn
To Unrealistic Quibbling
THE educational paralysis which blinds one's
senses to reality was everywhere painfully ap-
parent in the Academy of Science and the Arts
conferences held here Friday and Saturday.
It was indeed significant that the few dis-
chssions which presented realistic and progres-
sive ideas were presented by non-university
men such as Mr. Horace White, a Detroit min-
ister, who has long fought against race discrim-
ination, and an organizer who has done much
work among the sharecroppers in the south.
The discussion was on Negro discrimination.
Even the economics group resolved their dis-
cussion into debates on academic terminology
and the only agreement reached was that the
workers of our country have too much money
and power and the capitalists are going broke.
CAMPUS discussion groups have long brought
together the best informed and most widely
respected professors And students at this Univer-
sity and others to discuss everything from the
conduct of the war to the nature of God. Yet
they have seldom if ever succeeded in even so
much As clarifying an issue, much less to agree
upon A course of action.
This occupational disease that turns univer-
sity discussions into child-like hypothetical
quibbling is typical at Michigan.
Since the war failed to wake these people out
of their blind cloak of pseudo-intellectualism we
fail to see what will.
Intelligent discussion and clarification of ideas
should be an intergral part of a college educa-
tion. It is the greatest contribution the univer-
sities can offer the world today, but they have
failed so far. - Charles Bernstein
Dominlic Say
AT THE end of a decade which saw the concept
"character" bowed out of the literature on
social ethics, we find ourselves saying of France,
"great ideas, subtle movements, far-reaching de-
cision, but a few men lacking character." We
recall our trust in Norway and recount her family
solidarity, her trade and her cooperative econ-
omny, but within at strategic posts, were a few
-ien Without character. Over against these two
great defeated peoples, suffering humiliation, we
see anew Abraham Lincoln, standing before a
map of his dismembered country, a report of
military defeat in his big hands clasped at his
back, in prayer about the petty internal bicker-
ings Which divide his people, and we seem to
understand what is meant by characttr.
Disinterestedness was frequently stressed by
Woodrow Wilson as "spiritual efficiency." The
Quislings were the opposite of disinterested.
Our laboratory men have earned for science
the confidence of mankind by their steady
disinterested labors. Over against this behavior
are ranged the American men of the main
chance, many of whom won prestige and now
command great fortunes assembled by selfish
manipulation of the creative work of unknown
researchers. It was Whitman who recorded that
"character and personal force are the only in-
Vestments that are worth anything."
XVTE LIVE in an age possible of great character
7ake Sit
By Jason
THE DAILY is often 6riticized around here for
"stirring up trouble." It's better, people say,
to let sleeping dogs lie, and not bring up nasty
questions. Particularly when you can't do any-
thing about them.
I ran into that attitude in connection with
the only controversial subject ve written on-
prejudice against Jews on this campus. (Anti-
semitism is the polite word for it.) Hal, a good
friend of mine-I hope he'll consider this
colmun not as a slam, but as a friendly con-
tinuation of the argument-felt that you
shouldn't mention things like anti-Jewish
prejudice in a Daily column.
"It gets people thinking about those things,
where their notions, were only hazy before," he
said. "Their opinions will crystalize and you'll
have split the campus into two clashing factions."
I was very nearly convinced, although I didn't
admit it at the time, either to him or to myself.
You can't do much in a Daily column; if people
agree with you, they'll go for what you write; if
they don't, they'll either laugh it off or get sore.
Maybe, by bringing up matters that people don't
usually care to talk about, you're doing more
harm than good.
THEN I wandered into a Sociology discussion
in the Rackham Building, this last Friday af-
ternoon. There were two Negroes. on the panel,
and three progressive Southerners. They dis-
cussed the racial hatreds which infest Detroit,
and they really got down to brass tacks. Particu-
larly one speaker.
His name is Horace White, pastor of the
Plymouth Church in Detroit, hes a Negro, and
an aggressive leader in his people's struggle
for a better break. He's a fighter; his punch
and force smash at you in every word he says
from the rostrum. But a fighter who can see
both sides-who lays blame where it belongs.
We got hold of him, after the speeches. As a
man who's been around plenty, candidate for a
Ph.D. in sociology, he should know whether cam-
paigns against race prejudice-such as the one
The Daily fought last year-really help his peo-
ple. Or whether such crusades just stir up trouble
against them.
"Campaigns, like the ones you're talking about,
helpdtonbring things to the fore, even though
you don't win the first time," he told me. "When
people are satisfied, it shows that negative
forces have the field. When there is tension,
there's progress-your positive forces are in mo-
tion. The tension, you see, gets people thinking
about these problems-until it gets to the point
where the problems are removed."
I BROUGHT up the point my friend had men-
tioned-maybe you're doing more harm than
good. That's the easy way, Rev. White admitted,
"If you never hired Negroes in defense plants,
you'd never have any trouble." But you'll never
solve anything, he added, by the 'ostrich meth-
od.
There are certain people around this Univer-
sity who believe in practicing the ostrich meth-
I'd Rather
L Be Right
BySAMUEL GRAFTON
NEW YORK-It makes anyone who knows
anything about the Office of War Information
laugh to hear it referred to as a "haven of draft-
dodgers." What happens, most of the time, is
this: A fellow will be working in, say, the maga-
zine business, deferred from the draft because
he is in an essential occupation. In a burst of
patriotism, he will join the O.W.I., to lend his
talents to the war. He will do exactly the work he
was doing before. But now his local board (in
many cases) will call him for induction. The
0. W.I., afraid of Congressional criticism, will
refuse to ask for draft-exemption. Wheeeeee!
he's in the army. He would be deferred for doing
exactly that same job for his own private profit,
but we will not stand for having him do it for
the public good at half the salary.
We do much of our public business with that
sort of hang-dog expression. Small wonder we
are not ready to participate in a government
of the world. We Americans still think there is
something faintly shameful about governing a
county.
Thus Representative Harness, Republican, of
Indiana, thought nothing of floating the charge
at a meeting of a House Military Affairs sub-
committee the other day, that 746 draft-age men
in the O.W.I. had been deferred. It turned out,
after Director Elmer Davis had been asked
about it, that only 46 had been deferred at O.W.I.
request, most of them irreplacable linguists in the
foreign branches.
If 700 more have really been deferred, they
have been deferred by their own local boards,
and those boards have acted on their own
initiative. I doubt that these deferments, if
they exist at all, are any more than the stand-
ard 3-A's for dependency. Why a 3-A should
be louder and funnier in the Office of War In-
formation than in a riding academy; the wit-
ness does not say. But in our conception, a
touch of government is always equivalent to
a touch of the comic or a touch of the sinister.
Under our party system, when a party is out,
it is all the way out. It is terribly out. It wanders
among the offices of government almost as if
it were in a foreign capital. Its members are
given little to do except to become amateur mas-
ters of ceremony, perpetually pointing out what
they regard as the comic elements in the contin-
uous floor-show of government. They feel hostile
and separated. They do not even feel under a
compulsion to telephone Elmer Davis and get the
facts before they make their charges, though the
Office of War Information is obviously the place
to go for war information.
Mr. Davis and Mr. Harness get their pay
checks from the same treasury, but you would
never know they were working, by and large, for
the same firm.
Can't we give the opposition a more useful
job than that of peripatetic critic and hunch-
player, thrower of old shoes at men trying to
do their work? The English solve the problem
by bringing the opposition into the govern-
mnent, in a war-time coalition. There it makes
its pressure felt directly, in actual cabinet
meetings. It has to accept the thorns of re-
angihilitr ilno- rwith thes weetbl hnnm of
By MONROE FINK
A FTER 34 years of service, the
old Majestic Theatre was sup-
posed to have died a peaceful death
on March 17. 1942.
Closed was its physical situation,
but forces interested in its reopen-
ing were most certainly not dead,
for in December of last year an
amendment was proposed to the
Ann Arbor Town Council, which
would so change city ordinance 145,
Section 10, as to permit the Ma-
jestic theatre as well as other un-
used hotels and auditoriums, to
re-open after making such repairs
as are possible with existing gov-
ernment priority regulations.
In the light of what had been
said in the past year this proposal
seemed to have some thing
"phoney" about it. It was the gen-
eral impression that "fire traps"
like the Maj were closed for good.
Didn't the Building Commis-
sioner Wllican Mailbetch de-
clare the house unsafe for use as
a theatre and say that he would
be derelict in his duties as
building inspector to allow re-
opening under present condi-
tions. Butterfield Theatre Cor-
poration, for years operator of
the Majestic, maintained that it
would never release the premises.
In fact the situation had such an
air of finality about it that in a
Daily article on Nov. 5 of last year
Dick Collins after an inspection of
the building found scrap possibili-
ties in "the familiar red and yel-
low facade, an open fire escape on
one side of the building, an all
metal outside stairway on the other,
and an iron roof over the ticket
window, as well as a large assort-
ment of metal radiators, eaves,
troughs, drainpipes, and iron guard
rails inside the building."
WHILE these features do not give
the impression of either a very
modern or safe edifice, there was
really no need to worry about it any
more, we believed because as any
passerbyer could see the career of.
old Maj was finally at an end.
The new remodeling ammend-
ment has behind it the support of
Fire Commissioner Folske, whose
endorsement stands in almost di-
rect conflict with Mailbetsh's state-
ment. Any changes which could be
made in the Majestic might pos-
sibly clear away the iron railing in
the foyer, and the steps in front of
the exit, but nothing for the ex-
ternal structure of the building.
Thus, what any furture patron of
a re-opened Majestic would have in
case of fire is a fighting chance to
get out, providing of course that no
panic occurred or any walls col-
lapsed.
Postponement after postpone-
ment marked the early fate of the
ammendment. Proposed in Decem-
ber no action was taken during the
meeting on the seventh of that
month.
At the next meeting on Janu-
ary 4, it appeared for a time as if
any possible change allowing old
structures to reopen would be
spiked when John B. Waite,
chairman of the Ordinance Com-
mittee proposed that only old
buildings now 111 use would be al-
lowed to operate while failing to
conform with the city's building
code. This stipulation would
naturally leave out the Majestic.
HOWEVER, at their meeting on
March 17, the Council appeared
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
well on the way to reversing its plan
of action, when the ammendment
to allow remodeling passed its first
reading. All that is required now
is one more reading and then a
favorable vote and the proposal
will be enacted into law.
There is no possible way in
which the danger of the new
amendment can be underesti-
mated. While the rest of the na-
tion, profiting from the lesson
learned in the Coconut Grove
fire, is raising its building and
safety requirements in addition
to undertaking a policy of stricter
enforcement of all present regu-
lations. Ann Arbor seriously con-
siders lowering its standards.
Not only will the old Majestic,
for years a dangerous "fire trap"
(Continued from Page 3)
George Lindsay, 2015 Day St., on Tuesday,
March 30, at 2:45 p.m.
Bowling: During the week of March 29,
the bowling alleys In the Women's Ath-
letic Building will be open in the after-
noons only from 3:30 to 6:00. The alleys
will be closed for the season on Saturday.
April 3.
Churches
First Congregational Church:'
Church School, 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.
The 10:00 a.m. Symposium will be ad-
dressed by Professor L. Waterman on
"What I Think About the Future of Reli-
mion "
At the 10:45 worship service Dr. L. A.
Parr's subject will be, ."What Is the
Church Doing?"
Ariston League High School group meets
at 5:30 p.m. Mr. E. J. Abbott will lead a
discussion on "Christian Beliefs".
Jofnt meeting at 7:00 p.m of the Con-
gregational and Disciples Guilds.
Mr. Kenneth Leisenring will talk on
"Are We Fighting for a New World or the
Old World?"
The Ann Arbor Meeting of Friends
(Quakers) will meet for worship Sunday
at 5:00 p.m. in Lane Hall. A meeting for
business will follow. All Interested are
cordially invited.
'Memorial Christian Church (Disciples):
10:45 a.m., Worship services. Rev. Fred-
crick Cowin, Minister.
7:00 p.m., Guild Sunday Evening Hour.
Mr. Kenneth Leisenring, instructor in
the Meteorology unit, will speak to a joint
meeting of Congregational and Disciple
students at the Congregational Church.
The subject will be "Are We Fighting for
a New World or the Old World?" A social
hour and refreshm'ents will follow.
Evangelical Lutheran StudentC hapel:
Sunday at 11:00 a.m., divine service in
the Michigan League Chapel. Sermon by
the Rev. Alfred Scheips, "The Signifi-
cance of the Scourging of Jesus".
First, Baptist Church:
10:00 a.m.: The Roger Williams Class
will meet in the Guild House, 502 E. Huron
St., to study the Gospel of John.
11:00 am.: The Sermon, "My Share", by
Rev. C. H. Loucks.
7:00 p.m.: The Roger Williams Guild
will meet in the Guild House. Professor
William B. Palmer will speak on "The Eco-
nomic Bases for a Durable Peace".
First Methodist Church and Wesley
Foundation: Student Class with Professor
George E. Carrothers, leader, at 9:30 a.m.
Morning Worship at 10:40 o'clock. Dr. C.
W. Brashares will preach on "Refresh-
ments of Mercy." Wesleyan Guild meet-
ing beginning with supper at 6:00 p.m.
Program at 6:45 p.m. Discussion of the
subject: "Re-educating Axis Youth."
First Presbyterian Church:
Morning Worship-10:45. "The Mystery
of Pain", the third in the series of Lenten
sermons on "The Penitential Psalms", by
Dr. W. P. Lemon.
Westminster Student Guild supper hour
at 6 o'clock, followed by the third Lenten
study on "Faith and Life-What Is the
Grace of God?"
Sunday Evening Club for graduate stu-
dents and young business people will meet
in the Large Club Room on the first floor.
The Reverend ,David Porter of Ypsilanti
will show his slides on "Burma". Phone
,eservations to 2-4097.
First Church of Christ, Scientist:
Testimonial Meeting Wednesday, 8:00
p.m.
Sunday Lesson Sermon: "Reality", at
10:30 a.m.
Sunday School at 11:45 a.m.
Free public Reading Room at 106 E.
Washington St., open every day except
Sundays and holidays from 11:30 a.m. un-
til 5:00 p.m.; Saturday until 9:00 p.m.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church--8:00
a.m. Holy Communion; 11:00 a.m. Junior
Church; 11:00 a.m. The Litany and Ante-
Communion Sermon by the Reverend
Lawrence Rose, Dean of the Berkeley
Divinity School of New Haven, Connecti-
cut; 5:00 p.m. Choral Evensong and Com-
mentary by the Reverend John G. Dahl;
6:00 p.m. H-Square Club for high school
students, Page Hall; 6:00 p.m. Rector's
Question Hour, Tatlock Hall; 7:30 p.m.
Canterbury Club for Episcopal students,
Harris Hall. Speaker: Dean Rose (see
above).
Unitarian Church:
11:00 a.m. Church Service. Sermon by
Rev. E. H. Redman on "Unitarianism and
the Bible."
8:00 p.m. Liberal Students' Union. Dis-
cussion led by Mr. Redman on "What
Unitarians Believe." Refreshments and
folk-games following.
Unity: Sunday service at the Michigan
League at 11 o'clock. Monday night study
group will meet in the Unity Reading
Rooms, 310 S. State St., at 8 o'clock as
usual. Mrs. Frances Newton will be the
guiest teacher,
Zion Lutheran Church: Church Wo?-
ship Service at 10:30 a.m. Sermon by Rev.
Elmer Christiansen-"What Is Your Rela-
tion to Christ?"
Trinity Lutheran Church: Church Wor-
ship Service at 10:30 a.m. Sermon by
Rev. Henry 0. Yoder-"Jealousy, the Root
of Harsh Judgment."
Lutheran Student Association meeting
today in Zion Lutheran Parish Hail. Panel
discussion on "The Church in the Post-
War World" at 4:30 p.m. with social hour
following and supper at 6:00 p.m.
be allowed to re-open, but many
other structures of a Worst or sim-
ilar nature, with only those changes
which priority regulations will al-
low. This doesn't speak much for
safety.
Endangered if this new pro-
posal is allowed to be enacted
into law are not only the resi-
dents of Ann Arbor and the stu-
dents of the University, but also
the increasing number of service
men on campus.
This is no occasion for a relaxa-
tion of the building code. There is
no room for local emergencies in a
time of national emergency. Bear in
mind that it will only take one
more reading and then a final vote
to give Ann Arbor not one, but a
host of potential "Coconut Groves."
THE MICHIGAN DAILY SERVICE EDITION
VOL. I, No. 24 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN MARCH 28, 1943
held Saturday night in the
League ballroom . . . The
affair is given in honor of
the new pledges and sub-
stitutes for most of the
houses' pledge dances.
AND THEN there's the
one about the new soldier
who just came to campus.
..Before being inducted
into the Army he was a
student at some other lit-
tle old school . . . Then he
looked up a friend when
he came here, desirous of
a date with a beautiful
blonde or a nice brunette.
. . . So his friend told him
the girl to get a date with.
. . . She washCarillon Tow-
er. Awful, huh?
TALK ABOUT K. P.
duty .. . It must have been
pretty tough for some of
the advanced ROTC men
when they went to Custer
to be processed and induc-
ted . . . Sports editor Ed
Zalenski and a few other
of the men just tarried
there with cases of pneu-
monia.
*R* *'
SCABBARD and Blade
'Mac' Gets a Strictly G.I. Too
exander G. Ruthvdn said
he and Hannah were in-
formed by "men who
should know" that the
number of coeds attending
college would be reduced
25 per cent next year.
RICHARD C. EMERY,
'44E, of St. Joseph, Mich.,
was elected president b!
Interfraternity Council last
week . . . Emery is presi-
dent of Theta Chi, was a
member of the junior IFC
staff and worked on Inter-
fraternity Council as a
sophomore and has been
active on campus in other
activities . . . A recent
meeting of the IFC execu-
tive board resulted ina
new policy being adopted
toward fraternity initia-
tions of members on shol-
astic probation who are
leaving for the armed
forces . . . Fraternities
must still petition in order
to initiate them.
* * *
"JOHNNY came march-
ing back to ye olde campus
Thursday when 18 ad,
'Mac' Gets a Trim-Strictly G.I. haircuts aren't
only for Uncle Sam's men but also for Uncle Sam's
dogs.... Mac, the terrier with 200 flying hours with
a U.S. bomber squadron in England, gets a trim.