fir A or "M 1 141 . ......... ........ ....... .. - , I ;rg MUIdqgan 7atti Fifty-Third Year Edited and managed by students of the University of Mlehigan under the authority of the Board in Control of Studert 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 repub- lication 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 car- rier $4.2 , by mail $5.25. Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1942-43 REPREIENTED FOR NATIONAL, ADVERTISIMO BY National Advertising Service, Inc. College Publishers Representative 420 MADIsON AVE. .,NEW YORK. N.Y. CNicAGO . Boso . Los ANGELEs * SAN FRANCISCO 'Has Rommel Done Any Better!' -7 7 FIRE TRAPS ON COMEBACK: Ma'Re-open ing Hindered Editorial Staff John Erlewine Bud Brimmer Leon Gordenker Marion Ford. Charlotte Conover Eric Zalenski Betty Harvey James Conant B Edward J. Perlberg Fred M. Ginsberg Mary Lou Curran Jane Lindberg .* . . Managing Editor Editorial Director * . . .City Editor Associate Editor . . . Associate Editor Sports Editor Women's Editor Columnist Business Staff Business Manager * Associate Business Manager . Women's Business Manager . Women's Advertising Manager 0. 41;oo/ ~ij f 4 k Telephone 23-24-1 I A 14IGHT EDITOR: JEAN RICHARDS Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. I I 71 or . (1943. Chicago Times. Inc. I ______________________________________ 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.