PACE TWO T HE M IC H IGAN D A ILY FrtiAY, MAY 26, 1944 FiftyFourth Year Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of Student Publications. Editorial Staff Jane Farrant . . . . Managing Editor Claire Sherman . . . . Editorial Director tan Wallae . . . . City Editor Evelyn Phillips , . . . Associate Editor Harvey Frank . . . Sports Editor Bud Low . . . . Associate Sports Editor Jo Ann Peterson . . . Associate Sports Editor Mary Anne Olson . . . . Women's Editor Marjorie Hall . . . Associate Women's Editor Marjorie Rosmarin . . Associate Women's Editor Business Staff Elizabeth A. Carpenter . . . . Business Manager Margery Batt . . . Associate Business Manager Telephone 23=24=1 Member of The Associded 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 re- publication of all other matters herein also reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Aror, Michigan, as second-class mail matter. Subscriptions during the regular school year by car- rier, $4.25, by mal, $5.25. Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1943.44 NIGHT EDITORS: DIXON AND HERRINTON * i.1' y.-.- I5.Y y ; e/ti ' S.. ''R"F : 1 ,3 7\tJ :IJ IM ; I y i " r ~ 41 K s , y.. y/'fj° f G Si t4S e r 'p .5... s K' .i A: Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. Just Tinrkerin' CIO Conunittee .N 1940, 60,000 out of 600,000 organized labor members in Michigan registered to vote; in 1940 Michigan was lost to the Republican forces by 7,000 votes. This can't happen again. It won't happen again if the voters are registered, and if progres- sives decide to act as well as talk. In Ann Arbor these progressives must come from the Univer- sity and labor union membership. It means that students and faculty will have to be a part of the community more than they ever have been before. Those interested will have a chance to act tonight when the CIO Political Action Com- mittee meets in Local 38 Hall to set up the machinery for the elections. This committee is the main group in this district around which an organized fight can be waged against Mich- ener and other reactionaries. Here it will be decided how every voter will be registered. Records of candidates must be collected and filed to be placed before the voters. But these steps will be taken only if those present at the meeting guarantee that the wards and precincts of the city are divided and put under the charge of responsible people. There can be no excuses of lack of time or non-residence in Michigan. Michener has voted against every administration bill of the last 18 months which would stabilize the na- tional economy and strengthen the war effort outside of four bills. The defeat of Michener is to our advantage, as citizens of the nation, just as is the defeat of Fish in New York or Rankin in Mississippi. If everyone does not work to defeat them, indifference and inertia help to return them to Congress. There will be no fence-straddling in this election. To fight against Michener is not enough. The essential task is to work for the re-election of Roosevelt. Michigan can be swung over to the. Democratic forces with a little work in Wash- tenaw County alone. Those 7,000 that turned the state to the Republicans could have been covered by the 9,800 votes by which the Repub- licans won in the county. A little more work, a little less indifference is all that is needed. --Lee Hu.nn V Th 1HE INADEQUACIES of a college education are To begin with there is Ernest Trattner's legendary. They have of late bred general "The Architects of Ideas" which traces theo- discontent that is especially rife in the field of retical scientific development from the helio- liberal arts. Illustrative of this point is a book centrism of Copernicus to the relativity of review in the latest Virginia Quarterly by Spring- Einstein, including the ideas of such gentle- fellow Barr-himself a rebel, men as Schwann, Lavoisier, Marx, Darwin and Moulton. One could proceed thence to "The Mlr. Barr deals with four current books by four Making of Society," edited by V. F. Calverton prominent educators: Alexander M eiklejohn, Thks gbookSgiesy," sci ology c.l .backgron . Robert Maynard Hutchins, Jacques Maritain and This book gives a sociological background Mark Van Doren. All foul agree as to the bank- dating back to The Sermon on the Mount and ruptcy of learning in this country. They lead Mr. as contemporaneous as m.areo-but only in Barr to his concluding sentence, "Until the arts capsule form. themselves have been re-discovered, and until Louis Browne ca'hvasses the religions of the we learn again to practice them, and even to East and the West, Zoroastrianism and Shinto- teach them, the problem of the American liberal ism as well as Christianity and Judaism in "This college remains, as indeed it looks, insoluble." Believing World." Will Durant does a first rate job of surveying philosophy in "The Story of Many a student these days comes quite in- Philosophy." dependently to the same conclusion. Too few These are introductory books. They should of his basic questions are answered after four be read as stepping stones. They should and do years of vain searching in monstrous text- tell the reader where the intellectual giants stand books. But, what is worse, even more often, with regard to one another. By no means can he has not been provided with the tools to find one begin a mastery of their theories in this the answers later on in life. He has not been manner. But after having read these books we led to'knowledge; he has, at best been granted are equipped to study original texts. When we a glimmering of it. know who Plato was, something of his feud with Some students, however, crave the fuller sight the Sophists, and the link between him and mod- (be it ever so dazzling) of knowledge that can ern theology, -then we may read the Dialogues mature some day into wisdom. profitably. -After we know something of Aris- "It is possible to get an education in an Am- totle, Buff on, Cuvier and LaMarck, we may read erican university," wrote Lincoln Steffens to "The Origin of Species." begin a classic critique of our system in his The first defect of our system then, is not "Autobiography." Yes, it is possible-if you providing us with a good perspective. The sec- can overcome the academic obstacles thrown in ond defect is not taking us to the sources. your path. You can teach yourselves, on the Scores of us know Tom Paine's position in the side and probably at the expense of an all "A" War of Independence. But, how many of us record. But is that not a sacrifice worth mak- have read his works? ing? The text-book is the bugaboo here. It is, by IN THE MAIN college students lack any per- and large, the most slovenly, disorganized, in- spective whatever of the major ideas implicit artistic accumulation of dryasdust data in in the world today. Stuffed with facts they will existence. Would you like to join the Coin- forget or have forgotten, they are never told how mittee for the Abolition of Text-books? how to discover the germinations of and the Seriously, St. Johns and, to a lesser extent, the inter-relationships between fundamental con- University of Chicago excepted, no college in the cepts. People who have never seen a college U.S.A. emphasizes the reading of books as their spire can better understand the history of cul- authors wrote them. This situation is more ture by re ,ding popularized outline books than than lamentable. The way to better it, in lieu students who have elected snaps from their of bettering the system, is to strike out on your freshman year to the glorious day of graduation. own. Such people frequently and unfortunately con- Tread a path between school work and your sider these books as ends. Considered as means own literary pursuits-getting as much as pos- they can be very helpful. sible from both. -Bernard Rosenberg Blacllist Igniores SKF Ball Bearings WERRY-GO- By DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON May 25.- Lone wolf Senator Langer of North Dakota is planning to ask some potent ques- tions regarding reports that the United States has turned over part of its light cruisers of the Omaha class to Russia as a substitute for Russia's receiving one-third of the Italian fleet. It will be recalled that, last winter, the President stated in a press con- ference that the Russian Ambassador had been to see him regarding plans for turning over one-third of the Italian fleet to Russia under the Ital- iaw armistice terms. This conversation, in turn, dated back to last summer when Premier Stalin was complaining privately that he had not been consulted in advance regarding the first provi- sional armistice terms with Italy (at which time, incidentally, this correspondent got himself in the middle of some hot words regard- ing the State Department's atti- tude toward Russia.) Later, at Teheran, the subject of the Italian fleet came up between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, at which time Churchill demurred a- ;ainst giving Russia one-third of the Italian fleet and, instead, proposed that th United States and Great Britain give Russia some of their vessels. Churchill's idea was that the Italian fleet, for some time operat- ing under the British, in the Mdi- terir'axeanl, should be kept as a unit, since he feltit was performing an important mission in policing the Mediterranean against Axis sub- marines. Presumably also, the Brit- ish Admiralty was not unaware of the fact that the Italian Navy, recently built, contains some of the fastest and most modern vessels in Evurope. However, the whole question was postponed for future discussions after Teherarn, and this was how the Rus- sian Ambassador happened to take up the mattel' at the White House. Queston of U.S. Cruisers Recently, reports have cropped out that some of the U.S. cruisers of the Omaha class already have gone to Russia. Omaha-class cruisers, built around 1920, are 7,000-ton vessels carrying 6-inch guns. Since they are all over twenty years old, they are out of date according to strict naval standards,tthough in excellent shape for convoy or patrol duty. One of the cruisers, the Mem- phisebrought Lindbergh back to the United States after his historic flight across the Atlantic in 1927. They were the mainstay of the U.S. cruiser fleet in the 1920's, but since have been partially outmoded by 10,000-ton cruisers !arrying 8-inch guns. Senator Langer's inquiry into this matter is based largely on the ques- tion of whether the executive branch of the government has the right to dispose of these cruisers without con- sulting Congress. He does not seek to pass judgment on the military strategy involved. GOP Politics The Office of War Information has filed a strong protest with the House Appropriations Committee re- garding the activities of the commit- tee's ranking Republican member, Representative John Taber of New York. Congressman Taber, long a baiter of OWI, recently visited the New York office of the OW iaccompanied by a man he introduced as "one of my staff." He demanded that he be shown highly confidential files and reports on foreign propaganda oper- ations. Because Mr. Taber is one of the most powerful politicians in Con- gress and is in a position to wield the meat axe on OWI appropria- tions considered by his committee, OWI officials felt compelled to accede to his demand. They opened up their secret war files to the Congressman and the man he said was a member of his staff. However, it later developed that the man who accompanied Taber was not an assistant of Taber's and never' has been, according to a check of Congressional payroll rec- ords. He is a press agent for the Republican National Committee, and since he is not connected with the government in any capacity, he is not therefore bound by oath to preserve the secrecy of the records he was wrongfully shown. The gentleman in question is Percy Graves, astute publicity representa- tive for the Republican National Committee y CrockettJohnson c 7 -tOCKE1Qy yigk944 Firid Fb hOHNt hjwk OQh, he just works inm NEW YORK, May 25.- General Eisenhower's radio is chattering in- structions to the French under- ground, telling it how to behave, how to be of use. We need guides, for one; men who can tell us about roads and bridges, and clearings large enough for planes to land on. But perhaps we ought to think, too, about how we ought to behave when we reach the French underground. For we may be in for surprises. Two years ago, our mental picture of the underground fighter was that of some one hungry and hidden, or formless and dead. There was some- thing shapeless and sad in our con- ception of the underground fighter; when we thought of him we thought of a huddled heap at the foot of a wall, of a bundle high on a lamp post. Always in the picture there would be, by contrast, a pair of those arrogant, spruce, high German boots; a remin- der of German order, clean shiny and black as the pits of hell, But the underground is not sad any more, nor shapeless, either°. One of the great sentences of this war came out of a recent debate on the press in the French Consulta- tive Assembly at Algiers when a sp eak