THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 1945
U
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND:
Press Relations Cooling*
'RICHARD WRIGHT'S CATHARSIS':
Prof. Williams Reviews 'Black Boy'
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON-The honeymoon is over be-
tween Mrs. Roosevelt and the girls of the
press. After twelve long years, relations are
cooling.
Trouble came over a statement by the First
Lady that she saw no reason why the United
States should be expected to feed Europe-"I'm
sure there are other nations that can and should
help."
This came just the day before the President
told the American people we should tighten
our belts and feed Europe. The statements
seemed to disagree. The White House then said
the girls had misquoted Mrs. Roosevelt. ' But
the girls compared notes and agreed they
had her quoted correctly.
However, a stenographic transcript of her
press conference was produced to show that
the girls were wrong.
Hair began to fly. The standing committee of
women correspondents drafted a protest against
"doctoring of transcript" by Miss Malvina
Thompson, secretary to Mrs. Roosevelt. But the
protest was held up by newswoman Mae Craig,
who urged that hereafter an official transcript
be prepared for the girls to depend upon be-
fore their stories are filed.
However, they can't agree on that. The
women writing for a. m. papers approve, but
the wire service gals, who have to file immedi-
ately for afternoon papers, disapprove.
Meantime, Mrs. Roosevelt, who finds that
her words shake the world-sometimes the
wrong way-is growing less affable, much
more cautious in press conferences. She weighs
every word. She no longer indulges in the
gay little remarks that used to brighten her
talk.
In short, the honeymoon is over.
But there is not a woman of the press-nor
a man for that matter-who does not give
full credit to Mrs. Roosevelt for making more of
her job than any First Lady in history, and
for letting the press have ring-side seats at
her gold-fish bowl.
Dollar-a-Year Men. . .
URPLJSWAR PROPERTY Board Chairman
Guy Gillette dropped a bombshell up on
capitol hill the other day while testifying on
disposal of government-owned war plants. ,
Gillette told the Senate small business com-
mittee he had investigated some of the vast
government-owned war plants, had found that
some had been collusively designed and lo-
cated in such a way that they could not be
used after the war, and thus would not
compete with other companies.
"These plants have been installed . . . either
by accident, necessity, or unfortunately in some
cases, by design or were located and established
so they would not enter the competitive field
after the conclusion of hostilities.
"I think the latter reason prevailed in many
instances," said Louisiana's hard-hitting Senator
Ellender.
Senator Wherry of Nebraska then asked Gil-
lette whether the contracting agency or the gov-
ernment was responsible for this neat bit of
finagling.
"It is very evident," replied Gillette, "that
certain vested interests were in a position to,
and did, see that plants were so established,
processes were so adopted-not in all by any
means, but in some instances-where they
could not and would not enter the competitive
field."
Senator Wherry wanted to know if that meant
small experimental plants, and was told by both
Ellender and Gillette that the manipulating was
by big corporations.r
Wherry protested mildly against Gillette's in-
dictment of "big interests," pointing out that
the companies maintained they had nothing to
do with selecting or building the government-
owned plants.
"Well," cracked back Ellender, "the company
may not have had anything to do with it, but
WPB and other agencies of the government are
ON SECOND
THTHOUGHT...
-y Ray Dixon
NEWSPAPER editors all over the nation must
really be mad at the Germans now. The
war was bad enough when the compositors used
to have to struggle with unspellable, unpro-
nounceable Russian names of towns, but the
all-time high was reached yesterday when a
little town name of Ehrenbreitstein appeared
in the news.
* * *
General Bradley's army captured the place
and General Bradley raised an American flag
over it, but we'll bet General Bradley never pro-
nounced it.
Spring is not all nectar and sweet stuff. It
looks as though newspaper readers are going
to have to go through the rigors of another
Chaplin trial. Ain't that the Berry's.
Proceeds from the Army-Navy Revue to be
given Wednesday will be offered to the Army and
Navy Relief Societies. Bet they take it.
J
chock-full of their representatives, and they are
the ones that make the decisions."
Wherry concurred.
NOTE-Secretary of the Interior Ickes had
a debate with Jesse Jones during the early
part of the war, maintaining that Jones and
the Aluminum Corporation of America were
establishing plants in such a way that they
would not compete with ALCOA's monopoly,
Ickes especially objected to Jones's loan,
whereby ALCOA established the giant ship-
shaw project in Canada, now running full
blast while some U. S. aluminum plants are
closed down.
Capital Chaff * *
MOST COMPLETE picture coverage of any
event in the history of the world is planned
for the San Francisco conference. Government
cameramen will make sound films of every min-
ute of the sessions.
(Copyright, 1945, Bell Syndicate. Inc.)
I'D RATHER BE RIGHT:
Unity Necessary
By SAMUEL GRAFTON
WE HAVE LEARNED much from our little
fuss with Russia over the San Francisco con-
ference. We have learned that when the unity
of the three great powers is threatened, hope
sinks out of the world, the lights go down, and
the salt loses his savour. Once it was established
that there was a quarrel between America and
Britain on the one side, and Russia on the other,
over the seating of the Lublin government, and
perhaps over voting arrangements in the As-
sembly, the Conference itself lost some of its
attractiveness. We suffered a kind of interna-
tional sinking feeling. There was an impulse to
ask for postponement of the meeting. The glory
went out of it.
The day before, the Conference had meant
everything, and the day after, nothing; it had
been our hope, but it became, for a moment, an
embarrassment.
It could not be set forth in clearer style that
the hope of world peace rests on the unity of the
three great powers; when that goes, everything
goes, and no legal structure, however inspired,
can be a substitute for it.
One of the phantom hopes raised by San
Francisco was that we could set up a legal-
apparatus so ingenious that it could be em-
ployed to use force against one of the major
powers; but it is now quite clear that that
would not be organization of the world for
peace, it would be organization of the world
for war. The unanimous-vote rule on the
Council now shines with a new meaning; it is
a legal reflection of the practical need for
unanimity among the great powers. Without
that, the Conference becomes a different kind
of Conference, the world organization a differ-
ent kind of organization; the spirit goes out
of it, and its wine becomes water.
We are fated to agree; and he who sets up
the perspective of disagreement knocks down
the perspective of peace. But we have learned
also last week that the great powers do agree.
Sometimes only a quarrel can prove that, and,
this quarrel has proved it. The three powers
have had differences, and the differences have
not led to a break, and that is unity. Unity is
not the non-existence of differences; it is a
method for handling differences.
We do not like multiple-voting in the As-
sembly, but we have not pushed our position
to the point of a break. Russia wants the
Lublin government seated, but she has not
pushed her position to the point of a break.
It looked for a moment as if Britain wanted the
Conference postponed, but she has not in-
sisted on that. Some of us talk about the
manner "in which the three powers consort
and agree as being "power politics;" but it is
the opposite; their need for each other puts a
limitation on politics, and is the greatest disci-
plinary force now existing in the world.
When we understand, deep down, that that
unity is not open to question, when we stop
throwing doubt on it because of the emergence
of minor issues, when it becomes such an over-
riding reality in our lives that we accept it, like
the weather, then we shall be able to say that the
outlines of the postwar world have begun to
emerge.
We learned one thing more last week, in
some ways the hardest of all to accept, and that
is that Russia does not consider herself on proba-
tion. She has not come into the house as a peni-
tent, content to sit on a low stool and be quiet.
She takes any chair in the place, smokes cigar-
ettes, feels entitled to a full serving at. table,
and, in general, carries on as if she lives in the
house.
She is not abashed, she says what is on
her mind, as one does among equals; and
someday soon we shall have to stop remind-
ing her that she is Russian, and special, every
time she makes a crack. She is going to
behave as any nation behaves, without shy-
ness. We shall have every right to continue
to question her proposals, but soon or late
we shall have to drop the business of going
into a fainting flurry because of the fact that
she has made one.
(Copyright, 1945, New York Post Syndicate)
BLACK BOY by Richard Wright.
New York, Harper and Brothers,
1945. $2.5.
MANY will read Black Boy as they
read Native Son, as a sensational
presentation of the sordid aspects of
racial hatred and violence. And they
will find much to whet their jaded
and depraved appetites. The record
of brutal beatings from first chap-
ter to last will give readers and re-
viewers alike the chance to mouth
familiar cliche "overwrought,"
"exaggerated," "icendiary," "more
harm than good." They will be dis-
appointed to find no sex in the story.
Such a reading will miss the point
of the book.
Nor is this just the autobiogra-
phy of another novelist seeking to
exploit his personal experiences
while the market value of those
experiences is still high. True, it
is the story of Richard Wright's
early life, turbid yet tragically sim-
ple. But it is also a terrible analy-
sis of the Southern code of hu-
man relationships as practiced in
Mississippi and Tennessee. The
non-Southern reader will find, in
all its sordid details, the real basis
of discrimination. That reader has
long known about poll tax, lynch-
ings and Jim Crow, and he has
been properly disturbed both by the
practice and the cause. But he has
4
Dominie Says
"ANY EDUCATION which is to
have a realistic relationship to
peace must free men from hatred and
destruction. It must free men for
life, and offer men freedom from the
domination of their own aggressions,"
wrote a New York Board of Educa-
tion executive recently.
Are we not in the situation of hav-
ing by war over-stimulated the ag-
gression of our ablest young men,
used them to halt tyranny afar, to
defend the civilization we admire and
meet the hard facts of war only to
get them ready to return and unduly
dominate civil affairs? "No," say
the men themselves, "training is dis-
cipline, the military spells order and
the field has sharpened our taste' for
home and peace."
The process of discovering which
is true will soon be upon us. In the
country's relation to its returning
servicemen, the Church and all reli-
gious groups have an opportunity
more challenging than any former
local situation thus far presented.
What then has religion to offer for
the reception, education and future
citieenship of veterans? First, the
Church can mobilize on the basis of
whole families as can no other disci-
pline. Second, the Church, due to
its being the traditional custodian of
the ideal, should be able to lay claim
to these home comers at the level
of their nobler impulses, not their
baser ones. Third, Churches, operated
on a community, not a sectarian pat-
tern, should be the ideal platform
from which thoughtful servicemen
may expound the patterns of life
they fought to preserve, or create.
It is heartening to hear of a church
canvas for $25,000,000 by one denom-
ination for post war reconstruction.
It is inspiring to know that Jews.
Methodists, Presbyterians and the
rest have such programs. But when
we ask about the co-operative plans
for community expenditure of this
reconstruction money now being sub-
scribed, we hear faint voices admit-
ting that Methodists will receive most
of the Methodist money and Luther-
ans only small benefit from Lutheran
giving. That is not reassuring. Would
it not seem to be the function of
University men and women within the
great religious commissions to ask
significant questions, to plan pro-
grams for the veterans on a generous
community basis, to work out local re-
forms such as the Conference of
Catholics and Jews will endorse and
to call upon religious bodies which
claim to be altruistic and humanitar-
ian to practice such limiting of sov-
ereignty within ecclesiastic precincts
as we all exhort the politicians to
exhibit in international affairs?
Why should not all of the religious
units in a city like greater Detroit
volunteer to reconstruct the city of
Cologne, restoring its cathedral, chur-
ches, hospitals, galleries and schools
and do it as an Inter-Faith project?
Such an undertaking, if endorsed by
the U.N.R.R.A. but led by various
churchmen, both clergy and lay,
might enlist as many pagans as
Christians and, in the end, might
convince the unfortunate children of
Cologne that after all God does have
a few who actually worship Him.
Aggression cannot be blocked but
can be converted into service.
--Edward W. Blakeman
Counselor in Religious Education
never had the cause so graphically
clarified as this book clarifies it.
The South recognizes only a part
of a black man, accepts only a
fragment of his personality and "all
the rest-the best and deepest
things of heart and mind-are toss-
ed away in blind ignorance and
hate."
There is the story of the woman
who asked the thirteen-year-old boy
applying for a job, "Do you steal?"
When he answered with a laugh she
asked,
"What's so damm funny about
that?"
"Lady, if I was a thief, I'd never
tell anybody."
"What do you mean?" she blaz-
ed.
Wright had violated the first law
of the white man's world: Negroes
who think are "sassy." He had made
her aware of the fact that she had
asked a ridiculous question and Ne-
groes must not make their superiors
appear silly. There is the story of
the brickyard boss who had a dog.
The dog bit young Wright. He asked
the boss for medical aid and was
turned away with the blunt refusal:
"A dog bite can't hurt a nigger."
Then there was the time he broke
the jug of orange syrup.
"Words came instead of blows
and I relaxed.
"Yes sir," I said placatingly.
"It was my fault." My' tone whip-
ped him to a frenzy.
"You goddam right it was! he
yelled louder.
"I'm new at this," I mumbled,
realizing that I had said the wrong
thing, though I had been striving
to say the right.
"We're only trying you out," he
warned me.
"Yes, sir. I understand," I said.
He stared at me, speechless with
rage. I had said just one short
sentence too many. My words were
innocent enough, but they indicat-
ed, it seemed, a consciousness on
my part that infuriated white.
people.
The story of Shorty, the elevator
operator, will become a classic. The
brutal tale of how the white fellow
workers engineered a fight between
Wright and another Negro by lying to
both of them illustrates the depth to
which man can descend in bringing
about the debasement of human per-
sonality. Caldwell's amputation of
dog's tails in "Kneel to the Rising
Sun" stands high by comparison.
Black Boy does more than describe
the border land of conduct where
white meets black. It portrays the
social emptiness of- life within the
patterns of Negro culture. The con-
flict between middle class and proli-
tarian Negroes is no less horrifying
than that of black against white. The
inability of Wright's own family to
recognize and evaluate his aspira-
tions is not an uncommon situation
even in the best regulated white
homes, but it becomes the more poig-
nant when set against the background
of other conflicts.
Wright left the South not "to
forget the South, but so that some-
day I might understand it, might
come to know what its rigors had
done to me, to its children. I fled
so that the numbness of my de-
fensive living might thaw out and
let me feel the pain-years later
and far away-of what living in
the South had meant." Those who
read Uncle Tom's Children knew
that Wright would someday have
to write Black Boy. A sensitive,
creative artist must purge himself
of his personal bitterness before
he can go on to the realization of
his potential power. Black Boy is
Wright's catharsis.
-Mentor L. Williams
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
6
-
SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 1945
VOL. LV, No. 116
Publication in the Daily Official Bul--
letin is constructive notice to all mem-
bers of the University. Notices for the
Bulletin should be sent in typewritten
form to the Assistant to the President,
1021 Angell Hall, by 3:30 p. m. of the day
preceding publication (11:30 a. m. Sat-
urdays).
Notices
Change of Time: Effective at mid-
night Sunday, April 8, Central War
Time, one hour slower than Ann
Arbor city time (Eastern War Time),
will be officially adopted by the Uni-
versity, and at the same time all
officially fixed time schedules will be
moved back one hour. Thus classes
which have been stated as beginning
at 8, 9, and 10 a.m., Eastern War
Time, will henceforth meet at 7, 8,
and 9 a.m., respectively, Central War
Time, and corresponding changes
will be made for other class hours,
office hours, etc., throughout the
day. Announcements in the Daily
Official Bulletin, Weekly Calendar,
and other official publications after
April 8 will be made in terms of
Central War Time.
Instructors are invited to attend
the special meeting of the University
Senate on Monday, April 9, at 3:15
p.m. (CWT) in the Rackham Lecture
Hall for the purpose of receiving and
discussing the report of the Senate
Advisory Committee, "The Economic
Status of the Faculty."
Student Tea: President and Mrs.
Ruthven will be at home to students
Wednesday afternoon, April 11, from
3 to 5 o'clock (C.W.T.).
Group Hospitalization and Surgi-
cal Service: During the period from
April 5 through April 16, the Uni-
versity Business Office (Rm. 9, Uni-
versity Hall) will accept new appli-
cations as well as requests for chan-
ges in contracts now in effect. These
new applications and changes will
become effective May 5, with the first
payroll deduction on May 31. After
April 16 no new applications or
changes can be accepted until Octo-
ber, 1945.
Detroit Armenian Women's Club
Award: The Detroit Armenian Wo-
men's Club offers a scholarship award
of $100 for 1945-46, open for compe-
tition by undergraduate students of
Armenian parentage residing in the
Detroit Metropolitan district who
have had at least one year of college
work and who have demonstrated
both scholastic ability and excellence
of character. The award will be
made by the scholarship committee
of the club May 15, 1945. Applica-
tions will be received and forwarded
by F. E. Robbins. Assistant to the
President, 1021 Angell Hall.
Applicants for Combined Curric-
ula: Application for admission to a
Scouts Organization is going to be in
our office Monday, April 9, to inter-
view girls interested in Organiza-
tional. Work. If interested, call Bur-
eau of Appointments, University Ext.
371, for appointment.
For all students who have taken
application blanks for the Junior
Professional Assistant, we now have
the announcements in our office.
Bureau of Appointments.
Tickets for "Uncle Harry," mystery
melodrama by Thomas Job, will be
placed on sale tomorrow morning at
the box office, Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre. "Uncle Harry" will be pre-
sented by Play Production of the
Department of Speech for four per-
formances only, Wednesday through
Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. (C.W.
T.). Theatre box office hours will be:
Monday and Tuesday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.;
Wednesday through Saturday 9 a.m.-
7:30 p.m. (C.W.T.)
Lectures
University Lecture: Professor Ar-
cher Taylor, Professorof German,
University of California, will speak
on "Renaissance Scholars and Their
Books," Tuesday, April 10, at 3:15
p.m. (C.W.T.) in the Amphitheater
of the Rackham Building. The lec-
ture is under the auspices of the
Department of German. The public
is cordially invited.
Academic Notices
Students, College of Literature,
Science & the Arts: Applications for
scholarships should be made before
April 14. Application forms may be
obtained at 1220 Angell Hall and
should be filed at that office.
Concerts
Carillon Recital: Percival Price,
Universitk\ Carillonneur, will play the
first in a series of spring recitals at
3:15 E.W.T. (2:15 C.W.T.) this after-
noon on the Baird Memorial Carillon.
His program, including compositions
by Handel, Sir Hamilton Harty, and
Mozart, as well as a group of Amer-
ican airs, will be repeated at 7:15
E.W.T. (6:15 C.W.T.) Thursday eve-
ning, April 12.
5th Annual Michigan Massed Or-
chestra Concert, 190 players, Guy
Fraser Harrison conducting, Hill Au-
ditorium, 4:15 p.m. Complimentary.
Events Today
Council Meeting: There will be a
meeting of the Inter-Guild Council in
Lane Hall at 3:30 this afternoon.
The Congregational-Disciples Guild,
will meet at 5:00 p.m. at the First
Congregational Church. Following
the supper Mrs. H. L. Pickerill will
discuss BEFORE YOU GET EN-
GAGED. This is the first of the
Guild Series on LOVE AND MAR-
'T- s.-"a.] Wnmdi wll la th
BARNABY
O'Malley's still expanding. He's
moving into utilities and rails .. .
At. L , , . , ,. ,.
Stocks closed high, with those
six new O'Malley corporations
His program of sound, privately]
initiated expansion can mean
By Crockett Johnson
1'll admit, Barnaby,1,
nt times I nourish I
5