Tim MIIIHIGAN DAILY

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WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ItOUND:
And Who Is Francis Biddle?


The Pendulum


By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6-Along Philadelphia's
swank Main Line, they tell how the former
Prince of Wales, while dining among Quaker
City bluebloods, was asked: "Would you like to
meet Biddle?"
To which the Prince replied: "What's a
Aiddle?"
Ever since the Biddle-Littell row broke the
Justice Department wide open, a lot of people
are asking the same question: "What, who and
how is Francis Biddle?"
If you talk to his old friends on the Phila-
delphia Main- Line, they will tell you he is a
traitor to his class. If you talk to Norman Lit-
ell, his former Assistant Attorney General, he
will tell you Biddle is merely the stooge and pup-
pet of Tommy Corcoran. If you talk to some of
the newspaper publishers against whom Biddle
is bringing suit in the Associated Press case,
their remarks are almost unprintable.
But if you talk to the men who work with him
day in and day out in the Justice Department,
90 percent will tell you he is a shy, hesitant
person, who sometimes waits before making up
his mind but, once he is sure he is right, will
fight harder for the right and for the underdog
than any other Attorney General in recent
years.
Almost Too Liberal...
Shortly after Biddle came to Washington in
1934, FDR had occasion to wish his new man
weren't so liberal. The San Francisco Call-
Bulletin had fired a newspaperman, Dean S.
Jennings, in violation of the NRA labor code.
The President wasn't looking for a scrap with
the newspapers at that early date in his Admin-
tration, but Biddle, as chairman of the National
Labor Relations Board, one of the most thankless
obs in the country, ordered Jennings reinstated.
Biddle probably gets his instinct of battling for
;he underdog partly from the late Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes, whose secretary he was; partly
from Mrs. Biddle. Biddle has written a book on
Holmes, soon to be filmed in Hollywood. Mrs.
Biddle, a well-known poetess, writes under the
name of Katherine Garrison Chapin, one of her
poems having been set to music for the Phila-
ielphia Philharmonic Orchestra.
A Attorney General, Biddle has done a lot of
things that made his blueblood friends in Phila-
delphia writhe in anguish - prosecuting the in-
surance companies, seizing Montgomery-Ward,
bringing more anti-trust cases than any 'other
Attorney General in History. '
But there is one thing about which not many
of them know, with which they pi-obably would
agree. Though little publicized, Biddle's greatest
achievement has been in preserving civil liberties
in wartime.
In the last war, the Justice Department prose-
cuted 1,956 cases for seditious utterances. Some
newspapers were shut down. All sorts of people
were thrown into jail. In the Civil War, Abra-
ham Lincoln threw 200,000 people into jail with-
out trial or hearing. But in this war, Biddle has
prosecuted only 18 cases for sedition. And no
one has been held in jail without trial or hear-
ing.
The War and Navy Departments at one time
wanted Congress to pass a "Dora" or Defense of
the Realm Act similar to England's, under which
two members of Parliament have been jailed
without trial. But Biddle has blocked such an
act here.
He also buckey the Army regarding martial
law in Hawaii. And there you run up against
the fact that his young Assistant Attorney Gen-
eral, Norman Littell, now quarreling with him so
bitterly, did exactly the same thing. In fact,
Littell took the lead in the fight for civil law in
Hawaii, with Biddle's support.
Clash of Personalities
The inside of this violent clash of personali-
ties is that both men stand for the same things,
but Biddle is slower, more cautious, believes in
winning over his fellow Cabinet members in the
War and Navy Departments by persuasion if
possible. But Littell, brilliant, impatient, belli-
gerent, scorns persuasion, is never happier than
when publicly rowing with the Army or Navy.
For instance, the late Secretary of the Navy
Frank Knox, as honest as the day is long, nearly
fainted when Littell told Congressmen that the
Navy had perpetrated another Teapot Dome
;candal in leasing Elk Hills to Standard Oil of
California. Littell was right about the lease not

being good policy but it was an honest lease,
and there was no "little black bag" connected
with it, as in Harding's day. Frank Knox never
got over this reflection on his honesty.
Hitler's Ears
The London Daily Express thinks it has "in-
contestable proof" that a ringer has been run
in for Adolf Hitler. Photographs since the
assassination attempt in July, the Express ex-
plains, shows an increase of nearly a half-inch
in the ears, and "the ear stops developing at the
age of 21."
Maybe so. The Express may overlook, however,
that Adolf Hitler is a Superman, whose aural
morphology cannot be expected to follow the
norm of mere men. And if ever there was a
man, mere or super, whose ears should have un-
dergone elongation, it is that intuitive prophet
who thought the decadent democracies and mad
Russians would softly carpet the polished boots
of a certain Master Race.
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Again, Littell wanted to condemn the Savan-
nah Shipyards and claims that "Tommy the
Cork" Corcoran lobbied with Biddle against con-
demnation. But the real fact is that Littell
lost money for the Government in that case.
Corcoran had proposed a settlement whereby the
government would pay the shipyard owners
$1,000,000 for their property. Littell opposed.
And in a joint conference, Biddle sided with
Littell, as he nearly always did. He told him to
go ahead and try the case. Whereupon Littell
lost. A Savannah jury made the Government
pay not $1,000,000 but $1,378,368.6. The Gov-
ernment was out over $378,000.
Those are some of the facts which Littell,
brilliant but emotional, did not make clear in
his public blasts at his chief, the Attorney Gen-
eral.
(Copyright, 1944, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
I'D RATHER BE RIGHT:
Order in Belyihrni
By SAMUEL GRAFTON
NEW YORK, Dec. 6-I always enjoy those edi-
torials in the New York Times, and other
newspapers, which explain that the purpose of
British policy in Belgium and Greece is to keep
order. The result of British policy in both coun-
tries has been disorder, which reduces these
editorials to whimsies.
It is always on the day after a fatal conflict,
on the streets of Brussells or Athens, that these
editorials pop up in certain sections of the Amer-
ican press, explaining with straight faces that
the British must continue as they are doing, be-
cause, after all, they must k'eep order.
The gentlemen cry peace, peace. They explain
that while the government of Pierlot in Belgium
and Papendreou in Greece may not be completely
democratic, still we had better put up with them,
because they serve the function of preventing
chaos, and letting us get on with the war. It is a
good, practical explanation. One finds himself
nodding his head in agreement. Very good
argument.
But what, is that red stuff on the cobble-
stones? Twenty-one unarmed demonstrators
were killed Sunday in Athens, and a general
strike followed. Let's stop discussing never-
never land, and let us really look at Belgium
and at Greece. The plain truth is that in Bel-
gium and in Greece we have both unrepresent-
ative governments and disorder. We are get-
ting nothing for our penny. One could oppose
the regimes of Pierlot and Papandreou on high,
idealistic, democratic grounds. But it makes
an even stronger, more immediate argument to
oppose them on their own grounds. Their one
excuse for being is that they can keep order.
All right, captain, where's your order?
Why should we keep them in business when
they can't deliver the only thing they're supposed
to be good for?
If the British continue to support these two
governments, then it will become clear that they
don't mind disorder, so long as they have Pierlot
and Papandreou. It will be clear that they don't
really want order; they want P. and P. As the
story unwinds, the original moral argument for
support of P. and P. disappears; the British are
left without an argument; and all they have is
P. and P.
IT WILL BE remembered that, in the case of
France, both the British and ourselves were
quivery for a long time about recognizing Gen-
ral de Gaulle, because, we said, there was a
possibility that a number of Frenchmen were
against him. In that case, we not only respected
minority opinion in an occupied country; we
ven invented a minority opinion that didn't
exist; we were oh, so cautious, about finding a
government for France of which absolutely every
Frenchman would approve. It should be noted
that in Belgium and in Greece we have taken
exactly the opposite position. In both these
countries we are not only ignoring a strong
minority (or, more likely, majority) opinion; we
are making a kind of virtue of ignoring it; we
are rising above all that; we are being very
Roman and rugged about disregarding local
opinion, although the doubtful state of local
opinion is exactly the excuse we used for so long
a time to deny recognition to de Gaulle.

Some of the newspapers which are being so
strict about putting down Belgian and Greek dis-
sent, are the same newspapers which had their
doubts about recognizing de Gaulle, because they
didn't know whether all Frenchmen were for
him.
Shall we whisper it? 'There is a great fear
of popular movements in some sections of
western thought. Where we have overcome
that fear, as in France, observe, there is order!'
Where we have not overcome our fear, as in
Belgium and Greece, where we turn to P. and
P. for our answers, there is shooting in the
streets; and we find ourselves precipitating
revolutionary situations which no one wants,
not even the revolutionaries. We seem to
take a strange delight in fostering the social
turbulence that we hate; we cannot seem to
hold back from forcing the showdown which
we fear; and if a man from Mars were to mur-
mur that there seemed to be a kind of hysteri-
cal compulsion in our conduct, he might not be
so very wrong.
(Copyright, 1944, N. Y. Post Syndicate)

By BERNARD ROSENBERG
A neat and not too deceptive par-
allel may be drawn between the
Articles of Confederation and the
League of Nations. Under the Art-
icles our national government could
levy taxes without being able to col-
lect them, pass laws and not be able
to enforce them. Likewise, the League
which could favor economic sanc-
tions and demur when boundaries
were violated, had no power of en-
forcement behind it. What the Con-
stitution was in the way of providing
a backbone for the United States, an
international army can be for the
new league.
Before it was reduced to skeletal
proportions, the League of Na-
tions made some feeble efforts to
prevent war. But, this country,
conspicuous by its absence, had
done as much to sabotage Geneva
as England and France, not to say
Germany and Italy-the former
by playing power politics, the lat-
ter by withdrawal after aggression.
This time, unless the people's sen-
timents are totally disregarded,
our membership in a world organ-
ization will be insured. It is in
fact mandatory to the success of
any co-operative undertaking.
England and France must accept
the principle of majority rule-in
which case their power politics can
be no more effective than sectional
blocs in a national legislature. As
for withdrawal, it should be con-
sidered as illegal as secession of a
state from the union. That com-
parison is a fruitful one, by the way,
in talking to the self-appointed cus-
todians of our sovereignty. Every
state in the United States is sov-
ereign, yet it pays allegiance to the
federal government This can be done
on a world scale.
The word, "sovereignty" should
certainly be banished since it is pro-
ductive of nothing more than verbal
and surface argument. As Stuart
Chase and Professor Hayakawa have
pointed out in popularizing the sci-
ence of semantics, no word has an
intrinsic meaning and very few words
mean the same thing to any two peo-
ple. If we only thought in terms
of the common good, words like sov-
ereignty would not lie athwart the
path of progress.
The Mackinac Conference, at
which Republican Big Wigs en-
dorsed internationalism and then
injected a clause insisting upon
continued national sovereignty il-
lustrates the point. Senator Van-
denberg and his colleagues were
very proud of -the tongue-in-
cheek document they drew up for
American consumption. But, one
can see the lines of a future Sen-
atorial fight hardening around,
this misty concept.
If a mere quorum exists, seventeen
men can vote down the peace treaty
by some such technique as Henry Ca-
bot Lodge used last time. I do not be-
lieve this will occur to the extent
that America is made to stay entire-
ly out of the international sphere.
However, debate concerning the de-
gree ofsovereignty we shall retain
can lead us straight to the dark
room of isolationism. It can, for
instance, stop short of committing
this country to inclusion in a world
police force. It can choose to retain
the international Articles of Con-
federation under which, though its
representatives protested: 1) Japan
invaded Manchuria; 2) Italy invad-
ed Ethiopia; 3) Franco upset Span-
ish republicanism with Axis aid; and
4) Hitler caused all hell to break
loose.
The notion of adjudicating in-
ternational disputes fell apart.
The machinery of co-oporation
went to pieces-and the world
came out at its seams while the
grisliness of war stamped itself
ineradicably upon us.

But for the presence of individuals
like Jefferson and Madison and
Franklin the United States would
have struggled impotently to attain
its present stature. Surely there
ought to be enough men of good will
in the world today who could meet
in a Constitutional Convention, pool
their mental resources, and come up
with something better than the ster-
ility that has charactedized our
times.*
As I write these words they seem
to come back and mock me. When
hostilities broke out in the autumn of
1939 everyone used to talk in a sim-
ilarly idealistic vein-and there was
another spurt of hopefulness upon
our tardy entrance into the war.
But as it drags on-with the worst
yet to come-honesty causes the ob-
servor to express his scepticism.
Mortimer J. Adler analyses the polit-
ical situation and concludes that only
with nationalism abolished can we
have peace. But he does not expect

this to happen for five hundred
years or so. Five hundred years!
In the meantime what has be-
come of the democratic world our
leaders profess to desire? Are we
fighting a Pacific war only for the
restoration of English, Dutch, and
French empires or a European war
only for the ressurrection of mon-
archical government? Did you
feel the same nauseous premon-
itions of the future I experienced
when the news came in of the
Athens massacre?-Athens, ' the
cradle of Western civilization.
But this threatens to get too far
afield. Our thought for the day
is Carl Becker's, "How new will the
better world be?"
o~~~~tte
2 i-de dor
IT IS indeed necessary for a stu-
dent to question a professor's be-
liefs and not to be led into false
reasoning by him just because he
happens to be an intellectual super-
ior. But Mavis Kennedy, in her edi-
torial of December 1st, did not prove
herself worthy of this position for
two reasons: one, that she based her
opinions on a few introductory lec-
tures; and two, that she was guilty
of misrepresenting a professor's
views. Moreover, the two arguments
expounded by her were entirely un-
correlated.
Professor White specifically stat-
ed, in fact pleaded, that the stu-
dents in Anthropology 157 do not
question him so early in the seme-
ster, or be too hasty in forming
opinions of his theories which are
founded on historical facts and
statistics. These facts and statistics
are an integral force in our cul-
tural evolution.
Miss Kennedy places Professor
White one step above advocates of
such ramblings-on as, "Why should
a lousy German be left alive when
American boys are dead?" After
White's lectures it is perfectly ob-
listening to only one of Professor
vious that this practical and
straight-thinking man' (and I don't
use these adjectives derogatorily)
maintains a far more enlightened
attitude.
It is not necessary to go into the
rest of the distortions and irrele-
vancies that Miss Kennedy pre-
sented. That she finds it difficult'
to comprehend these stimulating
lectures is apparent. Instead, her
warped conception proves what
Professor White repeatedly re-
marks, namely, that the steps are
so simple and logical to grasp that
bewilderment often results. Cer-
tainly, let us cling to our dreams,
but let us build them on the rock
of realism instead of on the shift-
ing sands of sentimentality.
-Kay Engel, Grad.
IDAILY OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
THURSDAY, DEC. 7, 1944
VOL. LV, No. 31
All notices for The Daily Official Bul-
letin are to be sent to the Office of the
Assistant to the President, 1021 Angell
Hall, in typewritten form by 3:30 p. m.
of the day preceding Its publication,
except on Saturday when the notices
should be submitted by 11:30 a. m.
Notices
To All Members of the University

Senate: The first regular meeting of
the University Senate for the current
school year will be held on Monday,
Dec. 11, at 4:15 p.m. in the Rackham
Amphitheatre. The agenda is as
follows:
Report of the Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs-
A. D. Moore, Chairman.
Election of Three Members of the
Senate Advisory Committee on Uni-
versity Affairs.
Report on Contracts with the
Armed Forces - Professor M. L.
Niehuss.
Statement by President Alexander
G. Ruthven.
Notice in re University Property
Removed from the City or off Uni-
versity Property: Any University rep-
resentative having charge of Uni-
versity property should give notice
in advance to the Inventory Clerk,
Business Office, University Hall,
when such property is to be taken
outside the City of Ann Arbor or off
University. property for use in any
University project. A loss recently
occurred on which the University had
no insurance because of the fact that
no notice had been given to the
Inventory Clerk that such property
had been taken to the location where
it was in use and the property was

and Marine trainees (other than
Engineers and Supply Corps) will be
due Dec. 9. Department offices will
be provided with special cards and
the Office of the Academic Counsel-
ors, 108 Mason Hall, will receive
these reports and transmit them to
the proper officers.
Amended Notice for World War II
Veterans: Dr. Bruce M. Raymond of
the U.S. Veterans Administration,
Dearborn, Mich., will be available for
consultation in the office of the Vet-
erans Service Bureau, 1514 Rackham
Building, Friday, Dec. 8 instead of
Wednesday, Dec. 6 as previously
announced.
To all men with Scouting experi-
ence who want to serve the campus
and community: Alpha Phi Omega
service fraternity is still accepting
members. Membership is open to all
men who have had experience in
Scouting. The final meeting pre-
liminary to formal initiation is this
evening at 7:30 in the Michigan
Union. All those who are eligible
and interested in membership in
Alpha Phi Omega are cordially in-
vited to this meeting.
Academic Notices
At the regular Seminar meeting of
the Department of Chemical and
Metallurgical Engineering today at
4:30 in Rm. 3201, East Engineering
building, Mr. William Akers will
speak on the subject "Extractive Dis-
tillation." Anyone interested is cor-
dially invited to attend.
Physical Education for Women-
Riding Classes: For those students
who have missed riding classes there
will be opportunity for make-ups on
the following days:
Thursday, Dec. 7 at 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 14 at 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 4:30 p.m.
The group will meet at the
Women's Athletic Building.
Geometry Seminar: This afternoon
at 4:15 in Rm. 3001 Angell Hall, Mr.
E. H. Spanier will speak on Postu-
lates of Inversive Geometry. Tea at
4.
Bacteriology Seminar will meet
Friday, Dec. 8 at 8:30 a.m. in Rm.
1564 East Medical Building. Subject:
General Problems in Coordinating
Research. All interested are invited.
Concerts
Carillon Recital: Percival Price,
University Carillonneur, will be heard
in another of his current series of
recitals at 7 tonight.rHis program
will include the Andante Movement
From the "Surprise" symphony by
Haydn, five British folk songs, and
Mendelssohn's War March of the
Priests.
Exhibitions
Architecture Building, main corri-
dor cases, through Dec. 9, "Howan
Advertisement Is Designed." An ex-
hibit furnished by courtesy of Young
& Rubicam, Inc., New York.
Events Today
Varsity Debate: There will be a
meeting at 4 p.m. in Rm. 4203 Angell
-Hall.
Social Ethics Seminar will meet
this evening at 7:30 in the Lane Hall
Library. Mr. Franklin H. Littell,
director of Lane Hall, will discuss
"The Use of Force in Achieving
Social Ends." All those interested
are cordially invited.
The Regular Thursday Evening
Record Conrert will be held in the
Men's Lounge of the Rackham Build-

ing at 7:45. The program will fea-
ture Beethoven's Leonora Overture
No. 2; Beethoven's Concerto in G
Major for violin and orchestra; and
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
Coming Events
The Geological Journal Club will
meet in Rm. 4065, Natural Science
Bldg., at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8.
Mr. C. N. Swinney will discuss "Nor-
thern California quicksilver deposits"
and Mr. S. N. Davies "The areal
geology of the manganese deposits of
Guisa-Los Negros, Oriente, Cuba."
All interested are cordially welcome.
Inter-Racial Association: There will
be a meeting of the executive board
of the Inter-Racial Association on
Friday, Dec. 8, at 4 o'clock in the
Union. Members of the board should
bring their eligibility cards at this
time.
Dancing Lessons: The USO dan-
cing class will be held Friday evening
from 7 to 8 o'clock.
U.S.O. Friday Night Dance: There
will be a dance at the USO club this
Friday night from 8 to midnight.
There will be refreshments. All ser-
vicemen and USO Junior Hostesses
are invited.
The Weekly Lane Hall Luncheon
will be held Saturday at 12:30. An
informal discussion period will fol-
low.nReservationscan be4made by
calling 4121, Extension 2148.

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BARNABY
M'boy. I've solved the cigarette problem!
. The shortage is caused by adverfising
writers! You see, they never write about

By Crockett Johnson


So, at present, ninety-nine percent of the
tobacco grown is utterly wasted! ... Now,
my plan is to force copywriters to describe

The O'Malley plan is drastic. Yes. But
it will double production! And, while
we may hear a scream or two from the
J. e t f I - -- . .6I I

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