L THIE IICHIGAN DAILY .... . ,1 y - T---- , _ - ..A G.......T- - ----------- y Fifty-Fifth Year WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND: Army Finally Gets New ChItfes Letteir t the lEditor it Mdted and managed by students of the University of M1ihigan under the authority of the Board in Control. of Student Publications. Evelyn Phillips Stan Wallace Ray Dixon Hank Mantho Dave Loewenberg Mavis Kennedy Editorial Staff .d .ri . .Managing Editor City Editor Associate Editor Sports Editor . . . Associate Sports Editor Women's editor Business Stafff Lee Amer . . . Business Manager l arJrra Chadwick Assocate Business Mgr June Pomering . . . Associate Business Mgr. Telephone 23-244 Member of The Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of al news dispatches credited to it or oitherwise credited in this newspaper. All rights of re- publication 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, $4.50, by mail, $5.25. Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1943-44 NIGHT EDITOR: JENNY JAITCH Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. it's-A EVERY aspect of yesterday's literary college senior election was a complete success except for the utter lack of interest on the part of the seniors Election machinery as it was revised by the Men's Judiciary Council worked smoothly. The ballot boxes were open continuously for seven hours. They were adequately manned all during the day and plenty of ballots were on band. Furthermore full publicity was given to the entire election proceedings and all the candi- dates for it was charged after the VBall elec- tion that such was not the case. And still only 140 votes were cast. We can only say that those who voted did their simple duty as citizens of the campus com- munity. There is little that can be said for those who did not vote. There doesn't seem to be a simple formula to put across the fundamental responsibility that each student should have for the affairs of the campus. We only hope that this was a lapse of mem- ory on the part of those who failed to vote and that it is not indicative of campus spirit to come for the spring term. - Stan Wallace etera ns T SEEMS that it's about time the Veterans Administration handled more efficiently the subsistence allowance allotted to veterans at- tending the University under the G.. Bill and Public Law 16. Many of these ex-servicemen have been attending the University for two terms and no funds are forthcoming. The defiiciency does not lie in the provisions. of the law, but apparent misadministration by the Veterans Administration. One veteran wrote in to inform the Administration that if he did not get the money, he would be forced to discontinue his studies at the University. In reply, he received a letter dated Jan. 26, 1945 which read: "In accordance with the provisions of Public Law 346 (G.I. Bill), you have been awarded subsistence allowance in the amount of $50.00 per month commencing Nov. 1, .1944." The next day, he received an- other letter from the Veterans Administration dated Jan. 30, 1945 which stated that the matter will be referred to the division he had heard from the day before.. Result: at the time of this writing, no checks or legal tender! Seemingly, a practical solution would be for the veterans in question and their organizations to barrage the Administration with complaints on their behalf. Should this method be ineTec- tive, they might get their congressional pressure groups to bend efforts toward getting Congress to amend these laws to set up effective admin- istrative machinery. Today, the problem is comparatively simple, but when the war ends and thousands of veter- ans will want to avail themselves of an educa- tion to make a place for themselves in the post- war world, the situation might be in a state of confusion beyond repair. Therefore, the time to act is now while things are still in the embryonic stage. Most of the colleges and universities, the University of Michigan being an outstanding example, have established their end of the responsibility on a sound business basis. And the Veterans Administration might well follow their example ,- Sylvan M. Berman Poll Tax "WITH only irrlevant differences to be ironed oint i conference, the Georgia legislature has voted to aboish the poll tax. Ells Arnall, By DREW PEARSON ASHINGTON-It has now been nearly a year since this column revealed how the U.S. Army had procrastinated before ordering the, quick-release parachute for American avia- tors which General Newton Longfellow of the Eighth Air Force had requested six months prev- ions Although Army officials at first denied the need of the quick-release parachute, they later reversed themselves and have been supplying it to troops in the combat area. However, the process of fulfilling General Longfellow's re- quest and also of manufacturing the new har- ness has been so slow that most troops in non- combat areas are still using the triple-release parachte harness. 'his is fastened with three buckles which an aviator must unloose imnmediately he hits the ground and in some cases while still in the air, especially if he is about to land in the water or on rough terrain. Otherwise he may be dragged. to death. A tragic illustration of this occurred in the African desert near Cairo not long ago when six men died because of the triple-release para- chute harness. Jumping from 2,50 feet, the men were caught in a 50-mile-an-hour Sahara sand- storm which seized their parachutes before they could unfasten the three buckles, They were dragged as much as five miles across the desert. One of the crew who lived reported: "I was floating and didn't know how far I was from the ground. I tried to undo my 'chute Iut couldn't. Fortunately, I landed in a tree.'' tiouse of Lords hebae n ... W IIILE in London last month scholarly Con- gressman George Outland of California stopped in at the House of Lords, spent a brief busman's holiday studying parliamentary pro- cedure there. He entered just as Lord Swinton, Britain's commercial .airline expert, was con- cluding an address on post-war air routes in which he warned: "Britain must take extreme care lest she be unprenared to muscle in' on post-war trade or air routes." Outland decided Congress and Parliament don't differ too much when another Lord, whom he was unable to identify, arose to remark with great solemnity: "We are all extremely grateful for these words from the distinguished Lord Swinton, who has but recently returned from the Inter- national Aviation Conference in Chicago. I offer my congratulations. 1f he learned ioth- ing else while in the United States, I am pleas- ed to notice that Lord Swinton was able to increase his vocabua ry by two words." t ooz Woode, , L - EPRESENTATIVES of the Army surgeon gen- eral's office have been meeting in Chicago with manufacturers of artificial limbs in order to reach agreement on standard limbs to be furnished servicemen. Standardization of arti- ficial limbs will be extremely helpful to veterans, but this achievement alone will be only a small part of the reform necessary. At the Walter Reed Hospital and at Forest Glen Convalescent home, both in Washington, several hundred amputation cases have been confined for months, many of them disgusted with the treatment they have received. One gripe is that after their amputations have been sufficiently healed the men are issued temporary fiber legs to learn to walk on. Not only are these heavy but they arc so poorly made that they sometimes break. One veteran who lost both legs went home on fur- lough to Rochester, N.Y.-and had to be sent back in an ambulance because both his arti- ficial legs had broken. He was issued another pair of temporary legs. But one night these also went out of commission and he had to drag himself by his hands for half a city block to get home. Another even more serious difficulty is that the boys have to learn to walk all over again when they are issued their permanent legs. This is because the temporary legs first given them are wooden or fiber legs which do not bend. Once a man has learned to walk on this temporary unbending leg, it is difficult to readjust himself to the permanent leg which is articulated at the knee. LowIPriced Leg's VETERANS make no complaint of the perma- nent legs issued by the Army. If a service- man is in non-combatant service hnd is to go back to clerical work in the Army, the Medical Corps gives him an excellent artificial leg sup- plied by the country's most experienced manu- facturers. But the veteran who is going back to civilian life gets his artificial leg not from the Medical Corps but from the Veterans' Administration. And the Veterans' Administration so far has refused to pay for the best artificial limbs. Whereas the Ariy pays from $225 to $275 for willow and aluminum full legs, and from $150 to $175 for the best quality half-legs, the Veterans' Administration refuses to go above $205 for full legs, buying most of them for about $185. Half- legs purchased by the Veterans' Administration ar ;priced from $110 by $125. As a result, servicemen frequently discard the leg supplied by the Veterans Administration in order to buy their own. Result of all this discomfort and insecurity regarding boti the tem uporary and permanent legs is that the men are far from their best during the difficult readjustment period when they should be getting used to normal life. Another difficulty is the scarcity of Army technicians trained to handle artificial limbs. The situation got so serious last summer that the Adjutant-General's office had to send out a special directive to find servicemen who had been artificial limb technicians in civilian life. Some were found driving trucks, some in the infantry, some in the artillery. Meanwhile these highly skilled jobs were being performed in Army hos- pitals by men with very brief training. Now, however, more skilled men have been brought back to this highly important job. Capital Chitff .. . THE U.S. government has become the largest merchandiser of goods in the world. Bar- gains are going dirt cheap in a dozen surplus property depots located throughout the cun try . . . At Washington, D.C., you can buy 5,426 pajama coats; also 187 bed spreads; 6,112 pairs of gloves, and 782 canvas folding basins . . . At Chicago the government is ready to sell 42,496 nurses' neckties, all brand new, together with 42,333 used nurses neckties . .. At Louisville, Ky., anyone who wants them can buy cheap 128,100 eye shields. Or if you dont' want the eye shields at Louisville, another 4,999 eye shields are locat- ed at Toledo. At Chicago, you can buy 12,446 brand new cases to hold flags ..At Fort Worth, Tex., 280 pairs of sandals are for sale; also at Port Worth, 35,998 cotton butchers aprons - - - (Gopyright, 1945. Bell Syndicate) I'D RATHER BE RIGHT: Negative Approaeli By SAMUEL GRAFTON NEW YORK-No bells have been rung in the United States to celebrate the fall of Man- ila; no horns have been blown. The almost total absence of a national celebration is mystifying. Aside from a few ceremonies conducted by de- voted veterans' organizations, there has been no organized public jubilation of any kind. This has been our pattern through the war. We and our allies, liberated almost the whole of France, but we did not light a single bonfire. Ii would have been worth the wood. I wonder why we are reluctant to celebrate. It was not always so. An almost hysterical wave of enthusiasm swept the United States in May, 1898, when Admiral Dewey potted the ships of the Spanish navy, like sitting ducks, in Manila Bay. The name Manila at that time meant almost nothing to us, but "Dignified Senators Forget Their Dignity And Yell 'Hip, llooray!'," according to a headline of the day, preserved by Mr. Mark Sullivan. in his "Our Times." Nobody went joyously out of control in Washington this week. Part of the answer is to be found in the ad- ministration's fear of good news. It is known that goods news from the war fronts hurts fac- tory production, sharply and immediately; there is a slackening; there is more absenteeism; there is more quitting. Our factory managers are in the position of working constantly for victories, but being deathly afraid of the news of victories, for fear that news of victories will impede their efforts to work for more victories. It is a strange war effort that needs defeat to thrive on, crying the blues on its way to glory. Here is where we pay off for some of our negative attitudes toward the war, and toward the world that is to come out of the war. We might have had a national service act, truly mobilizing the home front, and then we might have been less afraid of good news on the road to victory; and we might have had a promise of 60,000,000 jobs, backed by Congress, and then we might have been less afraid of the final victory itself. But we have not dealt in these joyous affirmations, and if you would see the result, note the careworn and even dribblepuss manner in which we greet our own suecesses. We have not held out before our- selves the prospect of a world to win; only the danger of a world to lose. THE SAME'problems seem to exist in the Army, in which, from all reports, the orientation program is thin. A commanding officer is ob- liged to devote only one hour a month to answer- ing such basic soldiers' questions as where am I, how did I get into this brown suit, and what happens when I get out of it? More time can be used for the purpose, at the commanding officer's option; but the tendency seems to be to keep the program down. The British devote about three times as many hours per month to this work as we do. And, basically, or morale program is thin because the only story we have to tell our men is that our country was in danger. As the danger lessens, we have less to tell them. Our negative approach to morale gives us less and less to fight for, the closer we cane to victory. We are short-changing ourselves on the great affirmations. Ours is the only major Allied country~in which the war seems to be only something we must get over with, in order to get back to exactly where we were before; elsewhere the war is a positive instrument for liberation and progress. Those who insist there must be no chaige, not even a promise of jobs, must take respm- sibility for that curious domestic atmosphere in which the fall of Wallace makes a bigger splash than the fall of Manila. (Copyright 1945, New York Post. yfidlici,) UST our beloved university always have a fascistic administration? Does it have the right to dehy con- stitutional rights to its faculty and students? Does it have the right to deny freedom of speech, of politi- cal conviction, of the press, of reli- gion, of equal opportunity, and of academic freedom? It cannot be denied that the administration of this university has done, and is threaten- ing to do, all these things many times over. fts record, in this respect, is long and black. It has admittedly expelled students for their political convictions. It is common knowledge! that the Michigan Daily cannot print that of which the university admini- stration does not approve. Most graduate schools in this university use a "quota system" to restrict the admittance of such "undesirables" as Jews and Negroes. Must admittedly competent English professors of twenty-five years experience use only "approved" textbooks and methods? Must the meetings of the publicly elected Board of Regents be secret? President Ruthven's statement on the requested resignations of Profes- sors Wenger and Dahlstrom gave only, the procedure by which a decision was reached, omitting any concrete definite reasons for that decision. Why all this secrecy? If his action is motivated by a genuine interest in t;m wC«elfaire of the university, its fac- ulty and students, and the people of the Sate of Michigan, then why should he be afraid to make public ihis reasons? 'The University of Mich- igan is a public-supported institution; lhence, the public has a right to know what goes on in it and why. For over three years in the south- west Pacific I fought for freedom. Maybe we should begin our fight at home. We hear of the suppres- sion of constitutional rights and i 'eedomn at Texas and Columbia. Btt can Ae say "It can't happen here?" It can, and has, and will c (O inue unless something is done to stop this blackening of Michi- gan's fair name. 'he essence of my protest has ""lready reverber- Mordl, Eth~ical Issues ., "'" ''" "" -- -Exhibition Vi SANTAYANA, the great aesthe- uician, were dead (no indelicacy ICoElle. of Ar