PAGE TWO
THE MIC141GA N D A T.V
SATIUDAY. IANTIARUV1219441~
.a as i 1 a a v as a ll t> 1 .Ll tl 1 .L 1 "
cii G.itiLii dt : VCA.11; 1 .ki "24'
I
Fix Dath eily
Fifty-Sixth Year
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND:
How Steel Got Price Increase
E I;I
Editedand managed by students of the. University of
Michigan under the authority of the Board of Control
of Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Ray Dixon . .
Robert Goldman
Betty Roth . .
Margaret Farmer
Arthur J. Kraft
Bill Mullendore,
Mary Lu Heath
Ann Schutz
Dona Guimaraes
. . . . . . . . Managing Editor
. . . . . . . . . City Editor
. . . . . . . . Editorial Director
. . . . . . . Associate Editor
. . . . . . . . . . Sports Editor
.Associate Sports Editor
. . . . . . . . . Women's Editor
. . . . Associate Women's Editor
Business Staff
Dorothy Flint . . . . . . . . . Business Manager
Joy Altman . . . . . . . Associate Business Mgr.
Telephone 23-24-1
Member of The Associated Press
The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use
tor re-publication 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 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, 1945-46
NIGHT EDITOR: CLAYTON DICKEY
Editorials published in The Michigan Daily
are written by members of The Daily staff
and represent the views o the writers only.
New China
A WHOLE generation has grown up amidst the
civil strife which China has suffered for 18
years. Sincere efforts of Communist and Kuo-
mintang leaders and the mediation of General
George C. Marshall have resulted in a long
overdue truce. The road is clear to peace in
China.
All the differences are probably not yet rec-
onciled; all the tenseness cannot be quickly
relaxed. However, devoting its enormous re-
sources to peaceful pursuits rather than war
waste, China can and should develop into one
of the great world democracies.
The great masses of Chinese population are re-
putedly democratic. Three decades ago they at-
tempted to throw off the yoke of century-old
feudalism. They enjoyed only partial success.
With the whole world reconverting, the atmos-
phere is more conducive to complete success now
that the burden of war has been removed.
The Chiang government is encouraging na-
tional unity in its program for the new order.
Freedom of person, conscience, speech, pub-
lication and association and safeguard against
illegal arrest form an adequate basis for a
new China. In addition, political parties will
be able to function openly and an election has
been promised.
We in America, who have a background of
more than 150 years in the democratic experi-
ment, eagerly hope for its success in China. But
more than this, we must help when we can with
money, material and good will.
-Mal Roemer
Sentinels of Society
LAST SUNDAY the Detroit Free Press ran a
small news article under the headline, "De-
troit Group Organizes to Fight 'Regimenta-
tion' ". The article informed the public that a
group of Detroit businessmen and professional
men have banded together to protect America
from socialism. They call themselves the So-
ciety of Sentinels and hope to become a national
organization someday. To help their "hope"
they have begun a vigorous campaign, usually
appealing through newspaper advertisements.
These earnest souls are frightfully worried
about the condition of the United States, es-
pecially since 1933, a significant date in their
estimation. They feel it their chosen duty to
"educate the average man to the evils of the
present American trend to state socialism".
"State sovereignty and free enterprise are
keys to American democracy which must be re-
stored and protected," said Edward C. Fielder,
SOS organizer. The proven fact that free
enterprise remains 'free' only with some gov-
ernmental interference seems to have been ig-
nored or unknown by Mr. Fielder.
The Society of Sentinels have an active pro-
gram for the -purpose of restoring democarcy to
the United States. They have already requested
that President Truman repeal such legislation
as the Wagner Labor Relations Act, Wages and
Hours Act, OPA price controls, Social Security
and abolish most Federal aid to states. It is
almost impossible to believe that a reactionary
program such as this could gather in enough
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON.-Most of President Truman's
appointments are very brief. Senators get
5 minutes with him. Congressmen get from five
to 15 minutes. Cabinet members frequently get
only 15 minutes.
So this week eyebrows went up when the
White House bulletin board listed OPAdminis-
trator Chester Bowles for a full hour with Presi-
dent Truman. Obeservers knew that the heat
was on to increase the price of steel, and sell to
inflation's No. 1 enemy on giving the nation its
first big inflationary shot in the arm.
When Bowles entered the President's office,
the die was already cast. Truman had decided
that steel prices were going up. His job was to
sell the idea to Bowles. Truman himself had
been sold by his old friend, reconversion czar
John Snyder of St. Louis, who in turn had been
wined and dined by the steel people in Pitts-
burgh.
Chester Bowles also had talked with big steel
leaders. His talks were far more energetic, more
persuasive than Snyder's. Bowles once ran one
of the best advertising firms in the nation, is an
excellent salesman. All his salesmanship was
turned on big steel leaders.
"You are going to have a bigger margin of
profit than you realize," he told them. "You
are now working 44 hours in the mills and 52
hours in your captive mines. When you drop to
40 hours, you will net a big saving in overtime.
The price of scrap iron is now at ceiling. It will
drop in the spring, which means more saving.
Production per man went up to 10 per cent after
the last war. It will do the same after this war,
which will save you $100,000,000 alone. You can't
tell what your profits will be. So why not try out
a new increased wage scale without a sharp
price hike? Try it out for six months-then come
back and we'll examine the whole question again.
If you need a price increase then we'll give it to
you."
"After the last war, steel wages soared even
without union pressure," Bowles summarized.
"So did prices. And once inflation gets going,
you'll have labor coming back until they get,
not a 30 per cent increase in wages, but 50
per cent or even 75 per cent. You can't tell
where this thing will stop."
Steel Says "No"
STEEL leaders -shrugged their shoulders.
Bowles offered them a price increase of $2.50
per ton to compensate for low pre-war prices on
certain types of special steel. But big steel lead-
ers were convinced from their talks with John
Snyder that they could get considerably more.
He had let the cat out of the bag that Truman
could not and would not afford a strike. The ad-
ministration's bargaining power was gone.
So, with the battle already lost, Chester
Bowles went to the White House. He made no
resignation threats-though some of his junior
advisers had urged him to resign if he lost the
inflation battle. But he did warn the Presi-
dent quietly, fervently, that this would be the
first great break in the inflation dyke.
If steel goes up, every other industry using
steel will come back to the OPA for a price in-
crease, Bowles warned-and will be entitled to
get it. The automobile people will come back and
want higher prices. So will the hardware peo-
ple, the farm machinery people, and so on down
the line until you have a whole series of price
boosts. Then labor 'comes back for more wage
increases and inflation is on.
The President, however, had made up his mina,
"Do your best," he told Bowles, as the inter-,
view ended. "You know we're all behind you."
NOTE-How much Truman's right-hand ad-
viser and close personal friend, vivacious
George Allen, had to do with increasing the
price of steel is a White House secret. George
Allen is a director of Republic Steel and an in-
timate friend of labor-baiting Tom Girdler,
whose company staged the famous Chicago
massacre when the CIO tried to organize his
mills.
John, Snyder Forg-ot
D ECISION to give a fat hike to Steel was com-
municated to the cabinet at a White House
luncheon next day. The announcement was to be
made at 4 p.m. that day.
One hour after lunch this fact leaked to
Phil Murray's Steel Workers Union. Also it
T HOUGHT...
- ON S E CON D
By Ray Dixon
WE NOTE with interest the on-the-surface
shift in Detroit newspaper editorial phil-
osophy. The Free Press, which has been among
the "give Truman a chance" papers has sudden-
ly shifted to being almost violently opposed to
his policies in general and his speech to the
nation a week ago in particular.
* * *
The News, on the other hand, has been
actively promoting Truman's request that the
public should write their congressmen. We
don't get it. Only sane note in the situation is
the Hearstian Detroit Times labeling anti-
MacArthur sentiment as "communistic."
leaked out that fumbling John Snyder planned
to announce the price hike without first get-
ting a commitment from the steel companies
as to how much wage increase they could give
labor. In other words, he planned to throw
away his chief bargaining power again.
Frantically, Phil Murray's office called Secre-
tary of Labor Schwellenbach.
"The Secretary of Labor is very busy today,"
replied the young lady who guards his office.
"He can't see or talk to anyone this afternoon."
"Tell him that a mere :iandui of 700,000
steel workers who are going out on strike Mon-
day have some ideas they want to get to him,"
shot back one of Murray's aides. Finally he
got through to Schwellenbach.
It was just in time. Newsmen had gathered
to receive the 4 p.m. release which naive John
Snyder planned to issue, announcing the new
price of steel without getting an agreement on
wages. Schwellenbach stopped the release.
He got Snyder to go back and talk to big steel
again-this time regarding wages.
(Copyright, 1946, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
I'D RATHER BE RIGHT:
Splits vs. Unity
By SAMUEL GRAFTON
THE NEW REPUBLICAN LINE is that the
Democratic party is badly split, and incapable
of governing, and that the President's recent
attack on Congress proves it. Who was the Pres-
ident attacking, ask the Republicans demurely,
except his own committee chairmen? It's a fam-
ily fight; and the Republican party (through
such spokesmen as Senator Taft) puts itself for-
ward as a party which is not split, but meritori-
ously whole. This is a good formulation, neat
as a drugstore package; but it doesn't tell quite
enough.
For the country itself is so divided on the
issues raised by Mr. Truman that any party
which isn't split on them can be in that happy
condition only because it leaves out a lot of
people; it is split off to start with, which is
why it isn't split from within. If the Republi-
can party had as adherents two or three na-
tion-wide labor unions, it would be just as
split as the Democrats; it hasn't and so it isn't.
As a matter of fact there are Republicans who
are worried about Republican unity, who regard
it as too perfect, and lacking in that variation,
shade, fissure and patch which give the ap-
pearance of life.
Senator Wayne Morse, of Oregon, has let loose
a tremendous attack against the leaders of his
own party; he has denounced what he calls the
"Ohio gang" for providing a reactionary leader-
ship which, he says, has kept millions of Ameri-
cans out of Republican ranks. Senator Morse
might be accused of fomenting a split in the
Republican party; what he is actually trying
to do is to break open a door so that more people
can get in. The party is in the curious position
of needing a split before it can hope to grow very
much bigger; it has had too much internal har-
mony, and only a fight will prosper it.
PERHAPS the fight will come; for Senator
Morse's speech is not a one-shot; it is (Wash-
ington hears) the opening gun in a formal war,
designed to block the nomination of Mr. Bricker
in 1948.
A number of reporters have leaped upon the
incident to say it proves that the Republican
party is just as badly split as the Democratic;
but in this they are merely giving way to a
passion for neatness, and a lust for compari-
sons; it isn't so. As compared with the truly
high figures in the Republican party, with
Taft, Bricker, Brownell, and Dewey, the liberal
opposition, symbolized by Morse, Newbold Mor-
ris, Ball and Stassen, lacks size and reach; it
is quite tiny.
And Mr. Taft is working hard as a kind of
one-man Ejection Committee, tossing liberal vot-
ers off the Republican premises. As fast as Mr.
Morse brings them in at one entrance, he throws
them out at another. In his recent radio speech
attacking the President, Mr. Taft made it clear
that he considers the full employment bill to be
a "Soviet idea," that health insurance is "a left-
wing Communist proposal" etc., etc.; and voters
who believe in these ideas will hardly be con-
verted to the Republican party by being told to
just go around to the side door and ask for Mr.
Morse.
The Democratic party is, by comparison, really
split, deeply split; but so is the country, and
when the Democratic party reaches a compromise
within itself, it is as if the country had reached
a compromise, angl that is the best explanation'
of why the party wins national elections. The
Republican boast of unity is a dangerous boast,
for in a democracy, unity of yiewpoint on the
part of any group usually means speciality of
viewpoint; it is generally a unity attained by
exclusion, which is an unhandy thing around
election time.
Nothing would do more to increase confi-
dence in the Republican party than a truly
massive fight over policy within its ranks; but
it is to be doubted if the Ohio grouping will
give up its control over this last snug nest
where no man disagrees, this island of assent,
this haven for men who hate regimentation
and think alike.
(Copyright, 1946, N.Y. Post Syndicate)
OFF T FENCE
By LEONARD COHEN
A FEW days ago I spoke to one of
the officers of the Detroit Civil
Rights Federation about the present
status of the case of Fletcher Mills,
the 18 year old Negro share-cropper
wanted in Alabama for "assault with
intent to murder." Mills had quar-
reled with his landlord, a Mr. T. R.
Terry, who had tried to settle the ar-
gument by striking Mills over the
head with a 3 foot wooden club
which was used to move logs around.
Mills, in self-defense, stabbed Terry
on the arm with a pen finife.
Mills then heard Terry's wife call
for her son to get the gun, and so he
left for home. Three armed men, two
of them Terry's brother and son-in-
law, went to Mills' home in search
of him. Fearing a mob might find
him, Mills fled to Detroit where he
was picked up by the county Sheriff's
Office on the assault with intent to
murder warrant.
Since Mills' arrival in Detroit his
sister has received a letter from his
wife stating that on two occasions
mobs have come to the farm look-
ing for Mills. In her communica-
tion Mrs. Mills stated: "Don't come
back on this side of the river be-
cause the mob crowd say that
wherever the sun shines that is
where they will lay him down."
My informant told me that already
there had been four legal hearings
on the case and that the final hear-
ing would be at 4 p.m. Thursday.
He said that pressure on the Gov-
ernor to refuse to extradite Fletcher
Mills had been strong and had in-
cluded telegrams, letters, postcards
and dozens of delegations from Re-
publicans, Democrats, Negro minis-
ters, and the community at large.
He said that pressure in the
forms indicated would be effective
until the final decision was made,
which would probably be about
two or three days after the hearing
Thursday.
I felt more heartened as we talked,
remembering the evening I had
talked with Fletcher Mills, remem-
bering his quick, sincere smile. I
asked my informant what he thought
of Fletcher Mills' chances of not be-
ing sent back. He said Mills' chances
were "fair."
It wasn't until afterwards that I
began to be bothered by that word
"fair." I wondered what is meant
to this young Alabama Negro who
had dared to resist the blows of a
club which was held by a white
man's hand. I wondered if it was
possible that there were still
enough people in Michigan who
would condemn Fletcher Mills to
the mercy of an Alabama mob by
their indifference.
I keep remembering a song called
"Strange Fruit," that Billie Holliday
has recorded. It is a description of a
lynching in the South. I think of
this song now, and I hear a scream
breaking the silence of a Southern
night. I see a picture of Fletcher
Mills smiling and talking at a party.
Then I see his smile distorted and
he's struggling and going down under
a group of men. And it's dark
And somewhere in the background
Billie Holliday is singing "Strange
Fruit."
Immigration...
To the Editor:
IN HER LETTER of Jan. 8 Miss Rose
Symons advocated that the United
States and Palestinian ports of entry
be closed to the remnants of European
Jewry. She argued that we have done
enough already, that "thousands were
permitted to enter this country." Is
Miss Symons aware that our immi-
gration laws were in no way altered
to meet the emergency that arose in
1933? The only change was that visas
were inspected with new vigor so that
the entrance of these refugees would
not involve sacrifice on the part of
the United States. During the time
that the "thousands" were entering
our country, four to six million Jews
were exterminated. We must not over-
look, of course, the one thousand that
we did admit into the Oswega emer-
gency shelter. One thousand out of
the millions that died!
As to the charge that reports of
persecution in Poland were falsified,
the Polish government itself does
not deny atrocities. Oscar Lange,
the Polish ambassador to the United
States, admitted to President Tru-
man that pogroms had occurred
and were still occurring. We know
from history how deep-seted is
anti-Semitic feeling in Poland and
that that feeling was strengthened
by Nazi teachings. We know too
,that the Polish underground move-
ment, supported by the government-
in-exile, refused to allow Jews to
join them in striving against Fas-
cism, and furthermore, were utter-
ly indifferent to Jewish suffering.
It is inconceivable that the Polish
government, even with the best of
intentions, will solve the problem
in less than two decades. And dur-
ing those decades, as Max Lerner
said:
"Europe is a cemetery . . . Over the
European landscape are scattered the
ashes of the Jewish dead . . . You
cannot live thus, surrounded by the
death of all whom you have held dear,
staring into the face of death for
yourself. You may crouch in a ceme-
tery if it is your only remaining
temporary shelter. But you cannot
live in it."
Miss Symons suggests that the
problem be handled by UNO. As-
suming that UNO can find some
solution, it will mean more long
years of waiting. These Jews can-
not afford to wait.
-Harriet Sachs
Carol Werner
European Jews .. .
To the Editor:
JANUARY 8, 1946, I came upon a
column in Letters to the Editor
entitled "Jewish Immigration" that
was written by Rose Symons, and as
I read this letter I felt the necessity
to write some of my opinions on the
matter.
It seems to me that Miss Symons
personifies the type of person that
had occupied the British Colonial
Office, which cluring the war cold-
heartedjy turned back the ship
Struma loaded with 500 refugees. The
ship carried the men, women, and
children from port to port looking
for a place merely for them to live.
Palestine, which at present can ac-
commodate two million more Jews,
was not open to them at the time,
Finally the ship was torpedoed and
went down with its cargo of human
life, and so they were denied oppor-
tunity to live. You, Miss Symons, by
your proposals to close America to
immigrants, and 'leave the, Jews
scattered throughout Europe' will
again be denying life to a people that
will go down in the undercurrent of
economic and social problems con-
fronting them unless the ports be
open to them where they may sur-
vive.
If Miss Symons should take time
to visualize the situation of the
Jews in Europe at the present, she
might not be as hasty to close vital
doors of salvation. More than half
the Jews in. Europe were murdered.
If you were one of those who sur-
vived (perhaps temporarily) you
might typically find yourself with-
out a family in a country desolate
and filled with Anti-Semitism be-
cause of years of indoctrination.
What chance would you have for
survival? You would have little or
no opportunity to earn a living;
certainly no feeling of security.
There would be nothing to look
forward to, only the horrors of the
past and the wreckage of the pres-
ent to think about. Shut to them
the vital ports of salation and you
also shut off from them the oppor-
tunity to live. Close to them the
vital ports, Miss Symons, and it
would be like setting off a torpedo
into a ship filled with poverty-
stricken Jews of Europe. Miss
Symons, I doubt that its detonation
would be a way for 'the world to
move closer to an everlasting
peace!
-Oaran Budyk
o '.'
'Over play .. .
To the Editor:
OVERPLAY to the point of what
some might believe to be "editori-
alization," is the only way to describe
the way in which the Daily handled
yesterday's walkout in the Lawyers
Club dining room. While the strike,
which incidentally was all over by
breakfast, had a good deal of campus
interest, under no circumstances can
I see how it merited banner treat-
ment. In view of its short duration
a box feature would have been far
more suitable. This is especially true
when it is apparent from recent issues
of the paper that reverting from the
necessities of wartime journalism, it
has tended to be more sparing in its
use of heavy type.
It is difficult to see any point in
such overplay or any policy which
might merit it. However, it leaves
an implication that something was
intended, possibly in, the nature of
a "cheap slap" at administrative
authority. Although such a conclu-
sion is without a doubt far from
what is actually the situation, to
avoid any such implications, night
editors should in the future bemore
discerning in their news vahes.
-Monroe Fink
* * *
EDITOR'S NOTE: Whether the story
was overplayed or not, is a matter of
opinion. But let Mr. Fink be assured
that the Daily did not in any sense in-
tend it to be a 'cheap slap' at admin-
istrative authority."
Letters to the Editor
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
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 Hal, by 3:30 i. m. on the day
preceding publication (11:00 a. m. Sat-
urdays).
SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1946
VOL. LVI, No. 49
' Notices
Faculty Tea: President and Mrs.
Ruthven will be at home to members
of the faculty and other townspeople
Sunday, Jan. 13, from 4:00 to 6:00.
Cars may park in the restricted zone
on South University between 4:00
and 6:30 p.m.
To the Members of the University
Senate; For the meeting of the Uni-
versity Senate in the Rackham Am-
phitheater on Monday, Jan. 14, at
4:15 p.m. the following will consti-
tute the agenda:
Election of the Senate Advisory
Committee (M. H. Waterman)
Disposition of the Parker Fellow-
ships (h. I. Bredvold)
Report of the Committee on Hon-
orary Degrees (F. E. Robbins)
The Housing Problem (R. P.
Briggs).
Admissions Policy (J. P. Adams)
By Crockett Johnson
Veterans' Books and Supplies. Vet-
erans who are securing books and
supplies under the Public Laws 16 or
346 must complete all purchases for
the current semester by Jan. 15.
This deadline is necessary to allow
the University time to audit and pay
the veterans' accounts at the various
stores and, in turn, to submit invoic-
es to the Veterans Administration for
reimbursement before the end of the
semester.
Boyd C. Stephens, Cashier
The Clements Library contem-
plates arranging an exhibition of rare
books owned by members of the Fac-
ulty of *the University. The Director
of the Library would be happy to
hear from colleagues who think this
is a good idea and who would like to
participate by lending some rarity.
Entries are limited to one title per
exhibitor.
Connecticut State Department of
Education announces open compet-
itive examinations for critic teach-
e's in the four teachers colleges. Fur-
ther information may be obtained
from the Bureau of Appointments
and Occupational Information, 201
Mason Hall.
City of Detroit Civil Service; The
Bureau of Appointments has received
the following Civil Service Announce-
ments :
Junior Airport Control Tower Op-
erator. Salary: $2542-3009. Last
filing date: February 1.
$1.41. Last filing date: January 15.
Sheet Metal Worker. Salary: $1.55.
Last filing date: January 15.
Further information may be ob-
tained at the Bureau of Appoint-
ments and Occupational Informa-
tion, 201 Mason Hall.
Interviews for Spring Vacancies:
League housemothers are available
to interview only those girls who have
applied through the Office of the
Dean of Women and have been re-
ferred to the League Houses in this
way. Women students wishing ac-
commodations in League Houses
must apply as above.
Academic Notices
Doctoral Examination for Martin
Chanin, Pharmaceutical Chemistry;
thesis: Synthetic Analgesics. I: The
Thiophene Analog of Demerol and
Compounds of the "Open Ring" De-
merol Type," on Saturday, Jan. 12,
10:00 a.m., 309 Chemistry Building.
Chairman, F. F. Blicke.
By action of the executive Board
the Chairman may invite members
of the faculties and advanced doc-
toral candidates to attend this exami-
nation, and he may grant permission
to those who for sufficient reason
might wish to be present.
Mathematics: There will be a
special lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 15,
at 4:00 p.m. in 3010 Angell Hall by
Professor Mahlon M. Day on "Some
Characterizations of Inner Product
BARNABY
I-== .- -
---*-----3k--Mmmw-AC, I
I I .