THE MICHIGAN DAILY
CHIGAN DAILY
ation of the Summer Session
-: ,
d '.
of his associates are doing; he falls into the
groove which makes him least conspicuous among
his back-slapping fellows.
Perhaps, on the other hand, he has a certain
'desire to see and evaluate people, institutions, and
customs as they really, and without sentiment'al-
ity, are. When the first impressiveness of uni-
versity life wears off somewhat, he makes certain
observations. He notices, for instance, that he
has been graded "good" or "excellent" for his
work in courses which he failed almost entirely
to understand and from which he has learned a
paltry little, while he has actually failed to re-
ceive any credit or cognizance of any sort forl
work he has done in other classes in which heI
vas, conceivably, vitally interested and for which
J
l
1
3
i
l
3
i
&C Si 50A N " O4ThU T WtS(MO) UJ~G. ANUA t .x .xtJan
Published every morning except Monday during the
iversity year and Summer Session by the Board in
ntrol of Student Publications.
Member of the Western Conference Editorial Associa-
n and the Big Ten News Service.
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use
r republication of all news dispatches credited to it or
t otherwise credited in this paper and the local news
blished herein. All rights of republication of special
spatches are reserved.
Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as
cond class matter. Special rate of postage granted by
ird Assistant Postmaster-General.
Subscription during summer by carrier, $1.00; by mail,
50. During regular school year by carrier, $4.00; by
al, $4.50.
Offices: Student Publications Building, Maynard Street,
n Arbor, Michigan. Phone 2-1214.
Representatives: College Publications Representatives,
c, 40 East Thirty-Fourth Street, Ncw York City; 80
ylston Street, Boston; 612 North Michigan Avenue,
ticago. National Advertising Service, Inc., 11 West 42nd
,New York, N. Y.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Phone: 4925
ANAGING EDITOR..............FRANK B. GILBRETH
SISTANT MANAGING EDITOR......KARL SEIFFERT
ISOCIATE EDITORS: John C. Healey, Powers Moulton
and E. Jerome Pettit.
BUSINESS STAFF
Office Hours; 9-12, 1-5
Phone: 2-1214
JSINESS MANAGER................BYRON C. VEDDER
SISTANT.1BUSINESS MANAGER... HARRY R. BEGLEY
RCULATION MANAGER.........ROBERT L. PIERCE
FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 1933
round-The-World.
its . 0 .
I,
N THE July 7 issue of The Daily of
- last year, there appeared an edi-
,orial which deplored trans-Atlantic and 'round-
,he-world flights. The editorial had been prompt-
d by the attempted flight of Bennett Griffin and
James Mattern, which ended in Russia with a
ralk-up.
This year the mews columns of American papers
are again devoting considerable space to a similar
attempted flight, in which James Mattern is the
eading figure. This time he had tried to make
a record by flying around the globe alone. Again
he has failed, and has been lost to civilization for
a number of days.
Mattern's trip was a "hazardous" undertaking,
hat no one will deny. It was also "spectacular."
But we have yet to find what good may come
>f such flights, even when successful.
Of course there was some point to the first
trans-Atlantic flights, as The Daily of a year
ego pointed out. Those first trips demonstrated
that trans-oceanic airplane transportation was a
feasible and possible venture. But the similar
Wlghts which have taken place since that time
baVe proven little. In many instances flyers have
raveled over tried and mapped routes, merely
n order to established a new time record, or per-
haps a record for having done so when alone.
such was the case with the recent attempted
lourney of James Mattern.
He might have been successful in going around
he world in a shorter length of time than did
Post and Gatty. He might have been the first
nan to make the trip alone.
We can only quote again The Daily's editorial
>f a year ago-What of it?
Youth Versus
Viddle Ae..
AN EDITORIAL
By KARL SEIFFERT
Y OUTH, says Middle Age, is impet-
I uous. Youth is immature, it is
niconstant, it is alternately sentimental and cyni-
al, it is inexperienced. And youth, though it
ringes under the indictment, cannot deny it. .
Nor, on the other hand, can' Middle Age blame
South for its vagaries too severely. For genera-
Ioks the world has laughed at the comic-strip
ollege boy, leered patronizingly at his peg-top
iants, his ukelele, his collegiate fiivver, and his
oWerskates in succession, and winked broadly at
lis hip-flask and his bathtub gin.
To the world outside, that is all his immaturity
mounts to, but actually it lies deeper than that.
'f the Michigan student is childish it is because
e has been expected to be so; if he is at times
aconsistently cynical it is because he knows he
being laughed at by those outside. He is what
radition has made him-not the tradition he
anows in terms of sentimental songs and foot-
all cheers and freshman caps, but the adult
radition of the alumni and faculty and the
Vorld in general.
The freshman goes to college with only a very
ague and jumbled impression of what his career
!n the campus will be. He has heard about haz-
ig and the love of the true undergraduate for
ii Alma Mater. He has been told, perhaps, of the
esirability of being "one of the boys," of doing
he things that are done, of playing the game.
hose are abstractions; he comes to Ann Arbor
nd looks for realities. The big thing that has
een Impressed on him is the fact that Michigan
hallowed with ancient traditions which must be
ped.
He goes through his first year with but four
ilngs on his mind-be one of the boys; do the
ilngs that are done; play the game; uphold the
-aditions. They seem not hard to do. He learns
ma ronrM-lw c lanvfn th .ta.tp graet hrbaklan. an
he did infinitely more work, but in which he hadI
through some mischance failed to store away ini
his mind the specinc information required to an-
swer the five questions on the final examination,1
on the sole basis of which the work during the
semester was judged.<
Possibly he has a truly enquiring mind, and
one which looks beneath the surface of things.
In so doing, unfortunately, he sometimes neglects
to take recognition of those all-important super-
ficialities which sometimes, strangely enough,
spell success in the university. Let us say, for in-
stance, that he has a friend of radically con-t
trasting turn of mind. His friend is in all things[
average. He has no imagination, no desire to
probe matters to their source, has never had an]
original thought in his life. By virtue of his
mental make-up, his friend's mind is stimulated]
to little activity on any matter, so during his]
early semesters on the campus he has had time,
to make one or two to him important observa-
tions. He has noticed that, generally speaking,
examination questions run to a type. He has
found that by committing to memory certain
kinds and classes of information he can prepare
himself to pass any examination likely to be
given. He feels pretty sure on this point, for his
fraternity files contain examination questions for
virtually every course in the literary school for
years back. Now this friend has never drawn a
conclusion, or realized a general truth, or based
a broad course of action on anything he ever
learned in a class room in his life. But he has
mastered the procedure of passing examinations,
and as far as the university officially is concerned
he is a made man.
In the meantime our original freshman-he of
the inquiring, thoughtful mind occupied by less
practical things-has gone pretty well amuck. In
one class, let us say, he has been assigned five
books to read for outside reading. He reads the
first, starts the second, and comes across a pas-
sage or a chapter that introduces to him a new
philosophy or a new school of thought. He pond-
ers it, reads half a dozen books by the same man
-and understands them. But he quite neglects
until too late, the other three books assigned. His
friend, taking the same course, skims through the
five volumes, makes notes on the keystone pas-
sages that to him spell examination questions
and passes his course with flying colors. Of course,
he knows nothing worth remembering about any-
thing, but he has gotten his "B," and for what
other reason is he in the university?
Well, our freshman begins to wonder. He knows
he has a mind of superior calibre. He is intellect-
-ual, analytical, creative. But he is barely getting
by. He speaks with several of his instructors, but,
though sympathetic, they tell him plainly that
regulations are regulations. After watching his
inferior-minded friend being officially more suc-
cessful than he consistently for two or three years,
and knowing full well that the other is inferior-
minded, he decides there must be something
wrong with the system.
And so he rebels. He asserts himself plainly
and directly. He speaks to the dean, to his pro-
fessors. He writes letters to the editor of the stu-
dent newspaper. And does he reach an under-
standing with anyone? From the faculty men he
gets arguments, refutations. He doesn't want
arguments-he wants sympathy and recognition.
From his friends-most of whom are working the
examination racket to death--he gets scoffing
and laughter.
He is now considered just a boy taking himself
too seriously. Among other things, he has noticed
that the much publicized "traditions" of the uni-
versity are romantic Nineteenth Century customs
which are being kept alive by a surprisingly small
number of tear-shedding sentimentalists to whom
they are the answer to our freshman's question-
"What is this all good for?" Fortunately, being
of an unprejudiced mental nature, he realizes
that it is good for much. He is no longer the
gangling boy he was three years ago; he has
learned to express himself; his interests have been
directed to intellectual channels. But he has not
been playing the game. He knows-as virtually
every, undergraduate knows in his heart-that
the "traditions" of the university are adolescent,
sickening displays of rank sentimentality. He,
on occasion, will admit it.
And who resents it? The old grads, the faculty
members, the parents. The student finds himself
in the position of the fifteen-year-old boy who
has ceased to believe in Santa Claus long years
since but must pi'etend to retain the belief be-
cause his parents get so much pleasure out of it.
The paradox is almost appalling. The serious-
minded, honest student attempts to cast off insti-
tutions-Cap Night, hazing, Hell ,Week, Class[
Games-which he knows he has outgrown, andI
for that he is called immature, impetuous, and
imbued with a deliciously boyish cynicism. And
in the meantime the run of the pen is "rebelling"
with the majority-and escaping censure.
Hitler has isolated Germany, but the world will
be glad to receive Germany back again just as
soon as it rids itself of its incubus.
-The Detroit Free Press.
TheT heatre'
THE BROTHERS MOLNAR
DAVID MOTT
What .nme of the n trons of the Michi-on
Mansky) and wrote satirically at his brother's ex-
pense. Though a rather ingenious story, it con-
tains no element of the truth whatsoever. Franz
and Ferenc Molnar are one and the same person.
Franz is the German for what in good Hungarian
is Ferenc.
The sentiment, decadence, and sophisticated
playfulness of his works make the playwright
very much loved in his homeland, though his rep- t
utation reaches beyond the national borders. Hel
was a close associate with Director Max Rine-
hardt of the German State Theatre before that s
great producing genius was expelled from his pos-
ition by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. His, wife
Lili Darcas (the Katherine Cornell of Europe)
is one of the favorite actresses of Rine-
hardt's company. In America he is probably the
most appreciated of living European dramatists
today. Most of his plays have received American I
production, and "The Play's The Thing" had its I
world premiere in an American theatre under the
direction of Gilbert Miller.
One reason for his success in America over that
of other European dramatists is that his plays
are all comedies. Not only that, but they are an
grown-up world where playfulness is at a prem-
unusual type of comedy. Molnar presents a ,
ium. He plays with sentiments, ideas, morals,
emotions, and the result is a unique kind of play,
different from the usual run of English comedies
of character and problem, and from the deeply
philosophical plays of the Russians and Germans.
Some of our leading actors in America have
found vehicles for their work in his plays. Eve
LeGallienne, director of the Civic Repertory Thea-
tre of New York, made her first sensation in the
Theatre Guild Production of "Liliom," Molnar's
fine poetic play. Later with Gilbert Miller, she
did "The Swan," a comedy slightly satiric of
royalty. The late Holbrook Blinn was the Turai
of the original production of "The Play's The
Thing." Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt did one
of the finest of Theatre Guild productions in "The
Guardsman," Molnar's buffonish comment on the
eternal marital triangle. In his most recent play,
"The Good Fairy," Helen Hayes and Walter Con-
nelly had the leading roles.
The final two performances of the Michigan
Repertory Players' production of "The Play's The,
Thing" will be given tonight and Saturday.
The Rocky Mountain News thinks that Gandhi
could teach us a great deal. Yes, how to get along
without food and how not to mind going naked.
-The Detroit Free Press.
Screen Reflection
AT THE WHITNEY
"THE WESTERN CODE"
(Playing Friday and Saturday)
"The Western Code" stands as mute proof that
"Westerns' today are drawing upon the talents of
some of the better actors and actresses in Holly-
wood.
When such players as Nora Lane, Dwight Frye,
Mischa Auer, Matthew Betz and Wheeler Oak-
man are assembled to support Tim McCoy, there
can be no question that actors have abandoned
a former prejudice against "Westerns" and now
recognize the value of appearing in them.
Nora Lane has been leading woman to such
a sophisticate as Adolphe Menjou in "Marquis
Preferred" and "Night of Mystery," and appeared
in such successes as "The Cisco Kid" and "Dance
Team." Dwight Frye will be remembered for his
grotesque work in "Frankenstein," "Dracula" and
"By Whose Hand." Mischa Auer, the son of Leo-
pold Auer, noted musician, has played important
roles in "Mati Hari," "Just Imagine" and "No
Greater Love." Matthew Betz was the brutal
butcher in Von Stroheim's "The Wedding March"
and the renegade convict in "The Big House" who
suffered at the hands of Wallace Beery. Wheeler
Oakman has been villainous for many feature
pictures such as "The Power of the Press,"
"Father and Son" and "The Donovan Affair.".
The picture was directed by John P. McCarthy.
The American Delegation, we read, now meets
every morning before the sessions of the London
Conference begin. Possibly so Senator Couzens
can reiterate his views on humility.
-The Detroit Free Press.
Editorial Comment
FROM PRESIDENT TO
FORGOTTEN MAN
Raised from the ranks of obscurity, or com-
parative obscurity to the pinnacle of world-wide
fame, cheered, publicized, then criticized and ma-
ligned by his own party and others and even-
tually forgotten-that has been the story of too
many presidents of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson suffered this martydom. More
recently, Herbert Hoover, hero of war-time re-
lief, but unable to turn the tide of depression in
a day, knew this fate so truly that the campaign
slogan of last fall now fits the ex-president only
too well.
Now, we are wondering, if Franklin D. Roose-
velt, too, will join the ranks of "Forgotten Men."
The world is fickle and the world is prone to
forget good deeds of presidents all too soon.
Roosevelt has met, so far, universal applause-
only recently tinged with criticism.
So great has been his success that Conservative
and Labor members of Parliament in England
joined the other day in praising him as a man
of action.
But presidential fame seems, sadly enough, to
be a flitting temporary thing. We hope that the
world which now praises the works of this truly
great executive will remember some of his efforts
in that later day which is sure to come, when
friends and foes alike will assail him as they have
flayed the great executives before him.
-The Daily Illini.
r
_
I