THE MICHIGAN DAILY
t
IE MICHIGAN DAILY
cial Publication of the Summer Session
I
Washington
Off The Record
By SIGRID ARNE
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-Crime And
Punishment . .
C RIME AND THE PUNISHMENT
which it should bring to criminals
have long been the subjects of debate if this state,
with particular stress on the nature of the penalties
to be inflicted on those who take another's life.
The question again assumes proportions which
demand action in the light of the last few weeks'
criminal activities in Detroit. The ruthless mur-
derer of an innocent 11-year-old girl is apprehend-
ed, confesses, then changes his plea to not guilty,
and now sits in his cell talking of submitting his
body for scientific experiments. He is secure in
his. knowledge that the state can do no more than
put him in a comfortable cell for the rest of his
life.
Another man is murdered in a "rolling racket."
The slayers get $134 for their atrocity, and when
it is divided one of the partners gets $9 as a share.
That's putting a pretty low price on human life,
but the killers need not worry. They only risk
their freedom - not their lives.
And now the body of a Federal officer is found
in the streets. He too has been robbed. His killers
have not been caught as yet, but it is apparent
that their crime was committed with the impunity
which characterized the others, and with the same
feeling of security for their own lives.
Each of these crimes is a black mark on the
history of this state, and ever if all the killers are
sent to prison for life there is always the prob-
ability that they wi-ll be paroled to take up where
they left off in their "careers."
It is because of the obvious futility of such
punishment as .a restrictive measure that we feel
this state should adopt capital punishment. It
!nay sound rather cold-blooded to consider taking
the life of another, but he is not going to give your
life a thought when he pulls his trigger, nor the
lives of those that are dear to you.
The State of Michigan and its citizens are en-
titled to the protection that such a penalty would
afford, and it is up to the latter to see that it is
provided.
SENATOR ROBERT REYNOLDS of North Caro-
lina is indebted to his stomach for some sound
political advice.
He was on a speaking program held under a
broiling sun. The speakers ahead of him droned
on and on, and Reynolds grew hungrier and hun-
grier. He had an idea when he was announced.
"Folks," he said, "I'm hungry. Let's eat and
shake hands afterward." He drew the loudest ap-
plause on the program.
Representative William P. Connery of Mas-
sachusetts arrives at his office wide awake as
a result of his daily habit - he walks five miles
before going to work.
THE UNKNOWN time-clock punchers in Wash-
ington show a blithe disregard for the city's
big-wigs.
Recently, when the papers had been full of
speeches by Senator William E. Borah of Idaho,
the senator was riding a street car to his office. The
car got into a minor accident, and the motorman
came around for the passengers' names.
"What's your name?" he asked the senator.
"Borah."
"Spell it," demanded the motorman.
THE WOMAN at the information desk in the
lobby of the agriculture building noticed a man
wandering about aimlessly.
"Perhaps you would like to see the 40-foot mural
in the lobby above," she said.
Half an hour later she received an irate call from.
the bureau of animal industry.
"Who," asked the voice, "sent a guy up here
looking for a 40-foot mule?"
The name of Marvin H. McIntyre, White
House secretary, has been added to the list of
golf wizards by no less a pIrson than the
President.
"He ran up 112 on 18 holes," Mr. Roosevelt
said with a grin as "Mac's" face grew red, "but
he started with such a large handicap that he
won anyway, and I say that makes him a wiz-
ard."
WHEN the Michigan cherry queen arrived here
with three huge cherry pies for New Dealers
one of the giant confections went to Emil Hurja,
the smiling right bower of Postmaster General
Farley, chief patronage dispenser.
"The gift seems appropriate enough," said Hurja
with a grin. "That desk (pointing to his own) has
been known for months as the original pie counter."
The netw Beau Brummel of the House of
Representatives is Robert A. Green of Florida
whose hot weather ensemble is a white suit,
a deep blue shirt, a black Windsor tie and a
large, white sombrero.
REP. WALTER M. PIERCE of Oregon was having
trouble getting the sort of lunch he wanted.
He ordered soup, and when the waiter came his
thumb was in the soup.
"Take it back, and bring me stew," said Pierce
without explaining. Again the thumb was in the
food.
"Take it back," roared Pierce, "and bring me a
hard-boiled egg. See if you can get your thumb
in that."
THE BANTERING between Representative Isa-
bella Greenway of Arizona and her'friends
confuses Mrs. Greenway's secretary at times.
A telegram from an old friend said, "and how alp.
your beautiful eyes?"
The secretary decided no one would send a mes-
sage like that, so she returned it to the telegraph
office to be decoded.
BO3OKS
By JOHN SELBY
"I WAS HITLER'S PRISONER,"
by Stefan Lorant; (Putnam).
FOR THE TIME the flood of anti-Hitler books
has become a trickle, doubtless because the
publishers believe this is not the time for serious
treatises or propaganda, but for hammock read-
ing.
Nevertheless, Stefan Lorant's book is published
today in America. It will do a great deal to balance
the hysterical tone of much anti-Hitler literature,
and although it certainly will not endear Herr
Hitler, it does not come into the class of violent
propaganda.
Lorant was editor of .the Munchner Illustrierte
Presse, one of the most important German illus-
trated papers and one which had not taken sides.
It was conservative, catholic and patriotic in the
broad sense. It was also very successful, and the
fact that its national-socialist rival was less suc-
cessful may have had something to do with Lorant's
arrest.
At any rate he was arrested, in spite of the
fact that the men who performed that feat of
daring could find nothing suspicious - in fact, they
didn't seem quite sure what they were searching
for. Lorant was kept in prison for six months,
afflicted with the usual useless questions, reduced
to the verge of suicide at one time, and finally
released through the efforts of his Hungarian press
colleagues and the Hungarian government. He was
not even a German.
"T Was T-itler's Prisoner" is "different" in sev-
The SOAP BOX
Letters published in this column should not be
construed as expressing the editorial opinion of The
'Daily. Anonymous contributions will be disregarded.
The names of communicants will, however, be regarded
as confidential upon request. Contributors are asked
to be brief, the editor reserving the right to condense
all letters of over 300 words and to accept or reject
letters upon the criteria of general editorial importance
and interest to the campus.
4n Injustice Done
To the Editor:
Being my first experience outside the state of
Ohio, I now realize how one, a stranger, can be
put to ridicule for a minor wrong that he has com-
mitted. Ignorance of the statutes often has its un-
erring fallacies. Justice cannot be attributed to
he who has engaged in such a wrong doing; this
wrong being'the dating of a check on a holiday.
As far as the willingness to write another check is
contcerne one must admit that,one must first have
a motive for not doing so.
In my case I did write another, but due to the
error of the first and because I could not pay in
cash they threw me in jail to live on bread and
syrup. One wonders what benefits, which in my
case were costs amounting to the sum of eight
dollars and some odd cents, can be derived from
such originality.
Is it because the department is in need of money
or do they seek to enforce the law. One wonders.
Local papers certainly have grossly prejudiced the
case against me, by not coming out with the case
as it actually was. Instead, they use me as an ad-
vertisement for a local show.
Is it decent or honorable? One wonders. Do we
live, move and have our being, or are we placards
being used to advertise a local show. In any event
I hope that those concerned will habituate their
tactics to the material and not the human world.
-Glenn L. Jacobs.
As Others See I
Americanism In Action
CLASSROOM TEACHERS have taken control of
the powerful National Education Association
away from the boilesd shirts. Underneath the polite
convention palaver coming from Denver, that is
what really' has happened. It is an important
event for every one in the country.
"It means that friends of civil liberties and aca-
demic freedom have won a powerful new ally
against gangsters and incipient American Fascists.
The "insurgent" classroom teachers have forced
five resolutions on the NEA which bind that for-
merly timid organization to (a) fight any legisla-
tion interfering with academic freedom, (b) in-
vestigate all cases of dismissals of teachers in
violation of academic freedom, (c) seek public sup-
port for the right of teachers to academic free-
dom, (d) help teachers who lose their jobs because
of their exercise of free speech, (e) cooperate with
other national organizations devoted to the fight
for academic freedom.
This is a sad blow to the Hearstlings, who have
been trying to make the teachers goose-step.
State after state has been doing spade-work for
the Hitlerization of America by passing teachers'
oath bills, "loyalty" measures that are merely li-
censes for snoopery and repression by officials and
outright gag laws. From now on the teachers will
fight back.
The NEA shows awareness of the Fascist menace
by pledging itself to teach American children "fun-
damental principals of American democracy as the
best so far devised. . . to govern free people."
Those principles include free speech, free press,
free classroom discussion. It is good to know that
any teacher who stands up for these principles
(though they may conflict with an idiotic "oath"
bill) will now have the organized support of the
teaching profession in this country. That should
give pause to Mussolini-minded school superin-
tendents.
-The Netw York Post.
,. _ r..
Ir
li
,nd He Jokes
bout War ..
N HIS COLUMN of July 10 Arthur
. Brisbane sets forth what Time Mag-
azine might ball "Brisbanalities" were it not for the
tragic misconception of human values which his
article reveals.
The paragraphs ,in question are concerned with
the current Italo-Ethiopian dispute. Mr. Brisbane
opens with what amounts to a whitewash of the,
highly aggressive Italian policy in Africa, and then
continues with what at first appears to be a dis-
cussion- in typical Brisbane fashion of jungle life
in Africa. Across the sea lies Abyssinia, the col-
umnist tells us in much these words, and here are
hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses (the plurals are Mr.
Brisbane's) lions, and many other savage beasts
which the adventurous young Italian will delight
in shooting.
Also, the columnist blithely continues, in Ethi-
opia there are savage tribesmen, some half-Chris-
tian, some Mohammedan.
Which (the inference is quite plain) the young
Italian will -delight in shooting also.
If ever in the world there was a time for con-
certed editorial action by the press against the
proposed Italo-Ethiopian war, that time is the
present.
Crude whitewashes of the invasion of a weak
country by a strong country will never advance
civilization.
"Brisbanalities" indeed.
THE BIG JAMBOREE at Washington of the Boy
Scouts of America looks to us like a 'big pur-
poseless expense. Not strictly purposeless, of
course, for we recognize that its purpose is to ad-
vertise the Boy Scouts as an organization worthy of
public support, which it is, and to enthuse its mem-
bership. But the money it will cost would better,
we think, be spent in sending boys to camp. The
Boy Scouts represent a movement and a service
to youth and therefore to the nation which are so
generally known and acknowledged that the "big
get-together," expected to bring 30,000 Scouts from
all parts of the United States and from a score
or more foreign lands, is hardly needed and in
fact has obvious drawbacks.
The real and abiding strength of the Boy Scouts
is in the quietly effective service to bodily health
and character building accomplished in the camps
and at home through the year. The extreme em-
phasis put upon such an event as the jamboree
savors of self-glorification and is likely to give a
wrong conception of the values to which the
movement is devoted. The mass enthusiasm creat-
ed by such gatherings is not desirable, and while
it may assist the directors to some extent to re-
cruit funds and membership, its sensational appeal
must tend to overshadow the real work of the or-
ganization.
At the inception of the movement or when there
is need for compromising or removing differences
and evolving a program of collective action, con-
ventions and conferences are useful, but the Boy
Scout movement is well organized, harmonious,
and has an agreed policy and program. The jam-
boree, pleasant as it no doubt will be for those
who attend, is, it seems to us, a dubious luxury.
The American temnprament is nrnne to such ath.-