THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WEDNESDAY,
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[GAN DAILY
Freedom For The Student
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Edited and managed by students of the University of
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MANAGING EDITOR . . IRVING SILVERMAN
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The editorials publihed in The Michigan
Dfaily are written by members of.the Daily
staff and represent the views of the writers
only.
It is important for society to avoid the
neglect of adults, but positively dangerous
for it to thwart the ambition of youth to
r-form the world. Only the schools which
act on this belief are educational institu-
tions in the best meaning of tie term.
Alexander 0. Luthven.
I rd r Inc'dent
Or Great War?.. .
NE OF THE MOST interesting aspects
' of the current crisis in the Far East
is the fact that all dispatches that have reached
the American papers in the past week have
been datelined either Moscow or Tokyo. There is
no reliable foreign correspondent within a thous-
and miles of the scene' of hostilities. What we
learn of the clashes is strained though a net of
riid censorship. It is possible, however, still to
learn a great deal by drawing for ourselves a
simple triangle of interacting forces, with its
three points at Hankow, Tokyo, and Moscow.
Whatever takes place oil the Amur is a deter-
minant of the component forces that radiate out
of these foci.
Hankow is in imminent danger of being taken.
The fall of Hankow would be to China the great-
et military catastrophe since the outbreak of
tie war. Hankow is the very core of Chinese
resistance. It is here that the major inland rail-
roads meet, that the most vital arteries of de-
fense are brought to focus. The Peiping-Hankov
railroad is the only reliable line of communica-
tion with the northern front; the Canton-Han-
kow railroad is the chief artery of supply; the
Yangtze is the spinal cord of the whole nervous
system. If Hankow falls, all hope of a positional
war front will be lost to China; Japan will be
given a chance to rest her arms and consider
a more intensive mopping up process behind the
lines. Two things are necessary in the prosecu-
tion of a war: the will to resist, and the material
means of effecting that resistance. If Hankow
falls China will then face the almost impossible
task of conducting a war on morale alone. In
this war the major source of aid to China from
an external power has been the meager help of
the Soviet Union. Whatever may have been the
past differences between Chiang Kai-Shek and
the Communists-(and they have been historic
and fundamental)-in the face of Japan there
is complete unanimity of interest. If Hankow
were to fall and the Chinese state to collapse
thereafter, the blow to Russia would be second
only to the blow to China itself. Both on the
basis of Far Eastern geography and the ruling
ideology of the Soviet state, China must not be
allowed to collapse. The line of force that extends
from Hankow to Moscow predicates a stiffening
Soviet attitude in the Far East at the present
moment. Whether the Amur incidents are beingj
precipitated by Russia or not, the Soviets in the
Par East must be consdered as able and willing
to meet whatever developm'ent the next week
brings about. The third corner of the triangle is
Tokyo. The will and mind of Tokyo today, as at
any other specific moment in the past year, are
shrouded in mystery and hypothesis. It seems
difficult to believe that the Japanese government
would at this moment take on a war with Russia
in addition to the task she is faced with in China
proper. On the other hand, in a world of power
politics nothing at all is impossible . . The dis-
patches from Tokyo are marked as emanating
from the Korean garrison. What this means is
difficult to determine. But certain salient points
come immediately to mind. 'While the domestic
Freedom of press, of assembly, of speech, of
education, freedom for everything is demanded
today. One type of freedom is apparently for-
gotten, or else is submerged by the other de-
mands: freedom for leisurely thought. The case
for freedom for leisurely thought; that freedom
which nourishes maturity in education, can no
more clearly be presented than by illustrating its
complete absence in a modern American univer-
sity through a description of a typical logic-defy-
ing routine of classes in the literary college.
8 a. m.-The student arrives half awake, a min-
ute after the attendance has been checked, is
marked absent in a 3-cut maximum class; he is
forced to listen to a dissertation on the turnip
theory as one of the principal causations of the
agricultural revolution: turnips replacing fallow,
making more food available for cows, making it
possible to maintain more cows, resulting in more
manure, more fertilizer, more food, more cows,
more manure, down to the present day. As the
student becomes more interested in the rani-
fications of this beneficent circle, and finally
wakes up . . .
9 a. m.-From turnips to the why and where-
fore of the American government-in five min-
utes; the inside "dope" on the fathers of the.
Constitution is presented to the student. When
constitutional cases are discussed, the student
again drowses . .
10 a. m.-He has again discovered that to
close the eyes is the most effective maneuvre to
cope with somnolence; but now the student must
flit in the caeli of the literati, he must discharge
from his mind what he has been pondering since
his previous class and rivet his intellect to
piercing, analytical criticism of writing, study
the strategic importance of long and short words
and constructions. As he begins to feel himself
warp with "intellectualism".
11 a. m.-The facts of life in the form of
social problems today are laid bare to the
student-now fully awake in anticipation of
lunch: The student begins to feel the trouble-
some burden of humanity weighing him down,
he begins to devise ways and means of. lifting
humanity from the morass of decadent civili-
zation, when . . .
Lunch! And fresh air!
1 p. m.-The internal process of .food digestion
now takes place in the student, consuming all
his, energy so that his exterior self is drowsy
and, for educational purposes, lifeless. Never-
theless, why the Chinese are Chinese is revealed
to the student in a discussion peppered with a
bit of "Yin" and "yang."
Thus the student gets his education: from
turnips in Europe, to the American fathers, to
tle fundamentals of the English language, to
American society maladies, to universal lunch, to
the "yin" and "yang" of China-all shoved into
hour-long shifts. This outline may be somewhat
exaggerated, but it truly presents the impression
the student derives from the workings of the
system. Social reformers should look at the
present system of education in some universi-
ties in America when they point with horror to
the assembly lines in automobile plants, for
both apparently are designed from the same mass
process principle-each new "bolt" screwed in
with record speed. But the product of speed in
education, however, is not as permanent a
product as is the automobile.
When it is said, as it commonly is, that the
typical student does not come to the university
for an education, the academic problem is being
regarded only superficially. It is an equally super-
ficial analysis which forces the conclusion that
professors and instructors do not offer enough
to the student to either attract or interest him
in academic study. Rather, the formalized char-
acter of modern educational industrialism de-
feats the true purposes and aims of a liberal arts,
university."
The course cited above indicates this formalized
aspect. The student is constantly having his
thoughts interrupted by wholly new and un-
related facts, until he abandons all in the rush;
when he is most unreceptive, he is forced to fol-
low a formal routine of classes in subjects which
may not add to a fuller preparation for his work
when he leaves the University. He may not be
interested in these enforced subjects which are
required for his degree. The student's ability, in
many instances, is graded according to the
number-of times he is present at the lectures
or discussion sections. Many times the student
is subjected to a virtual reading of the course
textbook in class which he must also read out-
side of class, resulting in a. waste of time and.
effort for the sake of "holy system."
There is one method of study within the Uni-
versity of Michigan's educational structure which
does provide freedom for leisurely thought, does
allow the student the opportunity to think
effectively and to crystallize facts and theories
into a philosophy and form for him an adequate,
which is impossible at present. On the inter-
national front it would have more material bene-
fits. It is certain that in a war with Soviet Russia,
the Fascintern would supply Japan with arms at
least as liberally as it has supplied Franco in
Spain; it would mean further that the Japanese
would assume in international affairs not the
aspect of the brutal invader of the innocent
Chinese (as the world so likes to see her), but
rather the aspect of the holy protagonist of the
sacred crusade against Moscow. It would assure
for her banners the blessing not only of the sanc-
timonious Chamberlain government in 1ngland,
but also the tacit good wishes of some of the
more sinister forces in the United States.
All these make interesting journalistic hypo-
theses; one hundred years from today sharp-
witted historians will delight in dissecting the
whole Far Eastern Crisis of 1938. But today these
facts remain: In the Amur valley, men are fight-
ing; 600 miles from Osaka and the heart of in-
background of useful knowledge. That system is
the one followed in reading courses, the same
as is enjoyed in many European universities.
Here the student obtains a bibliography upon a
subject of interest and importance to him
th'riough consultation with the professor, reads
the material in his own time and convenience
and when most receptive, finally discusses the
collected information with the professor. He
thus secures for himself a piercing and lasting
analysis of the subject, obtained through an ef-
fective system of study. The student is the recip-
ient of a planned and coherent mass of infor-
mation upon subjects of interest to the student
within his sphere of interest or contemplated
effort. The individual's initiative is here ex-
ploited to the fullest extent, with the fullest
benefits derived.
The tutorial system which the University
established in the Spring of this year is a
wary step in the direction of offering the
student more leeway in shaping and conduct-
ing his program of study. But the limited
extent of the program, only 100 of the best
students from the entire literary college be-
ing offered the opportunities of the semi-
tutorial system each year--does not give the
ordinary student the chance to demonstrate
what he might do under a freer educational
system.
A traditional objection to the general spread
of reading course system of academic instruc-
tion has been that the typical student will not
use much initiative and will not "reap the
harvest." This argument disintegrates when one
sees how much the student "reaps'' when rigid
formalism and mas production prevail. In
the event that Michigan will probably not experi-
ence a change in the theories of modern educa-
tion, as the University of Chicago has, or will
probably not undergo an academic reorganiza-
tion under which a broad proctor system would
be established, as at Harvard-both of which
universities having thus bettered academic in-
struction-it might be desirable for Michigan
to attempt to spread the system of reading
courses, wherever feasible, in order to better cope
with the exigencies of modern mass education.
It is not conceivale that the proposed system
of the spread of reading courses would result in
Utopia in education for Michigan. It would, how-
ever, pave the way for the necessary gradual
shift in the emphasis of modern education, away
from college attendance being merely a formal
four-year social sojourn, +to university work
becoming an intellectual effort.
-Irving Silverman
BOOKS.,
By JOHN SULLIVAN
A Cabell Trilogy
SMIRT, SMITH and SMIRE. Three books by
Branch Cabell. Doubleday, Doran and Co.
"In brief, (Smire continued, after just one
more reflective puff at his cigarette), the prose
artist who is also a poet will continue actually
to create . . . at the very least, an entire planet
diversified with its own nations, its own geog-
raphy, its own unterrestrial laws of dream logic,
and its own special atmosphere of dream magic."
* * *
The success which several of the volumes of
James Branch Cabell's "Biography of the Life
of Manuel" enjoyed during the Tempestuous
Twenties is something almost impossible of be-
lief nowadays. That a writer of melodramatic,
sentimental romances (as they seemed on the
surface) should have received so much adulation
from the intelligentsia seems somehow incredible
for those hard-bitten Post-War times. And to-
day, with the rise of "proletarian" literature,
Cabell is extremely old hat.
Yet Cabell is not and never was the dealer
in cheap sentiment that those who once lavished
praise now half-shamefacedly declare him. He
Is a specimen of the urbane writer unique in
American literature. And Cabell thus antici-
pates literary currents by many, many year
For America is yet young and thriving. There
is little sophistication and despair in the heart
of America. Only the very oldest culture of our
nation, that of the Virginia gentry, could pro-
duce even a near-urbane writer like Cabell. And
so generations to come may prize Cabell as the
first indication that we as a literary people had
grown up.
Cabell completed the Biography at the age of
50 in 1929 for two reasons. He believed that
he had reached the peak of his powers, and he
foresaw that the culture of the 'twenties was
dead. Events proved him correct on the latter
point, but the six volumes he has produced under
the abbreviated name of Branch Cabell since
that time indicate that while he may have
reached the peak of his power in 1929, he has
continued to hold that peak in the intervening
years.
The trilogy of "Smirt," "Smith" and "Smire,"
it is to be suspected, completes a minor project
which Cabell has had in mind for some time.
They are the story of a dream, as "Alice in
Wonderland" was the story of a dream. And
like Alice, and like the Chinese philosopher and
the Bluebottle Fly, the dreamer of this story
may have been only a character in the ,dream of
a little black dog he never quite knew. But
in a triple incarnation, first as Smirt, the All-
Highest, a very powerful sort of god; then as
Smith, a minor woodland deity; then as Smire,
a demi-god, the dreamer wanders delightfully
through the lands beyond common-sense, con-
sorts pleasantly with many a brightly hued
maiden, talks much high nonsense (and much
very sound common sense), and winds up, as do
all dreamers. returning to the life of everyday
lIt Seems To Me
ay ]HEYWOOD BROUN
Marc Blitzstein wrote a play last
season called "The Cradle Will Rock."
It was about a place called Steeltown,
and the manner in which the execu-
tives of a big corporation endeavored
to control the
thought of the
comnunity by
putting pressure
upon the news-
upon the newspa-
pers, the schools
and the ministers
of the town.
The play had
a moderate run
and excellent notices, but most of the
critics spoke on the episodes as being
broadly and bitterly satirical in their
nature. And, indeed, it is quite pos-
sible that the author himself may
have felt that he was bearing down
a good deal and using a bold 'stroke
to heighten his effects.
But some of the testimony given
before the LaFollette Committee
makes "The Cradle Will Rock" seem
not only factual but almost mild in
its indictment. Mister Mister, the
industrial leader in the play, was con-
tent to use a single minister as the
spokesman for company propaganda
againstthe union.
According-to the testimony of the
Rev. Orville C. Jones, an effort was
made to enlist the entire clergy of
Youngstown as proponents of the.
open shop. There was, to be sure,
dispute among the opposing witnesses
as to whether the company used coer-
cion, but no denial of the fact that
the Sheet and Tube Co. gave a little
dinner to 30 members of the local
Ministerial Assn., and that W. B.
Gillies, the company's operating vice-
president, made a little speech.
* * *
.inister Loses His Pulpit
Mr. Gillies had denied that he ex-
erted pressure. According t a news
report he "declared that it was be-
neath him to coerce the clergymen."
I am curious to know whether he
meant that it would be unethical or
unsportsmanlike, beneath his scruples
or~ his dignity. Dr. Jones voiced some
objections to thertheories expounded
by the representatives of the plant
management, and Dr. Jones hasn't
got a pulpit any more. Of course,
that may be sheer coincidence.
Frank Purnell, the president of the
company, was at one time a parish-
ioner of the Plymouth Congregational
Church, but he left the flock of Dr.
Jones even before the little dinner
was held. Mr. Purnell explained to
the Civil Liberties Committee that
the church had been used "by -this
gentleman as a meeting place for
known Reds."
The change which has come over
the church of Christ in some com-
munities down through the ages is
both interesting and curious. Jesus
said, "It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the Kingdom
of God." But getting into a congre-
gation and assuming control of the
mood of the spiritual message is a
are tabernacles where, as a matter of
much simpler matter. In fact there
course, it is assumed that the man
with the greatest means is to have
the greatest authority.
Must Be A Go-Getter
A church of this sort must not be
in the red nor the Red in it. Let me
see, who was the Christian figure who
was assailed by the rich and respect-
able of his own day. Surely the name
should escape no one, because there
was a time when his preachings of
brotherhood was highly regarded. I
mean the man who was assailed be-
cause he admitted to his company
publicans and sinners. And there
were zealots who followed in his train.
But that was centuries ago.
The modern minister in many cases
must be an enterprising go-getter.
Indeed, it is up to him to get or go.
I haven't the slightest doubt that W.
B. Gillies, the company's operating
vice - president, wasyscrupulously
truthful when he said that he used
no threats at the little dinner, and
that it would be beneath him to at-
tempt to coerce clergymen.
I assume that the feast was a simple
repast, and that the suggestions made
by the spokesman for Sheet and Tube
were couched in the friendliest way
imaginable. And doubtless Mr. Gillies
bowed his head as any man whenthe
called upon Brother Doe to ask the
blessing.
His speech came after thanks had
been given for the blessings about to
be received. And before he spoke it
is possible that the propagandist for
sanctity and truth and Sheet and
Tube took up a piece of bread and a
knife.
much brave rhetoric. But in the end,
as have all Cabell heroes, this one
returns to happy monogamy with
Just Plain Jane.
And the words of Smirt might be
well addressed to .those modern au-
thors whose works have "social sig-
nificance:"
"I submit to the local by-law that
the contemporaneous happening, the
material accident, supremely and
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 3, 1938
VOL. XLVIH. No. 32
Thunder Over China: Talking and
silent motion pictures on the war in
China, supplemented by a lecture by
Dr. F. S. Onderdonk on "From World
War to World Community" will be
presented Wednesday, Aug. 3, 8 p.m.,
Natural Science Auditorium. Admis-
sion 20 cents; tickets at Wahr's and
at the door. The proceeds go to
Chinese Civilian Relief.
Graduation Recital. Helen Barry,
soprano, of St. Paul, Minn., will give
a recital in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Bachelor of
Music degree, Wednesday evening,
Aug. 3, at 8:15 o'clock, in the School
of Music Auditorium. Miss Janet
McLoud will accompany her at the
piano
Fellowship of Reconciliation: The
pacifist position will be discussed pro
and con. at the F.O.R. meeting Wed-
nesday night, 9 o'clock, Lane' Hall.
The public is invited.
Prof. George B. Cressey of Syracuse
will speak at 4:30 this afternoon on,
"Challenging the Arctic" in the Lec-
ture Hall of the Rackham Building.
English Literature Students: An in-
formal discussion meeting will be held
at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Assembly
Hall of the Rackham Building for
all those interested in the English
literature tour in England to be of-
fered for credit next summer. Prof.
Louis A. Hopkins, Prof. Bennett
Weaver, director of the tour, and
Prof. Warner G. Rice will address
the meeting.
Pi Lambda Theta will hold a busi-
ness meeting Wednesday, Aug. 3 at 7
p.m. in the Pi Lambda Theta room
in the Horace H. Rackham School of
Graduate Studies.
Chemistry Lecture: The sixth in the
series of Chemistry lectures will be
given by Professor E. Bright Wilson
of Harvard University on Wednesday,
Aug. 3 at 4:15 p.m. in the amphi-
theatre of the Horace H. Rackham
School of Graduate Studies. Sub-
ject: Interatomic Forces and Mole-
cular Spectra. All interested are in-
vited.
"Trends in Health Education" is the
subject of Prof. Mabel E. Rugeh's
lecture this afternoon at 4:05 in the
University High School Auditorium.
The Michigan Dames will sponsor
another weekly bridge party Wednes-
day at 2 p.m. in the Michigan League.
A cordial invitation is extended to
all wives of students and internes of
the University.
Men's Education Club: The annual
picnic is planned for this afternoon
from 3:30 until 7:30 p.m. at Portage
Lake. The program will include
swimming, softball, dart baseball,
horseshoe, and other games. Also
Professor Schorling will speak and
the founder of the men's education
club will be honored. Those with
cars will please drive past the School
of Education main entrance and pick
up any who may want to attend that
do not have means of transportation.
Luncheon of the Graduate Con-
ference on Renaissance Studies,
Thursday, Aug. 4, 12:15 p.m. at the
Michigan Union. Mr. Eugene Power
will speak on "Photographic Repro-
ductions and Photographic Processes
As Aids to l;esearch in Renaissance
Materials." Make reservations at the
English Office, 3221 Angell Hall.
Professor J. H. Haiford's lecture,
"Join Milton's Workshop,' which has
been scheduled for Aug. 5 wl be giv-
en on Thursday, Aug. 11, at :30 in
the Main Auditorium of the Horace
H. Rackham School. Mr. Samuel
Putnam's lecture on Rabelais is can-
celled..
Graduation Recital. Tom Kinkead,
(Continued on Page 3)
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