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August 05, 1938 - Image 2

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Michigan Daily, 1938-08-05

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THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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edited and managed by students of the Untiversity of
'Mchigan under the authority oUthe Board in Control of
Suent Publications.
Publisheb every morning except Monday during the
.University year and Summer session.
Member of the Associated Press
,'he Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the
use for republication of all news dispatcheS credited to
It or not otherwise credited in this newspaper. All
rights of republication of all other matters herein also
reserved.
Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as
second class mail Matter.
Subscriptions during regular school year by carrier,
$4O;by. mal, $4.50.
Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 193738
RKPROSRNTD FOR NATIONAL ADYRTiSiNG BY
National AdvertisingServiceInc.
College Pubishers Rereutqnive
420 MADISON A. NEW YORKi, N. Y,
C'ICA.O - 3dSTOM * LOS AKGSLES * SAN FNRAMCIYCO
Board of Editors
MANAGING EDITOR.. IRVING SILVERMAN
.Cit Editor . .Robert I. Ftzhenry
Assistant Editors.. ... Mel Fnebeg,
Joseph Gies, Elliot Maraniss, Ben M. MarinO,
Carl Petersen, Suzanne. Potter, Harry L.
Sonneborn'
Business Department
SUSINESS MANAGER... ERNEST A. JONES
Credit Manager . . . . Norman Steinberg-
' Irculation Manager . . . J. Cameron Hall
Asistants . . Philip Buchen, Walter Stebens
NIGHT EDITOOP CARL PV SEN
The editorials published in The Michigan
Daily are written by members of the Daily
staff and represent the views a-the writer
only.-
It is important for society to avod the
neglect of adults, but positively dangerous
for it to thwart the ambition of youth to
reformthe world. Only the schools which
oat on this belief are educationll institu-
tions in the best meaning of the term.
-Alexander G. Ruthven.
lockade'
To Be Shown Here ...
T HE POWER OF THE IAILY column,
"The Editor Gets Told," has assert-
ed itself.
A contributon which appeared in the letter
column on Sunday, July 17, entitled "The Block-
ade Censor" urged that persons interested in
seeing the film "Blockade" write or phone the
theatre management requesting that the movie
be shown in Ann Arbor. "Blockade,a, a movie
production based on the war in Spain; has been
rated by movie critics as one of the few truly
significant films ever produced in Hollywood,
$rit because reactionary pro-Franco forces here
have succeded in having the film banned in
several cities in this country, the producers have
bOen curtailing production on other films of
social importance.'
Yesterday, the management of the Michigan
Theatre announced that "Blockade" will be
shown next week at the theatre, in response
to the many letters received, some from promi-
nent faculty members, requesting the showing
of the film. A review of the picture from the
New York Times is elswhere on this page.
We congratulate the management of the
Michigan Theatre for its response to popular
demand, and giving the opportunity to: Ann
Arbor to judge the film for itself.
-Irving Silverman
The Mistrial
At Harlan...
HE TRIAL OF 55 (originally 69) Har-
lan County coal corporations on a
conspiracy charge has been stalled by a hung
jury and a mistrial. The extreme complexity
of the court record; the transcript of which fills
12,000 pages, foreshadowed such a mishap. Five
of the jurymen wanted to convict all 55 defend-
ints, three wished to acquit all, and the remain-
ing four wanted to convict some and acquit
others.
The government's prosecuting attorney has
indicated that he will seek a retrial, perhaps

with separate bills of indictment. It is a matter
of great importance that the law-breaking mine
owners of Harlan be brought to justice. When
the LaFollette Committee made its revelations
in 1937 of Harlan conditions, where law and
order was bought and paid for by the com-
panies, the whole nation was shocked out of
its customary apathy to civil liberties. The coal
operators' association and its hired law officer
thugs were condemned on every editorial page.
Unfortunately, public censure is not always
made of lasting stuff on every occasion. People
have a tendency to forget violations of civil
liberties; witness the fiasco of the Florida flog-
ging trial. Legal complications often give shyster
lawyers time to delay prosecutions until public
feeling has died down. Nevertheless, if the gov-
ernment's case 'is conducted by capable and
resolute men, it can be carried to a successful
conclusion, in spite of the difficulties of the

The Democratic Process
And The Primaries ...
T'HAT FREEDOM of democratic choice
in recent and pending primary elec-
tions in the South is taking a severe beating
at the hands of all parties concerned in the
elections is of little doubt at the present time.
Last week in "the daffiest primary election
campaign" in Texas history, W. Lee O'Daniel,
flour salesman, singer, versifier, salesman-not
politician or thinker--overpoweringly won the
Democratic nomination for Governor, tanta-
mount to election in Texas. O'Daniel based his
platform on a promise of a $30-a-month pension
for every Texan over 65. When seriously ques-
tioned as to how he proposed to raise the
$42,000,000 necessary to fulfill his promise, his
invariable reply was either "Pass the biscuits,
Pappy," or to his band, "Strike up another tune
boys."
It is a sad commentary on the electorate of
the country that their choice, when it exists,
depends upon which candidate has the best
singing voice, the best hillbilly band or the
funniest jokes.. But it is an even sadder commen-
tary that the electorate at times has no oppor-
tunity to exercise any freedom of choice at all,
as has been the case this week in Kentucky and
Tennessee.
While Governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler croons
to his audiences and Senator Alben W. ("Dear
Alben") Barkley tirelessly exhorts his, the special
Senate Committee to investigate campaign ex-
penditures is finding out that in the Kentucky
primary campaign a "deplorable situation exists"
which should "arouse the conscience of the
country."
The findings of the committee's investigator,
-I. Ralph Burton, specifically stated that in be-
half of one of the candidates, who was not,
named, "organized efforts have been and are
being made to control the vote of those on relief.
work and that contributions have been sought
and obtained from Federal employees."
"It is equally certain that state Gfficials
charged; in part, with the distribution of Fed-
eral funds for old age assistance and for un-
employment compensationshave been required
to contribute from their salaries and 'of their
services in the interests of another candidate
for the U. S. Senate," the committee added.
That these charges, so elaborately veiled by
the committee, apply to "Dear Alben's" and the
Happy Governor's campaigns, is indisputable,
since it is well known that control of the Federal
machine in Kentucky is in the hands of Senator
Baikley while the state machine is run by the
Governor.
The committee had discovered only a week
before that conditions even more abominable
had existed in Tennessee previous to yesterday's
primaries. Of conditions there it said: "Appa-
rently every scheme and questionable device that
can be used in a political contest to raise funds
to influence votes and control the election result
is in full swing."
It cannot be disputed that the Senate Com-
mittee has hit the nail on the head in regard to
conditions in these two states when it says:
"These facts should arouse the conscience of
the country. They imperil the right of the
people to a free and unpolluted ballot."
-Carl Petersen
The Editor
Gets Told
The Church In Spain
To the Editor:
Will you permit me to bolster Mr. Gies' de-
fense of his editorial position in today's issue
by asking "Undoubtedly a Fascist" a couple of
questi o- --
1 Is it worse for Loyalists to burn churches
than for Rebels to make forts and arsenals out
of them, as hundreds of eyewitnesses have testi-
fied?

2. The election that put the Loyalist in power,
which your correspondent says was not bona-
fide, was held when a Rightist government was in
power in Spain. Why, then, did Spanish Catholics
work so hard in that election to give the Leftist
candidates splendid pluralities? The evidence
that many of them did so is overwhelming.
3. "The Church recognizes only legitimate
government." Is this the reason the Vatican
was first to recognize the government set up in
Ethiopia by its conquerors?
4. "Father O'Flanagan is a traitor to the
Catholic Church." The Father pointed out that
it is only in political matters that he refuses
to follow the dictates of his church. Moreover,
the only government in Spain that the U. S.
recognizes is the lawfully-elected, legally-con-
stituted government of Loyalist Spain. The in-
ference is inescapable: Does "Undoubtedly a
Fascist" prefer treason to one's country and
one's convictions to treason to one's church?
5. And does he dismiss with contempt the
splendid names of America's foremost religious
leaders-except those of the Roman Church-
which adorn the board of The American Friends
of Spanish Democracy?
--A. H. G.
Errata
To The Edior:
In the editorial "The Catholic Church and the
Spanish War" (July 28), there are several mat-
ters so treated as to leave erroneous impressions.
Hence the following comments which may serve
to correct them.

Iif,,enzr lo Me
Heywood B roun
Representative Samuel B. Pettengill (Dem.), of
Indiana, has rushed to the defense of John J.
O'Connor (Tam. Dem.), of New York. In ringing
tones, the gentleman from
Indiana makes an inquiry of
the voters of the Sixteenth
District, New York, and asks,
"Do you want Charlie Mc-
Carthy as your Congressman
-or John O'Connor?"
I didn't know that the
dummy was running, but, if
so, it seems to me that there
should be time for mature
consideration before an answer is rendered to
Representative Pettengill. Possibly it is irrele-
vant to suggest that Charlie McCarthy attracts
a much larger number of admiring listeners, and
that as a rule his remarks are more to the point
than those of his flesh and blood rival.
The rivals have a different manner of ap-
proach to public problems. Charie is always
on the record. He speaks his piece in such a way
that anyone who is interested can listen. Once
he is lifted from the rostrum, Charlie lapses into
silence. He has no capacity for cloakroom in-
trigue, and he has the same horror of little
smoke-filed rooms that he holds for forest fires.
Much of O'Connor's work in Washington is not
known at all to outsiders. His most effective
thrusts are delivered behind the closed doors
bf committees.
*, * *
Begins Where Charlie Ends
In other words, John' begins where Charlie
leaves off. McCarthy is wholy unskilled in pull-
ing strings or wires, while O'Connor is an adept
at this art. Again; it is a fairly familiar fact that
when Charlie speaks the voice is really that of
Edgar Bergen, but when John J. O'Connor voices
a free and untrammeled opinion one can only
guess just which person, group or inerest has
animated him into becoming articulate. Of
course, no constituent will go very far astray if
he assumes that when John J. gets vocal it is the
voice of the Tiger which is heard in the land.
The only problem which remains is which pure
patriot happens to have the jungle beast upon
the leash at the moment.
O'Connor has served the organization well and
faithfullyunder many Wigwam leaders. He
carried out his assignments in the Assembly in
a way to give satisfaction to the unselfish leaders
of the Hall, and when Bourke Cochrane died he
was elected to fill the vacancy in Congress. He
has been returned to the House many times.
Mr. Pettengill, of Indiana, may be unfamiliar
with the political history of Manhattan. "Do you
want a rubber stamp or a man?" is one of the
queries he submits to Mr. Connor's constituents.
Seemingly he is under the impression that Tam-
many makes it a rule to' push forward only men
of complete independence who make all decisions
according to their own conscience and never
pause to ask what the boss back home may re-
quire of them.
* * *
Utopian Rules In Indiana
Possibly the rules of the game are Utopian in
Indiana. It may even be that John J. O'Connor
has served under a special dispensation in Wash-
ington, and has never been under the compulsion
of yielding to the will of the machine. But that
is not the rule.
If Charlie McCarthy actually intends to run I
would advise voters in the Sixteenth to support
him rather than O'Connor. It is better to have a
Representative who can at least turn his head
rather than one who is compelled in every crisis
to bow it.
Again, the ardors of the present campaign
seem to prove that it is a mistake for a house-
wife to take the stump and let her biscuits burn.
Mrs. Sarah Oliver Hulswit, Suffern, N.Y., is to
come down from her estate to urge Kenneth F.
Simpson to turn his Republican forces loose in
support of reelection for O'Connor. Up State
they jest at scars, because they have never felt

the wounds of the Tiger's claw. And so Suffern
thinks that Tammany rule is amply good enough
for the children of the slums.
Mrs. Hulswit does not like the spending pro-
gram of the New Deal, and so she leaps from her
frying pan to add fuel to that fire for righteous
financing and pure politics which has marked
the history of Tammany from the days of Aaron
Burr, the first Tiger politician, down through
the glorious days of Tweed and Croker. By all
means, McCarthy for Congress.
confidence in the goodwill of the government and
for the consequent decision to revolt.
2. The quotation from Leo XIII. This is of
doubtful pertinence, because it is conceivable
that a government considered by many as "legiti-
mate" might be so unjust and tyrannical in its
laws and action as ultimately to forfeit all right-
ful claim to the allegiance of the citizen. How-
ever, if the assumption be that a government,
because of its "legitimate", "legally-constituted"
and "democratically elected," is therefore by
nature incapable of doing wrong, then obviously
any opposition to it by word or deed is inde-
fensible. This is in essence the doctrine of dic-
tatorship and of the totalitarian state. Accept-
ance of that theory precludes all opposition,
because none is justifiable.
3. "The Bishops' letter justified the rebellion
as an 'armed plebiscite"'. After discussing the
outbreak of the war, the antecedent and attend-
ant circumstances, the Bishops assert "The war
is therefore like an armed plebiscite." But, in
justification of the war they assert: "that five
years of continuous insults to the Spanish sub-
jects in the religious and social order put the

(Review by Frank Nugent in the New
York Times, June 17, 1938).
Since no one expects Hollywood to
take sides, Walter Wanger's "Block-
ade" which is the first film to deal at
all seriously with the Spanish Civil
War is not to be damned for its failure
to mention Loyalists and Rebel, Fran-
co and Mussolini. If it expresses an
but this: either to perish in the def-
inite assault of destructive commun-
ism already prepared and decreed, as
has occured in those parts where the
Nationalist movement has not tri-
umphed, or to attempt a titanic ef-
fort of resistance in order to escape
from the terrible enemy and to save
the fundamental principles of her
social life and of her national char-
acteristics."
4. Communist influence in Spain.
An examination of the issue of "The
Communist International" of the
past few years give illuminating evi-
dence of the importance and signifi-
cance Communists attach to the
"Spanish Revolution", as they call
it, and the part they profess to play
in it.
The following statement by O.
Piatnitsky should somewhat clarify
the -matter. He writes: "The Com-
munist Party in Spain organized and
lead the strike of the Madrid Metal
Workers. It called for a general strike
and partly carried it through, at the
beginning of 1934. It organized and
partly put through a strike of agricul-
tural laborers in the summer of 194.
In all these strikes, members of the
Socialist party and their reformists
trade unions took part - - -
"The Socialists openly declared that
they were preparing for an uprising
-they even had weapons and when
the Leroux government brought the
Fascists, Robles & Co., into its ranks,
our Party and the Socialist Party
declared a general strike. They were
quite right in doing so. But the armed
uprising into which the strike devel-
oped was actually without a central
revolutionary leadership .. .
"The Communist Party alone en-
ergetically and self-sacrificingly car-
ried out the obligations it has taken
upon itself. In some places the strike
was conducted skillfully and well.
Thus, in Asturias, where the Com-
munist Party of Spain was very
strong and where there was a strong
red miners union, the Communist
party took the leadership of the
struggle into its own hands. There
only did the strike develop into an
uprising, but Soviet power was or-
ganized.
"Despite the weakness of our party
which was particularly noticeable
during the uprising, the united front
tactics which it pursued before the
uprising and its heroic armed struggle
during the uprising have given it an
opportunity of penetrating into the
ranks not only of the Socialist work-
ers but also of the Anarcho-syndical-
ist and anarchist workers and to
establish considerably better relations
between them and the Communists"
(Practical experiences of the struggle
of the Communists for the United
Front Pt. 2 Spain in "The Communist
International" Aug. 5, 1935, pp. 712-
713).
5. "America where a similar consti-
tution and similar 'secularist' laws are
in force." As a matter of fact there is
precious little similarity between the
Spanish constitutions and our own
Even a cursory reading of the texts
will prove that. Specifically concern-
ing religious affairs, Art. 14 of the
Spanish Constitution 1931 reads
"The fall within the exclusive com-
petence of the Spanish state legisla-
tion and direct execution in the fol-

lowing matters - - - - 2. Relations be-
tween church and state and the regu-
lation of religions."
Article 26 provides that all religious
denominations will be considered as
associations subject to appecial law,
that the Jesuits be dissolved anc
their possessions nationalized anc
turned over to welfare and educa-
tional works, that other religious or-
ders will be subject to a special law
passed by the Constituent Cortes con-
forming to principles set down in th
article. By these principles religiou4
orders allowed to subsist must be in-
scribed on a special register to be
kept at the Ministry of Justice; they
may not acquire or keep by them-
selves or through an agent more
possessions than those which by pre-
vious arrangement are destined fox
their upkeep or the direct fulfillmen
of their particular purposes; they may
not engage in industry, commerce oz
teaching, and their possessions ma3
be nationalized."
Furthermore in Article 27 we read
"Cemeteries shall be conclusively un-
der the jurisdiction of the civil auth-
ority. There shall be in them nc
separation of sections for religio,

honest hatred of war, if it deploresS
the bombing of civilian populationst
and if it closes with an appeal to thec
"conscience of the world" it is doing1
the most we can expect an American I
picture to do. The most, that is,
from an editorial point of view. Mr.
Wanger has displayed rare courage
in going even so far. In spite of the 1
anonymity of his combatants, he1
probably will be punished for hisc
temerity.
Courage, even in the smallest de-t
gree is so unusual in Hollywood that
we wish we could give this column's1
unqualified support, not merely toi
the theory, but to the text of Mr.
Wanger's drama. Unhappily for us1
all, we cannot. For the Music Hall's
1932 the Cortes passed a law: "The
Company of Jesus is hereby dissolved
throughout Spanish territory-The
State henceforth does not recognize
any religious or legal rights for it1
as an order." Jesuits'are forbidden to
form congregations or to live in
brotherhoods either in public or pri-
vate. Their property was "national-
ized."
In Mar. 1933 all Catholic church
property was by law "nationalized",
including churches, Episcopal pal-
aces, rectories, seminaries etc. and
all ornaments, pictures etc. In May
1933 the Bill against Religious or-
ders was passed putting into effect
the principles enunciated in Article
26.
So far our constitution does not
contain provisions such as the above,
nor has there been any enactment of
such laws.
-W. A. McLaughlin

Spanish War Movie
'Blockade' Names No Names, But Recognition Is Easy

new film has a curious unreality, con-
sidering the grim reality behind it.
"Blockade" is a story of Slain; we
are reminded of it now and again;
but more often it is a story of Zenda
or Ruritania or anyplace where a
young patriot falls in love with a
beautiful spy. We've no doubt young
officers have fallen in love with spies
in real wars. That doesn't alter the
fact that it was melodramatically
trite of them to do so.
It begins well with an atmospheric
shot of pastoral Spain. A shepherd
(Leo Carillo) is piping to his flock. A
lanky young farmer (Henry Fonda)
delivers an apostrophe to the soil. A
girl in a fast motor impales her car
on the tongue of an ox-cart. Towing
it back to the village, the youth and
the beauty-talk. That evening there
is thunder in the South. The cannon
comes closer. The farmer pleads with
the terrified villagers to defend their
valley. The enemy is checked, the
youth becomes a lieutenant on special
counter-espionage duty and "Block-
ade" becomes a glib spy melodrama.
John Howard Lawson, who wrote
the script, might better have stood by
his original conception: a story of a
man's love for his land. That was
the theme in ge eral terms of the
documentary film, "The Spanish
Earth." In specific ar1 personal ap-
plication, it Iight have developed
greater dramatic power a; fiction.
There are touches of dignity :n his
script even as it stands, touches which
are not always realized by William
Dieterle's direction. Mr. Dieterle's
symbolism is sometimes too rudimen-
tary his studies of the face (and the
facet) of Spain has the posed look
that comes from having to depend on
Central Casting for a collection of
types. It may be unfair to compare
the contrived with the real, but we
cannot forget the faces of the people
in "The Spanish Earth." The people
of "Blockade" have not that look;
their war has been synthetic.

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