THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Demonstrate Fitness In Annual Athletic Event I TA W Rift Mnv Aroumse Co
A field of boys stretches in precise pattern across this field at Praha, where Czechs annually stage their na-
tional athletic exhibition, or Slet, as it is known in Praha. For this year's show, 170,000 spectators packed the
stadium to capacity.
ed as a personality maladjustment,Nr
as a conflict of custom with new
truth, as a sense of insecurity, or the
want of meaning in life itself are Of Declaration Of Indeendence
proper considerations which every
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highest depression or spiritual naked-
ness there have always been men here
who have met that challenge. Emer-
son, Whitman, Thoreau, the trum-
peters of the Golden Day were all
possessed of the vision of a spiritual-
ly beautiful and materially secure
America, and, if for no other rea-
son, they are the men to whom demo-
cratic America is now turning for
the literary manifestation of its own
dream.
It is of course impossible to return
to the past, even to Whitman and
Emerson. But they are essential links;
from them and from the entire epic
through the last two centuries, we can
make our own departure. The Ameri-
can scene is still as much, of a chal-
lenge as it was in 1776. Thoreau's
dream of what is to 'live a full life,
and Emerson's vision of a society
that shall be oriented completely to-
wards life, must still be our philo-
sophical guides.
In the course of our education we
have been told many times that with
us lies the hope of the country. And
note this essential characteristic of
our age; we believe and intend to
fulfill that admonition. There are
many factors in the America of to-
day that we cherish and would like
to see perpetuated. America is still
the land of opportunity; but those
opportunities must be open to all,
not confined to a few lucky indivi-
duals. The American philosophy of
instrumentalism, its passion for the
material, positive science and prac-
tical actions are indispensible ele-
ments in the dynamic cultures of to-
day; it would be foolish to believe
otherwise. But they have become the
only living sources of our own cul-
ture. Even the radicals in America
today can offer nothing more than
a diffusion of present values. What
'is forgotten, as Randolph Bourne and
Lewis Mumford have indicated, is
that vision, heroic pictures, trans-
cendental goals are of equal impor-
tance to techniques and instruments.
There must be a concrete image of
perfection; otherwise there is the
danger, that in rejecting Utopias, a
Utopia will be made of the present
from local unions.
Ultimately, then, it is the spirit
that counts. In the eyes of the sop-
histicated and the genteel the "spirit
of '76" may be .just another hackney-
ed manifestation of the provincial
American susceptibility for slogans
and catch words; yet the inescapable
fact is that that spirit was a live
and pulsing one and has cast a long
shadow over the experiment in life
and culture that is called American.
What is most needed today is a re-
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DID YOU KNOW THAT
THE HAUNTED TAVERN
is the ONLY privately-owned eating place in
Ann Arbor mentioned in Duncan Hines'
"Adventures in Good Eating" - a list of
America's finest?
LOCATION: 417 East Huron Street Phone 7781
HOURS: 11:30 - 1:30 5:30 - 7:30
SUNDAYS: 12:30 - 7:30
COOL
ON HOT DAYS
. .,__ ._._. _ __--__ -_ ---- -_ _- T.
I AM A
WOMAN
WHO MUST
BE LOVED...
-
Shows
Continuous
Today
1-11 P.M.
T'1 1 TT1Y - - -? 1 X-f-
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