MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, JULY 'HE MICHIGAN DAILY L -/' "I RANG I 1 ( flNh r1V T~WI :.T:', w .o. .gr, ,yy Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of 'Student Publications. Publishea every morning except Monday during the Uzversity year and Summer Session. Member of the Associated Press The 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 rveserved, Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as second class mail matter. subscriptions during regular school year by carrier, rt4,00; by mail, $4.50. Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 193738 REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTISING BY Nation0alAdvertisingService, Inc. College Publishers Representative 420 MADnsoN AvE. !tw YORK. k-. Y. GCASo *BOSTON " LOS ANGELES - SAM FRANCISC* Board of Editors Managing Editor . Irving Silverman City Editor . . . . Robert I. Fitzhenry .Assistant Editors. . .. . . . Mel Fineberg, Joseph Gies, Elliot Maraniss, Ben M. Marino, Carl Petersen, Suzanne Potter, Harry L. Sonneborn. Business Department ,Business Manager . . . . Ernest A. Jones Credit Manager . . . Norman Steinberg Circulation Manager . . J. Cameron Hall ,Assistants . . Philip Buchen, Walter Stebens NIGHT EDITOR: CARL PETERSEN The editorials published in The Michigan Daily 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 reform the world. Only the schools which act on this belief are educational institu- tions in the best meaning of the term. -Alexander 0. Ruthven. i The Congressional 'Seniority Rule.* NE OF THE conspicuous faults of our governmental system was brought out by.a recent speech of E. L. Oliver, executive vice- president of Labor's Non-Partisan League, ad- dressing the National Council for Social Work at Seattle, Washington. Mr. Oliver's subject was the seniority system in Congressional committees, and he reviewed some interesting facts concern- ing the fate of liberal legislation in the last two Congresses. "Party impotency becomes especially glaring when some political upheaval shifts control from one to another party," Mr. Oliver pointed out. "The major party, with a large proportion of new rmembers, assigns controlling positions to the ,members with longest services-men who were elected without reference to the issue which caused the upheaval. "Specifically, the men who were elected with Roosevelt on the New Deal program are com- pletely under the control of the old-timers of the Democratic Party; every attempt to enact the platform of 1932 or 1936 meets with the de- termined opposition of committee chairmen and of members of the strongest committees." Mr. Oliver then produced figures to show that the 46 Democratic committee chairmen in the House of Representatives are three-quarters of pre-depression vintage, and that most of them are anti-New Deal. They are mostly men in whose districts there has been no political struggle over the issues that have divided the rest of the coun- try and produced the new liberal movement of the last six years. In any case, these men are not an integral part of that movement, and their party seniority gives them a totally unwarranted con- trol over the policies of the government. When the wage and hour bill was recommitted in December of last year, the Democratic repre- sentatives voted against recommittal, 179 to 133. The committee chairmen, however, voted in favor of recommittal, 24 to 21. The resolution to re- commit the bill, killing it for that session, was- passed by a narrow margin; a shift of 10 votes vould have Kept it on the floor of the House. Thus the committee chairmen, the accredited leaders of the Democratic Party, were the de- cisive factor in preventing passage of a bill to which the party had pledged itself in its plat- form. In the session of Congress just ended, an amendment to a previous law, the Walsh-Healey Act fixing wages and hours standards on govern- ment contract work, was introduced by Senator Walsh. The amendment would have forbidden placing of government contracts with any firms not complying with the Wagner Act. There was obviously little ground for honest opposition to it; no Congressman could very well insist that government contracts be awarded to companies breaking the law. But the bill, sure of passage, never reached the floor. It was stopped in the Rules Committee, notoriously dominated by con- servative Democrats. By PROF. KARL LITZENBERG (of the English department) Shoemakers' Holiday' One should forget to be critical when he is permitted to see a play written by one of Shake- speare's contemporaries, for this pleasure is not one to be had every day. Any theatre-goer should be grateful for the production of one of the most amusing and good-humored comedies com- posed during the greatest age in the history of the English drama. The Michigan Repertory presentation of Thomas Dekker's Shoemakers' Holiday should call forth such uncritical grati- tude from its audience on several grounds; its ecenery and costumes are exceedingly colorful; its performers, with one or two exceptions, fill their parts adequately; its songs and dances add life and spirit to what is already a lively and high-spirited comedy. And yet this perverse re- viewer can scarcely say that the present produc- tion is completely satisfying-in spite of the comfortable interpretation which Mr. Kane (himself the play's director) gave to the role of Simon Eyre; in spite of the magnificent comic gifts of Mr. Hiram Sherman, as Firk; in spite of the remarkable antics of Mr. Truman Smith; in spite of the excellent stage diction of Mr. Edward Jurist. The play has been arranged for this series of performances in two acts-and most of that which is poor theatre occurs in the first act; most of that which is good theatre, in the last. The first act-even though there are many uproarious moments with Master Firk-is con- fusing. Whether thi is owing to the terrifically racy tempo in which the action is played, or whether it is attributable to the manner in which the action is played, or whether it is attributable to the manner in which the play has been cut- or both-is difficult to determine. One felt, throughout the first act, however, that the play- ers had been so thoroughly imbued with the idea of speed that they spoke too rapidly, and puhed too hard. There were many speeches which were frankly unintelligible; and there were scenes in which the acting was patently frantic. The same difficulty-which is, after all, one of communication--did not present itself in the second act, except in a speech or two toward the end. The audience's response to the secohd act was noticeably more spontaneous and more en- thusiastic. This response can be traced to sev- eral causes: much of the misdirected excitement had calmed down, or exhausted itself; the au- dience was becoming accustomed to the tempo; and Mr. Sherman commenced to take over the play. When Mr. Sherman takes over a play, he does no half-hearted job of it. Since the part of Firk is beautifully suited to his talents as a comic actor, and since Firk has so much to do and say in this act, there was nothing for the audience to do except to release its feeble hold on its departing dignity and roar at Master Firk. Roaring at Master Firk, incidentally, makes a very pleasant way to spend an evening. The Shoemakers' Holiday is not a delicate play. Its indelicacy is sometimes referred to as 'hearty Elizabethan humor'; upon other occasions it is simply called baudy. Mr. Dane stated in the press last week (apropos of the humor), that "If Queen Elizabeth could laugh at it, so can the professors." This reviewer is able to report to Mr. Kane that there was considerable emulation of the Queen last evening. The Editor Gets Told Emotion Vs. Reason To The Editor: Because the university, as originally con- ceived, was intended to be a seat of culture, where among other things, the means of preservation and progress of society were to be taught, it seems to the writer that it is most apropos to consider at this time the much mooted question of Capital Punishment. The Chebatoris case, brought to a proper, sudden close today, furnishes an excellent object lesson. The "sob-sisters" seem to think their right- eous attitude substantiated somewhat by the fact the widow and orphans of the bandit's victim have expressed themselves as desiring life im- prisonment for the killer rather than execution. This alleged argument can be dispensed with immediately when we note that it arises from an erroneous conception of the purpose of capital punishment; society, in removing a -menace to it, is not seeking vengeance for anyone; it is sim- ply protecting itself against the probable recur- rence of injuries to itself. If you have anything akin to sympathy for the executed man there should be room for reflection in these words, spoken by Chebatoris, when cap- tured: "If my gun hadn't stopped I would have got more of them", and "Americans are a bunch of capitalists. They're no good. I robbed banks, sure. Nobody lost anything. The bankers were in- sured, sure they were". What are some of the questions the Cheba- toris case brings up, and, because it is out of order to merely criticize without suggesting remedies, what are some possible solutions? Why was Chebatoris, a man with a criminal record in Poland allowed to enter this country? Suggested remedy: closer scrutiny by immigra- tion officials of aliens, not to discriminate against would-be Americans but to discontinue the long prevalent European practice of making the Unit- ed States a dumping place for u'ndesirables. Iifeemr jo)Me Heywood Broun In his brief book, "The Coming Victory of De- mocracy," Thomas Mann takes Hitler for a bumpy ride in regard to his dogmatic utterances concerning Kultur. This represents only one phase of Mann's attack, but it is the portion of the in- dictmentmin which the noted German author lashes out with most assurance. I think that few will deny that in his field Thomas Mann speaks as an expert witness and that even Der Fuehrer's best friends must admit that Adolf has not yet won the right to be numbered among the dis- tinguished artists of the world. "On .the subject of culture I am somewhat at home," Mann writes. "That I can legitimately discuss." In the estimation of Thomas Mann the dema- gogue is the antithesis of the artist. To his mind the "Kultur" talks of Hitler are "nothing but low and vulgar babble." They are the outpouring of a leader with "a rabbit horizon." But in assailing Hitler for his attempt to hitch all art to the Nazi chariot Mann does not main- tain that our old friend "the creative artist" should close his eyes to the world of affairs and take a penthouse apartment in an ivory tower. On the contrary, he quotes Bergson's line, "Act as men of thought; think as men of action." Life And The Artist And he adds, "It is characteristic of undemo- cratic or of .democratically uneducated nations that their thinking goes on without reference to reality, in pure abstraction, in complete isola- tion of the mind from life itself and without the slightest consideration for the realistic conse- quences of thought." Thomas Mann rounds out his criticism with the declaration that the man who sets himself up as the censor of painting, literature, music and sculpture betrays a contempt for the masses and for their opinion. In other words, a dictated na- tional art becomes the complete negation of or- iginality and free fancy. It seems to me that there is in Germany today no such thing as national art. There is Hitler art, and that is at best a matter of whim, pre- dilection and prejudice. As a matter of fact, it is hardly necessary to nail down the charge that Hitler does not know what he is talking about when he discusses culture. The evil effect of a one-man show in the arts would still be mon- strous, even if the exclusive arbiter were q man of delicate perceptions and a fine sensitivity. Thomas Mann is too polite to mention the fact that even in America there have been efforts to tell free people what they should read and what they should see, and to standardize expression. There is, of course, a vast difference in degree, but Will Hays falls into the Hitler tradition. He is the czar of the film industry, which may account for the fact that so many recent Hollywood products seem to be wearing long gray whiskers. * * * A Difference Of Opinion Parents, religious, economic and political groups have everyright in a democracy - to say in as loud tones as they can command, ""We don't like this picture." But I think they err if they attempt to make it impossible for others even to peek at the things which seem to the censors repellent. The same is true of books and other things. At the moment the question of obscenity is not in my mind. Save in extreme cases even this may well fall into the field of opinion. I am thinking more of some of the books now hugely popular in America which are called "inspirational." I think they are dangerous, crass and vulgar, but I would be the last to suggest that anything should be done about them, even if that were possible. A flowing book purges itself. So does a live and growing democracy. Today's best seller may well be tomorrow's trash. We live and learn. Some like 'em hot; some like 'em cold. But we know what we like, and no master mind, whether it be that of saint or sinner, shoul6 block the road of the individual to that form and kind of art which happens to be of his own choosing. point of view? I think the history of paroles, politics, favoritism, graft and corruption among our state governments proves otherwise. To take but two instances by way of verification: in New Jersey Governor Hoffman made a cheap bid for national publicity in fighting for Hauptmann, the Lindbergh baby-killer when any sane, in- formed, honest man had not the slightest doubt of the kidnaper's being guilty of the conspiracy and crime; in Ohio recently, Governor White, in the last few weeks of office made wholesale pardonings of scores of the worst convicts, racke- teers, murderers, embezzlers and grafters, con- victed at a great cost to the state; incidentally, this man, who avenged himself against and en- riched himself at the expense of the electorate, now has the audacity to present himself as a candidate for the Senate this year. Suggested remedy: Take penology out of politics; try to elect honest men; until this is possible, extermin- ate "rats." You may still insist that capital punishment does not afford a solution to the problem. The writer agrees. However, until we have economic as well as political freedom, until social justice prevails completely, until education effects a pro- found change in human nature, until capable, honest men and women interest themselves in penology and politics, the law-abiding citizen must put his faith in stern, drastic, necessary BOOKS +: By ELLIOTT MARANISS Adamic's America MY AMERICA, by Louis Adamic, Harper and Brothers, New York, $3.75. My America is Louis Adamic's America only. In 1932 Adamic pub- lished a semi-autobiographical vol- ume called Laughing In The Jungle, in which he tried to put on paper some of the elements of his relationship with America till about 1927. Amer- ica appeared to him then "a vast socio-economic jungle," and his life in it "an adventure in understand- ing": an adventure punctuated with bursts of laughter, evoked by various phenomena in the jungle, and which were not necessarily funny. The laughter was a device to "keep myself -an immigrant from Cnariola a country profoundly unlike the United States-from being scared while ex- ploring the fascinating jungle and trying to understand it." My America is a continuation of that adventure in understanding- without the laughter. Louis Adamic has gotten deeper into the jungle. His sense of drama is keener, mainly be- cause his consciousness of the inter- play, interaction of the various factors which are the essence of the drama of America is stronger, richer, more inclusive. His mind is still fluid' enough to refuse to put America into a nutshell, to squeeze America into a tight definition, to hang America on some "ism", to tie America to some program; "America is a continent, a thing-in-process, elemental, ever- changing, calling for further explor- ation, for constant rethinking, for repeated self-orientation on the part of its citizens." With a freshness and directness that are unique, a bouyancy, robust- ness and exuberance that are like some exhilarating blasts from Whit- man, Adamic wades into America, trying to vwork out into a coherent organism the unchecked, unorgan- ized, uncharted vitality of the con- temporary scene. The list of people, places, movements, trends, conditions, events, problems, and other subjects discussed in My America. reads like an almanac; it is the encyclopedia, the omnibus, modern United States: Herbert Hoover and the Depression; Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal; John L. Lewis and the sit-down strikes; aliens and alien-baiting; why American big business does not want fascism here; Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson; Upton Sinclair, Mary Austin and Theodore Dreiser; John Dewey, Burton hascoe, Gran- ville Hicks, V. L. Calveton, Benja- min Stolberg, H. L. Mencken, Louis Fischer, Robert Forsythe, Carleton Beals, Robinson Jeffers, Harriet Mon- roe; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, The Ozarks, the California cherry fields, the Pennsyvania coal mines; what it means to be an industrial worker, a farmer, a teacher, a business man, unemployed, an American. It is fascinating reading. The power of the book lies in the fact that it is the passionate account of an intelli- gent man of action, a man who has seen things in great variety, who can write of tragedy, stupidity, violence and suffering, with tolerance, balance and intensely human insight. Adamic has doubtless touched the vital forces that comprise the nation's inner drama. The prose picture he has drawn of his own America is one that many other Americans will recog- nize. As a reporter he found the facts; as a story-teller he recorded the re- lationship between those facts and the personalities who made them. But is he an artist? Is My America the re- sult of a profound understanding of the various relationships and juxta- postions which underlie the outward incoherence and chaos of America? For even if we agree with Adamic that America is a country with "se- vere and unpredictable socio-eco- nomic-political ups and downs," dy- I namic, violent, chaotic, confused, a "continent full of misery and promise, fooling the would-be prophets, an- alysts, and diagnosticians," we may still ask if it is not the primary re- quisite of a writer that he strive al- ways for the clarification of exper- ience. that he reveal the inevitable laws of order below all appearances of disorder. Adamic himself is self-consciously aware that it is necessary for an ar- tist to maintain a steady feeling to- wards himself and his environment no matter how depressing or des- pairing the circumstances. The near- est he comes to stating that feeling is his contention that America is an organism with a "split personality", democratic politically, authoritarian economically, and the result has been a deepening uneasiness in all Amer- icans, which has in turn made for a national neurosis. What we have, then, is another journey into the "jungle", an inter- esting and eminently readable plunge into the vast depths of the Sargasso Sea, as Van Wyck Brooks once called America. The chart-making-classi- fying and clarifying-still remains to be done. THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1938 1 VOL. XLVIII. No. 15t Students, College' of Engineering:t Saturday, July 16, will be the final day for dropping a course in the Summer Session without record. Courses may be dropped only with the permission of the classifier after con-r ference with the instructor in the course. Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Open-t ing tonight at 8:30, "The Shoemak- ers' Holiday" with Whitford Kane and Hiram Sherman from the original Mercury Theatre production. Box of- fice open all day, phone 6300. Kermit Eby of the Chicago Fed-; eration of Teachers will speak on "the teachers' union as a constructive force{ in education" at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 14, in the Natural Science Audi- torium. "Choral Music in the Renaissance." Lecture by Professor Healey Willan in the Lecture -Hall of the Rackham Building at 4:30 this afternoon. Linguistic Institute Luncheon Con- ference, Thursday, 12:10 pm. in room 318 of the Michigan Union (not at the Rackham School of Graduate Stu- dies). Kenneth L; Pike of the Univer- sity of Mexico will discuss "The prob- lem of tones in Mexican Indian lan- guages." Lecture: "A Comparison of British, Dutch and French Colonial Policy in Southeastern Asia" by Dr. Amry Van- denbosch at 3:15 p.m. today in the Lecture Hall of the Rackham Build- ing. Commercial Education Students' Picnic at Loch Alpine today. Cars will be leaving U.H.S. parking lot from 4:30 to 5:30. Committee has planned games. There will be swim- ming for those whoahave their bath- ing suits. Lunch will be served after- wards. Tickets for 25 cents may be obtained in Room 2002 U.H.S. or from members of the committee. Mr. Charles M. Elliott will lecture on "Salvaging Educational Waste" in the University HighSchool 'sAudi- torium at 4:05 p.m. today. Graduate Students: Without good and sufficient reason courses may not be elected for credit after Tuesday, July 19; courses dropped after same date will appear on the students' rec- ord as dropped. Dean Summer Session French Club: The next meeting of the club will take place Thursday, July 14, at 8 p.m., at "Le Foyer Francais," 1414 Washte- naw, on the occasion of the French National Holiday. Mr. Charles X. Koella of the French department will speak. The, subject of his talk will be "La France dans le Monde." Special French music, games,. songs, refreshments. Membership in the Club -is still open. Those interested please see Mr. Koella, Room 200, Romance Lan- guage Building. Graduate Students in Education. A tea for students who have completed at least one term of study as graduate students enrolled in Education will be held Thursday afternoon from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Assembly Room on the third floor of the Rackham building. DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN Publication in the Bulletin is constructive notice to all members of the University. Copy received at the office of the Summer Session until 3:30; 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Stalker Hall. There will be a group leaving from Stalker Hall, Thursday at 5 o'clock for a swimming party and picnic. Small charge for swimming and food. All Methodist students and their friends are cordially invited. Call 6881 for reservations before Thursday noon. Physical Education Luncheon: Dr. Jesse Steiner, author of "Americans at Play," "Research Memorandua on Recreation in the Depression," ,et al, will address the luncheon meeting of the physical education group Thurs- day, July 14, at 12:10 p.m. in the Michigan Union. Make reservations by calling 2-1939 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Price 57 cents. An opportunity will be offered at the luncheon to purchase tickets for the dinner honoring Dr. C. H. McCloy, past president of the American Asso- ciation for Health, Physical Educa- tion and Recreation, to be held Mon- day, July 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the-Michi- gan Union. Dr. McCoy will discuss the topic "Progress in Physical Edu- cation." Tickets may also 'be piu-. chased for 85 cents of Miss Bell in Room 4016, University High, at the (Continued on Page 3) Classi"ned- Dietreetory, VIOLA STEIN-Experienced typist. Reasonable rates. 706 Oakland, Phone 6327. 17x TYPING - Neatly and accurately done. 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