I FOUR
Tl-;lE MICHIGAN DAILY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17. 1942
1_
r W sDaNrEs,,.a..amr .. fNe L17: 1 qs
x
4
&1jp £irtti au lat
t1 :.
r
91l
b*-.n - m a n " -- .- .. ... .
Edited and managed by students of the University of
Michig'an under the authority of the Board in Control
of Student Publications.
Published every morning except Monday during the
University year and Summer Session.
Member of the Associated Press
Tbe Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the
use for republication of all news dispatches credited to
it or 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 the regular school year by car-
rier $4.00, by mail $5.00.
REPREENTED POR NATiONAL ADVERTIING WV
National Advertising Service, Inc.
e College Publishers Representative
420 MADISON AVE. NEW YORK. N.Y.
CHeCAboersosml/e Ci9Los At Press,94-4ANCISCO
Member, Associated Collegiate Press, 1941-42
Editorial Staff
Homer D. Swander
Will "Sapp
Managing Editor
City Editor
Knitq Ediitn
I+11
kxe Djann . . . . . . pors
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Hale Champion, John Erlewine, Lean ordenker,
Robert Preiskel
«or
Resource Allocation
Is Not Army Function. ...
T HE IMPORTANT QUESTION of
who is to control the allocation of
resources during the war was raised yesterday by
the action of the Army reported by Blair Moody
in the Detroit News.
Donald Nelson, with the backing of the Presi-
dent, stopped an attempt by the Army to take
over the allocation functions of the civilian
War Production Board. Under the Army scheme
it would make the important decisions of sup-
plying factories with raw materials and leave
the administrative scraps to Nelson's hard-
working board.
It is easy to assume that the Army logically
should supervise the important resource alloca-
tion because of the huge amount of production
destined for military usage. Behind that as-
sumption lies little supporting information.
HEAVY-HANDED Army authorities are not
renowned for their able handling of business
problems. And those are the problems with
which they would be confronted.
Before the war began there was but little de-
mand on the nation's productive reserve of ci-
vilian factories for war goods. During the period
of half-hearted defensive arming, the Army let
its contracts to old, "reliable" firms with which
she had been dealing for years.
After the war began the Army kept in its
narrow groove of contracting with big pro-
ducers for its supplies while huge capacity
composed of smaller units lay idle. Small
plants were starved for work, but the Army
did little to untangle the mess.
The Army's supply services showed only con-
servative methods until General Somervell was
named chief of supply. Since then the services
have been more vigorous, but their past record
merits no additional control.
NOUGH REASON to keep the Army from
control of resource allocation lies in its poor
past record. But in addition to the record there
is the question of the desirability of allowing
military control of much of the nation's pro-
ductive activity-a control that would reach far
down into the civilian population, into functions
always regarded as civilian.
In this nation the precedent of maintaining
civilian control of wartime business and pro-
duction is well established. In the last war
civilians mobilized industry for war purposes
with success and the Army suffered little. With
the Army controlling the distribution of re-
sources there would be little activity not under
its control.
PRESUMABLY, TOO, the Navy would have a
share in the new control. The Navy's record
of getting production is worse than the Army's.
In addition there are volumes of Congressional
investigation testimony showing that the Navy
dabbles in politics and had had a large part in
wrecking the Washington arms conferences of
the '20's.
Germany in the last war gives the classic ex-
ample of what happens to the government if
the military can control it. Every vestige of free
government disappeared as the military heir-
archy took over purely civilian functions. The
German army rolled up an unenviable record of
tragic mistakes in national governmient.
If the Army wishes quicker and better services
in the field of supply the logical move would be
to go to the President and Donald Nelson, 4ex-
plain its needs and allow the civilian agencies
to correct any faults. - Leon Gordenker
Expenditures fo 1940 and 1941 at the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh totaled $2,773,335.
SawduJ an]
OvJ I er SC/
THE WOMAN who sits next to me in the fac-
tory where I'm working this summer weighs
nearly two hundred and wears tight, flowered,
calico dresses. She has almost no fingernails
and her hands are short and round. Although
only twenty-one she's been both married and
divorced and has a pitiful tarnished metal band
and three children to prove it.
At first I felt dreadfully superior to her. The
foreman brought me in and sat me down beside
her and she said, "hello" and I said, "hello" and
that was all we said the first night. After that
she started talking to me and her grammar was
bad, so I just corrected it under my breath and
didn't answer. This, though, was before I knew
she could go over production.
Every night she comes and sits on the high
stool beside mine and every morning when we
make out our cards she's made bonus on produc-
tion. She's gone way over the quota and I
haven't even come near it. Superior indeed, now
I feel inferior to the woman in the calico dress
and all of it started me thinking.
IT started me thinking about other people I
know. Women with long nails painted bright
and thin, bony hands. Men with broad nails and
blue veins in their hands. It started me thinking
about big-breasted blondes with tangee cherries
for lips and tall brunettes with black hats and
veils. Men in polo shirts, women in evening
dresses. People who go to Florida when the sun
is shining and who go north when it's raining.
Beautiful people, long, tall people who use good
grammar and know Shakespeare.
These are the people I used to admire. These
are the people to whom I used to feel inferior
and now, strangely, I feel superior to them. They
couldn't sit on the high stool and make produc-
tion. They can't even be ordinary, how can they
be more than that?
First, I'm going to be ordinary, I'm going to
learn to be like the woman in the flowered dress.
I don't mean that I'm going to say "ain't," but
I'm going to earn the right to say "isn't." This
summer I'm going to go over production, I've
made up my mind to that.
I'D like to learn to be a 'housemaid too, or a
butler. I wouldn't be a very good one, not at
first, but I'd learn, and maybe one day people
would entrust me with their crystal goblets or
their fine silver and they'd say that I was a good
housemaid or a good butler and I'd be satisfied
just being ordinary.
I'd like to work on a farm for a while. I'd like
to learn to plow and milk and all the things that
farmers--ordinary people- do.
And when I've learned to be ordinary I'd like
to be more than that. To write a poem, compose
a piece of music or paint a picture, not about
farms and housemaids or factories but about
people, people who are ordinary, people who are
more and people who can't even be ordinary.
Well, at this point I feel rather silly and I
promise not soon again to wax so philosophical.
It's the woman in the flowered dress. She just
started me thinking.
State appropriations provide 23.1 percent of
the income of the University of Pittsburgh.
Fraternity men buy 1,000,000 suits yearly;
sorority women buy 500,000 dresses every year.
Edward Periberg
Fred M. Ginsberg
Morton Hunter
Federal Service Riddled
By Unjustified Dismissals'
Business Staff
Business Manager
.Associate Business Manager
. Publications Manager
NIGHT EDITOR: HALE CHAMPION
The editorials published in The Michigan
Daily are written by members of The Daily
staff and represent the views of the writers
only.
Washington Returns
To Anti-Liberalism.
0 0
MOST fair historians of World War I
recall a sudden turn of events in
the American capital as war fever mounted, re-
call how Wilson's New Freedom became a New
Fear for those 'whose liberalism had only the
day before been warmly approved by a seemingly
progressive, intelligent administration.
If events of the last few weeks are any indica-
tion, a New Deal even more highly praised by
liberals may be suddenly transformed into a
happy hunting ground for the NAM and its
witch-hunting associates.
Those same historians who remember World
War I better than we of this generation will re-
call the reactionary imprisonment of Eugene V.
Debs--a man now almost universally recognized
as a loyal, patriotic American-on charges of
sedition. They will remember how the Depart-
ment of Justice cracked down on governmental
employes who saw fit to help the working man
in his struggle towards decent living.
Much the same situation seems to exist in
Washington today and the parallels are so close
that it leads one to wonder just how much de-
mocracy has learned.
Attorney-General Francis T. Biddle recently
issued a deportation blast.against Harry Bridges
which will go down in history-and over the
Nazi radio-as a blow against democracy as
great as the imprisonment of Debs. __
At the same time the greatest* crackdown on
liberals in the history of Washington is taking
place through the courtesy of the Dies Commit-
tee, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and
every crackpot in the Civil Service Commission.
Admittedly the government should be careful
about whom it employs, but when it fires--as
PM has proved it fired-a woman for belonging
to the American League of Woman Voters, it is
time to call a halt.
The complete silencing of governmental em-
ployes as far as their political opinions are con-
cerned is almost as dangerous as an under-
production of tanks. It means that the pseudo-
patriots who want to turn the political and eco-
nomic clock back to the nineties are trying to
take control again.
Illustrative of the kind of things Big Business
is getting away with is the censoring of war in-
dustry salaries because of so-called military rea-
sons. Bush wah!! How any foreign agent is go-
ing to learn anything from them we challenge
the Censorship Office to tell us. We repeat.
Bushwah!! ,
Anti-liberalism in Washington can be stopped
by one man, a man who has never let the type
of reactionary game now being played go on
very long. It's up to Roosevelt and let's hope he
doesn't postpone consideration too long.
- Hale Champion
Equality Demanded
In Censoring News .
OONER OR LATER every censor
and censorship board becomes un-
popular with the press. The reasons are obvious
and a nonchalant public more often than not
shrugs off .journalistic complaints as just part of
The New Republic
'HE PRESENT procedural ma-
chinery for handling cases of
government employees charged with
subversive activities is wholly inade-
quate and so completely fails to pro-
tect the'rgt of such employees
that grave injustice is being done,
The problem is particularly im-
portant in view of the notoriously
loose manner in which such charges,
with resultant investigations, have
been, and may be, made. Various
lists of employees have been pre-
pared and published by the Dies
Committee after ex-parte hearings-
or perhaps with no hearings at all-
and the persons involved subjected to
investigation. Other committees of
Congress, such as the Smith Com-
mittee, have named specific employ-
ees. From time to time Represen-
tatives have taken the floor of the
House and attacked various govern-
ment employees by name. Often
without adequate proof, organizations
have been classified as "plotting to
overthrow the government," and
those who belonged to such organiza-
tions or were on their lists have be-
come suspect.
Obviously, it is essential that such
charges be investigated. Unfortun-
ately, the case load is too heavy for
proper handling in many instances,
particularly since it is superimposed
on the routine investigation of all
newly employed federal workers. The
FBI alone has more than four thous-
and persons as to whom it is conduct-
ing these special investigations.
Moreover, the activities of the various
investigating agencies are poorly co-
ordinated, with many duplications of
effort and no equality of procedure.
The fault of the system, however,
lies not so much in the manner of
investigation as in the treatment
accorded the accused persons when
a report on them is made to the
agency at which they are em-
ployed. Different procedures are
followed, and different agencies
reach difficult conclusions on re-
ports alleging similar facts.
For a long time there has been an
urgent need for a remedy. Respon-
sible government officials, who them-
selves are in no way involved, have
sought for procedural means to dis-
pose of these problems fairly. The
faculties of the Civil Service Com-
mission are frequently not at their
disposal because of technicalities
limiting the Commission's jurisdic-
tion, and in any event the case load
of the Commission is too heavy and
its procedure too antiquated for effec-
tive operation.
Attorney General Biddle recently
announced the creation of a "special
Interdepartmental Committee" de-
signed to "facilitate and expedite"
the disposition of "charges of alleged
subversive activities of federal em-
ployees." The program announced by
Biddle falls far short of meeting the
problem and will not prevent the
present serious abuses.
What the Attorney General fails
to recognize is that, as matters now
stand, a large number of federal
employees have been, and more will
be, summarily dismissed from the
federal service "with prejudice"
and on only a few hours' notice
when reports concerning their al-
leged subversive activities are trans-
mitted to the heads of the agencies
in which they are employed. These
reports have been and will be sub-
mitted without giving the employee
a hearing, and the employee, more
often than not, dismissed not only
without a hearing but without be-
ing advised in any way as to the
reasons for the action taken. None
of the employees, if he ever suc-
ceeds in obtaining a hearing, will
be advised in full of the charges
made. The names of his accusers
will always remain secret. Those
who succeed in obtaining a hear-
ing may wait months for a decision,
during which time they are without
a job. The fortunate few who suc-
ceed in overcoming all obstacles
and in proving their innocence will
not only have no assurance of re-
employment or of obtaining back
salary, but also will have no assur-
same facts and obliged again to go
charged with subversion on the
same facts and obliged again to go
through the entire process of es-
tablishing their innocence. Those
who meet only 90 per cent of the
burden and leave a suspicion of
guilt, or against whom minor non-
subversive indiscretions are proved
-for the investigations, once be-
gun, do not stop at "subversive"
activities-will find little flexibility
in the process of judgment, and
their cases will be handled in the
same manner as those in which
charges of subversion are fully
proved; for once suspect, an em-
ployee will often find every tech-
nicality used to force his removal.
ONE SHOULD NOT assume that
the numerous cases involving
suspicion of subversion concern only
persons who are accused of being
Communists or Nazis. Nor should
anyne assume that these are persons
who occupy positions from which
they may affect the policy and think-
predilections and prejudices of the
person who has the power to hire
and fire. Federal employees who have
worked for abolition of a poll tax,
who have been outspoken in urging
aid for the Spanish Loyalists, who
work for racial equality, who are
members of cooperatives or peace
movements or who are in some phase
of their thinking anti-big-business
are often dismissed from the federal
service for these reasons alone.
The Attorney General proposes to
have a committee which will "assist
the various federal departments and
agencies in maintaining uniformity
of procedure." "Maintaining!" Does
that lend itself to any interpretation
than that the present procedures are
deemed adequate? If there were any
doubt, it is dispelled later, when the
Attorney General announces, "While
the committee cannot undertake to
consult with individual employees or
employee organizations, it will make
use of every resource in cooperation
with the FBI to assure a fair, im-
partial and comprehensive report to
Congress." Are we to understand
that the Attorney General believes
that the problem is that the FBI
needs help in its investigations? And
what of the employees who are in-
dividually affected? They cannot be
consulted. By clear implication, they
can be left to the procedure, or lack
of pi'ocedure, outlined above. Nothing
in the Attorney General's announce-
ment even suggests concern with the
present arbitrary denial of notice
and hearing to those who stand ac-
cused.
Not that the solution is easy. It
would take courage, and it would take
effort, and it might take even a little
money-though much less than the
$100,000 which the FBI is currently
spending to investigate these cases.
Without implying that there can be
only one solution, we suggest that a
committee or board is necessary to
hear cases against accused employees
and make advisory recommendations
to the departments or agencies in
which the accused employees are em
ployed. This committee or board
would fill two basic needs. It would
help to shape governmental policy in
dealing with various political groups
and organizations, and it would de-
velop standards by which it could be
more accurately determined whether
a particular employee should be sev-
ered from the service. Its organiza-
tion and functions might be as fol-
lows:
THE BOARD should consist of per-
sons having no other govern-
mental connection. These persons
should be of unquestioned integrity.
Since the essence of the problem is
the present lack of opportunity for
a fair hearing, and not the decisions
thereafter rendered, there is no rea-
son to have the decisions of the board
in the slightest degree suspect be-
cause of the political coloration of its
members. The number of board
members should be large enough to
ensure expeditious decision, but would
probably depend on whether mem-
bers were full or part-time, compen-
sated or uncompensated, and the
like. There are a large number of
cases, but it is probable that they
will soon fall into categories, and
that particular issues common to
many causes will be ironed out.
In the field of "Jurisdiction" the
board should be allowed to accept
from any department or agency any
case in which an employe has been
discharged or threatened with dis-
charge because of his political be-
liefs or membership in organizations
alleged to be plotting the overthrow
of the government. Either the em-
ploye affected or the agency should
be able to place the matter before
the board, which should be free to
decline a case in which it felt unable
to function properly.
The board should proceed by way
of open hearings, unless the employe
requests a private hearing or unless
the board itself believes a private
hearing to be warranted by the facts
of the particular case-the hearing
procedure should not be allowed to
become a sounding board, for exam-
ple. The employe should be fully
informed of the charges against him
a sufficient time before the hearing
to enable him to prepare a defense.
The board should be allowed to re-
lease names of accusers if this is
necessary to serve the ends of jus-
tice. Lawyers in private practice
should be requested to volunteer
their assistance in preparation and
defense. Witnesses should be per-
mitted and affidavits should be ac-
cepted. The board's decisions should
be written, and announced publicly.
THE BOARD'S DECISIONS should
be advisory only, and in the form
of recommendations to the head of
the department or agency in which
the employe works. The board should
be free to recommend any disposition
of the case-discharge, demotion,
transfer, dismissal of the charges or
other action it may find appropriate.
If the board is to ameliorate pres-
ent conditions to any substantial de-
gree it is essential that, pending de-
cision, the status of the employe be
not prejudiced. In the usual case,
DAILY OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1942
VOL. LI. No. 2
All Notices for the Daily Official Bul-
letin are to be sent to the Office of the
Summer Session before 3:30 p.m. of the
day preceding its publication except on
Saturday, when the notices should be
submitted before 11:30 a.m.
The Storehouse Building will act
as a receiving center for scrap rubber
and also metals. Any department on
the Campus having metals or rubber
to dispose of for defense purposes,
please call Ext. 337 or 317 and the
materials will be picked up by the
trucks which make regular campus
deliveries. Service of the janitors is
available to collect the materials
from the various rooms in the build-
ings to be delivered to the receiving
location,
E. C. Pardon
On Thursday, June 25, there will
be a banquet in honor of the Univer-
sity of Michigan General Hospital
No. 298 at 7:00 p.m. in the University
of Michigan Union Ballroom. All
members of the Medical faculty and
their wives and other friends of the
personnel of the unit are cordially
invited to attend. Banquet tickets
are available at the Galen news
stand and at the office of Dr. A. C.
Kerlikowske, University Hospital, and
at the office of Dean A. C. Fursten-
berg, West Medical Building.
Flying Club will meet Thursday
evening at 7:30 p.m. in Room 302 of
the Union. All members should be
there. In addition, any students or
members of the faculty who might be
interested in flying the University
Club airplane this summer are in-
vited to attend.
Alan R. Bott, Pres. of
U. of M. Flying Club
Ch.-Met. 171. Explosives. 3 Hours.
Mr. Osburn. Lecture and Recitation,
Mon. and Fri., 1-3, Rm. 4215. A
Study of the Processes Used in the
Manufacture of Commercial Explo-
sives: Their Properties and Uses.
Prerequisites Ch.-Met. 25. First meet-
ing of the class will be on Friday,
June 19.
Department of Chemical and
Metallurgical Engineering.
Women Students: The Women's
Department of Physical Education is
sponsoring a picnic for all women on
campus. This will be held at 6:00
p.m., Friday, June 19, on Palmer
Field. A small fee will be charged
to cover the cost of food. Students
planning to attend must sign up and
pay the fee in Office 15, Barbour
Gymnasium as soon as possible and
not later than Friday noon.
Dept. of Physical Education
for Women.
Methodist Students: You are in-
vited to tea and open house in the
Wesley Foundation lounge of the
First Methodist Church from 4:00
until 5:30 today. Come in and get
acquainted.
Betty Rae Ilileman,
Summer Director
Episcopal Students: There will be
a celebration of the Holy Communion
at 7:10 Thursday morning in Bishop
Williams Chapel, Harris Hall. Break-
fast will be served after the service.
James R. Terrell, Sec'y.
Episcopal Students: Tea will be
served for Episcopal students and
their friends at Harris Hall this af-
ternoon, 4:00 to 5:15. Evening Pray-
er will follow at 5:15 in Bishop Wil-
liams Chapel,
The following course is being of-
fered during the Summer Term:
Metal Processing 5, Welding. 2 hours
;redit, hours to be arranged with
Professor Spindler, 2044 East En-
gineering Building.
Prof. W. A. Spindler.
Physical Education-Women Stu-
Jents: All physical education classes
are open. Register in Office 15,
Barbour Gymnasium. No late regis-
tration fee.
Dept. of Phys. Educ. for Women
Candidates for the Master's De-
;ree in English: The qualifying ex-
.mination and examination in for-
aign language will be given on Mon-
day evening, June 29, for those en-
tering in the Summer Term as well
as those entering in the Summer Ses-
sion. See Summer Session Announce-
ment for time and place.
N. E. Nelson
of the guilty, but without, as is now
the case, total disregard of justice
and fairness. The majority of the
cases are, after all, political in con-
tent and political /in origin. We
must not, in times such as these,
forget the necessity of keeping the
federal service free from political
tampering. The Attorney General
has done many things to protect
the civil rights of the ordinary
citizen, particularly since the dec-
laration of war. He deserves great
credit for some of these step.
I
t~
i;,
4,
fh;
Jewish Family Driven From Home
By Neighbors Playing Hitler's Game
l
r HE SITUATION which drew the following
edit from PM's Richard Hanser is as follows:
Betsy Schiller, six-year-old daughter of a
Queens business man who lives in New Hyde
Park, Long Island, N. Y.. suffered the same
treatment in this supposedly typical American
community that her fellow members of the Jew-
ish rice are commonly believed to suffer only in
Nazi Germany.
Her family was finally forced to move in order
that she might grow up to be a normal American
girl because:
1) Women, and children urged on by their
parents, repeatedly called her a "dirty Jew."
2) Neighbors who were friendly with the
Schillers had to stop because as the only Jews
on the block the Schillers drew criticism not
only to themselves, but to their associates.
3) Even the absence of a Christmas tree at
the Schillers' brought violent anti-Semitism to
the fore in the neighborhood.
4) One woman said, "Some Jews need to get
what Hitler's giving them."
Despite the efforts of the school principal, the
children were still subject to the abuses of others
who were being taught the best principles of
storm-trooping and Jew-baiting.
And those parents answered the school prin-
cipal's efforts with objections that he had no
right to teach their children that Americanism
was more than the narrow views which they had
culled from the Berlin guttersnipe.
OUT OF THIS LIVING HELL for a child un-
able to understand why she should be treated
differently than other boys and girls her own
age came two results, one tragic and un-Ameri-
can, the other, encouraging and American.
A Jewish family had to move from what it had
story involves, you will have to keep in mind
that New Hyde Park is a pleasant New York
suburb, and that the condition which our re-
porter describes exists in the seventh month of
the war against Hitlerism.
"You dirty Jew!" This taunt from the gutters
of Berlin, this acho from the diseased brain of
Adolf Hitler, rings out in the shaded streets of
New Hyde Park-and a little girl runs sobbing
to her mother,
In all civilized communities, and most savage
ones, the deliberate infliction of pain on a child
is looked on as an outrage without any possible
justification. So what kind of people are these
citizens of New Hyde Park who scream "You
dirty Jew!" at a six-year-old girl, and prompt
their children to do the same? Are they some
strange and monstrous breed to whom even the
pain of a child is a matter of indifference?
No. The people who can bring themselves to
hurl the taunt "You dirty Jew!" at an American
child are the people on whom the Hitler poison
has worked like an infection in the blood, and
who are unaware of their own disease. They are
the people into whose brains the nausebus bab-
bling of the Coughlinite Christian Front has
seeped and festered. They are the ones who
nurse in their hearts the vicious snobbery dis-
seminated by newspaper advertisements that
say "Restricted Clientele" and mean "No Jews
Allowed."
All the revolting nastiness of Hitler's pro-
foundly ignorant thesis of Aryan supremacy
bubbles to the surface in the story of the per-
secution of the Schiller family of New Hyde
Park. It is a story that would be shocking any-
where, in Berlin or Munich or Vienna. But in
an American community in 1942 it has a sig-
If