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June 16, 1942 - Image 4

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Michigan Daily, 1942-06-16

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TUESDfAY. JUNE I~18:11

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I4,e Atc4lgau :43alty

'Armor Of Honest Thought'Needed
By Graduates, Pres. Ruthven Says

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Licluy

.

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-w-
Edited and managed by students of the University of
Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control
of Student Publications.
Published every morning except Monday during the
University year and Summer Session.
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of republication of all other matters herein also reserved.
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fember, Associated Collegiate Press, 1941.42
Editorial Staff
Homer D. Swander . . . Managing Editor
Will Sapp City Editor
Mike Dann Sports Editor
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Hale Champion. John Erlewine,Leon Gordenker,
Robert Preiskel

.ad Perlberg
IM. Ginsberg

Business Staff
Business Manager
Asst. Business Manager

NIGHT EDITOR: WILL SAPP
The editorials published in The Michigan
Daily are written by members of The Daily
staff and represent the views of the writers
only.

New Semester Exists
To Better Democracy

OME thirty-five hundred of us have

now had our initial taste of Amer-
lea's first war-born third semester-and I won-
4er just how many among us realize the real
r asons we are here; I wonder how many realize
the importance of this semester to themselves,
tb America and to the world.
Most of us, when asked why we choose to go to
school during the summer rather than work or
leaf as usual, give the obvious answers: to grad-
uate before the Army gets us, to meet V-7 re-
quirements or to learn some technical skill that
enables us to work in a war industry. But these
are not the real reasons nor the most important
-they touch the surface but do not go deeply
into why we are fighting. this war in the first
place and what must come of it.
A good share of the men we went to school
with last semester and the semester before that
are already in the armed forces fighting for
freedom and for democracy. And the main rea-
son most of us-even the engineers and tech-
nicians to some extent-can give for not being
with them is that we are learning how to pre-
serve and improve that freedom and democracy
for which they are fighting. Such must be our
foremost thought this semester and every semes-
ter we remain in school-that we are going to
learn what democracy for all the people really
means, and how to obtain that democracy.
Some of you will say we have it already. But
we haven't and will not have until there is no
more hunger, no more racial or religious preju-
rice, no more economic domination of the poor
by the rich, The amount of freedom and the
amount of democracy we do have in this coun-
try is more than worth fighting and dying for-
but it is not enough. Our soldiers are not dying
to preserve the status quo; they are dying for
progress. Progress that will bring a world-not
just one nation, but a world-in which every
man, regardless of race, color or creed, is free;
in which every baby (as Vice-President Wallace
puts it) will have a quart of milk a day.
And you and I are not justifying our existence
here in safe Ann Arbor, thousands of miles from
the nearest bursting bomb, if we are not con-
stantly striving to learn about and improve upon
the society in which we live. That has always
been the real reason for education; it is the
reason for education today; it is the reason for
the third semester. And it is the most impor-
tant reason you and I are here.
- Homer Swander

I

T HE HUMAN RACE is now staging a
disgraceful show. A thorough-going
and irreverent pessimist might be excused for
pointing out to the great director that it might
be well to start over again and raise new actors
for the world stage. Dark as is the hour, how-
ever, you do not need either to give up in despair
or yet to indulge in another tendency of your
elders and assume that some day, somehow, the
good old days will return. Time cannot be turned
backward in its flight. "We live, but a world has
passed away with the years that perished to
make us men." Your world you will make for
yourselves. You can make it a better one if you
will cling to the eternal verities inherent in the
nature of man and of his environment One of
these is the importance o ensuring independence
of thought for men who would be free.
A distinguished historian once expressed an
observation of many students of mankind when
he wrote: "To most people nothing is more
troublesome than the effort of thinking." In
every walk of life there is a distressingly large
number of individuals who will go to great
lengths to avoid mental exercise. Even college
graduates, who are presumably trained to use
their minds, often seem either to have been born
mentally tired or at least to have acquired cere-
bral weariness, if one is Lo judge by their disin-
clination to be intellectually independent.
EVER PRESENT and regrettable in times of
peace, the evil of mental inertia becomes
tragically intensified in times of trouble. When
we the people are in distress, when issues are
confused, when the future seems uncertain, we
are prone to indulge in wishful thinking and to
give up the effort to solve difficult problems.
We eagerly repeat cliches, accept panaceas, and
insist upon pigeonholing and labeling others as
for or against us, forgetting that nothing but
the truth is of any use either to you or to me.
As we allow our minds to loaf, we become easy
prey and effective tools for politicians, bureau-
crats, demagogues, and other self-seekers--we
become the serfs who make dictatorships pos-
sible. We forget that the external control of our
thought is the most complete and abject form of
slavery.
In this particular period in the history of
civilization, to be willing to think by proxy
is exceedingly easy and dangerous. Perverse
and selfish men are making a world-wide
attempt to secure our proxies in one way and
another. They know all of the tricks of the
business. They have no respect for facts or
for the sanctity of truth. They fully appre-
elate that appeals to the emotions are more
effective than appeals to reason. They have
convinced many thousands of people that
their self-appointed leaders are infallible
and all others owe them servile obedience.
Carefully and persistently they are dividing
these who oppose them into antagonistic
groups and whipping up prejudices in the
hoe that out of the inevitable struggles the
aims of certain leaders and interests way
triumph.
This process has now gone so far tlhat even
in our own country it is difficult to avoid bein
classified and labeled. If we urge students to
remain in school as long as possible, we are
acused of advocating the policy of "business as
usual" for our educational institutions. If we
object to extensive changes in the curricula
which would substitute concentrated training for
education, we are "conservative" or "academic"
If we criticize in any way our defense efforts, we
are "unpatriotic." If we object to certain strikes,
We are "enemies of labor." If we agree that
workers should have some privileges now denied
them, we are "New Dealers," or even worse. In-
dependent thinking in this land of the free and
home of the brave, as well as elsewhere in the
world, is being discouraged. We are, on occasion,
being asked to accept at their face value the
opinions, prejudices, and plans of many self-
styled "authorities" and to swallow whole the
generalizations of those whose chief qualifiea-
UT. S. Should IReeognize
Free French Conunittee ...
THE STORY of Vichy France is shoort
and sour.
What should have been the hermetic sea to

pretty kettle of Vichy fish came about with
the enthronement of Pierre Laval as Hitler's new
errand boy to the suffering people of France.
One of his gifts to the world was the training of
Nazi sailors on French vessels.
Now that the Nazis are learning how to run
the valuable French fleet the last defense of
the appeasers to Vichy is destroyed. They failed
to heed the warnings of those who stand for all-
out war since the surrender of France.
RECRIMINATIONS are useless. We need now
a comprehensive program of diplomatic and
war action against Hitler's men of France and
of Spain.
No longer is there any point in maintaining
diplomatic relations with France. That is amply
proved by our losses in every step, in the supplies
sent to Africa, in the weakness of Laval who is
struggling to stand firm against miserable,
jackal-like Italian demands.
We maintain diplomatic relations with Franco,
the Spanish Hitler. His country now receives
large shipments of oil, so large that Spain her-
self could never absorb them, We help Spain
act as the clearing house of military information
going to the enemy.
M EANWHILE, the Free French Conmilttee in
London continues to lose prestige and re-
ceives rebuffs from our State Department as in

tions for leadership are ambition and the ability
to make a loud noise.
OBVIOUSLY, we must have advisers, but we
need to respect only true and intelligent
guides, not Pharisees self-appointed to this role.
We must have followers, but we should train
with the intellectually honest, not with blind
and ignorant disciples. Admittedly, for various
reasons, such as the immediate good or humani-
tarian considerations, we may in the emergen-
cies of this imperfect civilization find it expedi-
ent to join in group action whose necessity we
deplore. This does not mean, however, that we
should anesthetize our minds to what we are do-
ing by accepting as gospel truth propaganda de-
signed to fool us as to the real issues and ob-
jectives which prompt the action. Our salvation
as free men in the present world conflict lies only
in part in our ability to preserve our national in-
tegrity; more fundamentally it depends upon the
liberty and ability to examine and analyze facts
for ourselves, and to arrive at true judgments. If
we lose this freedom, it is not important who
rules us, for "creative thought-that thought
growing out of acute 'observation and insight'
divorced from personal welfare and prejudice-
has accounted for human progress thus far, and
is the only hope for the future"
* * *
Members of the Class of 1942:
My message to you may be summarized in the
words of Schopenhauer: "We may divide think-
ers into those who think for themselves and those
who think through others.-The latter are the
rule, and the formernthedexception.-The first
are original thinkers in a double sense, and ego-
tists in the noblest meaning of the word. It is
from them only that the world learns wisdom
For only the light which we have kindled in our-
selves can illuminate others."
To be a creative thinker is hard work, and the
results of the effort may often be expected to
l*ing disapprobation, especially when they are
displeasing to those in high places. Such criti-
cism should, however, cause the conscientious
citizen no deep concern. There is no disloyalty
in honestly questioning your leaders. Indeed,
it is the highest patriotism in a democracy to re-
ftuse to become puppets of the state, mere cogs
in any machine, or superficial followers of any
sect, ideology, or individual. "The kingdoms of
the world may pass away, but the truths by
which the mind lives endure." '
As you leave the University, I give you this
charge: Be neither pessimists nor wishful think-
ers. Fashion for yourselves an "armor of honest
thought"; "be just and fear not; let all the
ends thou aimest at be thy country's, thy God's,
and truth's."
-Alexander G. Ruthven
An A xc lo Grind
By TORQUEMADA
O WE OR NOT TO WE" seems the question
that faces most columnists atthe beginning
of their stormy careers. It is a difficult question
to answer; whether one should follow the tradi-
tional plural handling of himself, or just let it
go, and be natural and egotistical about the
whole thing.
But when you get asked to write a column
three times a week for a year .pr so, about fifty
typewritten lines at a time with about fifteen
words per line, you get very appalled by the
thought of such an unending parade of your
own emotions before a casually interested two
thousand people or so. They (which is to say
you, my gentle reader) read the column at break-
fast, dividing interest between the words on the
page and a good hot portion of sugarless coffee,
which may or may not spoil the beautiful
thoughts by lapping gently over the edge of the
cup as the reader chuckles at a little joke. And
having chuckled, on he goes to his class, a little
more sober and a little wiser, or a -little more
bored with the pathetic efforts of sophomoric
college journalists.
"UT having read this column three times a
week for a year or so, you, my ge tle reader,
will get a little too much of an insight into me,
who am much too timid and shy to permit such

an invasion into the sanctum of my mind. So,
henceforth, me will become we, for by that slight
artificiality we will try to preserve some of the
isolation which this lonely world has not too un-
pleasantly forced upon us.
We are of the opinion, furthermore, that this
column, practically every time, will be confined
in interest to an uncatholic group. Some of the
things the boys in the dorm talk about, we will
talk about, and some of the things that the Par-
rot talks about, we will talk about, and even
'ome of the things in which the faculty is. inter-
ested; and never the twain shall meet, much
though we try to effect that. So we can only
promise to try and be as all-inclusive as possible
in the selection of topics for discussion, and let
it go at that.
PROBLEMS of a highly controversial nature
will be treated often. To write about the
commonplace and the accepted is the job of the
writer, a job which requires more talent for ade-
quate fulfillment than we possess, and so we
shall be controversial, because that is probably
what you will want to read, and we hope write
letters to us about, cursing us as cynical or ideal-
istic, depending on whether you are on the left
or right mentally. We will also try to write
shorter sentences than the last.
Every so often, no doubt, there will be nothing
mnuch to write: about-we will be unable to get
particularly aroused at the latest Bingay inan-
.4.v n n n, nf o nia i-,i ,iar w 1l4 m ay,,, . h nh

Honest, Fairly Made Criticismsj
Are Not Attempts At Smearing

S.Zc
g f
01942 Ch"ago Timm Inr
Re U S. Fat. Off, All Rts Rea.
-------------

r 11WO PROPAGANDA devices are
being used to protect the Repre-
sentatives and Senators who are un-
der attack for obstruction in the war
effort. One is the charge that
theyr are being "smeared" by. an
assortment of political devils includ-
ing "Communists," "Intervention-
ists," "Leftists" and "New Dealers,"
and the other the assertion that it is
an assault on unity if candidates for
our national legislature who finally
came round to voting for war and
the appropriations for it are opposed
because they are reactionaries in
domestic policy. According to this
theory it is unpatriotic to try to pro-
tect or advance the New Deal.
Probably the most prominent ex-
ponent of smearing onthe national
scene is Representative Dies. He
recklessly calls ople Communists
or fellow travelers who in reality are
nothing of the sort. He bases his
name-calling on fabricated or insuf-
ficient evidence. He attempted to
ruin reputations and eject people
from office on grounds which have
nothing to do with their ability or
performance of duty, Hiscowardice
in this irresponsible course consists
partly in the fact that he is protected
against punishment for libel or slan-
der because his lies are told in the
course of a congressional investiga-
tion and are regarded as "privileged"
public discussion, and partly in the
fact that the victim seldom has the
opportunity to achieve the same sen-
sation for his reply that Dies does
for his charges. He is a perfect ex-
ponent of the old political axiom that
if you throw enough mud, some of
it is sure to stick. If the voters were
universally able to detect smearing
wherever it occurred, Dies would be
buried under an avalanche of votes
for his opponent when he comes up
for reelection.
The opposition to the epresel
tatives and Senators "wo have ob-
struted the war effort is not based
on name-calling or on insufficient
evidence. It is based on the record
of their votes and speeches as they
have made it in public life. It is
taken from the official publica-
tion of Congress, The Congression-
al Record, which is issued expressly
for the purpose of informing the
country concerning the public ac-
tivities of its representatives. Such
material as does not come from
The ongressional Record is equally
authoritative and undeniable. It
is not smearing to analyze and call
the voters' attention to these facts.
It IS smearing to say that anyone
who does so is a Communist or an
apostle of disunion.
Many by whom all this is admit-
ted still believe it is unfair and un-
patriotic to oppose candidates for
their records on domestic legislation,
as long as they support the war. Mr.
Frank Kent, for instance, recently
attacked the President for a sup-
posedly nefarious intention to but-
tress the New Deal by working against
Representative Smith of Virginia, the
author of a long series of anti-labor
bills, This attitude seems to us a
limited and dangerous conception
both of democracy and of the war
itself. It amounts, in the first place,
to saying that we might as well call
off the congressional elections ex-
cept for the purpose of defeating
outspokenhopponents of the war-
of whom there are now almost none.
As between two candidates with
equally good war records, why should
not the voters discriminate on the
basis of their views on domestic poli-
cy? As a matter of fact such dis-
crimination is often unnecessary,

nificent speech in New York on this
theme has struck a resounding note
all over the country. Does anybody
pretend that domestic policies are
not germane to this effort?
Can we build a better world if
we do not keep out of power in this
country the isolationists, the sup-
porters of monopoly and privilege,
the enemies of higher standards of
living and social security? The en-
emies of the New Deal are the very
ones who could keep us from win-
ning the peace. This is an issue
which must be fought and won on
the domestic front, and it must be
won while thei war is being waged.
If the tendencies represented by the
New Deal were a dubious doctrine
held by a small minority, there
might be point in saying that an
effort to establish them was a
needless assault on national unity.
But they have been overwhelming-
ly endorsed by the voters in three
national elections. A persistent foe
of collective bargaining and indus-
trial democracy is himself an en-
emy not only of national unity

_ 3 M6DI(*c
I'l
.72 d I A--mt
\~ K~(\

t
4
I

DAILY OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
VOL. LII. No. 1
TUESDAY, JUNE 16. 1942
11A Notices for the aly 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
Satusrday, when the notices should be
submitted before 11:30 a.m.
The Storehouse Building will act
as a receiving center for scrap rub-
ber and also metals. Any department
on the Campus having metals or rub-
ber 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
The following course is being of-
fered during the Summer Term:
Hygiene 100, Public Health Prac-
tice. Community and personal health.
Disease prevention and control.
Three hours credit. Section 1, MWF
at 8, 158 Health Service, Bell. Sec-
tion 2, TThS at 8, 158 Health Service,
Forsythe.
English 153. The following students
are asked to consult .with Professor
Cowden, 3227 A.H., Tuesday, 9-12
a.m.: John Flagler, Patricia Moore,
Andrew Takas, George Valette.
The following students are asked
to meet with Professor Bader, 3217
A.;, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.: Betty Ber-
ris, Margaret Dewey, William Gram,
P. K. Keenan, Jeanne Lovett, E.
Mandeberg, T. K. Matthews, W. L.
Robinson, Janet Shelly, Janet Veen-
boer.
College of Literature, Science, and
the Arts, Schools of Education, For-
estry and Conservation, Music and
Public Health: Students, enrolled in
the Sunmner Term, who received
marks of I or X at the close of their
last term of attendance (viz., sem-
ester or summer session) will receive
a grade of E in the course unless this
work is made up by July 15. .Students
wishing an extension of time beyond
this date should file a petition ad-
dressed to the appropriate official in
their school with Room 4 U.H., where
it will be transmitted.
Robert I. Williams
Assistant Registrar
Students in Honors 101 will meet
with Professor Rice in 3223 A.H. on
Wednesday, June 17, at 3 p.m.
W. G. Rice
but of the promise of the future.
It will be fruitless to \defeat the
armies f Hitler and Hirohito if
anti-democrats retain power in the
United States.
-The New Republic

11

.Vt

"No-1 went through the last war
I got at Legion

without a scratch--these scars
conventions-"

Look*ing for a Place
TO0 EAT'
*
Eat at Your Own
Dining Room
THE MICHIGAN
WOULVERINE
20 Meals for '5.24 plusx

Our Schedule
For Your Summer.
WITH THIS ISSUE The Daily begins
a 10-week publication period to last
until the end of the Summer Session.
The Daily will be distributed free to all stu-
dents on the five-day weekly run of publica-
tions. It will contain the news of the campus,
the opinions of the students.
We will strive.as we always have in the past
both in the Summer Session and the regular

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