THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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Fifty-Fourth Year >.. L t'' ., "ndenendeneefan
TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1944
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By BERNARD ROSENBERG
IT MAY have been "self-evident" in
1776 that "all men are created
equal" and that "they are endowed
by their Creator with certain in-
alienable rights." The committee in
charge of drafting the Declaration
of Independence certainly thought
so. And yet, patriots like Thomas
Jefferson and George Washington
continued to help maintain a black
slaveocracy, despite the fact that
Negroes had fought heroically in the
War for Independence.I
Let's not pat ourselves too heartily
on the back this Fourth of July. The
situation, if anything, with respect
to colored America has worsened in
the past century and a half. The
American Negro is neither inside nor
outside the social structure-and a
marginal position is always the most
painful. The Negro has been edu-
cated to the point where he fully
appreciates the liberties we refuse
to grant him.
Previous to the Emancipation
Proclamation no Negro could know
the blessings of freedom. Born in
ignorance, he was fed on ignorance,
and he died in ignorance. If we did
not mean to alter the glaring contra-
diction between our avowed princi-
ples and our prejudiced acts the
federal government would have been
infinitely more humane had it told and demagogic speech, not a one of
the Negro to remain a nominal as his colleagues displayed any anger,
well as actual slave, although Nathan Robertson charac-
Associate Justice of the Su- terized it as "one of the worst exhi-
bitions of racial and religious intol-
preme Court Frank Murphy said erance ever seen in Congress." All
at Carnegie Hall, New York, a few the old bogeys were trotted out and
weeks ago, "On every side we see a few new ones were added. Fuming
sinister forces at work in this over the one year lease on life given
country to array class against the President's Fair Employment
class, religion against religion, and Practices Act, whose enforcement
race against race." There are has been less than wishy-washy any-
many minority groups in the Unit- how, Bilbo made the charge that the
ed States-but the Negroes are the agency was "designed to bring racial
largest and most conspicuous. So equality." This is almost as serious
they are due to suffer the most. as accusing a man of virtue, honesty
Those of us who were in Detroit or marital fidelity. Proceeding in
sThsmerus wowe tisny etoi his own disjointed fashion, Bilbo
last summer recognize this only too said he looked with horror upon the
well. We heard the ruffian mutte r Negroes entering white residential
inggs swell into maniacal shrieks for areas. "There is no way for these
"Nigger blood." The mayor who people (the white people) to get
vacillated then has done virtually relief except to take the law into
nothing since to prevent a repetition their own hands" ran the text of his
of that riot. Detroit is a good exam- incitement to mob rule in the Dis-
ple of what race hatred breeds-one trict of Columbia.
that can be duplicated and outdone There you have it: from the halls
in New York, Boston and points Thore o the an
west. of Congress to the shores of San
Diego. An undercurrent of ill will
V VEN in Congress fiery speeches warps the character and contorts the
condoning discrimination are ac- face of America. Not often does it
cepted as part of the day's routine. find such unashamed expression as
When Senator Bilbo of Mississippi that given by Senators Bilbo, East-
delivered his latest inflammatory land, George and McClellan. But it
WITH THE AEF:
One-Man Army Honored
Haunted
I'D RATHER BE RIGHT:
Ci s
Critic-ismIs Inconsistent
By SAMUEL GRAFTON
NEW YORK, July 3.-The isolationists have
never seemed to me so corny as in their attacks
on President Roosevelt for attacking General
Franco. If the isolationists have any principles,
they should have endorsed every word the Presi-
dent said. They are forever yelping at him to
"speak out" for America; and surely a demand
by the American President to the Spanish dic-
tator that he stop sending vital war material to
Germany constitutes a speaking-out.
By attacking the President on this issue, the
isolationist press has made it just so much
easier for Franco to continue to send wolfram
which means tungsten, to Germany. If giving
ideological protection to the shipment of ma-
terials with which Hitler kills Americans
constitutes looking out for the American na-
tional interest (another theme on which these
men do a great deal of talking) then the na-
tional interest does not mean what we have
all supposed it to mean.
It turns out, in practice, that when the iso-
lationist press counsels the President to speak
out, it means it wants him to speak out against
our friends.
It is in anguish when it hears of extraordinary
shipments of materials to our ally, Britain; but
it is bored, at best, when it hears of shipments
from Spain to Hitler, and, at worst, it protests
against a protest against these shipments.
One of these isolationist papers (whose name
I shall not mention, because I have more circu-
lation than it has) goes so far as to describe Mr.
Roosevelt's effort to get Franco to stop supplying
Hitler as solely a political move to win the
Communist vote; and in one sentence the paper
concerned has made a wonderful, fuzzy package
of all the vast stock of political corn in its pos-
session.
SOMEWHERE on their course, the isolationists
seem to have forgotten about the American
national interest, of which they sometimes like
to pose as the exclusive custodians, if not pro-
prietors.
For it happens that we have a genuine na-
tional interest in keeping Franco down; if he
rises, his Phalanx in Latin America rises with
him; and our place and prestige in that region
dwindle. It is as true now, as it was at the time
of the Monroe Doctrine, that the only Latin
America which can be safe for us is a Latin
America cut off from a powerful and anti-
republican Spain.
The British do not take quite the same view of
Latin America; their investments in Latin
America are greater than ours, their relations
with Latin American reaction are old, and solid;
they can get along with a reactionary Latin
America, in a sense in which a New World dem-
ocracy, like our own, cannot.
So it was completely in the American interest
that Mr. Roosevelt "spoke.out"; non-ideological-
ly, in the sense that,, whatever hurts Franco
helps us south of the border.
It is a jewel of a puzzle, then, as to why the
isolationists, who make so much with the mouth
about national interest, and who hate England,
should forget about national interest on the
Franco question, and should actually take the
British position, as expressed in Mr. Churchill's
unconvincing passion for the Spanish dictator.
I have remarked before that our isolation-
ists, or "nationalists," as they love to call
themselves, are not really nationalists; their
first loyalty is toward reaction, as we can
clearly see when, in that blazing loyalty, they
forget both the national interest, and even
their precious anti-Britishism.
We find them "speaking out"-for English
policy; because it happens, in this case, to be
reactionary policy, and therefore their policy.
Willingness to subordinate true national interest
to reaction is the great political disease of this
century, and these domestic manifestations of
it do not seem to me to put America first.
(Copyright, 1944, New York Post Syndicate)
Willkie Watchful, Reserved ...
Willkie to Dewey: "Hearty congratulations to
you on your nomination. You have one of the
great opportunities of history." This much, no
more.
With appropriate tact, Mr. Willkie refrained
from adding, "What are you going to do with
it?" But never in politics, considering the whole
context of events leading up to the nomination,
were words more pregnant with watchfulness,
more imbued with mental reservation.
If Dewey wins the support of Willkie and
other progressive Republicans who see life some-
what as he does, he will have moved far nearer
the White House than he now stands.
- St. Louis Post Dispatch
By KENNETH L. DIXON
SOMEWHERE IN ITALY, July 3.
0P)-A lot of doughboys were being
decorated in the little wooded glade
where the division was resting. One
by one they filed up before the gen-
eral and stood rigidly at attention
while he pinned awards on their
olive drab shirts.
Then, after an official account of
their deeds and heroism had been
read to the assembled soldiers over a
loudspeaker system, they shook
hands with their general and
marched back to their place in the
line, saluting the American and divi-
sion flag as they passed by.
"Those guys deserve what they're
getting all right, but you ought to
meet this guy Knappenberger if you
want to write a story about some-
body," said a voice beside me. I
turned around and saw a soldier had
come up to the tree against which
I was leaning taking notes.
"Who is this Knappenberger," I
asked, "and what did he do?" The
soldier told the story in low tones
while the ceremony continued.
"WE WERE attacking this kraut
position in front of Cisterna
back in February and they stopped
us cold. So Knapp goes up on a
little hill with his automatic rifle.
One bunch rushes the hill and cuts
loose with a gun. There Knapp is,
all alonehbut we could seeshim.
"So he takes cover, and a machine
gun over to the right opens up on
him with the bullets soclose that
they singed his hair. He stuck to his
automatic rifle, knocked out the ma-
chine gun, killed two of .the guys on
it and wounds another one just like
that.
"About that time he looks around
and sees a couple of krauts just as
they're heaving a grenade apiece at
him. Another one is justbpulling the
pin out. They miss him, but he gives
the guy with the grenade in his hand
a burst with the automatic rifle and
it kills him.
"All of a sudden a flag wagon
opens up on him. A flag wagon's got
more guns than a damned porcupine
has quills. But he shoots back, knocks
out one gunner and scares the rest
of them. But now he's out of am-
munition, see?
"You'd think he'd get the hell out
of there, but not Knapp. He crawls
up about 15 yards, with machine
guns and rifles picking at him all the
way, takes some clips off the belt
of a dead dogface and crawls back,
loads up and starts shooting again.
"Well, by now all the krauts in
the area are hammering at him.
Finally they send a whole platoon
up to get him. Knapp holds his fire
until they're about 50 yards away
and then lets them have it. He kills
and wounds so many of them that
l
they hightail it back. Finally, the I
rest of our outfit gets up to where f
he is and it turns out that he's been
holding back between two and three
companies."
',jHILE I had been hearing this
story more soldiers went up to
be decorated. All were back in the
formation surrounding the general 1
when the voice over the loudspeaker
blared: "Step forward and meet your
commanding general, Private First
Class Alton W. Knappenberger of
Company C.
The soldier jumped up with a
mile- wide grin on his face.
"Hey, that's Knapp. I gotta see
this." He ran over closer to watch.
Out of the lines walked Pfc. Alton
W. Knappenberger of Springmount,
Pa., a youngster just as short and
stocky as his commanding general.
Half self-consciously, half cockily,
he stalked up and saluted. Then he
spread his feet apart and stood there
with his hands locked behind him
while the loudspeaker fisted in offi-
cial language the very §tory his pal
had just finished.
After this, there was some expla-
nation of the official technicalities
which prevented his being decorated
at that ceremony, but Pfc. Knappen-
berger probably didn't mind. He
obviouslyuwouldn't have traded a
helmet full of silver stars and RFC's
for what the brigadier-general bark-
ed-to the grinning delight of all the
soldiers-as he stepped up and shook
his hand:
"A one-man army, that's what you e
are," said the general to the private.It
"A blasted one-man army !"it
DAI LY OFFICIAL BULLTIN
(Continued from Page 2)1 fessor Frederick Marriott, guest or-
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I . I
BARNABY
By Crockett Johnson
English 296s, S. Ses., 2014 Angell Hall
Geog. 142, S.Term, 209 Angell Hall
Geog. 181, S.Term, 209 Angell Hall
Ger. 85, S.Term, 203 University Hall
Ger. 91, S.Term, 203 University Hall
Russian 98 (1), S.Term, 406 Library
Greek 178s, S.Ses. 2003 Angell Hall
History 189s, S.Ses., 2029 Angell Hall
Lib. Science 271, S.Ses., 407 Library
Lib. Science 273, S.Ses., 407 Library
Philosophy 190s, S.Ses., 406 Library
Russian 32, S.Term, 1025 Angell Hall
Russian 113s, S.Ses., 231 Angell Hall
Russian 119s, S. Ses., 406 Library
Russian 119s, S.Ses., 6 Angell Hall
Russian 121s, S.Ses., 231 Angell Hall
Sociology 251, S. Ses., 403 Library
Political Science 273s. There will
be an organization meeting July 5 at
7:30 p.m. in Rm. 215 Haven Hall.
History 12, Section 2, will meet in
Rm. 315, Haven Hall.
History 154 will meet as announced
for the first meeting. A time of
meeting will be decided upon then to
suit the schedules of the classes.
English 153: Because the first meet-
ing of this course falls on July 4, a
national holiday, the class will meet
instead on Wednesday, July 5, at 7:30
in Rm. 3217, Angell Hall.
E. A. Walter
Mathematics Seminar: There will
be a meeting Thursday, July 6, at
4 o'clock in Rm. 3011 Angell Hall for
all those who are interested in taking
part in any seminars in mathematics
or mathematcal statistics.
The pirates wouldn't hide their
treasure down near the cottage
colony. Nor up by the amusement
area... Too many nosey people.
-.3
That leaves only two miles
of beach for us to dig up...
See, m'boy, how my scientific
brain narrows the problem?...
Two miles?
Copyright 1944 Field Publications
Still quite a chore, isn't it?
And that recent storm has
obliterated any eighteenth
century footprints or other
clues they may have left-
But, say! If we had a MAP!
~~~6__ __ __ _
There's a big book of maps in
our cottage, Mr. O'Malley, but-
Excellent! Come,
Bornaby! Let's not
waste any time ...
CeN
Ct OCKE'f'!'
JOHNtOf
- w - - - - V
r
No idication of the treasure so
My Fairy Godfather is |
No. Not on this road map
T he back of this old laundry
I
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