400 Persons Attend Daily 50th Anniversary Dinner

1400 Persons Attend Daily
50th Anniversary Dinner
Former editors .and staff members
of the Michigan Daily reminisced
on early days of the student
newspaper and discussed the
publication's current administration-
versus-student difficulties in
talks at the semi-centennial banquet
last night in the Michigan
Union.
Approximately 400 persons, including
about 200 alumni from several
states, attended the golden
anniversary celebration. They were
guests of the University Board in
Control of Student Publications
today at the Michigan-Northwestern
game.
Six men, representing the Michigan
Daily history from 1890 to
1925, spoke at the banquet. They
told of former student publishing
days of the small . and cramped
beginnings or the Daily and of
personalities and incidents in their
campus time.
Would Change Character
On the question of present governing
policy and student freedom,
Ralph Stone of Detroit, a 1892 i
Law School graduate and a former
University Regent, questioned
the extent to which the Michigan
Daily is "representative of student
life and opinion." He urged a return
to the paper's character ot
50 years ago, that of a publication
which was "solely a student newspaper-
no outside news in it."
He said, "Put an end to the
editorial discussions of those controversial
matters which are unrelated
to University life. Eliminate
the columnists and the news
space devoted thereto. Emphasize
an editorial policy which gives
whole-hearted support to the educational
objectives and ideals of
the University."
Writings in the student newspaper,
he stated, "are quoted outside
are taken as reflections of
the ' official opinion and attitude
of the University itself and also as
official interpretation of University
news" and have been "the cause
of serious embarassment to the
University."
Junius Wood, of Traverse City,
1900 graduate, a lecturer and a
forrv-er foreign correspondent, asserted
that "If the Michigan Daily
is to be a University students'
daily it should be run by the students
with a minimum of faculty
control."
Judge Jayne Speaks
Judge Ira W. Jayne, class of
1905, of the Detroit circuit court,
set forth the students as "those
who should run the Daily."
William D. Roesser, '25, a Buffalo,
N. Y., advertising salesman,
opined that "there isn't much difference
fundamentally between
now and the earlier days of the
Daily and the University. The stu··
dent editors of those days were
called radicals and today consider
themselves conservatives."
John B. Parker, class of 1917,
the 1939-40 president of the University
of Michigan Club of Chicago,
praised the Michigan Daily's
"constructive leadership during the
last 50 years."
Charles H. Farrell, class of 1898,
former state legislator and exmayor
of Kalamazoo, dwelled
principally on anecdotes of the
student newspaper's early history.
The toastmaster was Harold
Titus, class of 1911, Traverse City
author. Dinner music was provided
by the University band, directed
by Prof. William D. Revelli.