Show I P r V ng Opinions ion 5 I Comment o n of OI the fhe Am American American- a pr Press Press- s t t- t Parole Publicity For five lve y years ars or or in other ther words ever since enactment of the federal probation and parole act L. L Wallace Vallace Hoffman has been chief federal probation officer office in inthis inthis inthis this judicial district His words accordingly a are entitled to some sonic weight when he writes in his annual annual annual an an- nual report that one of his chief well- well handicaps has been the meaning but frequently misdirected misdirected misdirected efforts of private citizens How Mr Hoffman feels about It we do not know but we regard his statement as bearing out our contention contention and and that of the national national national na na- na- na crime conference that conference that full publicity should be given to the efforts efferts of ot all private citizens who whop p petition or otherwise concern themselves with the freeing treeing of criminals on parole Whether misdirected misdirected misdirected mis mis- directed or not citizens should be required to take full public re responsibility responsibility re- re for their sponsorship of convicted law violators While we are on the subject we might add that Mr Hoffman in person and his excellent record record rec roe ord as a a. parole officer constitute living indorsements of at another reform in parole policy on which we have insisted and shall continue continue con con- to insist This reform is the placing of parole administration under a trained nonpolitical civil service personnel In the last five years there have been in this federal judicial district district district dis dis- dis- dis just six violations of probation probation probation proba proba- tion out of passed on There is no way of proving it of course I but we wo consider it very doubtful that this record could have been duplicated if It Mr Hoffmans Hoffman's job during these five years had been treated as political patronage and had been turned over to the first political hack who could muster the necessary pull Detroit News Incomes Make Slums We Ve are arc arc I in favor of ot Detroit's slum clearance project We Ve are in favor Cavor of ot more and better slum clearance And we are aro in favor of Mrs Roosevelt But every time we hear as in her address of the crime and disca dis- dis ca case e waiting to be eliminated by bythe bythe bythe the tearing down of a group of elderly dwellings where here people are arc living under conditions of over over- congestion and consequent under- under sanitation we are moved to protest pro pro- test This whole subject is badly in need of a breath of fresh real real- ism The old houses do not cause either cither crime or disease Some of them are are ure the homes and former homes of oC who grew to manhood and womanhood there without ever running afoul of the J law w or catching catchin an anything thing wor worse e ethan than a a case cabe of mumps What causes the crime and disease disease disease dis dis- dis- dis ease are the things that make people live in those old houses In a manner conducive to crime and disease The Tho chief of those things is low income and an en enforced enforced enforced en- en forced low standard of livin living Remove Remove Re Re- move the basic cause for the tho slum and the slum will disappear of Its own accord either cither b by the voluntary vol 01 removal of its inhabitants to better and more attractive quarters or by the redemption and modernization of the slum houses themselves We favor as as we sa say the present present present pres pres- ent slum clearance project and slum clearance in general It will do some good But if sonic some one were given the resources which would have to be considerable to clear away all of the tho existing Detroit Detroit De De- slum areas in the city of oC troit there still would be slums lums and the evil conditions that grow out of them That would have to be true true unless unless unless un un- un- un less the incomes of the slum dwellers could be i in increased n c r rea c a s ed enough to allow them to live better better bet bet- ter than they do or unless the new nev quarters to be erected on on the slum sites could be made cheap enough to fit the meager and precarious resources o of those who now live there And tho the latter Jatter goal judging by bitter bitter- experience with the present project is no more easily achieved than the former Detroit News Baers Baer's Largest Moment Those at the ringside where a million dollar battle was fought discovered few if iC any large moments mo mo- mo ments n for California's time one-time champion Max Baer Bacr It was after the fight was over and with his comeback ambitions in ruins that Baer Bacr was greatest One of ot his followers in excuse offered the story that th Livermore Liver Liver- snore moro mans man's hands were injured None of ot that alibi stuff said the sportsman Baer Bacr My hands are perfect I was knocked out And say give Joe Louis all the credit that is coming to him Hes He's a great fighter and a fine lad That was Baers Baer's largest moment of the tho evening Oakland Oakland Tribune Trib Trib- une Man the Unknown When he returned to these shores last week Dr Alexis Carrel told the reporters that man Is still an aJi unknown animal and that little has yet ct been done to develop him as a whole b by welding to together together together to- to gether all that is known and that will vill be discovered not anI only about him but about such sciences as physics ch mathematics geology and psychology A believer be be- liever Hever in science the doctor is nevertheless dissatisfied with its splitting of mans man's soul and bod body In its us broadest aspect Dr Carrels Carrel's Carrels Carrel's Car Car- rel's rd's philosophy is an occultists occultist's protest against the assumption that the cosmos man included can be described mathematically an an assumption based on pure faith Newton made no such mis mis- take If It the mathematical meanIng meaning meaning mean mean- ing the scientific method fails to work he proclaimed then we must tr try some other Realizing that it has failed in explaining such intangibles as life spirit soul intelligence con consciousness the new school of scientific mystics mystics mys mys- tics headed by Eddington approaches approaches ap ap- ap- ap the problem very differently differently dif dif- dif dif- from Dr CarreL It frankly recognizes th the tho limitations of science whereas Dr Carrel sees no limitations in ultimately makIns making mak mak- ing Ins a 1 whole out of two piece man To the we can no more know man inan than we can know a star or a tree We Vc must content ourselves es with isolating what properties we can and studying studying studying study study- ing these The result will vill always be a poor thing thing thing-a a pathetic skeleton ton It is the function of the poet the musician the martyr stirred by inexpressible yearnings to clothe the skeleton with flesh lesh and give it meaning There is something something something some some- thing repugnant about welding body and soul together Somehow man seems to become more of ofa ofa ofa a machine than ever What would become of the vague longings long lone lags ings the stuff of oC which music and poetry are arc made Would there be a Shakespeare or a Beethoven |