Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
:
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Trutb Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: WALLACE IMMEN
A WorKing Partnership
For Higher
INSTITUTIONS OF higher education
must begin turning their attention to
the role the federal government will play
in shaping their policies.
For many years federal involvement in
universities and colleges has grown at a
haphazard pace, lacking over-all coordi-
nation and balance. The growth has been
largely spurred by the government's mis-
sion-oriented research and student sup-
port programs. The result has been an
uneven preference for certain institutions
and their differential development.
So far, comprehensive planning of
higher education has been rudimentary.
The question can no longer be a reversal
of the trend in federal involvement. That
would likely be more disasterous than
beneficial. Rather, the question becomes
one of universities and colleges actively
shaping a new working relationship with
its future chief source of support.
FOR PUBLIC universities and colleges,,
the problem will be complicated by a
changing relationship with their state
legislatures. State and local government
shares of education costs amount to only
26 per cent of the total at present; this
share is certain to drop as the federal
proportion rises in the next decade to be-
tween 30 and 50 per cent.
Yet state and local governments harbor
a sufficient sense of their own power over,
public education to resent the intrusion
by an outside source that would reduce
their power. The problem of autonomy
with relation to the federal government
is difficult enough without the added
political difficulties of a resistant legis-
lature.
Administrators must ask with whom 1
the decision-making lies in the new alli-
ance. The federal government in the past,
allocated its support largely to achieve
specific national goals. The range of de-
cisions to be exercised will expand as
Washington assumes more of the burden
of direct operating expenses and student
support. The federal government can
continue to act largely at its discretion
in setting policy as long as universities
propose such self-centered programs as
across-the-board aid without any con-
ception of how such aid fits into the na-
tional education picture.
Higher education institutions must
'Education
begin xys jointly defining their role in
meeting the nation's needs. They must
take into consideration the impact of
federal monetary support and decision-
making power upon the primary product
of the universities and colleges-the edu-
cation of students. They must decide
whether they are to become largely serv-
ice centers to the new industrial state,
sheltered centers of dis-interested knowl-
edge, or some variegated combination of
several functions.
BEYOND THE important issues of finan-
cial allocation and definition of na-
tional priorities in education, further
issues arise.
Traditional university prerogatives in
setting internal standards can conceiv-
ably be altered by a changing relation-
shii with an external power. One has
only to look at the influence, direct or
indirect, on university standards on
classified research to see the potential
for control that could spread to other
areas.
The various forms of academic freedom
-ranging from the scholar's right to se-
lect his area of endeavor to the institu-
tion's freedom to innovate-also require
safeguards. Such nebulous freedoms are
not amenable to hard-and-fast stipula-
tion; but, because of their very ill-de-
fined status, they are particularly vul-
nerable to seduction in the service of
non-academic functions.
NiVERSITY administrators cannot
permit the federal government to un-
ilaterally define the position of higher
education for the future. They will not
be able, however, to deal effectively with
the government on an individual basis.
There is a need for a body representative
of higher education institutions to focus
on the issues and their solution before
the problem grows beyond their control.
Real planning will be meaningful only
if real authority for policy formulation
and implementation can be delegated
among both partners in the working re-
lationship. Unless higher education in-
stitutions learn to pull together, they
will continue in the same morass of con-
tradictions that today threatens to create
an imbalance of purpose.
--DAVID KNOKE
T'heL
By TRAN VAN DINH
Collegiate Press Service
THE VIET CONG raid on the
United States embassy in Saigon
Tuesday is just the most recent
dramatic example of the "terror-
ism" that many Americans cite
as the reason why the U.S. has
sent 500,000 troops to South Viet-
nam.
Yet if "terrorism" can be under-
stood in its dictionary definition of
"the use of terror and violence to
intimidate, subjugate especially
as a political weapon or policy,"
then the U.S. has committed acts
of terror which make the Viet
Cong's killing of headsmen and
civilians insignificant.
Since February, 1965, over 675,-
000 tons of bombs, including anti-
personnel fragment bombs, have
rained down on North Vietnam
alone-more total tonnage drop-
ped on Germany during all of
World War II.
Bombings of South Vietnamese
villages are even more massive;
this is the reason why there are
now two million refugees in the
South who have left destroyed
villages.
In other words, the U.S. has
used massed killings in order to
prevent individual killings.
FOR THOSE Americans who
do not see U.S. "terrorism" in the
same light as the Viet Cong atro-
cities I will give the benefit of
assuming sincerity to them. But I
would also like to make a few
observations to them:
The Viet Cong are Vietnamese
and they are in Vietnam. They
are pursuing a political policy, a
national program in the territory
of Vietnam.
The Viet Cong "terrorism" is
selective and aims at a political
goal. The Viet Cong first warn
people whom they have con-
demned before they strike. This
applies to individuals and not to
communities which are part of
the war machine, although the
Viet Cong have persistently asked
Vietnamese not to 'be near the
Americans.
The "Free French" used' the
same kind of "terrorism" against
the French who cooperated with
the Germans during the occupa-
tion. Gen. De Gaulle has been
blamed for almost everything, but
no one in this country branded
him a terrorist during World
War II.
Terrorism is not the monopoly
of communist organizations. It is
n k own
ietn. am
sidered as 'foreigners' by the
tensely clannish and provin
peasantry.
"Land policies often admir
in phraseology, were not
weak in execution and freque
T operated to the benefit of the
sentee landlords rather than tl
who actually tilled the soil."
THIEU AND KY have put
000 Buddhists in jail, impriso
hundreds of students, attacke
hand grenades and bombs (v
their police, of course) the Yo
School for Social Services of
Buddhist University in Sail
... killing students
Malcolm W. Browne, a Puli
Prize winning journalist, wrot
the Los Angeles' Times of Ma
5, 1967: "I've seen VC prison
have their hands and even t
heads chopped off by their Sai
captors. Even American tre
have gone in for their share of
heading and if anyone doubt,
I can assure him there is ab
dant proof in the form of ph(
graphs.,"
Many TV views in this cou
watched CBS News in thee
ning of October 9, 1967. T
they could see GIs cutting3
Cong ears. Since this diselos
the TV correspondents in So
- communist Vietnam are closely followed
P. J. Honey, Army personnel.
aarterly (No. Carlyle Thayer, an Internatic
962): "The Voluntary Service volunteer
n) was in South Vietnam, writes of a c
communists, versation with two soldiers:
those-and was hard to contrast their m
were dem- ner off the field with the sto
rals, adher- they told. I was shown a gas c
o were bold nister that they said violated
eir disagree- Geneva Convention; but they
e of policy the 'Viet Cong' also used it. T
oligarchy." spoke of killing captured
at the Viet- because they couldn't take tI
e terrorized along. And they told me ab
h the Viet the apricots they strung thro
sk why they montagnard neck rings -
th the Chi- 'apricots' were the ears of
h with the they had killed."
Tror,
in- There exists in South Vietnam
icial an organization called Biet Kich
(special attackers) known in the
able "civilized" 'English language as
ably "Provincial Reconnaissance Un-
ntly its." Robert A. Erlandson. Saigon
ab- correspondent for the Baltimore
hose Sun wrote (December 16, 1967
about them:
"These are the provincial units,
10.- whose name suggests their main
ned job but whose fbrmer title, coun-
d by ter-terror squads and nickname
with 'Murder, Inc.' are more appropri-
auth ate. Trained and financed largely
the by the CIA, their mission is to
gon, capture or assassinate members
of the Viet Cong."
tzer Sen. Stephen Young (D-Ohio)
e in has also revealed the existence of
arch the Biet Kich, who often dress
ners themselves like the Viet Cong,
heir come into a village, terrorize it
gon and accuse the Viet Cong of "ter-
b0pe rorism."
s it' In an interview in the program
it. Meeting of the Minds (NBC,
un- October 8, 1967) Mr. Grant,
Deputy AID Director, admitted
ntry that "the Viet Cong did not kill
eve- the AID personnel for fear of los-
here ing popularity with the villagers."
Viet Strange enough, while Washing-
ure, ton and Saigon accused the Viet
uth Cong of terrorism and all kinds of
by crimes, General Thieu's govern-
ment named in December 1967
onal' two former Viet Cong, Lt. Colonel
in Le Xuan Chuyen and Lt. Colonel
on- Huynh Cu as ."special assistant
"It to the open arms minister" and
an- "commandant of the armed prop-
ries aganda school" respectively.
an-
the MY CONCLUSION is this: only
said those who believe in peace can
'hey condemn violence and terrorism,
VC' only those who believe in non-vio
hem lence can condemn violence. A
)out man who drops a bomb can't con-
ugh demn a man who carries a knife
the and if one wishes terrorism to end
VC' in Vietnam one then must work
for the end of the war there.
'A
*1
Viet Cong Terror Is Selective ...
Tanks burn during uprising against Diem.
used in even larger scale by anti-
communist groups. During the
October "revolution" (1965) in
Indonesia, half a million sus-
pected communists were slaugh-
tered by the Indonesian Army. The
U.S. did not protest against the
Indonesia military junta and did
not send .500,000 troops to fight
the Indonesian terrorists, in this
case Gen. Suharto, present Indo-
nesian chief of state, and his gov-
ernment.
DURING PRESIDENT Ngo Dinh
Diem's regime in South Vietnam
terrorist methods were used. Ac-
cording to a document published
by the Saigon Ministry of Infor-
mation in October, 1960, a -total
of 48,250 had been jailed between
1954 and 1960. The number of
people who were killed (in the
thousands) 'were not revealed.
From 1960 to 1963, this amount
was at least double.
After the overthrow of Diem in
1963, the then military junta re-
vealed fantastic stories of terror-
ist acts which were committed by
the Saigon government from 1954
to 1963. Yet the U.S. increased aid
to Diem during these years.
The British anti-
expert on Vietnam, P
wrote in the China Qu
9, January-March 1
repression (by Saigo
theory aimed at the<
In fact it affected all
they were many-who
ocrats, socialists, libe
ents to the sects-wh
enough to express the
ment with the line
adopted by the ruling,
It has been said the
namese peasants "ar
into cooperation wit
Cong." One should as
did not cooperate wit
nese, with the Frenc
Japanese, with Diem,
Thieu, Gen. Ky and th
people all use force a
against the peasants
"intense fear."
George A. Carver, a
the CIA, admitted in
"The Faceless Viet C
eign Affairs, April 196E
administrators Diem p
countryside were oft
and seldom native tot
which they were assi
\ which caused them1
-, YYtVl V-
, with Gen.
he U.S.? The
and violence
and provoke
member of
his article
Cong" (For-
6) that "the
osted to the
ten corrupt
the areas to
gned, a fact
to be con-
. and Aims at Politico' roals
Suicide squad repulsed at Sagon radio station.
Le ters to the Editor
1
t
Negro History
To the Editor:
I AM SURPRISED and disturb-
ed by W. B. Willcox's (Jan. 17)
arguments against the student-
suggested course in Negro history.
I can't understand why he ans-
wers student concern and criti-
cism of his department with feel-
ings of personal affront..
I can't refute his feelings, but
I certainly challenge his argu-
ments.
Willcox responds that "even if
all (Miss Hunt's) statements
were true" if there is both desire
to learn and someone to teach -
the choice of an academic topic
as a course must be justified. A
curious argument.
EVEN ALLOWING that stand-
ard, however, his explanation of
it amazes me.
A topic or problem is certainly
a legitimate alternative totime
period and/or area as the defini-
tion of an academic course in
history. The University's depart-
ment is organized almost entire-
ly by area-period titles, yet in
my experience, the best teachers
re-structure their discussions by
problem-topics: Asia's economic
development or nationalist-com-
munists, Russia's elite intelligent-
sia, East Europe's national min-
orities are typical.
Willcox implies that fair, in-
conclusive study of, in this case,
American history, would be im-
paired by narrow focus on the
Negro experience in this country.
Inclusiveness is an honorable his-
torian's concern-yet only the
scholastic, cloistered, if not sim-
ply arrogant mind insists that the.
multitude of process and problem,
forces and events demanding an
historian's attention can be ex-
hausted in any type of course.
Clearly the history of black peo-
ple in America involves serious
study of social-economic develop-
ments and raises anxious, pene-
trating questions about the suc-
cess, the failure-the very sincer-
ity and possibility-of capitalistic
egalitarian democracy in this
powerful modern society.
DR. WILLCOX, what more
could you want from an American
history course?
To Willcox, a course "Negro
history" would "perpetuate em-
phasis on their separateness at
just the time when their assimi-
lation is the crucial problem." I
AND WHO KNOWS? The ef-
fect of knowledge on race rela-
tions might even be beneficial,
Dr. Willcox's suggestion notwith-
standing. For American students,
a good course in Negro history
could be personally disturbing.
But surely the University's his-
tory department has courage to
confront such study, though the
students of Ann Arbor High do
nlot.
Agreed, the lack of black in-
structors is regrettable. But that's
a temporary situation. Meanwhile,
the course is still desired and
Willcox knows that there are his-
torians at the University quali-
fied, though white, to teach Ne-
gro history. Without lowering
standard in the department, it
remains for the department to
meet the explicit desire and need
for that course.
--Harriet N. Katz
(Honors History) '69
Makeba
To the Editor:
IN HIS excellent critique of
Miriam Makeba's unforgettable
performance (Daily, Jan. 28), Jim
Peters makes one debatable geo-
graphical allusion when he asserts
that "Miss Makeba sampled all the
flavor' of the humid, misty, tropi-
cal jungles which seem to incite
her." Unless I am very much mis-
taken, neither Miss Makeba nor
any of the songs offered that eve-
ning have anything to do with
jungles, humid, misty, or tropical.
The Xosa, her own people, and
the Zulu, whose songs are also
part of her repertory, are about
as far removed from the nearest
tropical jungle as are the Egyp-
tians or the Moroccans. In fact it
is not easy to locate tropical jungle
on the African continent. There is
not as much of it as is commonly
assumed.
-Henry L. Bretton
Professor, Political Science
To the Editor:
I HAVE read the review of
Miriam Makeba's concert here
last Saturday by Jim Peters. He
comments that "the three girl
chorus used near the end seemed
vulgar and totally unsuited to
Miss Makeba's style." This re-
mark shows a lack of insight with
African culture and music. Body
movements are an integral part
of self expression in African mu-
sic and should not be judged by
stereotyped Western standards.
Mr. Peters has, unfortunately,
a disappointment. Once again the
mother of state universities is
failing to lead her daughter, the
reason being that her leaders (and
this time they are not administra-
tors but academicians) do not wish
to challenge the status quo.
Rapoport mentions the need for
moral rather than prudential acts.
What Neil Shister said in his ar-
ticle "About Fleming and the Uni-
versity" in a recent issue of the
Daily on the need for vision in the
University is relevant here. Is it
too preposterous to suggest that a
clue to the source of vision and
hence. of the possibility of moral
action is to be found in the Chris-
tian gospel?
-John A. Bailey,
Prof. of Near Eastern Studies
0
.:s: A........P......r..o t
Wages:.A inimum Protection
By GARY N. BARBER
Daily Guest Writer
IN ANY society at a given time
there are certain questions of
public policy that appear to be
closed to serious debate or ques-
tion. In America today a few of
these topics are Social Security,
T.V.A., the use of nuclear weapons,
the minimum wage and higher un-
employment of Negroes resulting
from discrimination.
The minimum wage law says
that workers-in industries and
jobs covered by the law-cannot
be hired at wage rates below a spe-
cific amount. A national minimum
wage rate was first established in
1938. The stated purpose of the
act was to eliminate, as rapidly as
possible, labor conditions thought
to be harmful to the "health, ef-
ficiency and general well-being of
the workers . . . without substan-
tially curtailing employment or
earning power."
A 1965 Gallup poll found 55 per
cent of the American people feel
the minimum wage should be
raised. If they fully understand its
effects, would they still think so?
Would they want one at all?
THE MINIMUM wage law is as
anti-Negro in its efforts as its ad-
vocates are pro-Negro in their in-
tentions. While only a relatively
few workers are directly affected
by minimum wage laws, those that
are include a disproportionate
IN OTHER CASES minimum
wages force up product prices, in-
ducing consumers to shift to some
other product and thus reduce em-
ployment in the former industry.
Some of the strongest supporters
of minimum wages are the man-
agements and unions of the North-
eastern textile industry. Since they
already pay and receive above
average wages it is in their interest
to force up the costs of their com-
petitors in the lower Southeast.
In so doing, the Southern Negro
is not able to find employment in
his home area and thus immi-
grates to the North, where, un-
able to find a job at the artificial-
ly high wage rates and in the face
of discrimination of white-run
unions, he becomes a welfare case.
The higher taxes resulting from
this in some measure offset the in-
come gains made by these same
persons who advocated the mini-
mum wage laws as, a means of pro-
tecting their profits and incomes.
But, what of the average do-
gooser who honestly feels he is!
helping the underpaid worker by
means of the minimum wage law?
That even he has some doubts as
to its effects is shown in the fol-
lowing analysis. .
If it is assumed that a mini-
mum wage raises income without
costing jobs, then why not set a
limit of $3.00 per hour? Surely
$1.60 per hour, about $3,000 a year,
is not as good as the $6,000 at a
$3.00 per hour rate. Perhaps, even
istic members of society."
People's motive are both mone-
tary and non-monetary. Monetary
motives are satisfied by money and
money is all alike. Non-monetary
motives include what we call taste
if we approve, or discrimination if
we disappreove. A, man concerned
with purely monetary factors will
not discriminate in his choice of
employees but will employ those
who can produce most economic-
ally.
If we now interfere with the
-market system of employment by
instituting a minimum wage law,
the employer will reduce employ-
ment of those persons who are
least productive+-the less educated
and less able. In addition, since he
must pay a fixed minimum rate
to all applicants, why not choose
among his own preferred racial
group over others?
THE ARGUMENT has been
made that this is fine in theory,
but that in fact when the mini-
mum wage goes up very few people
lose their jobs. The fact is that,
beginning today, 5,000 handicap-
ped persons employed by Goodwill
Industries will be unemployed, 475
in the Detroit area alone, as a re-
sult of the increase of the mini-
mum wage from $1.25 to $1.60.
Indeed, each time the minimum
wage has increased a definite up-
turn in unemployment has follow-
ed within six monthe afterwards.
In 1956, for example, when the rate
i
RG" Cas kr Sr'ws... % -o
"Follow in my wake! ... I have a pilot aboard!"
4r AtOtfgun ttj1J
SUSAN ELAN ............ Associate Managing Editor
STEPHEN FIRSHEIN ...... Associate Managing Editor
LAURENCE MEDOW ...... Associate Managing Editor
RONALD KLEMPNER .... Associate Editorial Director