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
The Rise and Fall of a 'Cause Celebre'
'
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth 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.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL OKRENT
Johnson's Cri mestoppers:
The Polities of Misdirection
THE PRESIDENT'S war-on-crime grab-
bag of construction subsidies, bureau-
cratic restructuring and moral exhorta-
tion. constitutes a cynical political trick
at a time when nothing short of con-
scientious, boldly-conceived action can
be tolerated.
With an eye to the November election,
election, Johnson responded to the swell-
ing current of popular anti-crime senti-
ment with a statistic-studded proposal of
22 largely ineffectual, misdirected weap-
ons, including:
* re-evaluation of crime-combat tools
on a local and state level;
* passage of the Safe Streets and
Crime Control Act (a measure providing
for construction, research and education
in all phases of law enforcement) which
Congress did not pass last year, and a
first year subsidy of $100 million, twice
what Johnson sought last year;
0 coordination of all Federal law en-
forcement efforts under the Attorney
General (law enforcement is now done
by uncoordinated cabinet off-shoots and
independent bureaus);
* a riot-control law which does not
repress freedom of speech (Johnson's
attempt at oxymoron for the year);
* a spate of measures classified loosely
under "drug abuse": more, coordination
(there will be one Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs, in capital letters),
stifler penalties for both possessing and
distributing LSD, an additional 100 fed-
eral narcotics agents (Johnson warned,
Strangeglovesque, "These powders and
pills threaten our nation's health, vital-
'ty, and self-respect."');
A concentrated "strike forces" to rout
out organized crime-details suppressed.
INDEED, FROM 1964 to 1968 Johnson
has followed public opinion full-cycle.
Then he scoffed when Goldwater con-
jured the spectre of crime in the streets.
Now it is no longer a spectre. Police in
Kansas City are training housewives to
wield 38s; in Detroit, the grocers have
been armed and shooting for months.
Dogs hunt criminals in Miami. When re-
porters kept track of the applause during
the President's State of the Union mes-
sage, they found the crime proposals re-
ceived the most enthusiastic response.
Civil rights got the least.
Those radicals who believe the Presi-
dent is not responsive to public opinion
are wrong. Crime is what the people are
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Colegiate Press Service.
Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by
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Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
really concerned about. Crime is what
Fr'sident Johnson is concerned about.
According to Max Frankel in the New
York Times' front page news cover of
the President's proposals, "The message
also bore the mark of an Administration
whose leading officials have become con-
vinced that crime in the streets and re-
sentment of Negro rioters will be one of
the top issues in this year's Presidential
campaign."
A a result, Johnson the politician has
once again gotten the better of Johnson
the public servant. The substance of the
President's text speaks more volumes
about the President's political motiva-
tions than about constructive action to
solve the very real problems crime poses.
It is an ineffectual document and John-
son must know it. Were the problem
amenable to solution through stepped-
up law enforcement it would still be in-
effectual. Even to Johnson it must be
obvious that building more police stations
and reshuffling federal bureaus is scarce-
ly calculated to frighten away even the
least self-respecting criminal.
WORSE THAN ineffectual, the fine
energies the President dedicated to.
the crusade against villainy are misdi-
rected. Crime is not amenable to solution
by calling forth more policemen with
fewer shackles. It deserves being said
again: to blot out crime, blot out its
causes.
The President knows this. It is not a
new idea. He has been schooled in it by
his political and academic advisers. The
rhetoric of his Great Society visions at
least paid lip, service to the principle.
Surely, if nothing else, the tragedy of
Vietnam must have taught him that a
problem which can't be solved by force
can't be solved by more force. Why has
President Johnson forgotten?
Political expediency can blur even the
best memories. Crime is a legitimate and
serious problem, but it is not the kind of
problem which can be conquered by a
show of vigorous action. To solve it will
demand fresh analyses unbound by old
cliches and intrepid in the face of fun-
damental attacks, energetic and thoro-
ughgoing action, and high political cour-
age. With Johnson's most recent display
of starkly Machiavellian tactics, pros-
pects for that brand of politics in this
country in the near future are very dim
indeed.
-URBAN LEHNER
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular
summer session.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
420 Maynard St , Ann Arbor, Michigan. 48104.
Editorial Staffr
ROGER RAPOPORTr. Editor
MEREDITH EIKER. Managing Editor
MICHAEL HEFFER ROBERT KLIVANS
City Editor Editorial Director
By RON LANDSMAN
First of a Two Part Series
"I think the cops sold out."
Elliot Barden comments on the
Flaming Creatures settlement in
which he was a defendant.
"I'm glad they did, though," he
adds.
And for all practical purposes
the cops did sell out.
The first reaction of the average
liberal civil libertarian is that
Mary Barkey's pleading guilty was
the sell-out-that she didn't stand
up for principle and take the case
to the Supreme Court. But there is
an important question to be asked:
Who gained most from the
settlement?
First, it must be pointed out that
this was -a settlement-a deal if
you prefer-between defense law-
yers and prosecution. It is com-
monly done in the American judi-
cial system, and whether it is just
or not is irrelevant. But "plea bar-
gaining," as lawyers call it, is part
of the system, and it does at times
protect defendants from unduly
serious penalities.
So, to decide who gained most
from this settlement, we might
consider the advantages of each
side before and after the settle-
ment.
IT SEEMED from the start that
conviction in Ann Arbor was in-
evitable. Washtenaw County Prose-
cuting Attorney William Delhey
was almost assured four convic-
tions on high misdemeanor
charges. The jury didn't seem too
favorable-the average age of the
panel members from whom the
jury was chosen was 49 years, and
"none of them had seen more than
three movies in their entirelives."
as one disgruntled Cinema Guild
supporter put it.
In addition, last summer-in the
middle of hearings in Ann Arbor
Municipal Court - the United
States Supreme Court turned down
an appeal from a New York group
which was also arrested for show-
ing "Flaming Creatures." But
what really hurt the case was
Chief Justice Earl Warren's com-
ment that he thought the movie
was obscene. The remark was le-
gally unnecessary and clearly pre-
judiced any other case involving
the film. The Cinema Guild de-
fendants and lawyers were "de-
moralized."
One of the main issues was the
constitutionality of the search and
seizure aspects of the case. While
this was the major question for
THE SITUATION after the
settlement, with quite a few issues
settled, is more clearcut. Delhey
had one conviction on the books,
although Prof. Joseph Sax of the
Law School said it was "just 'tbat
much' above a traffic ticket." Al-
so, because Miss Barkey is a minor,
the conviction will be expunged
from her record in a few years.
With the dropping of the $15,000
damage suit against Delhey, Lieut.
Eugene Staudenmeier and Wash-
tenaw County Assistant Prosecutor
made again. Neither the prose-
cutor's ofice or the defense attor-
neys would confirm this report.
Those, then, are the major feat-
ures of the settlement. Lawyers
don't like to call it "plea bargain-
ning" or admit they make deals,
but that is what they did. Whether
or not it is "justice is another
question,
William Goodman, one of the
defense attorneys, saw the out-
come as -a "stand-off rather than
a victory." He felt that what hap-
ment and this was a fair way out.
* He may not have felt it was
a secure case. Although the jury
was "bad," defendant Hugh Cohen
of the engineering English depart-
ment said he felt the jury might
have been persuaded that Cinema
Guild was a responsible organiza-
tion.
0 He may not have felt like
doing the work that was necessary
for a case that was relatively
minor in the city's eyes. He may
have been unhappy with the case
and found it to be more of a head-
ache than it was worth.
There were other possibilities to
be considered in analyzing the
case. Although the four defend-
ants refused to consider it, the
judge reportedly considered placing
Cinema Guild as an organization
on trial-in rem is the legal term.
Cohen said, "None of us felt Cine-
ma Guild did aynthing wrong. We
wouldn't consider it."
The defense attorneys had ear-
lier asked for a straight deal-Del-
hey drops the criminal charges
and they would drop the damage
suit. Apparently he turned it down.
DIFFERENT possibilities were
being considered on Tuesday, Dee.
11 when Mary Barkey unexpected-
ly decided to plead guilty to the
lesser charge. Actual court pro-
ceedings began that morning, and
Staudenmeier was testifying. When
the prosecution moved to bring
the film in as evidence-the de-
fense's strongest argument was
that it was seized illegally and
shouldn't be allowed as evidence-
Goodman and Robb moved that it
not be accepted. A recess was call-
ed and the lawyers were confer-
ring with the defendants separate-
ly when Mary decided it just
wasn't worth it. What led up to
the decision was a whole phantas-
mogroria of different factors. The
personalities involved and their
reactions played a key role in the
resolution of the case
10
At City Hall, the night they raided Cinema Guild.
the defense, it was hurt by the
fact that the movie was not an
established classic, such as "Ulys-
ses." It is unfortunate but true
that judges deciding constitutional
issues are swayed somewhat by the
material involved.
Also, appeal was not assured.
The court of last resort-the U S.
Supreme Court-may have decided
not to hear the case at all, thereby
completely wasting thousands of
dollars and years spent in litiga-
tion.
Thomas Shea, Cinema Guild and
the defendants have lost any chance
of re-couping their financial losses.
Although most of the costs were
paid out of the Cinema Guild De-
fense Fund, a victory in that suit
would have served them nicely.
And the film-although not the
only copy-is permanently ceded
to the police.
It is also rumored there was a
tacit agreement that no further
seizures of the kind that started
the 13-month battle would be
pened "indicates the prosecutor
felt Cinema Guild was willing to
fight to make a show of legal and
moral strength."
WHY EXACTLY DELHEY was
willing to make this final deal is
a major question. He evaded com-
ment himself, but speculation in-
volves several possibilities:
" He didn't want to pursue the
case for either legal or personal
reasons. He may have felt Cinema
Guild didn't deserve a harsh judg-
Letters:
The CIA 's
Campus Visit
To the Editor:
j CANNOT REFRAIN from pro-
testing about the tone and
some of the statements of Steve
Nissen's article in The Daily (Feb.
8) about a luncheon meeting in
1966 between some CIA represent-
atives and some UM faculty mem-
bers in the Chinese studies field.
It is by no means "a well-kept
secret" that it was I who at the
request of _a CIA representative,
invited a few Chinese studies col-
leagues (not "a number of lead-
ers") to join me in lunching with
some visiting members of the CIA
research staff to discuss matters
of mutual interest. It is not true
that "most declined the invita-
tion." To the best of my recollec-
tion, no one declined; and I am
sure that none who attended was
"genuinely interested" in any un-
dercover hanky-panky, as your ar-
ticle implies.
At lunch I myself taked-as
freely as I would with any other
interested persons-about the na-
ture of our Chinese studies pro-
gram, scholarly trends in Chinese
studies generally, the inevitable
difficulties CIA would have in find-
ing recruits among current stu-
dents of Chinese, and similar in-
nocuous matters. Since one un-
named participant in the luncheon
has so grievously distorted the na-
ture of the discussion, it would
clearly be futile for me to explain
it in further detail here. But I
must emphatically deny the im-
plication that CIA agents made
any improper proposals about
planting students in our program,
about "CIA money (being) pro-
vided to help these professors in
their work," or about using the
University in any other way. Since
the luncheon there has been no
CIA follow-up that I know of, and
at no time have I myself been em-
ployed by or the conscious reci-
pient of funds from the CIA.
The UM Chinese studies pro-
gram, in which I participate as a
professor of Chinese and chairman
of the Department of Far Eastern
Languages and Literatures, is one
of the very finest in this country.
It is supported in small part by
Federal funds openly provided
under terms of the National De-
fense Education Act, and many
of our students are supported by
NDEA fellowships. The University
can take great pride both in the
prorgam and inits students. No
useful purpose whatsoever can be
served by implications that tne
program or participants in it are
improperly involved with the CIA
or any other organization.
-Charles O. Hucker
Chairman, Department of
Far Eastern Languages
and Literatures
Daily Misquote
To the Editor:
A DMINISTRATORS have long
believed, "You're nobody on
this campus until you've been
misquoted by The Daily." Al-
though I am not the administra-
tor who said that, what was done
in Jim Heck's article on the draft
(Feb. 4) makes me sympathize
with him.
Let me quote from the second
to last paragraph of this article.
"Few (students) detest America
or are unpatriotic. The vast ma-
jority feel they have an obliga-
tion to their country, but, as
freshman Eric Jackson asks,
"Can't it be something else?" Hold
that quote in your mind as you
read what I really said.
Jim Heck called on the 'tele-
phone Saturday, announcing he
was taking a "draft poll." I stated
I was opposed to conscription.
"They have no right to draft me
to fight or draft me for any-.
thing else," is the most quoteable
thing I said. Is this consistent
with the so-called quotehinthe
article which is used in the same
sentence where Jim Heck makes
the accusation (it is an accusa-
tion) that "The vast majority
feel they have an obligation . .."?
I said the draft meant a wasted
two years to me. At this point
during the telephone call, I was
told that I needn't be worried
about dying, which I had never
mentioned, becauseonly one-tenth
of the draftees go to Vietnam. I
said that the present state of the
military did not make a military
career appealing to me for either
two or twenty years. I also said
that a purposeless, wasteful war
like Vietnam did not inspire me.
All during this conversation, I was
repeatedly asked if it wasn't really
the fear of death that inspired
my beliefs.
When such methods of inspir-
ing and manufacturing quotes are
used, it is easy to write an article
equating opposition to conscrip-
tion with the sort of cowardice
that can not dare to defend any-
thing. Has General Hershey asked
you for bulk rates on reprints?
Eric Jackson, '71
Minimum Wages
To the Editor:
I WOULD like to call your atten-
tion to several very serious de-
ficiencies in Gary Barber's essay
on minimum wages in The Daily
(Feb. 1).
Mr. Barber claims that "Many
are unemployed because of
these laws" and "minimum wages
force up product prices." There
have been several very good studies
of the short and long run effects
of minimum wage laws. None of
them have shown that minimum
wage laws have had any appre-
ciable or even measurable effect
on either unemployment or prices.
Individual instances can be found
in which employers changed their
level of production or prices as a
result of changes in the minimum
wage, but those reactions have
almost always been temporary.
There are many other ways in
which employers can and do adapt
to price changes of inputs into
their production functions. The
empirical evidence shows that
these other adaptations are the
preferred way.
Ignoring facts is bad enough,
but the post hoc fallacy is worse.
The evidence cited near the end
of Barber's article attributes the
employment effects of the 1957
recession to the 1956 increase in
the minimum wage. Surely he
doesn't believe that the recession
was caused by the increase in
minimum wages!
'The basic fault with Barber's
analysis goes deeper, however. He
tries to apply a partial, static an-
alysis (the theory of competitive
markets) to phenomena that are
part of a dynamic system. Em-
ployment and unemployment, the
level of prices, and the pace of
technological change are deter-
mined by' the intricate interrela-,
tionships that prevail in a grow-
ing and changing economy. The
competitive market equilibrium is
only one part of this system, and
is probably less significant in our
age than the monopoloid aspects
of the big business-big govern-
ment-big labor syndrome. To rest
an evaluation of minimum wage
laws on the theory of competitive
markets alone, while ignoring the
best available facts as well, is
most inappropriate.
-Daniel R. Fusfeld
Professor of Economics
14
I
Will
the Real
George
Wallace Stand
Up
for
America?
By WALTER SHAPIRO
GEORGE WALLACE, related by
marriage to the Governor of
Alabama, kept his promise to the
'little people' yesterday. His an-
nouncement of candidacy makes
it official that they have a Pres-
idential candidate who will give
them 'a real choice' this fall,
It's easy to dismiss the Wallace
candidacy as the last gasp of
native American racism, but such
a facile analysis masks the un-
derlying significance of the event.
The Wallacites -- along with
the anti-war forces and militant
Negroes - represent a potential
defection of unprecedented size
from the American two party sys-
tem.
All three groups -- despite their
exceedingly disparate concerns -
share the common conviction that
American politics as represented
by Johnson and Nixon is incapable
of dealing with the probems
which affect them deeply.
"ince Wallqce's supporters rep-
resent a large portion of the po-
teistial defentnor, it is vital to un-
derstand that Wallace is far more
than a 'red-necked' racist who
appeals solely to fellow traveler;
of the KKK.
Wallace is appealing directly to
the psyches of their 1968 coun-
terparts. For Wallace recognizes
that the dislocations of the six-
ties are psychological and emo-
tional, rather than strictly econ-
omic.
Wallace is talking to the for-
gotten men of the age - the
steelworkers, telephone operators
and gas station attendants. He's
speaking to the eighth genera-
tion unsuccessful American farm-
er.. And to the grandchildren of
Polish, Italian, and Irish immi-
grants who still live in sight of
the rotting slums of their ances-
tors.
These are the real "alienated
Americans." In an era when edu-
cation is taken increasingly for
granted, they are the uneducat-
ed. In a land focused on the prob-
lems of the affluent and the im-
poverished, they fall in the neth-
er world between the two ex-
tremes.
AT A TIME when the children
of the affluent are discovering
that materialism is not necessar-
ily equated with happiness, they
know full well that less material-
ism does not mean more happi-
ness.
The obvious reasons for being
own failures in terms of their
own personal inferiority, so they
anxiously look elsewhere for a
more palatable explanation for.
their distress.
To the needs and .aspirations of
these "little people" George Wal-
lace has been successfully speak-
ing. And Wallace never forgets
to remind them that he too was
once a taxi-cab driver.
But underneath George Wal-
lace is merely bewildering the
"little people" with an updated
version of the con game. For
George Wallace doesn't have any
answers other than faithfully
echoing their prejudices. George
Wallace's strength lies in his
awareness that credible ignorance
can, be a political asset.
Consequently Wallace's anti-
Communist, anti - Government,
anti-intellectual, anti-Negro pot-
pourri garnered impressive results
in the 1964 Northern primaries. It
is the height of self-delusion to
believe that Wallace won't do
strongly this time as well.
AN ANALYSIS of this sort
should not conjure up visions of
a remake of Sinclair Lewis' "It
Can't Happen Here." For any to-
talitarian threat to the American
people does not stem primarily
vanguard of a fascist takeover.
Rather they represent the maxi-
mum support that such a know-
nothing crusade can generate in
contemporary America.
For example, in California
where Wallace's American Inde-
pendent Party got on the ballot
by inducing 100,000 people to
change registration, the anti-war
Peace and Freedom Party did as
well without the financial re-
sources or an available candidate.
The indications are that Cal-
ifornia will not be the only ex-
ample of such a four party com-
petition. There is a lot of talk
that many Northern states will
have New Politics parties on the
ballot with presidential tickets.
FURTHERMORE, the Negroes
are highly unlikely to again go
'All the Way with LBJ' since their
discovery of the very real limits
of American politics coincided
with the birth of their pride in
their black identity.
A presidential election in which
one of four or five voters cast
their ballots for minor party can-
didates will have profound reper-
cussions in both major parties.
The major issue is not which
party will benefit. For in a John-
son-Nixon clash, the two parties
VOTING FOR minor party can-
didates takes on a special im-
portance in 1968. This election
year is unique because by boxing
themselves into a Johnson-Nixon
type of confrontation, the two
major parties have lost their tra-
ditional weapon against third
parties - co-optation.
As a direct consequence of Viet-
nam, Johnson cannot move to the
left to destroy the base of the
New Politics parties the way that
Truman did in 1948 with the
Progressive Party.
Ideally, as a consequence of the
defection of this vital 25 per cent,
American politics will again at-
tempt to become relevant to the
mammoth and complicated prob-
lems this country faces at home
and abroad.
If politicians fail to realize that
they have ceased to be meaning-
ful to a large portion of the
American people, then R. Buck-
minster Fuller will have been
right in his focus on the irrele-
vance of politics.
FOR AS THE self-styled gen-
eralist said in Washington this
Sunday, "A hundred years from
now, people will find nothing more
laughable than the pathetic con-
ceit that politics can solve man's
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