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 How To Win the War: 'No-Battle-Victories' i 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. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: STEPHEN WILDSTROM Doyen Hershey's Draft Edict: The Military Grab for Grads " JASHINGTON -The Selective Serv- ice System ruled out yesterday draft deferments on the basis of graduate stud- ies in any field except the medical spe- cialties cited by law." As Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Earle Wheeler expressed official doubt that atomic weapons would be needed in the defense of Khe Sanh and Arkansas Senator J. W. Fulbright wrangled with the Defense Department for the declassi- fication of a $90,000 secret study on how the United States can "maintain world hegemony in the future," the world stop- ped for first year graduate students and seniors across the country. In what may prove to be one of the most underplayed of recent administra- tion fiats, General Lewis B. Hershey, the doyen of American militarism, an- nounced not only an end to draft defer- ments but also gave local boards discre- tion over occupational deferments in in- dividual cases. Students beginning grad- uate studies after the fall of 1967, except those in medicine and medically related fields, are draft eligible. THE PORTENTS of this move are mind- boggling. As long as the war continues -and President Johnson has apparently decided it will continue for a long, long time--men will be needed to fight it. After last year's outcries over the in- equity of college deferments-complain- ing that the effect of the existent sys- tem was to have the poor man fight the rich man's war-major revisions in the draft system were undertaken. Hershey's announcement yesterday merely puts the crowning touch on those revisions. Complaints by university ad- ministrators 1 i k e Harvard president Nathan M. Pusey that the new priorities would empty graduate schools have been ignored once and for all. And when the new system of drafting graduate stu- dents goes into effect this spring, the effects on the students, the draft-defer- able occupations, the nation and even the military itself promise to be revolu- tionary. Furthermore, attempts by resistance groups at "boring from within"-con- verting soldiers to the cause of ending the war by distributing literature on mil- itary bases-have been so successful that in reprisal the generals have resorted to hounding chaplains and pacifist coun- selors who meet with soldiers. One group in Kansas found their apartment under constant watch; when they went for drives in their cars they were followed by helicopters. To all these difficulties the army will after this spring have to add the un- happy prospect of inducting, indoctri- nating and integrating tens of thousands of intelligent, intellectually cocksure col- lege graduates. The spectacle of a gruff staff sergeant used to cowing timid in- ductees now faced with confronting those not so easily disciplined would be laugh- able were the tragic tones of war and death not hovering so heavily over it. YET IT MAY not be so bad for the mili- tary. At Harvard, a poll of graduating seniors showed that 55 per cent say they will go to Canada or jail or high schools or anywhere before they will go to war. Of course, talk is cheap; many will un- doubtedly change their minds once in- exorable choices have to be made. Even so, it remains true that more than any other issue the draft mobilizes dormant anti-war sentiment and raises knotty moral questions in even the most apoli- tical. Already, 11,000 young Americans have emigrated to Canada and there is every indication that as the war drags on more and more will prefer to brave the cold of the Northland over the heat of the Southeast Asian jungle. Divinity school applications are up at some uni- versities by one-half (divinity students receive special non-student deferments).. And in what may be the greatest boon for American public education since Horace Mann, thousands of seniors who never gave teaching a second thought before are already checking out the school board before submitting to the draft board. For these, the situation is indeed tragic. What will happen to the political climate of the nation next summer if graduates and graduate students in significant quantities choose jail, however, could be even more tragic. In one sense, by push- ing many farther to the left, Hershey's move is the nicest thing the government has ever done for the proselytizers of resistance. The other side of the coin is that many Americans who are waver- ing on Vietnam, who are by virtue of age ineligible to be drafted, and who will witness with shock the defection from the system of so many young Americans -may react by reverting to hysterical xenophobia. THE HARD-LINE resisters have calcu- lated this and they think the risk is worth it-the administration, they argue, has not been impressed by the doubts of "wavering" Americans. Whether they are right or not will be known with time. Hershey has made speculation about the effects of forcing graduate students to make a choice entirely academic. -URBAN LEHNER The Latest Communique From Credibility Gap Lett( A thletics To the Editor: SINCE THE DAILY has seen it proper to expose allegations of athletic rule violations at the Uni- versity, I feel compelled to com- ment on the importance and im- plications of the situation. First, I should mention that the accuracy of The Daily report can not be questioned. Last year I in- dependently investigated the situ- ation and found the reported in- fractiohs to be the least objection- able of the activities going on. Anyone who disbelieves the valid- ity of the story is either extremely naive and speaking out of ignor- ance or lying. I chose to publish no expose at all because I doubted whether any of these more serious charges could be sufficiently proven. Per- haps it was a mistake in judgment, but I felt that the minor violations in themselves should not be ex- posed. I FEARED that such a step would lead to a result that I am afraid still appears most likely. This is not to diminish from The Daily's excellent and courageous reporting. Rather it is a criticism of the Big Ten's incredible hypo- crisy. I am sure The Daily reporters will tell anyone it was not difficult to uncover the violations reported. They were there for all to see-if they wanted to look. The Big Ten chose not to. Now that The Daily has forced all to look, it will be in- teresting to see the final outcome. The initial step taken by the Board - In - Control - of Intercol- legiate Athletics is a bad start. Asking athletes to give restitution for their unjust enrichment is an asinine and pompous solution to the problem. Admittedly the collegiate ath- letic world is a slough of sin, and its leaders apparently are still con- tent to skim off the top. The minor infractions are almost understand- able. Many college athletes are genuinely impoverished, and it is sincerely difficult for them to get along on the Big Ten's stringent requirements. But do other stu- dents do it? Very few Michigan students reach the low economic strata of some athletes. The situ- ation is especially bad at Michigan 'rs to the Edi tor s: The Journalism of Naivete? infamous as the most parsimonious in the conferencewhen itscomes to decent treatment of its ath- letes. SINCE THE most serious and unjustified violations are yet to be detailed, the schools and the conference are still content to punish the players and plug up the dike wherever The Daily starts a leak. If officials truly wanted an hon- est conference they ought to find out just how crooked it is. The where the athletic department JW H' ° t51P GCI~b