100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

March 16, 1968 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1968-03-16

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

I

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

r - :="

Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MicH.
Truth Will Prevail

By AE
LANSING -
Romney i
date for the F
tial nominatio
Hampshire p
tory, it coul
Lansing wnilc

Romney: The End o the Tent Show
VE ANZALNE THE PARTY OFFICIALS in tion hot stove ablaze
Lansing probably do not believe in the press should ha
s no longer a candi- the Romney message. Their inter- pected.
Republican Presiden- est was simply in having a presi-
onpundican Preie- dential candidate. Consequently, ASKED IF Govern
om and even the New the party pros in Lansing cannot ier's making himself
diri pat hat be expected to feel an overwhelm- . . more available was
d be expected that ing loss. snonsibe for Rnr
'd~ kinkA 'Jfli . 1IU t U inII :LI ,)' fI'RO1

e, scrutiny by
ave been ex-
nor Rockefel-
f increasingly
s partly re-
Y's withdraw-

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, MARCH 16, 1968

NIGHT EDITOR: RICHARD WINTERI

The Gold Standard:
The Real Yellow Peril

THE UNITED STATES must abandon
the gold standard.
The speculative rush on gold which
culminated in the closing of Britain's
banks, stock exchanges and money mar-
kets Thursday underscores the absurdity
of a system which allows the artificially-
maintained price of one commodity to
disrupt international finance at the drop
of a rumor.
The Alice-in-Wonderland quality which
has colored the backstage maneuverings
of international finance for centuries has
never been more evident than in the ef-
forts of the United States throughout the
past two decades to reconcile its chronic
balance of payments deficit.
Problems connected with this deficit
have been acutely aggravated of late as
expenses for the Vietnam war have soared
to the neighborhood of $30 billion.
DEEP-SEATED international uncertain-
ty about the soundness of the dollar
-uncertainty induced by the war-be-
gan to reach serious proportions last
November when Britain devalued the
pound sterling.
Speculators began exchanging all
available dollars for gold in the hope of
profiting from an expected American de-
valuation. Europeans raced to convert
their holdings on the New York Stock
Exchange into dollars and then into gold.
With gold trading hitting record vol-
umes in all the major money markets of
the world, an emergency session of the
United States Senate passed legislation
removing the 25 per cent gold cover re-
quirement for the nation's currency.
While the move has been long needed
(available U.S. gold supplies have been
steadily dwindling), even the $11 billion
in gold released by the Senate will not
last long.
Today a committee of top banking and
finance leaders from six nations will meet
in Washington to consider ways of meet-,
ing the crisis. And as the situation stands
now, the United States has three alterna-
tives.
FIRST, we can continue to buy and sell
gold in unlimited quantities at $35 an
ounceand attempt to attack the balance
of payments problems with other weap-
ons.
Proposed panaceas include the 10 per
cent income tax surcharge, still tightly
bottled up in the House Ways and Means
Committee, the difficult task of paring
domestic spending even further, the im-
position of tariffs designed to diminish
imports, and the creation of special taxes
to discourage tourist travel and curtail
investment abroad.,
But to depend on such measures to
combat the gold crisis at this critical
juncture would be, as one British observ-
er put it, "rather like trying to cure can-
cer with an aspirin."
FOR THE EFFECT of such anti-infla-
tionary measures will be totally er-
radicated by the almost-certain escala-
tion of the Vietnam war implicit in the
proposed hike in American troop com-
mitments to 700,000.
Counting
COUNTING votes for Student Govern-
ment Council can be a real funfest.
Anyone can walk in and count ballots-
anyone at all. If you're lucky you can
walk off with one of the myriad free piz-
zas, or even end up at a post-election
party with all the hierarchy.
But the problem of "discrepancies"
seems to be unavoidable. Vote-counters

obviously tampered with ballots during
the latest election. No one will ever really
be certain who actually won the contested
council seat eventually decided by a meet-
ing of the SGC credentials committee.
The opportunities for "intervening" in
an SGC election are many. A pollworker
could easily add ballots to his box. And
the vote-counters are presented with re-
markable prospects. Any ballot where the
voter did not vote in all categories is left
wide open for the counter.
This is not to say that all the election
night workers, or even many of them,
tampered with ballots. But the opportu-
nity was there for those who chose to

Gold speculators, especially in Europe,
are convinced that the war is ultimately
responsible for both the dollar drain and
increasing inflation here in America.
Consequently, nothing less than an end
to the conflict will persuade these specu-
lators that the United States is serious
about attempting to save the stability of
world money markets and avoiding de-
valuation of the dollar.
A SECOND WAY to deal with the gold
crisis would be for the United States
to raise its price for gold, thus devaluing
the dollar.
Unfortunately, this would play right
into the speculators' hands, by allowing
to cash in their newly-acquired gold for
perhaps twice as many dollars as they
paid for it.
Devaluation would .also vastly benefit
the two largest gold-mining nations in
the world-our ally, South Africa, and
Russia, our Cold War enemy.
For these reasons, outright devaluation
seems unlikely at this point, even assum-
ing that such a financial behemoth as
the United States could get away with
unilateral devaluation without the rest
of the world finding it necessary to follow
suit.
A variation becoming more and more
accepted is for America to set two prices
for gold, a higher one for purchases rnd
a lower one for sales.
While this might have the immediate
effect of halting the current run on gold
-the worst since 1929-it is a compro-
mise to be discouraged. For it would
serve only as an additional prop for the
sagging and archaic structure of the in-
ternational monetary system.
IT IS TIME for the United States to give
serious consideration to the third al-
ternative-abandonment of gold as the
basis for international financial transac-
tions.
Never in its history has the United
States had so auspicious an opportunity
to dissolve the last link that connects
the currencies of the world to an arbi-
trarily chosen yellow metal good only for
tooth fillings and wedding rings.
By removing its support for an artifi-
cial price of gold, the United States
would allow the value of the dollar to
"float" on the international monetary
market, as so many major currencies al-
ready do.
Gold could be replaced as a medium
of exchange between central banks by
"SDR's,"-special drawing rights on the
International Monetary Fund. By using
"paper gold" exclusively, the United
States would effectively kill speculation
and free real gold for more rational uses
than sitting idly in bank vaults.
To CURTAIL the immediate gold crisis,
the United States must reduce its
military spending in Vietnam. To pre-
vent the needless gold crises which recur
with such depressing regularity every for-
ty or fifty years from happening again,
the United States must move toward
abandoning the gold standard altogether.
-JENNY STILLER
SGT Votes
USING computers would also speed the
chronically slow vote tabulation pro-
cess, which will most likely delay the
results of the constitutional convention
race for an unnecessary amount of time.
-MARCIA ABRAMSON
The Man for '68

1, ITH NIXON sweeping to victory in
New Hampshire with 79 per cent of the
Republican vote, it is becoming an in-
creasingly distinct possibility that our
Presidential choice in November will be
between a Republican war horse and the
incumbent Democratic donkey.
However, there is one man in the Re-
publican camp who is respected by his
party and has the ability to unify the con-
servative and liberal wings. He has lead
men through the horrors of battle to the
calm of peace. He has traveled through-
out the world. His position on Vietnam is

1au1.711g wuiutuu ie a country
town the day after the circus
leaves. But the fact is the circus
never came to Lansing.
Governor Romney's quest for na-
tional office just didn't make any
lasting impact in Lansing. The
legislators walking out of the cap-
itol building still use vulgar lan-
guage. And the troops of touring
teeny-boppers seem totally obliv-
ious to the intricacies of Presiden-
tial politics.
Further down Michigan Avenue
at the Republican Headquarters,
Romney's once glorious crusade
looks almost forgotten. There is a
"Romney, Great in '68" poster on
the wall over the receptionist's
desk, portraying the candidate
with a jolly, open-jawed smile.
But it is the only visible reminder
there of Romney's ill-fated candi-
dacy.
And in the offices behind 'the
poster the attitude of many of the
state Republican party officials
is surprisingly philosophical. As-
sistant State 'Chairman William
McLaughlin said that he felt a
personal loss at the Governor's
withdrawal from the race but add-
ed, "That's politics."
Such a placid attitude on the
part of state party leaders is
strange because the Romney cam-
paign was not an ordinary one.
He had waged war to return to the
precepts of moral and family liv-
ing. To be marketable to the
American electorate, this type of
campaign should have created
someemotion in his own home-
town. But it is obvious here that
it did not.

The aides that traveled with
prophet Romney on the nomina-
tion trail naturally took the Gov-
ernor's message more seriously
and feel a greater loss at his de-
parture.
Travis Cross, Romney's public
relations agent, capsuled the en-
tire feeling of Romney and his
staff. He said, "The American
?eople have been denied the op-
portunity, of having a 'first cou-
ple' to set the moral and ethical
tone of devotion that is sorely
needed in this country."
But for Travis Cross and oth-
ers on the campaign staff, the
crusade has ended. Some are
enlisting in the Nixon camp,
while others are joining the
Rockefeller forces. But most,
after not finding the Holy Grail,
are just returning to business.
Cross had been conducting the
Romney campaign since last
summer. And the former Mark
Hatfield aide is going back to
Oregon. He will head his own
public relations firm, Travis
Cross and Associates. Cross ad-
mits he has received other cam-
paign offers but claims he plans
to stay in private life for awhile.
DEFEAT DID NOT loom in the
minds of the Romney staff be-
fore the Governor pulled out of
the campaign for the nomina-
tion last month. Despite the
polls showing the contrary, his,
staff honestly believed that they

al, Miss Carter said that it defi-
nitely was. She specifically re-
ferred to Rockefeller's appear-
ance at a fund-raising dinner in
Detroit on Feb. 24. After previ-
ously denying that he would run,
Rockefeller indicated in Detroit
that he would definitely accept a
draft. ,
However, Miss Carter said that
many of the Romney supporters
voted for Senator Eugene McCar-
thy instead of supporting the
moderate Republican Rockefeller
in the New Hampshire primary.
But the crusade has ended for
George Romney more than for
anyone else. Where does he go
from here?
Cross said that it is quite prob-
able that Romney would accept a
position on one of the tickets as a
Vice-Presidential candidatei f it's
offered. Cross pointed to the 1960
Kennedy-Johnson ticket as an
example of how two different
types of candidates can run suc-
vessfully on one slate.
But Miss Carter feels that Rom-
ney could not accept a secondary
role as Vice-President. She said
that Romney is the kind of man
who has to be running the show
himself. She does not thing he
could ever be happy sitting off on
the wings of the Presidential stage.
MANY PEOPLE think that there
is a great deal to be done in Mich-
igan by Governor Romney. Chuck
Harmon, the Governor's press
secretary, says that they have a
good deal of work to catch up with
in Lansing.
So nothing has really been
changed by George Romney's
short-lived role as Presidential
candidate and crusader.
George Romney was selling
morality, decency, and the return
to family life. Not enough people
were buying. And except for Rom-
ney and his immediate staff, no-
body appears to be really upset.
Life goes on as it always has in
Lansing, unaffected by Romney's
political and moral hegira. Even
today, prophets are not recognized
in their hometowns.

*

George Romney

were going to win, according to
Carol Carter, Cross' assistant.
She was in Wisconsin when Rom-
ney withdrew' and felt buoyed
about therway the campaign was
going there.
Miss Carter said that twenty
aides were working in Wisconsin,
in advance of the primary there.

Letters to the Editor
Reaction: After the Vote Is Over

They had opened fifteen new
"home headquarters" during the
week of Romney's withdrawal.
Yet despite hundreds of "home
headquarters" in New Hampshire,
Romney's political brokers were
unable to sell George Romney,
their man in the blue serge suit.
Cross said that he accepts some of
the blame. But he indicated, how-
sver, that a major problem was
the press made Romney a candi-
date much before he announced.
The constant attention and anal-
ysis by the press at a too early
date hurt the Governor's chances,
Cross feels.
But it must be remembered that
George Romney was the first can-
didate to declare for the nomina-
tion. His announcement was ear-
lier than candidates in the past
traditionally have announced.
And as the only announced candi-
date, eager to keep the pre-elec-

p

To the Editor:
MUCH HAS been made by our
student representatives of
the rights of students to have a
voice in matters that influence
them. Pressure including petitions,
teach-ins, and sit-ins have been
employed by students to acquire
powers in areas such as hours
and judicial policy.
One such area in which some
students have agitated for change
is the University policy toward
classified research. In the past
several months there have been
forums, editorials, and sit-ins on
this issue, and the campus-wide
discussion has been extensive. This
has culminated in a student ref-
erenda on the issue.
The results of the referenda are
in. Of the students interested
enough to vote on the issue a ma-
jority have indicated that the Uni-
versity should not cease all classi-
fied research nor should it with-
draw from the Institute for De-
fense Analyses.
The results of these referenda
are an indication to the entire
University community of the sen-
timents of the students. SGC
members, as student representa-
tives, are honor bound to act in
accord with these referenda.
In light of these considerations
I find comments by Koeneke, Neff,
and Davis absolutely appalling.
Koeneke and Neff were reported
in The Daily (Mar. 14) as intend-
ing to continue to work for the
end of classified research on cam-
put. In so doing they must realize
that in light of the referenda they
cannot as student representatives
use their offices to such an end.
However Davis has made an un-
forgivable error and demonstrated
impunity for the public trust he
has assumed as SGC council mem-
ber by his statement "We will have
to go back and do a lot of edu-
cating," with regard to classified
research.
I SUBMIT to Mr. Davis that he
has received a clear directive from
his constituents on a specific is-
sue and should act in accordance
with their wishes. The issue of
classified research hashbeen freely
discussed for many months now.

The student body is educated on
the issue and has made its wishes
known. You must act in accord
with these wishes. If in good con-
science you cannot, then you must
resign.
Any attempt to "go back and
do a lot of educating" is pure
paternalism on your part and a
slur by you on the intelligence of
the student body. Indeed this pa-
ternalistic attitude is one students
have crusaded to abolish among
administrators. Your implication
that we, the students, just don't
know the whole story is just not
true and is as bad as President
Johnson's lack of regard for the
opinion ofhis constituents.
Mr. Davis as my representative
I demand that you accept the
results of these referenda and
not use your office to influence
the status of classified research
in any way contrary to the wishes
of the students. We have been ed-
ucated and we have decided.
--loward Miller, '70 Med.
The Voter Voice
To the Editor:
WELL GANG, S.G.C. elections
are over for another term.
The cry of "let the students
choose" and "democracy" have
been put in mothballs for another
term-almost before the last bal-
lots were counted.
For it turns out that after the
votes were counted, the students
of the University of Michigan, at
least those who were conscientious
enough to vote, have decided that
the proposals concerning with-
drawal of the University from
IDA, and stoppage of classified re-
reach was undesirable or too
sweeping to vote "yes" on. So at
this point, as fartas anyone knows,
the majority of the students here
favor some form of classified re-
search and remaining'in IDA.
Quick on the heels of this news,
those elected members of SGC
started murmuring to The Daily
about re-education of the masses
and letting the peons know the
truth.
The facts and propaganda have
been presented since the begin-

ning of the year. The Diag and
The Daily have been full with de-
tails of IDA and classified re-
search. And yet the University
students rejected the proposal.
And suddenly our newly-elected
officials have called for more
propaganda on the subject.
Are these the same people who
were shouting to "let the students
decide" just a few weeks ago?
IT APPEARS that the attitude,
of "our" officials is that the stu-
dents can decide as long as they
agree with the top brass. For in
the minds of these students, the
majority of the voters at the Uni-
versity are wrong.
There is certainly nothing wrong
with looking at the IDA and clas-
sified research continually. It is
the only way the students as a
whole can keep tabs on the pro-
grams that are being carried out
at the University, be they right
or wrong. But to disregard the
findings of the referenda ques-
tions because they do not agree
with a few elected people is mak-
ing a gigantic farce of the govern-
ment structure here at the Uni-
versity. And it makes one wonder
about the attitude of officials that
will publicly state that the voters
- their constituency -i s wrong
gven before the last vote is
counted.
-Brian D. Zemach, '71
Black and White
To the Editor:
LET'S SUPPOSE, for a minute,
that the two referenda that
the student body voted upon
Tuesday and Wednesday passed by
the same margin that they actual-
ly failed. It is quite interesting to
speculate what would have trans-
pired in the next few weeks:
First of all, the winning SGC
candidates would have proclaimed
that this vote was a demand on
the part of the students for the
University to cease dealings with
classified research and the IDA.
There would have been editorials
in The Daily first suggesting, and
later demanding (a la draft refer-
endum) that the vote should be
made binding on thetAdministra-
tion.
Perhaps, later, there would be
sit-ins, demonstrations, and other
similar attempts to insist upon
recognition of the vote as valid.
And at every confrontation be-
tween Administration and student
leaders, the same cry would be
heard: "The student body has
overwhelmingly rejected both the
IDA and classified research. Why
can't the University realize what
the students want? It's all here, in
black and white, in the vote tal-
lies."
BUT NOW let's consider what
actually happened. The referenda
were defeated, by a good majority,
and even in an election in which
supporters of such measures show
up in larger numbers than oppo-
nents.
What do we hear from SGC?
Mike Davis: "We have to go back
and do a lot of educating." Mark
Schreiber: "it appears as though
some people were planning care-

#

S: :.:" :::i:Dt:I, A N I EL OlK RE NT Am
Research, Mandate:'
A Negative veof '6
The voluminous and confusing report issued yesterday (Daily,
March, 15, 1970) by the Fleming Commission on University Research
climaxes over two years of campus furor over the research question.
Perhaps now it is necessary to put the. report in perspective by
reviewing the tumultuous history of classified research at the Uni-
versity.
In the fall of 1967, a series of Daily articles pointed out the sig-
nificantly large amount of classified research on this campus. The
issue of "to classify or not to classify" was central to the now-infamous
March elections of '68 in which, Michael Koeneke, a candidate vio-
lently opposed to the presence of classified research, was swept into
office on the crest 4000 votes.
Strangely, Koeneke's pet issues-barring all classified research on
campus and the end of University relations with IDA-also earned
4000 votes, 4000 votes all in opposition to Koeneke's stands. Students
had voted overwhelmingly to keep secret research around.
IMMEDIATELY after the election, Vice President for Research
A. Geoffrey Norman reiterated his statement of one week before: "A
quickie vote by a student group adds nothing and may only serve to
confuse the issue." Working from Norman's basic premise, President
Robben Fleming ignored the student vote and announced the following
morning that after "a close scrutiny of the small-it was only 25 per
cent of those eligible-student vote," the University was immediately
severing all ties with IDA.
SGC President Koeneke, now following "the clear mandate" of
students to support research, termed Fleming's action "capricious."
Still, Fleming resolutely stuck by his guns, conceding only that
the Faculty Assembly convene immediately to listen to student com-
plaints.
TWO DAYS LATER, SACUA Chairman Frank Kennedy issued in-
vitations to leaders of a dozen campus organizations, asking them to
appear at the Assembly's upcoming meeting.
The day of the meeting was perhaps the turning point in the
slowly-building student movement. There, on the stage of Auditorium
A, Engineering Council President Gene DeFouw strode up to the
microphone and rasped, "The students of the University have voiced
their opinion. It is the duty of the faculty and the administration to
comply. Either research stays, or there'll be hell to pay."
DeFouw, supported by 150 screaming engineers, then made an
obscene gesture to the assembled faculty and jumped off the stage.
By the next day, the campus fever was approaching the boiling
point. DeFouw's dramatic move incensed the faculty so much that they
quickly moved to bar all research-classified or otherwise-from the
campus. Students, in turn, were active in their counterattack.
However, Voice chieftain Eric Chester called for temperance. "These
men (the administrators) are professionals, we are but lowly students.
Can we tell them-the employes of the great state of Michigan-how
to run their University? The action of some of the more outspoken
proponents of classified research has badly damaged our national
image, and I fear we will suffer because of it. It's time we all calmed
down and acted like adults."
Still, the movement of '68 was not to be stopped. Rising on the
steps of the General Library on a cold, misty March afternoon, the
dynamic activist Koeneke issued his manifest to students.
"There comes a time in the course of men's lives when they must
break free from the chains of oppression. Such a time is now. For free-
dom demands the retention of classified research. To the Administra-
tion Bldg!" Koeneke lifted his sword from the scabbard attached to
the belt of his ROTC uniform, and led a rampaging mob of angry
fraternity men across the street, where they maintained a 24-hour
sit-in.
Fleming, however, handled the situation with aplomb. Showing
tha h ha h~h .h irm iartr ani i~rnmto prP_ e ae a ecre

V

"Is There Any Place Where We Can Look Forward
To A Short Cool Summer?"'

-K VEn11
CITIES
ยง1,

'i
L

^ -:__, r d11
135.~.J
'LTJES .

I ~LANkRMARO

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan