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Let the Students Decide: Once too Often?
Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN GRAY
I
Kennedy Candidacy:
Time for Realpoliti k
IN THE GOOD old American political
tradition, liberals everywhere are con-
fused as to whether or not to support a
winner.
Undoubtedly, Bobby Kennedy is an un-
principled opportunist. You may not
know what you are getting with Bobby
Kennedy, but the minimum that can be
expected is that he will end the disas-
trous war in Vietnam and redirect fed-
eral funds away from the military and
toward the urban ghettos.
His entry into the Democratic Presi-
dential sweepstakes didn't take much
courage after Sen. Eugene McCarthy
stunned President Johnson in last week's
New Hampshire primary. He can never be
touted for political conviction.
But Kennedy may be able to snatch the
nomination out of Johnson's hands. And
if he cannot do that, he can deny an in-
cumbent President the nomination of
his own party by throwing his support
to a compromise candidate.
THERE IS NO love for Johnson among
Northern Democrats, even among the
reactionary elements of the AFL-CIO.
There never has been. The sectional dif-
ferences have always been irreconcilable.
However, the dominant labor wing of
the party has been unwilling to break
with an mcumDent President over what
they saw as the challenge of a little-
known, over-idealistic McCarthy. The
pragmatic American labor movement
when faced with a choice between the
charismatic Kennedy and the worn-out
Johnson will make a fast switch.
McCarthy risked his entire political
future in entering the primaries. For pull-
ing the rug out from the President he
has earned the respect and admiration of
the anti-Johnson forces. But the objec-
tive is to get rid of Johnson. To stop the
war immediately. And McCarthy can do
neither.
McCARTHY IS admittedly a better
candidate. To back the Kennedy can-
didacy is admittedly expedient. But need
the anti-Johnson forces be reminded
that a Johnson-Nixon race is imminent.
That Nixon's smashing victory in the New
Hampshire primary has all but assured
him of the Republican nomination.
And that the war goes on. Westmore-
land has asked for 206,000 additional
troops. And that the long hot summer is
rapidly approaching.
--MARK LEVIN
Editor
By URBAN LEHNER
Editorial Director
I THE REFERENDA results
in this week's Student Govern-
ment Council election did not
signal the death of the student
power movement at this Univer-
sity, they did emphasize dramati-
cally the need for a fresh analysis
of the ultimate and immediate
goals, tactics, and alliances the
movement has utilized in its brief
and tenuous two year history.
No one was surprised and few
discouraged with the election of
Michael Koeneke as SGC presi-
dent. One of the best known stu-
dents on campus, Koeneke spent
last semester talking up SGC at
every fraternity, sorority and
dormitory dinner to which he
could wangle an invitation.
Furthermore, Koeneke's long
hours of gut organizing work as
chairman of Student Housing As-
sociation paid off this winter
when the boycott against Apart-
ments Limited catapulted SHA
into campus prominence.
And while hard core radicals
insisted that Mark Schreiber was
better equipped by temperament
and philosophy to assume initia-
tive, Koeneke's record has been
more or less consistently liberal.
With SGC dominated by excellent
liberal and radical members, the
theory goes, Council won't need
a strong president.
THE RERENDA results, not the
Koeneke victory, are prompting
the new and detached look at the
"movement."
The uneasy coalition of moder-
ates and radicals which now
exists was formed in November of
1966 during the crisis over draft
rankings. In a referendum which
attracted a record of 10.000
voters, students demanded by a
margin of 2-1 that the University
cease complying with a Selective
Service order to compile and pro-
vide class rankings to local draft
boards.
Although the University ignored
the results of the referendum, the
size of the vote and the massive
turn-out for subsequent sit-ins
and teach-ins left a lasting im-
pression on radical and moderate
students.
The draft ranking crisis taught
them that they could organize
the student body - not over the
war or civil rights-but around
issues like the draft, which af-
fected students personally.
THE UPSHOT was the drive
for the abolition of women's
hours, student-made pariental
rules, and an end to student driv-
ing regulations which SGC un-
dertook last fall. The radicals
supported the campaign whole-
heartedly.
Peter Steinberger, former Voice
head-man, engineered the student
power drive in April of 1967 from
his position as chairman of Joint
Judiciary Council. Steinberger
and a majority of the other mem-
bers of JJC pledged to enforce
only those rules made by students
themselves.
SGC began passing rules for
JJC to enforce, while Steinberger,
a graduate student in sociology
who already had, a law degree
from the University, sat in the
back of the room during SGC
meetings, occasionally offering
Council advice about the legal
implications of its actions.
The JJC-SGC campaign was
remarkably successful. Not all the
legislation was efficacious, of
course. But the administration
was forced to abolish women's
hours and loosen up parietal re-
strictions. Some students were
frankly shocked at the attitude
of sweet reasonableness the ad-
ministration seemed to take to-
ward the whole thing.
The administration's new-found
penchant for compromise took
the wind out of the radical's sails.
They had unconsciously if not
explicitly hoped that organiza-
tion around issues of student self-
interest would serve as a spring-
board to education.
THUS, IN A SENSE, success
spoiled their efforts. Had the ad-
ministration been intransigeant,
students perhaps would have
been forced, eventually into an-
alyzing not only women's hours
but the structure of education as
it now stands and, ultimately,
the structure of the society that
produced that education.
Somehow, it was more than a
coincidence that Bruce Kahn
exited as president of SGC with
the message "In many wads, I
think SGC is now the wrong bag"
during the same week when Rob-
ben W. Fleming, a labor. arbitra-
tor and thus the symbol of the
spirit of compromise, was inau-
gurated President of this Uni-
versity.
As it was, the radicals overesti-
mated the success of their at-
tempts to educate students. The
A
move to abolish classified re-
search and University participa-
tion in IDA was premature be-
cause the work of education has
not yet passed the stage of self-
interest. While students now can
be persuaded to rally behind is-
sued like women's hours, just as
laborers automatically support
collective bargaining, the fight
for women's hours and stugent
driving privileges has been won
too easily.
The results of the referenda on
classified research and IDA made
it crystal clear that the education
process-in which the radicals,
rallying around peripheral issues
like women's hours, had put their
hopes-had failed.
The Ballad o f Bobby an d Ge'ne
{'Ad
And Leave the Driving to Us
HE REGENTS have continued to miss
the point of. what students at the
University want. Friday's refusal to end
driving regulations for freshmen and
sophomores was just another manifesta-
tion of this situation.
University students feel that they are
adults and wish to be treated according-
ly. Yet the Regents have continually
by-passed acceptance of this criteria and
instead made decisions on issues on the
basis of peripheral factors.
The elimination of freshman women's
curfews is one example. Although it is
impossible to be certain, the Regents
seemed more impressed at the January
open hearings by the favorable recom-
mendation given by the Board of Gover-
nors of the Residence Halls than by the
Board's reasons-that students are ma-
ture enough to take care of themselves.
Indeed, they seemed even more im-
pressed by the red herring thrown into
the dialogue by Student Government
Council member Sharon Lowen. Miss
Lowen told the Regents that women who
did not return to the dorm by curfew
were forced to remain out all night.
THE OPEN hearing on traffic regula-
tions was very similar. Again there
was the appearance of a faculty member
who noted the maturity shown by stu-
dents. Again the Regents were told stu-
dents were disobeying the rules.
This time, however, the Regents man-
aged to find an extraneous issue to latch
on to. At Friday's meeting they called re-
laxation of the rules "detrimental to the
health and safety of members of the
community."
While it is tautologically true that a
student is more likely to be involved in
an automobile accident if he is allowed
to drive, and while lifting restrictions
might add to Ann Arbor's traffic prob-
lems, the issue is merely another red her-
ring.
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Editorial Staff
MARK LEVIN, Editor
STEPHEN WILDSTROM URBAN LEHNER
Managing Editor Editorial Director
DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor
CAROLYN MIEGEL ....... Associate Editorial Director
WALTER SHAPIRO ...... Associate Editorial Director
WALLACE IMMEN.................... News Editor
PAT O'DONOHUE .................... News Editor
DANIEL OKRENT ................Feature Editor
LUCY KENNEDY...... ........Personnel Director
NEAL BRUSS .................. Magazine Editor
ANDY SACKS .. ... ....... ..... Photo Editor
ROBERT SHEFFIELD ................... Lab Chief
What Student Traffic Court Chairman
Ken Mogill contends is probably true:
that students have completely ignored
the regulations and, therefore, lifting re-
strictions would have no effect. However,
this too is irrelevant.
The Regents have argued they may re-
quire a student to go without an automo-
bile as a condition of admissions. But
that student may be licensed by the state
to operate a motor vehicle.
WHETHER THE University may legally
legislate against automobiles is ques-
tionable, but not at issue. It is the unfair-
ness of the Regental decision method
which disturbs students.
The University is discriminating against
a minority segment of its community in
what it sees as an attempt to avert a
traffic crisis in the city of Ann Arbor.
Certainly the University has some ob-
ligations to the city in which it has such
great influence. This time, however, the
Regents have chosen to administer that
responsibility inequitibly.
Why is it, one might ask, the fac-
ulty, being employes of the University
and therefore more subject to "working
restrictions," are not barred from operat-
ing motor vehicles.
Perhaps, if it were really necessary, a
lottery would be the solution to the
traffic problem. This lottery would in-
clude not only members of the University
community, but the entire city popula-
tion. Thus the burden of the problem
would thus be borne by all those affected.
BUT THIS radical solution will not be
needed, because traffic congestion will
create its own cure. Students and other
members of the community will realize
the problems involved with using a ve-
hicle and limit themselves. University
people and Ann Arbor residents can learn
their lesson.
But one thing is certain. The Univer-
sity has no right to stop a student from'
driving towards a megatropolian auto tie-
up as long as that student knows what
he's getting himself into.
-MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
Cost
Accounting
SAIGON, SOUTH VIETNAM, March 14-
American casualties in the Vietnam-
ese war have exceeded those in the Ko-
rean conflict, according to a report an-
nounced today by the United States com-
mand.
The report said that 509 American serv-
icemen were killed and 2,766 wounded
last week, pushing the casualty total
since Jan. 1, 1961, to 139,801.
A'mprinn n 1+ tip wrp.1R _914 in thp
By WALTER SHAPIRO
POLITICS IS the only field in
which men are forced to bare
their emotions in public. Therein
lies its brutality and much of its
fascination.
It is this quality of politics which
has been strikingly apparent in
1968. First there was George Rom-
ney resolutely admitting before
blazing television lights that he
had failed in his great crusade to
revitalize America.
Now on the heels of the sur-
prising New Hampshire primary
there is the suddenly developing
clash of ambitions between Eugene
McCarthy and Robert Kennedy
for the mantle of Democratic chal-
lenger to unseat LBJ.
Here too is a great deal of legi-
timate pathos. There is good, gray
liberal Eugene McCarthy sudden-
ly confronted with an unexpected
challenge from the youthful and
glamorous Robert Kennedy.
Senator McCarthy's s e v e r a 1
months of campaigning have es-
tablished an image of a quiet,
sincere crusader. If there is one
thing his rumpled, earnest look
can convey it is sympathy. Especi-
ally if McCarthy suddenly appears
as a dedicated idealist beset by
opportunists on both sides.
Contrasted to this is the far from
uncommon image of Robert Ken-
nedy as the Richard Nixon of the
Democratic Party. Consequently
many will conclude from this
week's events that McCarthy has
taken all the risks and now Ken-
nedy has come along merely to
reap the benefits.
YET IT WOULD be a serious
error to see the three-way split in
the Democratic Party as being
based entirely upon the realities
and ambitions of the moment. For
the cleavages which are now rend-
ing the Democratic Party have
existed for at least the past decade,
although until recently muted by
the party's political ascendency.
It is a split based partially on
ideology, partially on style, and
largely on long-lasting personal
animosities. Southern conservatives
are linked with Northern mod-
erates and party loyalists to form
the Johnson camp.
The distinction between the two
anti-war groups are more difficult
to discern. The Kennedy propo-
nents are men who are prag-
matists first and liberals second.
united with a coterie of hardboiled
eggheads. And the real McCarthy
supporters are the lately reassem-
bled coalition of academics and
suburbanites who represent the
last pure gasp of Stevensonian lib-
eralism.
Six months ago the effect of a
Kennedy challenge to the Presi-
dent would have been relatively
easy to assess. Since' then, Mc-
Carthy has mounted his white
charger and now it is difficult
to unravel the intracacies of the
three way race for the White House
with the present incumbent still
overwhelmingly on top.
Yet it is clear that it is easy
to overestimate Kennedy's elec-
toral support. Kennedy's reputa-
tion for political opportunism may
take on unmanageable propor-
tions as the result of this week's
events. And the fervor of Ken-
nedy's quote-laden speeches will
never totally obliterate the knowl-
edge that McCarthy had to dem-
onstrate the extent of the disaf-
fection with Johnson before Ken-
nedy would enter the fray.
AMONG YOUTH, the constitu-
ency which Kennedy has been try-
ing to stake at his own, the New
York Senator's reputation may
have been seriously sullied by the
ineffectuality of the game he has
been playing of supporting John-
son while dissenting on the war.
Some observers have contended
that it was the spectre of steadily
diminishing support which has in-
duced the usually prudent Ken-
nedy to make the fateful plunge.
The excitement generated by
Kennedy's candidacy must not ob-
scure the substantial political ad-
vantages of the President. He con-
trols the national party machinery
and commands the loyalty of the
professional politicians who will
comprise a large portion softhe
delegates in Chicago in August.
This support among party lead-
ers was illustrated by only three
Democratic State Chairmen en-
dorsing Kennedy, while the major-
ity stood adamantly behind the
President.
WHILE HISTORICAL parallels
are fraught with danger, it should
be remembered that Teddy Roose-
velt, chaffing from four years of
inactivity, won every primary in
the country in 1912 but William
Howard Taft, the incumbent Presi-
dent, won the Republican nomina-
tion.
But, the Kennedy candidacy
does significantly alter the pre-
-Convention complexion of the
Democratic Party. The new chal-
lenge will minimize the accusations
of heresy from party loyalists and
challengers will serve to legitimize
the other's dissent.
However, the New York Senator
has several key political advan-
tages over his rival from Minne-
sota.
Scattered in key states across
the country are leading Democrats
who have taken oaths of fealty to
the Kennedy-family. Already Jesse
Unruh, the chief Democrat of fac-
tion-ridden California, has avow-
ed his support to Kennedy. Men
like Senator Joseph Tydings of
Maryland and Birch Bayh of In-
diana will probably soon follow
suit.
The potencyand mystique of the
Kennedy name and image should
also be successful in luring many
into the anti-Johnson campaign
who otherwise would have waited
apathetically on the sidelines.
ALL THIS, coupled with the at-
tention that Kennedy continually
receives from the press, could com-
bine to give Kennedy the image of
a winner, even in a tilt with Presi-
dent Johnson.
However, neither Kennedy nor
McCarthy are in a strong enough
position to carry their own per-
sonal conflict, into many of the
primaries. What therefore will un-
doubtedly ensue is a complicated
ballet of political maneuvers as
each attempts to arrive at an 'ad-
vantageous modus vivendi with the
other.
McCarthy has made major sacri-
fices of time, money, and political
capital in his challenge of Presi-
dent Johnson. It ;would be saintly
beyond reason for him not to be
irked Kennedy's attempt to polit-
ically upstage him. Furthermore
McCarthy has been impressed by
the support his campaign has
gathered and is unlikely to with-
draw without a significant test
of strength with Kennedy.
Another consideration which will
keep McCarthy in the race is that
while there is still time for Ken-
nedy to enter some major pri-
maries-notably Oregon and Cali-
fornia-McCarthy's will be the
only name on the ballot in im-
portant contests like Wisconsin.
AND IT IS so important for
Johnson to be beaten in the pri-
maries that Kennedy will probably
disown any write-in campaigns in
primaries it's already too late to
enter.
Consequently it is quite prob-
able that the Oregon primary
which precedes the California test
will be the scene of the epic battle
between McCarthy and Kennedy.
While the odds currently favor
Kennedy, some imponderable con-
siderations make the outcome less
than certain. These include the ef-
fects of the backlash produced by
the apparent opportunism behind
Kennedy's candidacy and the im-
pact of further primary victories
by McCarthy.
BUT UNDERLYING any con-
sideration of the relative merits
and demerits of Kennedy and Mc-
Carthy is the knowledge that each
represents at best a very outside
chance of defeating Johnson at the
Convention.
Admittedly Kennedy's candidacy
increases the chances of this un-
likely upset, but what's really at
stake in this polite battle between
Kennedy and McCarthy is control
of the Democratic Party in '72 and
thereafter. And the youth of Amer-
ica are the battleground.
4
4
Fighting for Gold and Country
By JENNY STILLER
E INTERNATIONAL finan-
cial system is in the worst
shape it's been in since 1929, but
this time we're not heading for
a depression.
The reason is simple: the
American banking system has
changed in the intervening years.
Stocks are no longer bought on a
10 per cent margin on the New
York exchange because the lowest
legal rate is now 85 per cent. The
Federal Deposit Insurance Corpo-
ration backs up most bank de-
posits. Finally, the Employment
Act of 1946 pledges the govern-
ment to the maintenance of full
employment as a matter of policy.
These and other safeguards should
guarantee against a repeat of
such a major failure of the eco-
nomy as was precipitated by the
events of 1929-33.
While the gold crisis should not
produce massive unemployment, it
probably will have visible effects
on the American consumer. If the
proposed 10 per cent income tax
surcharge is adopted,.it will de-
crease disposable income by an
estimated total of $9 billion. The
Federal Reserve's action of boost-
ing interest ratesto an all-time
high of 5 per cent will have the
short-term effect of tightening
the housing market, and may de-
crease investment in the long run
if it is kept at that level for any
length of time.
IF DECREASED consumer ex-
If the United States were to
devalue the dollar, the only sub-
stantial effect would be the rapid
devaluation of most of the major
currencies of the world-of which
the British pound and the West
German mark would most likely
be the first. The only real result
of this would be a 'wholesale re-
evaluation of the values of cur-
rencies with relation to gold-but
very little to each other. For this
reason, and because the only real
parties who stand to gain from
such an action would be the spec-
ulators and the gold-mining na-
tions, devaluation seems unlikely
indeed.
With speculators hoping that
the United States will be forced to
raise the price of gold to as much
as $70 an ounce, a conference of
the central bankers of the inter-
national gold pool convened in
Washington yesterday to discuss
the crisis.
Shortly after their meetings
began, President Johnson an-
nounced his intention to fight the
American balance of payments
problem with cutbacks in the do-
mestic economy in the form of
the proposed income tax sur-
charge and curtailment of govern-
ment spending' to the tune of
around $9 billion.
THE CHANCES that the Presi-
dent can railroad the tax increase
through Congress over thet oppo-
sition to House Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills
seem' slight, but nonetheless the
economy-minded Congress may be
persuaded that the measure is
necessary. And the President
should have no trouble at all con-
vincing the Congress that domes-
tic government spending must be
cut.
Whether these measures alone
will be enough to restore confi-
dence in the dollar is unlikely,
since the European speculators
all consider the Vietnam war to
be the root of our balance of pay-
ments troubles.
No statement will be released
by the conferees in Washington
until this afternoon, but it seems
possible at this point that setting
two prices for gold might well be
their solution to the immediate
crisis.
UNDER THE two-price system,
the United States would continue
to buy and sell gold to central
banks at $35 an ounce, but the
free markets in London and else-
where would be allowed to fluctu-
ate. This would be accomplished if
the seven countries participating
in +he rnn+-aranrrP__ +heTUnited
uation or drastic cutbacks in mil-
itary spending. Since the latter is
unlikely, they reason, the former
course of action will ultimately be
the only one open for the United
States, so they continue to buy
and hoard gold in the hope of
profitting from devaluation,
APART FROM the Vietnam
issue, there are important political
implications to the crisis.
George Brown, Britain's out-
spoken foreign secretary, resigned
his position in the Labor govern-
ment Friday in an impassioned
break with Prime Minister Har-
old Wilson. Brown's stated reason
for resigning was that he was not
consulted over the closing of the
London gold market at the re-
quest of the United States.
While Brown, a colorful and
impulsive trade - unionist, was
never considered a serious threat
to Wilson's leadership of the
Labor Party, his resignation opens
the door to backstage manipula-
tions by kingmakers who see Mi-
chael Stewart, Brown's successor
-and predecessor-as foreign sec-
retary, or Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer Roy Jenkins as potential
Prime Ministers.
IN ADDITION, dissatisfaction
with a Labor Party which has
grown increasingly conservative
since it took office may now cry-
stalize around Brown. Trade-un-
ionists have been becoming dis-
illusioned in a Labor government
which has adopted policies detri-
m-na to he et.nAnrA of+living
0
Michael Stewart
to it to private hoarders and
speculators.
The plan is said to be favored
by West Germany and Italy. The
United States has not made its
plans known.
ONE MAJOR disadvantage of
the two-price plan is that in the
long run speculation would prob-
ably not be halted. Nothing could
prevent any one of several small
countries from cashing in their
dollars for gold at $35 an ounce,
then selling it for a profit on the
free market.
Forunndarlvin- +the whnaecrisis
*
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