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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.
NDAY, APRIL 7, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: MARCIA ABRAMSON
The Federal Role in the Ghetto:
A New Rendezvous With Destiny
IMAGINE President Johnson's dilemma.
courageous and charismatic Negro
leader has been brutally assassinated.
Riots, now almost a part of the urban
landscape, have erupted in cities around
the country. The quandaries posed by
the ghettoes show no signs of going
away by themselves. Monday night the
President must ' tell the Congress and
the nation what the government intends
to do about them, yet there is really very
little he can say.
The government has been trying to do
something aboutracial and ghetto prob-
lems throughout the Johnson adminis-
tration. The President can boast a
copious list of social legislation: the Civil
Rights measures of 1964 and 1965, head
start 'programs, i model cities programs,
added social security benefits, govern-
ment-industry co-operation- to train the
unemployed,
Yet the problems have not seemed es-
pecially amenable to federal solution.
4ot enough money has been spent, of
course. Although the past few years have
seen a liberal administration and liberal
Congresses, the gigantic sums of money
needed to make the federal programs
work have not been' forthcoming. The
basic conservatism of the American peo-
pl and their representatives and a costly
war in Asia have served to keep a tight
rein on domestic spending.
NSUFFICIENT funds, however, have
not alone crippled federal attempts to
solve social problems. Even where pro-
grams have been instituted they have
often been counterproductive. A grow-
ing disparity' between unexceptionable
intentions and abysmal results has been
the sad history of federal social programs
'since the end of World War II, and
before.
The Federal Housing Act of ,1949
promised "a decent and standard dwell-,
ing unit" to every American. But the
Urban Renewal program which sprang
from it coupled with the proliferation of
federal highway construction has de-
stroyed hundreds of thousands of hous-
ing units and replaced them with higher
priced housing, thus raising inner city
rent by reducing the available supply of
housing while serving suburbanites who
can get home fromdowntown jobs faster
at night'
*,Aid to Dependent Children provides
subminimal incomes to families where
parents are unemployed. Worse, ADC has
encouraged the break-up of poor families
and given little incentive to 'underskilled
unemployed to take what menial' jobs
they are able to perform.
* All of the programs, even those-
like the Head Start program and federal
subsidies to industry to train the unem-
ployed-which seem to point in the right
direction, discourage the formation of
black enterprise and separatist institu-
tions through which black people can
win their rights and privileges as
Americans
The need for black institutions, black
cilture, consciousness, sense of manhood,
cannot be understood outside of an his-
Dogmatism
FRIDAY afternoon a student and a
beautiful white husky-collie puppy
walked into the senior office. The stu-
dent asked about joining The Daily staff
and as I stood in a corner of the room
talking to him his dog walked over to my
desk and rather irreverently defecated
upon the floor next to it.
Considering some of the letters to the
editor The Daily has received this week,
it is obvious that the dog was merely
a ttempting to play consensus politics the
only way he knew how.
-U.L.
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year ($9 by mail).
torical context. Much has been written
on this, from E. Franklin Frazier to
Christopher Lasch. Perhaps the most
succinct and practical statement is the
one with which Frances Piven and
Richard Cloward, faculty members of
Columbia's school of social work, began
their article in last week's New Republic:
"If there is a lesson in America's
pluralistic history, it is that the ability
of an outcaste minority to advance in
the face of majority prejudices partly
depends on its ability to develop coun-
tervailing power."
JOHNSON'S dilemma is that the govern-
ment can undertake little positive
dramatic action in this work of develop-
ing countervailing power. With the Civil
Rights measures (includin'g, hopefully,
a strong federal open housing law in the
near future) the administration will have
completed its work of constructing
avenues for the integration of middle-
class Negroes into white middle-class
society.
Yet the federal government can do
something, however unspectacular, for
the massof blacks in the ghetto. It can
concentrate its funds into those more
effective programs which still hold out
hope of obtaining practical results. It
can get out of the way, resolving not to
institute programs which would impede
the development of separatist power cen-
ters. And it can fund a guaranteed in-
come plan which will provide the poor
with an income level compatible with
human dignity and at the same time not
discourage black initiative.
Blacks must build their own institu-
tions. They must run their own school
systems, even if they have to use white
teachers. They must build their own
political machines. They must run their
own businesses in the ghetto, whether
co-operatively or individually. They must
not allow their initiative to be destroyed
or their manhood insulted by well-in-
tentioned but condescending w h i t e
agents of federal government programs.
All this they must do.
B UT THE federal government can do
something as well. By channeling the
bulk of its funds into programs which
will have immediate long-range effects
-like head start and like subsidies, toj
industries for training-the government
can strike at the fear of failure which
hinders the education of ghetto children
and 'provide meaningful and lucrative
employment for the unemployed.
Although blacks must take control of
inner city governments, the federal gov-
ernment can stop the subversion of the
inner cities it has undertaken through
urban renewal, highway construction,
the destruction of low-cost housing and
metropolitan-wide planning agencies.
Finally, the government can enact a
guaranteed annual income law. The
problem of progress juxtaposed with
poverty is still with us, and in an era of
rising expectations its consequences are
accelerated. As many observers have
pointed out, history will refuse to forgive
a rich society which refuses to tax itself
to lay an economic foundation for
human dignity.
Economists have demonstrated how
such a program can be enacted without
destroying the incentive to work: by
establishing a program whereby earned
income up to a certain level is added to
subsidized income. While separatist in-
stitutions are being built and solidified,
the government can relieve the squalor
of the ghettoes without stifling the im-
pulse which will make those institutions
possible.
These programs mean an end to fed-
eral planning and federal guidelines, for
planning-and the paternalistic view im-
plicit in planning that the planners know
better how the planned-for should live
their lives-is the sitrest way to obstruct
the progress toward full citizenship
which blacks must plan for themselves.
THIS IS THE legacy of fed-eral failure
and this is the unique challenge to
federal powers which President Johnson
should keep in mind as he prepares to
face the joint session of Congress Monday.
The role of the federal government which
is necessary is not the traditional liberal
By BILL LAVELY
IN EASTERN EUROPE, the name
of Joseph Stalin has long,
brought unpleasant images to
mind. Night arrests, purge trials
and political executions typified
his years in office.
His ugly brutality, more than
any thing else, has been con-
demned by Communist Party lead-
ers. Yet the political legacy of
Stalin-repression, clumsy bureau-
cracies, and conservative party
structures--has survived the drive
for "de-Stalinization."
Repression is the most Well-
known device of Stalinism, but
far more influential to modern
life in Eastern Europe is the con-
servative leadership which he left
behind.
The Stalinist leadership was
chosen on the basis of its medi-
ocrity. Intellectualism of any kind
represented a danger to the Stalin-
ist system. Therefore, leadership
by its very nature sought out the
mediocre to replenish its ranks.
The conservatism of this ap-
proach is basically incompatible
with modern technological ad-
vancement. Yet the simple, dog-
matic approach to sophisticated
problems has continued ,to hinder
economic and social advancement
in Eastern Europe.
But in Czechoslovakia, a move-
ment within the party against
proto-Stalinist policies has finally
brought real revolutionary reform.
TWO FORCES unique to Czecho-
slovakia have combined to pre-
cipitate the upheaval: the attempt
of the Slovaks to wrest political
power from the Czechs, and the
basic incompatability of the ad-
vanced Czechoslovakian economy
With the outmoded Stalinist sys-
tem for running it.
Recent months have seen the,
ouster of hard-line Stalinist An-
tonin Novotny by the party cen-
tral committee and his replace-
ment by liberal Alexander Dubcek.
With Dubcek has come a start-
ling program of reform. Censor-
ship is" gone. Opposing views mray
be voiced, and criticism is actual-
ly encouraged.
The "democratization" drive
has brought with, it such an at-
mosphere of inquiry and self-crit-
icism that Czech newspapers are
bringing forth a parade of skelet-
ons from old Stalinist closets.
This week, the catharsis continued
as the discredited Novotny con-
fessed his Stalinist sins.
Just as significant as Dubcek's
liberal policies, however, is the
fact that he is the first Slovak
ever to head the Czechoslovakian
government.
Czechoslovakia only came to-
gether as a nation in 1918, when
Slovakia was united with the
Czech-speaking principalities of
Bohemia and Moravia. Since then,
the Czechs have held power over
the Slovak minority.-
This situation has added Slovak
resentment to the already poor
relations between thetwogroups.
Recently, Slovak party members
have attacked the Novotny govern-
ment for its economic discrimina-
tion against Slovakia.
It was no coincidence, then,
that the movement againsttNo-
votny was lead mainly by Slovaks.
BUT MORE important than the
Czecho-Slovak dispute were the
economic, failure of the Novotny
regime. Czechoslovakia is unique
in Eastern Europe in that it was
the only nation to come under the
reign of Stalin with an already
'highly industrialized and success-
ful economy.
All would have Been right in
.. in Prague, a movement within the party
against proto-Stalinist policies ..
Czechoslovakia had that economy'
stayed successful. But the industry
which had flourished under cap-
italism suffered under the Stalin-
ist "command economy," and, by
1960,'a major economic crisis had
developed.
The dispute which occurred in
the top levels of the party over the
causes and solutions to this crisis
began the, actual =movement to-
ward liberalization in Czechoslo
vakia.
A movement to seek the advice
of specialists and to take a more
enlightened view of economics
gained strength over the tradi-
tional dogmatic approach. Econ-
omists were calledI in. Frank dis-
To the Editor:
ON E OF THE ear
frustrating exp
freshman law stude
law" purblindly ac
very basic tenets a
erects a structure h
questioned assump
"it is not the time
challenge these ass
at worst, it is heres
awesome assumpti
all assumptions se
naive attitude tha
"the best of all p
and all we need do i
little imperfections.
If one opens both
around he may soo
the patches havec
original garment
what we have is
patched garment bu
outworn loosely jo
do not mean to wri
conceded hope n
dirge, but I. do s
healthy skepticism
der. The "givens" n
to be challenged. No
Are religion or n
states rights unifyi
or are these rather
which not only s
some men but tos
from others? These
troublesome questi
because belief in the
life much easier fo
ual, but the disfun
on the rest of th
may be crippling.
Perhaps the sing
the most onerous r
the individual's gr
his assumptions or
"right" ones; thisi
this faith rendersb
learn from the expe
BertoldrBrecht's M
suggests that man i
learning. MotherC
mendicant who enc
that she can suppor
by following the
battle to battle, se:
them.
One after anoth
Courage's children
the war, but she co
ageously" to promot
ing to save the res
dren. Then the last
a result of the war
Courage has sacrifi
children to the wa
ically, tragically, s
that her childrenn
What is the lesson
is that there is no le
ly because she is so
what she must do,
and personal expe
her nothing.
THURSDAY nigh
man was murdered-
perceptiveness, who
whose political aw
utter charm overs
Kennedys' and the
they could but app
competent in the s
majestic stature.
He was a man ofv
truly be said, "he st
like a colossus wh
men creeped about
Letters to the Editor
on the Death of Reverend King
that must be learned.' The next suburbs. We p
liest and most few months may tell wheth'er or to the blacks,
eriences of the not the "true believers" can be feared, but s
nt is that "the shaken from their erroneous to the police,
repts so many faiths or whether we are a nation is overlooked.
s "givens" and of Mother Courages who sacri- And comfo
from these un- fice all to nothing. The question Its National (
tions; at best of whether man learns from his already served
nor place" to experiences or whether the only for sending th
umptions; and, lesson is that there is no lesson men to black g
y to do so, The may soon .he answered. Will we find
on underlying 1 -David Goldstein, "70L our eyes to
ems to be the overflowing to
t we are near For the Poor lot by the Arm
ossible worlds" To the Editor: men find it ea
Is patch up the To tE r: ask questionsI
DR MARTIN Luther King, Jr. harsh to the -
eyes and looks spent the last few months of lice, but these
n realize that his life preparing for the South- the President'
nsrealie tht ern Christian Leadership Confer- on last yea
consumed the ence's "Poor People's Campaign" mounting dea
and perhaps scheduled to begin In Washing- news does no
no longer a ton, D.C., later this month. He Aewe o ao
it merely some had planned to lead thousands of ers aise
ned patches. I poor people in a prolonged, non-a against a sys
te a lament of violent demonstration aimed at teantyarsrsi
or a funeral convincing Congress to enact leg- tently resorts i
uggest that a islation to meet the needs of the threat of viol
may be in or- poor: To wipe out slums and re- political, soc
may well need build the cities, to extend quality problems?
w! education and medical services, It is impo
nationalism or to create jobs and provide guar- while America
ng phenomena anteed incomes for all. It was to jury to black
divisive forces be, in his words "a last desperate ket the Natio
erve to unite attempt to avoid the worst chaos, at Ann Street
separate them hatred and violence any nationW stating at 3:
Dmay well be has ever encountered." 8. We urge e
ons especially The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Dr. protest thei
m might make King's successor as President of America to
r the.individ- SCLC has said that Dr. King's thus honor the
ctional effects dream-"That one day this na- Luther King.
e society just tion will rise up and live out the --Rev. and V
true meaning of its creed"-must Nancy Ba
le belief with not die with him and the cam- Bill and L
epercussions is paign will continue as planned. Bert and 1
at faith that Funds are needed to help fi Ed and El
beliefs are the nance this operation. The bucket Julen and
is so because drive which began on the Diag t Richard a
iim unable to on Friday will continue on Mon- Mi. and M!
himences of life, day and Tuesday. Those wishing Rev. Rona
other Courage to contribute by mail should Eric Wolf
s incapable of send their checks to: SCLC Poor Stuart an
Couagele; o "People's Campaign, c/o Michigan
Couragew r sa Daily, and it will be forwarded D
t her children to SCLC headquarters in Atlanta.
soldiers from Jacqueline A. Evans To the Editor:
Iling goods to --John P. Evans OMMENTIN
C page edito
er of Mother Hypocrisy cannot chastise
are killed by To the Editor: taste in the t
ntinues "cour- MARTIN LUTHER KING has your editorial.
e it, ever hop- been assassinated. I accused The LI
t of her chi- We abhor the response of white taste. Also, I d
tchild dies as America to the assassination as your assertio
, and Mother much as we abhor the assassina- Johnson and
ced all of her tion itself. have involved
r which iron- White America has responded mistaken situa
he supported to its own act of racism by send- HowevIc
might survive. ing in the National Guard and I ever believe
? The lesson state and local police to 'control' solely or parti
sson! Precise- black people. Blacks for whom fronts us toda
certain about Dr. King's death was but the frontsa~
very graphic latest in a long series of such accept as a re
riences teach murders are offered not even the so much mone
from the doni
promise ofa program of social the war, becau
change. They are offered the in- problem.
t a very great sult of police invasion. Instead of Irstiem .
a man whose responding with a serious attempt ithe veral
se eloquence, to understand or to change racism the blame else
reness, whose and those institutions by which the situation t
hadowed the it lives, white America finds. it sen. By trans
Johnsons' so better to cordon off black com- rather than lo
ear rankly in- munities all over the country. So hearts, where
hadow of his does white America reaffirm the lies, we, the w
pattern of the past. So does it United Statesi
whom it could add to its complicity in Dr. King's worse. The Ne
rode the world death, reveal its fear of black country cannot
iile we petty men, and rush to contain those side until we1
beneath his whom it does not or will not Negro with the
cusion and liberalized economic
policies resulted.
The high-level split caused gov-
ernment pronouncements to con-
tradict each other. Each faction
would give its orders to the lower
echelons of the massive bureau-
cracy. The cautious bureaucrats,
not exactly sure which orders to
follow, took the safest path and
interpreted policy in the most am-
biguous way possible.
Enforcement of previously strict
rules of censorship became more
ambiguous, too., Gradually, the
disagreement among party leaders
was translated into a general re-
laxation of government control.
This process, which began in
the early sixties, brought gradual
liberal reforms to Czechoslovakia.
Previously repressed writers' were
rehabilitated. New appraisals of
Czechoslovakian history w e r e
made. Slovak nationalism was as-
serted and tolerated. Czech poli-
cies became increasinglo move
liberal. ,
Then this spring, the last ob-
stacle in the path to democratic
reforms -Novotny himself --was
removed. Replacing him is a lib-
eral and a Slovak, a man who
promises to make Czechoslovakia
a true "socialist democracy."
Whether Dubcek will make good'
his promise is still open to ques-
tion. If he does, it will inevitably
hasten the pace of democratic re-
forms throughout Eastern Europe,
and usher in an entirely new phase
of Communism.
YET there are good reasons to
doubt the permanence of the new
freedoms. The hopeful atmosphere
in Czechoslovakia today is rem-
iniscent of the elation which fol-
lowed Gomulka's takeover in Po-
land in 1956. The hopes for liber-
alization were dashed then, and
they could be today.
Even more doubtful is the likeli-
hood of a democratic government
emerging in Czechoslovakia.
Czech intellectuals claim that
democracy can only succeed if
opposition parties are permitted.
The Dubcek government has ruled
out this possibility for now.
But the lack of an opposition
party should be no real barrier
to democratic government. The
Czech Communist party has shown
that sufficient dialogue and op-
position can exist within a party
to produce quite radical reforms,
'One could ask whether the
United States would be signific-
antly different, significantly less
free and stripped of opposition if
only one party existed. It is an ex-
tremely doubtful proposition,
What must be a prerequisite for
a Czech democracy is the estab-
lishment of democratic institutions
quite separate from the Party.
The government, the courts and
the law must be responsible to, yet
protected from, the Party.
IF THE BASIC institutions are
not changed, and the Czech gov-
ernment continues to be the same,
entity as the Czech Communist
Party, liberal policies will be mere-
ly that. In that case, freedoms
could be revoked as easily as they
were given.
reach law and order
whose rebellion is
upply Stoner rifles
whose lawlessness
rtable Ann Arbor?
Guard Armory has
i as a staging area
e Michigan Guards-
ghettos in Detroit.
i it as easy to close
the trucks literally
the public parking
ory, as the Guards-
sy to shoot first and
later? (It may seem
Guardsmen and po-
are the findings of
s own Commission
*'s riots and the
.th toll in today's
t contradict them.)
)w our black broth-
rs to stand alone
tem which consis-
to violence and the
once in the face of
ial and economic
ssible to stand by
adds insult to in-
people. We will pic
nal Guard Armory
tand Fifth Avenue
:30 Monday, April
veryone to join us:
response of white
assassination, and
momory of Martin
Vrs. Daniel Burke
ncroft
ouise Derman
Michele Garskof
len Geffner
eNancy Gendell
nd Jean Mann
rs. Walter Paul
ld Tipton
I Lucy Karabenick
mestic Blame
G on your front
rial of April 1, I
e you fornusing poor
aiming and tone of
,No one has ever
)aily of using good
o not disagree with
n that President
his administration
us in a tragic and
tion in Vietnam.
annot now, nor will
that Johnson is
ially to blame for
crisis which con-
y. And I refuse to
ason the fact that
y has been diverted
estic problems for
ise that is not the
y attitude concern-
situation, of putting
where, which causes
o persist and wor-
ferring the blame
oking into our own
the problem really
hite citizens of the
make the situation
gro unrest in this
even begin to sub-
begin to treat the
respect he deserves
V
Choosin gSides
For the Revolution
By MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
The assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King may have
an effect on the United States far more lasting than even several days
of rioting in the nation's major cities.
Even in relatively quiet Ann Arbor I could see an increased impetus
for change as 200 blacks met Friday night to consider possible action,
in the wake of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's death.
The meeting was calm. But even In that calm there was a kind of
slow tumbling-over-and-over feeling you experience when the pace
accelerates.
("All praise to the black man, Get the gun.")
The feeling was strong enough to pervade some of the speeches-
even a q> iet speech by Councilman H. C. Curry (D-First Ward).
"The- handwriting is on the wall. There's no corrupt government
that can stand forever," Curry told the audience. "The end is just about
here for the white man."
The words left his lips and spread softly over the group. Curry
has been a councilman for several years, working in the mainstream
of establishment institutions, working through the system.
Yet neither Curry nor the other, more militant, speakers proposed
any concrete or immediate action for the black community; there
nothing had changed.f
Nor was the change in rhetoric alone-militant Black Power in Ann
Arbor was not born this week. But now people like Curry were espousing
it, and young and old alike were absorbing it and contemplating it.
"You've got to have guts, you've got to be :,a man who wants to
stand up," said Curry.
And then, too, there was a change in the attitude towards militancy.
Curry and other speakers consistently appended "but don't go out
there unorganized" to their calls for action.
There seems to have been a realization that violence In its pure
and simple form is not the answer. Instead, a plan, a master plan
for the American black is neded to /liberate him from white oppression.
("All praise to the black man. Get the gun.")
Sitting in the midst of the black audience, I was one' of about five
whites in the capacity crowd at the Ann Arbor Community Center. But
I did not, to my surprise, feel particularly white; in that respect I felt
almost nothing. Neither did I feel any guilt of complicity with the
white community.
Instead, there was the glimmer of an old, familiar feeling-of being
the extra man after they chose-up for a stickball game when I was
young. It was a feeling of something happening that I should be a part
of and yet could not join. It was the pent up repulsion and revolutionary
spirit in me coming frighteningly near the surface.
And while I did not feel especially white, I think I may have been
trying very hard to be black. I wanted to get in there and help plan
the fight through, help pilot the revolution.
("All praise to the black man. Get the gun.")
I rationally understood that my pigmentation cannot change but
I didn't feel it. For I could not grant that I should mourn less for
Martin Luther King because I am white. And when Ann Arbor CORE
Chairman Ezra Rowry told the group of "a conspiracy going on in this
country against black people," I could only feel that the conspiracy was
as much against me.
Then, when Black Student Association President Larry Mann spoke
of the need for unity and planning, I wanted to be with it. I realized
7 emild. ,,~ nt h in vad nn tri~i4vht tohp -t harv nt sufferedwI'ith them.
I