Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
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vrials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staf writers
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AY, APRIL 11, 1968,
NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN GRAY
Ann Arbor City PCouncil
Disapprove County S upervisors
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ARBOR city council's equivocating
swer to black pleas for a responsive
inderstanding board of supervisors.
be phanged to an emphatic "yes"
Monday night.
r failing to reject the Mayor Wen-
Hulcher's hack-political appoint-
s to athe hoard Monday night, city
ili again proved its irresponsibility
,d the needs of the black commun-
crowd of 300 black citizens asiked
uncil to reject the apointments on
ounds the mayor's nominees did not
elate their needs, specifically nam-:
aree supervisors who were beingr re-
nted.
Gov.
Wallace:
A Driver to..
cluding the three supervisors the blacks
had objected to.
THE FINAL maneuver was obviously in-
tended to appease the black commun-
ity without arousing discord among
white constituents.
In view of the nationwide events of
the past week, such a wish-washy at-
titude on the part of council, members
can only serve to provoke social dishar-
mony and racial violence in the near fu-
ture.
City council must deionstrate next
Monday night a sense of social conscience
toward, the poor and the black by turn-
ing down the mayor's appointments in
favor of more representative county su-
pervisors and housing commissioners.
If the demands and needs of the black
community in this city continue to be
ignored, there can be little hope for the
city's poor, and little prospect of racial
peace this summer in Ann Arbor.
-DAVID SPURR
0
council turned down a Demo-
solution to postpone confirma-
h would have left the city with-
visors, council's fo'r Democrats
it. Remaining Republicans tried
ifirmation but failed when one
dissented. Instead they decided
rarily keep the old board, in-
'...Ruthless opportunist...
Black Power Ned for Context-
.
Stacking the Vietnam Deck
RESIDENT JOHNSON'S so-called de-
escalation in the cause of peace may
ve been dictated by purely military
tors, and as a result, if talk's do begin,
United States will be in a much more,
'orable military position from which
bargain.
3efore the war could b'e won, the Viet
ng had to be: cut off from their major
oe of supplies-7;North Vietnam. Pre-,
us to last week's bombing halt, most
the American air power was attacking
ttered targets all over Southeast Asia
an attempt to halt the steady infil-
tion of Viet Cong supplies and rein-
cements into South Vietnam. This
empt was a failure.
den and material were flowing into
ith Vietnam at a great rate, mostly
the Ho Chi Minh trail or across the
ilitarized done. The strength of the
offensive shocked Johnson enough to
zse a re-evaluation of' basic strategy.
)king the'movement of supplies over
rth Vietnam in general had proved to
impossible. The only other practical.
y to isolate the Viet Cong was to con-
trate the bombing on the supply lines
Lt led directly into South Vietnam-
area immediately to the north of the
[Z and along the Ho Chi 14inh trail.
ere simply weren't enough planes to
'form the new mission and still con-;
ue the overall' bombing. Johnson de-
ed, presumably, to commit all the
ces that had 'previously been bombing
rth Vietnam.
AIS AERIAL campaign began last
week, cloaked behind the announce-
ie Daily is a member of the Associated Press.
egiate Press Servire and Liberation News Service.
cond class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Maynard St.. Ann Arbor Michigan, 48104.
ily ecept Monday during regular academic school
ment of a bombing halt over most of.-
North Vietnam.'
The implications of this are tremen-
dous. By calling it a de-escalation instead
of a change in strategy, Johnson seems
to have' initiated a peace bid. If Hanoi
comes to the- bargaining table, .nothing
will really be accomplished until after
the November electigns. Johnson's an-
nouncement that he will not run for re-
election seems to leave the political field
to the doves, which means that negotia-
tions will begin in earnest.
Thus, the North Vietnamese have six
months in which to improve their bar-
gaining position. As the diplomats use the
same stalling tactics that the Chinese
Communists used during the Korean War
to delay progress at the negotiating table,
-the Viet Cong -will go on the offensive'
and will have to appear .to be winning.
But if the new attempt to cut off their
supplies is even partially successful, they
will be going into battle, short of food
and ammunition, against much better
equipped and supplied American troops.
THE VIET ,CONG will need victories, but
the, odds against' them will have
lengthened even more. Each defeat will
strengthen the American bargaining
position. Even if they don't go on the of-
fensive, American pressure against un-
dersupplied and ill-equipped Viet Cong
could result in clearing large areas of the
countryside of Viet Cong, which would
once again improve the negotiating'
position of the United States.
Johnson's move has put the North
Vietnamese in a dilemma. It seems that,
their position can only deteriorate, what-
ever they do.
-HANK PFEFFER
By JIM KAHNWEILER
IOFTEN AMID the smoke and
carnage of the American city,
often in the rallies and publica-
tions is heard' the desperate cry
for Black Power. In some recent
events there have been potent
realizations of this plea. But as a
quite frankly terrified white I can
only ask why? Why must the quest
for equality cause me to consider
the possibility of purchasing a
weapon and barricading my home
this summer?
Yet as I think back over the
history of American race and
ethnic relations, some of the an-
swers began to seem clear to me.
While these answers do not elim-
inate my fear, they provide me
with an understanding with which
I can observe the past and the
future with some insight.
WHY BLACK POWER?. The
answer, and it is a complex one,
can be reasoned from an examina-,
tion of other ethnic minorities
who immigrated to this country.
The Irish, the Italians, and the,
Jews, although they were white,
all came to the United States
and were exploited.
Many lived in slums of such
unspeakable deprivation that they
make the ghetto today seem
luxurious. Their labor was ex-
ploited and the novels ofwFrank
Norris and Upton Sinclair reveal
how close human beings came to
cattle.
Every ethnic minority suffered
from deprivation, prejudice, ex-
ploitation and segregation. But the
button pleading for "Irish Power"
is only a nervous attempt at
humor. It is a reaction to some-
thing quite fearful.
For while the Afro-American'
community has and is subjected
to deprivation, exploitation and
segregation, it has never been al-
lowed to assimilate into the great-
er community. The Irish and Ita-
lian and other ethnic minorities
were able to become successful in.
their own community through
politics and business. True, some
of the Irish politicians were ruth-
less machine bosses and some of
the Italian business men were in
organized crime, but they were
able, good or bad to develop in-
stitutions for advancement through
which they were assimilated into.
the main stream of American
life.
TRUE, it was a similar struggle,
but when failure came, there was
hope! And here lies thendifference.
The white ;ethnic minorities had
their religion, their family, their
own unique culture and commu-
nity despite the misery and de-
privation. But the black has noth-
ing, nothing but the horror and
ignominity of his own misery.
There is pride when a third gen-
eration American can say my%
grandfather helped build the rail-
road that helped make America
great. But what pride is there
when a black can say I don't
know who my grandfather was,
but he probable helped make some,
white man very rich?
In slavery the black was com-
pletely divorced from his tribal'
and family customs. He was
treated like cattle and often even
denied the dignity of knowing he
was a child of God. He became a
non-person in the shame and de-
gradation of slavery, and later in
the humility and exploitation of
post-reconstruction, industrial so-,
ciety. This is the past the Afro-'
American can look to, not with
pride, but with shame. Denied the
cultural ties which the white
ethnic minorities used as motiva-
tion for advancement, the black
has remained exploited and ig-
norant, with few exceptions, until
recently.
Today, however, there are com.
paratively more opportunities. The
black'- community is aware of
where it is and its present state
in the American culture. But for
many of these people there is no
past. The only avenues of.mobility
they see are in a white community
that rejects them with -hate and
now fear. And this is no motiva-
tion. Any attempt at success in
white man's terms is defeated by
racial hatred. So it is a very
vicious circle ending in the slum.
NOT BEING able to "make it"
in the outside community as those
other minorities did, the Afro-
American must relate to something
in his own community, something
to make himi proud to be black as
the Jew, Irishman and Italian can
be proud of their heritage. Some-
thing to make, the white commu-
nity respect him as an individual
and as a member of the com-
munity.
I don't think that the Black
Power of H. Rap Brown is the
answer, though. The black is also
an American. And although right
now he has nothing to be'.'proud
about .for being an American
someday hopefully he will. He
should be part of the "American
Dream," not despise it for its fail-
ings.
So right now Black Power is
necessary to help make the Afro-
American just an American. I.
frankly don't know how to do it,
but the destruction of the cities
by their ownhinhabitants are dra-
matic and horrifying plea's, for"
help. There must be some way to
give dignity and success to'these
people, to allow them to show
those whites with racial hatred.
that here is no reason to fear an
equal.
So the riots are not a reason
for arming but for help, help too
long in coming. A help that will
make these people proud 4nd the
community proud of them.
And the help can be found in
tie creation of unique black in-
stitutions. What these are can only
be determined ,by those who need
them, but they should be en-
couraged.
Every American must be ed-
ucated in the knowledge that as
the Irishman or Jew or Italian
or what-have-you have done so
can the black. Withthe end of a
search for identity I think this can
be done-it must be.
By JOHN GRAY
'fAN A FORMER truck driver.
married to a former dime-store
clerk,who is the son of a dirt
farmer be elected President of
the United States?"4
Yes. George Wallace, you can.
The forier Alabama Governor
wants to bring the country up
from the depths of "pseudo-intel-
lectualism" and, frightening as it
may be, he's just the man to do
it. -Attacked by liberal Democrats
as a "'mindless segregationist" and
by Goldwater conservative Repub-
licans as a "pseudo-conservative,"
George Wallace draws his support
from what he calls "the average
man on the street, the glass-
worker, the steelworker, the auto-
worker, the paperworker, the
farmer, the policeman, the beau-
tician and the barber, and the
little businessman," all of whom
are sick of having the "pseudo-
intellectuals" write guidelines for
them.
Actually, it is probably closer
to the truth that Wallace's sup
port comes from segregationists
who base their stand on an im-
promptu state's rights platform
yet who are not ideological
enough to hate Wallace for help-
ing Democrats get elected in Ala-
bama. But the support is great
enough that ,it could make his
movement the biggest of its kind
since Teddy Roosevelt broke with
the;Republicans in 1912 -Iand
helped elect Woodrow Wilson.
There are three plausible out-
comes of Wallace's campaign -
he could lose and have no effect
on the outcome of the election; he
could lose and throw the election
into the House of Representatives;
or he could lose and throw the
election to the Democratic can-
didate, whoever that may be.
Few observers doubt that Wal-
lace will draw a significant num-
ber of votes that would normally
go to the Republican candidate.
With the growing likelihood that
the Democrats will choose some-
'one with a somewhat more "left-
ist" image than that of President
Johnson, the size of that vote may
be more significant than was pre-
viously expected. Wallace 'may
make possible the Democratic
nominee taking electorial votes of
such crucial states as Illinois' and'
Ohio with only 46 per cent of the
popular vote.
IT IS HARDER to reassess Wal-
lace's impact in the light of John-
son's withdrawal. TheN nomina-
tion of Kennedy 'or McCarthy
could give Wallace the role of
a balancer: while conservative
Democrats could go Republican,
conservative Republicans could go
go Wallace. In a Nixon-Humphrey
race, however, the effect would'
be the same as in a Johnson-
Nixon race - the Republicans
would lose support.
The strongest Wallace impact
would come if-, the Republicans
pull an about-face and nominate
a liberal - Rockefeller, ,for in-
stance. Conservatives of both
parties would flock to Wallace in
numbers sufficient to throw the
election into chaos, if not into the
House.
Although Wallace claims he is
out to win, his real hope lies in
the possibility of creating an elec-
toral deadlock. In such a stua-
tion his bargaining power would
be so tremendous that he could
do to civil rights legislation what
the Hayes-Tilden election did to
Reconstruction.
The possibility of an electoral
deadlock is .certainly not as slim
as some people think. 'In the con-
fusion caused ,by Johnson's with-
,drawal .anything, of course, can
happen. But Wallace might even
be able to do it in the not-so-un-
likely event that Johnson decides
the best interest of the American
people is for him to run again.
Wallace's threat lies in the cur-
ious unit-rule procedure used in
the selection of Presidential elec-
tors. The electoral *ystem throws
all the electoral votes of each
state to the capdidate who picks
up a plurality of the popular
vote. Wallace is fond of pointing
out that in a three-man race,
you may only need 34 per cent of
the vote to win in a state.
Outraged egalitarians are quick
to point out the inequities of the
system - a candidate can be
elected when his opponent has
more popular votes (as in 1824.
1876 and 1888) and the over-
representation of underpopulated
states. Mathematically, one .voter
in Nevada has much more power
than one voter in New York in
a Presidential election - and
so does one voter in Alabama.,
Egalitarians are horrified at the
prospect, of Wallace throwing the
election intb the House - where
one vote is cast. by each and
representation is, thus more un-
equal.
WOULD-BE reformers don't
realize that changing the elector-
al system would actually give
more power to the small, South-
ern, primarily one-party states.
The Southern states are famous
for theirvone-party politics and
can deliver larger majorities for
their candidates than can the
large, urban Northern state. In
1960, for example, Louisiana de-
livered a majority 'of170,414for
,President Kennedy' while Illinois,
with a voting population four
times as large as Louisiana's de-
livered only 6,397.
Reversion to ' system of direct
popular vote would place men like
George Wallace, who seem to pop
up somewhere in the South every
five or ten 'years, in positions
which would force a national can-
didate for the Presidency to ap-
pease them. George Wallace could
have thrown the popular election
in 1960 to Nixon almost single-
handedly.
The electoral college is part
of our famous system of checks
and balances. Wile Congression
al representation has at least un-
til recently, given a great ad-
vantage to the rural population,
the Electoral Coll ge has given
a. tremendous strategic advant-
age 'to the urban centers in the
seletcion of a President. The stra-
tegic importance of winning in
the populous states forces aspir-
ing candidates to look to the in-
terests of 'the urban centers for
their strength both in nomina-
ting conventions and in actual
election campaigns.
GEORGE WALLACE certainly
has some, appeal for the'urban
Northern voter as his surprising
totals in the 1964 Wiscbnsin and
Maryland primaries showed. But
it is hard to see how this appeal
could win him the electoral dele-
±gations of 'any-, Northern states."
His hope for a deadlock lie In the
Southeast. There is little doubt in
anyone's mind that Wallace will
win in Alabama. In an extremely
close election this could put the
election into the House. But some
pre-Johnson withdrawal p o 11 s
showed that he could, take as
many as 145 electroal votes .in
the Sotuh, which could make it
for either party to receive the
270 votes needed for election.
Wallace wants to win. He might,
he says, a'ctually be elected by a
Y'majority of the states i the
House of Representatives. And in
this ridiculously :mixed-up year,
this year when Russell Baker's
wildest dreams don't even seem
mildly improbable, who can say
he won't be?.
Certainly not me.
4'
*1
,- -,
Il-Fnded 'Health 'Service Creeps Atog
, ;
By E. O. KNOWLES
EDITOR'S NOTE: The author is
a sophomore in the literary college
and an at-large member of' Stu-
dent Government Council for which
,he has served on' the Student
Health Service Study Commission.
E ACH 'EAR when University
officials determine the budget,
they are restating the list of
piorities that high officials use to
determine which commitments
shall receive emphasis-in other
words, where Michigan is headed.
Although the administration loud-
ly professes a dire lack of funds
when it is approached with finan-
cial requests, it always manages
to find monies for those programs
it feels are important s
Somehow new administration
buildings and library additions get
built. Homes for retiring officers
are purchased and redecorated in
style. When University employees,
demand higher salaries, funds are
found, with reluctance and hesi-
tation admit'tedly,'but nevertheless.
they are found.
Far down this mystical list there
is a rather unexciting entry that
,. AM6 .
is very, very important and vital
to a student when he gets sick.
In the last few years the Uni-
versity, at best, has done a poor
job in respecting its financial
obligation to the Health Service.
At worst; it has forced the people
who are fighting to provide good
health care to the student body to
creep along with inadequate sala-
ries, a small staff, and a bleak fu-
ture.
It is about time the students
demanded an end to one of the
most blatant examples of this
University's funding circus, which
many times seems comparable to
an ostrich sticking its head in the
sand in hopes that a problem will
merely disappear.
IT COMES as a surprise to
many that a school rich enough
to pay $12,000 a year to have the
chimes in Burtbn Tower play pret-
ty music three times a day can
Manage a salary rate for Health
Service physicians which ranks as
the lowestin 'the Big Ten and
lnwer than even a commuter col-
Health Service for adequte and
fair salaries, the University Ad-
ministration is making certain
incremental adjustments, but next
year's adjustments may well be
financed through cutbacks in the
services offered; in particular, the
infirmary might well be cut down
or eliminated entirely.
There are many objections to
be raised to this line of attack.
First, taking funds from one es-
sential part of the Health Service
to remedy a problem elsewhere is
scarcely good business practice; it
merely moves the problem spots
around.
Second, gradual increments to
the salaries are all right if they
are supposed to merely maintain
the status quo, but they do nothing
to upgrade the existing staff, or
to attract the hew highly qualified
personnel that are ,essential. No
new funds are being made avail-
able to move our wage scale to the
top of the competitive market,
merely to a palatable medium. Ad-
ditional monies are not being
o',, fto rltnfAtrZ to bring the
month will find bed space during
the days between September 1 and
April 1. These patients average a
stay of 3 days in'the infirmary so
a total of 432 patient days will
have to be absorbed in a hospital
community that runs somewhere
between 96 and 100 per cent capa-
city. There simply are not enough
beds in Ann Arbor to take care of
these patients.
'In addition to these direct
salary problems, the Health Serv-
ice budget is in trouble other ways.
Approximately $50,000 must be
spent by the fall to bring the exist-
ing structure up to fire regula-
tions. The building itself will suf-
fice' for several more years if
remodeling is done shortly. But the
need for a new structure is in the
forseeable future, and even if the
funds for the new building were
authorized today, it would be at
least eight years before a student
would be treated there. Medical
facilities are costly and slow to
build.
The campus is moving outward,
hut no nians have even been dis-
versity Health Service; at an ab-
solute minimum this must be in-
creased by 35 per cent if salaries
are to be brought to a semi-rea-
sonable level. More money Is
needed to raise salariesto a rate,
which would attract people of the
qiuality to provide good health
care.
A PORTION of the staff now
there is excellent, but will they
stay with the miserly wages of-
fered them? Will the rest of staff
be upgraded unless something is
done,2_ How can even top people
function well ifnthey are swamped
because of under-staffing? What
about a new structure, immediate
remodeling, North Campus, health
educators, psychiatrists, and a list
of other pressing problems that
were imperative a year ago and
overwhelming today?
Before the other problems facing
the Health Service can be dealt
with, and there are others, some-
thing must be done immediately
to handle these major financial
concerns. Students must not wait
le+tilth ev resickt tn realize ae-