Ghe ftr4tgatt Balti
Seventy-Sixth Year
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ber pi ns Are reee. 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily expfress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the, editors. This must be rioted in all re firts.
AT-LARGE
Going Left to Meet the Right
Ly NEIL SHISTER
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: PAT O'DONOHUE
Strike One: University
Refuses To Bargain
HE UNIVERSITY'S decision to defy
Public Act 379 and not bargain col-
ectively with its non-academic employes
s a relic of the past which must be dis-
larded. The strike yesterday of over 200
killed tradesmen and the possibility of
urther walkouts by other service em-
)loyes serves to reemphasize the absurd-
ty of such a stand.
If the University intends to, refight the
nti-union battles of the 1930's, it can
nly lose considerable prestige and en-'
;ender much bitterness among its em-
)loyes in the process. Moreover, the grow-
ng trend of unionism among public
ervants seems to confirm that such ac-
ion would in the end be a losing battle.
The University claims to be testing the
onstitutionality of the amended Hutch-
nson Act (PA 379) passed in the '1965
ession of the Legislature which grants
he right of collective bargaining to pub-
ic employes. It contends that as an au-
onomous institution under the state con-
titution it is not covered by such an act,
nd therefore is not required to bargain
ollectively.
The court challenge, which has been
elayed in the Washtenaw County Cir-.
uit Court, may have merit. But this is
,n irrelevant consideration in making a
lecision on whether to bargain collec-
ively. Gov. Romney's Advisory Commis-
ion on Public Employe Unionism even
,dvised the University to begin bargain-
ng collectively, while continuing its
ourt fight. The University has ignored'
he recommendation. One would suspect
hat the court suit is merely a device to
tall the initiation of collective bargain-
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT H a r a n
Hatcher's remarks before the Califor-
nia Bar Association last year seem to
reveal the real motivation behind the
University's actions. Hatcher commented,
"the old and weary bitterness of labor-
management strife and warfare should
not be carried into the public service
sector or into a modern university en-
vironment.",
Hatcher is mistaken in seeing all union
relations as intrinsicly consisting of
"strife and warfare." Collective bargain-
ing can be an effective and peaceful de-
vice for ironing out grievances between
management and worker. Only the Uni-
versity's outdated reaction to union orga-
nization has caused the current con-
frontatioh which Hatcher had predicted.
ADMINISTRATIONS also fear that by
bergaining collectively with non-aca-
demic employes they may be opening the
door for the unionization of professors
and instructors, challenging the long-es-
tablished departmental system of tenure
and promotion. The University should
fight one battle at a time. It has no
legitimate case against the unionization
of non-academic employes. It has a
strong case if the issue should ever be
raised in the academic world.
President-designate Robben W. Flem-
ing, with his extensive background in la-
bor mediation, may have different
thoughts about the effectiveness of col-
lective bargaining. Between now and
January when he assumes office, disrup-
tive strikes may be a commonplace oc-
currence unless the University reconsid-
ers its untenable position.
THE FIRST NATIONAL Conference for New Politics,
concluded this week in Chicago, was a mixture of
confusion, disappointment and hope. That there are
people who still seem to believe the 'politics of promise'
is a good thing for this country, but it seems reasonable
to believe that many of them must have been deeply
mellowed by their Chicago convention.
That the convention occurred at all says something
very revealing about the State of the Union this fall. It
says that there are many people, over 2,000 of whom
came to Chicago, who feel severely estranged from the
American political system as it now exists. Contrary to
what the mass media and Sander Vanoeur would like
to believe, the majority of these do not have long hair
nor do they wear sandals.
On the contrary, they are 'straight' people, con-
cerned enough with the conduct for misconduct, as they
believe the case to be) of public affairs to want to change
it. For this reason k the Palmer House. convention must
have been deeply unsettling to them.
BECAUSE IT SEEMS unlikely that Chicago is indeed
going to have much of an effect on American politics
except perhaps to push it farther to the right than it
might otherwise go. The radicals there were rich in
flaming rhetoric and sincere in the passion of mtheir
indignation, but there appeared also a woeful lack of
substantive alternatives or proposals beneath the fury
of their condemnations.
Although the split between the Blacks and the whites
has been most publicized, there was an equally signifi-
cant schism there between young and older whites them-
selves. The SDS people and those sharing in their phi-
losophy believe, I think rightly so, that talk of electoral
politics and putting 'good men' in the same offices now
held by 'bad men' is premature until local communities
have been sufficiently organized to provide a genuine
power base for 'new politicians.' 1ut the older groups,
like the SANE people and the Women's Strike for Peace
and left-over radicals from the 30's didn't see it this
way. They were pushing for convention endorsement of
a third national Presidential ticket and seemed both
uninformed and also a bit leary of community organiza-
tion work.
The two vote margin by which those advocating a
'year of total organization' defeated those desiring a
third ticket. 13,517 to 13,515, indicates the extent of the
clevage. This is not to say that this break is permanent,
but it seems reasonable to think that many of the people
in Chicago were there to nominate a sacrificial Presi-
dential candidate for whom they could vote and salve
their conscience in 1968, and the failure of the conven-
tion to approve one represents a serious blow to them.
THE WHITES WERE also split concerning the ques-
tion of the Blacks. The Negroes left the convention floor
almost at the outset, complaining that they were under-
represented on steering and planning committees and
were generally being treated in what they considered a
disdainful manner. They formed their private Black
Caucus, producing a sense of unrest among many of
the other delegates who felt any radical movement lack-
ing Black support was abortive before it even began.
CORE chairman Floyd McKissick stated the basic
Black grievance succinctly when he said "It is no longer
possible for Negroes to be a plank in somebody else's
platform. They must be their own platform."
Ultimately the Blacks did rejoin the main body, after
having two sets of demands accepted. But one of their
accepted statements was and will continue to be costly.
both for the Black Power movement and the white radi-.
cals who are trying to embrace them.
This was their condemnation of the 'imperialist Zion-
ist Israeli war against the Arabs.' Although the whites
did finally adopt this stand in order to try and bring
the Blacks into the convention again, it was extremely
controversial. Many delegates were alienated by the
Black position and subsequent white endorsement of it,
and the wealthy Harvard professor who was one of the
principal financial backers of CNP says he no longer
wants any part of it.
THE BLACKS ARE emerging as a genuine political
force and their impact was the strongest thing felt in
Chicago. They are beginning to sense their arrival: one
can see it in the new proudness in their eyes and hear
it in the voices of McKissick, Dick Gregory, James Fore-
man and Stokely Carmichael. They talk not of riots as
do the whites, but of legitimate rebellions from tryan-
nous conditions.
They are doing what they must do, and it is no longer
in the white domain to provide anything more than
advise which hopefully will be considered.
In the long-run Black Power will be beneficial, for it
represents the permanent breaking-up of the old order.
The same can be said for the power of white radicals
under 30.
But the old, order will not go down without its last-
ditch stand, and thus in the near future it seems reason-
able to expect a wave of reaction to infest the political
climate of the country. And the genuine left, not the
fair-weather left, is not yet strong enough to resist.
THE NEW POLITICS Convention left Chicago splint-
ered and, I think, with a sense of disenchantment. They
will continue to talk their position, as they must, and
more people will listen to it as the war continues and
the ghetto rebellions recur. But if Chicago was an
accurate reflection of the temperament and general
substance of the movement, the new radicalism is going
to have difficulty attracting the non-dissident elements
of the society who are looking for tangible and non-
revolutionary alternatives to the problems they perceive.
Even the convention was split substantially on two
issues, and at times it appeared there was no real basis
for communication between many of the delegates other
than their mutual dislike of the present.
The left will be vocal and visible, but it will also be
out-voted. This is the ill omen. For the mood of the
country seems to be more that of impatience than in-
tolerance with its government. And although impatience
is the first step towards real reform, its prelude is
reaction.
But let us hope not.
I
4
4
Letters:Can Fleming Really Be That Bad?
.V
w...
To the Editor:
WE WOULD like to express our
disapproval of Mr. Rapoport's
biased article regarding President-
Designate Fleming on the front
page of the Sept. 6 Daily.
Without having met Mr. Flem-
ing, one would receive a very un-
favorable impression of the man
throughthe subtle, sarcastic in-
nuendoes which permeate the ar-
ticle. Mr. Fleming has been on the
campus for all of 48 hours, and
already Mr. Rapoport expects that
he instantly devised panaceas to
all problems of the University,.
Having met Mr. Fleming at a
reception in his honor at South
Quad on Wednesday, we feel that
Mr. Fleming gives the impression
of being frank, logical in his
thinking, unassuming, and that he
possesses a sense of humor. This
reception was not a "Hatcher
Tea." On the contrary, Mr. Flem-
ing informally discussed with the
stadents everything from labor
disputes to sophomore women's
hours. In fact he volunteered his
disapproval of the Vietnamese war
without being asked.
Mr. Fleming spoke in a lively,
interesting manner, and at no
time was he hesitant. While ad-
mittedly not possessing all the
answers to students' queries (e.g.
"What role should research play
in the University community?"
"What are the University's obli-
gations to the state government?"
"What stand should the adminis-
tration have taken on the obscen-
ity case?"), he was honest enough
not to write off the questions with
sophistries.
THOSE OF US who are famil-
iar with the Daily's objective edi-
torial policies wish that such
opinions be confined to the edi-
torial page where at least the
readers will take them for what
they are.
--MARK LEVIN
Strike Two: For-FUAW Dispute
THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS' strike
of the Ford Motor Company can come
as no surprise to anyone who follows the
pattern of UAW-Big Three history that
remains regretfully insoluble.,
The attitude leading to the breakdown
in negotiations is a resilt of manage-
ment's long-standing refusal to recognize
that a man's value to the company is not
at all dependent on the color of his col-
lar.
The issue of contention in the' 1967
version of the triennial contract, wrangle
is a UAW-proposed equity plan, whereby
hourly workers who labor under the union
flag would share in the company profits.
REUTHER DEMANDS 'that his unionists
be given the same equity that the
white-collared, salaried employes at Ford
receive. He bases this insistence on an
assertion that Ford could prodtice no
cars if it didn't have men toiling on the
line. While this type of reasoning is in-
deed hyperbolic and somewhat naive,
there is an important truth here that
Ford management refuses to recognize.
This truth is simply that not all Ford
office employes - already blessed with
profit sharing plans of their own-hold
jobs that are of greater value or that re-
quire more training than the average
foundry or stamping plant job. Many
white-collared, equity-included positions
require minimal training for a five day
week of adding-machine pumping. Ford,
however, refuses to grant the same bene-
fits to blue-collar workers as it does to
the white, collar staff because it is un-
precedented among the Big Three to rec-
ognize the line-worker as more than an
hourly-rated numeral. Furthermore, an
equity program for 159,000 workers would
entail considerable additional expense.
IN THE UAW'S FINAL pre-strike offer,
Reuther proposed a 35-day strike post-
ponement predicated on the initiation of
compulsory arbitration. Ford has turned
Reuther down because it is the nature of
arbitration, per se, that the results of
such activity would necessarily include at
least part of Reuther's profit-sharing
plan.,
Ford recognizes this, and is running
scared at the expense of the auto workers
and the nation.
-DAN OKRENT
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L .H "'H , YVI
What form would the Daily's
condemnation have taken had Mr.
Fleming manufactured solutions
to all the major problems? Al-
ready, Mr. Fleming is "damned if
he does and damned if he
doesn't." If, as Mr. Rapoport says,
Mr. Fleming has the bad habit of
offering analyses instead of stock
replies, perhaps stock replies
would preferable to analyses?
Please, gentlemen, let's give the
man a chance before we judge
him.
'-Rich Shulik, '70
-Ken Ke ley, '71
Flaming Judge
To the Editor:
JUDGE SAMUEL ELDEN'S ad-
verse decision against Cinema
Guild might impress the unknow-
ing, since it is replete with ful-
minations against "immorality."
He is, however, not even a self-
acknowledged expert on experi-
mental films, and he seems to
have missed the whole parodistic
idea behind Jack Smith's "Flam-.
ing Creatures," which is a funny
and sick humor film that would
shock no one except people who
expect "David Copperfield." I
doubt that Judge Elden has much
knowledge of contemporary films
and surely no esthetic reaction to
them. His is a case of sheer in-
competence.
He would not squarely say that
the film was arousing to "l'homme
moyen sunsuel," which has been
the acid test in days gone by. He
said with no real reason, that it
might arouse younger people and
would surely arouse homosexuals
and transvestites. His public state-
ment to this effect shows either
a genius for McCarthyite publicity,
or an intimate knowledge of de-
grees of arousals by homosexuals
and transvestites. People may
guess, however.
-Inez Pilk
Riot Aid
To the Editor:
W E THE UNDERSIGNED mem-
bers of SACUA, sensing a
deeply felt and widely shared 'de-
sire among members of the Uni-
versity community to mnake a con-
tribution to the effort required to'
meet the emergency needs of the
displaced families and individuals
who are victims of the recent dis-
orders in Detroit have made ar-
rangements for receiving financial
contributions from members of
the University community for this
purpose to be forwarded to the
Interfaith Emergency Center in
Detroit.
Checks may be made payable to
the "Interfaith Emergency Com..
mittee" and mailed or delivered
to the SACUA Office, Room 2512,
Administration Building, Univer-
sity of Michigan. On, Aug. 15. do-
nations in the amount of $1,542.50
were turned over to. the Interfaith
Center, in the name of the Uni-
versity community. All amounts
received thereafter and prior to
Sept. 15 will also be turned over
to the Center, -and the account
will then be closed unless there
appears to be good cause for its
continuation.
In view of the purpose and in-
tended disposition of these con-
tributions, we believe no question
can be raised regarding their de-
ductibility for income *tax pur-
poses.
-John Bardach
--Irving Copi
--Alexander Eckstein
-John Gosling
-Robert Howe
-Frank Kennedy
-Thomas McClure
-Joseph Payne
-James Wendel
--Ben Yablonky
All letters must be typed,
double-spaced and should be no
longer than 300 words. All let-
ters are subject to editing;
those over 300 words will gen-
erally be shortened. No unsign-
ed letters will be printed.
*q
4.
Strike Three: Teachers' Vacation
THE CURRENT RASH of teacher strikes
in 36 Michigan school districts which
have extended summer vacations for over
500,000 school children must be treated
as a symptom of a deficiency in the state
educational system rather than a prob-
lem in itself. Although local officials may
see the actions of the American Federa-
tion of Teachers as a violation-of state
law prohibiting strikes by public em-
ployes, they may be thankful in the end
to the underpaid, overworked teacher
who has finally swallowed his pride and
taken direct,,militant action.
For the teacher walkouts are making
it' painfully clear to the communities
involved that school boards just don't
have enough funds to offer the quality
education which is demanded. In the
past, inadequate appropriations have
proved 'sufficient, but only at the ex-
pense of teacher salaries. With increased
teacher militancy and concern over the
whole direction of education, school
boards can no longer exploit the teacher.
The teacher strikes in Michigan are the
the Republican -Legislature aggravated
the situation further by failing this year
to raise the educational per-pupil for-
mula for elementary and secondary edu-
cation, despite heated protests by the
PTA and teacher organizations. They
cannot escape their share of responsibil-
ity for the dilemma.
Moreover, voters throughout the state
who have consistently and indiscrimin-
ately turned down crucial millage in-
creases on the premise that school boards
should do a little belt-tightening must
also be blamed.
QUALITY EDUCATION costs a great
deal of money and the availability of
funds cannot depend solely on the whims
of the electorate as it presently does.
School boards must be given the power
to levy taxes, independent of the elector-
ate. If the people do not approve of the
additional spending, they can defeat the
school board members.
School boards must also have their
taxation base expanded. School boards
The heir that made Milwaukee famous.
"No-no-no! . .
Not Alexander! . . . George!"
Abortions: Gun Michigan
Face
By JENNY STILLER
'OME PEOPLE call it legalized
murder. To others it is the
granting of. a long-withheld per-
sonal freedom, or "bringing the
law in line with accepted stand-
ards." To some, "immoral"; to
others, "rational"; to some, "play-
ing God"; to still others, "putting
humans and humanity first."
What they are talking about is a
legal-medicalrissue graught with
social, ethical, moral and religious
considerations-the proposed lib-
eralization of laws governing ther-
apeutic abortion.
The state Legislature is cur-
rently considering such a law,
based, like many others in other
states, on the suggestions made
bthe +A merien LawTImnstitu1te
THE OLD LAW is simple. It is
hard to misinterpret. It also in-
volves no moral judgment; when
faced with the possibility of los-
ing two lives or one, opinion is
unanimous in favor of sacrificing
the unborn child-who would die
with the mother anyway - to
save the woman's life.
The old law is easy for Sunday
nralists to interpret and hospi-
tals to adhere to without having
to get involved with sticky moral
and legal judgments, but it is also
grossly unjust to a large number
of women.
One very simple reason for this
is thatvwhen a woman has made
up her mind to have her pregnan-
cy terminated, she will seek a
criminal abortion if she is denied
nol1 one And criminal hor-
AS THE VOLSTEAD Act prov-
ed, legally prohibiting something
that many people consider im-
miral, but an equal number con-
sider moral will not stop its prac-
tice, but will only drive it under-
ground, where, without the nec-
essary health standards, more of
the innocent "criminal-victims"
will be harmed. Immorality can
only be prevented by education,
not by legislation.
But it is debatable that abor-
tion is immoral. To those whose
religious beliefs include a convic-
tion that lifefsbegins at concep-
tion, the destruction of the fetus
can never be justified. But medi-
cal evidence seems to indicate that
it is not unreasonable to consider
the fetus as somewhat less than
the murder of a human being,
making abortion criminal seems
at best irrational and at worst
downright inhumane, Because the
social costs of an unwanted child
-especially in a world facing im-
minent overpopulation-can hard-
ly be exaggerated.
IT HAS BEEN pointed out again
and again that 80 per cent of the
women seeking abortions are mar-
ried. They want to have their
pregnancy terminated not to avoid
social embarrassment to them-
selves and their families, but be-
cause then cq nnot 5ffor'4 toi f'ed
another child, do not have the time
to give it the care it deserves, or
have reason to fear that it will be
hrn Adfrnmrd Tt is o-nrlnly ac'
abortions should be illegal because
pregnancy is preventable is ridi-
culous-chiefly because a com-
pletely sure method of contracep-
tion has yet to be developed. If
unwanted conception does occur,
abortion is the only answer. For
a healthy adult to undergo any
kind of medical operation that is
not necessary to her health is
foolish. But for a woman to bear
an unloved and unwanted child is
even more so.
MANY E'M O T I O N A L pleas
against, liberalization of the abor-
tion laws come from women who
ask, "If I want to take the chance
of having a deformed child, why
can't I?" It is a pity that such
pleas may well kill the legislation.