Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily'express the individual opinions of staff writers
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: LUCY KENNEDY
A Grant's Tomb:
The Smale-NSF Affair
THE MYTH that the National Science
Foundation (NSF) is virginal just be-
cause the research it supports is pure
has been shattered by their recent re-
jection of a grant request by Stephan
Smale, the controversial Berkeley math-
ematician.
Smale, the nation's top topologist, has
been under constant attack by Rep. Rich-
ard L. Roudebush (R-Ind), a member of
the House committee which controls NSF
appropriations. Roudebush, whose con-
sciousness has been expanded by long
service on the House Un-American Ac-
tivities Committee, has judged Smale to
be "as pink as they come."
Roudebush's interest in Smale's politi-
cal activities stems from last year's Mos-
cow meeting of the International Con-
gress of Mathematicians which awarded
the Berkeley topologist the Fields Prize,
considered by many to be the Nobel
Prize of mathematics.
There, after failing to persuade the
non-political Mathematicians' Congress
to adopt a resolution condemning U.S.
involvement in Vietnam, Smale gave from
the steps of the Moscow University one of
the most iconoclastic press conferences in
history.
In a beautiful "plague on both your
houses" metaphor,' Smale compared
American actions in Vietnam with .the
Russian suppression of the 1956 Hungar-
ian uprising. And he concluded on the
upbeat by attacking the Soviet intellec-
tuals' lack of means of expressing their
discontent over. the Sinyavsky-Daniel
trial.
To a congressional Neanderthal, Smale's
presence in Moscow was, by itself, sus-
pect. And when Smale used his NSF-fi-
nanced trip to Moscow as a forum to at-
tack the war in Vietnam, the action ap-
peared to Roudebush to be bordering on
the seditious.
Of course the NSF has piously denied
any connection between the attacks of
the Hoosier McCarthy and their sudden
decision to "reassess" Smale's application
for the continuation of his grant, citing
the unfeasibility of unspecified "admin-
istrative arrangements" as the reason for
their action.
ACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE to continual
governmental dishonesty, it is diffi-
cult to take seriously the NSF's avowal
that politics had nothing to do with the
refusal of Smale's grant.
It is painfully obvious that the well-
intentioned bureaucrats at NSF believed
that it was more in their interest to
accommodate a witch-hunting congress-
man than to award grants solely on the
basis of scientific merit.
The NSF by yielding. to political ex-
pediency has fatally compromised its ef-
fectiveness as a sponsor of scientific re-
search. Encouraged by NSF's "total coop-
eration," reactionary congressmen will
make their support of the foundation
contingent on the political acceptability
of grant recipients.
And as long as the suspicion exists that
NSF grants require political conformity,
professors will continually be forced to
assess the risks of the controversial posi-
tions.
Scientists who cannot attract research
grants are almost totally useless in large
- universities. These institutions, already
over-accommodating toward the federal
government, will surrender to this latest
abridgement of academic freedom.
In the Smale case, the NSF wasn't
raped, it prostituted itself. While the
damage has been done, the NSF could
still redeem some of its reputation by
reversing its decision on the Smale grant.
Failure to do so will sully both the NSF
and all future NSF grant recipients be-
yond hope of salvation.
-WALTER SHAPIRO
MILAN - You're 1-A, against
the war in Vietnam, and don't
feel like moving to Canada. What
should you do?
Consider jail.
A mere 13 miles south of Ann
Arbor, Milan Federal Correctional
Institution hosts 64 mid-western
young men who have all been
convicted of violating the U.S.
Selective Service Act. They are
serving out terms ranging from 2
to 5 years.
They are part of a growing
number of men across the' coun-
try who have opted for jail over
military service. Federal officials
estimate there are more than 500
men in federal prisions across
the country - up from 256 a
year ago.
AT MILAN the number of "Sel-
ective Service violators" has about
doubled to 64 in the past year
and now comprises about 11 per
cent of the prison population of
590.
Milan has an unusually large
contingent because it is designed
for younger men (18-26) and
primarily serves the Michigan, In-
diana, Ohio, Illinois, and Western
Pennsylvania regions which have
many Amish and Jehovah's Wit-
nesses.
Most of the Selective Service
violators are here on religious
grounds. There are 52 Jehovah's
Witnesses, 4 Amish, 5 Black Mus-
lims, and 3 non-religious. (One
of the non-religious cases involves
a young man who threw human
excrement in his Minneapolis
draft board file). Their fellow
prisoners are largely multiple of-
fense felons who have stolen cars
and mail, forged money .orders,
sold narcotics, and violated parole.
PRISON COUNSELOR Dan Lin-
der is quick to point out that "If
you have any guys at the Uni-
versity thinking of going to prison
as Selective Service violators, tell
them they should be prepared for
pretty much of a hum-drum ex-
istence. We don't have much for
them to do."
Typically though, the Selective
Service violators are admired.
Says Protestant Chaplain Sam
Vivens: "They are the best in-
mates you'll find anywhere. They
work hard, never start any trouble
and provide a model for the other
prisoners to live by. I'd like to
have a whole institution full of
them." Adds Catholic Chaplain
Ray Klauke "I hate to subject
these men to low morals here."
And Warden Paul Sartwell says
"I respect them, I do not view
them as criminals." Mr. Sartwell
currently has one Selective Service
violator serving as gardener for
the well-groomed lawn of his
residence, located just outside the
prison fence. And another selec-
tive service violator serves him
as a houseboy.
MR. SARTWELL'S GARDENER
is Joe, a 20 year-old Amishman
from Ashland, Ohio, who was
actively working on his family's
200 acre farm before the draft
caught up with him.
The court offered to give hime
conscientious objector status and
let him serve for two years in
alternative service at a hospital.
But like most of the selective
service violators at Milan, he re-
fused to accept on the grounds
that any form of service would
be aiding the war effort, which
Milan Federal Correctional Institution
Warden Sartwell
Losing the Peace in Vietnam
RECENT REVELATION of a lost peace
bid earlier this year adds another
chapter to the Johnson administration's
book on how to prolong a war without
really trying.
Between Jan. 6-14 Harry Ashmore, a
vice-president of the Center for the Study
of Democratic Institutions, and William
Baggs, a Miami newspaperman, talked
with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi and discov-
ered the readiness of the North Vietna-
mese "to consider a specific proposal
based on a formula for mutual de-escala-
tion" of the fighting.
Now Ashmore claims that a subsequent
letter to Ho stating readiness by the
State Department to open talks was "ef-
fectively and brutally cancelled" by a
letter from President Johnson through
Moscow sources. A government spokes-
man rebutted Ashmore's contention that
the Johnson letter was harsher in tone.
A look at the circumstances of the let-
ter, however, shows that the President
made even more stringent conditions for
peace talks than before, thus effectively
making the peace bid pointless. .
"I am prepared to order a cessation of
bombing against your country," wrote
Johnson to Ho, "and the stopping of
further augmentation of United States
forces in South Vietnam as soon as I am
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Editorial Staff
ROGER RAPOPORT, Editor
MEREDITH KKER, Managing Editor
MICHAEL HEFFER ROBERT KLIVANS
City Editor Editorial Director
usAN ELAN............Associate Managing Editor
STEPHEN FIRSHEIN ...... Associate Managing Editor
LAURENCE MEDOW......Associate Managing Editor
JOHN LOTTIER........Associate Editorial Director
SUSAN SCHNEPP.............. Personnel Director
NEIL SHISTER................... Magazine Editor
CAROLE KAPLAN........Associate Magazine Editor
LISSA MATTROSS.................... Arts Editor
ANDY SACKS ....................... Photo Editor
ROBERT SHEFFIELD....................Lab Chief
NIGHT EDITORS: W. Rexford Benoit, Neal Bruss,
wallace Immen, David Knoke, Mark Levin, Patricia
O'Donohue, Daniel Okrent, Steve Wildstrom.
Business Staff
WILLIAM XRAUSS Business Manager
assured that infiltration into South Viet-
nam by land and sea has stopped."
But in at least three previous instances
the administration had stressed its will-
ingness to halt the bombing in exchange
for an agreement of Hanoi to come to the
conference table. The Johnson letter was
the first instance of a prior assurance of
unilateral de-escalation of the military
conflict as a pre-condition to talks. Ho
promptly rejected conditions amounting
to abandonment of his forces in the South
while the U.S. would continue to supply
and reinforce its own troops in foreign
soil.
A LOOK AT IMPASSES surrounding oth-
er peace proposals shows a familiar
pattern of U.S. deviousness which has
been documented in Franz Schurmann's
"The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam"
and by Theodore Draper in The New York
Review.
In May, Secretary of State Rusk listed
28 proposals for peace which he claimed
the U.S. had agreed to and Hanoi had
rejected.
Among these he listed "a reconvening
of the Geneva Conference of 1954 and a
return to the agreements of 1954." Ac-
tually, North Vietnam, Communist China
and other Geneva participants had agreed
to such a proposal advocated by United
Nations Secretary-General U Thant in
the summer of 1964. The' U.S. response
was to bomb North Vietnam for the first
time after the so-called Gulf of Tonkin
incident.
According to journalist Bernard Fall,
the 325 North Vietnamese, Division dis-
appeared in combat from the South in
1965 after Rusk called for a "sign," but
the U.S. responded by more bombing.
Other instances can be cited including
quashing of efforts by U Thant (1967),
Canadian diplomat Chester Ronning
(1966) and UN Italian Ambassador Fan-
fanni (1965), to set in motion the deli-
cate machinery of negotiations.
U Thant's last major bid in April of-
fered three points for getting talks start-
ed. The U.S. claimed to agree with them
all unconditionally, but in effect the
Johnson administration demanded that
is against the teaching of his
religion. So he was sentenced to
two years in Federal prison.
A short blond boy clad in a
collarless khaki uniform, Joe is
beginning to sprout a beard since
the Federal Bureau of Prisons de-
cided earlier this month that
Amishmen (who traditionally
wear beards) could be exempted;
from the general ban on inmate
beards.
Joe's 28 year-old brother went
to jail for two-years at Marion,
Ind. and advised Joe to do the
same. A number of his friends
have gone to prison on §imilar
grounds in Pennsylvania.
LIKE MOST of the inmates, he
lives in a sprawling dormitory
unit and sleeps on a paper thin
mattress. He goes to bed at 10:30
p.m. and get up at 6 a.m. He
works an eight hour day, and
after a 4:15 head check, spends
the remainder of his time reading,
praying, or playing horsehdes.
He's found "a good deal of time
to read in the library," which in-
cludes over a thousand titles and
has just ordered the collected
works of Henry Miller. (Also on
the shelves is the U.S. Penal
Code for "inmates who want to
work on their own case.")
Joe has been in jail for eight
months and expects to serve
eleven more. He has been granted
144 "good days" off his original
sentence plus two days off a
month for good behavior.
Rev. Vivens, who is the only
Negro chaplain in the Federal
prison system, sees most of the
Selective Service violators and
says that you "Can generally tell
where one of these guys is from
by the length of his sentence.. The
men from Ohio and Indiana usu-
ally get two to three years. But
the ones from Michigan usually
get five."
ONE OF THEM is Marvin, a
24 year-old Jehovah's Witness
from Grand Rapids who was sen-
tenced to five years but was made
eligible for parole after 20 months.
He expects to be out of jail by
November.
The tall, thin, blondish man
works as a houseboybin his starch-
ed white uniform. He had been
working at a laundry when the
Selective Service ordered him to
serve. He refused on religious
grounds ("If I was in Russia I
would have done the same thing")
and went to Milan.
His wife also moved to this
little town of 3,600 and now visits
him "three times a week for three
hours and fifteen minutes." Visits
are permitted with inmates seven
/days a week.
Many of the prison inmates
earn spending money by working
eight hours a day. manufacturing
government metal beds a n d
lockers in the prison industry.
Photos by Andy Sacks
The noisy factory employes start
at 14 cents an hour but "you can
work up to the maximum 35 c'ents
an hour in no time," explains
a prison official.
BUT MARVIN PREFERS his
housekeeping job at Warden Sart-
well's house. After putting in six
months at the job, he has quali-
fied for a $10 monthly honorar-
ium.
Marvin has taken bookkeeping
at the prison high school, which
has a staff of ten and can gradu-
ate a student with a degree from
Milan High School. (The prison
has 158 high school graduates, 54
functionally illiterates and 6 illit-
erates. More inmates have IQ's
over 100 than below.)
He generally spends a good deal
of time With his fellow Jehovah's
Witnesses who worship jointly
three times a week. Some of them
are the children of men who serv-
ed time at Milan for refusing to
fight in World War II.
A number of responsible stu-
dents who are taking a, heavy
high school load are given "pre-
ferred quarters" in the honors
study unit. These are former cell
blocks that have been converted
to unlocked rooms. They are
slightly smaller than East Quad-
rangle singles, and the fortunate
inmates that have them are free
to come and go on their own.
However, a prisoner with a col-
lege background woundn't be
eligible for the honors unit priv-
ilege since he wouldn't be attend-
ing high school.
MANY OF THE inmates are
allowed to take jobs at factories
in Toledo, Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti
during the day (and return to
the prison after work). But Selec-
tive Service violators can't, since
Federal prison regulations pro-
hibit it.
"Apparently the rationale," says
counselor Linder "is that by let-
ting Selective Service violators
work outside jobs, more men
would refuse to serve."
The prison itself is in the midst
of a year-old conversion. Formerly
it was filled with older, responsible
criminals like corrupt business
executives, politicans, and union
officials. Security was at a min-
imum. There are no armed guards
patrolling the prison's inner
courtyard, which features a gar-
den, plus handball, basketball
and tennis courts.
But the switch to younger .(18-
26) inmates has prompted pro-
blems. Monday, three men on a
work detail outside the prison
fence escaped in a private car.
To tighten security the prison
is erecting a high barbed wire
topped fence, and a second con-
trol tower.
Still, the Selective Service vio-
lators don't seem to regret their
decision to go to jail. "It's really
not as bad a place as I expected,"
says Joe. "I'd do it over again if
I had to."
AND THE TRISON officials ex-
pect td see more and more Selec-
tive Service violators.' Says an of-
,ficial at the Federal Bureau of
Prisons headquarters in Wash-
ington: "Unless the war in Viet-
nam stops, I expect there will
be many more of these men."
But the prison officials aren't
seeking more Selective Service
violators. Says Protestant chap-
lain Vivens: "Don't tell everyone
how good they'll have it here. We
don't want them breaking down
the doors to get in."
I
I
I
I
Preferred Inmates' Quarters
General Inmates' Quarters
. .... .............. ... ... ...
Letters:3, Defending th we Renott Strike
To the Editor:
W E ARE SOME of the residents
of University Housing who
withheld the $10.00 rent increase
for the month of September. Be-
fore withholding, one of us called
the Office of Student Housing and,
asked if the University had ever
required a student to pay a
month's rent because he had not
given a 60 day notice prior to
moving. The replywas affirmative.
andi further, we were told that the
Hatcher's. office which indicated
an impending tuition increase and
an increase in the rates at Baits
Housing, but conspicuously deleted
any reference to married student
housing, is also not of primary
concern.
The fact that the rental increase
was put into effect at a time
when housing is at an absolute
premium, so that a family seeking
non-university housing is com-
pletely at the mercy of the land-
We are not demanding a with-
drawal of the rent increase until
Jan. 1, 1968, as many believe, nor
are we arguing the Universities
right to raise rent. In fact, al-
though thereis much room for im-
provement in services and facil-
ities, University housing is still the
best deal in Ann Arbor at the
price. What we are arguing is the
decision of the University to ignore
its responsibility, not to mention
courtesy towards the students.
IT IS HOPED that with the re-
activation of the Northwood-Ter-
race Association, the interests of
all North Campus residents will
be represented so that this type
of conflict can be avoided in the
would be penalized for a similar
future.
We want to emphasize that the
basic principle involved is not the
rent increase per se, but the fact
that we had no prior notice of
the intended increase, while we
action against the University.
When I received the 'Summary
of Student Regulations" (effective
Aug. 22, 1967), I was greeted
with a list of potential locations
for automobile parking. Triangle
Lot, located at Thompson, Pack-
ard and Madison, was the only
student lot warranting considera-
tion, the next closest lot being the
Ice Rink. I must admit that I fail-
ed to consider this meager allo-
cation as a "blessing." I have
changed my ways.
Triangle no longer belongs in
4