Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS ROGER RAPOPORT: Where the Draft Dodgers Lodge Where Opinions Are 'Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. Truth VWillPrevail NEws PHONE: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily'express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. 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 Published at 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich- igan, 48104. Owner-Board in Control of Student Publications, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104. Bond or stockholders-none. Average press run-8,000. 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