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 Under the Influence Card Carrying Capitalists of Meredith Eiker .: Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. Truth Will Prevail NEws PHONE: 764-05521 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID KNOKEI I Allowing Residential College A Free Hand to Experiment HE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE commu- nity has stated that a curfew of wom- en's hours is inconsistent with the phil-' osophy and aims of the college. The en- tire community of the Residential Col- lege is in agreement on this issue. Now, the college as a whole will pursue the abolition of hours through the proper University channels. Before Mr. Feldkamp and others make their decisions concerning this matter, it would be wise to re-examine the nature and intent for establishing the college. The college, as commissioned by the Regents, is simply a large laboratory in- corporating many individual experiments concerning curricula, community govern- ment and social attitudes. The Lit School has given the college a spirit of academic freedom in which to explore the prob- lems and values of certain curriculum innovation. The Regents have -given the Residential College an administration es- tablished in such a way to discover the feasibility of merging administration with the rest of the academic community where defined lines. of authority need not exist. SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION, however, has been stifled. The maintaining of the University's ideals of social status quo within the Residential College hinders the innovation and progression of experi- ments in academics and administration. The very purpose of this experiment is to find out whether certain things will work. This task is given to the Residen- tial College because it is felt that the risk is too great to take on a mass scale. Eliminating women's hours within the Residential College is certainly no more revolutionary than pass-fail courses for freshmen. And besides, such elimina- tion does not necessarily mean that it is the right thing to do. Perhaps pass-fail courses for undergrads will prove an anti-stimulating phenomenon. Likewise, perhaps the elimination of all women's hours will propagate promiscuity. In the same manner those who must give the college the official OK are not saying that they believe it is the right thing to do. They are saying that it is the correct action so that the experiment can discover the favorable social milieu. The Residential College community has established a system of review and re- call which could, feasibly, institute stricter restrictions on women's hours than presently exist in the University system-if they find out that such ac- tion is the right thing to do. BUT IF THEY are denied this privilege to investigate and experiment thej University is undermining the very rea- son the college was established. Subse- quently the University will not only fail to receive any conclusions concerning social attitudes, it will also fail to ob- tain valuable information in the area of academics or administration. Thus it seems but a simple matter to decide whether or not this experiment should be granted the right to experi- ment. The money, the planning, the work already finished on the new con- cept would all be meaningless if the tools of experimentation are denied those who have been commissioned to experiment. -JIM HECK TWELVE-HUNDRED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS are currently walking around campus with Visa cards in their pockets. Before today is over, 1200 more may have joined their ranks. Ultimately, if sales proceed at the same rate as SGC's optimism, ten to 20,000 University students wi11 become card-carrying capitalists. Visa is a new "deal" being offered to college students across the country-on this side of the Mississippi any- way. And at least at a surface glance, there seems to be something in the deal for everyone. Visa is the registered trade mark for Shield Interna- tional Corporation, a Washington, D.C. firm which lists its objectives as "to aid both students and parents who are faced with the high cost of a college education" and "to increase student trade and establish customer loyalty for both local and national businesses interested in the college market." A VISA MEMBERSHIP costs $1.50, and the imme- diate rebate on this -purchase is a card and a "college guide" listing the names of the participating merchants and their individual discount offers. Also included in the guide are further coupons entitling member students to additional savings in various forms. Sound reasonable enough? It is-if you don't look to closely. First of all, the 100 or so merchants offering dis- counts are not confined to the University campus area. Most are not even within walking distance of the campus facilities. As a matter of fact, a vast majority of them are located in the outer limits of Ann Arbor, in Ypsilanti. Detroit, or even East Lansing. Second, discounts have a minimal range: five to ten per cent. This is, at best, a token gesture. Discounts are applicable to cash purchases only and exclude sale and fair trade items. Take, for example, Sam's Store on E. Washington, well-known for its supply of Levis. Here is seemingly good opportunity to use Visa discounts. But, Levis are fair trade items and not eligible for Visa dis- counts. Further, Visa has made no in-roads into cutting the cost of the greatest student expenses - books and food. Bookstore discounts are noticeably lacking from the Visa list in the Ann Arbor area (one Wayne bookstore appears) and the only participating grocery is in Ypsil- anti. Movie theaters offering reduced rates are also con- fined to the Detroit area. STUDENTS WITH CARS may find Visa membership a small savings, but for University students who restrict their shopping sprees to South University and State Streets, with an occasional trek to Main Street, Visa cards will prove relatively useless. Visa, however, does have a significantly redeeming feature. Shield International Corporation sells cards to SGC at a cost of 90 cents per card. SGC in turn sells the cards to students for $1.50 - a profit of 60 cents. Twenty cents goes to the student actually' selling the card, while the other forty cents fills the SGC treasury. If student participation in Visa is high, SGC stands to make a substantial gain: 10,000 Visa card sales will net them $4,000. Although student benefit from Visa cards themselves is negligible, benefit derived from SGC activities could be conceivably worthwhile. The only tangible plan SGC has at the moment is the purchase of a Volkswagen Microbus to be used for communication. But other more noble ventures are in the works. Students purchasing Visa cards should be aware the SGC will receive the greatest gains. Discounts could bring the student a one-hundred per cent return on his initial $1.50 investment. The question becomes one of open support for SGC. THIS IS A CRUCIAL semester for student govern- ment at the University. SGC as it now exists may be obsolete before the year is out, and a student government organization independent of the University's Office of Student Affairs will need funds in order to operate. Visa is of questionnable merit. SGC is in a tenuous position financially and politically. And one SGC member commented last night, "I don't plan to buy a Visa card and I don't know of any SGC members who have as yet. . It seems to be up to the students to decide the fate of both Visa and SGC. I I A Old Authors Never Lie: They Fade A way Changing Clothes at South Quad THE LONG OVER-DUE rejection of dress regulations by South Quad Council, while hardly a "landmark decision," is still somewhat gratifying to advocates of student power as well as those who don't give a damn about clothes. Dress regulations were one of the more anachronistic rules foisted upon an un- willing student body. For years there have been complaints about these rules, but no one has dared to do anything about them. Now, following the wake of SGC and JJC in asserting the student voice in their affairs, South Quad Coun- cil has taken but a timid step forward. Dress regulations for years annoyed .dormitory residents, serving no educa- tional or social purpose. They were an un- necessary attempt to stamp middle-class norms on these residents, and their abo- lition is a welcome to all those welcom- ing a spirit of reform. HOPEFULLY, THIS SPIRIT will not go unnoticed by other dorm councils. However, abolishing dress regulations is only one of many necessary reforms. One- of which is the present cafeteria policy which could stand reforming. Currently all freshmen are forced to eat food which is not only remarkably unpleasant but needlessly expensive. Some arrangement allowing students to pay on a pro-rated basis of number of meals eaten should be devised, thus not punishing students who wish to eat elsewhere. While housing administrators might argue that this sys- tem would be more expensive because of waste, they could easily determine the expected attendance rate for meals as accurately as they do now. They might also consider a 'freer sign- out policy for women. Radcliffe has such a policy which allows students to stay anywhere at night, and need only leave their address in a sealed envelope, to be used foPemergencies. The actions taken by the dorm coun- cils have not been terribly daring up to now, and there is little reason to expect that they will change significantly in the future. They have as a rule, followed leads given by their dorm directors or by the unspoken policy of the University. Abolition of dress regulations may be a start, but certainly South Quad Coun- cil is capable of something a bit more imaginative than this. -RON LANDSMAN -LYNNE KILLEN By JENNY STILLER SOME THIRTY years ago, four European writers of consider- able note got together and pub- lished "Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War," a collection of opinions, on the Spanish Civil War solicited from 150 British writers.The authors queried over- whelmingly favored the republi- can Loyalists, although there were one or two exceptions. (Ezra Pound spoiled the unaminity a bit by telling his fellow artists, "You are all had. Spain is an emotional luxury to a gang of sap-headed dilettantes.") Nonetheless, the responses were mostly heartening to the book's Old Left editors., It even sold about as well as could be expect- ed, but when the civil war ended with Franco victorious, and peo- ple's minds turned to the more pressing business of World War II, everybody forgot about the book. But a few remembered it. And when author-critic Cecil Woolf and historian John Bagguley re- read the book and compared their memories to contemporary news- papers, it was inevitable that it would only be a matter of time before "Authors Take Sides on Vietnam" would be compiled and published. NOT TOO surprisingly, the 259 multi-national authors who re- sponded to Woolf and Bagguley's questionnaire viewed the United States' role in Vietnam much the same way that their predecessors v i e w e d Generalissimo Franco's fight for the control of Spain. Of the 72 writers whose answers could be judged to be unequivo- cally for or against the U.S. pres- ence in Vietnam, only six sup- ported the official U.S. govern- ment position. Who these six are, however, is revealing. The only American of the group is John Updike, while the other five, all British, are Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest, Rupert Croft-Cooke, Roy Harrod, and Auberon Waugh. When asked "Are you for, or against, the intervention of the United States in Vietnam?" and "How, in your opinion, should the conflict in Vietnam be resolved?" novelist Amis responded in a man- ner that would make the Secre- tary of Defense proud of him: "Those who favor American withdrawal must either admire Communism, or suppose that it is not imperialistic and aggressive, Old Novelists for the war: Anis and Updike or both. I can do neither, so I sup- port America's present policy. It may well be impossible to defeat the Communists in the field. For- tunately this is not necessary. They have simply to be convinced that they can never win. They will collapse then." NOVELIST, POET, and essayist Updike proved more reflective in his response: "Like most Americans, I am un- comfortable about our military adventure in South Vietnam. But in honesty I wonder how much of the discomfort has to do with its high cost, in lives and money, and how much with its moral legiti- macy. I do not believe that the Viet Cong and Ho dhi Minh have a moral edge over us. I am' for our intervention if it does some good, specifically if it enables the people of South Vietnam to seek their own political future. It is absurd to suggest that a village in the grip of guerrillas has freely chosen, or that we owe it to his- tory to bow before a wave of the future engineered by terrorists." But the answers of those op- posed to the Vietnam war are also, enlightening. Since few artists- especially writers - make a name for themselves before they are thirty, and since a substantial number of those responding to the questionnaire have been establish- ed liberals since the forties, the book may practically be read as a study in the art of moving from angry young manhood to cynical middle age. AS THEY approach middle age, most young radicals gyrate to- ward one of"two extremes-refus- ing to mature politically or "sell- ing out." It is only a few rare individuals who are fortunate enough to achieve the golden mean of growing older gracefully, drawing on the experience' of the added years to become calmer without losing their original dedi- cation to liberal principles. Of all the authors who "take sides on Vietnam" in the book, Jules Feif- fer perhaps comes closest to find- ing the golden mean, while the two extremes are personified by Norman Mailer and W. H. Auden., Perhaps because his reputation is based chiefly on his current output rather than on his fhast successes, cartoonist-novelist- playwright Feiffer's response is not likely to startle or dismay any of his admirers. His readers know Feiffer to be a practical, clear- sighted liberal who despite a whimsically pessimistic view of humanity has not lost his sense of humor, and his statement on Vietnam lives up to the image. "The solution to the problem is .so simple that I'm amazed it hasn't occurred to anyone else," he wrote. "Lyndon Johnson should go on nationwide TV and say to the American people, 'Ah have goofed,' thus ending the only real aggression in Vietnam: our own. If he brings to his withdrawl speech the same tears of regret he brings to his escalation speech- es, the American people might very well unite behind him and he probably will not be impeached." BUT TO THE admirers of either Mailer or Auden, the spectacle of one talented, intelligent man striving through a grotesque par- ody of his former self to regain his lost youth, and another mouth- ing platitudes to explain his "sell- out" is both saddening and sober- ing. Mailer, whose reputation kas a novelist was matched only by that as resident crank during the hey- day of Greenwich Village, could come up with nothing better than, "The truth is, maybe we need a war. It may be the last of the tonics. From Lydia Pinkham to Vietnam in 60 years, or bust." He went on to elaborate on a supposedly tongue-in-cheek alter- native - having "wars which 'are like happenings . . . every sum- mer. . . . Let us buy a tract of land in the Amazon ... and throw in marines and seabees and Air Force, scuba divers for the river bottom, . . . invite them all. "We'll have war games with real bullets and real flame throwers, real hot-wire correspondents on the spot, TV with phone-in aud- ience participation, amateur war- movie-film contests for the sol- diers, discotheques, Playboy clubs, pictures of the corpses for pay- TV, you know what I mean-let's get the hair on the toast for breakfast." If he wasn't making himself so ridiculous, we could feel sorry for him. As it is, poor old Norm just gets written off as a total loss. BUT MOST saddening of all is the case of the young radical who, like Auden, "sells out." Former Britisher Auden, himself one of the editors of "Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War," told the editors of the current book, "Why writers should be- canvassed for their opinion on controversial political issues, I cannot imagine. Their views have no more author- ity than -those of any reasonably, well-educated c i t i z e n. Indeed, when read in bulk, the statements made by writers, including the greatest, would seem to indicate that literary talent and political common sense are rarely found together." Despite his changed attitude as to whether men of letters should comment on political affairs, Auden went on to give his own opirdon of the Vietnam conflict. "War is a corrupting business, but it is dishonest of those who demand the immediate with- drawal of all American troops to pretend that their motives are purely humanitarian. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that it would be better if the Communists won. "My answer to your question is, I suppose, that I believe a nego- tiated peace,. to which the Viet Cong will have to be a party, to be possible, but not yet, and that, therefore, American troops, alas, must stay in Vietnam until it is. But it would be absurd to call this answer mine. It simply means that I am an American citizen who reads The New York Times." Thirty years ago, Auden edited a book of authors' political opin- ions, co-authored a pacifistic play, "On the Frontier," and championed the republican cause in the . clear-cut, facists-versus- leftists Spanish Civil War. Today we find him questioning why anyone should be interested in what authors think of politics, indulging in simplistic interpreta- A 'I 4 I Norman Mailer tions that make any pacifist "rightly or wrongly" a Commun- ist sympathizer, and forcing the smoky issues of Vietnam into a "clear-cut" mold so that he can live with his view of theni. It is a sad progression to watch. The Auden-Mailer phenomenon is unfortunately not an uncom- mon one among men of letters. It is widely recognized that the sen- sitive; intelligent individual faces in late adolescence the crisis of "growing up absurd." What is less accepted but just as prevalent is the process of aging, which all too often brings with it tile steady deterioration of either his talent, his, common sense, or, most often, his ideals. I There's No Business Like . . . IN A PRELUDE to picking candidates to fill the vaunted positions of their soon-to-be established Business Hall of Fame, the University's Business School has conducted a survey among business executives to ascertain who they consider to be America's best businessmen of all time. The executives used a 10 point scale (first place 10 points, second place nine, etc.) to rate these behemoths of busi- ness on their possession of what they considered to be traits that are endear- ing to all modern businessmen. The survey also asked the executives to choose 10 men considered to be the top business scoundrels of all time. Five The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and Collegiate Press Service. Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by carrier ($5 by mail); $8.00 for regular academic school year ($9 by mail). Daily except Monday during regular academic school year. Daily exce pSunday and Monday during regular of the men chosen as the greatest scoun- drels (William Randolph Hearst, J. Pier- pont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Cor- nelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie) were also considered to be among the top businessmen. AND MODERN BUSINESS is disturbed by their low reputation among to- day's college generation? -R.A.K. Happy 20th, CIA WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (The New York Times) - The Central Intelligence Agency was praised by President John- son and Vice-President' Humphrey today for its 20 years as the No. 1 American intelligence service ... "You can't expect in a free society to be immune from criticism," Mr. Hum- phrey said in an extemperaneous ad- dress. "But remember," he said, "if you weren't hing criticized. you wouldn't h Letters:East Quad Council Defends Itself To the Editor: YOUR REPORT of the Sept. 19 S meeting of the Pro-Temp Community Government of the Residential College was marred by inaccurate coverage. This is es- pecially true with regard to your account of my brief participation, which was only to clarify East Quadrangle Council's p o s i t i o n with regard to the Residential College government's autonomy. What I said was that the Resi- dential College's autonomy would not be jeopardized by joining East Quad Council.- I stated that we were sharing the same facilities and for that reason we should cooperate, not that "we're not separate." In response to the, question raised by the Residential College students as to what sanctions the East Quad Council would take if they did not join, I replied that East Quad Council had not pro- nosr edan sanctinns hecause it tional, have produced a misunder- standing and malice which we have been trying to avoid. In the future, The Daily might avoid misrepresentations of this sort by sending a more experienced re- porter to obtain correct informa- tion for your articles. --R. Braccialarghe, '70 Residential College To the Editor: WANT to express the apprecia- tion of many of us here at the Residential College for The Daily's interest and sympathetic report- ing. However, I do think Tuesday's article gave some misleading im- pressions. For example, our small carpeted classrooms are not the Student Hilton by any means: the carpets are made from a thread- bare cut-up lounge carpet of many year's use; the acoustic ceilings are necessary to make the base- ment rooms usable. Even at its clude the average student and make this an Honors College. If the RC works, we want it to work for typical students. If RC students come to have more en- thusiasm for ideas, if they learn more or integrate their knowledge better, we want to be able to see if the college itself was responsi- ble, and we could never do this if we had too much of an elite in the first place. IT IS TRUE that students have a large voice here, but our em- phasis is somewhat different. We have leapfrogged right over "stu- dent power." which is a movement, a reaction to student powerless- ness, by starting with the premise that students are not clients to be administered to, but responsi- ble members 'of the RC commu- nity. The development of this com- munity is our preoccupation, and this is what should be stressed. These kinds of misconceptions can still encourage opposition to '.. Ar i- . '" . .n '. r -+T n a +n ri of the "automated" workers for six months and while there cer- tainly was mechanization the worst that can be said about the job is that it was boring. Contrary to the implications of Miss Eiker's "sensitive and bril- liant" roommate, who is, I imag- ine, merely naive, we were not overworked, breaks being frequent. I witnessed no "bitterness and jeering;" and such words as "rats, fear and resentment" are sheer hyperbole.' -Meegan Knutson '68 Reply To the Editor:' AFTER READING the letter of Mr. Jay Calahan in The Daily (Sept. 5), it became apparent that he was more interested in meet- ing the requirements of his dra- matic speech writing class than in discussing the issues at hand. Between the ruffles of sarcastic understanding of the issues, Mr. Calahan missed the proverbial boat. The issues are these: It is in- conceivable that the IHA proposal, although aimed at helping the residence hall employes obtain col- lective bargaining, could have significantly influenced the out- come of the strike. WHAT VAS conceivable was that a students' strike which re- moved services from other stu- dents (yes, including paper plates and being late for classes) could only have an adverse effect on the students themselves. According to Mr. Calahan, all I am interested in is making sure I'm not eating on paper plates. This is an indication of how deep- ly he read my letter. The main point, of the letter was that the IHA was acting in a selfish man- ner in asking the students not to try to improve their own situa- r!