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November 09, 1967 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1967-11-09

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_

~j~glAtrp4wu lt aily~
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
Can A Legislature Educate?
of Meredith Eiker

Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD $T., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail

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.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1967

NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL OKRENT

An IFC Split: Big vs. Small
House Controversy in FPA

THE GROWJNG FRICTION between the
large well known fraternity houses
seeking more independence and the pa-
ternalistic executive committee of the
Interfraternity Council is threatening to
tear the organization apart. These large
houses have begun to seriously question
the structure and function of IFC in the
midst of debate over a proposal for pro-
portional representation in the Fraternity
Presidents Assembly, the legislative
branch of IFC.
The immediate issue is simple: Will
there be a reapportioning of the .as-
sembly on a "one man-one vote" basis?
But behind this issue is a growing dis-
enchantment with the structure and
function of IFC. The reapportionment
controversy threatens the very existence
of the organization.
THE PROPOSAL BEFORE FPA consists
of a plan to give houses with 39 or less
mehbers two votes in the assembly,
houses with 40 to 79 three votes, and
houses with 80 or more four votes.
The clamor among several large and
financially sound fraternities for pro-
portional representation stems in part
from their feeling that IFC is an execu-
tive-dominated organization, and the
FPA little more than a rubber stamp
for the IFC executive committee. Indeed,
most fraternity presidents cannot recall
the last time the FPA passed a measure
which had been reported unfavorably
out of the executive committee.
One large fraternity president, who
spoke for the plan at the executive com-
mittee meeting, said "it was like talking
to a stone wall."
Another proponent of the reform meas-
ure explained that while Student Gover-
ment Council has been campaigning to
allow individual housing units to decide
on conduct rules, IFC has been trying
to enforce its own petty rules on members.

Some fraternity presidents depict the IFC
executive committee as a power hungry
group striving to keep alive "in loco
parentis "
Recenty, for example, a large campus
fraternity was fined $50 for not sending
a steward to an IFC steward's meeting,
even though that chapter retains no
steward.
Yet the large houses, which are nat-
urally less dependent on IFC, consider
themselves powerless to stop this kind
of domination. Legislative reform is near-
ly impossible under the present system,
which gives each house only one vote,
regardless of size.
Still another aspect of controversy con-
cerns 'financial matters. Member fra-
ternities are assessed according to the
number of active members. Thus, a house
with 25 members pays a fourth as much
as a house with 100 members.
THE HOUSES that favor reapportion-
ment are justifiably disgruntled with
an organization that polices the member
groups rather than serves them. Zeta
Beta Tau is presently withholding dues
from IFC, and at least five other large
houses are considering similar action.
The whole situation raises the question
of whether the present strongly conser-
vative, centralized IFC is preferrable to
a flexible federation that would only over-
see mutual fraternity problems.
But the fraternity presidents opposing
reapportionment fail to see this motion
as a valuable opportunity to put IFC on
a new and stronger course. They also
fail to realize that should the motion be
defeated, IFC could face imminent finan-
cial destruction. Reapportionment is the
last opportunity to make constructive re-
form and the last chance to prevent a
complete break-up of IFC.
-STEVE NISSEN

DURING THE WEEKS which have followed the
University of Wisconsin's bloody student protest of
the Dow Chemical Corp., the city of Wisconsin has be-
come a volatile center of debate-debate which has not
been confined to the rights of demonstrators and ques-
tions of police brutality, but which has extended into
questions of state-supported universities' sovereignity as
well.
On Oct. 20, two days after the protest occurred, the
Wisconsin State Senate resolved to form a "fact-finding"
committee on what it termed "the riotous and unlawful
activities of the week of Oct. 16." Less than a week later
Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles voiced opposition to
involvement by the State Legislature in university affairs.
Knowles spoke in response to specific proposals to
put legislators on the university's Board of Regents say-
ing, "I think it would be a mistake to have legislative
members in any agency of state government ... to inject
politics into this would be inappropriate and probably
unconstitutional."
BUT IN SPITE of Knowles' warning and university
Chancellor William Sewell's efforts to justify peaceful
demonstrations and ultimately to insure academic and
political freedom on the Madison campus, the state
senate committee went ahead with its investigation.
Further, Wisconsin Federal District Court Judge James
Doyle issued a restraining order prohibiting University
officials from taking any final disciplinary action (sus-
pension or expulsion) against students participating in
the Dow protest.

Judge Doyle's restraining order, which he extended
on Tuesday, raises the serious question of whether or not
university disciplinary actions are, or should be, subject
to judicial review. The question, however, is not merely
one of the limit of judicial review, but rather of univer-
sity autonomy.
The Wisconsin campus is unfortunately only a short
walk away from the state Capitol Building. The senate
investigation carried on seems to have proven the sen-
ators to be not only unsympathetic toward dissent, but
also willing to castigate professors supporting dissenters
and to threaten withdrawal of allocated funds from de-
partments having professors with "radical" views. Other
members of the senate committee criticized Sewell's
"eleniency" in dealing with such professors.
WISCONSIN HAS BECOME a testing ground for the
rights and limits of dissent. Speaking to several hundred
students last weekend, Percy Julain, a Madison attorney
defending students arrested in the Dow demonstration,
warned that free speech in the United States is cyclical.
"Speech is more free when a country is at peace and in
prosperity than during war-the time when dissent is
most needed."
"Dissent," continued Julian, "is the crucial issue ...
Wisconsin should be able to tolerate dissent . . . no uni-
versity should use its power for the limiting of discussion."
The Negro lawyer indicated that universities have a
dual function-"to teach and to toss around ideas"-and
that the tossing around of ideas "by the most vigorous
methods possible" is perhaps the more important func-
tion.

The Wisconsin State Legislature of course disagrees
with Julian and would undoubtedly have been horrified
to hear him say that there is "an over-emphasis on the
adult population-students have a right and duty to run
the university." The Wisconsin legislature is undoubtedly
also willing to shirk its responsibilities in the realm of
dissent experimentation.
ALREADY THE STATE Board of Regents have re-
quested and had drawn up a code of ethics with a strict
set of guidelines for student demonstrations at Wiscon-
sin's nine state universties. Whether or not they will pass
this code, which among other things forbids students to
carry placards or banners inside school buildings in pro-
test of national or school policies, has yet to be decided.
And even if the state Board of Regents approves the
code, will the individual university Boards of Regents also
approve them?
MEANWHILE, UNIVERSITY of Wisconsin students
are debating what form of protest to use against the
Central Intelligence Agency when it comes to hold inter-
views next week. While the actual numberof students who
would participate 4in any demonstration against the CIA
might be small, the number of students supporting the
demonstrators right to protest is vast.
Repetition of the Oct. 18 incident would be disastrous
for Wisconsin, but even more disastrous would be success-
ful attempts at stifling dissent. Wisconsin was the home
of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, leader of the Communist witch-
hunt in the U.S. during the 1950's. Is the state now breed-
ing his successor?

Letters: Canadians Speak Against U.S. Domination

AS CANADIANS we would like
to comment on the policies of
the Canadian government as set
forth in the speech of the Hon.
Paul Martin, Canada's Minister of
External Affairs (Daily, Nov. 3).
The essence of the speech was
that Canada exercises independent
policies and benefits from the close
association with the United States.
If Canada's foreign policy were
as independent as Mr. Martin as-
serted, why has Canada refused to
extend diplomatic recognition to
the legitimate government of
China, as the Liberal administra-
tion originally said it would?
If Canada desired a solution to
the Vietnam war, as Mr. Martin
maintained, why has Prime Min-
ister Pearson adopted a policy of
"quiet diplomacy," in which Can-
ada expresses no opposition to the
war? Why does Canada continue
to supply essential war materials
to the United States and why has
Canada used her membership in
the International Control Commis-
sion as a cover for its lack of
dynamic opposition to United
States intervention in Vietnam?
MR. MARTIN, in discussing
common defense efforts, neglected
to mention the risks Canada incurs
by remaining in North American
Air Defense (NORAD)-risks sug-
gested by so authentic a source as
the United States Defense Depart-
ment, in its statement that the
purpose of BOMARC (developed at
U. of Mich. war research labora-
tories) missiles on Canadian soil
is to draw fire from U.S. cities and
defense installations.
In these three areas-foreign
policy, attitude toward the war in
Vietnam, and common defense-
Canada is not so independent of
United States influence as Mr.
Martin claims. Many Canadians
wish she were.
-Keewatin Dewdney, Grad
-Paul Gingrich, Grad
-Richard Kerr, Grad
--Allen Schnaiberg, Grad

- Sticker Money
To the Editor:
WELL, HERE is the annual query
into the campus parking si-
tuation. As a student and resident
of Ann Arbor for five years, I have
seen many articles appear in The
Daily asking questions about the
parking problem. But, I have yet to
get any answer. It seems some
debate is sparked but it usually
dies after a couple of weeks and
the problems go on. As old ques-
tioners graduate, new ones enroll
and the trend continues.
The "E" sticker is a University
attempt at controlling the number
of cars brought to the campus by
students. The fees which used to
be seven dollars have now tumbled
to four dollars. But what is the
money used for? The "E" sticker
itself only permits a student to
drive on campus-it has nothing
to do with parking. I can see the
wisdom of an "E" sticker as a
control which will permit only
qualified drivers to operate auto-
mobiles in Ann Arbor, but I can't
understand why a fee is imposed.
I still haven't touched on the
main problem. Given an "E" stick-
er and a car, there is no place to
go. I think the situation also in-
volves the City of Ann Arbor. I
don't believe anyone can name a
convenient lot or parking structure
for the use of students that is close
to classes. The nearest a student
comes to being provided for is the
handful places on East U. where
six minutes costs a penny. Even
at that, a student is likely to get
a one dollar ticket if the meter
maids-as they so often do-check
the meters on the hour.
You see, if a student parks, goes
to class, and walks back to his car,
a minimum of seventy minutes
elapse. Since parking meters only
register sixty minutes,hthere is an
interval during which time the
meter is expired. I have seen days
when nine out of ten cars on East
U. have been ticketed at one or two
minutes after the hour. The point
here is there is really no con-
venient place for a student to park

without fear of fine. By the same
token, Health Service is completely
impossible to park near.
AND SO THE story goes clear
across campus. I'm sure everyone is
aware of the problem-that is not
the point of this letter. I feel, that
with their excellent research re-
sources, The Michigan Daily could
look into the area of campus park-
ing and find out:
1) Where the money from "E"
sticker sales goes and what it is
being used for.
2) Possible sources of land for a
student parking lot, parking struc-
ture, or even an underground lot.
3) The necessary channels for
bringing this problem to those who
can do somethingabout it.
I am very hopeful that the qual-
ified people on The Michigan Daily

staff can get to the bottom of the
Ann Arbor parking problem and
get some action.
-Gary A. Hagan
'68 Engineering
Soldier's View
To the Editor:
PLEASE EXCUSE my spelling
and grammatical errors, but
I've spent a while away from your
coveted Ivory Tower existence.
(Somehow it's expected that the
GI is ignorant in as much as he is
a mere instrument of war, so I'll
humble myself, violate proper
technique and begin with an
apology.)
Since I've begun to subscribe to
The Daily (yes it does get to the
jungles of Vietnam) I can't help
but be amazed by how well in-

-Z I

The Danger of Drafting Dissent

rIE STATEMENT by Gen. Lewis Her-
shey, Director of the Selective Service
System, that it will draft into the armed
services those who block draft recruiters
infringes on the important, and now pre-
cariously preserved, right to dissent.
Such a policy would turn our conscrip-
tion system into a means of punishing
those whose opinions diverge from the
current policy. Most all of those who
are sitting-in, such as the protesters at
several colleges last week, do not have
the slightest delusion of being able to
effectively halt the administration of
military induction. What these people
do intend by their actions is to express
their feelings and opinions on the issue
of American military involvement, and
perhaps carry on a dialogue with some
of the oficials concerned with that in-
volvement.
Thus the sit-in must be viewed as a
form of free expression, and so long as
it doesn't infringe on the rights of others
-such as the right to enter or leave a
building-it must receive the same pro-
tection under the first amendment as
other forms of expression. The matter
of whether a sit-in infringes on others'
rights becomes the concern of the courts,
and convictions for such actions can and
must be dealt with from the judicial sec-
tor of our government.
'S'HE GREATEST DANGER from those
in charge of the Selective Service Sys-

tem who use the draft as a means of
punishment, is that they can do so with-
out any regard for due proces of law.
Once drafted, a person would have no
recourse to an appeal on the grounds
that he participated in legitimate, legal,
dissent. There is little likelihood that
the sympathies of the State draft board
to whom he would appeal differ much
from those of the local board. And in
reviewing the case, neither board needs
pay much heed to the constitutional
principles of freedom of expression.
To use the draft as a means of punish-
ing those who disent from U.S. foreign
policy is a vicious means of suppressing
dissent. It is a gross misuse of a system
that even now suffers from many social
injustices.
Such a use of the draft board would
be the closest the United States has come
to a suspension of the writ of habeus
corpus and the rule of law by military
tribunal, used during the Civil War.
IF ABANDONMENT of our ideals of free-
dom of expression and due process of
law are the price of glory in Vietnam,
then perhaps that price is far too high
for a war whose self-proclaimed protec-
tion of democratic ideals remains, at best,
a hollow claim.
-RONALD KLEMPNER
Associate Editorial Director

h/ ~
~;

,
..

formed your student population
seems to think it is on the sit -
ation here. Although it's a product
of the military life, a life I despise,
let's put it bluntly. How can any-
one be so presumptuous as to read
the various publications available
in the states and display their ig-
norance in written commentary to
you. This isn't to say, as the sou-
venir jackets predict, "Don't tell
me about Vietnam, I've been
there," but rather to "tell it like it
is" as my soul buddies say.
Part of my job here is to assist
American newsmen and keep them
out of trouble during combat oper-
ations.Hopefully, they get the pic-
ture in the proper perspective.
Often however the reporter be-
cause of the distaste for war, his
fear at the time, reflects nothing
but distaste in his column. It is
read, commented upon, read, com-
mented upon, and finally reaches
the eager to criticize student. He
in turn makes his own presump-
tions and feels self-righteous
enough to protect, either in a writ-
ten or physical form.
The significance of this entire
process is analogous to my wonder-
ing what my girl is doing "back in
the world." I don't know anything
except what I read. The funny part
about this cycle of ignorance is
that the man who is a high school
dropout and now fights for his life
24 hours a day knows the story and
he could care less about your so-
called scholars' opinions.
IN ABOUT FOUR hours, we'll
make an airmobile assault on
Charlie somewhere in the Delta
(the location doesn't matter.) That
ignorant would-be service station
attendant will try to prevent Char-
lie from taxing, terrorizing and
killing the populace of some ham-
let. We'd like to think your really
care and understand what's hap-
pening here, but no matter how
many misinformed people write
you, we'll still hit that landing this
morning.
-Robert L. Denshaw,'6
rzel
without portfolio on the same
night that GeneralrDayan took
command, has already in fact
used exactly Weller's language in
defending the mass murder he
personally supervised of 250 men,
women, and children at Deir
Yasin, their bullet-riddled bodies
stuffed down a well perhaps rep-
resenting for him not only an
ultimate solution to the Arab
problem but a brilliantly pre-emp-
tive elimination of all possible
annoyance from any future refu-
gees as well; "The massacre was
not only justified, but there
would not have been a state of
Israel without the victory at Deir
Yasin." (See Colonel Begi's book,
"The Revolt: Story of the Irgun."
The word "massacre" is, of course,
his own word.) To the Knesset
more than ten years ago Colonel
Begin declared that by Israeli
aggression against the Arab na-
tions "we will achieve two tar-
gets; firstly, the annihilation of
Arab power; and secondly, the
expansion of our territory."
"Instead of b e i n g deeply
ashamed of what we did and of
trying to undo the evil we com-
mitted," wrote an Israeli corres-
pondent to the Jewish Newsletter
(New York) in 1959, "we justify

*1+
+i

"Don't mind if Ah do ... Ah been playin' the rear-
ehd of a jackass for y'ahs!"

The Expansionist State of Isr

A Sad Old Administrator

By JOHN RODENBECK
DailyGuest Editorial Writer
EDITOR'S NOTE: John Roden-
beck is currently a visiting Assis-
tant Professor in therDepartment of
English. He taught for three years at
the American University in Cairo
prior to coming to the University.
IN A LECTURE before a Univer-
sity audience, George Weller,
correspondent for the Chicago
Daily News Wire Service, said,
"Israel has a justification to ex-
pand. It is cramped on all sides
and thus a potential victim of an
air-strike." Perhaps Weller did
indeed make exactly this rather
strange statement; I attended the
lecture but frankly do not recall;
if he did, however, one should in
fairness to him question whether
or not the statement as it stands
was intended by him to be ac-
cepted flatly in all its implica-
tions.
Certainly any nation is "justi-
fied" in seeking Lebensraum but
it is "justified" only in terms of
Realpolitik, not in terms of moral
right and wrong. Precisely this
same "justification," for example,
has notoriously been Germany's
argument-traditionally we even
use German words to express it-
for expansion -by - aggression of
hpa. vyrv eyoAmnino' ffrontiers- andi

integrity of all nations in the
Middle East"?) It is the sort o~
"justification" used by a Hitler or
by a khan of the Mongol horde
and as applied to Israel's situa-
tion in the Middle East bears with
it an obvious double irony. Suf-
fice it for the moment to point
out only the second part of this

Weller's "justification" is clear-
ly, in any case, the rationale of
men who may shortly control the
Israeli state. Territorial expan-
sion has been an officially de-
clared policy of Israel since the
Yearbook of 1952 and General
Dayan, whom David Riesman

.. r.iia =f:i:. ..1. ...... .... .. A ,,rA " "
"Territorial expansion has been an officially declared policy of Israel since
the Yearbook of 1952 and . . . the Israeli army fights with 'the ultimate ob.

ect of erecting the Israeli

empire.'"

meant either the large empire
that stretches, in accord with us-
ual right-wing interpretationsuof
the Covenant, from the Nile to
the Euphrates, or the smaller
empire that includes, in accord
with Zionist plans documented 25
years ago, only Palestiney itself,
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Cy-

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:::::h::::.":."....:....h.." ..............................::.....Jh........... .......,,.,.,..rY}:J:.h".".h...........J.... ...........:::JhN:J:.:: :N::.::^.h....................1,...... h'r1L. :V. J..t...J ...hhJ.J.J}...^ rT..{v:::........ o.:.::

SOMETHING PATHETIC ABOUT last
week's sit-in has gone largely unmen-
tioned.
Vice President for Research A. Geoffrey
Norman was sitting off in a corner in
the lobby of the Administration Building
with about seventy-five protestors stand-
ing, crouching or slouching while they
talked with him. The same questions were
repeatedly being directed to him-how
could he justify contributing to the coun-
C;4 Ar~* a * Dil

ter-insurgency warfare which was killing
women and children; how could he toler-
ate research which did not contribute to
the open dissemination of knowledge;
and why wasn't he telling the whole
truth and what was he afraid of, anyway.
After each inquiry he sadly shook his
head and slowly stroked his chin with his
hand. Finally, after giving the same an-
swer he'd given at least three times
before to a question re-phrased for at
least the sixth time, Norman turned to
his middle-aged interrogator.

irony, that given the living con-
ditions in the Middle East as a
whole the same "justification" is
equally valid for use by the Arabs
in defending their own alleged
determination to annihilate the
Israeli state, a solution to the
refugee problem calling ten times
more clearlyforLebensraum than
any of Israel's comparatively
petty economic problems.
IT IS ALMOST too glaringly
obvious, moreover, that absolute-
ly any Middle Eastern state is a
potential victim of an air strike,
no matter where its borders may
be. Indeed, if we are to judge from

acidly describes as "the John
Wayne of the Middle East," has
explicitly announced over Radio
Israel that the Israeli army fights
with "the ultimate object of
erecting the Israeli empire," by
which he may be thought to have

prus. Either scheme is wholly and
immediately realisable without
undue U.S. help and could easily
be justified by Weller. Colonel
Menachem Begin, the ex-leader
of the Irgun terrorist organiza-
tion who was appointed Minister

0

:, : .

TI

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