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Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-)552


Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
RIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS

Fleming and the law:
'We do what is expected'

['HE FATE OF as many as 17 of the 96
University students who participated
n the LSA Bldg. sit-in last September is
urrently in the hands of President Rob-'
en Fleming.
Fleming's tentative decision to comply
ith laws terminating the government-
upported scholarships of convicted stu-
ent demonstrators is an injustice to
hese students and has unfortunate im-
lications for all members of the Univer-
ity community.
Ironically, Fleming has long been an
utspoken opponent of the very state and
ederal punitive legislation he now feels
ompelled to help implement. In testi-
pony before Congress last spring, and
i a statement directed at the Legislature
tst summer, he argued commendably
gainst such bills.
The brunt of the argument against
uich legislation is twofold: That it dis-
riminates against poor students, a n d
aat it discriminates against students in
eneral by penalizing them twice for the
ame action. Fleming has argued both
hese points convincingly.
vOW, HOWEVER, Fleming argues that
he must obey the laws. "I think it's
Mandatory," he said recently. "0?u r posi-
.on is that we will do what is expected
f us. Our lawyers tell us it is mandatory
Mnguage."
Fleming's position is unfortunate be-
ause it compromises the University's
utonomy, and because other options are
eadily available.
Under the state provision, passed as
art of the 1969-70 higher education ap-
ropriations act, the University presi-
ent is directed to report the names of
tudents convicted of disrupting the Uni-
ersity to agencies currently awarding
hem scholarships. Such financial a i d
ould then be terminated automatically.
While the law does require the presi-

dent to make such reports, it does not
provide penalties for him or the Univer-
sity should he fail to do so.
FURTHERMORE, THE law stands, in
a very real sense, as an encroach-
ment on the University's autonomy. As
the chief administrative officer of the
University, the president should by law
be subject only to the directives of the
Regents.
The University has, in the past, chal-
lenged the constitutionality of less nox-
ious state laws, and a similar move now
might be appropriate.
MEANWHILE, IT should be even easier
for the University to thwart attempts
by the federal government to punish pro-
testers by cutting their scholarships.
The relevant legislation is contained in
the HEW appropriations bill recently ve-
toed by President Nixon, but it will un-
doubtedly remain in the final form of the
bill.
Under the provision, all federal funds
would be cut off from students, faculty
members, or researchers who participate
in a disruption of a school.'
BUT UNLIKE the state law, the federal
provision does not require the uni-
versity president to report disruptive
students. And considering Fleming's long-
standing opposition to the law, there is
no reason why he should take the initia-
tive.
WHILE FLEMING'S initial opposition to
legislation cutting the financial aid of
protesters was commendable, it would
be best followed up with concrete action.'
As .the University's representative to
Lansing and Washington, he should re-
fuse to participate in unfairly penalizing
University students.
--MARTIN HIRSCHMAN

SPECTATORS TURN TO LOOK at a group of women who interrupted Senate hearings last Friday
on the safety of birth control pills. When the women began to ask questions of the committee, the
chairman, Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis), called a recess and ordered police to clear the room.

ess, and The Pill
jenny stiller
W'HEN WOMEN'S LIBERATION demonstrators disrupted Senate
committee hearings on the safety of "The Pill" last Friday, people
watching the evening news were probably left with the feeling that
Women's Lib is more anti-pill than anything else.
In condemning male chauvinism, it almost seemed to many ob-
servers that the liberated women also hated sex.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Instead, the demonstration was designed to underline the exceed-
ingly sloppy manner in which the entire question of the pills' safety
has been investigated by the government and presented to the public
through the media.
BIRTH CONTROL pills first appeared on the general market in
the early 60's, although they had been available to test populations at
an earlier date. Since that time, a smattering of research results-most-
ly the outcome of'experiments performed in England-have leaked out
to the general public via the popular press.
Reputable doctors have taken care to question their patients as to
possible side effects and to avoid prescribing pills to those with a history
of cancer, blood-clotting, heart disease, or other conditions which might
be worsened by a daily dose of estrogen.
Such doctors-including those at clinics like Planned Parenthood
-have also been conscientious about requiring of pills users a yearly
pap smear test for cervical cancer. (Most doctors recommend such a
test as a standard precaution for all women, regardless of pill use.}
UNFORTUNATELY, NOT all doctors have been quite so cautious,
and while the black market in pills seems to be declining-at least
among college students-it is apparent that large numbers of women
have been swallowing their daily medication in blissfull ignorance of
its possible harmful side efl.. s.
It is these women-those who received no hint of warning from
their doctors-who have tended to act in panic at' the recent "revela-
tions" of possible dangers.
Reportedly, many of them are switching to older, "healthier" means
of contraception. The only problem is that these '(with the exception
of the loop) don't work nearly as well as the pill in preventing un-
wanted pregnancies.
IDEALLY, A WOMAN who goes to her doctor for advice on contra-
ception should be given as clear a picture as possible of the alternatives
open to her. Cognizant of the medical profession's best estimation of
the advantages and drawbacks of each, she should be able to make
her own decision, based on her own set of priorities; of what type of
pregnancy-protection she should use.
. Thus, one woman might prefer to risk a 0.5 per cent chance of
cancer rather than a 5 per cent chance of pregnancy, while another
would decide the opposite.
Or another, certain that she would never forget to take the neces-
sary precautions, might opt for the "very safe" combination of two
mechanical means of contraception instead tof chancing the possible
hazards of the pill.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE SENATE hearings on the matter have
not served to clarify the real dangers and advantages of the pill.-
Instead, they have been used as a forum to broadcast (in a highly
hysterical manner) the findings of a few researchers-without taking
any care to avoid confusion and admit only scientifically-sound
evidence.
For example, several witnesses testified that their research proves
that women who take birth control pills are more susceptible to trombo-
embolisms (blood clotting) than those who do not. What is not pub-
licized, however, is the prevalence of thromboembolisms which occur
as the result of pregnancy.
Similarly, when the average pill-user hears from Chet or David
that the pills have caused cancer in dogs and rats (but not in monkeys),
she has no way of evaluating the. evidence, no way of knowing the
degree of correlation between diseases among the' primates.
THE INEVITABLE result of the distorted publicity coming out
of the committee hearings is a form of hysteria.
The media reports that women all over the country have been

Letters to the Editor

A racist male >chauvinist:
Just what the Court needs

YESTERDAY'S revelation that Supreme-
Court nominee Judge G. Harrold
Carswell was party to a blatantly m a 1 e
supremacist ruling in a sex discrimination
case less than six months ago is sub-
stantial cause in and of itself for his re-
jection by the Senate.
Coming in the wake of disclosures of
Carswell's "youthful" belief in w h i t e
supremacy, the Florida judge's sexist rul-
ing is ample proof of what Rep. P a t s y
Mink (D-Hawaii) called a "basic philoso-
phy totally unbecoming of a man being
considered for appointment to the highest
court of he land."
THE CASE IN question --which is cur-
rently on appeal to the S u p r e m e
Court - involves a mother of pre-school
age children who was denied a job as an
assembly trainee by the Martin Marietta
Corporation. The corporation stated that
she was not hired due to a company pol-
icy which forbids the hiring of mothers-
but not fathers-of young children.
The woman, Mrs. Ida Phillips, charged
that her federal civil rights had b e e n
violated, but the U.S. Circuit Court in
New Orleans ruled twp to one in favor
of the' company. Carswell, who had not
sat in on the case, voted along with nine
other circuit judges against reconsidera-
tion by the full court.
The decision which Carswell and t h e
others voted to uphold affirmed that "the
discrimination was based on a two-prong-
ed qualification, i.e., a woman with pre-
school age children. Ida Phillips was not
refused employment because she was a
woman nor because she had pre-school
children. It is. the coalescence of t h e s e
two elements that denied her the posi-
tion she desired."
Somehow, the fact that the mother of
young children could be denied wor
when a father (even one who might, as a
widower or divorcee, be raising his child-
ren alone) was not, is not considered to
be sex-based discrimination.
FORTUNATELY FOR the credibility of

being a mother - i.e.; a woman - not
the age of the children, which denies em-
ployment opportunity to a woman which
is open to a man." They warned that if
the lower court's "sex-plus" ruling were
allowed to stand, the 1964 Civil Rights
Act's guarantee against discrimination
in hiring would be a dead letter.
"CONGRESS COULD hardly have been
so incongruous," the dissent conclud-
ed, "as to legislate sex equality in em-
ployment by a statutory structure enab-
ling the employer to deny employment to
those who need the work most through
the simple expedient of adding to sex a
non-statutory factor.
"A mother is still a woman. And if she
is denied work outright because she is a
mother, it is because she is a woman.
Congress said that could no longer be
done."
While the antiquity of Carswell's racist
allegations gives credence to his recent
repudiation of such sentiments, the con-
temporary nature of his decision in the
Phillips case illuminates all the more
clearly that the nominee still harbors
a dangerous anti-egalitarian bias.
Congresswoman Mink is totally correct
in her belief "that Judge Carswell dem-
onstrated a total lack of understanding
of the concept of equality and that his
vote represented a vote against the 'ight
of women to be treated equally and fairly
under the law."'
JT IS NOW apparent that Judge Cars-
well--who is perhaps a white suprema-
cist and definitely a male supremacist--
has no place on a Supreme Court sworn
to uphold Constitutional guarantees of
equality before the law.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings
on the Carswell nomination are scheduled
to end early next week. It is imperative
that all who believe in the equality of
race and sex make their feelings known
to those members of the committee who
might vote against the nomination. These
include both Michigan Senators, Demo-
crat Philip Hart and Republican Robert

Good G.E.*
To the Editor:
YOUR ISSUE of Friday, Janu-
ary 16, had an article written by
Bruce Levine regarding the Gen-
eral Electric strike.
Apparently Mr. Levine consid-
ers himself an authority on this
serious work stoppage but unfor-
tunately his facts are so slanted
that I do not believe his article
could be called factual reporting.
It appears that Mr. Levine con-
siders the General Electric Com-
pany management to be an as-
sembly of cold, ruthless, selfish
men -intent on only hurting the
working man. I wish Mr. Levine
would get to know these manage-
ment men better.
He would find them to be intel-
ligent, hard working, chairtable
and dedicated to their job. Most
of these men are pillars of
strength in their community -
giving generously of their time to
their Church, their local Govern-
ment, tor charitable fund drives,
etc.
Everyone is concerned about in-
flation and many thinking people
applaud General Electric's stand
as being in the public interest. Mr.
Levine may not agree with this
but I do wish he would realize
that in any dispute there are al-
ways two sides to the problem and
I resent Mr. Levine's smug con-
clusion that the General Electric
Company is all wrong.
-Robert B. Dannies
Hingham, Mass.
Jan. 23
Coffee House
To the Editor:
THE UNION would like to be an
asset, not a liability both through
expanded University community
participation and financial sol-
vency. At the present time, a num-
ber of plans and proposals are
being evaluated to determine the
best approach for implementing
change within the Union.
The Michigan Union Coffee
House is part of a plan to rejuve-
nate the use of the Union. The
University Activities Center is
sponsoring the Coffee House with
the idea of providing a place for
people to go for inexpensive enter-
tainment after a movie, a concert
or for an entire evening. (Friday -
9 p.m.-2 a.m.)
UAC, the student programming
committee of the Union and
League, became the organizing
agent because there was an ex-
pressed desire for it and the Union
could provide the needed facilities.
THE CO3FFEE HOUSE operation
is, however, separate from the
proposals, one of which was out-

lined in the The Daily on Jan. 27,
presently under review by the Uni-
versity. It is not a substitution, as
indicated in The Daily article, for
any of the existing proposals.
The managers of- the Coffee
House and UAC hope; however,
that the final plan for the Union
will incorporate the strong in-
centive needed to draw students
into the Union just as the Coffee
House has provided.
--George Ladner
Vice-President, UAC
Jan. 27
O . MLxlCL
To the Editor:
LAST FRID3AY. JAN. 23, The
Michigan Daily stated that the
Committee on Repression, which is
organizing this weekend's Teach-
in/Conference on Repression, is
also "drafting plans for a mass
action to follow up the confer-
ence." The alleged action was to
have been "a march to the Wash-
tenaw County Bldg., North Hall,
and possibly Washtenaw County
Jail . ..
This report is false. The Com-
mitee on Repression has not draft-
ed plans for any "mass action" to
be included as part of its weekend
program. Although we under-
stand that the trial of the Ann
Arbor Six, which is to take place
at .the Washtenaw County Bldg.,
is a political trial aimed at stop-
ping the activities of the Black
B°rets, and that North Hall (the
ROTC building) is a University
support for the Defense Depart-
ment. we do not feel that the
Committee on Repression should
sponsor such a demonstration as
reported in The Daily.
WE ARE SPONSORING the
Teach-in/Conference on Repres-
sion in the hopes that a large
number of people in Ann Arbor
and the surrounding area can
come to understand the nature of
the political repression taking
place in America, and what we
can do to end it. We have seen
through the Chicago Conspiracy
trial, and the killing of Fred
Hampton and Mark Clark that all
people who see the need for real
social change are threatened by
the current repression. The police
state mechanisms used in the
courts against members of the
anti-war movement (the Chicago
Conspiracy, Sid Peck, and others),
and in the streets against the
Black Panther Party can be used
against all of us.
-Brian Spears
Committee on Repression
Jan. 26

Coercion
To the Editor:
IN THE FISHBOWL this morn-
ing, I was handed a flyer published
by the SDS Campus Worker-Stu-
dent Alliance Committee. This
flyer dealt with the strike against
the General Electric Company.
It recommended that GE repre-
sentatives be prevented from in-
terviewing students on this cam-
pus because GE allegedly makes
huge profits from the Vietnam
war, exploits foreign labor, and
does not pay adequate salaries to
its American workers.
On this campus, students have
worked for the right to stage any
play (Dionysius '69), show any
movie (Flaming Creatures), i':b-
lish without censorship {Args
trial), and have no limit :m co-
educational visiting hours.
In short, they want "to do their
own thing." They do not want the
University to be their conscience;
the doctrine of in-loco-parents has
been renounced.
SO WHY SHOULD any group of
students attempt to be .ny con-
science by preventing me from
having a job interview with a
company whose policies are not to
their liking?
They are certainly welcome to
encourage me to avoid interview-
ing with GE, but they have no
right to prevent me from carrying
out my final decision.; How about
it. SDS. is freedom of onsciene
for everyone or just for you?
-George T. Wilson
Engin. '70
Jan. 28
Join US
To the Editor:
IN ALL THE DISCUSSIONS on
campus and in The Daily about
man's destruction of his environ-
ment, the concern has been pri-
marily with pesticides, sewage, and
exhaust, products of man's tech-
nology. But nothing has been said
about the product of man himself,
more men.
It seems to me that the major
problem in saving the earth lies in
control of the population explo-
sion. It is becoming increasingly
clear that the population of the
world will soon outstrip every at-
tempt of technology to provide
food for all those people. Wide-
spread famine is predicted for
1975. The answer is no longer
"man will find a way."
Overpopulation is an underlying
cause of the pollution of our en-
vironment-more people consume
more natural resources and make
more waste. Even onthe absurd
assumption that science ould wind
a means to exploit the earth in-
definitely to feed billions, trillions,
of people, what will be the quality
of life for future generations woen
it has been reduced to living in an
endless skyrise covering the land,
where people had never seen a
blade of grass or known a moment
of privacy.
I think that every student at-
tending a muluti-versity has al-
ready felt some of the effects of
too many people. And this is the
United States, with only a fraction
of the world's population. Half of
the people in "the world now are
underfed and overcrowded.
WHEN WILL the public realize
the cancerous growth of the
world's population must be halted
immediately? Such things as the
mleinaisitnn of ahntinn. vnintary

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flocking to their doctors with questions, while many (mostly older,
married women) are discontinuing the pill altogether.
Another reaction is psyichosomatic illness.
At least on this campus, any ailment that plagues a woman using
the pill is now blamed on the{drug. Headaches, nausea, pain in the legs
or back-and the pill is called to task. Certainly, any of these com-
plaints could be real, whether caused by the pill or something else.
But one. suspects that the sudden rash of symptoms is akin to a
phenomenon long observed in medical schools-where many students
develop the symptoms of whatever disease they are studying at the
moment.
IN ADDITION, there is some question as to whether all of the
testimony being offered the Senate is entirely unbiased.
When Women's Liberation noticed that all those giving testimony
were middle-aged to elderly men, it seemed apparent to them (and to
others, as well) that those voicing the ominous warnings about the
nature of the pill were people who had no reason to favor such a
revolutionary means of birth control, and perhaps had buried some-
where in their respective psyches reasons to condemn the pill not
mentioned in their public testimony.
In at least one case, vehement testimony against the pill was
offered by one of the chief developers of the inter-uterine device ("the
loop")-which is the pill's biggest competitor for the title of most
effective method of birth control. (The IUD has been shown to have
a few harmful effects of its own on occasion. In addition, its usefulness
is hampered because it cannot be used by a woman who has not already
had a child.)
Sadly, the Senate hearings have had no greater effect than to
frighten a lot of people and (perhaps) to enhance the image of Gaylord
Nelson (D-Wis) and the other Senators conducting the investigation.
WHAT IS NEEDED is not more hearings but more research, with


JA ; I K) U UIU