F 4e S tr~igan DatI Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan 0 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. 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. IURSDA, FEBRUARY 19, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS What is to be done? ESTERDAY WAS a frightening day. What everyone knew would happen in e Chicago conspiracy trial did happen, th only slight podifications. And what were all told would happen in Ann bor happened too. t The whole trial in Chicago was a gross ilation of all human and civil rights. ganizing a peaceful demonstration uals inciting a riot. Trying to defend urself before an autocratic judge equals ntempt of court. Trying to keep police )m manhandling your friends and fam- is good for six months in jail, without en the farce of a jury trial. Repression doesn't always take place the streets, it can be administered just cruelly in the 'halls of justice.' Bring ne key radicals into court and charge em with violating an unconstitutional v. Keep them there for over four inths. Keep stepping on their lawyers A locking out their witnesses, and lying out them until they explode. Then send em to jail because they don't have any, spect for the judicial system. UT THE HORROR of yesterday, the first warm day of spring, was not nfined to Chicago. Repression by an fair and obdurate establishment was e order of the day in Ann Arbor too. lice in the Engineering Arch were beat- students involved in and watching e protest. ORE FRIGHTENING still is the latent police state which this town now ap- ars to live. Following this action on st University, hundredi of police - ate Police, County police and the entire n Arbor police force were massed for It's scary. All those dismal underground Russian novels coming home. The Mc- Carthyism the old liberals are so scared about is nothing. The Palmer Raids are back among us, and the courts haven't changed much since the appelate judges upheld the conviction of two Italian anarchists because, though they knew the presiding judge had biased the case against them, they had to uphold him tp preserve the judicial system. And they preserved it. This country is still washed in the blood of Sacco and Vanzetti; we have seen Julius Hoffman before. The judge's robe hides the police- man's club, and the man who gets his head cut open later goes to j ail ,because it is obvious he was the one who started it all. The cops were out last night in Ann Arbor because the natives were restless. They've been doing it in the ghettos for decades, and now they've come to the academic enclaves because the students have stopped being good niggers. JAMES WECHSLER.r.. Carswell as justice: A perverse victory AS CLEMENT HAYNSWORTH painfully learned, a Supreme Court nominee should take nothing for granted until the final returns from the Senate are in. But by last night the indications were that only a new bombshell of shattering proportions could prevent the confirma- tion of G. Harrold Carswell. Most of the Senators who led the fight against Haynsworth are clearly suffering from combat fatigue and unwilling to resist Judiciary chairman Eastland's pressures for early termination of the proceedings. (Unhappily, the hearings provided no occasion to ask Mr. Eastland whether he joins Carswell in the latter's repudiation of his 1948 racist manifesto.) For President Nixon, Senate approval of Carswell will be generally viewed as a perverse triumph. Few men can dispute that, in a contest of mediocrity, Carswell has been shown to be Haynsworth's legal in- ferior. But can Carswell's elevation really be judged a victory for Mr. Nixon or any American except those diehard segregationists who cling to the hope that the new Justice has never wholly shed the passionate bigotry of his 1948 utterance? TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY, and to millions of white Americans who have dedicated themselves to the cause of equal rights, the sym- bolism of the Carswell designation is a cold affront. It will widen the estrangement between Mr. Nixon and that part of America to which he initially extended the rhetoric of conciliation but which he is plainly prepared to sacrific in his quest for the allegiance of George C. Wal- lace's followers (in the North as well as the South). Nothing in the record offers any persuasive sign that Carswell has actively and affirmatively contested the spirit of his 1948 recital. Leroy Clark, an NYU professor and formerly a black Legal Defense Fund lawyer in Florida, is quoted by Time magazine as saying that "he was probably the most hostile judge I've ever appeared before; he would rarely let me finish a sentence." During his tenure as a dis- trict judge, 60 per cent of his 23 civil rights decisions were upset by the Fifth Circuit Court. John Lowenthal, now a Rutgers law professor who has also worked on the Southern front, has further documented the portrait of Carswell's courtroom identification wtih the segregationist status quo. TO ANY SERIOUS YOUNG LAWYER, membership on the Su-t preme Court must be regarded as the loftiest recognition that can be achieved. Now it seems overwhelmingly clear that no trace of judicialI distinction or scholarship were to be found in Carswell's history; suchs considerations were plainly irrelevant to Attorney General Mitchell's search for the right political man.k Fred Graham, who specializes in legal coverage for The New YorkF Times, performed some elementary research a few days ago. Describing Carswell as a judge who "presents almost no exceptional qualities at all," he added: "When the Justice Dept. asked for a list of his legala articles and writings, he replied that he had none. He furnished at list of rsome 25 opinions that read, for the most part like plumbersc manuals."t Was this the worthiest prospect available-even granting thek premise that the seat was being reserved for a Southern conservative?% The conclusion is an insult to the very breed of man Carswell is sup-e posed to represent-and which has produced judges widely esteemedx for their learning in the law. Such an appointment invites contempt for the nation's highestk court. Disrespect for law-and those who practice it-is further height- ened when the American Bar Association places its seal of approvalr on so shabby a political product.I IN APPARENT RECOGNITION of its declining standards, the ABA has now abandoned the practice of identifying some men as "specially qualified," perhaps in anticipation of the problems that will be createdr by Mr. Nixon's next appointment. It will now confine itself to sayingt "aye" or "nay"-and, in the light of its ung record of uncritical endorse-r ment, the "ayes" will surely have it unless the nominee proves to be aE fugitive from a county jail.e Other President have made dubious appointments (some of whoml confounded their detractors); great jurists, such as the late Learnedc Hand, have been denied appointment by progressive Presidents, in- cluding Franklin D. Roosevelt. But an Administration that moves frome Haynsworth to Carswell seems determined to establish an unprecedent-c er record for dramatizing the survival of the unfittest.. At this momentc one can only pray for the longevity of the present members of the courtr -right, left and center.t a New York Post of The value of minority admissions DARKNESS Dellinger violence, and a Quaker. FALLS upon the land. Dave goes to jail as a man of Richard Nixon calls himself This is what's happening, and nothing seems to stop it. No tactics seem success- ful against the onslaught of the police state. There is no one answer, but we must do something. We 'must each settle in our own, conscience what is to be done. -THE EDITORIAL DIRECTORS STEVE ANZALONE CHRIS STEELE JENNY STILLER By DARYL GORRMAN Daily Guest Writer THE UNIVERSITY has a tradi- tion of academic excellence which is international in its scope. "The Harvard of the West," and "Re- search Center of the Midwest" are among the prases which have been applied to the University. But the University is in danger of losing its reputation. Why? Many people believe that the admission of large numbers of minority students will ruin the University's standing in the aca- demic community. This view, be- trays a feat or unwillingness, or both, to recognize the reality that we are living in a world that never existed before - a world with new. problems and new resources re- quiring solutions that have never been articulated before. However, by refusing to admit many more minority students, the University would lose a great op- portunity to enhance its image in the academic community. FIRST, MINORITY students do not usually possess a predisposi- tion toward acceptance of the modes and forms of "mainstream" America. This means that they are usually better able to critical- ly analyze the modes and forms of the "mainstream." If change is inevitable, we should be concern- ed that when change does come, it comes rapidly enough to meet so- ciety's needs for change. How often in America's history have people and the movements which they supported been repressed on- ly to finally gain acceptance by people who later agreed that the harms which they foresaw did not materialize? Secondly, minority s t u d e n t s simply have not accepted many of the current modes and forms of society. Many of the forms under which we operate will need to be replaced. For example, society; in general, will not benefit from the continued use of those forms which discriminate among people simply on the basis of race. Racial animosities, mistrusts, and ten- sions cannot be perpetuated in- defnitely, Where these form exist, it would appear that they are most likely to be effectively changed by the people whom they most directly affect. IT IS NOT healthy for this so- ciety to have large numbers of people who are alienated by what they experience in the educational system. Yet, this i what often happens to people who are con- cerned about "relevancy" in' edu- cation. Reality is not an abstrac- tion; when it is necessary to know how to keep a person from going to jail for a crime that he did not commit, there should be enough people who are educated both to know how torand to want to deal with this problem. Most significantly, new ways of looking at the role of bhe univer- sity should be developed. Accord- ing to Timothy Healy (Dec. 20, 1969; Saturday Review, "The mis- sion of the college is not simply to 'maximize its output of dis- tinguished alumni by maximizing its input of talented students. Such a static view puts the college in the role of a kind of funnel, where what comes out is purely a matter of what goes in. Colleges and other educational institutions exist in order to change the stu- dent, to contribute to his personal development, to make a differ- ence." The distinguished faculty of the University should certainly con- sider itself capable of really edu- eating both students who need a good education and those who would have succeeded anyway. Those students who need and can benefit most from a college edu- cation should be educated at the University with its high lacademic standards. THE UNIVERSITY must not merely study, research and analyze the problems of blackE people. It must also educate sufficient num- bers of black people to deal with these problems. Further, if black students are so "culturally de- prived," then they really need the best education available, don't they? Finally, programs such as that proposed by the Black Action Movement sound expensive. Ac- tually, for those who like to look at things in a long-range sense, they represent too small an invest- ment in the future of this state and this nation. The good of so- ciety must not always be bound by "political realities." Thus, af- fiimative action now might add to the concept of a' research- oriented university the necessary correlative concept of a solution- oriented university. .' 4 41 A need for a front against repression THE STUDENT Mobilization Committee to end the war in Vietnam, at its na- tional conference in Cleveland last week- end, proved itself incapable of under- standing and confronting the political realities in contemporary America. What those Americans discontented 'with the policies of this country's govern- ment need, and what SMC by its short- sighted orientation fails to provide, is a united front equipped to deal with the politics o4 repression. The SMC hopes to change government policy by showing that a sizeable segment of the government's constituency believes all the GI's should be brought home now. Accordingly, t h e y adopted a resolution which calls for a w e e k of nationwide demonstrations this spring which would culminate in a mass action on April 15, like the one which occurred at Washing- ton last fall. But after adopting this resolution, the conference rejected one proposed by the Independent Radicals which would have supplemented the mass action with con- tinuous mobilization against repression, concentrating mostly on the local level. The rejected proposal acknowledges two important realities with which SMC refuses to deal. First, it doubts the wis- dom of relying solely on the Washington type of demonstration, which has osten- sibly s h o w n itself to be ineffective in changing government policy. Second, and more importantly, it raises the question of the long range significance of the im- mediate withdrawal of all GI's from Viet- nam, even if it were to occur. It adknowl- edges that such an action would on 1 y Editorial Staff HENRY GRIX, Editor STEVE NISSEN RON LANTSMAN City Editor Managing Editor MARCIA ABRAMSON .....Associate Managing Editor LANIE LIPPINCOTT ......Associate Managing Editor STEVE ANZALONE .....Editorial Page Editor JENNY STILLER ........Editorial Page Editor CHRIS STEELE ...............Editorial Page Editor LAWRENCE ROBBINS ...,......... ...Photo Editor LESLIE WAYNE ... . .........Arts Editor MAR' RADTKE .......Contributing Editor PHIL. BLOCK...............Contributing Editor WALTER SHAPIRO., Daily Washington correspondent NIGHT EDITORS, Stuart Gannes, Martin Hirschman. Jim Neubacher, Judy Sarasohn. David Spurr. Dan- iel Zwerdling. ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Alison Cooke, Russ Garland, Carold Hildebrand, Judy Kahn, Pat Ma- honey, Marty Scott, Alexa Canady, Lynn weiner, and copy editors. hn- em f. temporarily stop the huge U.S. war ma- chine, leaving it intact to br4ng the bur- den of another, perhaps more extensive war, on a placated American public. The rejected proposal better reflects the realities of political life in t h a t it deals with the total repression which the U.S. government practices, of which the Vietnam war is only one aspect. THE FACT is that if one looks, one .can find the ugly and often bloody hand of the U.S. government everywhere at- tempting to squeeze the life out of pro- gressive and, liberating forces. The prisons of this country are filled with black liberation leaders - H u e y Newton, Bobby Seale, Martin Sostre, Ah- med Evans. They are starting to be filled with leaders of the white youth move- ment - John Sinclair, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden. In a sense, the entire country is be- coming locked behind the bars of repres- sive laws and institutions. The whole ef- fect of the marijuana laws is to stifle in- dividual expression and serve as a legal means to keep "troublemakers" safely in line. And even if these laws are changed, there still remains those immutable in- stitutions such as the tax system and the large war corporations and the d r a ft which soak the money from the workers and the life from the ghetto and the col- leges and funnel them into the repression of self-determination of peoples abroad. T h a t there is repression everywhere, and not only in Vietnam, is the f a c t which SMC refuses to deal with. This is precisely the fact which the rejected pro- posal intended to confront and present to the people of this country. "EDUCATION" - in the sense of raising the political consciousness of people and making them aware of the nature of the politics that victimizes them - is what is needed, is what the Independent Radicals proposed, and is what SMC so ignominiously rejected. Educating all the people about all the repression all the time is dealing w i t h that repression as effectively as it can now be dealt with. Education must take place on a local, not a mass level. It must occur in the workshop and home and in- stitution, not under Ahe Washington Monument alone. Once people are made aware, through Judge Hoffman and the failure of American courts By JIM NEUBACHER IN THE AFTERMATH of t h e contempt sentencing in the Chi- cagosconspiracytrial, one thing stands out - the defendants suc- ceeded in pointing out the absurd- ity of the conspiracy law, and the repression inherent in the Amer- ican system of justice. Judge Julius Hoffman, a feeble old man with no sense of humor and even less sense of justice, pro- vided the perfect target for the defendants. And whether one ar- gues that his actions were a re- sponse to the behavior of the de- fendant or vice versa, the end re- sult is the same - hundreds of thousands of Americans who be- lieve wholeheartedly in t h e i r country's system of justice have had second thoughts as they have watched this trial progess. In their hearts, they know that what hap- pened to the 'Chicago7'acould happen to them. THE DEGREE to which this trial has alienated Americans on all sides of the political spectrum and undermined their faith in the legal process is a fact not lost on members of the legal profession. They realize that for every citizen offended by the actions of Judge Hoffman, there is one equally rankled about the actions of the defendants; both kinds of disaffec- tion serve to tarnish the image the legal profession has spent centuries trying to build -- that the court- room scene is sacrosanct. Thus, a committee of the Amer- ican Bar Association has em- barked on a study of ways in which to prevent defendants from "disrupting" courtroom proceed- ings. Some suggestions include: -Plastic bubbles or enclosures for the obstreperous defendant, a la the bulletproof shield used in the 1962 Israeli trial of Adolph Eichmann; -Jailing the defendant, and pro- viding him with ,daily minutes of the trial or allowing him to watch his fate be determined on tele- vision; -Increasing the contempt pow- er of judges. HERE AT THE UNIVERSITY, Prof. A. Benjamin Handler of the Department of Architecture a n d Urban Planning is conducting a Ford Foundation-financed study of courtroom facilities, and the con- tribution they can make to facil- itating a fair, orderly legal pro- cess. Handler's study deals with every- thing from courtroom acoustics to automation of clerical work in the court system. It seems natural for this report to include a recom- mendation on the implementation of the "plastic bubble" idea, But he is hesitant to do so. "Let me make clear that tech- nically there is no great diffi- culty in coming up with a plastic I 4 ed for the successful operation of our system cannot be coerced from angry defendants. "The problem of disruption can- not be solved through physical de- vices, by restraint," he says. "The root of the problem goes much deeper than that." adds, saying that the "c o u r t- room may be the least of it." Handler understands the prob- lem very well. The situation is, probably a lost cause once t h e case reaches the courtroom. As Handler puts it, "When a case goes to trial it is sort of an ad- mission of failure." undermined completely by the con- spiracy laws,; the wiretapping, and the police-state surveilance t h a t led to the Chicago trial in the first place. HANDLER WOULD LIKE to find some sort of solution, or the beginning of one. 4 I