tr 3imin Daitj Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications Peggy Collins stands up for America 420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-05521 Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers Editorials printed in The Michigan or the editors. Ti THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1968, IDaily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers his must be noted in all reprints. NIGHT EDITOR: STEVE NISSEN A whif of conspiracy: The wronged right to protest THE DECISION by t h e state Legisla- ture's Senate Committee on Health, Social Services and Retirement to con- duct investigations into the recent welfare protests is sadly misdirected. It is not as important to investigate the events of the protests, as it is necessary to root out the causes of the demonstrations. The investigation was called by com- mittee chairman Mrs. N. Lorraine Beebe (R-Dearborn) following a demand by State Sen. George Kuhn (R-Birmingham) who claimed, "I smell a conspiracy here." Kuhn is obviously scenting that kind of communist-inspired coup d'etat sent subversively from Moscow or Peking - maybe even from France. And the senator may be right that there is a conspiracy, but in a context of which he is completely unaware. If there is a conspiracy, it is a haphazard one. The spontaneous polarization of numerous in- dividual commitments, focused on a sin- gle cause. Unlike a blind revolution of persons - automata - such a "conspir- acy" of collective commitment is healthy, and is a viable exercise of dissent. THE REASON PERSONS from the Na- tional Welfare Rights Organization were in Ann Arbor was not because Kosy- gin sent them. They were here, because they believe welfare recipients are vic- tims of an unfortunate chain of events over which they should have some con- trol. The reason SDS students were in the protests was not because Mark Rudd sent them telegrams asking for organized re- volt. They were demonstrating as an ex- ercise in whatt they, personally, consider participatory democracy. This, is not to say that o ganized con- spiracy never takes place, or is itrto say that such activity is never justified. The fact is simply that such organized sub- version did not exist in the recent welfare demonstrations. In Ann Arbor, the protesters knew their decision to disobey the law (i.e. to sit-in at the County Bldg. after closing hours) could result in imprisonment. Those who allowed themselves to be arrested not on- ly jeopardized their academic activities, by risking prison or probation, but also jeopardized their future political activi- ties. MORE THAN 25 per cent of those dem- enstrating allowed themselves to be arrested. All were warned and given time to leave the area and avoid arrest. The decision to remain manifested a moral, individual commitment, and it is ludi- crous to suppose all those 248 arrested did so out of blind allegiance to persons who allegedly organized the protest. Further, the request for mass protest was not made by the protesters, but by the welfare mothers, whose decisions were always spontaneous and sometimes arbi- trary. Organized protest is not spontan- eous, not is it arbitrary. Finally, the majority of college radicals, those who commit themselves to s u c h demonstrations as occurred here the first of September, are not of the constitution of "followers." On the contrary, t h e i r sometimes fatal flaw is that they resist and evade organization. College radical groups are most often composed of many kings and no pawns - no one is being led. WHY THEN, do men like Kuhn continue to fool themselves and believe that in- cidents as occurred here a r e organized threats to democracy? Apparently Kuhn and cohorts blind themselves to reality by using the alleged organized protest as the only reason for the demonstrations. T h e y know some- thing caused the disturbances; they can- n o t believe persons can so individually dedicate themselves to a cause; so they decide the reason there is demonstration is because two or three subversive souls got together and rounded up several hun- dred bearded pawns to cause a disturb- ance. If they would realize that the 248 per- sons arrested here were each individually demonstrating - each having made his own democratic choice, and his own indi- vidual commitment -- then perhaps, they could be convinced, that because so many individual persons decided to jeopardize themselves by showing their vehement protest through civil disobedience, there is a significant =problem, which was the root cause of that specific protest. How we will give people this basic un- derstanding of individual protest is truly perplexing to those of us who see it so ob- viously. We have tried to explain it for so long, that it is becoming burdensome and tedious. We have tried so many ways and so many times that now, instead of argu- ing when we hear, "I smell a conspiracy," - we just laugh. BUT THE LAUGHTER is becoming hol- low. If we must weather again sorhe McCarthy witchhunting that completely ignores the root problem; if we must tol- erate accusations knowing we have tried every conceivable way in which to explain our defense to our accusers; and if we end up being 'socially purged as automata, then it may not be so difficult for some- one to organize us blindly. And then, the time will arrive again when blind revolu- tion, with all its illogic, will subvert rea- son. --JIM HECK By CHRIS STEELE SANDWICHED strategically be- tween George Wallace's promi- ses to run over demonstrators who block traffic and clear the streets of hippies and anarchists, is a rhetorical fillip that seems to generate fantastic emotional as- sent from crowds of Wallace de- votees. The former Alabama governor will be attacking "guidelines" or student demonstrations, and in the middle of this discussion will hit on the provocative line: " intellectuals and bureaucrats who look down their noses at folk like you and me." , Stringing along with the ap- plause, he develops this theme of classes in conflict: "My support- ers are the truck drivers and the beauticians, the steelworkers and the construction workers, the hard working Americans ." Perhaps no Presidential candi- date in recent history has gen- erated so much support by naked- ly appealing to class loyalties as George Corley Wallace. And coin- cidentally, no serious candidate since Eugene Debs has provoked such universal condemnation by the n a tio n a lcommunications media. IN A SPATE of recent articles in big-name magazines, Wallace and his supporters have been taunted, villified, and dissected in the most wholeheartedly de- rogatory vocabulary. Some of these pieces (one in The Village Voice comes to mind) have at- tempted to sympathize with the working-class Wallace supporter on his own terms, but even these have been unforgivably patroniz- ing. Most of them, however, picture the Wallace supporter as a fire- eating, red-necked racist, a Klansman without a robe. What makes the self-righteous tone of these articles even more unbear- able is their source journals whose own calls for law and order have embodied an only thinly- disguised racist appeal. All of the pieces - both sym- pathetic and un - deal with cari- catures, with stereotypes, rather than people. What is a Wallace supporter really like? What are his real motivations, his aspira- tions, his attitudes? These are questions that can be answered only in terms of individuals, not classes, occupations or sectional origins. Wallace himself does an injustice to "his people" when he sees them as steelworkers and beauticians, just as Life does when it sees them as bigots. * * * I MET Margaret Aileen (Peggy Collins, '69Ed, resident of Merrill- ville, Indiana, and candidate for the electorial college on the Wal- lace ticket about a month ago in her room in South Quad. Peggy, who thinks Wallace has a good chance of taking Indiana based on his strong 1964 primary showing, became involved in the Wallace campaign largely through the efforts of her father, W. C. Collins, a Merrillville businessman and perennial candidate for local offices. He is currently running as a Republican for the Lake County Treasurer's post. During the summer Collins in- vited Wallace to speak ,in the county, almost costing him his Treasurership candidacy. State Republicans tried to remove his name from the slate, but were frustrated by a legal proviso pro- tecting candidates chosen by di- rect primary from just such situa- tions. Following Wallace's address to an enthusiastic Hoosier audience, at which both Peggy and her fath- er appeared on the platform with the former Alabama governor, Collins was asked by the Wallace organization to suggest names of electors. 'I asked him to, put my name down for kicks," explains Peggy. "I never dreamed I would be cho- sen." Indeed, she was chosen not only as a Wallace elector, but also named by Montgomery headquar- ter's the vice chairman of Wal- lace's Indiana campaign. Hesitant about the second post, she accept- ed after being informed that "it really wouldn't involve any work." EVERY AMERICAN T O W N, village, county, and metropolis has its clique of perpetual office-seek- CIVIL RIGHTS: Peggy seemed exasperated by questions to which she could give no answer. We talk- ed about the defects in the dem- ocratic process, and she cited the situation in Lake County where the vote in Gary dominates that of the outlying area. I asked her to think about a parallel situation in the South where another minority found it often could not achieve progress through demo- cratic mechanisms. She was dis- turbed that such a situation could exist, but even more so by her in- abiity to refute my rhetorical question. It was apparent that she had never before considered the question. * * * HIPPIES AND YIPPIES, dem- onstration and dissent? "I don't pay much attention to all that" and "They'll straighten up." During another interview she told me that young people were "more involved now" but she wasn't sure whether that was od.hexperience in running things," she observes. Here again she seemed unsure of her answers. She objects to "young people demanding conces- sions when they don't know wheth- er they're good or not." What de- mands? Changes in dormitory rules for example -- she didn't know whether they were good or not. Later she included the new stu- dent driving regulations in this category.- Demonstrations bother Peggy, and then again they don't. "I am trying to put myself in their place," she says as she plays with a styrofoamrcoffee cup. "They think they are trying to do some good but I don't know."\ But empathizing with the tac- tics employed by some student demonstrators isn't really all that hard for Peggy. When her father organized a demonstration against the mayor of Clary she walked the picket lines. "Those people have a right to picket just as much as I did," she decides ... as long as they have permits and were kept orderly and didn't explode. Any- way, elections are better. 'There is always an opportunity for change through elections." * * *' VIETNAM: Again she starts on solid ground and then begins to waver. "We must do all we can to 'back the boys,'" she avers, add- ing, "The point of fighting is to win; since we are fighting we ought to be fighting to win . To have the most technologically advanced military machine. . . it seems strange to me that we haven't already won." Here she becomes uncertain. "I don't /want to give the idea that I am all for wars. I don't want ~wars any more than anyone else " Something Johnson or Humphrey would say, and yet somehow I felt she meant it; she seemed deeply concerned that people are dying in Vietnam, and believes fervently that our "holding back" the Amer- ican fighting man causes greater loss of life. But she has no hope For the talks in Paris. "The Communists have broken 52 of the 53 agree- ments they have made . . ." The last time I had heard ,hat line it was 98 out of 99, but I listened as she continued: "I would think it would be almost a crime to pull out now because that would be to let those guys die in vain." 4 I Jq Noil-I d ,)I g-L', .0y"(y coosC'vftive, ca mice girl'. Peggy describes her father with one word: "Amazing." Despite his relative lack of electoral success, he has gained fame throughout the county and state as a spokes- man of conservative causes. Al- ways ready to voice opinions on almost any issue, he has been dubbed "Mr. Soundoff" for his participation on a local call-in. radio show. A MAN OF UNWAVERING at- titudes, he walked out of church several years ago during the mid dle of a sermon with the priest told the congregation they did not need to follow the Ten Command- ments. He has not returned. His own campaignhas prevent- ed Collins' from taking an active part in the Wallace drive. But in last week's Life he was pictured as a Wallace supporter and has been asked on radio to deny that he had been approached by Wal- lace for the Vice Presidential slot. Why does he do it? Says Peggy: "It is on the order of daily sun- rise-inevitable. It helps business and he enjoys it." IIFR ROOM is a pj,k-n'ace South Quad single that she likes to call "the pit." Everything in it is pink except the walls, which ar'e soon to be painted in match- ing shades. But Peggy's predilec- tion for pink has already found expression in her three pink rugs, pink bed spread. pink plastic flowers and burlap appointments. Over her desk is a "Courage! Stand Up for America" poster of the presidential hopeful. Facing out the window, an Alfred E. Pope, by he'r thinking, should have spent more time on his recent South American trip "looking at all the back alleys instead of the cathedrals." She dates non-Catholic boys. PEGGY IS STRICTLY no-com- ment on the subject of drugs. "I have never taken them; so I have no idea whether they are good or bad." But she started as a freshman in the pharmacology college, and learned there that any drug has to be used correct- ly. if and why she supported George Wallace, intersperse) with anger at her father and nervous giggles that she seems to use as a defense mechanism. After an hour she de- cided she ought to call her father, and when she returned she was definitely supporting Wallace and knew why. I got the distinct impression she had to call heir father to find out just why it was she did support Wallace. After the call, she talked a lot about states' rights and local control. Local governments, being closer to. the people, would be I '4 Johnson's .separate peace PIeggy seemed exasperated by questions to which she could give no an- swers. We talked about the democratic process . .I asked her to think about a situation in the South where a minority found it often could not achieve progress through democratic mechanisms. She was disturbed that sucha ( situation could exist, but 'even more so by her inability to refute my rhetorical question. It was apparent that she had never before consid- ered the question. Esasiisisiisa isisits~s~sm sssnisasisassizsmay um sfi h. "sssisli#ssse2E E s%2~ I.4f ## ..11 '"1 . j} IT SEEMS as if UN .Secretary-General U Thant doesn't know all that appears in the newspapers. If he did, he would know that the United States is negotiat- ing peace in Paris, which means he better keep his mouth shut about any other so- lutions to the war. Thant should see that the two front running Presidential candidates are not amenable to suggestions about halting the bombing. Showing a great deal of "re- sponsibility," they refrain from any ser- ious discussion about the war so that they will not "hinder" the talks in' Paris. The secretary-general's suggestion for a bombing halt was in essence a plea that the issue of the bombing of North Viet- nam should be brought before the Gen- eral Assembly. Thant apparently feels the assembly would vote in favor of a resolu- tion asking the U.S. to discontinue bomb- ing. The resolution could be in no way binding upon Washington; it could only exert "moral pressure." BUT AT this time, certainly through no fault of Thant's, moral pressure against the U.S. position is about as ef- fective as bamboo sticks against napalm. t *t Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 420 Maynard St,., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104. Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular Rumernlf seiann Moral pressure is not going don Johnson. to move Lyn- Nothing, in fact, is going to move Lyn- don Johnson right now. His obsession with justifying the war, as shown in a recent speech to the American Legion in New Orleans, borders on paranoia. His fist pounding and screaming show he is completely committed to vindicating his name in the newspapers and history books. He seeks peace of mind, not peace on earth. The token negotiations in Paris have been staged to insure that Johnson will go down in history as a reasonable man, bent on building peace. That the negotia- tions have been going nowhere and that peace is not in the making seems insigni- ficant to him. What is important is that Lyndon Johnson thinks that the negotia- tions will get him off the hook. THE PARIS talks will probably not re- write history to take the war's re- sponsibility away from Johnson.}But the Paris talks will at least keep the blame away from Johnson for a while, as long as the candidates use the talks as an excuse not to discuss the war. And the nation has an excuse not to consider any proposals for peace. As long as we are acting out one man's bad dreams in Paris, the U.S. position will re- main inflexible. Any- chance of bringing the issue to the General Assembly re- One day we were sipping coffee in Club 60 when I asked her if she had any Negro friends, and if they knew she was a Wallace elector. She did, several of the girls on her hall were black and she regularly ate dinner with one of them, who knew she was a Wallace elector and thought she was crazy, but "so does everyone." Peggy's musical tastes favor the light, "bouncy" things. "I like just about all kinds of music ex- cept jazz and Beethoven," she opines. "I like some classical music if it's sore of bouncy-like Tchaikovsky. I don't like dreary stuff or psychedelic music. She owns Simon and Garfunkel's Parsley. Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, a'nd grooves to all of the. cuts except "7 O'Clock News." UNLIKE HER FATHER'S very visible politics (and out of char- acter for a girl normally so out- going) Peggy's politics are, more internalized. Since coming to Ann Arbor her entire local political ac-' tivity has consisted of a brief stint with campus Young Americans for Freedom. Currently she is a mem- ber of her house council. Back home in Lake County, Peggy worked for Nixon in '60 and Goldwater in '64 (Goldwater was the last candidate she has really been "gung-ho" for), and was chairman of Lake County YAF her senior year in high school. "I am not about to go setting up Wallace headquarters a r o u n d here." she says, explaining that 'Ann Arbor is too hostile." In fact. Peggy was initially re- luetant to accept a Daily inter- more competent to handle prob- lems of civil rights and poverty. Wallace would let the local gov- ernments run themselves. John- son is trying to run everything. Always her answers to my first questions about public policies were positive and confident. As I probed further, I met with more long pauses and unanswered ques- tions. Rather than a racist or even a member of the working class in- secure about her social and econ- omic status (her father is a self- made salesman of specialty metal products and an inventor), Peggy seemed to be a girl of magnani- mous intentions, but very politi- cally naive. THE CITIES: "Authority has not been respected . . . This ad- ministration has tried to put Jus- tice before law and order . . .You just can't do that. . You have to establish law and order and then establish justice." She seemed sure of herself as she alluded to the Preamble to the Constitution which, as she explained it, put "domestic tranquility before jus- tice." (It is actually the other way aroun."). What should be done about the cities, then? She answered quick- y that there was a need for in- MANY OF PEGGY's answers over the period of three weeks when I was interviewing her had a liberal ring, but these were quickly smothered in conservative afterthoughts. Peggy seems to be a normal college co-ed, not ter- ribly politically informed, non- ideologically conservative, a nice girl. ONE DAY we were sipping cof- fee in Club 600 when I asked her if she had any Negro friends, and if they knew she was a Wallace elector. She did, several of the girls on her hall were black, and she regularly ate dinner with or e of them, who knew she was a Wal- lace elector and thought she was crazy, but "so does everyone." Just then a black employe hap- pened by whom she had chatted with as we passed through the line. She was going to show me something, I could tell by the look on her face. Addressing him by name, she announced o'ut of the blue that she was was supporting Wallace. The lines on his face moved visibly, then he began to smile and made some joke about re- minding him never to trust her again. Peggy, relieved, madea brief exnnsitorv statement to the 4 ers. Like Harold Stassen, their na- tional prototype, these concerned citizens run often, win occasion ally, and lose most often of all. Such has been the career of W. Neuman for President. Since I last saw the room Wallace has taken the place of Neuman and Neuman has been filled circularly. The walls also bear a large brass eagle an a mall ,nThtinAmer'ican,,flan.