I
"We're gonna make history, Hubert . .. ! "
.,
(T e rtidigan ]-Daily
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
I
- ---
P-
.1
.. ,
oe e
7 .o
,-, -.9-
~4-*'$ .7
'p
~'*' ':;~ /
<~
7
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
rj
SATURDAY; SEPTEMBER 28, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: JILL CRABTREE
b
Finding the 'real world'
at Ann Arbor High
THE CURRENT controversy at Ann Ar-
bor High School involving the sus-
pension of three students because of the
length of their hair should be viewed as
part of a much larger struggle which is
rapidly upsetting many high schools
across the country.
To be sure, the issue of personal hair
styles is far from-a critical one, but ad-
ministrators here have been unyielding,
recognizing the issue really encompasses
a movement for freer curricula, student
decision-making and greater personal
civil liberties.,
Furthermore the question of the circu-
lation of underground newspapers a n d
the right of free expression are at the
heart of the, dispute, as school officials
made clear this week when they suspend-
ed two more students for distributing lit-
erature which had not been "approved"
by the administration.
jT HAS BEEN the wont of most all high
school administratiors to attempt to
stifle any devient or activist tendencies
among their students. Administrators
usually do not carry out this policy as
part of any personal crusade, but rather,
they act as a function of the institution
which they serve.
Today the entire educational process is
a form of indoctrination into the norms
of adult society.
But the patronizing rigidity of this pro-
cess is almost frightfully enervating when
contrasted'to the growing sophistication
of today's high school students.
Many telling arguments against just
these abuses of spirit were brought forth
at the "Open Forum" at Ann Arbor High'
School yesterday.
ONE STUDENT argued that the admin-
istration was right in regulating the
length of hair and the nature of personal
attire because when the student later en-
ters the "real world" he would be con-
fronted by the disapproving eye of society
and thereby couldn't "succeed."
When most of the other students groan-
ed at this comment, it was in sympathy
for a speaker who had been so indoctrin-
ed that he could never understand what
the controversy really was about.
And it was clear from the ensuing re-
marks that t h e indoctrination process
had failed abysmally and students were'
no longer content to blindly "go to col-
lege," wear their hair like everyone else,x
and avoid all risks in striving to "suc-
ceed."
ONE STUDENT responded that "we are
in the 'real world.' I'm not going to
wait to start living. I am living right
now."
But school officials would like to post-
pone this kind of life for a while. They,
know how easy it is to teach and manage
school in which students are urfiformally
conventional,
From this vantage point the school ad-
ministration sincerely wants to solve the
problem. They w i s h that all students
would quietly cut their hair and save any.
potentially hostile actions until after they
have gone college, or better yet, until
they have "succeeded."
BUT SCHOOL officials are faced with an
ever-growing problem. At Ann.Arbor
High School there is already a movement
afoot to establish a free-wheeling, un-
structured "student union" which would
potentially be able to swing some coer-
cive power of its own.
Underneath it all, there is really no
need for these costly confrontations in
the high schools. There is, for example,
a new administration at Ann Arbor High.
School which potentially has the ability
to make thorough-going and long-over-
due changes which could transform the
way high schools are run.
But if the, administrators tend to lag
behind, attempting to submerge all pol-
icy differences in the magical doctrine
of "don't make waves," they will discover
that many of the young faculty members
will not side with them.
HOWEVER, if the school officials take
the lead and attempt to initiate mean-
ingful reforms they can move to avoid
many unnecessary and unpleasant scenes.
Otherwise these same administrators
will have to be pushed and pressured by
their maturing students until they are
truly willing to face the "real world" of
the American high school.
-BILL LAV.LY
I - -N------------nrt.---A-- --4 .
pyr ".a ky r ry.}r y{ y EPTI i ! J 7 ยข.. ..l . ....k . ..n.4.V.
Labor's proper candidate
~~J AM ES W EC HS LE R
Thne ADA
and Humphe
IT IS SYMPTOMATIC of the bleakness of Hubert Humphrey's
campaign journey that a meeting of the national board of Ameri-
cans for Democratic Action, scheduled for this weekend, has been
quietly postponed until Oct. 5. Actually, the original plan had called
for a board session immediately after the Democratic convention.
The assumption was that, despite the previous preponderance of sen-
timent for Eugene MeCarthy, an overwhelming iajority would be
prepared to endorse Humphrey if and when he won the Democratic
nomination.
But as the Chicago assemblage neared. ADA chief John Kenneth
Galbraith and others agreed that a.cooling-off period would be desirable.
Now, in the aftermath of the emotions stirred by Daley's debacle and
Humphrey's faltering response, another two-week delay has been
decided upon with the acquiescense of Humphrey's supporters. While
confident they could push through a pro-Humphrey resolution, they
privately acknowledged that its language would -be so modified-and
its impact to diluted by the resistance of such key 'chapters as Cali-
fornia-that the news would have largely negative overtones.-,
"We're hoping the climate will have changed a lot after-a couiple of
more weeks of this campaign," a Humphrey adherent said yesterday.
But will it? "Manana" has be- a
come the sad battle-cry of the, ,
Humohrey forces in many places.
ANYONE WHO forecast four-.
years ago that Hubert Humphrey' ,
would encounter any difficulty in
securing a clear-cut, rousing ADA *
testimonial in a Presidential con-
test with Richard Nixon (and
George Walace) would have been
a village idiot. The strong prob-
ability remains that an endorse-
ment will finally be forthcoming
in some fashion. But -there could
be no clearer measure of the di-
mensions of Humphrey's -travail
than the hesitancy within ADA
over enlistment in his battle
against Nixon.
Disaffection in ADA is only one
of Humphrpy's mounting problems, but it is tinged with unusually
significant symbolism. For the manner in which he deals with it will
reveal whether he has chosen to face the key decision of his campaign
that he has so far evaded.
THAT DECISION is whether to wage ajlast-ditch might to recap-
ture the allegiance of liberals and independents-the traditional
"swing note"-or to blur such efforts by gestures of abject appeasement
to both Lyndon Johnson's foreign policy and the "law-and-order"
frenzy permeating blue-collar territory.
So far Humphrey has, to borrow his own characteriztion of Nixon,
wobbled and wiggled. It is an open secret that some of his influential
advisers still cling to the- view that the dissidents will end up in his
camp and that a large share of his campaign must be addressed to the
rising right as well as to the sedation of the watchful President.
But his attempt to speak in several voices has produced a spec-
tacle of ineptitude,.and indecision. To those who have ever been ,eposed
to Humphrey's intelligence and sure-footedness, he has been an almost
unrecognizable figure in his first; humbling campaigxi phase; in Buf-
falo he subjected himself to new caricature by offering the astonishing
observation that he had never read the "dove" minority plank pre-
sented at Chicago before declaring that he could have embraced it.
He sounded like a man whom Lyndon Johnson had threatened ;,with
exile to Siberia unless he atoned for his earlierindiscretion.
CONCEIVABLY Humphrey, is a man. doomed by accident and
circumstance to dismal defeat. He carries the burden 'of a war that
he did not begin and cannot himself resolve before Election Day.
Prejudice is fanned by paranoia in many areas; affluene has trans-
formed crusading laborites into jealous men of property; a new
mysticism captivates some offended by materialism.
Any 'unpredictable event may alter the outlook, but he cannot
rely on history's benevolence. More likely, only a dramatic act of his
oWn can change the atmosphere. Outright resignation from the Vice
Presidency raises the problem, it has been pointed out, that President
Johnson would be required -under the 25th Amendment to name an
interim successor; that could create new, diversionary trouble.
But Humphrey could announce that, to avoid any conflict of
interest and intent, he was abdicating all executive and policymakin
roles-uch as membership on the ;National Sechity Council and:
participation in Cabinet meetings-while continuing to fulfill his
Constitutional duty as president of the Senate. No one is proposing that
he herald suh a step with an aggressively, adversary posture toward
the President. What is proposed is that he escape.'from his present
bondage of responsibility-without-authority, and achieve the psycho-
logical liberation obviously crucial to this campaign. Then many of us
might ascertain whether the Humphrey we knew in brighter days was
still alive and well.
isI
a
'HERE IS the immediate finger
and wrath of God in George
Meany's alarmed discovery that
members of the AFL-CIO are
lurching toward George Wallace.
George Wallace is closer to the
modern and even the historic
philosophy of American labor
than either Mr. Nixon or Mr.
Humphrey. T& obscure this re-
semblance, George Meany will
simply have to lie to his member-
ship and to himself, no new thing
for a labor leader, but always
painful for anyone as honorable
as Meany.
THE AFFINITY between George
Wallace and Meany is, in no way,'
one of character. Meany is a.
splendid man of the old-fashioned
Bronx sort, which means that the
three faiths to which he clings
are, in no special order, G o d ,
country and the right of very man
to be paid while rendering very
little service to either..,
He "is tried in the traces and
certainly made peevish by them;
it could be argued that he ought
to retire, but he has the very good
excuse that any successor dray-
horse in sight would be consider-
ably worse at the pull.
GEORGE WALLACE, 'on the
other hand, is the only leader of
a bad cause whom I have never
even for a fleeting moment liked.
Marshall Frady and Tim Lee have
done, extraordinary jobs of work in
makinghim bearable to read
about. He remains, however, un-
endurable in the flesh. I remem-
ber covering a murder trial in
in Haynesville a few years ago;
we were staying in Montgomery,
and the Governor of Alabama
used to lie in wait outside the Jef-
ferson Davis and spring on any-
one who might be a visiting re-
porter.
AT ONE POINT, fairly deaf-
ened by the wheels of self-con-
gratulation clacking in his head, I
tore myself from his clutch, point-
ed out that I was assigned to
something else, thank heaven, and
thus not required to talk to him
and departed the lamppost where
he was working his trade.
Still, Mr. Wallace is the candi-
date the AFL-CIO deserves. There
is every difference in private na-
ture between him and George
Meany, but non visible in what
they stand for.,
THERE ARE even echoes in
their rhetoric. Wallace is famous
for saying: "And if any demon-'
strator ever lays down in front of
-ry car, it'll be the last one he
ever lays down in front of .
But, when he came to 'defend
This record is, I think, owing
less to bigotry than to fear of-
conpetition. American labor,
blither Walter Reuther how he
will, has functioned less often on
the principle of embracing than
of excluding. Its aim is the job
monopoly, enforced not by compe-
tition but by -dictate.
.The idea of competence on the
job is almst an affront to that
principle, being secondary to the
union card and the senior right.
THE AFL-CIO has lived hap-
pily in a society which, more lav-
ishly than any in history, has
managed the care and feeding of
incompetent vhite people. Who
represents that ideal better than
George Wallace?
i
The AFL-CIO has lived happily in a society
which, more lavishly than any in history, has
managed the care and feeding of incompetent
white people. Who represents that ideal better
than George Wallace?
.. r ............... . ..... ,...... :; :":": i. ,."K. ... r ...,. . . .... r ..K%%r.. .1 .4 ....J,.1"si5 YYA 4A 1r Ys2 J"
ANOTHER OPINION
Student describes
Ann Arbor action
Mayor Daley, George Meany told
the machinist's union, "I know
what you'd do with the dirty-
necked, dirty-mouthed group."
It can be argued that Wallac'e
says these things coldly and
George- Meany says them only
when he loses his temper but,
since Meany can barely contem-
plate the American scene without
losing 'his tmper these days, the
difference in practice is very
small.
IT IS UNFAIR to review the'
AFL-CIO's history as a major
obstacle to the progress of the
Negro in this country, because
that history is improving, even if
against its will. %
Meany's members are what his
tolerance, as well as ours, has con-
tributed to making- them. 0 n 1 y
four years ago, members of his
own union were picketing to keep
Negroes from working in this town
as plumbers.
This posture differed from
George Wallace's stand against
admitting Negroes to the Univer-
sity of Alabama only inbeing
more effective.
So MeaAy defended his mem-
bers when they ,tried to keep
Negroes out of their local; and
now he is mad at them for back-
ing George Wallace. That indi-
cates a -curious- notion of what
constitutes a sin against society.
*4
i
EDITOR'S NOTE: Russell Kirk, au-thor of the
Conservative Mind and Program for Conserva-
tives is now a widely syndicated columnist
writing for over 100 papers across the country.
Kirk also has a bi-weekly column in the Na-
tional Review.
DURING the firstmonth of fall term at
American colleges 'and universities,
those students who prefer riots to books
have been sufficiently in the news - par-
ticularly at the University of Michigan
and the University of Illinois. But I en-
counter many signs that the majority of
undergraduates a r e tired of this non-
sense.
At Ann Arbor, a band of radical acti-
vists, led by the staff of the student news-
paper, the Michigan Daily, attempted to
storm the Washtenaw County courthouse
in pretended zeal for additional allow-
ances to mothers under the Aid to De-
pendent Children program.
THEY WERE REPELLED, and the uni-
versity authorities now plan to adopt
a new method for choosing the paper's
editors.
A perceptive sophomore girl at the Uni-
versity of Michigan gives me a candid ac-
count of the antics at Ann Arbor. She
looks upon the police-baiting "demon-
strators" with amused contempt.
"It is hard to keep perspective here,"
she says, "since the Michigan Daily blows
everything out of proportion. It's obvious
that the hardcore radicals a r e merely
taking advantage of the mothers' group,
with the mothers standing back in si-
lence while students jeer police, scream
'police brutality' and do everything with-
in their power to create a 'confrontation'
similar to that in Chicago. What does this
do to get more money for the mothers?
"The Daily put forth a heroic effort to
create a crisis, -basing its arguments on
the fact that the police had guns and
tear gas (which, the radicals sheepishly
admitted, were not used), and were pa-
trolling in force. In other words, those
nasty police scared us kids with all those
weapons.
"After a few days and a few h'undred
arrests, Student Government obligingly
offered to pay the bail for any' person ar-
rested, be he student or not. Somehow,
when we just had a tuition hike and a cut
in money from the Legislature, I cannot
understand how SGC can have such an
abundant flow of funds, enabling them
to bail out any person in Ann Arbor who
happens to sympathize w i t h the stu-
dents."
THAT'S NOT ALL the only trouble at
Andn Arbor. "We received word that the
dormitory staff was going on strike to-
morrow and so there will be no meals
served for an indefinite time. This is an
all-university strike, so everyone's run-
ning to stores, to stock up on bread and
peanut butter. Incidentally, the Voice of
Students for . a Democratic Society is
backing the strikers.
Though many university administra-
tors seem to be gentlemen of infinite pa-
tience or boundless timidity, the genuine+
students (as distinguished from the
freaks and fantastics) are growing vexed
at such anarchic performances. Even if
they don't study, they do like to eat. Soon
we may hear their cry of "Down with the
revolution"
---RUSSELL KIRK
The Detroit News
Sept. 24'
Letters: Residential College too expensive
To the Editor:
IN YOUR columns Sept. 20 are
two expressions of opinion
about the Residential College. One
of them is by students of the Res-
idential College appearing before
the Board of Regents, while the
second is by the President of
Strauss House, Mr. Ronald Schur
in.
THE FORMER points out many
of the great benefits to be derived
from the Residential College, its
intimate atmosphere and its con-
venient central situation.
Mr. Shurin, on the other hand,
has very pertinently commented
upon the .disproportionate spend-
ing on the Residential College and
particularly with regard to its,
timing in the case of ,renovations
in the East Quad.
He also draws attention, once
more, to the old sore that the
Residential College has "special
sources of funding", noting that
the special sources of funding can
be traced back to normal resident
halls and student funds as well as
resources of the College of Lit-
erature, Science and the Arts.
UNFORTUNATELY, both ex-
# pressions of opinion seem to be
true. There were many of us who
has commented that he, is sure
that this figure will be decreased
in the future, nonetheless it is
certain to level outat not much
different than a factor of 2 to 3.
THE QUESTION which M r.
Ronald Schurin poses is once
again, in the opinion of many
faculty as well as students, the
pertinent one, i.e., whether it is
the right thing to use at least
twice the funds on one group of,
people pursuing basically the same
courses as another group in the
same college, not to mention the
capital costs involved in the exe-
cution of such - a plan.
Despite, many laims for the
unique character of the Residen-
tial College such experiments have
been tried in many places in this
country and in Europe, not to
mention Australia, and the basic
cost for us to be ab*e to afford
the expensive model ,with all the
extras but if the University, as
well as its faculty, has a limited,
and even a stringent, budget it
must be very judicipus astoehow
these limited funds are -spent.
It is always the orerogative, and
indeed, the duty of the University
to experiment with neT -ideas as
well as to adapt known . programs
to its own environment, but it is
proximately a factor of four times
the cost of the more usual LSA
program then this might also
force a reappraisal of, the situa-
tion, but at this ,time there ap-
pears to be no likelihood of this
occuring
Originally it was stated by its
proponents that the Residential
College would be funded with
"money from sources previously
untapped by the University", in
addition to its being a partial an-
swer for the increasing student
density on the central campus.
BOTH OF these have proved to
be illusory and if it is continued
at its present rate of funding and
on a site manifestly unsuited to its
avowed purposes, it will continue
to absorb a far greater share of
the University budget than can be
reasonably afforded in our present
straitened circumstances.
Despite all statements to' the'
contrary, the Residential College)
never has had special sources of
funding and, while this may be- a
matter for lament in many quart-
ers, it is about time that both
faculty and th administration, as
well as the students, faced this un-
palatable reality.
Even if the outlook for the fu-
ture were rosy there would be
some cause for alarm, but, in view
ratio is:about to be increased and
this addition will simply inflame
an already aggravated situation.
--Thomas MW. Dunn,
Professor ofDChemistry
Sept. 20
- 'Peggy Collis'
To the Editor: -
CHRIS STEELE'S piece "Peggy
Collins Stands up for Ameri-
ca" (Daily, Sept., 26) 'is one of the
most cruelly irrelevant pieces of
purely sensationalist writing the
Daily has printed in years.
The article, from start to fin-
ish, belies its avowed purpose. We
can' only charitably assume this
was to get away from the kind of
trite sociological analysis of Wal-
lace's supporters which, by rnow
everyone is bored with, and show
the impact of "the rhetorical fillip
that seems to generate fantastic
emotional assent from crowds of
Wallace devotees" on the real live
people who could possibly throw;
the election to Wallace.
ALTHOUGH the merit of this
type of endeavour is unquestion-
able, Steele's consistent failure to
adhere to it is appalling. T h e.
Daily's commendable attempt to
refresh its outlook through con-
tact with those,- elements of the
campus which it usually ignores
AND THE F E W remarks. to-
ward the end of the piece which
do touch, upon Peggy's political
opinins are never followed up-
They seem to be brought up- in
passing, winding up Steele's own
"self-righteous and unforgivably
patronizing" portrait of a Wallace
supporter.
-Julie Winters, '69
-Sept. 27
Daily prayer
To, the. Editor:;
WHAT THIS COUNTRY needs
is a good five-cent cigar, right?
That's what The Daily used to say,
,believe it or not. Now, you say we
.need all this 'revolution and
change jazz. The Daily is always
behind the times.
What this country now needs,
obviously, is not the old stogey,
nor the newer weed grass, b ut
some kind of political rather than
botanical growth. That iswhat
the country needs now is s o rn e
kind of benign dictatorship.
TO BRING this discussion back
down to the Daily's level, what
this country needs is not Texas
cactus. but some sort of Columbia
or Berkeley scrub. Someone like
Eldridge Cleaver. He'd put t h e
Establishment against t h e wall.
-.He'd put us back on our feet. The
sky's the limit- In the process of
)daalkin h"ie-' 1 ign clrntatri.
4