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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
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News Phone: 764-0552
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: ROB BEATTIE
Taking the hard line
on University finances
CCOMPANYING the University's an-
nual budget request to the state yes-
terday was a general statement by the
University on the need for more support
of higher education in Michigan, and of
the University in particular.
Unfortunately, the letter merely show-
ed that University administrators are re-
fusing to acknowledge where the r e a 1
problem exists.
This year, the University has asked for
$75.89 million. They will be lucky to get
$66-67 million dollars if things go as in
the past. And the reason doesn't lie in the
stinginess of the state legislators, but in,
the inadequate state budget.
1 AT THIS state needs is a graduated
income tax. However, the voters de-
cided to continue the constitutional ban
against such a scale in the last election.
The next alternative is a tax increase un-
der the existing flat rate plan. However,
persuading the State Legislature to do
that won't be easy.
The only way persuasion can be accom-
plished is if all interested parties in the
state throw their collective weight be-
hind a tax increase. The Regents of the
University will have to publicly endorse
the needed hike. The University adminis-
trators will have to work overtly w i t h
other administrators across the state, and
write letters to the thousands of alumni
who will cringe at the thought of their
beloved 'U' becoming a second rate in-
stitution.
DOUBT that the Regents will do this.
I doubt the University administrators
will stop crying and start working - at
the root of the problem, not somewhere
else.t
For too long, this University has taken
the position that "it's not our job to tell
the state what to do. We just tell them
wha we need, and let them try to meet
that need." This is the position of Presi-
dent Robben Fleming, and has long be.n
the position of Vice Presidents Pierpont
and Smith. It's time for them to face the
facts.
The University has 150 years at stake.
-JIM NEUBACHER
0
CASTLE: Eight years old. An American dream. Haunting memor-
ies of two assassinations. Recently redecorated. Caretaker married and
moved. Must sell.
OUT OF A POLITICAL year which once held promis for ex-
treme changes, either youthful euphoria or wizened tyran-
ny, emerges the most mediocre answer of all: Richard Mil-
hous Nixon.
The election of 1968 is an obituary.
Dead is the passion of our young. Nixon will not inspire
the vehemence that the cream-turned-sour Lyndon Johnson
did because Nixon stands behind policies rather than for pol-
icies. Once the actual killing stops in Vietnam we will be hard-
pressed to replace the catharsis of anti-war rallies.
4
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Economic law, Nixon's order
JI'
THE DYNAMICS of economics and the
dynamics of politics rarely go arm in,
arm despite the efforts of historians to
make it seem so. Political campaigns of
course are run on the premise that there
is some connection between politics and
economics, and no doubt t h i s concept
forces people to try to organize their ob-
servations of the social situation along
the dlines of casual relationships.
However if there is any causal relation-
ship at all between economic policy and
economic reality it does not become ap-
parent within the time-context of the po-
litical arena.
A perfect example of this is the eco-
nomic paradox which will face Richard
Nixon in his first term as President.
THURSDAY Prof. Daniel Suits of t h e
economics department forecast a busi-
ness slowdown in 1969 with its corres-
ponding increase in unemployment. Suits
based his predictions largely on an antici-
pated drop in consumer spending due to
the effects of the 10 percent surtax in-
stituted last June.
If Suits' forecast is accurate (and he
has been extremely accurate during the
last several years) Richard Nixon will
find himself helpless to avoid those eco-
nomic ills that most liberal economists
associate with Republican administra-
tions. No matter what fiscal and mone-
tary tools Nixon employs during the
first months of his term, he will find un-
employment increasing a n d productive
growth slowing down. Unfortunate f o r
Nixon is the fact that even though the
economy's growth will decline, inflation
paradoxically will still be creeping up-
ward.
USUALLY ECONOMISTS view unem-
ployment and inflation in terms of a
trade-off - you can try to stifle one or
the other with fiscal and monetary poli-
cies but the chances of stopping b o t h
simultaneously is a lm o s t impossible.
When you encourage growth and conse-
quently high employment w i t h fiscal
measures li k e increased government
spending and 'loose" money policies you
run the risk of creating an increase in
demand which surpasses the present pro-
f ductivity capacity of the country.
With this excess of demand over pro-
ductivity, prices rise in order to satisfy
this demand. In other words, the boost in
consumer demand is met by an increase
in prices rather than an increase in the
amount of goods and services produced.
When you try to stop inflation, the op-
posite is true. Governmental devices to
tighten the money market or to increase
taxes will lower consumer demand a n d
slow down inflation.
However the drop in demand will also
cause industries to cut-back production
and thus not hire as many employes as
they would if demand was higher. The
result would be an increase in unemploy-
ment.
THIS SIMPLIFIED picture does not en-
tirely account for what is ;now hap-
pening in the economy, and what is going
to happen in 1969. Even though our eco-
nomic growth is starting. to slow down
the large wage increases of the past three
years are just beginning to show their ef-
fects on consumer prices.
In other words, businessmen are only
now being able to pass on the increased
costs resulting from h i g h wage scales
contracted three years ago.
Thus inflation will continue to increase
because of this lag in the price structure.
To Richard Nixon the paradox m a y
prove deadly. He boasted in his campaign
that he would stop inflation and keep un-
employment down at the same time. He
would be lucky just to accomplish one of
these feats. Because of existing economic
conditions he may very well accomplish
neither.
-PHILIP BLOCK
Robert Kennedy died a long time ago.
Dead is the anger of our blacks. Nixon will send his en-
voys of the private sector into the ghetto to train the blacks
for work in our industrial plantations. When they are safely
innoculated with our impersonality, the blacks will turn to a
mechanical hate in which they will destroy life but preserve
property.
Dr. Martin Luther King died a long time ago.
Dead is the fear of our white racists. Nixon will acceed to
demands that the students and blacks stop pushing around
the white lower-class factory workers and shopowners. Instead
the long-forgotten middle-class will reassume its historical
LATO 4AMff1RK1..
.-? M E _PLE EAS
- , r
9r
"I see the lame ducks are flying again."
Death
'Don't you think it's a little early to be'discus-
sing the orderly transition of the government'
at an
early
role and push around the white lower-class factory workers
and shopowners.
Lurleen Wallace died a long time ago.
Dead is the gospel of our military. Nixon will not parade
the glory-and-patriotism syndrome in front of us. He does not
subscribe to the theory that the military can secure univerr.
sal peace and brotherhood. He does not believe in war as a
moral crusade but as an exercise in lifestyles. The law of the
military will be our way of life.
Alexander the Great lived a long time ago.
Dead is the heartache of our poor. Nixon will balance the
budget and increase the unemployment of marginal workers
to 20 per cent. Since we shall always have the poor with us,
he will give them encouragement and honor and dignity. And
they will die from empty stomachs.
Jesus Christ lived a long time ago.
Dead is a lot of things. Dead is misery and grief and sun-
shine and laughter. Dead is a life we once knew.
Death drives a hard bargain.
age
-HOWARD,
Associate
KOHN
Editorial Director
Routine politics in Vietnam
4
WAR CRITICS have often accused the
United States of playing hypocrite in
Vietnam when it supports an undemo-
cratic regime while ostensibly fighting for
democracy.
But is the U.S. stance really hypocrit-
ical? Our recent history of foreign policy
has consistently favored the side of re-
pression, in Vietnam and elsewhere.
Evidence in support of this contention
mounts daily. On Thursday the South
Vietnamese regime closed down The Sai-
gon Daily News for downplaying South
Vietnam's reasons for boycotting the Par-
is peace talks. The Daily News was the
tenth paper to be suspended in the last
20 days by the Thieu government.
The puppet regime has also jailed
Thi u's foremost political opponent,
Troung Dinh Dzu and several Buddhist
monks for advocating a negotiated end to
been widely reported the CIA actually
helped the coup gain power.
In 1965 the United States invaded the
Dominican Republic with the purpose of
ousting the popular leader Juan Bosch-
the epitome of a mild left-wing liberal, a
Eugene McCarthy type. It seems a state-
ment made by Bosch to the effect that he
did not favor outlawing Communism was
considered dangerous enough to instigate
a United States invasion.
3 RHAPS the cruelest example of arro-
gant U.S. behavior was President Ken-
nedy's ill-starred Bay of Pigs invasion in
1961. Kennedy and his advisors planned
a full-scale invasion of Cuba in the hope
that a handful of Cuban refugees could
topple Castro.
And even w h e n it became clear the
whole a f f a i r was doomed, the United
States refused to cancel planned bombing
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