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June 27, 1963 - Image 2

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Michigan Daily, 1963-06-27

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Seveity-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
Truth Will Preva1I"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: MARILYN KORAL

WHAT'S GOING ON?:
It's Time To Inquire
About South Vietnam

Beckwith Case To Illustrate
Southern Justice in Action

ONCE AGAIN Southern Justice faces the test
of impartiality.
With'the apprehension of Byron De La Beck-
with as the suspected slayer of Medgar Evers,
the South once again has the opportunity to
show the nation and the world how its sys-
tem of jurisprudence operates.
In the past, this system has shown a re-
markable consistency in freeing all whites and
convicting all Negroes involved in interracial
crimes. Evidence has very rarely played an im-
portant role in court cases there.
Mississippi will have to answer two ques-
tions in the present case. First, will the de-
fendant be tried upon the evidence presented
or will he be tried on the fact that he is
white. Second, if he is found guilty what type
of punishment will the court mete out and
will this punishment eventually be fully car-
ried out.
NO ONE EXCEPT the courts of the sover-
eign state of Mississippi can judge the guilt
or innocence of Beckwith. However, judgments
may be forthcoming on how and in what man-
ner he is tried.
From their past record, Beckwith had every
reason to be cool and calm at his hearing yes-
terday. For Beckwith, being one of the only
persons with actual knowledge of his own guilt
or innocence, could feel secure in either in-
stance.
Not only has the South executed nearly every
Negro accused of raping a white woman and
congratulated almost every white man found
guilty of raping a Vegro woman, but in many
of these cases Southern justice has denied,
Negroes the necessary means of defense.
Besides all-white, handpicked juries who have
reached the verdict before the trial commenced,
basic civil rights such as the right to counsel
Communicati

and bail have all too often been denied the Ne-
gro defendant.
THE SOUTH has invoked an interesting ju-
dicial theory whenever cases such as the
present one have presented themselves. It
states that if a Negro kills a white man, it's
murder; but if a ,white kills a Negro (even by
shooting him in the back), it's self defense.
The FBI would have to present incontrovert-
able evidence before a jury of Southern gentle-
men would even consider convicting a white
for the murder of a Negro.
Even if Beckwith is found guilty, Southern
justice has, in the few cases in the past where
whites have been so convicted, has shown great
clemency. This Southern belief in clemency,
howeyer, has rarely, if ever, been extended to
the insane or incompetent Negro.
Most states in this area of the country pride
themselves on the number of Negroes execut-
ed in inter-racial cases. They equally pride
themselves on the absence of any executions of
whites for similar crimes.
Beckwith faces the likely possibility of a very
one-sided trial. However, unlike most instances
of prejudiced and partial trials, this one is in
favor of the defendant instead of the state.
The State of Mississippi will probably acquit
Beckwith or any other defendant brought be-
fore it on the charges of murdering Medgar
Evers.
If by some strange feeling of conscience, the
people of Mississippi do convict the guilty and
mete out the same type of punishment that a
Negro would receive if the situation was re-
versed, a great step forward will have been
taken. Perhaps, then, "equal justice for all"
will not be just a trite and meaningless phrase
throughout the South.
--ANDREW ORLIN
ons Problem

O °4
AA i Y '" . "t'A
r 1 ' z ..!J '
*.;l ltM~t.t M1 i
t 1t {fx .' I

By H. NEIL BERKSON
1N A MATTER of days President
Kennedy will be home from
Europe. Shortly thereafter the
Washington press corps will as-
semble in the State Department
auditorium. And wouldn't it be
nice if some youthful reporter got
up and asked, "Mr. President,
what is going on in South Viet-
nam?"
In the past year, several news-
paper and magazine articles have
painted a dreary picture of events
there. It is not easy to get at the
facts. There is a rigid censorship
policy and many reporters-News-
week's Francois Sully; NBC's
James Robinson; and the New
York Times' Homer Bigart, for
example-have been expelled from
the country for their efforts.
South Vietnam is less than a
democracy; President Ngo Dinh
Diem heads a family dictatorship
as tight as any in the world. His
news policy is not hard to under-
stand.
But why must the United States
be a partner in repression? Why
does President Kennedy, who
should know better even if his
predecessor did not, remain de-
termined to avoid the issues An
Vietnam by drawing on the image
of the Communist monster every
time the subject arises?
ALL THE INFORMATION com-
ing from Vietnam points to a
disaster. The government does not
have the confidence of the peoplc:
The war against the Viet. Cong
seems farther from solution a~l
the time. The United States looks
more and more like the bulwark
of still another dictatorship which
would otherwise fall.
Two weeks ago another bad
aspect of the internal situation in
South Vietnam came to light. A
Buddhist monk burned himself to
death in a Saigon street to pro-
test Diem's treatment of the
Buddhist majority in that country.
This incident has far-reaching
implications. Diem, a Roman
Catholic, has long persecuted the
Buddhists, who comprise 70 per
cent of his subjects. In May, his
soldiers, trained and armed by

the U. S., fired into a peaceful
crowd of Buddhists celebrating one
of their holy days, killing 11 of
them.
Diem's prejudices extend much
farther. Our military advisers re-
port that the regime has refused
to promote deserving army per-
sonnel who were not Catholic and
has promoted incompetents solely
because they were Catholic. Often
times, when American weapons are
distributed in the villages, they
go only to Catholics. Buddhists
are, in effect, eliminated from any
sense of participation in the af-
fairs of the country.
The suicide two weeks ago has
brought all the Buddhist-Roman
Catholic tensions to a head. They
threaten to split the country in
two at a time when it needs all
its energy to fight the Viet Cong.
Observers are already predicting
that Buddhist unrest could topple
Diem.
* * -
BUT AMERICAN participation
in the Diem regime remains the
prime issue, and the religious vio-
lence brewing is merely another
reason why we should get out. It
is simply not enough to say that
we are protecting the South Viet-
namese from the evils of Com-
munism. Certainly they are con-
vinced that no evils could be worse
than the ones they are suffering
now.
Perhaps our government might
be justified if it were to pursue a
positive policy of internal reform
in South Vietnam. But it is merely
wasting lives and money in de-
fense of an anarchical regime.
After a trip to- South Vietnam
early this year, Senate Majority
Leader Mansfield reported that in
spite of seven years of U. S. aid
the country is less stable than
ever. " . . . It appears more re-
moved, rather than closer to, the
achievement of popularly respon-
sible and responsive government,"
he wrote. The senator called for
a "massive job of social engineer-
ing."
Did President Kennedy read the
report? Will he react to it? Again,
it would be nice if he told the
country exactly what objectives
we are pursuing in South Vietnam.

"' URRY RBCK(,

JACK1

DEARBORN, DETROIT:
Marches Meet White Apathy

AFTER SPENDING three years at this "Dis-
tinguished Center of Higher Learning," I
have discovered, as have many other students,
that I am developing an opinion that the Uni-
versity is a machine to produce mass educa-
tion with little regard to the problems that
confront the individual student's over-all men-
tal development.
I also have begun to feel that its regulations
were not administered with an attitude of sup-
plying the best possible academic and social
conditions but rather that its extremely nega-
tive, iron-clad regulations were implemented
(the question of whether they are just or not
being. beside the point) according to a philoso-
phy that seems to say: Well if you don't like
the regulations, nobody is asking you to go to
school here.

Forward Step
PERHAPS ONE of the best long-range re-
sponses to the racial relations dilemma, both
in the country and abroad, was the announce-
ment Tuesday that the Eleanor Roosevelt
Foundation would concentrate on improving
race relations through research. Its funds,
foundation chairman, Adlai E. Stevenson, said,
would sponsor research projects or an interna-
.tional racial relations study institute or center.
While new laws and political action are need-
ed now to win equal rights for minority groups
in this country and overseas, research is need-
ed to translate legal desegregation into true in-
tegration. Removing legal and social barriers
are not enough to fulfill the demand for equal-
ity. A true equality-equal access or equal op-
portunity for all in any field of endeavor-is
the ultimate goal.
Hopefully, such an institute could be close-
ly related to the United Nations where its re-
search on reducing racial tension within coun-
tries could also lead to peaceful understand-
ing between countries. The institute could also
serve as a building block for a United Na-
tions university that would cover a broader
scope of international activities.
It is fitting that such a formation deal with
eliminating discrimination for the late Mrs.
Roosevelt devoted many years of her life to
championing human rights both for citizens of
this country and the world. Hopefully, the
foundation's institute or research will promote
her cherished dreams.

But not being one to jump to conclusions, I
thought that perhaps my opinions were unwar-
ranted and that the University actually did
have some concern for the welfare of the indi-
vidual student. I did not want to believe that
the chief objective of the University was mere-
ly to turn out graduates and that the social
and psychological education that a student re-
ceives (and to my way of thinking is equally if
not more important than his academic learn-
ing) was of little importance as long as the
diplomas kept multiplying steadily.
RECENTLY I HAD a meeting with the Dean
of Men which served to dishearten my opti-
mism. I had gone to his office with high hopes
of getting permission to live in an apartment
for my senior year in school (at which time I
will be 21). I had what I believed were legiti-
mate and valid reasons for wanting to live in
an apartment. Although my reasons were large-
ly economic, I presented arguments to illustrate
how this particular apartment would provide
ideal study conditions and generally suit my
particular needs.
After he listened attentively to my enthusias-
tic story he agreed generally that this apart-
ment would provide the most ideal housing for
me, but because I lacked the necessary qualifi-
cations that the housing regulations dogmat-
ically demand (25 years of age or 120 credit
hours), his answer to my request was a flat
"No."
Although he sympathized with my position;
regulations were regulations, and there was
nothing he could do for me.
'Upon further discussion we both agreed that
the housing regulations left something to be
desired, but we disagreed on the method to be
used to change them. I thought that the pur-
pose of the Dean's office was to mediate be-.
tween the University and the student and to
be concerned with the student's welfare above
all.

By ROBERT SELWA.
Daily Correspondent
THE WEEKEND'S civil rights
demonstrations inDearborn
and Detroit brought to this area
the nation's greatest protest move-
ment lince the Populist era. This
was good because the Detroit area,
especially Dearborn, needed it.
Dearborn is not only the Birm-
ingham of the North but also the
Dearborn of the nation. Its repu-
tation for housing segregation is
so widespread that a group of
ministers from the Episcopal So-
ciety for Cultural and Racial Un-
ity made Dearborn a prime ob-
jective of their national study trip.
The worst part about the repu-
tation is that itis true and that
the people of Dearborn try their
best to live up-or down-to it:
Almost everyone from Dearborn
with whom I have discussed segre-
gation adamantly supports white
supremacy. If one brings up ethi-
cal considerations like equal jus-
tice under law Dearbornites brush
them aside with the question,
"Would you live next door to a
Negro?" Bring up the point about
the rights of all men and they
answer with what they call their
own right to exclude Negroes.
Bring up the Declaration of In-
dependence with its outline for
equality as a tenet of democracy
and they will make their own
declaration of selfishness.
* *' *
WHEN YOU TELL them that
you would be just as willing to
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
To the Editor:
ONE OF the abuses which has
been heaped upon the capital-
istic countries is a lack of initia-
tion in the liberation of back-
ward peoples. But far more im-
portant is the liberation of those
nations being held captive by So-
viet imperialism.
While a number of peoples have
gained independence, no less than
an equal number of formerly in-
dependent nations have been forc-
ed "to surrender their freedom -. -
to the imperialism of international
Communism."
The Free World, in accepting the
Soviet clamor for the liberation
of peoples, has been craven in its
failure to turn the same argument
against the Soviet and "brinE: it
to court for its enslavement of
these independent peoples,"
* * *
SUCH COUNTRIES as Ukrania,
Armenia, the Caucasian states, the
Balkan states, Poland, Czecho-
slovakia and many more, surely
are "entitled to the principle of

live next door to a Negro as to
an Italian or a Jew or a Catholic
or an Oriental, they cite the no-
tions that Negroes do nor. keep
up their homes, that Negroes
spend all of their free money and
time on big carsand that whiLe
neighborhoods deteriorate when
Negroes move in.
This is as if there were no suc-
cessfully integrated neighborhoods
---as if whites did not force some
Negroes to live in slums by deny-
ing them education and income,
as if some Negroes, denied the op-
portunity of getting a decent
home, were not forced to use their
marginal. propensity to consume
on the only other major material
investment, a car; and as if it
were not the fault of the whites
themselves for lowered property
yalues. White people are getting
trouble not from Negroes but from
themselves. The Negro is the
middle man as the whites try to
unload their woes and create.
scapegoats for their problems.
Whites are causing the protests
against segregation Yet they do
not realize this, and many react
with anger or worry.
THIS WAS the background of
Saturday's demonstration in Dear-
born. Three groups participated of-
ficially-tije N.A.A.C.P., the Dear-
born Pastors' Union and the Dear-
born-Inkster Council on Human
Relations. Some members of the
Dearborn Democratic Club and
the American Civil Liberties Union
also took part.
We met at noon at Oakman and
Michigan. All along Michigan, and
especially near Oakman, the side-
walks were 'full of spectators.
There were probably about 200
demonstrators, half of them white
and half of them Negro. Probably
about 75 of them carried signs or
banners.
We walked single file through
the spectators. They were silent
and they gave us ample room. The
only really audible voice was that
of the monitors urging, "Single
file, please, keep the lines closed."
Both demonstrators and spectators
were serious in demeanor; there
was none of the next day's light-
headedness.
We gathered on the steps of
the Dearborn city hall after the
eight-block walk. The heckling
and booing began when we sang
the Star Spangled Banner and I
was reminded of the reaction to
the San Francisco students when
they sang the Star Spangled Ban-
ner protesting the House Un-
American Activities Committee.
THE HECKLING continued
through the half-dozen. speeches,
growing little by little. It stopped
for the invocation but continued
through the closing prayer. The
booing alternated with more wide-
spread cheers from the demon-
strators when they liked a par-
ticular remark by a speaker. The

don't have no welfare in Dear-
born."
In contrast, Sunday's demon-
stration in Detroit was friendly
land gay. It was so enthuisatic that
it began spontaneously an hour
early. Walking and sometimes
running down Woodward, demon-
strators told spectators to join in.
and many did. Few if any specta-
tors joined the march in Dear-
born.
* * *
WHILE the Dearborn demon-
stration was half white and half
Negro, with almost all the specta-
tors being white, the. Detroit dem-
onstration was at least three-
fourths Negro, and almost all spec-
tators were Negro. The Cobo Hall
audience that heard the Rev. Mar-
tin Luther King and other speak-
ers was mostly Negro.
This was the major failure of
an otherwise highly successful
demonstration: the lack of ex-
tensive white participation. If
whites do not jo in demonstra-
tions for civil rights and if they
do not attend civil righte speeches,
then the Negro's greatest hope is
diminished. For it is whites who
control Congress and the other
legislatures who are being asked
to pass better legislation on civil
rights; it is whites who own the
establishments that up to now
have discriminated against some
Negro consumers and Negro ap-
plicants for employment. Poli-
tically and economically, the nine-
tenths of the nation that is white
holds more than nine-tenths of
the power. To be successful, the
civil rights crusade must be the
cause of whites as well as Negroes.
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
was started at the turn of the
century by white men; today, as
Negroes begin at last to advance
nationally, white people should
help them, realizing that the free-
dom of all men is the concern of
all men.

By WALTER LIPPMANN
HE PRESIDENT'S announce-
ment at American University
of a meeting in Moscow to dis-
cuss a nuclear test ban seems to
have been inserted only recently
in an address which has, quite
evidently, been maturing for a long
time in his mind. The President
must have decided quite some: time
ago that it would be useful to
make a fresh statement of how
the United States is now thinking
and feeling about its relations with
the Soviet Union.
For while there has not been,
as the President said, any change.
in the American resistance to an
expansion of Communism, there
have been changes in the Ame i-
can estimate of developments in
the Soviet Union and m the Corr.-
munist world. Yet most of the
language of the cold war has re-
mained unchanged, has become
stereotyped and official and popu-
lar, reactions to news from the
east have become mechanical. We
on our part and the Russians on
their part have raised higher than
the iron curtain an impenetrable
fog of suspicion. This shuts off
mny serious effort to use a dipto-
macy which is adjusted to the
great changes on both sides of the
iron curtain.
The President's address is more
than a talk. It is a wise and
shrewd action which is inteaded
primarily to improve the climate
of East-West relations. He is, I
believe, moving with the oncoming
tide in human affairs. The tide
is bringing in a generation which
is losing interest in the postwar
conflict between the crusading

Communists and the crusading
anti-Communists who reacted to
them.
FOR KENNEDY a n d f o r
Khrushchev, the notion that either
of the two rival nuclear powers
can bury the other has become
nonsensical. All that is left of the
old slogans are the tired old wcrds
themselves. In the age of nuclear
parity, there is no alternative to
co-existence.
In effect, the President has said
to Khrushchev that since, in the
nuclear age, we have to co-exist,
crusading which might involve
armed violence mustbe abandon-
ed. If both powers are 'to live, t~hey
will have to learn to let live. The
President's way of stating these
governing truths was admirable.
It was not only lucid and untim-
orous, but it was couched in the
kind of language which ought to
be used in talking to and about
the Russians. It was the language
of self-confidence and self-respect,
of resolution and magnanimity.
For the outsider, it is impos-
sible to make anyjudgment now
about the coming conference in
Moscow. We do not know what
has been passing, to and fro which
has persuaded the threer'govern-
ments that something important
might be/ achieved by a meetilg
at a high level, indeed, just under
the summit.
If, as is conceivable from the
report of Mr. Harold Wilson's talk
with Chairman Khrusr-chev, some
kind of partial moratorium may
be negotiable, it would come as a
great relief to the whole world.
The Soviet view is that under-
ground testing is of negligible sig-
nificance. These underground tests
are different from all other tests
not only because they do not con-
taminate the air, but because they
alone cannot always be detected
without on-site inspection. But
the Soviet government has a deep
hatred of on-site inspection.
* * *

TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Kennedy Speech Based
On New world Analysis

IT SEEMED TO ME that when, as I was told,
a thousand students a year complain about
housing regulations it was the Dean's duty to
petition the administration until action was
taken. If the Dean's office is not able to con-
vey the feelings and needs of students to the
University, then it appears that the effective-
ness of the Dean's office is considerably less-
ened.
The Dean told me that the initiative for
change should come from the students by voic-
ing their opinions through the "powerful" in-
fluence of the Student Senate, the Daily Illini
and other such organs, and that students like
myself should leave no stone unturned until
housing regulations were revised.
Housing, surely, is an element in a person's
college education that requires that utmost at-
tention and consideration. However* I still am.
not completely persuaded that the burden of
changing the archaic housing regulations rests
entirely on the students' shoulders. It seems to
me that a university of this size and prestige
should search every avenue in an attempt to
provide ontimal conditions whereby a student

Editorial Stafff
RONAL) WILTON ........................Co-Editor
PHILIP SUTIN........................... Co-Editor
DAVE GOOD.... ...............Co-Sports Editor
CHARLES TOWLE ..................Co-Sports Editor
RUTH HETMANSKI......................Night Editor
JEAN TENANDER.......................Night Editor
A T ..W~'ZItD nR.T. T ------------- h t WEditrw

'Loon, Everybody, I'm Not Paying Any Attention'
%~ -
{ t yI - rif-

MIGHIT IT then ne possible to
make an agreement to ban all
tests which can be detected with-
out on-site inspection, and then
to permit a limited number of
underground tests which the So-
viet government does not take too
seriously?
This may be a pipe dream. In-
deed, I do not dare to believe in
it. because it seems too g,)od to
be true and becauseit is too sens-
ible to be practical.
We have all noticed that Mr.
Khrushchev has set the date of
the meeting for July. That will
be after the Sino-Soviet talks have
taken place. We can make a gue.ss
about the meaning of tli, and we
can make several gusses. For ex-

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