s... ..
"Come let us reason together!"
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
, -' .'
.:
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.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: ROB BEATTIEI
Rent strike:
Inescapable conclusion
THE CONCLUSION is inescapable. The
only way to materially improve the
off-campus housing situation is to sup-
port the rent strike.
Those who have lived in Ann Arbor
apartments for any length of time know
the grievances of the student commun-
ity intimately, they include:
-.high rents;
- inadequate service;
- arbitrary and inequitable handling
of damage deposits;
-the twelve month lease;
--advance rental payments and con-
tract commitment; and
- code violations.
Attempts have been made to deal with
local landlords on the "responsible" lev-
el that those on the other side of the
generation gap endlessly delight in rec-
ommending. Attempts at bilateral nego-
tiation, over those fundamental, concerns
have produced nothing..
LAST SEMESTER Student Housing As-
sociation attempted to arrange a
meeting with the Ann Arbor Property
Managers Association through the Uni-;
versity. The landlords refused to discuss
substantive issues with students.
The landlords are more than happy to
take student money but have s h o w n
themselves unwilling to deal with stu-
dents on the level of equity that a busi-
ness ,relationship. implies.
Those who think patience and a faith
in the 'system will ultimately see an im-
provement in Ann Arbor are dreamers.
The housing market will be incredibly
tight next fall and prospects for the fu-
ture are dim.
University officials predict a combined
vacancy rate - for University and private
housing - of one per cent. (Cost projec-
tions are usually based on a five per cent
vacancy rate). New construction that
might improve conditions by alleviating
the short housing supply is unlikely in
the face of high interest rates.
THE UNIVERSITY, the one institution
which has the power to affect living,
conditions in Ann Arbor by erecting low-
costs housing on its own, is unlikely to
make any effort on the part of students.
Regental refusal to compete with private
businessmen merely serves to strengthen
Ann Arbor's unitary tendencies.
The rent strike is not a radical cause.
It is an action by students who want to
take practical steps to change housing
conditions.
The Ann Arbor landlords are exploit-
ing a tight housing market by providing
inadequate service to students for high
rents. They have made no serious attempt
to explain their apparently avaricious
actions to students. If the strike fails the
situation will worsen dramatically - the
last barrier to total domination will be
removed.
THIS IS one issue everyone on campus
j should be able to support. Only the ac-
tive participation of the student b o d y
will bring about an improvement in Ann
Arbor's housing conditions. Those who
want to act in their own behalf to im-
prove their living conditions should join
the strike. There is no other way.
-DAN SHARE
MURRAY KEMPTON\ _
Taking Dick
for granted
PRESIDENT NIXON did not so much progress through the pitfalls
of his first press conference Monday as stand back and contemplate
them with grave and objective concern. He has easily made the shift
from the alarms of a candidate to the complacencies of an incumbent.
A cry for succor from crime in Washington drew from him a reply
suggesting that the New York Times, although its interest is always
welcome, is being rather an old lady in the matter. So now it is the
Democrats who shudder at the erosion of law and order.
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS announce themselves in language
designed to stir and Republican ones in tones designed to soothe. Presi-
dent Eisenhower was a success and President Harding a failure with
the stance of quietude; and President Roosevelt a success and President
Johnson a failure with the posture of activism.
So we have no overwhelming historical evidence for assuming that
the active is preferable to the passive; all we know is that Democrats
are active and Republicans passive.
Mr. Nixon turns out to be clearly in the tradition of his party since
its disturbance by Theodore Roosevelt 57 years ago: Republicans are al-
armed out of office and calmed at once by coming into it. The style
of his Inaugural deserved the criticism it has drawn from persons who
look for style in these exercises. But we ought not to be surprised if
Mr. Nixon's rhetoric is an awkward fit; he buys his words off the rack
as he does his suits.
SUCH CUSTOMERS GET the cliches they deserve; and the cliches
of Mr. Nixon's taste suggest that he deserves rather better than his
enemies had anticipated. There is, after all, a considerable difference
between being vague in progressive as against being vague in reaction-
ary tones.
The President obviously regards his 100 Days as a transition from
being inconspicuous to being taken for granted. He is unobtrusive, cau-
tious and anxious to avoid reminders of the exciting changes he prom-
ised. He is moving with great comfort from the time when we thought
of him as always the country's Candidate to a moment when we will
come to believe that he always has been our country's President.
His care to avoid disturbance in the transition has left him, of
course, with one' problem of housekeeping. On the day of his Inaugura-
tion he had appointed only 100 of 'the 300 persons who would occupy
the most consequental offices at his disposal. Yet he seemed entirely
content to know that two-thirds of his retainers had been Mr. John-
son's retainers the day before.
I
#i
of
Letters to the Editor
Spectre of
'preventive detention'
TUCKED AWAY in a q u i e t corner of
Thursday's New Y o r k Times lay a
story the doom-predictors have warned
against for several decades - and true
to the Orwellian dream it drifted slyly
past without a whimper. The story: "Pre-
trial Jailing Weighed by Nixon 'Preven-
tive Detention' Urged By Some to Bar
Renewed Crime in Bail Period".'
Minus the camouflaging qualifiers, the
proposal is that perhaps the traditional
assumption that the accused is considered
innocent until proven guilty really ought
Ao be changed to allow detention of "poor
risks." That is, if the state's authorities
consider a man one of these poor risks,,
they have the right to incarcerate him
before trial without right of bail.
The first reaction is that the President
must have slipped and let Spiro make an
unauthorized speech. For immediately
there arises the vision of mandatory arm-
bands to identify high-risk citizens. And
no more do the ideologue's "paranoid"
concentration camps seem so paranoid.
Of course, it's only for regular, repeti-
tive offenders, the writer reassures us.
But regular, repetitive offenders include
- as one reads further - black citizens
arrested for "looting" along the burned
out streets of Washington, Newark, Chi-
cago, and Detroit. Then comes the "prop-
er perspective": it is all part of President
Nixon's new War on Crime for the Dis-
trict of Columbia. This is to be the Nixon
Model City for crime control - the ex-
ample for policy and practice over four
years to come.
BUDS OF REAL fascism have appeared
before in this country, but always be-
fore the proposals have "stemmed from
the likes of Minutemen, Mendel Rivers,
and Joe McCarthy. But t h i s proposal,
which could be so idly dismissed were it
from the Vice President's lips, emanates
from Nixon himself - and therefore the
thought that it would be ignored is, by a
magnitude beyond compare, the m o s t
frightening move the new Administration
has suggested.
-FRANK BROWNING
To the Editor:
THIS LETTER is directed to my
fellow students as well as to
the faculty and state legislators.
I have been very disconcerted by
the dispute over the language re-
quirements. This manifestation of
student irresponsibility has caused
me grave concern over the pro-
ductive outcomes of the so-called
"youth movements."
If we have criticisms to make
and feel that requirements hold
back true intellectual progress then
we should argue on those grounds
and not pick out a sacrifical lamb
to be the scapegoat of our frustra-
tions. I would gladly accept and
support a general degree program
with only a minimum and maxi-
mum hour requirement that would
allow a student to pursue courses
as he desires and take from three
to five years to finish.
But this picking on languages
appears to me to be an example
of the age old American ethnocen-
trism expressed in "Children's Let-
ters to God": "Why did you make
people talk foreign languages. It
would be easier if everybody could
talk english like you and me.
Alice." This philosophy allows us
to tell others what to do and not
to give a damn about the way they
might feel about what we say.
Such thinking got us into Vietnam
and will probably get us into
other situations like it.
IF THE LANGUAGE require-
ment proves difficult as indeed it
does, reforms should be under-
taken at the course level. Criticism
is indeed justified, especially in
the Department of Romance Lan-
guages. My recommendations are
as follows: 1) students could elect
required courses as pass-fail: 2)
teachers should be hired on their
desire and ability to teach, not
on the basis of so many courses
etc., as is presently the case; some
other means must be found to fi-,
nance deserving graduate students
in literature who have no real in-
terest in teaching "languages":
3) courses should be changed to
offer a choice between reading
only and "regular" courses; 4) the
second year should allow more
variety; students might be polled
each semester to see what type
of courses should be made avail-
able; 5) culture and values through
language should be a primary ob-
jective' of these courses; 6') stu-
dents should not be made to take
standarized exams.
The University is guilty of the
American prejudice as well in its
lack of interest in encouraging the
study of less "popular" though
equally populous languages. The
Department of Romance Lan-
guages has only a meager one
course per semester at the ele-
-mentary level in Portugese (100
million speakers) and none in
Romanian or Catalan.
This limited outlook extends to
the Eastern European. languages as
well, though there seems to be ex-
pansion in the Slavic Department.
There is no apparent reason why
a school of our size and "quality"
does not have a Department of
Southern A f r i c a n Languages
(Michigan State offers three years
of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Swa-
hili). The languages of the East
are e q u a 11 y underrepresented,
along with the Indian languages
of South America.
THE UNIVERSITY has done
nothing to advertise the programs
it has in these areas or to en-
courage their expansion and de-
velopment. It seems to show that
on the part of the administration
there also exists the idea that
only the languages of "Western
Civilization" are worth learning.
While our glorious state legis-
lators debate student unrest they
remain a major ' cause of it by
failing to provide the funds to
keep students busy pursuing a
quality education. They worry
about a nude play, put on by out-
siders though at our request, which
many of them saw' all the way
through (proving that it was not
so very-offensive), while forgetting
that their job is finding ways of
promoting intellectual expansion
and not censorship on campus.
Perhaps this is a heavy indict-
ment, but it is my opinion, and I
hope that those involved in this
controversy will come down off
their self-made pedestals and con-
sider constructive solutions to this
serious problem.
-Will Vroman
Grad., Linguistics
Jan. 30
I
BEING TAKEN FOR granted is obviously a blessing to him as a
public figure; but it was a distinct handicap to his performance as a
governor. He had gotten himself so well taken for granted as to deprive
the prospect of worling for him of the smallest excitement; it was
plain that too few of those called had wished to be'chosen; he had had
to canvass second choices and was already casting over thirds and
fourths.
Having carefully separated the wheat from the chaff, he would
now have to serve forth the chaff.
And so Mr. Nixon, so long an object of disquiet suddenly begins
to look as comforting as a steward, the mild caretaker of Mr. Johnson's
general opinions with no taste for Mr. Johnson's adventures. He seems
very much to want the times to be quiet for him; and we are fools if
we do not continually and faithfully pray him that boon.
(C) 1969, The New York Post
~NWthe, inf ormed source
NEW DEAN OF the education school, Wilbur J. Leading a movement against Ann Arbor
Cohen, is reportedly only an interim dean "scattered site" public housing program is a con-
for at most two years. Cohen, who was HEW servative professor from the political science de-
secretary in the Johnson Administration and partment.
who was called "irrepressibly merry" by The New He will meet with other concerned citizens of
York Times, only accepted the education post the plush Second Ward today to discuss strategy
because a university presidency of appropriate on how to keep out the planned 12-unit Glen-
status was not in the offering, wood Apartments. Ironically, the city bought the
As soon as such an opportunity arises, he will site aided by a ,$5,000 contribution from citizens
leave the ed school in the lurch. in the ward.
** * *
Prof. Roger Hackett of Japanese studies, who
knew Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in his
college, days, says that undergraduate friends nick-
named Laird "Bomb."
Ken Ford, WJBK's TV-2 newsman, was watch-
ing the performance of "Dionysus in 69" when
one of the actresses (still fully clothed) lay
down in front of his seat, raised her legs and
undulated them suggestively.
Ford, dressed in his electric-blue TV-2 blazer,
turned crimson and then, apparently at a loss
on how to react, began taking notes.
One villainous Ann Arbor landlord has decided
to purge himself. Roy Ashmall, a member of the
rent strike steering committee, is trying to sell the
house he has previously rented to students.
Two Ann Arbor policemen walked into The
Daily last week with a warrant for the arrest of
Editor Mark Levin. According to the police, evin
owed $261.00 for back parking violations. But
Levin cheerfully borrowed $200.00 from a Daily
staff member and did not go directly to jail.
Fred Ulrich, owner of Ulrich's Bookstore, re-
portedly has guilty feelings about the money he's
making. Ulrich has been showing visitors a listing
of all of his contributions to charity for the last
11 years.
After being criticized by faculty and students
in the recent controversy with Student Book Serv-
ice, Ulrich has been showing off the listing more
often.
40
*
More
randomly culled
notes on
heresy
happenstance
By HOWARD KOHN
Associate Editorial Dir ctor ;
E OF the most telling comments
on life in these United States
today is a sampling of leftover news
items at the end of a week.
The Record, student newspaper at
Antioch College, is in trouble af-
ter printing an exchange of letters
between Sen. Stephen Young (D-
Ohio) and a constituent.
The voter wrote an abusive letter
to Young chastising him for his en-
dorsement of tough gun control leg-
islation. Included was the writer's
telephone number and a notation to
Young, "I would welcome the oppor-
tunity to have intercourse with you."
Young replied, "No thanks, I will
have nothing whatever to do with
you. You go ahead and have inter-
course with yourself."
LEOPARDS ARE often condemned
as the most indiscriminate, vicious
killers of the jungle. But the clouded
leopard of Southeast Asia has met
his match.
Bombing and shelling of the vege-
tation has robbed him of shelter and
food and driven him into open ter-
rain. There he has become an easy
target for hunters who sell his rare,
softly-spotted coat on the black
market.
Even if the Vietnam War ends
soon, the clouded leopard will prob-
ably become extinct.
BLACK LUNG is the curse of many
miners who have to inhale coal dust
every day for 20 or 30 years. The
dust coats the miner's lungs, effec-
tively scarring them until he dies of
pneumonia, tuberculosis or emphy-
sema.
Mining corporations have been no-
of the general population are not
compensable.
As long as mining companies can
keep the frequency of Black Lung at
its present high level, they apparent-
ly can escape all penalties under this
rather perverse interpretation of the
law.
* * *
DR. LLOYD W. BAILY, the elector
from North Carolina who cast his
vote for George Wallace instead of
Richard Nixon, warns that the United
States is "dangerously close to be-
coming a democracy."
his share of wives is strongly ob-
jected to."
TRADITION WAS a little unset-
tled this week when Mrs. Shirley
Chisholm became the first freshman
ever to change an appointed com-
mittee seat in the House of Repre-
sentatives..
Mrs. Chisholm, a Democrat from
the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of
Brooklyn, was originally placed on
the House Agriculture Committee.
Outspoken freshmen are frequently
dumped here for a two-year period
of acclimation.
But Mrs. Chisholm protested and
was reassigned to another committee.
The Ways and Means Committee,
which makes the assignments, man-
aged to preserve its reputation for
archaic obstinacy, however. It ap-
pointed Allard Lowenstein of New
York, another freshman who worked
against ex-President Johnson early
last year, to the Agriculture Com-
are heading up the New Party, a
fourth-party, effort replacing the de-
funct New Politics Party . . . Picking
a site for Michigan's first arnti-bal-
listic missile system has been post-
poned because of the fear of possible
fallout . ..Alcoholism is on the rise,
reportedly because of a rift between
a faction advocating moderation and
one championing abstinence within
the temperance leagues . . A report
on protests, third in a series which
has included the Kerner and Walker
Reports, will be out in April with
ringing criticism of the police, ghetto
businessmen and the V i e t n a m
War...
AND ONE FINAL note. Prof. Ed
Halpern, a good friend, died yester-
day of a heart attack. He was 47.
Halpern was on the Board in Con-
trol of Intercollegiate Athletics last
spring when The Daily printed a
story on discounts and compensations
given to athletes. Amid the rabid in-
dignation of most board members, he
"r.f,. J.ha+ +hpe4 4-PAIII 3 - ha'cyAn iira...
Baily draws his definition
U.S. Army manual in which
racy is called "government
masses . . . which results
bocracy and whose attitude
property is communistic."
from a
democ-
of the
in mo-
toward
Wonder
to us?
why that never occurred were killed in riots initiated and car-
ried out by whites.
THE ANN ARBOR NEWS, which
printed a picture of students reading
in the UGLI under the caption "Yes,
U.S. VANITY notwithstanding, we
seem to be at a remarkable stand-
still in time. In a single copy of the
Chicago Tribune of 100 years ago
appear a couple of hauntingly fa-
miliar issues.
Congress was debating President
ALSO IN 1869, controversy over
the first amendment centered on
polygamy in the Mormon Church.
Western miners were petitioning
Congress to outlaw it because they
felt the practice violated society's
morals.