r
JAMES WECHSLER.....
ier frdign Datj
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
Inside South
Vietnc
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-05521'd
Editorials printed in The Michigan DOaily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL ZWERDLING
'Pre-finals
i "
A priori
DAILY EDITORIALS have often been
justifiably criticized for dwelling too
long and too Peavily on the same tired
old issues.
Considering this is the last real Satur-
day before finals, we will attempt to
save time and reader effort by present-
ing, in a new easy-to-read short form,
our a priori reactions to most of the news
in this morning's and yesterday's papers.
Not surprisingly, we totally deplore the
unwarranted use of police at Harvard.
We also wonder hbw administrators can
consistently fail to recognize that re-
liance on the police in internal campus
matters is not only philosophically un-
sound, but strategically counter-produc-
tive.
THE SECOND big story on today's front
page concerns President Nixon's all-
new surplus budget. While we recognize,
the soundness of the economic thinking
behind the President's entire anti-infla-
tion program, vfe lament the fact that all
too often such purely fiscal efforts mean
,reduction in vital domestic spending
while the military machine continues to
grow fat pn a 10 per cent income tax sur-,
charge.
The third major story on today's front
page concerns an inane speech that Gen-
eral Hershey made in Lansing, claiming
that legal conscientious objection to the
draft is on the way out. We can only
hope that the general is confusing wist-
ful thinking and political insight. But
perhaps we are naive in placing so much
faith on the good judgment of Congress.
FOR A MOMENT, let us pause to bow
our heads in honor of those two brave
fraternity entrepreneurs who have fallen
In the line of duty. Theirs was a noble
mission-keeping students supplied with
vital-albeit nefarious and sinful (not to
mention illegal)-chemical and biological
substances.
Remembering the basic economic prin-
ciple of supply and demand, we can only
hope that the incarceration of these two
brave men will have only a minimal effect
on the prevailing price level. Hell, finals
are only a week away.
HAVING EXHAUSTED today's rather
empty front page, we now turn to
yesterday's paper.
The Stanford University sit-in protest-
ing classified research reminds us that
the issue has been settled less than ad-
mirably here in Ann Arbor. While there
may have been strategic merit in the
decision to focus student activism this
year on such academic issues as the lan-
guage requirement, there is still the un-
set-tled matter of government research on
the campus.
Editorial Staf
HENRY GRIX, Editor
STEVE NISSEN RON LANnSMAN
City Editor Managing Editor
MARCIA ABRAMSON .....Associate Managing Editor
PHILIP BLO(K .........Associate Managing Editor
STEVE ANZALONE .......... Editorial Page Editor
JIM EC'K...........Editortai Page Editor
JENNY STILLER ......... ...Edtorial Page Editor
LESLIE WAYNE ......................... Arts Editor
JOHN GRAY .................. Literary Editor
ANDY SACKS ......... Photo Edttor
LANIE LIPPINCOTT ............Contributing Editor
MARY RADTKE .......... Contributing Editor
MICHAEL THORYN .............Contributing Editor
madness:
opinions
Infact, academic reform can only be
of a limited nature until students assert
effectively their demand that teaching
take priority over research in the Uni-
versity community.
Thursday, the Board of Governors of
Residence Halls recommended' that all
restrictions on women's hours be abol-
ished. Dormitory in loco parentis now
seems so much a part of the past that we
were rather shocked to discover that even
10 per cent of the girls under 21 still musti
observe hours. Since the battle has been
effectively won, we can only applaud the
demise of the last vestiges of this out-
nioded philosophy.
T TNFORTUNATELY, at this point we
have exhausted all the news available
to us for comment. Aware, like most of
the literate inhabitants of Ann Arbor,
that the only really decent paper avail-
'able here is the New York Times, we now
turn to the Friday morning edition (Sat-
urday's hasn't come in yet) for enlighten-
ment.
All our predictions went awry when we
discovered that former New York Mayor
Robert Wagner has finally decided to run
for a delayed fourth term. We can see no
reason other than masochism for Wagner
-who has little political future, whether
he wins or loses-to again seek the most
thankless job in America.
Wagner's entry creates myriad prob-
lems for current Mayor John V. Lindsay,
since Wagner's 12 tumultous years have
begun to take on the same nostalgic aura
that the Eisehhower Administration held
during the darkest days with LBJ.
REFLECTING HIS traditional Europe-
first, attitudes, President Nixon at-
tempted in a speech before the NATO
Council of Ministers to credit an illusion
of life to that outmoded organization. His
new idea-to give NATO a "more pro-
found political image" - does not solve
the fundamental problem of a lack of
effective Allied limitations on unilateral
American decisions.
In a major speech in Washington, King
Hussein of Jordan offered a six-point plan
to diffuse the tensions in the Middle East.
The peace plan was even more significant
because Hussein claired to be speaking
with the' "personal authority" of Presi-
dent Nasser of Egypt.
What Hussein essentially offers is a
guarantee of Israeli sovefeignty and a
guarantee of access by Israeli shipping to
the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba in
exchange for the return of the territories
Israel captured during the 1967 war, in-
cluding Jerusalem.
We tend to regard this as a major
breakthrough in ' the continuing impasse
in the Middle East, and fervently hope
that Israel's self-righteousness has not
blinded her to the folly of placing too
great a reliance on a military solution to
this festering crisis.
WE HOPE THAT this brief survey of the
most timely of our top prejudices has
convinced some of our less-patient read-
ers that there is merit in our tendency to
comment perhaps excessively in our more
regular editorials.
-THE EDITORIAL DIRECTORS
DAVID TRUONG and I talked about a
letter he had received from his father,
a leader of the peace movement in Viet-
nam who has been imprisoned by the
Thieu-Ky regime. We discussed at length
the question of whether I should publish
his father's letter. It is'too easy to make
Journalistic decisions that may involve one
man's life or death.
But at the end of our meeting, we agreed
that the desperate effort of the Thieu-Ky
regime to pretend that it is the voice
.of South Vietnam was so outrageous that
the statement of the man who stood up
against that cabaldin the Vietnamese elec-
tion should be placed on the record. And
I hope that the following words from
Truong Dinh Dzu to his son will be heard
around the world. Associated Press, please
copy.
MY DEAR DAVID,
Today is the fourth of the first month
of the Vietnamese calendar of the New
Year of the Cock. It is your year, as you
were born on Sept. 2, 1945. It will also
be our year, the year of success for the
group for peace in Vietnam.
I am feeling well although the deten-
tion and the constant surveillance are
quite hard for my nerves. Without any
pressure from Nixon, I don't think I and
other well-known non-Communists will
ever be released.
I am doing my best not to break down.
There are terrible moments when I feel
I am cracking. A delegation of deputies
from the Assembly recently visited the
island, and I promised the major of the
place that I would not try to meet them.
However, my guardian had clamped with
lumber every door and window of the little
shack for two days and there wasn't any
food coming in. After the delegation left,
then I was let out. I felt like hitting the
guardian.
1M.View from
DESPITE ALL this, I believe that the might not allowr
Americans must give some justification to a month and pu
their people about continuing this war. our family. On th
With the new communique of Hanoi and tell the people b
the NLF about a peace cabinet for Saigon, is far from over.
Nixon and Lodge will eventually have to paign might be ov
concede on that point if they want to end there is need fo
the war. Otherwise, there are good pros- present rate, we;
pects that it will not be over by 1972. 1972 with a bigge
To a New Yeara
On the other hand, the ne governmenthappiness and p
must include those renowned nationalists
who can deal with the NLF and Hanoi NOW LET ther
because they have the potential to organ- If the consequent
ize the existing religious groups in South this column is s
Vietnam and because they hold high revenge against th
prestige with the people. From now until
late May '69, events will lead to my re- quoted here, I am
lease, and by July it is possible that a an explosive expi
new cabinet will take shape in Saigon. sense of justice an
I hope you will handle this letter with thing goes wrong,
care because if the Saigon regime finds out paperman watchi
that this is for release in the U.S., Saigon (C) N
tjail
mother to visit me once
t tighter restrictions on
he other hand, you must
ack there that the war
The Presidential cam-
ver, but not Vietnam. So
r further effort., At the
all might have to face
er Vietnam,
of success for all of us, of
eace for our country.
e be only this footnote:
ze of the publication of
ome form of Thieu-Ky
he man whose words are
n confident there will be
ression of the American
nd decency. And if some-
there will be one news-
,ng.
ew York Post
I
*WALTER SHAPIRO
Fleming and the De Sade Memorial Orgy
MAYBE IT was all the sudden
attention being given to
"Michigan, the Quiet Campus.'
Perhaps it was the sobering real-
ization that in three short weeks
this institution is scheduled to
hand me a degree duly certifying
my four years of residency. More
likely it was something I,aite.
Anyway the other morning I had
a dream about this place. I fan-
tasized what this University would
be like seven years hence in the
early spring of 1976.
Like the proverbial old grad who
seizes any opportunity to revisit
the haunts of his impetuous youth,
I stopped off in Ann Arbor on
my way to a plumbing fixtures
sales conference in Chicago.
Seized by an unfathomable urge
to return to the classrooms which
had provided the focus of my un-
dergraduate i education, I was
startled to hear my footsteps echo
across the empty Diag. Academic
tranquility is one .thing, but a
total absence of movement is
something else.
THE COBWEBS on the doors of
Mason and Angell Halls - testified
to their long disuse. What is this,
I wondered, a student-faculty boy-
cott in the midst of this hotbed of
academic harmony?
Not exactly. Reading a mimeo-
graphed handbill taped to the
wall, I discovered that University
President Robben W. Fleming had
cancelled classes in honor of the
220th anniversary of the birth of
Aaron Burr.
The handbill - printed by Stu-
dent Friends of Villified Vice-Pre-
sidents - bitterly attacked Flem-
ing "for setting aside only one'
short day to honor this great
American." The leaflet condemn-
ed as "conscienceless corporate li-
beralism" Fleming's contention
that he would have cancelled
classes all week forBurr had he
not already set aside the other
four days to honor, respectively,
Jean Jacques Rousseau, W. C.
Fields, Luther Burbank and Pan-
cho Villa.
RELUCTANTLY PASSING up
an opportunity to attend the spec-
ial memorial services at Canter-
bury House, I wandered around
the corner to Mark's Coffeehouse.
It was populated by one rather
wan 1 o o k i n g bearded-radical-
Communist-hippie-freak n a m e d
Tom.
He looked up from his New
York Times uncomprehendingly
when I greeted him by announc-
ing, "Hi, I used to know Eric
Chester and Bruce Levine."
Feeling incredibly middle-aged
and corpulant I tried to make
conversation by asking, "What's
happened to this place - calling
off classes in honor of a 220-year-
old politicians? Why, hell, when
I was a lad, the University didn't
even call off classes wh e n former
Presidents died."
Suddenly I knew I had struck
$I
a responsive chord. A light gleam-
ed in the eyes of this lonely radi-
cal, a bit of spittle appeared in.
the orifice between his black beard
and moustache, and he began to
talk with the kind of insistant
quality which reminded my col-
lege-trained mind of the Ancient
Mariner "who stopeth one of
three."
"IT ALL STARTED in t h e
spring of '69," he began with a
torrent of pent-up emotion, "when
President Fleming completely
pacified the Black Students Un-
ion by merely cancelling. some
classes in honor of Martin Luther
King. There were a few student
objections, but these came only
from malcontents who wanted the
University to also cancel classes
for such worthies as Dwight Eis-
enhower and Jesus Christ.
"Anyway," he continued, "Flem-
ing, who had been really afraid
that the black students w o ul d
want more scholarships or some-
thing else that would cost money.
suddenly realized the strategic
possibilities of symbolic cancella-
tions of classes."
BY NOW TOM had warmed to
his topic and went on with his tale
in a voice a little softer than a
shout. "So that fall, when SDS
threatened new protests over war
research, Fleming moved quickly*
to preserve his national reputation
and the University's fat Pentagon
contracts. Realizing that he could
no longer pacify the militants with
toothless commissions, Fleming
called in the SDS leaders and of-
fered them three days of cancelled
classes in honor of Che Guevara,
Rosa Luxembourg, and L e o n
Trotsky. When he threw in Fried-
rich Engels and Joe Hill. SDS
yielded."
The speaker paused for breath
and tears welledup in my eyes as
I contemplated the brilliance and
audacity of the peerless Robben
W. Fleming.
Tom began again: "From there
things mushroomed like mad. A
YAF threat of a class boycott got
the University to similarly honor
Joe McCarthy, Douglas MacAr-
thur, and Pope Pius IX. The tired
liberals got a day for Adlai Stev-
enson, the Ripon Society got to
commemorate Wendell Wilkie and
the Sexual Freedom League was
allowed to rent the Events Build-
ing for the Marquis de Sade Me-
morial Orgy.
"A few academic departments
put up a halfhearted resistance
to the wholesale* dismissal of
classes, but it was really no use. A
mass resignation by the entire
classics department fizzled when
Fleming agreed to lead a vigil in
the middle of State Street mark-
ing the untimely death of Socra-
tes. The only problem was that
most students thought it was a
funeral for an Ann Arbor restaur-
ant owner."
SUDDENLY I noticed that it
was now the middle of the lunch
hour and we were still the only
two people in Mark's. "It'must be
pretty lonely to be a radical
around here these days," I said
sympathetically. "What do you
people do with your time a n y -
way?"
"Mostly we sit around aband-
oned coffeehouses waiting to an-
swer the questions of national
magazine writers who come to
town to do the definitive feature
on 'Robben Fleming: Michigan's
Miraculous Mediator.' By the
way," ,he asked,' "what magazine
are you with anyway?"
"Magazine? I'm not with any
magazine. I'm with an alumnus
and the Midwest sales manager
for Peerless Plumbing Fixtures,
Inc.," I said proudly.
When Tom . left rather too
adruptly, I wandered about, re-
membering to pick up a catalogue
and An admissions application for
my three-year-old son.
Glancing through the catalogue,
I noticed the academic schedule
bore a distinct resemblance to
the medieval church calendar. The
one with five saints 'days p e r
week. Except Michigan even had
the Catholic Church beat. The
only days when classes weren't
dismissed were April 1 and Hal-
loween.+
"And," the secretary in t h e
alumni office told me,' "a few
months -ago there was some talk
by a few religious groups on cam-
pus of claiming Halloween as a
religious holiday."
AMAZED at this veritable trans-
formation of the Harvard of the
Midwest, I wondered how the
faculty was taking the new state
of affairs. "What has happened
to all those faculty members who
love to teach?" I asked the secre-
tary.
"Both of them left last year,"
she said. "The rest of the faculty
just love this new system," she
added enthusiastically, "for they
are now almost totally free of stu-
dents. They spend theirdays re-'
searching, publishing, and most-
ly chatting with their colleagues.
"And it has paid off," she added
proudly. "Last Year the University
was topped by only Harvard and
,Berkeley in the number of publish-
ed words per faculty member. This
year we're shooting for the top."
"Where does the money come
from?" I asked: "When I was a
student the University had con-
stant trouble getting enough
money from the state legislature."
"Oh, we don't have to worry
about hose stick-in-the-muds in
Lansing anymore," she said,
beaming. "Almost all of our money
comes from the Federal Govern-
ment's research grants, and the
slack is picked up by research con-
tracts from big business And oft
course, there's always tuition."
"Tuition? Why do students pay
tuition if there are only two days
of classes a year?"
"Because we still give degrees,"
she explained. "It costs something
to print the darn things. And
those few students who actually
want to learn do it on their own or
catch faculty members during
their coffeebreaks. It all works
out just fine."I
SADDENED by the epic changes
that time had relentlessly
wrought, I bade a sad farewell to
my alma mater.
Once settled into my airplane
seat with my plumbing fixtures
display case at my side, I picked
up the intellectual reading matter
that my years at college had
taught me to appreciate,
There on the cover of Time
was the smiling and somewhat
bemused-looking Robben W. Flem-
ing. Eagerly I turned to the cover
story, expecting another insight-
ful in-depth study of "Michigan,
the Quiet Campus.
Instead I discovered a six-page
spread on . Robben W. Fleming,
labor mediator and University
President, generally ,considered
the prime contender for the Dem-
ocratic Presidential nomination.
Turning the page, I discovered
that polls showed that only 6 per
cent of all voters had any objec-
tions to a Japanese-American
President. Time then went on to
cautiously predict that the Re-
publicans would nominate Senator
Hayakawa of California as this
year's law-and-order candidate.
And the smart money at Vegas
was predicting that he would
choose Governor Pusey of Massa-
chusetts as his running mate.
With that dismal vision of the
world of 1976 still dancing before
my eyes, I leaned back in the air-
plane seat, closed my eyes, .and
woke up to discover-to my infi-
nite joy-that the University of
Michigan in the spring of 1969
isn't such a bad place after all.
A
I
Letters to the Editor
Form/Content
To the Editor:
PROF. DAVID SEGAL'S letter
to The Daily yesterday about
the Sociology Student Union is an.
example of the type of faculty
misunderstanding / misrepresenta-.
tion that we consistently face in
the sociology department.
To clear up the facts: The union
is working in the department to
achieve structural changes that
will allow for equal student and
faculty decision-making. At the
present time the sociology faculty
does not even allow students to
attend faculty meetings to hear
discussions about the issues that
are directly relevant to our aca-
demic lives,
We are unsure why the depart-
ment has such a passion for
secrecy, particularly in light of the
fact that the literary college has
opened its meetings.
The union voted last week to go
to the faculty meeting regardless
of the specific items on the agenda
in support of the principle of open
decision-making.
Segal asserts in his letter that
we went to the ieeting on the
basis of misinformation from
Marc Van Der Hout that the fac-
ulty was going to discuss our cur-
riculum reform proposall
In fact the statement we pre-
sented to the. faculty said . spe-
cifically that we were there be-
cause we believe the faculty should
have open meetings. Of course, the
haste in which the faculty ad-
journed the meeting on seeing
students may be one reason why
Segal missed the contents of the
statement.
IT IS PLAIN that there is little
communication in the department
between students and faculty. We
will continue our efforts to -work
for change, but we hope we can
do so with the cooperation of the
faculty. The Student Union invites
all sociology faculty and students
to an open forum Wednesday at
4 p.m. in the student lounge, where
of usage by men not characterized
by a nice sense of words it has lost,
all of its meaning and much of its
sting. At various times in my life.
I have gone to school in the gutter,
and at five I had a more appropri-
ate, ornate and baroque vocabu-
lary of pejoratives than Mr.
Landsman has at age 20. After all,
"fascist" is such a weak and silly
WASP term of denigration.
More importantly, Mr! Lands-
man's want of imagination is ex-
ceeded only by his lack of knowl-
edge of what a "fascist" is. "Fas-
cists" are men who do not want
and cannot stand debate and dis-
cussion. "Fascists" are men who
wish to deny any appeal to the
democratic process. "Fascists" are
men who believe in rule by lead-
ers, committees, and elitks. "Fas-
cists" are men who assume that
force is a more apt educational in-
strument than reason.
IS IT "FASCIST to suggest
that the whole college rather than
a committee acting arbitrarily
should decide the issue of credit
for ROTC courses? Is it "fascist"
to argue that such questions ought
to be considered and debated
rather than accepted on the man-
date of The Daily and the cur-
riculum committee? Is it "fascist"
to urge that in political matters
confronting the University the to-
tal political community should be
consulted? I have, in my misguid-
ed way, always assumed that such
attitudes Were democratic.
MICHAEL POLANYI in his book
Beyond Nihilism has argued that
one of the characteristic marks of
the "Fascist" is his undiscriminat-
ing moral enthusiasm, a moral en-
thusiasm which enables h i m to
commit crimes in the name of the
"higher life." Of course, do not
wish to call Mr. Landsman a "fas-,
cist" but he does s h o w certain
signs of an undiscriminating mor-
al athleticism which if he contin-
ues to practice it will plunge him-'
self into either buffoonery or mis-
ery.
-Prof. Stephen J. Tonsor
sage of respect for humanity,
young performers and values, in-
tellectual honesty, and just plain
good entertainment into o u r
homes than any television show
for several years. If t h e r e is a
show on television which attempts
to "tell it like it is," this is it.
1 URGE that all readers who
sympathize with the causes of the
Smothers Brothers and the ideals
that they represent write a letter
today to CBS, its local affiliate
WJBK-TV in Detroit, and/or the
brothers themselves to 1 e t their
views be known. It may not be toc
late to rescue this show,
-Marcello Truzzi
April 4
Come, 2Mr. Nix
To the Editor:
COME NOW Mr. Nix, and offi-
cials of the gov., hate is..one
thing, a n d another, love. - O u r
ABM, though it blast Them (af-
ter lengthly haw and hem), will
despite our boo and hoo, surely
blow us sky-high too.
Let us then forget this fuss, lest
it be said by earthly, dregs, that
soldiers lifted their h a t s to us,
while dogs lifted their legs.
-Rod Ratt, '68
March 24
Racist languages
To the Editor:
THE PRESENT discussion on
the language requirement of-
fers a perfect example of the in-
stitutionalization of racism. Trad-
ing the language requirement for
an admission requirement has a
two-fold benefit for the Univer-
sity. It will give the appearance of
meeting student demands and it
wIll help to keep blacks and other
students which the University
considers "undesirable" out of the
University.
Admission requirements are rac-
ist by nature and requiring a lan-
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