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Truth Will Prevail"
Editorialsprinted in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29. 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL HARRAH
ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND ACTION PROJECT
Organizing an Alliance o the Poor
New Appointment Spells
Research De-Emphasis
HEADS OF LARGE universities have be-
come less sure lately about something
they once categorically accepted: the
value of research. They are wondering
how a professor may be inspired to teach
when he is rewarded for his laboratory
work and ignored for his classroom ef-
forts.
The, Regents, reflecting this growing
concern, have privately discussed this par-
adox. Their theoretical answer: acceler-
ate academics, de-emphasize research.
But last Friday, they turned theory into
practice. They appointed a vice-president
for research as a subordinate to the vice-
president for academic affairs.
The entire process of appointing A.
Geoffrey Norman took about one minute.
There was no mention of where he would
fit in the hierarchy of command. But
after the meeting, officials hinted that
research had been "put back in its place."
And that place, it was clearly explained,
was under Vice-President for Academic
Affairs Roger W. Heyns.
CLAMPING DOWN on research would
have seemed neither feasible nor possi-
ble in past years. The retiring research
vice-president, Ralph Sawyer exercised
tight-fisted control on both the financial
and educational machinery involved in
operative research. 'Under his guidance as
research vice-president, contracts have
sprouted to provide $42 million. Under his
guidance as dean of the graduate school,
research could be defended and hoarded
as a valuable educational activity.
No one wanted to question him. After
all, how bad can any enterprise be that
grosses $42 million? This money nour-
ishes an underpaid faculty. It pays for
facilities, experiments, equipment which
graduate students use. The money brings
prestige to the University, and attracts
private industry. In short, research stim-
ulates the University and state economy
and brings more research.
But there's the hitch. Like profits for
a corporation, research grants for a uni-
versity are sought in greater and greater
commodities at greater and greater ex-
pense to principles. In this case, the prin-
ciples are teaching.
FOR RESEARCH, despite its fringe
benefits, hits squarely at the under-
graduate teacher. He works to revise cur-
riculum, he up-dates his courses, he leaves
his office open for an exchange of ideas
with students. But come promotion time,
the researcher and semi-teacher with his
publications lining obscure journals is
the one who gets the raise,
The ultimate victim is the student. He
must sit through insipid classes while the
lecturer-researcher itches to return to
his earthworms.
Like a narcotic, research activity is a
difficult habit to restrain. It remains un-
checked unless someone goes to the roots.
That's precisely what the Regents have
tried to do.
True, they have not structurally de-
fined how Heyns will restrain research in
the name of academics. It may not even
be necessary. As a new vice-president,
Norman- will naturally be timid in his ap-
proach. His office is being moved to the
administration building, home of the aca-
demic affairs office. Sawyer was situated
in a virtual castle within the Rackham
Bldg.
THERE ARE ALSO personal factors
which will weigh strongly against the
past supremacy of research. Heyns, as
one of the most respected members of
the University community and a top pol-
icy-maker, exercises influence already far
outstripping his office. His "unofficial"
checks on Norman would be stronger
anyway than any structural bonds set up
by the Regents.
The final result cannot be surmised.
Forty-two million dollars is not to be
scoffed at. It will be difficult for Heyns,
no matter how determined, to differen-
tiate between research which is educa-
tional and research which is detrimental
to teaching.
But the Regents have made an impor-
tant reassessment of research policies, so
long unquestioned. The University may
be headed back toward its raison d'etre-
teaching.
-LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first
in a series of articles on the Eco-
nomic Research and Action Project.
ERAP, organized under the auspices
of the Students for a Democratic
Society, seeks an "interracial move-
ment of the poor."
By JEFFREY GOODMAN
"POOR PEOPLE-Negroes and
whites-must organize around
specific economic grievances....
There is a natural alliance among
all poor in their common need
for jobs or income."
Students for a Democratic So-
ciety, through its Economic Re-
search and Action Project, is seek-
ing to make that conviction a
reality.
Motivated by the belief that "a
serious rearrangement of Ameri-
can economic priorities is needed
if the problems of poverty are to
be solved," nearly 150 liberal stu-
dents are working this summer to
organize politically active alliances
among the poor of varying col-
ors, ages and ethnic origins in 10
different cities.
THEIR WORK will, they hope,
lay the groundwork for an "in-
terracial movement of the poor"
that will harness the momentum
of the Negro freedom movement
and forge a broad instrument for
radical social change.
The students seeking to build
this alliance are currently living
and working on a subsistence lev-
el in the midst of some of the
most depressed poor white and Ne-
gro communities in the country.
The cities in which they are re-
searching, organizing and demon-
3trating were selected for high un-
employment, prior existence of
community groups which could be
organized around economic mis-
fortunes, prior knowledge of the
general power structure and cur-
rent issues of the community, and
1 predominance of low income peo-
ple, both colored and white.
The communities include Bos-
ton, Baltimore, Chester, Pa., Chi-
cago, Cleveland, Hazard, Ky., Lou-
isville, Newark, Philadelphia and
Trenton, N.J.
*
EACH PROJECT seeks generally
to acquaint leaders and small
groups of people with SDS ideol-
ogy and from there to apply the
organizational techniques of the
civil rights movement toward uni-
fying these dispossessed elements.
For the summer, whites and Ne-
groes are being approached and
organized separately to avoid the
complication of racial tensions.
Many projects include appealsato
middle class elements in an at-
tempt to weld an even broader
consensus.
Specific methods center on seek-
ing and stimulating present com-
munity leaders, organization meet-
ings on a block or neighborhood
level, canvassing, small-scale, sym-
bolic demonstrations on short-
range issues, arousal of sentiment
and education on more basic prob-
lems, preliminary investigation in-
to the various alliances possible
and research on the needs of each
community in relation to its pow-
er structure.
"THE AIM of the summer is .to
lay a base in community con-
tacts and organization so that
eventually each area can con-
tinue its efforts with only four or
five full-time ERAP people," Ren-
nie Davis, national ERAP director,
explains.
"Fundamentally what is needed
is the organization of people to
protect and achieve their econom-
ic rights and security, to insure
decent working conditions, to de-
mand a share in the fantastic
profits made possible by automa-
tion, to demand public Investment
in the social capital needed for
human development," he says.
"This means the organization of
workers, of Negroes, of youth, of
the unemployed, of white collar
and professional employes."
In its present operations and
lon- range plans, ERAP is further
seeking to give practical content
to SDS ideology. An ERAP pam-
phlet puts that ideology in these
terms:
"OUR HOPE is human freedom.
We seek a society in which men
have, at last, the chance to
make the decisions which shape
their lives. Our quest is for a
political and economic order in
which power and plenty are used
for the widest social benefit, a
participatory democracy in which
men can come to know each oth-
er and themselves as human be-
ings in the fullest sense."
As an action program, ERAP
began in September, 1963, when
SDS President Tom Hayden re-
quested and received a grant from
the United Auto Workers. Con-
cerned that not enough awareness
of economic problems existed on
the university campuses where
SDS chapters were located, Hay-
den asked the union for funds to
carry on various educational pro-
grams.
At about the same time, an
ex-University student, Joseph Cha-
bot, journeyed to Chicago and
established himself among un-
emnloved white vouths there to
broad demand for desegregation,
full employment, public housing,
free schools and free hospital care.
In December the idea of ex-
panding the organization's efforts
into communityhaction programs
caught on at the SDS National
Council. From that meeting
came a broad statement of the
goals such an expansion might
seek.
Excitement grew to such pro-
portions after these events that
over 1000 students gathered for
five training conferences held
around the country this spring.
From the more than 250 students
who applied to work in various
projects this summer, 150 were
chosen.
THESE STUDENTS, plus some
full-time staffers-many of whom
will continue on their projects
when school begins-have set up
at least one office in each proj-,
ect community and rented houses
in which to live. They are paid
on a subsistence level out of ERAP
funds.
The money comes almost total-
ly from donations. Largest donors
are labor organizations such as
the UAW and various trade and
local unions. Foundations and in-
dividuals make up most of the
rest, and students themselves have
contributed through fund raising,
both on their campuses and in
the project communities.
It's an expensive operation: this
summer's budget alone is over $20.-
000.
BUT THE WORK of ERAP is
largely exploratory at present, pri-
marily because the approach is
so novel. Essentially, ERAP is the
first organization since the 1930's
to conceive the possibility - and
necessity-of generating a massive
local and national protest among
the poor.
And it is the first and only or-
ganization to recognize the possi-
bility of harnessing the energy, ex-
perience and direction of the civil
rights movement:
f ~~
i t A T) t
Y~~fl Ny, q. k.lF t , i
1
rg+ l y Y
rte 4 ,
\
BichSoiey lu 1Bo
"The civil rights movement i
now the most powerful force for
social change in America. Yet it
lacks the active support of its
potential allies: the unemployed
white, the undereducated youth,
the aged, trade union people who
know the consequences of a nar-
rowing job market and the many
intellectuals who realize that the
present government p r o g r a m
against poverty is only a tem-
porary ameliorative to the crisis
of economic displacement, unem-
ployment and automation into
which we are now entering.
"The Negro freedom movement
may face increasing isolation and
frustration if it cannot soon forge
links to local movements of un-
employed farm hands, displaced
miners and others who share a
common economic tragedy," Davis
writes in an introduction to ERAP
prepared for the spring training
conferences.
YET TO DERIVE day-to-day
practices, specific facts and con-
crete organizational techniques
from such broad policies requires
much trial and error. much pain-
staking experimentation, long ex-
perience. If nothing else, ERAP's
summer projects will furnish this
necessary background.
"We need answers to tough
questions," Davis writes:
"How do we work with un-
organized white people to create
motion and change?
-"To which classes and groups
do we appeal and against which do
we fight?
-"On what political program
and social vision do we rely?
--"All recognize the need to
identify leaders among the unem-
ployed and other poor, but how
long-if at all-should we hold off
mass recruitment?
-"And what are we recruiting
for? High-visibility demonstrations
(such as the apple-selling in down-
town Chicago by the Jobs or In-
come Now organization)? Mass
demonstrations which would pres-
sure the power structure into com-
pliance with our demands? Di-
rection into electoral action?
-"How to relate the middle
class to the lower class? Whites
to Negroes? Rural to urban to
suburban?
"Time and experience, research
and self-education are critical in
answering those who question the
viability of our programor label
us as visionary students charg-
ing off into the Other America.
We know of no satisfactory blue-
print for full employment, shared
abundance, equality and democ-
racy."
BUT WHAT the ERA? workers
lack in foreknowledge they make
up in dedication. Davis continues:
"Certainly there is the convic-
tion among us that without this
effort to bring poor whites into a
loose alliance with the Negro free-
dom movement on economic is-
sues, the country faces the alter-
native of increasing racial viol-
ence.
"In no major city today can one
fail to find a steady strengthen-'
ing of despair and anti-white sen-
timent among organized Negroes
and a growing perception in the
unorganized white ghettos that
the Negroes are on the move for
white jobs, white schools and
white neighborhoods.
"Against this we believe it is
possible to develop a perception
of common interests leading to
the formation of political action
organizations capable of encom-
passing the full range of needs
of the deprived community."
(TOMORROW: More specific
reflections on the need for an
"interracial movement of the
poor," the groups most likely to
respond to the call for such a
movement and basic methods of
organizing them. A review of an
essay by Tom Hayden, ERAP
executive committee member
and past editor of The Daily,
and Carl Wittman, former
president of Swarthmore SDS
and currently a national offi-
cer.)
union Drive: More 'U' Silence
UJNIVERSITY LOCAL 1583 of the AFL-
CIO launched a drive Thursday to or-
ganize the University's 4000 non-teaching
and non-management employes. Over 100
employes voiced their complaints at a
mass meeting and listened to plans for a
six-week recruiting campaign.
The union has several hurdles to clear.
To be successful, it must sign up half of
the University's eligible employes; suc-
cessfully petition to the National Labor
Relations Board for a. representation
election; and get permission from State
Attorney General Frank Kelley to bargain
as a publicly employed union. None of
these steps is insurmountable.
But most interesting at present are
not the union's chances for success, but
the reactions its drive has drawn from
the University community. Responses
have fallen into two general categories.
From students and faculty have come
complaints; and from the administration
has come silence.
The complaints have followed this gen-
eral line: "A union would just take a lot
of money away from state appropriations
for faculty salaries. I'm against it." It is
true that a University union will probably
raise the income of its members-they
will have more power bargaining to-
gether than pleading for raises separately.
B UT THE ASSERTION that these high-
er wages will take much money away
from faculty salaries is questionable. It
is hard to believe that the legislators in
Lansing would entirely ignore the fact
that the University had a union when
appropriations time came around. If no-
body else reminded them, the University
lobbyists would.
In addition, experience in industry has
shown that unionization most often leads
to increases in efficiency and quality in
work as employes set up standards of be-
havior among themselves and establish
better relationships with their employers.
It is entirely possible that much of the
money "lost" to the University through
wage increases would be compensated
for by increased efficiency and higher
standards and morale among employes.
WHILE COMPLAINTS against the un-
ion drive can be argued both ways,
the silence of the administration with
regard to it is inexcusable. For texample,
a Daily reporter called Vice-President for
Business and Finance Wilbur K. Pierpont
yesterday for comment on the union ef-
forts-and didn't even get past his secre-
tary. Pierpont refused comment without
coming to the phone.
In light of the apparently widespread
employe concern with the union drive,
this silence is appalling. But what makes
it especially pitiful is that it typifies ad-
ministration response to student and
personnel complaints of the last few
months.
The immediate and stony silence of the
administration with respect to the recent
parking protests was another example.
Only after three weeks of employe pro-
test was any agreement reached concern-
ing personnel complaints.
And Thursday, when accused of chang-
ing residence halls fees without the ap-
proval of the residence halls board of
governors--an illegal move-neither Pier-
pont nor Executive Vice-President Mar-
vin L. Niehuss would say a word in de-
fense of his actions.
THERE WILL BE those who will con-
tend that the union drive is not jus-
tifiable, even though last year the Uni-
versity received the highest state funds
allocation increase in recent years. This
will be argued hotly in the coming
months. And it is possible that the union
drive may never even get off the ground,
To the Editor:
SHOULD LIKE to applaud
James McEvoy's letter in the
July 24 issue of The Daily. I too
believe that all people who are
concerned with the future of this
nation should read the Blue Book
of the John Birch Society. How-
ever, they should not stop there,
but go on to gain as much edu-
cation on all political and non-
political organizations, their phi-
losophies, goals, activities-and
learn directly "from the horse's
mouth," rather than by accepting
&ie opinionated interpretations of
other people.
I should like to applaud McEvoy
but I cannot do so. It is in fact
such thinking and action as he
displays which not only make see-
ing the truth most difficult, but
also entice people not to seek
further than opinionated inter-
pretations.
I am referring directly to Mc
Evoy'~s use of a quote from the
Blue Book, "democracy is merely
a deceptive phrase, a weapon of
demagoguery, and a perennial
fraud." This quote is only a part
of a sentence which has been pull-
ed completely out of context to
add weight to McEvoy's opinions.
THE BLUE BOOK is actually
not written as a book, but rather,
it is the text of a speech given
in Indianapolis in December of
1958. Without foreword to that
which has preceeded, it is extreme-
ly unjust to use a quote such as
he has done. Moreover, in view
of the design for oral presenta-
tion of the material contained in
the Blue Book, it is in fact im-
possible to gain complete under-
standing of what is being set forth
in any one part without knowledge
of the entire speech in proper
sequence.
In conclusion, I am not a mem-
1- of4.- T-,% _ ' h A i m.rhil
ance of the piecemeal, distorted
opinions of others.
-R. A. Rosenbaum, Grad
'True Believer?'
To the Editor:
IN HIS EDITORIAL on July 22,
Robert Hippler characterizes
Senator Goldwater as one of Eric
Hoffer's "true believers," stand-
ing by eternal principles with ab-
solute certainty. This at best dis-
torts and over-simplifies what the
San Francisco longshoreman-
philosopher means by his con-
cept of the "true believer."
The "true believer" is "the man
of fanatical faith who is ready to
sacrifice his life (and yours) for
a holy cause." He fears com-
promise and moderation because
"his passionate attachment is
more vital than the cause to
which he is attached." He is "the
fanatical contemner of the pres-
ent," who, "groping for extremes,"
wages a bitter and chaotic struggle
with things-as-they-are, preach-
ing that victory can be won only
by unthinking unity and self-
immolation.
I WOULD AGREE that Senator
Goldwater is the "true believer"
leader of a mass movement, if we
use the phrase as Hoffer does.
He means a noncreative leader
who generates in his adherents "a
readiness to die and a proclivity
for united action; all of them,
irrespective of the doctrine they
preach and the program they pro-
ject, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm,
fervent hope, hatred and intoler-
ance."
-Charles M. Rehmus
Department of Political
Science
State Apportionment
To the Editor:
R ECENTLY Senator Everett
ideals. There is no strong moral
argument to support the notion
that legislators should represent
cows, trees, or acres as well as
representing men. If we are going
to give representation to cows,
trees, and acres which are plenti-
ful in the countryside, how can
we deny representation to tele-
phone poles, street lights, and
traffic signals which are plenti-
ful in urban areas?
SIMPLY BECAUSE a man lives
in the country instead of in the
cities or suburbs, his judgment
is no more astute than that of
his urban counterpart. The demo-
cratic principle of "One Man, One
Vote", cannot be denied to the
voters of this great country of
ours. Therefore, I urge the sound
defeat of this proposed constitu-
tional amendment.
-James K. Sayre, 64E
STEREOTYPED PLOT
Stripped of Sex,
'Carpetbaggers' Inane
At the Michigan Theatre
JOSEPH E. LEVINE does it again.
Yes, friends and neighbors, the
man who mutilated "A Long Day's
Journey Into Night" and imported
such wonders as "Mondo Cane"
(not a Walt Disney dog story al-
though it has points in common)
and "Women of the World" has
now molded "The Carpetbaggers,"
into another Must-Miss-Movie.
What a Loser! To begin with,
the book wasn't any red hot
literary masterpiece, but it at least
had the saving grace (no matter
how morally dubious) of having
some really spiffy sex scenes. Not
so with the movie. Just for ex-
it is much like a middle-aged lady
in a sheer blouse-you don't want
to look. ,
YET EVEN the inane plot and
dialogue could have been saved
by direction or acting. Uh-uh. The
film is "peppard" with atrocious
acting minus one. Carroll Baker
is atrocious; perhaps all her abil-
ity actually does lie in her thumb.
And on down the list.
But even in the highest dung
heap a pearl may be found; be-
draggled and surrounded by rot
as she is, Elizabeth Ashley is a
wonder to watch. The only times
that the film comes alive, that the
dialogue seems related to reality.