Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNiVERSITY OF MIc rGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS pinions reF ,STUDENT PUiIcATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MicH., PHONE NO 2-3241 orials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. EUROPEAN COMMENTARY Chaplaincy Challenge As' Unconstituional )AY, AUGUST 12, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: JEFFREY GOODMAN Police Review Issue Clouded by Invective rO CITY COUNCILMEN and the American Civil Liberties Union were jected to vitriolic and irrelevant at- ks from five local ultra-conservatives City Council Monday night. hat the attacks were reprehensibly aderous was the least of the matter. r more revealing and dubious was the empt by four of the five speakers to credit two ideas merely by discrediting individuals and groups who support m. 'he speakers argued against. establish- citizen boards to review police tactics L against opposition to the "Support; ir Local Police" ,stickers which the ice department distributed in May. I they been at all interested in a sonable discussion of these matters, conservatives would have limited mselves to the merits of both issues. 'et four of the speakers stuck almost lusively to documenting the Commu- t affiliations of the ACLU and to de- ding the John Birch Society; two did even mention review boards or police kers. CE SPEAKERS wasted 25 minutes tell- ing council that the ACLU had been ad to be a "Communist front," that ny of its leaders were Communists . that a past leader of the organiza- i had called for a new social order er the banner of Communism. After s having "destroyed" police review rds-the speakers claimed the ACLU ports such boards-they turned to de- se of the John Birch Society, and, by lication, of police stickers. is wholly irrelevant to the desirabil- of police review boards whether the U was, in fact, a "Communist front" some time in the past. Yet four of speakers thought the issue was closed e they had linked the ACLU, Com- iism and review boards. While the h speaker read from a U.S. News and Id Report interview in which a Cali- ia police chief attempted a semi- cal downgrading of review boards, the others limited themselves completely to guilt by association. The past Communist affiliations of the ACLU may well be true. On the other hand, it is doubtful if they are present- ly true. Yet other conservatives in the city have argued that just because the police stickers originated with the John Birch Society does not make them bad. If the conservatives want their programs to stand or fall on their merits, they have no choice but to allow ACLU pro- grams the same benefits. This they do not choose to do. JF ALL THE CONSERVATIVES were seeking was revenge for the attempts of certain liberals in the city to discredit the police stickers because of their ori- gin, perhaps their attacks last night were justified. But if this kind of revenge is justifiable, then council and the city are in for a long and unending series of per- sonal slanders that can produce nothing but bitterness, broken-down communica- tions and confusion of the issues. The real issue with both the review boards and the stickers is what is accom- plished by these drives in themselves. This can be decided only by objective inquiry and review of the experiences of other cities. It is incumbent upon council to carry out such investigations before lend- ing its support to any program. So far, however, this has not been done. Instead, discussion of the review boards and stickers has been strangely mixed between examination of merits by peo- ple outside council and attacks upon supporting groups by audience speakers. IN THE POLICE review board matter, the only constructive dialogue has come from the local chapter of the Na- tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (Nothing, by the way, has been heard from the local ACLU chapter.) On two separate occasions, one of them last night, NAACP leaders have come before council to discuss the pros and cons of such boards. On the other hand, the speeches Monday night, with the exception of the one in which the California police chief was cited, have of- fered nothing constructive and have put the whole matter in the realm of emo- tionalism and personal invective. And council itself has yet to prosecute any in- quiry. In the police sticker matter, the only discussions of the value or lack of value of the stickers themselves have come in these columns and from a Democratic party release. The individual who brought the whole matter to council's attention, himself a liberal, has limited his state- ments to evidence linking the stickers and the Birch organization, and it is these statements that are largely responsible for stirring the wrath of the local con- servatives. An investigation of the stickers was called for 'two weeks ago, but the re- quest was nerely to look into their ori- gin and not their value. Were council more foresighted, it would have investi- gated the stickers' value before it ever accepted them. As a matter of fact, there was no discussion of the donation at the time. JF IT IS NOW TOO LATE for council to decide whether the police stickers pos- sessed sufficient merit to be distributed, it is nevertheless not too late for an in- quiry into the value of police review boards. The inquiry should be conducted by a bipartisan council committee work- ing with the Human Relations Commis- sion, the city administrator, the city at- torney and the chief of police. The com- mittee should investigate the working of review boards in other cities, should ask itself whether conditions in those cities are similar to conditions, in Ann Arbor and should hear the reasoned testimony of groups and experts concerned. Under no circumstances, however, should it allow the kind of senseless, ir- relevant, ugly personal attacks and illogi- cal arguments which blackened Monday's meeting. It must not fall into the trap, of either conservatives or liberals, of think- ing that the support or opposition of any organization is relevant to the merits or demerits of review boards. Nor should it RECENTLY the Pentagon has come under attack for 'un- constitutional activity." The same forces that won in the prayer is- sue are now said to be pressing for the elimination of the chap- laincy in the United States armed forces on the grounds that this institution is in violation of the First Amendment., This pressure group feels that the "establishment of religion" clause is violated, and has been for a long time, by the fact that government-paid chaplains are provided for the forces. More- over, their standpoint is supported by the Supreme Court decision of 1947 concerning the First Amend- ment, which says: "Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another . . . No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, what- ever they may be called, or what- ever form they; adopt to teach or practice religion. From this passage, it appears that no justification of the chap- laincy can be promoted. And yet, it seems wrong to cut of f this in- stitution. Chaplain Guikema of U.S. Air Force Base Soesterberg, the Netherlands, reasons that the armed forces are in many ways an exception. They try to provide as much of the usual American en- vironment as possible; and the government is involved in many. activities in the armed forces that are taboo elsewhere. The government provides free medical and psychological treat- ment for the troops-a sort of .socialized medicine"-or it retailing in the commissaries it is engaged in broadcasting printing-all at a rate unth able elsewhere in our free er prise system. It is only fair t to say that the chaplaincy belongs in a soldier's environn AMERICAN armed forces t abroad are even more in nee a chapel program than most b located in the U.S. In most cc tries, the churches on the o side of "the gate" are just able to give the soldier what needs. Their services are not lored for servicemen, and guage barriers as well as dif ences in customs make relig experience very hard. In addit homesickness may be acute it is then that a chaplain is e cially needed. Yet unless another amendI is passed of a clause of excep is ruled by the Supreme Court, chaplaincy may continue to termed unconstitutional. Anc some day thenSupreme Court pressed into an uneasy ruling iiar to that of 1947, will the ci laincy then go? Chaplain Guikema is not de concerned about this possibi He feels that if this does hap all denominations and churn will get together to organiz chapel program. This prog would probably pi\ovide for chaplain's office outside ei military base at the cost of the churches of the U.S. The chaplain would still there. But much of his intin contact with the troops woulk lost-and this, of course, at cost of troop morale. WHO'S WHO?" Judith Ann Holmes (1.) and Ann Rivers seem to be asking as they see double: Joe Schwerer (1.) and Victor Raider-Wexler. Just another case of mixed identities in Irish Hills' pro- duction of a Comedy of Errors, in repertory throughout the summer season. SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Present Comedy o Erors EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth and final article in a series concerning the Irish Hills Play- house. George A. White is editor of Generation and the New Poet Series. By GEORGE A. WHITE I HAD A PROFESSOR who once expressed indignation over a modern version of one of Shake- speare's plays. His contention was that the bard was a superb crafts- man who knew both audience and humanity well; so well, that his plays were evidence of careful manipulation of the audience's emotions. Little was left to chance. To alter a play .would be to take . the fun from Shakespeare-a das- tardly deed! In retrospect, I think this at- titude holds with Shakespeare's middle and later plays. But with the earlier ones, such as A Comedy of, Errors, the director must use his own imagination or watch his audience sneak away during in- termission. Last Friday's Irish Hills pro- duction of A Comedy of Errors held the audience, laughing, until the play's end. There were few departures from the original lines. The innovations were added ones. The long opening passage by Aegeon (gangling Eric Nord) gave the audience a history of the twins that are the play's crux. Un- fortunately, it's a crashing bore: almost 100 lines of interrupted autobiography. Even the most faithful admirers of the bard wind up proping their eyes open with their fingers. IT IS to the credit of Irish Hills that they brilliantly "solved" this bewildering technical problem with the introduction of two slapstick characters and a host of pre- plannedrblunders and boners. Victor Schramm as Victor Schramm and David Richmond as David Richmond appear, at first, as just two more noisey late- comers (an actor's nightmare). Like the rest of their friends, they' split Aegeon's bone-dry oration by being paraded through stage center and seated. They differ in that once taking their front-row seats, they begin a running com- mentary on 1) the theatre, 2) Eric Nord, 3)' their own acting careers. Nord plods on, but after a while, they are impossible to ignore. He given them a couple of cigars and escorts them out. Like a long- distance runner spotting his girl on the last lap, Nord cracks a smile when two loud "Bangs!" are heard off-stage. Not incidentally, Schramm and Richmond play their best roles when they are most natural, i.e., when they play themselves. To maintain their "thematic" intro- duction, they reoccur throughout the play as different characters, but as each scene changes, they try to do "their" number and each time, are briskly hustled off. * * * AS SOLINUS, Robert Jones demonstrates his versatility: the night before he plumbed the depths of meaninglessness as Mac- Beth, now he is a bumbling comic king. I think it enough to conclude that the production is wildly, mad- ly comic, and leave the surprises to other audiences. Yet it would be rude if not dull, not to point out one pleasant surprise: Laura Seager as the abbess Adriana. In other roles, Miss Seager has shown a precise knowledge of the lines and the nature of the characters she plays, but has somehow, shown a coldness, an indifference to each character, that has rendered her ineffectual and a detriment to the company. She is fully engaged and fully alive in this role. The dif- ference is welcome. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Further, Discussion of COFO Aims Onward IHE UNIVERSITY sheds its old calen- dar today, looking ahead to its immi- ent year-round-operations schedule. he traditionalists among us, having been- :posed to the inequities of the 1963-64 nterim" calendar, look wistfully back to e days of 18-week semesters. Not all is black, however. The longer mester was not without its pressures; t students survived-academically as ell as physically. Change necessitates disruption, and dis- ption can mean stimulation to stu- nts desensitized by too-mild academic .allenges. Upperclassmen, in particular, 11 be forced to reject the "easy out" udy patterns afforded by an 18-week ssion-and so readily accepted-or suf- r severe academic consequences. The shorter period, while it may rob .dents of occasions for genuine leisure, ay in fact cultivate in them the ability appreciate the "lapses," the infrequent are moments that dot the educational ocess. And if the new schedule does not ow breaks from thinking, this cannot considered detrimental to education. ERHAPS THE MOST comforting reali- zation, though, is that-at least in the Kt few years -- University instructors L1 also be prodded into readjustment d consequent reevaluation of course ntent. The result can only be benefi- it to instructors and students alike. -M. L. BUTCHER Editorial Staff NNETH WINTER .................... oO-Editor WARD HERSTEIN ....................Oo-Eeitar RY LOU BUTCHER ............. Associate Editor RL,ES TOWLE...............Sports Editor 'TREY GOODMAN .................... Night Editor BERT HIPPLER .....,............Night Editor EDITOR'S NOTE: The following two letters continue a discussion concerning the aims of the Council of Federated Organizations begun by Martha MacNeal in a letter last week. Miss MacNeal cited a "rumor" she said she had heard from civil 'rights workers that COFO wanted its workers to be killed in order to draw sympathetic publicity to its Mississippi voter-registration proj- ect. She challenged Miriam Dann, who has been soliciting funds lo- cally for COFO, to "straighten this out.", In response, Miss Dann charg- ed that Miss MacNeai's contention "is simply another excuse for not acting." To the Editor: I REGRET that Miriam Dann has interpreted my letter con- cerning rumors about COFO as a "rationalization for my own' in- action. She is perfectly correct in charging me, with inaction as I have not participated in civil rights demonstrations consistently. My own relatively sporadic work for civil rights certainly is- an issue, and an important one, but it is not the point relevant to my questions concerning COFO. The point is that the rumors about COFO have come from ac- tive participants in the civil rights movement., These people, the sources of the rumor, do not need to defend their inaction because they are in fact active and have been for years, and it is the fact. that they attack COFO which has puzzled me. Now I realize that there area all kinds of complicated disagree- ments among the leaders of var- ious civil rights organizations, and so far the only explanation I can see for this charge against COFO is that some kind of internal lead- ership split has occurred and has found expression, whether ac- curately or inaccurately, in this particularly devastating rumor. And if ,the rumor is inaccurate, as Miss Dann persuasively argues, I wonder what the real issue is. * * * I HAVE READ the many ar- ticdes appearing recently in The Daily reporting on the Mississippi project, and I have noted that apparently precautions are taken, and I have forwarded these ar- titles, duly underscored, to the sources ofthe rumor, but I have received no reply. It appears that the anti-COFO position must re- duce to the charge that COFO does not take enough precautions and that COFO recruits are not sufficiently warned of the hideous danger and horror that is Mis- sissippi. To be specific: one of, my sources wrote to me that COFO "wants bodies" to be used as "cannon fodder," and went on to say "Now I am willing to be fodder, but I won't be thought of as fodder." So this is the issue as it has come to me. I realize that it may be an exaggerated statement aris- ing out of some other issue, but there certainly is some issue some- where at the root of it all. The rumor is internal to the civil rights movement and cannot therefore be an excuse for in- action in the case of my par- ticular sources. If the rumor itself is a false 'issue. I want to know what the real issue is; I want to know why this particular split among civil rights activists has occurred. If the rumored issue is a false issue, would someone please tell me what is really going on? I. think that COFO ought to have the chance to present its side of the argument, and I think it would be to everyone's advantage if the real argument were made clear. -Martha MacNeal, '64 A Misconception To the Editor: AM GLAD that Miss MacNeal is giving me this chance to complete my answer to her ques- tion, which is a legitimate one. I am sorry that I became so involv- ed with a different aspect of the problem in my last letter.. Your question is, I think, this: Is there anything behind the call for Northerners (the turnout was mainly white students)? Was there another motive behind the desire to establish Freedom Schools, community welfare posts, and expand the voter registration drive? One thing is certain: civil rights leaders were at the end of their rope. How could they arouse pub- lic opinion? Negroes are lynched, murdered and thrown into rivers, imprisoned, etc. every day. Lynch- ings are not out of style. Yet the whole nation remains silent. The Ku Klux Klan membership rises. Barry Goldwater-type bigotry and inhumanity is cloaked in terms of "legality" and "constitutionality." Yet Goldwater's following expands instead of decreasing. Newspapers print such facts as no less than 60,000 armed men (are) organized in what amounts to guerilla units dedicat- ed to terrorism" against Negroes. (Joseph Alsop, Detroit Free Press). Public opinion is nil. In Southern states, we have recently witnessed trials and tribulations of whites might pierce the insensibility of influential and powerful whites. While leaders did not want the; death of any one of those cour-. ageous workers who went to Mis- sissippi, they were willing to chance any situation which might arise in order to arouse public, opinion. It is probably this at-' titude which provoked Miss Mac- Neal's question. The workers, however, were realistically aware of the pos- sibilities of death, torture, and imprisonment.hBefore they left their cities, they went on fund raising missions to raise bond money. In training at Oxford, Ohio, they learned how to protect the vital parts of their bodies when attacked. Obviously, they were aware that a militant segre- gationist might hit someone too hard or use some other weapon than a police dog, club, or cattle prodder. Likewise, they knew that theyuwould be sitting ducks for vicious white mobs if', they were kept in local jails.- Since no one else seemed willing to start the long road back to freedoms for Negroes like the free- dom to vote, to picket, to have re- dress for legal or political wrongs committed against themselves, to have equal educational and job opportunities-since the govern- ment and the mass of Americans had abrogated this responsibility, the volunteers (white and black) took that responsibility into their own hands-come what may. IT WAS EITHER a misinter- pretation of this analysis of the problem; that gave rise' to Miss MacNeal's question, or else it was because she spoke to persons who took that analysis to the extreme. They fall into two groups:x;e . a) Anti-white Negroes who want to see whites getting some of the same brutal treatment that they have been subject to for 300 years. They would like white students of prominent families to be murder- ed in order to bring those whites in on the side of Negroes. Their problem is that they, like so many prejudiced whites, can- not see people of a light color as humans like themselves. They have suffered too much at their hands to offer any pity. They are a sorry group. They should realize the consequences of - indiscriminate hatred or "the end justifies the' means" philosophy., b) The second group is that group we see walking around campuses and picket lines so of- ten. They are whites plagued by an inferiority complex. I do not want to go into the psychology of guilt or inferiority, but the char- acter which this group presents is so obvious that we can all recog- nize them: sloppy, dirty, lacking ambition, feeling sorry for them- selves, plagued by over-bearing. parents from whom they want to escape yet feel guilty for doing so, etc., etc. They bog down the civil rights To the'Editor: UTBREAKS of racial violence in the North and the recent incident of the Negro youths at the Ann Arbor police station have raised concern about racial vio- lence in Ann Arbor. There is no reason to think itrcan'trhappen here. The focus of concern should be on the conditions under which violence occurs and on how to avoid them. Actions, both formal and informal, by city officials and other responsible persons have fos- tered the conditions for violence bectuse they have been largely oblivious .of the feelings and at- titudes of Ann Arbor Negroes. In the last analysis, it will be those feelings and attitudes that deter- mine whether or not there will be racial violence. The failure of responsible per- sons to appreciate this fact is tragically obvious. For example, following the incident at the police station the city administrator pub- licly stated that he felt it had nothing to do with civil rights. An editorial in, the local paper echoed this incredible Judgment. The "solution" to the problem of police-Negro relations failed to take cognizance of the lack of trust Negroes have in city officials. Ill-considered public pronounce- ments by the mayor and some councilmen, prolonged legal ac- tions and endless talk progressively aggravate the situation. Widespread Negro hate and dis- trust of whites is a simple fact. It must be considered whenever civil rights matters are taken up Yet, to date, the impact on Ne- gro citizens of insensitive ap- proaches, token efforts and out- right insults (of which whites are often rblivious) has been ignored. Until a genuine empathy with those who suffer constant injustice and humiliation manifests itself there will be no significant civil rights progress in Ann Arbor. There will be only tokenism and talk. The probability of violence will increase. * , *p THE ONLY WAY to avoid vio- lence is to take action that is meaningful to those demanding action. In order to know what is meaningful there must be a deep appreciation of the human factors involved. This is lacking now both in Ann Arbor and the nation. Whether enough white Americans have the capacity t' develop this merely gave up their bodi "cannon fodder." They repro a great ideal. One must be able to see be the superficial attitudes of extremists-no matter how r espouse it-and be willing to for what is obviously a just c If not, we will be faced with hostility and vindictivenesi both sides. -Miriam Dann, Ann Arbor ioli "Better Talk To Your Comrades Down There Before The Whole Project Is Wrecked" tAR A