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94torials printed in Thw Michigan aoily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in o1 reprints.
TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL HARRAH
FALLACIES OF THE 18TH CENTURY
Conservatism:. Ignoring Social Conditions
Compensatory Treatment:
Equal Opportunities?
THEUNIVERSITY'S Equal Opportunity
Scholarship Program is a multi-prong-
ed answer to the registrar's dilemma: "We
want qualified Negroes-they just don't
apply." The opportunity program finds
them. It finances them. It orients them to
campus life. It even offers remedial treat-
ment for any educational damage suf-
fered in segregated secondary schooling.
As the pilot group of 77 students-most-
ly Negroes-prepare for fall entrance,
there remains only one danger. This,
ironically, is a danger to equality posed
by the program itself.
The planners must begin to concern
themselves with the ramifications of us-
ing "special treatment" to establish edu-
cational equality. For the effects of a
program replete with a special summer
orientation, special counselling services,
and most Important, special administra-
tot attitudes, may actually be damag-
ing to its ultimate goals.
TlIuS INHERENT DRAWBACK was evi-
dent when Regent Irene Murphy re-
cently defined the equal opportunity pro-
gram for the Detroit human relations
commission. She placed emphasis on par-
ticular problems and counter-steps taken
by the University to compensate for the
handicaps of past segregation. Noting
that these Negroes will be offered special
orientation and communications training,
she added, "We will treat them as for-
eign students."
.Her concern for the communication
problems of these students, in view of
what she terms "educational exile," is
certainly warranted. Reports condemning
the inferiority and unfortunate effects of
segregated education are being issued
frequently-coming from such groups as
the Ann Arbor's citizens' committee, the
Chicago Hauser committee and the New
York advisory committee on human rela-
tions.
The equal opportunity group, hand-
picked mostly from Detroit's rigidly seg-
regated public school system, may well
"have developed a written and spoken
language that is almost a dialect" as Re-
gent Murphy contends.
THEY ARE NOT, however, in any basic
way like "foreign students." The
Mboyas, Nkrumahs and Nehrus who at-
tended English-speaking institutions re-
turned to their countries to lead and
epitomize the revolutions of their cul-
tures.
The Negro students, no matter how
alien their past experiences may have
made them, remain potential voting-priv-
ileged, restaurant-attending, social-club
belonging Americans. If they have been
educationally outcast, then it should be
the University's first priority to reinstate
them to the mainstream of American life
-with all deliberate haste.
SJRELY THE UNIVERSITY is not going
to overdo a well-conceived educational
plan by a subtle "we're going to make you
as good as we are" paternalism. It is one
thing to establish special programs pro-
viding remedies for educationally-incur-
red ills. These, hopefully, can be scrapped
as the students respond. Special com-
pensatory thinking by officials is much
harder to dislodge.
Even education, so essential to the Ne-
gro's future success, can be too costly if
acquired at the expense of self-degrada-
tion.
-LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first
of two articles evaluating the Wash-
tenaw County Conservatives.
By JEFFREY GOODMAN
"FUNDAMENTALLY, the Con-
servative derives his philoso-
phy from the nature of man and
the laws of God-not from the so-
cial and economic landscapes that
are changing constantly."
This assertion opens the "State-
ment of Principles" of a relative-
ly new, unaffiliated organization
of Washtenaw County citizens
seeking to extend the thinking of
local conservatives into the arena
of political action.
Formed about a year ago, the
Washtenaw County Conservatives
currently has about 125 members,
according to its president, George
F. Lemble.{
THE ORGANIZATION'S pur-
poses, as expressed in its consti-
tution, center on developing "a
sense of sound citizen responsibili-
ty by encouraging individual ac-
tion on public issues" and educa-
tion of members and the general
community. Its informative en-
deavors are directed, in the main,
toward such topics as "the spii-
tual and political principles un-
derlying our national independ-
ence."
"Beyond our educational efforts,{
we deal almost exclusively with lo-I
cal issues," Lemble said of the or-(
ganization's political activities.
Its activities, to a large extent,
consist of voicing before City
Council the opinions arrived at
by the Conservatives' Board of
Directors. The views stated fol-
low the organization's "Statement
of Principles."
ACCORDING to that statement,
the conservative "judges the con-
temporary world on the basis of
established truths that are as
ageless as they are right."
Among other things, the con-
servative, as the organization de-
fines him, holds that:
-"A Divine intent rules our uni-
verse and has established a moral
order which should govern our be-
havior.
-"Every man has the right and
responsibility to manage his own
life; his God-given free will should
be restricted only to the extent
that it interferes with the rights
of others or with the conduct of
an orderly and moral society."
* * *
INDEED, the organization does
prove a good representative of con-
servative thinking: rarely before
in so organized and vociferous
fashion has an adult group mani-
fested so well all the fallacies of
18th century liberalism.
That was the same liberalism of
the Philosophes, a system that
was liberal at the time simply be-
cause it chose to assume a new
direction to the whims of the
laws which allegedly came from
God and determined human exist-
ence.
The new interpretation ulti-
mately lit the French Revolution,
for it held God had ordained that
men were or in some sense should
be equal. "Men" meant different
things to the bourgeoisie who first
carried the revolution to the peas-
ants and city masses who even-
tually took it from their hands,
but the principle was still there.
AND IT'S STILL with us.
It's in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence:
"When in the course of human
events, it becomes necessary for
one people . . to assume among
the powers of the earth, the sep-
arate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Na-
ture's God entitle them ...
And it's in the statement of the
Washtenaw CountyConservatives,
with their belief that "a Divine
intent rules our universe and has
established a moral order which
should govern our behavior."
* * *,
THE "SHOULD" here is ambig-
uous. If the Conservatives held
only that a moral order ought to
govern our behavior, there would
be little with which to quarrel,
though in itself the statement is
rather innocuous.
LINEr
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EUROPEAN COMMENTARY
De Gaulle's Politicking
It's in the other meaning-that
such a moral order probably does
govern our behavior-that there's
trouble. For what that assertion
means-and what the Conserva-
tives hold, though they have nev-
er realized it, is that at least most
of the time a man wants to and
does live a moral life.
The 20th Century's addition to
this belief is that only when some-
one, seeing an injustice being
done, exerts his authority through
social programs or governmental
action to change that injustice-
only then is progress toward im-
provement halted.
That assertion ignores many
others.
* * *
THE MOST OBVIOUS counter-
assertion, at least to most people
in the social sciences, is that
there is indeed no moral order
which does, even if it ought to,
govern human behavior.
Human behavior is governed, if
at all, by a vast and as yet little-
understood plethora of phycholog-
ical, economic, sociological and
biological forces. The forces in-
teract. They are infinitely inter-
dependent. And their state, as
man knows it today, makes pre-
diction at best uncertain.
For the conservative such a lack
of knowledge is, on the surface,
an invitation to surrender. Even
more than that, however, it offers
him an excuse and an escape. He
can hang on at once to the prin-
ciple that "every man has the
right and responsibility to manage
his own life" and to the principle
that there is a moral order which
should, in the "ought" sense, gov-
ern our behavior. By sticking to
the first principle he can escape
responsibility for fulfilling the
second; he simply ignores his own
capacity for using his own knowl-
edge, however limited, for social
good.
To say that social science is
unrefined is not to say, however,
that man possesses no knowledge
whatsoever of how those forces
operate. Man does know, for in-
stance, that any .attempt not to
manipulate them, any reliance on
a God-given moral order to human
conditions, will succeed only by
chance.
To take but one issue raised by
conservative thought, man knows
that there are definite reasons,
especially economic and psycholog-
ical, behind the position of the
Negro in today's society. In civil
rights efforts, thus, he is con-
cerned not so much with changing
the attitudes of the whites who
discriminate but with changing
the economic position of the Ne-
gro and the psychological image
which he has of himself.
* * *
PROBABLY there will be no
real end to bigotry in this nation
until a new generation of whites
has grown up that knows the
Negro as a man with a sense of
individual dignity and with the
economic means-jobs, schools,
education, housing, income-to
fulfill that dignity. This is the
real meaning of the rights move-
ment, and this is what the Wash-
tenaw County Conservatives do
not understand.
On May 18, when Municipal
Court Judge Francis O'Brien was
trying the first case to come to
him under Ann Arbor's Fair Hous-
ing Ordinance, the Conservatives
released their statement:
"The people have not needed
new laws which are directed to
enforcement of moral attitudes.
They have, in fact, normally re-
jected the coercion of such law-
because it is not needed, because
most people will do what is right
-given reasonable opportunity.
"WE BELIEVE that the people
will come forward to be heard if
a free and open forum can be
provided-a forum free from any
insistence on action."
In the first place, it is only the
recent and revolutionary demands
of the Negro that have brought
anyone forward at all. More im-
portant, no civil rights legislation
pretends to be a magic wand or
to be able to coerce change in
people's moral attitudes. If such
legislation has changed attitudes
-as indeed it has-it is primarily
the attitudes of those who were
once too apathetic about civil
rights to speak or think about
them; these are the people the
movement has mobilized.
And the civil rights movement
has been eminently successful in
changing the attitude of the Ne-
gro towards himself and towards
the role which it is possible for
him to play in society. These
things in themselves would be
ample reward for the efforts ex-
pended on civil rights.
Yet THE CIVIL RIGHTS move-
ment cannot be seen only as an
experiment in scientific social
change.The matter of rights in-
volve~s much more than man's
capacity or incapacity for social
change.
The Washtenaw County Conser-
vatives commented in another
statement, issued after O'Brien
had invalidated the Fair Housing
Ordinance, that "The time-honor-
ed axiom of safe-guarding the
constitutional rights of all Ameri-
cans is well served by this deci-
sion."
In the very Declaration of In-
dependence in which the organiza-
tion puts so much stock there is
a guarantee-as it is presently
interpreted-of equal opportunity
for all citizens. To the Conserva-
tives the fact that the Constitu-
tion does not say unequivocably
that Negroes have a right to jobs.
education and housing is suf-
ficient for claiming that indeed
there is nothing compelling us to
allow them to secure these most
basic benefits.
To the conservative, rights are
created by God. Once God has
spoken-as the conservative de-
fines His word in a narrowly lit-
eral interpretation-there can be
no change; not only is change
impossible, but it is undesirable.
WHAT THE conservative does
not understand is that rights are
an expression of current public
sentiment based on appraisal of
individuals' needs within a given
social context. Even what we con-
sider our most basic rights-to be
allowed to keep the products of
our labor, to be free from aggres-
sion by others-have emerged only
in relatively modern times as so-
cial conditions have arisen which
have made such rights necessary
and recognized as such by the
public.
Thus at a time when no one.
least of all the Negro slave, recog-
nized a need for liberation of a
whole class of undertrodden peo-
ple, when the economy of a whole
section of a new and shaky nation
depended on slave labor, when
there was no consciousness of a
black man's rights, there could
not be such rights.
The situation is different today,
of course. What the founders of
this nation said or did not say
about the rights of certain people
does not necessarily apply.
IT HAS TAKEN the progress of
the rest of the nation toward be-
coming the most affluent in the
world to create a condition in
which the contrast between this
affluence and the economic and
psychological poverty of a whole
class of men with darker skins
cannot be ignored.
At the same time, such a con-
trast has made that downtrodden
class not only aware but indig-
nant. Their indignance has been
carried to the white man, and in
the process all sorts of others un-
discovered inequities have been
found.
It is this condition, this com-
bination of economics and con-
sciousness, which has created, in
only the last few years, rights
which the fathers of the Consti-
tution could not have known. The
"time honored axiom of safe-
guarding the constitutional rights
of all Americans" now applies to
something else, not only to Ameri-
can employers and landlords and
school officials but to American
Negroes as well.
S* *
IF THERE is anything to char-
acterize Conservatism, therefore,
it is these two fundamental mis-
assumptions:
-That man cannot and there-
fore should not alter his social
conditions; that social change can
and must await the graces of a
benevolent, God-given moral order
and cannot be engendered by
human efforts to coerce moral
change.
-That rights are static and un-
related to the social context in
which thev actanda orf? rnnpivw
BILTHOVEN, HOLLAND - For some
time now, Gen. Charles de Gaulle of
France has been noted for his outspok-
enness on foreign affairs; and this has
tended to divert attention from the
country's internal situation. However,
with a presidential election scheduled for
1965, de Gaulle has become more con-
cerned with the domestic scene, initiat-
ing some strong political measures.
Just last month, the general decided to
alter the election system in France's big
cities; thus, he will end proportional rep-
resentation of parties in the city councils
of the 153 cities having a population of
over 30,000 inhabitants.
TADITIONALLY, members of the var-
ious parties have occupied seats on
these city councils in proportion to the
percentage of ballots cast in favor of each
party. Under the new system, each party
will put up a list of council candidates,
with the party getting a majority occupy-
ing the whole council.
This system is thought to strengthen
the Gaullist party's grip on the local gov-
The AssocIated Press I excluSvely entitled to the
use ot ll nae dispatches credited to tt or otherwise
credited to the newspaper. All rights o ro-pubtfetiorn
of all otI~er mratters Here ire also reserved.
PublIsheid dally TUesdv thrnmgh Satmday mor'ning.
summer subscription rates $2 by carrier, $2.bo by mail.
secn d01a0s ostage I at Ann Arbor, I'Cb.
ernment. De Gaulle attaches more im-
portance to this than previously, since
recent local elections proved that the
Gaullists are losing strength.
Moreover, Marseille Mayor Gaston De-
ferre, until now de Gaulle's most popular
opponent, will probably be hurt severely
by this new measure. Deferre may now be
forced to run with the Communists in the
city council election; and this, of course,
would enable Gaullist forces to accuse
him of extreme leftist liaisons.
OTHER MEASURES taken by de Gaulle
to safeguard himself against a possi-
ble defeat in next year's election are un-
official censorship and closed doors in the
broadcast industry for any of the four
election opponents. The government-run
radio and television networks give no in-
terviews to the opponents, nor coverage
of their election campaigns, while the
Gaullists may have as much time as they
desire. De Gaulle justifies such policies
on the grounds that they are a balance to
the strong anti-Gaullist tendencies of
French newspapers.
The general, himself, does not officially
campaign; his political acts and speech-
malng always appear to be undertaken
on behalf of the nation. Yet, somehow, in
national politicking he has subtle ways
of turning "fate" in his own favor.
-ERIC KELLER
Daily Correspondent
FROM ENGLAND AND ITALY
An 'Art' FilmShortage?
HERE ARE SOME films that'
you have never seen: Francesco
Rosi's "Salvatore Giuliano" and
"Hands Over the City"; Pasolini's
"Accatone"; Godard's "The Little
Soldier"; Satyajit Ray's "Abhi-
jan"; Olmi's "Time Stood Still",
Reichenbach's "A Heart as Big
as That."
"This is the merest sample of
films interestingly reviewed abroad
a year or more ago that have not
yet been imported here. The rele-
vance of all this is that there is
currently talk of shortage of
material for, the 'art' houses. In
New York, revivals of established
FEIFFER
pictures help to fill the alleged
gap.rs
That is what Stanley Kauf-
mann, the New Republic's film
critic, says in the June 13 issue.
The "talk of shortage of mate-
rial" has been encouraged by the
New York Times' Bosley Crow-
ther.
Kaufmann goes on to say that
there may be some valid reasons
for t h i s alleged "shortage,"
among them, naturally, financial
ones. But this, he emphasizes,
shouldn't keep some fine films
(according to the E u r o p e a n
critics) from ever getting to the
United States.
ANN ARBOR has its "art"
house in the Campus Theatre. It
receives its films from the same
place, the State and Michigan
Theatres do-through the Butter-
field theatre chain of which they
are all a part. Therefore, the Cam-
pus by itself cannot be blamed for
faulty programming.
Since the spring semester let
out, the Campus has presented
some enjoyable, entertaining films.
But there has also been a re-
markably high percentage of very
inept movies shown at this "art"
theatre, some of them revivals
and semi-revivals (that is, return-
ing only a year or two after they
were originally released).
THIS WEEK, the features are
"The Hunchback of Rome," which
has nothing to do with the three
previous Notre Dame sufferers,
and "Genevieve," which has noth-
ina to dn with France or a French
II. His hunchback is barely dis-
cernible and it rarely hinders him
in his work and play.
HE HAS INS and outs with a
mixed-up police commissioner and
his lovely, loving daughter. And
when the war is over, he turns in-
to an out-and-out gangster who
proceeds to take over some busi-
nesses in the Roman suburb. Of
course, he meets his end with a
Thompson sub-machine gun ex-
ploding in our faces while he
stands over the dead body of his
only love, that lovely daughter of
six reels previous.
The acting alternates between
bad and worse, mainly because the
script, done in the good-old Amer-
ican tradition-by a committee-
is so sloppy and forced.
* * *
"GENEVIEVE" for all of its
seeming innocuousness, is exhil-
arating fun. It has every chance
of being bad, but sharp, tight
direction along with a sensitive,
witty script leaves this 1953 Eng-
lish film with few entertaining
lapses.
The late Kay Kendell, who was
one of the screen's finest come-
diennes made one of her early ap-
pearances here and she unfortu-
nately is given very few chances
to show her talent. The other
roles were perfectly filled by Ken-
neth More, Dinah Sheridan and
John Gregson. But the greatest
credit goes to the director-pro-
ducer, Henry Cornelius.
"Genevieve" had every chance
of hoi"O, fan... ai ,,-er3a n-
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