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Seventy-Second Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. " Phone NO 2-3241
Truth Will Prevail"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: CYNTHIA NEU
Narrw Doctoral Programs Yield
Data, not Light; Facts, not Insight
UNDERSCORE:
State Needs an Income Tax
-1
T HE IDEA of doing dissertations and getting
doctorates and the meaning of PhD degrees
need re-examination.
A PhD gives a person a great deal of status
and enables him to secure a professorship or
a high-paying job in industry. But, it would
seem, doctorates and dissertations contribute
little else to the development of individuals or
of civilization.
Who reads and discusses a dissertation other
than the panel of educators who award one?
A LBERT AMMERMAN, former assistant dean
SY of Henry Ford Community College, spent
a long time preparing a dissertation on the
academic success of H.F.C.C. graduates at the
University. I was probably the only student who
ever read that work.
It might be argued in reply that Dean Am-
merman was able to use the knowledge he
gained by his study to counsel H.F.C.C. stu-
dents who planned to transfer to the Uni-
versity. But Dean Ammerman left H.F.C.C. one
semester after he got the PhD-and what use
is knowledge of the kind he gained to him
or the people he deals with in his present
position as head of a New York college?
This also. illustrates a problem of disserta-
tions: they are too specialized. The theory is
that they are supposed to provide the world
with an original and usable piece of knowledge,
and this theory is fine. But dissertations, in
becoming so specialized, become unread and
frequently also- become trite.
A GLANCE at the Daily Official Bulletin
reveals the kind of efforts hard-working
people are making for naught:
"The Sucker Creek-Trout Creek Miocene
Floras of Southeastern Oregon," a doctorate
in botony. What Southeastern Oregon out-
doorsman is ever going to read this study?
Chances are that the study will be put away
in some library here to collect dust.
And even if the study were put in the hands
of a Southeastern Oregon outdoorsman, would
he read it? If the dissertation is written like
most of them-with a select vocabulary that
few can comprehend and in dull, formal Eng-
lish-even the most enthusiastic nature-lover
will become bored after a page or two.
WILL THE AUTHOR of the study wander
through the forests of Southeastern Oregon
telling whomever he meets about the glories
of the miocene' flora? Chances are that even
the author is not that enthusiastic, and if he
were excited about his topic at the beginning,
he must be sick of it by now after spending
hours and hours compiling and comparing
data and typing up (without mistakes) his
findings into a several hundred page booklet.
"Persistence of Postwar American Proposals
for the Study of Contemporary Affairs in the
West German Volksschule," a doctorate in edu-
cation: How many educators, much less non-
educators, care?
Could not the time have been spent more
profitably-perhaps in making proposals of the
author's own, perhaps in doing more general
study, perhaps teaching instead of doing re-
search about teaching?
"SELF-STIMULATION and Escape Behavior
in Response to Stimulation of the Rat
Amygdala," a doctorate in psychology: Of
what real pertinence is this? And who is con-
cerned about it other than a half dozen people
in the world? There must be other things of
value to the world that psychology can look
into.
Individual men have only limited time on
earth. To spend so much of it and to dis-
sipate so much of one's energy on subjects
of such narrow scope and little importance is
to defeat the idea of service to society.
Today a person cannot easily become a
college professor unless he has a PhD. The
road to college teaching is full of letters: after
getting a B.A. a student decides on the sub-
ject of his greatest interest and dives into his
M.A. work on it. When he gets the M.A. the
knowledge is fresh--but not much of it can
be transfered to others.
HE MAY be given a minor role as an in-
structor, but he has to spend years re-
searching knowledge that he will seldom use
in order to gain sufficient prestige so that he
can work his way up in teaching. And by the
time he achieves the PhD, the knowledge he
had gained from his M.A. work has become
somewhat stale and much of it is forgotten.
It follows that a PhD should not be a re-
quirement for college teaching. A person is
better educated in many ways after getting
a M.A. than after getting a PhD because he
is more broadly (while yet incisively) edu-
cated and the knowledge is fresher.
It follows also that universities should pre-
fer to hire people who practice what they and
others learn about, more so than people who
devote a great deal of time and effort .to
learning a lot about something minute.
F OR EXAMPLE, a person with an M.A. in
political science who has served three years
in public office should be selected over a
person who has spent three years exploring
the quantitative factors involved in the arith-
metic determination of proportional repre-
sentation in a given state.
This University and its students benefit, for
example, because its journalism faculty is com-
posed of men who not only have studied news-
papers and current events but also have worked
on newspapers. The faculties of other depart-
ments would do well to enlist men who have
lived the knowledge they have gained from
study.
A doctor of philosophy is a master of an
often insignificant tidbit of knowledge that
is seldom if ever used; he is not necessarily an
educated man. He may gaze at a pinpoint of
light but may be unable to see the scene that
it illuminates.
--ROBERT SELWA
-Peter Smith
MACBETH-Christopher Plummer played Macbeth, and Kate Reid
his wife, in the Stratford festival's version of Shakespeare's shortest,
and most classic, tragedy. Peter Coe directed the production.
Macbeth' Lacks Depth
In Stratford Production
STRATFORD-ON-AVON, Ontario-"Macbeth" wears, less well than
other major plays of Shakespeare. Its crucial moments are familiar
scenes, the daggar scene, the banquet scene, the sleepwalking scene;
they are not in Shakespeare's forte, which is rather intellectual
analysis leading to understanding of feeling than direct presentation
of emotional upheaval. Last night's production at Stratford, Ontario
accented the disparity of these scenes from the remainder of the
play. The paths which lead to this as well as the fact itself were
the undoing of the performance.
*** *
FROM THE VERY beginning it seemed as though either director
Peter Coe had read Mary McCarthy's recent article in Harpers, or
that she had known of his production. For Macbeth at the start is
portrayed by Christopher Plummer as far too weak, handwringing;
Tax Cut a Poor Solution
A SERIES of actions by the Administration
and the Senate resulted in an at least $2.6
billion give-away to business interests in the
last few days.
The Treasury announced a liberalized depre-
ciation schedule which cuts $1.5 billion from
taxes by allowing greater deductions of depre-
ciation and by redefining this process. The Sen-
ate finance committee chipped off another $1.1
billion by passing the investment tax credit
portion of the Kennedy tax plan. It let other
untold millions of dollars escape by defeating
the Administration plan for withholding taxes
on dividends and interest.
President Kennedy justified both moves by
saying, "Encouraging American business to re-
place its machinery more rapidly, we hope to
make American products more cost-competi-
abitat Grou s
EVERY FRESHMAN WOMAN, or almost
every freshman woman, is shown the Uni-
versity Zoo during orientation. And then for-
gets about it.
Yet, despite the 'U' undergraduate's ignor-
ance of the animals' life, there is a surprisingly
strong correlation between her living conditions
and her attitude towards them, and the zoo
dwellers' living conditions and their attitude
toward them.
Venture into a corridor in any Hill dorm.
Then visit the zoo.
BIG FAT SLOPPY BEARS chewing yester-
day's mush; little frustrated foxes gnashing
their teeth; and smelly wolverines salivating in
the heat will undoubtedly remind you of the
girls from Markley or Lloyd or Stockwell.
They can't leave their little cages; they
can't get out; they can't visit. They can't ask
for better food or nicer living arrangements
And all day long they sit in their excreta,
tive, to step up our economic growth and to
provide expanded job opportunities for all
workers"
IT IS UNLIKELY that these measures will
meet Kennedy's goals. To some extent it will
encourage business to modernize its production,
but by creating savings by liberalizing deprecia-
tion rates, business might at times be encour-
aged to retain machinery over a longer period
of time to retain tax advantages.
Ironically, the incentive to replace older
machines with more modern ones may negate
the third of Kennedy's goals-job creating.
Automation is a strong, continuing trend in
American production and new machinery tends
to reduce jobs. The automobile industry is an
excellent example of this trend. This year the
inidustry is producing cars at close to the rec-
ord pace of 1955, yet it is using many less
workers to build them. Michigan's unemploy-
ment has remained the same despite the auto
companies' prosperity.
The greatest damage of the government's
action was the Senate committee's failure to
accept the dividend and interest-withholding
provisions. Presently, wages and salary in-
come taxes are collected before the wage or
salary is paid, but interest and dividend taxes
are collected annually on the basis of tax
returns.
The lack of withholding collection has long
left an opening for hiding of income and lost
tax dollars through cheating, court costs and
compromise settlements. The withholding pro-
visions would destroy this opportunity for ill-
gotten gains.
T HE $2.6 BILLION loss comes at a time
when the country can least afford it. The
military budget is expanding, eating a bigger
and bigger percentage of tax income. At the
same time, civilian needs are increasing at
about the same rate. The government is operat-
ing at a deficit already. It cannot stand the
loss of income.
DISNEY AGAIN:
Ron Voyage
Leaky Trip
HALF-WAY BETWEEN the Paris
of Henry Miller and the Paris
of Norman Vincent Peale, we find
the Paris of Walt Disney's newest
true-life adventure, "Bon Voyage!"
the journal of a family forced to
grapple.
The first complication is injected
into the plot when daughter Amy
(Deborah Walley), oldest of three
incroyable kiddies spawned by
Mother (Jane Wyman) and Father
(Fred Mac Murray, of course) Wil-
lard, fresh out of Terre Haute,
picks up or is picked up by a
young Paris-ite.
The bitter and mamy-monied
lad, Nick O'Mara (Michael Cal-
lan), an honors graduate from
the Yale graduate school of archi-
tecture, meets the sweet and hum-
ble and buxom girl from Indiana
in an elevator.
* * *
THE PLOT is raised to Ameri-
can standards of complication as
the family arrives in Paris, and the
baby of the group (Kevin Cor-
coran) discovers a bidet; Elliott,
the family adolescent (Disney-
style), discovers that "fille" doesn't
necesarily mean "girl"; Amy dis-
covers that she's really a warm
female; Father discovers the Paris
sewer system; and with Mother's
help, teaches Nick that life can
be beautiful.
Below the surface, the intent
viewer may catch the film's subtle,
evasive, and spiritual messages.
* * *
PERHAPS the most basic of
these is the refutation of the Yale-
educated Nick's philosophy that
"either people are hypocrites, pre-
tending to be happy, or else they're
just deluding themselves r..
Like most Disney films, "Bon
Voyage!" was probably intended
for children's viewing. But the
intimations throughout of adul-
tery, blackmail, fornication, pros-
titution, illigitimacy and the gen-
eral immorality of foreigners ruins
it for youngsters. And the simple
plot, running two-and-one-quarter
gruelling hours, will probably ruin
it for adults come to laugh.
A bon voyage, it is not.
-Denise Wacker
-Michael Sattinger
DAILY OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The
Michigan Daily assumes no editorial
responsibility. Notices should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3564 Administration Bulding
before 2 p.m., two days preceding
publication.
SATURDAY, JULY 14
General Notices
Foreign Service Exams-State Dept.
and U. S. Information Agency annual
examinations both given on Sept. 9.
Deadline for filing application is July
23. May apply to take one exam, not
both. Applicantionsavailable at Bu-
reau of Appointments, 3200 SAB.
Clinic will be held at the Fresh Air
Camp on Tuesday July 17, 1966266, 66
Camp on Tuesday, July 17, 1962, at
not a man torn by despair, or
caught in strong tides of feeling,
but a small boy confused and upset
up a grown-up world, which,
though he does not understand,
he has dreamt of conquering. For
his response to the witches' first
revealing is one not of fear or
hope, but of guilt: these are his
own thoughts presented in the
fearsome guise of fact come to
pass.
To support him then in his evil
plans there must be strength in
Lady Macbeth. But we found
rather brittleness in Kate Reid's
performance. From her first speech
we see a woman not driven by
internal forces but rather deter-
mined in a shallow course by the
inflexibility of her whims.
IN THE LAST scenes, when
Macbeth gains in strength as Lady
Macbeth declines, it becomes im-
possible to portray their change
with conviction. Thinly drawn, the
characters are only capable of
alternating between blustering and
weakness. Without some depth on
which to base reaction, these
swings of emotion appear exag-
gerated, though not unmotivated.
The two principal characters do
have much in common. The nice-
ties of preventing this were strong
points of the production. A well,
with real water, served for Mac-
beth's washing scene, for Lady
Macbeth's dream scene, and at
the end for Macbeth's corpse. The
parallels in the respective speechs
were subtly accented by parallel
gestures.
In contrast to the general shal-
lowness of the central roles, that
of Macduff, plated by Bruno Ger-
ussi, was full-blown and human.
His reaction to the news of his
family's slaughter was the most
genuine acting of the evening.
-J. Philip Bernard
By PHILIP SUTIN
Daly Staff Writer
SLOWLY the people of Michigan
are being forced to accept the
realization that an income tax is
necessary if they are to have sol-
vent state and local governments
and a high level of services at the
same time.
With the near passage of a state
income tax and the resultant De-
troit adoption of an income tax
on residents and non-residents
working in the city, the trend to-
ward income taxes is accelerating.
On Monday the first steps may
be taken toward enacting a sim-
ilar income tax in Ann Arbor.
Councilman Lynn Eley will intro-
duce a motion to order City Ad-
ministrator Guy Larcom to study
the feasibility of such a tax and
its impact on the city's residents
and non-resident workers.
* * *
ELEY in his tax plans hits at
the basic need for an income tax
when he proposes a cut, in the
property tax to offset new reve-
nue raised by the income tax. In
effect, Eley is attempting to
change the tax base from the re-
stricted property tax to the more
broadly based income tax. Once
the income tax is established, it
can be expanded to meet future
demands for city services.
This is the crux of the tax diffi-
culties of both the state and its
major cities. They are faced with
increasing demands for services
while its tax base can no longer
provide the revenue. Property in
an urban-industrial society is not
the same measure of wealth that
it was in the rural society when
most taxes on it were originally
enacted. Its value is often static
and tax monies derived from it
have long passed the saturation
point.
The state depends on the sales
tax. However, this too is a narrow
base for obtaining operating reve-
nue. Its major drawback is that
it fluctuates with the state's eco-
nomic condition, providing the
least revenue when the state needs
it most. A secondary fault is that
it draws business out of the state
for people often go to neighboring
states to buy the same goods at a
cheaper price.
THE STATE also has a hodge-
podge of lesser taxes which fail to
form a coherent or effective meth-
od of raising the increasing
amount of revenue needed to run.
state government.
There are several different ra-
tionales for income taxes. The one
advanced by the Senate moderates
in Lansing could be called the
"generator theory." The income
tax, they argue, by allowing the
state to repeal the regressive busi-
ness activities tax and the cor-
poration franchise tax frees busi-
ness to expand and develop, creat-
ing jobs and taxable revenues.
Coupled with administrative re-
form, enough revenue can be cre-
ated to provide increased services.
A more liberal argument centers
on the less regressive nature of
an income tax. A graduated in-
come tax is preferred. However,
a flat rate tax is less regressive
than a sales tax which hits hard
on low income families who must
spend a greater percentage of
their income on taxable purchases.
An income tax would partially lift
the tax burden from the shoulders
of- lower income taxpayers and
still provide an increase in serv-
ices.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fin-
al article in a series on the new
state Constitution. One more article
will appear in the coming weeks
analyzing the overall document and
its chances for adoption.)
By MARK BLUCHER
Daily Staff Writer
A LONG WITH CHANGES in the
apportionment scheme of the
Legislature, the 1962 constitution-
al convention also rewrote the ar-
ticle concerned with legislative
powers. Some of the sections of
this article are likely to cost the
new document votes among the
state's 31,000 civil service em-
ployes.
The present constitution gives
the state's Civil Service Commis-
sion the exclusive power to fix
pay rates, and requires the Leg-
islature to come up with the nec-
essary money for any raises.
Under the new constitution, the
Legislature may "reject or reduce
increases in rates of compensation
authorized by the commission,"
but only if this is done within 60
days by a two-thirds vote in each
chamber.
* * *
HOWEVER, the Legislature may
not reduce pay rates in effect be-
fore the recommended increases.
It could, therefore, veto increases
but it couldn't cut pay,
Another controversial section of
the civil service article deals with
the hiring and dismissal of work-
ers. In the present docunient prior
commission approval is required
before any position may be creat-
ed or abolished by a department
head. Under the 1962 constitution,
appointing officers are given the
power to create or abolish posi-
tions "for reasons of administra-
tive efficiency without the ap-
proval of the commission."
The article continues that "any
employe considering himself ag-
grieved by the abolition of a posi-
tion shall have a right of appeal
to the commission through estab-
lished grievance procedure."
* * *
PROF. JAMES POLLOCK, a Re-
publican delegate from Ann Arbor
and member of the political sci-
ence department, joined with 35
Democrats in opposing the chang-
es. Both contended that they would
weaken the system.
Prof. Pollock is acknowledged
as the "father" of the present
constitutional civil service article
which the voters approved in 1940.
The Republican majority claim-
ed that the Legislature was en-
titled to some restraint on the
commission-recommended pay in-
creases.
* * *
THESE DELEGATES also 'said
that the provision giving depart-
ment heads the right of hiring and
firing without commission approv-
al was in the interest of adminis-
trative efficiency-and only for
that reason.
Another change in the civil serv-
ice article would raise to eight the
number of exempt, or non-civil
service jobs for the governor's of-
fice. However, the commission
would recommend their pay rate.
The head of each principal de-
partment would be entitled to two
exempt employes each, and the
commission could authorize up to
three more in each department if
their jobs were of a policy-making
nature.
* * *
THE LIMIT is now two per de-
partment but there are over 100
such departments. The new docu-
ment directs that these "adminis-
trative offices, agencies and in-
strumentalities of the executive
branch (be organized into) not
more than 20 principal depart-
ments."
Reorganization schemes would
have to be submitted by the gov-
ernor to the Legislature. They
would go into effect if the Legis-
lature did not specifically veto
them within 60 days. Approval
would not be required.
Under the new constitution the
Legislature would be given some
power over those agencies having
power to promulgate rules and
regulations with the full force and
effect of law.
* * *
THESE STATE AGENCIES are
not subject to approval of the at-
torney general and to court re-
view. The new constitution would
provide that "the Legislature may
by concurrent resolution empower
a joint committee of the Legisla-
ture acting between sessions to
suspend until the end of the next
regular legislative session any rule
or regulation of an administrative
agency promulgated when the Leg-
islature is not in regular session."
One of the new constitution's
shorter sections almost led to the
abolition of a great deal of the
state's revenue. The section read
"The Legislature shall not author-
ize any lottery nor permit the sale
of lottery tickets."
Somedelegates were irked when
the majority refused to include a
section that would legalize bingo
and so they, temporarily, included
a section that would have banned
parimutuel betting. This would
have meant a loss of $8 million a
yearkfrom the horse and harness
tracks.
SOME of the other smaller,
though important, changes in the
new document included:
-Continuance of the authority
of the Legislature, by a two-thirds
vote of each house, to order an
election on constitutional amend-
ments.
-Allowance of a constitutional
amendment by a petition signed by
10 per cent of the total voters in
the last preceding general elec-
tion.
-Require submission of the
question of calling a new consti-
tutional convention in 1978 and
every 16 years thereafter.
-Require any new con-con to
BEFORE the income tax can be
an effective revenue producer for
both the state and its cities, a
number of conflicts must be ironed
out. There is no regulation of city
income taxes in Michigan, and
proliferation of local income taxes
on non-residents threatens fiscal
chaos and endless litigation. Many
residents subject to two local in-
come taxes may well get snarled
into different exemption, with-
holding, filing and other require-
ments.
Then any potential state tax
may be piled on top of the city
taxes, creating three demands on
the individual income. Again, con-
fusion of exemption and other
technical details of income taxes
may arise.
To eliminate confusion, the state
could take two measures. It could
regulate city income taxes by pro-
viding standard provisions for all
taxes. Or it could collect the city
income taxes in addition to its
own tax and return a set per-
centage of the collection to the
cities.
* * *
THE LATTER is preferable in
terms of efficiency, while the for-
mer raises more revenue for local
units.
Once a fiscal reform package
based on an income tax is worked
out, it must be sold to the voters.
Most, Ann Arbor moderate Sen.
Stanley Thayer says, have not
sifted through the whole issue. If
they oppose an income tax, they
see it as one more bite out of their
pocketbooks. If they favor the tax,
they see it as additional revenue
to finance a pet interest. Few un-
derstand the income tax as a key-
stone to fiscal reform.
Thus proponents of the income
tax have some sophisticated edu-
cating and convincing of unin-
formed public. To date, they have
not succeeded too well and there
are still many potent pressures for
retaining the status quo, both on
the city and state level.
Taxes will be the prime issue in
the coming campaign. It will be a
time of much emotional debate by
both sides. If the state and its ci-
ties are to be saved from indefinite
bankruptcy, the proponents of an
income tax-based fiscal reform
will have to shun emotional verb-
iage and show the people the need
for fiscal reform.
>4
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THE NEW CONSTITUTION:
Legislature Could Aiter
Civil Service Pay Rates
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