Seventy-Sixth Year
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily e press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
Y, MAY 5, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: WALTER SHAPIRO
U' Negro Employment:
Substantial Commitment Needed
'HE UNIVERSITY Regents at their April
meeting did take action regarding the
'oblem of Negro employment in non-!
ademic positions within the Univer-
ty. How effective such action will ever
ove to be is another question.
After hearing a report prepared by the
fice of Financial Statistics citing a
crease in the percentage of Negroes em-'
oyed by the University since 1962, the
egents appropriated a scant $35,000 to
nploy a three member staff to intensify
cruitment efforts. One member of the
aff would be assigned to seek out quali-
ed individuals outside of the-University,
pile the other would be in charge of
aining programs aimed at current em-
oyes. The third staff member would pro-
de secretarial assistance.
The Defense Department report criti-
zing University employment practices,
sued last March, seems to have forced
e University administration to give the
pearance that they are making a sin-
re effort to alleviate an unfortunate
,uation.
'HERE ARE, HOWEVER, certain intrin-
sic deficiencies in the Ann Arbor com-
iity which will probably prevent the.
cress of any such recruitment effort,
en if it were adequately financed and
operly staffed.
Without a sufficient public transpor-
tion system the large majority of
ashtenaw County Negroes, who live in
rthern sections of Ann Arbor, Ann Ar-
r Township, Superior Township and
)silanti, have no means of transporta-
tion to and from work at the University.
And even if they wish to move into the
city of Ann Arbor in order to secure em-
ployment with the University, there is
no adequate housing available for them
and their families.
At present there are 75 emergency
cases of families waiting for places to
live in Ann Arbor. The one public hous-
ing project is not as yet even under con-
struction. When completed it will only
begin to meet the present need.
The University by not providing stu-
dent apartment housing has caused the
severe housing shortage in the rest of
the city. Low-income dwelling currently
occupied by students would more than
fill the need for low-income housing.
THUS, UNLESS the University can per-
suade the city to provide public trans-
portation, which would require some sort
of subsidy; or is willing to shoulder the
responsibility for student housing, Ne-
groes, in the proportions expected by the
Defense Department and other federal
agencies, will never be employed by the
University. There is little doubt that the
University has the ability to take these
necessary actions.
The University's new program may be,
partially successful in training Negroes
presently working within the University
setup for jobs of greater authority. But,
the recruitment of a large number of Ne-
gro employes can come to fruition with-
out a'substantial commitment to either
housing or public transportation.
-MARK LEVIN
"Lynda Bird, would you be interested in writing a boob, about your life with
President Johnson ?"
Letters. to the Editor
South Vietnami Need s Land Reform
Pose Vital Questions
. Communications
This is the last part of an address given on December 15, 1966,
by Nicholas Johnson, a Commissioner of the Federal Communica-
tions Commission. Mr. Johnson poses the questions we must answer
effectively.if we are to meet the challenge in communications,
Public accountability, of some kind, is obviously necessary for
meaningful consideration of the various problems I have sketched.
Here are some examples of additional data which might be useful.
Congressional investigations ,have given us much information on
eavesdropping technology, but perhaps we should institutionalize the
process, so that the public can continually be made aware of the cur-
rent threats to its privacy. Public disclosure of cost analysis of new
telephonic technology also might, be useful. That way consideration
could be given to what the public pays for having new equipment-and
what it pays in doing without.
Programming of popular music and the television fare of three
networks could be provided at much lower cost. How much "local
programming" is being provided. ir. fact, by our 7,000-station broad-
casting industry? Or take comparative broadcast license allocation
hearings. They cost the public, and the industry, millions of dollars
annually. For what? Is there evidence the public receives better pro-
gramming from the performance of the winner (as distinguished from
his promises) than from a licensee who purchases a station and avoids
the expense of hearings?
BROADCASTING standardsrand information are especially im-
portant, because regulation of program content encounters undefined
statutory and constitutional limitations on "censorship." But such
limitations cannot totally frustrate the public's search for standards
and the desire for information, for the programming product obviously
lies at the heart of broadcasting's public accountability. Measuring pro-
gramming performance has troubled the FCC for, decades, with the
result that, to my knowledge, not a single station's license has been
revoked or failed of renewal for programming reasons alone during'
the past 30 years.
Surely all would agree that audience and critic response. properly
measured, are relevant to program evaluation. Central to meaningful
analysis of media is accessibility of its product: newspapers, magazines,
radio and television tapes or films. The news coverage of two news-
papers easily can be compared in hundreds of newspaper libraries. To
compare the news coverage of tw networks is extraordinarily dif-
ficult and expensive; it is often literally impossible. Television's cover-
age of the Army-McCarthy hearings came within a hairsbreath of
being forever lost. The president of a major national television network
recently told me he was unable to find President Kennedy's inaugural
address in the network's library. There are many reasons for establish-
ing national libraries of broadcasting's creative product, but compara-
tive evaluation is obviously one
WHAT else should the public know? What of stories that were not
covered in news or documentaries. or were covered and killed? How
about changes in entertainment programming-or even news-brought
about by advertisers. or through other economic forces? Should the
public know the ownership of broadcast properties, including the full
range of media and other interests of the conglomerate corporate
owners? Would more financial information be useful regarding in-
dividual shows' cost and profits? Of course. to be of use such program-
ming material and financial information would have to be analyzed
and reported by some competent group.. Perhaps a privately funded.
independent group-suggested occasionally over the years by broad-
casting leaders, legislators and academicians-would be preferable to
the FCC.
Would more comment from the public be useful? All agree the
ratings systems could be improved Would it be desirable,- as the British
do. to poll more viewers more often. and measure the intensity of their
involvement and response, as well as whether the television set is on?
How do we measure how they might have responded to what has not
been offered?
The "letters to the editor" column offers meaningful appraisal
of many of America's print media. How about broadcasting? Should
efforts be made to obtain more public participation in the FCC's exam-
ination every three years of a station's service to its local community?
Should radio's "open mike" programs be used to this end. and pos-
sibly be extended to television, te allow public comment on the per-
forinance of the very station receiving FCC evaluation?
CRISES BRING public awareness, and therein lies my hope for
1967. It will be a year in which America wil be forced to focus as never
before on one of mankind's most fundamental needs: an understanding
4
'A Gift of Values'
A proposal for land reform in
the new constitution for Vietnam
was defeated by a 30 to 1 ratio.
Also Premier Ky has announced
that the 50 per cent of the farm
population living in the Viet Cong
area will not be allowed to vote
in the coming election. Of course,
the new government will tax
them and the landlords will re-
turn to collect 10 years of back
rents, as soon as our armed forces
have bombed and burned them
into compliance.
It is becoming obvious that the
Ky regime of landlords is un-
willing to reform itself and offer
a healthyalternative to Commu-
nism. This is the real problem
and always has been.
I have lived in Southeast Asia
intermittently forthepasts30
years and have seen the real
problem at first hand. It is an
outworn system of feudalism.
Hereditary landlords live off the
backs of the tenant farmers who
work- from dawn to dusk to get
their meager share of subsistence
crops.
If it is not enough, they bor-
row rice from the landlords, at 12
per cent and more annually. I
have seen families still paying back
for the rice their grandfathers ate.
Landlord profit is 35 per cent or
higher.
THIS SYSTEM is the root prob-
lem. We have lost 10,000 Ameri-
cans already without coming to
grips with it. No solution is in-
tended by the new Saigon regime.
Ironically. the U.S. knows how
to solve this problem. Magnifi-
cent economic results have taken
place in Japan and Taiwan, where
we offered help to both countries.
We were a full partner in the Joint
Commission on Rural Reconstruc-
tion (JCRR) in Taiwan, which has
revolutionized both land owner-
ship and also industry and export
trade.
The plan, now completed, took
10 years, U.S. economic aid is no
longer needed and has stopped.
Landlords were given government
bonds at five per cent for the
value of their land, while tenants
bought the land they tilled in 10
annual installments. I was there
in January, 1965. when farmers
got full title to their land. Actual-
ly, farmers now have a better
standard of living than city dwel-
lers.
The Saigon system is just the
opposite. The Ky landlord regime.
assumes that we will continue to
dance to its tune because of our
obsessional fear of Communism.
IT IS ASSUMED that we are
eager to exhaust ourselves, even
kill ourselves, to perpetuate a sys-
tem which feeds on the labor of
others, uses its wealth for osten-
tatious splendor and exports the
surplus cash Ito Swiss banks, where
it lies ready if the landlords have
to evacuate.
Japan and Taiwan are now on
the way to modernized economic
systems by their own efforts. Cap-
ital is generated and reinvested
in their own countries; products
are exported, but not capital.
Vietnam's best defense against
Communism is a growing, mod-
ernized economy built on land and
social reform, with full fran-
chise for all those who are gov-.
erned. Let us talk to Premied KY
again and escalate our social and
moral condition to: "Reform or
fight your own civil war."
If a firm American stand on
social reform were laid down it
might give hope to the Viet Cong
and even North Vietnam. As long
as we spinelessly comply with Pre-
mier Ky, we offer no negotiable
hope except to the landlords, mon-
ey lenders and rice brokers.
-Irene Murphy
Regent-Emeritus
'
PEAKING AT commencement ceremon-
ies in Ann Arbor last Saturday, India's
ce-President Zakir Husain offered his
:lience, especially the new graduates,
reral challenges -on how to give civill-
Ion "a worthy gift of values." His ideas
the role of the individual in the na-
n-state strikes a responsive chord, in
ht of the events of the last several
nths. With increasing public dissent
er a host of foreign policy and domestic
ues, the citizen's obligation to his coun-
has sometimes been placed at odds,
h - his duty to follow his own con-
ence.
-usain claims that to prevent the na-
n-state from committing political ex-
ses and injustices, the citizen with a
sitive and dauntless conscience can
fy the state in the interest of the
te and assert the primacy of the mor-
values." Such is the basis of the argu-
nts advanced by the critics of the war
Vietnam. They feel Arnerica has trans-
ssed the moral bounds and imposed
force upon the Vietnamese people.
n the context of discussing the rela-
nship between American and India,
sain ,brings up another important point
oreign aid. He feels that disagree-
nt can arise solely because of differ-
:es between political and economic sys-
tems, and urges that nations "raise the
discussions much amove the formal lev-
el." True understanding is found, he feels,
not by attaining an "equally high stand-
ard of living but an equally high standard
of truthfulness to ourselves, of tolerance
of ways of life different from our own
and the effortless sense of equality of
men and women."
To carry his message one step further,
it can also apply to the United States
and its civil rights problem. Economic
equality alone will not solve the Negro's
plight but also a sincere respect for him
as a human being.
THE LIST of applicable examples could
go on forever. More important than
their universal appeal is the need for
them to be practiced right now in all as-
pects of a nation's life. If not, states de-
velop into machines which creates seri-
ous 'difficulties in the way of the human
conscience asserting itself. This forced
ordering of values with little moral basis
is what Husain fears and what every in-
dividual should work against. But it re-
quires constant application of the "wor-
thy gift" of ideas which Husain gave to
the graduates and wants for all mankind
who are "members of one another."
-AVIVA KEMPNER
.TRAN VAN DINH:
Saigon: Students' vs. Military
Altering Engi Image
AST SEMESTER, there was a big fracas
over the issue of the so-called "engi-
er's image." A lot of name-calling be-
een insulted engineering students and
f-righteous humanists took place, but
e debate was never resolved.
3ut now, the College of Engineering,
frequently under fire for requiring a
rhly-specialized and, narrow, technical
ogram, has sought to narrow the gap
in understanding between the "two cul-
tures." The acceptance of curricula revi-
sion by the engineering faculty indicates
recognition of the need to liberalize the
school's program and provide more aca-
demic stimulation for students,
Approved changes will put more em-
phasis on the humanities and social sci-
ences by requiring an absolute minimum
of 24 hours, including a freshman Great
Books sequence and classes in advanced
English and English literature.
IN A COMMENDABLE concomitant
move, the college plans to permit an
engineering student to graduate in eight
terms instead of nine or ten by increas-
ing the efficacy of classroom time and
by cutting down on overlap. The faculty
has approved a revision and moderniza-
tion of sequences in physics and mathe-
matics, as well as in the engineering
school courses. Even freshman entrance
requirements will be raised to include an
extra unit of English and a recommended
Unlike most of their colleagues
in the U.S., the students in Viet-
nam have been always in the
front lines of political battles.
This is in line with, the Viet-,
namese tradition of the scholar's
responsibility to his society. Pre-
mier Pham Van Dong, General Vo
Nguyen Giap of North Vietnam
started their political career at a
very young age in high school
continued through French pris-
ons, the jungles into the govern-
ment in Hanoi.
In South Vietnam, during the
last years of President Ngo Dinh
Diem's regime, during consecutive
military administrations and es-
pecially now under General Nguy-
en Cao Ky's, the students have
been subjected to prison, repres-
sions and liquidations. But being
Vietnamese and being students,
they refuse to bow under intimi-
dation and terror. On February
20 this year, 70 student leaders and
professors of all universities of
South Vietnam sent an open let-
ter to U.S. students. ,
THE LETTER, reproduced below
somehow escaped the attention of
the mass media in the U.S.:
Dear Fellow Students.
We are students and profes-
sors from all the universities
of South Vietnam (Saigon,
Hue, Dalat, Can Tho and Van
Hanh) who write to thank you
for your action in trying to stop
this terrible war in our country.
We cannot act officially as you
did, because the universities here
are not permitted by the gov-
ernment to express themselves
freely. We have made petitions'
and appeals, but we cannot let
our names be made public, be-
cause we would be arrested and
imprisoned. This is the kind of
society we live in here today.
the war to end, but they are
losing hope. They are not Com-
munists, but if the war does
not soon end, they will join the
National Liberation Front be-
cause they see no other way out.
3. Americans should not, be-
lieve that they are protecting
the South Vietnamese against
Communism. Most of us believe
that the United States only
wants to control our country in
order to prepare for war with
China.
4. The present government of
South Vietnam is not our gov-
ernment and is not representing
our people. It was imposed on
up by the U.S. and is controlled
by military men who fought for
the French against the Vietna-
mese before 1954. If we could
vote freely, that government
would not last one day. We want
a government of our own, not
controlled by either side, so that
we may be able to settle the
problems of Vietnam by our-
selves on the basis of national
brotherhood: to negotiate peace
with the National Liberation
Front and North Vietnam, and
negotiate for the withdrawal of
American troops with the Unit-
ed States.
5. Do not believe that the
danger of a Communist takeover
justifies continuation of the war.
We believe we are strong enough
to form an independent govern-
ment.. The decision however
should be ours, not yours, when
it is our lives and country that
are being destroyed.
6. We endorse the proposals
outlined in the book written by
our friend Thich Nhat Hanh,
"Vietnam-Lotus in a Sea of
Fire," and ask your help in
realizing them.
appeared in South Vietnam at the
beginning of this year. It became
an overnight bestseller. Although
suppressed by the Saigon military
junta, the book is now in its fifth
printing and its -70,000th copy -
an unprecedented record in the
history of publishing in Vietnam.
The author Thich Nhat 'Hanh
is a Buddhist monk, a scholar and
poet who lectured in 1962-1963 at
Columbia University. Last sum-
mer, he made a lecture tour in
the V.S. and Europe. Because bf
his criticism of the Saigon mili-
tary junta, he is now prevented
from going back to Vietnam to
his post as director of the School
for Social Services, of the Van
Hanh University.
The school which was founded
in early 1964, prepares young Viet-
namese of Buddhist and other
faiths to serve as volunteers in.
the villages. It functions on a
budget of less than 5000 U.S. dol-
lars a month (and consists of 400
students, half of whom would
always work in the villages). One-
fifth of the budget comes from
the Buddhist church, the rest from
individual contributions. Not only
does the school lack support from
Saigon government, it has been
subjected to all kinds of restric-
tions and attacks.
Last year, in May during the
campaign of suppression of the
Buddhists conducted by General
Ky, hand grenades were thrown
into the school. Most recently on
April 24, in the evening, 11 hand
grenades were tossed into the
school girl dormitories: one girl
student and one woman teacher
were killed, while 10 students were
seriously wounded.
THE PRESS in the U.S. did not
mention the incident. Buddhist
of what our communications systems can do for us--and to us.
Our communications challenges surely pose need both for analyses
of complex modern problems and for sweeping new strategies. In chal-
lenging the accepted wisdom we must sometimes ask hard, embarrassing
questions. What are the economic and institutional rigidities impeding
the development of communications systems that might serve man with
greater eoconomy and satisfaction? How much better to ask such ques-
tions now than to reflect back in later years upon an America that
might have been.
Sticky Si'tuati'on *
p
e Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
giate Press Service
.mm'~r subscription rate: $2.00 per, term by car-
($2.50 by mail) $4.00 for entire summer ($4.50
nail).
ily except Monday during regular academic school
ily exceptnSunday and Monday during regular
mer session.
Asfaras I know, the President
has never: publicly acknowledged
an understanding of the extreme-
ly complex and delicate position
the North Vietnamese are in with
regard to negotiations.
The North Vietnamese war ef-
fort is, very dependent onsthe
flow of military and consumer
goods from Red China. It is doubt-
ful that Ho Chi Minh could long
continue his current role in this
civil war if he alienated the Red
Chinese and supplies were cut off.
Ho is forced, therefore, to respect
to some degree the wishes of the
Chinese. The Chinese have made
it quite clear that they would like
to see the war last indefinitely and
are delighted over the possibility
of the United States committing
more and more of her resources
to fight a land war in Asia. They,
obviously, are opposed to any at-
tempts by Hanoi to reach a nego-
tiated settlement.
If Ho was interested in nego-
peace talks are unrealistic and
we should expectuthat Ho Chi
Miph will continue to reject them.
Mr. Johnson has stated that be-
fore we wil considertstopping the
bombing of the North, the North
Vietnamese must first stop the
infiltration into the Southt. .
From Ho Chi Minh's viewpoint,
that is the equivalent of complete
surrender.
If Ho were to comply, he would
face two alternatives. He could
abandon his 50,000 troops in the
-South and stop sending them
food, medicine and military sup-
plies; without such support, these
forces would soon be destroyed and
the North Vietnamese role in the
war would be eliminated. Or, sec-
ond, he could recall his troops to
the North but this would constitute
a withdrawal from the conflict. If
Ho met our terms in order to get
negotiations going, he would have
nothing ieft to negotiate about.
I do not believe we will secure