Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
here Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Truth Will PrevailN
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SDS Convention: Toward What Ends?
By BETSY TURNER
A week long marathon with
quiet and not-so-quiet discussions
on women's rights, aid to desert-
ing servicemen, and war opposi-
tion characterized the National
Convention of Students for a
Democratic Society held here 10
days ago.
The convention started off with
the usual plethora of workshops.
verbal interchanges, and wordy
explanations which mark all con-
ventions and especially those held
by SDS.
Mass meetings began the third
day and continued for five days,
with attendance varying from 50
to over 200, and sessions some-
times lasting until 3 a.m. Televi-
sion cameras and bright flood
lights filled the hall during one
hour of discussion concerning the
draft, as CBS newsmen filmed a
segment of the proceedings for a
TV special on the "New Left" to
be shown next fall.
THE DRAFT discussion pro-
ceeded like many of the others-
numerous resolutions were pre-
sented, hashed over and usually
accepted only in part. The con-
vention body seemed interested in
endorsing stands concerning cur-
rent controversial topics-the war,
civil rights, and the draft prom-
inent among them-but was more
reluctant to propose and ratify
specific implementations. As a re-
sult, much was left over for "in-
vestigation and consideration
sometime in the future."
Factions is another term fa-
miliar to anyone who has attend-
ed an SDS function, if only for a
short while. Professed Anarchists,
Trotskyites, and Marxists were
intermingled with the less rigidly
ideological majority. And, as Eric
Chester, a member of Voice Poli-
tical Party pointed out several
times during the proceedings, po-
litical discussion and clarification
of stands were rare.
Another strong faction - the
radical women-were present al-
though in somewhat smaller num-
bers than their male counterports.
The complaint they voiced stated
that the position held by the fe-
male sex in this country and also
in the "movement" as well, is
comparable to that held by slaves
in a colonial system.
The question they possessed was:
are the men in the "movement"
going to recognize this both in
DAY, JULY 12, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN GRAY
THe Draft and the War:
Twisting National Purpose
UNDER THE BIG 500-watted lamps,
in the huge sawdusted government
inspected slaughter-house,
head down from hooks and clamps, run
on trolleys over troughs, the ani-
mals die.
Whatever terror their dull intelligences
feel
or what agony distorts their most
protruding eyes
the incommunicable narrow skulls
conceal.
Across the sawdusted floor,
ignorant as children, they see the
butcher's slow
methodical approach
in the bloodied apron, leather cap
above, thick square shoes
below,
struggling to comprehend this unique
vision upside down, and then
approximate a human scream
as from the throat lit like a letter
the blood empties and the windpipe,
like a blown valve, spurts
steam.
But I, sickened equally with the ox and
lamb,
misread my fate,
mistake the butcher's love
who kills me for the meat I am to
feed a hungry multitude beyond the
sliding doors.
I, too, misjudge the real
purpose of this huge shed I'm herded
in: not for my love
or lovely wool am I here,
but to make some world a meal.
See, how on the unsubstantial air
I kick, bleating my private woe,
as upside down my rolling sight
somersaults, and frantically I try to
set my world upright;
too late learning why I'm hung here,
whose nostrils bleed, whose life runs
out from eye and ear.
-The Slaughter-House
by Alfred Hayes
As the draft calls for the coming
months mount in order to feed the mills
of the Viet Nam war, a great many young
men between the ages of 19 and 26, those
both in and out of the sanctity of higher
education, will feel much the same as
Hayes' sheep. Perhaps for those who ex-
peet nothing more than the butcher block
and the Oscar Meyer label, the inverted
kicks into unsubstantial air will not be
as vehement as those of the more "pa-
triotic cuts. In either case, a Texas bar-
becue is not eagerly anticipated by the
Hereford.
Attempts to reform "Universal Mili-
tary Training" from its relationship with
the stockyards have resulted in Rep. L.
Mendel Rivers' version of equal justice. As
embodied in the new draft plan, which
President Johnson signed into law the
other week, the system of selection is less
just, less predictable, more arbitrary,
more capricious, more, worrisome and
more disrupting to the lives of all those
facing conscription. With the discretion
of the age of selection and the criteria
for exemption remaining in the hands
of the local draft boards, the circum-
stances which would order a particular
individual's selection can appear as de-
terminable as those forces which might
dictate the random collision of two par-
ticular molecules. Yet, the random colli-
sion of two molecules is a process which
is almost exactly as it implies-a purely
chance happening. In the seeming chaos
of the Selective Service procedure in the
United States, however, there is a very
subtly woven web of order. It is the order
under which the population lived in Hit-
ler's Germany.
JT WAS SHORTLY after 1940 that the
Gestapo began selecting members of
the population by pure chance. These
unfortunates were summarily tried and
executed for whatever acts of treason the
government was able to fabricate. At
first, the country at large thought that
the apprehended suspects were in fact
guilty of betraying the war effort and
were destined for a deserved end. As the
arrests continued into 1942 and 1943 on
a much wider scale, strong waves of
popular resentment and defience began
to emerge.
When the arrests began touching close
to home, the German public began to
realize that they were merely cruel acts
of repression. But by that time there
was nothing that could be done. The
protests were mercilessly beaten back.
The defiant were executed along with the
unlucky. The acts of protest grew more
infrequent as the sporadic outbursts
were met with ruthless reprisal. The ar-
rests continued ever more massively un-
til, one day, the public no longer protest-
ed. They no longer resented. They ac-
cepted the arrests as merely a natural
course of life. If the Reich saw fit to re-
move a man from his home and execute
him without cause, then this was just a
natural phenonemon which was ,accept-
ed without question. The public's total
and unquestioning obedience to the will of
the state had been formed.
Such brainwashing need not, be ac-
companied by executions and a Gestapo.
It can occur more subtly. The re-
sult would be the same. Anything which
would be imposed in the name of the
state would be accepted. Ignorance is
happiness. War is peace. Hate is love.
HISTORIAN Henry Steele Commager,
when questioned on his views of the
draft, replied that, "The greatest tragedy
of this Vietnam thing is not so much the
deleterious effects upon world stability.
By global standards, American action
is not yet fatal to the precarious situa-
tion of equilibrium. The effects of the
war which trouble me more keenly are
those changes being wrought upon the
American society itself. National mood
has come to accept napalming and bomb-
ing as pursuits toward peace. We have
come to view military juntas as conducive
to desired stability. We have come to
view our own instincts of personal inde-
pendence and reluctant judgment as the
greatest 'impediments' of national pur-
pose."
John Mason Brown has expressed some
doubt whether such instincts are compat-
ible with an age of total technology.
Others feel that such manipulations of
national psychology are inevitable and
need not cause alarm. On a larger aspect,
such placid acceptance is either the re-
sult of a lack of understanding or a be-
lief in the practical application of de-
terminism. As it concerns the system of
Selective Service, this mood of pessimism.
is probably an exaggeration. A solution
lies less in the realm of abstract analysis
and formulation, and more properly on
the side of practical resistance. The draft
must be explained to the public in its
true light. The implications for social
control and repression must be examined.
If a stockyards approach to military con-
scription is to be avoided, the proponents
of the present system must be cast under
the cold probing light of public scrutiny.
Survival of the nation state through im-
pingements upon "the fundamental core
of liberty," whether in fact or in law,
must not form the core of national habit.
-DAN HOFFMAN
Peace Appeal
SHE FOLLOWING LETTER, sent by Ed-
ward Harvey, was published in "El
Gaucho," the newspaper at the Univer-
sity of California at Santa Barbara:
"In view of the present domestic and
foreign situation, we wish to voice our
personal endorsement of a recent state-
ment by four-star General David M.
Shoup, former commandant of the Ma-
rine Corps: I don't think the whole of
Southeast Asia is worth the life or limb of
a single American...
"' We believe that if we had and would
i
I
s#
l
M
. '' _
."- -- .
^.. ..
w-.
;r, * , "
themselves and in the society, and
do something about it?
As preface to their program for
liberation, a short analysis pre-
senting this position appeared.
Included was a statement reading:
"The following analysis of the
women's role came out of the
women's liberation workship; as
such it cannot be changed and is
therefore not open to discussion or
debate."
After the analysis was present-
ed, the "sister," acting as spokes-
man for the women's group, would
not recognize any of the "broth-
ers" who wanted to comment on
this analysis-and chiefly defend
the male side.
Bickering prevailed, and final-
ly, after some name calling, the
brothers and sisters, decided -
mainly the brothers since they
held the majority of votes-not
to endorse, as an SDS statement,
the analysis, but rather to con-
demn it as well to further com-
mittee investigation.
AFTER DEFEATING the analy-
sis, a program for liberation was
discussed and finally passed. It in-
cluded: "indiscriminate distribu-
tion of birth control information
and devices, and complete avail-
ability of medical abortion for all
women who desire it."
Another part of the ;proposal
which roused considerable booing
and hissing reaction read: "until
technology and automation which
will eliminate the work necessary
to maintain a home, every adult
person living in the household will
have to assume an equal share of
the work."
This program like many others
ratified during the seven days, was
noble, and done in good spirit.
However, good intentions are not
enough to change a society which
has so thoroughly perfected pres-
ent attitudes and moral codes, and
which has functioned effectively
with these codes.
Similar statements--ones con-
taining strong, left declarations
with no provision for implementa-
tion-dominated the remaining
list of convention accomplish-
ments.
A statement demanding imme-
diate withdrawal from Vietnam
did not even require discussion. It
was passed by a unanimous voice
vote. What steps are going to be
taken to make this statement and
ones like it, into real programs,
not just words, have yet to be
formhlated.
"WE WILL ALSO aid in oppo-
sition and disruption within the
Army," reads another declaration.
Again the same question comes
to mind. How? What tactics will
be used? What kind of organiza-
tion is necessary? When and how
will this disruption take place?
"Aid will be given to service-
men who wish to terminate their
association with the Army by
joining the underground." This
statement, another product of the
convention, is forceful, but when
these particular servicemen seek
such aid, where will they go, who
will they contact? Another ques-
tion of plan rather than policy-
and also a question left unanswer-
ed.
A resolution concerning mili-
tant civil rights groups stated
clearly in its contents that it did
not intend to present a program.
The resolution read: "In defend-
ing and supporting Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee
and the Revolutionary Action
Movement, SDS chapters areurg-
ed to cooperate and aid those,
groups in whatever manner they
request." Although this statement
cannot be accused of leaving a
plan unimplemented since it ex-
plicitly leaves the action neces-
sary to each local chapter, the
worth of the statement is dubious.
It presents a stand, but provides
no concrete basis of support for
either of these groups-SNCC or
RAM-to call upon if the need
arose.
IF THE PURPOSE was to swap
views and provide an arena for
lively, meaningful debate, this was,
for the most part, left unfulfilled.
If the purpose was to set up ef-
fective national programs con-
cerning key issues -- a purpose
denied by most-this was not even
approached. The only question left
is what was the purpose of this
gathering and why was it not car-
ried out?
The convention, however, was
orderly for the most part and ran
smoothly. Several proposals, reit-
erating stands already attributed
to the New Left were. put in reso-
lution form. Everyone went home
with an additional folder of pam-
phlets and handouts after a week
of little sleep.
Not much else really happened.
It can only be said that the merits
of SDS as an active, productive,
radical organization will have to
be judged by what happens in the
coming year on college campuses
throughout the nation, not on
what transpired from June 25 to
July 2.
I4
4
j f
"Now wihat the hell do we do with a U.N. building . . ."
.. . r. . . . ... ..................................... .. ... ......... .*.*... * .r.. M ... r,. . . n.r....... ....'... . . . . . . . n. , .. .. . . .
America s Piecemeal Approach to Crime
By ANN MUNSTER
America's attempts to cope with
her crime problem have always
been inadequate because they have
always been piecemeal-stimulated
by individual incidents and focus-
ing on the superficial, rather than
the more deep-rooted, causes of
crime.
The President's Commission on
Law Enforcement and Administra-
toi of Justicehas just completed
its 2-year investigation. The com-
mission's research has resulted in
ten publishedrvolumes totaling
more than 2 million words. It is
the most complete work ever done
in the area of law enforcement
and forms the basis of 200 recom-
mendations made by the Presi-
dent's 19-member commission.
Americans have traditionally
been content to attack only the
symptoms of their society's more
fundamental problems and to fa-
bricate catchy labels such as
"juvenile delinquent" and "sexual
psychopath" to shield themselves
from the necessity of facing the
larger picture. The President's
commission marks a forward step
only because it offers more en-
lightened methods of law enforce-
ment and, ways of alleviating the
conditions which give rise to crime
among particular groups.
Amerca's crime problem is not,
as most of her citizens would like
to think, a fringe issue-confined
to a minority of deviant or dis-
turbed individuals who can easily
be cured 'with the coming of the
Great Society. Its roots are deeply
embedded in her culture and ex-
tend far into the past-from the
early pirates, the smugglers of he
Revolutionary period, the gangs of
the early nineteenth century; the
city mobs of New York and San
Francisco, arising out of ethnic
friction, poverty, and the crude
politics of the early metropolises;
the highwaymen and gamblers of
the Old West, and the frontier
gangs.
These groups, although they are
probably the most glamorous, are
not the only manifestation of the
criminality which is deeply en-
demic to American culture. It has
been estimated that 90 per cent of
all Americans commit serious of-
fenses of one kind or another in
their lives, and yet most of them
are considered useful citizens. Per-
haps this widespread disregard for
law and extensive history of extra-
legal activity indicates a basic flaw
more subtle injustices that are
perpetrated every day.
This moral hypocrisy is bolster-
ed by the American success creed,
which glorifies achievement at the
expense of scruples. The ends-
means confict leads many, par-
ticularly disadvantaged, young
people to feel that the most logi-
cal, if not the only, path to suc-
cess is crime. The careei's of lead-
ing gangsters are evidence of an
acute sense of frustration at work-
ing through regular channels,
closed to them by the weight of
advantages they do not enjoy. And
it is absurd to speak of equal op-
portunity for ghetto residents.
Attitudes conducive to crime are
so widespread in our society that
organized crime has grown to be
the nation's second largest indus-
try, after government, and is in-
deed a pillar of many communi-
ties. Recently it has even been
cleverenough to take on a protec-
tive covering of respectability, and
has infiltrated legitimate busi-
nesses. And the phenomenon of the
"white collar criminal" - the
otherwise non-criminal citizen
who breaks the law in pursuit of
his legitimate and often respect-
able profession,nisdalso widespread.
These individuals, who are above
the poverty line and whose adjust-
ment to society has been saisfac-
tory-perhaps too satisfactory-
defy the sociologists' usual ex-
planations in terms of deprivation,
poor upbringing, and psychological
inadequacy.
ORGANIZED CRIME in this
country is nourished by its ability
to carry out the American success
credo, about as well as most legi-
timate enterprises. And they make
super-abundant and highly effici-
ent use of the most proven Amer-
ican means for achieving success
-centralization and hierarchy.
With the vast majority of inde-
pendent criminals in various areas
driven out of business, organized
of high public demand for service,
crime is perpetrated quite actively
by groups called "families," oper-
ating as criminal cartels in large
cities.
Families are efficiently organ-
ized "corporations" designed to
"maximize profits" and to protect
the members, particularly the
leadership from law enforcement.
Unlike previous criminal gangs,
these groups resemble modern
corporations in that they are read-
ily able to withstand personnel
each "family" is not only a busi-
ness, but a government. And the
political implications of their gov-
ernmental activities for the rest
of society are great-for today's
corruption is more subtle than
ever before, and the growing im-
portance of government in reg-
ulating private and business activ-
ity, if -exerted by corrupt forces,
has given them much more control
over matters effecting the average
citizen.
CRIMINALS HAVE not only
been tolerated and even integrated
into our system, they have been
accepted and approved of by some
groups in America as devices for
social control-for example, the
Ku Klux Klan and the lynch mobs
of the South. And themethods of
organized crime are certainly not
foreign to the law enforcement
agencies. The ruthless pursuit of
criminals is often conducted with
the same tactics the gangsters
themselves use. For example, the
Attorney General of the U.S. once
ordered an illegal deportation in
an attempt to apprehend a New
Orleans underworld figure. And
recent mass arrests of underworld
captainsin a New York restaurant
was later condemned by the
courts.
Illegal searches and seizures are
probably more dangerous to the
public safety than police con-
nivancewith organized crime, and
when law enforcement agencies
adopt gangster methods, it is dif-
ficult to discern that anyone is
safeguarding the public interest.
This is no less true in the U.S. to-
day than it was in Nazi Germany
or Stalin's Russia, neither of
which claimed to be a haven from
police brutality or arbitrary ar-
rest.
Despite the fact that the differ-
ence between gangsters and their
pursuers is sometimes difficult to
discern, the passions of many well
meaning citizens have been arous-
ed over the issue. Indeed a strange
alliance of God-fearing men and
criminal syndicates has sprung up
since Prohibition. And in some
areas these groups have actually
banded together to try to legis-
lative morality, each for their own
purposes. People like Mayor La
Guardia and New York state's
governor Thomas Dewey have
been swept into office and crown-
ed with fame for anticrime pro-
grams which were doomed in the
face of massive public demand for
the services of crime.
Lack of unanimus public con-
demnation of some of the vices
upon which organized crime
thrives has made the law enforce-
ment weak, uncertain, and spo-
radic. The "piecemeal" approach-
the juxtaposition of certain liberal
Supreme Courtdecisions with
tougher "stop, and frisk" laws
renders a uniform code of law
enforcement difficult if not out of
the question.
In fact, crime statistics indicate
that "tough" approaches, which
violate the Constitution, generally
lead to an increase in crime. Ac-
cording to the A.C.L.U., the Los
Angeles police department has fre-
quently violated prohibitions on il-
legal searches and seizures, with-
out achieving any decrease in the,
crime rate. By contrast, the Speck
murder trial was handled compe-
tently by the Chicago police with-
out any violation of rights.
A GROWING disillusionment
with the traditional American
standards and the traditional
American ruthless pursuit of them
is evidenced by the protests of the
new generation and their toler-
ance of a wide variety of illegal
activities. Enforced conformity has
generally only stimulated rebellion
and lawlessness, especially in mat-
ters of morals, and we subsidize
the underworld with our hypo-
crisy. Laws with limited and real-
istic aims, Justly and consistently
enforced, may serve the cause of
higher moral standards better
than alternating moralistic re-
form legislation and periods of
abandon.
Although there is, increasing
evidence that slum life generates
a body of norms and values which
are conducive to criminal beha-
viour, we must not be led by the
buoyant optimism of social re-
formers to overlook the dichotomy
in the larger culture, of which the
meaninglessness which the slum
subculture sees in the American
dream is only a reflection. Any ex-
pression of physical violence, no
matter for what ideal it is deliver-
ed, conveys to its recipient the
fundamental lesson that power
governs the universe.
Letters to the Editor
Israel and Arabs
In re Mr. Imad Khadduri arti-
cle: "The Palestinian Problem:
The Arab View," it seems to me
that several of the statements and
facts, which were brought in or-
der to strengthen the writer's
conviction that peace would not
be attained in the Middle East
until Israel would return to its
state in the beginning of the 20th
century, bears some comment.
1. Multiple repetition of a cer-
tain statement does not make
it more true, although it sounds
very convincing. The "ruthless
acts of terrorism" which caused
the past and present flight of
Arab refugees exist mainly in
countries and did not want to
lose their source of income.
2. Stating that Israel is "nec-
essarily expansionistic" has no
fact to be based upon. The Is-
raeli government has stated time
and again that its only wish is
to live peacefully with all its
neighbors. The June 5th war
was forced upon Israel by the
amassing of Arab armies along
the borders and by the closing
of the Gulf of Aqaba. I wonder
at what stage of hostilities would
Mr. Khadduri change his term-
inology from-Israeli aggressive
expansionism to-self defense; I
hope that resisting Egyptian
army units in the outskirts of
Tel Aviv would be named "self
refugee camps, would be taught
to hate and dread Israel. The
Arab students abroad, being the
future policy makers in educa-
tion, can do a lot in order to
change this deplorable situation.
4. I find the statement that
the value systems of Arab and
Zionism are opposed, a bit odd,
since faster rate of progress,
welfare of the people and rapid
modernization are Israel's goals
as well as those of the Arab
nations as stated by the writer.
This can only lead to the obvious
conclusion that peace as well
as solution to the refugee prob-
lem can be achieved in the Mid-
dle East by the people and na-
tions involved without interfer-
1 4r lAjjjuj Z Daily
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service.
Summer subscription rate: $2.00 per term by carrier
($2.50 by mail); $4.00 for entire summer ($4.50 by
mail).
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular