Seveny-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinions i re Free
WrepoAreFree, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
D etroit: City
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This moust be noted in all reprints.
. ..
FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: BETSY TURNER
Regents Must Shun
Ability-to-Pay Plan
MICHIGAN STATE University's unique
ability-to-pay tuition formula con-
tains so many loopholes and inequities
that it must not be considered a logical
alternative for the University.
The system at first glance appears
equitable, in allowing a tuition discount
for those students whose families are
least able to pay. Students from families
with less than $11,800 gross income per
year will pay the minimum of $354 for a
year's credits. Students whose families
gross $16,666 or more per year will pay
the maximum of $500 for the same period,
a hike of $146 over last year. Students
whose family incomes fall between these
extremes will pay a flat 3 per cent of the
amount shown on their last income tax
return.
But these are the only provisions of the
plan, which was approved on a political
basis by the five Democratic members of
the eight-man Board of Trustees. The
board had discussed alternatives through
several stormy sessions, but they failed
to examine the plan they approved close-
ly enough to see its shoddiness and un-
fairness.
In the first place, it is appallingly dis-
criminatory because it is predicated on
the assumption that a family with a large
paycheck has surplus funds, and no ex-
emptions have been provided for cases
of family financial problems.
FOR INSTANCE, a large family sending
two or three children to college on a
$16,666 income certainly has a greater
financial burden than a family sending
their only child through school on an
$11,800 income. Yet, in the first case, the
family will be shackled with an increase
which might equal a full week's income
while the more able family will meet no
tuition increase. Besides this, the higher
income family is already hit harder in
graduated federal and local taxes which
support education and the state has now
instituted a percentage income tax as
well.
Secondly, no one is sure how much rev-
enue the plan provides because to this
time the privacy of a parent's income tax
return has been respected. Collecting
copies of the returns is the only way the
gross incomes may be determined and
there is a likelihood that many parents
will object to revealing family income and
providing a copy of the form for every
child. And the trustees are asking com-
pliance of the plan in only two months.
Furthermore, the plan does not ac-
count for the students whose fees are
not paid out of "gross family income" and
are independent of their parents. But,
even worse, students classified as "rich"
could avoid higher payments by claim-
ing independent sources of income.
THIRDLY, the accounting problems will
''- be- fantastic as each student must be
processed individually. A large number of
new personnel must be employed to han-
dle disputes and to process the tax re-
turns. Students will all have to be billed,
as well, because nobody will know their
exact bill in advance.
It cannot be disputed that the formula
is "unique" among colleges, and so far the
six other state colleges which have hiked
their tuitions have set across-the-board
increases and provided increased aid for
students with provable need at any in-
come level.
The University Regents must shun an
ability-to-pay plan when they finally
meet and MSU students should fight their
administration's plan.
-WALLACE IMMEN
As life in Detroit staggered
back to a semblance of normal-
ity, three Daily staffers-writ-
ers John Lottier and Stephen
Firshein, and photographer Rob-
ert Sheffield-spent a day tour-
ing the city and the riot-scarred
area around 12th Street in par-
ticular. They interviewed sol-
diers, store-owners, residents,
and passersby and have record-
ed the comments and their im-
pressions below.
DETROIT-Twelfth street had
a traffic jam esterdy. -
After four days of looting, snip-
ing, burning, and window smash-
ing, it was finally safe to enter
the area, and the people flocked
to what has become Michigan's
biggest attraction. Every corner
was manned by a pair of glum
National Guardsmen, sporting M-
16 rifles, sleepless eyes, and two-
day beards. Negroes, young and
old, lolled up and down the street
like broadwalk sightseers, care-
fully avoiding the glass and debris
that littered the sidewalks, and
peering in the buildings. In the
middle of the sea of traffic, a
group of squad cars passed
with rifles obliquely showing
through rolled-down windows. A
bulldozer pulled down the char-
red remains of a brick wall; a
dead poodle lay covered with flies
near a trash can twenty feet
awy. The trash basket was filled
to the brim with beer and liquor
bottles.
Two feet of stagnant water had
collected inside the still-smoulder-
ing shell of what used to be a
paint store on the first floor, and
a whore-house on the second; the
acrid smell of escaping natural
gas filled the air. In front,
the glass in a parking meter had
melted, covering the coin slot.
The fire had spread, we discover-
ed, from the adjacent grocery
store, causing the cans of paint
and lacquer to explode and set-
ting the entire block on fire. A
fourteen year old boy was buried
in the blaze.
In the Baptist church across
the street, Negroes queued up for
the scanty boxes of clothing and
food being handed out-we later
heard that there were some 5000
homeless in the city. On the cor-
ner, a teenage girl tried out her
new camera, while her boyfriend
smiled with pride.
A WJR newsman was ques-
tioning a Negro woman and her
three young children. "Madam,
what do you think of the riot?"
"Oh, I think it's just horrible."
"Sonny, did you see any shoot-
ing?" "Huh?" "Looting?" "Huh?"
Fire-gutted stores were inter-
mingled with those untouched by
the mobs, or merely looted of
merchandise, creating a strange
pattern at first sight. It seemed-
as though Providence had ran-
domly determined whetheror not
a business was spared or destroy-
ed. As it turned out, a modern
version of the lamb's blood on the
door had been used as a marker
for the rioters -"Soul Brother,"
"Black," "No Lie, We're Black,"
hadtbeen hurriedly spray painted
on the windows of Negro-owned
businesses.
Troop convoy trucks were park-
ed by the side of the road, and
guardsmen - we saw no army
troops or police walking in this
area-were gobbling down sand-
wiches and chugging milk and
wearily returning to their posts.
AFTER WALKING for nearly an
hour, we decided to stop in
one of the little "greasy spoons"
which dot the Negro strip. The
owner, after handing over a
couple of fruit punch Faygos,
warned us not to take the bottles
outside, because they "can be used
for fire-bombs, and were."
Then it was back up the street,
where more of the same scenes
wvere waiting. Standing on the
corner of 12th and Blaine, in the
heart of the destroyed area, we
talked to a 25-year-old Negro into
giving us a tour of the war zone."
We then began to understand
what the riot had been about.
He started, in an authoritative
tone: "I want to get one thing
straight. This ain't no race riot.
The Negroes here are only after
the cops: whites was left alone...
In fact, whites was looting along
side the Negroes. I didn't hear
nobody say 'Get Whitey' no time."
He went on to explain how he had
been around during four days of
looting and burning, but had not
joined in, "cause I got money
whenever I want it. I got a good
job, a wife, and two kids. If I
want a television set, I can go to
the storetand buy one-it ain't
worth getting shot in the back
for."
WE ASKED why he felt the dis-
orders had started. He quickly re-
sponded: "This has been building
up here for over a year. Every-
burned-out food store. When
pressed, he admitted that the
owners were new, and "weren't
too bad. But a Negro guardsman
was standing in front trying to
keep out the looters. They told
him to go away, so's they could
take the food. He got mad, and
started chasin' a kid up the alley,
and shot and killed him. The mob
didn't even rob it, but just burned
it for the kid."
"Two other markets were shot
up cause they didn't give little
kids depositson pop'bottles," he
went on. Also it became clear that
the rioters had selectively destroy-
ed grocery stores which they felt
had overcharged them. "See that
one," he said, pointing to a char-
coal black store, whose protective
anti-stealing iron gates had been
melted out of shape, "The prices
were too high. They also sold rot-
ten stuff and tried to pass it off
as good."
We had been wondering how ef-
fective the hastily painted "Soul
Brother" signs had been. "See
that corner store," our guide said.
"Used to be liquor shop owned by
a Negro, but he wouldn't even let
most people into the store, and
* icks
the area was well-kept and gave
a lower middle class appearance.
We found that both whites and
Negroes lived in the large brick
houses and apartments, and it
was disconcerting to imagine the
wealth of booty behind the walls.
"You can get things real cheap
here now," our friend began.
"Color televisions for about a
hundred; diamond rings for fif-
teen bucks . . . mink stoles are
worth about twenty. There's a
booze black market too-$8 a pint,
and $15 a fifth-cause of the
liquor ban."
HE WENT ON to remark that
looting had been done by all age
groups-including five-year olds,
who would fill bags with goods,
and hand them to their parents
waiting outside.
"Some of these kids never had
no bikes or nothing. When they
got the chance to get one, they
did. Wouldn't you?"
We noticed that only a few
houses had been burned in the
area, and couldn't understand
why the rioters had put the torch
to their own dwellings. But it
wasn't that simple: According to
Itself
previous uprising, causing much
greater damage to life and prop-
erty. "I was in Watts, man," our
comrade said. "The Negroes there
blew it. They didn't know what
they was doing, and they was just
running scared burning as they
went along. Here the Negroes kept
their cool. They took their time,
and took everything from the
places before they burned them.
They weren't organized or noth-
ing, they just kept their cool."
By this time, we had come full
circle back to 12th and were de-
termined to get the other side's
view. We approached the nearest
guardsman, who was squatting on
an upright cinderblock. "There's
a war going on," he started. "It
starts every night at nine o'clock.
We got some guy last night -
Shot the second floor right out
from under him; then a tank ran
over the house, and if that didn't
kill him he's got Jesus Christ in
his back pocket." His buddy nodd-
ed, as he patted a tripod-mounted
machine gun. We sauntered down
to the next group of guardsman,
about half a block away. "You
wouldnt believe it last night.
There were snipers in a beautiful
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Newspapers View Detroit
Student Rights Statement:
laking Students Citizens
By The Associated Press
The following is a number of excerpts
from editorials in papers around the coun-
try, on the riots which struck Detroit this
week:
NEW YORK TIMES
The nation has cause for deep concern if
the leaders of both political parties are unable
to forget political considerations when mur-
der, arson and looting are sweeping some of
its major cities ... . It is no disgrace to either
the governor, a Republican, or to Mayor Cav-
anagh, a Democrat, that the situation in De-
troit slipped out of local and state control.
The fact that Gov. Romney may be the Re-
publican presidential candidate next year may
explain - but not excuse President Johnson's
nervous political posturing at this critical time
.. .but . . . the statement issued by the Re-
publican Coordinating Committee is a flagrant
outrage . . . This shabby statement insults
the nation's intelligence when it asserts that
President Johnson's veto of a loosely drafted
"crime control bill" for the District of Colum-
bia contributed to an upheaval a thousand
miles away in Detroit.
WASHINGTON EVENING STAR
The rioting in Detroit, which is just this
side of anarchy apparently is being brought
under some semblance of control. But it has
exacted a fearful toll. Governor Romney and
Mayor Cavanagh acted firmly on Sunday when
the rioting began over a trivial incident. But
it soon became evident that this was not
enough and the governor asked the White
House for help. The President acted quickly.
The President's response was the right one.
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh of Detroit has
enjoyed rich praise as a do-something, get-
going, resourceful fighter for his inner-city
families....
It is a frightful fantasy. It proves nothing
except that thousands of Detroiters will chuck
away all the civility they have been taught
for one chance to vent hostility, to snatch
some prize no greater than a pair of pants or
a six-pack of beer, a table model radio or a
TV set, to burn businesses or families out of
their homes . . . Violence can lead only to
more stiffening, even to martial law.
CHICAGO DAILY NEWS
The contest for leadership of America's Ne-
groes, and of the civil rights movement, has
gone into a critical stage. The extremists are
at least temporarily in control: They're having
their try at smashing their way to racial
equality. Except to satisfy the bloodlust of
the instigators, it serves no purpose, of course.
But who is to persuade the Negroes that there
is another way except their own responsible
leaders?
MINNEAPOLIS STAR
The smoke drifting above Detroit and New
York's Spanish Harlem should be a signal for a
concerted, bipartisan, no-holds-barred attack
on the evils of slums and the lack of employ-
ment and education opportunities . . . the
blame must be spread nationwide, from the
craft unions which have ignored demands for
equal employment opportunities to the school
boards which have condoned second-class citi-
zenship status, citizenship status for minor-
ity children and finally to lawmakers at all
levels who have tried to make the slums invisi-
ble, hoping the festering problems would dis-
appear.
DENVER POST
It is past time to assert with every bit of
power appropriate to such a basic task, the
supremacy of law and order in the cities of
this nation. The young hotheads have had
their day-and nights-and have made an
intolerable mess of them. It is time for older,
wiser and more decent people to force the hot-
heads to cool off.
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
What happened in Newark, and now in
Detroit, is far more than a simple protest
reaction. Such riots are eruptions of utter law-
lessness that cannot be condoned in any way.
They are almost purely criminal outbursts.
They have absolutely no social excuse, and
they can and must be contained by whatever
measures are necessary. If continuing anarchy
requires the counter force of the U.S. Army-
so be it.
NEWARK EVENING NEWS
To a Negro minister standing in a burning
street and to President Johnson, reluctantly
ordering out federal troops, the situation in
Detroit looked the same. In almost the same
words both agreed: "It's not a matter of
civil rights; it's out-and-out lawlessness."
In the case of Detroit, as in Newark and
other American cities wracked by rioting,
burning and looting, there is ample evidence
of destructiveness to support this melancholy
conclusion.
This kind of destruction now being prac-
ticed cannot build a better life for Negroes
in America.
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
Detroit officials had honestly tried to do
something about the problems of poverty and
race. They had made some progress. They
cared. Today their hopes are ashes in a mind-
less orgy of destruction. Why? For one thing,
there are people ... who have no regard what-
ever for the middle-class values which under-
lie our laws and institutions.. . They feel they
have no stake in our system and that they
have nothing to lose by going on a rampage
of pillage and looting....
the poor people got the furniture,
I ain't a crook no more, cause I
got nothing."
We asked if he had tried to use
a don't-burn slogan, and he
chuckled: "A soul brother I ain't.
But Sam across the street, he got
to be a soul brother, and they
didn't touch him. His store's OK."
A fat Negro woman came up to
him and he greeted her with a
smile. "Come on in, we're open,
Sadie. Looks like it's all over-
how about a mahogony dinner
set."
She returned his greeting, and
turned to us and pleaded: "They
shouldn't pull out the troops,
cause they's a lot of wine and
whiskey people gonna get drunk
on, and we need the protection.
Don't let 'em take 'em away."
She showed concern about more
rioting in other' parts of the city.
"Theys still trying to scare us.
This morning one fella called me
up and said 'You think you's safe
cause you haven't been hit yet,
but you'll get your.'"
EIGHT HOURS in the riot area
left us with a number of distinct
images. Uppermost is the fact
that the riots did not occur in the
most run-down sections of the
city. We drove down Brush Street
--a well-known prostitution and
bar area with its near hopeless
derelects and shoddy row houses.
There had been much less de-
struction in that section than
in the12th Street area-anoc-
casional store, but nothing exten-
sive. But at the same time, we
felt more in danger there than in
the hard-hit area. This brings up
a most interesting point: why
didnt the people in the worst sec-
tions riot?
This might be explained by
several factors. First, the army
patrolled the eastern section of
Detroit, and the army is respect-
ed by the people. The army
troops are well-trained - many
have fought overseas - whereas
the national Guard is almost
completely lacking in experience.
Also the Army forces were integ-
rated, where the NationalAGuard
is almost totally white. A case
in point: so far the Army has
had to fire a total of only seven
rounds of ammunition since en-
tering the area late Monday night.
More important, however, the
residents of, say, Brush Street
have always been poorer than
their neighbors to the west. With
this frame of mind, they may
have tended to become less rest-
less. They lack the spirit of the
Negro who has just begun to
taste American affluence and sees
all that he has yet to attain.
Riots seldom occur in the worst
areas of the South, where living
conditions are the most deplorable
in the nation.
THE SECOND IMPRESSION is
the complete lack of any guilty
feelings among people we saw in
the destroyed section. There was
an air similar to that which one
feels after eating a delicious meal.
This was typified by the smile of
a Negro mechanic in his Cadillac,
viewing the parade in front of
him, and by the look of satisfac-
tion of people toting new tran-
sistor radio playing: "Trying to
set the night on fire . . ." They
had been slighted by American so-
ciety, and felt they deserved the
treasure gained from the looting.
In fact, they proudly exhibited
bandaged wrists and forearms-
the mark of the window-breaking
looter.
In addition, reports of 'formal,
pre-planned organization within
the riot appears to be without
basis. This istnot to imply that
there was utter chaos -- small
groups of looters worked together
for short times, looting in unison,
and then burning. Groups of
snipers made loose arrangements,
situatingrthemselves in more than
one apartment house, and draw-
ing the soldiers and police into
traps to pick them off.
If there was any organization,
it was after the riot. The West
Central A c t i o n Organization,
along with the city agencies, and
the people were working together
to care for those dispossessed by
flames. Centers throughout the
city, were literally flooded with
food and clothing donations, from
individuals, milk companies, and
grocery chains..
IT LOOKS LIKE the Detroit
riot is over. The city has al-
ready begun tackling the unre-
solved problems: getting business-
man back on their feet, providing
homes for the homeless, healing
the thousands of wounded, deal-
ing with over three thousand ar-
rested and accused citizens. And
most crucial, trying to create
some kind of rapport between
nembers of the same society.
As Malcolm X wrote before he
died:
"In our mutual sincerity (whites
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4
ACADEMIC FREEDOM, like peace, is
one of those things that everyone is
in favor of but no one ever does anything
positive to achieve. But now five national
student, faculty and administrative or-
ganizations have produced a six-page
Statement on Rights and Freedoms of
Students which just might bring a bill of
rights to the campus.
The statement, drafted by representa-
tives of the American Association of
Colleges, the American Association of
University Professors, the National Asso-
ciation of Student Personnel Administra-
tors, the National Association of Women's
Deans and Counselors, and the National
Student Association, has yet to be offi-
cially ratified. Final approval will be a
major step in guaranteeing freedom of
speech, press, assembly, protection against
over-zealous administrators and student
participation in university decision-mak-
ig processes.
These guarantees include a long list of
due process requirements in major cases,
student independence in inviting con-
troversial speakers to campus, the right
to participate in off-campus political ac-
tivity (such as war protests) without
fear of administrative reprisal, a student
press legally and financially autonomous
and free from university censorship and
protection from "arbitrary and prejudic-
ed" grading.
THE MOST IMPORTANT portion is a
statement that "the student body
should have clearly defined means to
participate in the formulation and appli-
cation of institutional policy affecting
academic and student affairs," followed
by a section which says that students can
be disciplined only for violation of rules
that "significant student participation"
helped frame.
Ratification and acceptance of the
statement is vital to finally bringing full
citizenship--with the rights and respon-
sibilities it entails-to the student.
-JENNY STILLER
I
Don't Advertise Riots
THE ARGUMENT that sensationalist re-
porting is unavoidable during a sen-
sational incident is a weak one when the
adrenal glands of a community are fired
by what they see on television no what
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
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Summer Editorial Staff
LAURENCE MEDOW ......................Co-Editor
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MARK LE.VIN ........Smmerpplen1#ment Editor
they are vaguely aware of on the other
side of town or in another city.
If our purpose is to stop the violence
the media must acknowledge its con-
tributory function and handle its re-
porting activities accordingly. If, how-
ever, our purpose is to give the public
wide coverage and insight into the vari-
ous causes of the disturbance then we
must be prepared for the resulting sym-
pathetic reaction to yesterday's news. The
right to know must be balanced in this
case against the clear and present dan-
ger of further destruction and killing.
NE SOCIOLOGICAL interpretation of
our ghastly summer city phenomena is
that is represents 20th century man's
search for identity in a world character-
ized by normlessness-anomie. If this is
the case at all-and no one interpreta-
tion will fit adequately-then the people
involved in that day's looting and sniping,
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brought the booze to the door.
So we burned him out. But that
shop across the street is owned
by a Jew, and we let him alone
cause he's always been fair to us,
and we know he's a good man."
It became apparent, that during
the riots, the "Soul' signs had
been painted as much by the
passing looters, as by the store
owners themselves. We saw whole
blocks of untouched stores with
identical handwriting on the glass
windows, and in the same color
paint. For example, one cluster of
stores would be marked "Black,"
while another would say "Negro."
The most creative signs-"No lie,
we're black," and "Super Soil,"
were probably done by panicked
proprietors.
our guide, "People from other
parts of town came down here to
loot and burn. That's why they's
so many houses burned. I saw
one guy here looting and wearing
his green beret. He said he was
just back from Vietnam and
didn't want to miss out on the
action. A lot of houses caught fire
when the wind blew the flames
from the burning stores."
SNIPING STARTED late Sun-
day night and according to our
friend, the bullets were not di-
rected specifically at whites but
at policeman. "The snipers was
trying to get the police and burn
them to the ground." Then the
lilly white National Guard came
to the aid of the police, and "it
30 room mansion, so we called in
two tanks and blew them all to
hell."
There did seem to be some dis-
content among the guardsmen.
One complained: "Every eight
hours those army boys change
shifts. I've been here since 6 this
morning, and there's no relief in
sight. I only got three hours sleep
last night, and I want to get out
of here."
Another guardsman didn't mince
words in his criticism of the fed-
eral troops: "Them dudes didn't
roll in till Tuesday-we had the.
place cleaned up by then. The
Army gets credit for everything
we do, and they don't do crap. We
shot two guys the other night,
and they got credit for it."
4