T.
H.
Whii
je 1Eidhijgan Batj,
Seventy-eight ye(IrS of editori(l freedoIm
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Editoriols printed in The Michigan Daily expre the individual opinions of staff writers
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: MARTIN A. HIRSCHMANI
Thei Fleming inqjuiries:
T end to the affair?
By STEVE KOPPMAN
o ONE'S memory can resist the corrosive effects of
the passage of time. The most crucial events of an
age become hopelessly distorted and disfigured, and so
often one wishes for a nenewal of the memory which
would let him actually relive these historic happenings.
So I was overjoyed on learning that the, yes, THE
definitive study of the past turbulent political year was
to be on CBS Tuesday night - Theodore White's Mak-
ing of the President. 1968 Now, millions of lucky viewers
would be able toerelive that most tumultous year of our
national existence.
If there had been no commentary to the telecast, if
it had just been film. I would have been spared that ter-
rible hurt which comes when one realizes how complete-
ly different was the reality of events from one's own per-
ception of them.
The film recorded familiar scenes - the various can-
didates in their various postures, the bodies lying on dis-
tant battlegrounds. the fights between students and po-
lice in Chicago. It was all pretty reassuring. actually.
Just the way I had r4'membered it.
'BUT IT TOOK the narrator to make me realize how
much my memory had truly failed me in the months
since last year's election.
Even though, intoned the narrator, Lyndon Johnson
had involved us deeply in a war whose morality was
questioned by some dissidents, he had, after all, also built
schools and hospitals and had sent us out toward the
moon. I was happy to be reminded of this.
N HIS inimitable, equivocal manner,
President Robben Fleming has sug-
gested that maybe professors who cancel
classes to participate in the upcoming
teach-in and strike against the war in
Vietnam should be penalized if t h i s
action, perhaps, violates their contract.
Possibly.
Although taking no stand himself,
the president raised vital issues. Fleming
argues that "traditionally in our society,
people are not paid if they do not work,"
and he has suggested to the Senate Ad-
visory Committee on University Affairs,
the top faculty body that they might
want to stake a stand on the mater.
SACUA, of course, didn' bite, and
Fleming, with his head neatly tucked in
the sand, appears to be retreating on the
question - for the moment at least.
Nonetheless, the issues which the pres-
ident has raised -- as well as the whole
question of why he raised them in the
first place -- remain a source of interest.
Flemings basic premise - that pro-
fessors should not be paid if they do not
work -seems, on the surface, fairly solid.
The premise seems so convincing, in fact,
that even faculty members who plan to
participate in the strike do not feel it
is very intimidating.
MAYBE AS a working principle, the
president's concept of what profes-
sors are paid to do is virtually worthless,
Academia simply isn't a time-clock world,
and if a faculty member sleeps late to-
morrow the only people who'll really care
or know are the students who forced
themselves to attend his eight o'clock lec-
ture.
In fact, though Fleming refuses to be-
lieve this is the case, some professors can-
cel as many as one-third of their lec-
tures in certain courses on the grounds
that the students best -spend the extra
time in the library.
WITH THIS point settled, however, it
becomes clear that measures which
the administration might take against
striking professors are far from innocu-
ous. For those measures, should they be
effected, would be an attack, not based
on the issue of class absenteeism, but
rather a weapon aimed at the strike it-
self.
Even civil law does not generally ad-
dress itself to the prosecution of political
dissidents, although, of course, enforce-
ment is highly unequal. Significantly,
however, Fleming has made no expres-
sion of interest in the formulation of a
general policy on class attendance by
faculty members.
The big question, of course, is why
Fleming has brought up the issue at all.
Surely it was not designed to endear the
president to the faculty. Even the major-
ity who will not participate in the strike
could not have been expected to accept
the position Fleming has taken as apoli-
tical.
Undoubtedly, Fleming feels - or fears
that the Legislature feels - that the
strike tactic is an undesirable method of
criticizing American foreign policy. The
point, like most political positions, is an
arguable one, but the president is cer-
tainly entitled to his views.
For the University to take an insti-
tutional stand against the srike, how-
ever, would be inexcusable. Cutting the
salary of striking professors, or taking
more drastic steps (Fleming's inquiries
are quite vague on the topic) would be
'a politicoily repressive action of the
worst kind.
At best, the president has merely ask-
ed the faculty to discipline themselves --
a practice the faculty are unlikely to con-
sider.
J;UT ON AN even more somber n o t e,
Fleming's expression of interest in this
dangerous issue seems to indicate a new
willingness on his part to impress his will
on the rest of the University community
--whether it is liked or not. The honey-
mooni of the president's first year and a
half in office may be drawing rapidly to
a close.Possibly.
-MARTIN HIRSCHIIMAN
te tells it like
Turning his attention to Hubert Humphrey, the an-
nouncer began, "Often the young forget . . ." I rushed
for pencil and paper ". . . that for twenty years Humph-
rey was the conscience of his party .. the blazing voice
of civil rights."
I hadn't really forgotten that completely. I remember-
ed films of Humphrey speaking out at the 1948 Demo-
cratic Convention, as a northern mayor courageously de-
nouncing southern racists.
But I had to admit that the image of 1968 when he.
as vice-president, courageously denounced critics of the
Vietnam war was somewhat more clearly etched in my
mind. Ah, yes, Teddy, the young do forget.
TURNING to the "dissidents" who were "ripping the
party apart," white is more analytical. Eugene McCar-
thy's basic support, said the announcer, rested on the
"student mass" while Robert Kennedy was the candi-
date of blacks and poor people.
My own flawed memory had construed images of Mc-
Carthy and Kennedy winning the vast majority of votes
in the primaries, where blacks, students and poor people
constituted a meager part of the electorate. I guess I
must read more.
In a comprehensive one-and-a-half-minute study of
the problems of race and poverty in America, the nar-
rator said, "The federal government had worked for half
a decade with every possible effort to end the injustice."
This was Theodore White speaking - the government
had made "every possible effort." I must have forgotten
something again. So, for Christ's sake, what more could
they want?
And the definitive history of 1968 would not be com-
plete without a nice little bit about student disruptions.
But what upset me was that they picked a particular dis-
ruption I had thought I was familar with. "A handful
of students at Columbia . . ..I had thought the word
around New York in those days was that over a thousand
had actually been involved in the Columbia disruptions.
But, I guess I make mistakes.
MOVING ON to the Democratic convention, we
meet delegates "chosen by the people of their state,"
students who "can be made into a mass against the
police." and policemen with clubs swinging "goaded to
fury"
"Chicago is a town where muscle counts," says the
narrator. Yes, I think we can all agree on that.
At this point, White brings in one of those unique
"inside shots" of our leading political figures for which
he is so well known. Humphrey sits pensively in his
living room, waiting for Wednesday. the day of nom-
ination, when "finally Humphrey would be able to speak
for himself."
The narrator notes that, later in the campaign,
Humphrey would know "he is portrayed as Johnson's
puppet." The author acknowledges that Humphrey was
incapable of speaking for himself before his nomination,
but he implies that it is nai e to think that Humphrey is
still Johnson's puppet aft r' nomination though Hum-
phrey doesn't change his stand on much of anything. I
didn't really understand why Humphrey had to be gag-
ged before the convention. but I guess that's why I'm
not Theodore White.
THE DOCUMENTARY of the post-convention cam-
paign was rather perfunctory, with neither of the candi-
e left replies
lives and which one may have about quality the gradua
d faculty, with respect to at least one unit been so ri:
ion. Con- of the Dearborn Campus; namely, in the Divi
as been the Division of Business Admin- 175 studen
pus dis- istration. th ehigh st
ee, with. were freq
h e final MY COMMENTS will not be knowledgea
lief spon- based on emotion but on the in- Ann Arbor
r legisla- timate familiarity which both ad- trators as
means of ministrative records and seven for the U
ion away years of teaching experience at the brach cams
rd cam- Dearborn Campus provide. From students f
'eapon to the time the first Business Admin- holder from
and dis- istration class was admitted in of The U
1959, until the present, the Fac- takes a bac
e govern- ulty of this Division has made including t
g out, he every possible effort to see that I would
ice of si- the level of quality desired by the member, w
But for University be maintained. of the Camn
anti-war Standards were maintained in his travels
only give the early years by a standing con- to spend n
McClel- mittee composed exclusively of side the st.
aura of Ann Arbor faculty. As control talk to busi
passed to the Dearborn faculty, are acquai
consider which was composed primarily of uates. I we
that fac- University Ph.D.'s twith later ad- investigate
ws) have ditions from possibly inferior in- our gradua
obliga- stitutions such as Harvard, Il- uate workI
iolatea if linois and Michigan State . the elsewhere.
October standards were maintained, and invite ever
s. Tradi- possibly drawn even tighter. investigate
id for in- The irony in this situation is they too m
s which that the admission standards and as to the c
cancel.
circum-
lained by
nt Allen
nized na-
ds that
nce, "de-
professor
inst par-
15 strike
s supres-
in organ-
political
re many
teaching
tual obli-
yond the
sses
ng has
the Sep-
o n th e r e,
.'e natureE,
'War Of-
Mobiliza-
Wrborn
it wasn't
dates saying anything. This reassured me, since it con-
firmed my old memories.
During this part of the documentary, White estab-
lishes himself as a "man of moderation." He attacks stu-
dent radicals who "denied Humphrey freedom of speech,"
though it becomes painfully clear through the film that
Humphiey had much more to say when he was being
denied "fre( dom of speech" than when he was free to
speak as he pleased.
White bitterly lashes int' "racist Wallace." the in-
carnation of evil opposing two well-meaning men. In
reaction to this dire peril, says White, "black voters
realized their only choice was Hubert Humphrey." I
found these one-sentence insights into the black con-
se'"tusnv'ss to be of a unique quality.
Finally, all the strands are pulled together. All of
Theodore White's unique and visionary insights are there.
Richard Nixon. speaking off-the-cuff, in that forthright
manner he has made famous, says. "I am myself-I be-
lieve deeply in what I say."
There is also George Wallace. the "intruder," dis-
rupting the hallowed system which "works by ancient
laws." It all draws together, and finally, as Theodore
White comes to his momentous conclusions, we can trust
our mnemories again.
"THE YEAR began in a grotesque way and ended in
a grotesque way," says White sadly. Yes, this we remem-
ber.
"Now,' he concludes, "America must wait until Rich-
- aid Nixon makes the nation's purpose clear once more."
Thanks, Teddy. We really needed that.
Letters:
Th4
to
Fleming
wirtue marches on
OBSCENITY LAWS have traditionally
been cannons for conservatism ably
manned by every public figure hoping to
make his mark as a white-plumed champ-
ion of public taste and defender of vir-
gins.
Councilman James Stephenson, ap-
parently casting his image in the mold
of virtue, took sword in hand M o n d a y
night to propose a new anti-obscenity
ordinance designed to prohibit the dis-
tribution of obscene materials to peop>le
below the age of 18.
The proposed ordinance barred dis-
tribution of visual representations of
"nudity or sexual conduct" adjudged
"harmful to minors," and also prohibited
the distribution of verbal narrations of
sexual conduct and sexual excitement,
Disregarding psychological, moral, his-
torical, and artistic arguments against the
desirability of prohibiting visual and ver-
Hare
A FTER FOURTEEN years as Michigan
secretary of state, James Hare is
stepping down. His retirement is of the
magnitude of the death of Paul Revere.
As secretary of state, Hare was more
than just the czar of the licensing and
traffic bureaus of state government.
Hare's greatest services to the citizens
of the state came from his prophetic,
visionary insight.
Last year, Hare warned voters in the
presidential election that SDS groups
were planning to bomb polling places.
This charge was humorlessly absurd in
light of public SDS plans for rather
peaceful activity.
Of course, after the election, H a r e
attributed the lack of disruption at the
polls to his own vigilance.
It is a vigilance that truly will be mis-
sed.
-S. A.
bal manifestations of sexual realities in
print, Stephenson has overlooked at least
the basic commercial impractibility of his
proposals.
THERE IS hardly a small town in Mid-
western America whose library does
not contain at least one book of art re-
productions featuring one of Rubens vol-
uptuous "representations of 'nudity."
Furthermore, modern fiction is so
laced with verbal narratives of sexual
conduct that enforcing Stephenson's or-
dinance would eradicate an entire liter-
ary period from the memory of mankind.
Fortunately, even the Democratic
members of the City Council were percep-
tive enough to anticipate the enormous
social problems implicit in Stephenson's
ordinance, and the proposal was defeat-
ed in an 8-3 vote along strict party lines.
Literature and art are saved for the
creative enterprise of future artists. But
dead as it may be, Stephenson's ordinance
does not deserve a quiet burial.
Rather, it needs to stand as a symbol
of the calibre and integrity of the anti-
obscenity campaign the Councilman has
recently directed against the White Pan-
thers, Ann Arbor Argus, and Trans-Love
Energies.
IF STEPHENSON defines obscenity in
the absurd and impractical terms in-
dicated by his proposal, one finds some
difficulty in accepting his charges against
these groups as either reasonable or
jttst.
Furthermore, Stephenson has repeat-
edly shown a political bias in his attitude
toward these alleged perpetrators of ob-
scenity. He has alluded to the White Pan-
thers as "a group dedicated to destroy-
ing our democratic institutions," adding
''This makes it (obscenity) a particular
problem at this time."
Stephenson a'No was the subject of an
Argus picture, the publication of which
To the Editor:
THE EIGHT MONTHS since
the inauguration of Nixon have
witnessed a decline and confusion
in the organized anti-war move-
ment. There are signs that this
state of affairs is ending and that
unprecedented pressure will be
brought to bear for an immediate
end to American intervention in
Vietnam, and against the conse-
quent militarization of all aspects
of American society.
The anti-ROTC action on this
campus is an indication of t h e
mood of students, of their eager-
ness to come to grips with the
problems of war and militarism. A
number of faculty, in addition.
nave organized a 'tactic-in' for
September 19 and 20, oriented to-
ward devising and publicizing
strategies tor the anti-war move-
ment.
The New Mobilization to End
the War in Vietnam will be con-
ducting a workshop there on the
national Moratorium-Strike ac-
tion against the war called by the
National Student Association, ov-
er one hundred student govern-
nents, a national Peace Action
Council. a number of ex-leaders of
the McCarthy movement and a lo-
cal coalition of campus and com-
mnunit people.
In general outline, this action
calls fo' one day of anti-war ac-
tion on October 15, two days in
November R including the march
on Washington', and an addition-
al day each month, the Adinins-
tration refuses to meet the de-
mands.
The Ann Arbor Anti-War Of-
fensive-New Mobilization is or-
ganizing a class strike. boycott of
selected stores and banks, a n d
picketing of military research es-
tablishments for the October 15.
Our demand is immediate and
complete withdrawal of American
iroops from Vietnam.
PRESIDENT FLEMING'S letter
takes particular cognizance of this
.'problem on the horizon.' If we
put aside the veiled form of "ear-
ly consideration of the matters.''
because "to be forewarned is to be
forearmed'' there remain three
aretnments or tlireats which the
Preident advane against, the
:t.ike.
Faculty and students alike, he
says, may be punished by the Uni-
University, and of thet
work of its students and
2. Legislative retributi
siderable legislation h
passed concerning cam
ruption. It is possible to s
out waiting to assess tl
phraseology. that the ch
sots of this law and orde
Lion view it both as an
directing popular frustrat
from real concerns towa
Pius "pinkos" and as a wx
silence free expression
sent.
Even if one were to lose
ment money for speaking
might well ask if the pr:
lence is not t o o great.
Fleming to falsely label;
actions disruptive can o
the witch-hunters, the
lans and Hubers, a false
respectability.
3.> Finally we should
Fleming's gravest point,t
ulty (and teaching fello'
undertaken "contractual
tions" which would be v:
they participated in the
15 cancellation of classe
tionally professors are pa:
cividual days of classe
they feel it necessary toi
The reason why this
stance is different is expl
Academic Vice - Presider
smith as "just the organ
ture of it." Fleming ad
there may be a differen
pending on what t h el
says.
Any action taken aga:
ticipants in the October
can only be construed as
sion of one's opinions in a
ized way - the o n 1y
means of expression.
HAPPILY THERE ar
processors who view their
obligations, their contrac'
gations, as extending be
regular convening of cla
Also happily. Flemin
agreed to participate in1
tember' 19 and 20. tactic
hope that his contributi
will be of a more positiv
than his letter has been
-Ann Arbor Anti-
Pensive - New
tion Committee
Sept. 10
From De
tion requirements have
gorous that enrollmnent
sion has never been ovwr
ts. As a matter of fact,
andards of the Dlvi.'n
uently mentioned by
ble and respon bi
faculty and admiuns-
being unrealistic. t yen
niversity much lesa a
pus desperately needing
for survival. The BBA
' the Dearborn Campus
niversity of Michigan
k seat to no other BBA.
hose from Ann Arbor.
invite te State Board
ho claims to have heard
npus' poor reputation in
outside of the tate,
more time traveling in-
ate and, particularly. to
nesses in Michigan who
inted with our grad-
ould encourage him to
the record of those cf
tes who go on for rad-
both in Ann Arbor and
I would, at this ne.ne,
yone in Ann Arbor to
"the record" so that
ay judge for themn;el:es
aliber of our graduates.
While to some it mnay be a hard
fact to accept, quality performance
and quality standards do exist in
places other than Ann Arbor.
SINCE ITS inception ten years
a-o, the average enrollment lor
this whole campus has never been
over 800 undergraduate students.
Considering its location in one of
the major metropolitan areas of
the United States, and recognizing,
as well, the burgeoning demands
being placed on all institutions
of higher education today, it hard-
ly seems logical to imagine that
standards could be perceptibly
lower here than in Ann Arbor.
Surely, if a "cheap" University
degree were being offered one
would hope that the reputation
of the University would be such
that people would be beating on
the doors here to get in. Obviously,.
such is not the case. If the repu-
tation of the University is n)es-
ently in jeopardy, then I suggest
that people look elsewhere than at
the Dearborn Campus.
-A. R. Krachenberg
Professor of Business
Administration
Sept. 9