under the rug
Thr Mirchien Dail
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedomt
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
I
Mayor Harris: A tale of two faces
by stevet' II'seII
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-05521
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
Or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL ZWERDLINGI
University bookstore:
Not radical, j ust practical
STUDENT Government Council's fre-
quent discussion of a University bodk-
store, the scattered talk of disrupting a
Regents' meeting and the Regents' re-
luctance to act favorably on the matter
have tended to obscure the rather clear
fact that a University bookstore is not
a radical or even an unusual idea.
According to Russell Reynolds, general
manager of the National Association of
College Stores, 80 per cent of the uni-
versities in America have university-af-
filiated bookstores. Moreover, some of
these bookstores were begun as early as
70 years ago.
Yet today, this University stands out
conspicuously - as one regent has re-
cently noted -- as one of the few schools
in the country without a discount book-
store.
The peculiarity of this fact assumes
more significance when one considers
that the students of this University voted
3-1 in a referendum last spring to help
pay for the bookstore themselves.
BUT THE Regents have refused to sanc-
tion even the concept of a bookstore
and for rather shaky reasons. They
have contended that the Legislature
would construe the one-time $1.75 per
student fee increase as a tuition hike and
would therefore cut next year's state ap-
appropriation to the University to com-
pensate for the increased revenue.
Interestingly, neither the administra-
tion nor the Regents consulted any of
the important state legislaors to find out
whether this was true. And not too sur-
prisingly, both the chairman of the House
Appropriations committee and a mem-
ber of the Republican majority on the
corresponding Senate committee have
since indicated that the argument against
the fee assessment has no basis in fact.
The Regents have further argued that
any discount offered by the bookstore
would come at the expense of a Uni-
versity subsidy - funds coming ultimate-
ly from student tuition. Thus, they say,
the discount would exist only at the ex-
pense of a corresponding increase in tui-
tion.
Like the argument against the special
assessment, however, this charge draws
little from the facts at hand. Many col-
lege-run bookstores - like those at the
University of Wisconsin and Indiana Uni-
versity, for example - offer discounts
but receive neither direct nor indirect
subsidies.
THE REGENTS have also expressed the
fear that a student-dominated Board
of Directors could not successfully man-
age a bookstore. However, student board
members have not adversely affected the
economic successes of bookstores at Eas-
tern Michigan University and at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin. Moreover, the SGC-
run Discount Store has proven a pheno-
menal success by providing students with
discounts of up to 15 per cent.
The Regents also questioned the feas-
ibility of offering a 10 per cent discount
on textbooks during the first year of
operation. But SGC specifically stated its
intention of adopting a wait-and-see at-
titude. The store would initially offer dis-
counts of four or five per cent before
making the jump to 10 per cent. Coupled
with a 4 per cent sales tax exemption,
for which state universities qualify, the
discounts on books could go as high as
14 per cent.
BUT THESE discounts will never be a
reality for students until the Regents
accept the concept of a student-run,
University-affiliated bookstore, and the
University provides operational funds.
President Robben Fleming has sug-
gested voluntary student contributions
and outside gifts as a means of financ-
ing the bookstore - a proposal which was
defeated, 4-4, at the July Regents' meet-
itng.
Although the President's plan, in
theory, is admirable, in practice it is un-
realistic, since it would not provide the
funds necessary to create a University
discount bookstore.
University administrators have admit-
ted that it would be difficult to raise the
money through outside contributions
alone and student leaders are skeptical
about raising the necessary $200,000
through a volunteer fund-raisitg cam-
paign.
LiNDER SGC's plan, $60,000 would be
accumulated through the student fee
assessment, and the University would al-
locate an additional $150,000 left over
from the defunct student driver registra-
tion fees.
The only alternative open to SGC's
plan is a cooperative bookstore. However,
the same problems concerning voluntary
funding exist in the cooperative plan.
THE REGENTS should support a Uni-
versity bookstore when they meet to-
day, realizing that it is not in any way
an outlandish idea, but a practical solu-
tion to a serious financial problem for
students.
Likewise, students should demonstrate
their interest in saving their money and
preserving their freedom to control their
lives by joining tomorrow's 2 p.m. march
on the Regents" meeting.
There is no excuse not to.
-RICK PERLOFF
DURING HIS FIRST summer in office, Ann Arbor
Mayor Robert Harris proved what local radicals have
been saying all along--that he is just another two-faced,
pusillanimous politician.
Harris, billed as a liberal Democrat in last, April's
mayoral election was swept into office by a heavy student
voter turnout, 80 per cent of whom generally vote
Democratic.
But by repeatedly putting political expediency ahead
of moral responsibility Harris has already succeeded
in alienating a substantial portion of that student sup-
port. His first six months as mayor have provided an ex-
cellent example of the bankruptcy of the Democratic
party and its "liberal" politicians.
The real test of a political figure is how he reacts
in crisis situations. During the summer, Harris got that
test-and failed it-when the confrontations on South
University provided more than ample evidence of the
dicotomy between the mayor's fabricated myth and his
actual intententions.
Three days of police terror, complete with "super"
tear gas, pepper fog, and night sticks, provided a sad
lesson for the liberal students whose dedicated campaign
work enabled Harris to oust an encrusted and insensitive
Republican dynasty.
After two nights of confrontation with the street
people, Harris delivered a public statement defending
the inexcusable brutality and terrorism of the police.
That statement was packed with lies and incredible dis-
tortions of the facts.
"The police showed great restraint," Harris said, "in
the face of rocks, bottles, and abuse from the non-
students who where obviously trying to bring on a
confrontation."
If the police displayed "great restraint,' it must have
been in giving parking tickets, for most observers
vehemently contest Harris' notion that his police depart-
ment was exceptionally tolerant.
But the most absurd aspect of the South University
affair was Mayor Harris' valiant attempt to place the
blame for the disorder on "non-students." The claim
is not only untrue, but also a vicious and cowardly
escape from the real issues raised by the uprising.
Instead of dealing with the situation directly-as dif-
ficult as that might have been--Harris confined his com-
ments to attacks on the street people and praise for the
police. What difference does it make whether they are
"non-students"? Are dropouts any less citizens than
members of the student community?
Yet at one point our civil libertarian mayor describ-
ed the street people as an "unwashed, non-student
minority." It is a phrase that could have been used
by George Wallace just as easily as Mayor Harris.
It is -unforgivable that Harris chose to rely on an
emotional plea to the citizenry's racist hatred for
"hippies," "long-haired weirdos," "non-students," and
"revolutionaries." It turned a political disaster into a
political advantage. But it was cowardly and dishonest.
Many students viewed Harris' handling of the dis-
orders as a "sellout." That's really not accurate, for
Harris sold out practically the day he started his cam-
paign for office. In fact, his April mayoralty cam-
paign was a subtle but accurate premonition of the
disaster in June.
In that campaign, Harris did not hesitate to employ
deception and distortion to bargain for votes or support.
Expediency was the rule of the day.,'
For example, he would tell his student supporters
one thing at their private organizational meetings, but
he told the voters another in his public speeches and
campaign literature.
I was present at one of those early "Students for Har-
ris" sessions (as a casual observer). Sitting in a living
room with about two dozen students, the future Hubert
Humphrey of Ann Arbor was babbling about how he really
did support the Tenants' Union but that of course
as a candidate for mayor he would have to remain
"neutral."
Hopeless liberals still argue that Harris was only
being politically realistic. Had he vigorously supported
the rent strike, they say, he never could have won
the election. And they stress the importance of electing
a "liberal" mayor even if it requires deceiving the voters.
They don't stop to think that maybe something is wrong
with their candidate instead of the electorate.
But like the McCarthy and Kennedy supporters in
the 1968 presidential election, the Harris fans closed their
eyes to the deficiencies of their candidate and refused to
see anything but goodness.
Later in the mayoral campaign, Harris debated his
opponent before The Daily staff. Responding to a ques-
tion from one staffer as to how he felt about a civilian
review board for the police, Harris slyly commented that
he didn't favor such a board because it would tend to
"polarize" the community. The mayor is a big unity
man, you see, and just dreads offending the John
Birch Society.
Harris agreed iii principle that civilian review is a
reasonable way to control the police, but he just
wasn't willing to lose votes by supporting such an idea.
Since the election, Harris has done little to prevent
police harassment of members of the black community.
The recent raid on the Black Berets headquarters and
police ransacking of the "RECALL Harvey" office files
weren't the first and won't be the last such incidents.
Meanwhile, the committee appointed by Harris to
study police conduct during the June street disorders has
somehow mysteriously dropped out of sight and the in-
vestigation of the Black Berets incident is being quietly
covered over.
Rumors are circulating on discrimination in city
hiring practices, and pressure mounts for action against
so-called "obscenity." Harris is being attacked by groups
on both the right and the left who are jointly support-
ing a recall campaign.
Whether he is run out of town on a recall ballot or
defeated in the next city election, Mayor Robert Harris
will be another victim in the death of the Democratic
party.
You just can't fool all of the people all of the time.
JAMES WECHSLER
-y ?
L p
- J
"That's a great an
effective is
Letters t
Al together now inent of o-
sors whor
To the Editor:, their classe
THE ARRIVAL of students at tiheron
the Regents' meeting at 2:30 Fri- ties, from
ay, folloing the 2:00 rally on petence
the Diag. will culminate months Hence M
of study and planning by SGC dent and a
and numerous other student or- to his fello
ganizations to establish a student faculty to
bookstore funded by University by pubishi
money. The student body has dem- gravity of t
onstrated its position by the refer- discretion.
endum last March, in which a anonymous
S.75 special assessment to estab- mischievous
lisp a student bookstore was ap- credible. A
proved by a 3-1 margin. Addi- and othert
tionally, SGC has exhibited that a up.
student-operated enterprise can
succeed, as shown by the success
of the University Discount Store.
The bookstore is one issue about
which the student body is united,
as there is no "right" or "left" To the Edi
political position. The presence of TWO RE
many students at the 2 p.m. rally Daily on th
and then in the march to the Re- prompt me
gents' mteting, where SGC will P1 m
ask the Regents for their decision, The first
can only bolster the students' case tonal of Se
for a bookstore. One cannot urge the product
students enough to attend the ing, are wo
rally over' the Si
Clearly, the time has arrived for The council
the Regents to accede to student an anti-obs
needs and demands. nance mad
anything frc
- Mike Farrell, '70 Itymereg a
SGC, member-at-large tair at
M1 t1
a ry r , -
I ' ' tJ
The lost battalion:
A domestic tragedy
()4NCE UPON A TIME that seems too long ago Bruce Murray was a
spirited Peace Corps volunteer teaching music in a Chilean uni-
versity and English at a YMCA there, working with kids in prison, and
in diverse other ways personifying the idealism that flourished among
numerous young Americans during and for a while after the bright,
brief Kennedy era.
Now, next Monday, 27-year-old UCLA graduate Murray will ap-
pear in a U.S. District Court in Providence for another chapter in his
long legal combat with the Peace Corps, Selective Service and the Jus-
tice Dept. The issue is his dismissal from the Corps in the spring of
1967 because he had publicly challenged our Vietnam policy while in
Chile. After his ouster, Murray was ordered to report for induction into
the armed forces and indicted for resisting. That case is now pending:
its outcome will very likely be determined by the result of the imminent
proceeding in which he is the accuser.
Beyond all the legal moves and countermoves, the Murray story
illuminates the steady spiritual decline of the Peace Corps and, in larg-
er terms, the death of the affirmative idealism identified with it. As
in so many other matters, the cause is the interminable prolongation
of war that has alienated and angered so many promising young Amer-
icans - some of them now serving prison sentences, others in self-
imposed exile in Canada and Sweden, still others on the verge of open
defiance as another university year approaches.
NUMERICALLY the Peace Corps still records a steady flow of re-
cruits, but it has increasingly become a refuge for restless middle-aging
electricians rather than a legion of dedicated youth. Many of its re-
cent alumni, associated with the Committee of Returned Volunteers,
proclaim their disenchantment; their words have reached many cam-
puses from which some of the most talented recruits were initially
drawn. The tribulations of Bruce Murray reflect how much things have
changed since he joined the Corps in 1965.
It all began in May, 1967, when after deepening doubts about the
Vietnam war, Murray joined with other volunteers in Chile in signing
a "Negotiations Now" petition. A Peace Corps bureaucrat informed
them that they were out of bounds: the Corps could not be linked to
such dissent. Murray w'rote a letter protesting this restriction and it
appeared in a Chilean newspaper. He was "terminated" soon there-
after.
It was Murray's contention that the credibility of volunteers in
such countries (where our Vietnam position is widely rejected) would
be fatally undermined if they could not speak freely as members of the
Corps. Under Jack Vaughan's leadership, the Washington officialdom
tried to minimize the conflict. But as disaffection over the war spread.
the rift became essentially irreconcilable. Murray eventually found
iti-Suit device! ... How
it against smog?"
I
o the Editor
Bookish irrespo sibilitr
in the comimunity of scholars
THE DEMOCRATIC struggle to give
faculty members and students equal
privilege, equal responsibility, and no
more of one than the other appears to be
descending to the apolitical corridors of
the University library system.
The disdain with which a few faculty
members have received the suggestion
that they return or at least share overdue
books being sought by other library users
has led many people, including some pro-
fessors, to request that faculty members
be subject to the same regulations and
sanctions that students are.
, LTHOUGH EQUALITY of rules a n d
sanctions has the ring of an historic
battle cry, it is not necessarily the major
issue in this affair of the overdue books.
Library rules are tailored to meet the
needs of the various people who use the
library: when needs are unequal, rules
must be too. For example, students tend
to need books that are heavily used by
other students and which, therefore, must
be kept available.
Professors, on the other hand, tend
to use source books for which there is a
THE UNCOOPERATIVE, almost defiant
spirit which seems to move the li-
brary-abusers is hardly becoming mem-
bers of the community of scholars. A
library is a sharing institution. It can
only work when the people who use it are
mature enough to accept the need for
external regulation of the library system
and responsible enough to cooperate with
its rules.
Tradition has it that faculty discipline
should be left to the faculty. Library di-
rectors hesitate to impose non-academic
sanctions on faculty members because
they see it as a violation of this tradition
of faculty freedom from outside interven-
tion.
They prefer to trust that responsible
faculty members, once alerted to the
pr~oblem, will refuse to condone the ir-
responsible behavior of some of their
peers and will apply the pressures t h e
library feels it cannot.
Peirhaps peer group pressure will moti-
vate the borrowers of 3500 overdue books
to return them and thus reward the li-
brarians' faith in the latent honor of
m~"alzin
itside reading, profes-
regularly do not meet
s are clearly delinquent
Jorinance of their du-
eithe' laziness or in-
e or both.
r. Hirschman. as a stu-
as a journalist, owes it
w students and to the
exposeIthese professo's
ing their names. The
he accusation rules out
But unsubstantiated
charges are useless
s, and possibly not
good rule is, for now
times: Put up or shut
-Prof. Ernst Pulgram
Sept. 12'
ObsCen it v
tor:
ECENT items in The
e subject of "obscenity"
to write this letter.
is Mary Radtke's edi-
pt. 11. Her comments,
of v'ery sloppy think-
orthless in the debate
tephenson's ordinance.
Iman did not propose
cenity law: his ordi-
R no effbrt to censor
om general circulation.
ttempted to keep cem-
als out of the hands of
think. Before your editorials can
be of use to the community emo-
tional ranting about Rubens'
paittings will have to be meplaced
by hard thinking.
THE SECOND is the decision of
ie Daily not to print the Argus
pictum'e now in controversy, and
the dissent of the Sports Editors
to that decision. Before those who
propose total freedom from cen-
sorship will be taken seriously,
they must understand that it is
just as bad to force society to view
a given piece of material as it is
to suppress it entirely.
Argus is probably a reasonable
forun for the picture in question.
People know more or' less what
they are buying, and shouldn't be
offended by its contents. On the
other hand, The Daily is a news-
paper of general circulation. Peo-
ple, eating their cereal at eight
o'clock in the morning, don't ex-
pect to turn to page five and see
a picture of a middle-aged man
with an erection, and they should-
n't be confronted with it in the
name of freedom of the press. For
our generation to say that anyone
offended by this ought to be si-
lenced is no better than another
saying to us that anyone ap-
proving of such material should be
silenced.
"OBSCENITY" is really more a
himself - as a "terminated" Corpsman
the target of an induction
move by his draft board.
That is when he decided to fight back and sue over abridgment
of his rights and the damages sustained. Last June Judge Raymond
Pattine, in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island (Murray lives in
Newport). turned aside a government move to dismiss the suit, and
now the trial is apparently about to begin.
WHATEVER THE outcome, Murray, a thoughtful, subdued citizen
has already spent two long years fighting for vindication. As a result
of his embroilment he has been barred from prospective teaching posi-
tions in Providence and forced to earn his living alternately working
as an organ-builder and trying to sell jewelry. When I saw him the
other day, he was still outwardly cheerful and controlling any sym-
ptoms of frenetic martyrdom. But his mood bore little resemblance to
the hopeful animation that he and so many others displayed when
they became members of the Corps. Now the government is "they"; a
hostile power at war with many of its own young.
The casualty lists from Vietnam are grimmer than the sagas of the
home-front victims. Bruce Murray has physically survived and will
have his day in court to record the damage he has suffered; conceivably