ilir Sfri$ni Dga ait Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1969 NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL ZWERDLING County welfare A year later, no better I S I" / / -- "Face-Saving Device" IN WASHINGTON LAST YEAR'S confrontations forced the state of Michigan and Washtenaw County to realize that funds would have to be allotted this fall to provide school clothing for the children of welfare reci- pients. Accordingly, the state of Michigan authorized the magnificent sum of $11 per child, and the generous county threw in another $16.50. You can't outfit a growing child for $27.50, not when he needs a warm coat, and new shoes, and replacements for all the other clothing he has worn out or outgrown. The patient welfare mothers of Wash- tenaw County for the past few months have exhausted every official channel available in their attempts to win an in- creased clothing allotment. They have met representatives from the county and the state, and the answer has been the same: There is no available money. Gov. William Milliken has refused to allot more funds to the state's Welfare mothers, even after more than 100 moth- ers were arrested in a series of demon- strations in Detroit. Encouraged by an opinion from State Atty. Gen. F r a n k Kelley that the state could apply emer- gency funds, the Wayne County mothers have resumed demonstrations. But Milli- ken shows no signs of yielding. THE DETROIT MOTHERS realized Wayne County's overburdened welfare system has no extra money to give them, and they have looked to the state, where Milliken is eagerly anticipating a sur- plus next year. The situation appears to be even simpler in Washtenaw County. Reliable sources indicate the county has $124,000 in unearmarked funds, even though the board of supervisors insists the county can't spare any more money llat il t i r's1 atics . Fascist tactics ?? for welfare. The mothers are asking for an additional $46 per child, which would bring their total allotment to $73.50 - roughly the same amount they won last year after a series of confrontations and 300 arrests. Last September, the state and county finally conceded the $70 was a reasonable allowance. But they did not make any real attempt to provide for this fall, and the county has rejected the mothers' proposal that monthly allowances based on 1961 living costs be increased 25 per cent. Yesterday the mothers realized that it is no longer possible for them to win the money they need through conventional channels. The supervisors have refused to meet with them directly, and representa- tives of the mothers were not invited to a closed meeting this morning between sup- ervisors and state welfare officials, and the Social Services Board. But the mothers will be outside to de- mand that the supervisors open the meet- ing and begin meaningful negotiations with their representatives. They have asked for the strong student support which last year enabled them to win $70 per child from the gruding state and county. The mothers have already at- tracted some support from a group of middle-class mothers, but they need stu- dents to help them teach Washtenaw County the lesson it did not learn well enough last September. STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS do not often produce such tangible results as did the welfare sit-in last year. The mothers have asked for our help again, and we must be there this morning at the County Bldg. to provide it. --THE MANAGING EDITORS The last great cause Fleming tells it like it is ARGUMENTS over -the bookstore issue in the past week have centered over the issue of control - should t h e students manage their bookstore, or should that be left to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Wilbur Pierpont? Students have charged that an admin- istration member would n o t be whole- heartedly dedicated to the concept of a discount bookstore. Administration-plan proponents have argued that only a pro- fessional manager can run it efficiently at all. For providing the needed information to the community to resolve this sticky point, the University community m u s t wholeheartedly thank none other t h a n President Robben Fleming, whose "Re- port to the University Community" re- leased Sunday confirms an important fact: Bookstores not controlled by students do not operate in the interest of students. FLEMING'S report came in form of pub- lished results of a "Student Book Store Study," a University-run survey of s i x bookstores at in-state universities a n d five Big Ten bookstores out of the state. The report speaks for itself. In every case, the bookstore w a s op- erated by a manager whose final respon- sibility was to the administration rather than to the students. In six of the ten schools, students were not allowed even an advisory role. In no'case did students have any authority other than advisory capacity. What was the result of shutting o u t student control? Only two of the 11 stores surveyed gave students any discount (5 per cent and four per cent) while 8 of the 11 stores gave discounts to faculty members, rang- ing from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. In addition, every s t o r e operated to make a profit - as high as $75,000 per year at Michigan State University's book- store. ONLY TWO of the stores gave students a discount (5 per c e n t and 10 per cent) on prices of new textbooks. The cost to these bookstores for texts is 80 per cent of list price; 9 of the 11 stores sell the books to students for the entire list cost. These facts dramatically demonstrate the basis for student disapproval of the Regent's proposal to have our bookstore operated by Pierpont. Only a truly stu- dent-controlled bookstore will ever keep the interests of the students at h e a r t. Again, thanks to President Fleming for having the courage to tell us the truth. --JIM NEUBACHER By WALTER SHAPIRO Daily Washington Correspondent CESAR CHAVEZ came to Washington last Sunday and momentarily succeeded in recreating that liberal-student coalition of those who really care. Gone were the divisions between those who have battled the War and those who supported it too loudly and longly. Forgotten was the gulf between those who cleave to the Panthers and those who still respect Roy Wilkins. Ignored were the tortured discussions over the limits of permissable dissent. Sunday night's rally in support of the grape boycott was almost a period piece. From a middle- aged folk singer to the inimitable Fannie Lou Homer, the dominant mood was 1964. CHAVEZ, MAKING his first Washington visit since 1967, is scheduled to make the rounds of Con- gressional hearings, starting with Sen. Walter F. Mondale's Migrant Labor Subcommittee. Mondale (D-Minn), a key aide to Hubert Hum- phrey last year, praised the grape boycott as "a revolution against powerlessness." Conveniently forgotten was Mondale's complicity in suppressing last year's "revolution against powerlessness" with - in the Democratic party. When Rep. James G. O'Hara of Michigan, an- other liberal whose humanitarian credentials are somewhat suspect, told the rally, "I have come for the purpose of expressing my solidarity with the grape boycott," it was almost as if he were doing penance. Mondale bitterly attacked the paternalism of the vineyard owners-which he likened to the welfare system, the Bureau of Indian Aftairs and the Selective Service System. FOR MANY, however, the grape boycott repre- sents a subtle form of paternalism. In a way. the grape boycott fills the void caused by the advent of black separatism and the traumatic death of the civil rights movement. Mondale accidentaly suggested this need to aid the downtrodden when he said, "Tonight we can LetterTs to Correction in the picture ha with the student To the Editor: level-the buildi YOUR EDITION of October 1 is our house an carries the picture of a group near the LSA bu of people with raised fists next We feel it is ve to a story about the student take- the people knox' over of the University's LSA since it has bee building. It's very important that the Ann Arbor i a correction be made concerning to implicate usi this picture since it is of a group ing among the of the White Panthers/Translove tl1(' student acti Commune and friends. we have had no Absolutely none of the people any of them. join the picket line not only for Cesar Chavez, but cxi for ourselves."e ct Attacking the Immigration Department's lag- en Wi gard efforts to prevent the importation of "strike- breakers" from Mexico, Mondale said the flow ve could be halted if "they tried half as hard to block oth illegal strikebreakers as they do for marijuana." Several speakers contended that the Defense tio Department is taking up the slack caused by the not grape boycott by increasing its purchases of Cali- fornia grapes by 50 per cent. Despite the urgent wel tones of those who made this charge, it is difficult wh to place these grape purchases high on the Penta- gon's catalogue of sins. lib CHAVEZ APPARENTLY recognized this, since but he began by saying, "We know the grape boycott de is important, but we're not the number one issue." an He later stressed his support for the October 15 sto Moratorium against the Vietnam War. stit Toward the end of his speech Chavez reminded the respectable Washington liberals who comprised sue about half the audience of "those who came to us ver long before it was fashionable- the students." Ai One wished the Mondales and the O'Hlaras had also been told that SDS had discovered the grape pickers long before the cause became almost the personal property of the Kennedy liberals. Although he spoke in the limited context of the farm workers, there was something strangely dated when Chavez said "a union means progress." Set against the construction unions in Pittsburgh and Chicago, Chavez's remark reminds us what a glorious anachronism the grape boycott is. NONE 01 TIlS SHOULD be interpreted as criticism of Chavez or the cause which he repre- sents. The backward economic conditions in the fields force him to fight the economic battles of the 1930's anew. It is a rare luxu'ry these days for liberals to oppose an evil they did not have a role in creating. For. the rest of us, relish the grape boy- cott. Some day all the easy dragons will be gone. ihe Editor un~f Off anything to do I'm sure the Michigan Daily ho takeover on any has had no intentions of doing this g in the picture and that the printing of the pic- so is not anywhere ture was a mistake of neghgence. ing. I hope this letter is a sufficient An important that correction. this m i s t a k e All power to the people! Re the practice of Life to the life culture! lea xws in particular Death to the death culture! the past as be- -Genie Plamondon adership of all Communications boo s-and for sure Secretary the ing to do with White Panther Party EDITOR'S NOTE: The pic- ver ture of the members of the White Panther party was print- a s ed in error. The Daily regrets rat this mistake.) ap] Strike cre To the Editor: by the IN VIEW of the reprehensible failure of Michigan students to re- me act en masse to the ringing words ing of The Daily editors, it has now legi become painfully clear that eith- er (1 few people read the editor- lev ial page in The Daily, or worse by yet. 2> few people take the edi- as1 torials on this page seriously. The students of this university are ob- oft viously unenlightened as to t he revolutionary import of such an sez oPe issue as a student-run bookstore. sid ERHAPS the greatest irony of the current crisis over control of the planned University bookstore is the criticism, often acrimonious, ich professors have levelled against the tactics employed by student nonstrators. A few hours before the arrests in the LSA Bldg. early Friday morn- I spoke to one professor, an expert in German history, who blasted students for their "fascist" tactics and for "playing into the hands" 'law and order" politicians like Richard Nixoi and Douglas Harvey. Yesterday, another faculty member I spoke to expressed a similar w. And President Fleming himself, in his State of the University iress Monday. also made the allusion to Nazi Germany. I WOULD offer a different analogy. In August 1831, Nat Turner led some 70 slaves who rose up in ted rebelhion in Southhampton County, Virginia, killing about 80 ites. "To justify the killings," wmrites historian Kenneth Stampp, "mem- s of Turner's band declared that they had had enough of punish- nt, or that they now intended to be as rich as their masters." Students at this University - at least those that have participated demonstrations over the past. . k - feel that their disenfran- sememt in decision - making, cifically over control of t h e >kstore, constitutes political secution. nd they now intend to be as rerful as their masters. )f course, the. same people who npare the demonstration in the A Bldg,,to tactics used by the zis in 1930 Germany will scoff the comparison to the Nat rner rebellion. ut it is certainly more absurd compare Marty McLaughlin to olph Hitler. dmittedly, Robben Fleming is slave master and students are bondmen. But neither w a s e LSA Bldg. demonstration a rderous insurrection. In fact, A fascist?? vas hardly even a disruption. IN ESSENCE, the demonstration was an act of civil disobedience ough the use of a familiar and widely accepted tactic - the sit-in. The description "building seizure" which has been used to describe event, is highly misleading. Only for short periods was entry to or t from the building blocked, except to police. The list of people who ered the building during the sit-in is quite impressive: LSA Dean Iliam Hays, Vice President for Academic Affairs Allan Smith, Uni- sity Security Officer Rolland Gainsley, Fleming himself and many ers who were hardly participating in the "seizure." What is striking about the comparison between the LSA Bldg. ac- ix and the welfare sit-ins in the County Bldg. a year ago, then, is tthe differences, but rather the similarities. But there was no great outrage over student participation in the fare demonstrations, no apparent liberal opposition to the tactics ich were employed. TIlS WIDE disparity, it seems, can be explained in only one way: erals are apposed not to the tactics employed in the LSA Bldg. action, rather - consciously or subconsciously - to the politics of the nonstrators. Behind the liberal rhetoric about the "facist left" is apparently deep-seated feeling that the controversy over the book- xre - unlike civil rights and welfare protests - is trivial and con- utes an unwarranted attack on the University. But this is precisely the point. Students do not agree that the is- of control of the bookstore is trivial or that the attack on the Un- sity is uncalled for. Certainly, in any case, this has nothing to do h the legitimacy of the tactics they employed. Another point related to the "facism" question concerns Fleming's statement Monday about student leaders who are "authoritarian, anti-intellectual a n d masters of the 'big lie'." Frankly, I can't think of any 'big lies' that were expressed at any of the recent tallies. Admit- tedly, many students have mis- conceptions about the bookstore. Some do not even know that the Regents have agreed to any kind of bookstore, while others mis- takenly beIie ve the bookstore should receive a University sub- sidy --not realizing this would only increase their tuition. B u t none of the so-called "authoritar- ian" leaders of t h e demonstra- [Wttions have expressed either of these views. I can only guess at what Flem- iA f(SCis P ??ing is referring to. Perhaps he be- lieves that some speakers h a v e fairly criticized the fitness of Vice President and Chief Financial ficer Wilbur Pierpont to run the bookstore. Surely this is not a lie, xever, but rather a matter of opinion. And that opinion. held by many students, certainly has at least ne foundation: Pierpont has been a long-standing opponent of the ation of a University bookstore and his close personal ties to the n Arbor business and finance community are well known. That the gents would put such a man at the helm of the bookstore ceitainly Ives their good faith open to serious scrutiny. TIE SMIPLE FACT is that students do not have to lie about the okstore - even if they want to - because the Regents have given in so many interesting realities to harp on. In all fairness, any search for "big lies" should begin with the Uni- sity administration. which has used them so adeptly. A prominent example is the administration's claim last July that pecial one-time $1.75 tuition assessment as proposed by SGC and eiied in a student referendum would lead directly to a cut in state )x'opriations. Fleming argued at the time that the Legislature, seeing the in- ase in total tuition revenues, would cut next year's appropriation a corresponding amount. The argument sounded plausible and gave Regents a good excuse to kill the bookstore entirely. But a quick check with a few legislative appropriations committee rmbers revealed that Fleming simply did not know what he was talk- about and had made no effort to check out his assumption. The islators flatly denied his theory as untrue. And in an amazing reversal the Regents have now agreed to a of up to $5 per student for the bookstore-an assessment which. Fleming's own theory, would cost the University almost three times much in legislative appropriations as the levy proposed by SGC. As for coercion, one need only look at the decision-making structure the University to discover who is coercing whom. For example, while students were allegedly illegally trespassing. ing and creating a contention in the LSA Bldg. (with the doors wide n), Fleming, the vice president and city officials were, on the other e of Regents Plaza, conferring behind closed doors, in a locked I ad tt ng di ild erv n Ne, in le ion th ilk L2AbC6 7 TUMNI1.: IMP TtL2MCC A RCTU M 70 ti RA rfO: T A" & ro , -r6 A TO~: O~R)P' - - A LAMCE TOAUTUM L1 i