ae fr ifidyiaan BDRUM
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedon
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
AIIJAMES WECHSLER
Nixon and the bully-boys of Washington
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.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID SPURR
Tax reform: The time has come
CONSPIRATORIAL theories of
American politics are generally
vulnerable, whether recited by
Robert Welsh or Mark Rudd. But
the emerging design of the Ad-
ministration's counter offensive
against the peace movement is so
flagrantly provocative that it can
only be described as planned in-
citemerit to riot.
Two developments must further
dispel any wistful hope that Mr.
Nixon's merchaits of frenzy are
irrepressible individualists speak-
ing their own disorganized minds.
The first was Postmaster Gen-
eral Winston M. Blount's n e w s
conference declaration, following
an audience with Mr. Nixon, that
his own recent visit to Vietnam
had convinced him that antiwar
protests are "killing o u r boys."
(The thought that those urging
"peace now" may be urgently con-
cerned about saving our boys is
increasingly viewed as irrational
or irrelevant.)
Shortly thereafter, Deputy At-
torney General Kleindienst an-
nounced that leaders of the Wash-
ington march were being investi-
gated for possible violation of fed-
eral antiriot statutes.
DESPITE ALMOST unanimous
eyewitness reports depicting the
valiant efforts of the parade mar-
shals to contain the fringe vio-
lence that did occur, Mr. Klein-
dienst even criticized t h e mar-
INCREDIBLE AS IT may seem, t h e
graduated income tax was once a
part of the agrarian reform movement
that sought to equalize the political ad-
vantages of rich and poor.
The Populist Party, noted in the late
nineteenth century for its sympathy to
the poor farmer and laborer and its hat-
red of monopolies, trusts, and the Eastern
economic establishment in general, call-
ed for a graduated income tax right along
with free silver in the financial planks of
its 1892 and 1896 platforms.
The Populists, of course, envisioned a
system in which money to alleviate the
needs of the farmers and laborers would
be supplied by taxes which fell heaviest
on the Eastern monied classes. It was
poetic justice-those who grew rich ex-
ploiting the poor would be t a x e d most
heavily to pay for the consequences of
their misdeeds.
BUT THE graduated income tax which
actually exists today can be related
only in the most superficial way to the
Populists' idealistic visions. The tax scale
does provide for the collection of a much
higher percentage of income in the high-
est income bracket (70 per cent) than in
the lowest (14 per cent), and it imposes
no tax at all on individuals and families
with an income below a certain minimal
level.
However, a variety of ingenius loop-
holes, such as the notorious oil deple-
tion allowance, allow the very rich to
pay much less than the amount indi-
cated by the high percentages of their
bracket, and sometimes, to escape virt-
ually untaxed. Thus, the tax burden falls
on the very members of the middle and
lower income groups that a graduated
income tax should relieve.
THE TAX bill currently being acted
on in the Senate - which has been
passed by the House and has the support
of the Administration - makes a predict-
ably half-hearted attack on this prob-
lem. The bill provides for new taxes of
about $7 billion on very wealthy individ-
uals and corporations and about $9 billion
in relief for individual taxpayers.
The catch is that the $9 billion of re-
lief comes in the form of an across-
the-board tax cut of at least five per
cent that is directed as much at the rich
Editorial Staff
as at the poor. In fact the bill would
drop taxes in the highest bracket five per
cent (from 70 to 65 per cent), but in
the lowest bracket, only one per cent
(from 14 to 13 percent).
To eliminate this absurdity, Senator Al-
bert Gore of Tennessee, with the support
of liberals from both parties, has pro-
posed an amendment that would wipe
out the across-the-board cut and there-
by channel the relief from the wealthy
and toward the poor and middle income
families.
In addition, Gore's proposal would in-
crease the existing $600 personal exemp-
tion to $1000 for each taxpayer and his
dependents, while approximately main-
taining the current bills increase of the
minimum standard deduction from $300
to $1000.
THESE MODIFICATIONS would signi-
ficantly increase the level of income
which an individual or family must at-
tain before they can be considered eli-
gible tax bait, and would lighten the op-
pressive load of the middle income tax-
payer.
But they would also cost the govern-
ment $5.3 billion more than the admin-
istration-supported tax proposal. T h e
Administration, perhaps because of its
pressing military obligations, feels that
it cannot afford to squander another $5.3
billion, and has threatened to veto ,any
tax bill bearing Gore's amendment.
How unfortunate that the government
must sacrifice economic justice to the sort
of housewifely economy that splurges on
artichoke hearts out of season and then
buys stale bread because it's three cents
cheaper than fresh.
The poor and middle class taxpayers
are already beginning to writhe angrily
under their tax burden. This is evidenced
by the recent refusal of normally gen-
erous communities to pass millage pro-
posals urgently needed by local schools
and bond issues for community improve-
ments.
It is not that these people don't want
good schools and sewage treatment plants
and recreation areas. It is simply that
they find the strain of supporting their
nation, state, city, and family is too great
for their financial resources. They want
to cut back; and millage proposals and
local bond issues are the only taxes they
have the power to cut back on.
THE TIME HAS come for the federal
government to recognize its respon-
sibility to millions of beleaguered, t a x-
impoverished citizens. They have b e e n
filling up more than their share of the
federal till for too long, while problems
at home have gone untreated because of
insufficient funds.
Nothing seems more ridiculous in this
context than a tax cut designed to aid
the rich as much as the poor. The help
should go to those that need it-and not
to those whose gratitude has the highest
market value.
-MARY RADTKE
Lost identity blues
shals for alleged lack of dilligence
around the Justice Dept.
His broader case was based on
the appearance of David Dellin-
ger as one of the speakers. One
need hardly defend Dellinger's ir-
responsible call for support of the
disruptive post-march exercise to
recognize that it was far 1 e s s
notable than the magnificent or-
der and self-discipline preserved
through the long, crowded day.
WHAT IS MOST important now
is to try to see these belligerent
Administration p e r f o r m a n c-
es through the eyes of the many
thousands in the largest protest
this country has ever seen.
Despite all the Justice Dept.'s
forecasts of major disorder, they
had staged an almost prayerful
procession with cheerful dignity.
They felt reason to be proud of
themselves; even many who ques-
tioned the premises of the protest
hailed their conduct.
But many came back wondering
whether their voices had b e e n
heard and taken seriously. Ultra-
left demagogues and Crazies had
derided their fidelity to law and
reason.
Yet somehow t h e instincts of
the leaders of the Moratorium -
the so-called "moderates" - had
prevailed over some of the far-out
forces in "Mobe."
The idea that dominated the
march was that the avoidance of
turmoil would insure a respectful
response, confounding those in the
Justice Dept. and elsewhere who
had so feverishly confused M-day
with Doomsday.
In what must now be viewed as
an "instant commentary," e v e n
Herb Klein, Mr. Nixon's messen-
ger to t h e media, conceded on
Sunday that the leaders of the
march had fulfilled their pledge
of nonviolence.
BUT THAT momentary tone of
tolerance was swiftly replaced by
a reversion to Agnewism (or must
it n o w again be called Nixon-
ism?). Attorney General Mitchell
publicly objected to reports that
stressed the tranquillity of t he
event; he wanted to talk about
the small sector of trouble.
Now Kleindienst has translated
that distortion into a threat of
prosecution. Will all the media
s o o n be admonished to rewrite
their accounts of Nov. 15?
Mr. Nixon has maintained of-
ficial silence; perhaps he has even
whispered to Bob Finch, Pat Moy-
nihan, Henry Kissinger and his
few other liberal ornaments that
he is still a Quaker at heart.
But his sponsorship for the
rough-stuff is transparent. Post-
master General Blount, after his
chat with the chief, was not only
prepared to brand the marchers
responsible for American deathis in
Vietnam. Having completed a
study of mail service in Vietnam.
he further announced that talks
with 1000 GIs persuaded him that
they solidly back the President.
LET THE Associated Press be-
ware; only a few days ago it car-
ried a dispatch from Saigon re-
porting articulate division among
the troops about the peace move-
ment.
A word of warning to The Wall
Street Journal is also indicated;
its front page yesterday carried a
detailed survey headlined: "Army
Worried as GIs Go AWOL and
Desert at Record-Setting Pace."
The defectors are, of course, still
very much a (silent) .minority,
and most of their flight occurs at
home-front installations. ("Once
a soldier gets to Vietnam, chances
are remote he will desert or go
AWOL: One reason: he has no
place to go.")
Nevertheless. the fact is that the
Army's desertion rate has trebled
in the last three years and 23,000
a e now eassified as deserters--as
distinct front intermittent absen-
tees.
Such news, too, may now be
classified as dangerous.
MR. NIXON'S men are playing
an explosive, tragic game, While
they stir up the raucous right,
they denigrate those who' petition
for peace within the democratic
process.
Do they believe the spectacle of
repression and intimidation will
impress Hanoi----rather than en-
courage the belief that atmood of
civil war is spreading here?
Do they believe Nixon's place in
history will be enhanced if he
permanently embitters thousands
of our most conscientious, cour-
aggous young people?
In retrospect many of Lyndon
Johnson's associates have express-
ed remorse over their failure to
air their doubts-and even resign
-as he escalated the Vietnam
war.
Are there no men around Rich-
ard Nixon. or in the high councils
of the Republican Party, prepared
to challenge the escalation of the
wai?
K New York Post
By STEVE KOPPMAN
ALL DAY, I lay on my bed, blankets pulled all the way over my head,
silent except for an occasional mournful groan. My identity was
shattered - my life a meaningless, hideous blur.
Yesterday, I lost my wallet.
There was hardly any money in it. Anyway, losing a little money
never would bother me much. But in my wallet were all those tenous
links which bind me to the rest of the world.
WHEN I LOST my wallet I lost my University ID. card, my New
York Public Library card, my Queensborough Public Library card, my
high school First Aid course card, my Selective Service registration
certificate, my Selective Service notice of classification, my Michigan
Daily press card, my American Airlines youth fare card, my Ann Arbor
Bank account identification card, my Social Security card, an auto-
graphed picture of my sister, and my certificate of membership in the
Alternative.
It was too much at once.
I DIDN'T KNOW who I was or where I was. I couldn't remember
my Student Number, my draft classification, what my sister looked like,
or how much dividend was due me from my investment in the Al-
ternative.
My life was over. This world had lost all meaning for me.
LATE IN THE afternoon, consciousness began to return. I vaguely
sensed my surroundings. Soon, my vision began to clear up. I remem-
bered what had happened, and I felt a great void in my heart. But,
rationally, I sensed that perhaps I was making too much of all this.
"Surely worse things could have happened to me." I said to my
roommate.
He looked me straight in the eye and shook his head sadly. "No,"
he said. "Losing your wallet was the worst thing that could ever hap-
pen to you."
Well, I looked around at all the places I had been the previous
day - to no avail. I began to resign myself.
I REALIZED the great task ahead of me. I would have to start all
over. I would have to begin accumulating cards right from scratch. I
would have to re-establish my identity.
It was frightening to contemplate, but as I faced up to shaping a
future out of the shattered wreckage of my life, I gained a new con-
fidence. In the deep recesses of my mind, my name began to come into
focus.
I wandered aimlessly, and happened u p o n the Daily building,
Cheered by the familiar environment, my memory improved. By the
time I got to the mailboxes, I knew which name was mine.
In the mailbox was my wallet.
I COULDN'T believe it. I fondled the soft black leather. I looked
inside -- the cards were all there! Every one! It was too good to be
true. I wouldn't have to start all over again. I was back where I started.
Life was worth something again, after all. I wondered what beautiful
person had returned my wallet.
Whoever you are - thank you.
Letters to the. Editor
Full moonlight
To the Editor:
I AM AN aerospace engineer,
and this fact was recently viewed
with interest by a group called
the Air Force Association; they
considered me atpotential member,
and invited me to join.
As a special inducement, the
letter I received offered a rather
unique gift:
'The AirForce Association has
a special gift for you-a portfolio
of four handsome, full-color prints.
This beautiful portfolio includes
paintings of an F-4 marauding in
full moonlight, the F-100 firing at
desert targets, and a dramatic
Minuteman launch."
HOW LOVELY. "An F-4 ma-
rauding in full moonlight"-just
the thing to hang on the wall
next to photos of the wife and
kids, no doubt.
What next? How about a beauti-
ful photo of the Auschwitz gas
chambers in operation on a bright,
sunshiny day?
-T. A. Ileppenheimer
Dec. 4
Perverted priorities
To the Editor:
AFTER READING A r c h i e
Brown's letter in the Nov. 25 edi-
tion of The Daily, I was thankful
he was unsuccessful in his candi-
dacy for SGC.
Mr. Brown explained that he
opposes immediate troop with-
drawl in Vietnam because of "the
increased unemployment rate that
would result from the soldiers re-
turning and workers of the mili-
tary-industrial complex being laid
off for lack of government con-
tracts."
Apparently Mr. Brown believes
it is better for young Americans
to risk death in Vietnam than risk
temporary unemployment at home.
He considers the avoidance of
temporary unemployment in the,
avaricious industries which profit
from the war more important than
the preservation of thousands of
lives.
A STUDENT with such a per-
verted sense of priorities does not
belong in SOC or any other posi-
tion of decision-making power.
-Kenneth Siegel '72 Law
Nov. 25
SGC failure
To the Editor:
STUDENTS TODAY are very
often frustrated with the lack of
communication between our gov-
ernment and the people of our
nation. We also often complain
of the lack of choice between can-
didates and their practice of skirt-
ing issues. Wouldn't it be refresh-
ing if the student government
would be different?
Unfortunately it is not. As far
as fulling the real purpose of an
election-to elect representatives
of the voters' choice-the recent
SGC election was a dismal failure.
There was an absolute minimum
of exposure to candidates and the
issues. The only way I could find
out anything about the candidates
' was to read their posters and a
few articles in The Michigan Daily.
This inadequate supply of infor-
mation is not the basis for an in-
telivent decision.
While I was voting I noticed
a number of people blindly copy-
ing names from the "highly rec-
ommended' list in The Daily on
their ballots. This is not democ-
racy.
THE APATHY of the student
body was disgraceful. Some of
this apathy however, may be
traced back to the way the pub-
licity for the elections was admin-
istered. I never had, nor do I
presently have knowledge of how
to go about running for office.
Too many people didn't vote.
Perhaps that is because they didn't
know where to go. I consider my-
self fortunate in having overheard
a conversation mentioning the
voting station in front of the
Union. Otherwise I probably would
not have voted myself.
We, as students have been crit-
ical of our government's irrespon-
sibility. This is good. It is our right
as well as our-duty. However, well
founded criticism should propose
workable alternatives. We have
many such alternatives. It is time
we put these alternatives to work.
It is time for us to practice what
we preach.
-William Jacobs
Nov. 12
Half-time
To the Editor:
ONE WOULD like to commend
The University Marching Band,
and its director, Mr. William
Revelli, for their very appropriate
"PEACE" formation at the Ohio
State game. In the midst of levity
and celebration, it served to instill
in the spectators a reminder that
the tragedy and atrocities of Viet-
nam continue while the President
seeks his "just and honorable
peace." Hopefully, the same ar-
rangement will be part of the
band's program on Jan. 1, 1970.
-Mike Farrell
SGC, member-at-large
Dec. 2
HENRYf
STEVE NISSEN
City Editor
GRIX, Editor
RON LANDSMAN
Managing Editor
STEVE ANZALONE . Editorial Page
CHRIS STEELE ................. Editorial Page
JENNY STILLER.............. Editorial Page
MARCIA ABRAMSON .....Associate Managing
LANIE LIPPINCOTT ......Associate Managing
LESLIE WAYNE .........................Arts
JOHN GRAY ..,...................Literary
PHIL BLOCK...................Contributing
DREW BOGEMA................Contributing
MARY RADTKE.................Contributing
LAWRENCE ROBBINS.................Photo
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
WALTER SHAPIR0.. Daily Washington Correspondent
NIGHT EDITORS: Stuart Gannes, Martin Hrschman,
Jim Neubacher, Judy Sarasohn, David SpurrDan-
lel Zwerdiing.
The Nigerian view of the Biafran conflict-suffering on bo
)th sides
By ISAAC AYIUDE ADALEMO
Daily Guest Writer
WHAT MOST people on this cam-
pus and in the United States
know about the Nigerian Crisis is
limited to the story of starving
children and the 'desperate' struggle
of "humanitarian groups" to get
food to them.
T h e plight of starving innocent
children a n d suffering civilians is
one of the human tragedies associat-
ed with wars which make them so
unpalatable that every effort should
be made to prevent them.
It is fruitless to begin to ask at
this s t a g e in the Nigerian Crisis
whether it could have been prevent-
ed.
The appropriate question n o w is
concerned with how we can find a
meeting of minds which will make it
possible to resolve the major prob-
lems of the Crisis - (1) the preser-
vation of the national unity and ter-
ritorial integrity of Nigeria, and (2)
the assurance of personal safety and
morning of January 16, 1966 to the
news about a military overthrow of
the government of the first Republic.
In the heat of the moment, Ni-
gerians (all ethnic groups alike)
hailed the coup as timely and Gen-
eral Ironsi who took over as Head of
State w a s proclaimed by many as
"the Messiah."
This initial reaction is not sur-
prising in view of the unsettled poli-
tical conditions in the country prior
to this time and the desire of Niger-
ians to be rid of a government which
most people considered corrupt and
insensitive to the needs of the peo-
ple.
WHEN THE EXCITEMENT h a d
cooled down however, people start-
ed reflecting on the January coup.
Many found a pattern in the coup
which was to them very peculiar. It
was learned that m o s t prominent
among the young army officers who
carried out the January coup were
of Ibo extraction. None of those who
essary for some people to die in the
coup, it should be politicians and top
ranking military officers from the
Northern and Western regions while,
for some unknown reason, none of
the politicians and top military of-
ficers from the Eastern region (from
where most of those most prominent
in the January coup came) were kill-
ed.
THIS IS MOST perplexing in view
of the fact that the politicians, if
not the military officers, from the
East were equally as implicated in
the corruption and insensitiveness of
the first Republic as those from oth-
er parts of Nigeria.
The discovery of this incongruity
made the intentions of those respon-
sible for the January coup and the
government of General Ironsi very
suspect. It introduced an element of
ethnicity to what many had regard-
ed as a genuine national coup.
SOME OF THE decrees of th e
Northern politicians played on this
fear and succeeded in fanning up the
latent ethnic hatred which resulted
in the massacres of May and No-
vember and the counter-coup of July
1966 b o t h of which were directed
against Ibos who were then residing
in the North.
Ibos were forced (as were other
southern Nigerians) to flee the North
and seek refuge in the South and es-
pecially the East their region of ori-
ginl.
NORTHERNERS DID NOT es-
cape these massacres either. Dr. Az-
ikiwe, former President of Nigeria
and himself an Ibo, recently reveal-
ed that "thousands" of Hausas who
were then living in the East were
killed by Ibos.
It was this killing, reported by Ra-
dio Dahomey and monitor in t h e
North which brought about the sec-
ond massacre of November 1966 in
the North.
headed by General Gowon, tried in
vain to bring the different groups
back to the conference table.
All attempts to work out an ac-
ceptable and workable agreement
failed due largely to the fact that
Ibo leaders were telling their people
that they could no longer feel safe in
Nigeria (a n d no one could blame
them for feeling this way at that
time).
EVENTUALLY, the impasse culmi-
nated in the declaration of secession
from Nigeria by the Eastern region.
Prior to the declaration of seces-
sion in May 1967 Nigeria was divided
up into 12 States corresponding to
former administrative units and
granting greater local antonomy to
different ethnic groups than t h e y
had ever enjoyed in Nigeria.
This also ensured t h a t no one
group could dominate the others to
the extent of imposing its will on
them as was possible under the old
It declared the secession a rebel-
lion and vowed to put it down. The
Federal Government knew it w a s
necessary to ensure that the seces-
sion does not succeed if Nigeria was
to continue to exist.
The Western region had threaten-
ed earlier that if the East was al-
lowed to go (i. e. to seceed) the West
would also declare its independence.
In addition, there were other eth-
nic groups in the East apart from
the Ibos who did not wish to secede
from the country. These groups ap-
pealed to the Federal Government to
prevent the Ibos from imposing se-
cession on them.
UNDER THE circumstances, the
Federal Government felt compelled
to act to stop the secession.
The East, however, had stockpiled
arms before this time and was pre-
pared for war. One gun-running air-
plane which crashed in Chad on its
way to Eastern Nigeria and other
still drags on. Nigerian lives are lost
on and off the battlefield daily. Sev-
eral attempts at peace talks have so
far failed to produce peace.
Nigeria is grateful to those who
have denied themselves to provide
food and relief for the unfortunate
Nigerians caught between the war-
ring camps. It is unfortunate that
relief and hunger have however been
used as political tools.
The leaders of "Biafra" have
found it convenient to use suffering
people as pawns as long as this plays
on peoples' humanitarian feelings
and as long as this yields both for-
eign exchange and weapons w i t h
which to continue the war. Innocent
people continue to die every day.
ALL NIGERIANS (including Ibos)
can find and are assured of finding
security within a united Nigeria.
There is no reason why well-mean-
ing people around the world cannot
concentrate their effort on promot-
ing peace in Nigeria.