PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER
PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAHA SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER 12 1965
. ..,......_ .. , ....a.._ .... _ ...... , ......
Vivian Discusses
First
Months
as
Congressman
(Continued from Page 1)
er, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,.
and Whitney Young, Jr., says he's
"quite concerned that the riot-
ing in Los Angeles may have set
back developments in the civil
rights field.
* R. & D. Vivian, who has de-
grees -from the University and,
Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, was a'scientist, electron-
ics engineer and a vice-president
of Ann Arbor's Conductron Cor-
poration prior to his election to
Gongress.-
Now he's a member of the House
Science and Astronautics Commit-
tee, and has several times made
statements-including one to the
Senate Labor and Public Welfare
Committee's manpower subcom-
mittee-indicating concern about
the wey federal research and de-
r }
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SI CINEMA
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rv in one of his f
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The Short*
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velopment contracts are awarded. Corgiessional Reorganization to is built into these programs in-
The Midwest, Vivian points out, make several suggestions on im- tentionally so no company can
has suffered a' disadvantage rela- provrg the technical workings of gain a monopoly, the overlap is
tive to the East and West Coasts congressional proced'ires, a subject so complicated that some of it has
in this field. he teels deeply about. become unintentional."
Geography Included "Floor debate is exasperating- He adds that, while he sup-
He told the subcommittee that it really is exasperating," he said ports the poverty program as "very
unless geography were included as here recently 5n an interview, valuable and essential" to the
one of the factors determinuig the Thick Record country, he has found it "extreme-
award of research and develop- Ile explained that many con- ly difficult to maintain a contin-
ment funds, "we may sire a num- gressmen use floor "debate" sim- uous overview of programs, in my
ber of 'technological Appalachias' ply to phtase the "folks back district or anywhere else, to make
in this country." home" and to compile a thick ree- sure that its purposes are being
He cited statistics showing that ord of remarks they can cite dur- wisely carried out and that its
although Midwestern universities, ing campaigning. regulations are being obeyed."
including the University, now ac- Vivian added that the proced- ! Foreign policy. In foreign poli-
count for about 40 per cent of all ures governing amendments to cy, Vivian has preferred to de-
advanced-degree scientists and en- bills is difficult and frustrating. velop a wide background of knowl-
gineers, the Midwest received less Amendments are normally read edge and technical competence in-
than one-third of all federal "R & only once on the floor, Vivian stead of making "loud public state-
D" funds on a per-scentist basis ,noted in the joint committee ments."
compared to the West Coast. hearing, and added that a con- He has been particularly con-
0 Congress. Vivian also appear- gressman who arrives on the floor cerned about the situation in
ed before the Joint Committee on after the reading "must then rely Southeast Asia, and according to
- 'on the sometimes-imperfect mem- veteranWashington observers, has
.. s. m.-...--.... ' . .-.. cry of colleagues." become one of- the most knowl-
I Difficult To Understand edg'eable freshman congressmen in
® Those con{ressmen who do hear the area.
G H T the amendment, he went on, them- Every Viewpoint
® selves often find it difficult to un- In the course of his study of
! derstand, and then must remem- the situation there, Vivian has
I ber it throughout the ensuing de- talked with spokesmen for near-
G U LD bate-during which other amend- ly every viewpoint, including long
i ments are frequently added. discussions vi'th Secretary of State
e n t s . Vivian''urged use of an elec- Dean Rusk,.presidential assistant
t tronic voting system such as the McGeorge Bundy, Sen. J. W. Ful-
one used in the Michigan Legisla- bright (D-Ark), chairman of the
* cture, and also supported use of Senate Foreign Relations Com-
U IN ESS . small television-like displays on mittee, Assistant Secretary of
.nt a the House floor for facsimile re- State for Asian Affairs Leonard
n productions of amendments offer- Unger, and others.
II ; ed for consideration. Vivian, along with several
O M O TE R "The present system makes House colleagues including Charles
® members wary of amendments," C. Diggs (D-Detroit), a member
Vivian said afterwards, "and this of the Foreign Affairs Commit-
%on~ strengthens the position of 'con- tee, also signed a statement re-
s
z
"s
was desirable, it would be nearly
impossible to accomplish from a
technical standpoint-and possi-
bly quite dangerous as well.
* District. Turning his thoughts
to his district, which includes Ann
Arbor's Washtenaw county, Lena-
wee, Livingston and Monroe coun-
ties and a northern corner of
Wayne county, Vivian has under-
taken numerous efforts to work
with local officials to set up com-
munity assistance programs.
He is eager to attack problems
such as water pollution, particu-
larly serious in areas such as Mon-
roe county, located by Lake Erie,
and has held numerous meetings
with community leaders to start
working out programs.
One said recently that Vivian's
predecessor, George Meader, a
conservative Republican also from
Ann Arbor, "was basically antago-
nistic to the aims of many of the
Federal-local programs, and never
spent much time working in the
district anyway."
"Vote-No George"
Vivian attacked M e a d e r as
"vote-no George" in last fall's
campaign, and has since returned
to the district nearly every week-
end.
Although congressmen are re-
imbursed for only three trips to
their district- from Washington,
Vivian has made more than 30
other trips at his own expense to
try to keep in touch with the dis-
trict.
Vivian's office has been per-
petually busy working on these
and other constituent problems,
and other Capitol Hill workers are
not surprised to find the whole
staff working late at night or on
weekends - when most of the rest
of the Cannon House Office
Building is silentuandempty.
f The Future. But now, in addi-
tion to his -congressional duties,
Vivian is beginning to think about
the congressional elections-slight-
ly more than a year, away.
In one way, Vivian is a little
'different from many other fresh-
man Democratic congressmen:: he
defeated Meader, a conservative
Goldwater Republican, in t h e
"Johnson landslide" of 1964.
Much Different
But in another way, Vivian is
much different from many of his
colleagues -- who iave now begun
to vote against Administration
measures in hopes of avoiding Re-
publican charges of being "rub-
ber stamps."
Vivian, however, says he will
"vote my conscience and accept
whatever consequences follow."
As a result, Vivian has voted for
most Administration, proposals, in-
cluding Medicare, the Federal aid
to education bill, and the Voting
Rights Act.
Vivian has, however, v o t e d
against an Administration-endors-
ed cigarette labeling bill because
he felt it was so "watered down it
seemed to have been written by
the tobacco companies," and also
opposed a loan-guarantee provis-
ion of the Administration's public
works act because he felt it had
"spawned some abominable pro-
jects in some areas."
Promises
"I promised to suport a good
many bills during my campaign,"
Vivian explained, "and I carried!
out these promises."
On matters where Republicans
and Democrats are "roughly in
agreement," Vivian went on, he
usually votes with the Democratic
position.
And on issues on which he has
not made a previous commitment
- such as the cigarette bill - he
says he "votes my conscience."
More Solid
"I'm also rather interested to
see the Republicans usually are
even more solid in their opposition
to the Administration than we are
in our support of it," Vivian add-
ed. "Perhaps they should be called
the 'plastic stamps'."
After one particularly hot fight
in Congress - over the Admini-
stration's complex and controver-
I-pm' I
sial omnibus farm bill - Vivian'
was talking with a political confi-
dant about why, after some con-
siderable internal turmoil, he had
decided to vote for it.
"The bill had several faults,"
Vivian conceded to his visitor.
"But it became patently obvious
from floor debate and the history
of the past several years that a
much inferior bill would have been
thrown together if this bill had
been defeated."
"Rubber Stamp"
But why not vote against it as
a gesture of protest? his friend
asked. What about that "rubber
stamp" charge? How else can you
win in 1966?
Vivian smiled wryly. "Maybe I
should have voted against it so I
could 'save' the vote for the cam-
paign," he admitted.
"But, what's wrong about sup-
W
porting a bill if it makes a pro-
gram better than it used to be?"
he asked.
The first discreet stirrings of
campaign activity will begin fair-
ly soon for most congressmen -
and their aspiring oponents -
and how much Vivian's voting rec-
ord may change as the "rubber
stamp" charge grows louder and
more frequent is not known.
Whether Vivian's philosophy is
right or wrong will be decided at
the polls next year. But the indi-
cations over his first eight months
in Congress are that Vivian has
already decided that it is right --
and that he is going ahead on that
basis.
TUESDAY: The inside story
of the fight surrounding Sen-
ator Everett M. Dirksen's eon-
troversial constitutional amend-
ment on apportionment.
HELD OVER
2nd WEEK
Shown at 1 :00
3:00-5:00-7:00 & 9:10
Iwo Mighty Armies Trampled
Its Valley...A Fighting Family
Challenged
Them Both! e
)GRAM: ;
Subject-;
UNFENCED"
M. Saturday and Sunday
e
ul
TURE AUDITORIUM I
I
F I FTY CENTS
i---------------." w, ---s-
gressional committees over writ- questing the House committee to
ing legislation. This isn't bad when conduct open hearings on the war
the 'committee-proposed bills are in Viet Nam.
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good, but it's nearly impossible to
improve poor committee bills."
Concerned
Vivian is also concerned about1
the role of Congress, which some
observers say has declined stead-
lily in importance.
The Ann Arbor congressman
does not believe Congress is ac-
tually losing its power. "Congress
is simply losing its capacity to
use its power," he says.
"We just don't have the time
and the 'staff ue need in Con-
gress," he ac i"ed recently. "As a
result, it's extronely- difficult to#
deliberate thountfully and con-
structively on the 'issues we must
face, 'p'rticulariv' on budgetaryj
and financial questions."
Equally Difficult
He' 'adds that following up onI
legislation once it has passed is
often equally difficult.)
Drawing on, his knowledge ,of the
space program - he worked on
most of the country's major mis-
sile' systems at Conductron be-
fore his election-Vivian said that 1
"while some degree of duplicationi
"I'm quite prepared to support
the use of American ground forces
in South Viet Nam if it will help
bring security to the villagers,"
Vivian said of the problem there
recently.
Accomplished?
"But I wish I were more fully
convinced that we were accom-
plishing this," he added. "Unless
we can provide security and ele-
mental justice to the villagers,
then the war will become inter-
minable, because we will find
ourselves holding onto the larger
cities as isolated points surround-
ed by a Viet Cong-dominated
countryside."
In another area of foreign af-
fairs, Vivian challenged the House
Armed Forces Committee chair-
man, L. Mendel Rivers (D-SC),
who had suggested it might be
possible to destroy Communist
China's nuclear capability.-
Defense Systems
Vivian drew on his knowledge
of technology and, defense sys-
tems and spoke later, saying that
regardless of whether or not this
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JAMES STEWART
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DOU M [UR[1 LNN CORBE-PARICK WYNE
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Bedlam On The Nile
"CARRY ON
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SATURDAY
.
THIS WEEK-MONDAY & TUESDAY
V\sitingLocturer from the University of Prague,
Czechoslovakia,
The fihi againsit religion can be understood
as a erio is and deep expression of human
Ion ,,,r for wonderful freedom, independence,
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Monday, 4:15 p.m.: "The Unfinished Revolution
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Auditorium 'A,' Angell Hall
Jay
WILLIAM, WYLERS,
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an pen f'rum and discussion sponsored by UAC
Tuesday, 4:15 p.m.: "Prague Confronts the
Nature of Man"
Auditorium 'A,' Angell Hall
i .
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S/xpuso'ed by
The University of Michigan, Office
of Religious Affairs
FACULTY AND STAFF WELCOME
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