Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 'I Needed at the -a Co-op Bookstore re Opinion AreFee. 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. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LEONARD PRATT Today's New Leisure Time: Its Use Is a Challenge RISING ABOVE a crowded and congest- ed street towers a 20 foot globe. "Trav- el, See the World" are the words the neon lights perpetually flash to the crowds. A tempting-looking billboard representation of "sparkling burgundy" throws shadows on the street, while pedestrians pass their, viewing the huge color TV in the store below. The place is Times Square, but the large city, U.S.A., and the quoted words sights described could be found in any that stare back at us from our magazines and televisions continue to warn, bribe, and dictate the best way to spend that ever-increasing commodity, spare time. Not long ago, leisure was a scarcity pos- sessed by only a few, the rich, and dreamt about by many. Now, the shorter working week and the advent of automation into industry has made leisure the common possession of a vast majority of Ameri- cans. We can look forward to less and less working time, as machines take over more and more of labor. WHAT CAN WE DO with this increasing part of our lives? The problem has as- sumed vast economic importance as giant industries have grown up, catering to it. Advertisements seek to persuade the peo- ple .to use their leisure to travel, eat, drink and suggest innumerable other ventures providing one has the money to pay for them. Psychiatrists, life insurance com- panies, and Miami Beach all entreat us to use our spare time well. The first function of leisure should be to afford the individual a chance to look around and think; to once in a while be alone, with the world and appreciate to some degree the wonders and complexi- ties with which it is filled. Unfortunately, being alone is often equated'with lineliness in our society. For eight hours a day, most Americans are surrounded by fellow workers and busi- ness associates, housewives with their children and neighbors, and students with teachers and peers. When leisure finally comes, the tenden- cy is rarely to be by oneself. In fact, we often go to inestimable effort and ex- pense to avoid this condition as swim clubs, country clubs, and social clubs monopolize our free time. MOST PEOPLE look forward to being alone with something akin to dread. It is as though they cannot tolerate them- selves and feel worthless unless surround- ed. There as safety in numbers, safety from knowing oneself. There is nothing more important for personal growth than this ability to be alone; to take the opportunity to look at oneself and the world surrounding us. It is out of this leisure that thoughts are born, poems' are dreamt of, stories germi- nate and philosophies evolve. True, we are not all Platos but we are all capable of appreciating to some extent the intrica- cies of the world. The second function of leisure should be to broaden and enrich the lives of peo- ple whose work will be increasingly in- tense. The average human being in his work is being concentrated into narrower fields, as specialization invades every form of business, profession, and science. Leisure time must provide us with men- tal and physical enrichment. It should give the mind and body both a chance to do different things, to read, paint, play music and participate in different sports. OO OFTEN we tend to stay away from activities which are new, in which our abilities have not yet been tested. The fear of failure or even appearing ridiculous are powerful deterrents, and rather than try, we shrink back into our accustomed routines. Achieving these functions of leisure time requires an output of courage. There will be no neon lights, painted billboards, or towering structures to remind you, no clever cliches or selling slogans to catch one's attention. The product does not come in an attractive looking bottle, but its worth in terms of personal satisfac- tion and self development is guaranteed. -RUTH FEUERSTEIN F OR 40 YEARS or more students have been complaining about what they like to call the local power structure, as manifested in the sales activities of the Ann Arbor merchants and, more par- ticularly, of the local bookstore owners and operators. Students have every right to be incensed, for the economic struc- ture of Ann Arbor is such that they are getting hosed, as they al- ways suspected. Unfortunately be- tween Parkinson's Law and their own inability to really get at and ferret out the realities of the problem, nothing has ever been done, 40 years of complaints not- withstanding. LOOK FIRST at the inadequa- cies in the present arguments for a University bookstore. Students want textbooks at a discount. The fact is that texts cannot be sold at a discount and overhead cover- ed unless there is some direct or indirect form of subsidy. Texts sell on what the book business calls a "short discount." Twenty per cent of the selling price is margin. Most other books including almost all paperbacks and a rising number of university publications are sold at a "long discount"; 40 per cent of the sale price is margin. The 40 per cent margin cannot be called exhoribitant (it tradi- tionally is 50-60 per cent for jewelry stores), particularly when the costs of high inventory and slow turnover in a good, well- stocked bookstore are taken into consideration. There are about three privately- owned discount bookstores in the country. They offer a 10-15 per cent discount and stay afloat by virtue of good management and a hard-won high turnover rate. They refuse to touch texts be- cause of the short discount. THERE IS, of course, the ex- perience of Prof. Fred Shure's Student Book Service. How that enterprise came out hasn't been revealed yet (the SDS advertising bill has not yet been paid to The Daily, however, which might be an indication of trouble). But even if it does end up making a profit, or breaking even, it has been able tocapitalize on various hidden cost advantages. The customers paid more in the form of long waiting lines and limited selection. Faculty and stu- dents gave various kinds of volun- tary or inexpensive help that they have never offered the book- stores. The store was open only during the peak selling period, taking business from the other stores, yet leaving them to absorb the high costs of slow turnover during the rest of the term. Finally, the store operated on a favorable short-term rental agree- ment which might not always be available. Be that as it may, the validity of the general analysis of the problems of university bookstore operation is borne out by recent Michigan MAD By ROBERT JOHNSTON investigations by the Office of Student Affairs. They have found that any university-owned book- store offering text discount (and there are really very few) does so only with student subsidy. One point that is in the stu- dents' favor is University exemp- tion from the four per cent state sales tax. This would be a free dis- count, so to speak, though even here legislators could justly con-- tend that this would be a state subsidy of students, and it could be one they don't want to offer. SO ARE the students supposed to roll over and play dead? Absolutely not. There are real and very attractive alternatives. Of these, a University cooperative modeled on those at Yale and Harvard would be the best ap- proach. It would make available texts at a discount and, in addi- tion, offer a wide range of other goods (especially clothing and school supplies) at fair prices, which would flush out a lot of high prices very quickly. At Yale the cooperative, which does a several million dollars per year business (and Harvard's is several times as big), is owned by a student-faculty group which leases space from the university. It offers a range of quality goods'similar to what one would find in a good-sized department store at competitive retail prices, including texts which are sold at publishers' prices. All students and faculty can join the co-op for $5 per year and receive a 10-13 per cent rebate at the end of the year on all their purchases. IN LOOKING toward imple- mentation of such a co-op here, one misconception needs to be straightened out right away. The Ann Arbor merchants are not ex- horbitantly rich profiteers. They are big fish in a little pond, but with just a little less water in the pond a lot of them are going to be hurt badly. Their stores are relatively inefficient, a good retail location costs a fantastic amount, and the student market is not really a large one. This accounts for their incred- ible resistance to any inroads into their present retail situation, whether by a University bookstore, co-op or whatever. But their in- eptitude and their defensiveness was shown last summer as they dealt with Shure's efforts to set up a discount bookstore. Their tactics were more cops and rob- bers-oriented than rational, well- planned obstruction. Aside from local opposition to the idea itself, there are two im- mediate problems in setting up a cooperative-space 'and capital. There is the swimming pool space in the Union, long-discussed for renovation a n d certainly wasted now. This could be leased to a fledgling cooperative on a full costs basis. Of course good management would have to be found. A student-faculty board would be set up separate from the present Union board, which would just lease the space, for general policy-making and direction. FINALLY, about $300,000 worth of capital is needed. There are several feasible sources. First there are student activities funds from which a loan could be made at low interest or bonds floated. This arrangement was used to build the North Campus Center, a Union-type operation. Or the Union could take on the whole project itself andrfloat bonds for it. And third, there is the student parking fund, $120,000 worth, which is now sitting in in- vestments and for which no one has thought up any good use. Lest anyone think that Univer- sity loans such as this are out of the question, there is the exam- ple of last spring-a $25,000 loan for WCBN to build new studios in the Student Activities Bldg., arranged and approved by Vice- President for Business and Fi- nance Wilbur Pierpont. THE BOOKSTORE nonsense has gone on long enough. Students are justified in demanding posi- tive action toward some sort of University co-op. p 4 4 r .N. f '. " Q J ( ?, fir N I' Vw U.S. Policy: Diversitty Or '2 i. t t ") ,i If K Young RepublicanFolly - - ' ... N FCIC ' E' R : i, :- ; , s , . , r r T :.' cy « 1 ShC,, "' '' tr. . a ,i.v' ,r ; ,., . , .:] 54.E i mot:'. r" r ' r ., o% :.urw.rz~ ; ... A J U y} :::Y%' +R r5 .. V. ... :l :a::.... .. .... Ilk . r _, > MEANINGFUL CAMPUS DEBATE reach- ed a new low last Thursday; Univer- sity Young Republicans asked Student Government Council to investigate the applicability of federal laws to campus groups aiding forces opposing American soldiers abroad. The proposal, aimed at curbing the ef- forts of the Committee to Aid the Viet- namese (i.e., the Viet Cong, whoever they may be), was adolescent in its presenta- tion and needlessly confusing in its ef- fect. It was adolescent because it adopted the tone of an expose, when all it did was to emphasize an obvious fact. Proceeding along the logical lines of the proposal, one I's Free DEMOCRATS in Congress these days are gleefully passing around a marvelous little pink card which deserves some men- tion. The card says: "This is a free ticket. It's not good for anything-it's just free. Compliments of the Great Society." .--M. R. KILLINGSWORTH Editorial Staff ROBERT JOHNSTON, Editor LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM JEFFREY GOODMAN Managing Editor Editorial Director JUDITH FIELDS .................. Personnel Director LAUREN BAHR......... Associate Managing Editor JUDITH WARREN....... Assistant Managing Editor ROBERT HIPPLER.......Associate Editorial Director GAIL BLUMBEH~G............... .. Magazine Editor LLOYD GRAFF ................ Acting Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS: Susan Collins, John Meredith, Leonard Pratt, Peter Sarasohn, Bruce Wasserstein. DAY EDITORS: Robert Carney, Clarence Fanto, Mark Killingsworth, Robert Moore, Harvey Wasserman, Dick Wingfield. ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Alice Bloch, Mere- dith Eiker, Merle Jacob, Carole Kaplan, Robert Klivans, Lynn Metzger, Roger Rapoport, Neil 'Skis-. ter, Katherine Teich, Joyce Winslow, Charlotte Wolter. Business Staff CY WELLMAN, Business Manager AL.AN GT.TECKMAN ...... Advertising Manager must either assume that the committee poses a very great threat to the U.S. forces in Viet Nam or that the YR's have little better to do than to harass the gad- flies of American policy there. Either as- sumption should be below an organiza- tion presenting itself as the student or- gan of one of America's political parties. (F COURSE the argument might be made that it is the duty of such an organ to attack the policies of its ideolog- ical opponents no matter how seemingly ineffective those policies might be in practice. But this argument assumes that such an attack will get directly to the heart of its opponents' issues, not become muddled in waters of meaningless pro- cedure. Yet this is exactly what the YR pro- posal did. It refused to directly join the issue of whether or not segments of America's citizens should aid the Viet Cong, or indeed any military forces fight- ing U.S. troops. Instead of discussing the legitimacy of such aid, which would have been the only really reasonable basis for an attack on such a minor opponent as the committee, the YR's got wrapped up in the essential- ly procedural question of what U.S. laws say on the subject. The only other defense that might be Imade for the YR's proposal is to say that the committee's actions are obviously wrong and to conclude that the only course open is to try and end those ac- *tions by any means possible. But even if this is the case, the YR's should have real- ized that theirs is a far from proven case and that if they do, in fact, wish to show that the committee should be restrained in some way, theirs is the burden of proof. AT ANY RATE, the campus was lucky in that the proposal was taken seriously by only a few. The Office of Student Af- fairs made a quick check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and promptly dismissed the whole affair. SGC passed a watered-down version of the original YR To the Editor: I WISH TO COMMENT upon Mark Killingsworth's article entitled, "In Defense of Diversity." He seems to have come to the viewpoint that our government is fighting in Viet Nam to retain a variety of types of governments in Southeast Asia. What he neglects to mention is that the govern- ments we support are invariably militantly anti-Communist right- wing dictatorships. Since World War II our govern- ment has supported many dicta- tors: Diem of South Viet Nam,' Trujillo of Dominican Republic, Rhee of South Korea, and Batista of Cuba. Presently we support Franco of Spain, Stroessner of Paraguay, Park of South Korea, and Duvalier of Haiti. The list goes on and on. Our support is in the name of "Freedom," "Democ- racy," and "the Free World." THE SE REACTIONARY policies are doomed to failure. When these oppressed peoples gain their free- dom they won't be blowing kisses to good old Uncle Sam. The John- son administration's foreign poli- cies are presently dominated by military thinkers; they show a complete lack of historical back- ground and perspective., Perhaps Mr. Killingsworth will recover from his summer in the rarefied atmosphere of consensus Washington and become an in- dependent thinker once more. -James K. Sayre, '64E Stanford, Calif. 'The Collector' To the Editor: RE "'The Collector' and Foreign Policy" by Al Valusek in Thursday's Daily: Assuming Mr. Valusek's inten- tion was a serious one rather than mere amusement, it appears that in trying to show analogies be- tween "The Collector" and United States foreign policy, he has miss- ed the main points of the film, its characters, and possibly history. The few and limited analogies which do exist go unmentioned by Mr. Valusek, and the ones he offers stretch one's credulity be- yond the breaking point. IF MR. VALUSEK will attempt, in a straightforward manner, to influence us in the direction of his views on U.S. foreign policy, I will listen patiently and perhaps sympathetically. But please, Mr. Valusek, don't use a fine, taste- fully-done film as a vehicle for peddling your views, especially when its relevance to your argu- ment is almost insignificant. --Steven Nelson, Grad Administration To the Editor: HURRAH FOR Mr. Beal's edi- torial of September 181 It is indeed heartening to note that a student is able to recognize that students do have limitations. It is reassuring to know that at least one segment 'of the Uni- versity's population understands the necessity for decisive action by the administration in instances such as those surroundingnthe il- legal posting of the now "in- famous fishbowlsign." IT IS WITH REGRET that I ob- serve (Michigan Daily, September 17) Dr. Cutler taking, his .first steps down the primrose path which led another great institution to nationally publicized upheaval only one year ago. -Barbara S. Deutsch,.'61 Cycle Noise To the Editor: YOU MAY MEET the nicest people on a Honda but they are also the loudest. I support Councilman John Hathaway's amendment to the "Scooter Bill" to limit the noise of cycles and scooters. I can attest to many sleepless nights in the Lawyers Club because of the noise of the many scooters and cycles on their way to the UGLI and other points on campus. If cars are restricted to travel without excess noise, cycles and scooters should like- wise be muffled. Expense to the rider is no excuse wwhen others are disturbed. 'I would also include in any reg- ulation governing cycles and scooters, the following. First I would prohibit scooters and cycles from passing cars while they are waiting for lights or at stop streets. It is rather dangerous for a driver of a car to begin a left or right turn when traffic is clear only to look up and find a scooter in front of him or at his side. If cars must wait in line so too must cycles and scooters. SECOND, I would prohibit the use of scooters within the city limits of Ann Arbor during the winter months. These two wheel vehicles do not have sufficient weight to safely maintain their balance when the pavement is wet. If they should travel slow enough to maintain their balance they be- come an obstruction to the four- wheeled vehicles behind them. -Alan May, '66L 4 4 . 'Mw)C S< "DAtM THE TORPEDOES! FUL. SPEEDA EDMR. IRK5EN:# What Is Youth Coming To? "SO WHAT?" This was part of an interest- ing remark made by a former Daily editor last weekend as the Daily celebrated its 75 years of editorial freedom. He was refer- ring to ,a student's recent actions causing much consternation among certain factions at the University. One college student's mother wondered: what was this generation coming to anyhow? What sort of things have been going on around here? There is a group collecting money to help those in Viet Cong controlled areas. The Young Republicans feel very upset and Student Govern- ment Council is checking into the affair with concern. Perhaps *they both can interest the Federal Bureau of Investigation enough to get it put on a list of subversive organizations or get all the mem- bers thrown in jail or have Stan Nadel disemboweled on the Diag at high-noon. The State Theatre is packed every night for "Help." Parties are wilder than ever before as thousands of gallons of beer are consumed, take effect and are excreted on a typical weekend. Thousands of dancers swing, bump, grind, twist, jerk, monkey, bounce, shake, slide or shimmy in overcrowded, undersized rooms ridding themselves of energy, de- pression. anxiety. resnonsibilities So What? by sarasohn mend it before it sank completely. '?hey were beaten with sticks, iocks, electric cattle prodders and stepped on by horses until some heads looks like cracked canta- iopes. Girls were labeled wnores and guys were labeled pimps. The student-supported drive to make the southern Negro an American gains speed as more find vacation time free, the desire, the respon- sibility. an escape. the cause, the need, their uarents' image de- stroyed, a trod or a friend barred from a urinal, a room, a table or a university. There are those that particular- ly enjoy beards, long hair, bleach- ed hair, madras, maroon, sandals, weejuns, no shoes, dirty feet, powdered faces, lipstick, no lip- stick, white socks, dark socks, white bucks, hoop earrings, fake scars, gold nailpolish, tab collard buttondowns, no collars or saddle snoes. Extremes generate excite- inent, love, hate, nausea, "that feeling," interest,senvy, sex, jeal- ousy or happiness. pizza, hotdogs, hamburgers, coke, vernors, ice cream, or grilled sandwiches. Besides these they consume the three or four regular meals each day at the quadrangle, the apartment, the fraternity or, the co-op. MUCH THOUGHT is directed at what will happen after graduation as one heads for the Peace Corps, law school, business school, medi- cal school, the army, Harlem, Mississippi, daddy's business, the government or a real job. You feel happy, scared, relieved or nervous. Most have philosophies of some sort. There are advocates of atheism, Catholicism, Judaism, Zen, Communism, socialism, Re- publicanism, free love, objectivism, numanism, epicurianism, or hed- onism. You might be a frat-man, a beatnik, a GDI, a surfer, a sorority girl, a fink, a grind, a radical, a conservative, a Daily- man, a wasp, a kike, a nigger, a wop, a spic, a mackerel snapper, northern liberal, a bigot, an anti- semite, a foreigner, an alcoholic or a nymph. Issues on campus center on na- tional and international problems as some feel apathetic, concerned, worried, useless or interested. The universityat the same time con- tinues faster than before as a vehicle for expression of ideas, Schutze's Corner: B13aby Talky "Communications training must begin in the cradle. New par- ents should recognize their off- spring as individual human be- ings whose thoughts, even though hazy and primitive, should be understood - and listened to." That maternity ward was awfully mechanized and impersonal.. You know what Doctor Badamo says about assembly lines and bureau- crats and stuff like that. Maybe our baby caught the alienations from a careless nurse or some- thing.