Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Peace Corps, : Orange vs. Green
ere Opinions Are Free. 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN AFBOR, MicH.
Truth Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
i
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
NOVEMBER 12, 1965,
NIGHT EDITOR: CLARENCE FANTO
Louis Lomax' Coming Visit:
Victory for Student Concern
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THE UNIVERSITY is going to have a
writer-in-residence this year because
a group of students and the Office of Re-
ligious Affairs cared enough to get one.
Administration support for this program
was discreet to the point of being non-
existent, and it was entirely up to a
few ambitious students and Miss Eliza-
beth Sumner of the ORA to insure the
practicability of the idea. They created
interest within various student organiza-
tions and from them got the needed
funds to bring Louis Lomax to campus for
a three week stay 'from January 24
through February 11.
But, it seems, not too many students
are excited or even aware of the Lomax
visit. The magnitude of the enterprise
has been lost on them, and they view it,
at least now, as at best a brief repose'
between mid-term vacation and the start
of the Big Ten basketball season.
The disinterest in the Lomax visit,
while disconcerting in itself, reflects a
deep sense of apathy that has pervaded
a too-large part of the student . body.
This editorial, however, is not meant to
beat the drums for a rejuvenated student
body emerging forth from the anes-
thetizing environment which threatens'
to engulf it. Instead, it is meant to be a
1oop1 at just what the Writer-in-residence
program means-to the University, to
the writer, and to the students who seem
like they are going to ignore it.
THE GENERAL MOTIVE behind a writ-
er-in-residence program is basically
rather noble, for the idea is that both the
writer and the campus' he visits will prof-
it from his prolonged stay.
The author gets to mingle freely with,
students, find out what they are think-
ing and how they are reacting to life
around them. The academic environment
serves as a refreshing change for the
writer, and all the while he is on campus
he is free to work on whatever he is
working on, and riot worry about the
more mundane considerations of food
and lodging.
The students, in turn, are presented,
with the opportunity to meet informally
with a real writer. If the writer fulfills
his end of the bargain he will welcome
students to his office, letting them get a
glimpse at the more human side behind
the coldly printed name.
In some previous programs at other
universities, the writers-in-residence have
become disillusioned, feeling that they
tend to be curiosities to be displayed at
faculty partiess and stared at by fresh-
men.;
But this is usually the result of poor
attitudes on the part of the students
and faculty rather than of basic defects
in the program.
IF THE LOMAX PROGRAM is handled
well, and the present preparations un-
der the able direction of Lynn Dolgin,
'67, seem to indicate that it will, there is
no reason to believe that it won't be a
highly successful contribution to the gen-
eral flavor of the campus.
Lomax, both a philisopher and a so-
ciologist, is an expert on the Negro in
America, but his interests are broader
than just this area. He is a dynamic
speaker who is able to establish an al-
most immediate rapport with his audi-
ence and leave it profoundly affected.
The only real valid criticism of this
first attempt at the re-establishment of
the writer-in-residence tradition, which
began with Robert Frost in the '20's, is
that Lomax's stay will be too short.
In three weeks he might hardly be
more than a highly attractive guest lec-
turer who can never really become a,
natural part of the campus.
THE LOMAX STAY represents a start,
a victory for student concern and par-
ticipation in the establishment of Uni-
versity programs. If it is successful, and
there is no' reason why it shouldn't be
with sufficient student support, perhaps
next year another writer can be brought
to Ann Arbor for a longer stay, and this,
time with a little administration help.
-NEIL SHISTER
IF PEACE CORPS volunteers
stayed overseas, most of their
influence would never be felt, for
they are having much more of
an impact on our: life and times
in this country than abroad.
You take thousands of the
United States' most motivated, re-
sponsible, intelligent, talented, ex-
pressive and sensitive youth and
then you expose them to an ex-
perience that requires the culti-
vation and employment of all of
these qualities.
And when they come home-to
a society that is largely motivated'
by and sensitive only to money,
one that admits that these "kids"
are smart but sees them as too
idealistic and romantic to either
listen to ors grant'responsibilities
to, what do you get?
At some point you're bound to
get a reunion, at a minimum, and
that's what the Peace Corps had
last summer. It symbolized the
confrontation between these youth
and the Establishment that is
occurring on a national basis as
the volunteers come home.
Elmo Roper said at the end of
the conference, "Of all the groups
I've seen recently, there is none
I'd rather see batter down the
walls of that Establishment."
All this was recorded in the
proceedings of the conference, "Ci-
tizen in a Time of Change, The.
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer."
It indicates, as one observer said,
that "Of the wild experiments, this
was the wildest."
IT WAS a conference like no
other, and while it may legiti-
mately have been called an alum-
ni get-together, it displayed none
of the normal attributes of such
meetings. No one wanted a con-
tinuing Veterans of Foreign Non-
Wars. "Lord, not another Ameri-
can Legion!" was one response.
One of the special qualities of
the returned volunteer schooled in
the hard, practical world of the
underdeveloped countries' rural
and urban slums is the ability to
see through all the chromium
wealth and verbal garbage that
dominate U.S. thought and ac-
tion.
This was evident in what the
conference proceedings editors
(Ernest Fox, George Nicolau and
Harris Wofford) labeled "The
Crisis of Orange and Green."
Hundreds of "special participants"
from governnent, universities,
businesses and assorted other oc-
cupations were brought to the con-
ference. They were distinguished
by their orange cards while re-
turned volunteers wore green ones.
Sister Jacqueline Grennan, the
controversial president of Webster
College, Missouri, was speaking for
the volunteers when she told a,
fellow educator who was dispens-
ing some conventional wisdom,
"Don't do this to them! These
clothes I wear hide the scars I
bear from men like you."
Certainly the special partici-
pants came away from the con-
ference much more effected than
the volunteers, and that is the way
the returned volunteers will, hope-
fully, be effecting the nation. One
of the orange cards said he want-
ed to talk about plans, programs
and new ideas.
"The silences were very elo-
quent. We just didn't have good
ears. The volunteers were asking
us to go back to the fundamentals
with them and we weren't ready.
They wanted to talk about who
they were and where they are."
By ROBERT JOhNSTON
ANOTHER MORE directly ob-
servable way that the volunteers
are moving back into, this society
and having considerable impact
on it is illustrated by a statement
by President Johnson at the be-
ginning of the proceedings.
The talent- and idea-hungry
President says, "I have already
selected men from the Peace Corps
organization more frequently than
from any other government de-
partment or agency in order to
staff this administration." That is
a remarkable record-illustrative
also of the mental inertia that
grips most of Washington.
If you can't fight 'em, take 'em
over.
The volunteers even managed
to pull off their own small coup
at Foggy Bottom. During lunch
in the State Department cafeteria
following a series of briefings and
speeches, someone started circu-
lating some anti-U.S.stand-in-Viet
Nam petitions.1
The palace guards panicked, and
the issue went up through the hi-
erarchy, floor by floor, until Dean
Rusk, sniffing Berkeley perhaps,
enjoined the guards from inter-
ference. So, on that score, Vice-
President Humphrey's word re-
mained good, "If you think things
are not as they ought to be, right
in the State Department, tell us."
EVEN SO, Johnson's and Hum-
phrey's magnanimity notwith-
standing, Viet Nam is one issue
the Peace Corps gets shy on. As
one of four college editors produc-
ing The Peace Corps News for
four days last summer, I sensed
clearly a mood at Peace Corps-
Washington, as it is called, to
.talk about anything . . . except
Viet Nam."
One of the conditions of our
doing the job was that there would
be no -censorship. So we talked
about the Peace Corps and revo-
lution overseas, linked it with
home-grown student activists, and
included a whole host of other
dares to the bureaucracy to cen-
sor ts.:
They reneged on only one point,
Viet Nam. In a glib recruiting ar-
ticle I wrote ("there's no business
like revolution to stir your blood")
every single' reference to Viet
Nam was blue-penciled, including
a wonderful idea we had to "de-
foliate McGeorge Bundy.
According to the conference pro-
ceedings, Rusk "told them that
their Peace Corps experience would
be a special 'plus' over others ap-
plying for positions in the For-
eign Service." And McNamara, the
first third of U.S. foreign policy,
"assured them that they had made
a special contribution-a greater
contribution to world peace than
that df all three and three-quarter
million Defense Department per-
sonnel put together."
McNamara and Rusk would do.
well to join the Peace Corps them-
selves.
The returned Peace Corps vol-
unteers are neither going to nor
have they swooped down upon the
country bearing messages of the,
true faith. But they are products
of something more than self-per-s
petuating American suburbia.,
They know and understand more
about human experience and hu-
man problems than the home-
grown, university-trained Ameri-
can ever will.
AS JOHNSON'S statement at-
tests, the Peace Corps is rapidly
supplying this country with a
home corps of unmatched talent,
skills, experienc'e, energy and in-
terest in some more pedestrian
values than cars, high incomes, a
"nice" job, and a comfortable life.
Combinations like that are not
to be resisted very long. One
said the volunteers weren't inter-
ested in Jobs, but "a life that
comes close to providing the ex-
citement, opportunity for achieve-
ment and responsibility that we
felt overseas."_And one other tal-
ent they were taught is how to
be self-sufficient, how to get what
they want.
They are an "antidote 'to bu-
reaucracy," an antidote to false
posturing, to an individualism that
is used to justify a neglect of hu-
man relationships and even of hu-
man responsibilities for reasons
of comfort, convenience, or, ulti-
mately, moral and intellectual
laziness.
One volunteer said, "If you bake
bread with indifference, you bake
a bitter bread that feeds but half
a man's hunger." The returned
Peace Corps volunteers are typ-
ically neither lazy nor comfort-
able, nor inhumane, nor selfishly
individualistic, nor indifferent.
HARLAN CLEVELAND of the
State Department said, "I would
summarize the mood as restless-
ness, a restlessness for change."
We can hope there will be some.
I.
"As A Matter Of High Principle, We've Finally
Decided That Your Support Hasn't Paid Off"
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I S
E Pa
xty 4 rCRnp
Qt#'?r
"S
Letters: A Campus Fable
To the Editor:
AS I WAS walking along the
Diag yesterday I met a toad.
Having read two many fairy
tales, I asked him what was wrong.
The toad croaked: "Go away!
Go away!" "Dear toad," I replied,
"I am a concerned student; tell
me your troubles."
The toad croaked again: "I was
a REACH candidate and urged
SGC not to be concerned with off-
campus issues. It's none of our
business to be involved with civil-
rights, apartheid, or social injus-
tice, I said. We go to school for an
education and all this outside
classroom stuff is' not assigned
homework. The sooner SGC con-
fines itself to keeping the Diag
litter-free the better. Well, as soon
as I said this, a deus ex machine
appeared and turned me into a
toad. CROAK! Go away! I just
want to hide my head."
"But toad," I answered, "We are
no longer following a policy of
isolationism. President Johnson
says so. We must open our minds
and eyes. What goes on in the
South, Africa, and SE Asia does
concern me. SGC can't hide from
these things, I don't want it to.
I'm proud of SGC actions and
I'm proud of GROUP's efforts to
revitalize this body."
IMMEDIATELY, a puff of
smoke appeared PUFF! and Dante
majestically appeared. Pontifical-
ly he spoke: "The last circle in
Hell is reserved for those who re-
main silent in times of moral
crisis."-
The toad croaked: "Go away!
Go away!"
Dear Toad, you unlucky thing.
As I thought this I bent over and
gave it a kiss (I really have been
reading too many fairy tales.),
And sure enough, before my eyes,
the toad was transformed into a
beautiful GROUP candidate.'
It really happened, honestly.
-Mickey Eisenberg, '67
SGClember
The Candidates
To the Editor:
FEEL a moment's reflection is
necessary in regards to the SGC
elections campaign. As the battle
between the "parts"' rages,'this
campus is being cheated; the elee-
tion is not centering on the most
important "issue" of the present
campus election--the candidates.
The issues are clear and most
candidates or collections thereof
are clearly advocating the same
or equivalent goals-economic re-
form, academic reform, improved
communications. The student body
should focus its attention on
choosing the six people best qual-
ified , to continue the resurgence
of SGC-those people with the
most knowledge, the'best "heads"
for working. with the. administra-
tion on student problems; i.e.,
those candidates best qualified to
effectively work for the goals gen-
erally agreed upon.-
IN THIS REGARD, I would like
to direct your attention to the
IQC, IFC, Panhel and Assembly
endorsements. Each of us can
choose only four candidates and
(ironically?) there are only four
candidates who received the back-
ing of all four organizations-two
"independents," Joan Irwin and
Bob Bodkin, and two "party" can-
didates, Ed Robinson and Neill
Hollenshead. These four candi-
dates were judged by the above
representativerbodies as the four
best suited for the Job. For pre-
cisely the same reason, they will
get my attention and they deserve
yours.
It would be a shame for a party
to "win" SGC-and the students
to lose for lack of the talent of
those candidates best qualified.
-Marvin Preston,"6a
Chma and the UN
T IS IRONIC that the United Nations,
an organization supposedly dedicated
to maintaining world peace, has contin-
ually rejected the membership of a coun->
try whose increasing power and influ-
ence may make it the greatest threat to
peace.
Members of the United Nations will
soon be faced again with the decision of
whether or not Red China should b'e ad-
mitted to the covnmunity of nations.
China, one of the most powerful coun-
tries in the world, can no longer be ex-
cluded if the United Nations is to have
any hope of preserving peace.
Traditionally, the United States has
been successful in keeping Red- China
out, but in recent years, more and more
countries have come to realize that ex-
clusion of China is unrealistic. The vote
has become closer and closer as nations
all over the world have questioned the,
United States' position.
THE UNITED STATES government re-
fuses to recognize the existing Com-
munist government in China, which has
been in power since 1949, when the ar-
mies of Mao Tse-tung drove the forces
of Chiang Kai-shek off the Chinese main-
land.
Instead, the government supports the
old Nationalist regime which claims that'
its removal 15 years ago was illegal and
that it will once again regain power.
Meanwhile, the Red Chinese are control-
ling the largest population in the world
combined with a vast geographical area.
The Nationalist Chinese government
now plays a leading role in the United
Nations, a position which is completely
unjustified since it no longer controls
the population it originally did when the
UN was conceived. At that time, major
positions in the General Assembly were
assigned to the powerful World War II
allies-the United States, USSR, Great
Britain, France, and Nationalist China.
trary. The United Nations should be rep-
resenting the world as it really is, not as
the United States or any other country
would like it to be.
CHINA'S POSSESSION of nuclear weap-
ons makes even more imperative its
acceptance to the United Nations. France
has pointed out that the situation in
Viet Nam could explode into an atomic
war, with the United States and China
in opposition to one another. Admission of
the latter into the United Nations would
make any type of preventive negotiations
easier.
The United States cannot hope to reach
any understanding with Communist
China without effective communications.
With China in the UN, contact would be
much easier and reasonable accessibility
would reduce unnecessary tensions.
The United States has asserted that
its violent disapproval of Red China's
policies ;,makes it impossible for the U.S.
government to approve of China's ad-
mission. However, the U.S. does not agree
with the policies of many other countries
which have gained admittance. Why
should it exclude China for that reason?
More and more countries, Great Brit-
ain, France, new nations in Asia and Afri-
ca, have officially recognized the Com-
munist government as the official gov-
ernment of China. The United States is
certainly not enhancing its own desire
for world peace or its ability to be flexible
by maintaining an opposition which is
clearly outdated.
THE MOST VIGOIOUS opponents to
Communist China's admission repeat-
edly state that such a move would be
damaging to U.S. pride, as it would mean
the U.S. is "giving in" to the Communists.
Those who support this view should real-
ize that there is a vast difference ,be-
tween giving in and realistically looking
at the world and coping with the prob-
How To End the D raft: Hike Paty Rates
By ROGER RAPOPORT
WAR IS NOr HELL it's a busi-
ness.
And perhaps the management
of the U.S. military machine
should take an interest in the
financial welfare of its employes.
A soldier starting out in the
army today makes $87.90 a month,
which on a forty hour work week
averages out to about 55c an hour.
155c an hour! Is it any wonder
there is a Selective Service sys-
tem?
The fact is that through a very
simple measure the United States
government could avert the neces-
sity of drafting more than 100,000
men annually.1
The government could also end
the draft card burnings, eliminate
the necessity for conscientious to
object, and close down Selective
Service offices.
IF THE GOVERNMENT paid
the military forces salaries on a
level comparable to civilian jobs,
enough voluntary manpower could
be attracted to eliminate the
draft.
Prof. Ross Wilhelm, of the
Graduate Business School, has
been a major proponent of this
plan. In the lead article in this
week's Nationhe outlines his
proposal, pointing out that in
hearings this year Secretary of
Defense McNamara conceeded
that "the draft was unnecessary."
Many congressmen, including
Sen. George S. McGovern (D-SD)
and Rep. Thomas B. Curtis (R-
Mo) claim that. an increase in
needed to increase the flow of
volunteers sufficiently to close the
gap. The most direct form of in-
ducement would be higher salaries
for all military ranks."
TESTIFYING on February 26,
1965 in a Senate defense budget
hearing, Secretary of Defense Mc-
Namara said, "If the pay were
raised to anything approximating
a point where it would attract
a sufficient number of men to do
away with the draft, I suspect it
would add $4 billion a year to the
military budget. Perhaps this
should be considered."
Wilhelm estimates that a flat
across the board increase of $250
to $300 a month would attract
sufficient manpower. He also
points out that an Air Force sur-
vey showed that 5000 enlisted men
on active duty were qn relief
while another 55,000 enlisted men
were eligible for welfare. Rep.
Thomas B. Curtis (R-Mo) has
called for a congressional investi-
gation.
Wilhelm's proposal is the most
sensible way of ending the draft
problem. As he comments, "pa-
triotism is no excuse for slave
labor."
AND THERE is another sig-
nificant consideration along the
same line. In recent weeks the
government, the press, and the
lay public have vehemently criti-
cized student protest demonstra-
tions against the war in Viet Nam.
Students insisting on a change in
UnitedbStates Viet Nam policy
have been accused of being un-
hour for stalking the jungles of
Viet Nam is even cheaper. If the
government wants to thank its
soldiers it could begin by paying
them a wage at least commen-
surate with that of a bus boy. The
average Congressman probably
spends more for public relations
every year than a private earns
defending his country. And isn't
$1.25 an hour a minimum wage?
About this time some perceptivet
soul is probably saying to him-
self, "Hmm maybe it's only 55c an
hour but they do get room and
board." Sleeping on cots with rats
crawling around underneath and
eating K rations in sweltering
jungles is a pretty' inexpensive
form of room or board.
The point is that the country
should put its money where its
mouthing is. In these times of
unparalled "postwar" prosperity.
with plants booming, income up,
and taxes down, the United States
can afford to pay its soldiers a'
decent wage.
In the last session of Congress:
a $1 billion military pay increase
was passed although President
Johnson had proposed an increase
of only $500 million. There may
well be another pay. increase this
year and there is no reason why
that ' increase could not be $4
billion.
RAISING PAY and manpower'
needs without conscription would
leave room for the young man to
adhere to his personal beliefs. No
longer would the individualineed
to justify his moral objection, to
war. There would be no need to
burn draft cards because there
wouldn't be any..
Col. Arthur Holmes, director of
the Michigan Selective Service
System wouldn't need to worry
over dissenters sitting in at° the
Ann Arbor Selective Service of-
fice.
There wouldn't be an Ann Arbor
Selective Service Office. In fact
there' wouldn't even be a director
of the Michigan Selective Service
System. As Wilhelm notes; "The
draft simply would become in-
operative." There would no longer
be a need to select who serves.
From every standpoint the idea
makes sense. It assures a decent
wage for soldiers and allows the
man who likes being a civilian to
remain one. Political organizations
like SDS would be spared the
necessity of. worrying" about
anachronistic draft laws and
would be free to concentrate on
more important issues. The
paunchy pundits who edit Time
- would be spare'd ulcers incurred in
dreaming up labels like "Vietniks"
to vilify protestors.
NOW THAT EVERYONE agrees
to this proposal in principle (can
there be any doubt?) why not do
something about it?
The Secretary of Defense thinks
it makes sense and a number of
Congressmen support it. Certainly
it will be considered in the next
/session of Congress.
Currently married men and
graduate students are being draft-
ed and SDS has predicted that un-
dergraduates in the lower one-
fourth of their class will be draft-
ed beginning this winter.
Obviously the idea then would
be to endorse a military pay raise.
a,