Sev~eidy-Sixth Year
EDITEt AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHiGAh
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
China' Opens New
World to U.S.
ere Opilonse Are rree. 420 MAYNARD S'r., ANN ARBOR, MicH.
Trllfh Wb1111Prevail
Ni-ws 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. JANUARY 21, 1966 NIGHT EDITOR: HARVEY WASSERMAN
The Julian Bond Case:
Lesson in Intolerance
by LEONARD PRATT
A GILT SURPRISE opens Felix
Greene's film "China!" and
at the same time opens a new
world to the film's audience.
The American mind has been
conditioned by years of false and
misleading assumptions about the
rest of the world-assumptions
which were created during the last
years of the 19th century and
which were not corrected even
then. Americans have become ac-
customed to adopting a sort of Op-
timist Club approach to foreign
affairs and the nature of foreign
peoples.
In light of that, Greene's film
is at first difficult to grasp. It
seems impossible to believe that
those strange beings-the Chinese
-that entered the American mind
in the last century as the "yellow
peril" could possibly laugh, play
or work just as people everywhere.
It naturally takes a while for
the filn to batter down these mis-
conceptions, to convince us, in
short, that the Chinese are in-
deed people.
IF THE FILM has a bias of
any sort it is that subtle one:
that by presenting only the more
favorable "human" side of China,
and ignoring the political and
economic aspects of the country,
the audience is inevitably left with
an opinion of China that they
might not have had, had the film
had a more inclusive theme.
For example, it is a fact that
China has only just completed
recovery from the "Great Leap
Forward," perhaps history's big-
gest bu'reaucratic debacle. Fairly
generous estimates say China's
production of iron ore and steel
ingots both fell some 40 per cent
between 1960 and 1961 and that
not until last year did production
of many industrial goods regain
their 1959-60 peaks. China's need
to buy grain from abroad, indica-
tive of manifold economic prob-
lems, is well known.
The film itself amply illustrated
perhaps the greatest of China's
problems. "Children are trained
to put the group's needs above
their own and to maintain an ab-
solute loyalty towards the state,"
the narrator comments. The ap-
palling spectacle of thousands of
marching school children brought
home the immense social and psy-
chological regimentation, motivat-
ed by an intense nationalism, of
the lives of China's people today.
Yet viewed in context these
economic and political problems
are not necessarily the manifes-
tation of any basic wrongs in the
way of life communism has de-
signed for the Chinese. They are
rather manifestations of a nation's
energy, pent up for over a cen-
tury of foreign domination, burst-
ing the constraints which the
world placed upon it. It is well
to remember that the American
economy was weak and long de-
pendent upon English investment
and that up until a few decades
ago nationalistic parades and flag-
waving were an American way of
life.
BUT MORE THAN THAT-and
this could not have been written
17 years ago-China's people to-
day are free in a very real, though
'temporary, sense. They are not
politically free or philosophically
free, but then the Chinese seldom
have been. But they do have a
surprising amount of occupational
freedom, freedom to grow and sell
their crops, to learn and to study.
In short, they are not ideally free
as we understand the meaning of
the word, but they are much more
tangibly free under Mao Tse-Tung
than they were under Chaing Kai-
shek.
It should not be suggested that,
Mao's China has led an entirely
unrepressive life. Revolutions are
naturally repressive and bloody. As
Mao himself regretfully observed
in the early days of the revolu-
tion, "Revolution is not the same
thing as inviting people to dinner
or writing an essay or painting
a picture or doing fancy needle-
work. It cannot be anything so
refined, so calm and gentle, or so
mild, kind, courteous, restrained
and magnanimous."
But that is China's approach to
revolution, not to postwar life.
Perhaps their approach to free-
dom is typified by the remarkable
fact that Mao's earlier party
enemies are today free men in
China. Mao made one of them, Li
Li-san, minister of labor when
he formed his government in 1949.
If this is the government's ap-
proach to its enemies how much
more freedom must it be willing
to grant its "allies" the peasants?
This was perhaps the film's
greatest revelation: that by seeing
the Chinese people working with
one another and with their gov-
ernment one was overwhelmed
with the similarities they shared
with people everywhere. The legiti-
macy of sight is so great that it
cannot help but convince viewers
that China is no mass of "blue
ants" but rather is people. Seven
hundred and fifty million people
like those in Australia, LosAn-
geles or Detroit, and with similar
needs and desires.
ELECTRONIC journalism's great
contribution is that it puts us
there in a way that nothing else
can. It brings us close to its sub-
ject, in this }case to China, and
that is the basis of the greatness
of Greene's film. The futures of
China and the United States are
inexorably linked in many ways
and, in that sense, if there ever
were a people that we must be
close to, it is the Chinese.
THE RECENT REFUSAL of the Georgia
state legislature to seat Representa-
tive-elect Julian Bond seems to have
been brushed over too quickly in the
more pressing events flooding in from
the Viet Nam peace offensive, New York
transit strike, and tightening budget.
Yet one might hazard a guess that
the ouster 'of Bond by unethical if le-
galistic means will loom larger and larg-
er in the, history of civil rights and peace
movements as a martyrdom symptomat-
ic of exactly what plagues the American.
mind in emotionally charged and un-
certain times.
Bond was duly elected from his con-
gressional district, largely through the
work of the Student Non-Violent Coordi-
nating Committee. The Friday before
the swearing-in cerem'onies were to take
place, Bond, who is publicity director
for SNCC, endorsed a SNCC-drafted
statement labeling United States actions
in Viet Nam 'as aggressive and urging
Americans to seek means other than mil-
itary duty to serve their country.
BOND CONFIRMED his stand on the
SNCC statement in a four-hour hear-
ing and debate before the vote was tal-
lied on whether Bond should be admin-
istered the oath of office. Although sev-
en other Negroes, the first in 58 years,
took office In the Georgia house, Bond
was excluded, 184-12, in an unprecedent-
ed action.
It would be difficult to assess to what
degree the Southern legislature's vote
was swayed by war-hysteria reaction to
the "traitorous" position of Bond. What is
clear, however ,is the fact that the leg-
islature had no legal reason for expelling
Bond. Bond did not advocate the break-
ing of any laws-such as draft-card burn-
ing--in seeking avoidance of military
service.
Nor can his statements about the Viet
Nam war be termed "traitorous" when
considered analytically. Treason means
giving aid or comfort to the enemy in
time of war and under the United States
Constitution the charges must be sub-
stantiated by two witnesses.
j NDOUBTEDLY the SNCC and the
American Civil Liberties Union efforts
to get Bond reinstated and sworn into
the legislature will be successful. They
have a very good legal case for proving
a miscarriage of justice. But legal chi-
canery is not the point at issue; what is
more relevant to the political climate of
today is that such a situation of intol-
erance was ever allowed to develop.
What the Bond fiasco points up about
the state of the Georgia legislators' mind
is a situation that is not peculiar to
Southerners but endemic in the atti-
tudes of the majority of the Americans
who become emotionally aroused by war
and minority opinions.
With the Bond case we see the first
attempt by a political institution to
silence the opponents of national policy;
in Bond's case not because of what he
has done, but for fear of what he might
accomplish. What this sorry solution says
about the political atmosphere of the
times is that we are coming to the clos-
ing up of dissent, a time when one may no
longer question policies that were made
without his participation or consent.
AMERICANS SAY they want peace, and
most citizens sincerely prefer sane,
unhurried living to the terror and hys-
teria of the war state. Yet for some pe-
culiar, unfathomable state of mind which
has been engrained for so long that all
but a few have ceased to question its
validity, the American people have al-
ways been wary of investing their poli-
tical guidance in those candidates who
openly voice their pacifism.
The trusting of the welfare of the com-
monwealth to military experts, war
hawks, and believers in armed deterrence
is analogous to the patient who seeks a
cure for his illness not by going to a
doctor professionally trained in' his busi-
ness but who allows an amateur to per-
form the operation with unsterilized in-
struments.
Military experts and diplomats who#
seek solutions based on mutual distrust
have continually failed to accomplish
anything more than temporary stabiliza-
tions since the time of Richelieu. Surely
it is time that the professionals among
the pacifists were given a chance to
prove the validity of their programs.
IF PEACE is not sought by peaceful
means with peaceful ends in mind,
there may never be a chance to seek re-
course to solutions by any means what-
soever.-
-DAVID KNOKE
0
Banned MSU Mlag:
Existential Banality,
4.
4'
By DAVID KNOKE
COW COLLEGE has done it
again. After a spectacular per-
formance last semester in which
the Michigan State football team
put on one of the worst per-
formances in Big Ten Rose Bowl
history and in which the MSU
administration did a sort of im-
promptu Gilbert- and- Sullivan fi-
asco over the Paul Schiff-State
News affair. As if that were not
enough foolishness for one year,
the Spartans have started the new
year off, living up to their name
by clamping a sale ban on the
second publication of the student
arts magazine, Zeitgeist with in-
ference to its pseudo-pornographic
content.
Meanwhile, for both of you who
have not dashed madly out the
door trailing a hastily cut ad-
vertisement from the Daily in your
fist, an intellectually calm and cri-
tically appraised analysis of Zeit-
geist follows.
BY FAR the most interesting
writing in the ninety-page booklet
is the introductory "Plague on All
Your Houses" addressed to the
readership of Zeigeist from its
editors. Zeigeist apparently is fed
up with quality of collegiate
literary writing and even more so
with the attendant cultural milieu
from whence springs the "drivel
and trivia coming from the pens
of our campus columnists . . . as
well as poultry scientists." Since
MSU President Hannah is not the
only chicken expert on campus,
this low jab might conceivably
have been passed over by the iron-
handed board in control of student
publications.
Not so what follows. The editors
take verbal license to amply re-
mind us that the English language
is one of he few tongues contain-
ing words which are "offensive"
just from the appearance of the
letters.
In fact one can just as easily
write - - - - , and everyone knows
how to fill in the blanks. This is
just unprintable, even on the cam-
pus whose student body chose
Hugh Hefner as the most sought-
after speaker "because they would
rather copulate than contem-
plate."
So what Zeitgeist's pejoratives
wind up advocating is the right
to exist and act in an aura of
complete existential f r e e d o m
where
there is, as we have broadly
hinted, no ontology, no purpose
no goal, no value, no destiny,
no ultimate, no absolute, no
God, no Satan, no heaven, no
hell, no reality.
Might then one ask, "and no qual-
ity either?"
FOR ALL its intent to delight,
perplex, shock, and maybe titil-
late, Zeitgeist has not escaped that
pitfall of the college literary mag-
azine-the passionate pursuit of
plagerism, both thematic and
stylistic.
Whatever its faults, the maga-
zine is not afraid of internal cri-
ticism. Robert Nuermberger's
"What is Intellectualism?" is a
challenge to the editors to prove
that their revolt is sincere and not
just a form. Perceptively, Neurm-
berger accuses Zeitgeist of smack-
ing of typical college fare: "a
sad and weary searching in the
gloom of other ,people's darkness."
And, alas, almost the entire con-
tent of the issue is unrelieved
existential despair.
The poems are cute; neat little
gems full of anguish, isolation,
alienation and the other stock
themes and symbols of Sartre's
spawn. The dirty words, when
they appear, seem unfamiliar in
the hands of the writers and seem
to have been included primarily
because that's the fashion in
which one ought to write.
THAT IS not to say that in-
dividual pieces are without merit.
Jane Adam's "Truth, Goodness,
Pre-Marital Sex, and the Bomb"
is tongue-in-cheek black humor of
a co-ed's journey from innocence
to something else. "The 'Corridor,"
by Richard Conlin, is an unpunc-
tuated short story about a man
who seems to communicate with
his environment solely by fum-
bling for cigarettes. Sarell Beal's
"May I Help You?" is kaleida-
scopic indictment of the imper-
sonalized, automated society. Each
of these short storiescontain good
writing, but are noticeably cued
by the styles of Salinger, Joyce
and Kafka respectively.
If one were to pick the out-
standing piece, Susan Reese's "The
Laugh Inside" is the likeliest can-
didate. I have the feeling that the
magazine was censored not so
much for the scatalogical indis-
cretions of the mouthy edit staff,
as for the blue-nose's imagined
affront by the veiled sexual
imagery of this prose-poem. Miss
Reese reaches a lyric intdnsity in
this brief emotional outpouring
when a young girl's love ideals
meet in rude awakening with the
physical experience. The authoress
accomplishes her purpose without
being explicit in detail and by
relying on simple, direct words.
The result is a moving, Dylanesque
evocation of personal feeling that
is truer to reality than the empty
mouthings of amateur existential-
ists in the first throes of inherited
literary angst.
ZEITGEIST MAY be unusual, it
may be brash but it is neither so
different nor so obscene that
MSU's confused administration
should have conferred special at-
tentionon it by censorship. Per-
haps Zeitgeist would have passed
quietly by; as it is now, it has
become sanctified in the hallowed
ground of literaria curiae.
"Robin, you go S0K the enemies of the Great Society
while I go ZAP the Viet Cong . ."
Daily Climbs on Bal
U.S., Must Not Resume Bombing
By ROBERT KLIVANS
THE SIGNS are multiplying that the ad-
mninistration'smuch-vaunted peace
offensive will come to an end following
the current Vietnamese lunar holiday.
A tense quiet has descended over the
jungle battlefields of South Viet Nam as
the entire country celebrates the new
year with traditional festivities. But the
cease-fire proclaimed by the Viet Cong
ends at midnight Sunday; the South Viet-
namese and United States cease-fire ends
six hours earlier..
It will be interesting, and perhaps
significant to see who fires the first shot.
If the Viet Cong end the holiday lull by
launching another fierce attack on Amer-
ican installations, the onus for renewed,
escalated hostilities must certainly be
shared by both sides. It was just such
an attack in early February last year
which helped precipitate the U.S. esca-
lation of the fighting, including the be-
ginning of bombing raids upon North
Viet Nam.
If, however, the fighting resumes at a
reduced pace, and if the Viet Cong re-
duce the frequency and intensity of
their attacks, it should be clear to Wash-
ington that the "enemy" has accepted
the notion that the scope of the fight-,
ing can be reduced, even if no formal
peace negotiations can be instituted at
this time.
B UT,BEFORE THE CONFLICT can move
from the battlefields to the confer-
ence table, the administration must rec-
ognize certain important, if unpleasant
realities.
As United Nations Secretary-General
U Thant advocated yesterday, the South
Vietnamese government must be made
mnrP rnrpentative and1 the Viet Conr
so far has "blocked peace hopes because
it believes the U.S. will surrender its
principles, abandon its allies or get tired
and move out." Press reports from Sai-
gon and Washington tell of increasing
pressure to resume the bombing of North
Viet Nam following the current lull. Even
U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, one
of the most knowledgeable of our offi-
cials in Saigon, is said to be advocating
renewed bombing - and his influence
upon Washington is known to be strong.
A premature end to the drive for nego-
tiations such as is now being contemplat-
ed by the U.S. would not only cause an
increasingly bloody, futile conflict which
would spread to Cambodia and Laos but
would confirm Communist China's harsh
denunciations of the peace offensive as
a "smokescreen" for plans to escalate
the war. As retired Gen. James Gavin,
an acknowledged and highly respected
military expert said earlier this week, the
U.S. could accomplish little by further
increasing the tempo of the fighting.
Gavin recommended a holding action
within the Saigon perimeter and the
coastal cities which would be designed to
reduce the scope of the fighting while
at the same time averting a unilateral
Viet Cong military takeover of the coun-
try. Other responsible officials and lead-
ing journalists like New York Times As-
sociate Editor James Reston have advo-
cated a similar course of action.
IF THE U.S. IGNORES the advice of
some of its leading generals, diplomats,.
journalists and allies such as Britain,
Canada, France and Japan who are call-
ing for an extension of the bombing lull
antaminlnninn of affnrt, to norqunApn
BATMAN IS BACK.
But no, it couldn't happen
here. For students who digest
Samuelson by day and Sartre by
night, how could such a thing
offer stimulation, excitement, ful-
fillment or pleasure?
Yet take a look around. The
crowds. The throngs are drawn
magnetically towardthe electonic
and intellectual vacuum tube,
soaking up thirty minutes of anti-
melodrama, faltering satire, and
"camp" sophistication. They roar
at the unlikely gag lines ("you
fiend" "those dastardly crim-
inals") and chuckle through the
Bat-gadgetry.
Is there some mass neurosis
which is causing young America
to cling to the Deluded Duo (7:30
every Wednesday and Thursday
night) or is it a reflection of that
last grasp for the by-gone mem-
ories of childhood? The secret of
Batman's success lies in neither
of these, really, but rather is that
simple fact so often overlooked
by myopic television critics: the
show is just sheer fun.
LAST WEEK'S opening serial
could have been lifted straight
from the strips of Bob Kane's
stories. Batman (played with
square jaw and concave chest by
Adam West) and Boy Wonder
sidekick Robin ("Holy Ashtray")
are maneuvered into a legal trap
by that treacherous arch-villain,
The Riddler (portrayed nuttily by
Frank Gorshin). The Caped Cru-
sader is further tricked into visit-
ing Gotham's ritzy discotheque,
The WhatA Way To Go-Go, com-
mences dancing "The Bat" with
luscious Jill St. John, and ends up
limp on his knees, felled by a
spiked fresh orange juice. The
Riddler is able to kidnap Robin,
Gotham's Guardians. Sparks fly
in a comic book climax with ZOK
and POW flashing across the
screen with every punch. And
then, with Batman and Robin in
their true identities, the program
grinds to a quiet halt.
The actors must be laughing
within themselves as everybody
plays it frightfully straight. "My
goal is to be America's biggest
put-on," confesses Adam West,
Batman himself. "Everyone out
here on the set is just a little
demented."
Producer William Dozier has
fashioned what will likely be a
smashing commercial success. He
has offered a bit of everything for
everybody: the kids take it plain.
the students with satire, and the
adults, with a grain of salt. The
novelty will eventua:y wear off,
but nbt before a slew of comic
heroes follow Batman to the
screen (and, in fact, Superman
will be opening as a Broadway
musical soon).
WHOEVER brought Batman to
the airwaves must have had the
classic pronouncement of Phineas
T. Barnum in the depths of his
mind: "No one ever lost money
underestimating the intelligence of
the American people."
f
Letter:* IQC-A ssembly
Merger, Opposed,
"Did He Say A Four-Year Term
Or A..Four-Year Session?"
_ _AT/ati/
i paAL
To the Editor:
IN REFERENCE to the article
concerning the proposed IQC-
Assembly merger in the Jan. 18th
"Daily," the following statement
was noted. "No serious opposition
is expected to the proposed mer-
ger." After much consideration, we
find this proposed merger to be
undemocratic, useless, unwise and
we seriously oppose it.
Among the many flaws in the
proposition is the basic failure of
the constitution to provide equal
representation to the legislative
each house is given one vote with
body.
In the proposed constitution,
the exception of Couzens and
Stockwell who are given two, sup-
posedly to compensate for their
size. According to the constitution,
the House Presidents' Assembly,
which is the legislative body, con-
sists of 52 voting members; 26
type of problems found in a men
and women's dorm and suggested
that a separate governing system
for each would be much more ef-
fective
It ws also mentioned that the
merger of the Union and League
serves the need for the coordina-
tion of activities and that housing
problems should be dealt with by
a smaller group which has maxi
mum knowledge of the problems.
A quick review of the problems
that IQC has faced shows it to be
a largely ineffective organization,
lacking- both interest and coopera-
tion. On the other hand, Assembly
House Council has shown itself to
be a competent and active body
of representatives, dedicated to
improving facilities and conditions
for residence hall women.
It would be a great mistake to
merge these groups and risk a
large, unsuccessful governing body
hacr ennA nn .icar, rnnefitiiinn_
0
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