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 ** I