010MI-11an aily Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHYGAN UNDER AUTIJTY oiF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Where Opiion Are Pe' 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. Jan. 22: The Crisis at the Crossroads SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT KLIVANS The Obscenity Laws Should Be Repealed By LEONARD PRATT Associate Managing Editor It'shbeen a rough two weeks for the of' 'U.' How old is it? Should we all smoke pot? What's your opinion on sex? The problem with all this ex- citement is that it squeezes in- teresting small items out of the paper. To redress the balance I thought I'd tell you about some of the more interesting tidbits I've found this week: * Policemen are rather hard- pressed for a working definition of obscenity, as last week's Cinema Guild performance showed. The problem is that the law only says that obscenity is illegal, without saying precisely what it is. So what they usually do is send an officer into a suspect movie to see whether he's sexually ex- cited by it. If he is, then it's ob- scene. This system has become in- creaasingly known among campus wags as the Sensitive Antenna Theory of Pornography, * Everybody realizes that the Economics Bldg. is the oldest building on compus, having been put up in 1856. This is known as a tradition of the University fam- ily. But not many know, as an econ- omics professor pointed out last week, that "the building is plugged into a time machine." Modern electrical appliances are wired to work on 110 volts, but the Econ- omics Bldg. is wired for 230, the voltage in common use when it was first electrified. This results in all sorts of em- barrassment. Once Prof. Kenneth Boulding was being interviewed by a reporter. "Before I could stop him," Boulding recalls, "he'd plugged his tape recorder into the wall." It was the end of a beauti- ful Pulitzer. Officials have thought about re- wiring the place and getting rid of the two transformers that run the lights-and the little ones that feed electric typewriters-but it would cost around $3,000, and they can't find the money. 0 When the Associated Press moved its last Friday story on Clark Kerr's firing from the pres- idency of the University of Cali- fornia they hapened to mention that the institution "is in its 99th year" and would thus be cele- brating its centennial anniversary in 1968. Of course there's no proof, but wouldn't it be interesting if Kerr was fired because he had found out that the UC was actually not founded until 1888? Can't you see it now-"The University of Cali- fornia, the distant cousin of state universities, regrets to announce the firing of * . 0 In January, 1946, The Daily ran a story on the University's budget request of that year (en- rollment has risen 80 per cent since then, while the operations budget has risen 620 per cent-- hmmm) noting that a proposed addition to Angell Hall "will make possible the demolition of several of the ancient structures dreaded by students because of their hazards and inadequate facilities . . . the Economics Bldg . . . has unofficially been scheduled for re- moval." Mighty unofficially. * You can too get to the Hill through the University's steam tunnels. * A friend of mine suggested the other day that students who use marijuana are more Christian than those who go to church. We argued about it for a while and decided to put it to a vote. All of you who've read this column thus far and who are interested in voting, drop me a card at The Daily, 420 Maynard St., with your opinion. If you're the gambling kind, you can also put on the card the number of votes matijuana will get. Whoever comes closest gets a free copy of "Yellow Sub- marine" as sung by Leslie Fiedler. Since you deserve something for reading this far ("Go ahead and print it," said Pat O'Donohue, "people will read anything"). I'll print the winner's name Wednes- day. 9 On Jan. 10, 1916, bandits led by Pancho Villa took 19 employes of a United States mining com- pany from a train near Chihua- hua, Mexico, and shot them, thus continuing the tragic history of people caught in the middle. Like the projectionist for Cinema Guild, It seems unfair that history, biased in favor of big winners and big losers, ignores these people. A nice idea, if anyone's looking for a book topic, might be a. series of viginettes about them. For a local entry they could start with Jay Zulauf, '67, Michi- gan Union head and member of the sesessionist Student Govern- ment Council, who threw 39 people out of the MUG in December for singin. So don't get the idea that The Daily only picks up the big news items. There's a lot more going on than that, and we get it all. Be- cause of which you can now sleep better tonight. CENSORSHIP has long been an issue in this country. The case of Cinema Guild has once again brought it into the public focus. This time, however, the question is not whether the police were right in taking the film - they were only doing their job under the law. The question is whether or not the ar- chaic obscenity law under which the seiz- ure was made should still be on the books in what is supposedly a free country. FmST, there is the question of whether or not the police had the grounds to seize the film under the present obscen- ity law. In other words, when does one have sufficient knowledge of a work to judge it obscene? The courts have delivered an answer by deciding that a work must be 'judged in its entirety and could not be found obscene on the basis of a few passages "which of themselves might be objection- able." How could the arresting officers have known whether the film was totally obscene if they had only watched seven, 10 or even 20 minutes of the film? BUT THIS LINE of reasoning applies only if one assumes that anyone can attempt a definition of what exactly is obscene, or what is pornographic. It seems obvious that what one person may con- sider obscene, another may consider very artistic; the definition of obscenity de- pends on each individual's tastes and val- ues. To many, the war in Viet Nam is much more obscene than the film "Flaming Creatures." To many, that movie had a great deal of social value, one of the present criteria for determining whether or not a film is pornographic. There are other movies currently on the market, a couple showing in Ann Ar- bor, which have been considered by some to be just as offensive to morals and de- cency as "Flaming Creatures." The mur- der movies such as "The Liquidators," and "Murderer's Row," depict actions that go against not only the federal law, but. against moral law as well. The definition of obscenity, however, seems to have been distinctly limited to sex; only those movies with themes deal- ing with sex are ever scene. judged to be ob- AS PROF. HENRY AIKEN so aptly put it, "Pornography should not be a mat- ter of police action. The individual must learn to discriminate on his own." Be- cause each person's values differ, how can it be possible for one person to say to 300, "You can't watch this movie; it's bad for you, it's obscene?" It is not possible. If we were living in the 1984 that George Orwell depicted, it would be. The "brain police" could come and say, "Sex is bad. Do not watch pic- tures that show sex. Do not read stories with allusions and depictions of sex. You will be arrested if you do." However, in 1967, in the United States of America, and especially in an educa- tional atmosphere of supposed academic freedom, it is unthinkable that there should be brain police. Little children need their parents to tell them what is wrong and right. But college students, supposedly fairly ma- ture, are beyond the stage where they need mommie's guiding hand to tell them with a spanking that they "shouldn't do that." And adult citizens should not be told by an overseeing power that a mo- vie is objectionable. LIEUTENANT STAUDENMEIER would have had an alternative if the law did not exist. If he found the film ob- j ectionable, he could very easily have walked out of the theatre. This would have been his free choice. The other peo- ple there, those who wanted to stay, could have also exercised the freedom of choice by watching the rest of the film. But that freedom was violated when Staudenmeier stopped the film. In fact, it was violated when the obscenity law was passed. The Ann Arbor Police Department is not at fault in this case. The obscenity law is. If freedom is to continue as an integral part of this society, it is essential that an effort be made to abolish the law. Perhaps then everyone will be allowed to view what they want, when they want, where they want. -DEBORAH REAVEN Book Review: Fables from Michigan State By DAVID KNOKE THE FABLES, Book One, Vol- ume I, by Ken Lawless, Zeitgeist, Inc. East Lansing, $1.00. The Michigan State University Renaissance in student publica- tions hit, a peak with the initia- tion of the "Zeitgeist Supplement" series. But it has also hit an MSU- typical snag. Ken Lawless' outstanding con- tribution to the satire of art, education and life in "The Fables" is a literary high point. but the snag has come in the suspension of Lawless and Zeitgeist ad- visor Gary Groat by MSU for activities centering around this and other publications. A short history is in order be- fore discussing the book. Zeitgeist first appeared in Sep- tember, 1965, and within two is- sues was banned by the MSU ad- ministration for alleged obsceni- ties. The student editors and ad- visor Groat had used some four- letter words in a preface announ- cing Zeitgeist's raison d'etre: a protest against "the drive and trivia coming from the pens of our campus columnists . . as well as poultry scientists." Zeitgeist nevertheless has pros- pered and begun an ambitious sup- plement series, with a projected eight volumes of poems and fables, of which this is the first, In its fourth issue, Zeitgeist published Lawless' "Records," a parody of Hemingway's love-and- s,e x-i n-the-afternoon approach. Shortly thereafter rumors circu- lated that both Groat and Law- less, instructors in the American Thought and Language depart- ment, were to be expelled. Six weeks of meetings, rallies and sit-ins followed, capped by the week-long occupation of a class- room building by 300 students in late November. The issue is still being fought out by the ACLU, but Groat and Lewless stand to lose their jobs by next August. But to digress. Lawless' "Fables" should stand of fall on their own merit irregardless of the circum- stances that have cast him in the hero-rebel role. Lawless' fables and anecdotes reveal him not as the existential rebel but as rollicking, lickerish satirist who likes to tell Rabele- sian stories to little children. Cast as a series of rambling di- gressions on a wide range of con- temporary and bizarre topics, "Fables'" chief weakness appears to be only that the author con- tents himself with obvious and generally uncontroversial topics. In one instance, "Mad Ave An- dy," the author begins in a jovial mood to tell an obvious caricature of the gray flanneled suiter and ends up too indignant and out of the mood to carry off the satire. The effect is perfect: He is praised by his own organs and feared by those who know him best, he is less than he thinks, more than we know, something else from what he seems and we are stuck with the bastard as well as by him ... Someday I'll tell you a funny story about Mad Ave Andy. I was going to today, but I'm not in the mood any more, In keeping with the Zeitgeist tradition, many of Lawless' fables deal with sexual and scatalogical targets. Where he superficially seems to be aiming only for the gross-out effect, he is simultane- ously exposing basic truths in hu- man relations with a deft scalpel. In "The Man Who Hated Henry Miller," he describes the censor- prude's method of "investigating" an alleged "dirty book." The man began with the first book of Mil- ler's trilogy and "managed the feat of reading only the objectionable scenes, which his eyes selected by hawking certain 'key' words," On the basis of his appraisal that the first book is obscene, he convinced himself, the minister and dowagers of the community that the others are progressively worse and that there is no need to read them before demanding the bookseller remove the third volume from sale. The scene would be laughable if only one did not know of the real- life Citizens for Decent Literature groups that have at times sent dozens of identical letters of pro- test over the sale of "questionable" literature to post offices and busi- ness bureaus. In another brief episode, Law- less describes the plight of a dam- sel who was frigid unless intoxi- cated, but whenever she made love "some unfortunate conjunction of bodily response caused her to regurgitate at coition." On the way to solving the beauty's dilem- ma, Lawless manages to imply some very pertinent criticisms of male and female approaches to sex that don't consider the prob- lems of the partner. If book one, volume one of the "Fables" has a unifying theme, it is the author's exultation, of a good beer. The theme of a hazy drunk becomes a symbol 'for the un-world of his fables, which in a way, is a function drinking per- forms for many people. "The Land of Free Beer" hap- pens to be the only place of its kind: "There is no Land of Free Wine, 'cause wine drinkers are either snobby or too down and out to organize." But beyond this sociological perception, he has a revolutnonary pre-vision in which "free beer is the equivalent of a Wobblie-romantic's "pie in the sky." "You children never forget that it's there, as real as heaven or hell, the Land. of Free Beer, and it Just might be a better place than the one we've got here." Lawless has three more books of fables and a volume of poems lined up with Zeitgeist. One hopes he will use his experiences at MSU for material for some very per- tinent, hard hitting satire. In any case, Lawless' first volume is a readable, important contribution to the maturation of student cri- ticism of the status quo in liter- ature, art and education that Zeit- geist has brought about. (On sale at Folletts, Wahrs, Marshalls, Ulrich and Centicore.) 4 E 1 The President's Committees Letters: More Support for Cinema Guild THURSDAY NIGHT, the Student Gov- ernment Council appointed student representatives to the Hatcher commit- tee on the student role in decision-mak- ing and University policy on the draft. Hopefully these students will take the following into consideration: T1HEUNIVERSITY policy on the draft has already been decided by referen- dum at the University-rank should not be sent to draft boards. Their position within the committee should be one ad- amantly opposed to the rank. It's essential that the committee on the student role in decision making shoUld make all information and discussion open to the student body, and demand open meetings for the committee itself. The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and Collegiate Press Service. Subscription rate: $4.50 semester by carrier ($5 by mail; $8 yearly by carrier ($9 by mail). Published at 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich., 48104." Owner-Board in Control of Student Publications, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104. Bond or Stockholders--None. Average press run-SO1. Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Editorial Staff MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH, Editor BRUCE WASSERSTEIN, Executive Editor CLARENCE FANTO HARVEY WASSERMAN Managing Editor Editorial Director LEONARD PRATT ........Associate Managing Editor JOHN MEREDIITH ...... Associate Managing Editor CHARLOTTE WOLTER ... Associate Editorial Director ROBERT CARNEY......Associate Editorial Director BABETTE COHN .................. Personnel Director ROBERT MOORE..................... Magazine Editor CHARLES VETZNER .................. Sports Editor JAMES TINDALL......... Associate Sports Editor JAMES LaSOVAGE ...........Associate Sports Editor GIL SAMBERG............Associate Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS-Meredith Eiker, Michael Heffer, Robert Klivans, Laurence Medow, Roger Rappoport, Susan Schnepp, Neil Shister. DAY EDITORS-Robert Bendelow, Neal Bruss, Wallace Immen, David Knoke, Mark Levin, Patricia O'Dono- Further, they should call large meetings of interested students-teach-ins, for ex- ample-to test student feeling on the issues being discussed. Finally, they should not approve any official report without the approval of the student body in a referendum. THE VALIDITY of these committees has been questioned by many students. The committees, say the critics, are just an- other set of the administration's evasive tactics. They may be right. It is up to the students chosen to steer these committees from such a fate. If they can't, they should resign. --BOB CARNEY Associate Editorial Director No Alternative But Protest KNOW LITTLE about the war in Viet Nam. I haven't been a Marine. I haven't been to Hanoi. My government, whom I would like to trust, tells me little --and only when it feels the nation can face the reality of the situation. So, knowing little, I am left with only one choice. Until our government tells us why it is, fighting, for how long, and in what manner; until our government will admit the relative basis of its "divine" right to rule; until my government will take the responsibility for the situation, I must protest the killing on both sides in Viet Nam. I have been given no alternative. --MICHAEL DOVER Correction To the Editor: WE, the undersigned, support the Cinema Guild in its court ac- tion against the Ann Arbor police. Cinema Guild is a prominent force in the artistic community, introducing new and challenging ideas and providing a forum for the expression and presentation of current art forms. The Guild is, therefore, performing a necessary service and function on the cam- pus, and its operation should not be hampered by outside forces. WE FEEL that the principle of freedom of expression on this cam- pus has been seriously challenged by the recent confiscation of "Flaming Creatures" and by the arrest and arraignment of mem- bers of the board of Cinema Guild. If the board makes decisions which are in bad taste, it is up to its audience, and not the police de- partment, to voice its disapproval. But it is not the taste of Cinema Guild which is at issue. The chief of police of Ann Ar- bor has assured us that if the re- cent censorship action is upheld by the courts, then we can be sure that similarhactions will be taken in the future. What, then, is to stop the police from purging our bookstores and course lists of required readings of material which they consider objectionable? What is to stop them from coming into the class- rooms and arresting people who make statements which they find objectionable. THE UNIVERSITY administra- tion has not taken a stand on the issue and principle involved. In this area, we feel that it has been avoiding its responsibility to the University community. The administration must take a stand against the threat to the University's atmosphere of freedom of expression. -Mark Zuckerman, '70 -JTame L.Plummer. 170 told me that neither would be in- nocuous. While the first movie, "Flesha- poids," was met with amusement and perhaps a small measure of appreciation from the overflow crowd, the second received the studied attention of not only the regular audience but also the Ann Arbor police-who confiscated it after about 20 minutes. THE MERITS of "Flaming Crea- tures" notwithstanding, p 0 l i c e censorship of Cinema Guild mo- vies is a very serious matter. Since when does the city of Ann Arbor take upon itself the unnecessary task of guarding Universiay mor- als? The crowd was, to all intents and purposes, made up entirely of college students andother adults, all of whom are surely old enough to judge for themselves what is and what is not morally objection- able. Anyone offended on any grounds by any film at Cinema Guild can certainly leave. On the other hand, perhaps the Ann Arbor Police Department con- fiscated the film because it is city policy not to allow freedom of in- dividual choice. Not to extend nor- mal civil liberties to Cinema Guild? Not to miss the "dirty' pictures" that come to town? What possible rationale can they have? IN BEHALF of everyone who feels that the morals of the Ann Arbor police are not necessarily his own, I call on the A.A.P. to explain this arbitrary, unpalatable and fascistic exercise of power never vested in them by the Uni- versity community. --Steven Gold, '69 Since When? To the Editor: SINCEWHEN are the police of Ann Arbor able to infringe upon the right of free choice of the studeants arnd rofessors of the the police said it was in bad taste. Susan Sontag, a well-known movie reviewer, termed the movie re- rnarkable and beautiful in The Nation on April 13, 1964. I found nothing offensive in this film and I think the seizing of it while on the screen was a poor case of judgment on the part of the po- lice force. If they were going to take this movie, why didn't they review it and confiscate it before an SRO audience had paid to see it, avoid- ing much trouble for everyone in- volved. -Joseph A. Exe Obscenity To the Editor: THE "LETTER of the law" is not an idle phrase. The law cannot function without its letters. The attempt to define "obscen- ity," 'pornography," "f i l t h y," "lewd," etc. and blah into letters has made utter fools of some of the highest courts in the land. IT WILL BE interesting to watch Ann Arbor legal machinery slush through the "Flaming Creatures Case." If the persecutors follow through with similar eclat as that dis- played in the farcical seizure of the film Jan. 18, respect for the city officialdom will surely reach a new low. Crimes are to be judged in court- houses, films in cinema houses and the most "obscene" spectacles in- variably take place in those city halls which fall prey to our out- dated police mentality. On with the show. -Travis Charbeneau, '67 Clark Kerr To the Editor: AS A GRADUATE of the Univer- sit nf Clifornia. T would like sity, chancellor at Berkeley, Gov- ernor Brown and student leader Savio). This was certainly one of the reasons for Reagan's victory. In recent months, using the same type of logic which justified our increasing involvement in Viet Nam, California's educational pol- icy-makers have dealt with their dissatisfaction by escalation, mak- ing their opponents (the students, who else) fight that much harder. The next step in this escalation is for the Board of Regents to appoint a conservative disciplin- arian (reactionary State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction Max Rafferty, perhaps). The students, joined probably by many profes- sors, will respond to the first big incident with a strike. Education will become less and less impor- tant as each side attempts to ruin The only benefit out of all this might come to other states, in- cluding Michigan, who could per- haps get a decent president in Clark Kerr. -John Greenwood, Grad Students Can Vote' To the Editor: Y(OUR THURSDAY article about Jerry Dupont, the Law School senior running for City Council was excellent. Clearly we do need to solve the problems of rising, rental cost and declining housing quality, of inadequate bus service, of traffic jams and inadequate parking, and of too few recrea- tion facilities. Unfortunately though, when the April 3rd election results are known, too many students will again have said "These issues don't affect me even though I live in this city nine months each year." If past history is a guide, too many students will continue to write letters, give speeches, and advocate action, but too few will register with the city clerk. They transportation, or anything else. just ask if he really means what he says. Ask if he is registered to vote in Ann Arbor. Aren't nine months of each year too long to live in a city without any repre- sentation at all? And if you want to learn how to register at the city hall or what ward you live in or how to help elect a dedicated and responsible student to City Council, then tele- phone 662-8800, 663-4606, 764-8965. -Christopher Cohen, 167L War Referendum To the Editor: CITIZENS for New Politics, an outgrowth of the Boulding cam- paign, is working to bring the is- sue of the war in Viet Nam to the attention of the- general pub- lie. We are trying to involve peo- ple directly with the issues of the war and the social conditions and attitudes which perpetuate it. erendum, in which 40 per cent of Judging from the Dearborn ref- the voting population voted for immediate withdrawal of Ameri- can troops, we believe that other referenda should be held. It is necessary to petition for this referendum. The amount of names of registered Ann Arbor voters needed is only some 1800. If you are a voter in Ann Arbor and would like to sign, if you mow people who would sign, if you would be willing to ask oth- ers about the question, either door to door or simply among your friends-all these approaches are needed and welcome. We feel one of the most im- portant points in this matter is to start the voter thinking - let him realize it is not "disloyal" to disagree. Even your signature can help this effort. IN ORDER that this question appear on the April ballot, the names must be in by February A A.