Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED $Y STUDENTS OF THE UNWERSrTY OF MICHIGAN -ow, -' UNDER AUTHORJTy OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Communism, Yesterday and Today * .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. JRDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT KLIVANS 1 ry I 1' Yr1 Vi ". "r ^ i The Anti-Missile Race: Little Game of Bankruptcy ANNOUNCEMENT of a Russian anti- missile system now being deployed around the Soviet Union has raised the possibility that this country may enter another useless spending contest. Cost estimates of a full deployment by the United States of an anti-missile sys- tem of its own are currently hovering around $30 billion. This money would provide a full coverage system, which, it is hoped, 'would reduce the number of American dead in a nuclear war from 120 million to 30 million-may reduce the number, that is, if the Russians don't develop a means of overcoming it. In this race of technology, it would be foolish to assume that the Russians themselves cannot devise a means of foil- ing a defense system. BASICALLY, we're playing a mean little game. The odds are about ten to one against either country winning. It's easy' to play though, all we need do is spend money. However, every dollar our oppon- ent spends on a defense, we can over- come with one dollar spent for an of- fense. An attack system can be relatively cheaply built-at a much lower cost than a missile defense system. To win, :we need to spend until the other is broke, and then spend some more. TWO METHODS could be used to over- come an anti-missile. First, we could saturate the target, so that mere numbers promise a strike. But defensive missiles are much easier and cheaper to build and maintain than an ICBM. This method is not likely to be overly successful. Instead, a maneuver similar to the ra- dar decoy used in World War II might work. Here, we make the defense think that it's being saturated. While its act- ing, we disguise our warheads, so that the decoys are shot down, and the bomb arrives on target. With the 'new generation of multiple- warhead missiles, this second method looks promising. The missile can carry along decoy equipment, to fill the enemy radar screens with blips, confusing the defense. Either method would suffice; the de- sired result would be obtained. HE ARGUMENT by people favoring an American anti-missile system is that our country should be covered. Such a system, they say, would drastically re- duce deaths. On this point, the Defense Department agrees with them, with res- ervations. The American dead can be re- duced by 90 million, but only if the Rus- sians keep their missile development stat- ic, only if they don't develop a system that the United States almost has. Mc- Namara says that they can. With two missile defenses, and result- ing improvement of offenses, McNamara's estimates of American dead reverts back to the 120 million figure. Thus, all the United States has in actuality done is spend over $30 billion. Can we afford it? VERY RECENTLY, there have been in- dications that the USSR and the U.S. have been engaged in discussion to pre- vent such an escalation. Whether these bear fruit or not, the Unitei States would better be protected by the balance of force, formed by the new offensive mis- sile capability, than by this plus an anti- missile screen. Thirty billion dollars applied domes- tically could drastically aid mankind. Why spend it some other place? --ROBERT BENDELOW IN ITS SUBSTANCE the consu- lar convention with the Soviet Union, which is now up for ratifi- cation by the Senate, is of rela- tively minor practical significance. All it would do is to make trade and tourist travel between the two countries safer and more conven- ient. It has no real relation to the question of espionage. But be- cause of the opposition to it, in- cluding that of the director of the FBI, the ratification of this convention has been blown up in- to a test of whether or not the United States can proceed to work out better relations with the So-. viet Union. THE CONTEST over ratification turns on a question of great im- portance to the whole conduct of U.S. foreign policy. It is whether international Communism is still essentially the same conspiracy which it was understood to be 20 years ago after World War IL The hard opponents of the con- Letters To the Editor: AM GRATEFUL for the two ex- cellent letters that appeared yesterday in response to Prof. Ald- ridge, but I do not think all the necessary points have been made before that disgraceful and con- temptible piece can be dismissed. WHAT IS SO disturbing to be- gin with is this nationally-known critic's almost religious determi- nation to miss all of the real is- sues involved in the "Cinema Guild crisis" which I thought were by now clear to everybody, even Lt. Staudenmeier. Very briefly, the point is aa- demic 'freedom. The point is that there was an illegal seizure at a University-sponsored function by a man whose aesthetic sensibility and intellectual subtlety are by now a campus joke, The point is that the film was brought here because it has gained the reputa- tion of being an important work in the current underground film movement, and it was decided that those of us interested in film should have the right to decide for ourselves. The point is that the Univer- sity's response to the crisis was only the latest series of scandalous moral abdications about which the whole faculty, English department or not, should be profoundly dis- turbed. The point is not the mo- tive of those who came to see the film. Finally, it is the point that hose of us who are old enough to have the right to be required to be killed for our country may very well have the right to see a dirty movie if we do want to. PROF. ALDRIDGE continues to ignore the matter sitting in front of his nose by constructing a vast, romantic structure which binds together in one all-encom- passing illogicality pornography, moral rot, LSD, Leslie Fiedler, the student radical movement-every- thing, it seems, but water fluorida- tion. I have a theory why. I think I have positively identified the second half of the letter as part of a recent, secret manifesto for a national conspiracy in our uni- versities which calls itself Aca- demic Respectabilism (informally known as Tonsorism), which is the highbrow's equivalent of Jules Feiffer's Radical Middle. THE ARGUMENTS of these people are chiefly recognizable be- cause their pretentions always fail to mask their own personal prej- udices. What for example does the student activist movement have sular convention believe that the Soviet Union today is no different than it was in the time of Lenin or Stalin. The hard proponents of the escalated war in Vietnam be- lieve that the real adversary is the international Communism of the postwar era. THIS WEEK the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has heard testimony on these questions from two distinguished diplomats and scholars. The first was George Kennan, generally regarded as the leading American authority on So- viet Communism. The second wit- ness was Edwin Reischauer, until recently our ambassador to Japan, who has known the Far East all his life. Kennan told the Senate com- mittee that the 20-year-old picture of Communism was no longer a true picture. Reischauer told the committee that the current offi- cial conception of our relations with Asia is mistaken, both as to the power and the threat of China Today and( By WALTER LIPPMANN and as to the power and influe- ence of the United States. IF KENNAN and Reischauer are right, a successful foreign policy cannot be formed in this country until there has been a re-educa- tion of our people, starting with our officials. "Many of us would be helped in our thinking about the problems of Soviet-American relations," said Kennan, "if we could free our- selves from the abnormal sensitiv- ities and reflexes to which the extreme tensions of earlier dec- ades have led and teach ourselves to think about Russia as simply another great world power with its own interests and concerns, often necessarily in conflict with our own, but not tragically so-a pow- er different in many respects, but perhaps no longer in essential ones, from what Russia would hav been had there been no Commu- nist Revolution in that country 50 years ago." REISCHAUER'S testimony was deeply at variance with the cur- rent official conception of our role in Asia. He told the commit- tee that "We should seek to mini- mize our military involvement and military commitments in Asia." In saying this he was adhering to the classic American doctrine of no land war- on the Asian conti- nent, which was breached by Pres- ident Kennedy and completely abandoned by President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. As against John Foster Dulles and Secretary Rusk, Reischauer said, "We should not try to in- duce most Asian countries to align themselves formally with us." "We should not sponsor politi- cal, social or economic change in Asian countries," he said, "al- though we should be responsive to requests from them for aid .. We run serious and unwarranted dangers when we take the initia- tive in sponsoring important in- ternal changes in Asian lands or when our influence becomes so preponderant that we assume re- sponsibility for the existence or nature of a regime." THESE ARE weighty utterances which cannot easily be dismissed. They should not be ignored, and' every effort must be made to ac- quaint our people with them. For it would be impossible to name any two living Americans who can speak with greater or even with comparable authority about the problems confronting us with the Soviet Union and with the coun- tries of Asia. (c). 1967, The waShigton Post Co. A : Aldridge, Pornography and Tonsorites to do with excessive pornography, or even with Leslie Fiedler (who talked all the time he was here about a different group, the ex- treme quietist group we used to call beatniks) ? Nothing at all. The point is simply that the Tonsorist is offended by the young radicals-their clamor disturbs his repose. The Tonsorist paradoxical- ly uses phrases like "do-gooder" and "bravely fight everybody's lost causes" as reproaches; and he likes to put the blame for all this ab- normal activist behavior on any- thing at all, except the moral phoniness and corruption of the society towhich he belongs.The most common scapegoat is a vaguely-defined, ubiquitous terror known as irresponsibility; Ald- ridge's blaming it all on the dead- ening effects of pornography, I think, is original with him. THE TONSORIST'S other claim is that the radical young person is in revolt against ideas, culture. responsibility-the alternative that they are revolting against any- thing bad is usually not consider- ed. And so the Academic Re- spectable, fighting "our manipula- tory General Motors" on one hand and the "philistine" activists on the other. proudly lifts his nose higher and higher; the soot and stench of industry and the body odor of the beatniks cannot filter through to his postrils. He walls himself and his books up into an ivory tower, and wonders why stu- dents do not have a greater in- terest in culture, or-if he is in iterature-why literature is not central to our society today. He cannot imagine that It is against him personally, and not against "the rich fertility of ideas" that the young-bearded or unbearded -are revolting. He supports his administration. Above all, he is respectable and responsible when it is no longer respectable and re- sponsible to be either. SO HE LEAVES the goat-beard to fight their contemptible little fight "for everybody's lost cause." One of these causes, which may be getting more and more lost all the time, is the Cinema Guild's struggle for academic freedom. It is the cause we should all be con- cerned about now. -Paul Sawyer, '67 Aidridge Again To the Editor: PROFESSOR John W. Aldridge's letter in Tuesday's Daily, in which he discussed Leslie Fied- ler's comments on the "Flaming Creature" case and related mat- ters, contained in passing a ref- rence to the justification of laws against pornography. He argued that the real (and ideal) reason for such laws is that pornography jades the emo- tions and impoverishes the ter- ribly valuable capacity for sym- pathetic human understanding and love. Anti-pornography laws, he stated, "Ideally . . . exist not for the protection of female virtue but for the protection of human emotion." There is much to be said about the whole of Prof. Aldridge's sug- gestive and provocative letter. I wish to take issue only with the claim that laws against pornogra- phy ought to exist because they serve to protect the human emo- tions. I BELIEVE Prof. Aldridge is wrong for several reasons: -These laws cannot be effec- tively enforced. Pornographic ma- terial exists and will continue to exist, at the very least in private circulation, as long as there is a supply and a demand. -While these laws may pre- vent the widespread public ex- Posure of pornographic material, the grave, real and well-known dangers involved in any censor- ship of art, literature and films must be weighed against the very limited protection of human emo- tional capacity which such censor- ship might provide. -On an emotionally healthy person pornography soon palls; one becomes bored or disgusted long before reaching the state of an aging voyeur. Only those in- sensitive enough to be already caught in the downward spiral towards emotional annihilation will be "harmed" by pornography, and they, consequently, are beyond saving by the institution of anti- pornographic laws. (The recourse to law to instill virtues, by the way, is always a last ditch, and invariably a futile and misconceiv- ed stand. But that is another story.) PROF. ALDRIDGE faces the paradox that if by his criterion laws against morality are needed, they cannot succeed in their pur- pose. If Prof. Aldridge wants to find the sources of that deadness of the feelings which feeds on por- nographic titillation, he had bet- ter look further than pornography. In the tangle of interlocking caus- es which has produced the ennui, the search of intensity of experi- ence, the inability to find mean- ingful and valuable satisfactions in conventional society which he reports characterizes my genera- tion, pornography surely plays an insignificantly tiny role. I am sure Prof. Aldridge knows this, but once it is admitted, so is my ar- gument against legal restrictions accepted. IF PROF. ALDRIDGE has given the reason ("the ideal") for the le- gal censorship of pornography, then we must conclude that such laws have no justification. --Tony Blair, Grad Budget To the Editor: MARK LEVIN'S editorial, "Rom- ney's Budget Plan, Well It Bal- ances," criticizes Gov. Romney's budget as unnecessarily austere be- cause it grants state universities less than they ask. How can he give them any more that his budget now provides? Levin does not suggest that the governor should cut other pro- grams to give higher education additional money. As Levin points out, Romney is going to have a difficult time getting taxes raised just to pay for built-in spending increases. What chance would tax- es to pay for additional expendi- tures have? Obviously none. THE STATE does not have the means to borrow enough money to cover the deficit which would re- sult from giving the universities more money than the proposed budget allows. The small surplus projected \for the budget is a needed hedge against unexpected increases in costs or decreases in revenue which wiped out almost all of the past year's predicted surplus. If Gov. Romney wanted to make political hay, he would approve a package of nuisance taxes and cut spending instead of staking his po- litical future on tax reform and tax increases. Levin's alternative apparently would be a Soapy Wil- tiams-payless payday kind of budg- et. -Richard Branch, Grad Abortions To the Editor: FRIDAY we had another letter in support of legalized abor- tion. The inadequacies' of such ar- guments can best be demonstrat- ed by applying them to other sit- uations. Think of the poor wife who might actually die trying to kill her chronically drunk and so- cially useless husband! Think of the needless danger to which a mother subjects herself when she has to bump off her eight-year- old boy because the family can't afford him--she might be prose- cuted for murder! Or the danger she suffers from the law when- alas-she is forced not only to tave an abortion to hide the shame of her unwed pregnancy but fur- ther to kill the father who is threatening to reveal all! THE TRUTH of the matter is that abortion laws do not deny that some pregnancies are unfor- tunate or undesirable. Theydo not deny that people will obtain illegal abortions. They do, how- ever, deny that a mother has the right to take life from her unborn child-whether or not she is pov- erty-stricken, whether or not she is willing to submit to an illegal abortion. Once a human life is in exist- ence, it requires more than pover- ty or shame to justify its extinc- tion. -James A. Marton, '67 Student Veto To the Editor: T WAS MOST appreciative of your Feb. 1 editorial advocating stu- dent registration. Certainly my campaign cannot succeed unless we manage to generat-%'ncreased student awareness of tnis city's government, its impact on their lives and their role in guiding it. THERE IS, however, a further point worth making. Students have a valid interest in the mayoralty and council races in all wards of the city. A majority on council is required for any effective action on such student-shared problems as inadequate and overpriced hous- ing, traffic and parking, and com- munity-authority relations. Stu- :ents in every ward should be ask- ing the candidates the hard ques- tions and then voting their pref- erences. Ann Arbor elections are often decided by very thin margins. Last year Democrat Bob Weeks won in the Third Ward by one vote. A lare student vote would make a difference city-wide. Most importantly, it would be long remembered by our elected of- ficials. Politicians are most sen- sitive to the compositions of their constituencies. Only when students become effective parts of those constituencies can they expect to have their voices heard. -Jerry Dupont, '67L Democratic Candidate City Council, 2nd Ward I A '4 A1 r1 The Panhellenic Resolution 4 PANHELLENIC'S Wednesday resolution against binding alumnae recommen- dations could be nice-or it could be nothing. The resolution states that recommen- dations from alumnae are of "question- able value" and can be used for discrimi- nation. "Recommends" are intended to provide additional information on a pros- pective pledge, but many sororities are forced to not pledge a girl if an alumna does not approve the girl in her rec- ommendation. THE 20 PANHELLENIC representatives who signed the Panhel resolution show- ed a great deal' of courage. They signed not as representatives of their houses but as leaders of the Greek system. It is alsok notable that this resolution was organized entirely without official provocation. At Colorado and Wisconsin, Panhel was handed a faculty and administration res- olution* calling for the elimination of recommendations because they introduce the possibility of discrimination. The University made its stab against possible 'discrimination through the Board of Regents bylaw providing that: "The University shall not discriminate against any person because of race, color, religion ... shall work for. the elimination of dis- crimination (1) in private organizations recognized by the University and (2) from non-University sources where students and the employes of the University are involved." LAST YEAR Student Government Coun- cil took over the enforcement of dis- crimination violations in membership se- lection in student organizations. Panhel later took over violations within the sor- orities by putting a bylaw into their con- stitution and setting up a membership, committee to make the ruling work. The administration here then has come out against discrimination, but has not specifically attacked potential discrimi- nation through recommendations. The problem of recommendations - brought up by faculty and administration at Wis- consin and Colorado-was initiated by Panhel here. THE REAL COURAGE lies in the state- ment that recommendations are of "questionable value." "Recommends" are near and dear to many alumnae, and Pan- hel's resolution in effect says "we in col- lege can pick our members better than you alumnae can." The courage comes in through the fact that this resolution involves standing up to the nationals - the same nationals which help pay mort- gages and build new houses. So it's a good resolution; but without further action, it could be nothing. The Panhel representatives who signed the resolution did not necessarily have their own chapters behind them-they signed as individuals. First, the chapters have to support the judgment of Panhel. Second, sorority women have to persuade the usually con- servative alumnae at up-coming conven- tions to change their recommendation policy. PANHEL DOES HAVE a meaningful res- olution here and it could be an exam- ple for sororities at other universities, but it will work only if sorority leaders here and elsewhere can exert pressure on their nationals to make the resolu- tion a reality. -LUCY KENNEDY No Comment Department FROM AN EDITORIAL in the Ann Ar- bor News of February 3, 1967. "Mayor Wendell E. Hulcher and a num- ber of prominent citizens were in Boston some time ago to plead the case for Ann Arbor as an All America city ... "A city to be truly All America will ;1 Y:ti^JZrx:::: n::::v:::.^x..:v" ::.ar:avv.v:m::::n,:.w: a.":::: wx::::: n:v:.v:: r: 4vJ rn "vJ ". ry .. .::h':rr:r::hK'Yr:.":::::r:r.".":::T;:::Y'n:Y:Y': "rr:r':".'::: ":":".': Y:: ": ": ": NY ": rJ 'r '. r::::.YV ".'JNJJ::.".:' "..'AY.Y'. " TS" ". ::.SW :'N::N. ."S4Y.:. J"r 4".'x':V.'Yx::: "J .: ....................x.x.hw:.;nt":.".......................................................:'.:".":: nv:::::: vx r: "r:r::::. .. .. ": .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... .., y.pv:,:. :l'l r ...th:.,.y...}.. ..n.......... J'r;:.. ..d.x.". .. x,..: .r M1.e. '4y. ' y " Jf . . ... .. ......... 1....,... n ..... "..................:1...... ......... . ... .t ................. .. r..h ... n..n..... .1.... /.:r.x...."N"::........ J' 4.J . r'J::Y N h J7'. G...J.M1tr..r.4.5 ................rJ...::.........r..,....,.,....................,..............................n.................................u..............."..stun.................4...a.n.......,:aa..n.....4.r..:a.:...vax:.,t4:{.:a".54....."..a....a....:. s":a...:.".r.".a...r..".:xxx:xr.'n....a.i...6..".v ....4....."....a..... rx.{..at.....n...t".4n..r3.%.rF' JkF.a : '-in"e t atleso* usic to ---ove a eneration By RICHARD AYERS HEN PEOPLE come to dis- pose of the Great Man Theo- ry of history, they will not be able to explain the Beatles as merely a symptom. The Beatles have had a profound degree of generating effect on the decade. The Beatles synthesized all that was valuable in the teenie-bop music tradition, added country- western and a pinch of rhythm and blues. They made pop music the expression of the generation rather than of a certain kind of youth. In the philosophical/political world, they brought the Left to the teenie-bops (inspiring, I be- lieve, Bob Dylan to adopt Folk Rock) and the teenie-bops to the Left. THE BEATLES went through discernable stages of "develop- ment" which appear like different levels of perfection, always leav- ing everything said in an area of popular art. First, as noted, they synthesized the best in existing music forms. titude towards themselves (none of this crap about how we like kids, we wanna make money). Psy- chiatrists have told us they had a special appeal because of the homosexual undertones in their style and actions. Their analysis is not quite accurate; rather, the Beatles, like their admirers, deny the John Wayne-type masculin- ity. The Beatles present a serious threat to the Puritan tradition in America. No respect is given to authorities (in their songs, press conferences and movies) and no cognizance is given to social con- ventions. Anarchists are of two kinds: those who express frustra- tion at the limits placed by social institutions and those who live freely, oblivious to the shocked au- thorities. The Beatles are in the second category. AFTER "A Hard Days' Night," they moved "further out," experi- menting with new instruments and arrangements. George learned to play the sitar quite competently. Their musical forms expanded (still structured, but like Bartok rather than Beethoven.) In the realm of film, they also expanded their style-with "Help." This film is more contemplative, more subtle in execution. The fast action is still there but something is added: a soft, slow represen- tation of images-notably in the color-tinted recording session or the night skiing with torches. The Beatles concerned themselves with visual beauty rather than the appeal of character. SO, ALSO, in their music, the experimentation with form result- ed in an abstraction of sound from meaning-this became even more developed when their album "Revolver" came out. They tried everything land everything worked magnificently: sitar, string quar- tet, brass band, string music tap- ed and played backward. By this time, of course, Dylan and the Stones had been filling the popular radio stations with in- novations in form and radically new (for pop culture) ideas.. The Beatles pulled another coup de grace, bringing experimental sounds and real ideas to the mass audience. This development pattern can be traced also- through the album cov- ers. They started with straight pictures and occasional spoofs. By the time they got to the "Help" album, making fun was the norm. The cover they released with "Yes- terday and Today" was a color picture of them in bloody sur- geons' coats. The distributors de- cided this was in bad taste and called them back, to be replaced by a more innocuous cover. By 'Rubber Soul" they were using distorting lens and with "Revolv- er" they printed a psyche-satirical collage cover. WITH THIS LEVEL of perfec- tion, the followers thought the Beatles couldn't better themselves. But they did. They had to de- stroy themselves. The most beautiful action the ,Beatles took was to break up asserting their freedom, denying even the expressiveness "f a quar- tet. John Lennon got a haircut and their whole anti-heroic self- I . The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and Collegiate Press Service. Subscription rate: $4.50 semester by carrier -{$5 by