.r
Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICWGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
India State Elections: The Crucial Test
Where Opinions Are Free 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail
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.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: WALLACE IMMEN
i
The SGC Statement:
Freedom vs. Censorship
HE GROWING DIALOGUE on censor-
ship and academic freedom has found
a clear and rational voice amidst the res-
olutions and condemnations of the past
weeks. Student Government Council yes-
terday overwhelmingly supported Cine-
ma Guild's right to show the upcoming
Andy Warhol films, and, in effect, en-
dorsed a principle which should have been
apparent from the outset: the individ-
ual's right to judge for himself.
In their presentation of the problem,
SGC outlined the various practical and
metaphysical problems involved. There is
no easy answer to reconciling the high
values of unobstructed academic freedom
with the growing pressures of legislative,
Regental and administrative dissent. Yet,
in the end, SGC resolved to "stand up
for the integrity of the University by pro-
tecting, the exercise of academic free-
dom."
THE INCREASING PRESSURE for cessa-
tion of the experimental film program
comes in the midst of a "highly emotion-
al" atmosphere at the University, the SGC
statement reads. "Many people feel that
showing the movie at this time could lead
to such a public furor that many of our
privileges and prized rights would be in-
fringed upon."
This is an honest fear, and no one
that endorsed SGC's final stand could
overlook its possibility. Yet the members
themselves asked the proper question in
response: "If our academic freedom is so
limited that the showing of one movie
can force its destruction, what do we ac-
complish by cancelling the movie - the
preservation of an extremely weak protec-
tion?"
Therefore, SGC rejected any possibil-
ity of requesting cancellation of the War-
hol films. Few if any had seen the film-
before; nor did the body cast itself in
the role of a board of film critics. If any-
thing, prior reviews of the film "Blow-
Job" indicate it is far from a pornograph-
ic picture.
In addition, SGC's action is a continua-
tion of its previous stands endorsing the
right of Cinema Guild to plan its own
schedule of what it feels are significant
films for the community.
THE STUDENTS, through their elected
representatives, have made their stand
clear. It is a statement of principles
fundamental to a free academic commu-
nity. One can only hope that the other
members of the University will exercise
the same wisdom in making their deci-
sions.
-ROBERT KLIVANS
By RONALD BAN
Last of a Two-Part Series
IN THE INDIAN state of West
Bengal, the Congress party is
split into two factions, and would
face sure defeat if the other par-
ties-the Maoist and Soviet ele-
ments of the Communist party,
the conservative Swantantra, and
the extreme Hinduist Jan Sangh
party-united. Earlier this merg-
ing was viewed as an impossibil-
ity; but now there are increasing
signs that the differences will be
resolved.
The situation in that northeast-
ern state is typical of the prob-
lems confronting Mrs. Ghandi's
splintered party in its bid to re-
tain state assemblies. At present,
Congress membership in the state
legislatures totals 1950 out of 3,-
247, giving it control in every
assembly.nCongress, however, is di-
vided in the problem states of
Uttar Pradesh (Mrs. Ghandi's
home province), West Bengal, Ke-
rala and Orissa. The latter was
the scene ofrthe recent stoning
of the prime minister.
THE SPLIT between Mrs. Ghan-
di and Kamaraswami Kamaraj,
the powerful Congress party chief-
tain; renewed efforts to boost the
status of former Finance Minis-
ter Mararji Desai; and the very
grave inflation that has hit the
country as the short-term result
of devaluation, have all contribut-
ed to this warring among the state
Congress parties. Moreover, there
is the potentially more alarming
threat to Congress in almost all
states. The Communists, though
largely unable to patch up their
internal feuds, have been able to
make political deals with all oth-
er opposition parties, including the
Swatantra, in an effort to wrest
control from Congress.
The one exception is in the
state of Kerala. It is generally con-
ceded that the badly fragmented
Congress party of Kerala will be
no match for the Communists.
However, this should be looked
upon as a vote for stability in light
of the mess the divided Congress
party has made in that state. Also,
a Communist victory would focus
government attention on this
surface, the party still gets mon-
ey and organizers from the out-
lawed R.S.S. which wants to re-
cover all lost territory from Paki-
stan and China. Jan Sangh is eas-
ily the best organized of all the
parties, but still is basically a
northern sectional party.
THERE ARE three national is-
sues in the campaign: high prices,
food shortages and cow slaugh-
ter. These, however, do not carry
as much weight in the state con-
tests as a wide assortment of local
issues.
In the state of Rajasthan, for
example. the big issue is govern-
ment corruption: while in Andhra
Pradesh most attention is focused
on the site of a proposed steel
plant. In fact 67 opposition mem-
bers in the local assembly resign-
ed in December over this issue.
OBSERVERS have noted a defi-
nite trend toward a reorganization
of India's political partiesdalong
ideolovical lines. This is due to
the inability of the Congress to
party to formulate a unified pro-
gram for tackling the nation's
staygering problems.
The realignment could lead to
the emergence ofthree factions
from the ruling party: a left to
absorb the socialists, a right to
include Jan Sarh and Swat-
antra, and a center emphasizing
democratic socialism.
.As Sundar Rajan, of The Re-
porter Magazine, notes: "Many
thoughtful Indians feel that a
transformation along these lines is
possibly overdue and that the Feb-
ruary election may provide a stim-
ulus in this direction. To this end,
they say, the best thing that could
happen to the party right now is
a few crucial setbacks."
MRS. GHANDI'S future is in
doubt. Even if Congress does not
suffer a massive setback. her re-
turn as prime minister next April
appears more and more unlikely.
Probably the only hope she has-
short of an overwhelming Congress
victory-would be the failure of
party leaders to agree on anyone
to replace her.
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chronic area of starvation and un-
rest.
IN THE NORTH, the divided
Congress party is facing its prin-
cipal challenge not from the Com-
munists but from the right-par-
ticularly the Jan Sangh. In fact,
the major trend likely to result
from this election is a swing to-
ward conservatism. Many thought-
ful Indians fear the Jan Sangh's
rising strength as reflecting a re-
turn to communalism and the
bloody Moslem-Hindu riots of ear-
ly independence in the late 1940's.
As J. Anthony Lukas of The
New York Times shows, this party
is an outgrowth of the R.S.S. (the
extreme Hindu party banned in
1947), one of whose members as-
sassinated the prophet-leader Ma-
hatma Ghandi for being too soft
on the Moslems. Twenty years ago,
Jan Sangh support was in Ben-
gal, Punjab and Bombay state,
the partition provinces with large
Moslem minorities. Today, how-
ever, its strength lies in Orissa,
Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pra-
desh, where it already provides
the major opposition to Congress.
Jan Sangh's appeal has changed
from militant anti-Moslemism to
cultural anti-Westernism and an-
ti-modernism. Therefore its sup-
port is in the area of least contact
with Westernism, the North; and
is weakest in the region of large
Western influence and few Mos-
lems, the South.
Domestically it stresses past
Hindu glories and Hindu super-
iority, but in foreign policy it is
pro-West. Though moderate on the
A9
Lord Russell Reconsidered
CBS AND NBC lied to us.
Last Wednesday the two television
networks released statements explaining
why they turned down an offer from Ber-
trand Russell's peace foundation, which
is planning a war crimes trial for Ameri-
can leaders. The following day their state-
ments were on the' front of The New York
Times.
They said that the foundation had of-
fered them the right to bring camera
crews into North Vietnam. For a fee, that
is. And if that wasn't enough to shock
the sensibilities of General Sarnoff, they
claimed that foxy old Bertrand had de-
manded the right to censor their movies.
CBS and NBC, keeping the public in-
terest in their hearts, decided that even
though they would really like to go to
Hanoi, they just couldn't do it in such an
underhanded way. It wouldn't be fair to
the public, they said, to allow such an
obviously partial group to control the
photographs of Hanoi.
EVERYONE WAS very happy with the
responsible choice that CBS and NBC-
made. An editorial in The Daily said "it
is a good sign that a desire for profit
has not outweighed their sense of re-
sponsibility as reporters of news."
And, of course, everyone was very dis-
appointed with Bertrand Russell.
Well, it seems that the networks aren't
quite as pure as everyone thought. The
Peace Foundation issued a public state-
ment on Sunday denying that they had
requested money from the networks, or
had wanted to censor the networks' film,
or had ever suggested that the network
accompany them to North Vietnam in the
first place. The following day, their state-
ment was back on page 14 of the New
York Times.
A CBS spokesman verified the truth of
the foundation's statement. He explain-
ed that the real reason networks stopped
trying to accompany Russell's group to
Hanoi was their own insistence that there
be "no possible suggestion of CBS iden-
tification with the foundation." It is a
bad sign when a desire to maintain an
image interferes with desire to report all
the news.
It's a bad sign when the networks must
deliberately distort events in order to
support their position.
And it's a very bad sign when the net-
works can pull a stunt like this and come
out smelling like a hothouse rose.
EVERYONE STILL THINKS that foxy
old (he'll be 95 in May) Bertrand Rus-
sell was trying to put a fast one over on
the American people. And everyone still
thinks that General Sarnoff has struck
another blow for Truth, Justice and The
American Way.
It seems that nobody reads the 14th
page of the New York Times these days.
-JOHN GRAY
Letters:The Daily and the Board-in-Control
To the Editor:
AS A FORMER Daily staff mem-
ber (1934-38) and a member of
the faculty, I was disturbed to
read recently of the proposal by
the Board in Control of Student
Publications that The Daily be
investigated by a faculty commit-
tee. The reason given-". . . there
is a substantial question as to
whether The Michigan Daily ade-
quately answers the developing
need for intra-university commu-
nication. .."-is neither clear nor
specific considering the seriousness
of the step the board proposes.
I find equally disturbing the
board's decision to reject the sen-
ior editors' unanimous recommen-
dations for next year's staff mem-
bers. Let me speak briefly of the
qualifications of the one I know
best, Roger Rapoport, the staff's
unanimous choice for editor.
For the past four years I have
served as a judge of The Daily's
annual staff writing contest. Each
staff member may submit speci-
mens of his work in several cate-
gories: editorials, news stories, edi-
torial features and news features.
The panel of three faculty judges
selects the best work in each cate-
gory and prizes are awarded.
IN MY CAPACITY as judge, I
have read and re-read hundreds of
Daily stories. I have great respect
for the abilities of the students
who comprise The Daily staff;
they are probably the most alert,
vital group of students on this
campus, year in and year out. But
even among these unusually able
students, Roger Rapoport has stood
out. The judges in the annual con-
tests have repeatedly selected work
by Mr. Rapoport in the various
categories for the highest awards,
an unusual honor. Clearly, he is
an unusually able college journal-
ist. His stories are carefully re-
searched and written with admir-
able combination of wit, under-
standing and responsibility.
Why is the board proposing an
investigation of one of the finest
college dailies in the U.S.? Why
is the board rejecting the unani-
mous recommendation of the staff
for its next editor?
I feel The Daily's merits and
Mr. Rapoport's merits arepublic
knowledge. It's the board I'm
worried about.
--Robert P. Weeks
Professor of English
Interference
To the Editor:
THE LEAD ARTICLE in the Feb-
ruary 21 Daily, reporting the
refusal of the Board in Control
of Student Publications to accept
Roger Rapoport as editor, some-
how neglected to give (or even
speculate on) the reasons for this
refusal. I assume the action was
its flaming adolescence-its readi-
ness to sacrifice persuasion and the
possibility of real results for the
pleasure of heroic idealism, or
(even better) heroic martyrdom.
But neither irresponsibility nor
juvenility are as important as edi-
torial freedom, a freedom mocked
by the mere existence of the Board
in Control of Student Publications.
Even were Rapoport a howling
infant or a Rockwell storm troop-
er, the board would have no busi-
ness sticking its fingers into the
internal affairs of The Daily.
I WANT TO ADD my voice to
those on The Daily staff who
might favor stopping 'publication
until the board approves Rapoport.
(I assume. that killing the board
altogether is impossible, because of
the duty of the University to the
people of Michigan, or some such
legal piety.)
Obviously The Daily holds a
strategic advantage in this situa-
tion. The University, administra-
tion and faculty included, needs
a daily newspaper; and it is hard
to believe that the administration
would go to the trouble of set-
ting up a bootleg sheet to re-
place a temporarily struck Daily.
By refusing to publish until the
board accepts Rapoport, The Daily
could, I believe, both win the pres-
ent argument and set a precedent
that would permanently reduce
the board's intrusive powers.
THE CLICHES about the news-
paper's duty to the public have no
force here. Discomfiting the Uni-
versity community for a few days
or weeks would in this instance be
a way of ensuring improved serv-
ice to the University for years
to come. The principle of giving
up immediate glories (such as the
glories of tossing a still-publish-
ing Daily in the teeth of its tor-
mentors) in the interests of long-
range realities is one The Daily
should have learned long ago. It
can do itself and the University
a big favor by learning it now.
I hope I won't see The Daily on
my doorstep until the board
knuckles.
-Gene Leach, Grad
Vijolation
To the Editor:
I FEEL that the University ad-
ministration has once again
violated its contract not only with
the faculty and students of this
university but with the surround-
ing community. It is, therefore,
about time someone reminded them
of the reasons for their existence.
A university, gentlemen, is an
educational institution.
Now, gentlemen, the purpose of
an educational institution is that
of educating the students, not of
filling society's quotas for trained
people. Ultimately, it is the uni-
must have the right to make mis-
takes and errors of judgment. That
such mistakes will be made is an
obvious concommitant of research.
THUS, if the film "Flaming
Creatures" is, in truth, in moral
or artistic error, then it is such
a mistake. Yet this does not ren-
der the experiment itself value-
less nor does it mean that the
motives of its creators, the peo-
ple who showed it or those who
saw, it are, a fortiori, suspect.
"Sinfulness," like beauty, is in
the eye of the beholder; imputa-
tion of "anti-social" motivations to
such experimenters comes close to
paranoia.
Secondly, it is the role of the
administration to coordinate the
diverse activities on the campus
and act as an intermediary be-
tween the university community
and the larger social body of the
"people of the state of Michigan."
Notice I said intermediary and not
as a eunuch for the "people" with
respect to the "harem" of the
university community.
This means, gentlemen, that you,
the administration, must either
take a clear, reasonable stance with
regards to your role as inter-
mediary and accept your respon-
sibilities to us as students or ac-
cept the contempt and intractabil-
ity that you have thus far earned.
You cannot expect our coopera.
tion unless you are willing to de-
fend our freedoms from the
harassment of misguided individ-
uals (both within and without the
university) while exemplifying the
moral principles that you are sup-
posed to be teaching us.
If the present ethic of triple-
talk which you show us is your
ideal, that's your problem; but we
don't buy it. We value integrity
and the courage of -our convic-
tions too much to leave them in
the hands of a group of men who
have shown us neither. Therefore,
either act for us or stop interfer-
ring with our efforts to protect our
own best interest and those of the
university,
-Ronald S. Westman, '67
Obscene
To the Editor:
HAVING READ the legal des-
cription of the material con-
tained in the recent University of
Michigan Cinema Guild showing
of "Flaming Creatures." we, the
members of the University of'dMi-
chigan Alumni Wrestling Club,
are both outraged and incensed.
The film is beyond a doubt por-
nographic, lewd, an insult to all
human dignity and below the
realm of moral decency. The film
should be condemned not only by
the University of Michigan, but
also by the Ann Arbor 'ommunity.
Although the University admin-
require the, utmost 4n restraint
and responsibility,. we urge the
University authorities to take ev-
ery precaution that similar films
do not appear on campus. The
showing of "Flaming Creatures"
goes even beyond the writing of
obscene words on lavoratory walls.
It behooves the University ad-
ministration to adhere to the laws
of common decency and to cooper-
ate with local police to uphold the
moral dignity of the Ann Arbor
community.
-Robert Betzig, '49
Pres., University of
Michigan Wrestling
Alumni Club
Freedom
To the Editor:
TH E ENGINEERING faculty
takes "common decency" as its
moral standard. (Does it take
common sense as its test of sci-
ence?) But it seems to me that the
exhibition of pornography to those
who choose to look is virtuous
when it enhances freedom by ex-
ercising it. And this freedom, es-
pecially, is likely to be strengthen-
ed through practice, as custom
dulls the shock which contributes
to its suppression.
I DARE SAY that civilized man
cannot live in dignity without the
possession of or the struggle for
freedom to do anything which
does not produce a clear and pre-
sent danger to others. If viewing
pornography w e r e dangerous,
would the armed policemen who
censor it be allowed to roam the
streets? And, yes, there are more
important freedoms than to view
aquestionable art-more important
freedoms than to eat questionable
food at southern lunch counters,
or than not to wear a yellow badge.
-Morris F. Friedell
Department of Sociology
Commendation
To the Editor:
I WANT to commend publicly both
the President of the Universi-
ty of Michigan, Harlan Hatcher;
and the University's School of En-
gineering faculty for their recent
statements about the Cinema
Guild showing and' the Ann Arbor
police seizure of the film "Flam-
ing Creatures."
Both statements show appropri-
ate concern for the American right
of free inquiry. 'Both statements
also make clear that their authors
want the administration, faculty
and students (and, I would add,
members of the wider community)
to be open to the active influence
of one another in matters of taste.
And both statements are clear in
drawing the difference between
desirable influence processes and
undesirable censorship and sup-
pression.
It is easy to support free inquiry
when it falls well within one's own
sense of good taste. President
Hatcher and the engineering fac-
ulty are to be congratulated for
defending the right of free in-
quiry even when they feel that
right has been abused.
-Martin Gold
Institute for Social Research
and Dept. of Psychology
LETTERS
All letters must be typed,
double-spaced and should be no
longer than 300 words. All let-
ters are subject to editing;
those over 300 words will gen-
erally be shortened.
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Bernard B.* Fall, 1927-1967
PROF. BERNARD B. FALL, journalist-
historian, widely regarded as the fore-
most Western expert on Vietnam, was
killed in action yesterday. He was cover-
ing an operation with U.S. Marines-one
of many similar field trips that had tak-
en him to many parts of Vietnam during
more than 20 years of reporting. His ex-
perience spanned the whole sorry era of
Vietnamese conflict - from the eve of
French colonialism at the battle of Dien-
bienphu, through the Diem regime, to the
military presence of some 400,000 Ameri-
can troops. He was one of the few West-
erners to have interviewed Ho Chi Minh,
and was the recipient of numerous
awards.
Fall, 40, was an advisor to Presidents,
although his works-"Street Without
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service.
Joy," "Vietnam Witness," "Hell in a Very
Small Place" and others-were frankly
critical of the role the U.S. was playing
in Asia.
Only a year ago, Lyndon Johnson asked
him for a memorandum after the Hono-
lulu conference with South Vietnamese
leaders who had been opposing negotia-
tions with the Viet Cong. In his subse-
quent report, Fall was quoted as saying
that the National Liberation Front was
controlled by the North, but that the
United States should treat it as a separate
entity.
He argued that Americans would al-
ways be regarded as interlopers-as six
foot tall foreigners trying to dominate
five foot Vietnamese peasants.
HIS CONTENTION, partly shaped by his
French background, was that the U.S.
had initially misread the situation, and
had been sucked into an unfortunate
morass.
Fall, a tragic victim of an unusual war,
will be sorely missed. His perceptive an-
alyses, however, will continue to exert
n narat.rv nftinCnP nn tmhpmL-rning-
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