.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. I .4 4 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. I '1 I 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- \, .t , ., t0 ., - -' U* '.j,* I i 7 ' 117Af I A " .. ., - i~, .1