m
Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
.'.''.'..'.'.'. .. . ...... .'....'.....
ROGER RAPOPORT:
A Black Looks ata WhiteWorlId
............:'1 JJ:.4:': .... . *. ..*.*. . *.*. * . *. . ...:"'".... ,. ..... ..,...Y .. . . ....,... .
.... .. .411,...n...,L;-.. . ............ {:...4...,.... :4.... . . . . . .
.n.**.*............... . . . .. .. "".. . . . . . ... ... .. .."..1..::4... .. .":: ' : :: ..:...... ...
Where Opinions ArFee, 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.
SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: NEAL BRUSS
Consular Treaty Debate
Displays Fear and Mistrust
THE CONSULAR TREATY, which would
establish a Soviet consulate in the
United States in exchange for similar
American privileges in Russia, was con-
ceived as a display of good faith and sin-
cere interest in peaceful relations between
the two nations.
But an effort to kill the treaty pro-
posal by amending it to death in the Sen-
ate has, instead, made it a display of
fear and mistrust on our part.
The issue at point is a provision of the
treaty which will grant full diplomatic
immunity to consuls and their aides while
they are in the United States. The pro-
posal is meeting heavy resistance from
Senate conservatives who wish to make
sure that full immunity is not granted to
any more Soviet citizens than Ambassa-
dor Anatoly Dobrynin, presently the only
diplomatically immune Soviet in the
country. There are currently over 800 So-
viet representatives in this country, most
of whom are connected with the United
Nations, but they receive immunity only
from misdemeanor charges.
THE STRATEGY to defeat the treaty is
to amend it, striking the clauses which
grant full immunity. This would make it
unacceptable to the Soviet Union as well
as the United States. As Sen. Jacob K.
Javits (R-NY) said, America will definite-
ly not set up a consulate in Russia unless
its personnel has full immunity.
The reasoning behind amendment, as
one senator explained, is that "we 'think
It is wrong to give the Soviet Union a
privilege not granted to other nations."
But it is clear that the real reasoning be-
hind the move is that we would rather
not give any Communists free rein in
this country because we fear they will be
sent to carry out espionage activities.
So, while we have made advances in
understanding with the Soviets and ex-
pect them to bargain in good faith with
us on such issues as the nuclear weapons
ban and a space explorations pact, the
Senate action shows that there still exists
a deep distrust of their motives in this
country.
The treaty was saved by just three votes
this week as 57 senators upheld the trea-
ty as it stands and 26 voted for amend-
ment. (The treaty will need approval by
two-thirds of the Senate for passage.)
These 26 senators have done a great deal
of harm to our relationship with the So-
viet Union.
THE TREATY should be considered on
its own merits. There is much to be
said for the establishment of consulates
in both countries because the recent
opening of transportation routes between
Moscow and New York will bring about
more exchange of citizens who will need
representation. Consulates will also be
valuable sources for exchange of ideas.
But whether or not the current treaty
proposals are acceptable should be de-
cided after proper discussion through nor-
mal legislative channels and not on the
basis of one clause.
-WALLACE IMMEN
"MAN, WHEN I first came up here I expected this
place to be utopia,"' says Knox Tull, '67 E, one of
the University's 450 Negro students.
"But when my dad and I pulled in to Ann Arbor
in the fall of 1964, we found this sophisticated, intel-
lectual city had essentially the same discriminatory en-
vironment I thought I'd left behind in Virginia."
"We saw that it was still the Negroes who were
getting bad wages for scrubbing floors, washing the
dishes, and collecting the garbage. I discovered that
Negroes here get about the same treatment they do in
the South."
What irks Tull is that the situation has changed
little during his three years here. "I haven't enjoyed
living here and I don't want to come back for alumni
reunions," he says.
"I tell my friends not to come here unless you want
to be surrounded by a bunch of phony white people."
WORDS LIKE THAT probably come as a surprise to
Tull's many white student and faculty friends here. For
he is an easy-going 22 year-old who is always joking
and seldom has a harsh word for anyone. He says he's
"not bitter because no one made me come here. I got
exactly what I came here for, a good challenging edu-
cation."'
But when you press him about what life is like for
one of the 1.5 per cent Negro minority at the University,
he comes forth with some blunt answers.
"The University is just like the rest of white America
-they don't really want Negroes. Sure they have a few
of us around here so that the government won't get mad
and cut off defense contracts. But that doesn't mean
anything."
"Mostly the intellectuals here just sit around cross-
legged and talk about civil rights. They don't do any-
thing. Sure there are symposiums on the urban ghetto but
that isn't going to change anything-the Negroes will
still sweep up the floor after the well-meaning liberals
go home.
"The fact is that it's not economically feasible to do
what the liberals say they want to do for the Negro.
American society is built on exploiting the Negro."
TULL SAYS THAT until "you start talking about
paying the Negro Mississippi cotton workers the $20 a
day they deserve instead of the $3 a day they're getting,
civil rights is irrelevant."
"Of course if they started paying good wages instead
of $3 a day then the price of cotton is going to zoom.
Then the white man's pocket book is going to clash with
his great liberalism. And you know which one is going
to win out."
With a structural engineering degree in hand this
August, Tull will have a choice of jobs with dozens of
top firms all crying for Negro employees that would
offer him a sure place in the white establishment.
But Tull, who wants to work independently, isn't
excited. He doesn't want to live in a white suburb. "The
people in Cicero aren't good enough to live in my
neighborhood."
TULL ISN'T MAD at the University itself. Rather he
sees himself immersed in the white establishment which
just isn't for him-"It's not my bag."
White life in Ann Arbor has turned him off. "I
think the people in this environment are the most cul-
turally deprived of any I met."
"The average white kid here is protected from the
real world. He's never struggled. His father has given
him everything. In my neighborhood the fish man, and
vegetable man and the rag man would all come through,
and there would always be people laughing and singing.
People weren't rich but they were happy.
"But in the average white neighborhood everything
is quiet and sedate-I don't think they've found the
brotherhood and togetherness I've known," he says. "A
big car and a ranch house do not mean culture."
TULL ALSO THINKS white students here take
themselves too seriously.
"When I went back home to work at a restaurant
after finishing my first year here," says Tull, "my
friend George Scott asked me what the average rich
white boy talks about at Michigan."
"I told him that he asks himself 'Who am I and
where am I going.'"
"George pondered a bit and then said, 'I'm George
Scott and I'm going to hell if I don't pray.' "
"Pretty soon all the guys waiting tables picked up
the phrase and it became a standing joke. Guys would
come up to each other and ask 'Who am I and where
I going?' Usually they'd say I'm so and so and I'm
going home to eat dinner or start my car.'"
Tull is somewhat skeptical of the Ann Arbor tutorial
project where University students work with poor Negro
children."
"Supposedly culturally deprived Negroes are being
cultured by white college students. These little kids may
be poor and broke but they are happy and have culture
and environment of their own. Just because they are
being put in the white man's environment doesn't mean
they are being cultured."
"I'm not culturally deprived either," says Tull. "I'm
proud of my heritage and my environment that I grew
up in-even if it wasn' the most pleasant place in the
world."
"Just because I don't associate with whites and
mainstream America doesn't mean I'm culturally de-
prived. From what I've seen so far of mainstream white
America-it's a very sterile world. I don't want to be
assimilated into it.
"THIS ENVIRONMENT constrains emotion and
feeling. People in this white world have a cutthroat dog
eat dog attitude. Everyone is trying desperately to get
ahead. I'm not knocking it or anything, but I just can't
live like that.
"There are few friendly people in white America.
Everyone has an angle. He wants you to vote for him or
play in his football game."
Thus, despite his generally friendly relations with
whites here, Tull has tended to stay with his Negro
friends and culture. "Those TG's and the Canterbury
House aren't for me.
"I want to stay in my own Negro culture, my own
idiom. I like Saturday night fish fries, and the pool
room."
"Sometimes," says Tull, "I feel sorry for the white
kids.
"They've been stuck with roast beef and steak. All
their lives they've been denied my good food-pork
chops, black-eyed peas, neck bones, hush puppies,
pickled pigs feet and chitterlings.
4
I
4
The Atomic Spy Who Never Was?
'4
'The World's Greatest Newspaper'
By DAVID DUBOFF
FEB. 14 the Federal District
Court in New York denied
Morton Sobell's petition for a ju-
dicial hearing at which he might
present charges that the govern-
ment's case against him was per-
meated by fraud.
Sobell, now in his 17th year of
imprisonment on a 30-year sen-
tence for "conspiracy to commit
espionage," remains a living re-
minder of the tragedy that sur-
rounded the deaths of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg in what has been
termed the most sensational court
case of the twentieth century.
Although he was never implicated
in the atomic bomb spy con-
spiracy that sent the Rosenbergs
to the electric chair, Sobell was
tried as a co-defendant and was
given the maximum sentence for
his crime. The verdict is revealing
itself more and more a result of
the mass hysteria that surrounded
the trial.
Until recently, Sobell's appeals
for a retrial and for a pardon have
been based on his claim that he
was not a part of the atomic plot
and was unfairly handicapped by
being forced to stand trial with
the Rosenbergs. Moreover, in 1965
a book by Walter and Miriam
Schneir. "Invitation to an In-
quest," 'brought to light evidence
that casts doubt on the guilt of
the Rosenbergs themselves.
Federal law provides that a
prisoner who can present suffi-
cient evidence to show that his
constitutional rights may have
been violated shall be granted a
hearing at which he may seek his
immediate freedom or a new trial.
At this hearing he may subpoena
witnesses and records to prove his
charges. Sobell has never been
granted such a hearing, despite
repeated applications on various
grounds over the years.
THE FIRST HALF of the recent
petition for a new trial charged
that the prosecution had, by "false
testimony and evidence and other
deceptive and fraudulent devices"
established in the minds of the
jurors that the defendants had
stolen the so-called secret of the
atomic bomb.
This belief was said to have so
prejudiced and awed the jurors as
to have made them completely
receptive to the testimony of
David Greenglass, Ethel Rosen-
berg's brother, and Harry Gold,
the only two witnesses who pro-
vided evidence of the Rosenbergs'
involvement in the atom-spy ring.
At the trial, the prosecution pro-
duced a sketch of a "cross-section
of the atom bomb"-which Green-
glass testified was a copy of a
sketch he had passed to the Ros-
enbergs-and called as an expert
witness to authenticate it John A.
Derry, an employe of the Atomic
Energy Commission. Though
neither Derry nor anyone else
ever testified as an official of the
AEC, the prosecution is said to
have "falsely represented and im-
ported" that the sketch and tes-
timony had the "imprimatur of
authenticity and accuracy" of the
commission members seated at the
prosecution's table.
The government also read to the
jury a list of witnesses who would
be called, including Harold C.
Urey and the late J. Robert Op-,
penheimer, both leading scientists
involved in the development of the
bomb. Though none of these wit-
nesses were ever called (both Urey
and Oppenheimer have stated that
they were never, asked to testify
and had not been aware that their
names were on the witness list),
the implication was that they had
expressed to the government their
agreement with the prosecution's
case,
SOBELL'S PETITION was back-
ed by long affidavits from scient-
its, who commented on the Green-
glass sketch, which has finally
been unimpounded. (At the trial,
defense attorney Emanuel Bloch
was led to the error of requesting
that the sketch and related testi-
money by Greenglass be impound-
ed, fearing that under the coach-
ing of the government Greenglass
may have produced an accurate
representation of the Nagasaki
bomb that could incriminate the
Rosenbergs.)
Dr. Philip Morrison took issue
with Derry's qualifications as an
expert and called the Greenglass
sketch a caricature, terming
Greenglass' testimony "confused
and imprecise."
Dr. Henry Linschitz, one of a
small group of scientists who ac-
tually assembled the Nagasaki
bomb, described the sketch and
testimony as "garbled, ambiguous,
and highly incomplete." He said,
"It is not possible in any techno-
logically useful way to condense
the results of a two-billion dollar
development into a diagram drawn
by a high school graduate machin-
ist on a single sheet of paper."
Judge Edward Weinfeld, in his
79-page opinion on Sobell's peti-
tion, termed the present criticism
of the Greenglass sketch and testi-
money "irrelevant" since there was
no assertion by the government
that Greenglass had obtained any
"definitive documents" or that he
was a "scientific expert."
And yet, despite the legal import
of the judge's opinion, it ignores
Sobell's argument that the trial
record shows that the government
repeatedly urged the view that the
Greenglass material encompassed
the then widely-believed in-"secret
of the atomic bomb."
THE FACT THAT the Green-
glass testimony was instrumental
in the Rosenbergs' conviction is
hardly disputable. In his opening
to the jury, U.S. attorney Irving
Saypol said: "We will prove that
the Rosenbergs devised and put
into operation . . . an elaborate
delivered them to the Soviet
Union."
Moreover, Judge Kaufman, who
heard the same testimony as the
jurors, said in sentencing the Ros-
enbergs to death that their'"con-
duct in putting into the hands of
the Russians the A-bomb years be-
fore our best scientists predicted
Russia would perfect the bomb has
already caused, in my opinion, the
communist aggression in Korea
." And yet, though the trial oc-
curred during the Korean War,
and at the height of McCarthy-
ism, Weinfeld said last month that
the degree of importance and ac-
curacy of the Greenglass material
was irrelevant to the case.
Sobell's petition also charged
that the government knowingly
permitted Greenglass and Gold to
give prejured testimony as to a
June 3, 1945 meeting between
them in Albuquerque and cor-
roborated this prejury through a
forged Hilton Hotel registrationy
card entered into evidence in the
form of a photostat. The charge is
backed up by considerable evi-
dence: testimony of a handwriting
expert indicates that the initials
of the hotel clerk on the card were
a forgery, the date-time stamp on
the card is at variance with the
testimony, and pre-trial record-
ings and other communications
between Gold and his attorneys
show that, prior to the arrest of
Greenglass, Gold's testimony con-
tained none of the details that the
prosecution termed the "necessary
link in the chain that points in-
disputedly to the guilt of the
Rosenbergs."
NOT ONLY IS there such com-
pelling evidence that the Rosen-
bergs were framed, in which event
there would be no case against
Sobell, but there is also consider-
able doubt that if there were a
conspiracy, Sobell was involved in
it.
The only witness implicating
Sobell in the spy ring was his
friend Max Elitcher, a convicted
perjuror. The extent of Elitcher's
testimony concerning Sobell was
that he had been approached by
Sobell about procuring informa-
tion for the Soviet Union, and that
one night he had ridden with So-
bell to a spot which appeared to
be near the Rosenbergs' home, that
Sobell had with him what looked
like a film can, and that when
Sobell returned after a few min-
utes wally he no longer had the
can.
Such evidence hardly seems con-
vincing proof of a crime meriting
a 30-year sentence. Nor does the
prosecution's claim that Sobell
travelled to Mexico in an attempt
to leave the continent, following
a pre-arranged flight plan. True,
Sobell did travel around Mexico
using aliases and seeking travel
information, but when one realizes
that this occurred shortly after the
round-up of "communist spies"
began, and Sobell knew that he
had left-wing connections, his be-
havior in Mexico begins to look
more like the irrational actions of
a frightened man rather than the
following of a flight plan.
DURING THE past 15 years
many distinguished world figures
have joined Helen Sobell's plea
for her husband's freedom. Among
them have been Nobel Laureates
Harold Urey and Linus Pauling,
Lord Bertrand Russel, Queen Eliz-
abeth, and the Queen-mother of
Belgium.
Despite the severity of his sen-
tence in light of the shaky evi-
dence against him and the cir-
cumstances surrounding the trial,
Sobell's petitions for parole have
been denied, as have his appeals
for a pardon to each new Presi-
dent.\
. And now, faced with the possi-
bility that the Rosenbergs, with
whom Sobell is intricately tied,
may not have been guilty at all,
it seems only fair that a new trial
should be granted to settle the
long-standing doubts and correct
any injustice that may have been
done.
The only plausible reason why
this has not been done is that the
government is afraid that a new
trial would prove once and for all
that the Rosenbergs were framed
by the Justice Department in an
attempt to smear the left-wing
movement. Such a revelation at
this time-in the midst of protest
against the Viet Nam War-could
prove extremely detrimental to the
administration politically.
And yet, as long as Morton So-
bell remains incarcerated, the
doubts about his guilt will linger
on, his lawyers will continue the
battle, and he will thereby serve
as a living monument to the
martyrdom of the Rosenbergs.
1
Providing Legal Services
STUDENT GOVERNMENT Council on
Thursday night created a student le-
gal service, something that University
students have needed for a long time. The
service, which will provide readily avail-
able legal consultation at a low cost,
gives students an opportunity that they
have not had in the past to receive ad-
vice concerning their legal problems.
The service is to be established on a
two week trial basis beginning March 17
with its future hinging on the amount of
response that it receives.
Students using the service will be
charged two dollars for a 15 minute ap-
pointment with an attorney whom the
service has retained. This fee is far be-
low what a student would have to pay if
he consulted a lawyer on his own. The
service will only provide advice about stu-
dent's legal rights. Of course, any further
action that is taken concerning the prob-
lem will have to be handled by the stu-
dent at his own expense.
The service should be most valuable to
those students who have problems con-
cerning apartment contract fulfillment,
damage deposits and other types of ques-
tions about landlord-tenant relationships.
In the past the landlords have been al-
most unchecked in their actions because
students had neither the time nor the
money to consult a lawyer about their
rights. The legal service should alleviate
this situation.
THE SERVICE will also provide students
...__ . .. . . - J . . . _
MORTON SOBELL
scheme which enabled them to
steal through David Greenglass
this one weapon which might hold
the key to the survival of this na-
tion and means the peace of the
world, the atomic bomb."
Again, in his summation, Say-
pol stated: "We know that these
conspirators stole the most impor-
tant scientific secrets ever known
to mankind from this country and
A
C, 4* id* ,gau -
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service.
Subscription rate: $4.50 semester by carrier ($5 by
mail; $8 for two semesters by carrier ($9 by mail).
Published at 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.,
48104.
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular
summer session.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor. Michigan.
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104.
Acting Editorial Staff
I
f.. ... .. .. . ..................... ..rJ ....a... A.... ...r.....t.... .... . ..r... ................ .......,..,....... .....................}..................... .....: .... .! ..1 .......... ........... . r
................... ........... . . ..r..... ..... ..... . . .... . . ............. .... ..,. . .., r. 4..,............ ...y' . . A +.r C '/ . } ,{ f y ! } .. .Xh .... .... .r"
Letters:* In Defense of Graduate Deferments
To the Editor:
THE RECENTLY proposed
change in our Selective Service
Act, aimed at eliminating the
many inequalities and "escape
clauses" under the present sys-
tem, unfortunately includes an al-
tnra-ii-mnrah ,,,fl thn hanP
suspension of graduate deferments
to be unnecessary; the problem has
been solved by the termination of
occupational deferments as well
as those for fathers.
Although this proposed change
solves no old problems, it creates
n- nnac Rth th nnni-- of
EQUALITY in the system could
be maintained, students could pur-
sue their graduate studies with-
out interruption, and the Army
could attract a large number of
specialists in various fields if one
addition were made to the propos-
ed Selective Service law. The
the advertisements by Army re-
cruiters in national magazines
have emphasized, the student who
continues his education is more
valuable to our armed forces than
he who interrupts his studies to
enter the military services.
-Joe Winer, '68
is committed to the policy of rn-
restraining Communism by limit-
ing the amount of land under its
domain, there can be no victory
under an "honorable withdrawal"
that leaves one inch of land claim-
ed by aggression under Communist
control.
I