Seuent)-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED RY STUDENTS OF TuF UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CoNTROL OF STUDFNT PUBLICATION! A Unique Experience in Group Living .Mae AM Free 4201 NAY ARD ST-. A\N ARBOR \tR II. llll NI-XV PHIO\F'764-055: Editorials printed mn The Michigan Vart, ex press the inidividnal o/unufns of staff unters o the editors. T'his rmwt be noted in all reprints. UIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1966 NIGHT EDITOR: MEREDITH EIKER } S yt t S 7 i Critic Leslie Fiedler: Stimulant for Discussion AMONG THE MANY disappointments which gave last year its lack-luster, was the unfortunate fact that Lomax didn't come. For those of you who missed the rather negative furor, Louis Lomax was to be -the feature of the revived pro- gram for a "Writer in Residence" at the University. Lomax's freak cancellation spoiled the attempt to bring the program back after a 40 year lapse since its last incarnation in the form of Robert Frost. A failure, after so much rust of time, might well have crushed any further at- tempts, but the concept of a Writer-in- Residence. has persisted. This is a credit to those students, last year and this, who have served on the selection committee, and to their sponsors scattered through- out the community. But, perhaps as a re- action to so many years of indifference, the Writer-in-Residence program has un- dergone sizable changes since the time of Mr. Frost. THIS YEAR'S "Writer-in-Residence" is Leslie Fiedler, a literary critic of na- tional reputation. It is certainlyno slur against Mr. Fielder to say that he is not a writer; to the full extent of that word. He is someone who writes. Moreover, Mr. Fiedler is a vocal social critic, seeking in literature the plight of minority groups -American Jews, Negroes and Indians. Seeing this, and using a little razor-sharp hindsight, we can discern a trend in the program. Mr. Lomax is another writer primarily interested in social and politi- cal America. The committee has stated that such men as Lomax and Fiedler have been se- lected for their "broader appeal." That is, as men involved in social controversy, they are expected to stir far more discus- sion in the University Community. They are not "too specialized." WE MAY WONDER just when, in the past 40 years, the University public bgan to feel uneasy with a purely liter- ary man. Has specialization gone so far that only a "controversy" can cover all the student body? Granted that such an, extensive program should engage a large audience; must corners be cut in order to please "everybody?" The authors currently making artistic noise are also making a great deal of so-t cial and political sense. After all, Mr. Fiedler has found his critical material in their work. Malamud and Barth, Bel- low and Albee-such men are vitally concerned with the drama of contempor- ary American life. Of course, the prob- ability of getting any one of these as Writer-in-Residence is not precisely vast. But there are other names, not yet notor- ious. The point is to find a union of inter- est and art. THE SELECTION committee has men- tioned a possible future full of such "young-authors-on-the-move." Their cur- rent caution is understandable after 40 fallow years. But unless the program is renamed "Interesting - People - in - Resi- dence," it seems doomed from the start. The fault, if we must point to one, lies in the strain of facing 30,000 unknown quantities. The committee just was not certain that a writer was quite interesting enough. In the "Writer-in-Residence" the same "mass-thinking" which infects such di- verse ends as television programming and University administration, seems to be once again at work., --LIZ WISSMAN By DAVID KNOKE First of a Three-Part Series ANNAPOLIS-This is the mad- dest odyssey I've ever been on. First came the two plane trips with a three hour holdover in Cleveland, hoping there would be standby room; then by cab and foot, dragging luggage and type- writer half way across the conti- nent until, in the glommering July evening, I stood at the en- trance to St. John's College. In a similar manner did 18 other col- lege journalists make the eastward trek. That was how it all began-six weeks at Annapolis in a "summer seminar" sponsored by the U.S. Student Press Association, ostensi- bly for the purpose of studying "issues in higher education" of relevance to student newspapers- or so I and 15 others had been told. The kids had all arrived by the second day. They came from ev- erywhere-Hawaii, Berkeley, Tex- as, the Rockies and Midwest, the Seven Sisters girls' schools-laden with talent, knowledgeability, Mer- it Scholarships. lack of summer jobs, boredom or curiosity, eager and apprehensive about the un- known experiences ahead. When they put both men and women in the same dorm (differ- ent floors, a concession to bath- room accommodation) and told us that the 150 other people sharing the campus and commons would speak to us only in Tagalog (Fili- pino language; they were Peace Corps trainees), we should have suspected that this was no ordi- nary educational seminar. BEFORE I FORGET, the mys- terious "they" who had arranged these esoteric maneuvers were Rita Dershowitz and Ken Winter. Rita works full time for the USSPA arranging similar weekend semi- nars around the country, but this six-week venture was the climax of a year's work. Someone once call- ed her the "youngest grant-swing- er in the country," no mean com- pliment, for she persuaded the Carnegie Corp. to pitch in with $55,000 worth of assistance. Ken, as most Daily readers of yore will recall, was managing edi- tor of this paper two years ago. He was co-leading the seminar with Rita, not improbably because the editor during his time, Buddy Berkson, was general secretary of USSPA in Washington. He was also irreconcilably original, admit- ting without duress that his cur- rent anarchist bent had resulted in the' unusual structure of the seminar that unfolded in later days. Oh yes, there was a third char- acter, Jerry Gold, whom we met in our T-groups the day after arriv- al. Gold is a professor of social psychology at NYU and over 30, but we learned to trust him. What are T-groups? Jerry was responsible for that innovation; T stands for "training" in sensi- tivity to other people's reactions to oneself. The groups are run on a pattern conceived by National Training Labs at Bethel, Maine, which have been used to help businessmen, workers and miscel- laneous groups adjust smoothly to each other. DIVIDED into two sections, we sat in separate conference rooms around a table, while a tape re- corder unwound its threat. Down at one corner sat Jerry. He told us that he would not lead a for- mal discussion, then leaned back and clammed up. When the silence became painful, someone started talking about the weather and soon there was a debate raging. about the civil rights movement. Suddenly Jerry's whispered tones, "Is this what you really want to talk about?" stopped everyone in mid-gesture. A simple request, yet with great implications for the course of the T-session. "Well, what are we supposed to talk about?" asked one girl. "Why shouldn't we talk about civil rights?" Ken Winter later tried to put into words his impressions of this crucial turning point from topic- centered to group-centered discus- sion. "If not civil rights, then what? Some other public 'issue?' No- if not that, then what? Talk about ourselves. People usually do that and it's usually dull ... talk about ourslves, as we are acting and feeling here and now. Is that a subject at all?-isn't there an infinite regression: I talk about myself talking about myself talking about myself ... "No, as it turns out: I am feeling things all along; you are having an effect on me and I on you. And I can tell you, and you me. And when we do that, not running out of the room or hid- ing behind our defenses, rich and unpredictable things hap- pen: I find there is not a void inside me, nor one inside you; those dark and tangled events in there begin to make sense. This is worth doing, and you (whom, in other milieux, I would have been content to place in some abstract category and thense ignore) are worth doing it with. There is something go- ing on here and now: me! - why, until now, did I always at- tend only to the public, the ab- stract, the distant?" AS WE PURSUED these problems in several two-hour sessions over the week, the room became the world-to be ambivalently feared and sought after each day, as bar- riers to honesty and trust broke down or armor became welded more tightly than ever. With no rules, no ex-officia leadership, no pre-established so- cial order, we grappled with pri- mary problems of social structure and interpersonal relationships. We tried on roles, dared to ex- pose secret natures, laughed, cried, attempted-perhaps foolishly, per- haps sincerely-to communicate by physical touch, by ESP. "I think you're superficial; you're trying to manipulate every- one in this room." Words that might provoke anger and a walkout, instead created deep concern in the accused that the others are misunderstanding and imputing his motives. There follows a group discussion on why we form opinions about other peo- ple on incomplete evidence. Or how it is very possible, in trying to reach out and touch another, unwittingly to injure a third on- looker who empathizes with one he thinks you are abusing. "AS CHARLIE Brown would say about considering all the effects of any action, 'the theological im- plications are astounding'!" This came from one editor after we were emotionally wrung from a particular T-session. Later we would speculate how desirable it might be to use T-groups for freshman orientation to introduce frightened new students to the warm college community hidden beneath the impersonal multiversi- ty. T-groups had to end; indeed, their eventual termination was the one thing we could be sure about. For some they were revelatory and helped them to understand former inhibitions: for others the exper- ience was too swift and fright- ,ening. Everyone put on some or all of their shielding, but the con- sensus was that the group exper- ience made adjustment to the new environment easier. Jerry Gold had to say goodbye, and we set- tIed down to the weeks of guest speakers, study discussions, and serious (!) reading from our mag- nificent 250-volume educational Ii- brary. .4 I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Vivian Reaffirms HU4C Stand Ta the Fdi'or: AN ARTICLE whic'h was pub- lished on page one of The Daily. on Saturday, September 3, states that Mr. Michael Zweig, of the University of Michigan Eco- nomics Department. told a rally on the diag, on September 2, "Vi- vian refused his appeal to con- demn the HUAC hearings. . ." I should like to point out that I have expressed very specifically my dissatisfaction with the tac- tics of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, for on all three occasions that its requests for appropriations have come to the floor of the House during the 89th Congress, I have voted; on the record, to deny these appro- priations. On the first such occa- sion, on February 25, 1964, I ex- pressed my dews as follows: Mr. Speaker, today I vote against immediate concurrence by the House to the formal request for the year's appropriation for, the House Un-American Activities Committee. I do so partly because I believed the amount requested by the Committee to be exdessive, but more because I am convinced that the time has come to curb the ill-used power of this com- mittee. The security of the United States is a valid and vital concern of the Congress; the Congress does have the obligation to protect the United Stftes from its few disloyal citizens who would conspire to overcome our Government by force or falsehood. But the House Un- American Activities Committee has been notoriously active this past decade in branding many persons as purveyors of falsehood, when in fact many of us considered other- wise. The committee should have been zealous in protecting the rights of citizens subpoenaed un- der its jurisdiction to speak free- ly and to offer criticisms and to dissent, for this right is the only true protection against falsehood. But such has not been the case. FOR THIS reason, I vote against this appropriation and will sup- port measures to transfer the functions of the Un-American Ac- tivities Committee to the House Judiciary Committee. The Judi- ciary Committee by virtue of its membership, staff, purview over administrative agencies and man- date from this body, does have the resources to serve the House and the Nation as our watchdog against false subversive propa- ganda; more important, for many years it has demonstrated its de- votion to upholding for every per- son our constitutional Bill of Rights. If the responsibilities of the Un- American Activities Committee can be transferred to the Judi- ciary Committee during the 89th Congress, I will support a supple- mental appropriation for the Ju- diciary Committee, if needed, to assure that any essential internal security surveillance may be car- ried on. I continue to believe to this date that this Committee all too often misuses its powers. And as I in- dicated to Mr. Zweig, I expect to continue to vote against appro- priations for the committee. -Weston E. Vivian Member of Congress Cou rse Evaluation To the Editor: PROF. R O N A L D FREEDMAN said yesterday: "The student evaluation booklet printed in last Tuesday's Daily gives a few students an opportun- ity to write anonymously sum- mary comments, based on grossly inadequate data, which may do serious damage to the professional careers of University teachers." Small world. The grades and credits printed on every semester's transcript give a few professors an opportunity to write anonymously summary comments, based on grossly inade- quate data, which may do serious damage to the professional careers of University students. -Kenneth Winter, Grad. 4 The 18-Year-Old Vote: Catching the Voters Young STUDENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL met last night to discuss the principle of the 18-year-old vote and their campaign for its passage by the people of Michi- gan on the November 8 ballot. There are two main arguments used. The first is the ancient cry "if we're old enough to fight, we're old enough to vote." While it is true that if one must accept the responsibilities of citizenship one should be able to exercise the rights of citizenship, it is ludicrous to equate vot- ing, a rational process, with fighting, an irrational act. However, the second argument is con- vincing and rational: if the 18-year-old were given the right to vote immediately after his high school civics course, he would be able to participate in the sys- tem with knowledge. The vote must be extended to the 18- year-old if he is to participate in the process of governing. The "old guard" of the two political parties must be rejuve- nated by young blood which can be most immediately brought in by allowing them to vote. A T THE PRESENT TIME, the span sep- arating the 18-year-old from the vot- ing machine renresents more than a mere time period: it represents a time in which his mind forms opinions based on newly found knowledge; he becomes in- volved in a career, college life, prospec- tive marriage. Surveys show that at the age of 30 he is often a non-voting voter because he feels he has better things to do. When he begins to feel the effects of govern- ment taxation, social security, education for his children and salary increases and decreases, then he pushes the lever and exercises his right to vote. President Johnson, speaking to Wash- ington's summer interns, voiced the theme of participatory democracy when Editorial Staff MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH, Editor BRUCE WASSERS'IEIN, Executive Editor CLARENCE FANTO HARVEY WASSERMAN Managing Editor Editorial Director JOHN MEREDITH .. Associate Managing Editor LEONARD PRATT . Associate Managing Editor BABETTE COHN . .,.... . Personnel Director he said "Justice means that every man should have a share in creating his own destiny,, justice means that those who live by the rules shall have a part in making those rules." He added that "student leaders and young citizens should have an important part in answering these questions"-the questions of government. THE STATE'S student leaders are at- tempting to gain the right to "have an important part in answering these ques- tions." ' In a political system such as ours, the major opportunity to answer questions is through the process of voting. The pep- ple's representatives appeal to the voter; it is the voter who determines much of his policy and therefore the policy of this country. The student body presidents of, Michi- gan's colleges and universities will meet at Wayne State University September 18 to plan their campaign. They would like, given enough monetary and volunteer support, to spread literature to the voters and have prominent politicians such as Robert Kennedy (D-NY) campaign. As Johnson said "Never has the day of the young person in government been so promising. And never has the need for able young, dedicated and trained people been more urgent and so promising." BECAUSE THE NEED is so urgent the SGC campaign should be supported so the 18-year-old can be allowed to vote, because, to paraphrase Johnson, our fel- low citizens have faith in the ability of young people not just to learn about our government, but to make a contribution to our government. -PAT O'DONOHUE Heavy Casualties LABOR DAY WEEKEND offers a wel- come end-of-the-summer break for people on nine-to-five, five-day week schedules. And, of course, every year peo- ple who are driving look to the weekend with expectation of a few hundred traf- fic deaths, but never their own, never one of their friends. This past weekend 636 Americans died on the highways. Poorly designed high- ways, unsafe automobiles, poorly trained or enxele r divers killed more neonle ..:~..,4. . . .' 3 3 ,. :r . .-s.' .$'..? . n , F ..F ...... r .. ...... } .... .HM ................. .. ...t :,... . .. .x . a ..,h : 1. t. .. :.' a'.ii , ' :. ," .t:.. . .......a . ... . ..... ... ... : ...... $..... . .. . .:. , .. :..t...... } ....."':,.,,...... ..... . .3 . .'{,T.. +" . .... ... .......... ... ..:. ... ... ... ... . . .......... ........ . 4 . ..... . . . .:. . . . . .. . ... ... . .... ...........t.F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................$..,\....,........... ....:...$.h:..........:......X........ ...... ... . . .. .. .. ... n.v. ... ... ..... ... ..... . ......................... ....... 2 . .:.:... ..C''2. .: A Malaysian Y Singapore:. Too Late?! EDITOR'S NOTE: This edi- torial first appeared in the May- July 1966 edition of Demos, the organ of the Democratic Social- ist Club at the University of Singapore. -S.S. BARELY THREE YEARS ago there were few who seriously doubted that Singapore and Ma- laysia by political, economic and military logic comprised one unit. Few doubted that merger would see the end of an historical dislo- cation. Subsequent developments in Malaysia and events since sep- aration are, however, enough to cause the most ardent advocate of reunification to reconsider his po- sition. He must try to resolve the paradox that, when the fates of the two territories were in the hands of the British, they strove to cooperate, but now that they are their own masters, they have chosen to pursue divergent, even conflicting, policies. Radical re-thinking on the des- tinies of Singapore and Malaysia over the next one or two decades must be done. The political, eco- nomicand military logic that we once assumed have not proved to be so conclusively logical, for, despite them, somehow the illogic of mutual antagonism between the two territories has prevailed against the logic of cooperation. Even with Singapore's separa- tion, few realized that the desti- nies of the two territories had changed. It was believed that with party recrimina'tions now out of the way, the two governments would be able to cooperate. The old thinking that fundamental po- litical, economic and military log- ic would compel both territories to work closely remained, but this has not been the case. Such optimism, in fact, hid two vital implications of separation. First, separation marked the fail- ure of the two governments to achieve any degree of cooperation in the 22 months since Malaysia Day. If anything, it served to un- derscore the incompatibility of the two governments. Secondly, sep- aration decisively committed both territories to different paths of de- velopment in the next 15 or 20 years-for the foreseeable future -during which distinct national identities would gradually emerge. old expectations will only provide grounds for continual conflict. IF THE TWO territories in two decades from today should come togther again, it would be in vast- ly changed circumstances and un- der vastly changed terms. The emotional, political, economic, mil- itary and international implica- tions would have changed. Noth- ing ever resembling the circum- stances and the terms that led to Malaysia in 1963 would come to pass again. We must expect a transformation in the approach, in the very nature of any re- combination of the two territories in the future. We can never go back to the old expectations, the old aspirations that led to merger in 1963. Whatever the new situa- tion separation has brought, how- ever bitter, however cruel, from the new situation we must go for- ward. This is the most important thing. Separation has brought about great changes In the relative posi- tions of the. two territories. There must be a radical reassessment of the relative positions of the two territories such that a reasonably firm basis for cooperation be- tween the two territories over the next decade or so can be con- structed. Now there are two separate and equal, independent and sovereign nations. Each government expects to be approached on this basis of equality. It is the only basis on which both governments will agree to cooperate. Thus there must be a systematic re-evaluation of the affinity of the two territories: for it is only out of this that a hap- pier relationship can be forged. THE DIFFERENCES that have set the two territories apart must be recognized. Ideology, for in- stance, distinguishes the two gov- ernments. Faced with different political and economic circum- stances, the political development of the two territories have pro- ceeded in different directions. The racial composition of the two pop- ulations are also different. Race- let us say it-is a more serious problem than many would admit. Before there can be any at- tempt at cooperation. politicians I _4 IN SEPTEMBER 1963 BRITISH AND MALAYAN NEGOTIATORS agreed to form a Federation of Ma- laysia embracing all of the former British Empire in southeast Asia, particularly Malaya, an independ- end Commonwealth member and Singapore, a semi-colonial territory. Traditional racial antagonisms between the Chinese and Malays had persisted from the time of formation of the federation. Violence flared in the summer of 1964 when Chinese and Malays clashed in the streets of Singapore during a Malay demonstration celebrating the birth of Mohammed. On Aug. 9, 1965 Singapore withdrew and became' an independent, sovereign nation, charging that the federation had forced her withdrawal. the two governments today are a continuation of the disagreements that arose while Singapore was still part of the Federation. The constant friction suggests that there are enduring causes-- the racial compositions, the different ideologies of the two territories- behind the conflict. Invitably the people in both ter- ritories come to question what they accepted for nearly two dec- ades after the war: that the ter- ritories share a common destiny. Once there was this implicit be- lief that both peoples would com- bine to form a single nationality, that they would accept a common government. So before merger it tva. fal a nnl Rri ,.h ta~.i ,. ments urged in favor of merger were, till the very day of separa- tion, confidently, if grimly, held on to. No one could accept that experience had begun to mock log- ic. But the dispute struckroots deeper than anyone ever dreamt. For those who believed that the two peoples formed a single na- tionality, separation was a trau- matic experience. After separation the gulf has, indeed, widened. As the old thinking has not prov- ed adequate, there must be a re- assessment of the destinies of the two territories. Relations between Singapore and Malaysia ever since merger have developed against all the expectations of the old think- ivrT_ f C r.n r n ~i-- - JTlrn- - cally workable as well. Such a re- lationship was never established. But there were complications. The dispute led to campaigning for popular support by the political parties. The issue at stake too changed. The dispute now was over the very political nature of the Federation as a whole. On this issue the dispute foundered. The issue raised such implications and generated such emotions that a crisis was reached. The Federation as it stood could no longer be maintained. Despite developments since sep- aration, the old thinking has still linered.I T is rpeirahle that there A: 4