THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1966
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE THREE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1966 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THREE
Adolescent
Suicide:
Significant
But
Secretive
By The Associated Press
EDITOR'S NOTE: Suicide among
the young seems to be on the in-
crease- it may amount to 5000
cases a year-and authorities are
concerned. Causes and symptoms
are becoming clearer, but more
study of prevention measures is
needed, and a new federal center
is being set up.
Suicide is the No. 2 cause of
death among college students.
Among those aged 15 to 19 it is
the No. 3 cause of death. There
are nearly three known adoles-
cent suicides a day, and some ex-
perts say the true figure may be
5,000 a year.
"The most onerous suicide is
the suicide of the adolescent," says
Dr. Edwin S. Shneidman of Los
Angeles, special consultant to the
National Institute of Mental
Health. "In such a suicide we are
troubled with the assault upon
our accepted values.
"We are tormented because we
say, 'Here is a person who is about
to enter the external potential of
life and yet because of internal
conflict takes his own life'."
Why should such young people
kill themselves, or try to?
"There are five categories of
problems most troubling to ado-'
lescents," answers Dr. Stanley F.
Yolles, director of the institute.
"These are problems the young
people do not readily discuss with
people who are in the position to
solve them. They are: parents,
poverty, peers, broken romances,
and pregnancy."
In the college atmosphere, there
is what becomes an intolerable
pressure for some young people.
Iften, it is indirectly applied.
"My parents have not said a
thing to me about maintaining a
'igh average," says a Cleveland
girl attending a Rhode Island
school, "but I know they would be
terribly disappointed. I know how
much of a sacrifice it is for them
to send me here. I don't think I
could face them if I failed."
A student attending the Uni-
versity of Connecticut says: "I was
always bothered when final exams
came, but now it's too much. If I
don't really score high, I mean
real high, then it means that I
could end up being drafted and
going to Viet Nam. When I think
about that, I think sometimes I'd
rather kill myself."
School problems - focused al-
most entirely upon the worship of
high grades-makes students a
high risk group. The New Jersey
Department of Education said a
three-year study showed that 41
students killed themselves and 738
tried to do so but failed. Thou-
sands made suicide threats.
The most universal reason is the
pressure to achieve high grades.
The danger period is that time be-
fore examinations. A recent study
indicates that by the time 1966
ends, as many as 90,000 college
students will have threatened
suicide and 1,000 will have suc-
ceeded.
In defining suicide people, the
Los Angeles Suicide Prevent Cen-
ter concluded: "They are no inger
able to sweep their feelings ux,der
the rug of indifference and de-
nial. They must face their feelings
of hopelessness, helplessness, and
dependeicy."
Suicide has been held in such
disgrace that it has been difficult
for investigators to arrive at clear
figures of how often it occurs. In
1965, there were 22,560 known
suicides and almost all experts in-
sist that the true figure is at least
twice as great.
As for the suicide rate among
college-age people, there is a ques-
tion as to whether the rate has in-
creased or whether the reporting
techniques have improved. -ow-
ever, there are indications that uhe
rate has gone up.
The National Association for
Mental Health of New York re-
ported that the number of mental
hospital patients between the ages
of 10-14 increased six-fold in 1965.
To get some clearer notion about
suicide, its causes and its preven-
tion, the federal government has
set up a center for studies of sui-
cide prevention. Dr. Shneidman
is the apointee-elect as its direc-
tor. The center will be a focal
agency for all activities relating to
suicide and will also be coupled
to mental health centers establish-
ed an dbeing planned under the
guidance of the National Institute
of Mental Health.
'Big Four'
Slap Israel
For Attacks
Jordanian Tells UN
American Agitation
Led to Border Battle
UNITED NATIONS (P)- -The
'Bif Four' powers joined yesterday
in condemning Israel for a large-
scale military attack on three Jor-
danian border villages taken in
reprisal for Arab sabotage raids
on Israeli territory.
Varying only in intensity of lan-
guage, the delegates of the United
States, Britain, France and the
Soviet Union sharply criticized Is-
rael.
But Jordan at an urgent session
of the U.N. Security Council
blamed the United States for
rising tension in the Middle East,
said condemnation was not enough
and asked the council to consider
punitive action against Israel.
Lord Caradon, the British am-
bassador, said his delegation de-
plored the reprisal attack and
added, "We must condemn such
w actions, which only increase the
risk of continued and wider con-
flict between Israel and her Arab
,neighbors, and we hold the gov-
ernment of Israel responsible for
them.~
U.S. Ambassador Arthur J.
Goldberg said his country was the
Sfirst to issue a. statement con-
demning the reprisal attack imme-
diately after learning about it.
Condemnation
"The United States then con-
demned this raid, and condemns
it now, deeming it in clear vio-
lation of the solemn obligations
undertaken by Israel in the gen-
eral armistice agreements," he
said.
"And what makes it of course
most deplorable is the tragic toll
in human lives of this inexcusable
action."
Muhammad H. El-Farra, the
4 Jordanian delegate, described the
attack as "vicious, merciless and
inhuman." He listed the casualties
as at least eight civilians and 12
Jordanians killed, in addition to
many wounded. A. U.N. report said
125 buildings were demolished.
Charter Action
A El-Farra called on the council
to consider action under chapter
seven of the U.N. Charter, which
contemplates sanctions and even
use of military force in dealing
with threats to peace.
He said the United States has
made a domestic issue out of the
Palestinequestion, and added that
U.S. policy, "therefore, has been
no deterrent to the Zionist crim-
inals who cross the demarcation
lines to destroy and butcher."
Goldberg made no direct reply
to that charge by El-Farra but
said that the reprisal attack
"caused loss of lifeand destruc-
tion far in excess of the cumula-
tive total of the various acts of
terrorism conducted against the
frontiers of Israel."
Republicans
REGISTRATION FOR TRAINING:
Want House Wirtz Suggests Draft Lottery
Rules Change National 'Opportunity Board'
Will Demand Half
Of Debating Period
On Conference Bills
WASHINGTON (A) - House
Republicans started a drive yester-
day for major changes in House
rules and for more representation
on House committees in line with
their resurgence at the polls.
The objectives were discussed
informally Tuesday at the first
meeting of party leaders since the
Republicans gained 47 House seats
in last week's elections. They will
be spelled out in more detail and
probably expanded at a later
meeting.
Minority leader Gerald Ford of
Michigan, who will be chief of the
187 Republicans in the House
convening Jan 10, said he expects
no trouble when the GOP leaders
meet with Democratic leaders next
month to work out their party
ratio on committees.
Two to One
The committee ratio in the pres-
ent House is two to one or better
in favor of Democrats who now
outnumber Republicans in the
House by that margin. In the new
House, Democrats will have an
edge of about four to three over
Republicans. Republicans appar-
ently are willing to settle for a
WASHINGTON (P) - Secretary
of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, calling
the military draft unfair, proposed
yesterday a national "opportunity
board" to register youths for com-
munity service, education and job
training as well as military serv-
ice.
He said it could be tried on a
voluntary basis first, and possibly
make it compulsory later if nec-
essary.
Wirtz told Catholic University
students they were benefitting
from "a Selective Service System
more haphazard and inequitable
than any method yet tried or sug-
gested for selection for military
service."
Draft Compels
In his prepared speech, he said
the present draft system "almost
compels, as I see it, some kind of
lottery system for selection for
military service."
Wirtz was the second- major
Johnson administration official to
suggest a draft lottery, which is
opposed by the Selective Service.
Secretary of Defense Robert S.
McNamara said in a Harvard Uni-
versity interview e a r 1 i e r this
month that a national lottery
would help in "eliminating the
deficiencies" of the present draft
system.
education, job training or a job,
or a community service program,r
and "that it be recognized as the3
youth's obligation, in return, tof
use this opportunity."
Compulsory Register
On the possibility of making
s u c h registration compulsoryr
Wirtz said:E
"It would be precisely those whot
present the most serious problems,t
both for themselves and for thee
community, who would fail to taile
advantage of any or all of the op-
tions which were offered them;c
and their continuing misdemean-
ors would make a new systemr
seem not to be working even if itE
were in fact providing the general
situation materially."'
Wirtz called the unfairness ofr
the present military draft systemt
only part of an infinitely larger
problem of providing opportunityt
for all American youths.C
"There is as much reason, and
more, to require every American
youth to 'register' for living as
for fighting," he said.
He told the college students:
"You complain, properly io my
judgment, of the unfairness of the
method by which one boy out of
every two is selected for some kind
of military service. But is it worse
than the unfairness of the way one
boy or girl out of every two gets to
college and the other one doesn't?"
He said under the present cir-
cumstances, "no other kind of
service or education or employ-
ment warrants, in my judgment,
exemption from military service."
He said this is partly because
the present system of draft defer-
ments "adds the burden of mili-
tary service on top of the disad-
vantage of the often inequitable
denial of educational and other
opportunity."
-Associated Press
JOHNSON RECUPERATES
PRESIDENT JOHNSON IS SEEN recuperating after his throat operation yesterday at Bethesda
Naval Hospital, Bethesda Maryland. Unable to speak because of the operation hours earlier, he
communicates with Ladybird in writing.
VIET HARD LINE:
IntermParty Conflict Growing
At Bulgarian Communist Meet
SOFIA, Bulgaria (P)-The split
widened yesterday in Communist
ranks over the China problem
while Hanoi's hard line on a Viet-
namese settlement gathered more
support.
Differtnces became more ap-
parent as more Communist party
delegations addressed a congress
here of the Bulgarian Communist
party.
In speeches made public so far
from the closed sessions, seven
parties lined up behind a Soviet-
inspired effort to hold a world
Communist conference to seek
unity in the divided Communist
movement. Three opposed it and
some were equivocal or ignored the
subject.
It has become the most dramatic
issue of this gathering of Commu-
Officials Deny U.S. Dropped
H-Bomb Near Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON (P) - The staff
of the Congressional Atomic Com-
mittee denied a report yesterday
that a hydrogen bomb was drop-,
ped near a small island off Puerto
Rico last August.
They said that a Navy aircraft
on a practice mission accidentally
dropped an unarmed "training
nuclear weapon" which could not
have exploded and contained no
nuclear materials.
The committee staff said a re-
port on the training accident had
been sent to the joint senate-
house atomic supervisory panel at
the time and news accounts were
carried of the mishap.
Allege Bomb Drop
The committee report differed
with a copyright story carried by
the Oakland Calif. Tribune that
a hydrogen bomb had been drop-
ped by an Air Force bomber.
The congressional staff said
that the Navy aircraft flew from an
aircraft carrier at the time of the
mishap, and that the practice
bomb, which was not armed, later
was recovered by Navy divers.
Science writer Jim Hazelwood
said in the tribune that his sources
reported the bomber was on a
training mission.
Training Flight
A Pentagon spokesman said
there was a military training mis-
sion in the area about the time
quoted in the Tribune story, but
withheld official comment until
the details could be checked.
Two members of the Senate-
House Atomic Energy Committee,
one a Democrat and the other a
Republican, said they were not
surprised, but neither would per-
mit quotation by name.
"We have had reports on these
accidents several times in the
past," one member said. "I would
guess there have been half a dozen
or so but with no danger result-
ing."
The other member said he was
not familiar with the reported
August case but added "these
things have happened before, sev-
eral times within the continental
United States."
nist and leftist parties from some
70 nations.
The Kremlin wants a confer-
ence to establish a pro-Soviet pol-
icy line that would leave China
an outcast from the world Com-
munist movement. Both Moscow
and Peking now denounce the
other's policies as deviations from
true communism.
But a conference would leave
no room for neutralist Communist
parties that are presently trying
to use the Moscow-Peking dispute
to assert their nationalistic inter-
ests. So they are opposing it, or
dragging their feet.
Quiet Line
On Viet Nam, the recent Soviet
quiet line that omits any public
:statement of conditions for a
peace settlement was countered
by pseeches reasserting Communist
demands for total victory.
Delegates from Cuba, Mongolia
and North Korea voiced the hard
line. And Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh of
the Viet Cong's National Libera-
tion Front sounded a staunch
battle cry while denouncing Amer-
ican peace proposals.
The contrast between the quiet
line of Soviet bloc nations eager
fgr peace, and Communist parties
taking a tough position had ap-
peared earlier. ne
Brezhnev
General-Secretary Le onid I
Brezhnev of the Soviet Communist
party used brief, unemotional
phrases to accuse .the United
States of aggression in Viet Nam.
But Secretary-General N i coa i
Ceausescu of the Romanian party
restated the whole package of
Hanoi's peace program that in-
cludes the demand for an uncon-
ditional American withdrawal.
Mongolia echoed the Romanians.
North Korea used similar phrases.
The Cuban delegate, Julio Ca-
macho, said the Cuban people
"are ready to give the last drop
of our blood to defend the just
cause of the Vietnamese people."
Other delegations avoided dis-
cussing peace terms or going much
beyond general denunciations of
the United States.
t
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I
,r
three-to-two, ratio on committee JanuaryReport
assignments. Both Wirtz and McNamara said
Debate specific action should await the
Specifically, he said the minor- report of the National Commission
ity should have half of the time on Selective Service appointed by
allowed to debate conference re- President Johnson. The report is
ports which are final compromise due in January.
versions of bills passed by the Sen- The commission is also consider-
ate and the House. The entire ing "a broad-scale national service
time, usually one hour, now is
controlled by the majority, which program.
can use it all or allot some of it Wirtz suggested his national
to the minority. "opportunity board" proposal be
If the 21-day rule is retained, tried first on an entirely voluntary
Laird said, it should be changed basis.
to allow the top Republican on a He proposed that every boy and
committee to call up for House girl register with the community
action bills approved by his com- at age 18, that the community
mittee but blocked by the Rules have the obligation of providing
Committtee. every youth two years of further
Grocer Lobby Defends
Increase in Food Costs
World News Roundup
HILLEL DELI HOUSE
Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
ENTERTAINMENT
with your choice of
a Hillel Sandwich 9 2 corned beef or
pastrami sandwiches
" soda * pickles i potato chips * music
CALL 663-4129 for reservations
1429 HILL STREET All Are Welcame
NEW YORK (R) - A group of
food manufacturers and retailers,
sharply aware of the growing
furor over rising food prices, de-
fended those pricesand offered
housewives little hope that the
price spiral would stop soon.
"Food prices are up, there's no
doubt about it," said George W.
Koch, president of the Grocery
Manufacturers of America, a
group that speaks for the Amer-
ican food industry.
"But the farmer is not to blame
-the manufacturer is not to
blame-the distributor is not to
blame. There's nothing that the
men from the farm to the table
can do about it."
War Takes Blame
The major blame, he said, lies
in the fact that the United States
is at war.
"I don't care what Washington
wants to call it, for all practical
purposes we are at war in Viet
Nam. Every time this nation is at
war, this nation's economy is in-
flated.
"Rising food prices are the re-
sult of this inflation, but they are
not the cause of it."
Koch said that farm, manufac-
turing and distribution costs are
up and those higher costs are re-
flected in costs to consumers.
Part of the reason, he said, is
that the once vast food surpluses
of the United States have been
depleted because of increased for-
eign and domestic demands to the
point "where supply and demand
have just met."
"For example, when Florida's
citrus crop is damaged by frost,
the price of orange juice goes up
immediately," he said. "That's
what we're experiencing now on
a much larger scale. It's the old
American economic law of supply
and demand."
Koch said the price of every-
thing is up, and added: "But a
housewife doesn't buy a car every
week, she doesn't buy a new re-
frigerator or washer every week."
SCULPTOR'S THEATER
presents
an Anti-War Drama:
"Flowers of Destruction
Introduced by
the Amazing Machine"
First Presbyterian Church
1432 Washtenaw Avenue
(between S. University and Hill St.)
TH U R. & FRI., NOV. 17 & 18
Shows at 7:30 & 9:30 P.M.
CONTRIBUTION
sponsored by VOICE-SDS
By The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY-Pope Paul VI
yesterday warned Roman Catho-
licism's largest and most influen-
tial order -- the Society of Jesus
Jesuits-not to weaken in its tra-
ditional obedience to the papacy.
At the same time he praised the
35,000-member, order and exhort-
ed the Jesuits to help carry out
the modlernization program out-
lined by the Vatican Ecumenical
Council.
FRANKFURT-A German psy-
chiatrist, Prof. Friederich Panse of
Daesseldorf, testified here that
Adolf Hitler once had psychiatric
treatment for temporary blindness,
HAVE YOU BEEN INS'
"THEli RGiESWT LITTLE
claiming it was an aftermath of
mustard-gas poisoning in World
War I. Panse said examination
showed instead that the blindness
was induced by hysteria. He was
a witness at a trial of three Ger-
man doctors accused of sending
thousands of mentally ill Germans
to gas chambers.
"
Hear
'I
.1
Graduate Student
Informal Coffee Hour
TODAY
3:30 - 5:30 P.M.
2nd Floor Rackham Lounge
GUILD HOUSE
802 Monroe
Fri., Nov. 18, Noon Luncheon, 25c
Prof. Tom Mayer, Dep't. of Sociology:
"Industrial Society-After Capitalism, What?"
ADAI
co.
P0'l
A
L
Chairman, House Committee
on Education & Labor
Friday Evening at Guild House
I MaT DkhI A Tlt*)O N l-iTS
Monday, Nov. 21st...8:AO p.m.
IF
... ..
i.
$ _.
(I
_ . . s i 1 wt IY +
1