&Ie Sr~i!fiwu Ntiti
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: MARCIA ABRAMSON
Guaranteed income ,and
the folklore of individualism
THE PRESENCE of hundreds of dis-
contented poor people in the nation's
capital -- coupled, perhaps, with the dis-
closure that military requests to the Sec-
retary of Defense for fiscal 1969 are well
above $100 billion ($23 billion more than
the projected 1968 budget) - has revived
the controversy over proposals for the
government to provide a guaranteed an-
nual income.
Within the past few months, the Poor
People's Campaign, the President's Na-
tional Advisory Commission on Civil Dis-
orders, and a panel of 12 business and
financial leaders appointed by New York
Gov. Rockefeller have all endorsed a uni-
versal guaranteed income plan. To that
prestigious list Monday was added the
names of more than 1000 economics pro-
fessors from 125 colleges and universities.
Lined up against the idea are complex
counterarguments from other professors
of economics as well as popular folklore,
which cries out against the spectre of
"getting something for nothing." The
economists should (and no doubt will)
continue to hassle over the intricate mu-
tations in labor supply curves, etc., in-
duced by specific income plans. The folk-
lore, however, can be dismissed merely
by examining some of the gross statistics.
THOSE comfortable middle-class Amer-
icans who guffaw over their elegant
dinners "if they pass this guaranteed an-
nual income, I'm going to quit work my-
self" are kidding no one. The Arden com-
mittee to Gov. Rockefeller recommended
Treasury supplementations to provide a
minimum income of $3300 a year for a
family of four (yes, there are lots of
Americans who work for less - and the
work is neither creative nor challenging).
Few serious proposals have advocated a
substantially higher figure. The risk of
an $18,000 a year executive quitting his
job to capitalize on his opportunity "to
get something for nothing" is so slim
that no self-respecting bookie would con-
sider handling the bet.
But the real myth which must be chal-
lenged is the notion that at some time
in its history, this nation has ever be-
lieved "you can't get something for noth-
ing." Throughout the nineteenth cen-
tury there were land subsidies for almost
any putative transportation-entrepren-
eur who could straggle up the Capitol
steps. Two railroad companies alone each
reaped amounts of land equivalent to
the state of Texas.
4 ND IN our own century the spoils have
been even juicier. Not only is there
money for airlines and airports, there is
also additional money to finance every
technological change in the industry.
The wealthy grow wealthier by taking
advantage of the innummerable loop-
holes in the tax laws. (The Arden com-
mittee's plan would cost an additional
$11 billion a year. That, according to a
staff study made for Wisconsin Sen.
Proxmire as chairman of the Joint Econ-
omic Committee of Congress, is what the
more blatant loopholes cost the govern-
ment now.) Most indecent are the gigan-
tic subsidies to rich farmers and agri-
cultural corporations.
In 1966, one farm company earned over
$1 million in subsidies while another
raked in close to $3 million.
In 1967, according to I. F. Stone, "the
42.7 per cent of our farmers with in-
comes of less than $2500 a year received
only 4.5 per cent of total farm subsidies
paid by the government while the top 10
per cent, many of them farm corpora-
tions or vertical trusts in food process-
ing, received 64.5 per cent of these sub-
sidies."
The final, ironic measure of this coun-
try's willingness to tolerate the getting
of something for nothing is the regular-
ity with which it votes to renew the exist-
ing system of public welfare - a system
which, according to the Arden Commit-
tee, covers only 8 million of the 30 mil-
lion Americans living in poverty and
which is "demeaning, inefficient, inade-
quate and has so many disincentives
built into it that it encourages continued
dependency."
' T LEAST two guaranteed annual in-
come plans which would cover all of
America's poor and do away with the
disincentives by subtracting only a frac-
tion of earned income have been pro-
posed. They could be financed by dipping
into the loopholes, or the agricultural
subsidies. But the major job at this
juncture is convincing the public that,
indeed, getting something for nothing is
as American as apple pie.
-URBAN LEHNER
Co-Editor
To the Editor:
NOTE that the city of Ann
Arbor has considered banning
on-street parking from 2 to 5
a.m. I will be leaving the Univer-
sity this fall and will not be !di-
rectly affected. Nonetheless, I sug-
gest the following tactics to deter
the passage of such an ordinance,
or to cause its repeal if it is
passed.
Prior to the formal considera-
tion of this action by City Council,
I suggest that those affectedcall
and/or write all of the city coun-
cilmen to explain their opposition.
The ordinance could be opposed
because it is de facto discrimina-
tion (preventing those who must
live in crowded conditions with
insufficient off-street parking
from keeping cars). It would also
prevent these individuals from
patronizing the many businesses
which are outside walking dis-
tance-an important point for the
councilmen who represent these
businesses.
I suspect, however, that the tac-
tics of gentle persuasion will be
ineffective, simply because it is
political "muscle," not sweet rea-
son, that influences political
bodies. The City Council may well
consider this action to be in its
own self interest and in the in-
terest of the majority of voting
citizens of Ann Arbor.
If SUCH an ordinance is pass-
ed, therefore, it is up to those
who are affected to demonstrate
to the city that this is not true,
by implementing tactics that
make the ordinance both un-
desirable and unenforceable. I
suggest the following,:
r SGC, in conjunction with the
American Civil Liberties Union,
should sue the city on grounds of
discrimination. At the same time,
letters should be written to stu-'
dents' home-town newspapers and
legislators, detailing these charges.
The City Council would no't like
to be famous for discrimination.
* Court trials should be de-
manded for parking tickets. Such
a procedure could easily clog the
municipal court for months.
Since the ordinance would be
discriminatory, tickets for over-
night parking that are not con-
tested before a judge should be
systematically left unpaid, This
would vastly increase the amount
of work required to enforce the
ordiance, since it would require
licenses to be traced, notices to
be sent, warrants to be issued, etc.
Those individuals unwilling to risk
the legal consequences of refusal
to pay can still cause considerable
expense by withholding until the
first notice of nonpayment is sent.
In the event that the previous
tactics, did not approve effective,
the folowing measures might be
tried :
0 An economic boycott. A cam-
paign in which students are en-
couraged to buy all but everyday
essentials in "home towns" or in
towns adjacent to Ann Arbor. SGC
might organize car pools for shop-
ping in Ypsilanti, Milan, etc.
" A park-in. Students systema-
tically occupy all of the legal
parking within four blocks df
City Hall at midnight or 1 a.m.,
leaving their cars until noon the
next day. The cost per participant
would be one overnight parking
ticket, and one expired-meter
ticket.
* A drive-in. Students who
normally do not drive in the rush
hour systematically drive around
slowly on the most congested
streets from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
(e.g., around City Hall, downtown,
Packard and Stadium, etc.) The
cost would be restricted to gas-
oline, as long as the participants
are scrupulous in obeying the
traffic laws. This could be a week-
ly event, with a different an-
nounced location each week.
* Night raids. Groups of stu-
dlents go into the non-student
neighborhoods between 2 and 5
a.m. and bring back complaints
of overnight parking, to be sub-
mitted to police. Complaints would
include date, time, license number,
vehicle description, etc. This
would insure equal enforcement
of the law and place its burden
upon the voters who elect the
City Council. Alternatively, failure
of the city to act on these com-
plaints would form the basis of a
lawsuit dharging unequal enforce-
ment of the law,
I HOPE that the above tactics
do not become necessary. It is
always best to resolve questions
without open conflict. If that be-
comes impossible on this issue, I
hope that the tactics suggested
here help prevent the passage,
or effect the repeal, of what I
consider a highly discriminatory
proposal,
-Philip Katz
Grad, Engineering
Anti-Semitism
To the Editor:
RECENT EVENTS in Poland
have made it clear that the.
present Polish government has
openly instituted an official cam-
paign of anti-Semitism-this in a
country virtually without Jews.
Scholars have been dismissed
from their-university posts for no
other reason than that they are
Jews. Official statements speak of
"Zionism" when it is abundantly
clear to all who are not blind what
is meant. The depth of absurdity
is reached when teachers and gov-
ernment officials are accused of
rw is passed..
both "Stalinism" and "Zionism." wise never have1
Despite the extent of this de- ed . . . ." Since wh
spisable policy and the attendant the support of tho
news about it, I seem to hear no tioning of U.S. pol
word of protest from American correlated with th
university circles. There is sym- ceptibility.
pathy for student revolt in France, Miss Kennedy
in.Germany, in Italy, but who has the draft and the
made any public outcry against have been even m
the vilification and slander that it has." To me it
has been officially carried out in more dismal if we
Poland? Yes, the pianist, Arthur to make people re
Rubinstein, did publish a scath- ness and immoralil
ing denunciation of the Polish so truly represents
government in the New York -R
Times several weeks ago. However, B
it behooves us as academics to let
our voioes be heard. I therefore
call on students and faculty at To the Editor:
this/ university to protest this TOHN GRAY'S o
latest example of the historical "Quotable Quot
aberration known as anti-Semi- tion" that LyndQo
tism. Polish soil is soaked in the seemstto have sign
blood of its three million who per- siansgn a ghost
ished during World War II when Msof
the rest of the world stood by, may seem at first
perhaps only through public out m
cry now that the victims today Consider the pa
may be saved from physical jeo- our indomitable
pardy. Otto von Bismarck
I will be happy to receive the * Each was an
names of any persons at this uni- wealthy man who
versity concerned with human ford to enter poli
rights and willing to be counted the thrill of mar
among those who would not re- and nations.
main silent. 0 Each came fr
been concern-
hen do we need
'se whose ques-
icy is positively
heir draft sus-
says without
side issues that
e "1960s might
ore dismal than
would be far
needed a draft
,alizem the ugli-
;y that this war
Is.
ichard Kaye
us. Ad., Grad
Parallel
bservation from
tes on Educa-
Bainesk Johnson
ned on a Prus-
writer (Daily,
farfetched as it
glance.
rallels between
President and
k.:
independently
could well~af-
tics simply for
nipulating men
rom, an area of
1
.0.
-Herbert H. ?aper
Dept. of Linguisties
ffiore Kennedy
To the Editor:
TO BE SURE, there are a couple
of sound arguments one can
make against a professional army.
However, Miss Kennedy certainly
has not made any.
Even if it were true that the
"draft has 'created' many side is-
sues," these "creations" should
surely, be no criteria for' whether
or not military conscription should
be ended. When so many sound
arguments pro and con have been
raised in the past, to resort to fol-
lowing Miss -Kennedy's line of
reasoning would be extremely
shallow thinking and extremely
dangerous. Perhaps Miss Kennedy
would suggest putting the leaders
of the Poor Peoples' March in con-
centration camps just to raise an
issue that might attract. support
from those who may have never
been concerned with the plight of
the poor. o .
Furthermore, Miss Kennedy3
steaks of "thousands of young
(draftable) mien who might other-
his country known for its large,
wealthy estates and general cul-
tural backwardness (and who is
to say whether the Texas oil or
cattle baron is indeed the modern
manifestation of the East Prussian
Junker?)
* Each was noted for his abil-
ity to dominate what legislative
body existed in his time, one by
creating a Reichstag in which he
held a substantial bulk of power,
the other by skillful logrolling,
atimtwisting and hogtying of in-
dividual Congressmen.
. Each involved his country in
a series of "limited" military ven-
tues in various parts of the
world, including a search' for de
facto colonies-usually taken from,
the French.
Of course, the analogy between
Johnson and Bismarck must not
be carried too far, for the latter
proved himself. of thef greatest
statesmen in history through his
judicious juggling of the power
balance of Europe, while the other
has. hardly proved himself to be
even a conpetent diplomat. in his
own time.
-Hansworth Zwigl, '69
I evens off-you'd lose privacy in your homne, but you'd have more than
you wanted in a police station."
qS.
TrAPPU4Q
71/ IL) m'd '7-MURRA Y I EMP Tf: :..
And jries beiee policemen
+
A blood-stained injustice
AS TIME flies, it was only yesterday
that an old woman was hanged on
Boston Common for stealing a hat and
12-year-olds were being hanged in Lon-
don parks for picking pockets.
Society has learned a little since then.
But relentless repression most surely is
taking root again as it always has in
periods of unrest.
The six-year prison terms to which a
Federal judge in Baltimore last Friday
sentenced a Roman Catholic priest and
another pacifist (with a third getting
three years and a fourth a technical
term of 18 years) are merely the latest
in a great string of bad omens.
THE OFFEN'SE charged to Rev. Fr.
Philip F. Berrigan is a revolting one
as it is described in court documents. He
and the others walked into a Federal
customs house and poured blood on Se-
lective Service files as their protest
against a war they deem to be illegal
and immoral - a view shared by millions
of Americans.
But all that this comes down to is a
too graphic manifestation of pacifism-
hardly so heinous a crime (if pacifism is
a crime at all) as to warrant the casual
HUH: USA?
HUBERT Humphrey has firmly estab-
lished himself as one of the last great
public servants of our time.
We, as Americans, cannot let this fine
man be lost from the public scene next
November. We cannot and indeed must
not relegate him to a closet shelf in
history, for if ever a man knew a fox
in a chicken coop, that man was Hubert
lopping off of six years of a man's life.
Convicted thugs and murderers have
been treated more gently.
Fr. Berrigan is no mortal threat to so-
ciety. The threat to society comes from
the opposite direction.
FR. BERRIGAN gets six years for pag-
ifism. H. Rap Brown gets five be-
cause he is an agitator and an unplea-
sant fellow to have around. Cassius Clay
gets five for refusing induction - and
being a popoff.
In Boston, a convicted draft evader,
Robert Talmanson, is hauled out of a
church and taken away to start serving
three years. In Washington, the poor
encamp (so far in vain) petitioning Con-
gress to help them out of their intoler-
able misery, and congressmen hide be-
hind formality, pious talk and police
protection in the corridors and on the
walks outside the Capitol building.
_O IT GOES. Certainly the laws have
to be enforced. But vengeance and
fright more often than not are the rule.
Men are punished for their advocacy.
The unpopularity or presumed unpopu-
larity of a point of view or even a per-
son is the yardstick for measuring the
kind and the degree of the reprisal.
But this is as much a response and an
appeal to raw emotion as is the harangue
of the street corner agitator. Courts are
,supposed to be more equanimous than are
street mobs. Government in a democracy,
especially now, owes more to its citizens
than dicta from on high.
IT HAS the power to brush off the up-
rising poor if it wishes to be so stupid
and so inhumane. It can enforce with an
p r NEAL B US
Ablack ,,day-_
for poliiCs
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO when the University had its Choice '68
mock presidential election I voted for Martin, Luther King. That
of course was before he died. I voted fdr King because of the several
Afro-Americans jockeying.in my mind for that office he seemed the
best of those who fulfilled Constitutional nativity and age requirements.
I admit this with some hesitancy, mainly because I'm very much
afraid of being seen as a guilty liberal white trying -to get together
with blacks. Still, the Choice election was a rather ineffectual affair,
and because it doesn't have much prestige, I can't lose too much by
talking about it.
But back then I decided that I could only vote Afro-American. I
was very much sick at heart at the historical failure of white Americans
properly to lead their country, and I was determined not to help
continue their mandate. Briefly, traditional white rule had given brutal,
entrenched poverty to some and certainly an equally obnoxious super-
luxury to others. White rule had significantly enhaiced rather than
alleviated the personal misery of millions of souls abroad.
I FOUND THAT black leaders, and especially those truly in touch
with their black constituencies, spoke and acted for the type of
America I wanted. They were the men to decide foreign and domestic
policy, to try to make some settlement with the Vietnamese, to try to
make life in America worthwhile.
I mentioned this to one of my friends., "That's reverse racism,"
he replied, "for to say that white aren't fit to govern is as bad as saying
black people are shiftless and lazy."
I replied that while I felt that the inability togovern wasn't
genetically determined it could be the result of the white environment.
And that there was something about the white. han's political pro-
cesses that resulted in the best of white leaders Nachieving very little.
ON THE OTHER HAND, even the most agressive of black leaders
had shown a concern for human rights far surpassing that in the
white leaders. I had found that even among the most boastfully open
minded and liberal of whites were the fears and fallacies of racism.
Much to my despair, I had found in merely talking to black students
strong traces of racism even in myself.
I'M PRETTY CONVINCED that it's a mistake if not an outrage
today for a white to assent that he is fit to rule, that he can bring
about the type of America blacks all so desperately have wanted for so
long. Whether a white man is fit to rule should be determined by
blacks.
Also, I'm fairly certain that black people in office might 'even-
tually teach white people how to rule.
For a number of reasons I though Martin Luther King should
be president. My white friends had accused him of being an opportunist.
But I feared for their racism and decided that as a minister and a
Noble laureate he'd probably 6e less corrupt than the prominent whites
in public office who from time to time are exposed in huge financial
abuses.
And it seemed that the taunts against King by black power ad-
vccates were only concerned with methodological hangups which
would no longer arise the momen'tKing arrived at the White House.
AND SINCE OTHER BLACKS should be taking public offices in
city halls, state houses and university regencies, the politics of the
excluded black man would become obsolete.
I have tremendous faith in the black man, ironic because for so
long the black has had great faith in' whites who ultimately have failed
both the blacks and themselves. I have met many whites with great
educations and high positions and have seen most of them belittle,
fear or villify the Negro. On the other hand, I have never seen the
'
I
,AKLAND, Calif. - It is im-
possible to judge the guilt of
the Black Panthers, which is a
mystery of those nights in West
Oakland where only they and the
police carried guns in the open
and where only they and the po-
lice know the beginnings of what
happened as a result.
There were only three Black
Panthers two years ago - Huey
Newton, who had gone to San
Francisco Law School; Bobby
Seale, a foreman in a car wash;
and Bobby Hutton, a high school"
dropout who was only 15.
NEWTON and Seale were sum-
mer youth workers for the Rich-
mond, Calif., poverty program
then: "Trader and technical skills,
which added, up to a little black
history put in by me and Huey,
and then cleaning lawns, repair-
ing houses, chopping weeds," Bob-
by Seale says.
Seale and Huey Newton moved
on to the North Oakland Service
Center and with patience might
have had careers in poverty. But
they were always in arguments,
One night they shepherded a
youth group on a tour of Oak-
the gun," Bobby Seale says. "
took to patrolling the police.
Whenever there was an arrest,. we
would show up with our guns and
just watch. I remember one ight
they were arresting a drunk. Thev
saw us standing there; the drunk
pulled back a little and this con
said, very politely, 'You gott a 't
in, Joe,' and he did."
This was not a balance of mu-
tual tolerance that was likely it
last. Last May, Huey Newton tooK
20 Panthers with their guns to the
State legislature in Sacramento
as one way, he said, of showing
other Negroes how little they had
to fear. That display made the
Panthers famous and, for the mo-
ment, a compelling piece of the
fantasies of the New Left; they
may have a thousand memoers
now.
THEN IN October, there was
an exchange of shots between
Huey Newton and the Oakland
police; a policeman was killed.
Huey Newton is waiting to be tried
for murder. In April, the police
caught eight Panthers, gutted a
house in which two of them had
hidden and had to kill Bobby
"Free Huey Newton" buttons,
which are among the most strik-
ing emblems of California's but-
ton culture, and the posters on
the walls of Stokely Carmichael,
Rap Brown, LeRoi Jones, and
Huey Newton, a gentle young man
workin gat the radiation of power
with a spear in his left hand and
a rifle in his right.
THE afternoons are long. The
day's great event is the visit to
the brothers in prison; occasion-
ally some white youth or other
will come by to talk enthusiastic-
ally about Fidel's achievements or
severely about Che's mistakes; the
Panthers are polite but ulainly
distracted by private sorrows. One
of them sits down, opens his copy
of Mao Tse-tung, leans his head
back and sleeps.
But Bobby Seale, the /last of
the three who began, cannot sleep,
being simply exhausted. What is
curious is how drained he is of
rhetoric, although he occasion-
ally rests himself in conversation
by giving a speech.
THE SURVIVING chairnmaa of
the revolutionkiy vanguard wnich