g4c Mfriegan Dai Seventy-seven years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under authority of Boprd in Control of Student Publications Letters: Violence... corporate liberalism 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-05521 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. this must be noted in all reprints. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID MANN i The MACE report: Green light THE UNIVERSITY'S pharmacology de- partment has done a disservice to it- self, the University, and those across the country concerned with responsible law enforcement and racial justice. Its re- port on the effects of MACE, the riot chemical control - a report that was to be the definitive statement on the safety or harm in ;using the chemical agent for police departments across the country - was couched in terms so am- biguous as to make the real message of the report meaningless. Although the report blithely states that MACE is safe for police use, its authors obviously neglected the fact that the stringent laboratory safeguards the re- port recommends are barely likely to be employed by tense, frightened sometimes racist police in controlling an Unruly crowd. Try to imagine the ideal -situation for MACE use. The helmeted riot cop taps a protester on the shoulder, asking him if he will kindly step back a few feet - MACE can cause "severe, long term, and possibly permanent ocular damage" if sprayed directly into the eye at close range, ac- cording to the report. After making cer- tain that the distance is correct, the cop asks, the demonstraor if his reflexes are functioning properly - if not, the report states, the spray could result in blind- ness or death. If the demonstrator as- sures the cop that his protective reflexes are in good order, he is sprayed, after which the protester must move aside, be- cause if he collapses on the spot and is hit by the spray again after having been incapacitated-by the chemical, or by any- thing else, it could be permanently dam- aging to the eyes, or fatal. (Perhaps the police could hand out tags to their victims. As soon as another MACE-wielding officer sees the "No thanks, I've already been sprayed," he could save the valuable chemical for use on another protester. The problem with the report is pre- cisely that it makes it easy for police departments to read only what they want to read - that MACE is ,safe - and ig- nore what they want to ignore: that MACE is safe only under extremely rigid conditions which are not likely to be duplicated in on-the-street confronta- tions. to tragedy PUT THE real issue of the MACE con- troversy goes beyond the police tac-, tics that would be used employing the chemical. It strikes at the nature" of the climate in which harsh police tactics are currently flourishing. MACE is unsafe for reasons beyond the fact that it is clearly a hazard to those on whom it is used. MACE may blind not only those on the receiving end of the potentially lethal spray, it will have a similar effect on the people pushing the cannister button. It has been evident over the past sev- eral summers that authorities would rather disperse a crowd of' people than find out why they have gathered. In the past, however, it was hard for the police to close their eyes to the cause, because no alternatives existed other than talk- ing or busting heads. And the police knew that some of their heads might get bat- tered in the process. Thanks to modern technology, once the police across the nation have read the pharmacology department's biased report, they can close their eyes and push the button. When they open their eyes, those who had to resort to taking their social pleas to the street will be strewn on the pavement, helpless, their questions unanswered. Those in the leadership positions in our country have decried violence long and loudly over the past few months. We have heard pleas to disarm, to step back from bestial violence, to talk and to listen when legitimate grievances are raised. What will happen, however, when the future leaders of our nation --- the col- lege students, the young blacks - are not listened to, but administered a spray that will silence them, in some cases forever. Reinforcement of frustrations and mis- trust at the grass roots level will even- tually force the nation's youth, both black and white, to seek other avenues of ex- pression, avenues that are full of violence and bitterness. Before the mace of ir- rational authority is wielded in this coun- try, those who are currently wallowing in a morass of grief and solemn procla- mations to end the violence should shut their mouths and open their eyes to the shame the pharmacology department did so much to legitimize on Friday. -DAVID MANN, Tradition To the Editor: TN THE HEAVY newspaper and television coverage of the world reaction of men and nations to the assassination of Robert Ken- nedy, one significantly recurring and growing theme has been wide- spread apprehension that our so- ciety, and perhaps even world so- ciety, s diseased to the point of virtual insanity-that we may be, in some dreadful sense, a nation gone mad. Political assassination, riot, anarchy, lawlessness and wars of aggression seem more and more to characterize American life, it is said; and, as the idea has, one must admit, a certain wretched plausibility, especially among the young, I think it neces- sary to point out that the idea is, first, in a backward sense, an odd tribute to the actual success of American democratic practice and, second, testimony to our national historical and political naivete. Analysis of the first point, will lead directly into the second. To begin with the obvious, po- litical assassination, riot, anarchy, lawlessness and wars of aggression have characterized human exist- ence on the planet from its outset to the present. There have existed, from time to time and from place to place, tiny pockets of peace, among isolated and minuscule so- cieties and for brief moments in larger ones; but on the whole hu- man existence has been fr ught with savagery in the practice of men and nations alike. Public hangings, crucifixions, beheadings, drawing-and-quarterings, mutila- tions and the like have been stan- dard for all crimes more severe than petty thievery; less than a century ago, in the United States, men wre hanged for horse theft as a matter of common practice. Even the most severe of attempt- ed control methods, military dic- tatorships in one form or another (which have, after all, been the overwhelming practice of govern- ment everywhere to the present), have not been able to prevent the life of the citizen, as well as that of men in public life, from being one long, ineluctable game of Rus- sian roulette. IT IS ONLY in America, in the very recent past, that a system has evolved which, without coer- cion of bodies, has succeeded to a very great degree, a degree unpre- cedented among Pikenations else- where, In reducing the causes of tension and violence by systema- tically upgrading the living stan- dards and satisfactions of most of its citizens. Cime was by no means ended, nor lowlessness nor pover- ty, nor injustice; but on a statis- tical basis men were beginning to take their personal safety far more for granted than ever before, as well as their likelihood of achiev- ing personal happiness and a feas- ible future for their children. This was, nonetheless, achieved at a' price; in America, given its history and the nature of techno- logical inexorability, the price was the advancement of the standards of one race, the predominant race, to the sometime detriment of the advancement of others; and it was the gradual inculcation of the idea that no alternatives outside the system itself were thinkable. This meant, in both cases, a certain in- stitutionalization of injustice and thought-control; and, in both cas- es, reaction was inevitable. We are experiencing the results of tht re- action now. Nonetheless, it should be clear that we are not going berserk; rather, we are temporarily slipping back into a certain degree of what we had been doing and what is still going 'on everywhere else. Hundreds, nay thousands of deaths have resulted in India from riots over a proposed change in the official language, while we are at the same time horrified ov- er riots in Detroit in which forty die. AND THIS is the measure of our national naivete. The older among us have grown so accus- tomed to our time of safety that they like to think it has always been so and that this recrudes- cence is in fact unprecedented; the younger of us, born into our time of safety, have never known it to be otherwise and so do not see the extent to which, in pro- testing the institutionalized injus- tices, they themselves have helped to bring this recrudescence about. I do not mean by the foregoing to mitigate in any degree the hor- ror of Robert Kennedy's murder; X do mean to place it in a perspec- tive consonant with the experience of the race. Our current obsession with the fact of violence can only have come about through having been for some time overprotected, isolated, for our own and the na- tion's presumed good, from the genuine experience of life. What we are now experiencing is a rite of passage. If we pass it, we may even grow up. Norman Hartweg, Grad. Innocence To the Editor: WRITE to thank you for your memorial statement for Robert Q'. ;,,'r " k R , dry. x41 ? 146R, The Register " - ' " 44 ancf. "Crlhune Syndicate ' tN:-wsa.+RGat,.att"t't*a6' .ILB The little boy. who cried... NOT THAT it matters much anymore, but Gen. William Westmoreland may not be a trustworthy source of informa- tion for Americans interested in how our military forces in Vietnam are far-' ing against the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front . In a parting shot delivered before sol- diers in the fields Sunday, Westmoreland said "the enemy has been defeated, at every turn," and added he was leaving Vietnam convinced that "our side is get- ting stronger whereas the enemy is get- ting weaker." In the first place, Westmoreland - along with most American military men - persist in viewing the conflict in Asia, from an irrelevant perspective. As David Halberstam observed in an excellent New. Republic analysis several weeks ago, wars which - like Vietnam - are chiefly of a political and psychological character cannot be considered in traditional mil- itary terms. Yet throughout the war, the Pentagon has continued to point to fa-, vorable body count differentials as proof of progress, disregarding the enormous psychological and political advantages the NLF has accrued by demonstrating its ability to strike anywhere. IN THE second place, even from a com- mon-sense perspective, Westmoreland's pronouncements have a hollow ring. From his appointment in 1964, the gen- eral, who was touted at the time of his commissioning as an "expert in guerrilla warfare", has repeatedly and publicly prophecied quick military victory and the crumbling of enemy resistance. Perhaps the general spoke as he did as part of the necessary round of back- ground political ploys in which, during peace negotiations, both sides must in- sist that they have already won on the field what they are demanding at the conference table. Even so, given the re- liability of Gen. Westmoreland's past public statements on the war, the ploy is not likely to fool the NLF or the North Vietnamese. Nor anybody else. -URBAN LEHNER Restraint To the Editor: I WAS disappointed to read Mr. Michael Davis's letter to The Editor (Daily, June 8) in which he discussed President Fleming's letter to the faculty. The Presi- dent's letter stated that "force and violence are antithetical to the very purpose of a university," avowed that "universities wish to continue to govern themselves," promised that "every proposal for change ,.1. will receive thorough and sympathetic consideration," and voiced the hope that through "student, faculty, and administra- tive participation" we will be suc- cessful this summer in "'revising many of our rules and regula- tions." I am disappointed and surprised that Mr. Davis sees this temperate and concerned docu- ment as an "invitation to an- archy." Perhaps it is true that some people see only what they look for. I invite Mr. Davis to reflect upon the following analogy. Like last year's SGC warning that it will not tolerate any rules govern- ing students except those made by students, are the warnings of some States that they will not tolerate any rules except those legislated by themselves. Former Governor Wallace has insisted that only the people of Alabama can decide what kind of school system there should be in Ala- bama. Even apart from its service as excuse for maintaining what to us are repugnant systems of segregation and repression, I think the general principle is wrong. A State is part of a larger community whose laws must'pre- vail. Similarly the student body (like the faculty and the admin- istration) is part of a larger com- munity. And that larger commu- nity-if the press is to be be- lieved-is determined that its edu- cational institutions must be free to carry out their educational ac- tivities without disruption. I do not believe that the long discredit- ed doctrine of interposition can be revived. Mr. Davis confesses that his first impulse on reading the President's letter was to lead a mob against President Fleming and ". . disruptively lock 'him up for the night.. ." I am pleased that Mr. Davis has so far man- aged to restrain himself. I hope for all our sakes that he can con- tinue to do so. There is really something admirable about be- ing able to control one's impulses toward violent criminal activity. On the other hand, perhaps it is not altogether admirable to have to struggle continually against such dark impulses. -Irving M. Copi, Prof. of Philosophy Fascist igs To the Editor: When I learned with chagrin but not surprise that the co- editors of The Daily had resolved to put in writing their support of Eugene McCarthy's candidacy for the Presidency, I had hoped I would not have time to write a reply. But alas, I do. About the destruction of Robert Kennedy to build Mr 'McCarthy there is not much to be said. The Minnesota Senator found his way up the ladder by joining another Minnesotan, Hubert Humphrey, in a grandstand purge of Communist farmer-democrats all the way back in 1948. Like Bobby, Gene sup- ported Joe unflinchingly, just as he now supports surtaxes, a boon- doggle that pales even the teapot -one can argue what he stood to lose and gain in New Hampshire and what he stands personally to lose or gain now (why no coali- tion with Bobby if his principles are so important?). What is im- portant is that he has lousy prin- ciples, and that if indeed he is not "the best we have got," every- thing you say about him is mean- ingless until you first tell us who 'or what IS the best we've got. Part of your hangup, I think, is in hoping for a man who will infuse "any hope for the Demo- cratic party." The Democratic party, the party that has produced four wars in half a century and that has turned the rhetoric of a welfare state into the, reality of the world's most murderous gravy train is a cruel joke on those humanists that remain with it. It contains Lester Maddox, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Richard aley, Hubert Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy, and Gene McCarthy- "there's room enough for all of us," Hubert once told Lester. If there is room for all. these men, then what is the party's purpose? Is it to provide peace and democracy for America, or is it to offer the platform by which a minority-group, big labor-south- ern-middle-class coalition can be formed to slide the machine through each fourth-year adver- tising campaign? You may be right that Gene McCarthy is the. "last hope of salvaging the two-, party system"-I doubt that, but if I thought you were right that would be precisely the ground on which I would oppose him. THIS COUNTRY has had So- cialist parties before. The labor agrarian movement at the turn of the century broke up with govern- ment help; the Socialist party which inherited its radialism was a major power from the turn of the century through 1920-a per- iod where in many parts of the country Democrats and Repub- licans ran fusion tickets to block socialist candidates, and in which the socialists were so ) strong throughout the First World War that that great liberal, Woodrow Wilson, was forced to initiate a nation-wide red scare and police purge to help break it up. There were anti-capitalist par- ties through the twenties and into the Depression, but the rhetoric of Roosevelt and (surprise) a war saved corporate capital once more. The fear outlived the war, how- ever, and another Democrat was needed to put us into the Cold- War and keep us there until an- other Democrat could adopt itto the Third World and still another, Democrat could carry it beyond its asthetic, but entirely within its logical, conclusion. So why save the Democratic party? Is it corporate liberalism you wish to save? Is it the style of the university you wish to see retained in government? Is it the familiar feel of a man with a daughter at Radcliff? There is one and only one logical reason to think of supporting the left-Democrats-they seem more predisposed toward ending the Vietnam war than anyone else, there might be a chance that they will ease up the police, they may feed and maybe free a few of our poor. But this is miles away from supporting them to save the Dem- ocratic party-indeed, it is the very opposite. The two-party sys- tem lives in this country by dead financial weight, by suasian when needed and, when those fail, by police force. It is a false demo- cracy that allows the people to system where a few men of wealth and power control the country, and manipulate it to preserve their attractive position; Eugene McCarthy is the corporate rep- resentative sent/ out to pacify us and some of the forces that threaten the status quo. There may be reasons to support him, but without forming an organ- ization to promote a new system of democratic socialism, or at very least to provide a sustained and meaningful critique of corporate capitalism and liberalism, then Gene McCarthy is the best you will ever get, and it is quite late in the game to be unclear as to oust how bad that is, -Harvey Wasserman, Editorial Director, '66-'6'7 Clarification To the Editor: Thank you for the in depth presentation of my views on ed- ucation on my candidacy for School Board Trustee. There is one major discrepancy to which I wish to draw your at- tention, however. My decision to run for the School Board was based on a deep conviction that an aspect of education and a seg- ment of the community were being ignored. I was not then, nor am I now, the candidate of any polit- ical party or civic organization in An Arbor. Although I welcome the en- dorsement of both political parties and civic organizations I wish to make it clearly understood my campaign is being organized and financed by friends. Thank you for this clarification. tion. -Joan C. Adams They marched To the Editor: IN THE PAST two weeks there has been a great deal of con- fusion arising from the incidents that have occurred at Ann Arbo'r High School. Much of the con- troversy and misunderstanding has been directed ate the daily pickets who have marched in sup- port of the students and in op.' position to the "partial martial law," implemented by Principal Schreiber. This letter is an at- tempt to clear up, that issue for the residents of Ann Arbor. We marched in support of the students' demands which we see as reasonable and a necessary ex- tension of substantive power to, the students-the people who are receiving the education. We marched in opposition to Principal Schreiber's curbs on the American freedoms of speech and the press which include young people. We marched because no pro-, gram has, to our knowledge, been devised in response to the inequi- ties in the school uncovered by the Vinter-Sarri report over a year ago. We mistrust a board of educa- tion composed on inflexible con- servatives and ineffective middle- of-the-roaders. These people con- cern themselves primarily with fiscal problems, and a national image as expresed in prize-win- ning physical plants, rather than giving the first priority to human needs. School ?officials have re- sponded to just demands by oc- cupying the school with police after some of the emotional feel- ings engenderd by a fundament- ally racist structure and environ- ment came to the surface. Governments have been respon- ding to the challenges to their policies with the same cries for "law and order" and the military occupation of our cities and mar- tial law. There is no reson why theschools, supposedly one of our democratic institutions, must clamprdown in the same oppres- sive manner when the students are finding that their schools are not meeting their needs. Some serious re-evaluation of school' policies' and immediate drastic changes are necessary and are a much more rational response. -Peter ,Meyers, for the members of: Voice/SDS The Bill Ayers for School Board Committee People Against Reeism Ann Arbor Resistance - The killer To the Editor: WHEN WILL the killer of Robert 4 Kennedy- be apprehended. He is still at large in the land. Robert Kennedy has been murdered but hisassassin is still at freedom. Los Angeles police are holding in cus- tody their suspect while the party responsible for Senator Kennedy's death roams the nation unpur- sued, unsuspected, generally re- morseless and unecognized. The American way of lie no longer represents a practicalhope for idealistic goals as it once did,. when injustices like these are per- mitted. That this has been the case in the view of young and black American is all too clear. They see the initial stages of an illness which is infecting mind and body of the health of this nation. The United States of the 1960s has been oharactei'ized a sick so- ciety by those who see its foreign policy, its violence, its unwilling- ness to assure its own citizens the rights for which it sacrifices its sons in Southeast Asia, an un- deniable pattern of broad sig- nificance. In December, 1960 Walter Lippmann in a Newsweek editorial explained enthusiasm for the candidacy of Eugene McCar- thy's presidential candidacy in terms of a hope and faith for recovery of an American commit- ment to idealistic purposes. In the intervening months the lives of Martin Lther King and Robert Kennedy have been ended by the decree of deranged or at least is- torted minds. After Dallas, 1963 and Memphis-Los Angeles, 1968, one sees the shock of such events diminishing by their frequency in their effect ipmon the imagination and daily routines of most Amer- icanis rather than becoming more acute. Pres. Johnson and tele- 'vision news commentators seek to. relieve the pangs of guilt which nag the consciences of Americans that it can happen here, by reject- ing the thesis of moral spiritual decay with the logic that the bul- let of a lone man's pistol does not amount to a nation-wide posse or lynch mob. JUST. AS ."white backlash" shrinks from black social and political-economic power, and as the Establishment refuses to be the first American generation "to lose a war," so such people close their eyes to the malaise of a so- ciety ignorant of the hubris to which its arrogance and self- - righteousness must lead. The assassination of President Kennedy and the ensuing five years of violence, division, and decay followed by the recent acts of self expression by disordered minds visited upon leaders who had questioned, doubted the con- tent and direction of American ideals, should convince all but those too far gone to save, that 200 million Americans need not squeeze a collective trigger to con- clude that the deaths of Dr. Mar- *tin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were a product of this time and place in his- tory ., -Sam Bernstein, Grad, ANOtHER OPINION: Wh then this restlessness. 0' THERE ARE no words to express the na- tion's sorrow when one of its leaders is assassinated. All America grieves over the senseless, cowardly, cruel slaying of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Many deranged persons, including homicidal maniacs, are permitted to roam the streets of our cities, and no one can be sure that he is safe fron attack. When the Rev. Martin Luther" King was murdered a day of mourning was widely observed. At that time a Tribune Rome. Moral values are scoffed at and ignored. Drug addiction among the youth is so widespread that we are treated to the spectacle at great universites of fac- ulty-student commttees solemnly decree- ing that this is no longer a matter for correction under law. "Dress is immodest. Pornography floods the news stands and book stores. 'Free speech' movements on campuses address themselves to four-letter words. "Yes, this nation and its people need a d '-v f rnnArninr - -- a ua in which thev .A