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THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: JUDY SARASOHN
Challenging
the military monolith
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WITH A NEAR miss on Safeguard ABM
and subsequent regrouping and or-
ganization the fight againast the military
establishment is under way. But the out-
come is far from certain.
The Senate Monday passed a ban on
testing of chemical and biological weap-
ons. Tuesday a bipartisan coalition com-
prised of opponents of ABM struck $45.6
million in military research projects from
the defense authorization bill now being
considered.
The Senate also adopted Tuesday a
proposal to place a limit on the amount
of money that could be spent to support
foreign troops in Vietnam, Laos and
Thailand.
In an even more ambitious move, Sen-
ators Walter F. Mondale, D-Minn, and
Clifford P. Case, R-NJ, will attempt to
eliminate entirely from the defense
budget a $700 million nuclear aircraft
carrier. The senators estimate the car-
rier, together with the necessary aircraft
and protective task forces, could cost as
much as $4.2 billion. Observers in Wash-
ington give the attempt to dump the car-
rier a reasonable chance of success.
All of these moves come as part of a
loudly heralded public move against the
political omnipotence of the military.
According to political pundits the ABM
fight; as well as the long standing issue
of Vietnam, have set loose an assault on
the military the likes of which this coun-
try has not seen since the war profiteer
SpendIng
for education
PRESIDENT NIXON'S response to Con-
gressional over-funding of his educa-
tion budget request is another example
of the distorted priorities and irrespon-
sibility in domestic affairs of the present
administration.
Nixon warned in a statement to the
press Tuesday that he would not spend
the extra $1.1 billion Congress appropri-
ated for education if it pushed federal
spending over the $192.9 billion ceiling
set for the 1970 fiscal year.
Nixon claimed that the $6 billion
budget surplus which the present plans
call for is vital for curbing inflation.
The idea of the government spending
less money than it brings in so it can
curb inflation is repulsive enough in it-
self. If these plans are successful they
will have little effect other than to throw
thousands of black men and women out
of work.
But more disturbing is the idea that
such conservatism in spending should be
expressed in terms of limits on educa-
tional funding, especially when the Nixon
administration spent so much effort in
making sure the military got enough.
-C. S.
Sumner Staff
MARCIA ABRAMSON'..................... Co-Editor
CHRIS STEELE ... ............Co-Editor
MARTIN HIRSCHMAN .. Summer Supplement Editor
JIM FORRESTER ...... ...... Summer Sports Editor
LEE KIRK........Associate Summer Sports Editor
ERIC PERGEAUX...................Photo Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Nadine Cohodas,nMartin Hirsch-
man, Judy Sarasohn, Daniel Zwerdlng.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Laurie Harris, Judy
Kahn, Scott Mixer, Bard Montgomery.
hearings in Congress after the second
world war. And the actions in the Senate
over the last two weeks seem to confirm
those predictions. With the exception of
the vote on ABM the attacks have met
with reasonable success.
BUT THE PICTURE suggested by the
Washington soothsayers may be
somewhat more hopeful than is justified.
Upon close examination it looks as
though the attack, vigorous as it is be-
coming, may have little material effect
on the position of the military.
The basic fact of the matter is that the
military won the fight over ABM. And it
appears likely that the more recent, un-
successful, fights will do little toward
curbing military power.
The ban on testing of chemical and
biological weapons, for example, cleared
in advance by the Pentagon, contains
endless loopholes. Open aid testing may
continue if the secretary of defense de-
clares they are necessary for national
defense. And the weapons may still be
transported if 30 days advance warning
is given.
MORE DISCONCERTING than the rela-
tively timid actions of the legislature
thus far in the fight is the apparent re-
fusal of the Pentagon to accept limita-
tion even when handed down by the
legally constituted legislature.
The Pentagon has admitted to shuf-
fling funds for the development of
projects not specifically approved by
Congress. The gossip mills in Washing-
ton frequently repeated the story of the
way the Pentagon could have gotten
around a defeat in the ABM fight. By
using unspecified funds the military felt
confident they could go' on with the
development of ABM even if the Senate
voted it down.
Another example of this frightening
attitude on the part of the military
bureaucrats came yesterday when the
Pentagon refused to supply the Senate
Foreign Relations committee with a copy
of a secret agreement between this coun-
try and Thailand. Although the defense
department later announced "key" sen-
ators would be allowed to see the docu-
ment "at the Pentagon" the action makes
clear the extent of intransigence which
may be encountered in any challenge to
military control of this country.
The military has,for the last ten years
at least, had virtually complete control
over its own affairs. Congress consis-
tently appropriated as much or more
than was asked by the Defense Depart-
ment. The military went its own way and
developed its own policies.
NOW WITH that role for the military
coming under fire the power built up
during the period of autonomy may be
more difficult to challenge than some
have suggested. There remains the very
real possibility that the military, once
genuinely challenged, will refuse to be
controlled.
The attack, which has now begun, must
be pursued' to the utmost. If the omnipo-
tence of the Pentagon is to be ended it
must be done now.
-CHRIS STEELE
pRIVATSPnN
MIN
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records
Magnificence at popular prices,
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By R. A. PERRY
The big recording news of the
month-and of the year for that
matter-is that many of the most
magnificent, cherished, and sought
out albums of the last thirty years
will this month be appearing in
profusion on budget-priced labels.
If you were planning recent ad-
ditions to your record collection
this summer, save your money for
the following albums that will
soon be in the record stores.
Angel has dipped generously in-
Sto their Great . Recordings of the
Century series and have come up
with twelve releases slated for
their low-priced Seraphim label. -
Single records will include the
fourteen Chopin Waltzes played by
Alfred Cortot, a Beethoven, Schu-
bert, and Weber recital by the
great Artur Schnabel, the harp-
sichord artistry of Wanda Lan-
dowska in Mozart's "Coronation"
concerto and a Haydn concerto
(both previous not available here,
if I am not mistaken), and a re-
cital of Nielson songs by the out-
standing Danish tenor, Askel
Schiotz, a record before only
available on an expensive Odeon
import. Also on a single disc will
be a collection of Monteverdi ma-
drigals under the ebullient direp-
tion of the Grand Lady herself,
Nadia Boulanger.
Five multiple sets will be issued
and their contents are too boun-
tiful to be listed in' detail. One set
will be devoted to concertos, one
to chamber music, and one to
"legendary" pianists. Featured will
be Schnabel, Serkin, Brain, Lan-
donska, Casals, Fischer, Cortot,
Thibaud, Kreisler, Busch, etc. An-
other set offers Hans Hotter's per-
formance of Schubert's song cycle,
Die Winterreise.
The most reknown performance
of Der Rosenkavalier-that feat-
uring Lotte Lehmann, Elisabeth
Schumann, and Richard Mayr-
shall also be offered on Seraphim.
On the old, full-priced COLH
series, this abridged version of the
opera took up two discs; on the
Seraphim set a third record will
be included. It will be comprised
of selections from separate Schu-
mann and Lehmann recitals. This
would seem to indicate that those
songs not selected from the old
COLH recital records may be
either abandoned or saved for a
future Seraphim release.
Incidentally, the information
that I can obtain indicates that
Schnabel's monumental recording
of the, entire Beethoven piano
sonatas will be withheld from the
Seraphim label for at least a few
more years.
Certainly anyone in whose life
music plays an important part
can only, rejoice at the new and
cheap availability of these record-
ings. Only someone who, fearing
the disappearance of these mono
treasures in the wave of stereo-
mania, purchased a heap of the
COLH discs-i.e. myself-can feel
ambivalent about these new prices.
Columbia will also be releasing
two valuable and long-deleted
sets. The highly-lauded 1951 re-
cording of the Budapest Quartet's
performances of Beethoven's first
six string quartets shall be re-
issued. Those who know the Bud-
apest only by their last series of
recordings ini the Sixties will be
able to realize, when they hear
the 1951 recording, what heights
the Quartet could scale, and how
their tone a a d ensemble deter-
iorated in the later years. Colum-
bia shall also be releasing these
recordings of Gieseking's Debussy.
Happily enough, both compan-
ies decided not to ruin these treas-
Wanda Landowska
ures with fake, souped-up stereo,
and all of these releases shall re-
ceive mono-only pressings. After
all, the collectors who will appre-
ciate these recordings could not
care less about stereo.
When these albums are received
for review, I shall report in great-
er detail on their content, quality,
and success of repressing.
Speaking of the now fading
mono' vs. stereo controversy, cer-
tain companies are still dumping
their mono pressings on the mar-
ket for ridiculously low prices, and
they can be found in a few record
snores in town. Many of the Baro-
que offerings on the Telefunken
label are especially recommended.
,4H
Artur Schnabel
Church and state i~n Ann Arbor
By DANIEL ZWERDLING
THE CHURCH has come a long
way since Emperor Constan-
tine decreed it a last sanctuary
for fugitives of the state in the
fourth century A.D. Once an im-
pregnable bastion against oppres-
sion and life's unbearable battles,
the church in the United States
today has yielded its holy naves
to FBI agents come to arrest the
draft resisters who seek immunity
there. Government agents may not
come with the armor and swords
Henry II's soldiers used to destroy
Becket-but the paper warrants
they carry and the prison or
battlefield horrors they promise
shatter the sacred tradition and
purpose of the church.
The police occupation of the
First Presbyterian Church during
the South tniversity disorders
brings the crisis between church
and state to Ann Arbor - and
raises a sharp question whether
our own sanctuaries have deferred
to the state's clubs.
For on June 18, close to 200
deputies, with their dogs and guns
mobilized on church grounds and
in the church buildings-and with
the cross spiking the night in the
background, marched in phalanx-
to do battle on the streets two
blocks away.
THE ONLY pastor who publicly
questioned the police action at all
was Paul Dotson, director of the
Ecumenical Campus Center and
campus Presbyterian minister.
Dotson drove that night to the
church, where he has an office,
to help clergymen try to ease ten-
sions on South University:
"I was stopped by heavily armed
policemen with flashlights and
dogs, who demanded I . . . get out
of the way," recalls Dotson. Police, '
he says, claimed they occupied
John Sinclair: Political prisoner
the grounds on authority of the
Rev. John Waser-but the Rev-
erend insists he gave no such per-
mission.
"When I tried once more to find
out from some of the policemen
their source of authority for being
there," adds Dotson "I was sub-
jected to sneers, abusive language
and verbal harassment regarding
the integrity of myself as a pastor
and the quality of spiritual life of
a church such as ours.
What Dotson saw and heard at
the church is public record-he
sent a long letter to church mem-
bers and to the local newspapers.
But the community does not know
-and neither does the prestigious
congregation of the church itself-
that Senior Minister Robert E.
Sanders and the church executive
council fired individual letters to
state and local law enforcement
officials, in effect rebuking Dotson
and promising their support of
futurue police activity.
"The congregation of the First
Presbyterian Church," wrote San-
ders-though he had never con-
sulted it-"most assuredly supports
the principle of law and order,
and we wish to commend you and
your officers for their courtesy
and restraint."
IF LAW ENFORCEMENT agen-
cies "deem it absolutely necessary
to use church property as a base
of operations," said the ministers,
they should please first call the
ministers at their homes-whose
telephone numbers were con-
veniently listed on the letter.
The crucial issue raised by the
letter focuses on the very function
of the church itself: whether it
offers ultimate sanctuary to men
and reveres human mercy and
compassion above the law; or
whether the church abets the state
when politically it agrees with the
state's dispensation of justice.
Most church officials define the
church role today as a reconciler,
I
41
mended "police restraint" in the solutely necessary," and alsp the
South University riots-apparently expedience of a police official like
disagreeing with the courts, who Walter Krasny, who says "If it's a
have thrown out half the resulting matter of necessity and public
cases-and when they offered use welfare of the citizens of Ann Ar-
of the church the next time bor, "the police will g6 wherever
around, they sided with the gov- we have'to."
ornon anA tcnnir
f
(Editor's Note: The following state-
ment wIl be issued, as part of an appeal
for letters and donations in support of
John Sinclair, by the White Panther
Party at 1510 Hill St.)
JOHN SINCLAIR, Minister of Infor-
mation of the White Panthers Par-
ty, respected poet in the contemporary
community, staff writer for the Fifth
Estate and the Ann Arbor Argus news-
papers, and coordinator for Trans-
Love Energies, a group of six com-
munes living in and around the Ann
Arbor/Detroit area, is now being held
a political prisoner at the Southern
Michigan Prison in Jackson.
In January of 1967, in a massive at-
tack by the entire narcotics bureau of
t h e Detroit Police Dept., 56 people
were arrested on marijuana charges.
the arrests coming after four months
Wayne County Jail without bond over
the weekend and on Monday morning,
July 28, he was sentenced by Judge
Robert Columbo to a period of not less
than nine and one-half nor more than
10 years in the State Prison at Jack-
son, Michigan. Columbo then ordered
that J o h n be held without bail al-
though John's attornies h a d imme-
diately filed for appeal. T h e Court
of Appeals has likewise denied appeal
bond to John.
THE NATURE of this case is like
many others around the country.
When a man works consistently for
the people, with their interests at
heart, when a man sees the contra-
dictions in America and moves to rec-
tify them, when a man shows the peo-
structure, because such a man lays
the power structure bare, he lays the
corrupt leaders open for all the people
to see, and he shows the people the
correct way to deal with the enemies
and oppressors of the people. Witness
Huey P. Newton. Witness John Sin-
clair. Huey P. Newton is such a man,
and he lies isolated in prison. John
Sinclair is such a man, and he too
is now in prison, isolated from the
people.
THE USE of marijuana harms no
one. The anti-marijuana laws are an
American ruse designed to harass and
punish people who are about making
changes in their live, their culture, and
their planet. The campaign of fear
manufactured by the media and the
couirtszand thegovernment idesigyned
ernment and ILS ponce.
How can the church seek justice
and still be merciful? This is the
problem Dotson has grappled with,
a problem which reflects the con-
flict between church and state.
Justice is a man-made -concept,
born of men in law books and
legislatures and smoke-filled polit-
ical rooms. Mercy is higher than
that-it is the right of every man
to compassion by his fellow human
beings: the right, simply, to live
instead of die. Where government
-society's justice-decides a man
must die, or as in the case of South
University, that he must be club-
bed, does the church support it?
Or, embracing mercy, does it re-
ject the government and enshroud
Who decides the degree of nec-
essity? The police.
The only solution to the church
dilemma between "justice and
mercy" is, never yield a church
altar to police or the state at all.
NOW, MORE THAN ever, the
technology and centralization of
a mass automated society bom-
bards men's minds and robs them
of their spiritual freedom - our
schools produce human parts for
the social machine, our media
persuade people they cannot live
without products they don't need,
our government decrees which
people we like and which we hate.
The society robs man of his spir-
itual independence.
.5'