tte an aih
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of !the University of Michigan
The All-American parade ...
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-05521
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: MARTIN A. HIRSCHMAN
Toying with techmology
BEYOND THE rhetorical pros and cons
being tossed around concerning Pres-
ident Nixon's new welfare plans there
remains one unpleasant aspect which has
hardly been touched upon: it promotes
the idea of Work.
The essence, in fact, of Nixon's program
is to bring people into the work economy.
Re rejected a universal guaranteed an-
nual income on the specific grounds that
it would promote worklessness. And the
proposal he outlined is designed so that
those who accept welfare payments will
be a part of the labor market.
Under his plan anyone who takes wel-
fare, and is not already employed must
accept training and the employment the
government finds for him.
Aside from the coercive aspects of this
M(T
Some ,of my
best friends *0*
"THEY'RE LAZY, they don't want to
work for their living. They're just liv-
ing off dole, and they spend their money
on liquor," said one woman who knew
'several of them.
"Some are decent, but most of them
don't keep their houses and property up-
it disgraces the neighborhood. None of
our neighbors would sell their homes to
any of them-the property values would
go down."
"I know some at the factory - if you
don't employ them someone accuses you
of prejudice. But they just don't work.
They get away with murder."
The above quotations could have been
taken from any number of American
racists or "liberals" in the South or
North. But they are from lower middle-
class Protestants in Northern Ireland
and they are directed against the Catho-
lic minority in that country.
The prime minister of Northern Ireland
called in 300 British soldiers into riot-
torn Londonderry - the Catholics were
burning their own slums. The Catholics,
who claim they are discriminated against
in job employment and neighborhoods,
welcomed the British troops instead of
the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It appears
the Catholics had been further inflamed
by the presence of a police force com-
posed primarily of Protestants.
But soldiers, no matter what their na-
tionality, cannot maintain even an un-
easy peace for long. Both Northern Ire-
land and the United States will have to
be more honest with themselves before,
they begin to solve deeply imbedded]
prejudices.
-J.C.S.
plan-it isn't really involuntary servitude
.since an indigent has the delightful free-
dom to stop taking money - the work
orientation is retrogressive although not
very surprising.
The present generation of American
leaders, Richard Nixon included, was
brought up on a strict diet of Horatio
Alger. They and most of the Americans
before them knew that the formula for
success-and therefore happiness -was
to work with diligence, industry and for-
titude. By this program a man could do
that which the society respected most-
he could "pay his own way."
He would support himself and his fam-
ily in the only decent way imaginable,
accepting no charity and giving none. In-
deed it was only in the last twenty years
that a respectable American would think
of buying anything except a house on
credit.
By RICK PERLOFF
11NEW YORK
THE MEN cursed, the children
giggled and everyone perspired
profusely.
But nothing less could be ex-
pected from the hundreds of
bodies, inches from each other,
and all within 50 yards of fulfill-
ing a long-awaited goal: the sight
of the Apollo Three.
And there they were - Arm -
strong, Aldrin and Collins with
big John Lindsay smiling on be-
low the steps of City Hall for the
first leg of their All-American pa-
rade. Everyone mumbled, especial-
ly Mr. Lindsay, and few c o u 1 d
honestly say they heard much of
anything, though the audible re-
marks (cliches all) were remini-
scent of a patriotic filler on the
New York Times editorial page
that we had all read too m a n y
times before.
But ironically, it was not the
astronauts' speeches that wil11
stand out - instead it is t he,
memory of those clamoring, cry-
ing and colliding N e wYorkers
stepping over each other, falling
backwards and then helping each
other up.
For' here, during t o o short a
period, man escaped his cool, im-
personal white shirt infested ex-
istence: from 10:30 to 11:30 at
City Hall man became humane
again.
PEOPLE were oblivious to the
machine-like efficiency of Amer-
ican society; they didn't seem to
care much about keeping clean to
impress the boss. Men who had
never met took turns boosting
each other on their shoulders to
see the astronauts. White m e n
hung onto black men to keep ,their
balance on run-down benches and
the blacks would look back and
smile.
A tall spectacled foreign gentle-
man kept leaning backwards over
the bench he stood atop and a
young lad next to him kept boost-
ing him up. A branch fell down
and scared a little girl and peo-
ple actually turned around - con-
cerned.
BUT ALL THIS was a terrific
contrast to the astronauts t h e
people had come to cheer. F o r
theywere the eptiome of "good
o1f American know-how" and
technological inhumanity. T a k e
their press conference the day be-
fore the national parades:
Several reporters asked them
what their "feelings, reactions and
emotions" were during the descent
to the moon. Armstrong's answer :
"Well, in the first place I ex-
pected that we would probably
have to make some local adjust-
ments to find a suitable landing
area - I thought it was highly
unlikely that we would be so for-
tunate as to come down in a very
smooth area. As it turned out, of
course, we did considerably more
maneuvering close to the surface
than we had planned to do . . . In
other words, a full time job."
No fears, no excitement ... "The
Eagle has landed . ." Thump,
click, jerk.
Another asked Aldrin what his
"inner feelings were when he step-
ped onto the moon." And with the
most respect to Nixonian efficiency
he could muster, the astronaut re-
plied, "Well there was no "question
in our minds where we were-we'd
been orbiting the moon for quite
a while. At thensame time we had
experienced one such view before
-we'd been exposed to some de-
gree to the lighting that we
saw .
Machines that can replace men?
The New Yorker suggests instead
of "that flag" a symbol of humans
in union be placed on the moon:
t h e sneeze-and-sniffel-r i d d e n
handkerchief.
FORTUNATELY the A p o 11o
Three have not reached the in-
humane machine level yet-Arm-
strong admitted to some mistakes
in scheduling ("we plead guilty to
enjoying ourselves") and at least
he sounded emotional when he
thanked the crowds in New York.
But only when there is some
realization that efficiency does not
lead to emotional and meaningful
satisfactions and that technology
can wipe out lives will any real
humaneness return to this country.
Until then there will be fleeting
memories of curses, giggles and
perspiration in 90 degree New
York.
I
...with dinner in L. A.
BUT THIS ATTITUDE
and success, if still
in control, seems pretty
definitely anachronistic
future.
toward money
overwhelmingly
dated now and
in the near
By NADINE COHODAS
TRULY GREAT moments in
television are rare these days.
But Wednesday night the entire
country was treated to a real spec-
tacular-dinner with the Apollo 11
crew, the President of the United
States and 3000 of their closest
dignitaries at the Century Plaza
Hotel in Los Angeles.
At great expense, The Daily ob-
tained, by special delivery yester-
day, the transcript from NBC tele-
cast which is here reprinted in
part:
"Good evening ladies and
gentleman. This is Chet Huntley
in meats."
"And David Brinkley in salads
-live from the Century Plaza
Hotel to bring you dinner for 3000
plus.
Well, Chet, salads seem to be
doing well now. We're about seven
minutes from dressing time. Sev-
eral waiters are lined up with
vinegar and oil set to pour it on.
It should be tossed right on sched-
ule."
"Things look quite well in meats,
too, David. The head chef has just
seasoned the last filet mignon and
is right now pressing each morsel
with his Mr. Zippo paring knife.
"Excuse me for cutting in Chet,
but Sandy Van Ocur is calling
from hollandaise. Come in Sandy."
"Yes. David. Thanks. A slight
problem - has developed in hol-
landaise. They ran out of milk.
We're presently in a 13 minute
hold until Mrs. Gertie Schmatz,
the dietician, can return from the
A&P with the milk.
If all goes well, however, the
sauce is scheduled to be applied
to the broccoli at 7:54 p.m. central
pacific time.
This is Sander Van Ocur in
Hollandaise. We now switch you
back to David Brinkley in salads."
The prophecies John Kenneth Gal-
braith intoned nearly a decade ago in
The Affluent Society are now becoming
painfully obvious realities. Our economy
is based on the endless round of con-
sumption and production.
It depends for the continuation of that
economic system on the willingness of
men to do jobs they do not enjoy and to
buy products they do not want or need.
The high speed mass technology that
provides the direction of this nation's
life has perverted those ancient values
from self-sufficiency to self-destruction.
RATHER THAN CONTINUING to de-
mean man as would Nixon's proposal,
by forcing him to become a working part
Of this miasma he should be freed from
the societal conception that ties daily
toil to the earning of daily sustenance
Fortunately the very technological sys-
tem which has lead to man's degradation
can provide the way out for him. Because
of the mass production abilities of the
new technology it is no longer necessary
for man to do work they find unpleasant
in order to provide for then'iselves. In-
stead with the proper application of the
technological resources this nation has
amassed, men might do what ever they
wished - whether productive or not -
without a though for the provision of
food and shelter for himself and his
family. But that, considering the ways in
which this man normally chooses to em-
ploy his technology, is a long way off.
--CHRIS STEELE
"Ladies and gentlemen, the salad
has been dressed. At 7:38 p.m.
central pacific time, the vinegar
and oil were simultaneously poured
onto the 1700 heads of shredded
lettuce. It is now being passed out
and cpnsumption is set for 7:52
p.m. Chet."
"Meats are moving along well
here, David. Trans Kitchen In-
sertion - TKI - has just taken
place. The filet mignon have suc-
cessfully been transfered from the
counter to the o v e n. And the
mushroom sauce is about to come
to a boil.
WE NOW switch you to Richard
Valariani in Whipping Cream
who has a progress report on des-
sert."
"Thanks Chet. We have been
informed in an advisory f r o m
E A T (Extraspecial Appetizing
Treats) that tonight's moonbeam
parfaits will be topped with cres-
cent shaped mounds of whipped
cream at the head table. Tables
one through 150 will have t h e
conventional cone of whipped
'cream and the remaining 148 ta-
bles will have swirls. This is Rich-
ard Valeriani in Whipping Cream
switching you back to Chet Hunt-
ley in meats."
"Thanks Dick. Ladies and gen-
tlemen, the chef has just informed
us that "medium rare" with 1,875
requests topped the scale as the
most popular condition to have
one's filet. 'Rare' was next with
967 requests, And only 158 digni-
taries asked for 'well done' meat.
David, have you anything new
in salads?"
"Not really Chet except that the
lady at Table 237 just dropped a
radish on her bodice. She's now
applying water to the stain and
John Chancellor is making h i s
way over to the table to find out
the extent of damage to her dress.
We'll be b a c k folks, after a
brief message from Gulf, for the
actual consumption, mastication
and digestion of tonight's meal."
Space does not permit The
Daily to reprint the rest of the
evening's commentary. However,
the makers of Alka Seltzer report-
ed an increased volume in sales
Thursday - mostly bought by the
nation's viewers.
4i
1~a
music
erry Wives of Windsor
': Predictably pleasing
By R. A. PERRY
Contributing Editor
Twice a year the School of
Music and the Department of Art
join hands to stage an opera in
the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
The results are always pleasantly
predictable: the singing will be
surprisingly good and the acting
uneven; the staging will depend
upon busyness rather than imagi--.
nation, the sets will try to disguise
a limited budget, and the orches-
tra will once again make you real-
ize that the School of Music is no
hot conservatory.
Last night, Prof. Josef Blatt was
again on the podium to direct the
first of four performances of Otto
Nicolai's The Merry Wives of
Windsor. Predictably, the audience
was filled with the beaming rela-
tives of the students on stage, and
predictably, the performance of-
fered a pleasing but by no means
exhilirating mixture of profession-
alisih and sophomorism.
The purpose of these bi-annual
opera presentations does not seem
to be a strictly public one, that is,
the goal is not really to bring
good opera to the Ann Arbor com-
munity but rather to give the
student singers experience before
a paying audience. Thus the operas
chosen stress lyricism and light
gaiety, and not heavier dramas of
endless stream of musical ditties
that vanish from the mind as
quickly as the next number ar-
rives. Unlike Verdi's opera Fal-
staff, where the music is intimate-
ly tied to the exigencies of per-
sonality and drama, Nicolai's
music is slick, tuneful, arid divert-
ing, but the lyricism is incontinent
in its vivaciousness, and as a re-
sult one gets quickly sated of the
treacle. One soon misses a human
engagement that the music fails
to provide.
The "plot" is comprised of a
series of episodes in which Mrs.
Ford and Mrs. Page 'make asses
out of both the lecherous Falstaff
and the jealous Mr. Ford. The
episodes lack continuity and if
dysentery caused you to miss Act
II, it's all right since more of the
same follows in Act III. A dreary
sub-plot, involving the familiar
foppish and weird suitors for the
hand of Anne Page (not to be con-
fused with the lady who makes
the cardboard pies for A&P),
merely allows for the requisite
Love Scene. The Act II confron-
tation bewteen Anne and her swain
Fenton- a Nelson Eddy-Jeanette
MacDonald duet if there ever was
one- stops the action cold dead.
Lynda Weston as Mrs. Ford, set
upon by Falstaff and husband,
sang quite marvelously and acted
Anne Page, was sung by Joanne
Gustafson, a saftig beauty with a
clear if thin soprano voice. She
was, however, noticeably stiff and
reticent in her second act love
scene with Fenton. (Tonight and
Tuesday, Anne Page will be sung
by Linda Oakley, who presented
such an innocent and charming
Cherubino last year.)
Looking like the Santa Claus
from a Fifties Coca-Cola ad, Rob-
ert Schneider took on Falstaff and
was less than totally successful.
He depended. too heavily on re-
petitive stock actions, such as
strutting around or jiggling his
belly, and too little upon a human
appreciation of this Rabelaisian
character. Schneider used his
voice cautiously and with little
expression, except for a fine scene
with Ford in Act II.
Alex Chmil, who sang an ardent
Rodolpho in a recent production
of La Boheme, revealed a true
comic talent in his portrayal of
the pansy half-wit Mr. Slender.
He never slipped out of character,
not even in curtain calls. Joe Long
lacked dramatic dimension and
vocal projection as Mr. Page, and
Robert Armstrong, as Dr. Cajus,
had difficulty making his lines, a
Franco-English melange, intelli-
gible. As the young lover Fenton,
a real Fritz Wunderlich role. Ken-
A