"Son, what you doing IN there . . Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of,Michigan "Dad, what are you doing OUT there . .. martinNOhirschan No No, NO 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 A Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1969 NIGHT EDITOR: JOEL BLOCK On defeating parochiaid and facing a crisis 0tl" ,,. U &Z.9 ~ ~ ~ tOI. THE NOTION of providing state aid to parochial schools has proved a volatile issue, splitting educators and legislators, priests and, taxpayers into clear-cut camps. Since the issue first raised its head cautiously last year, debates on the constitutionality, the propriety and the necessity of parochiaid have raged. The question is deceptively simple: should the state provide aid to parochial schools to teach secular subjects? The catch is that the state's parochial schools (educating nearly 315,000) may be forced to close if they fail to garner state support. And closure would cost the state -ultimately, the taxpayer-millions. Defenders of parochiaid dodge sticky constitutional issues and hit hard on this eqonomic catch which they hope will lure the taxpayer into buying parochiaid. HOWEVER, A heretofore silent majority has not bought the argument. Despite the support of William Ryan, House ma- jority leader, and the evidence of a Joint Legislative Committee on Non-Public Schools which revealed it would be more economical to maintain private schools, opposition to parochiaid has addressed Noo hu'nting so far ERSTWHILE campus investigator Sen. Robert Huber (R-Troy) released an eagerly awaited "interim report" of his special committee last Friday, but the most significant thing Huber said con- cerned the formation of a "disaster plan" in case of an "invasion (of Lansing) from Mar-if it comes from the great unwashed.. The expected invasion from Lansing by the great witchhunters, Huber seemed to be good naturedly hinting, is just not going to come. The highly publicized Hu- ber committee, assembled last winter to begin a meticulous investigation of cam- pus protests has obviously not yet begun to pry. Huber's group, which has only met four times since January - less than a mildly active chapter of SDS or even Col- lege Republicans-has made it abundant- ly clear it does not intend to tread lightly on the state constitution and go around violating civil liberties and inciting the ACLU. Indeed the spirit of the committee seems characterized by Ann Arbor's own Republican Gilbert Bursley who said "I've had some reservations about the committee all along, but there has been no witchhunting so far." BUT WHAT the senators aren't telling is that there really needn't be. Enough legislation has been introduced to curb campus disorders and keep radicals under wraps indefinitely. Among the highlights (from the AP): -revoking state-funded college scho- larships to recipients who participate in campus disorders. -setting penalties for interference or. disruption of classes or other campus functions at colleges or universities. s With bills like that, who needs investi- gating committes? itself to the more relevant and pressing constitutional question. Article I 'of the Michigan Constitution clearly states no money should be appro- priated or drawn from the state treasury for the benefit of any "religious sect or society, theological or religious seminary." While parochial schools are hardly semi- naries, they are religiously based and oriented. Indeed they were organized to give members of religious minorities, on a selective basis, a slanted education. Catholic schools have always stated their objective was to turn out strong, educated Catholics. Futhermore, Article VIII of the Con- stitution maintains that "The legislature shall maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools . . ." Clearly the state's first obli- gation-to which it has been notably lax -is to propagate a non-sectarian school system. As Sen. Gilbert Bursley has stated, the legislature has no business appropri- ating money to nonpublic schools until public schools are fully and adequately supported. THE CURRENT state aid bill recently passed onto the floor of the House should be defeated. For the bill has an attached rider endorsing aid to nonpublic schools "in principle" and authorizing $44.5 million to parochial schools in the following years. Hopefully, the entire bill has been so butchered as to nearly ensure its over- whelming defeat-at least in the House. But the legenthy debate over parochiaid is meanwhile stalling legislators from considering the real issue at hand-re- form in the funding of education. Without parochiaid, it is clear the parochial schools will soon be out of busi- ness and a crisis in funding education will be precipitated. Forty six thousand non- public school students have enrolled in public schools in recent years and the en- rollment jump is already costing the tax- payer an estimated $30 million a year in additional state and local taxes. Mean- while education costs rise, teachers or- ganize and parochial schools close. Thus, parochiaid is at best a stop gap measure which will prolong the agony of Michigan schools. Inevitably, nearly all parochial schools will be forced to close and stu- dents will flood public institutions in even greater numbers. At this point, a crisis in funding is necessary and even desirable. Coupled with the overwhelming woes which al- ready exist in public education, the clos- ing of parochial schools will alarm even the most economy-minded legislature. If and when Detroit schools fail to open in the fall, legislators-and taxpayers-will have to come to their senses and realize that education has been seriously short- changed. RATHER THAN re-debate the question of separation of church and state and squabble over funding parochial schools of questionable quality, the legislature should be about its business of developing a worthwhile public school system-and, incidentally, making sure Detroit's schools open this fall. -SHARON WEINER -HENRY GRIX -I .. t Letters to the Editor i THERE IS A GROWING and unhealthy tendency among commen- tators of all political persuasions to equate the actions of left wing student groups with the militant and mindless events of other eras. IN A SPEECH YESTERDAY for example, Gov. William Milliken lashed out at student radicals who, under the guise of "social-justice" are, he says, posing a greater threat to academic freedom than even McCarthyism had. Meanwhile,'Congress, in fact, is posing the greatest threat to academic freedom in legislation which may cut off aid to schools experiencing disruption. What is more dismaying than the vacuous rhetoric of the right is that similar responses are cropping up in the rhetoric of even America's most liberal ideologues. I am thinking specifically of an article by New York Post columnist and editorial page editor James Wechsler which appear in the current issue of the Progressive. The article, entitled "Liberals and the New Left" condemns the New Left for its attacks against liberalism and its proclaimed "con- tempt for the rights of those who reject both its slogans and its tactics." WECHSLER THEN CITES the tragedy of pre-Hitler Germany as an example of the "calamitous misjudgment" of radicals who believe the real enemy is the liberal, rather than conservative element in the body politic. "Now, as in Adlai Stevenson's time, there are 'no cheap and easy solutions,' " he continues. "But there are standards to which men can honorably rally if they choose to remain relevant to the political arena. The first premise of relevance is an acceptance of the awareness that diversionary disruption is a 'no-win' policy, destined to produce only a sterile polarization in which the Right has the biggest weapons." Thus, with a single pass at the typewriter keyboard, Wechger has tragically misread and distorted thepreponderance of Far Left student sentiment and action as it exists today. WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS, the militant actions of student activists have been directed at specific, remediable diseases in the academic community. And in almost all cases, action was taken only when more peaceful courses had already been tried and failed or were never available in the first place. A notable exception has been the senselessly recurring building seizures at Columbia in recent months. But in almost every other case, militant (though not necessarily violent) action has resulted from the disenfranchisement of the students from their school's decision- making processes. It is difficult to say, as I believe Wechsler would admit, that these students were morally wrong in their actions. Rather, he argues that they were politically wanton and bound to provoke devastating reaction from the Right. But, in fact, this need not be the case. And within the academic community itself, there has been very little reaction. The foremost defenders of students activists from governmental interference, have been the University administrators and faculty members them- selves. Reaction from the government and the people has', in fact, re- sulted from the sorry portrayal of student activist in the so-called liberal press which has consistently presented a distorted picture of student uprisings, and from articles like Wechsler's which provide con- servatives with all the ammunition they could possibly want. The student Left is not so far left as Wechsler thinks. And it is primarily grievance-oriented, not revolutionary. The tactics employed have been, on the whole, not very different from the non)-violent civil rigths sit-ins of the early '60s, and virtually all the violence surrounding campus activism can be directly traced to the actions, not of the students, but of the police who arrested them. "Honorable" standards certainly exist as rallying points for Liberalism. But all too often, these standards have been forgotten or diluted until they are unrecognizable. The sorry saga of Hubert Hum- phrey is a poignant example. I AM NOT RADICAL. Rather, I am a liberal apologist for the radicals. The existence of a vocal radical left is important, if not es- sential to the creatiof of a formidable liberal Left. Every true liberal is merely a mature radical who has suppressed his exuberance for reform in a frank realization of the enormity of the task. But the radical remains his conscience, embodying the ideals of his youth. If the liberal strays to far from these ideals he is simply lost in the swirling maze of moderation and status quo which char- acterizes the dismal state of American politics. WECHSLER NOTES THAT it was only by accident (i.e. the as- sassination of Robert Kennedy) that liberals did not succeed in taking control of the Democratic Party last summer. But, indeed, was it not the vocal nature of radical youth whidh spurred to opposition to Lyndon Johnson, and gave liberals a new lease on political power. Ir Boa ing Croaking To the Editor: AT THE NEXT Michigan Daily Awards Dinner I am planning to present the First Annual Boake Carter Medal for Creative De- spondency. (Readers under 30 will probably not remember the news- caster and Hearst columnist who. according to a popular limerick, made "Boaking" as synonym for "croaking.") The race has been very close in deed, but Mr. Martin Hirsch- man is now the obvious frontrun- ner. Mr. Hirschman's May 10 edi- torial, entitled "DOWN, Down, down," comments on the latest AAUP survey of faculty salaries. Noting that Michigan has dropped front 23rd place to 24th, he fore- sees that because of budgetary shortchanging, we will be unable to compete for quality faculty and will steadily sink into mediocrity. I YIELD TO no one in deploring inadequate operating appropria- tions. They create many problems, but substandard salaries is not one of them. Here are some facts the editorial might have noted: , 1. The University of Michigan has the highestaverage salaries among publicly supported univer- sities, excepting only CUNY. The movement of Michigan faculty to CUNY is not exactly a mass mi- gration. 2. The 23 higher-paid schools include Massachusetts, California and Case Institutes of Technology. Salaries in engineering-including our own School of Engineering- are characteristically higher than in most other disciplines. 3. Among the 23 are the Union Theological Seminary, the Hebrew Union College, and the new School for Social Research. not major competitors as compared with the University of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, SUNY, California, Washington, Colorado and Iowa, where salaries are lower than at Michigan. The editorial reveals that Gov- ernor Milliken's proposed increase in faculty compensation will be "to some extent illusory" because part of the money will be used for non-salary items like police and fire protection. This was news to me, perhaps because no such ex- pedient has been discussed. Police and fire protection will not be purchased with faculty salaries. MARTIN HIRSCHMAN'S May 9 column "Cohen Cometh," likewise contains much inside dope, but not always accurate. Reversing his earlier editorial stand, he grants that the scheduled closing of Uni- versity School "was probably a necessary cutback." Yet "some of the newly available funds have already been spent-for the in- stallation of Cohen's new offices in the Education School." It is true that, as urged by the External Consultants, Wilbur Co- hen will have offices in the School of Education rather than in a neighboring bank building. The at- tendant costs are not being met out of savings from the University School, which in fact are not yet niewly available. Mr. Hirschman's suggestion that any increased operating funds al- located to the School of Education will come from "robbing the cof- fers of other, equally needy schools and colleges," is equally incorrect. "MOST DISMAYING," we are informed, "is the widely accepted report" that Cohen will hold the deanship only briefly until a better job, maybe a university presidency, turns up. This discloses truly re- markable powers of insight. Cam- pus communities are ripe with gossip, so that non-widely accept- ed reports are difficult to imagine. But if Wilbur Cohen entertains such a curious ambition, he has not informed anybody else. In any case he has not been a proficient job-shopper, having had only three employers in the past 35 years- Social Security Administration, the University, and HEW. -Arthur M. Ross Vice President, State 1 Relations and Planning 4 of That was the week that was no exception EVERY week there a r e events which strike me as distortions or ironic twists of law - whether they be natural, science, jurispru- dence or those that govern human decency. Take last week for ex- ample. THE "HOLIER THAN THOU" attitude of Congress with regard to the "impropriety" of Supreme Court Associate Justice Abe Fortas for accepting a $20,000 fee from the Wolfson Foundation is a clas- sic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Fortas' impropriety was a com- mission he received from Wolfson to conduct a study on race rela- tions in the United States. Unfor- tunately Wolfson was involved with possible violation of certain regulations established by the Se- curities Exchange Commission. This is not the first time For- tas has fallen under Congressional scrutiny. While Fortas was under consideration as a nominee f o r Supreme Court Chief Justice, an issue was made of a $15,000 fee procured by lawyer friends to de- liver a series of law lectures at various law schools. CONGRESSIONAL vituperation aimed at Fortas has been of a harsher nature than that directed at Chief Justice Earl Warren. Fortas' critics have lashed out at the man on a personal level, whereas Warren's critics were up- set because the Court's increasing liberalenss was viewed as "under- mining American democracy and freedom." I wonder if the heavy criticism I directed at Fortas is because crit- ics fear him as a bearer of the liberal badge in a more intense degree than Warren. Yet a review of Fortas' voting record, w h e n compared to the rest of the judg- es, is not the most liberal. Asso- ciate Justice William O. Douglas, the sole judge who supported draft card burners defending their actions by quoting t h e first amendment, would be a m o r e suitable sacrifical lamb for Con- gress. Neither is Fortas the only Su- preme Court Justice to accept fees for lectures or other services. Jus- tice Douglas, who is no stranger to the lecture circuit is now in Brazil delivering a series of lec- tures. Congress justifies its posture by saying that since our justices are the interpreters of our Constitu- tion, the American creed of right and wrong, they should be of a particularly strong moral fiber. The fact that Fortas returned the fee to Wolfson and on another occasion left the Wolfson home the day after he learned t h a b Wolfson had been indicted for vio- lation of SEC regulations suggests that Fortas suspected a bribe, and had no desire to be a part of it. I THINK Sen. Robert Griffin's (R-Mich.) resolution that the Su- preme Court Judges issue a public statement about all outside funds, whether they be fees or gifts is an excellent one. But it should ex- tend beyond the Supreme Court to Congress and indeed to all elected officials. Since Congress is in an investi- gating mood, let it turn its pry- ing tentacles inward. I would be interested in knowing the rational used by Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.) in deciding to award not true - that the Congressional persecution of Fortas is a not too. well disguised case of aiti-Semi- tism, * * * PROSECUTING Attorney John Howard appealed to t h e jury's sense of outrage. He reminded the jury of the 11 children who were now fatherless, of a nation depriv- ed of their great leader, and a family who had already suffered so much grief. Death in San Quen- tin's gas chamber was the only fitting end for such a, such a, . . . Defense Attorney Grant Cooper appealed to the jury's sense of moral dignity, and asked that the Lorna Cherot defendant's life be spared as "a kind of posthumous tribute" to. a man who abhorred all forms, of violence. The jury's sense of outrage pre- vailed over their dignity. T h e y were unimpressed by the volumes of psychiatric testimony. The de- fendant impressed them as being "a conniving brat" and "an ani- mal." So now the state will act the role of avenger and Sirhan Bis- hara Sirhan will await his turn on death row at San Quentin. IT IS IRONIC to note that the jury determined psychological evi- dence (Sirhan was said to be suf- fering from" paranoic" tendencies) "stunk" because jurymen respond- ed the same way the suspect did to ink blot tests, Then the jury - after convict- ing Sirhan-threw their own par- crew, called the White Hats, pa- trol the black section of the city. 2) A black soldier who was arrest- ed for being AWOL was found hanging in his cell by his o w n shirt. Police files investigating the case were mysteriously missing from the files. 3) Rev. Larry Potts, a Baptist minister, battered his 72-year-old gardener to death with a baseball bat when he found him raping his wife. State attor- ney Peyton Berbling, Cairo's lead- ing citizen, dismissed the case as being justifiable homicide with- out benefit of any investigation. The "White Hats" shot up Pyra- mid Court, a black residential ar- ea and killed one - Floyd Park- er! Stenzel's statement, and Cairo's actions are not what puzzles me - I find it rather typical. What I find bewildering is the fact that Cairo's blacks only form of retali- ation is an economic boycott of the downtown business district. "When will they ever learn. . "The times they is a changin'..." AS PART OF HIS economic aus- terity program, President Richard Nixon has ordered an oveihaul- ing of the tax system. The presi- dent has declared semi-all-out- war on millionaires who pay no taxes. If President Nixon is really ser- ious about having Americans share the tax burden more equitably, I suggest that o u r fearless leader check into present oil depletions which allow oil companies up to 27 per cent decreases in corpora- tion tax. Another untapped source of revenue is the churches. Religion is big business, with endless ser- ies of bingo games and extensive property holdings. But I do think that Governor R~nna1A Parav nmi',c~r1the hot I: K EOXACMY kWHAT TIL W-X 0-1<5 FORTY VEiARS FRS3Y (NOW. I 7 TU 2X r f AWJP Rh.AVE'PAW! IN~ BA'ACK AO.P O~RM655 OF l~f .Ath r. AM~P Ti-i- HoKg'Too ML6N 1AMP HAVE LA 7tKW&PO W e a, f~~I .re. AP I $ HAVC A SOO)- 4,' JWAS RAY W 1 HtFE'A1\PSCA P& M : F y' 6 MME~ TO 0 - MOTHER A$AIM~T AW IL GW56C T Y tSH H . 4k'e 1 4A h fr1AfW, i