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"Whm eopinions AreFreeSTUDENT Nvs!C ATOws BLDG., ANx ARBOR, Micir,PHoz No 2-3241
Truth Will Previail"
Editorialsf printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in at; reprints.
EDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR : EDWARD HERSTEIN
WHAT KIND OF WORLD?
Raising Compulsory
Schooling Age Unwise
News Management Limits:
'Dictator,' 'Best Policy'
S THE UNITED STATES going to pull
'out of South Viet Nam next year or
are we on the verge of carrying the war,
to the North? Has a decision been made
or is it still in doubt? Was Assistant Sec-
retary of State Roger Hilsman fired be-
cause he didn't go along with the adminis-
tration's Viet Nam policy or did he ac-
tually resign for other reasons? No one
--or at least not the public-knows.
The Johnson administration would ar-
gue, as the Kennedy administration did
in the Cuban crisis, that news manage-
rnent is necessary occasionally in the con-
duct of foreign affairs. And perhaps in
some cases it is. But there are limits as to
how far suppression, or management of
news, should go. Likewise there are limits
beyond which news should not go unre-
stricted.
ASICALLY THESE LIMITS should be
set in each direction by two boundar-
ies. The first might be called the "dictator,
factor." At the top it prescribes that af-
fairs of state must not be allowed to be-
come so secretive that it is impossible
for the electorate to judge intelligently
the work of its leaders. The public must
always be able to possess enough informa-
tion so as to be able to decide whether or
not the political elite should remain in of-
fice.
At the bottom, the dictator factor says
Information
PUBLIC SUPPORT should be given to a
federal freedom .of information bill
passed by a Senate judiciary subcommit-
tee last week.
The bill calls for the lull disclosure of
information by government agencies, un-
less exempted by law. The proposed leg-
islation also provides stiff court penal-
ties for violators. If information is wrong-
fully withheld, a government proceeding
must be started completely anew. Further,
the bill calls for the government paying
lawyers and court fees if it loses the case.
However, Sen. Edward V. Long (D-Mo)
sees an uphill fight for passage. "We
should not kid ourselves about the legisla-
tion's prospects. There is intense opposi-
tion to the bill from virtually every agency
in Washington."
THE BILL is one of the finest proposals
in this field, stronger even than the
broad freedom of information provisions
of the new Michigan constitution. It
would insure free public and press access
to mammoth federal government opera-
tions and decision-making-vital to a
democratic society-with its strong en-
forcement provisions.
But this important bill cannot be pass-
ed without public support. The federal
age'ncies will lobby hard against it. This
pressure to maintain a potentially dan-
gerous status quo can only be met by a
large volume of vocal, public support. Let-
ters to congressmen and local newspapers
is one good method of being heard.
This law is for the public benefit. The
public should support it.
-P. SUTIN
it is not necessary that the deliberations
and actions of government become so
publicized as to create a dictatorship of
the masses. For example, to publish pre-
maturely a policy under consideration
might result in a public veto of that
policy before all its implications had been
considered.
Certainly the publication of any word
that the Unitd' States was considering
recognition of Red China would immedi-
ately swing three-quarters of the lobby-
ing agencies in the country into action
before second thoughts could be given to
the plan.
THE SECOND BOUNDARY on news re-
strictions might be called the "best
policy factor." At the lower limit the im-
plications of this factor are clear. The
Central Intelligence Agency cannot tell
the public the names and actions of all
its agents if it hopes to have the best
chances of obtaining otherwise secret in-
formation.
Part of the blame for the failure of the
Cuba invasion, for example, was placed
on the publicizing of invasion plans ahead
of time. Thus, if the government is to pur-
sue the policies most likely to succeed,
there must be a limit to the publication
of government activities.
But this same "best policy factor" has
an equally important bearing on the up-
per limit to news restriction. When a de-
cision is made within the confines of the
offices of the elite, with the future influ-
ence and power of each person partaking
in it resting in the balance, certain al-
ternatives are never brought up. This
is the phenonenon C. Wright Mills called
"crackpot realism."
To understand why a decision-maker
would fear to put forward what he
thinks might be an unpopular proposal,
witness the fate of Adlai Stevenson after
the Cuban crisis. And when it is in the
nature of things that certain alternatives
just aren't considered wrong, decisions are
likely to be made. Thus occurs "crack-
pot realism" or what a psychologist pre-
ferred to call "bounded rationality."
THE ONLY WAY to open the thinking of
decision-makers to all alternatives is
to allow informed elements in the public
to put alternatives forward. A very small
vocal minority favoring an unpopular
course of action would still be sufficient
to make sure that that alternative isn't
totally ignored.
The difficulty of reconciling the two
factors at both their upper and lower
bounds cannot' be ignored. To publicize
a situation so as to open considerations of
alternatives may be to open the door to
mass rejection of the best policy.
To keep something a secret so as to
make it successful may be to invite gov-
ernment dictatorship. Certainly no clear
lines can be drawn.
But all of the above considerations must
be weighed. The "dictator factor" must be
judged against the "best policy factor."
Onr cannot be totally sacrificed for the
other. Who knows what's going on in
South Viet Nam? It's time someone con-
sidered telling us.
-EDWARD HERSTEIN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Handy-Dandy' Elections Guide
By ROBERT M. HUTCHINS
WHAT WOULD happen if com-
pulsory schooling were length-
ened by two years, from 16 to 18?
This is the way Secretary of La-
bor W. Willard Wirtz would solve
the problem of unemployment
among the young. If the change
could be made instantly, two mil-
lion people now out of work would
be in school.
In the first place, it can't be
done by federal action. The states
are in charge. They fix the school-
Ileaving age.
In the second place, the states
are not going to accept the pro-
posal. because they are not going
to put up the money. Adding two
million pupils to the high school
rolls means an addition of about
one-eighth to the present number.
Any such increase means large
expenditures. Unless federal ap-
propriations are forthcoming for
the general support of secondary
education, the expenditures will
not be made. No Congress has
ever been willing to give general
aid to secondary education.
In the third place, in view of
the, present overcrowded condition
of the schools, nobody would want
to throw two million additional
pupils into them. More teachers
and buildings would be indispen-
sable. Recruiting teachers and
constructing schools takes time,
and a lot of it.
* * *
RAISING the school-leaving
age would be of no immediate
value, even if the states were to
pass the required legislation un-
animously and at once and the
federal government at once agreed
to pay.
The experience of the British
is instructive. Twenty years ago
they authorized raising the school-
leaving age from 15 to 16. The
government has just announced-
two decades later-that it pro-
poses to give effect to the author-
ization-but not until 1970.
Yet, all political parties have
been in accord that the change
should come as soon as possible.
WHY DID the British take more
than a quarter of a century to
raise the school-leaving age by
only one year?
No simple, single answer ex-
plains their inaction from 1944-
1964. But the reasons for the de-
lay between now and 1970 have
been officially set forth. The Brit-
ish think it will take them six
more .years to get ready. Critics
of the government have attacked
it on the ground that six years is
nowhere long enough to get the
necessary staff, buildings and
equipment.
By. the time we could get ready
to do a respectable job with two
million additional pupils in the
high schools, we should be up
against the fact of increasing me-
chanization and unemployment
and there would be no guarantee
that there would be jobs for high
school graduates. It will be re-
membered that Secretary Wirtz
remarked on another occasion that
today machines, "on the average,"
can do whatever a high school
graduate can do.
* * *
FINALLY, we are not doing a
respectable educational job now.
SLiberal
THE "LIBERAL" likes to talk
about his work, which he calls
a profession, particularly if a
school-teacher, a social worker or
a government employe. . . . He
may be loud and noisy, but he says
nothing of any interest.
. And, of course, the "Lib-
eral" is a Puritan of the most
terrible kind. His sins are not of
the robust body, but of hislittle
mind, and those sins are fatuity,
unconscious in insincerity, greed,
intolerance; he hates the healthy,
the religious, the beautiful, and
the grand, none of which he can
understand.
-Taylor Cladwell in
American Opinion
To the Editor:
AT THE risk of introducing even
more skullduggeryinto an al-
ready absurdly administered elec-
tions system-and, perhaps, to
encourage Student Government
Council to limit the following prac-
tices-I would like to take issue
with Mr. Chudacoff's statement
in the March 6 Daily. He wrote
that either "it was impossible"
or '"fairly hard" for someone to
vote twice (or more times) in last
Wednesday's election.
Let the following serve as some-
thing of a "Handy-Dandy Ballot-
Stuffers Guide." All of the follow-
ing methods have been purport-
edly used in SGC elections with
some success:
"Doubling": a poll workers, usu-
ally a girl with long finger-nails,
inserts her thumbnail into the
pack of ballots when a friend ap-
proaches. She proceeds to rip off
two or three ballots, and hands
them to her friend. The friend
then fills them out and either
hands all of them back to the poll
worker who punches them all and
inserts them in the ballot box,
or punches them later and in-
serts them in the ballot box dur-
ing a period of general confusion
or gives them to a friend, who will
become a poll worker later in the
day, who proceeds to process them
along with his own.
* * *
"COLLECTING": A campaigner
asks friends of his who didn't
vote to lend him their I.D. cards.
He then votes at several different
polling places.
"Lifting": A voter places his
books on the elections table on
top of a pad of ballots. He votes,
lifts up pad and ballots, fills them
out and disposes of them as in
the first example.
''Air-punching'': No hole
punched in the I.D. card. Just
"air."
"Re-punching": punching old
registrationnaire.
"Bundling": two new poll work-
ers replace previous shift just be-
fore class changes. Old worker
signs out, replacements sign in.
Pack of ballots previously appro-
priated is placed in box, already
punched. New shift comes on aft-
er classes change, etc.
"Voiding": a poll worker fails
to punch through a ballot, thus
voiding it. Other ballots are
punched through so circles fall
to the ground.
"Erasing": if I. D. cards are
marked (as opposed to punched),
ink eradicator or a razor blade
may be used to erase the _mark.
* * *
AND ON and on, almost end-
lessly. In past elections duplicate
ballots have been printed and
poll workers have busily filled out
ballots while the apathetic mass
filed by. During the last election,
a large number of ballots were
stolen from the SGC offices.
In order to remedy the situa-
tion, SGC, or its successor, should
do the following:
1) Establish strong election
rules. During the fall elections I-
as a poll captain-apprehended
two students voting with someone
4) Spot check voters for furth-
er identification and information
on I. D. card.
Then, if SGC can but protect its
ballots, we can be assured of a
reasonably honest election.
-Stephen Berkowitz, '65
Transgression .. .
To the Editor:
S INCE ONE of the participants
in the recent demonstration by
the Direct Action Committee bears
nearly the same name as I do, I
want to state publicly that I am
not associated with DAC nor have
I ever participated in any of its
demonstrations.
Resort to violence to solve so-
cial problems is abhorrent to me.
In most cases it creates more
problems than it solves.
While not in sympathy with the
methods used by DAC, I do believe
that the Negro protest is founded
on just grievances. The civil rights
and liberties of many Negroes have
been sadly transgressed. Redress
of their grievances is long over-
due.
Perhaps if more of the citizens
of Ann Arbor had been concerned
about. the rights of their neighbors
they would not now need to be so
concerned about their own.
-Richard G. Hutchins, '64L
'Children'.' . .
To the Editor:
A WEEK AGO I was invited to
a special showing of "The Chil-
dren of the Damned" by its auth-
or's sister. She told me that her
brother (in England) was con-
cernedrwith the reception his film
had received, that he felt the ad-
vertising had, in its emphasis on
the "science-fiction-horror", led
audiences-both those who came
and those who, like myself, stayed
away because of this advertising-
to overlook his most serious inten-
tions.
I saw the film and it is ' not
without faults, the most serious
coming near the end where there
is a shift away from the central
problem of what we should% do
when faced with the existence of
a "race" of man (apparently the
result of Divine intervention-
there are six "virgin births"), a
million years advanced, which
makes man,ras we know him, ob-
solete, to the different problem
of accident in a world of armed
camps.
It is significant, in this regard,
that the film opens with a stun-
ning series of stills that thrusts
the child Paul (and the problem)
at us but ends with the camera
fixed on a mischievious screwdriv-
er. This ending may have been
demanded by those who felt that
the film would be accepted only
as "science-fiction-horror".
* * *
IF YOU will accept this idea
that there were two forces au work
in the making of this film-the
commercial one just mentioned,
and the author with his intense
concern for man's potential--then
I am suggesting that .you go see
the film without that misleading
long as the author has his way.
It is an exciting story, extremely
well acted, no matter who is in,
control.
-Hubert Cohen
Asst. Manages,
Cinema Guild
Hong Kong...
To the Editor:
AS A student from Hong Kong,
I found that the report on
Hong Kong by Jeff Greenfield was
very misleading. I wonder whether
Mr. Greenfield had been to Hong
Kong before he wrote that report,
or has just obtained the idea from
other reports.
The first point, with which Il
most disagree, is that the people
in Hong Kong are living in fear
of the Communist China take-
over.hEverybody knows that Hong
Kong is defenseless. If Communist
China wants it, Communist China
gets it. But the people know that,
this will not happen unless there
is a Third World War. Hong Kong
is one of the few places where
the Communist Chinese can ship
out their goods or obtain products
from other countries.
Actually if Communist China
wants that place, they might have
taken it a long time ago. The peo-
ple of Hong Kong fear drought,
typhoon, theft or juvenile delin-
quency more than the Communist
China take-over.
IT IS quite true that the govern-
ment of Hong Kong does not hire
those politically connected to'
either Communist or Nationalist.
China. The government, has to do
this in order to make Hong Kong
a peaceful place.
According to Mr. Greenfield,
the students of Hong Kong require
political activities. Actually it is
because they are without political
activity that the students of Hong
Kong are real students-they work
hard and learn as students should,
not like those so-called students
in many parts of the world who
demonstrate, riot, etc.
I hope that the students of Hong
Kong will still remain in their
classroom instead of going out to
cause trouble. I hope that the
graduates from the schools in
Hong Kong will remember their
happy peaceful years instead of
violence, hatred or even bloodshed.
-Edwin Chan, '66E
Gottlieb . .
To the Editor:
I WISH TO correct The Daily's
repeated use, the latest instance
being in "Write-Ins Give Some
Cheer" on March 5, of the term
"South Quad turtle" in reference
to Mr. Walter Gottlieb.
Mr. Gottlieb was never a resi-
dent of South Quad, but lived in
an apartment in the ?neighbor-
hood; this mistaken impression is
no doubt due to the fact that a
great deal of his elector support
was registered at the South Quad
polling place.
Thank you for setting the his-
torical record straight. We ear-
But one-third of our young peo-
ple get out of school as soon as
they can, in spite of the constanlt
advice they receive about the
economic consequences of doing so.
Before we compel them to stay on,
we ought to know why they leave.
It seems likely that one reason is
the inadequacy and apparent ir-
relevance of the education they
get from the elementary schools
up.
The only remedy for unemploy-
Copyright, 1964, fos Angeles Times
BOMB:
'Damned':
Impact
At the Campus Theatre
IN SPTE of the impression
fostered by its advertising cam-
paign at its last appearance ("Be-
ware the eyes that paralyze!"),
"Children of the Damned" is not,
repeat, not a grade B monster
movie.
It is, in fact, a. very fine ex-
ploration of the fundamental is-
sues at stake in the age of over-
skill. It deals in particular with a
question rarely portrayed as part
of the Bomb problem: the plight
of the superior intellect in a
world which seeks to' appropriate
intellect to serve the vicious goals
of political power.
AT STAKE are the bodies,
'minds and personalities of six
children; American, British, In-
dian, Russian, Chinese and Afri-
can: children whose minds are so
far advanced that they boggle
United Nations psychologists and
telepathize instantly among them-
selves.
They are, of course, capable of
designing monstrous weapons if
they could be pressed to do so by
their various governments. And, it
turns out, they do,'if not in quite
the way that their countries would
have wished.
For they are, after all, only
children; and they are, in addi-
tion, confused by a world which
cannot comprehend their minds
except in relation to Cold War
goals-Just possibly hot war goals.
The children do not understand.
They want only to be left alone
in order to. try to understand why
they are here. But they must be
taken care of, like all children,
and so they capture the British
boy's unt and take her with them
when they retreat to the ruins of
an old church.
* * *
THE RELIGIOUS symbolism is
heavy, but not inappropriately so.
There are six (count 'em, six)
virgin, or at least parthenogenetic,
births, there is the church and the
final immolation. The tragic irony
at the end states the horror not
merely of nuclear power, /but of
power .beyond the capacity of
human control.
And the religious symbolism is
appropriate because religious
mythology remains the reservoir of
man's most profound images of
good and evil, innocence and blind
brutality.
The photography is nearly al-
ways brilliant, as are the sound
effects; I guarantee that you will
never forget the snarling dog,
traditional pal of the American
small boy, or the monstrous forced
perversion of that instrument of
religious ecstasy, the organ.
"Children Of ,the Damned" has
its excesses, including those over-
done and unnecessary eyes, stu-
pidities among government offi-
cials that must be (mustn't they?)
exaggerated and, for some viewers
perhaps, the omnipresence of
religious themes.
For these minor defects, the
film must be forgiven. Its insight,
and impact encompass the mean-
ing- of human existence. It will
only be here for one night. It
could be one of the most important
nights of your life.
-Martha MacNeal
r
:
t.
ri
'U' Decision-Makers Need
Conversion Research Center
"Al Set For The Tax-Cut Countdown -Seven
Days -Six.-Five -Four-"
UNIVERSITY FILES contain a vast
storehouse of valuable information
about students. But it is relatively untap-
ped: no one knows what and how much
data on the student environment is avail-
able.
What the University needs is a con-
version research center on the campus en-
vironment. This agency would ferret out
available information on student life and
make it readily accessible to University
academic and student affairs policy-
makers.
The coordinator could gather student
questionnaires circulated in many intro-
ductory psychology and sociology courses;
results of the Women's Conference Com-
h A~ria a~
mittee survey on women's hours; The
Daily's trimester study; the results of Stu-
dent Government Council's student eco-
nomic survey; general data collected by
various counseling agencies such as the
Bureau of Psychological Services, the
mental health clinic and the Bureau of
Appointments; the literary college survey
on proposed student attendance of the
summer term as well as much other in-
formation which is resting unused in nu-
merous file drawers all across campus.
THE PURPOSE of this agency would be
to arm decision-makers with as much
concrete information about student atti-
tudes on academic and non-academic is-
sues as possible. Presently, many signifi-
cant decisions affecting students are made
in a void or at best on the basis of mere
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