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Truth Will i'reV'ji
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in at; reprints.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATTINGER
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
The Degeneration
Of The Daily
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New Hampshire Primary
Shows GOP Split
T HE PRIMARY in the Granite State was
significant-quite telling in fact. Per-
haps it isn't so much of a weathervane
for the Republican party, as it was a rude
awakening for the presidential hopefuls.
They were at last faced with a contest of
political strength; and so far as I can tell,
they all lost.
The alleged winner, United States Am-
bassador Henry Cabot Lodge, was per-
haps the biggest loser, for now he is in the
race in earnest. Whether Lodge is official-
ly running or not, he had a campaign
machine working for him in New Hamp-
shire that rivaled those of Sen. Goldwater
and Gov. Rockefeller; nor was any ex-
pense spared in Lodge's behalf. And to
top it all off, Lodge's own son George was
actively and openly spearheading his
father's campaign. This all adds up to
Lodge being a candidate whether he likes
it or not.
And now, with his "mandate" from
those "millions" of voters in New Hamp-
shire, Lodge today, like Eisenhower in
1952, is put in the position of having to
put up or shut up and do it right away.
As you will recall, Ike "put up," but Lodge
finds himself faced with a little more op-
position. If he puts up, he may well find
he will later be shut up as just another
politician. If he returns to campaign, he
may well end up in the same category as
Goldwater and Rockefeller.
SPEAKING OF Sen. Barry Goldwater, he
took his lumps. On the order of Cassius
Clay, the Arizona senator practically
bragged at one point of having 60 per
cent of the New Hampshire vote in his
pocket; but unlike Clay the senator didn't
come out on top. I don't think there is'
any question but that he had widespread
support in New Hampshire at one time,
so his drubbing there should serve as a
lesson to his campaign technique. If he
had the support once, then he himself
must. have scared it off, for no one took it
away from him. (Lodge wasn't there, re-
member.)
The same thing goes for Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller. He can talk all he wants
about going into New Hampshire as an
underdog; he came out the same way. His
position was not improved, in spite of
what he's been telling the press. New
Hampshire was just plain unimpressed
with Nelson Rockefeller and with Happy
and all the rest of the entourage. I doubt
seriously whether it had much to do with
his controversial remarriage; that is
largely a delusion of the press, since it
was not even a whispered issue in the
campaign.
Perhaps Rockefeller privately realizes
his New Hampshire lesson: he doesn't
look like a president, he doesn't act like
a president-he doesn't even talk like a
president.
AS FOR THE REST of the field, Richard
Nixon failed to gain his hoped for
"spontaneous" endorsement, which, espe-
cially in the light of Lodge's showing,
cripples the Nixon draft in San Fran-
cisco.
Margaret Chase Smith only proved one
of two things: Either the country clear-
ly is not interested in a woman president
or she hasn't convinced them that she's
the woman. And further, her showing
was not even good enough to make her a
serious vice-presidential contender, which
in spite of her public protestations, must
be her goal.
Governors Scranton and Romney found
that their little Alphonse and Gaston act
failed to attract any favorable attention
whatsoever, which means that if they
want to be nominated they may have to
campaign in earnest.
TO MY WAY of thinking, the New Hamp-
shire primary actually proved only one
thing: The New Hampshire GOP is still
as badly split as it ever was, and a neutral
third party went up the middle of the
schism.
Lodge, from neighboring Massachusetts,
long a sentimental hero of many New
Englanders, simply provided New Hamp-
shire voters with a reason not to vote
for one of the GOP's three battling func-
tions in that state. The election was not
between Goldwater, Rockefeller and Nix-
on; it was between Mrs. Styles Bridges-
Sen. Norris Cotton, former Gov. Hugh
Gregg, and former Gov. Wesley Powell.
Each faction grabbed onto a candidate
and started running, with the result
that a total outsider went up the middle
to win. This happened in 1962, when the
Democrats took advantage of the split
to win the governorship and a Senate
seat and it happened again last Tuesday.
TO ME, this only proves one thing. Until
New Hampshire Republicans learn to
quit trying to spread themselves too thin,
elections there will prove very little. As
of now they are not much more than a
waste of money. --MICHAEL HARRAH
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SIDELINE ON SGC:
ThecOfficer Elections Game
THE LIAISON:
Suelching A etivism
by Barbara Lazarus, Personnel Director
~!EhIL
IN THE FAIRLY conservative world of
academia, professors who become so-
cial activists and who are willing to speak
their mind against university or societal
injustices have a rough time surviving.
Although society needs a university or
a place for ideals and social criticism,
those professors who work for civil rights
or stand on principle are stifled by the
academic power structure and conserva-
tive system.
A university is like any other communi-
ty, and it uses the same sanctions in
punishing deviant members that any
small town uses. In order to succeed in
professorial ranks, one must teach, have
enough office hours to make a pretense
of seeing students and do a reasonable
amount of research. A professor has a
home, a family and mixes with other pro-
fessors. He may run for political office,
take some interest in local community
affairs or do research for political figures.
But these are all part of an accepted
societal concept of a well integrated com-
Editorial Staff
RONALD WILTON, Editor
DAVID MARCUS GERALD STORCH
Editorial Director City Editor
BARBARA LAZARUS........ ..Personnel Director
PHIILIP SUTIN........... National Concerns Editor
GAIL EVANS.................Associate City Editor
MARJORIE BRAHMS .... Associate Editorial Director
GLORIA BOWLES .................... Magazine Editor
MHADT YA .R.. ...... .nntributing Editor
munity member, and social activism de-
viates from this pattern of the more
stable, docile life. Professors who fight
hard for civil rights by picketing or who
rail against their university on the stu-
dents' behalf, may be looked upon with a
suspicious eye as practicing conduct un-
becoming a faculty member.
YOUNG PROFESSORS, who perhaps are
the ones most repressed by such a
system, are always or almost always be-
ing evaluated by older, more conservative
department members. This higher, older
level tends to set a tone within the de-
partment, and this atmosphere can in-
hibit activism by working to intimidate
and eradicate it. Like society at large, it is
safer to be silent.
It is true that some professors fight for
their beliefs and although disturbed by
the atmosphere still fight; but in doing'
so jeopardize their positions .A university
deals with many aspects of society - it
studies its history, political thought,
philosophy and culture. But a university
has an obligation to allow leeway for some
of its members to use this knowledge for
constructive criticism.
THE UNIVERSITY has lost and may con-
tinue to lose men of this activist strain.
Men who are not humiliated to picket,
not unwilling to look outside their closed
system and not accepted with "the es-
tablishment." They make an institution
dynamic because they use their knowledge
and- hodtidan 1ols at onv osts- andi t is
By MARY LOU BUTCHER
WHILE every Student Govern-
ment Council officer election
has its inevitable measureof
wheeling and dealing, Wednesday
night's results reflect the growing
apolitical nature of SGC and the
discarding of meaningful diversity
among Council members.
Although the division among
Council members was close, it was
not a political division but one
based chiefly on personal interests
and friendships.
* * *
BOTH Thomas Smithson and
Douglas Brook have been declared
candidates for the Council presi-
dency since last semester; both
have earned respect for their per-
formances in their previous exec-
utive committee positions. Fur-
thermore, the two had agreed ear-
ly in the race, that whoever was
defeated would try for the execu-
tive vice-presidency.
Yet, the 10-9 split which favored
Smithson is especially significant
since his edge came from captur-
ing the votes of two ex-officios of
traditionally conservative organi-
zations-Interfraternity Council
and the Michigan Union.
Moreover, earlier in the officer
campaign, Smithson had a chance
for a better margin of votes, since
newly elected Council member
Eugene Won was uncommitted
and reportedly had leanings to-
ward Smithson.
* * *
BUT IT turned out that anoth-
er newly elected member, Barry
Bluestone, in his zeal for promot-
ing the election of Smithson as
well as a straight "liberal" execu-
tive committee (including himself
as a candidate for the office of ad-
m i n i s t r a t i v e vice-president)
stepped on Won's toes by trying
to "deal".him into the treasurer's
post.
Won turned down the deal as an
insult, and consequently began
wavering toward the Brook camp.
Thereafter, Smithson disclaimed
any part of Bluestone's move and
apparently had not yet lost Won's
vote. But further antagonism of
Won by Bluestone Wednesday aft-
ernoon clinched the shift to Brook.
It was reported later that Won
would indeed have liked to have
been nominated as a candidate for
treasurer; but his refusal to take
part in the politicking lost him a
nomination for the post as well as
a good chance of winning.
* * *
IN SOME respects, Won's deci-
sion reflects the actions of the
'typical" independent voter. New
on Council, he has little interest
in the political maneuvers that
characterize any legislative body.
Moreover, his announced inten-
tion to vote for whatever seems
best, cannot be taken too seriously
since his judgment of what actual-
ly seems best was known to be
wavering throughout the officer
campaign week.
The surprise of the election
came with Council's selection of
Doug Brook over Howard Schech-
ter to the executive vice-presi-
dent's post. Shechter had 11 votes
Lion--was another surprise in the
evening's proceedings, and was
given many interpretations- by
other Council members.
Brook speculated that she didn't
really want the job; Smithson
noted that she may have wanted
to let someone new get in on the
executive committee and get some
experience. Other sources have it
that she really did not feel she
could work with Smithson as
Council president.
ELECTION of Gary Cunning-
ham over Don Filip to the trea-
surer's office was the one predict-
able result due to Cunningham's
GENERATION:
Magazine Has Variety;
Espouses Half-Truth
THE NEW number of Genera-
tion exhibits both the high
technical competence of campus
writers and artists and the variety
of creative activity that engages
them.
Balanced and catholic interest
is this number's first virtue: the
customary assortment of fiction,
poetry and criticism gains weight
from Mr. Bergman's essay-on aes-
thetics and derives piquancy from
Fowler's photographs and a se-
quence of sketches by Franklin
Ettenberg. For this virtue, the edi-
tors deserve congratulation.
Perhaps the most impressive
sign of their commitment to va-
riety as well as originality was
their decision to print Dagmar
Schultz's translations of several
lyrics by Else Lasker-Schueler-
and to print the German text be-
side the English. In addition, there
is the timely piece by Lynn Coffin
on Benjamin Britten's "War Re-
quiem."
TWO FEATURES of the issue
may provoke objections: its epi-
graph and its preoccupation with
private, subjective experience. The
epigraph is Rilke's "Works of art
are of an infinite loneliness and
with nothing to be so little reached
as with criticism. Only love can
grasp and hold and fairly judge
them."
This, of course, is a disarming
half-truth; or rather, two of them.
It reminds one of the old priestly
claim that you cannot "criticize"
religion because it is "beyond rea-
son;" you can only believe. You
grasp, hold, judge through faith
alone. I do not believe priests
when they talk this way. I do not
believe poets when they talk this
way.
Especially I do not believe edi-
tors who talk this way about their
own publication. It all sounds so
terribly shamanic.
* * *
IT EXPLAINS, I suspect, the
burial of Carl Oglesby's brilliant
dramatization of a social moment
("The Conversion") in the middle
of the magazine and the appear-
neither funny nor profound; only
tedious. Shamanic. Also-to its
credit-Faulknerian, when the
rhetoric works.
Rilke's "lonely lovey art" theory
leads straight to subjectivism, the
second objectionable feature of
the new Generation. With few ex-
ceptions, privacy calls the tune,
the kind of privacy that grows
from cultural privation; that is,
the loneliest, loviest privacy you
can imagine. Even this would be
satisfactory (albeit disturbing
since cultural undernourishment
ought not occur in the Catholep..
istemiad of Michigan), could we
avoid the uncomfortable suspicion
that all the privates want to be
generals. Every loving lad yearns
to become Christ.
* s *
AND OUR suspicion is con-
firmed by Mr. Bergmann's theor-
etical justification for precisely
this kind of literary Messianism.
Because of literature's focus on
particulars, its essential privacy,
its atomism, it puts to shame all
old systems of abstract thought.
". . . We can no longer turn to
philosophy when the question
'How should I live?' plagues us
and philosophers should no longer
attempt to answer it."
And behold: since literature
gives us private kicks, the writer
must be our new priest. "If any-
one can teach morality to mankind
it is the writer," says Mr. Berg-
mann. Down with philosophy, the-
ology, science, deans and disci-
pline! Up with art because art is
love!
* * *
MY exaggeration is deliberate
as an illustration of one tendency
in modern literary and artistic
criticism which needs correction.
It should not be taken, however,
as a condemnation of the latest
Generation. Ettenberg's five-stage
"Figure Composition" demon-
strates the modern artist's ability
to break out of private experience
in an isolated moment, if only to
record the decomposition of emo-
tion in time.
Some will mistake his record of
this norpafne w a , Q'm nmaom.
edge in having sat on Council
prior to this semester.
Evidence of political differences
Wednesday night or in the prior
efforts of campaigners was not a
part of the officer elections.
Brook, for instance, admitted to
Adalemo, that he had not ap-
proached Adalemo with any pro-
posals for the operation of the
presidency since he was fairly sure
that Smithson had Adalemo's vote.
The issue then as indicated by
Brook's belief and the votes cast
by Council members was "person-
al"-not commitments to distinct
political offerings on the part of
officers.
To the Editor:
FOR YEARS The Michigan Daily
has been widely known as the
New York Times of college news-
papers. Whether or not that was
once a justified accolade, The
Daily's performance in immediate
memory makes me wonder if The
Daily is not now The House of
Usher of college newspapers.
A new staff of senior editors
will assume authority next week,
and it is my hope that they, with
the assistance of the understaff,
will exert herculean effort and
devotion to the task of rebuilding
The Daily. Unfortunately, I do not
believe that this will in fact hap-
pen, for reasons described in the
remainder of this letter. Since
each block to success is decisive
in itself, the order in which the
problems are discussed does not
indicate anecessary order of se-
verity. All are severe.
** *
IT SEEMS to me that The
Daily has a false emphasis, partly
betrayed on the editorial page, and
immediately evident when talking
to the present understaff.
There is an insensitivity to the
fundamental issues, trends and
nature of the nation, the com-
munity and the University. There
is a crippling emphasis on straight
news coverage, perhaps stimulated
by a desire to emulate "regular"
city newspapers, resulting in a
confusion about the role of a uni-
versity newspaper in the educa-
tional process of those who read
and write the paper.
To a significant degree, I believe
that this emphasis on straight
news, extensive and accurate cov-
erage of the campus and the
world, has been prompted by a
plethora of shallow criticisms con-
tinuously hurled at The Daily by
students and faculty challenging
a misquote or bemoaning the fact
that The Daily neglected to cover
an important lecture.
While it is a good idea to quote
accurately, and while it would be
nice to cover all the lectures on
campus, the student newspaper
becomes distorted in its vision and
forgetful of its purpose when it
expends too much precious time,
energy and imagination coping
with these problems. The very fact
that criticism of The Daily cen-
ters around technical aspects of
operation and publication is an
excellent indication that the paper
offers no more important chal-
lenges.
*~ * *
THIS, I submit, is tragic.
It seems to me that The Daily
staff should set about to ask em-
barrassing questions, to investigate
sacred cows in our institutions and
in our select women's residence
halls, to bring to light and mer-
cilessly question the premises
which underlie the University, the
civil rights movement, the Gold-
water supporters, research and
knowledge and every other aspect
of life and society.
Several years ago, when The
Daily approached this level, it was
endlessly attacked for its icon-
oclasm, to the. point that the
staff itself began to believe that
attack without constructive coun-
ter-proposal is "irresponsible".
This feeling, now thoroughly em-
bedded in the staff, has produced
the most lack-luster Daily editor-
ial page of this decade.
* * *
MY CRITICISM of The Daily,
therefore, centers on this hesi-
tancy to inspect, attack, analyze
pitilessly and expose even to dessi-
cation all the juicy details of the
University and. the nation, their
misdirection and their dangerous
haughtiness.
I am afraid that The Daily staff
is yielding by default what will
likely be its last chance to think
and speak freely, and to exercise
the intellect in the most critical
way without fear of economic loss
or personal threat.
The new senior staff must begin
as soon as appointed to reverse
this recent trend away from criti-
cism and investigation. That staff
must now lead the entire under-
staff toward consistent editorial
radicalism, and be prepared again
for the shallow and persistent
To Europe?....
0
To the Editor:
AFTER having closely followed
the plans for the Michigan Un-
ion air charter to Europe, I re-
ceived notice that contracts and
money for reserving seats on the
flight could be turned in at. the
Union's student offices after 3:00,
March 12.
2:00 p.m., March 12: With
money and contracts in hand I
-arrive at the student offices of the
Union. To my surprise, there is
no waiting line. I locate an officer
of the Union and I am informed of
the situation: "Well, there were
enough. people here at 8:30 this
morning. We let them sign up then
so they wouldn't have to wait in
line all day."
Others arrive, and all are told
the same thing: "All the seats on
the flight are full and so is the
waiting list." My i i m e d i a t e
thoughts are similar to. all the
others who found no line and no
places left on the flight when time
for registering has not yet arrived:
'If I had known they would allow
people to reserve places at 8:30
and then go to classes, I would
have been here too." .
* * *-
CERTAINLY if the Union Is to
be an instrument of service to the
students, it should follow a policy
that would allow students to rely
on the word of its officers and
the notices authorized by those of-
ficers.
The precedent set by this de-
cision leaves the student with the
idea that he can rely on the
Union's word only at his peril.
What possible meaning can there
be in a notice of a time for regis-
tration for any (Union program if
a crowd around the student offices
can induce the officers to change
that time. By operating in this
manner, the Union becomes a dis-
service to the University for which
it was created.
-Bruce Laidlaw, '63L .
squeals of misunderstanding peo-
ple who shout "Iconoclasm".
This will not be an easy 44k-
and it will almost certainly
relations with at least son
ministrators. But there can
deals or understandings wlerebt
The Daily holds back an editorial
analysis in exchange for channels
of news collection with the admin-
istration.
If the University condemns The
Daily for editorializing with in-
sufficient information, then let
the University supply the missing
information to The Daily. Under
no circumstances should The
Daily sacrifice its editorial em-
phasis in the hopes of gaining ac-
cess to more factual news. The
fact that such sacrifices have been
recently made again characterizes
the undue and improper emphasis
on straight news which has in-
fected The Daily.
One can wonder if the up-com-
ing senior staff possesses the per-
sonal qualities of radical honesty
and devotion to The Daily which
will be needed to inspire the uin-
derstaff, breathe fire into' the edi-
torial page and stand up to an
irate and even hostile administra-
tion.
I wonder if the up-coming sen-
iors will escape the immature, op-
portunistic view of The Daily as
a "good place to have worked:" I
wonder if the staff will force into
responsibility' those who would
make the spoils system an integral
part of . The Daily appointment
process, those who substitute pet-
tiness for principle and self-ag-
grandizement for dedication.
I WISH I could con clude this
by noting that I have inexhaust-
able faith in the ability and in-
tegrity of the up-coming seniors.
Unfortunately, I have no such
faith for their collective shallow-
ness is appalling,,and when com-
pounded by the pettiness of some,
it is frightening. I am reduced to
the faint hope that responsible
and dynamic underclassmen will
somehow be attracted to The Daily
according to what it might be,
rather than driven away by what
it has become.
-Michael Zweig, '64
"I'd Be For It, But It Might Set A Precedent"
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