a
iw tcbti a& Dtaily
Seventy-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED sTSTUDENTS OfTm Uvmrsrr Y oMICm(;AN
UNDER AUTHORMT OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUicATIONS
STUDENT PUSMCATIONS BLDG., Arn AioR., MICH., PHoNE No 2-3241
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in al, reprints.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATTINGER
The Direct Action Theory:
Problems, Failures, Hopes
Each Time I Chanced To See Franklin D.
Repudiations: By the Voters, the Board and IFC
by H. Neil Berksou
THE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY in Monday's City Coun- SGC ADMINISTRATIVE Vice-President Howard Schec- into board meetings before his term starts in the fall.
cil elections was both surprising and welcome. Win- ter will be bringing a motion to the Council table The board has no precedent to admit him. This is rather
ning four out of five races, the Democrats have moved tonight to rewrite Regents Bylaw 29.08. This is the article unusual. Most boards allow members-elect to sit in on
with in one vote of controllipg the 11-man council. The which refers to the Board in Control of Intercollegiate meetings in order to familiarize themselves with issues
statisticians would have to go back to 1930 to find the Athletics. As the bylaw now stands, its most objection- and procedures. This is true for the Board in Control
last Democratic majority. able features are the following: of Student Publications. It is also true of the Regents-
In recent years it hasn't even been close. Prof. -Only men can vote in the elections for student Regent-elect Eugene B. Cudlip took part in proceedings
Samuel J. Eldersveld of the political science department members to the board; long before his term began.
ran on the Democratic ticket for mayor in 1957. He won, -While the ordinary student running for the board Weinberg wants to do a good job on the board;
and three Democrats followed him to the council in 1958. must turn in a petition duly signed by 300 people, the he wants to attend meetings; it would be nice if he
But since 1959, Republicans have never held less than athletic administration can automatically place any two were invited to do so.
a 9-2 edge and actually held all eleven seats one year. candidates (always athletes) on the ballot.
IFC HAS RECENTLY come out with a new publication:
THE MOST interesting race was in the First Ward BOTH OF THESE ITEMS differentiate and discrim- Michigan Fraternity Commentary. The magazine is
where incumbent Democrat Mrs. Eunice Burns turned inate among students. Women are as much affected off to an ambitious start. Its first issue has a long article
back the right wing challenge of Republican Frederick by board actions (remember the $12.00 coupon?) as men. dealing with discrimination in the fraternity system,
C. Tower. Tower's attempted smear campaign was fully Moreover, it is certainly contrary to the aims of the past and present.
exposed through grass roots work within the ward, and Regents and the purposes of the University to distinguish Ever since the question of fraternity bias first arose
he was convincingly repudiated. between students and student athletes. (The recent on this campus in the late Forties, IFC and Panhel have
While there is certainly no definitive parallel to be elections, by the way, marked the first time a non- done everything in their power to obstruct and confuse
drawn with the November elections, the Democratic athlete has been elected to the board within memory.) the issues involved. Under former President Clifford
victory should not be overlooked. It may have its roots Schecter's motion should be a good one. If SGC Taylor the fraternity-system finally realized that it had
back in the Kennedy assassination, and the Republican passes it, the Regents will hopefully act ... WHILE ON better take the initiative in solving the bias problem.
Party nationally may well be in trouble unless it can THE SUBJECT, Thomas Weinberg, the student recently Taylor did a good job, and it appears as if the new
clearly disassociate itself from the right. elected to the athletic board, is having trouble getting president, Larry Lossing, intends to follow him.
DIRECT ACTION as a part of the Negro
movement can be successful only to
the degree that it proceeds from a firm
base of understanding by the Negroes in-
volved of the goals and theory behind
their approach.
Wherever direct action has had firm.
financial backing, a leadership acquainted
with the relevant political realities, and
an understanding by the people engaged
in the protest of what they are doing and
why, a measure of integration has been
achieved.
IT WAS FOUR NEGRO college students
in Greensboro, North Carolina, that ini-
tiated the direct action concept in Febru-
ary, 1960. They conceived, on impulse, the
idea of a sit-in at a local dime store.
Nothing can be more indicative of the
latent Negro concern with civil rights
than the incredible speed with which
that one small action spread throughout
the South.
This direct action movement, with all
the variations of the basic sit-in that
have been developed since 1960, reached
a climax last summer in Albany, Birm-
ingham, Washington, D.C., and countless
other Northern and Southern cities.
CLEARLY, THE CONCEPT is a very im-
portant and useful tool in the Negro
movement; but, just as clearly, it has
certain limits to its usefulness and can be
effective only under certain conditions.
In Atlanta, it has worked well. Sit-ins,
picketing and boycotts have played apart
in the desegregation of most of the down-
town restaurants and motels, of the city
buses and of the theatres and lunch coun-
ters.
But the civil rights movement in At-
lanta has been a carefully-controlled,
well-planned operation working within a
generally favorable environment. These
many environmental factors have played
their roles in scoring civil rights suc-
cesses. Such factors are hardly as favor-
able in most other Southern, or even
Northern, cities.
FURTHERMORE, the movement seems
to have reached the limit of its effec-
tiveness even in this large, cosmopolitan
city. Direct action has been able to bring
changes in those areas where the city as
a whole is directly concerned. Little prog-
ress is being made in efforts aimed at
public accommodations outside of the
downtown area.
Direct action can be successful only
when staged in conspicuously public
arenas. It can only work within a basical-
ly sympathetic environment. When the
local citizenry, papers and area leaders
are inalterably opposed to any form of
Negro protest or reconciliation, direct ac-
tion, in proportion to its directness, will
meet only an increasingly severe re-
sponse.
A final criterion for direct action suc-
cess lies in the nature of the specific pro-
test. Firm leadership and a strong grasp
by all the participants of the goals and
methods involved is necessary. Without
these prerequisites, direct action lacks or-
ganization and coherency and all too
often deteriorates into some form of viol-
ence. There is nothing which can possibly
be more harmful to the Negro's goals in
a white country than Negro violence.
N VIEW of this last conclusion, those
who are impatient and counsel in-
creasingly direct action in the face of
painfully slow civil rights progress must
be answered. Theirs is false counsel. It
courts disaster, for there is everywhere
in this nation an undercurrent compound-
ed of fear, dislike and distrust with re-
gard to the Negro's aspirations.
Negro violence is the inevitable result
of too-direct action aimed at too-recalci-
trant foes of the movement. In turn, the
result of violence will be to bring this
ugly undercurrent into the open.
This would undo many years of pain-
ful progress in the civil rights movement.
It would, in fact, do violence to any hopes
of the future success for many years.
The Negro can hardly wish to see the
broad front he has established in the last
few years in his own behalf go up in
smoke. There is no question that the
movement's foundations are set on weak
pillars of Negro education, leadership,
self-awareness, financial resources and
white sympathy. A determined white of-
fense could destroy this painstakingly
built foundation in very short order.
HE NEGRO, then, must reconcile him-
self to many more years of patient
struggle against the many forces, both
within and without, that are arrayed
against him. Direct action, properly ap-
plied and executed, is one tool among
many for the Negro movement. Often use-
ful, it can be equally destructive when
overplayed. It is, no substitute for pa-
tience, understanding on both sides and
a great deal of hard work.
-ROBERT JOHNSTON
THE COUP IN BRAZIL:
The Road to Real Revolution
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Legalzed a boron:
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the
second in a three-part series of
articles on the recent coup d'etat
which ousted Brazilian President
Joao Goulart.)
By STEPHEN BERKOWITZ
Daily Guest Writer
THE BRAZILIAN COUP of last
Thursday once again raises the
specter of American supported dic-
tatorship in Latin America. It
marks the re-birth of gunboat di-
plomacy in an age of ostensible
political sophistication.
The egocentric Yanquism of the
160's is, however, to come equipped
with new and interesting trappings
which are designed to dazzle the
eye and dull the mind.
In the age of Johnsonian prag-
matism, the people of the United
States are going to be asked to
adopt a messianism so drenched
in the waters of moral certainty
that the missionary zeal of the
past will stand awestruck before
the image of its fanaticism.
* * *
AMIDST increasingly disturbing
reports of a repression of per-
sonal liberties in Brazil which
finds few precedents in the history
of that nation, the Johnson ad-
ministration is asking the Ameri-
can people to condone and extend
their commitment to a regime of
such a patently illegitimate char-
acter that statements by various
government officials to the effect
that the coup was designed to
"protect constitutional govern-
ment and democracy," take on the
appearance of low comedy.
Not the least humorous of the
factors surrounding the incident,
of course, is the obvious way the
witch hunt directed against "Com-
munists and suspected Commun-
ists" in government is calculated
to satisfy the American palate.
Were it not for the increasingly
serious nature of the terror and
political repression being conduct-
ed by the Brazilian military, the
whole episode might rightfully
take its place as one incident
among many in the chronicle of
America's bumbling mismanage-
ment in Latin America.
* * *
THERE IS little cause for levity
in the history of rightist influence
in Brazil. Although it is difficult
to generalize amidst the diversity
of so chaotic a political framework,
it seems reasonable to say that
in general the influence of the
right and far right on the Brazil-
ian political climate has been a
potent one. Two parties, the So-
cial Democratic Party (PSD) and
the National Democratic Uiion
(UDN), both representing the
right of the political spectrum,
have exerted a powerful influence
on national and municipal politics
in Brazil in the past, and have
strong promise of doing so in
the future. The only material dif-
ference between the two lies in the
fact that support for the UDN has
been more urban and industrial in
character than that of the PSD.
In addition to these, there is a
scattering of smaller groups on
the right-many of them left over
from the pro-fascist ferment of
the Twenties and Thirties-which
ranges well outside what might be
called the operating consensus of
democratic government. None of
these sects are terribly influential
in and of themselves, but given
the highly fragmented nature of
Brazilian polites and the presence
within it of a large and for the
most part unassimilated foreign
population (many from Italy,
Japan, Germany and Spain), they
ought not to be discounted en-
tirely.
Many of the persons who com-
pose the Brazilian middle class-
a group reported to have provided
much of the popular support for
the Thursday coup-come from
Although this pro-fascist activr
ity has been waning in recent
years, the potential support (as
exemplified by the series of anti-
semitic incidents in 1961) for
such a development,,, nonetheless
exists.
It is because of this history of
neo-fascism that the laudatory
and ill-timed American support
of the present military government
of Brazil seems so distressing.
In terms of the Brazilian affair
at least, the present administra-
tion seems to lack even the most
obscuret'intellectual understand-
ing of the character and develop-
ment of events in European
history between 1929-45 in its
"anti-Communist" and "pragma-
tic" approach to Latin American
policy.
* *
BEYOND THIS, however, a
reasonably serious argument can
be made to the effect that the
actions of the United States, in
supporting the military regime in
Brazil, not only compromises its
vaunted "morality" but will lead
yet learned that to support so
repressive a regime as the one
which apparently is now in power
in Brazil, is to invite this sort of
rebellion.
* * *
WHAT WE have seen in Brazil
is neither of these sorts of ac-
tivity. What we have witnessed
was simply the utilization of mili-
tary force by those who have held
the power in Brazil to topple from
office a man who had roots within
or support from interests within
Brazilian society other than those
dominated by this elite.
The structure of Brazilian so-
ciety is extremely regressive. Much
of the wealth of the society still
lies in the hands of an extremely
small portion of the population.
It was toward this sort of situa-
tion that some of the provisions
of the Alliance for Progress (tax
reform, better administration of
funds, etc.) were directed.
Both Joao Goulart and his pred-
ecessor Janio Quadros realized, I
believe, the necessity for some
sort of change in the economic
situation , within the country-
especially in the distribution of
land and/in the tax structure-if
the nation was to progress.
* *
THE BREAKDOWN in the
economy and government of Bra-
zil which the country experienced
under Goulart- was nothing new.
The economic situation in Brazil
has been extremely moribund since
the end of the war.
During the last six or seven
years the situation has worsened.
Since Quadros' inauguration, at-
tempts have been made to correct
the economic conditions within
the country in the only way pos-
sible-by bringing about broad
changes in the distribution of
wealth within Brazilian society.
It was this attempt-not in-
eptitude, or "Communization" or
what have you-that the vested
interests represented within the
military and government reacted
to.
* * .*
IN 1961, shortly after his in-
auguration, President Quadros re-
signed from office.bHis rationale
at the time had been that "re-
actionary" and "foreign" influ-
ences had made any real change
in Brazilian life impossible. Despite
considerable opposition, Joao Gou-
lart was initiated as his successor.
The sources of this opposition,
the landowners, the military and
portions of the middle class, con-
tinued to oppose Goulart. The
legislative branch of government,
which has a long history of leth-
argy, contained considerable ele-
ments hostile to reform-although
some of the reforms which Qua-
dros demanded were passed, in
watered-down form, after his res-
ignation.
* * *
FURTHER, in seeking to assess
the responsibility Goulart's regime
should bear for the disintegration
of public administration, it should
be borne in mind that although
Brazil has a federal structure, it
is far more decentralized than,
for instance, the United States.
The central government is dras-
tically underfinanced and much of
the administration of the country
(as should be apparent from the
regional nature of the develop-
ment of the revolt itself) is in
the hands of local government
agencies with little contact with
or responsibility toward the cen-
tral authorities: Municipal admin-
istration In Brazil has, for the
most part, been chaotic and cor-
rupt.
Thus what popular participation
we witnessed in the revolt in
Brazil was either: 1) regional-
that is to say, directed against a
City Council: The New Mood
To the Editor:,
AFTER READING the editorial
"Double Standard Demands
Legalized Abortion" by Steven
Haller, many questions crowd the
mind.
Is legalized abortion the answer
to this problem? To treat a symp-
tom and not the disease may ar-
rest, but hardly cures the illness.
The "double standard" which
creates the problem of abortion
seems to be the disease clamoring
for cure. Let us not simply accept
the double standard, but set on a
program attacking it..
Are the human embryo and the
fertilized ovum of a bird com-
mensurate? I fail to see the paral-
lel-save both are eggs.
Is the question of murder ir-
relevant "when one realizes that
in our modern-day society abor-
tion is inevitable anyway?" If a
human being is killed at 20 days
or at 20 years, just what is the
difference? Hospitals, prisons and
mental institutions are flooded
with 20 year-olds quite useless to
society. Why not rid America of
these parasites?
DOES CIVIL LAW alone deter-
mine-the moral right or wrong of
a human action? If there is no
legal sanction, does a man become
a law unto himself? This seems
to be a highly dangerous tenet.
Is morality to be locked in the
hermetically-sealed compartment
of forty-five minutes a week spent
in church and life locked in an-
other compartment altogether?
Are expediency, the popular vote
and sympathy for the plight of an
unwed mother, the ultimate de-
terminants of morality? Do all
ethical ormoral truths have a
relative standard which is in con-
ctant flux? If this is true all. my
"so-called" rights can be taken
from me by the vote of the major-
ity; what is true today might be
false tomorrow. Life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness are my
rights today; tomorrow they may
be taken from me by law.
* * *
IF ABORTION has nothing to
do with morality and if the ques-
tion the question of murder is out-
side the ambit of this discussion,
then why commend the girl who
does not get the abortion, as you
did in your editorial? If your
premise is accurate, the one girl is
no more ethical than the other.
You might praise the one for her
bravery in flaunting the accept-
able norms of a condemning so-
ciety; I might extol the other for
her extreme prudence in procuring
an abortion. Why praise one and
not the other?.
I suggest a program of action:
Wage an all out campaign
against the double standard of
morals in our country.
Be puritanical enough to em-
phasize that a woman is more
than a bundle of sex awaiting the
exploitation of man.
Up-date and render more severe
the laws against "amateur abor-
tionists" and "quack doctors."
Readjust society's thinking to-
ward the young girl who has had
the misfortune of pregnancy out
of wedlock. Everyone of us makes
mistakes; let us not be so hypo-
critical and condemn so easily.
Create bigger and better hos-
pitals and agencies prepared to
cope with the unwed mother and
her baby. Be ready to give finan-
cial, psychological and spiritual
help to the mother.
-hA. Williams, '64
Recommends Cure
To the Editor:
THE EDITORIAL of Thursday,
ing" as is suggested in the article
still does not solve the problem
because euthanasia has its own
problems of morality, and is, I be-
lieve, legally murder.
Also, Mr. Haller states, "the
entire question of whether murder
is involved is irrelevant when one
realizes that in our modern-day
society abortion is Inevitable any-
way." I, for one, do not believe
that the question of. murder is
ever irrelevant.
HOWEVER, Mr. Haller ought to
be commended for seeking, to dis-
cues a very serious and relevant
problem: sexual promiscuity in our
society. Nevertheless, he is sug-
gesting a course of action (not
considering the real morality of
abortion) which is aimed at the
symptomatology of an ill, in so-
ciety and not at curing the society.
Perhaps the p'oblem might bet-
ter be attacked through more clear
teaching to our young people of
the facts of love and life, through
increased social services to unwed
mothers, and through increased
counseling services to families and
individuals.
-David G. Gordon
Denied the Vote
To the Editor:
I AM A STUDENT who was twice
denied voting privileges by the
city clerk's office. I was once de-
nied voting privileges by the city
attorney's office.,I had one City
Council member tell me that I
didn't have a chance to vote.
I talked with three lawyers, a
judgeand two editors. Three
newspaper articles resulted, and
my case was in preparation for
court.
As a last measure for peaceful
settlement, I went once more to
the city clerk's office. I was cor-
dially received.
* * *
PLEASE LET IT be know that
today I received my license to
vote. How wonderful it is to be
licensed! How wonderful the kind-
ness of those in City Hall who
have finally come to favor me!
What a shame, though, that the
election is over.
-Frank Andreae,'65E
Religion at-Dearborn
To the Editor:
MR. DeWITT BALDWIN'S com-
ments as reported in the
April 4 edition of The Daily in-
dicate an appalling lack of under-
standing about the meaning of the
First Amendment to the United
States Constitution. That the law-
suit regarding the religious cen-
ter in Dearborn "won't get very
far because what was done favors
no religious faith" begs the basic
constitutional question.
What the Dearborn Board of
Education and apparently te Uni-
versity are attempting to do is to
use public funds to establish re-
ligion. It does not matter that no
particular faith is given a pre-
ferred status; the concept of
separation of church and state re-
quires that government not be in-
volved in the .promotion of sec-
tarian matters. What is objection-
able is that organized religion will
be supported from monies drawn
from the public treasury.
Sensitive students of the re-
lationships of church and state
as well as thoughtful religionists
readily admit that religion flour-
ishes best in an atmosphere where
government follows a strict policy
of non-intervention and non-
support in the affairs of faith.
-Lawrence S. Berlin
Extension Service
JOAO GOULART
what alternatives?
ANN ARBOR'S Monday elections have
resulted in a City Council shakeup
along party lines. With the vote of Re-
publican Mayor Cecil Creal, Republicans
now hold only a 6-5 majority over Demo-
cratic Council members. Until then they
had dominated the council with a 9-2
majority.
The new shift in city politics implies
very important lessons for both Republi-
cans and Democrats; the pattern of Ann
Arbor City Council legislation may have
been changed for a long time to come.
The election results were not a fluke.
Outside of the Fair Housing Ordinance,
there were no §pecial issues occupying
the minds of Ann Arbor voters. Yet, the
ordinance has not changed substantially
from the last two elections, elections in
which voting was predominantly Repub-
lican.
Thus, the election of four Democrats
was not the result of a sudden shift in
public opinion about a highly popular
voting issue. It was rather caused by a
changing general mood of the Ann Arbor
public, a mood created not by any one
specific issue but rather by a culmination
of issues over the past year.
F THE ELECTION RESULTS are indeed
a reflection of a changing general mood
of the Ann Arbor public, what lessons for
Democrats and Republicans will evolve
from the new situation?
The major new fact of life for Ann
Arbor Democrats is that, while they are
still the council underdogs, they now face
the Republican party on a more even
to bring more legislation to the council
table with greater expectations of hav-
ing it acted upon favorably.
This is also certainly one of their new
responsibilities. In addition, the Demo-
cratic party must now take a very equal
share of the responsibility for the actions
of, the City Council. Certainly, no one
would question the integrity of the indi-
vidual Democratic councilmen of the past
few years. But it is nonetheless obvious
that it has been very easy for the rank-
and-file party to evade the question of
Democratic responsibility in an issue by
reference to the 9-2 Republican majority.
This is no longer possible and Democratic
Ann Arborites must realize that now,
more than ever, they will be called upon
to stand up and account for council deci-
sions.
FOR ANN ARBOR Republicans, the
problem is just the opposite; instead of
an increase, their responsibilities for
council actions have decreased by a three-
vote margin. This means that the Repub-
lican party no longer has to worry about
being as strongly in the public eye as it
has been in the past. Council mistakes
will no longer necessarily be Republican
party mistakes.
This decrease in public pressure should
make the Republican party a good deal
freer in council actions. It can liberalize
its proposals to a certain extent and feel
freer to experiment with council legisla-
tion and with public reaction to this leg-
islation. The Republican party can now
afford to take a legislative chance once
to precisely the sort of authoritar-
ian-leftist regime in Brazil which
it sought to prevent. It is a com-
mentary both on the impotence of
traditional American diplomacy in
Latin America and on the lack
of understanding as to the simplest
mechanics of revolutionary history
which American policy makers en-
joy, that a situation' which so
clearly marks Brazil for revolu-
tion has not only been tolerated,
but indeed has been encouraged
by the present administration.
The various news media, gov-
ernment officials, and what have
you which have referred to the
Brazilian coup during this last
week as a "revolution" belie their
ignorance as to the morphology
of revolutionary change in Latin
America during the last several
years.
A REVOLUTION-whether it is
simply the expression of a tem-
porary attribute of a particular
society, or is more enduring both
in terms of its 'goals and its
temporality-occurs whenever a
significant and/or strategic por-
tion of a population becomes dis-
affected with its conditions of life.
As such, an adequate distinction
ought to be drawn between revo-
lution which, in some way affects
the basic relationship between the
governors and the governed with-
in the society, and that which
simply substitutes one ruling
group for another.
This first sort of change-
revolutionary change which brings
about a radical transformation of
the society under consideration-
did not occur and in fact has
never occurred-in Brazil. The