Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSrrY OF MICHmGA UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Where Opinions Are FeSTUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MCH., PHONE NO 2-3241 Truth Will Prevail" Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in a; reprints. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATTINGER Eighteen-Year Olds Haver The Maturity To Vote BILL will soon be introduced in the of years-it doesn't come like a bolt from Legislature proposing a constitutional the blue on one's 21st birthday. amendment changing the voting age in THE TEST OF MATURITY, it would Michigan to 18. seem, is whether or not a person has There are many arguments to be pre- the desire and the ability to seek out in- sented in favor of this proposal-such as, formation, interpret the information he "If the armed services, then why not the finds, and use his results in an intelli- franchise." But the major point of con- gent and rational manner. On the basis troversy is the question of the maturity of this test of maturity, there are quite necessary to cast an intelligent, well a few 18-20 year olds who are better thought-out vote. qualified to vote intelligently than many People against lowering the voting age older, supposedly wiser persons. say that 19-20 year olds are not mature But if all this is so, why stop there? enough to handle responsibly the fran- Isn't 18 just as arbitrary an age as 21 to chise. They say that the necessary ma- choose as the cut-off point? Not really. turity can only come with age. However Although there are undoubtedly people there is a basic flaw in this line of rea- who could vote "wisely" although they soning; maturity consists of much more are only 16 years old, the number is prob- than simply reaching a certain number ably not large enough to warrant giving them the franchise. By the time people p * have reached 18, however, most of them Free Enterprise have finished their formal education and are actually as ready as they'll ever be AMERICAN BUSINESSMEN seem deter- to cast a ballot. mined to keep the memory of John F. Also, Michigan high school students Kened tlikepIhnumeryfneJspapeF.are required to take civics, a course which Kennedy alive. Innumerable newspapers teaches the ideas behind our form of and magazines did their part; each pub- government and how to handle the role lication had its own Man Who Knew the of a citizen responsibly. Late President Best of All, who could write miles of eulogies, reminiscences, MANY PEOPLE come out of these civic character sketche sasdmin-by-min- classes with a real desire to put into charcterskechesand inue-bymm-practice what they have learned. If they ute accounts of the assassination, are not allowed to do so for three years, But well before the last publisher had much of their interest is bound to wane; sold out his last exclusive commemora- they may end up not caring and often tive issue, other patriots were bending to not knowing what is happening in the pick up the banner. Through their self- government-their government. less efforts, we now have the opportunity As Gov. George Romney, a supporter to honor our slain President by buying, of 18 as a minimum voting age, has said, among other mementos, a John F. Ken- people who are 18-20 years old often take nedy record (now only 88c at your local a vital interest in politics-an interest supermarket), a John F. Kennedy night they may lose if not allowed to vote. light (from which the President's face The citizens of Michigan should not can be removed if you later decide to use deny these people the right to use the it plain) and, last but not least, a John knowledge they have gained. They must F. Kennedy egg timer. realize that people 18-21 are interested So far, no one has suggested selling in their government, and quite able to tickets to see his grave, take part in it by voting. -K. WINTER -THOMAS COPI THE LIAISON: Sex and the Student - Marjorie Brahms, Associate Editorial Director "Why Not?" To The Editor gI R - b~- MR AA wf'p lM-- TODAY AND TOMORROW: 7?olycentrisrn' Cuts Tension To the Editor: WOULD LIKE to bring to your attention a curious set of cir cumstances related to the recent evaluation of the late John F. Kennedy written by Victor Laskey and published by Macmillan before the President's death. For critical evaluation of Las- key's book, "J.F.K., the Man and the Myth," I refer you to the Saturday Review of Literature" or to Jon Roche's review of the book in the Nov. 7, 1963 Reporter (p. 48 eff.) and to the Sunday (Dec. 1, 1963) New York Times Book Re- view Section which presents a brief review for the Christmas Reading Guide. In the same issue of The Times, however, is the enclosed announce- ment (p. 57) that Macmillan is stopping publication of the book and is withdrawing as Laskey's publisher. WHILE THE BOOK was clearly right-wing propaganda and repre- sented the worst form of political expediency in the light of the 1964 election picture before the Presi- dent's death, one would like to believe that Laskey, while misled, was, nonetheless, sincere. If not, one wonders at Macmillan's will- ingness to publish it in the first place. What motivated the with- drawal of Macmillan or was it Laskey's withdrawal of the book? Is the stoppage of publication an admission that the book was either insincere or simply lacking in taste? If Laskey was insincere, is Macmillan suppressing publica- tion for the sake of its own repu- tation? If the book is in bad taste now, after the President's death, was it not equally in bad taste before, or did this not matter to Macmillan in the light of mak- ing some fast money? While I was and am strongly offended by the book and in solid opposition to the views expressed in it, I am no less concerned by the possibility of literary suppres- sion, or by the possibility of pos- sible admission by publisher or author or both colaboratively, in purposeful literary insincerity for purely economic expediency. I do not believe that Macmillan should be able to suppress publication of a book simply because the views in it have become very unpopular in the light of the President's death. This is not the literary re- sponsibility which one associates with a major American publisher, but rather is reminiscent of the behavior of Howard Fast's pub- lishers some years ago when his views were unpopular. This letter is not necessarily meant for publication, but rather as a suggestion that The Daily, in the name of journalistic clarity and freedom of expression, look further into this matter from the point of view of its public news- worthiness. -Stephen S. Fox, Mental Health Research Institute Curiosity . To the Editor: IN HIS EDITORIAL Dec. 1, "The Seeds of Doubt," City Editor Gerald Storch makes an equation between skepticism and the testing of one's ideas in the market place of extremist opinion. He would have us, I gather, make a com- parative study of our political beliefs in the light of Nazi prin- ciples, as he would have us temper our literary sensibility (doubtless easily won) with the resonances of "hate literature." I do not wish to challenge his desire or the desire of any man to give a hearing to anyone. It is, in fact, a freedom which must be preserved at the peril of reason; but, I think that Mr. Storch has a naive sense of "doubt," at least insofar as that word has intellec- tual meaning in our time. The experience of McCarthyism gave reason for sensible men to doubt the functional power of the Constitution. The publication of hate literature itself makes us doubt, not to say relinquish, a concept of total freedom of the press. The unspeakable facts of the "final solution" make us doubt man's capacity for moral behavior in the face of unloosed, sadistic impulses, just as the possibility of a nuclear holocaust makes us doubt what, traditionally, has been considered an elemental quality of man: the urge to live. The inability of the white com- munity to aquit itself with in- tegrity in the area of race rela- tions invites serious doubt as to our right to call ourselves citizens of a just society. * * * ARE NOT these issues closer to the core of belief? Are we not more likely to be complacent about assuming responsibility for the absolute granting of rights to every Negro in America than we are to react passively to a South- ern racist. It is easy totknow that you are a just man if you react with disgust when you see a horse whipped; it is not so easy to know that you are just if you listen to a horse whipper while your fellow man is on the stinging end of the lash. Why not raise doubts and ask: why are fraternities segregated at the University? That is a modest question. A question to which an answer could be worked at if doubt were provoked, whereas it is difficult to imagine students making their lives more honest by listening to a Nazi. Why are there so few Negro students at the University? Why are academic courses viewed with such apathy when they contain the eloquent elements to change this world? Why not ask an ethi- cal philosopher to speak about the relationship of ethics and law in cases -where basic ethical rights have been abused . . and so on into the tortured areas of the intellect. We don't need intellec- tual fanfare at Michigan; we need the address of the mind to im- mediate and traditional problems. -Howard R. Wolf Teaching Fellow English Department (Letter to the Editor should be typewritten, doublespaced and Jim- ited to 300 words. Only signed et ters iili be printed. The Daily re serves the right to edit or with hold any letter.) On Poverty PERHAPS the most remarkable aspect of the State of the Un- ion address was that Mr. Johnson not only spoke about poverty, but spoke at length, emphatically, and with the apparent intention of actually meaning to alleviate it. The second most important as- pect, and gearing into the first, was the suggestion that the money was there for such a program, that it could be hacked out of the mili- tary program, and that Mr. John- son proposed to swing the pickax. All this was said with a Roose- veltian resolution, sincerity and directness that exhilarated some listeners as much as it frightened others-those others who feel that poverty should be neither seen nor heard. To be sure, it was a highly po- litical speech. But it was also good policy, and good policy is the best politics-if one'has any confidence in democracy . . . It is a turn- around in emphasis and orienta- tion. Except for the slap at Cuba and a few references to the necessity of strength, it was mild - sur- prisingly mild, considering that a President who has designs on mili- tary spending must balance his fell intentions with some verbal homage to the military. What is amazing is that it took 15 years to get out from under the incubus of the cold war and to show a decent concern for the vic- tims of industrialism. Now - it is as true as it is hackneyed -- words must be followed by deeds. That is not up to the President alone, but he has supplied the words, and they are good. -The Nation IN CASE you've forgotten--in the frenzy of trimester, women's rush and all- sex is' still with us. Fortunately, several recent incidents in this country have re- focused our thoughts, dried though they might be by the academic disciplines, on that perpetual preoccupation. The current "Time" magazine, in a grandiose and moralistic attempt, has taken a reading of the sexual barometer of Americans. That publication concludes its examination by saying: "The Victor- ians, who talked a great deal about love, knew little about sex. Perhaps it is time that modern Americans, who know a great deal about sex, once again start talking about love." And next month, "Time" informs us, the American Association of Marriage Counselors will spend three days discuss- ing "the nature of orgasm." Editorial Staff RONALD WILTON, Editor DAVID MARCUS GERALD STORCH Editorial Director City Editor BARBARA LAZARUS .............. Personnel: Director PHILIP SUTIN............National Concerns Editor GAIL EVANS................. Associate City Editor MARJORIE BRAHMS .... Associate Editorial Director ',*LORIA BOWLES.................Magazine Editor MALINDA BERRY ............. Contributing Editor DAVE GOOD.... ...............sports Editor JIM BERGER ................. Associate Sports Editor MIKE BLOCK .............Associate Sports Editor BOB ZWINCK ............. Contributing Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS: H. Neil Berkson, Steven Haler, Edward Herstein, Marilyn Koral, Louise Lind, An- drew Orlin, Michael Sattinger, Kenneth Winter. ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Mary Lou Butcher, John Bryant, Robert Grody, Laurence Kirshbaum, Richard Mercer. Business Staff ANDREW CRAWFORD, Business Manager PETER ARONSON ............... Advertising Manager LEE JATHROS .......... ...Accounts Manager JUDY LEOFSKY.........Associate Business Manager RUTH SCHEMNITZ............... Finance Manager A BIT MORE LIVELY than "Time's" an- alysis of sex is John Cleland's. He is the gentleman who wrote "Memoirs of a Woman of- Pleasure" several centuries ago, which the courts have at last deemed fit for American eyes and libidos. Also called "Fanny Hill," it relates in exquisite detail-and monontonous repetition-the adventures of a young lady making her fortune in London. Another bit of spice, nearer home, is presently enlivening the University of Pennsylvania. There, a writer for the Daily Pennsylvanian commented on the unwillingness shown by "that collective maidenhead known as the Dean of Wom- en's Office" to abolish curfews for senior women. Protesting the difficulty of get- ting dressed again at 2 a.m. to get one's date back to the dorm, he suggests that the Dean of Women's Office "keep their spinster noses out of the private lives of undergraduate women." The logical outcome: a university offi- cial has recommended that the writer be investigated, supposedly for his deprav- ity. IT'S GOOD TO SEE a topic so near and dear to many people back in the lime- light again. Will the white knights or the smutty villains win the Pennsylvania battle? Will Henry Luce's morality pre- vail in the United States? Utopia, I am sure, someday will arrive in the United States. Then, the crystal ball tells us, deceit, hypocrisy and false morality will be trounced on by honest people, viewing reality without fear. Then, doubtless, this country will end its present farce of practicing one thing and preaching another; thereby, it might even lessen the guilt feelings it instills in its young people. By WALTER LIPPMANN [ T IS NOT, I hope, frivolous or disrespectul to say that the most telling act of last month's conference of NATO countries was to adjourn in good spirits after two, rather than the customary three, days. There are, as we know, suppos- ed to be momentous issues of strategy which divide the alliance. There are unanswered questions of when and how to use nuclear weapons and whether there should be a really significant buildup by the Europeans of their conventional forces. None of these questions has really been answered. Yet the meetings seemed to go off with no feeling that anyone had been de- feated or that the security of the alliance was threatened. THIS COULD NOT have hap- pened, did not the Europeans and the North Americans feel, without avowing it, that they have out- lived the situation to which the supposed issues and questions were addressed. Is the Soviet Un- ion preparing to conquer Western Europe? In the late forties before NATO was founded, that was a real question. Will the Soviets Union seize West Berlin while the United States stands supinely aside? Only a few Europeans think so. Perhaps one should say only a few Euro- peans profess to think so. It would require some tall thinking to sup- pose that the United States would abandon its own men, women and children in West Berlin and West- ern Germany. Is there a genuine need of a European nuclear force which can detonate a thermonuclear war without American consent? Ex- amined closely, the notion is ab- surd in that tricks like that can- not be played with matters of life and death; an independent detonator of thermonuclear war would first of all incinerate the detonator. Is there, then, a really urgent need for a sacrificial program of European armament? Not unless one supposes that the Soviet Un- ion would contemplate launching a serious invasion of Western Eu- rope in the illusion that the United States would not use nu- clear weapons to defend its own troops. * * * THESE UNRESOLVED issues and questions are conundrums which are ceasing to interest the mass of the people of Europe and are no longer a serious concern of their statesmen. These ques- tions and issues cannot be set- tled by a formula of agreement. For that would mean too much loss of face. But nobody is suffi- ciently interested in them to in- sist that the discussion about them must continue. All this has happened because there have been historic changes in world affairs. They can, I be- lieve, now be identified. Though we are not in sight of the end of I DO NOT THINK it is too early to say that in the perspective of history men will look upon John F. Kennedy as the man who seiz- ed the opportunity to bring the race of armaments to a halt. I believe it will be said that he used American wealth to build up military power that could not be defied, that he succeeded in making this power a quite credible deterrent to war and that he had the magnanimity to convince the Soviet Union that it could live comfortably within the existing balance of power. The crowning act of this policy was the signing of the test ban treaty. Since then, the race of armaments has ceased to be the dramatic affair which in the race for absolute weapons it was threatening to become. It is no accident that the first NATO meeting since the consequences of the treaty became visible should have showed so much good-natur- ed loss of interest in the old stub- born conundrums of the military bureaucrats. * * * THE WIDE-REACHING and students. It is1 George Kennan. by Ambassador closely - related development - "polycentrism" in both coalitions -is reducing decidedly the ten- sions which existed when there were two and only two hostile centers of power in the world. Now, be it in Warsaw, Budapest, Bucharest, Prague or in Hanoi, Saigon and Bangkok, there is no longer the simple confrontation of two superpowers. All kinds of new political combinations and permutations are becoming possi- ble. The small breaches made dur- ing the Christmas holidays in' the- Berlin Wall are a small symptom of what is happening in all sorts of ways between the two halves of Europe. The partition of Ger- many, which is the partition of Europe, will in time be healed by boring holes through the iron cur- tain which allow an increasing in- tercourse in human relations. AND SO I SAY we must be careful not to hope too much. And then I say we must be careful not to be afraid to hope at all. For, while there is not nearly enough good will among men, there is a better prospect of peace than we once dared to hope for. (c), 1964, The Washington Post Co. WHAT KIND OF WORLD? Educational Magic Offers False Solutions By ROBERT HUTCHINS MAGIC HAS been defined as the ritualization of o p t i m i s m. Through standardized formulae and ceremonial actions. none of which has any relation to reality, the magician purports to mold re- ality to his clients' desire. Education tends to become a kind of modern magic. The word itself is consoling. It conveys the notion that no matter how bad things are now, they will be better in the future. The repetition of the word serves the same purpose as the powdered lime used by Melan- esian sailors to create a magic fog that blinds the flying witches in pursuit of them. SINCE THE causes of human development are manifold and complicated, nobody knows exactly how education achieves its effects. Hence, almost any spell can find defenders. For example, the winning party in the great debate going on in France has so far been able to command support for the proposi- tion that Gloire and Grandeur de- pend on having the pupils in sec- ondary schools go through exactly the same amount of Latin as they have in the past. This shows that magic and magicians are not lim- ited to primitive societies. In America, the biggest medi- cine in education nowadays is Marketable Skills. James B. Con- getting him ready to be an intelli- gent citizen of a democratic state. THE MAGIC of Free Enterprise reinforces that of Marketable Skills. The child is a capitalist. His capital is his skill. Nothing can be more appealing to a nation where the salesman is king than the idea of sending every child out into the world with something to sell. Unfortunately, if something is to be soldosomebody has to buy it. Unfortunately, the only skills anybody will buy today are those the magicians of Marketable Skills say the ordinary American cannot learn. IF YOU HAVE a Ph.D. in Phy- sics, you can sell it. If you have a manual or mechanical skill, no- body will buy it. The unemploy- ment rate for people up to age 19 is twice the adult rate, and rising. To gear education to the em- ployment opportunities in the lo- cality, as many so-called commun- ity colleges purport to do, is an il- lusion. Marketable Skills have a high rate of obsolescence. The skill painfully acquired to- day may be out of date tomorrow because the techniques of the in- dustry have changed and other skills are required. Or machines may have reduced the market for human skills to the vanishing point. Marketable Skills represent in "We're Ready To Start The Big Push"