se iwt-Third yerl
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
.where opinions Aree STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
Truth Win 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 31, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: LOUISE LIND
Let's Give the Canal
To Panama.
NOW THINGS IN PANAMA are coming ernment. And in those days, the terms
to a ridiculous extreme. At first one were more than liberal. Yet as time went
could understand the indignity of the on the cost of existing went up, and so
Panamanians, to say nothing of the nat- did canal revenues, but the cut for Pana-
ural resentment by Panama citizens ma did not. Both Franklin D. Roosevelt
against the foreigners living in the Canal and Harry Truman Ignored Panamanian
Zone. pleas to raise the rent. President Eisen-
But now the situation has become ludi- hower finally responded in the late fifties
crous. Panama has declared she will with a sizable hike, but still far short of
charge the United States with aggression sufficient.
in the Canal Zone incident against Pan- However, it definitely does not sup-
amanian citizens. port the ludicrous, even hysterical, charg-
And the really stupid part of the whole es of aggression; nor does it support the
controversy is that it is entirely political, severing of diplomatic relations. What
True, an overly zealous teenager was al- began as an understandable jingoistic
lowed by inept Canal company officials incident has developed into a politician's
to touch off an international incident, campaign toy, and it simply escapes one
but it has since become increasingly ap- why the United States should tolerate
parent that this youngster's action was such nonsense another day.
only a vehicle. The desperate Panamanian
government was ready to seize upon any THE SOLUTION IS DARING, but sim-
incident that came along, in order to turn pie. Give Panama the canal.
it into a campaign issue. Don't sell it, lease it, rent it, or at-
Secretary of State Dean Rusk has tach anystrings to it. Just hand it over.
charged that the difficulty was Commu- Then travel north to Nicaragua and
nist-inspired, but one is more inclined negotiate that contract to put a canal
to take the view of Newsweek magazine, across that country. The Nicaraguans,
which attributes the mess to a last-ditch after all, have been drooling over that
whichmttributestmess toaast-ditch-,prospect for years, and they'll be glad to
attempt by President Chiara's govern- have the business. And the Nicaraguan
government, being even a tighter dicta-
THINGS ARE NOT WELL in Panama, torship than Panama, won't have to be-
you see. Many citizens are unemployed come embroiled in any nationalist and
and live in squalor. And in its 60-odd years pious campaigns.
of existence the Panamanian government Build a bigger and better canal across
has done little or nothing to correct the Nicaragua. Transportation experts argue
problem. This is not surprising, howeverthat the Panama Canal is obsolete any-
probemP. This'orprisowever, way. Set canal toll rates just below those
since Panama's government is dominated charged by Panama and keep them there.
by a small clique of well-to-do families The result should be obvious.
who are not anxious to see the peasantsTte
living in comfort for fear they will then Daring, yes. But the threat of such a
decide they ought to be having a say in move ought to be enough to draw the
deciderthentto bPanamanian government up short. They
are smart enough to know that the canal
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt would be an awfully expensive white ele-
literally "took Panama." He did in fact en- phant, and undoubtedly they would sud-
gineer and insure the success of its re- denly be willing to restore diplomatic re-
volt against Colombia. No one can seri- lations and begin sensible negotiations
ously dispute that if it were not for for revising the canal lease.
the United States, Panama would not be
in existence today. IN THIS DAY of real problems over such
Also in 1904, TR quickly negotiated the world problems as Viet Nam, Berlin
Panama Canal contract with the new gov- and Africa, the United States can ill-af-
ford to become embroiled in an internal
Con .itproblem of a little piece of land called
Conflict? Panama.
For all the injustice real and/or imag-
IT IS RATHER AMUSING to note that ined, the Panamanians have been most
while one branch of the federal gov- fortunate to have the Panama Canal.
ernment warns the American people that They owe their very freedom to it. And
there is a definite link between smoking it would seem they have forgotten what
and cancer another branch, the Bureau it was like before the United States ar-
of the Budget, anticipates a three per rived.
cent increase in tax revenue from tobacco So perhaps the United States should
levies. One shouts the danger while the leave. Then the new chums could have a
other lives off the spoils. little taste of the old times.
-L. GRAFF -MICHAEL HARRAH
THELIAISON:
Voting: Who & when.
Gerald Storeh, City Editor a
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SIDELINE ON SGC:
Rules Change
Will Kill Council
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MAN, YOU 9)OUL SL THE 5-7 OF TH E MoSQuIToES HEREY'
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
The Presidential Succession
By MARY LOU BUTCHER
ANYONE witnessing the Student
Government Council debacle in
amending e l e c t i o n procedures
Wednesday night might well have
askedhimself, why not abolish
Council and forget about the no-
tion of student responsibility on
this campus.
But after not much deliberation,
the individual would realize that
SGC has neatly paved the way
for its own demise.
* * *
TWO CHANGES in the election
rules virtually assure the death of
Council. The first, elimination of
petitioning, will do nothing to re-
cruit more qualified candidates-
of which there have been fewer
and fewer in recent elections-but
will invite prestige-seekers to en-
ter the contest.
Arguments that collecting 250
signatures for a petition imposes
an "unfair burden" on the candi-
date's time are hardly- of merit
when one considers that any can-
didate, once elected, should be
ready to devote much of his time
each day to Council activities.
Moreover, the initial effort to
collect signatures also provides a
candidate with the opportunity to
get out and meet people, which
scarcely can be considered worth-
less, by any candidate who pro-
fesses the desire to represent the
campus.
* * *
THE SECOND change, moving
back the deadline for submission
of platform statements from the
opening day of the campaign
(about three and a half weeks
before elections) to 10 days before
election day, is, however, an even
more critical move for Council.
The moving back of the dead-
line is not disastrous in itself ac-
cording to those who favor the
change since it will allow candi-
dates to "exploit" the views of
their competitors after the cam-
paign is underway, and to "cry-
stallize" their platforms at a later
date.
Aside from the fact that it is
rather, sad that candidates must
be given extra time to formulate
ideas which should be thought out
long before.,entry into the elec-
tions, the 10-day limit 'denies the
campus at large sufficient access
to these statements.
This is the case because the SG
supplement containing platform
statements which traditionally ap-
pears in The Daily on the Sunday
preceding elections cannot be
handled unless statements are
submitted 14 days before elec-
tions. Technical problems of edit-
ing and make-up and shop rules
allow no leeway in this deadline.
Daily Editor Ronald Wilton
made these facts known to Coun-
cil. Council members who then
debated other means of informing
the campus than through the tra-
ditional supplement. The SOC
Newsletter was suggested but con-
sidered a poor medium of com-
munication, and if use to run
platform statements, it would
mean a great deal of additional
work for the public relations
board.
* * *
THE CONSENSUS was that an
informed electorate is essential for
intelligent voting and the election
of qualified candidates. There also
was consensus that The Daily sup-
plement is expected before each
election, and the best means of
informing the campus.
Incredibly, after reaching the
above conclusions, Council pro-
ceeded to approve, 11-6, the 10 day
limit.
BApp1arentlysTr e asurer oug
AprnlTraueDogBrook's caustic comment that
Council was "being intimidated by
the editor of The Daily" influ-
enced more votes than any real or
pretended desire on the part of
Council members to see an in-
formed electorate this spring. Even
after the vote was taken, there
was a semblance of confidence in
some people that the supplement
would still be printed, that Wilton
was telling tales.
* * *
THE OUTCOME is seen to be
even more ridiculous in light of
the fact that the main object of
those opposed to an earlier plat-
form deadline was to prevent The
Daily from getting access to the
statements for use during the can-
didate interviews. Yet Council
agreed to make all platform state-
ments available to organizations
which request them, which will al-
low The Daily to have them on
hand for the interviewing sessions,
but not in sufficient time to be
run in a supplement.
By WALTER LIPPMANN
CONGRESS has a duty laid upon
it by the Constitution to deal
with the situation in which we
now find ourselves: we are with-
out a qualified man next in line
of succession to the President. I
mean no attack on Speaker Mc-
Cormack, who is, like the rest
of us, the accidental and unex-
pected victim of the confused leg-
islation of 1947.
There are some who profess to
be reassured by the fact that the
speaker of the House is an elected
official. But have they consider-
ed the situation which the act of
1947 has created in the case of
the illness of a President?
How could the speaker "act" as
President without resigning his
seat and the speakership? And
then, if the President recovered,
as did President Eisenhower, what
would happen to the speaker who
had lost his seat?
It is quite clear, it seems to me,
that the problem of a disabled
President-when there is no Vice-
President-is insoluble without a
workable solution of the problem
of the succession. For the officer
who acts in time of the Presi-
dent's "inability"-this is the word
of the Constitution-has to be
the same man who would suc-
ceed the President if the Presi-
dent died.
* * *4
ASSUMING, THEN, that the
line of succession is to be straight-
ened out, the first point on which
to fix our minds is that no con-
stitutional amendment is need-
ed. Since none is needed, it should
be avoided as likely to introduce
into our system another rigidity.
The text of the Constitution is
perfectly clear in imposing on
Congress the right, the power and
therefore the duty of dealing with
the .organically-related problems of
the succession and of inability.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5
of the Constitution says that "... .
the Congress may by law provide
for the case of removal, death,
resignation or inability both of
the President and Vice-President,
declaring what officer shall then
act as President, and such officer
shall act accordingly, until the dis-
ability be removed or a President
shall be elected."
** *
WITHIN A PERIOD of some 80
years, there have been three Pres-
idents who became incapacitated
for a considerable time. Garfield
lingered along quite helplessly for
11 weeks until he died. Wilson
To The Editor
made only a partial recovery. And
Eisenhower was an invalid for sev-
eral months. Yet in no case was
the Vice-President, who was next
in line, called upon to act. The
issue of calling upon him was
avoided by a benevolent conspir-
acy of the President's doctors, his
family and his cabinet to carry on
in his name and in his place.
Few people today would, I think,
regard it as safe in this danger-
ous world to let the awful powers
of the Presidency be exercised by
an anonymous and self-appointed
committee.
* * *
THE HISTORY of three presi-,
dential illnesses shows that there
have .been two prime questions
which caused the circle around the
President to avoid summoning an
acting President.
One is: who shall have the pow-
er to determine that the Presi-
dent is unable to exercise the
functions of his office? The sec-
ond is: how can a President ,if
he has recovered from his illness,
regain the powers of the Presiden-
cy?
THE ANSWER to the first ques-
tion is in the clause of the Consti-
tution which I have quoted above.
If Congress has the power of "de-
claring what officer shall . . .act as
President," it must have the pow-
er to determine whether the ex-
isting President is able to dis-
charge his powers and duties.
The question of the President's
inability is, to be sure, a. medical
question which Congress is not
immediately qualified to answer.
What Congress is competent to do
is to make a judgment on the
credibility of the evidence of
the President's doctors.
The logical and orderly way to
do this is for Congress to appoint
a disability commission consisting
of high officials and of some
physicians who are not involved
in the President's case. This com-
mission should examine judicially
the evidence of the President's
doctors, and it should report to
Congress the true state of the
President's health and the pros-
pects of his speedy recovery. On
the basis of this report, the Con-
gress should decide whether the
next in the line of the succession
should be given a mandate to acu.
THE SECOND question, which
is how the President, if he recov-
ers, can regain his powers, can
be dealt with by the recovered
President himself. He can no-
tify the Congress that he is ready
to resume his powers. If there
is no obvious and glaring reason
why he should not, the Presi-
dent's own word should be fin-
al.
There is a contingency which
has never occurred, but which
be the case of a deranged Presi-
dent, as in the case of Monsieur
Deschanel who went mad while
he was president of France.
Monsieur Deschanel was in-
duced to resign. In the extreme
who refused to resign, Congress,
acting on a report of its disabil-
ity commossion could summon
the next in line of succession to
WITH THE PASSAGE of Michigan's
new constitution last spring, the 18-
year-old vote issue was killed off for good,
or so the framers thought. Not so. From
the musty chambers in Lansing drifts
down the word that Representatives Har-
ry DeMaso (R-Battle Creek) and Paul
Chandler (R-Livonia) want to amend
the young document to lower the mini-
mum voting age to 19.
And Student Government Council add-
ed its puny voice to the fray Wednesday
night by passing a motion urging an 18-
year-old vote.,
The idea undoubtedly sounds very nice
to most college students, but as a pallia-
tive for the major fault of the present
suffrage -- the disenfranchisement of
thousands of people who should be voting
-it is not the best answer.
ASIDE FROM RATHER MINOR require-
ments such as residency and citizen-
ship, people should have the right to vote
if they have a legal stake in govern-
mental actions and/or if they are knowl-
edgable enough about policy questions'
and how the government works.
By this measurement, the 21-year-old
standard is at least partially rational: it
provides that those who become legally
qualified; attaining the age of 18 is abso-
lutely no indication that the person un-
derstands basic issues and government
structures.
It is about time for the State of Michi-
gan to adopt some voting qualifications
that make sense. A three-tiered system
might be in order:
1) ON THE FIRST LEVEL would be an
examination to test one's knowl-
edge of the federal government. It should
be a fairly rigorous exam and probe
somewhat into political philosophies un-
derpinning the major political institu-
tions in Washington. Anyone of any age
who passes should be allowed to vote.
2) On the next rung, for those who do
not or cannot pass the exam, should be a
high school diploma as an eligibility qual-
ification. The major advantage here is
that it is important to introduce good
citizenship habits as soon as possible; the
wait until 21 may diminish a lot of the
original stimulus to take part in public
affairs, but the interest will not wane if
voting is allowed immediately after high
school. Since all Michigan graduates must
have a civics' course, they are qualified,
theoretically, anyway, to be at the polls.
3) The final level, for people who fail
To the Editor:
I BELIEVE that co-ops fill a real
need on this campus. They serve
as a more informal living arrange-
ment than the "giant-size" dormi-
toriestoffer and an inexpensive
way to live for those students
whose finances are too low for the
high cost of a college education.
I personally have spent many
good times in co-ops and could not
have continued at the University
if I had had to live in more ex-
pensive housing. If a women's co-
op goes "bad," as they can, this is
no reason to condemn the whole
co-operative system. Co-ops have
several problems the solution of
which any co-oper and every co-
oper is needed to resolve. First,
there is the problem of high turn-
over among members, especially
in women'swco-ops.
In this way women's co-ops lose
their leaders; each year, therefore,
is a new beginning for a women's
co-op. Most of the girls in co-ops
are juniors and sophomores;
senior women at Michigan have a
fetish for apartments. Who can
blame them when apartments of-
fer such status and the image of
"the independent woman?"
* * * ,
ANOTHER weakness in co-ops
is that they have no criteria for
judging members, In this type of
housing there is a real need to sep-
arate the worker from the non-
worker, who does too often get in.
If a women's co-op "goes bad," it
is not because the co-operative
system is intrinsically poor, but
clean each other's place of resi-
dence, that they see each other at
their best and at their worst, that
one person with a problem finds
help from another because they
live so closely and because co-
opers come from a wide rangecof
b a c k g r o u n d s and experiences,
which are available for any other
co-oper to draw on.
For this reason, I believe that
for manysstudents, both women's
and men's co-ops provide very de-
sirable living and eating condi-
tions.
--Louisa Jartz
Music . . .
To the Editor:
DURING the past weekend, the
first of sorority rush (and un-
fortunately hardly the last) we
have had the infuriating experi-
ence of having to learn, somewhat
involuntarily, the entire Kappa
Kappa Gamma anthem. At least
twenty-five times during the last
three days, the streets have been
strewn with our local sorority
girls energetically singing good-
bye to their rushees. While we do
not impugn the quality of their
voices, we dohstrongly object to
this disconcerting intrusion into
academic endeavor. We feel that
this forced participation in a
campus activity for which we
have little interest is a violation
of our privacy.
It is suggested that such salu-
tations be limited to the confines
of the sorority house and not al-
MAZOWSKE COMPANY:
Color Highlights Dances
A MURMUR of delight and rapid spontaneous applause followed the
whirling, rainbow clad dancers in the Mazowske Company as they
lightly promenaded through their opening number.
The expansive and diverse wardrobe, 1200 costumes so we're told,
is perhaps the most outstanding feature of the evening, producing
a continuous kaleidoscope of colour.
The Mazowske Company, bearing the same name as the central Po-
lish province in which it originated, began gathering material from
the folk heritage of its own area.
The repertoire was expanded to include representative dances and
music from all of the major areas in Poland.
* * *
THE PROGRAM represented a smooth and successful transformation
from the timeless music of a peasant village to the elegant Mazurkas
and Polonaises of the 19th century.
The company's versatility was apparent in its rendition of "The
Spindle Polka from Sieradz" followed by a "Polka from the Warsaw
Suburbs".
In the first number, the men, dressed in ballooned pants with high
boots and visored caps executed an energetic and fast-moving polka
in wide, heavily patterned skirts and aprons joined the group in the
with stamping of feet acting in syncopation with the music. Girls,
leaps and whirls, so essential a part of the Slavic dance tradition.
THROUGHOUT the evening the company maintained a relaxed in-
timate mood, so essential to the success of a folk dance performance.
They had, in addition, a high degree of professional skill evidenced in
their smooth transitions between numbers and in the technical skill
with which the soloists performed the often-acrobatic movements of
certain of their selections.
-GAIL BLUMBERG
'TASTE OF HONEY'
'Taste' Tasteful
THERE IS A cultural double standard which applies especially to col-
lege reviewing.
Because a professional production can be potentially so much better
than an amateur one (more money, better talent, etc.), it deserves to
be judged more critically and compared with the very best. An amateur
work, no matter how "professional" it would like to imagine itself to
be, ought to be judged on a scale of values its own size: the scope of
the attempt (if it is realistic) and how well it fulfills its potential are
the kinds of things that should be judged. The finicky theater-goer
might find it best to stay away from all amateur productions if he
hates to be disappointed more than he likes to be entertained.
The problem is especially perplexing, however, when one is witnessing,
as I did last night, an amateur production of a play that has become
widely acclaimed on Broadway and made into one of the finest movies
of the decade. The solution, it seems to me is to resist all comparisons
with the other versions, for if the purpose of the Ann Arbor Civic
Theater is to out-do Shelagh Delany and Tony Richardson, it ought
never to raise its curtains.
WITH THAT preface out of the way, let me review the show. Every-
thing, including all of the (five) actors, the directing, and production,
was creditable. The first act moved a little too slowly and directionlessly,
but perhaps it was only opening night jitters. The second act managed
to settle down into a proper groove and even, at times, to capture the
fragile tragic impossibility which the play is really about. There were,
however, unfortunate times. when it seemed more of a bedroom farce.
Linda Kesler, as Jo, was appropriately waifish but perhaps a little
too beautiful. Phyllis Eshelman, her mother, was a fine, bitchy woman
indeed, but her Bronxy accent was uneven and certainly didn't match
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