100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

October 13, 1961 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1961-10-13

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

"Something For You, Something For Me"

/ f idvigan Batty,
Seventy-First Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
'Where Opinions Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Truth Will Prevai"-
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. " ANN ARBOR, 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 all reprints.

Proposed Solutions
To Housing Bias

4

DAY, OCTOBER 13, 1961

NIGHT EDITOR: HARRY PERLSTADT

Federal Authority
MustEnterM MComb

URING LAST NIGHT'S Student Govern-
S mentCouncil meeting, it was learned that
Tom Hayden, former editor of The Daily-,had
Sbeenbeaten in McComb, Mississippi. SGC im-
mediately voted to send a telegram to Attorney
General Robert Kennedy which strongly urged
"that the federal government take immediate
action within its power to -restore law and or-
der in McComb."
There can, be no debate that a protest of
some sort was in order. Leaders of the Stu-
dent Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee be-
gan a voter registration drive in McComb in
August, andsince then the area has been rip-
ped by violence. At least five persons connected
with the drive have been beaten, sometimes
so severely as to require stitches. Economic
reprisals have been taken against local Ne-
groes who have attempted to register. There
has been one killing.
MOREOVER, this violence has been accom-
panied by an almost total breakdown of
law enforcement and justice. The SNCC lead-
era have been harrassed and arrested by po-
lice. Robert Moses was beaten within full sight
of the local marshal and his deputy, who made
no attempt to rescue himn, and his assailant was
found "not guilty" by the all-white jury. John
Hardy was struck with, a gun by the registra-
tion clerk in Liberty and then thrown in jail
for breach of peace; when the Justice Depart-
ment asked the local district judge to inter-
vene, the reqftest was turned down with the
comment that a minor case in Mississippi
couldn't possibly damage our image abroad.
When Tom Hayden arrived in McComb, he was
warned- that the police "couldn't protect out-
side agitators, especially whites." And a police
car which had been accompanying him strange-
ly vanished at the precise moment when viol-
ence flared.
Far from improving, the situation is actual-
y getting worse. Hayden left McComb last
night after being told of lynch rumors by a
newsman. Robert Moses, a SNCC leader, is in
particular peril. Whites were permitted to see
him "for later" while he was in jail last week,
and he and his compatriots were forced to
Idayden SymI
WHEN THE NEWS BROKE about Thomas
Hayden being beaten in McComb,- many
felt that "he got his; he deserved it." In a
real sense, he did.
He chose to interfere in a tense situation.
He knew the possible consequences and went
in anywa . He felt he was right in doing this
and he was. However, the local people were
not wrong in their reaction either. Effectively,
but crudely, they were standing on their
right to decide upon their own way of life.
The tonsfolk reacted as we might react
if a group of Southerners came to Ann Arbor
and attemtpted to talk the Ann Arbor gentry
- into assuming the "right" of deciding the
University's curriculum. Our methods might
have been different; our reaction would have
been the same.
HOWEVER those people who are working
for integration by "interfering in local
affairs" are also right. They believe that it
is not only morally wrong to deny a United
States citizen the right to vote, but that
a 'solution to the segregation problem in the
South, and the - North, may come too late
for this nation.
The African and non-Caucasian nations are
rising; they are coming into their own and
they make up the majority of the world's
population. It is true that in this nation we
segregate: some of our people are disenfran-
chised for the color of their skin and are
believed culturally inferior. We cannot deny
the fact of segregation. Are we in a position
to offer assurances in the struggle for the
emel'ging nations that we "mean well" and only
AFRICAN STUDENTS:

temporarily leave the area. They are back in
McComb now, skipping from place to place at
night to minimize the chances of being caught
by a mob.
CLEARLY THE SITUATION in McComb is
explosive. Clearly, the local authorities are
unable or unwilling to do much about it except
harrass the civil rights workers. Federal in-
tervention appears the only way to prevent
oppression and outrages of the most primitive
kind.
Action by the U.S. government could take
several forms. The fecent Civil Rights legisla.-
tion and a battery of older laws dating from
the Reconstruction provide legal authority for
action through the courts. But action through
the courts is very slow. Moreover, it is puni-
tive rather than preventative.
Authority for a more active form of inter-
vention also exists. Whenever an insurrection
or conspiracy hinders execution of the laws
of the land and local authorities fail to check
the uprising, the President may issue a procla-
mation and take whatever action he deems
necessary to establish order. President Eisen-
hower took this course when'he sent the Na-
tional Guard into Little Rock.
The Attorney General also has broad powers
as supervisor of U.S. marshals, who are charged
to "exercise the laws of the United States
within a state," and, in so doing, "may execute
the same powers as a sheriff of that state."
This authorized Robert Kennedy to send fed-
eral marshals into Alabama following the riots
in Montgomery.
LEGAL AUTHORITY for federal intervention
in McComb exists. Such intervention, given
the circumstances, is not precipitate. Indeed,
to allow events to run their course in McComb
would be irresponsible in the extreme.
Students with an average age of 22 are in
Southern Mississippi, quietly insisting on their
rights in the face of official hostility and mob
violence. It's about time our so-called leaders
moved in to support them.
-JOHN ROBERTS
Editor
)olizes Conflict
want to help our "brothers?" Not as long
as there is segregation in our own land.
For moral and humane reasons and for
reasons of national survival then, we must
desegregate, and quickly. The group that is
"interfering in local affairs" is trying to
attain this goal quickly. Thus, there is con-
flict in the South. It is best if it is resolved
non-violently, in fact, the only feasible way.
THE PICTURE on Thursday's front page
portrayed Thomas Hayden covering his
head, probably preparing to go into the non-
violent position, placing the hands above the
head so that person cannot be construed as
fighting back.
Fronm both the Southern and integrationist
point of view, Hayden was getting what he
deserved, and he knew it. He hdd interfered
and was being told so in no uncertain terms.
He also was dramatizing, more effectively than
in his four years at the University, the strife
in the South to those of us In Ann Arbor.
He deserves the rresult of both roles.
When Hayden raised his hands above his
head, he may have wished at that moment
that it were possible to stop this conflict,
but no one; can. When he raised his hands,
he admitted that the conflict was real and
that nothing but total solution could resolve
it. That was the real significance of the in-
cident-that conflict exists.
The tragedy is . . . that both sides have a
right. The question for all of us is . . . who
has the highest right and how far does it
allow them to go?
-CAROLINE DOW

SIDELINE ON SGC:
Council Slams the' Door,

By RONALD WILTON
Daily Staff Writer
-IE CIVIL Rights Commission,
headed by President John A.
Hannah of Michigan State Uni-
versity has given President en-
nedy an opportunity to break the
back of racial discrimination in
federally aided housing and by
federally supervised mortgage
lenders.
TheCommission's proposals go
beyond proposals it made to Presi-
dent Eisenhower in 1959, and break
new ground in the fight to elimin-
ate discrimination in housing. And
therein lies the biggest reason for
quick implementation of the rec-
ommendations; they would affect
about 90 per cent of privately fi-
nanced home sales, as well as all
existing public housing, urban re-
newal projects and housing for the
elderly. There is another reason
which is perhaps more politically
expedient. Mr. Kennedy pledged
action in this field during his
presidential campaign.
The committee's findings 'e-
vealed that at all levels of the ho
ing and home-finance industries,
including builders, lenders, real es-
tate brokers and sometimes the lo-
cal housing authority, that federal
resources are utilized to accentu-
ate discrimination, The commis-
sion somehow seemed to think that
this went against the notion of in-
dividual freedom which Ameri-
cans are so proud of.,As they put
it, in housing, as elsewhere, the
essence of freedom is choice. The
report concentrated on the hous-
ing problems of Negroes but it.
cited some instances of discrimina-
tion against Jews and other min-,
ority groups. The commission
found that the government "has
done virtually nothing" to prevent
the discriminatory use of federal
housing benefits, even though it
had recommended to President Ei-
senhower that he take action in
this field in 1959.
THE COMMISSION'S recom-
mendations were broken down In-
to the following five areas:
Federally Regulated Lenders-
The panel urged the President or
Congress to require non-discrimi-
nation by all financial institutions
that are supervised by the Federal
Home Loan Bank Board, the Con-
troller of the Currency, th Feder-'
al Deposit Insurance Corporation
and the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System. These
four agencies regulate, aid or su-
pervise banks and savings and
loan associations that hold more
than 60 per cent of the nation's
non-farm mortgage debt. Accord-
ing to the Commission, they consti-.
tute "a major factor in the denial
of equal housing opportunity."
The above recommendtations
were not unanimously agreed on.
The commission's vice chairman,
Robert G. Storey, a Dallas law-
yer and former president of the
American Bar Assocation, pro-
tested vigorously. Mr. Storey de-
clared that he deplored racial bias
but was very much opposed to fur-
ther federal intervention into the
affairs andpolicies of private fi-
nancial institutions. He contended
that even when partly regulated
by the government, such institu-
tions are primarily business con-
cerns and not instruments for so-.
cial reforms.
What Mr. Storey is, in effect,
doing is espousing the great Ameri-
can doctrine of complete free en-
terprise. In doing so he seems to
have forgotten an even greater
American doctrine which we are
constantly bringing up in the Cold
War but always forgetting about
at home; something about the dig-
nity of the individual (with no ra-
cial or religious restrictions as to
which individual).
The commission also found that
officials of the four affected federal
agencies shared Mr. Storey's ob-
jections. This makes one wonder
whether federal supervisory agen-

cies were created to help business
undermine one of the most im-

portant of this country's principles.
Federal Home Loan P'ogras-
The President was urged to direct
three key agencies to take steps,
possibly including written agree-
ments, to assure nondiscriminatio,
by builers, brokers, and banks
participating in theirhprograms.
The agencies are the Federal
Housing Administration, which in-
sures 21.5 per cent of all non farm
mortgages; the Veterans Admini-
stration, which guarantees home
loans by veterans; and the Federal
National Mortgage Association,
which buys and sells private home
mortgages previously insured by
F.H.A. or guaranteed by the V.A.
Relocation Housing-The com-
mission recommended that com-
munities receiving federal urban
renewal assistance be required to
relocate in adeguate housing per-
sons displaced by slum clearance.
At the present such communities
are composed mostly of Negroes.
Urban Renewal-The Urban Re-
newal Administration should re-
quire a provision assuring access
to the housing to all applicants on
a nonracial basis be inserted in all
contracts between local public
housing authorities and private
redevelopers.
Fact-Finding - The committee
urged that all federal agencies
concerned with housing and hous-
ing credit should undertake sur-
veys, to determine the availability
of credit and the impact of Feder-
al housing policies among minority
groups.
ASSERTING the dignity of the
individual and protecting him
from discrimination is of much
greater importance than prevent-
ing the government from interfer-
ing in businesses which contradict
these. Of equal importance is the
fact that Kennedy's action would
be a big step in taking the federal
government out of the discrimina-
tion business. The problem of bias
in housing is nation-wide and the
commission's recommendations
will take care of it on a nation-
wide basis.
Piously deploring discrimination
while practicing it will never lead
to equal opportunity. President
Kennedy should implement the
commission's recommendations
immediately, and steps should be
taken to include the remaining 10
per cent of privately financed
home sales not covered by the
recommendations.
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
Blind Editor?...
To the Editor:
E EXPRESS disapproval of
the Editor's remark at the
SGC meeting of October 11, con-
cerning the motion to send letters
to presidents of fraternities and
sororities to encourage their com-
pliance with the Committee on
Membership ruling, rather than
setting a December 1 time limit.
" this is a piddling and in-
consequential action," said John
Roberts.
We regret that The Daily's Ed-
itor cannot see the importance of
such a motion that effects so
many students on this campus.
We heartily approve of the un-
animous acceptance of the above
mentioned motion, and further
commend the members of SGC on
their understanding of the Intri-
cacies involved and the respon-
sible attitude 'SGC has demon-
strated.
-Carole Feldman, Panhellenic
Public Relations Chairman
-Susanne Brockway,
Panhellenic Treasurer
(Letters to the Editor should be
limited to 300 words, typewritten
and double spaced. The Daily re- _
serves the right to edit or withhold
any letter. Only signed letters will

be printed.)

By JUDITH OPPENHEIM
Daily staff Writer
REFUSING to stand up and be
counted in a roll-call vote
or even tolet those in disagree-
ment with them express their
views, a majority of Student Gov-
ernment Council members Wed-
nesday night railroaded through
the Council a meaningless amend-
ment to operating procedures
hardly worth the name of legis-
lation.
What originally began as a rea-
sonable, well-written motion by
Susan Stillerman and Brian Glick
was so disfigured by a set of
crippling amendments from John
Vos that it now says nothing,
means nothing and is noteworthy
only as a monument to the ir-
responsibility which has proved
SGC's outstanding characteristic
this year.;
Glick and Stillerman's motion
would have required that when
the Council goes into executive
session it is obliged to report out
at least all motions and amend-
ments, the number of Council
members for and against each
motion, recorded alstentions and
all roll call votes during the ses-
sion.
The motion also stipulated that
when the Council considers ap-
pointments in executive session it
must report out the criteria used
in judging all the applicants for
each position and that a list of
criteria for any appointive post
must be supplied to applicants
before selection was made.
Members would be prohibited
from reporting what other mem-
bers said or how they voted dur-
ing executive session, but would
be free to explain their own votes
and statements.
* * M
VOS' AMENDMENT lightly adds
"by majority vote" to each main
point of the Glick-Stillerman mo-
tion. This looks innocent and
democratic but -utterly destroys
the enforced SGC responsibility
which is demanded by the original
motion.
Instead of saying that the Coun-
cil must report out all motions,
amendments, numbers for and
against proposals, abstentions and
roll call votes, the motion now
says that the Council "may, if
it chooses by majority vote do so.
Instead of saying that the
Council must let candidates and
constituents know what criteria
are being used to judge them, the
motion now says that the Council
"may, by majority vote" do so.
Bankrupt
THE UNITED NATIONS cannot
keep going for many more
months at its present rate of in-
come and expenditure without be-
coming, bankrupt. Its present ex-
traordinary expenditures on the
Congo Force and the Emergency
Force in the Middle East amount
annually to $140 million-more
than twice the organization's nor-
mal budget.

Instead of guaranteeing every
Council member his right to de-
fend and explain his own position,
the motion now forbids this ex-
pression "unless the Council spe-
cifically chooses . . . by majority
vote" to permitit.
What does Vos' version of the
motion now say? In effect it says
that the Council, when it chooses
to do so by majority vote, can
do anything it pleases so long as it
is not violating any laws or pro-
hibitions.
Of course it can. So can any-
body. So what?
IN THIS MOTION as in any
motion, the actual result is not
so important as the intent be-
hind it. The Council this semes-
ter has tripped blithely from ex-
ecutive session to executive ses-
sion, ousting constituents from the
chambers, hashing over appoint-
ments for hours at a stretch,
beckoning to constituents to re-
turn to their seats and then an-
nouncing the results of the ex-
ecutive session like a god handing
down decrees from the mountain.
The Council reports that it has
chosen certain student members
for its standing committees. Why
were they chosen? What criteria
were used? Did everyone approve
of the decision? ,
The naive constituent asks these
questions and then learns that
he is treading on the forbidden
ground of the executive session
floor. He has no right to know
what criteria were used. "Are you
questing the integrity of the in-
terviewing and nominating com-
mittee?"
* * *
HE HAS NO RIGHT to ask
whether some Council members
disagreed with the final decision.
"We owe it to the new appointees
to give them unanimous backing
whether we feel they deserved
their appointments or not. Time
will tell whether we have made
the right decision."
He has no right to ask a Coun-
cil member whom he has helped
to elect and who is earnestly so-
liciting his vote for the next elec-
tion how he voted or what his
views were. "Council members
must be free to express their
opinions unhesitatingly in execu-
tive session without fear of hav-
ing them made public."
AND JUST WHAT does go on
in these sacro-sanct executive
sessions when the Council deliber-
ates for three hours and is un-
able to choose, from a list of 18
applicants, three worthy to fill
the positions of members who have
resigned?
I don't know and neither (os-
tensibly) does anyone else. But
it's a pretty sure bet that the
mud-slinging and character slan-
der that go on would not look
very pretty in print.
This basically is the reason
members opposing the original mo-
tion were happy to vote for Vos'
watered-down version. Now they
don't have to worry about being
responsible for their actions un-
less they want to. And it hardly

They further argue that if a
Council member would express his
individual disapproval of an ap-
pointment the new appointee
would start out "with the feeling
that' some members of the Coun-
cil did not approve of him."
Neither of these arguments is
either logical or justified.
No one will be able to tell from
a simple listing of motions exactly
how a discussion went. Roll call
votes are taken only with majority
consent, so no member would be
formally accountable for his ac-
tion unless the Council decided
all members were accountable.
If a roll call vote or a report-
ing out of motions and amend-
ments will make Council members
stop and think before dredging
up petty personal grudges, so much
the better. Responsibility of this
kind is all to the good and will
probably serve to shorten "secret
society" meetings.
As to the myth that an ap-
pointee must have a feeling of
unanimous Council support be-
hind him, what President, con-
gressman or even SGC member
took office with this attitude?'
* * *
THE VERY FACT that an ex-
ecutive session is held, let alone -
the fact that it drags on hour
after hour, is certainly indication
enough of dissension. This dis-
sension, if anything, should serve
to inspire the appointee to greater
efforts. A forced picture of a
unified Council is hypocritical and
unnecessary.
The real fear of those voting for
Vos' amendment was that they
would have to answer to consti-
tuents for their behavior during
executive -session.
It is impossible to say just which
of the Council members these
were, because they were riot even
proud enough of their decision to
record it by roll call vote, though
one was requested.
RUSHING THROUGH the
amendments in one thoughtless
a vote after another, they refused
to extend debate time long enough
for opponents to voice their ob-
jections. Two of the amendments
were passed with no discussion at
all, even though three or four op-
ponents wished to debate them.
There is no doubt that the word
irresponsibility has been worked
to death this semester. But it
must be used here once more.
The basic foundation of Stu-
dent Government Council is re-
sponsibility to its constituents and
the University.
Any SGC candidate who asks
for student support owes it to his
constituents to stand behind his
decisions and votes. What other
basis have we for electing him?
AS A CONSTITUENT, I am get-
ting tired of being thrown out
of SGC meetings every time the
body retires into its holy of holies.
I am tired of returning after ex-
ecutive sessions to hear a cryptic
"report" of final action the body
has taken and being denied the

DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN

West Rejects Future Leaders

U NIVERSITIES in Russia are crammed with
students from Africa, China, India and the
Far East. As guests of the Soviet government,
they get their education free. There are two
conditions: they must accept indoctrination in-
to Communism and, perhaps just as important,
they must learn to rely on Soviet methods and
Soviet equipment to carry out those methods
when they get back to their own countries.-
This program greatly impresses newly inde-
pendent nations who are desperately short of
leaders in all spheres and of trained techni-
cal personnel.
The attention which these students must give
to Communism does not, in their view, conflict
with their own purposes. And the West can't
really protest this attitude since "democratic"
colonial governors have regularly put leaders
of "freedom" movements into prison. It is, in
fact, rather remarkable that the prison terms

This goodwill on the part of the leaders
should be exploited. We should have university
programs in the Free World as freely avail-
able as they are in the Communist bloc. But
there are very few Africans and Asians at
Canadian universities.
HE POSITION of the United States is para-
doxical. While spending billions of dollars
in foreign aid (often to buttress corrupt re-
gimes) the State Department doesn't seem to
be able to formulate a way to help students at
American universities. The cost, according to a
report prepared last month, would be less than
half a billion dollars.
In fact $400,000 would mean that the 1,800
Africans now enrolled in U.S. colleges would
have no financial diffculties. Many of them
find these difficulties, at the moment, insuper-
able. Indeed, unless this relatively, small amount

The Daily Official Bulletin is an
official publication of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which , The
Michigan Daily assumes no editorial
responsibility. Notices -should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3564 Administration Building
before 2 p.m., two days preceding
publication.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13
General Notices
All Choral Union ushers who did not
get a chance to sign to usher at the
Four Freshmen Concert on Friday Oct.
13th, and who desire to usher at this
event, please report for duty at 7:30
p.m. at the east door of Hill Aud.
Faculty Physical Fitness-Men - "Be-
ginning on Tues., Oct. 23, the Depart-
ment of Physical Education for Men
will be conducting an exercise program
for faculty men on Tues. and Thurs.
from 12:10 to 12:45 at Waterman Gym.
The program will be geared to the
needs of the group and will be designed
to improve the physical status of the
individual. A medical examination
should precede. participation. For fur-
ther information call Dennis Rigan, ext.
2794.
Recital Cancelled:.The Two Piano Re-
,ital of Eugene Bossart and Charles

cus Party; Alpha Gamma Delta, Open
House; Alpha Omega, Party; Alpha Phi,
Open House; Alpha Delta Phi, Band
Dance; Alpha Sigma Phi, District Par-
ty; Alpha Tau Omega, Party & Open
Open House; Beta Theta Pi, Open Open
Band Dance; Chi Phi, Party; Chi Psi,
Dance Party; Delta Chi, Record Hop;
Delta Kappa Epsilon, House Party;
Delta Sigma Delta, Dance; Delta Tau
Delta, Dance; Delta Sigma Phi, UM-
MSU Host Party; Delta Theta Phi,
Open House; Delta Theta Phi, Hi-Fi
Party; Delta Upsilon, Band Party;
Evans Scholars, Dance; Kappa Alpha
Theta, Open Open House; Kappa Delta,
Open Open House; Nu Sigma Nu,
Dance; Phi Alpha Kappa, Post-Football
Party; Phi Delta Phi, Open House; Phi
Delta Theta, Dance; Phi Epsilon Pl,
Hernando's Hideaway Party; Phi Gam--
ma Delta, Band Dance; Phi Kappa Psi,
Dance; Phi Kappa. Sigma; welcome
Mich. State; Phi Rho Sigma, Post Game
& Evening Party; Phi Sigma. Delta, In-
formal Party; Phi Sigma Kappa, Record
Dance; Pi Lambda Phi, Come As You
Should Be Party; Psi Upsilon, Party;
Reeves House, Record Dance;# Sigma
Alpha Epsilon, Record Hop; Sigma Al-
pha Mu, Band Party; Sigma Delta Tau,
Open Open House; Sigma Nu, Band
Party; Sigma Phi, Record Dance; Stock-
well Hall, Open House After Game; Tau
Delta Phi, Ballroom Party; Tau Epsi-
ton Phi, Party-Band; Taylor House,
Fresh Air Camp; Theta DeltaaChi,
Dance; Theta Xi, "Roaring 20's Party";

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan