VOTER REGISTRATION:

cl 4t M~~t ta al
Seventy-First Year
EDITED AND, MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSrY OF MICHIGAN
"Where Opinions Are 'e UNDER AUTHORUTY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Truth Wil Prevail" STUDENT PUBtIcATIONs BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241

Ba ttle

for

a New

South

Editorial printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.



DAY, OCTOBER 21, 1961.

NIGHT EDITOR: CAROLINEDOW



AlumnijAid

Preserves Excellence

TODAY MANY CARS will whip off the ex-
pressway and flow up Washtenaw and old
Ann Arbor trail to the centers of the University.
For many of the occupants of these cars this
.will indeed be a Homecoming, for they will be
revisiting the University that was their home
for four or five or six years.
Each will revisit the center of their campus,
the arb, a seat on the diag, a fraternity house,
a corner of ,the Union or the General Library.
These places will undoubtedly have changed
but these homecomers will not feel alienated
from the University.
They wil1 not be aliens because they are still
an integral part of this campus through their
continued interest and concern for the Uni-
versity they attended. They belong because,
through their financial contributions, many are
silent partners in our education on the cam-
pus today.
Mudbpwl
IN A SURGE of enthusiasm, the Sigma Alpha,
Epsilon marching ."band" blared its way
through the Natural Science Aud. yesterday
while , philosophy lecture was in progress,
seeking to advertise the Mudbowl Game.
As they wandered through still another
building on campus, one tired professor re-5
marked to his class "in the spring I have to'
pontend with biology, while in the fall I have
to compete against puberty rites."
Despite the claim that "Fraternities Foster
Scholarship" in The Daily's advertising columns
this fall, there are still a few of us who wonder
whether the fraternity system is all it could
be in helping the intellectual process.s
The SAE demonstration was planned to suck
more observers into watching its football game
-it was also an "advertisement" for the fra-
ternity system.-
-P. SUTIN

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS of this University
have not only contributed over half the
$80 million physical plant of this University, but
have made possible, through their interest, the
"extras" that make Michigan what it is.
Alumni sponsored gifts and grants have fi-
nanced scientific and technical research proj-
ects; student aid and loans; library and mu-
seum acquisitions; endowed professorships; and
visiting professorships.:
Last year, over 17,000 Alumni recognized the
needs of the University and took care that- it
will be the same force in the future as in. their
past. In 1960-61 alumni donated $364,000 to
ensure excellence in the University and many.
more are giving this year than last.
HESE INDIVIDUALS are giving through two
organizations, the Alumni Association which
solicits interest and continued Alumni support
and the Development Council, which informs
Alumni and friends of the University of needs
and asks help to meet them. The Alumni Asso-
ciation and the Development Council's joint
project, the Alumni Fund, solicits funds from
the Alumni each year for ongoing projects
such Student Grants in Aid, the Presidents
Discretionary Fund which has aided Challenge
and other projects, Distinguished Faculty
Awards and other "extras for Excellence."
For the students here on campus, the first
contact with the Development Council or the
Alumni Fund, other than enjoying the bene-
fits, will be a letter from the Development
Council asking a dollar for each year out of
school. This plan, initiated with the class of
1959 has increased incoming funds by $1,000 a
year and has received more than a 10 per-cent'
response for each class. This endowment will
grow with every year as will the needs of the
University.
To these University graduates who ,have
given their interest and financial support to
ensure the continued greatness of the Univer-
sity, the students of Michigan will find it easy
to say, "welcome home."
-CAROLINE DOW

(EDITOR'S NOTE-This is the
second of two articles dealing with
the voter registration project for
southern Negroes.)
By JOHN ROBERTS
Editor
and FAITH WEINSTEIN
Magazine Editor?
McCOMB, MISSISSIPPI, is the
focus of a massive voter regis-
tration drive calculated to tear
down the racial barricades around
the political structure in the
South. The groups who run the
drive have a common goal-to
capture or smash the govern-
mental apparatus of the segre-
gated South, , ending the state-
imposed racial discrimination and
opening the way to equalitarian
legislation.
The Student Non-Violent Co-
ordinating Committee is doing
most of the current work on voter
registration. But SNCC is not
alone. The broad campaign -
which will be extended to every
Southern state - is run by the
cooperating forces of SNCC, Na-
tional Student Association, South-
ern Christian Leadership Confer-
ence, CORE, NAACP, National
Urban League and the Legal De-
fense and ]ducation Fund. It was
made public October 1, when the
Rev. Martin Luther King out-
lined the project at the annual
SCLC conference in Nashville.
** *
"THE ONLY WAY we will
change (the South) is to go down
to Misissippi and knock on doors
and be ready to be arrested and
be ready to die if necessary to
get Negroes registered in Missis-
sippi," King said.
SNCC will concentrate most of
its forces in Mississippi, but will
move into Terrell County, Georgia,
within the next few months. SCLC
has accepted complete responsi-
bility for projects in Alabama and
Louisiana (outside New Orleans)
and some responsibility for Flor-
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
Brotherhood? .
To the Editor:
I WOULD LIKE to comment on
Mr. McReynold's article en-
titled: "Wide-Open Rushing Will
Save Small Houses." Well, I dis-
agree, dear Editor. Not even an
"Aid to Depressed Areas" bill
could possibly save Michigan's
small fraternity houses. Further-
more, why should we be so con-
cerned about "small houses?" Be-
cause of a "closer brotherhood?"
Get serious! "Brotherhood" went
out with the railroad unions.
Small houses are given an op-
portunity to enchant the rushees,
the same as everyone else, during
regular fraternity hunting season.
If, because of their frail programs,
they can no longer attract pledges,
then I recommend that SGC
designate all "small houses" as
"O.D." (Officially Defunct) and
order their blighted structures re-
moved from campus.
-Elmer C. Binford, '61
(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.)

ida, South Carolina, Texas and
Virginia.
The other organizations will
work in the areas where they have
contacts and workers. All will be
financed by private sources and
foundations, and have the uncer-
tain support of the U. S. Justice
Department.
* * *
AS THE McCOMB project has
vividly demonstrated, the voter
registration drive faces a stagger-
ing conglomeration of economic,
psychological and civic obstacles
-some legal, some illegal.
According to the Civil Rights,
Commission report of last month,
literacy requirements, "interpre-
tation" tests, the poll tax and the
white primary are all used sys-
tematically to bar Negroes from
voting. The Southern states are
proudly mustering their best legal
minds, and encouraging their so-
called Soveriegnty Commissions to
find more ways to hold out against
integration.
Civil rights workers are har-
rassed by police. These same police
permit beatings, mob violence and
an occasional killing to go by
largely unpunished. Negro voters,
and especially Negro civil rights
workers are threatened with
economic boycotts, loss of jobs
and harm to members of their
families. It is dangerous to be a
Negro and vote.
BUT THE INGRAINED inertia
and psychological paralysis of the
Southern Negro as well as the en-
trenched opposition of the whites
must be overcome if the voter
registration project is to succeed.
Conditioned by their heritage of
slavery and the aftermath of Re-
construction to accept second class
citizenship without resistance,
many are not really interested in
voting.
To overcome these obstacles, the
leaders of the voter registration
project have to depend on the
simplest techniques of mass pier-
suasion and their own unflagging
intensity of purpose-at least for
the first phase of the struggle.
They hold mass meetings, hand
out pamphlets, canvass door-to-
door. Most important, they open
schools which will train Negroes
for voter registration, and edu-
cate them in the proper use of
the vote.
IT IS NOT EASY for a Negro
to qualify to vote. In Mississippi,
he is required to copy a section
of the state constitution and give
a "reasonable interpretation" of
it., "Reasonability" is left for the
registration clerk to determine. .
The registration applicant must
also make a statement of his un-
derstanding of the "duties and
oblgiations of citizenship under a
constitutional form of govern-
ment."
At the SNCC schools in Mc-
Comb, Negroes study the state
constitution thoroughly and pick
up practical advice in answering
trick questions. They also begin to
learn to use their vote intelligently
and conscientiously.
THIS LAST STEP is especially
important. The Southern Negro
must be made to realize the moral
worth of the act of voting. Living
in a state of grinding poverty, he
may easily regard his lack of a
vote as the leastdof his troubles,
and nothing in his environment
has conditioned him to think in

terms of dignity and abstract
rights. The Negroes who get
ahead are those who cooperate
with the whites. There are worse
things than the lack of a vote,
and the Negroes who are attempt-
ing reform are getting all of them.
It is easier and safer to go along.
With this set of attitudes, a
newly-enfranchised Negro would
be easy prey for modern-day
carpet-baggers - the political
bosses, back-slappers, and' simple
purveyors of bribes. In counties
where Negroes have won the vote,
many are selling them to the white
commupity for hard cash. Only the
schools can counter the ignorance
and attitudes which lead to this
kind of selling out.
THE SCHOOLS must also make
the Negroes conscious of the po-
tential political power in their
votes. Negroes could control only
13 counties in the entire South,
but they could form a substan-
tial voting block in every state. As
Dr. King proclaimed to the SCLC,
"we will be able to change the
political structure of the South
and of the nation. Even the Pres-
ident of the United States re-
spects votes."
But to be effective, these votes
must be strategically organized.
Currently, the participating or-
ganizations appear to agree that
the best way to dislodge segrega-
tionists on a national level is to
run a sort of Washington merry-
go-round. By voting out the in-
cumbents every election, the, or-
ganizers hope to break the power
of the Southern bloc in the U. S.
Congress, robbing them of the
key chairmanships and opening
the way for more positive civil
rights action.
* * * -
BUT THIS DISCUSSION of the
long-range aims of voter regis-
tration has little meaning until
the right to vote is secured. Thisr
may never be accomplished. For
the drama of voter registration
and the direct action which comes
with it must not obscure the fact
that this must be essentially a
legal fight- protracted and quite
possibly futile.
The publicity campaigns are
elaborate, and the schools are
thorough, but neither get Negroes
registered. Three, or even ten Ne-
groes will register quietly, and
then the county authorities real-
ize a drive is on and crack down.
In Walthall county, Negroes try-
ing to register were turned away
by a registration clerk who told
them that the county already had
a voting suit pending in the cir-
cuit courts, and he wasn't going
to register any more Negroes until
it was settled.
The U. S. Justice Department
has the authority to intervene,
but the litigation is painfully slow.
According to the Civil Rights Acts
of 1957 and 1960, the Federal gov-
ernment may initiate a suit on
behalf of any individual who has
been unjustly disqualified by local
registrars on racial grounds If it
wins the suit, the justice depart-
ment may ask the court to rule
that a "patternor practice of
discrimination exists that blocked
the Negro from registering.
IF THE COURT concurs, the
district court would be authorized
to appoint a voting referee to
register all qualified Negroes, in
the area.

It is in these latter stages of the
litigation that the voter registra-
ion project acquires real import-
ance. The voting schools, the pre-
paration, and most of all the un-
successful attempts to register
may help to prove that a pattern
of discrimination does in fact
exist.
But this legal procedure re-
quires years to complete. All
charges must be thoroughly docu-
mented and proven. Witnesses
must be found to testify. Usually
the case has to be appealed be-
yond the district courts, where
even Federal ' judges have local
sympathies.
Even if all legal points are won,3
voting referees are appointed by
these same district courts-and
there is no guarantee that they
will not be segregationists them-
selves. And to complete the com-.
plexity, the legal struggle must
be carried out region by region.
There is no possibility for im-
mediate)and blanket enfranchise-
ment .,
THE SIMPLE FACT is that
existing civil rights legislation is
not adequate to ensure every qual-
ified citizen his right to vote. The
Civil Rights Act of 1960 was sig-,
nificantly gutted by a conservative
dominated Congress and a South-
ern filibister. When' President
Kennedy says that current laws-
if enforced-are adequate in deal-
ing with the South, he is being dis-
honest. And he knows he is. Be-
fore long, the students in the voter
registration drive are going to
realize this too. ,
When they do, realize it, the
voter' registration project in its
present court-oriented form may
well end. Students were reluctant'
to join the adult organiza,
tions for this campaign-partly
because they neither wholly trust'
nor respect the adults, partly be
cause their sympathies were with
direct action projects.
Once they see the futility of a
legal attack on the political struc-
ture'of the South, students are
going to. want out. It is doubtful,
that the adult organizations -
long on patience and money, but
short on the active field workers'
which are the heart of the drive.

- can sustain the drive on their
own.
If a combination of Federal in-
tervention and Southern fear of
publicity can hold down the vio-
lence, the disenchantment with
voter \registration may be post-
poned for a while. It is in the
interests of the government to
keep the students out of jail and
working and in the interests of
the Southern communities not to
give the government an excuse to
intervene.
* * *
THE GOVERNMENT may be
willing to extend its full strong
arm to protect the registration
workers. But it is committed to the
court process for the larger
sruggle - hoping to avoid a bald
showdown with the Southern
states on the 'one hand, and the
kind of embarassing direct action
incidents which look so bad
abroad, on the other.
SNCC leaders have questioned
the efficacy of mixing direct ac-
tion with voter registeration. But
while a separation may seem to
make sense now, it will be pre-
posterous ° when the students
realize the futility of action
through the courts.
Students will rebel against the
long and often fruitless legal
struggle. They will turn to a new
kind of direct action - action
against state and federal govern-
ment on a scale larger than stu-
'dents have ever planned before.
* * *
THERE WERE THREE students
in the bus depot sit-in which
touched off the crisis in McComb.
By March there will be thousands
of students across''Mississippi who
will be willing' to start a revolu-
tion-or a civil war.
Voter registration will tangle in
the inadequate machinery of the
adult community. When this hap-
pens the students will turn against
this machinery - using every
means at their disposal. It will
start with massive sit-ins at regis-
tration offices, 'marches on state
capitals and perhaps even on
Washington.
It will end only when they ac-
quire the legislation or the power
needed to secure the Negro his
rights and his vote in the South.

ELINE ON SGC-:1M

THE LAST PORTION of Wednesday's Stu-
dent Government Council meeting provided
reassurance for those who have feared internal
hostility would inevitably destroy the Council.
In changing a proposed "reprimand" of
Council member John Robefts (Daily Editor)
to an expression of "disturbance," SGC chose
not to let, debate turn into personal revenge
for past individual grudges, as many con-
stituents and members' had-feared it might.
THIS IS ENCOURAGING in light of the fact
that the Council had a just grievance
against Roberts. As 'a Council member he had.
violated confidence of executive session (in his
editorial last Saturday) and had, as the mo-
tion stated, shown disrespect for regulations
regarding a related body' of SGC.
The "extenuating circumstances" recognized
In the final motion may or may not be re-
garded as an excuse, depending on how one
wishes to regard the problem. It is true that
Roger Seasonwein and Mary Wheeler, both
former Council members, had discussed as
fact proceedings of an executive session they
had not attended.
Although the information was therefore pub-
lic knowledge, William Gleason and David
Croysdale were correct in pointing out that,
executive session violations by one Council
member do not release another Council mem--
ber from his obligation to maintain confidence
regarding the session.'
Still, as Paul Carder stressed, the Council
member who originally released information
to Seasonwein and Miss Wheeler was most
subject to censure and it would hardly have
been fair to let the blame rest entirely on
Roberts.
There is uncertainty regarding the technical
r legality of a censure or reprimand in this
circumstance. But again, obviously, it is clear
that -Robert's editorial constituted what Arthur
Rosenbaum referred to as a "moral violation."
GIVEN WHAT was therefore a very touchy
situation, the debate proceded, with a
Editorial Staff
JOHN ROBERTS, Editor
PHILIP SHERMAN HARVEY MOLOTCH
City Editor Editorial Director
SUSAN FARRELL ................ Personnel Director
FAITH WEINSTEIN................;Magazine Editor
MICHAEL BURNS ...................Sports Editor
PAT GOLDEN.................;Associate City Editor
RICHARD OSTLING ......Associate Editorial Director
DAVID ANDREWS..........Associaid Sports Editor
CLIFF MARKS .............. Associate Sports Editor

deliberateness and honesty that did SGC great
credit.
The Council in general showed a commend-
able aversion to censuring a member, and a
full appreciation of the seriousness of such an
action. Roberts was honest in dxplanation of
his action, expressing his feelings on the sub-
ject without concern for the effect they might
have on the vote and refusing to accept the
excuse that his editorial was "written hastily
and 'in an angry mood" by saying that under
the same circumstances he would write it
again.
THE BEST ARGUMENTS for dropping the
severe reprimand proposal were given by
Carder and James Yost. Carder recognized the
problem caused by the fact that Roberts had
"conflicting obligations" in his roles of Council
member and Daily editor. Yost said that since
"the point had been made" about the editorial,
in public Council debate there was no need
of a formal reprimand.
Yost's comment especially indicated a trust
in general respect for Council opinion as
manifested in debate which is essential to the
healthy and ethical functioning of SGC.,
The Council meeting was not by any means
a tea party. There were strong feelings by
members on both sides which will not be
forgotten. But the method of handling the
problem gives hope for further progress toward
elimination of the almost' palpable personal
hatreds which are the root of most Council
failures.
THE MOTION also raises two other very im-
portant issues and brings home the need
for further consideratoin and action upon
them. One is the "dual" obligation of ex-
officio Council members. In Roberts' case there
was clearly a conflict of his role as Council
member with his role as Daily editor.
A discussion of SGC procedure is not the
place for commentary on Robert's action "as
Daily editor," but it is obvious that although
the two issues require application of separate
standards of judgment, they are inextricably
interrelated. Further consideration on the role
of ex-officios should be 'a primary item on the
agenda of the new Council in November.
THE SECOND PROBLEM is the continuing
controversy over the ethics of sealed execu-
tive sessions. Whether what Roberts said in,
his editorial was right is, unfortunately,- ir-
relevant to consideration of whether he violated
the existing rules on executive sessions or
had a right to do so.
But it makes painfully clear these two
facts: 1) There must be a public record of

AT THE MICHIGAN:
Cliches Meet on 'Bridge'
ONE TIME A FRIEND AND I were, in the bogus town of Falmouth,
Massachusetts, at a similarly bogus sort of movie, and most for-
tunately we were able to buy a sumptuous bag of fried clams to serve
as chaser during the film. Sad to report, I'm afraid it would take at
least a dozen escargots de Bourgogne to keep from seething at the
prefunctory dropping of World War II bombs and fighter planes, the
"Redbook" tete-a-tetes between pretty blonde teenage daughters and
their Aunt Peggys, and the obvious, vapid' direction, of symbolism
perpetually plopped into, and unimaginatively handled, in our ever-so-
William Inge-American films, represented again in "Bridge to the
Sun."
The film came to be after a young lady from Johnson City, Ten-
nessee, had, her diary published in Reader's Digest, and unfortunately
her story portrays the work of one who knows about Lookout Moun-
'Lain, Elvis, and Hot Shoppes. Gwen, the Miss Tennessee (Carroll
Baker), meets the secretary to the Japanese ambassador in Washing-
ton, and after the appropriate. stardust they marry, and spend just
about all of the ten following years, 1935 through 1945, in Japan. Her
husband Terry (James Shigeta), while briefly in Washington, knew
of Japan's plan to attack Pearl Harbor, and tried to arrange for a
friend, a Doctor Jones, to warn FDR in time (how unpatriotic! )-but
alas, December Fifth did come. Terry remains with his wife and child
in semi-hiding in Japan, having brewed suspicion as traitor to The
Cause.
ALTHOUGH THE LINES in spots were decent, corn grows best- in
Kansas or in Iowa, 'I'm told, and this screenplay for the most part
forges a substantial challenge: with utmost seriousness silly little Gwen
says. things like, "After all these years, and there's still so much I-don't
understand,"-or-finally playing the faithful Japanese wife, on V-J
Day exclaims, "Can't you just see ,me bowing to my cousin Alfred!"
And I for one am bored with scenes of American women coming into
Japanese public baths and becoming "frightfully" embarrassed; or ones
that say, visiting the Japanese Embassy, "They must have a powder
room-even if they are Japanese." Couldn't some of our screen play-
wrights and directors take a few-just a very few-lessons from the
Italians?
I must confess there were a few interesting touches-the attiring
of the funeral of a small child, a Japanese beauty salon-but even so,
it must become as salient as if Michigan were to have made a field
goal against State last weekend.
-Margaret Klee


"You Mean ME Get In There And Do.Something?"

AT THE CAMPUS:
'To Live,'To'Lose
"JKIRU" (" TO LIVE") is the plodding story of an old man who found
out too late.
The summary of the tale is found in the admonition "Some people
really don't begin to live until they encounter death." Auntie Mame
would say "Life is a banquet and some poor suckers are starving to
death," and say it much better. Those religiously oriented and the psy-
chologists will be pleased by the resurrection-(conversion experierne).
In this case the catalyst is not heresy; but rather gastric cancer. Wheth-
er you enjoy the film from this point on depends on whether you can
identify with cancer. I've had my ulcer under control lately, so I didn't
make it.
Turned away by his westernized son, Hero takes to demon drink
which his stomach' systematically rejects. A Japanese Beatnik shows
him the light of a higher life. Somehow you feel he was better off be-
fore the Renaissance. Stumbling about, the old man gains determina-
tion and returns to his job to serve the people.
* * *
THE FILM could well conclude here and be none the worse, but
the author becomes long-winded and'preys upon his captive audience

-F

-1

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