Seventy-Thrd Year
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
AY, MAY 19, 1963
NIGHT EDITOR: ELLEN SILVERMAN
The 'U' and Holden:
Just Giant Phonies
AFTER FOUR YEARS of study at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, I cherish the Philos-
ophy 263 quiz which was returned with the
comment, "You have taken something totally
irrelevant and cleverly made it half relevant-
C"; a Political Science 402 term paper which
displayed "gross conceit, prejudice and ig-
norance of the subject matter-E"; and a
Geography 101 final examination which I
flunked and was told, "We do not like seniors
taking examinations cold in a course for
Clarification?
STUDENT GOVERNMENT Council's power to
enforce sorority and fraternity compliance
with the University's policy of non-discrimina-
tion is now clear. The area of confusion has not
been whether SGC has the power to enforce
student organizations to comply but whether
this power may be applied to the fraternities
and sororities.
The five part statement adopted by the Re-
gents Friday, intended to outline the manner in
which SGC can go about implementing its
authority does not really outline the manner
very clearly.-
SOC has nominally had the power to enforce
University regulations on discrimination since
1959 when The Regents granted it the authori-
ty by approving .the revised Council Plan.
There has been some uncertainty, however, as
to whether SG actually did have the authori-
ty. The affiliate system contended that member
groups were notstudent organizations and that
SGC consequently had no legal jurisdiction over
their membership selection practices.
The Regents' statement makes clear that
fraternities and sororities are considered stu-
dent organizations and that SGC does have
every right to enforce University policy in re-
gard to their membership selection procedures.
E FIRST section of the statement declares
that all action taken by SGC in this area
is subject to the veto of the vice-president for
student affairs. SOC has been given the right
to initiate action but not the ultimate right
to demand that its decision be enforced. Thus,
it has not been given any additional power over
its past authority.
The vice president's veto should not be a
handicap, however, since it would be very dif-
ficult for the Office of Student Affairs to jus-
tify vetoing an SGC request to withdraw recog-
nition from a house clearly in violation of By-
law 2.14. The tone of The Regents statement is
positive and giving the ultimate power to the
vice president is certainly not unexpected.
I T IS THE third section of The Regents state-
ment which is the innovation and makes
possible the hope that SGC will actually suc-
ceed in seeing its legislation effected.
This section "Specifically includes sororities
and fraternities within the term 'student or-
ganization'." Thus, the major contention the
affiliate system has used in the past to argue
against SGC regulation of its activities has
been swept aside.
In response to a question asking if legal
advice had prompted the decision to include
fraternities and sororities in the term 'stu-
dent organization', University President Harlan
Hatcher indicated that he was not aware any
controversy had existed over the term. He said
if such controversy were to develop, legal coun-
sel would have to be sought. This is not par-
ticularly reassuring.
F THE FRATERNITIES and sororities are to
be considered student organizations on the
basis of nothing more than a recognition that
it would be easier for SGC to deal with them
that way, tlie whole question has certainly not
been solved. President Hatcher's indication that
he was not even aware of the controversy is a
sad comment on the probable results of the
effectiveness of the renewed strength SGC has
been given.
T HE FIFTH SECTION declares, in rather
nteresting language, that "the implemen-
tation of the policy of non-discrimination shall
be carried out as far as possible to preserve the
confidentiality of secrets of recognized student
organizations, the freedom of association, and
to guarantee fair notice and hearing to affected
organizations." .
Presumably the "as far as possible" is up toi
e-SGC-in each separate case; there is no written
formula setting down the limitations beyond -
which SGC must not tread. It is not a particu-
larly clear statement. How does SGC deter-
mine just how much information is necessary
to make a decision in any given case? Neither
is the term "freedom of association" clear.
Does It mean the sororities and fraternities are,
free to associate with any group of people they
may wish to as long as this does not involve
discriminatory membership regulations? Ob-
viously it does. But it seems that it could easily
be distorted into meaning that this freedom of
association cannot be trespassed under any
circumstances. Section five appears to have
been included ias more of a sop to the affliiate
system than as a meaningful guide.
Rpor arm e l.-a - a,. s ir s~tp he.ata
which they neither registered nor attended
classes."
I cherish them because they represent an
irrational rebellion against the academic world.
The academic world is, perhaps, the most
stodgy, conservative and self-perpetuating
group in the universe.
WHERE ARE the professors who strike out
after new dimensions and attempt to bring
this quest back from the research cubbyhole
to their undergraduates? Where are the pro-
fessors who see through student facades?
Where are the professors who are willing to
discuss academic freedom at an open meeting
and not behind the closed doors of the Uni-
versity Senate and the AAUP?
Where is the faculty which makes distribu-
tion changes because the changes conform bet-
ter to the idea of a liberal education and not
because the mathematics department is operat-
ing beyond capacity and the removal of math-
ematics as a distribution requirement would
lessen the load?
Where are the brilliant behavioralists who
should be in undergraduate classrooms or on
PhD committees and not stuffed away in
Mental Health Research Institute, there to
practice their "heresy" far from the impres-
sionable eyes? Where is the faculty which is
willing to stand up for its academic rights
and freedoms?
Not at the University of Michigan.
WHERE ARE the students who are here for
knowledge alone? Where are the students
who do not quest after grades for grades' sake,
who take courses which will really challenge
them, who do not. brown-nose? Where is the
student who does not live in the library, buried
in his books, too busy to indulge in the world
about him, a world which will swallow him
shortly?
Where is the student, who in a term paper,
has said all he really could say in five pages
and left it at that instead of padding for
another fifteen or twenty? Where is the stu-
dent who is willing to challenge openly his
professor in the classroom or in a term paper?
Where is the student who has an original
idea or original slant on a topic and has not
borrowed it from another student, taken it
from his professor or simply rewritten it from
the four "research books?"
Not at the University of Michigan,
WHERE ARE the administrators and Regents
who can honestly permit anyone to speak
on campus on any topic? Where are the ad-
ministrators and Regents who inform and con-
sut the general student body, and for that
matter the whole faculty, on significant
changes during the planning stage and not
present them as fait accompli? Where are the
administrators who supervise an honors pro-
gram which stresses academic experiment and
creativity and then integrate successful pro-
grams into the general curricula and do not
take successful general programs and restrict
them to the isolated elite?
Where are the administrators and Regents
who are concerned with doing something about
the housing conditions of their students and
who have more important matters to deal with
than dress regulations? Where are the admin-
istrators and Regents who do not prostrate
themselves in the dust before Imperial Lansing?
Not at the University of Michigan.
WHERE ARE the alumni who attempt to
make a university self-supporting, who are
more interested in academics than in football?
Where are the alumni who are more progressive
than to impose Victorian morals upon students
or to recreate '23 Skidoo with its "rah-rah,"
hazing and savagery? Where are the alumni
who will permit fraternity and sorority stu-
dents to decide for themselves on questions of
pledging, bias clauses and ritual?
Not at the University of Michigan.
WHERE IS the ideal university, dedicated to
educating and not to regimenting students,
to Renaissance Man and not the Specialist.
Where is the ideal university which obtains
the best professors at respectable salaries and
obtains the most qualified students regardless
of city of origin. Where is the ideal university
which has an open forum and which attempts
to lead society to a greater intellectual aware-
ness?
Not the University of Michigan.
ON THE EIGHTH of June,I receive my
sheepskin and ribbon, shake hands with a
silver haired gentleman who once showed me
how to tie a bow tie, and set sail upon the
sea of life. I have attempted to live up to an
ideal held by our society-the ideal of a liberal
education and the intellectual man.
But I too have failed. I am not liberally edu-
cated-I know next to nothing about El Greco
or Picasso, Sam Johnson or Hemingway, Haydn
or Stravinski, Plato or Russell, Newton or
Einstein, Darwin or Marx.
"You Know What? A Lot Of People Down Here
Are Just Plain Prejudiced Against Us"
A II
t --
m f
T?*E A~'W6T' ?ST
A FACE IN THE CROWD
By RONALD WSILT ON, Acting Editor
By EDWARD HERSTEIN
A LARGE part of the wheat
farmer's future is wrapped up
in Tuesday's national wheat ref-
erendum. A Kennedy Administra-
tion proposal calling for strict crop
limitations and high price sup-
ports will be instituted if there is
a favorable vote of two-thirds of
the nation's wheat farmers.
Critics of the program base
their objections on an argument
that the less government inter-
vention the better. They say that
the government has made the
farm problem the mess that it is
and that the time is long past
when government should get out
of the farmer's problems.
These critics are wrong. They
err on two distinct points and in
doing so show a fundamental mis-
conception of the status and his-
tory of American agriculture.
* * *
THE FIRST point these critics
miss is that farming cannot be
compared to other industries in
evaluating the merits of govern-
ment intervention and control.
The nation's farms are not giant
corporations capable of setting
prices at any level they arbitrarily
desire. Individually, each contrib-
utes such a small share to the
market, that the actions of any
one farmer can hardly affect the
market price of wheat at all.
For this reason the government
has intervened in farming for en-
tirely different motives than it
intervenes in steel or electricity.
The basis of government interven-
tion in farming rests on the fact
that for the last several decades
population growth has not kept
pace with productivity increases in
agriculture. Supply has increased
at a far more rapid rate than de-
mand, and, as a result, the price
of farm products has been drop-
ping.
This has, in turn, resulted in a
drop in farm income which has
caused a mass exodus from rural
to urban areas. However, this emi-
gration has been considerably less
than that necessary to keep farm
prices high without government
intervention.
* * *
DURING THE 1930's, farm
prices dropped about twice as far
as that for industrial products.
Farm aid, started under Hoover in
1929, was greatly expanded, lead-
ing to the vast aid and surplus of
products today. But was there
really any choice? With one-
fourth of the country unemployed,
there was nowhere left for farm-
ers to find work. The government
could do little else.
Since that time, a variety of
methods has been aimed at reduc-
ing both the number of farmers
and the aid given to them..Aside
from direct aid to needy farmers,
two principle methods have been
employed.
The first is to "restrict the pro-
duction of crops by acreage allot-
ments or crop quotas. With acre-
age allotments, however, farmers
set aside their worst acreage and.
more intensively cultivate their
best. As a result, long run reduc-
tions in crop output are seldom
effected.
Furthermore, even when this
method is successful - and it is
when crop limitations rather than
acreage allotments are applied -
there are a number of very severe
drawbacks. The program raises
the price of farm products to the
consumer. In the past it has only
applied to large acreage farms
which then collect monetarynpay-
ments from the government for
keeping their land out of produ-
UNDERSCORE:
wheat Referendum:
Best Alternative
tion; meanwhile, the farmer with
little land continues to produce as
much as he can in his less efficient
way while still wallowing in squal.
or. The Kennedy Administration
realizes this and, in addition to
using the superior crop limitation
plan, its program contains several
other features which are not in-
cluded in the referendum. pro-
posal.
* . *
THE SECOND major method
has been price supports. These
have either taken the form of the
government buying all crops that
cannot be sold at the support price
or selling all crops at the free
market price with the government
paying the farmer the difference
from what he would have earned
had he sold at the support price.
This program contains even more
flaws than the acreage restriction
plan. With farmers getting a good
price for their crops, they have no
reason to restrict their production.
The government buys, or pays for,
whatever is not sold at a price
needlessly high to the consumer.
The taxpayer is hurt at both ends
-paying taxes to support prices
which make farm products cost
him more. Little wonder critics
complain. This plan was tried ex-
tensively by former Secretary of
Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson un-
der the Eisenhower Administra-
tion.
Of course, some surplus crops
are valuable. The government
sends great quantities of surplus
wheat to needy nations overseas
as part of our Food for Peace pro-
gram. In fact, were it not for
many practical difficulties, there
would be no surplus of crops at
all, for many countries are des-
perate for food. However, many
problems prevent us from sending
all of our surpluses abroad; until
these are resolved, there is a cry-
ing need to cut down on the
amount of surplus food which
costs over a million dollars a day
to store and is rotting away in
government bins.'
* * * .
P R E S I D EN T Kennedy's at-
tempted solution to the biggest
part of the farm problem, surplus
kheat, in addition to imposing
strict crop limitations, guarantees
wheat a support price of around
two dollars per bushel.
The second fundamental error
which critics of the Administra-
tion's proposal make is the com-
plaint that each new limitation or
support deprives the farmer of his
freedom. But since proposed crop
restrictions must be approved by
two-thirds of the farmers, the
argument should go the other way.
Farmers, with the sanction of a
government concerned for the
welfare of all, have the right to
restrict their output so that they
can make a ,reasonable living.
Other aspects of the Kennedy
program (notincluded in the ref-
erendum) are the conversion of
farmland to recreation area and
attempts to improve the economic
well-being of the farmers. Federal
aid to education, scholarships and
retraining programs all fit in this.
category. Even attempts to in-
prove the overall economy and.
consequently increase job oppor-
tunities enter this realm.
In the short run, the supports,
the allotments, the conversion of
farmland to other uses, the schol-
arships, the aids, the full-employ-
ment economy all taken together
will not solve the farm problem.
But until a better method is
found, the Kennedy program is
the best alterntive available. For
the good of the farmers, the ref-
erendum Tuesday had best pass.!
THE VIOLENT confrontation
between black and white in
Birmingham has lessened over the
past few days. Both sides have
decided to rely on negotiations to
achieve their aims. Yet the con-
ditions that set off the demon-
strations still exist, in New York,
Detroit and the rest of the country
as well as Birmingham. Prospects
for future violence are almost
certain, both in the North and
South.
When the violence comes the
Negro will find himself without
much outside support. If the dem-
onstrations revealed one thing
they brought into the open the
political sterility of the Northern
American "liberal" establishment
-particularly the type of liberal-
ism practiced by the Kennedy ad-
ministration which is not really
liberal.+
The hedging, half-hearted sup-
port these people gave the demon-
strations, is typified by Attorney
General Robert Kennedy's remark
that Negroes should make their
case "in meetings, in good faith
negotiations and not in the street."
This proved to many Negroes that
when the going gets serious the
only ones they could depend on
in the desegregation struggle were
LETTERS
to the
EDITOR
To the Editor:
ELLEN SILVERMAN'S declama-
tory editorial concerning the
normal credit load of 15 hours
deserves serious attention. She
suggests that every student be re-
quired to take at least 18 hours
per semester. (She is presently
taking eighteen hours.) I suggest
Miss Silverman suffer alone.
Scholarship is praiseworthy. The
question is one of quantity or
quality. Miss Silverman finds no
justification for liberal arts stu-
dents beyond the first semester
to take a light load (15 hours).
Perhaps Miss Silverman is com-
pletely devoted to scholarship, in
which case I congratulate her in-
nocence. However, her criticism
(Miss Silverman is not only a
Contributing Editor to The Daily
but also a movie critic) which
appeared almost next to her edi-
torial was even worse than the
movie it attempted to cut to jour-
nalistic ribbons.
*,* *
LIBERAL ARTS students are
required to write a considerable
number of papers. If a student
expects to learn and develop in-
tellectually, it is of maximum im-
portance that he take his studies
seriously. The writing of a good
paper requires concentration and
time. They are not to be turned
in with journalistic efficiency, but
with care and planning. If a stu-
dent can learn to express himself
well in his papers, then he should
themselves-something which the
Black Muslims have been pro-
claiming for years.
* * *
THERE ARE times when the
stand of these so-called "liberals"
amuses as well as disheartens me.
Of course they say the right things
against the Southern whites.
Everybody agrees that the pictures
of police dogs tearing at Negroes
was "shocking" and that the use
of fire hoses was "deplorable."
Yet at the same time they criti-
cize the Negroes for resorting to
large scale demonstrations, the
use of children and finally vio-
lence.
Actually I suppose I shoudn't be
surprised. The Northern liberal is
a funny person. Intellectually he
agrees that discrimination is
wrong, yet he prefers to castigate
the South rather than clean up
his own front yard. Anyone who
has ever walked through Harlem
or the South Side "black belt" of
Chicago will agree that this clean-
ing up is necessary.
The federal government as well
as some Northern local govern-
ments have made some feeble at-
tempts to correct local conditions
but these are few and far between.
At the same time this liberal
wants the Negro, particularly the
Southern Negro, to play by the
rules while fighting for first-class
citizenship. The rules include
court actions, moderation, boycotts
and non-violence. When the Ne-
gro departs from these rules, as he
did in Birmingham, the liberal
self-righteously admonishes him
that this is not right.,
He does this as a self-proclaimed
friend, anxious to help the black
man, a friendship sometimes mo-
tivated by guilt feelings of being
white and of being the bearer of
a heritage laden with white su-
premacy and exploitation of the
darker races.
THE TROUBLE with the North-
ern white "liberal" is that he is
not able to put himself in the
Negroes' shoes. His view of the
situation is distorted by the fact
that he lives in a society which
lets him play by the rules. He is
a first-class citizen which enables
him to achieve his political, eco-
Aomic and social aims through the
normal established channels of.
society. He tends to feel that the
whole country more or less agrees
with him: segregation is bad, there
is consensus on the fact that legit-
iment channels provide the only
answer.
But Southern whites do not play
by the rules where racial issues
are concerned. Court decisions are
ignored; a double standard of jus-
tice exists for whites and Negroes;
Negro homes and churches are
bombed; every now and then a
Negro is lynched and the perpe-
trators are never caught. The Ne-
gro cannot use the channels avail-
able in the North because those
institutions in the South-the
state governments, local govern-
ments and police-are structured
and staffed to keep the status quo
as stable and as segregated as
possible. Even the effectiveness of
they are impeded in their organ-
ization by the white economic
elite and where they do exist they
are often segregated. The farmers
in the "black belt" are dependent
on white landlords, suppliers and
buyers for their existence. The
white upper classes often foster
race hatred to prevent lower class
whites and Negroes from banding
'together and concentrating on im-
proving their class position.
The Negro is left with no re-
sources but his own manpower.
Also on his side is the indisput-
able fact that he is a second-class
citizen in a land which boasts of
freedom and equality. He has been
kicked, beaten, intimidated and
terrorized since the Emancipation
Proclamation freed him a hundred
years ago. Hie is a human being
whose human dignity has been
stripped from him.
At this point he is revolting
against his situation. He is through
appealing to the conscience of the
white; those who have one by
and large don't produce results
and those who don't have one just
laugh. His patience is exhausted;
the wonderous thing is that it en-
dured for so long.
* * *
IN THIS LIGHT I say the pro-
testations of the "liberal" white
against the Birmingham demon-
strations are ludicrous. The Ne-
gro held mass demonstrations be-
cause the economic injury to the
local region and the political dam-
age to the United States will force
the whites to take action.
He lets his children go to jail
because having them grow up
fighting for their rights is better
than having them grow up servile.
He throws bricks at cops because
there is just so much a man can
take when his homes and churches
have been bombed and he has
been attacked by police dogs. He
revolts against the rules because
they were made for the white
man and not for him and the
Southern white man does not fol-
low them.
It is true that demonstrations
may not change the attitudes of
the Southern whites and it is here
that the ultimate change must
take place if we are to have true
equality for all. Yet minds are
never changed when people are
segregated from each other and
one group is dominant.
The Negro first has to get first
class citizenship and equal treat-
ment at the hands of society.
After this is achieved, he can
start working on a personal level
to change people's minds. But
above all he must have his dignity
as a human being.
The Negro is seeking what is
rightfully his and in this he is
forcing our hand. The whites in
this country can 'react in several
ways. They can give up all the
trite phrases about the equality of
man and advocate white suprem-
acy, a policy which would lead to
a national race war. They can
fumble the issue as they are do-
ing now and take an international
beating. Or they can decide that
they really believe in human dig-
nity and the rights of man and
GLEE CLUB CONCERT:
Christopher Highlights
Varied Pro'gram
LAST NIGHT'S performance of the Michigan Men's Glee Club was
varied and relaxing.
Appearing in its one hundred and fourth annual spring concert,
the Club sang with complete confidence, discipline and ability. The
program ranged from the prologue to Pagliacci by Leoncavallo to
the songs of Jerome Kern to traditional Michigan "songs."
Probably the best feature of the concert, however, was the soloists.
Russell Christopher, former Glee Club member and winner of this
year's Metropolitan Opera auditions, performed the prologue to Pag-
liacci, the piece with which he gained first place. He also sang the
well known "It ain't necessarily so."
Christopher is not only a powerful and expert baritone, but also
a smooth and accomplished showman who can control the reactions
of the audience with ease.
* * * *
ANOTHER HIGH point of the evening was Ronald Jeffers' per-
formance of the spiritual, "There Is a Balm in Gilead." The Glee
Club also showed that it could provide an effective background to
soloists.
Other soloists were Leonard Riccinto, tenor; and Norman Brody,
baritone; both performed in "Is My Team Plowing" from A. E. Hous-
man's "Shropshire Lad," set to music by Butterworth. Riccinto's
smooth and clear voice and Brody's unusually rich tone made this
song one of the most beautiful in the concert.
Steven Jones, another tenor soloist, gave a quite animated per-
formance of Torme's folksy "Country Fair." Jones is a good example
of the kind of voice the Glee Club tends to attract and develop. The
tone is perfectly clear and the words surprisingly distinct-a combina-
tion that would please the most Cartesian listener.
. 1* * * *
/