Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
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POWER
* and Guatemala:* Trying To.Re buIldDmcacy
{ POETRY by MARK R. K ILL INGSWORT H
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where Opinions Are Free. 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MIcm.
Truth Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the inidividual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1966
NIGHT EDITOR: SHIRLEY ROSICK
The Ecorse Teacher Strike:
why Not the Pupils?
OLD FACTS OF LIFE are falling daily
in the labor relations field, the only
area harder to keep up to date with than
space exploration.
The latest development in the discovery
that school teachers, once thought to be
the last group to learn the tricks of sur-
vival are actually miles ahead of, of all
people, their employers. This was illus-
trated this week with the firing of 194
teachers by the school board at Ecorse.
The Ecorse school board, as aware as
anyone else that they could never dig
up a sufficient number of replacements
of any quality, imagined they could scare
their teachers into returning, and stop-
ping their strike. With a rare display of
cunning they set the date of firings for
the day after school ended, hoping to
get the teachers to return before.
Ecorse teachers seemed not to notice,
and discovered some freedom now and
then is not a bad thing. Rallying around
the flag and singing "Solidarity Forever,"
they asserted "we're going to fight this
thing all the way."
THERE IS A LAW that covers this mess,
and it originally said public employe
strikes are illegal and bring about auto-
matic suspension. That law has been
amended to eliminate the automatic part
of the suspension. However, no one is
quite sure what effect the amendments
will have if the case is taken to court.
Employes under the law can appeal
their suspensions to the court. The school
board says it wants to go to court. A
union negotiators says he'd rather not.
But then the board has no choice. If it
uses its one traditional strategy of wait-
ing until fall when school resumes before
really bargaining, it is likely to find that
its teachers-called one of the best groups
in the country by the board superintend-
ent-will have vanished.
So the board is stuck-they have to do
something. Taking their action of firing
the teachers through the courts is about
all they see left to do. The only ones
who stand a chance to gain are the gen-
eral public, legislators and labor relations
experts, all of whom will discover even-
tually what the law means. It will be a
test case.
WHATEVER HAPPENS the board has
made itself look silly by firing the
teachers, an action which does not seem
to have brought the situation any closer
Editorial Staff
CLARENCE FANTO ....................... Co-Editor
CHARLOTTE WOLTER................. Co-Editor
BUDl WILKINSON.. ............. .. Sports Editor
ETSY COHN.. ..... Supplement Manager
NIGHT EDITORS: Meredith Eker, Michael Heffer,
Shirley Rosick, Susan Schnepp, Martha Wolfgang.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich.
Published daily Tuesday through Saturday morning.
to a solution. Then again the teachers
have also made spectacles of themselves,
parading around and saying "Sorry, but
we have to do it this way to make up for
all that we've suffered all these years.,,
Speaking about suffering, it could be
that the children, now without anything
to do, are really not suffering at all.
After all, there is no instruction like
watching one's superiors make fools of
themselves. And with a little initiative (or
help), the students may realize that they
are the ones who have been left farthest
behind in the labor relations field.
Without bargaining rights, forced by
law to be in school, they might find a
way to bargain anyhow. A sitdown or no-
learning day or slowdown day might
bring into the open whatever grievances
they might have. The affair at Northern
is a perfect example.
JN TODAY'S WORLD, anyone can strike.
It's part of-the freedom of a democra-
cy. And it makes labor relations a fast-
moving field,
-MICHAEL HEFFER
Saving Face
ONE OF THE MOST persistent argu-
ments for continued U.S. pressure in
Viet Nam has been that of thehuge
amount of prestige and aid that has
been pledged to take a stand .against
Communist aggression in Asia. It is ar-
gued that face and security would be
lost if we waivered from full support of
the current South Viet Nam government.
OTHERS FEEL that the U.S. in fact en-
dangers her prestige and security by
continuing the current Viet Nam pro-
gram. It is believed that commitments
to SEATO and ephemeral juntas are
myths. Some feel that continued bomb-
ing and avoidance of potential negotia-
tions has been costing us friends and al-
lies each day. Some feel that we are
passing the point of no return with the
strongest power in Asia.
Some people feel that if China was
now dropping bombs on the U.S. main-
land she could do no more danger than
our present policy has done, a policy that
has revealed and accentuated fundamen-
tal flaws in a supposed democratic sys-
tem. Many people feel that it would be
a magnanimous and fruitful gesture if
the U.S. would work for peace instead
of against it.
FACE WOULD BE LOST, however, by
the policy makers who have been try-
ing so hard to cover up the truth, a truth
which shows that these people have made
mistakes yet do not have the courage nor
the responsibility to admit them.
-MIKE DITKOWSKY
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Last Tues-
day the author outlined the
stormy political history of Gua-
temala for the past decade and
some of the problems that will
face its president-elect when he
takes office. Today he discusses
the steps Mendez intends to take
toward solving those problems.)
G UATEMALA CITY-Oversha-
dowing everything else, how,-
ever, is the country's shaky poli-
tical situation-and if Mendez is
unable to change it his admini-
stration ,is doomed.
The past record is not very en-
couraging. Col. Carlos Castillo
Armas used a private army and
the Central Intelligence Agency's
support in 1954 to overthrow Col.
Jacobo Arbenz, whose government
was increasingly dominated by
communists.
Then a member of his own
palace guard shot Armas and, af-
ter a period of confusion and in-
trigue, Gen. Miguel Ydigoras
Fuentes eventually took over in
1957. But things deterioratedreven
further.
IN ADDITION to the increasing
political unrest and worsening
economic conditions (Guatemala's
economic "growth" rate per capita
from 1958-1963 was actually nega-
tive) during his rule, Ydigoras was
noted for corruption so blatant
that, in the words of one com-
mentator, "even the Guatemalans
had to laugh."
According to one story, Ydigoras
bought U.S. machine guns, sold
them and then bought much less
expensive Czech models--pocket-
ing the difference. Local legend
also has it that he and his cronies
bought PT boats so decrepit most
of them sank before they reached
Guatemala.
In 1963 the armed forces inter-
vened again, toppling Ydigoras
and putting Col. Enrique Peralta
Azurdia in his place. Peralta put
a stop to some of the corruption
and embarked on an austerity pro-
gram, but his most important ac-
complishment is the election of a
constituent assembly, which wrote
a new constitution and provided
for presidential elections in March.
"I'll say this for Peralta," says
one American observer. "He ac-
tually let the elections take place,
freely and openly." After prod-
ding from the U.S. and the arrival
of scores of newsmen-whose pres-
ence was encouraged by our Em-
bassy here-Peralta decided it
would be unwise to impose his own
presidential candidate.
AND SO the elections took place,
and, as Mendez told The Daily in
an interview several weeks ago,
"Even with the pressures the pres-
ent government exerted - and
there were some-the people were
able to make their choice them-
selves this time." U.S. insistence on
free elections, he added, "helped
insure they were indeed free."
Though he failed to gain an
absolute majority in the three-
way race in March, Mendez was
finally elected in May by the Na-
tional Congress, where his Revolu-
tionary Party (PR) has 30 of the
55 seats.
Mendez had served in the gov-
ernment in 1949 but became disen-
chanted and returned to the Uni-
versity of San Carlos to teach law!
IHe was later named dean of the
university's law school and was a
leading contender for election as
its new rector when his brother
Mario, then the PR's leader, com-
mitted suicide, apparently for per-
sonal reasons.
While Mendez was clearly ap-
prehensive at first over the dan-
gers and incertitudes of Guate-
malan politics, he took up the
mantle of his fallen brother, ral-
lied the PR, and went on to win
the presidency.
AND NOW in the house on the
16th Calle Mendez' program is
taking shape. He has already
termed the payments gap Guate-
mala's most urgent problem and
indicated he will seek to cut im-
ports.
New taxes, while they may be
unpopular, are also necessary, par-
ticularly on agriculture and idle
land. A major administrative
shakeup with an all-out attack
on waste would also prove fruitful,
though equally unpopular and
probably more difficult.
And then come a host of un-
fulfilled needs, from education to
Indian affairs (Guatemala's "mi-
nority problem" is actually a
majority problem), health to
housing, credit unions to labor
unions.
BUT POLITICS will make the
road to progress on these fronts a
slippery one. The armed forces,
though Peralta stopped some of
its factions in the spring from pre-
venting Mendez' assumption of
power, will be lurking in the wings
along with the conservative es-
tablishment, nursing their griev-
ances, jealous of their prerogatives
and power (there are over 800
colonels in the Guatemalan army
alone)-and resented and distrust-
ed by Guatemala's liberals.
The Communists and the ex-
treme left are much smaller in
numbers than the right-but make
up for it in organization.
"Several kidnappings and 500
or so anonymous phone calls from
the communists last year and this
country nearly went out of its
mind," one experienced student of
the political scene said recently.
The present state of siege tends to
confirm this position.
AND WHILE the Communists
have won some sympathy from the
Indians for their opposition to the
present government, they were
apparently counting on Peralta to
nullify or prevent Mendez' elec-
tion, wait until the PR went into
the streets, move in and then seize
power in 'a lightening-fast golpe,
or coup.
Hence Mendez' political path is
,a tightrope, one between Army
and democrat, liberal and conser-
vative, bureaucracy and innova-
tion, caution and reform, disap-
pointment and hope.
And ironcially, as the figures
on Guatemala's aid "drawdown"
suggest, there is relatively little
that U.S. aid alone can do to help
in the long run: Mendez must
lead his country himself.
ALTHOUGH HE IS receptive to
aid, he has rightly emphasized
that "we will start by working
with public opinion in our own
country to solve our own prob-
lems." He thus seems to be em-
phasizing the important difference
between doing something for a
country and doing something with
the country.
Is is a distinction rarely made,
but it is often the difference be-
tween welfare colonialism and de-
velopment. It does not seem likely
that dollars alone can solve the
social prejudice Guatemala's In-
dians suffer or the inertia and
inefficiency of the government
bureaucracy.
It is indeed true that the U.S.
should continue to help provide
tools for development and support
for democracy here, as throughout
Latin America-but it may be
that the U.S. effort for free presi-
dential elections in March is the
last major contribution we can
make by ourselves.
IT IS, IN SHORT, up to Mendez
to steer the difficult course
through the maze of Guatemalan
politics, build democracy and de-
velop the economy. It is an impos-
ing task-but it is one for which
Mendez seems prepared.
For the outlook is not as dreary
as it seems at first glance, just as
16 Calle 6-17 is not the villa it
seems to be. Most economists are
confident Guatemala, which has
a favorable position in the fast-
developing Central American Com-
mon Market, could easily shoulder
more long-term debt. The economy
is now growing at a rate above 5
per cent each year.
Moreover, Mendez' Revolution-
ary Party is, more than any other
political group, based on a pro-
gram rather than solely on a per-
sonality. Mendez himself, despite
his early doubts about his new-
found political career, exhibits
persistence, self assurance and
even relaxed informality-all of
which he will need when he as-
sumes office in July.
AND SOME STUDENTS of the
political scene here suggest much
of Guatemala's current difficul-
ties are due not to mistaken gov-
ernment policies-but no govern-
ment policy. "The absence of any
planned, coordinated, intelligent
leadership is the :problem, not
some excess of action," one com-
ments.
"We don't think all our prob-
lems will be solved in four years,"
Mendez said to this correspondent
here last month. "But we hope to
work on them so that in four
years the next president will be
able to continue what we started."
It sounds like a modest goal-
but it will be a milestone in Men-
dez' country's history if he can
reach it.
k
4
i
What Helps Make a University Good?
By PAUL BURKA
Collegiate Press Service
THE HARRY Elkins Widener Li-
brary dominates the campus,
virtually deserted on a Sunday
morning. The noise of the outside
world filters occasionally through
the ancient buildings as cars pass
the square, while behind the gates
John Harvard surveys three cen-
turies of greatness from his
cement-and-bronze pedestal in
The Yard.
The scene is reminiscent of a
hundred universities-the build-
ings, the bricks, the books, the
almost-even row of trees-but
somehow it is different. You'd
know where you were by instinct
even if you didn't know by name:
this is Harvard; this is the best
there is.
* * *
WHAT MAKES a university
great? What separates first class
from mass? The elusive quality of
greatness is difficult to define in
the material world, but the task
of definition borders on impos-
sibility in the realm of ideas.
We are told that great libraries
make great universities. But books
are for reading, not collecting.
Statistics citing the relative size
of libraries are readily available.
But where are the figures deline-
ating how often the books are
actually used?
We are told that a university
produces Presidents, or corpora-
tion executives, or poets. But again
we are offered only a quantitative
analysis. A President is not great
simply because he holds office.
WE ARE TOLD that a univer-
sity boasts a student body with
X-number of Phi Beta Kappas, or
Y-number of National Merit
Scholars. We are cited Z-number
of honor graduates. Can any of
these have any real meaning
when we are attempting to meas-
ure quality, not amount?
The greatness of an institution
devoted to learning can never be
measured by devices adapted from
a materialistic syndrome. Harvard
produces Presidents because it is
great; it is not great because it
produces Presidents.
A university can only be guaged
by measurements which are con-
sistent with its nature and pur-
pose. Money, victory, prestige are
only incidental to the educational
concept of success.
A UNIVERSITY,- in short, is a
spirit.
It is a spirit which recognizes
that any contribution to knowl-
edge has some value, irrespective
of its conformity with any popu-
lar norm. It is a spirit which
preserves everything and destroys
nothing except ignorance.
It is a spirit of self criticism,
self generating and self perpetuat-
ing, a spirit which neither reads
nor believes its own press clip-
pings.
It is a spirit of independence,
proud and protective of the right
to dissent. It is a spirit of de-
pendence, relying on the principles
by which it exists.
* - *
SALARIES AT HARVARD are
the highest in the nation; even
taking into account differences in
the standard of living the U of
Texas can not compare. Nor is
there any comparison in the num-
ber of well-known professors. Or
in facilities: the law school li-
brary building at Harvard is as
large as the entire Texas law
school.
But these are only the effects,
not the causes. You can capture
the difference between Harvard
and the University of Texas in
one word: spirit. Harvard is great
because the spirit exists there;
the University of Texas is not
because the spirit is missing.
Comparisons are, of course,
superficially unfair. Harvard is
able to orient itself toward ex-
cellence; the University is inevit-
ably limited by its commitment
to mass education.
YET, INSTEAD of contenting
ourselves with the knowledge that
the comparison is, after all,
apples-and-oranges, we should ask
instead whether our commitment
is really valid? Does the State of
Texas owe the same obligation to
every high school graduate? If so,
what is the nature of that obliga-
tion?
The state must provide the su-
perior student with the same edu-
cational opportunity on his level
that it provides the mediocre stu-
dent. To design an educational
system for the benefit of the
mediocre is unjust, unwise, and
intellectually suicidal. This state
is largely dependent upon the
talents of the graduates of its
educational system, for those who
attend other universities rarely
return. Sooner or later the state
must realize that its future de-
pends on its best people, and not
upon an ever-broadening medio-
crity.
THIS, THEN, is the lesson of
Harvard: greatness is measured by
ideals and feelings, and not by
numbers. Success is measured in
terms of people, not by things,
whether they be books or dollars.
In practical terms, is means the
affirmation of excellence by those
who guide the destiny of educa-
tion in Texas. It means not only
a ceiling on enrollment at the
University, but increased selec-
tivity as well. It means the ulti-
mate development of an institu-
tion which caters to the above-
average student, an institution
which demands a commitment to
educational principles. It means
an opportunity to share in the
spirit that is Harvard, the spirit
that is education, the spirit that
is greatness.
(Burka is a staff member of the
Daily Texan)
r
r
NATO and the Problem of Proliferati~on
1 " ) '+ { r7 . r , 4 : dr s
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lye t' fJ "t 1 " r l l 1 ( } ty
By DAVID KNOKE
THE RECENT hang-up over the
future of the NATO political
branch is indicative of the prob-
lems caused by the new wind of
nationalism blowing in Europe.
Along with the chinks in the
American and Russian monolith-
ic domination of Europe which
France has wedged, is the at-
tendant problem of nuclear pro-
liferation.
TheNATO alliance was devel-
oped as the military counterpart
of the Marshall Plan to shore up
a war-exhausted Western Europe
against Soviet encroachments. The
keystone of the military alliance
was Article 5, the concept that
an attack against one member
would be considered an attack
against all.
FAILURE of the United States
and Great Britain to integrate
the top command structure of the
15-member alliance, coupled with
growing nationalism and econom-
ic independence, made both the
French and West Germans sus-
picious of the intentions of the
U.S. to allow them equal status in
NATO.
French development of atomic
weapons led to a French military
strategy of increasing independ-
ence within the NATO structure.
De Gaulle's decision of last Sep-
tember to pull out of the military
alliance will force a restructuring
of the entire defense-of-Europe
strategy.
FRANCE CURRENTLY has 23,-
nn+nt oai n nn wn- r--- t , r_
treaty, insisted Couve de Murville,
emergencies were not the same as
armed attacks. Rusk's agreement
to delete the words "in an emer-
gency," thereby recognizing the
sovereignty of a state to troop
commitment over automation com-
mitment, appears to have opened
the way for negotiations to re-
sume in the near future.
WHILE THE FUTURE of French
status in the political organiza-
tion of NATO remains uncertain,
West Germany will continue to
agitate for a share of the 6000
nuclear weapons at NATO's com-
mand. West Germany's contin-
ued support of the military alli-
ance stems from its hopes that
the United States will soften its
stand against granting control of
nuclear weapons to non-nuclear
powers. Bonn is obviously look-
ing with admiration to the de
Gaulle force de frappe which gives
France a degree of autonomy not
felt under the old NATO agree-
ments.
While France's stockpile is min-
iscule and its delivery system non-
missile, freedom of use now gives
France a lever to twist the arms
of Washington and Moscow. Back
in 1962, the U.S. State Depart-
ment launched its campaign to
convince the then 14 other Eu-
ropean powers to build up con-
ventional ground and air forces
under the U.S. and British nuclear
umbrellas.
THE FORCE DE FRAPPE -
lines of possible aggression and
nuclear technology, is anxious to
wary of East Germany's growing
become promoted from a supple-
mentary role in the NATO stra-
tegy. French withdrawal, splitting
the airspace and subsequently the
alliance into North and South
sectors, may give Bonn a good
argument in favor of increased
proliferation of weapons.
Proliferation of nuclear weap-
ons theoretically leads to increased
possibility of their use on slight
provocation, the so-called "nth
power" theory. Giving in to West
German demands would not halt
the arms race in Europe; Switzer-
land and Sweden, with capable
technology, may decide that a nu-
clear deterrent is the best protec-
tion of their classic neutralism.
THERE IS only one course to
prevent proliferation, short of the
type of physical destruction of
resources some would have us take
against Communist China. A Big
Power treaty to reduce the produc-
tion, stockpiling and testing of
nuclear devices could go a long
way to convince small powers that
expensive development of their
own nuclear deterrents is self
damaging.
Such a strategy cannot be uni-
lateral; it must be by common
agreement between the Soviet
Union, U.S. and other, potential,
nuclear powers. However, a pro-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Participation or Co
liferation-proof Europe would
mean taking the Soviets into
summit-type discussions about the
military balance of power which
has been a bilateral split since
Yalta. Rusk, leading the foreign
ministers in Brussels last week in
ruling out negotiations, follows the
Dulles school of thought: never
negotiate from weakness and if
you're strong enough; you needn't
negotiate.
DE GAULLE obviously doesn't
subscribe to that policy. His forth-
coming visit to Moscow may not
come up with any startling re-
visions, but it is a step towards
facing the new realities of the
post-post-World War Europe.
optation
visory committees in their best
form-as parallel committees to
the Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs and its sub-
committees-proved to be an utter
f a i l u r e. Student Government
Council duly filled the structure,
but the appointees either did
nothing or were not recognized by
their parallel SACUA units. After
one semester, nothing was heard
of the scheme except for occasional
laments about its failure in the
Daily.
The University is a past master
To the Editor:
IN PROMOTING student advis-
ory committees, the University
has hit upon a beautiful co-
optation device. The committees
can bring student critics harm-
lessly into the power structure,
reducing their leverage for criti-
cism. They can overwhelm the
students with a large quantity of
boring, routine material. And in
the final analysis, they need not
be listened to by administrators
who have given up virtually no
power or authority.
fln +h a nn n-linr.. nrA. ,a m rrPC
The advisory board movement
thus puts students, not just the
activists, in a quandry. Should
they take the opportunity to par-
ticipate in the councils of the
University? Or should they reject
the University's warm embrace
and let the activists fight for re-
form from the outside.
BUT THE HISTORY of student
advisory committees at the Uni-
versity is bleak. And, as any so-
ciology student will readily tell
you, cooptation has drained the
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