Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Aug. 10: Shades of Deborah Bacon Opinions Are Free. 420 M tb WmI PrevailAYNARD $T., ANN ARBOR, MICH. 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. Y, AUGUST 10, 1966 NIGHT EDITOR MICHAEL HEFFER The Lansing Rioting: Some Wish To Ignore Hate By LEONARD PRATT Co-Editor +piME PLANT department's un- authorized and unjust removal from the Diag of a Voice sign criticizing the war in Viet Nam brings home as little else could the betterment of students' gov- ernmental condition that has tak- en place at the University over the last few years. It shows how bad things must have been. It's difficult to say whether the removal was an official de- partment act or merely the whim of an employe who disliked the sign. Department supervisor Al- fred Ueker at first claimed no knowledge of the removal, but his silence since lends itself to either interpretation, and it as acknowl- edged that a department spokes- man last Thursday told an Of- fice of Student Affairs official that the OSA ought to "censor" such signs. THIS STATEMENT is anacron- istic nonsense. It bears all the ear- marks of an approach to student rule-making that heretofore seem- ed to have disappeared years ago. It is arbitrary, restrictive and im- posed on the students involved without their prior knowledge or consent. That such remarks and perform- ance should come out of the plant department isn't surprising. It is a sort of administrative backwater of the University that by all ac- counts hasn't been looked into for years. Of all the peripheral service operations a university gets in- volved with, plant is both one of the most expensive-the Universi- ty spent more than $7.5 million on it here in fiscal 1964-65-and one of the least subject to the fresh- ening effects of public scrutiny. Just so the blackboards get wash- ed, nobody asks questions. BUT WHEN an organization like that gets involved in setting student policies, there's trouble. As one irate Voice member re- marked on Friday, "This is a Berkeley incident." If this had been the fall, and 150 people had been present instead of the sum- mer's 50, it might have become just that, even if on a small scale. Fortunately, OSA officials rec- ognize that. They also see the whole matter for just what it is-a question of who sets student rules, miscellan- eous custodians or the OSA and Student Government Council. It is testimony both to the quality of the OSA's staff and to the dis- tance that student affairs have come in the last several years that they saw this issue clearly from the start and never questioned their right to decide it in the stu- dents' favor. THE EXEMPLARY perform- ance of the OSA notwithstanding, there still remain several things to be done before the air will be cleared of this sordid episode. These things ought to be done while students are in regular ses- sion; if that means waiting until fall then Voice members should be content that the issue will be settled in front of their constit- uents. First the responsibility for the sign's removal and destruction must be squarely placed, on an administrative process if not on the individuals who carried it out. It will clearly be pointless for the administration to say the matter has been dealt with unless we are told what the matter was. Despite J. Duncan Sells', director of stu- dent organizations, prompt action yesterday, this has not yet been done. The next step has evidently been taken. Discussions between Sells, Ueker, and Gilbert Lee, vice- president for business affairs, the officer in charge of the depart- ment, have resulted in "a clearer understanding .. .which,.. .does promise against the recurrence of such an unfortunate incident." The locus of student rule-making authority has been acknowledged as resting firmly in SGC and the OSA.- Next, Richard Cutler, vice-presi- dent for student affairs, must be sure that he has the administra- tive means, be they personal or structural, to make this acknowl- edgement stick. WHAT IS NEEDED finally is a preferably public administrative policy statement identifying plant's activity as being in fact what it seems to be-a reversion to administrative behavior long con- sidered defunct. How this statement can be en- forced will probably be a two-fold matter split, as is the enforce- ment of most major student poli- cies, between the OSA and SGC. SGC must be willing to act as the student watchdog for similar fu- ture cases. Its will and ability to do that are without question. The OSA's half of the bargain is to ensure that SGC's observa- tions get attention at the admin- istrative level. This. will probably have to be worked out in personal discussions between Cutler and Lee. OUT OF THOSE discussions should come a clearer understand- ing within the administration that the making and enforcement of student rules rests with the OSA and SGC, and no one else. If the vice-presidents cannot convince Lee's subordinates of the propriety of such an understanding, then somne changes are In order. -ib i THE RIOTING in Lansing proves many things, chief of which is that griev- ances are everywhere around us and no one, no city, no nation is immune. Governor Romney, In an official state- ment made yesterday, said "There is neither need nor justification for violence or disobedience of law in the state of Michigan in order to receive human jus- tice or to eliminate human injustice re- sulting from discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed or national origin." Romney added that "Our state civil rights commission has the broad author- ity to insure such rights and opportunity of employment, education, public accom- modation, and housing and is working with great effort towards that end." BUT THE END is not yet in sight, and while the process of remedying many years of racial discrimination is admitted- ly a slow one, promises are not enough. Romney said in his statement that he was not sure what had inspired the riots but that "it is clear that they have gen- erally involved young people." But the problem goes much deeper than age, or even race. It centers around hatred. REV. KENNETH FAIVER, pastor of Christo Rey Church not far from the riot-torn area, said that the white com- munity had initiated the riots by driving through the Negro neighborhood throw- ing rocks, insults and other filthy instru- ments of hatred. Later, white youths threw Negroes out of recreation spots located in downtown Lansing. Faiver said that this had been going on for many years; "main street has been a drag strip for the last three years and Negroes have been afraid to go down there." Faiver said the Negroes have definite grievances; the mayor's office said that they have heard of no grievances. The Negroes charge that the police have been "unnecessarily hostile"; the mayor's of- fice doesn't think the police have done enough. The Civil Rights Commission of any state or city in the land cannot improve this type of communications problem; they cannot replace years of hatred with "brotherly love" until they recognize that hatred exists. THERE IS OBVIOUSLY a communica- tions gap between the residents of the ghetto and the inhabitants of city hall. Neither group knows nor cares much about the other. An integrated city hall is needed across the country; not neces- sarily the standard integration of color, but the integration of affluence and poverty, complacency and despair, the status quo and the forces of change. Political officials must seek out the seeds of violence in order to prevent its occurrence; discussions in the aftermath are not enough. The city's slummers and its dwellers must live and talk with one another. A commission should be estab- lished in which spokesmen from all groups would meet and speak with one another to avoid misunderstanding, communica- tions black-outs, and riotous encounters. Hatred is more difficult to erase. It appears to be predominant among the youth of both races. It is a hatred which they learned from their environment. To rid the city's souls embittered with hatred you must change the surroundings of their minds. THIS CALLS FOR integrated housing. The removal and renovation of exist- ing ghettoes is hardly the answer. The city must open its neighborhoods to all those who can afford to live in them. Equal affluence calls for equal job oppor- tunity and education. It is in these areas that the various civil rights commissions can be of use. But until promises become concrete in results; the riots will go on and on and on. Who knows? Your neighborhood may be the next. -PAT O'DONOHUE Cannibal RECENT SCIENTIFIC breakthroughs in the field of planarian (common flat- worms) research have shown that canni- balistic worms who eat victims adept in certain skills learn those skills faster. But if they eat victims trained to do things adverse to their training they can't make up their minds and become confused. This comes as no surprise. It's a well- known fact that the same discovery ap- plies to humans. Ask any member of Breakthrough (a conservative organiza- tion). Ask anyone whose ideas are ex- tremely to the left or right, or, are sag- ging in the middle. YOU ARE LIKELY TO FIND that, when they digest information that doesn't agree with their views, they become be- wildered and doubt themselves. But not for long. They soon rid them- selves of the disturbing information and continue in their old rut. Often they do not even bother to swal- low the information. After all, they think, cannibalism is not human. And it is much easier to stay outside the conflicting maze of indecision and cling to outmoded, disproved, irrelevant, but pacifying ideas. -MICHAEL DOVER V Lyndon Johnson-Politics or Policies io By ROBERT MOORE T HE NEXT ELECTION, and the election after that, will prob- ably be won by the people that of- fer the most convincing defense or criticism of (1) the Viet Nam war and (2) economic policies. . It is important that both of these issues are complex, certainly beyond the comprehension of all but a fraction of the voters, and probably beyond the comprehen- sion of many who claim commit- ment to one side or another of the two. The advantage in these complex issues lies with the powers that are intent on remaining powers, not with the dissenters. For the more difficult it is for the pub- lic to understand and assess a situation, the easier it is for the government to avoid democratic judgment or to stack the whole process to assure themselves of a favorable result. THAT MAY BE one of the basic issues: how does the non-special- ist public judge its specialists? It is a basic truth of politics that presidents spend half their time choosing their policies and the other half defending them. A president who can bargain with the mass media and with impor- tant public opinion groups (union, business, professional, etc.), can convince their captive public that his policies are well-directed, his standards just. And a president who can manage the news with grace and power, can marshal the facts to "prove" just about any- thing. This, also, is only politics; every president does it. President Johnson, the polls tell us, has done a masterful job of convincing the same Americans who voted for a dove in 1964 that a hawk in 1966 is the best presi- dent. The Viet Nam policy John- son defends is a combination of military expediency and political values. Often the public is treat- ed to the phenomenon of the mar- tial tail wagging the civic dog in this policy; reason-making, it seems, follows policy-making. JOHNSON and his assistants have spent unnumbered hours ex- plaining these political, tactical and moral reasons. Except on the campus, they seem to have been accepted. Like any good debater, Johnson has maximized his best arguments (North Viet Nam's in- filtration; its inscrutable reluct- ance to negotiate; and the war- talk of Communist China) and minimized his weakest (support for an unpopular South Vietna- mese military government; and the long-range effects of contain- ment of China and unbending op- position to wars of national lib- eration). Although, in terms of manpow- er, he has escalated the war as much as diplomatic realities would allow, he has carefully made him- self appear a man of moderation, resisting their extremes both the escalators and the deescalators. He has enlisted the basic support of most major newspapers, the AFL- CIO, Big Business and most of both political parties-a remark- able feat matched only by his failure to convince the rest of the world. JOHNSON'S handling of the in- flation issue is different; he does not defend his policy by argu- ment, since most people are agreed that stable prices are better than unstable prices. In the economic issue, Johnson is conspicuous for his absence. He painstakingly avoided taking di- rect action in the airline strike, even though his economic policies were being trampled; in the same manner he has avoided direct in- volvement in recent economic pol- icy-making, leaving the publicity to his staff or to the federal banks. Publicly he has done little more than to plead for his guidelines. The extreme case of his evasion- justified or not-is his refusal to push for a tax increase in an election year. The present government policy is to hold down prices by raising interest rates, giving people less money with which to bid up the prices of goods. But the monetary policy has been unsuccessful in slowing inflation and has penaliz- ed the small man by raising mort- gage and borrowing rates. A TAX INCREASE is probably needed. It would work in the same way as interest rates, giving peo- ple less money with which to raise prices; and as a side-effect, high- er taxes would allow some of Johnson's most admirable domes- tic programs to have a decent fi- nancial chance to succeed. Yet a tax hike hurts. Because the issue is so complex, it is diffi- cult for anyone to understand that higher taxes will eventually mean stable prices. And, Lyndon B. Johnson, just another elected offi- cial, fears the political effects of a tax hike with which he would be identified. Perhaps deliberately, perhaps not, Johnson makes big business and big unions the causes of in- flation, charging that they ignore his economic guidelines for wage and price increases. Yet these guidelines are a foolish ruse, to some economists, combatting the effect and not the cause of infla- tion. The way to avoid floods is to build dams, not to declare that water will not be permitted in city streets without a permit. EVASION - perhaps elsewhere known as political skill may save Johnson from an unfavorable ac- counting of his economic policies; rationalization-perhaps elsewhere known as logic and strategy-may likewise save him from unfavor- able accounting of his Viet Nam policies. It is all politics, and John- son has on his side the unmanag- able complexities of the issues. Except for the true believers on the ends of the political spectrum, the public as a whole has to peer through the rhetoric of Viet Nam and the statistical obfuscation of economics to determine whether Johnson is a strong man or a fool; and both the public and the gov- ernment have to finally decide when evasion, argumentation, vot- ing blocs, newspaper politics and news management stop being poli- tics and become, in effect, a main- ing of the body politic in its pri- mary responsibility of judging its leaders. 'r FILM REVIEW: Cinema Guild Chooses Films as Art IF By ANDREW LUGG IN THE DOZEN or so reviews that I have written for The Daily over the past few months, I have attempted to apply in my criticism two principles: 1) The director must use film space radically and plastically (balancing lines, colors, shapes, forms, etc.) . 2) Content must be judged on its own terms. IN THE FIRST principle I am interested in the visual aspects of the film, and in the second, I am judging comedy against comedy, psychological investigation against psychological investigation, and so on. Thus, it is quite consistent for me to announce that the Jerry Lewis film, "Three on a Couch," is a better film than "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Lewis' film fulfills both my criteria, whereas, in my opinion, the filming of Al- bee's drama leaves much to be de- sired. The use of the camera is contrived andat times downright boring. Lewis' film is "cinematic" whereas "Virginia Woolf" is not. I am involved with the film art, not using films to obtain the mass circulation of other art forms. , ', ,* FOR THIS REVIEWER, films are the oracle of spacial and tem- poral relationships. Our art form is peculiar in this respect. Great films are a development of the medium, not a plagiarism of oth- er media. I have a "vested interest" in the "oracle" and it is here that I take my stance. The "oracle" does not appear exclusively in "art movies." I have pointed out that it is in Lewis' Solving The Race Problem The Easiest Way MONDAY THE HOUSE by voice vote added a provision to the Civil Rights Bill that would make it a federal crime for an outsider agitator to enter any area to incite violence. At the same time, the House refused to add a clause to the Civil Rights Bill, in- troduced by Rp. Ceharles Diggs, Jr. (D- Mich), that would hav provided $50,000 compensation for victims of any racial crime. THE ACTION of the House can only be an unthinking reaction to the racial rioting in large American cities this sum- mer and to the erroneous (in most cases) belief that the riots have been instigated by outside agitation. In fact, It is the easiest thing in the world to believe that the riots were start- ed in this manner, for it removes all blame for the riots from corrupt local officials, from governmental leaders' misunderstanding of the Negro's plight, Editorial Staff LEONARD PRATT ......... ............. Co-Editor CHARLOTTE WOLTER .................. Co-Editor BUD WImLINON.m. . Spots Editor from unsuccessful urban renewal and so- cial work projects, from discrimination and from the blindness of the white com- munity in general to the problem that they just do not want to see. IT ALSO IS the easiest (and probably the most ineffective) solution-to pass an act against inciting to riot-to this country's most difficult problem. If one does not wish to tackle the intricacies of race relations, one can suppress expres-' sion of the effects of race problems. One may not stop Negroes from rioting, but the police can move in more quickly to put them down, and the folks at home will be happier knowing that the riots are being handled with force. The presence of this provision in the Civil Rights Bill is a great contradiction, if we can believe that the bill is sincere- ly aimed at alleviating some of the em- ployment and housing grievances of the Negro. If a Saul Alinsky or a Martin Luther King had not been able to enter a community to mobilize the resentment of the Negro population, we would not have a bill like this before the House at all. THE INCITEMENT to riot provision comes to the crucial roll-call vote l . t 9 J 5a o tt t' i jai rt f. t film in much the same way as it is in Antonini's "The Red Des- ert." But I would be the last to suggest that the content of "Three on a Couch" is as intellectually titillating as is that of "The Red Desert." Indeed, I am arguing that such a comparison is meaningless. IF THIS is not clear, I refer the reader to Cinema Guild's fall schedule. Some of the best direc- tors are represented and by and large we will be seeing, for want of a better word, art. In making the selection of films for the fall program, the Guild has not limited its selection to Resnas, Antonini, Fellini or Berg- man, etc.-modern directors who demand a sophisticated response to their films. Nor have they at- tempted to measure other films against these in order to judge whether or not they are "art films." They seem aware that the tra- ditional "academic" definition of art is meaningless. That is, in painting, for example, Richer- stein's "comic-strips," are not compared to Goya yet they de- mand an equally intense critical response. Similarly, a horror film Is as worthy of criticism as is Resnais'"Last Year at Marien- bad." NOTING THIS, the Guild has made a broad selection. All the films seem to me to be worthy of detailed criticism - Chaplin as much as Bergman, "Dementia" as much as "Rules of the Game." In "The Flower Thief" by Ron Rice the visual images tumble across the screen with great beau- ty showing Rice's complete mast- ery of the film art. This film is a touchstone for American avant- garde film-makers. The Satyajit Ray Festival in which the entire Apu Trilogy is to be presented will show the best of the Indian cinema. Ichikawa and Kawalerowicz, both little known, but great directors are represented. So, too, are four of the best, "from the past": "The Birth of a Nation," "Earth,' "M," and "Le Million." And I could rave on: Bunnuel, Renoir, de sica.. . IP Q'UnP -T'le n ' c t o have cineastes are in for some fine viewing. Watch then; hear the oracle. THE FILMS for the experimen- tal film programs have still to be announced. In a previous note I made some suggestions in this respect. Once again I will plug for the directors I respect: Brakh- age, Markopolous, Warhol, Van- derbeekk Sjari and Emshwille. These film-makers are the most outstanding of the American avant-garde. It seems to me such film-makers should be represent- ed in the Guild's fine fall pro- gram. PoliticsandP0i Human Nature A SOCIAL instinct is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first founded the state was the greatest of benefactors. For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when sepa- rated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed jus- tice is the most dangerous and he is equipped at birth with arms, meant to be used by intelligence with virtue, which he may use for the worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not vir- tue, he is the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and the most full of lust and gluttony. BUT JUSTICE is the bond of men in states, for the administra- tion of justice, which is the de- termination of what is just, is the principle of order in political society. Now, any member of the assem- bly, taken separately, is certainly inferior to the wise man. But the state is made up of many indivi- duals. And, as a feast to which all the guests contribute, is better than a banquet furnished by a single man, so a multitude is a 'd- p r ta. zYS7". .. y T-". r( ., I *