Ghr drhigatt Balg
Seventy-Fifth Year
EDITD AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
ore Opinions Aree 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MicH.
Truth Will Prevail
NEw's ProNE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SUNDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT JOHNSTON
Beyond Poverty:
The Problem of Affluence
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of two edi-
torials exploring some of the implications of auto-
mation upon poverty.
POVERTY-FIGHTING is fast becoming
America's newest honorable profes-
sion. Even business is doing it (to "make
taxpayers out of tax-eaters," as Presi-
dent Johnson said). But poverty is little
more than one tangible manifestation of
a much more basic problem, which is our
burgeoning affluence, and it seems few
if any of the Established powers realize
just what the vital questions are.
These powers recognize well enough
the particular disadvantages of America's
new lumpen poor: they never really had
a chance. They were born into isolation
-from political efficacy, from good edu-
cation, from hope for personal advance,
from the opportunities and intellectual
background needed to get good jobs.
Thus the idea of a poverty program
becomes to shift the major burden of
the welfare state from mere dollars to
job retraining-so the poor can get em-
ployment and thereby gain a place in
society. And here the powers stop, pro-
claiming that by mobilizing manpower to
fill the demands of the job market they
will eventually provide the poor with
power, knowledge, hope and mobility.
There is, of course, much to be said for
the idea that decent work at decent
wages provides at least a necessary start
for getting out of the poverty cycle. But
there is little to be said for the notion
that today's job market-or that portion
of it the powers see within the capabili-
ties and potential of the poor-has much
relevance to the real issues.
MANPOWER RETRAINING may, per-
haps, solve the poverty problem for
a few poor for a short time. As it is pres-
ently conceived, however, it cannot solve
the problems of the automted super-
abundance which the future will most
likely bring and which could very well
devastate the whole working class. The
farther ahead one projects the job mar-
ket, the clearer it becomes that the fu-
ture will offer gainful employment to
few except the scientists, managers, art-
ists, politicians and professionals.
The technological upheaval which the
Industrial Revolution heralded is contin-
uing-and should continue-its geometric
pace toward the day when metal slaves
will free men to do .those things which
are human. To the automated, self-
regulating machine we are adding in this
century the computer, not only to run the
workerless factory but to do our tedious
clerking functions as well.
Already we are experiencing a widen-
ing gap between "the engineers and the
janitors," according to the "discoverer"
of modern poverty, author Michael Har-
rington. It is no longer a viable solution
to train the poor to be janitors. Nor can
the poor be made into engineers or pro-
fessionals or artists: growing up poor in
America, they have been too much iso-
lated from the necessary conceptual
abilities for such work.
So retraining programs today conclude
the poor must be educated for jobs in be-
tween-factory operatives, clerks and the
like. But these are precisely the kinds of
jobs that offer no real future, much less
any intrinsic human satisfactions.
LOCAL BUSINESS gets together with
local government. (There are rarely
if ever poor people on the boards which
administer the war on poverty. This is
the first reason it will fail in its grand
goals: it becomes a political boondoggle,
a way of buying off protestors without
rocking the boat.) Together, they draw
up, programs for vocational education
and training, job development and place-
ment.
All is geared to the job market of the
short-range future-if the future at all.
There being little thought of the more
distant future, the whole program be-
comes a mere stopgap-and a bad one
at that.
H. NEIL BERKSON, Editor
KENNETH WINTER EDWARD HERSTEIN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
ANN GWIRTZMAN . ... Personnel Director
BILL BULLARD................... Sports Editor
This is not simply because the de-
pendence on certain kinds of work for in-
come will eventually be shattered once
these kinds of work are non-existent (a
problem which will be even more acute
for the lower middle class union member
than for today's poor, who still have not
been tied to any single category of occu-
pations). For to the extent that many of
these middle-range jobs are still needed,
to feed people into them is to make it
structurally more difficult than it al-
ready is to complete the technological
revolution. To bolster the present forms
of production is to delay the time when
we can automate out of existence the bad
features inhering in these forms.
The most basic of these features is'
that perhaps half the economy is found-
ed on feverish production and consump-
tion aimed at satisfying artificially-i
created demands, as opposed to activi-I
ties which fulfill peoples' natural and in-i
dividual desires but may not be econom-
ically productive.
Such a condition is a function of our
technology, which has been built up only
by the invention of methods-i.e., adver-
tising and public relations - to ensure
buyers for its goods and services. And it
is a necessary condition, for only tech-
nological development ultimately offers
freedom from the synthetic tasks and
consumption on which it depends in the
first place.
BUT IF A FORM of economic organiza-
tion which denies people fulfillment
of their intrinsic needs is a necessary
transition, it is not therefore necessary
that the form persist forever. And so
one feels a war on poverty which as-
sumes the present economic form to be
the end product of society's efforts, which
does not recognize the basic changes
which will have to be made if the ground-
work we are now preparing is to be prop-
erly utilized-one feels such a program
is reactionary instead of progressive.
If we are to make good use of the metal
slaves waiting in factories and computer
centers and on drawing boards to serve
us, we must begin now to free people
from the fetters of our present economic
and political forms.
People shall have to begin doing, or
thinking about doing, or learning it is not
futile to think about doing what will ful-
fill them-creating artistically, playing
absorbing games, planning and manag-
ing, curing or teaching or politically rep-
resenting others, reading, loving, invent-
ing, engaging in community endeavors,
building small things or whole houses.
There is little reason to delay the time
when these things involve men wholly,
instead of being left to "leisure" hours
clouded by the emotional exhaustion of
having to earn a living. Moreover, the
more reinforcement given to current eco-
nomic forms, the more chaotic and the
less likely the eventual change becomes.
THE PRECISE FORM the automated so-
ciety should take is not clear, but it is
safe to say at least three requirements
will have to be met:
1) The means of production and dis-i
tribution will have to be controlled public-
ly. The potential for disastrous social con-
sequences, in a time when few must work
directly at making and selling goods yet
enough can be produced for everyone, is
too great if the private profit motive di-
rects the economic apparatus.
2) Public direction of economic process-
es will have to ensure everyone, as a mat-
ter of right, either a minimum level of
existence or-farther in the future-as
much as he needs. It will no longer be
possible to make income dependent on
traditional conceptions of work; even-
tually society will have to and want to
redefine work to include all those ful-
filling activities which are repeatedly
proclaimed the true ends of human life.
If physical existence is not made a right,
just as free speech is now, the danger of
majority tyranny over the choices of ac-
tivity of minorities is too great.
3) Fundamental substantive changes
will have to be made in education, allow-
ing individuals to develop satisfying life
patterns instead of training them to fit
existing economic niches.
IF WE CANNOT DEVELOP comprehen-
Each Time I Chanced To See Franklin D.
A Responsible Position on Flint Expansion
by H. Neil Berkson
THE DETROIT FREE PRESS is about as querulous as Now, partially because of enrollment pressures in evaluate the opposing points of view or seeking to have
a frustrated old maid. Ann Arbor, and partially because of the desires of the them evaluated elsewhere, merely asks everyone to wait
And about as relevant, too. Flint community, the University intends to extend Flint for a few years.
Every day it "tsks-tsks" about the latest breakdown College to the freshman-sophomore level by adding 200 There may be some irresponsible people floating
in the moral order and comes to the renewed conclusion freshmen next year. The accusations of empire-building, around, but in the case this university's president isn't
that Governor Romney knows the only road to salvation. which originated from an aliance between Michigan State one of them.
Two days ago, President Hatcher had the temerity to University and the community college lobby, just don't
disagree with Romney's evaluation of the University's hold up-the University is already in Flint; with the UNIVERSITY Executive Vice-President Marvin L.
Flint plans, so the Free Press indignantly sought to enrollment pressures what they are it is not stealing Niehuss admitted last week that the University would
deliver an editorial spanking. anyone else's students. again reduce the in-state, out-of-state student ratio next
"'Irresponsible' Is a Word To Hurl at Dr. Hatcher," IN THE LONG RUN, the branch question and every year. The percentage, which will fall to about 25.8 per
the Free Press blared out yesterday, thus raising two other issue of higher education planning in the state cent, will thus drop for the seventh year in a row. More-
issues; the pompous innaccuracy of its own words and should come under the control of an effective State over, the figures are misleading because certain special-
the real questions surrounding expansion of the Univer- Board of Education. The coordination which is evident ized schools such as law and public health are well over
sity's Flint branch. The second is, of course, the impor- in California, for instance, is clearly needed in Michigan. 50 per cent while the literary college has been rumored
tant one, although I can't help but note that the news- But though a state board has come into existence, to be under 20 per cent.
paper had to distort both Mr. Hatcher's speech and its members would be the first to admit that they are It isn't Mr. Niehuss' fault. He always protests his
other facts in order to "justify" its attack. not ready to assume control of the future of higher edu- disturbance at the declining ratio, as does every other
THE UNIVERSITY has had a senior college in Flint cation. In the meantime-i.e. the coming 3-5 years when official. Nevertheless, the University must stand up to
since 1956. The establishment of this branch came at enrollment pressures will be heaviest-the University Lansing on this issue.
the initiative of C. S. Mott, who has poured millions of and other state schools are forced to act. Out-of-state students are responsible out of all pro-
dollars into various University programs (including $6 They certainly receive little help when a report on portion to their numbers for the standing of the Univer-
million last year for a children's hospital). Moreover, branches-the Davis report which came out in December sity. Legislators' threats to cut the University's budget if
both the executive and legislative branches of the state -wallows in the politics of the issue, rather than the it doesn't cut back on these students are pointless, for
government gave their full approval to the University's alternatives. They receive less help when the governor the University would be a much less ambitious place
aims. and his budget commission, instead of attempting to without them.
F i:I FIE B
5617'THEN-ME YT" TI 1BY T
10 TO T J< yTOLDP M K ITWAS 9EF
Z WAS WASM T 9 FEATnJG To
RPOMK oF M \'( 4-F
WAS A AWEE (
IE PY.WAS PRIVMc
THM THEY 'OLDM E THEN' THEY Tow METSTLt13 U NAV6
Pr PRIVEP WAS A U ERPRMV1E660 m'T A GREAT
BA IHA66,1I WAS WAS OV RUSE. f -HAV A OCAL)AR
UNDERPRIVIL606D WiA DISADVANTAGED. " I
-_- The Week in Review
Private Gifts Soften Flak; State, City Play Poltics
.r
By MICHAEL SATTINGER
Associate Managing Editor
HINGS BEGAN to look pretty
bleak for the University last
week. Just hours before Univer-
sity President Harlan Hatcher an-
nounced that the University would
go ahead with its Flint expansion,
Gov. George Romney asked col-
leges to forego such plans. And
then the whole Detroit metropoli-
tan area may have had its in-
habitants swayed against the Uni-
versity, for the Detroit Free Press
came out with a lead news story
and editorial blasting Hatcher's
stand. Is there no hope?
Well, yes, there is. At yester-
day's Regents meeting, Vice-
President for Business and Fi-
nance Wilbur K. Pierpont an-
nounced that thetUniversity had
been given about $2.5 million.
"Isn't that some sort of record?"
one of the Regents asked. It was.
THE BIGGEST GIFTS:
-$700,000 from the Harry A.
and Margaret D. Towsley Founda-
tion for construction of a medical
and health continuing education
center:
-$700,000 in securities from the
estate of Aimee Tucker McCulloch
of San Bernadino for student aid;
-$395,000 from the W. K. Kel-
logg Foundation to remodel and
air condition the W. K Kellogg
Foundation next to the Dental
Bldg.
In the final analysis, it is not
committees or reports or demon-
Viet Narn
W OULD IT HAVE seemed less
Tubversive if they carried
banners against democracy?
"One banner (in the Buddhist
demonstration against the U.S.
and the Houng government)
paralleled a slogan of the Com-
nunist guerrillas, 'We desirede-
mocracy, freedom and peace of
the Vietnamese people'."
(From another AP dispatch
from Saigon implying that the
Buddhists are fronts for the Reds)
'B * *
strations that cause University
changes; it is money. Just as the
state channels seemed about
ready to fail the University, the
$2.5 million from private sources
provided a needed shot in the
arm.
Cause for optimism may exist
on another front, too. State Demo-
cratic leader Zolton Ferency
thinks he can solve capital out-
lay problems by getting the Legis-
lature to pass a $50 million bond
issue.
From Ferency's comments Fri-
day, the Democratic Party will
support both the bond issue and
tax reform, while Romney just
wants tax reform. It seems almost
funny that while both factions
see such reform as the solution to
state revenue problems, neither
will initiate legislation.
ON THE LOCAL SCENE, an is-
sue which Ann Arbor Democrats
and Republicans both agree is
nonpartisan has become a political
blooper ball.
As it stands, City Council's Fair
Housing Law, although stiil on
tenuous legal grounds, is amend-
able. On March 3, the council will
meet with the State Civil Rights
Commission to see about the pos-
sibility of incorporating the
state's article on discriminatoon
into the law, as Wendell Hul-
cher, the Republican candidate for
mayor, has suggested.
Opposing Hulcher's proposal,
the Democrats urge adoption of
three amendments to extend the
housing units covered, pronibit
discriminatory practices by real
estate agents and prevent reta ia-
tion against persons supporting
the ordinance.
PERHAPS seeking to be sure
that the conditions result ng in
the Berkeley riots never come
about here,the Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs
created a University-wide com-
mittee to probe the role of the
student in University affairs. Odd-
ly enough, the committee's very
creation will add to that role.
At the University of California,
a completely opposite approach
was taken recently. The regents
thpre are snnnsoring an investiga-
when it came forth with its latest
neatly packaged proposal.
Under the proposal, landlords
would make individual leases for
students renting apartments so
that if one roommate finks out,
the other roommates can leave
the worrying to the landlord.
Yet when the Off-Campus Of-
fice politely informed SGC that
landlords woudln't take too kindly
to the proposal and that they'd
probably raise rents because of
added risk and bother, SGC blast-
ed the housing office for its "ap-
parent lack of concern for stu-
dent welfare." Brilliant rebuttal.
*
SURPRISINGLY enough, there
are 24 students running for SGC
seats this election, in contrast to
last fall when there were only
enough running to fill the six
spaces available. With the large
number running comes, hopefully,
better candidates, choice on the
part of students and, subsequently,
more interest.
But there's nothing that livens
a campaign up more than a new
party. Last year at this time it.
was Student Government Reform
Union (SGRU) leading the way,
with Students United fortRespon-
sible Government (eventually)
(SURGe), following close behind.
This year it's GROUP (Govern-
mental Revision of University
Policy) that's keeping things stir -
red up, claiming that SGC fails
to use its power to act upon stu-
dent needs.
Let's hope the issues GROUP
raises aren't as contrived as its
name.
SIGNALING the end of an era,
the Women's League last week
began celebrating its 75th anni-
versary. From now on activities
sector of the League will be com-
bined with that of the Union. As
Mrs. Edna French, '62, pointed out,
women at the University have been
fighting an uphill battle to be
accepted into the Universitydcom-
munity. Taking this attitude, the
Union-League merger should be
seen as a step forward-not down-
ward-for University women.
CONCERT PREVIEW
TwoNights Two Programs
Tonight
THE UNIVERSITY Symphony Orchestra will pre-
sent a concert of well-known orchestral works,
all of which are taken from the standard profes-
sional repertoire, at 8:30 tonight in Hill Aud. A
symphony and a theme and variations comprise the
heart of the program, with shorter programatic
works opening and closing the concert. A variety of
musical styles will be presented, including neo-
Classical, Romantic, late-Romantic and Impression-
istic pieces.
The program begins with Debussy's "Prelude to
Afternoon of a Faun." This work, describing through
the medium of music Mallarme's poem "The After-
ncon of a Faun," is a milestone in music. The world
had not, at this time (1894) been subjected to the
type of composition which attempted to paint im-
pressions and evoke moods through the medium of
orchestral color and intensity.
Next on the program is Prokofieff's "Classical
Symphony" (No. 1) composed in 1916-17. This work
is organized in the Classical style, using classical
forms and compositional practices. The first and last
movements demand considerable virtuosity from the
string section, in contrast to the serenity of the
second movement and the gay, jaunty Gavotte of the
third.
matic work, in rondo form, depicting the various
events in the life of Till. The work is based on two
themes which are brought back in various guises.
These themes characterize the events in the typical
style of Strauss, the master of the tone poem.
-Dennis Horton
Tonorrow
INSTRUMENTAL and textural variety characterizes
the Composers' Forum to be held at 8:30 p.m.
Monday in the recital hall of the Music School Bldg.
The program will open with "Triptych for Per-
cussion Instruments" by Jerome Hartweg. Performers
are Martin Zyskowski, Donald Carroll, Earl Sherburn,
Richard McElhenie, and the composer. The work is
for non-pitched percussion only. Each player becomes
an improvising solist above the rhythmic texture of
the ensemble.
"Drei Gesange," opus 23. of Anton Webern, per-
formed by Judith Toensing, soprano, and Diana
Boylan, pianist, is second.
Following the Webern is "Frescos" for woodwind
quartet by William Albright. Performers are Joan
Ramee, Robert Phillips, Paul Kirby, John Courtney,
with Barry Vercoe, conductor. Each of the work's
four movements begins and ends with a solo for one
of the players. These linking passages are one of
the more evident manifestions of a cyclical serial