Seventy-FifthYear
EDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Are SNCC Tactics Justified?
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, Mici-.
Truth Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, 31 MARCH 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LAUREN BAHR
Trimester--Good or Bad?.
Students Must Tell the Regents
QUESTION: How much do the Regents
and faculty actually know about the
life University students are leading under
trimester?
At the annual Daily banquet awhile
back, one of the Regents was seated at a
table with four Daily staff members. In
the course of the conversation, he brought
up the quarter systems to which so many
Michigan colleges are converting. He
mxentioned that recently the University
faculty had been toying with the idea of
putting the University onto the quarter
system. It was evident that he was quite
interested in and impressed by the sug-
gestion.
The silent shock of the students seated
at the table did not seem to register with
the Regent.
After the Daily staff members regained
their powers of speech, they started to
-xplain to the Regent the student's cur-
rent way of life under trimester.
THE UNIVERSITY is different from
other colleges in Michigan-its cours-
Cs already have nearly a maximum of
material packed into them.
"The University is internationally fam-
ous and important because the courses
are on such a high level. It's great for
other colleges to go on quarter systems
and pack more into their courses, and
raise the course level-they still have a
way to go before they hit the level we're
at now.
"There's a darn good reason why uni-
versities like Harvard stay on the old
system, why Smith College has just gone
off a quarter system.
"Do you really think the faculty would
rewrite all the courses given at the Uni-
versity right now, just so they'd fit into
a quarter system?
"Heck, no," continued the students..
'They'd just chop two weeks' worth of
material off all the trimester courses and
pack everything else into the quarter sys-
tem-just like what they did to the old
two-term system to make the trimester
system.
"And already, without a quarter system,
we work hard under trimester, and the
pressure -"
'PRESSURE?" the Regent asked inno-
cently.
Four horrified students inwardly col-;
lapsed.
When they could talk, they started in,
fast.
"The pressure is pretty amazing."
"It's the worst thing about the Univer-
sity."
Another man sitting at the table, the
eminent head of a University depart-
ment, looked on doubtfully. .
The table was smothered with silent
moans.
The students tried to explain further.
'You see, there are no courses we can
slack off in. Each instructor thinks he is
the only one we should do any work for,
and so we slave And we do slave, be-
pause we have to beat the competition,
keep up with others who will slave even
if we don't."
The department head might have been
hearing a new angle for the first time.
One girl spoke-up. "I never get more
than seven hours sleep a night, at most.
Actually, that's a lot."
It was the Regent's turn to be stunned.
"What?" he asked. "Well, how much
dating do you do during the week?" he
twinkled.,
Many more deep, silent groans.
After much more unorganized, stum-
bling, spluttered-out talk, the students
began to give the Regent a clearer pic-
ture of the situation.
The Regent took this in quietly. Then,
in perhaps the most lucid tone of the
evening, he asked if there wasn't new
evidence that mental and nervous prob-
lems among college students are increas-
ing.
The Daily staffers agreed that there
was.
FROM THE REACTIONS of the faculty
department head, it seems that the
faculty may not know much about the
plight of the student. But it is the faculty
which tells the Regents what is best for
the students. The Regent said that it
was the faculty which had proposed tri-
mester and described all the advantages
that it would have, and that it all had
sounded wonderful to the Regents. After
all, they had thought, the faculty should
know about such things.
On the strength of this, the Regents
approved trimester.
Perhaps it is time that the administra-
tion of the University organized a group
)f students to meet with the Regents and
members of the faculty to give them all
a detailed report on the life of and exact
pressures on the student, under trimester,
here and now.
-SUSAN COLLINS
To the Editor:
RECENT CRITICISM of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinat-
ing Committee have been, at best,
very disappointing. Peter Sara-
sohn's editorial seems to be an
effort of someone apparently un-
aware of the nature of the situa-
tion.
Sarasohn accuses SNCC of in-
experience and counsels SNCC to
take the advice of "older civil
rights organizations" which have
been in the field longer. The fact
is that SNCC was in Selma two
years before the Southern Chris-
tian Leadership Conference would
touch the place. According to
Sarasohn's logic, SCLC should
submit to SNCC's leadership in
this case.
Sarasohn criticizes the tactic of
civil disobedience with the vague
generalization that it "is too often
engaged in for its own sate or
simply to provoke violence." He
does not seem to realize that
civil disobedience is the only way
to make an unjust regime appear
as such to the rest of the nation.
And surely nobody goes to Ala-
bama looking for a skull fracture.
Sarasohn refers to SNCC's "re-
sponsibility . . . to the American
community." It is the function of
SNCC to oppose the American
community as long as it is guilty
of injustice. Martin Luther King,
I am sure, knows this. SCLC is the
"respectable" arm of the move-
ment. While King dines at the
White House and exerts pressure
for legislation, SNCC is in Mis-
sissippi registering voters. It is
imperative that SNCC not be
"respectable."
The cynicism of SNCC is a well
founded realism. People must
realize that the mere passage of
a law accomplishes little. As long
as the Negro 'n the South has no
power he will be kept back by
the white power structure.
Sarasohn's reference to the
Free Speech Movement attBerke-
ley shows his basic distrust. in
true . democracy. Only when all
alternatives are presented to all
individuals, givingthemthe right
CHAMBER MUSIC:
to choose, will democracy be
realized.
-Joseph P. Gaughan, '68
Cause and Effect
To the Editor:
PETER SARASOHN wrote an
editorial highly critical of the
SNCC. To us it seems as if Sara-
sohn has a somewhat confused
sense of cause and effect. He says
that SNCC is using the wrong
tactics at a time when President
Johnson has lent his support to
the civil rights movement and
congress is about to pass a voting
bill. Any rational account of the
sequence of events leading to the
introduction of the present bill
must include SNCC's militant role,
which indicated that a new bill
was necessary.
By educating Negroes regarding
their right to vote in Selma, by
demonstrating for the right to
vote, by attempting to register
voters, SNCC has demonstrated
that 1) the 1964 Civil Rights Act
is inadequate, and 2) that the
federal government must intervene
in a more vigorous manner if Ne-
groes are to attain their rights.
Without these so-called "imma-
ture" tactics,. we would have no
progress at all. The real sequence
then, is militant demonstrations
whch point out the need for ac-
tion, followed by action on the
part of the federal government.
Demonstrations do not hurt the
cause, but put pressure on the
government from both domestic
and foreign sources to alleviate
the situation in the South.
We are somewhat mystified as
to the sort of "tactics" Sarasohn
would have SNCC use. The federal
government is reluctant to enforce
the laws and will not do so whole-
heartedly unless compelled by a
wave of moral protest from south-
ern Negroes and Negroes and
whites in the north. Thus although
new laws mean progress of a sort,
they are notsubstitute for admin-
istrative action.
Help for Michigan 's Poor Relation
TOURISTS ENTERING the Copper
Country of the Upper Peninsula,
which consists of that northernmost por-
tion of Michigan jutting into Lake Su-
perior, are faced with a sign announcing
'YOu are now breathing the purest, most
vitalizing air on earth."
It's true, and until now the Copper
Country has been a summer haven for
jaded old dowagers and their husbands
who visit there to kick their barbituate
habits in the sleep-inducing, refreshing
cool night air.
But why not turn an area of exhaust-
ed copper mines into a gigantic gambling
enterprise, thus making the UP (tradi-
tionally a drag on the state's treasury)
not only self-supporting but perhaps fill-
ing its coffers so full that the Lower
Peninsula would depend on the Upper?
HOW? HIRE OR PURCHASE large fer-
ries from New York or any other city
building bridges to replace ferry service.
Refurbish the ferries with luxury ap-
pointments and one addition-gambling
tables.
Moor the ferries just off the mainland
)f the Upper-Upper Peninsula, and pass
a law legalizing gambling in the UP. Then
sit back and wait for the Copper Coun-
try to join the Riviera and Pompano
Beach as regular stops for the jet set.
Of course, one of the provisions of the
Legislature's enabling act would be thy,:
a heavy percentage of the gambling earn-
ings be skimmed off as taxes.
Low original investment (the cost of
nurchase and refitting of three or four
ed) and an end to calls for a state in-
1ome tax (gambling tax revenue would
easily double the take from even an ex-
orbitant state income tax) are the bene-
fits of legalized gambling. Gambling could
finance the finest educational system in
the world if Michigan's occasionally stod-
gy citizens could endure the paradox of
vice" financing their childrens' educa-
tion.
THE STATE GOVERNMENT has been
making recent efforts to help the UP,
its poor relation. But it has been trying
to attract industry to an area basically
unsuited for industry and any efforts
it has in the planning stage have low
priority relative to redevelopment proj-
ects for the heavily populated Detroit
area.
As a result, the poor Finns who mi-
grated to the Upper Peninsula in the past
10 years, hoping to make their fortune
in the copper mines, sit at home and
draw welfare in dilapidated company
homes, belonging to companies no longer
in existence because the mines are empty.
LEGALIZED GAMBLING could help al-
leviate the plight of these victims of
fate.
However, there is still one major objec-
tion to gambling-crime rates usually
take an upturn where it is allowed.
There is an answer to this. If legalized
;ambling caused construction of cities in
the UP, and if as a result crime increased
-partly because young people would then
Spirited Spontaneity
Sparks SolisIi, Janigro
At Rackham Auditorium
FOUR TIMES 14 players means the 56 harmoniously vibrating
strings of the I Solisti De Zagreb. These musicians like music-
you can tell by the way they play. Rich tone and clear melodic
texture characterized the pe:formances.
The three Vivaldi pieces, Concerto in A per Archi, Concerto in
D, for violoncello and orchestra (originally for violin and orchestra),
and Concerto sacro in C, for violin and orchestra showed a spontaneity
of spirit typical of a gathering of a small group of musical friends
to make music and enjoy it. Lively tempos in the outer movements
of each of these three-movement works and the drawing out of
the .base line gave life to this so characteristically Baroque music.
Janigro's cello solo in the former concerto and Jelka Stanic's
violin solo in the latter showed fine command of their respective
instruments and an emotive affinity with the music. The fact that
Stanic is a woman surprised many, but it affected neither the
tone nor the technical facility of her playing.
The Sonata No. 6 in D, for Strings ("The Tempest") is by
the same Rossini as the opera "The Barber of Seville"; this is not
to difficult to discern. The piece is cute, although devoid of much
musical profundity. The Rossini cliches almost make one chuckle
a little. It's too obvious to be subtle, and the tongue-in-cheek
playing of the group made no attempt to cover for the composer.
It sounded like operatic recitatives and arias. but without words;
the violins were usually the "vocalists."
A CONTRAST was found in Mozart's Divertimento in D, K. 136.
An early work, this piece shows that charm and good taste characterize
the music of Mozart even from the beginning. Janigro's conducting
in this piece, as in the others, brought out a transparency of line
and vitality of rhythm which couldn't help but please.
Two contemporary works, Hindemith's Funeral Music, for violin-
cello and strings (originally for viola and strings) and Milko Keleman's
Concertante Improvisations are mildly dissonant compositions which
complement the Baroque and Classic fare performed.
Each of the four movements of Improvisations concludes abruptly
in a way that surprises the listeners because they think there is
more to the movement. This pleasant piece is of small proportions
with a third movement almost totally of plucked strings. Being
together is very important here, and the players made their musical
entrances and exists right on time.
LAST NIGHT'S CONCERT showed the variety that can be
attained by working within the framework of just string instruments
and how composers of different eras dealt with and solved similar
compositional problems.
--JEFFREY K. CHASE
ELECTRIFYING:
In White America'
Springs into Action
"IN WHITE AMERICA" exploded across the stage of Trueblood
Auditorium last night, bringing the past, present, and future of
the American Negro superbly alive.
"In White America" is not a theater piece. It is the living,
breathing account of life as it has been lived by the American Negro
for the past two centuries. The dynamic acting of the cast enriches
the judiciously selected words of white and Negro in confrontation.
"In White America" is not a play, but an experience. To hear
the actual words of slaves recounting their lives, of duped share-
croppers describing their boss' deceit, of the first Negro girl to walk
up the steps of Little Rock Central High School is neither enter-
BY ATTEMPTING to exercise
their rights and taking the con-
commitant risks, SNCC members
have aroused the conscience of the
nation. As for civil disobedience
in Washington, SNCC is simply
bringing its case to the doorstep
of those ultimately responsible
for the safety and rights of the
Negroes in the South. For after
all, even though President John-
son made a speech declaring that
he would not tolerate violence, and
that people had a right to picket,
civil rights demonstrators were
brutally beaten the following day
in Montgomery, Alabama. The
words were daring, the action nil,
Clearly Johnson needs further
convincing.
Sarasohn also charges that
SNCC engages in "civil disobed-
ience" (we wonder if this phrase is
applicable to southern demonstra-
tions) for the sake of provoking
violence. The duty of the police,
whether they be in Alabama or
Michigan, is to protect the person
and rights of each and every citi-
zen. If, however, exercising one's
civil rights reveals that the police,
far from protecting those rights,
are in fact brutally suppressing
them, and that this attempt to
exercise those rights is what Sara-
sohn chooses to call "provoking
violence," we plead guilty as ac-
cused and we will do it again.
If petitioning for redress of
grievances and picketing for the
right to vote means that we must
be beaten and arrested and are
thereby provoking the police, we
shall continue to provoke them
till they grant us those rights or
there are no more of us left to
provoke them. We shall not wait
till the mood strikes them; we de-
mand our constitutional rights and
we demand them now.
Shall we go slow? Shall we
cater to the offended "feelings"
of white Southerners? Why should
the oppressed consider the"ten-
der feelings" of their oppressors?
Far better to demand that such
behavior stop immediately; that
white Southerners face reality;
that the FBI arrest the perpetra-
tors of such outrages; that they
arrest them while they are in the
act of committing these vile of-
fenses against humanity, instead
of standing to gape at the scene.
We ask: how much longer can
this country tolerate this situa-
tion?
-Edward Geffner, Grad
-Laurie Lipson, '66
-Anita Brothman, '66
Misconceptions
To the Editor:
As AN independent volunteer
who participated in civil rights
demonstrations in Washington,
both out of a sense of duty and
a desire to observe firsthand the
workings of the civil rights or-
ganizations there, I feel the need
to correct some of the miscon-
ceptions of SNCC policy which
Peter Sarasohn displayed in his
editorial.
First, the main charge, that
SNCC has not adapted its tactics
to changes in the national situa-
tion, and is still based on "civil
disobedience" must be greatly
qualified. After street sit-ins in
response to the initial Alabama
brutality there has been no SNCC
civil disobedience in Washington;
it was, in fact, prohibited.
The only such acts which did
occur were prompted by CORE
pickets, during which actions the
SNCC leaders instructed all stu-
dents to remain passively non-
violent. These acts of disobedience
were indeed uncalled for and in-
appropriate. So it seems that in
this case the opposite of Sara-
sohn's charges was true: SNCC
workers had cause for "embar-
rassment" and one of SNCC's
"older counterparts" just failed
to adapt to the changing situa-
tion.
SECOND, in reply to the charges
of a lack of general responsibility
and regard for academic obliga-
tions, I would like to point out
that SNCC leaders such as Joe
Harrison of Mississippi repeatedly
told all students that they should
not feel badly or ashamed if they
felt that academic duties pre-
vented them from taking part in
any action.
These leaders stressed individ-
ual responsibility for any decision
and warned each of us not to
feel coerced by group pressure.
And any action that was taken
by SNCC people was, unlike the
CORE picketing, well-deliberated
beforehand.
FINALLY, in reply to the charge
that SNCC workers "scream
'Fascist pig' at everyone who
doesn't agree completely with
their sentiments," I can say that
I found the percentage of "Fa-
scist pig"-callers among SNCC
workers to be roughly equivalent
to that among University students
in general.
-Stuart Lasine, '66
Supplement Error
To the itr!..
l "WHY NOT
Foreign Policy,
19th Century Style
vfy Jeffrey Goodiuauu
ONE OF the arguments against radical policy alternatives for Viet
Nam is always that the proposals are myopic for wanting us to
get out-no matter how we do so. That charge is mistaken enough,
but it will not do simply to blame the liberals and conservatives for
deafness, for radicals have not made it nearly clear enough just what
they are asking.
Really, the demand that the United States divest itself of the
moral and physical accoutrements of its great white father complex
in Viet Nam is only a small part of the demand for a wholly
different approach to foreign policy. And unfortunately, unless
fundamental changes are made it may indeed happen that we will
only increase the chaos in the world by withdrawing from Southeast
Asia.
OUR PARTICULAR problem is that we have a conceited image
of ourselves as very un-Christlike saviors, plus enough power and
enough leftover world prestige to think we can make good on our
image. This makes us think we must oppose or ignore every movement
which does not lick our boots and that virtually any government
which is as established as ours and pro-Western will ultimately serve
the needs of its people and our need for good public relations.
We cannot believe there are indigenous, spontaneous (i.e., not
Communist-controlled) movements which legitimately do not want
us or the regimes we support. We cannot believe our pro-Western
puppets may be dictatorial and that those who are nationalist and/or
leftist might have the intelligence and backing (to say nothing of
the right) to have valid and popular ideas on how to develop their
land.
We cannot believe the antagonisms which others feel for us
are sincere and unnecessary, that our so-called struggle with the
Communist world-in the developed as well as the underdeveloped
nations-is more a function of our own intransigence, arrogance and
selfishness than of anything inherent in Marxism or revolutions.
WE CANNOT CONCEIVE of being on the side of simple, poor
aliens who might use our aid to better their lives but do not want
the heavy pressure of our politics or our private business interests
subverting that change for them.
In Latin America and Africa no less than in Asia we support
governments which are disliked by their people and against which
many men are fighting. As soon as these people proclaim their
discovery that our money buttresses their corrupt bureaucratic op-
pressors, we are against them. For they threaten the American firms
which are extracting their raw materials and taking home huge
profits, (at a time when all resources are needed internally); they
are revolutionary and we tag all revolutions Communist; they are
against men of power and wealth and we-identify with power and
wealth instead of democracy.
WE ARE INCAPABLE of truly aiding these movements-either as
rebellions or as governments-simply because they do not want our
industries milking them and the strings attached to our aid forcing
them either to become colonies or to flounder.
Yet we could have avoided having a bitter enemy 60 miles from
Miami Beach, for instance, had we accepted the legitimacy of Fidel
Castro's plans, the strength of his mandate and the necessity of
Cubans running Cuba for Cubans' sake.
We might be avoiding the imminent explosion in the Philippines
and some potential, though less imminent, explosions all over Latin
America. We might be ensuring that once we are finally beaten in
Southeast Asia we will have some friends there and some justification
for the presence we will unfortunately try to reassert there.
BUT ALL OF THIS must be done in the context of much-changed
relations with the developed Communist powers. Recognition of China
is the absolute minimum, and we should begin as much trade with
China and Russia as we can. If our attitudes always center on
expedient tolerance instead of a genuine respect for differences and
a desire to learn and cooperate, we can never expect anything but
continued and enlarging confrontations.
WHAT THE RADICAL demands, then, is that official and un-
official America stop speaking and acting as if, in the 19th Century
style, it had a manifest destiny (much less the right or a reliable
competence) to bring state capitalism to the rest of the world and
to oppose everything which does, not stink of stability.
We surely can withdraw from Viet Nam by calling a truce and
working to establish an international agency to guarantee free elec-
tions. But it is almost certain that if we do even this much (and
nothing in the news these days offers any hope), any way -we tried
to explain halting our aggression in Viet Nam would come out sour
grapes and create more provocations.
Could we not withdraw and then ally ourselves with the National
Liberation Front in a spirit of cooperation, and at the same time
aid the Chinese in feeding their people and constructing their society,
and at the same time reassess where our money is going in countless
other nations?
IF ONLY well-voiced criticism of policy continues along these lines,
there is perhaps an outside chance America will realize its troubles
with the rest of the world. are mostly its own creatures and that
it is no longer feasible-if it was ever right-to think we should
bring suburbia to all the foothills and all the jungles of the earth.
DAVIS, COTTEN:
'Hush, Hush' Provides
Grotesque, Scary Fun
At the State Theatre
IT'S A TRIED and true adage that "any film with Bette Davis is
worth seeing". "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" is no exception.
Not only is there Miss Davis in all her grotesque glory, but there
is a sneering Joseph Cotten, a cold calculating Olivia deHavilland a
mumbling witch-like Agnes Moorehead and a delightful Cecil Kelloway.
Put them altogether under the talented hands of Robert ("Whatever
Happened To Baby Jane") Aldrich and you have an equisite although
campy little horror film.
All of the acting is of a generally high level. The standouts are of
course Miss Davis who manages to combine both senile innocence
with a deeply involved knowledge of her guilt; and Miss de
Havilland who is as heartless a villianess as the screen has ever
seen. Part of the success of the film is due to the effective
combination of really superior talents.
"HUSH HUSH SWEET Charlotte," the haunting voice sings, and
Charlotte (Bette Davis) begins to be haunted by the past and its
ghosts. When she was young and beautiful her beau, already a
married man, was murdered and Charlotte has lived alone in her
big southern mansion since then. But now her cousin comes to
visit (Olivia de Havilland) and suddenly Charlotte, ala "Diabolique,"
is surrounded by manifestations of an evil and supernatural presence.
If it sounds contrived and fake rest assured that in the hands
of director Aldrich it isn't. Where the directors of the thirties would