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