Seventy-Fifth Year
EDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD m CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Condemn Rockwell Speech
Where Opinions Are Piree, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, Mica.
Truth. Will Prevail
NEws PHONE: 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.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL SATFINGER
A leaningless Campaign:
Time To Face the Issues
WHEN THE REPUBLICAN Party nomi-
nated. Barry Goldwater as their stand-
ard bearer, they selected a choice rather
than an echo-at least this is what his
campaign literature claimed.
Most people, whether they were Re-
publicans, Democrats, or independents,
thought it would be fine to have a cam-
paign in which real issues were involved.
Goldwater seemed to feel the same
way, because shortly after his victory in
San Francisco he promised to campaign
solely on issues and ignore personalities.
Earlier in the day, the senator from Ari-
zona had called the President the big-
gest faker in politics. But such a state-
ment can be discounted because Gold-
water did not make his promise until
afterwards. And certainly Goldwater can-
not be criticized for indulging in a little
friendly mud slinging before making his
pledge.
When the furor of the convention end-
ed, Goldwater began his drive for the
highest office in the land. Helping him
bring the issues to the public eye were
several close associates.
ICE-PRESIDENTIAL nominee Wil-
liam Miller brought up the vital con-
sideration of the candidates' war rec-
ords. Miller pointed out that Goldwater
had an excellent service record while
President Johnson served in the Navy
for only six months. Dean Burch, Gold-
water-appointed head of the Republi-
can national committee, promised to
make an issue out of the President's
wealth when it was announced that the
Johnson family fortune was valued at over
$4 million.
Apparently Goldwater's followers don't
need to follow their leader when he
makes a promise to stick to the issues.
But perhaps the conservative senator
should not be blamed for the statements
of his cronies. After all, the Constitu-
tion, which Goldwater values so highly,
guarantees free speech. And who is the
senator to deny that privilege to any-
one.
A look at his own campaign messages
will reveal that Goldwater has stuck to
his pledge and has not brought person-
alities into play.
IN RECENT WEEKS Goldwater has sug-
gested that taxes should be cut - a
move supported by the Kennedy-John-
son administrations and a bill which he
voted against in the Senate. Goldwater
has urged that the military draft be
abolished. Such action has been consid-
ered by Johnson during the last year.
Goldwater also has severely criticized
the Supreme Court, stating that the jus-
tices were extending their power to in-
clude functions which belonged to the
legislatures-a point which does not even
deal with the executive branch of gov-
ernment. This last action was not sup-
ported by the President, but does share
something in common with the two oth-
er issues-none of them belong in a cam-
paign for the presidency.
While Goldwater and his band turn
anything into an issue, Johnson gives the
impression that there are no issues at'
all. When Goldwater brought up one legi-
timate issue- Viet Nam--Democrats
claimed that foreign policy should not
be subject to criticism. Johnson actually
refuses to start his campaign. The Labor
Day speech in Detroit is the traditional
opening of the Democratic campaign, but
Johnson claimed his speech in the Mo-
tor City was not political. The President
did make oblique references to Gold-
water statements, but he did not men-
tion the Arizona senator by name or ex-
tensively refute Goldwater arguments.
jNSTEAD the chief executive stressed
national unity in terms of peace; pros-
perity and justice and spoke as though
every American supported him. Perhaps'
Johnsoni considers himself too much a
Southern gentleman to involve himself in
a hot, controversial issue.
Thus two candidates have very differ-
ent viewpoints on many subjects, but
thus far Goldwater has been throwing
pointless darts of meaningless issues
while Johnson ignores the real issues,
contenting himself with attacking Gold-
water's pseudo-issues and emphasizing
national unity.
Americans are entitled to know which
candidate is best qualified and what his
convictions are. The time has come for
Goldwater to stand on his beliefs and
Johnson to stand on his.
-CHARLES VETZNER
To the Editor:
DURING the height and fervor
of a Presidential campaign, it
is a dis-service and a disgrace for
Jack Warren of the Special Proj-
ects Committee of the Michigan
Union to invite an avowed racist,
George Lincoln Rockwell, to speak
at the Union.
If the Union desires to further
public discussion of the great is-
sues of the 1964 campaign, it
should invite speakers that are
more appropriate to the main-
stream of political thought.
If the Union persists in invit-
ing men like Rockwell, Malcolm
X, Ross Barnett, and Norman
Thomas to the University at stu-
dent expense, then it is time we
re-evaluated the appropriateness
of providing the Union with 12
dollars out of every man's tuition.
We appeal to the better judgment
of the Union to prevent the Rock-
well appearance from taking place.
-Ronald Gottschalk, '65
To the Editor:
GEORGE LINCOLN ROCKWELL
has been invited by a student
group to speak at the Union.
Since men have a right to knowl-
edge, and since every man is en-
titled to speak his mind, nothing
in American society can prevent
interested parties from meeting.
One must ask, however, whether
this event should take place at
the academic lectern.
Most faculty members will an-
swer affirmatively on the grounds
that if Rockwell is silenced today,
some other viewpoint may be sup-
pressed tomorrow. If we set our-
selves up as watchers, they will
say, who will watch the watchers?
Yet the truth is that professors
throughout the ages have been
guardians of humanism and judges
of what should or shouldn't take
place in their domain. Since the
faculty is an intellectually respon-
sible body, it has always watched
over itself. It has determined stan-
dards of academic quality; it has
also set limits of vulgarity, bad
taste, and indencency If Rock-
well were anything but an os-
tensibly political figure, these
standards, which operate daily,
would have repudiated him almost
by instinct.
But academic freedom has be-
come the most precious safeguard
of the university community. Pro-
fessors are extremely jealous of
this principle, and rightly so, be-
cause political events have threat-
ened their freedom of thought and
speech. Rockwell's invbation ap-
pears to be an example of this
liberty. For it seems that despite
the natural impulse ttv reject hi,
the fear of being politically re-
pressive has inhibited the Uni-
versity. Normally, a qualitative
standard is used when an in-
dividual or a subjectaisadmitted
to the chambers of academic de-
liberation. If Rockwell's message
did attain this minimal level of
intelleetuale quality, the doors
would have to be opened. But
genocide is no more a debatable
topic than is rape. It is clear that
in every case except a political
one, the request for such a forum
would be refused. But in this in-
stance, the question of free speech
has made the University self-
conscious about its judgment.
Which is as it must be, when a
political issue is involved.
HIOWEVER, there is no such
issue here at all. Rockwell is not
simply a fascist with a politico-
economic system to expound. What
distinguishes him from fascism is
his Nazism, which enforces a
genocidal form of racial suprem-
acy. No other system can make
this statement, and none ever will,
if the lessonof World War II has
been learned. This is why Nazism
is, sui generis, a social crime.
Fascism and Communism have
the dignity of remaining, however
marginally, on the human side of
this atrocity. Nazism was a crime
against humanity which, by his-
tory's verdict and mankind's. con-
demnation, was crushed forever.
It is this fact which places
Rockwell's philosophy within the
University's jurisdiction over de-
cency and humanistic values. One
may study the psychology of a
depraved man and analyze the
consequences of his ideas, but one
does not give such a man a class-
room or a student union in which
to preach his depravity.
A pre-moral standard exists
here, if not in the body politic,
then certainly in a university. And
this proclaims that no matter
whatscriteria of morality one em-
braces, if any at all, the basic
premise of love for life is accept-
ed by all men who live and who
conceive ideas. Respect for life and
culture i an axiom of academic
existence and purpose. If this
axiom is questioned by a Nazi,
then the University, no matter
how healthy, is the last place for
him to have a hearing. Indeed,
precisely because it is healthy, it
need have no fear of barring him.
To do otherwise is to commit in-
tellectual suicide.
* * ,
WHAT ABOUT the new genera-
tion that knows nothing of cul-
ture's perversions except what it
reads in books? How is it to Iarn
standards of intellectual human-
ism. He appears at the bottom of
a priority list of values that would
be in force without hesitation,
were it not for the question of free
speech.
It is the University's duty to set
the standards for the best utiliza-
tion of its facilities and time.
There has never been an oppor-
tunity for the depraved to speak
here. In what way, let it be asked,
is a Nazi exempt from this cate-
gory? Fascists and Communists
may speak here, yes, and all those
who do not cross the line into
cultural bestiality. But a Nazi must
not enter this house. The tragedy
of history is too black to be over-
shadowed by the fictitious issue
of free speech. Nazism means anti-
humanism, and when this simple
definitiontcannot or will not be
made in the minds of a univer-
sity faculty, then it is indeed a
grievous day for the academic
community.
-Paul ITe
Associate Professor of
Romance Languages
To the Editor:
THE RIGHT for such a man a.s
George Lincoln Rockwell to be
able to speak freely on his opin-
ions is undoubtedly guaranteed
in our Constitution. However, I
ontend that the Michigan Union
is completely over exuberant in
this respect. One should not deny
a man the right to speak on his
own volition.
Rockwell, assuredly, has suffi-
cient financial resources that if he
strongly believes in the ideas which
he expouses, he should be the one
to initiate such a speech and he
should be willing to talk anywhere
that he can attract an audience.
THE VERY THOUGHT that the
Union has taken the position to
cordially invite such a racist and
hate monger to impose his voracity
upon the citizenry .and more spe-
cifically the Jewish members of
'this campus community is utterly
and thickly disgusting.
As a member of the religious and
- ethnic group of which his liking
exterminated six million. I demand
that the Union abrogate, absolve
and wi hdraw their invitation to
this creature.
-Scott B. Saulson, '68
Kenah To Visit Houses
In response to letters ap-
pearing in this column yester-
day, Karen Kenah will visit th
lounges of Frost House and
Blagdon House in Markley Hal:
at 7 and 8 p.m. respectively
today. Miss Kenah was invited
to visit after she wrote an edi-
torial critical of honors hous-
ing. WCBN will record for pos-
sible use any debate which ma3
ensue.
Distortion
To the Editor:
RECENTLY WITNESSED a fa-
natical attempt at character
distortion which embodied such
clandestine and awesome impli-
cations for the United States as a
nation that I was staggered.
Before I delve into specifics, I
believe that this would be an op-
portune moment to inform those
folding their pages and preparing
themselves for another satisfying
one-sided outpouring of leftest
hysteria, that the Daily has com-
promised, as it occasionally has
done within the memory of man.
The article, this ugly blotch of
racist hate that besmears its en-
lightened fellow columns with the
filth of its dark doctrine, is the
result of that compromise.
What gratitude exists, what re-
ward, when all that results from
such broad mindedness are twist-
ed manifestations of hate? Let me
focus my hate upon a source of
enlightenment and slander it
awhile. I refer the attention of
my dwindling audience to a series
of televised political announce-
ments to which I am sure a major
segment of the citizenry of the
United States has been exposed.
N*
THE APPEALING little girl
stands engrossed in that posibly
cutest of all childhood activities:
eating. Mothers nationwide asso-
ciate her with their own. Perhaps
poignant memories of half-for-
gotten youth are evoked in others.
Here, indeed, is goodness, inno-
cence, and yes, the hope of the
nation. No one could possibly want
to harm this embodiment of in-
nocence.
Butncould he? The voice of the
announcer relates the facts sur-
rounding an unseen individual
whose threat to the existence of
ahe child pervades the atmosphere,
poisoning it. The ogre will eat the
child. The Fourth Horseman-
Nuclear Holocaust-will ride, and
nightmare things will happen. The
girl's ice cream will be melted by
thermonuclear heat. Her clothes
will be set ablaze. Her . . . its
all too horrible to relate, but make
no mistake, it will happen. Unless
...Yes! There's a way out! Mem-
orize this man's name. It's Barry
Goldwater. B-A-R-R-Y G-O-L-D-
W-A-T-E-R. Hate this man.
You've seen for yourself what
he'll do to your own family,
Mother. That was your child he
killed. All she was doing was eat-
ing ice cream, and she was poison-
ed. A man who knows no human-
ity, who harbors no emotion, and
who has signed a pact with Mars
and Hitler has taken your most
precious possession from you.
I FULLY REALIZE that there
exists a distinct possibility that
this article may not be recognized
as a satire, but may be taken for
a bona-fide commentary in keep-
ing with the flavor of this iews-
paper.
The preceeding therefore, has
been a satire. I feel confident
that I am by no means alone in
rejecting the object of this ar-
ticle as one of the most blatant
attempts at charactert destruction
ever witnessed. The terms "poor
paste" and "sentimentalism" could
perhaps be applied in a refutation
of the aforementioned campaign
technique, but they pale when
pittcd against an atrocity of this
nature. This is not dirt; it is un-
televisable filth;
The desperation, the wild, al-
most frenzied attempts at defama-
tion which led to the production
of these saddening episodes is so
evident that even an entrenched
adherant to anything short of
Marxism should be aware of it.
For this reason I shall not attempt
to convince or persuade; all is on
the television screen for everyone
to see and judge. After all, judg-
ment of partisan evocations is a
freedom we still maintain.
The evident convictions of Pres-
ident Johnson and his campaign
committee notwithstanding, I have
a sufficient amount of confidence
in the basic good taste of the
American people to preclude my
preoccupation with the question
of whether or not such things as
this will be accepted.
-John Scott Williams, '66
"I WiiH Now FHanrld ow n Mv DTecision OnMy
Motion To R~app ortion Thy U.S.
Govern ment --
a' 1'jt
r Wi-
c,
TODY AD TMOROW
PoiiclRue Change
Duig onsnReg
a
i
By WALTER LIPPMANN
RESIDENT JOHNSON is hav-
ing so much political success
that the ordinary rules of politics
are not working. For the time be-
ing they are suspended,..For this
election, it now begins to appear,
the old established ruling powers
in the Republican Party-the
banking, industrial and publishing
magnates in the large metropoli-
tan centers-are either in favor
of the election of President John-
son or at least are not strongly
opposed to it. This is a new devel-
opment in the history of American
politics, and particularly in the
experience of the Democratic
Party since the disaster at the
end of World War I.
The Democratic revival, which
began during the Great Depression
after 1929, was the work of Frank-
lin Roosevelt. He put together a
mighty coalition of the disinherit-
ed: the poor; the distressed farm-
ers, labor, the Negroes, the new
ethnic minorities.
This Roosevelt coalition held
together during the Truman period
and persisted in spite of the Eisen-
hower landslides. The coalition was
revivified by John F. Kennedy.
But for more than 30 years there
has been a deep alienation be-
tween the Democratic Party and
the American business community.
Now for the first time, under
President Johnson, there is more
than a flirtation with individual
Republicans. Indeed, there is
something like an affair between
the old established American busi-
ness leaders and the Johnson ad-
ministration. This was never pos-
sible under Roosevelt, Truman and
Kennedy.
** *
IF WE ASK ourselves why Pres-
ident Johnson is the first Demo-
cra .ic President to make a kind
of peace with the business com-
munity, it is only part of the an-
swer to say that he is an extra-
ordinarily skillful politician. He is
indeed extraordinarily skillful. But
Rockwell Shouldn't Be Coming
THE MICHIGAN UNION Special Proj-
ects Committee should not have in-
vited George Lincoln Rockwell to speak at
the University.
True he has a constitutional right to
speak, and true his freedom of speech
should not be impaired. But inviting a
person to speak is not a constitutional
necessity, and not inviting him does not
deprive him of his rights.
That he should not have been invited
because doing so somehow dignifies him
or his ideas is, however, likewise falla-
*.. He Should Too
THE MICHIGAN UNION merits applause
for bringing George Lincoln Rockwell
to campus. There is, first of all, the
chance-however remote some may feel it
to be-that he will say something worth
hearing. Even if he does not, even if his
talk amounts to nothing more than the
hate-infested diatribe his detractors ex-
pect, the phenomenon will be educa-
tional-if shockingly so.
It is essential that he be received-
particularly by those who despise him
most-with dignity befitting the Univer-
sity. Angry, emotional outbursts-which
really are only a mirror image of the
hate Rockwell himself displays-will serve
only to intensify the bitterness it sup-
posedly protests. Let those mature
enough listen to Rockwell in silent pro-
test. Let those who seek merely an emo-
tional orgasm find it elsewhere.
-K. WINTER
gr pit3U di
cious. Such an argument would logically
imply that no one should be invited
whose views differ from those of the
Union or the University or the campus
community. It is to place the inviting
party in a position where it must pre-
judge the dignity of a person or his re-
marks and clearly this depends on how
much one likes what that person says or
does.
BUT STILL ROCKWELL should not have
been invited by the special projects
committee. The committee is expected to'
invite speakers who will stimulate
thought and debate, who will convey
knowledge and wisdom.
Rockwell will not do this. Very few
agree with his viewpoint to start with,
and he has not been known to sway
crowds toward him. He does not come to
preach a viewpoint rationally, and peo-
ple do not listen rationally to what he
has to say.
Most of the controversy Rockwell stirs
up will be over his presence. But even
here the debate is nothing new. When-
ever anyone out of the "mainstream" is
invited to the University, some of those
who do not like his ideas look for justifi-
cation for not having him come.
MOST OF THOSE who oppose Rock-
well's coming here feel so strongly
about this issue that rational debate is
very difficult. Antagonism rather than
knowledge will be spread by Rockwell's
presence. It is too bad that he is coming.
-EDWARD HERSTEIN
Editorial Director
Shot Down
Cr Th.7 A N rD fr. nT A 7'W n I c n Ri hin a
in a democracy this means, we
must remember, not only that he
understands and knows how to
play upon the hopes and fears of
his supporters and his opponents.
In his case at means also that
he and, we should add, his wife
have an apparently inexhaustible
gift of sympathy. They seem to
be able to put themselvesinside
the skins of other people and o
see themselves as others see them.
I think this imaginative reach is
the inner Johnson secret.
There is also an objective rea-
son why he is able to go so much
further than any other President
in this generation to rally a huge
majority. It is that in an advanced
economy like ours we are now liv-
ing in a time when the' techno-
logical and fiscal revolution can
liberate us from the ancient quar-
rel between the haves and the
have-nots. There are no lingering
echoes of that old quarrel in the
Johnson utterances.:
President Johnson is acting on
the realization that in the new
age that is coming upon us there
is open the possibility of an enor-
mous increase in the. pi'oduction
of wealth. And therefore, insofar
as money can solve the problem of
poverty or the other problems of
modern society, the money can be
found by adding to the production
of wealth. It does not haveto be
taken .away from those who al-
ready have wealth.
Here in the United States, as in
most of Western Europe, this is
the post-Marxian age. That is why
President Johnson is able to wage
a war against poverty and at the
same time win so much confidence
among the well-to-do.
(c) 1964, The Washington Post Co.
CINEMA GUILD
Remnant
Of O'Neil
At the Cinema Guild
SOMEWHERE IN t h is stilted
remnant of drama lurks the
ghost, of Eugene O'Neill. Oca-
sionally it materializes and ignites
the action, but only rarely and
for fleeting moments.
Adapted from the play which
O'Neill had adapted from Greek
legend and drama, "Mourning Be-
comes Electra" is a pretty dreary
two-hour film. The adaptors have
failed to reckon with the visual
nature of the medium in which
they are working and have simpy
filmed a stage play. The result is
tedious since there is little for
either eye or ear.
In some respects this film is
more obnoxious than most filmed
plays, for it contains some hyper-
bolic gesturing appropriate to the
silent film and some melodramatic
chestnuts appropriate to the low-
est of low-budget movies. Rosa-
lind Russell sets some new stand-
ard for the "recoil in horror"
gesturein a key opening sequence
and the scene is so ludicrous it
casts the spell of farce over the
entire play.
THE SCRIPT includes such
treasured lines as "I hate you ..
I hate you . .," and a death-bed
scene with the usual hysterics.
The sets are rather artificial and
the sound track tends to be ob-
trusive.
What rescues the movie from
total oblivion is the fact that
"I Understand You Pr ovide Accommodations
For Ra dicals"
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