Seventy-Fifth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Each Time I Chanced To See Franklin D. The Decline and Fall of Student Government by H. Neil flerkson 'l Y Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, Mica. Truth' Will Prevail NEWS PHONM: 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, OCTOBER 21, 1964. NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID BLOCK Waiting in Line for Tickets Absurd Waste of Time THERE ARE FEW MORE senseless wastes of human resources than wait- ing in lines. And yet on a campus sup- posedly dedicated to the pursuit of knowl- edge, adult college students are motivated to divert their time from educational ef- forts to the stupid, absurd and sometimes futile activity of holding a place in line. Students waited in line up to five days just to get block tickets for Homecoming. And because of lack of foresight on the part of the Homecoming Committee and lack of communication on the part of students in line, tickets were sold only to the first six purchasers, leaving many groups ticketless after their representa- tives had waited in line for up to four days. Furthermore, 25 students waited in line at Hill Aud. all Monday night for gen- eral admission tickets. They brought bed- ding and blankets for the cold night in preparation for what they said was an unpleasant situation. BUT WAS IT REALLY? What motivates students to get in line five days early for tickets? Basically, the laissez-faire method of ticket-buying leads to extreme competi- tion for seats; good seats are purchased at the great cost of waiting a long time in line. And yet there was another reason. Waiting in line for days is a part of the College Life. No matter how unpleasant the immediate circumstances, the Long Wait is seen as an inherently worthwhile experience. I observed a remarkable de- gree of esprit de corps among students waiting for general admission ticekts, united as they were against Homecoming Committee ticket policy. STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS should seek means of distributing tickets which do not allow or cause time- to be wasted wait- ing in lines. Elimination of block ticket sales does not seem to be the answer. Even students who were left ticketless in- dicated they would like to see a continua- tion of block ticket sales. But blocks should be kept to a reason- able and worthwhile size, a fair and in- clusive ticket policy should be set before hand, and no lines should be allowed to be formed. Student organizations could keep secret the location of the ticket office. Or, per- haps more practically, block ticket re- quests could be filled according to some random system of choice after all re- quests are in. ONLY ONE JUSTIFICATION can be made for ticket lines: they insure that those who want the tickets the most will get them. The time spent in line is de- fended as a necessary evil-a price that must be paid to buy good seats. But this argument should hold no cred- ence in a University community. Students should not be allowed to squander their time in such absurd activities as waiting in line to get tickets. --MICHAEL SATTINGER Associate Managing Editor "STUDENT GOVERNMENT COUNCIL still has a chance. If the new members will earnestly go to work, they can reverse the negative current which has engulfed SGC for so long. But the time is growing short. The campus will only mock SGC for so long before it stops laughing and forgets the group alto- gether." Thus a certain Daily freshman editorialized in the spring of 1962. SGC had just finished an election cam- paign unmatched for voting irregularities, personality conflicts and dramatic farce. Two candidates were dis- qualified before the election; another was disqualified after he had won a seat on Council. Since that time the students' "voice" has gone from bad to worse. According to the election just completed, a - mere 2500 die-hard voters stand between it and oblivion. WHAT SGC SHOULD DO and whether it should do anything are moot points. Why it has failed is a simpler matter. Established in the aftermath of the administration's refusal to deal with the question of fraternity-sorority discrimination, SGC's only presumed power-its only vehicle for prestige-lay in the area of; membership regulations. However, when SGC tried to assert its authority by withdrawing recognition from Sigma Kappa sorority in 1958, the administration quickly vetoed the action. At this point student government returned to its vacuum. While it preoccupied itself for five more years with the bias question, the atmosphere had completely changed; the campus took less and less interest in what was happening. Fraternity discrimination went beneath the surface as the nationals realized that prejudice could flourish without written constitutional clauses. SGC HAS ENCOUNTERED most of its difficulties attempting to transfer its interests to other areas. Fraternity bias, despite all the complications in the past fifteen years, is a fairly simple issue to deal with. It is limited in scope, and one can invoke all sorts of values and principles both pro and con. Educational policy, on the other hand, is a very complex matter, and, as Council members have tried to focus on some of the problems vexing the University, they have discovered themselves lacking information and the perspective necessary to say something meaningful. In part, they are unable to accumulate the information; in part, they have been unwilling. This situation has reached tragicomic heights in the past few weeks: one Council member has spent all his time railing at the University's "sorry conditions," but he has yet to utter a coherent sentence. THE student-faculty-administration committee now studying SGC may come up with a more viable structure for student participation in University affairs. Or it may discover that student government is better left to high schools. It is clear that the student body here is too intelligent, too cynical and too apathetic to put up with any arguments about SGC's alleged intrinsic value much longer. * * * * WALTER JENKINS has a friend running for President of the United States. His alleged immorality has therefore become a national issue. Will the Jenkins affair hurt Mr. Johnson? Not if we can judge by last Sunday's New York Times News of the Week in Review. Jenkins' story, which normally would have been the incident celebre of the week, barely made it onto page two of the Times' section. It was swamped by news from Russia, China and Britain. These events should more than neutralize the harmful effect Jenkins otherwise would have on the Johnson campaign. * * * * THE UNIVERSITY hosts two distinguished citizens of the world today: physicist Hans Bethe and theologian Paul Tillich. The opportunity to see one or both of them is too good to miss. 4 i 1~:.., . L .f I J ' p CI :". TODAY AND TOMORROW: Campaign Collapses Into Separate. Contests ,..-4! 4 F' lj U S -' - ) p ty . r r, F f. s~. ttF :-:4 - a . h, I. 11 Identity and Numbers Games U.' HE FLOOD of student I.D. numbers,' centrex phone numbers, area code numbers, dormitory room numbers, mail box numbers, class section numbers, class seat numbers and zip code numbers, to say nothing of social security numbers, bank account numbers, driver license numbers and student athletic ticket num- bers is supposedly causing identity crises on college campuses. The student complains that his self- image is a row of Arabic numerals and that his individuality lies only in the se- quence of the digits. An I.D. in hand, he is a changed phenomenon-metamorphos- ing from a human being to a human machine. THIS $UMERICAL identity crises arises from taking too seriously the whole institution of number identification. Let's start having fun with our numbers. Let's create games that families, clubs and ad- ministrators can play at home or on the road. This will undermine the imperson- alization of the coding system by strengthening p e r s o n a l relationships through mental sports. Such games will make mathematicians of the young and will prevent the next generation from suffering numerical identity crisis. Those who play the games will see the numbers in their proper per- spective-play things for individuals and play tools for the bureaucracy. THE NUMBER syndrome is here to stay and will grow with each committee meeting. It must not destroy us. We can prevent devastation by laughing at it, by channeling each code into a game, in- stead of replacing our identity with num- bers. We must not mistake, "Your I.D. please?" with "Who are you?" -JUDITH STONEHILL _. iA, i ;' 1J;i/ ,fit $' 1 ,, r' - , i .. ... .. ..?....:...... E. ,"; , K ,, s: .. .y 'I } i r. " t, v' ', 1 tf s . ; s ) . t - . _: ,.:,,,; r y ' a fY tc, : 3 n; Gkiea9to. ivv "t'(' ennas I X0}1. L A 'A AN-15 EtTtEt ToNEQUAXI7R, IS'T HE ?" PROGRAMMING: Politics and Television Commercials By WALTER LIPPMANN HERE IN THE MIDDLE of Oc- tober, it looks as if the national campaign has collapsed and that what remain are the separate contests within the states. The collapse has been accom- panied by what the governor of Mississippi has just called "craw- fishing." On every specific issue which the Presidential candidate posed until San Francisco, on all questions of nuclear weapons and foreign policy, he has been acting like a man trying to lose his own persistent shadow. He has craw- fished on balancing the budget, on the graduated income tax, on sell- ing TVA, on making Social Secur- ity "voluntary," on repealing the many laws which as senator he has voted against. Thus, by the outward evidence, the national campaign has col- lapsed botheat the level of a con- test for votes and at the level of issues and arguments. IT CAN BE SAID of this cam- paign that it has been fought on issues that were real enough in the 1 30s before the second world war, but which are now obsolete. Senator Goldwater has challenged the Kennedy-Johnson adminis- tration as if it were the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt. It isn't. Although Lyndon Johnson be- gan his public career as a disciple of Franklin Roosevelt, he is not a New Dealer today, and for that matter neither would Franklin Roosevelt be, were he alive. The crucial fact is that since the New 'Deal of the 1930s there has been not only the world war, but a revolutionary development in the technology of industry and in the fiscal policy and social doctrine of governments. I think we can define this revo- lutionary change in doctrine in this amplified, but not I think misleading, way. Before the first world war the universal assump- tion of reformers, not only of Socialists, but of progressives from Theodore Roosevelt through Wood- row Wilson to Franklin Roose- velt, was that the poor could be raised up only by a redistribution of wealth. This is still Barry Gold- water's belief.} * * * THE BASIC ASSUMPTION of the pre-war reformers is being dissolved in advanced countries like the United States by tech- nological and fiscal innovations. Since the end of the world war, which had a profound effect on industry and on government pol- icy, we have come into an era when the class struggle, as Marx described it a hundred years ago, has been overtaken by events. The Marxian Socialist doctrine of class war and the. dictatorship of the proletariat and the con- fiscation of productive capital survives today in China and its satellites. But it has been re- nounced and abandoned by the Labor Party in Great Britain, by the Social Democratic Party in Western Germany and by the Scandinavian Socialists. The United States, of course, has never had a serious Socialist movement, and there has never been a serious challenge to the American regime of private pro- perty, competitive enterprise and regulated monopoly.sBut the pre- war reformers did assume, as did their conservative opponents, that you had to rob (or tax) Peter to pay Paul. In the postwar era we have seen that the total produc- tion of wealth can be so much in- creased by technology and fiscal measures that the poor can rise education-public, parochial and private-is starved. My own belief is that in the days to come our paramount duty is to persuade the American voters that a second-rate systent of edu- cation is no more tolerable than a second-rate system of national defense. If this nation is to suc- ceed and flourish as it ought to do, the day will have to come when the American people will be as willing to tax themselves for good schools as they are today for good nuclear missiles. For they will realize that they are quite able to afford both. (c)19864, The Washington Post Co. LETTERS: Sorority Finances Efxplafined To the Editor: I WOULD LIKE to clarify com- ments made by me in an article which appeared in the Oct. 15 issue of the Daily concerning the withdrawal of Phi Mu sorority from the Michigan campus. I re- gret any misconceptions which may have resulted from those re- marks. In Panhellenic, the success or failure of one sorority can never be treated as an isolated incident since factors affecting it are po- tentially relevant to the status of other chapters. As part of a rapidly changing and expanding University community, we must constantly evaluate our ability to offer undergraduate women op- portunities which implement and complement their individual goals and those of the University. Only as we are honestly and openly critical of our efforts can we hope to continue as a necessary and meaningful part of that Univer- sity. * * * ALL OF the sororities on this campus are currently financially solvent and the majority of them have recently made or plan to make in the near future a substan- tial investment in the expansion or improvement of their housing facilities. This fact alone attests to the stability of individual chap- ters and the sorority system as a whole. Although financial status and membership are ultimately related in any sorority operating a housing unit, these two factors had 'a more direct and immediate relationship in the case of Phi Mu owing to unique circumstances af- fecting that chapter. The primary value of sorority membership lies in the inter- personal relations and individual development stimulated by the responsibilities and rewards of group living. Panhellenic recognizes that every every sorority on this campus of- fers its members these advantages, yet too often campus prestige and quantitave strength are consider- ed the most important criteria in evaluating a sorority. Panhellenic recognizes that every sorority on this campus offers its members these advantages, yet too often campus prestige and quantitative strength are consider- ed the most important criteria in evaluating a sorority. PANHELLENIC, recognizing this problem and the value which all sororities offer i working with It Beats 'Queen for a Day' BARRY GOLDWATER is hoping to par- lay a stripper, a topless bathing suit and a speedometer into election to the highest office in the nation. Thursday afternoon, millions of soap opera watchers will thrill to the most sordid story of them all, a film on the moral decay of America. Strip teasers from New Orleans and girls in topless bathing suits will be , featured as prod- ucts of the Johnson administration's mor- al laxity. Allusions will be made to the President's alleged driving habits. Ray- mond Massey, a gentle fatherly figure if there ever was one, will handle the nar- ration with rugged he-man John Wayne providing authority and sex appeal for the soap opera fans. Not surprisingly, the film was paid for by The Mothers for a Moral America. H. NEIL BERKSON, Editor KENNETH WINTER EDWARD HERSTETN Managing Editor Editorial Director ANN GWIRTZMAN..............Personnel Director BILL BULIJARD r....... .....Sports Editor MICHAEL SATTINGER .... Associate Managing Editor JOHN KENNY ........Assistant Managing Editor DEBORAH BEATTIE......Associate Editorial Director LOUISE LIND........Assistant Editorial Director in Charge of the Magazine TOM ROWLAND.............Associate Sports Editor GARY WYNER .............. Associate Sports Editor STEVEN HALLER .............Contributing Editor MARY LOU BUTCHER ......Contributing Editor Russell Walton, publicity director of Citizens, for Goldwater-Miller, says that the purpose of the film is to "make peo- ple's stomachs turn." It should do that. THIS WILL probably not be the last of such films. One can envision that in the next few weeks another will appear. It might show a simulated rape scene, interracial marriage and bribing a cop. A followup could focus on homosexuals,1 mental patients and atheists. Ith is certainly a fertile field for crea- tivity. Yet one has an inkling that the Goldwater people will never get around to police brutality, McCarthyism and nu- clear destruction. -LLOYD GRAFF No Comment, AN ACTUAL QUESTION from a Political Science 100 hourly exam: "Essay ques- tion-10 Points (40 Minutes).: "Both Democracy and Communism are striving to cope with the problems of 20th century society. Briefly relate and discuss the major problems of contemporary so- ciety." -K. WINTER Summary IF THE OUTCOME of the presi- dential election hinges upon television, the Republican cam- paign committee should watch a few Democratic commercials. Last night both parties appear- ed on the "idiot box." The Demo- crats took the last five minutes of the Red Skelton show while the Republicans pre-empted "Pet- ticoat Junction." The fundamental mistake made by the Republicans was their choice of a time slot. They put their show up against popular 'That Was the Week That Was," and "Peyton Place," where "Rod- ney was discovering that his rela- tionship with Betty wasn't com- pletely terminated." REGARDLESS . of one's poli- tics, the fact is that the Demo- crats' show was better. Borrowing a page from Gold- water's campaign manual the Democrats kept their commercial, "simple." No trumpets announced it. For five minutes a former Re- publican merely told why he was voting for Johnson. The approach was natural. A direct and straightforward speech was made by a mild looking man. The appeal was direct. Superla- tives were absent in a talk that can be characterized best as col- loquial. The commercial ended with a second announcement, "Vote for Lyndon Johnson on November 3." * * * THE REPUBLICAN speech fol- lowed. First Ret. Gen. James Doo- little spoke for Goldwater. Doo- tion. The only glimmer of life was when the camera panned an en- thusiastic audience. In the final analysis the sight of two sleep- ing men quickly offset this po- tential strong point. * * * THE SHOW ended with Com- mittee Chairman Dean Burch blasting the Federal Communica-. tions Commission. Burch contend- ed that Republicans deserved equal time for a speech made last Sun- day by President Johnson. On the basis of last night's tele- vision performance, perhaps Re- publican partisans would feet bet- ter if they left their sets off on the evening of November 3. --Roger Rapoport PAMPHLETERRING: Greek System Finds A Friend in Goldwater By STEVEN V. ROBERTS Collegiate Press Service WASHINGTON-About nine million Americans have turned 21 since the 1960 election, and both parties are drooling like hungry wolves as they attempt to win the hearts and minds of those innocent lambs. The Republicans, for instance, have singled out particular interest groups for special attention. One leaflet prepared by Youth for Gold- water-Miller was sent to every fraternity and sorority president in the country. * * * * IN BROWN BLOCK LETTERS, the first page bears the legend, "The Fraternity System Has A Friend In Barry Goldwater." Next to this portentious message, is a picture showing the can- didate and his 22-year-old son Mike, as they admire a beer mug whose lettering is inexplicably backwards. The leaflet then quotes from a letter the senator evidently once penned to Mike: "A man must select his own associates. In fact, that right is expressed in the First Amendment of the Constitution .. . A fraternity is a wonderful institution . . . It is the reiteration of basic philosophy in the rites of all fraternities that I think makes them important," the senator wrote.