Seventy-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Where Opinions AreFr STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241
Truth Will Prevail"
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: GERALD STORCH
PROBLEMS OF INDIA:
A Rough Sketch of the Economy
.1
Election Violations Mark
New Low in Integrity
VIOLATION OF election regulations seems the president of West Quad, slid handbills un-
to have become a habit on campus. With der, the doors of both South and West Quads
last spring's fiasco still a fresh and vivid urging the election of four particular can-
memory, several interested parties seem deter- didates and the end of University membership
mined to make this year's Student Government in USNSA. The Quadrants signed the handbill
Council election and the accompanying United distributed in South Quad, apparently believing
States National Student Association referen- that 'their action was legal, but did not sign
dum the most rotten in SGC's history. the ones passed out in West Quad for obvious
While a complete list of election violations reasons.
is probably impossible to compile and would Actually, according to South Quad Council
undoubtedly take up too much space to print, regulations, the Quadrants cannot legally slip
a list of some of the most flagrant ethical and handbills under residents' doors in South Quad,
legal violations is in order. and their actions in West Quad violate several
Of those groups which did the most to make regulations.
this year's election a corrupt one, probably Furthermore, University Regulations read as
Interfraternity Council, Inter - Quadrangle follows: "No handbills or other material may
Council, the Michigan Union and the South be distributed without the permission of the
Quadrangle Quadrants deserve the most credit. Residence Hall Board of Governors." The
Board has delegated its responsibility for grant-
T E LENGTHS to which IFC went to insure ing permission to IQC, and IQC never ap-
that fraternity people voted "right" (liter- proved the distribution of any campaign liter-
ally and figuratively) in the SGC election have ature in the residence halls (except its own,
been discussed before and require no further of course).
elaboration.
Undoubtedly determined not to be outdone, ASIDE FROM these group projects, many
IQC contributed its share by publishing and individuals contributed their share of be-
distributing an IQC Newsletter (volume one, low-the-beltism to the election. Pro-Voice and
number one, incidently) a few days before the USNSA posters mysteriously disappeared from
election. IQC took advantage of its right to the bulletin boards of West Quad. Literature on
place literature in the mailboxes of the resi- USNSA urging a yes vote in the referendum
dence halls to inform residents, not on co-ed was illegally printed with the equipment of one
housing or something relevent to IQC's rela- of the quadrangles.
tions with resident hall members, but to extol Handbills urging the disaffiliation of the
the virtues of IQC's endorsement of SGC University from USNSA were abducted from
candidates and its stand on USNSA. wherever they were found. Persons erased
The extent to which the Union got its the grease pencil marks on their identification
hands dirty is not clear at the moment, al- cards and were able to vote again and again.
though several concerte examples of poor The list could go on, but the point has been
taste and downright illegal behavior can be made clear.
laid at the feet of particular members of that Groups and individuals who claim the most
institution. Not only did the latest edition of noble ideas in the world will not stop at the
the Michigan Union Report contain a highly dirtiest tricks in the book to protect their
slanted article on USNSA, but in addition selfish interests and gain their selfish ends.
issues of the edition were illegally distributed As training for the proper behavior of a
throughout West Quadrangle by people who citizen in a democracy, the education is a
claimed to be from Union and who claimed to horrible flop. Only the voiding of this election
have had permission to slide them under the and the calling of another could hope to bring
doors of residents, when no such permission a semblance of fairness to the outcome of the
was ever granted. balloting, yet one cannot but imagine that
the same things would happen again. Perhaps
THE SOUTH Quadrangle Quadrants, that it is time for class to be dismissed.
dubiously honorary society, with the aid of -EDWARD HERSTEIN
Union Ballot Deceptive
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the sec-
ond of a five part analysis of In-
dia's problems.)
By PHILIP SHERMAN
MADRAS
ALTHOUGH any criticism of In-
dia is surely unfashionable in
the United States just now, true
red, white and blue free enter-
prisers biding their time can take
scarce comfort in the fact free
India just isn't meeting the tar-
gets of her Five Year Plans, the
strategic maps for the attack on
all the woes which afflict her.
Looking forward in 1951 at the
beginning of the First Five Year
Plan, for instance, Indians hoped
to double living standards within
25 years, though this would still
have left India among the world's
poorest nations. But unexpected
population increases and missed
production targets mean that the
best hope now is only 70 per cent.
National income, the aggregate
on which individual living stan-
dards are based, was up a bare
2-2 per cent last year, little more
than enough to cover the popula-
tion increase.
IT'S HARD to judge Indian per-
formance in the sense that while
targets have been missed, gains
have been substantial. Industrial
production advanced 80 per cent in
the first decade of planning and
agriculture about 30.
But one thing is clear: there is
no time to rest on laurels, if there
are, in fact, any to be had. In-
dian steel capacity, for instance,
needs to go up only about 135
million tons (a mere 2,200 per cent
gain) to equal present United
States capacity. At this point, per
capita capacity would be less than
half.
As always, there's a more com-
pelling reality behind the figures,
economic and concurrent social
advances are required to redeem
the world's poorest people, to keep
their nation stable politically and
protect it externally.
SOME DAY, perhaps, self-gen-
erating forces will take hold, both
among a newly dynamic populace
and a self-capitalizing economy,
and there will no longer be need
for external assistance and mon-
umental government prodding.
To chart the way towards this
perhaps unapproachable goal, In-
dia plans. Steel mills and heavy
industries are only the glamor
boys on economic development.
Planning must also be done for
small and cottage industries, ag-
riculture, community development,
education, health and a hundred
other major areas. The Five Year
Plans are thus broad marching
orders to all sectors of society.
Actually, as K. N. Raj of the
Delhi School of Economics points
out, the plans are for investment
only; actual production and con-
sumption, not directly regulated,
are affected only indirectly. For-
mulated ultimately by an ad-
visory national Planning Commis-
sion, they are carried out by cen-
tral and state governments with
WARM, WITTY:
Concert
By Valenti,
GUEST HARPSICHORDIST Fer-
nando Valenti, under the aus-
pices of the music school, present-
ed an extraordinary and exciting
recital last night in the Rackham
lecture hall. Playing for a large
and enthusiastic audience, Valenti
included a variety of selections on
the program which were represen-
tative of harpsichord literature.
The program opened with three
Farnaby pieces, followed by the D
minor Suite by Georg Friedrich
Handel. In the third number, Val-
enti demonstrated his exquisite
musicianship and faultless tech-
nique, in addition to a marvelous
knowledge of registration and col-
or. The Mozart Variations on "Ah!
Vous dirais-je, Maman" (more fa-
miliarly, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star"), were, in a word, charming
and brilliant and evoked an invol-
untary chuckle from the audience.
THE ENGLISH Suite in A minor
by J. S. Bach was the high point
of the program, showing sparkling
clarity. The "Sarabande" was par-
ticularly well executed and one of
the finest performances of Bach I
have ever heard.
Following an intermission, Val-
enti played the fiery and exciting
"Recitative and ToccataaPercosa"
which was written for and dedi-
cated to him by Mel Powell. An
extremely brilliant and demanding
piece, it presented a good contrast
after the Baroque and - Classical
sections of the program and also
demonstrated the versatility of the
instrument.
"Three Sonatas" by Domenico
Scarlatti completed the program,
which was interspersed with flash-
es of the artist's wit and humor.
The warm and receptive audience
was rewarded with two encores
which brought to an end a delight-
ful evening of solo harpsichord
reference both to governmental
activities like education or agri-
cultural extension work and gov-
ernment owned industries.
ESSENTIALLY, the Plans fore-
cast what amounts of production
can be obtained from given in-
vestments. A combination of these
forecasts and an externally deter-
mined set of goals for economy
and society determine the Plan
"targets."
The dual nature of target a:nd
forecast, Raj argues a bit lamely,
is the reason why so many Plan
goals are ostensibly missed.
No matter what its nature, plan-
ning for a growing and interde-
pendent national economy and
society is difficult. The planners
have to substitute a vision of the
future, economic knowledge and
complex mathematics for an auto-
matic and purposeless market
mechanism. A quotation from The
Eastern Economist, in addition to
stating a number of current dif-
ficulties, shows just how tough
this can be.
"A vicious circle has come to
operate in the recent past on the
power front. Apart from adversely
affecting the temper of industrial
activity in general, power shortage
has hampered coal output. Slowing
down the coal development pro-
grame, especially in respect of
raising superior quality coal, in
turn, has affected the railways'
effeciency to no small extent. In
the reverse order, bottlenecks on
rain transport have adversely af-
fected the raising of coal and this
in turn has hampered generation
of power.
"Add to this the foreign ex-
change problem and the circle is
complete in a wider sense-power
shortages hamper full ulitization
of industrial capacity, leading to
inflation in production costs which
prices out Indian goods in world
markets. Foreign exchange earn-
ings, thus, suffer. So does outlay
on power development-foreign
exchange expenditure on setting
up new power generation units
forms a substantial proportion of
total outlay."
* * *
BY PLANNING her economic
and social activities, India hopes
to move rapidly toward what Prof.
Norman Palmer of the University
of Pennsylvania calls the "nebu-
lous concept" of a "socialist pat-
tern of society." Pragmatic in the
extreme, this is more of a rough
sketch than a 1984 style blue-
print.
Prof. Palmer quotes the Second
Five Year Plan: "The accent of
the socialist pattern is on the
attainment of positive goals; the
raising of living standards; the
enlargement of opportunities for
all, promotion of enterprise among
the disadvantaged classes and the
creation of a sense of partnership
among all sections of the com-
munity."
Good Fourth of July oratory.
Not cast to any conventional,
doctrinnaire mold, India thus aims
at social justice in a democratic
context and not at social, dicta-
torship or "expropriation of the
expropriators." Policies, as East-
ern Economist Editor E. Da Costa
says, are based on a broad judg-
ment, historical not statistical, as
to what is best for India in her
present situation. The faith in this
middle way between "free enter-
prise" and "totalitarian control"
is strongly held by many.
* * *
IT IS FLEXIBLE enough not to
nationalize a steel company which
is doing a good job. And govern-
ment cooperates with private in-
dustry and Plan targets for in-
vestment and production increases
are made in consultation with the
so-called "private sector."
(However, most heavy industry
-new steel and power plants,
heavy machinery, aircraft- is now
reserved for publically-owned en-
terprises, and the government
must license all plant expansion
in major private industry. There is
definitely some, socialism.)
Since social and economic plan-
ning isn't the "American" way, a
bit of justification is necessary. In
simplest form, the argument for
governmental direct leadership is
thus:
Private enterprise, in the broad-
est sense of the term, has neither
overall sense of purpose nor the
resources to develop the country.
The government, on the other
hand, can raise capital through
taxation and intergovernmental
loans and the like. Besides, since
resources are so scarce, the some-
what wasteful market mechanism
is a costly luxury.
Government provides a locus for
resource allocation and adds a
sense of purpose the market mech-
anism can't possess. Not governed
by profit necessity, the govern-
ment must make the huge low
return investments in "infra-
structure" and basic industry to
get the economy started.
In a more general sense, gov-
ernment is the appropriate ve-
hilce for the efforts needed to
mobilize a society and solve the
multitude of social and political
problems which arise.
Finally, in the most broad sense,
India hasn't time for a gradual
development. Centralized leader-
ship is necessary for speed.
* * *
THOUGH SUCH is official gov-
ernment policy, "socialism" doesn't
cut much ice with considerable
sections of society, both the tra-
ditionalists and modern private
enterprisers. Indian Express Edi-
tor Frank Moraes has maintained
a government without Nehru,
prime mover of "socialism," would
veer to the right.
Planning is thus not necessarily
a universal creed. The Plans them-
selves, certainly, are not sacred.
There's plenty of criticism.
Da Costa, for instance, wonders
whether the public sector is over-
extending itself by moving into
too many fields. Many criticize the
Plans for over-optimism, hence
missed targets.
POLITICS IN PERSPECTIVE:
Parties Seek Leadership
AMONG THE MANY subtle ploys the Michi-
gan Union has pulled off in the current
campus election, the deception.of Union ref-
erendum is a crowning achievement. As the
ballot was worded, no male student really knew
what he was voting for; nor did he have the
option to aprove some changes and reject
others.
Unlike past' Union constitutional change
referenda or conmon electoral practice, it
did not indicate what the new wording was to
be. Rather the voter had to decide on the
changes on the basis of a sugar coated ex-
planation favorable to the change. The ballot
read more like a campaign aflier than an
impartial record of the issue.
For example, an amendment involved chang-
ing the reference to the Dean of Men (which
title no longer exists after the recent Office
of Student Affairs changes) to the Vice-
President for Student Affairs or whomever
he designates.
The ballot explained the demise of the dean
of men's post, but it did not mention that the
defeat of this provision would eliminate OSA
membership on the Union Board, raising the
student majority from one to two, a possibly
helpful result.
ACTUALLY, neither side should be presented
on the ballot. If the Union wishes to ex-
plain its changes, it should do so before the
election, even at the expense of taking some
of its cherished anti-USNSA propaganda out
of Union Reports.
The Union's president, Robert Finke, in his
zeal to remove USNSA from the campus, de-
voted a third of an appropriately timed news-
letter to reasons for leaving the organization.
One article entitled, Facts about USNSA,
did not have a disclaimer on it, in blatant
violation of the Union's non-partisan role. Yet
Finke made no effort, either in Union Reports
on elsewhere, to explain the changes in his
organization's constitution, apparently hoping
that a slanted ballot would be sufficient.
FURTHER, the voter was stuck with approv-
ing all the changes or none. This limited
his choice and the meaning of the vote.
These high-handed Union tactics call for
closer supervision of Union referenda by Stu-
dent Government Council. The election com-
mittee must insist that the ballot remain
objective, stating the issue only, and not
become a propaganda piece for the Union.
Further, it should insure the student a mean-
ingful choice in the election by making each
change a separate vote.
The Union is planning a major overhaul of
its constitution to be presented to the voters
at the spring all-campus election. SGC must
be prepared to prevent the Union from making
its future referenda deceptive farces.
-PHILIP SUTIN
By DAVID MARCUS
MICHIGAN HAS two political
parties desperately in search
of leadership.
Neither party was completely
victorious on election day. Neither
party, at this point, can claim a
majority of Michigan citizens are
behind it. The Republicans must
reconcile the various factions
within the party and turn what
was a personality victory for Gov.-
elect George Romney into a party
loyalty.
The Democrats must find new
faces and at least temporarily
reorganize as an opposition min-
ority.
* * *
THE REPUBLICANS by far
face the more difficult task. Rom-
ney was not able to carry a single
Republican with him into office.
Furthermore, he has, during the
campaign, de-emphasized t h e
party label in his call for citizen
participation in politics.
Using these methods, Romney
was able to build a strong organi-
zation under names like Citizens
for Romney that backed him per-
sonally. But in the races for state
administrative board posts and in
the race for Congressman at
Large, Romney utterly failed to
carry the ticket. V
As a matter of fact, during the
campaign he hardly even men-
tioned the rest of the Republican
ticket. His one prominent contri-
bution to the campaigns of hie
fellow Republicans was when he
questioned Democrat Neil Stabler's
"Americanism" at a rally. Aside
from this crowning boobyism, he
rarely opened his mouth.
THERE WAS good reason for
Romney not pushing the rest of
the ticket very hard: taken as in-
dividuals, they were either un-
acceptable to the Republican reg-
ulars or to the independents who
backed Romney.
For instance, Clarence Reid, the
unsuccessful candidate for lieu-
tenant governer, is hardly an ex-
ample of citizen participation in
politics. He is an old-time GOP
politician whose politics are cer-
tainly not in tune with Romney's.
Reid even came out against fiscal
reform with an income tax, one
of the important points of Rom-
ney's platform.
Another example is Norman O.
Stockmeyer, candidate for secre-
tary of state, who has hardly any
appeal to the independent voter.
Stockmeyer, who chaired the
Wayne County GOP organization
for several years, managed to lose
in the race for secretary of state
by a larger margin than any other
Republican candidate. His ambig-
uous stand on Rule Nine and his
long association with every twist
and turn of Republican party
policy cost him the election.
Or take William Seidman, GOP
candidate for auditor general.
Many people, it seems, suspected
that Seidman was actually a Dem-
At the same time, the party must
maintain some of its conservative
tenor to capture out-state legisla-
tive seats and some of its liberal
tenor to catch the Wayne County
vote.
Of course, there is a contradic-
tion here; but contradictions don't
seem to bother politicians very
much. If all the seemingly irre-
concilable elements in the GOP
can be reconciled, then Romney
will attempt it.
WHAT ROMNEY must do is
bring a new generation into con-
trol. He must displace the older,
firmly entrenched GOP leadership
in favor of the younger elements
that have worked for the party
but do not, as yet, have ascend-
ance.
If he accomplishes this, he will
be able to campaign with his
party in 1964. As things stand, if
his programs pass, he will be in
trouble with his own party. If
they do not, he will be in trouble
with the independents and Demo-
crats who backed him.
Furthermore, if Romney stays
in politics and he almost surely
will, he will in 1964 face much
stiffer opposition than he met tins
year. If he intends to win, he will
have to abandon any notion of
"individual citizen participation"
and build an organization within
his own part3
* * *
EVEN IF he chooses to depend
on Citizens for Romney in the
next election, he will have to face
the fact that the organization will
have become as much a political
machine as any the United Auto
Workers ever constructed. If it
has continuing leadership, it will
crystalize from an amorphous or-
ganization into an appendage of
the Republican Party. Amateurs,
when they stay in politics long
enough to know the ins and outs,
become professionals.
The most profitable approach
would be for Romney to bring the
Citizens for Romney members into
the Republican party where their
political skills can be of use. With-
in the GOP structure, they could
be useful agents of change as well
as the source of new leadership
for the party. Furthermore, Rom-
ney would be able to run with
rather than apart from the rest
of the Republican ticket.
Undoubtedly, he will lose some
of his support that came from
normally Democratic voters who
will refuse to become Republi-
cans; but once the glamor wears
off his personality, he will un-
doubtedly lose these anyway.
* * *
BY CONTRAST, the Democrats
do not suffer from the problems
of party factions; some Democrats
have split away from the party
to vote for Romney. But the major
problem of the party is to re-
orientate itself toward leadership
coming from a source other than
the governor's office.
Tt is 7,P P- Cn,,ia . n
look to Swainson for leadership..
There are two other sources which
could serve: either Secretary of
State James A. Hare, who led the
Democratic ticket winning by
more than 300,000 votes as com-
pared to Romney's victory margin
of less than 80,000, or Congress-
man at Large elect Neil Staebler
who carried the state by over
250,000 votes.
Hare is the most likely Demo-
cratic candidate for governor in
1964. He has said he won't run;
but nearly all non-incumbent can-
didates say that before the cam-
paign begins. It is not very help-
ful in the public eye to appear
over-anxious for public office.
* * * ~
HARE ALSO has another ad-
vantage within his own party: he
was supposed to get the guberna-
torial nomination in 1960. It was
only because of UAW backing that
Swainson was able to beat Hare
in the 1960 primary. Many Demo-
crats think that Hare was wrong-
ed and that he deserves another
chance, especially considering his
recent victory.
Furthermore, Romney will be
unable to say that Hare is in-
volved in an "unholy alliance"
with the labor unions. They pre-
ferred Swainson to him in 1960
and will probably give him only
luke-warm support in 1964.
Also, his proved ability as an
administrator (as even the Repub-
lican Detroit News admitted in its
campaign support editorial), and
personal popularity will work for
him.
* * *
STAEBLER, on the other hand,
is an unlikely candidate for gov-
ernor. More likely, he will work
within the structure of the party,
recementing old alliances, and
pumping new vitality into the or-
ganization.
He was, for many years, chair-
man of the Democratic Party. He
was one of a coalition of young
men who in the late 1940's built
the Democratic Party and G. Men-
nen Williams into a dominant po-
sition in Michigan. He still has the
vitality that originally built the
party as evidenced by his over-
whelming victory over Bentley.
The major problem with both
Hare and Staebler is that they
both hold public office now. Stab-
ler will be away in Washington
over the next two years and will
hence be unable to give the day
to dayadministrative leadership
necessary for a functioning state
political party.
Hare will be able to offer leader-
ship on issues but again. his hands
will be tied by the fact of his
office.
* * *
THIS PUTS the burden of lead-
ership in the Democratic Party
squarely on the shoulders of
chairman Joe Collins. Collins is
a young man and has led the
party for a comparatively short
time.
Whether his inexperience was
a conti,.,,,tin.fr in Swain-
Technical support of this posi-
tion comes from Prof. Wilfred
Malenbaum of the University of
Pennsylvania in a new book, Pros-
pects for Indian Development. He
maintains the planners have as-
sumed capital is more productive
in the Indian economy than it in
fact is. They have therefore as-
signed too much investment to
capital intensive industries and
not enough to labor intensive
ones. Proper allocation would re-
sult in greater economic progress
and more realisible targets.
* * *
PROF. MALENBAUM suggests
much more effort is needed to
mobilize society, efforts, he says,
which have been slighted in favor
of strictly industrial prduction-
oriented planning. Pointing to his
belief plans to stimulate savings
and investment don't take tradi-
tional Indian patterns into ac-
count, Prof. Malenbaum says more
study is needed of the Indian situ-
ation itself.
Another criticism: by concen-
trating too much on the big heavy
industrial projects, the planners
are neglecting to create a demand
for products by stimulating small
scale enterprise and agriculture.
Implicit in this is the view heavy
industry's purpose is not only the
creation of more heavy industry.
It is based on Western experience.
And, of course, there is the
critical matter of execution. Short-
ages, delays caused by foreign ex-
change problems, poor engineering
and construction, inadequate tech-
nical and managerial know-how
and various other causes have
often left production far short of
target.
Steel production in 1960-61 to-
talled 2.2 million tons compared to
Plan goal of 4.3 million. (New
plants, just finished at the time,
are now doing better, and the
steel picture is improving.)
In agriculture, much of the
Plans' success depends on the
weather, and during the second
Plan this was not favorable all
the time.
Indian industry is thus growing,
though haltingly. It represents the
most obvious intrusion of the
"modern" world into India and
will become increasingly central
in Indian society. But in many
ways, the most serious problem
is agriculture.
[ETIERS
to the
EDITOR
To the Editor:
A LETTER in yesterday's Daily
from student leaders Stock-
meyer, Finke, MMillan and Mey-
erholz informs the University
community that "the acceptance
of the idea that students should
engage in social action both for
its effects on society and on them-
selves" is "clearly a Marxian con-
cept."
Someone should tell our ama-
teur ideologists that the concept
of individuals operating through
group affiliations in democratic
competition is an idea rooted in
Jefferson and Mill, and was stat-
ed in its most explicit form by
the conservative Southern Sena-
tor John C. Calhoun-spokesman
for the American tradition of or-
derly compromise via The Con-
current Majority.
THE VERY essence of Marxism
is that all clashes of interest are
artificial and that the proper so-
ciety works through unanimity of
interests. Marx's perfect society
would arise through the efforts
of a distinct economic class which
would completely destroy the
existing societal structure. This is
a far cry from the American plur-
alist concept of an interest group
making its views known in order
to influence public policy-making.
It would be quite reassuring to
know that it was complete ignor-
ance of political theory which led
our four correspondents to link
the above-quoted words of Tom
Hayden with the term "Marxian."
But in view of the unfortunate
connotations of the word "Marx-
ian," it is more likely that the
tie-up was a crude attempt to
smear Hayden and the Friends
of USNSA by the right wing's
commonly-utilized technique of
red-baiting-and at a timewhen
there is no opportunity for re-
futation.
One can only hope that the
"leaders" of an academic com-
munity have not sunk to such
demagoguery, and that this in-
cident merely reveals the astound-
ing ignorance of the Presidents of
SGC, the Michigan Union, Pan-
hellenic Association and Inter-
Fraternity Council.
-Pat Golden, '63
-Harvey Molotch, '63
A iso Srach
IF THERE be any among us
who would wish to dissolve this
Union or to change its republican
form, let them stand undisturbed
as monuments of the safety with
ud-i nh- Prn'.f. - f nni' nn mAn hp
The Fourth Estate
FORMER Vice-President Richard Nixon bow-
ed out of the political scene last week with
a long-overdue blast at the nation's press.
Seldom does the fourth estate ever bully a
man the way Nixon was bullied, and his un-
expected retort came as nothing less than
the press deserved.
That should have evened the score, but
apparently the turnabout was not fair play
as far as the American Broadcasting System
was concerned. That infamous outfit chose
to sink to a new low in journalism by airing
"The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon,"
starring such illustrious and honorable persons
as Alger Hiss, and such avid Nixon fans as
Jerry Voorhis.
ABC claims it approached anyone who had
played a part in Nixon's political career (a
dubious statement, at best, since that category
must include hundreds of people) and asked
them to participate. Some accepted, under-
standably enough; other, recoiling at the idea,
did not. ABC went ahead and aired the .show,
playing up the Nixon-haters and quickly was
deluged with indignant protests from both
sides of the political aisle.
ABC official James Hagarty, former White
House Press Secretary under the Eisenhower
administration and never a great Nixon booster,
defended the show and then had the gall to
offer Nixon "equal time." That insult was
spurned.
REGRETABLY such journalistic irresponsi-
bility as has been displayed by ABC in
particular and the press in general to Nixon,
makes it quite hard to argue against those
who would limit freedom of the press.
Such an undeserved smearing as Nixon re-
ceived represents license that no medium of
communication should responsibly take. It