Seventy-Third Year
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Trath Will Prevail"
UNION-LEAGUE MERGER:
Creeping Controlli~sm in Activi~ties?'
I I
I
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opnions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
AY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1963
ACTING NIGHT EDITOR: LOUISE LIND
U.S. Pays for Tactics
In South Viet Nanm
THE LATEST TURN in the Viet Nam morass
finds the United States paying for its con-
lemnations. Monday, The New York Times
ind United Press International revealed that
while the State Department was condemning
Vgo Dinh Diem's attacks on Buddhist opposi-
ion, the Central Intelligence Agency was pay-
ng $250,000 a month to maintain the Special
-'ordes that ravaged the pagodas.
This revelation sickened even the hardened
kmerican officials in Viet Nam. These aides,
forking both for the military and the foreign
,id mission, have seen much repression. But
his crass subversion of official American poli-
y by the CIA brought sharp criticism.
P{ E RATIONALE behind the CIA decision
shows the blindness that has led to the pres-
nt mess. The CIA will continue to pay the
pecial Forces because this organization is one
f the few institutions that can be counted
pon to resist Communist pressure, The New
ork Times reported. That the Special Forces
re brutally treating Buddhist leaders and
emonstrators and that this action has brought
reat popular resentment are only complica-
ions to the CIA policy.
This shortsighted outlook, seeking only anti-'
ommunism rather than the development of
able and democratic government, has placed
burden of hatred upon the United States'
houlders that will be present long after Diem
rd his Byzantine family have departed. It
ill make the fight against the Viet Cong
pore difficult for the Vietnamese will see little
enefits in supporting an anti-Communist but
epressive regime. After all, what difference are
epressive regimes to them.
3UT WHAT CAN the United States do? This
country is so committed in South Viet Nam
hat Diem and his cohorts leave the State De-
artment no room to maneuver. The United
tates cannot withdraw its support. The Diem
egime; would collapse and after a short period
f chaos the Viet Cong would take over.
Such a collapse would shatter pro-Western
orale throughout Southeast Asia and would
give the Communists both a geographic and
psychological impetus toward further conquest
and domination.
Nor can the United States overthrow the
Diem regime. The State Department rather
clumsily and publicly tried to do this two weeks
ago, finding to its despair no one else strong
or willing enough to rule Viet Nam. This heavy-
handed interference in Vietnamese internal al-
fairs won no friends either.
The State Department does, not have many
levers of pressure against Diem. Diem knows
that the United States cannot withdraw or
substantially reduce its comnitment to his
country.
THE FRENCH have also proposed an alterna-
tive, but it is also unpalatable. They suggest
that all Viet Nam be neutralized, much like
neighboring Laos. However, this will be im-
possible as neither Diem nor North Viet Nam's
Ho Chi Minh are willing to negotiate with each
other.
The New Republic suggests that the United
States should give Diem up and support Ho as
a potential Asian Tito. Such an approach is
wishful thinking as Ho, long an Asian Commu-
nist theoretician, is not about to desert the
Chinese Communists.
All this leaves the United States in a bind.
It is largely limited to pious pronouncements
and continued military aid. At this time, the
United States should best backtrack slightly
and attempt to maintain the current military
position. It should await popular resentment
to solidify and overthrow the Diem oligarchy.
NOW SEVEN YEARS of aid and three years
of concentrated effort have been appar-
ently wasted on an admittedly authoritarian
regime. Its unpopularity and brutal suppres-
sion of its opposition has cost the United
States far more than the money and men it
has put into the country. It is time the United
States reread history's lesson-"anti-Commu-
nism is not enough."
-PHILIP SUTIN
National Concerns Editor
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the sec-
ond of a two part series about the
Union-League merger as seen in the
overall context of the future of stu-
dent activities at the University.)
By BURTON MICHAELS
THEIR forthcoming proposals
for a Union-League merger
should indicate whether or not
Vice-Presidents Lewis and Pier-
Pont are trying to usurp all student
activities at the University.
If any attempt is made to in-
corporate the independent boards
now controlling many activities
into the Offices of Student Affairs
and of Business and Finance-
that is, if any attempt is made to
change the largely vertical struc-
ture of activities into a horizontal
one-it must be defeated by im-
mediate concerted action.
* * *
THE DANGER materialized
when the Regents asked Lewis
and IPierpont for a long-range
prospectus on all student activities,
of which the Union and League
represent only a fraction.
The Union and League presently
typify the vertical structure: au-
tonomous groups with activity
phases controlled by students who
cooperate with faculty, alumni and
administrative board members in
managing physical plants. The ac-
tivities are responsible to the over-
all boards for finances,, but remain
free of other control. The excep-
tion is that the League endures an
Office of Student Affairs "pro-
gram consultant."
The Robertson Report for a
Union-League merger would main-
tain the vertical system while co-
operating with the Office of Busi-
ness and Finance on a nearly
horizontal level. Its essence is that
it would retain an independent
board of directors composed of
students, faculty, alumni and ad-
ministrators. The board would
manage the physical plant and
finance the otherwise independent
student activity group.
As a board member, the Vice-
President for Business and Finance
would enjoy great financial con-
trol over the physical plants in-
volved. He might even be able to
arrange some cooperation between
the independent board and his
own professional staffs.
* * *
THE Robertson Report would
exclude the OSA from the overall
board and from the activities
group. Lewis objects to this ex-
clusion, seeking at least a con-
sultant on the board if such a
board is established. He finds
some OSA representation neces-,
sary for a liaison with the OSA
on such matters as calendaring.
The exact function of an OSA
board representative seems un-
clear, especially in the light of the
present unofficial liaison between
the Union and League and Stu-
dent Government Council's cal-
endaring process. The present OSA
representative to the Union Board
plays no role in this liaison.
Furthermore, OSA consultants
have a nasty way of getting votes
on those boards on which they
serve. Lewis, for example, was
seated on the Board in Control of
Student Publications as an ex
officio without vote-but today he
votes. This would have to be spe-
cifically guarded against in the
merger constitution.
* * *
THE Robertson Report demon-
strates how efficiency can be in-
creased while student, faculty and
League enjoys the services of Mrs.
Robert Clark, who, according to
League President Gretchen Groth,
does act as a consultant, help-
fully. But, as Miss Groth notes, the
position remains subjective to the
person in it, a vulnerability which
must be prevented.
* * *
SEPARATION of activities and
physical management boards would
also eliminate one of the Union's
greatest traditional advantages for
students: the opportunity to par-
ticipate with faculty and alumni
in managing the plant which
serves all three. The feeling of
pride every student experiences in
the student-operated Union would
be lost.
Lewis' comment last Friday that.
"we are trying awfully hard to
separate the physical plants from
the activities board" seems to in-
dicate that, at this point, he pre-
fers two separate boards. If so,
he will hopefully change his mind
before submitting a prospectus to
the Regents.
* * *
ONE STEP further towards hor-
izontal efficiency and loss of the
concepts of independence and ser-
vice would be eliminating the
boards altogether, and placing the
physical management under Pier-
Pont and the activities under
Lewis.
This dreadful prospect seems
more likely to be proposed
than simply separating activities
and management into two boards.
Since he would still have to deal
with an autonomous physical plant
board, mere separation would not
help Pierpont. And Lewis' prophesy.
that the activities "might even be
housed in SAB or a new building"
would be feasible only if vertical
boards were eliminated..
Eliminating the vertical boards
would eliminate the whole concept
of a Union and League. The alum-
ni who contributed so much to
both organizations would be cheat-
ed, instead of having their in-
terests protected as in the Robert-
son Report.
The tradition of free activities
in the Union and League would
die, leaving just another activities
group in the OSA. And Pierpont
would be put in the position of
making service decisions rather
than purely financial decisions-
and service is one thing hie can
in no way determine.
Thus the Union and League
would exist no longer as service
organizations, but as impersonal
University facilities for making
money.
* * *
POURING THE UNION and
League this way into horizontal
levels would indicate that the same
thing could be done to other au-
tonomous boards.
If the Union and League were
submerged, the Board in Control
of Student Publications could
come next. The wedge would come
from Pierpont, and would hinge
on expansion of the present Stu-
dent Publications Building or
building of a new one.
It may seem incredible that
Lewis could then manage to elim-
inate the Board in Control, but it
seemed equally incredible with the
Union Board, which now faces that
real danger. Without the Board,
an OSA consultant could move 1
and destroy the Daily's "73 yea
of editorial freedom."
This would undoubtedly save
Lewis and other administrators
much embarrassment, but it would
destroy the nation's best college
newspaper and the campus' most
influential student voice.
* * *
IF THE UNIVERSITY were to
degenerate to such an extent, the
Board in Control of Intercollegiate
Athletics could fall next. With
Lewis demanding calendaring
rights and Pierpont demanding
rights over physical plants, even
this take-over is not inconceivable.
Not that Lewis and Pierpont
are necessarily planning to "take
over," either with the Union and
League or with the rest of stu-
dent activities. They are still
studying all possibilities. But the
horizontal leveling is one idea they
must dismiss-or the Regents must
dismiss it for them.
It must not be allowed with the
Union and League, not only for
benefit of those organizations but
for the beiefit of all student or-
ganizations=-and all students.
JAMES A. LEWIS
. . . considers merger .
To The EdiOr
alumni rights are guarded under
an overhauling of activities.
But the Robertson Report has
not been approved and there are
less palatable possibilities which
aim at eliminating vertical auton-
omy and thus sacrificing service to
profit.
One possibility is that the stu-
dent activity phases of the Center
be under a separate student board
of directors, and that the physical
management remain with a fac-
ulty-alumni-administration board.
If such a separation materializ-
ed, Lewis would want a "consul-
tant" on the activities board. Con-
sultant is an evasive euphemism,
however. Miss Judy Guardhouse
was officially a consultant at the
League, without vote or veto. Yet
she managed to dominate the
whole set-up. At present the
'Coalition' Foreign Policy
Spells Disaster
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY rests upon a
shaky coalition of self-interest, misinfor-
nation and prejudice, apd, sometimes, high
mnorality and altruism.
Occasionally the coalition may succeed, as it
did with the Marshall -Plan. At these times,
self -interest is intelligent and comes close to
being altruistic. We saved Europe from Com-
nunism with massive doses of United States
assistance which has been paid back many
imes over in the trade we were thus able to
oster. There is little misinformation as we do
not allow our prejudices to foster its existence.
And high morality, the concern for the welfare
f humanity and for living by the principles
we preach, is a logical operating principle.
JUCH MORE FREQUENTLY, however, the
coalition behaves as one would expect of
uch a hodge-podge of cross-purposes and illu-
ions: it fails. It failed in China. It is failing
ri Viet Nam. But most of all it has failed in
,uba, and that failure may well cost the United
States much of the rest of the underdeveloped
vorld.
American self-interest in Cuba was the self-
nterest of the business community. The United
tates government under Dwight Eisenhower
iewed with great alarm the nationalization
f millions of dollars worth of American busi-
essmen's property by Fidel Castro not only
s a serious blow in itself, but also as a grave
hreat were it to spread throughout Latin and
outh America.
The consequences of such a usurpation, it'
'ould be easy to believe, would be great eco-
omic disaster to the United States. The self-
iterest of the American business community
rd a consideration of what was thought to be
he self-interest of the nation dictated a policy
f containing, if not killing, the Cuban revolu-
on.
[HE PREJUDICES of the publishers of Ameri-
can newspapers made such a policy that
Luch easier. Publishers are businessmen and
)nservative. The spector of socialism--if not
itright Communism-becoming the wave of
ie future for the underdeveloped world was
terrible prospect. Aided by similar, if not
Editorial Staff
RONALD WILTON, Editor
DAVID MARCUS GERALD STORCH
Editorial Director City Editor
ARBARA LAZARUS..............Personnel Director
IILIP SUTIN.............National Concerns Editor
AIL EVANS .................... Associate City Editor
ARJORIE BRAHMS ...... Associate Editorial Director
LORIA BOWLES.................Magazine Editor
ALJINDA BERRY-------------.. ontrhibting Etr~i
quite so widely shared and so strong, prejudices
in the American public, there was little diffi-
culty in painting a picture of a dictatorial
political system whose economic policies were
falling on their faces.
Eventually it became easy to believe that the
altruistic course, the course best for Cuba and
best for the United States, lay in "liberation"
of the island.
IT MUST NOW BE REALIZED that such a
policy was a total failure. A brief synopsis
of what has happened in Cuba makes that
fact only too clear. First, we cut off not only
all economic assistance, but all economic ties
with Cuba. We placed an embargo on goods that
could be sent there from this country. When
these actions forced the island to turn to the
East for help, we cried "Communism."
Then we played up the suppression of civil
liberties and the military tribunals, and the
anti-American tirades which were sure to fol-
low. Finally we were forced to try to bar travel
to Cuba to preclude the possibility that some-
one might find that the revolution succeeded
despite our efforts.
And there can be little doubt that the revo-
lution has succeeded. The two University stu-
dents who went to Cuba last summer said that
it had, and that the 48 other students who
went with them shared their belief. Other coun-
tries imply that they also believe that it has
succeeded when they refuse to go along with our
pleas that they too place an embargo on Cuba.
And even our government has to admit that
the revolution has succeeded at least to the
point where the country will not rise up in re-
volt-a bitter lesson we learned with the Bay
of Pigs.
THE QUESTION NOW is what to do to avoid
the imminent disaster looming as the re-
sult of the folly of our policy toward Cuba.
Fifty American university students went to
Cuba last summer. Barring highhanded and il-
legitimate if not illegal tactics by the State De-
partment, it is quite probable that hundreds
more will go next summer. Even if they don't,
many students from Latin and South America
are visiting Cuba.
That the countries of their origin have re-
fused to go along with travel restrictions on
Cuba is another testament to the success of the
revolution. These countries know that we have
not been entirely truthful in what we have said
about Cuba, and are keeping the door open if
only so that they may learn.
The United States, then, faces a real and
immediate problem. It will not be easy to
continue to allow United States citizens to visit
Cuba. It would be next to impossible as well as
political suicide to admit the success, and there-
fore merit, of the revolution. Aid yet, if the
revolution has been a suess.p the Tnited
To the Editor:
TH E EDITORIAL by Ronald
Wilton on fraternity discrim-
ination in Sunday's Daily outlines
a proposal which is idealistically
and practically incompetent.
He proposes that the right of
fraternity members to choose their
living companions should be abol-
ished because it makes discrimin-
ation possible. To destroy this
right would be to destroy anything
that could becalled a fraternity
system. Without this right the
fraternity would become nothing
more than a dormitory where in-
dividuals would be assigned at
whim. Certainly no one could
seriously compare the spirit of
comradeship and unity of a fra-
ternity to that of a unity in a
residence hall.
Perhaps the writer felt that if
the fraternity system can permit
some degree of racial discrimina-
tion, it is so evil that it must be
destroyed, but to destroy all groups
where prejudice can be manifested
would not leave much organiza-
tion in our society.
* * *
WILTONsSUGGESTS that a
fraternity should be punished for
the dropping of a discriminatory
blackball. Certainly he could not
have strongly consideredthe prob-
lems surrounding enforcement of
such a law. Who can say that a
blackball was used in a racially
discriminatory manner?Does the
fact that the blackballed rushee
is of a minority race indicate di-
crimination? A person forms an
opinion of someone on the basis
of a number of impressions. How
does one decide what part of these
impressions are involved with the
race of the other person? In fact,
it is impossible to truly discover
the mental criteria used in ac-
cepting or rejecting a rushee, let
alone to pass judgment on some
alleged criteria.
In removing constitutional re-
strictions that would prevent the
individual fraternity from accept-
ing members of certain races, the
University has taken an important
step toward eliminating racial
discrimination. However,;the pro-
posals embodied in Wilton's so
called "second stage" are so un-
just and impractical that they
would harm both the cause of
eliminating discrimination a n d
the whole fraternity system.
-R. Bruce Laidlaw, '66L
Progressive ..
To the Editor:
IN THE SEPT. 5 issue of The
Daily mention was made of the
"new advances" being made in
educational technology in the
field of progressive education.
These techniques are certainly not
"new" and there is some question
as to whether they are "advances."
Progressive education has had
many trials and has met with
great success and tragic failure.
The success of such programs,
however, does not seem to lie so
much in the philosophy of the new
approach as in the manner in
which it is applied. Progressive
education requires small classes,
expensive facilities and, above all,
exceptional teachers. These are
luxuries that most school districts
cannot afford.
* * *
able to communicate the new con-
cepts to their students.
Children a r e not naturally
oriented to progressive methods.
When given a choice between do-
ing math and drawing pictures it
takes an exceptional teacher to
instill enough interest in the pupil
to choose math.
THERE IS a need for greater
use of progressive methods in
education, but it is foolish to rush
into a program for which adequate
preparation has not been made.
-Lee Larson, '64E
Integration...
To the Editor:
THERE IS AN old saying which
goes something like "Freedom
for the wolves is not freedom for
the sheep." I would suggest that
Philip Sutin, in his editorial "Pa-
tience" praising President Ken-
nedy's do-nothing policy in the
current school integration crisis,
think about this saying because he
obviously hasn't heard it before.
The time is past when we can
worry about the rights of the
segregationists-such people no
longer have any rights. The right
to kill, to destroy property or even
just to refuse to serve a glass of
orange juice is something thata
we cannot allow anyone to have.
We do not call for "patience" or
gradualism in the punishment of
criminals. We realize that for the
good of society the freedom of such
people must be drastically and im-
mediately curtailed. Segregation-
ists are criminals and their free-
dom must also be curtailed, not
'gradually, and not "with all de-
liberate speed," but now.
-Paul Kanter, '67
By STEVEN HALLER
IF OUR AMERICAN way of life
seems flashy at times, it is the
essence of conservativism when
compared to our American way of
death. Investigations into the
practices used in interring the
dead in many areas of the country
have unearthed much that is
shocking and much which is just
senseless. At the same time, they
have sparked flames of controver-
sy between the clergy and morti-
cians everywhere.
The public was first made aware
of the lavishness of many funerals
today with the publication of Eve-
lyn Waugh's novel, "The Loved
Ones." This dealt with Southern
California - funeral rites which
made those of Egyptian pharaohs
appear drab by comparison.
Now two recent publications in
the same vein-Ruth Harmer's
"The High Cost of Dying" and
"The American Way of- Death" by
Jessica Milford-have taken up
the cudgel against showmanship in
mortuary science. However, they
appear to have drawn more blood
than did Waugh's book, as the
controversy which has been brew-
ing for 20 years now breaks into
the open.
* * *
THE UNDERTAKERS have got-
ten up in arms, as might have been
expected. But what is unexpected
is the tack they are taking to
fight a trend back to a simpler
funeral rite. Their spokesman, Wil-
liam Krieger of the National Se-
lected Morticians, has implied that
the ladies who wrote the exposes
are "trying to substitute practices
utilized in Communistic countries
such as the Soviet Union" for such
American customs as "Post Mor-
tem Form Restoration," "Eternity
Rest Mattresses" and the "Beauty-
rama Adjustable Soft-Foam Bed."
Of course, Krieger, in his strong-
ly Birchlike rantings, fails to ex-
plain how Communist burials com-
pare to American burials. In fact,
he conveniently neglects to give
any details of Communist inter-
ment at all.
* * *
A GOOD EXAMPLE of the bar-,
baric funeral practices now in-
dulged in is the case cited by the
Rev. Dr. Howard Johnson of a
Pasadena church. He, tells of be-
ing called to a nearby memorial
4
CONTROVERSY OVER DEATH:
America's Bar barc Burial Rites
controversy which has been brew- ing called to a nearby memorial
t tv
. ,rya;! ยข,f" ;.
!r<.. R < .t I
"' Y+ "/1111 . ,(
park. "I entered . .. expecting to
see a corpse laid out. Instead, a
marcelled receptionist with a
toothy smile said: 'Mrs. McAdoo
will see you.' This sounded weird
because Mrs. McAdoo had died the
preceding day.
"(The receptionist) led (me) in-
to a sort of boudoir, replete with
dressing table, combs, etc. Mrs.
McAdoo was lying in negligee upon
a canopied bed. I stalked out of
there and said I'd never conduct
a funeral in that place."
Rev. Johnson scored other in-
stances of the last rites being
turned into a show of wealth or
an occasion for some cosmetol-
ogist to use the lifeless body of the
loved one as "a product to be
tricked up with cosmetics into a
semblance of life."
* * *
ALTHOUGH such attacks as this
by members of the clergy cant
surely be traced back in part to a
desire for the return of a more re-
ligious treatment of the dead, even
those who might not be particular-
ly religious will surely decry the
way in which money is wasted on
extravagantly sculptured coffins.
Add to this theufactrthat ,these
coffins will lie unseen while per-
forming their intended function
and you have a good idea of the
form of ostentatiousness that is
all too common in mortuaries to-
day.
The idea that the death of a
loved one might not be accompan-
ied by the dignity it deserves may
seem strange to many people. Yet
surely one can be buried amidst
some ceremony without rivalling
P. T. Barnum. Surely one can dis-
play sentimentality beside the bed-
side of a departed relative with-
out engaging in a neurotic desire
to "keep up with the Joneses" at
the expense of dignity and the
budget.
One need not be a pillar of the
church to feel nauseated at the
farce which death has become at
the hands of money-mad morti-
cians in this country. And one does
not need to be a member of the
clergy to applaud the fight which
that group is now waging for a re-
turn to the simple and meaningful
ceremony.
Despo tsm
WHAT, THEN, is this compact
or agreement which underlies
any plan for political freedom?
It cannot be understood unless we
distinguish sharply and persist-'
ently between the "submission" of
a slave and the "consent" of a
free citizen. In both cases it is
agreed that obedience shall be
required. Even when despotism is
so extreme as to be practically
indistinguishable f r o m enslave-
ment, a sort of pseudo consent is
given by the subjects.
ONE EXAMPLE of failure due
to the lack of adequate personnel
is the recent experiment in pro-
gressive education by the Fern-
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F s.
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