Sewuty-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDEISJ OF THE UNIEtsiTY OF M:HGAN
- UNDN AUTUORAY O BOARD IN CONTOL, , STUDENT PUU2A-ION
Where Oinions Araee~ STUDENT P LwjC&TJONs BLDG., ANN AI.iot, MICHT., PHONE No 2-3241
Truth Will Prevail"
"Would You Repeat That, Sir? The Afternoon Bomb
Explosion Jarred The Microphone A Little"
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Harris' Remarks
Out of Context
ditorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
)AY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1963
NIGHT EDITOR: GAIL EVANS
Zp Code:
Playing the Numbers Game
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EOPLE OF AMERICA UNITE! The Amal-
gamated Conspiracy of All-Number Pushers
is at it again.
This time they have enlisted no less an
organization than the United States Post Office
Department, and the result is so ridiculous
that it is a bit unsettling.
In the pronounced interest of efficiency (a
ludicrous term when associated with the Post
Office), there has been inflicted on the long-
suffering American people the latest in faceless
automation-the Zip Code.
ESIGNED TO EXPEDITE mail sorting and
increase correspondence errors, the Zip
Code breaks the nation down in many thou-
sands of tiny postal zones, each with a separate
number.
The idea of the whole thing is that the
correspondent is supposed to put down his Zip
Code number after the return address as well
as the ZC number for the addressee. This re-
putedly will speed up delivery, though one
fails to see how.
BUT REGARDLESS of what the new all-
number nonsense is supposed to do, it
should be resisted with all vigor and violence.
Do Not--repeat-do not use the Zip Code. Do
N'ot-repeat-do not use all-number dialing.
These' two innovations, to mention a minute
number of the existing and proposed total,
are simply steps along the road to making this
country one big IBM machine.
Consider the many, many numbers we are
practically forced to maintain now: There's
your telephone number, which includes an area
code of three digits and an individual number
if seven digits; there's your Zip Code of five
digits; there's your driver's license number,
your selective service number your social secur-
ity number, your bank account number, your
bicycle license number, your student enrollment
number, your record club account number, your
house number, your license plate number, your
voting registration number, your local taxation
number, your state taxation number, your fed-
eral taxation number, .to mention a few (in
other words, this paragraph looks long enough
to be impressive).
NOW QUITE OBVIOUSLY this just plain
- has got to stop. A free people in a free (?)
nation cannot reasonably be expected to re-
member all those numbers.
Progress
FOR THE FIRST TIME a Negro girl will guide
rushees through the University's all-white
sororities and a white-rush counsellor will as-
sist girls interested in the two Negro houses.
This decision to exchange rush counsellors
is a progressive and valuable move on the part
of Panhellenic Association.
It is about time that the associate sorori-
ties on the campus be Included in the regularly
scheduled sorority activities.
nE FACT that the Negro houses have been
in the background of sorority activities is
partly their own fault for not asserting them-
selves and partly the fault of the other 22
houses on campus which mave not gone out
of their way to see to it that all 24 sororities
on this campus participate equally.
Hopefully, this is the first step in bringing
the two associate members into closer contact
with the entire system. -G. EVANS
Arbitrar
THE SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY campus had
been in an uproar for a week. The Congress
of Racial Equality was organizing protest
demonstrations over discrimination in urban
renewal construction; sound trucks had been
blaring messages at the campus urging students
to picket; other students who, according to the
Syracuse Daily Orange, "claimed to represent
CORE" had "entered classrooms asking for
followers and picketers durng class time."
The campus had responded. There were 60
arrests in six days. Fifty one students and nine
faculty members wre charged with trespassing
as they willfully broke the law by crossing
work lines.
THE ADMINISTRATION decided that it was
time to crack down. Administrations as a
general rule seem to value order over every
Published at 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Owner-Board in Control of Student Publications, 420
Maynard St., Ann Arbor.
Bond or stockholders-none.
Average press run-6500.
One solution might well be to rise up and
insist that all these potential IBM machines
get together and assign the same number to
the same person, so that each person would
have one number and one number only.
However, that would defeat the whole all-
number conspiracy, which is to confuse the
people sufficiently so that they will stop an-
noying the agency involved. For example, the'
phone company hopes to get enough digits
tacked onto your phone number so that dialing
will become a traumatic process somewhat
akin to filling out an income tax form.
In this way, you will make longer phone
calls due to the fact that you want to say
everything you can in order to avoid the
horrors of dialing again in the event you
forget something. Now since the telephone rates
seem to be calculated on the basis of a geo-
metrical progression, it is obvious why the
phone company favors many numbers.
AS FOR the post office, the same principle
applies. The principle is that ifaddressing
a letter becomes complicated enough, the
people will band together, save up all family
correspondence for a month or so, send the
whole mess parcel post (at those astronomical
rates), and without a return address so the
post office can dump the whole thing in the
dead letter office and claim you used an in-
sufficient address (like you forgot to put down
the color of the house).
And this brings us to another point. If you
think these fine bureaucratic agencies had
trouble getting your name right, wait until
you observe them trying to get your number
right. You see, if your name is Smith, and
it should happen to be misspelled Smyth, that
isn't terribly hard to track down. But if your
Zip Code is 94134 and your friend sent the
letter to 94143, how would you begin to guess
what happened?
NOW THE POST OFFICE and the phone
company and others will claim that the
Zip Code and the All-Number calling are used
in addition to ,the present information, so
there's a double check. But let us 'not forget
the local examples of the Ann Arbor Bank
and the University, where you can't cash a
check without your account number, no matter
how well you spell your name, or where you
can't fill out a form without your student
number, regardless if you know everything
else.
So there's nothing to do but trek back to
your abode and dig that number out. (That's
right; you unearth your bank account number
and put it down on the University form. Then
you wonder what happened to your grades.)
So the course for freedom-loving Americans
is clear. Resist this number business completely.
Refuse to use the Zip Code; arrogantly inform
the operator your number is NOrmandy 2-
3241 and when she tells the long distance
operator it is 6623241, correct her. Sell the
Ann Arbor 'Bank if they want your account
number on your check (which incidentally is
written In Swahili or something), they can
just put it there themselves. If the post office
wants your Zip Code, tell the mailman to
look it up.
rfHIS AND ONLY THIS will break the
bureaucrats, and this is why: You see
there is one thing they don't like about an
all, number system-using it.
-MICHAEL HARRAH
y Action
other consideration, and the one at Syracuse
is certainly no exception. Vice-President Eric
H. Faigle announced Sunday night that any
student arrested or detained by police in such
demonstrations would be immediately placed
on "disciplinary probation."
At Syracuse, "pro" is when they really mean
business: it is the step just before they throw
you out. Syracuse has to worry about its public
image too.
The move had the desired effect. There have
been no more sound trucks, no more classroom
interruptions, and no more arrests. The dem-
onstrations have been considerably more or-
derly.
9VJHE ORDER was not without its price. Voices
of the American Association of University
Professors, and the 4merican Civil Liberties
Union have been raised to protest the tactic,
and rightly so. It is questionable whether the
university has any right to impose this kind
of double jeopardy on the student, whereby he
is punished twice for the same "crime."
Even if one concedes this point on the
archaic principle of paternalism, the fact still
remains that under these circumstances arrest
is not enough of a guilt criterion to merit the
To the Editor:
I AGREE with reader Le Clare
that the remarks attributed to
me in The Daily last Thursday
were in extremely poor taste and
shocking. I do not believe my ac-
tual testimony before SGC ,was
shocking; The Daily's incomplete
coverage of what I said and its
use of quotes out of context gave
a very different picture to the
reader than the one I left with
SGC. In particular, I did not im-
pugn the competence of any at-
torney, although The Daily story
suggests the contrary.
However, I was guilty of poor
taste, and I would appreciate The
Daily carrying my public apology
to Attorney Laurence Smith for
my statement casting doubt on his.
good faith in raising certain ob-
jections to proposed SGC pro-
cedures.
I should have picked my words
with more care and said that his
ideas of what due process re-
quires in this context-particularly
his idea SGC must furnish trial
by jury before imposing with-
drawal of recognition-strikes me
as wholly groundless.
I stated to SGC my detailed rea-
sons for believing that further
SGC delay in response to At-
torney Smith's criticisms would be
unwise. I regret The Daily omitted
these reasons in its news story.
-Prof. Robert J. Harris
Law School
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The editors re-
gret, any distress that may have
been caused to Mr. Smith or Prof.
Harris by any misunderstanding of
Prof. Harris' remarks which could
be attributed to the report that ap-
peared In The Daily.)
Folk Phonies ...
To the Editor:
ONE OF THE LESS lovely
aspects of the cuirent folk
craze is the presence of camp-fol-
lowers ,known as commercial
singers. IBy current folksingers'
definitions, a commercial singer is
a fifth-rate nightclub singer who
has bought a guitar and jumped
on the folk music bandwagon by
singing old and watered-down
songs in jazzed up style, often with
new, slicked up words.
Those who remember the taping
of the television program "Hoote-
nanny" here and remember the
incredible falseness with which
those songs were presented may
be surprised to learn that worse
things can be done. Probably the
worse example going is the movie
"Hootenanny Hoot."
INTRIGUED BY the short but
descriptive review in The Daily, I
wasted an afternoon finding out
whether or not the movie was as
bad as the reviewer suggested. It,
was worse.
It takes more than a guitar to
make a folksinger and it takes
more than a simple 1-2-3-4 beat
to make a folksong. Of all the
commercial slick singers I've ever
listened to (and the Panhellenic
concert of two weeks ago featured
a crop of them), these were the
worst. Flashy instrumental pyro-
technics, inane words, crudely
obvious' staging, slick harmony
and lecherously saccharine grins at
the camera marked the progress
of this miserable film.
* * *
FORTUNATELY, University
students have far better taste than
the moviemakers. Although this
film was obviously intended to
take advantage of a craze which
has University students holding
three campus hootenannies a.
week, the scripwriters overlooked
the fact that folk music fans soon
lose their ear for pop music trash
and develop both a taste for hon-
est folksongs and a sharp eye for
commercial phonies.
The movie has fallen flat on its
celluloid face and departs to make
room for a situation comedy. Good
thing too. If the film had stayed
another day, the Michigan The-
atre might well have been picketed
by local folk music fans and out-
raged members of the campus
Folklore Society.
-Leslie Fish, '66
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FISCAL REFORM PLANS:
Do We Need a Tax Overhaul?
I
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last
in a series of articles investigating
Gov. George Romney's proposed fis-
cal reform program.)
By STEVEN HALLER
NOW THAT Gov. George Rom-
ney has made his fiscal re-
form program a matter of pub-
lic record, the Legislature has be-
come the object of rapt attention
on the part of the state and the
nation alike. The major reason for
this phenomenon is not so much
the fact that Romney has conceiv-
ed a new tax structure, but rather
that he has done so at a time when
the state is doing quite well with
what it has.
For two years now, Michigan's
all-important automobile industry
has been booming, and the nuis-
ance tax package has contributed
to the favorable picture. Under the
circumstances, Romney's plan to
impose a system of statewide in-
come taxes will undoubtedly fall
7tn a number of deaf ears among
he public and legislators alike.
ROMNEY POINTED OUT to the
Legislature that "the fiscal year
which closed June 30 produced
state general fund revenue which
was. $62.2 million more than gen-
eral fund spending for the same
12-month period." This fortunate
turn of events cut the standing
deficit of $85.6 million down to
only $23 million, and the sum con-
ceivably could be reduced even
more in the next fiscal year.
Says Romney, "This huge deficit
reduction)is a tribute to the Mich-
igan Legislature in two ways. The
Legislature in 1962 enacted addi-
tional taxes, which provided the
bulk of new state revenue permit..
ting such a large reduction in the
deficit. The Legislature then re-
fused to appropriate beyond its
means, and thus achieved a single-
year surplus in recognition of the
fact that nothing damages a
state's fiscal reputation more than
a huge, nagging deficit."
IN VIEW of the state's fiscal po-
sition, many legislators in both
parties have questioned Romney's
motives in attempting to overhaul
a structure which is bringing such
a high yield. The answer lies in
the governor's slogan, "Tax re-
form without tax increase - for
jobs and justice." Romney's avow-
ed goal is a fiscal program that
will be more equitable and yet one
which will not achieve such equity
at the price of a higher tax bur-
den.
To attain this goal, the governor
has mentioned several steps which
might be taken to realize "genuine
fiscal reform, which includes both
spending reform and tax reform."
ROMNEY'S PLANS for tax re-
form have been covered in some
detail in preceding articles of this
series. Briefly, he would have a
statewide income tax, with separ-
ate levies for individuals, corpora-
tions, and financial institutions;
he would lower the level of busi-
ness taxation otherwise by' repeal
of the business activities tax and
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some strides in this area since the
day that he thought the only way
he could cut down in executive of-
fice costs was to use a standard
car instead of a limousine.
The first move Romney took was
to work with the Budget Division
toward reducing its tentative rec-
ommendations by 10 per. cent.
Romney notes that "despite the
limited time at our disposal, we
largely accomplished this objective
in our proposed budget. For the
first time in several years, the
governor actually recommended
lesp spending than the Legisla-
tu'e finally approved."
* * *
NOW THE GOVERNOR is em-
barked on an even more far-
reaching program of economy on
the state level. Seven accountants
and financial management experts
were recruited to form a "task
force on expenditure manage-
ment."
Romneycalls the results so far
"encouraging," but much of the
planning is still in the formative
stage.
Among several examples of what
has been accomplished thus far,
he cites the case of one state agen-
cy employing 65 persons. Romney's
task force found that 15 positions
could be eliminated "without af-
fecting the level of service."
He continues, "Study of another
division in another agency, with 55
positions involved, indicates six
are not needed for present activi-
ties. Preliminary reports in other
agencies also promise economies.
* * *
"IT HAS BEEN SLOW going in
these first reviews of positions and
activities, because task force per-
sonnel have been writing the man-
uals and training regular state
employes in their techniques of
position analysis. But now that it's
under way, the program will move
faster; and in time, every agency
and department of government
will be given work simplification
analysis."
The task force also recommend-
ed both a data processing unit "to
make more efficient use of the
data processing equipment ' now
used." The unit would also recom-
mend an overall plan for centraliz-
ed and more efficient use of state
equipment.
Studies are also being made con-
cerning revising state-operated re-
tail liquor store operations and
warehousing methods, reducing
state costs in printing, insurance
and communications, and inspect-
ing the current inventory control
program.
* * *
ROMNEY'S PLANS for econo-
mizing will not be readily accepted
by everyone, and those who will
lose out in the rush to save the
state money will undoubtedly be.
the first to kick up a fuss. Nor will
the governor's plans raise his pres-
tige much where taxes are con-.
cerned, since some people will have
their taxes raised at the same
time that others are lowered. This
is to be expected, but it cannot be
helped.
Wthout going into lengthy nit-
picking, one could readily accept
the bulk of Romney's fiscal pro-
gram if he realizes that it is nec-
essary and that it should be done
now, before the state's financial
situation worsens. By eliminating
those "featherbedding" practices
which still exist within the struc-
ture of the state government,
Romney will greatly reduce the
cost of running the state, which
means that the taxpayers will ben-
efit as well.
* * *
AT THE SAME TIME, Romney's
tax plan, if accepted by the Leg-
islature, will go a long way to-
ward equalizing the tax burden
from taxpayer to taxpayer. With
certain modifications, mentioned
earler in the series, the governor's
reform program is a good one. To-
gether, the, two concepts-making
the tax burden equitable and econ-
omizing within the state govern-
mental structure-should have
little trouble in living up to the
governor's slogan. As Romney has
said, the program will provide "tax
reform without tax increase"; and
hopefully his goals of "jobs and
justice" will indeed be the end
result.
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Perkpheral Issues
By WALTER LIPPMANN
SO THAT WE shall not expect
too much or value too little the
partial test ban treaty, we must, I
believe, ask why this agreement,
which has been suggested so often
before, became at last, feasible.
What has been the/ primary rea-
son?
Not the pollution of the air by
fallout. The danger of that has
been known for years. Not the
Soviet quarrel with Red China.
For while that could conceivably
explain why Moscow became will-
ing to agree with us, it does not
explain why Washington became
willing to agree with Moscow. Not
a sudden realization after the
confrontation on Cuba that war
must be avoided, though it is true
that what it was like to stand on
the brink has not been forgotten
in Moscow and in Washington.
These and many other reasons
have, no doubt, played a contribut-
ing part in the decision on both
sides to sign the partial test ban
treaty.
But the primary reason has
been, I submit, that a preponder-
ant scientific opinion has devel-
oped on both sides that continued,
testing in the atmosphere could
almost certainly not produce a de-
cisive breakthrough in the nuclear
race. There' is a dissenting minor-
ity, led by Dr. Teller in this coun-
try and reflected in the negative
votes in the Senate, which con-
tinues to believe that a break-
through can be made if enough
atmospheric tests are conducted.
And there is reason to believe that
in the Soviet military establish-
ment there are Russian counter-
parts to Dr. Teller. But the two.
governments, having heard the
Teller case argued by scientists,
have rejected it, and that is the
decisive reason why they nego-
tiated this treaty.
* * ,*
TO BE SURE, our responsible
officials have been careful not to
go on record publicly that a break-
through to an anti-missile missile
is virtually impossible. But they
could not have supported the test
ban had they not become convinc-
ed by the large majority of Amer-
ican experts and disinterested
scientists that the absolute weapon
cannot be produced by continued
testing in the atmosphere.
No doubt Dr. Teller is a for-
midable man to overrule. He would
not have been overruled if the
weight of opinion opposed to it
were not overwhelmingly formid-
able. For if there were any real
chance of achieving the absolute
tveapon, the risks of not testing
would be absolutely enormous.
The government would not have
taken such risks. What is more,
we ;must not forget that Mr.
Khrushchev would not have taken
such risks.
* *i
Antarctic continent, and is, so the
President now proposes, to go on
to a number of cooperative enter-
prises, of which the most spec-
tacular is 'the exploration of the
moon. The whole series leaves
aside the vital issues of the cold
war and proceeds to deal with
issues that, while not vital, are
unnecessarily competitive a n d
irritating.
A SETTLEMENT of the cold
war, which extends to all the con-
tinents, is not in sight. The cold
war will smolderon for genera-
tions. But what has happened in
very/ recent times is that the vital
issues between the Soviet Union
and the Atlantic community -
which arise chiefly from the par-
tition of Europe, the partition of
Germany, and the partition of
Berlin-are being defused.
That is to say, neither side Is
expecting to settle the issues by
nuclear weapons. That is a great
deal better than if they expected
these issues to be such that they
could be solved only by nuclear
weapons.
By dealing with the peripheral
issues - Antarctica, atmospheric
tests, going to the moon--it will
not become harder, and it may be-
come easier, to deal with the vital
central issues. Just this week, the
Secretary General of the Gaullist
party in France told the Council
of Europe meeting in Strasbourg
that "Europe must be careful not
to become the victim of this close-
ness" between the United States
and the Soviet Union. Monsieur
Baumel need not worry-too much
about the closeness. He is having
a nightmare induced by reading
too much European history and
too little American history when
he imagines Khrushchev and Ken-
nedy sitting down to impose a
settlement on Europe.
EVEN IF WE wanted to make a
deal behind the backs of our Ger-
man and French allies, we could
not make one. We have many
faults, heaven only knows, but
how to play Machiavelli or Tal-
leyrand or Richelieu. is not in :the
American educational curriculum.
(c) 1963, The washington Post Co.
Farmers
WHAT DO farmers want? They
want Washington bureaucrats
to untie their hands and quit tell-
ing them how to run their farmus.
They are proud of the fact that
they produce more food and fiber
per man than any other farmers
ig history.
They feel that government got
them into the mess they're in,
and therefore should help them
get out. Also believing that, Sens.
Bourke Hickenlooper, George D.
Aiken, &linton Anderson and
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"Picketing! Demonstrations! Government
Meddling! I Don't Know What This
Country Is Coming To"
^ Q
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