Semty-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD n CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "mere pnions Are STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 Truth Will Previl"' Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in alp reprints. "We Didn't Agree to Stop Testing You" TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: ANDREW ORLIN Tax Plan Failure Dims Romney's Star GOVERNOR ROMNEY refuses to admit that his tax reform program is dead. Most of the legislators in Lansing say that the chances for passage of anything resembling Romney's original fiscal re- form plan are almost nil; but still the gov- ernor refuses to admit defeat. This is to be expected because the governor's poli- tical future hinges on the success or fail- ure of this program. When campaigning for governor, Rom- ney practically promised the people of Michigan that he would have fiscal reform passed while he was in office. It was mostly on this basis alone that he was elected. The people expected great things of him, and he went into office confident that he could fulfill this campaign prom- ise. And he had a right to be confident be- cause he had a Republican majority in both houses of the Legislature to help him accomplish his goal. As far back as 1961, Republicans were mentioning Romney as a potential Republican presi- dential candidate. However, his chances seemed to rely on just how well he car- ried out his campaign promises in Michi- gan. NOW THAT HE SEEMS to have failed in his project to enact the fiscal reform so badly needed in Michigan, his future political chances certainly look bad. It is no wonder then that he is clutch- ing at straws, attempting to get some- thing even vaguely resembling his origin- al proposal through the Legislature. Romney is making every last-ditch ef- fort he can think of to save his program. But his lack of confidence is becoming more apparent every day. He seems to be getting panicky because he finally realizes that by alienating the Democrats he has ruined any chances of passage that there were for his program. ONE DAY he makes what seems to be a sincere plea for bipartisan support of the fiscal reform program, and the next day he decides that it's no use, and blames the Democrats for the apparent failure of the plan. In blaming the Democrats he's making another mistake, because at this point he should be pacifying them, not antagonizing them, if he really wants their support. He'll soon realize, however, that it's too late for politicking, and that he might as well give up in his fight for fiscal re- form. Although it is too early to predict his political demise, one thing is certain: his failure to get a fiscal reform program passed has dealt a mortal blow to any political aspirations he may have had. -THOMAS COPI SERMON IN REVIEW: The Forgiveness That Relieves Despair LAST SUNDAY I heard a brief, clear, formal sermon by Mr. Vernold W. Aurich at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. On my way there I wondered what relation his preaching would have to that of Luther himself. Would he settle for faithfully reproducing doctrine that Luther had formulated? Or would he follow the example of Luther in reformulating Christianity to show its relevance for his own time? In his introduction. Mr. Aurich reminded us of our refusal to consider deep questions and our escape from them into superficial existence. The subject of his sermon, the forgiveness of sins, was divided into two parts: God's forgiveness permits us to discover how desperate our situation is; yet his forgiveness overcomes that despair. Y* * * "FORGIVENESS is the greatest need of life," Mr. Aurich declared. He quoted from T. S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" to describe our condition without forgiveness: "There was a door. And I could not open it . . ./ Why could I not walk out of my prison?" In this con- dition we suffer a sense of condemnation, like Dr. Luther who, after the first Mass he celebrated, felt as though he were dust and ashes. Sin received a totalitarian definition. It is everything that we do in other than a positive relation to God. "It is not just breaking God's rule but breaking off from God," he said. When we "drop" Him, there is a vacuum into which evil rushes. THE BEST ILLUSTRATION in the sermon illuminated how forgiveness enables us to face the truth that we are sinners. Mr. Aurich reminded us how we hope that a recurring twinge of pain will just go away if we ignore it and how friends reassure us that all we need is some sunshine and exercise. But the pain continues. At last we go to the doctor. His diagnosis is that we require major sur- gery. But, because we are in the hands of a competent physician, we carr face what we could not face before. Forgiveness is not only stern truth about ourselves, but is also gracious. Although friends may just shrug their shoulders at them, our sins give God a heavy heart, he said. Yet God accomplishes our redemption by taking their hurt out of his heart and letting it go. God has purchased our freedom by his Son-not by means of some- thing external to himself but by that within himself. Christianity is not just knowledge but is a life as a child of God, made possible in "the return of God to our hearts by faith," he said. Thus we are enabled to walk out of our prison and go free. ** * * THE SERMONS of Luther are both clear and rich. They immerse one in scripture, instruct one in doctrine, invite one to enter into the joy of the Lord. Their grandeur, lyricism, indignation, tenderness, homeliness, comedy, irony, sarcasm invite one to enter into the full range of being human. But Mr. Aurich asked us to participate in something more restricted and genteel. He was not in touch with the whole man. Nor was he in touch with the human center: it shifts from time to time. Luther is important because he located the human center in his period. He discovered it by searching for the meaning of scrip- ture with the scholarly tools of humanism and a radical principle of interpretation. The scholarly fools determined what scripture meant in itself; the other determined what that meaning threatened or promised for the destiny of Luther's own anxiety-edged, guilt-hubbed, death-terminating existence. "Justification by faith alone" spoke joy to him, and, when he repeated it aloud, spoke joy to the people of his period, and percipitated a new epoch. AS TILLICH SUGGESTS, we inhabit a yet newer epoch. The problem at the human center seems to be no longer the guilt of sin but the despair of meaninglessness. A sermon that does not relate the forgiveness of sins to the quest for meaning leaves the desperate still more desperate. People in our epoch long not for a repetition of the doctrine of Luther but for a following of the example of Luther- the correlation of scripture with the human center in our time. --Tony Stoneburner CIVIL RIGHTS: A Little Ingenuity ,', TWO-PARTY SYSTEM: Competition Can Aid Negroes THE LIAISON: Fighting Spirit?' Barbara Lazarus, Personnel Director i1 } POLITICS IS A MATTER of priorities- the most pressing problems get han- dled first. A good example of this state of affairs is what is happening these days to the proposed Medicare bill, a fairly important item which has been shoved aside by President Kennedy and Con- gress for other "more important" things. If President Kennedy had placed strong support this session behind Medicare, it might have been passed by Congress. In- stead, Kennedy has done what he has often done before: he compromises his power away until none of his basic meas- ures are passed to his satisfaction. The presidential power that he could have had is dissipated away through constant com- promises, Earlier this year, President Kennedy's budget began to get nibbled away by Congress, and he turned his attention to getting the tax cut and stopping added expenditures from being cut apart. Then civil rights reached a boiling point this summer, and he had to whip together a comprehensive bill to fight off criticism for his lack of action. Thus, in the midst of these important considerations, an old campaign promise and a "less important" measure is getting lost in committee. MEDICARE IS NEEDED now more than ever, since hospital costs are going up increasingly each day. Commercial health plans do not like to insure the elderly be- cause they are usually poor risks, and those that will take them charge high fees. Voluntary health plans such as Blue Cross-Blue Shield have been swamped with elderly people and have had to bear a large financial burden from their high- er rate of illness. Consequently, their fees are going up regularly. Congress did take some action on this problem in 1960 with the Kerr-Mills bill, which is hailed by the American Medical Association as a satisfactory measure. However, Kerr-Mills is so limited that it avoids the whole problem of medical care for the aged. It only increases federal payments to the states' programs deal- ing with medical payments to people on relief. It also has a provision that those states already providing such medical payments Editorial Staff RONALD WILTON, Editor DAVID MARCUS GERALD STORCH Editorial Director City Editor BARBARA LAZARUS ........... Personnel Director PHLIP BUTIN..........National Concerns Editor GAIL EVANS ................... Associate City Editor 14ARJORIE BRAHMS ..... Associate Editorial Director GLORIA BOWLES .................. Magazine Editor MALINDA BERRY ................ Contributing Editor DAVE GOOD........................ Sports Editor can either use the extra funds for more improvements in care for the aged or merely place the extra funds in a general state treasury, not especially earmarked for medical aid. Kerr-Mills finances only people on relief who have passed a means test and does not help the elderly ma- jority who are not classified as being in- digent. The bill also does not specifically indicate that states must earmark funds for medical care. Presently, this is the only legislation Congress has successfully passed in this area. LAST YEAR the King-Anderson bill fail- ed, partly because Kennedy dropped his support for it in order to fight for other key measures. This bill would have provided more comprehensive medical coverage by including all persons receiv- ing Old Age Survivor's Insurance under the the Social Security program. It also had a 90 day coverage of hospitalization with a deductible provision and some cov- erage of laboratory, X-ray and drug fees in the hospital. However, it died for lack of active presidential support and because it was facing an organized conservative opposition. Kennedy was due again this year to push hard for a Medicare bill and faded another fight with conservative members of Congress and a powerful AMA. His bill would have been expanded to cover all people over 65 and been administered by Blue Cross to avoid possible government intervention in hospital affairs. Kennedy shauld have made some at- tempt earlier this year to fight for Medi- care and not given it up so quickly when the going got rough. He campaigned vig- orously on this issue three years ago, but he has allowed it to fall by the wayside and sacrificed it away as other Kennedy bills have been sacrificed away. THE PRESIDENCY possesses inherent powers of persuasion and political lev- erage which can be used to get key meas- ures passed. However, Kennedy, through- out his three years in office, has failed to use these powers to their fullest strength. At the last minute, he has often with- drawn support of measures which he was pushing hard, such as the King-Anderson bill, in order to try to raise his power po- tential on another bill. Often his incon- sistency has ended in the death or radical alteration of administration measures. The source of President Kennedy's trouble with Congress is that he compro- mises on too many issues at once. Conse- quently, Congress doesn't even have to fight him strongly to get him to back down on an issue. This compromising to- gether with his extreme concern with po- litical expediency means that many bills By ROBERT SELWA GOVERNOR Nelson Rockefeller is much stronger than Senator Barry Goldwater on civil rights, and it would seem at first glance that the cause of civil rights would gain more through the Republican Presidential nomination of Rocke- feller than Goldwater. But, with some twists of fate, the opposite could also be true. This stems from the matter that Rockefeller would alienate support from segregationists while Goldwater would attract it. Rockefeller with his emphasis on civil rights would draw Northern liberals while Goldwater with his emphasis on states rights would draw Southern conservatives. Goldwater, who is not a segrega- tionist, would leave the matter to the states, and this would make Dixie happy because then they could get away with doing no- thing. * * * A GOLDWATER NOMINATION would reverse the ideals of the Republican party; it would turn the party founded on the high moral plane of antislavery and national union into a party with many adherents of segregation and state power. A Goldwater nomination would produce the same kind of unholy alliance that has existed in the Demo- cratic party. But Goldwater, while a danger for the Republican party, may be a hidden blessing for civil rightists. Goldwater would put the party on a more equal footing with the Democratic party in the South. Negroes would gain immensely by this. Determined as they now are to gain the franchise, more and more of them are daring to regis- ter to vote. As more and more do register and do vote, Negroes will hold increasing political power in the South. * * * IF THERE IS tight competi- tion between the Republicans and Democrats in the South, the emerging Negro vote will make the difference. They will be able to pick and choose, electing the candidates who are more pro-civil rights or at least less segregation- ist. The candidates of the major parties in the South will be torn between appealing to white segre- gationists, as they try to do now, and appealing to Negroes, their new constituency. There is the possibility that even if most of the Negroes in the South get the franchise, they still will be greatly outnumbered by white segregationists, and the parties would aim their main ap- peal to the latter. But parties traditionally try to appeal to all elements of the voting populace, not just any one majority bloc. As Negroes become a greater numerical element of the voting populace, Southern parties will be- gin to try to appeal Wo them. The parties will try especially hard if Negroes in the South become an independent rather than party- oriented bloc (as they are in the North) and if the Negro vote will mean the winning or losing edge. NEGROES WOULD BENEFIT from a Rockefeller nomination be- cause the governor has a better chance of winning enough elec- toral votes to become President than Goldwater, and as President would do more for them. This goes for Negroes in both the South and the North. But Negroes in the South could benefit from a Gold- water nomination through the emergence of a two-party system in that region. It is a choice between a guy who is for you and a system that eventually would work for you. To 7IM Editor To the Editor: STEVEN HALLER, in his article concerning euthansia or mercy killing, fails to realize the impli- cations of an extremely difficult problem. He belittles the doctor's duty to prolong the life of his patient, although the patient may prefer to die, as "a warped moral precept." Yes, Mr. Haller, you may add that it is also the doctor's duty to relieve suffering, but could You please tell us where to draw the line between a "hopelessly ill" patient and one so delirious from his suffering that he has lost hope? Do you actually believe that medicine has no further roads to travel than "keeping dying persons alive just to demonstrate the latest medical techniques?" NO, I DO not believe in mir- acles, but I do believe that many well people would not be alive to- day if their doctor had given up hope as easily as they themselves had. Life is sacred, Mr. Haller, and I believe that mine is the only one I have. It is, the last thing I will give up, and I hope that no one will ever let me. -Richard Ketai, '64 Of V'alue . .. To the Editor: MR. HOLLAND'S obvious delight in the sardonic quip-seems to have prevented him from seeing the point in "Eve Wants to Sleep." The satire here is indicative of the spirit of the Polish people. I don't imagine it is easy to thumb one's nose at a totalitarian government or to allow one's political superiors to dictate one's artistic practices. It is not a profound film but it is delightfully entertaining and this certainly is of value. -Gary Nelson, Grad IF A MIRACLE should occur and and a potent civil rights bill should be sent to the President, it is doubtful whether it would be worth all the fuss and bother. The first fact to keep in mind is that for years there have been enough laws on the books to give the Negro equal rights-if the laws were enforced. Second, the history of the past decade shows that the resource- fulness of the deep South in ob- structing integration is almost unlimited. Third-and this is the most dis- tressing fact of all and closely related to the preceding points- the majority of the white popula- tion, North as well as South, con- sists of de facto segregationists. * *.* MOST OF THEM would deny it, and with a clear conscience: they believe in equal rights for Negroes under the Constitution. But they want the Negro to live in some other neighborhood, they don't want to compete with him for jobs and they would like him to be more genteel in his protests. Which all adds up to the likeli- hood that soon the Negroes will be found back in the streets and with even less confidence for a redress of grievances in the courts and the Congress than they had last June. * * * IF THERE IS a way to avoid an outcome so deplorable and so dangerous, it can only be through Presidential action as resourceful as that which got the bill through the judiciary committee. Such in- genuity, applied to the existing laws by the President and the Attorney General, might avoid the pitched battles which lie ahead. -The Nation Survival, NO MAN from the deep South has striven more earnestly to look upon the Democratic Party as a national institution than has Lyndon Johnson. No southerner has shown a greater awareness that the Democratic Party cannot survive upon the national scene if it is to be perverted into an in- strument to keep alive the "pecu- liar institutions" of Dixie--its in- sistence upon segregation of the races and a second-class position for Negroes. -Robert L. Riggs I FEIFFER Vo qW .' D, MEMO6~6~ WHAT? WGK Y'DVG AJ WNJV A 6ROWJ-UP~? 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