Seventy-Third Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Where Opinions Are Free 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 al reprints.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1963 NIGHT EDITOR: EDWARD HERSTEIN
Fear of Extremism
Must Not Go Too Far
"LET US PUT AN END to the teaching vocating violence, lay a framework for
and preaching of hatred and evil and v i o1 e n c e by encouraging irrational
violence. Let us turn away from the thought and violent behavior in others.
fanatics of the far left and the far right, The results of the vitriolic statements
from the apostles of bitterness and big- of such organizations can be seen in the
otry, from those defiant of law, and those attack of United Nations Ambassador Ad-
who pour venom into our nation's blood- lai Stevenson in Dallas and in the Black
stream. I profoundly hope that the trage- Muslim clashes with police in Los Angeles.
dy and torment of these terrible days
will bind us together in new fellowship, BUT WHILE the United States should
making us one people in our sorrow" . eschew hate-mongering and calls to
Thus President Lyndon B. Johnson most violence, it should not be deprived of radi-
eloquently states the new cliche that has cal thought-right or left.
While the "let us be rid of extremists"
found its, way into public statements will make the far right unpopular, it also
since the assassination of President Ken- can be used to silence and persecute the
nedy. moderate and far left.
There ismuch meaning in the recur- For example, two Louisiana organiza-
rent statement against extremism; yet tions, the New Orleans Citizens Council
there are dangers to freedom of expres- and the Louisiana Joint Legislative Com-
sion if this feeling is itself distorted into mittee on Un-American Activities have
a kind of extremism. declared Kennedy's murder was part of
Communist efforts to stir up hatred.
AMERICA should avoid the violent emo- "Many people did not believe this, but
tional extremism of the John Birch perhaps the horrible events of (Nov. 22)
Society, the Black Muslims or the White will wake them up to the fact," the com-
Citizen's Council. These type of organiza- mittee asserted.
tions which, while not themselves ad- Others of a similar mind will make the
oft-repeated but fallacious connection be-
tween Communists and any one left of
Letters center, declaring that since Oswald called
- himself a Communist, Communists are a
RECENTLY State Atty. Gen. Frank Kel- threat to the country; leftists are little
ley said that of all the mail he has re- more than mild Communists, they must
ceived on his opinion concerning local be silenced before the nation is further
fair housing ordinances, only "a half endangered. Thus a new wave of McCar-
ous g ornanes, n y althyism could be launched.
dozen" letters oppose it. h
He says that his opinion, which if ac- a h -
cepted at its face value would annul Ann have taken steps to prevent this
Arbor's fair housing ordinance has re- to aetknsest rvn hs
kind of hysteria. The presidential inves-
celved support in "hundreds" of letters tigatory commission and the insistence on
which he has received, publicizing all the Oswald evidence are
IT SEEMS AS THOUGH the designed to allay this reaction.
people who But the anti-extremist statements have
worked so hard for a fair housing ordi- a subtler effect, telling the country that
nance in Ann Arbor gave up the whole moderate thought is the only acceptable
idea when'Kelley issued his opinion. This thought and that radical thought will
is a shame, because many people sacrific- lead to the violence that killed Kennedy.
ed a lot of time and effort to see a fair It will be harder for leftists, in partic-
housing ordinance passed here. ular, to present their views. The calls for
Over 50 of the. supporters of an ordi- moderation will solidify the American
nance still face court action because of public's conservative inclination.
the fair housing demonstrations in which It is too soon to measure the effects of
they participated. the "let us turn from extremists" state-
Those people who worked for a fair ments, but the dangers are there. In their
housing ordinance in Ann Arbor, as well national bereavement, the American peo-
as anyone else who supports it, should ple should be warned against a new ex-
write to Kelley and let him know that we tremism: the fear of the non-convention-
do not accept his ruling, and that it will al thought.
not go unopposed. -PHILIP SUTIN
-T. COPI National Concerns Editor
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
The Nation Should Not Bear the Blame
i
THE LIAISON:*
Campus in Panic
Gloria Bowles, Magazine Editor,
THE RACE IS ON, and the campus is in more than
panic. known any
According to the provisions of the new than profe,
academic calendar, geared to an eventual to teach in
full-scale trisemester operation at the Christmas
University, final examinations are before
Christmas this year, a short two weeks BUT BOT
away. are und
The student feels the push. The semes- iod of Adj
ter is actually only a week shorter, caus- professors v
ing a slight increase in pressures on the themselves
student. Other factors, however, have current sen
been more important in promoting aca- The stud
demic uneasiness, felt throughout the se- and an inc
mester but particularly acute now. example of
the studen
MOST VETERAN STUDENTS, returning Ann Arbor
to Ann Arbor in the midst of late tion to wor
summer and then, an Indian summer, did the burden
not begin working until several week tnelofdthe
after the start of the semester: they did ntion rela
not look far enough ahead to anticipate durin nthe.
the current torrent of work. Also, that during the
saving grace, the Christmas vacation- HESE N]
period of "catching up" and paper writ- Tresults,
ing, is no longer a part of the academic with an op
calendar. Lulls created by the Thanks-
giving vacation and an unexpected na- the new ca
tional tragedy which profoundly affected come a pen
the campus kept the student away from incomplete
his work.inopes
his ork.more failui
The student, in this first experience dents who
with the new calendar, has not learned to nations inc
pace himself. Neither have many of the and women
University's professors, who are now only drop?
two-thirds of the way through their Given fug
courses with only two weeks of class time trimester w
remaining. The new calendar probably af- "U" faciliti
*...n n ..,,, nrhmm ac i.n, nrc, a n ninrc.
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: i AA illYiltA ,f y
To the Editor:
IN OUR FIRST PASSION of grief
over the abominable assassina-
tion of a great and good President,
it is natural that people should
for a time think with their emo-
tions, rather than with their
brains. Thus several of your cor-
respondents have sought to indict
"all of us" of the "whole American
people" for the murder, which is
"guilt by association" carried to
the degree of infinity.
As a historian, I should like to
point out that:
1) During the period in which
four American Presidents have
been killed, there have been much
more than a hundred similar as-
sassinations of kings, princes, pre-
miers, dictators, or other very high
officials in other countries;
2) The assassins of Lincoln,
Garfield; McKinley and Kennedy,
and the men who attempted to
kill Theodore and Franklin Roose-
velt and Truman, were, in every
case, men of deeply psychiatric
type, either crazy or half crazy; in
no case was there a widespread
conspiracy (only in Booth's case
perhaps five or six persons were
involved, all the others were com-
pletely individual);
3) Most important of all, in no
American case of assassination
was there a governmental over-
turn, a period of chaos and an-
archy, or a resulting civil war or
official reign of terror, all of
which have frequently happened
in many other lands.
* * *
OF COURSE, there are elements
of intolerance and violence and
irrational hatred in this country,
and such elements should be
strenuously fought. But I do say
that Burke was right in declaring
that one cannot indict a whole
nation. Our country includes mil-
lions of people (the late President
Kennedy among them) who have
spent their lives fighting racial
and religious intolerance, political
violence and every form of social
injustice. f
-Preston Slosson
Professor Emeritus of History
From Russia...
To the Editor:
THE LETTER quoted below is
from Lev Kostikov, Moscow
dated Nov. 25 addressed to Regent
Irene Murphy, 444 Bonnie Briar,
Birmingham, Michigan, received
Nov. 30:
My dear Mrs. Murphy:
We are so very shocked to
hear of the sorrow that has
come to your country. We have
lost one of the greatest men. In
this grievous day our hearts are
filled by grief and suffering. I
have read the book "All Men
Are Brothers" and I believe that
such a time will come.
With deepest sympathy
Lev Kostikov
4 * *
LEV KOSTIKIV was an ex-
change scholar at the University
during 1961-62. He is an assis-
tant professor of mechanical en-
gineering in Moscow. During his
academic year in Michigan he was
a frequent visitor in Birmingham
and Franklin where he made many
friends.
\Mr. Kostikov is married. His
wife is a municipal judge. His son,
Andrei is eight years old.
The academic exchange pro-
gram between the United States
and USSR provides for fifty
scholars from each country each
year. The United States has 50
scholars in USSR. The USSR has
50 scholars in this country. The
University has had seven Soviet
scholars since 1960. This is one
program in which both countries
find cooperative benefit.
monarchies and communist lands.
They bore witness to the courage
of a young widow and her young
children. Their presence shows
that there is yet hope for recon-
ciliation of differences among na-
tions. A short time ago, Algeria
and Morocco were waging a desert
war. Last week, their representa-
tives arrived on the same plane.
THE NATIONS of the world
marched from the cradle of de-
mocracy to the grave of its fallen
leader. Friend marched with foe,
Black with white. Communist
with capitalist. Soldier with ci-
vilian. Christian with atheist.
Catholic with Buddhist. Arab with
Jew. The torch has been passed.
The eternal flame has been lit.
We must not, we cannot let its
light go out.
-Gerald A. Klein, Grad
Barbaric Act .. .
To the Editor:
THE ASSASSINATION of our
President still seems unreal.
Even after his funeral it seems
impossible that such an event
could occur in this "civilized"
society. But now the nadir of un-
reality has been reached. The kill-
ing of the President's assassin
completely uncovers the disease at
the roots of our society.
First, we are appalled by the
destruction of the symbol of
America, our President, and now
we are confronted with the de-
struction of the very thing that
Mr. Kennedy dedicated his life
CAMPUS:
Scanty
'Brie fs'
"A PAIR OF BRIEFS," now
showing at the Campus Thea-
tre, is both ragged and torn. It
is neither tasteful nor amusing
and even less exciting.
Airing one's dirty laundry is
never a very pleasant event and
one wonders why the British have
occasioned this lot. If one ever
had the misconception that Holly-
wood had the corner on trite and
inane comedies, this notion may
once and for all be dismissed. "A
Pair of Briefs" very barely covers
an hour and a half with plot much
less laughs.
IT SEEMS two young barristers,
one male and one the other, share
the same office and manage to ac-
quire opposite positions inra legal
case. Neither of them are very
good lawyers but then neither of
them are very good actors; that
occupation is left up to England's
carbon copy Ustinov, James Rob-
ertson Justice. "Briefs," however,
cannot stand on Justice alone;
without the proper support, a ma-
jor letdown is imminent.
The plot is contrived, the jokes
seldom survive, humor never ar-
rives, interest dives. Amusement
lags, action soon sags, ennui then
nags, audience gags.
Which is only to warn against
finding yourself viewing "A Pair
of Briefs." Objects as worn, full
of holes and patches and as disap-
pointingly empty as "Briefs" only
result in embarrassment and
groans. Tantalizing as the ads may
seem, "A Pair of Briefs" offers
little to even the most easily satis-
fied voyeur.
"Briefs" stretches out to cover
a slim plot and the signs of this
peek out all over. The idea of a
bigamist losing a court case to
win isn't quite enough to fill suc-
cessfully "A Pair of Briefs."
to-justice for all, even his own
murderer. We, in our cry for
blood, anyone's. blood, have pre-
vented justice from being enacted.
* * *
THIS BARBARIC ACT has ac-
complished nothing. It has not
reincarnated Mr. Kennedy or
healed our infected society. It has
only served as an escape from the
responsibility for a crime which
everyone in our society must share.
It was only an expression of the
hatred and bigotry which Presi-
dent Kennedy so devotedly bat-
tled, and which ultimately caused
his death. Yet those who recog-
nize this attitude for what it
really is, an escape from respon-
sibility, must be careful that they,
in condemning it, do not become
the. vehicles of-more hate.
It is unfortunate, to say the
least, that it must take such a
tragedy to focus our attention on
this cancer of our society, but
now let us not too easily forget.
We must respond with action to
destroy hate. As Chief Justice
Warren said: "The only thing we
learn fiomhistory is that we don't
want to." We must start learn-
ing, or be destroyed and join the
pages of history as one more na-
tion which did not.
-Michael Pratt. '67
Purposeless .
To the Editor:
THE "assassination extra" which
you put out Nov. 22 caused me
some pain. I am taking the trouble
to point this out to you not be-
cause I think you were the only
news agency to overstep the lim-
its, as I feel them, of discretion,
but because I take it that The
Daily is largely an educational en-
deavor, and there might be some-
thing to be learned from this act.
I'm sure it must have been very
exciting to "stop the presses,"
break down forms, assemble a
story from a frantically-ringing
wire-service machine, and rush it
on the presses. Newspaper men
and broadcasters, older and pro-
fessional men, felt and probably
always will feel such excitement;
and over the weekend they have
taken time and space, unhappily
I feel, to discuss their excitement.
BUT, WHAT, beyond the head-
line (the size of which I will not
discuss and the first sentence or
two, did your extra accomplish.
Did it add to our stock of in-
formation, or in any way help us
to understand information? I
think not.
Yet, perhaps the mere news of
the headline justified the sheet.
Again I think not, since to my
observation, almost everyone who
might have picked up a sheet here
on campus, must have known the
headline some hour or more be-
fore. The transistor radios I heard
about the campus seem to have,
assured that.
My questions are directed at an
even more basic question, what is
the function of a newspaper. It
would seem that it 'cannot com-
pete, in speed, with the transitor.
The mere headline shouldn't jus-
tify the paper, as perhaps it once
more genuinely did. But, if not in
speed, the newspaper can com-
pete in depth. It can give us more
information, in a form which we
can study more carefully than
audio-visual reports, and it can -
maintain a forum for the discus-
sion and clarification of informa-
tion.
MORE THAN THIS, however, I
think the readers of newspapers
should demand useful information.
I take it that the name of the
driver of Mr. Kennedy's car is not
really useful information (to men-
tion one obvious example. I men-
tion this point, because I guess
we are going to hear a great deal
about what one newscaster had
already by Saturday worked
around to "commie leanings" of
Oswald, and won't be too sur-
prised to find the country play-
ing a few more innings of that
grand old American sport-witch
hunting.
Oswald's background, political
and emotional, is probably useful
information, but it would seem
that, as with any member of
either "lunatic fringe" who comes
into such prominence, the political
is only useful with the emotional,
and both may be less important
than a clear picture of what the
administration is doing now.
*S* * i
IN HIGH SCHOOL history
classes we used to learn about
the "yellow press" (without un-
derstanding the term) and the
devil they played the country in
the Spanish-American War. That
even is safely in the past, of
course, and we can deal with it
more certainly and objectively. In
trying to teach freshmen to think
and write clearly, I have had to
show them that all of the informa-
tion the news media give them is
not necessarily, and occasionaly
not at all relevant or useful. Were
it not such a painful issue, I fear
that I might easily use your extra
as an illustration of the many
points I have been trying to make.
-Boyd M. Berry, Grad
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Berry is
correct, of course, in pointing out
that newspapers can hardly hope
to compete with radio and televi-
sion in speed of relaying informa-
tion to audiences.
(It is also probably true that most
if not all of the information in The
Daily extra could have been gleaned
beforehand from radio; nor is
everything printed or broadcast in-
eluctably relevant or useful.
(Nevertheless, there is a lot to be
said for having events in printed -
form. As Mr. Berry notes, newspaper
accounts can be studied more care-
fully than can audio-visual reports.
(More than that: facts can be
assimilated much better, as radio
and television coverage by neces-
'sity tends to jump from place to
place, whereas printed stories as-
semble the relevant facts and out-
line them in (hopefully) coherent
and ordered forma
(In other words, people should be
able to get atbetter understanding
and grapls of the given event as the
newspaper relates and distills the
facts for them,
(I am not saying that in "crisis"
situationsrnewspapertextras should
supplant radio land television cov-
erage. When hard news is occur-
ring with every passing minute, or
so it seems, newspapers serve a
function related to that of radio
and TV; the, former attempts tor
summarizetthe fast-breaking events
as a whole, while the latter keep
adding on facts with lesser empha-
sis on a general overview.'
(During "normal" days, the func-
tions of printed and broadcast me-
dia are more separate: newspapers,
generally speaking, as more lengthy
and "in-depth" summarizations; ra-
dio and television as brief encap-
ulations of the bare essentials of
late developments.
(As for the name of the driver
of the Kennedy limousine, it was
one of the trivial facts which was
not in the Friday extra.
-G. Storch)
a freshmen who have never
'thing else, and students more
ssors, the latter preferring not
the "lame-duck" period after
vacation.
H STUDENTS and professors
ergoing the University's "Per-
ustment." Both students and
will, in the future, have to pace
better than they have in the
mester.
ent must begin work earlier,
reasing number may follow the
a relatively large segment of
t population which stayed in
over the Thanksgiving vaca-.
k. Professors, in recognition of
on the student, must lighten
id weigh carefully the import-
new, two-hour final examina-
tion to the other work required
semester.
EXT TWO WEEKS, and their
should provide the University
portunity for an evaluation of
lendar, which promises to be-
manent part of the University's
calendar. Will there be more
s this semester? Will there be
res? Will the number of stu-
do not show for final exami-
rease? Will the overall men's
n's campus averages show a
rnds from the Legislature, the
will result in a greater use of
es, and an opportunity to give
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