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 FEIFFER i 7 6P E4 CA '1. -TO It4E;Ir PILL. ., y c !'c Tr yak f I & - 00U8L A~.. { a ) l-j ti F~LLOR A WHOLC PAt !T5 S IF eo 't 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. a,.- __s . _ I . , _ _ -_ : 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 SPORTSM EN' KIDS! MANIACS!. A whole line of pistols and. ot&her wea.Pon-s, r eaxLy &v. use, i c ~ m- -- L . s importedt rifle, with regjular haIrph0ooter" hPSCOp(c sight 141178 1 MINDI I~ 11 Ima.