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SIDELINE ON SGC:
Council Plays Same Old Game
"I Deetare, I Don't Know Where-A
The Lad Picked Up Such Habits"
I-
Y, DECEMBER 7, 1963
NIGHT EDITOR: STEVEN HALLER
i . .
Confused' SGC Drops
Only Clear Power
IN CONFUSION OF PURPOSE, Student
Government Council Wednesday voted
to give away its only clear power and to
deny its only useful function. Council
agreed to Union President Raymond Rus-
nak's proposal for an all-University cal-
endaring committee which would calen-
dar student events, a function now under-
taken by Council. Earlier, Council, dis-
daining its role as a student spokesmtan,
refused a request of its United States Na-
tional Students Association Committee to
send a telegram to South African Justice
Minister B. J. Vorster protesting that gov-
ernment's persecution of the National
Union of South African Students.
If Rusnak's proposal is realized - and
there is a good possibility that the Offices
of Student and Academic Affairs will im-
plement ft-Council will be left with only
two maj6r though cloudy functions: rec-
ognition of student organizations . and
promotion of student interests. The com-
plicated SGC dealings in the area of
membership selection and the OSA's
constant rejection of any Council initia-
tives in this area clearly show that SGC's
power of recognition, and therefore regu-
lation, of student organizations is illusory.
SGC is really left with administering for-
rhalities. It just assures that the new
student organization's constitution is in
order and approves amendments to them.
No significant regulation is either needed
or taken.
THIS LEAVES SGC without any govern-
mental function. And since the conclu-
sions of the latest round of the member-
ship selection debate, Council has shown
little interest in undertaking any govern-
mental role. Indeed it has had trouble
controlling its own offspring, its stand-
ing committees. Further, SGC, for the
second time in two years, rejected any
assertion of non-academic rule-making
authority, its true function as a student
government.
Perhaps it is time to consider what
SGC's true role should be and whether its
current structure is too elaborate for the
job. Student Government Council can
best serve the student community as a
lobby, pressing for improvements in the
student's lot in -the University community,
and representing his interests in all-Uni-
versity decision making.
SGC HAS TAKEN some halting steps in
this direction. It approved Daily Editor
Ronald Wilton's motion for SGC lobby-
ing against any state-imposed tuition in-
crease and for higher appropriations and
Elaine Resmer's for additional student
and legislative participation in "U-M '63,"
a University public relations program..
But Council has been silent on the pres-
sures of trimester at a time when a strong
stand would have alerted the faculty to
the difficulties students face in adjusting
to the new, tighter calendar. It has also
pussy-footed on non-academic rules and
regulations.
IF ANY CHANGES are to be made in the
Council plan, they should be aimed at-
strengthening Council's lobbying role and
eliminating sham bureacuracy and func-
tions. A strictly lobbying group does not
need ex-officio members; it should be as
representative of the student body as pos-
sible. Nor need it be so large or unwieldy.
An eight to ten member council, chosen
in an all-campus election would serve
just as well. Its committee structure need
not be as large or bureaucratic as it now
is. By functioning as an adjunct to lobby-
ing, it can attract higher quality members
interested in pursuing vital and fruitful
projects.
Since the end of October, Council has
been drifting, looking for new issues. Per-
haps it is time it understood its lobbying
role and acted strongly. But, unfortunate-
ly, last Wednesday's actions show it has
much to learn.
-PHILIP SUTIN
National Concerns Editor,
By MARY LOU BUTCHER
WEDNESDAY'S Student Gov-
ernment Council meeting was
distinguished by an appalling phe-
nomenom known as "other-
directedness." It has been the
trend in recent weeks for Coun-
cil members to approach problems
not in terms of what is the best
solution but, rather, in terms of
what is the solution which is most
likely to please the administration
and/or the Regents.
Council members no longer ask
themselves what they as students
would like to do but, instead, what
they as students would be "per-
mitted" to do. Sadly, this was the
case at the Nov. 20 meeting when
Council members refused to amend
the SGC Plan-its constitution-
to expand student rule-making
powers for fear that tle Regents
would veto the change.
AT THE same meeting, Council
did approve two relatively "safe"
amendments to the Plan-the ex-
pansion of SGC through the ad-
dition of the President of the In-
ternational Students' Association
as an ex-officio member and a
definition of SGC boards and
committees.
To become effective, the amend-
ments were subject to the ap-
proval of the Vice-President for
Student Affairs James A Lewis
and the Regents. While Lewis did
not veto the changes, Council
President Russell Epker announced
Wednesday that he had not yet
sent the legislation Ao the Re-
gents for consideration.
He justified the procrastination
by noting that some Council mem-
bers had approached him express-
jng "reservations" about their
votes in favor of the changes.
He also pointed out that Lewis
had expressed concern that the
Regents would not be favorable to
Council action (as demonstrated
by the recent 5-3 Regental split
in reaffirming SGC's authority to
deal with discrimination in stu-
dent organizations) at this time,
and Council might be better off
to wait a while before sending its
legislation for their approval.
WHILE NO ONE had strong
enoughf'reservations" to bring the
amendments up for reconsidera-
tion, neither did many Council
members feel strongly that the
legislation should be sent imme-
diately to the Regents as it should
have already been sent. The dis-
cussion was calm and speculations
about the probable Regental de-
cision superseded any criticism of
the delay in action.
Uncertain of the prevalent feel-
ing of Council, Epker finally took
a vote which narrowly favored
immediate consideration by the
Regents.
THE MEETING subsequently
continued on the same old course
when a proposal was brought up
to send a telegram to the minister
of justice of the Union of South
Africa protesting the expected cur-
tailment of activities of the Na-
tional Union of South African
Students.
While-several Council members
expressed sympathy with the situ-
ation of NUSAS-the only multi-
racial student group still f unction-
ing in the apartheid-ridden coun-
try-only a few were willing to
extend encouragement to these
students through the telegram.
The opponents of the motion
argued that they agreed with it"
in principle "but would rather see
Council take organized action of
some sort which would be more
effective.
The notion that the telegram
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
The National Sickness:
Hatred and Venom
could not be "effective" as could
group action that could be pro-
mulgated through such campus
organizations as World University
Service is the key to the whole
debacle.
Council refused to recognize that
it could very well seek the desired
effect through both of these
methods.
It refused to consider the fact
that the intangible morale-boost-
ing which such a telegram could
effect on members of NUSAS was
every bit as important as or-
ganized action here on campus.
It was so busy worrying about
whether the South African gov-
ernment would even look at the
telegram that it decided not to
express its beliefs except to people
who are sure to listen and agree.
- ~ fcAooLaF
t 2 AT
J ~ gLl
/M
'~I
r
+ E /
f SPi A3
f
By WALTER LIPPMANN
THE FIRST NEED of the coun-
try after President Kennedy's
assassination is to take to heart
the nature of this unspeakable
crime. There is a searing internal
crisis within the American spirit
which we have first to realize and
then to resolve.
There is no public crisis at home
or abroad which demands such
attention that it cannot wait until
we have collected ourselves and
taken a moment of self-evalua-
tion.
The American future depends on
it and our capacity to govern our-
selves. What we have to realize is
that, though speech and gossip
and rumor are free, the safety of
the republic is at stake when ex-
tremists go unrestrained. Extrem-
ists may profess any ideology. But
what they all have in common is
that they treat opponents as
enemies, as outside the laws and
the community of their fellow
men.
WHAT HAPPENED in Dallas
could, to be sure, have happened
in another city. But it must be
said that the murder of the Presi-
dent was not the, first act of
political violence in that city, but
one in a series. The man who is
now the President of the United
States was manhandled by his
fellow Texans. The man who rep-
resents the United States at the
United Nations was spat upon.
In this atmosphere of political
violence lived the President's mur-
derer, himself addicted to the fas-
cination of violence in his futile
and lonely and brooding existence.
The salient fact about him was
his alienation from humanity,
from country, family and friends.
Nothing within him, it would seem,:
bound him to the President or to
the governor as human beings. No
human feelings stayed his hand.
IN HIS ALIENATION, Lee Os-
wald turned to the left. But that
was incidental. Those who asaulted
Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Steven-
son had turned to the right. The
common characteristic of all of
them was their alienation, the
loss of their ties, the rupture of
the community.
An extremist is an outsider. For
him, the government in Washing-
ton is a hated foreign power, and
the President in Washington is
an invading conqueror. There is
no limit, therefore, to his hatred
which feeds upon the venom of
malice, slander and hallucination.
In Dallas today there is much
searching of conscience, and well
there should be. For Dallas has
long been conspicuous for its
tolerance of extremists and for the
inability of its decent citizens, un-
doubtedly the great majority, to
restrain the extremists and restore
a condition of honest and temper-
ate and reasonable discussion.
It was comforting, therefore, to
read last week that the mayor of
Dallas, Earle Cabell, had said that
"each of us, in prayerful reflec-
tion, must search his heart and
determine if, through intemperate
word or deed, we might have con-
tributed in some fashion to the
movement of this mind across the
brink of insanity."
We must all follow the mayor
of Dallas in that prayerful reflec-
tion. For it is only too easy to
forget that in a free country there
must be not only liberty and
equality, but also fraternity.
THE ONLY SOLACE for the
nation's shame and grief can come
from a purge or at least the re-
duction of the hatred and venom
which lie so close to the surface
of our national life. We have al-
lowed the community of the
American people to be rent with
emnity. Only if and as we can
find our way back into the Ameri-
can- community will we find our
way back to confidence in the
American destiny.
We must stop the flow of the
poison that when men differ, say
about taxes or civil rights or Rus-
sia, they cannot be reconciled by
persuasion and debate ';and that
those who take the other view are
implacable enemies. In the light
of this monstrous crime, we can
see that in a free country, which
we are and intend to be, unre-
strained speech and thought are
inherently subversive. Democracy"
can be made to work only when
the bounds of the community are,
inviolate and stronger than all
,the parties and factions and in-
terests and sects.
* * *
I WISH I felt certain that the
self-realization into which grief
has shocked us will endure when
we go back about our business.
The divisive forces of hatred and
ungovernability are strong among
us, and the habit of intemperate
speech and thought has become
deeply ingrained. It is deepened by
the strains of war and the frus-
trations of this revolutionary age,
by the exploitation of violence and,
cruelty in the mass media, by the
profusion of weapons and by the
presence of so many who know
how to use them.
But I do have much hope in the
healing arts of Lyndon Johnson.
We can turn to him with con-
fidence. For his great gift is in
finding the consensus without
which the American system of
government with its states and
regions, its checks and balances is
unworkable./
To find the consensus among
our divided and angry people is
his historic opportunity. To restore
the internal peace of the United
States is his unique mission.
That done, all else will be man-
ageable.
(c) 1963, The Washington Post Co.
1
t
I
CINEMA GUILD
'CaligariT' IlIustrates
Unusual Technique
t '
'..
,; a
The Purposes of DAC
YESTERDAY the Direct Action Commit-
tee picketed the house of University
President Harlan Hatcher. The reason for
this picket was to try to show that
"Hatcher is a bigot and shouldn't be al-
lowed to be president of the University
and wield the power that he does,"
Charles Thomas, Jr., chairman of DAC,
said.
Thomas offered as support for his state-
ment the facts that Hatcher is a member
of the Detroit Athletic Club which has
no Negro members and that he is also a
member of the board of directors of a
large Detroit company which Thomas ac-
cuses of discriminating against Negroes.
FROM BOTH DAC's present and past ac-
tions, it is difficult for many people to.
understand what DAC really wants. If it
does indeed want equality.for the Negro
in jobs and everywhere, this is a very
laudable goal. However, it seems incon-
ceivable that any group that says that it
wants equality would use such slogans on
their picket lines as "death to the white
liberal."
Thomas is of the opinion, however, that
"if yelling and screaming will help to ob-
tain freedom for Negroes, I say do it."
DAC WAS ORGANIZED to do things that
such groups as the National 'Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People and the Congress of R1acial Equal-
ity can't or won't do for some reason.
A militant group such as this can be a
good thing for the civil rights movement
because through their militance they may
influence such groups as the NAACP and
CORE to take somewhat stronger action,
even though the NAACP says that it does
not support or condone any action taken
by DAC.
DAC was founded last summer by peo-
ple who felt that there was not enough
progress being made in civil rights in Ann
Arbor. Also, they wanted. a group that
"would be run by blacks, because the
problem is basically a Negro problem that
should be solved by a group which is led
and whose policy is made by blacks."
They decided to organize a civil rights
group that would be more miiltant than
the ones existing at the same time such
as CORE and the NAACP.
But there were, some people who were
quite disturbed about the shooting, and
among them was Charles Thomas, Jr.
Thomas and some others organized DAC
so that they could protest this incident
in an organized fashion.
THUS DAC WAS FORMED to stage what
Thomas calls "self-defense" type pick-
ets and other forms of protest against
discrimination in Ann. Arbor, and also to
work for equal job opportunities -for Ne-
groes.
Thomas was. elected chairman of DAC,
and contact was made with several mili-
tant civil rights groups in Detroit, Uhuru
and the Group on Advanced Leadership,
in the form of a letter from Uhuru to
DAC.
This contact came as a result of the
fact that DAC originally wanted to be
called Uhuru. But DAC didn't affiliate
with either GOAL or Uhuru, however, be-
cause they didn't share their views on
membership.
UHURU AND GOAL both don't allow
whites to be members of their organi-
zations.; DAC wanted to allow whites to
be members if they were willing to be un-
der Negro leadership.
"Much of our policy came from Uhuru
and GOAL, though," Thomas said.
DAC conducted several pickets of the
Ann Arbor City Hall during the summer,
in protest of the alleged brutality of the
Ann Arbor police. The officer who shot
Julde left the force before the end of the
summer, although he was recently hired
as a deputy sheriff.
DAC then decided that it would con-
centrate more on getting jobs for Negroes
at businesses where the members thought
Negroes were being discriminated against.
They met with some degree of success in
this venture, getting jobs for several Ne-
groes at a local supermarket.
THOMAS AND THE REST of DAC now
think that there is discrimination in
the University's Administration Bldg. and
in other parts of the University.
So DAC picketed the Administration
Bldg. and threatens to hold a second, "un-
conventional" picket. At this picket,
OBERT WIENE'S "The Cab-
inet of Dr. Caligari" is the
classic representative of a move-
ment that has had a relatively
slight influence on the history of
motion pictures. Though a fas-
cinating and often ingenious film,
It demonstrates that expressionism
is a style most appropriately
handled in the theatre and the
plastic arts. Indeed the most typi-
cally expressionist elements in
"Caligari"-its sets, lighting, and
makeup-are purely theatrical.
Wiene's camera is for the most
part stationary, with a certain
amount of cutting froi' close to
medium shots. The one cinematic
device used consistently is the
iris-in to open and close sequences,
and to frame individual characters
-although it could be argued that
this effect is also possible in the
theatre.
But discussion of "Caligari"
probably should not center on its
theatricality and failure to utilize-
the medium in ways that D. W.
Griffith at the same time was
showing were possible. The in-
terest that the film has attracted
probably has little to do with
cinematic technique per se.
* * *
BRIEFLY, "Caligari" begins as
' story-with-a-film. A young man,
Francis, is telling an acquaintance
about a most unusual exerience.
The camera fades to a town called
Hostenwall, where a carnival has
come and with it a strange man
who calls himself Caligari. In his
act he brings a somnambulist'
briefly to waking and has him
answer questions about the future
of members of the audience.
Soon a series of murders begin.
Circumstance points to Caligari,
until Francis finally Pursues the
fleeing doctor into an insane
asylum. The boy asks attendants
if they have a patient named
Caligari. They reply no, but that
he may see the director.
Predictably, the director is Cali-
gari himself. When confronted
with his captured somnambulist-
murderers, he becomes hysterical,
is straightiacketed and put in a
cell. The story-within-the-film
ends.
* * 4 'e
THOMAS MANN is reported to
have admitted to weeping at the
cinema-but to have quickly in-
sisted that the medium was not
an art because the spectator re-
mained too close to it; the proper
aesthetic distance was impossible.
Without accepting his conclusion,
we can recognize an insight into
the cinematic effect. The situa-
tion of the spectator at a film is
such that psychologically his re-
sistance is down. There is some-
thing hypnotic about the medium
-perhaps it's the darkness, per-
haps the concentration' it exacts
or the two-dimensional surface
come alive.
At any rate, a film ;like "Cali-
gari" takes advantage of the situ-
ation, and does this by using the
essentially theatrical devices of
expressionism. It is the sets es-
pecially that creat'e a mad, night-,
marish world in which there are;
no right angles. 1?erspective is
distorted; shadows fall toward the
light source.
The film deals with the problem
of authority. Without committing
oneself to a specifically Freudian
interpretation, it is safe enough
to say that the force of "Caligari"
is in the handling of this theme
so that much of its effect is vis-
ceral, rather than intellectual.
ASSUMING that this piece is a
preview, I have remained deliber-
ately vague in not synopsizing
"Caligari" fully. The film turns
on a revelation that only becomes
clear aftr the story-within-the-
story-within- the film was added
to original screenplay only later
by Wiene, over the strenuous ob-
jections of its authors. This ad-
dition changes the whole emphasis
of the film, and is responsible for
its thematic shift, and, if one
wanted to make the point, for its
ambiguity.
S* * *
DESPITE the limitations of the
expressionist aesthetic in the cine-
matic medium, "Caligari" takes
skillful advantage of the cinema-
tic situation. It remains a fascin-
ating and ingenious film-more
than a museum piece.
-David Zimmerman
FBI-:
Narrow
IN THE ANNUAL budget hear-
ings, J. Edgar Hoover boasts a
network of informers in liberal
and Leftist organizations. A min-
iscule Communist Party is his
excuse for surveillance over a
wide spectrum of opinion.
"Since the Communist Party,"
Mr. Hoover told the House Ap-
propriations Committee this year,
"carries on many and varied ac-
tivities to infiltrate and man-
ipulate various segments of Amer-
ican life, we must have broad and
penetrative coverage so that we
may bed aware of the plans and
tactics of this subversive organiza-
tion."
*'* *
JUST HOW "broad and pene-
trative" this coverage is may be
gathered from Mr. Hoover's boast
that' the FBI had "approximately
16.5 known or suspected Commun-
ist front or Communist infiltrated
organizations under investigation."
It takes hard searching to find a
half dozen genuine Communist
front organizations nowadays.
Mmd. Hoover 'met this objection
by explaining that while "some of
these organizations are created by
the Communists" many are "le-
gitimate non-subversive organiza-
tions" which the Communists
have urged their members to join.
This admits that many "legitimate
non-subversive" organizations are
among the 165 watched by the
FBI.
Among them, according to Mr.
Hoover's presentation to the House
Appropriations Committee, are
"organizations in the peace, youth,
political, trade union, Negro, dis-
armament and nuclear testing
fields."
I.
'I
"~It's The Christmas Season - Time To Hang Up
The Legislation"
.a4
'J=N
I
THIS LIST indicates how far
the FBI reaches into respectable
organizations with legitimate pur-
poses, many of them shared by
the administration.
Notice 'that Negro rganizations
are included among those over
which the FBI keeps watch. In
the fiscal 1962 budget hearings,
in, explaining that the FBI hadt
"some 200 organizations . .now
under investigation" Mr. Hoover
said that the Communists were
exploiting the Negro sit-in demon-
strations. It is clear that the FBI
watches the Negroes closely. It is
not at all clear that they watch
anti-Negro organizations.
Mr. Hoover dwells at length
each year on internal security, but
the menace is always on the Left.
In this yyear's hearings. Mr. Hoover
took time out to dwell on the in
sidious dangers behind the Com-
munist campaign for peaceful co-
existence.
But he never seems to see any
danger in the paranoid racist pro-
f