Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
s$Z'?v.ALAN LENHOFF
of
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Spending unseen millions
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1972
NIGHT EDITOR: TAMMY JACOBS
APPARENTLY, President Nixon
is willing to risk being labelled
a hypocrite in order to preserve
the secrecy of American activities
in Cambodia..
Last week, Nixon refused to
supply the House Government In-
formation Subcommittee with doc-
uments relating to American for-
eign aid, programs in Cambodia.
These reports had been routinely
sent to the committee 'by the last
four administrations.
Ironically, only two weeks ago,
Nixon issued an executive order
which he said would help the bur-
eaucratic mountain of classified
documents. The result, the Presi-
dent claimed, would be that citi-
zens would know more about their
government.
The President's action, however,
hardly seem consistent with that
goal.
In refusing the committee's re-
quest, Nixon invoked his "execu-
tive privilege" - ostensibly for
the immediate purpose of allow-
ing U.S. foreign aid payments
to Cambodia to continue.
The committee had requested
the information under a 1961 law
that stipulates that foreign a i d
payments for a specific program
will be suspended unless the exe-
cutive branch either provides
Congress with requested informa-
Lion within 35 days, or the Presi-
dent has expressly forbidden the
release of the documents.
T H E COMMITTEE had asked
for the annual country field re-
port which is assembled by U.S.
Embassy officials, and contains in-
formation about the activities of
the Agency for International De-
velopment (AID) and the United
States Information Agency (USIA).
It seems that recent events in
Cambodia have been responsible
for the President's decision to
withhold the information at this
time.
Only three days before Nixon
announced that he would not re-
lease the documents, Cambodian
Premier Lon Nol announced that
he has taken over as president.
prime minister, and commander-
in-chief of the Cambodian armed
forces.
Earlier, Nol had dissolved the
Constituent Assembly, just as it
was putting the final wording in-
to a constitution that provided for
a government headed by a presi-
dent who would nave been direct-
ly responsible to a National As-
sembly.
While Nol's seizure of power
might look like an act of dictator-
ial strength, most observers have
viewed it as a desperate attempt
to maintain his power in the coun-
try.
EVER SINCE a stroke left him
partially paralyzed last year,
Nol's popularity has been steadily
dropping. He is particularly under
fire from student leaders w h o
blame him for a lack of reforms
and the recent military setbacks
suffered by the Cambodian army.
Nol's supporters now fear that
the Communists will use the pal-
ace coup as propaganda fuel
against him in their efforts to se-
cure the support of the peasantry.
And if these efforts are accompan-
ied by expanded military action,
it could mean the end of the Nol
regime. Already, U.S. military of-
ficials report, Vietnamese Com-
munists control about one-half of
the country.
Nol originally assumed power in
1970 in a U.S.-assisted coup that
ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk,
after it became apparent that
after it became apparent t h a t
Sihanouk would not end Cambod-
ia's long-standing neutrality in the
Indochina war. It is uncertain,
however, to what extent the Unit-
ed States is willing to aid its has-
tily installed ally.
It is known that the U.S. Air
Force is providing massive air
support for the Cambodian troops
but the exact magnitude of the
support is unknown -- military
officials two weeks ago discon-
tinued previously routine disclq-
sure of the number of American
planes deployed in Indochina
bombing missions.
An even greater mystery is. role
of AID in Cambodia. While the
state department agency denies
that its funds are used for mili-
tary purposes, it has been docu-
mented that AID has provided
sophisticated "counter-subversive
police units" to a number of Latin
American countries - in addition
to the roads, schools and food that
the agency is supposed to fund.
AND NIXON'S refusal to release
the AID documents can only give
more credence to fears that the
United States is playing a similar
role in Cambodia.
Meanwhile, Prince Sihanouk, the
deposed Cambodian head of state,
sits in Peking where he has lived
in exile, waiting for the" day he
can return to Cambodia.
"I have only two choices," he re-
cently said to an American jour-
nalist. "I can be a puppet of the*
U.S.A. or have a Communist.Cam
bodia - Communist but independ-
ent. There are independent com-
munist states.. .
-"We have no complicated de-
mands. We want peace, good food
and love. How can we do that
without freedom? After making
peace, we want to make love."
EL
Lon Nol
Sex and degeneration at the big 'U'
-
If you think Mrs. Beard is sick.
Women's names: A right
By CHARLES STEIN
IT STARTED out as a rather sim-
ple experiment. A group of
seventeen men and twelve women
in Xanadu Co-op were going to
spend a two week trial period liv-
ing with 'roommates of the oppos-
ite sex.
The idea had been kicking
around for a while, perhaps in-
spired by a copy of Robert Rim-
mer's The Harrad Experiment,
which also had been kicking
around . . . But more likely, it
was just a natural outgrowth of
the curiousity of a group of people
who had been living in the same
house for a year, and had decided
to take that platonic relationship
one step farther.
In the spirit of science, room-
mate selection was done by lot-
tery but, with the stipulation that
each person could list the names
of three people, he or she could
not possibly live with.
To some, the idea. was a bit too
progressive, but most people in
the house and those in the Uni-
versity who knew of it, accepted it
as just an interesting variation on
an old theme.
But as the people of Xanadu
would soon learn, what is con-
sidered commonplace in Ann Ar-
bor is down-right revolutionary in
the world-at-large. For no sooner
'did the experiment get under-
way, than the local press got hold
of the story.
The Free Press stringer was the
first person to realize ithat t h e
story had great potential interest
to the reading public and the pap-
er's editors were quick to agree.
One Free 'Press staffer, upon
hearing about the experiment, en-
visioned the headline "Wholesale
Fucking at the Big U."
DESPITE THIS early sensation-
alism, the paper's front-page ac-
count was low-key and accurately
reflected the non-sexual nature of
the experiment. But what r e d -
blooded American reader was go-
ing to believe for .one second
that there wasn't more than a lit-
tle smut involved in a group of
college students sharing co-ed
rooms?
Newspaper editors wno read the
story in the Free Press probably
conjured up visions of huge drunk-
en orgies, complete with 1 o it d
music, broken wine bottles, and
hundreds of young naked bodies
strewn about the floor in the most
titillating of positions.
The hope of discovering such an
erotic scene must have inspired
RECENT Supreme Court ruling
which gives states the authority to
compel married women to take their hus-
bands''names has brought to attention
once more how close American women
still are, legally and psychologically, to
being the property of their husbands and
fathers.,
Women across the country cannot fail
to find the Court's behavior ominous.
The problem of women's name rights
is one that many find incomprehensible
and even ridiculous. The name issue is
a symbolic one, but the importance of its
symbolism cannot be overstressed.
NAME IS personality. Men, who are ac-
customed to equating themselves with
their names, whose ties with the past and
future are secured by the patriarchal
naming system, who can be sure of go-
ing through their entire lives under the
name they grew up with, will naturally
find it hard at first to understand the
psychological implications of women's
name change with marriage.
Women today, individually and collec-
tively, are involved in trying to define
themselves in new ways that are posi-
tive and personally meaningful.
For the nation's highest court to make
the ruling it did cannot help but dis-
courage women who are rightfully seek-
ing to change their status in a male-
oriented society.
i
Letters to, The, Daily
The
colors
worse
court has shown its all-male, static
at a time when such a position is
than aeplorable.
-REBECCA WARNER
GROUP: Antics, not action
TflEIR CAMPAIGN poster for today's
SGC election says "GROUP -- A Lot
Less Politics And A Lot More Action."
However, a look at GROUP's behavior at
the past two SGC meetings seems to con-
tradict their slogan.
GROUP's antics highlighted two weeks
of SGC debate over appointments to the
Credential and Rules Committee (C&R).
This seven-member committee is respon-
sible for the validity of the current elec-
tions. Although it agreed on a chairman
for the committee, SGC voted down a
proposed slate of C&R candidates that
many members felt was "stuffed with
GROUP moderates."
At this point in the meeting, the five-
member GROUP contingent walked out.
Since GROUP's members can make or
break a quorum, the meeting abruptly
ended.
ALAN LENHOFF
Editor
SARA FITZGERALD.................Managing Editor
TAMMY JACOBS ................. Editorial Director
CARLA RAPOPORT ............. Executive Editor
ROBERT SCHREINER.................News Editor
ROSE SUE BERSTEIN ................ Feature Editor
PAT BAUER.......... Associate Managing Editor
LINDSAY CHANEY ...........,. Editorial" Page Editor
MARK DILLEN ................ Editorial Page Editor
ARTHUR LERNER .............. Editorial Page Editor
PAUL TRAVIS .................. ........ Arts Editor
GLORIA JANE SMITH .......... Associate Arts Editor
JONATHAN MILLER.......... Special Features Editor
Terry McCarthy .................Photography Editor
Robert Conrow........................Books Editor
Editorial Staff
NIGHT EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, Chris Parks, Gene
Robinson.
COPY EDITORS: Jan Benedetti, John Mitchell, Zach-
ary Schiller, Tony Schwartz, Ted Stein.
DAY EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Howard Brick, Dave
Burhenn, Mary Kramer, Judy Ruskin, Charles Stein,
At the next meeting, held last Thurs-
day night, GROUP denied that any of.
their members knew the contents of the
slate, proposed by C&R chairman Tom
Bentley, until it was proposed to the en-
tire SGC assemblage.
WHETHER or not their denial is true,
the fact remains that GROUP be-
havior was completely uncalled for. Both
the left and right-wing factions in SGC
have suffered defeats, when their pro-
posals were opposed by the five-member
GROUP faction.
Yet, as SGC member Brad Taylor of
the Student Caucus said, "We never
walked out and broke quorum - it was
more honest to resign."
It seems that GROUP, which, in the
past, has enjoyed many SGC victories,
has yet to learn how to accept defeat.
And if GROUP is to throw its temper
tantrums every time it suffers a setback,
perhaps they are not the mature, re-
sponsible party their literature claims
they are.
-SCOTT GORDON
Terms papers
(IOMMERCIAL TRADING in term pa-
pers, though by no means a new phe-
nomenon, has become more brazen and
apparently more profitable. Shady mer-
chants of such papers advertise in stu-
dent newspapers and, in their public
statements, try to give the impression
that they are engaged in a legitimate
Publications
To The Daily:
THE ISSUE in the contest for
the student seat on the Board for
Student Publications is the degree
to which students are dissatisfied
with the Daily as their newspaper
and spokesman. I believe that this
dissatisfaction is more than slight.
Can the Board do anything about
that? It is well known to those
familiar with the Board that it
has no power over The Daily's
staff or editorial policies, which is
as it should be. To suggest, as the
Daily did in its endorsements for
the Board race, that I am not
aware of faculty-administration in-
terference with The Daily, is both
dishonest and ludicrous.
The problem with The Daily is
not inherent in the people who run
it or its structure. The Daily has
long been recognized amongst stu-
dent and professional journalists
as one of the best student papers
in the country.
The problem, rather, lies in its
position as sole student paper on
campus. The Daily suffers from
its monopoly position justsas any
business or other power suffers
from being monopilistic. Selecting
its own future staff, determining
policies without regard to the opin-
ions of the rest of the campus,
free from control of the adninis-
tration, The Daily has gone its
own way, to the point that it is
quite alienated from large seg-
ments of the student body and the
'University. It is, by its own choice,
a political organ rather than a
newspaper.
This is an unfortunate situation
that ought tobe rectified, and
the Board is the proper body to
do it.
I am advocating what I believe
to be the only reasonable course -
the establishment of a second stu-
dent newspaper at the University,
one independent of and distinct
from the Daily that can give stu-
dents and the University a dif-
ferent perspective of what is hap-
pening on campus.
The virtue sought here is not
one of "correct" policies, ones
more palatable to the campus, but
rather diversity per se. To allow
principles of freedom of the press
to foster not only independence but
monopoly is clearly wrong. But
It also suggested, by strong im-
plication, that representing The
Daily and representing students
are one and the same task, or at
least tasks that could he under-
taken by one person. That is the
epitome of arrogance. The heart
of the issue here is that The Daliy
does not speak for all students,
and that something ought to be
done - but it ought to be some-
thing which takes due regard of
The Daily's independence
-Ron Landsman, '74L
Managing Editor, 1969-70
March 20
Dem platform
To The Daily:
THIS LETTER is in response
to the Human Rights Party com-
munication (Daily, March 3).
The Democrat platform was
prepared by a group of 13 volun-
teers, five of whom are University
of Michigan students. There were
three public meetings to discuss
the planks before they were for-
malized.
Notices of thesehmeetings were
carried in both the Anin Arbor
News and The Michigan Daily.
The platform was adopted, sec-
tion by section, with many amend-
ments, by majority vote of those
present. Anyone who walked in
the door could have voted! This
adoption procedure took two
meetings andabout seven hours.
Both of these meetings were well
advertised and attended.
There are two specific issues
mentioned in the HRP letter:
Packard-Beakes Bypass and Bri-
arwood.
Thedecision made by the City
Council to. go ahead on the ori-
ginal alignment of Packard-
Beakes was approved 7-4 with all
of the six Republicans and one
Democrat voting "yes." With the
Council it would have been ap-
Dresent Republican majority on
proved even without that one
Democrat vote. The Democrat
platform states . . . "we oppose
the decision of City Hall to de-
velop the original Packard-Beakes
alignment" . . . On April 3 the
voters of Ann Arbor will have the
opportunity to vote on a bond is-
sue for $935,000.00 to provide the
additional money necessary to
complete this Droect. (One mil-
past year's performance of our
city government remember it is
the Republican majority on the
City Council that needs changing
and ask yourself how your vote
will best accomplish that task.
-Mona Walz, Grad.
Democrat Candidate for
City Council, 4th Ward
March 14
Primary plan
To The Daily:
THE DEMOCRATIC State Cen-
tral Committee, in formulating na-
tional convention delegate selec-
tion procedures, has set a danger-
ous precedent.
Under the new presidential pri-
mary plan, each precinct delegate
must run committed to a presi-
dential candidate, or run uncom-
mitted. Until now it was thought
that only those precinct delegates
committed on a particular candi-
date could vote to select national
convention delegates committed to
that particular candidate.
For example, only pre.cinct dele-
gates committed to Muskie in the
May 16 primary can vote to select
Muskie delegates to the National
Convention. Of course, the number
of national delegates each candi-
date is allotted is determined by
the percentage of the vote receiv-
ed by that candidate n the May
16 primary.
Last Saturday, the State Cen-
tral Committee voted to allow all
delegates, regardless of their de-
signation, to take part in the selec-
tion process. In effect this means
that a minority candidate's organ-
ization might not be able to pick
the national convention delegates
to represent that candidate.
The affiliation of these national
convention delegates is important
in terms of both platform and cre-
dential questions.
The rule was clearly intended as
a device to prevent Wallace dele-
gates from voting on the national
platform, a concern we shave.
Nevertheless, we feel that the
Democratic party would benefit
more from a truly open conven-
tion. Moreover, this rule could be
used in this and future conven-
tions to exclude any group from
participation.
We urge the Democratic State
the press reaction to Uie experi-
ment, for nothing else can explain
the incredible attention that came
to be focused on Xanadu in the
coming week.
For the next five days, the
phone lines at the co-op wer 'lit-
erally inundated with calls from
newspapers, radio and TV stations
who wanted to learn more about
this modern day pleasure palace.
Nearly every member of the
house, whether a participant in
the experiment or not, was inter-
viewed by phone or in person by
one of the eager media people.
The Detroit News, The Chicago
Tribune, CBS Television, and even
the stately and respectable New
York Times ran accounts of the
Xanadu experiment.tPlayboy Mag-
azine also wanted to do a story,
but co-op members 'refused their
offer from fear of an article en-
titled "The Girls of Xanadu."
Most of the major media reports
were reasonably accurate, but as
the story filtered down through
the AP and UPI, to the smaller
papers, the facts became increas-
ingly distorted.
ONE PAPER in Rochester, New
York, referred to Xanadu as a
University residence hall and in
a matter of hours, the University
had been dragged into the Xanadu
scandal. Irate alumni ,made it
known that they would not contri-
but funds to such a degenerate in-
stitution, and one University vice-
president, estimated that the ex-
periment could cost the school a
million dollars in contributions.
University people were not the
only ones interested in the Xanadu
affair, however, as the house re-
ceived letters from supporters and
detractors all acros the country.
Robert Rimmer of the Harrad Ex-
periment applauded the actions of
the participants and several
groups involved in similar projects
asked for information about the
experiment's results.
But most of the response came
from angered Middle Americans,
who equated Xanadu with Sodom
and Gomorrah.aConservative col-
umnist Russell Kirk put the blame
for Xanadu on a series of weak
presidents at the University, and
linked the experiment and' the ar-
sons, as examples of the pyschos-
es that plague the University.
A woman from Ohio went one
step further and said the experi-
ment would "promote veneral dis-
ease, bring deformed unwanted
babies to unknown fathers, k ill
some of the girls through illegal
abortions and break parents'
hearts."
As of last reports, the people of
Xanadu seem to have escaped
most of these disasters, but the
problem of parental reaction re-
presents the most serious and cer-
tainly the most depressing part of
the whole affair. After the first
series of articles .appeared in the
local press, two girls had to with-
draw from the experiment because
their parents had threatened to
make them leave the house.
One male's father called.him a
Communist, another cut off finan-
cial support, and one irate parent
angrily told a. female participant
in the experiment to legally
change her name to save the
family reputation.
This kind of reaction might be
expected in Muskogee, Oklahoma
or Biloxi, Mississippi but c e r -
tainly not among the affluent and
educated parents of students at
a University such as this.
LIVING IN Ann Arbor, one for-
gets that sex is still not a' polite
subject for conversation in most
households, and the thought of
having one's own son or doughter
mentioned in an article about co-
ed bedrooms, must have been
more than most parents could tol-
erate.
The articles no doubt have pro-
voked many "where did We go
wrong" conversations among
Xanadu parents and pore than
one distraught mother must h a v e
thrown in some extra Ave Maria's
in her Sunday prayer to save her
daughter's soul from eternal
damnation.
It might be nice if the Xanadu
experiment which ended last
week left some lasting impacts up-
on the University and community
in general. Perhaps the Univer-
sity will change its stationery to
read, Ann Arbor, Sex Center. of
the Midwest, or maybe Billy Gra-
ham will come out in favor of
premarital sex.
But looking at the situation real-
istically, it is unlikely that t h e
spirit of the Xanadu experiment
will be remembered for more than
a few weeks at most. A good foot-
ball season will probably make up
for the money lost by angered
alumni, and the sexual attitudes of
America will no doubt remain in-
tact.
THE PARTICIPANTS in the ex-
periment may have learned some-
thing about what it means to live
with a member of the opposite
sex, but outside of that, not much
is likely to be gained from the
venture.
Except perhaps to provide the
people of Xanadu with some good
stories to tell their grandchildren,
who will probably be living in
dormitories with lots of caob e d
rooms and wondering why anyone
would react so violently to so
natural a living situation.
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