Eighty.one years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 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. FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1972 NIGHT EDITOR: LINDA DREEBEN SGC: Corruption on top? SEVERAL STUDENT Government Coun- cil members and officials have dis- played remarkable ineptitude in their handling of the recent SGC election. The result of their ineptness and ques- tionable conduct, constituting "gross fraud" according to charges leveled by SGC member Joel Silverstein, may be a voiding of the entire election. Silverstein has supported his charge, before the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ) with strong testimony from chem- istry Prof. A. A. Gordus. In testimony Wednesday, Gordus said his analysis of 500 sample ballots "implies conclusively that 400 GROUP ballots were fraudently cast." The "defense" - led by SGC members Marty Scott of GROUP and Curt Stein- hauer of the Responsible Alternative Party - has attempted to show flaws in Gordus' argument by presenting its own "expert witnesses." But their testimony, while it brought out important points, did not seriously blunt the impact of the case against the election's validity. MEANWHILE, new SGC President Bill Jacobs of GROUP has repeatedly at- tacked Silverstein, members of the Stu- dents Tenant Union Coalition (STUC) and some RAP members for "smearing the image of SGC." Both he and Stein- hauer, who has been appointed SGC ad- ministrative vice president, have de- scribed the plaintiffs as "sore losers us- ing vicious smear tactics and exercising the most blatant form of McCarthyism." At an earlier Credential and Rules Committee hearing Jacobs pointed at one of the plaintiffs, and demanded that Elections Director David Schaper "sue the balls off that snake in the grass." Schaper shouted at another hearing that he "wouldn't trust those bastards (SGC members Silverstein, Bill Dobbs and Bill Krebaum) with a single ballot." Jacobs' pleas that everyone "get down to the business of governing" can hardly carry weight as long as he aims insults at fellow SGC members of every party ex- cept his own and ignores the gravity of the charges. JT IS FORTUNATE that members of STUC, RAP, the Radical People's Co- alition and C&R had enough concern for the Council and the voting process to investigate the possibility of an election fraud. And unfortunately, it now appears that their suspicions may be confirmed. They certainly had no help in estab- lishing the facts from the elections direc- tor, whose mishandling of ballot accounts and the actual ballots has been grossly irresponsible. In the last month, Schaper has made two separate ballot accountings with an unexplained 1500 ballot difference in to- tal. He has also released, misplaced, torn up, or otherwise unofficially disposed of dozen of ballots - all in violation of the SGC Elections Code. After the election Schaper was ap- pointed treasurer in the new SGC ad- ministration. HOPEFULLY, Central Student Judiciary will consider all evidence and reach a conscientious decision on the fraud charge. The judiciary need not find any party criminally at fault, but can void the election and order a new one. As CSJ Chairman Mark Goldsmith has pointed cut, the "allegation of fraud has extreme- ly serious implications for the integrity and the future of SGC." Those who claim "smear" should rea- lize that no inter-party attack could equal the damage done to SGC by its own officials' actions and statements dur- ing and since the recent election. Moreover, if CSJ rules that there in- deed was serious fraud ii the election, the decision will only indicate that the real "sore losers" in this election have been the voters. The new, By ZACHARY SCHILLER THERE IS A new Hubert Hum- phrey. The senator who, as head of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor and Labor Management, once ask- ed "Is there an effective legisla- tive approach to the problem of Communist - dominated unions?" has changed his life style. Relaxing in his pair of gray bell bottoms, Humphrey says, "I've been trying to tell you there is a different Hubert Humphrey." This year, the Minnesota sena- tor says he is going to win the Democratic nomination by "going to the people." A Humphrey aide has said that his candidate will conduct an "anti-boss campaign," in sharp contrast to the old Hum- phrey style. THE MINNESOTAN announced his candidacy in January by say- ing that, "I pledged in 1968 an end to the bombing, a cease-fire and anrimmediate troop-with- drawal (from Vietnam). And I say to my fellow Americans I would have carried out that. pledge." He neglected to mention that in his most important speech on Viet- nam policy of the 1968 campaign - in Salt Lake City on September of that year - he said he "would not undertake a unilateral troop withdrawal. To withdraw would not only jeopardize the independ- e ence of South Vietnam and the lence a safety of other Southeast Asian deny n nations. It would make meaning- destroy less the sacrifices we have already process made. It would be an invitation to more violence . . . more aggres- WHAT sion . . . more instability." say? This was the Hubert Humphrey "I an of four years ago: the man who over th said that, "I shall not let the vio- be out has been able to get his finger up tn the air and sense what is going on and has decided that he would say amen to some of the things that some of the rest of us have been .trying to do," the candidate said. Three days later, he was having his regrets. "I say his (Nixon's) plan is insufficient to aid o u r children,' deceptive to the Amer- ican people, and insensitive to the laws and the Constitution of this nation," he declared. Apparently, Humphrey was one of those Americans deceived by the President's plan. RECENTLY, Humphrey hat been a supporter of legislation m o r e reminiscent of old times than of the new. He voted against a pro- posal made by $enate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D)-Mont.) last June that would have halved U.S. troop strength in Europe by the end of last year. Furthermore, he was the spon- sor of a resolution last month to revive Radio Free Europe - apt- ly described by Sen. J. William Fulbright (1-Ark.) as a "relic of the Cold War" - with Congres- sional funding until at least June 30. .THE NEW Humphrey has cer- tainly been loath to part with his old ways, however he may de- scribe himself. Looking past his wire-rimmed glasses and newly- dyed hair, it might be wise to scrutinize Humphrey's stances on the key issues in the next few months. The Cold Warrior in him is still thriving. 4 improved Hubert Humphrey -Daily-Rolfe Tessem Humphrey receives an endorsement blessing nd disorder of a noisy few ne the right to speak or the orderly democratic T DOES the new Hubert m opposed to our staying here. I think we ought to of theie now. We have al- Servng the people. (Maruana manna' Jacobs Schaper -DAN BIDDLE 'This isn't our war!' By ROBERT BARKIN A RECENTLY purloined docu- ment seems to have solved the perplexing paradox evolving from the recently released marijuana commission report. In that report, it was suggested that the use of marijuana in pri- vate quarters should be legalized, This so-called decriminalization, would pull the user away from the criminal elements who deal the drug. Thus, it is hoped that use pf harder drugs would be dimin- ished. However, at the same time, the ,ommission recommended that the sale, possession in public, or cul- tivation of the weed should be il- legal. To many, this seemed to be a contradiction. After all, how can a person smoke grass, if no one will sell it to him, and he can't grow it himself? But the document that surfaced proved that the marijuana commission had more foresight than it was given credit for. The political pressure to sup- press the document was apparent- ly enormous. In fact a note on the bottom of the page saying, "Keep this quiet," was cryptically init- ialled by one 'RMN.' THE DOCUMENT itself is en- titled "Operation Manna." The de- tails are complex and involve a series of intricate operations. The plan can, however, be distilled in- to a few major points. First, the commission notes in the suppressed report that it might actually be difficult to smoke pot if a person cannot buy or grow it. This, it is asserted in the document, was an oversight when the commission was deliber- ating on the marijuana subject. Second, the writers maintain that it would seriously damage the credibility of the entire commis- sion if it publicly admitted it had made a mistake. Thus it cannot change the original report and mustsmake itappear that the proposed contingency operation was planned all along. And third, since the powers that be have already ignored the ori- ginal report it doesn't make any difference what the commission says. FINALLY, the plan itself is re- vealed. On a pre-announced day, squad- rons of B-52 bombers will fill their bomb bays with thousands of tons of marijuana. They will then fly around the country dropping their precious cargo down to waiting hppies, greasers, and o t h e r grass-smoking cultists. Meanwhile, on the ground, the anxious smokers will be waiting with zip-lock baggies to c a t c h their supply of the weed. As soon as they get. their own lid full, they will be required to go to a near- by "grass" station and report that they have been "filled up." Once this has been done a. credit card will be stamped and the smoker will be billed later in the month or on a revolving iredit plan if desired.. One official of the commission said confidentially the plan was "fool-proof." He added that its chances for Congressional approv- al were "about as good as the other Commission proposals." ONE SKEPTIC angrily remark- ed that the "next thing they'll be dropping is prostitutes. You know, those free-lovers on campuses." He would not release the source of his information, but chances are they'll have to pay through the nose. ready been there longer than it took us to beat Hitler. I believe in total disengagement from Vietnam and the whole of Southeast Asia." Staggering. But not too staggering, when we notice that Humphrey is one of two Democratic Presidential contenders advocating retaliation on North Vietnam during the cur- rent offensive. Humphrey's 1968 plan for end- ing the war sounds like a. proto- type of the Nixon model. Instead of calling the major part of his proposal "Vietnamization," how- ever Humphrty called it "de-Am- ericanization." In his Salt Lake City speech, the senator said, "It should be basic to our policy in Vietnam that the South Vietnamese take over more and more ofy the defense of their own country. And while Humphrey says if his policy had been followed, we would not now be in Indochina, it seems very hard to believe. Humphrey said in 1968 that, "We have learned a lesson from Viet- nam." According to Humphrey, however, that lesson is 'tot that we should not interfere in ano- ther nation's internal affairs. Rath- er, it is that we should not turn our backs on Southeast Asia, or on other nations or peoples in less familiar parts of the world neighborhood." HUMPHREY IS perhaps . t h e most adept of the Democratic can- didates for the presidency at say- ing one thing one moment and .4 entirely the opposite the next. The r busing issue is a good example. After President Nixon called for a temporary halt to new court- ordered pupil busing and limits on the extent that it could be re- quired in the future, Humphrey applauded. "Thank goodness the President " '.. '" ' #( 4a 4i "Once over lightly?" M Letters to The Daily AI HOW DO you go about reminding Americans of their government's criminal acts in Southeast Asia? After a decade of defeats, scandals and atrocities, what possibly can our government do now that is not a boring repetition of the old? Besides, with less than 100,000 Ameri- can men left in the world's most bombed nation, why should we be overly wrought about the war as long as American men aren't dying? Well, you might find the answer in the words of the American soldiers who still remain to do the "dirty work" in Nixon's Vietnamization program. Wednesday, fif- ty received orders to go out on patrol near the DMZ. They refused. "I've been here too long," said Pfc. London Davis, 20, "Why should I go out and do the fighting for the Vietnamese?" said Pfc. William Bowlin, 20. "We're supposed to be doing defense, - nothing else, not offensive," said Bow- lin. "Going out on patrol - that's de- fense?" Others shouted: "We're not going!" This isn't our war! Why should we fight if nobody back home gives a damn about US?" The men finally went out on patrol after their officers followed their new ALAN LENHOFF Editor Editorial Staff SARA FITZGERALD.............. Managing Editor TAMMY JACOBS........ ........ Editorial Director CARLA RAPOPORT...... . ......Executive Editor ROBERT SoHREINER ..................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 ILORIA JANE SMITH.........Associate Arts Editor JTONATHAN MILLER........... Sincial Features Editor policy of "reasoning with soldiers who refuse such orders, rather than invoking punitive measures," according to UPI. HOW IRONIC that American soldiers must be the agency for highlighting our government's attitude toward the Vietnamese. Because, as any American soldier will tell you, we never did any fighting for the Vietnamese people, but only a power clique that supported our interests; we always disguised offensive acts or called them defensive; and now when all this has failed, we've called off the peace negotiations until the "enemy" proves it's sincere. As one soldier shouted, "we've been here too long," and every minute longer we stay there, we are responsible for more deaths and more suffering. His commander said to the nearby press: "All you press are bastards. I blame you for this and you can quote me on it." BUT HOW do you remind the American people? What is now about it? All you can do is repeat these stories of more intensive bombings, more U.S. caused- deaths, U.S. troops still there, peace talks deserted, and hope someone takes note. MARK DILLEN Editorial page editor use the power TODAY IS a deadline. If you're over 18, live here, want to take part in the Michigan presidential sweepstakes May 16, and are not yet registered to vote- do it by 8 p.m. this evening, at the city clerk's office. And by the way, if you've registered and are leaving for the summer, remem- her to fill out your absentee ballot re- quest for next month's primary. HRP analysis To The Daily: LAST MONDAY'S election prov- ed only one thing: opportunism has definitely taken over yet ano- ther political party and once again sold out the working class. Democrats have for years' re- presented a minority of power- elite while claimig to represent working and-middle class inter- ests. They have succeeded by dis- guising the antagonism between classes, misrepresenting possibi e alternatives to capitalism, and through outright manipulation and repression of both classes. They have rarely missed an op- portunity to advance the interests of the minority they really repre- sent.