.
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
superscription
Moratorium: The Rites of Fall
by flyn
Weiner
N
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.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT SCHREINER
Registering all the voters
CITY CLERK Harold Saunders said last
week he hopes to register "40-50" per
cent of eligible student voters by the end
of the month.
Whilie to some this may seem a laud-
able goal, those who feel maximum feasi-
ble participation is essential in a democ-
racy can take little comfort from the
clerk's projection. Nor can they help but
be alarmed by his implicit assumption
that by reaching this goal, he will have
gotten the problem of student registra-=
tion over with.
In the city as a whole, Saunders has
turned in a lackluster performance man-
aging. to register about half of those
ellgible to vote.
This failure to create widespread par-
ticipation in the city's electoral process
can be traced to the clerk's unwillingness
to implement a number of suggestions
proposed by various groups.
For example, Saunders has continued
to resist the idea of year-round registra-
tion, despite its use in many other com-
munities across the nation.
Instead,' there are at present, only a
limited number of times during the year
when persons may register to vote.
The number and duration of these
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Editor
JIM BEATTIE Ed ,DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor
STEVE KOPPMAN.............Editorial Page Editor
RICK PERLOFF .... Associate Editorial Page Editor
PAT MAHONEY .... Assistant Editorial Page Editor
LYNN WEINER..... ....Associate Managing Editor
LARRY LEMPERT.......Associate Managing Editor
ANITA CRONE .........................Arts Editor
JIM IRWIN..................Associate Arts Editor
JANET FREY .................. Personnel Director
ROBERT CONROW ...... ....Books Editor
JIM JUDKIS .................... Photography Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Rose Sue Berstein, Lindsay
Chaney, Mark Dillen, Sara Ftzgerald, 'Tammy
Jacobs, Alan Lenhoff, Jonathan Miller, Hester
Pulling, Carla Rapoport, Robert Schreiner, W.-.
Schrock, Geri Sprung.
COPY EDITORS: Art Lerner, Debra Thal.
DAY EDITORS: Pat Bauer, Linda Dreeben, Jim
Irwin, Hannah Morrison, Chris Parks, Gene Robin-
son, Zachary Schiller.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Ric Bohy, Kenneth
Conn. John Mitchell, Beth Oberfelder, Kristin
Ringstrom, Kenneth Schulze, Tony Schwartz, Jay
Sheyevitz, Gloria Jane Smith, Sue Stark, Ted
Stein, Paul Travis, Marcia Zoslaw.
Business Staff
JAMES STOREY, Business Manager
RICHARD RADCLIFFE.Advertising Manager
SUZANNE BOSCHAN....... Sales Manager
JOHN SOMMERS ............. Finance Manager
ANDY GOLDING iiAssociate Advertising Manager
ASSOCIATE MANAGERS: Alan Klein, Donna Sills,
Judy Cassel.
ASSISTANT MANAGERS: Paul Wenzloff, Steve Evseef,
Ashish Sarkar, Dave Lawson.
registration periods are set by the clerk,
forcing those interested in registering to
do so at his convenience rather than
their own.
Further, he continues to reject door-
to-door registration, a concept which
has gained the support of both the Dem-
ocratic Party and several student groups.
Instead he has held steadfastly to the
principle that registration must be car-
ried out at times and places controlled
by his office.
THROUGH THE deputizing of registrars
as well, Saunders exercises exces-
sive restraint on the registration pro-
cess.
Those wishing to become registrars
must apply in person at the clerk's of-
fice and are further required to attend
special registrar's classes.
For the upcoming drive there are only
three class sections open, all of them
meeting at City Hall.
Although the potential inconvenience
of these classes is apparent, their very
necessity is also open to question.
The process involved in registerinig
voters is not complex, and a brief list of
written instructions should suffice to
prepare anyone to be a registrar.
Examples of ;more liberal voter regis-
tration programs than the one currently
used in Ann Arbor are not difficult to
find.
In Los Angeles county, a system of reg-
istration by mail has been developed
which eliminates most of the restrictions
found in the Ann Arbor system.
Under this system, registration is a
continuing year-round process rather
than being restricted to specific regis-
tration drives established, by the clerk.
Further, rather than manning regis-
tration sites determined by the clerk,
registrars receive the necessary forms in
the mail, 'and are free to register voters
wherever they wish.
The introduction of such a system in
Ann Arbor is the only logical step assum-
ing that the priority of the clerk is to
register as many voters as possible.
And if the clerk does not view maxi-
mum registration as his major goal, he
should be replaced by someone who
does.
'I'HERE IS NO lack of interest on the
part of students in working to get
the greatest possible number of students
registered. But the continuing unwilling-
ness of the clerk to take the necessary
steps prevents this goal from becoming
reality.
-CHRIS PARKS-
'HE SUN RISES every day, winter
precedes spring, and the anti-war
movement kicks around each year when
the leaves begin to fall.
The peace movement has been seared
in our consciousness for the past several
years as an absolute, a given of University
life. If it is not yet written in the cata-
logues or the calendars as a regularly
scheduled activity, we still assume its con-
tiudexistence, as we assume the eter-
nity of the war.
We have ritualized the protests as we
have turnedrfootball games into cultural
events. The slogans, the buttons, the
chants, the marches - we have our ex-
pectations of momentary political effecacy
and we fulfill them once or twice a year.
Rituals are codes of ceremony observed
with regularity as a form of worship. Web-
ster cites components of sacrifice, proces-
sion, plays, mysteries, and ordeals as rit-
ualistic attributes.
AND, INDEED, the peace movement fol-
lows the definition.
Sacrifice? The draft card burners, draft
resisters, fasters, and vigils aid to cleanse
the guilt and blood from penitent Amer-
icans.
Procession? If nothing else, the protests
are marked by the mass of support of
marches and rallies - huge affairs which
are continually attracting a broader range
of Americans into their ranks. What be-
and their votes. And the great ordeal of
the movement - suffering now through
pangs of frustration, apathy, cynicism -
all feelings which no doubt please the gov-
ernment.
AND WHAT IF the movement has turn-
ed into a ritual? It still communicates a
meaning - as does the ritual of the war.
But now, we are dulled to the outragetof
the deaths just as we are chilled to the
burning fervor of the protests of 1968-
and 1969-and 1970.
Why are so many of us so blase about
the war? It is not the war which has
been wound down like a clock, but it is
the anti-war protest which has stopped
ticking.
Student apathy has grown so that it is
now the establishment - the teachers and
professors and administration - who dare
excited about the moratorium - and the
students yawn and shrug and remember
the latest football game and the most
recent peace rally with the same thought.
EVEN IF WE recognize the anti-war
movement as one of our current rituals,
we must not forget the message the ritual
communicates. There is a war grinding on
right now, and we must not stop batter-
ing away at its source. If ritual serves this
r purpose, then let us dance the pattern
and chant the songs - and maintain and
intensify the message of peace.
4
y
,,
gan with the core anti-war activists now
includes organized groups of labor. feder-
al workers, veterans, students, and poli-
tical groups in the monster cathartic event.
Plays? The movement has evolved a
unique form of art - guerrilla theatre.
Groups ranging from the Vietnam Veter-
ans Against the War to feminist organiza-
tions have enacted "street theatre" on the
steps of the Senate and in the roads
of the nation to protest the war.
Mysteries? The greatest mystery of all
is why the war continues and we do not
maintain our anger and resistance.
Ordeals? The ordeals of the Vietnamese,
of the American GI's, of the prisoners of
war, and of the American people, sup-
porting the destruction with their money
-41
videre est 'credere
MBT-70: A quantum jump in technology?
by pat mahoney3-
THE DEPARTMENT of Defense
(DOD) deserves an award for
persistence.
No matter how many. y e a r s
behind schedule its programs run
or by how much they exceed ori-
ginal costjestimates, the DOD in-
variably tries to conceal unex-
pected problems. If new tech-
nology threatens to make a wea-
pons obsolete, the DOD discovers
an unexpected use for its latest
toy.
A classic example of these char-
acteristics is the MBT-70 t a n k
program. It is hard to imagine
any program in the federal gov-
ernment having a more spectacular
rise in costs. After a review in
1969, Assistant Secretary of De-
fense David Packard ordered the
cost per tank reduced to $600,000.
This figure, however, is deceptive.
It is only the "hardware" cost in
fiscal year 1970. Support equip-
ment ,research, development test
and evaluation (RDT&E) costs
plus advance production engineer-
ing (APE) are expected to raise
the per unit cost to $800,000. In-
flation between 1970 and 1975.
when the tank is expected to go
into production, is estimated by
the DOD at an annual rate of two
per cent. When a more realistic
rate of five per cent is used,
though, the cost per tank exceeds
$1.1 million.
NEW WEAPONS, though, could
make the MBT-70 as useful as a
crossbow on the battlefield of the
late 1970s. Only a few thousand
dollars are needed to build a wea-
pon capable of destroying t h i s
million dollar monster. Already
the United States' TOW missile.
a tube-launched, optically track-
ed anti-tank missile system, is
capable of defeating the heaviest
known enemy armor is being de-
ployed in Europe.
The TOW missile, Dragon mis-
sile and other weapons. costing
only a few thousand dollars, are
capable of destroying the m o s t
sophisticated tank now deployed
or on the drawing board.
Even worse, by the time the
MBT-70 is fully developed, a new
generation of anti-tank weapons
will be operating. Most MBT-'i0
advocates concede, according to
Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mis-
souri) that "little can be done to
greatly improve the MBT-70's sur-
vivability against existing anti-
tank weapons, much less the foi-
low-on generation."
ORIGINALLY THE MBT-70
program was a joint effort of the
United States, and West Germany
to develop a battle tank by
1970 to meet NATO needs. T he
Germans backed out last year, but
the MBT-70 remains a NATO tank
designed for use in Europe. Yet
the United States is being forced
to foot the bill alone. No other
NATO country plans to contribute
to development costs or ;purchase
the finished product when it is
available.
Already the MBT-70 program
has been delayed six years and
further postponements are like-
ly. Components for which t h e
Germans were responsible must be
redesigned. New analyses, draw-
ings, hardware and prototype tests
must be carried out for the ad-
vanced engineering, which Gen-
eral Motors is helping to develop.
To the Army, though, all these
problems are obstacles that can
be overcome with enough money
and time. As Secretary of t h e
Army Stanley Resor says, the
MBT-70 "is the tank we are de-
pending on for the 1970s. We
must make it work. We don't
have any alternatives."
ALTERNATIVES, HOWEVER do
exist. The Army has failed to
study them. Other tanks, which
are already in production a n d
cost far les than the MBT-70,
are almost equally effective. Even
the Army admits that, for reliab-
ility or fire-power and the pro-
bability of successfully complet-
ing an engagement, the MBT-70
and a cheaper alternative both
receive over 90 per cent ratings,
The Army has also refused to po-
vide better armor and a smaller
profile which would greatly im-
prove the cheaper alternatives in
relation to the MBT-70 which it
calls a "quantum jump" in tech-
nology.
Instead of seeking substitutes
for the MBT-70, the Army has
tried to find excuses for contin-
uing its development. This year
the Army's stated tank require-
ment has increased significantly
Eagleton says, although the exact
increase is classified. Acknowledg-
ing that modern weapons have in-
creased the vulnerability of tanks
the Army has found a new use
for them. "The tank is not em-
ployed singly against tanks," ac-
cording to a March 1971 = eport.
"rather, tanks are used in var-
ious combinations with mechaniz-
ed infantry, artillery and tactical
air."
CONGRESS HAS consistently
bought these misleading argu-
ments. And it may soon find it
has no alternative buts to continue
the MBT-70. Cheaper tanks, such
as the M-60A1E2, will be phased
out in 1974, two years before the
MBT-70 goes into production. "As
long as the Army can count on
continuedecongressional acquies-
cence," Sen. Eagleton has pointed
out, "there will be no serious
search for more cost-effective al-
ternatives to the MBT-70. And as
the MBT-70 comes closer to pro-
duction, the less alternatives are
available."
Cutting defense procurement
funds by significant amounts,
though, is almost impossible be-
cause the approval of so many
groups is required.
This year the House A r m e d
Services Committee cut the entire
$59.1 million request for produc-
tion while leaving the $27.5 mil-
lion for RDT&E untouched. The
Senate Armed Services Commit-
tee cut $4.7 million from the
RDT&E but added $40 million for
production.
Sen. Eagleton's amendment- to
cut funding to the level approved
by the House committee was de-
feated 51 to 42.
THE EAGLETON amendment
was one of more than a dozen
proposals offered during 15 days
of debate on the military procure-
ment bill. Yet when the Senate
passed the bill by i. vote of 82 to
4 last week, only one amendment,
cutting a mere two million, had
been approved.
Opponents of the Pentagon were
outwitted by the Senate Armed
Services committee, which blunt-
ed their attacks by taking $1.1
billion from the admiistration's
requests and restricting the ABM
to two sites already autho ried.
When the bill reached the floor,
the clever management of Sen.
John Stennis (D-Mississippi pre-
vented significant tampering with
new weapons for the admirals and
generals.
Liberal senators. seeking some
way to cut the $21 billion appro-
priation might have received some;
solace from one of Sen. Stennis'
comments on the MBT-70. "Next
year, perhaps," the chairman of
the Armed Services Committee
said, "will be the time when the
real issue will come, or it may be
the year after that . .
i
*i
Madd ox: Just a Southern country guy
i
*
Letters to The Daily
By TONY SCHWARTZ
LESTER MADDOX is the kind of guy
you'd have at a hopping dinner
party where everyone had agreed not
to discuss politics.
Old Lester isn't a politician, rather an
ebullient, loads-of-fun southern coun-
try guy with a sackful of opinions and
a bubbling need to tell them to every-
one.
He's a guy you'd meet at a Rotary
club dinner replete with sugar-cured
ham and steaming homemade rolls.
He's the M.C. whose endless string of
one-liners would make a big hit with
the home-town folk.
He's the M.C. whose political tour-
de-fource was the same line with which
Lester spices every, speech and inter-
view - "Let me just say that I'm a
little Democrat, a little Republican, a
little independent and all the way
American." At the University, how-
ever, no one was much interested in
listening to Maddox spout politics from
a podium. Even the 300 people who
,did show up, not enough to pay his
plane fare, no less a whopping $2500
speaking fee, came to laugh and to
boo.
Maddox was more serious. "I'm sup-
posed to speak what I believe about this
country and the principles that I hold
dear, If I'm sincere in what I believe
thei I ought to be able to go and talk
to people who agree with me as well
as people who don't."
Lester came to do business. Bedecked
in a subtle cosmogoria of green and
gold sports clothes, grey argyle socks
reaction. Despite his general charm, it
is apparent that the long-winded ana-
logy-ridden answers he gives to diffi-
cult questions, cause him discomfort.
For instance, said Maddox to priso-
ners he'd given an early stay of sen-
tence, "If you go out and do a good
job you'll never go back again. And
if you perform well then the other
men in prison can get out early too."
THERE IS another Maddox, one
ivith a considerably more enticing
charm, one who is far more entertain-
ing and well placed.
It is Maddox as the M.C. It is the
effervescent Lester who rode back-
wards on his, bicycle outside of Hill
Auditorium and who had a ball hand-
ing out autographed shirts with his
"phooey" trademark in suburban Aa-
lanta shopping centers.
Lester is at home relating folksy old
experiences, gleefully telling strings of
short jokes or just lounging back and
shooting the bull.
In fact, his Sunday speech at Hill
seemed to catch the audience's interest
most when he employed what must be
a record five jokes in a row to il-
lustrate the importance of honesty.
Maddox kept a small group of re-
porters in hysterics before his speech
when he related the story of his now
famous encounter with Jim Brown and
Truman Capote on the Dick Cavett
Show.
"You walked off the show that night
in a storm?"
shot. I'm a handicap, a dropout who
loves his God and loves his country.
If I have a nickel I spend it a
penny at a time. Old Lester would have
made it black or white. I know I'm
weak; we've all got faults and we're
better off to admit 'em."
"But the real secret to my happi-
ness, that's what you asked isn't it?"
Lester stops, pauses from the rush of
words, looks into the air and hushes
his voice. He takes a small bible from
his pocket and uncovers the monogram-
med handkerchief which protects it. A
deep store of sincerity is summoned for
his final utterance.
"THE REAL SECRET is that I wake
up each morning and I thank God I
can walk, I can talk, I can see, I can
hear, I can eat, I can listen - some
folks say I don't listen but I do. And be-
fore I go to sleep I thank God for
giving me another day."
Mobe response
To The Daily:
WE WERE very happy to get
your letter from Anita Crone yes-
terday (Daily, Oct. 11). It's good
to hear from an old friend after
such a long time. We knew you
were feeling tired and a little
low, otherwise we would have
heard from you sooner. Some-
times the rest of us feel a little
tired and discouraged too. We
nearly died from Nixon's plan for
winding down the anti-war move-
ment while continuing the war.
But, as always, a little rest and
quiet reflection help us bounce
back healthier and, we hope, even
stronger than before. New people
and groups continue to join us
here in the movement and we
change our name almost with the
seasons.
It's a long hard struggle. And
it'll go on for a long time to come.
By the way, the picture which
the staff included with your let-
ter wasn't one of our rallies. We've
sent one of ours, clipped from The
Daily of Oct. 16, 1969, with Tom
Hayden addressing an Anti-war
Moratorium Day Rally in t h e
Michigan Stadium. Hope you kept
the negative.
-Dave Gordon,
Coordinator
New Mobe
Oct. 12
Spectre
To the Daily:
I - , 1. ,
w
-Daily-Gary Villani
Fired up by the quirk of fate which
brought him to fame, Maddox decided
to go into politics to purge "the hypo-
crites."
He won as a symbol for the struggle.
Nevertheless, he was and remains every
bit the God-fearing man who believes
fiercely in the goodness of America, of
"* And then everything went 'POFF'"
that loud and clear - and guess
what - not one small mention
made.
Spectre is a hard-working pap-
er - it's written out of the lives
and struggles of white women all
over the country who've made a
order todo what has to be done.
We are trying to understand
and change what it is to be a
lesbian, white, class and age priv-
ileged in this place - but not in
familiar and sacred male leftist
rhetoric - that jargon comes out