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Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
U.S.
corporations and S. African racism
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1970
NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Nixon, Agnew, Camp aign '70:
Ignoring the real issues
VICE PRESIDENT AGNEW and many
other Republican party leaders are
involved in a major political effort to
win control of the House and Senate
in November through the exploitation
of fear, anxiety, and frustration.
Instead of offering proposals aimed
at solving the very real domestic prob-
lems before the country, they are
shouting at scapegoats, - working up
emotions to a more intense pitch, and
exacerbating the mistrust of one group
of Americans for another. What are
Sthese problems? They are the conduct
of foreign policy, the management of
the Government's relationship w i t h
the economy, and the promotion of so-
cial justice under law. With a war in
Southeast Asia and a major crisis in
the Middle East, an economic recession
at home and widespread disillusion-
ment over the responsiveness of Amer-
ican political institutions, public men
do not lack for serious subjects to talk
about.
But these are not the subjects that
the Vice President and his colleagues
seem to want to discuss. They are ham-
me'ing away at something loosely call-
ed "the social issue." This amorphous
topic includes crime, campus disorders,
drug addiction, moral permissiveness,
and various kinds of violence. T h i s
bundle of concerns includes some as-
pects of human behavior which a r e
outside the domain of polities. What-
ever parents may think of moral per-
missiveness, how many of them really
look to political leaders to tell them
how to raise their children? Can even
a polysylabic Vice President influence
what kind of music is popular with
young people or how long they should
wear their hair?Or their skirts?
Other concerns such as crime and
drug addiction are genuine problems
but they are not, strictly speaking, "is-
sues." To have an issue, there have to
be two sides. But no responsible man
in either party is pro-drugs, pro-crime,
or pro-violence.
O MAKE IT seem as if there is an
issue, Vice President Agnew has to
invent the other side by distorting the
opinions of his liberal opponents and
has to torture logic to connect cause to
effect.
The "social issue" falls apart when
its components are analyzed. The truth
is that no one knows why there has
been an increase in crime and in drug
addiction. The rate of both have con-
tinued to go up during the first twen-
ty-one months of the Nixon Adminis-
tration, and doubtless they will con-
tinue to go up after every one of the
Administration's anti-crime and anti-
drug bills have passed, dubious and ir-
relevant as some of them are. This is
not to say that society or government
is helpless to do anything, but rather
t h a t crime and drug addiction are
enormously complex a n d stubborn
problems and that effective solutions
are going to take a long time, a lot of
money, and patient experimentation.
With social maladies as with physical
illness, beware of the quack who prom-
ises cheap, easy cures for baffling af-
flictions.
Vice President Agnew, G.O.P. Nation-
al Chairman Morton, and lesser party
orators link assorted social ills to
"Democratic permissiveness." But rev-
olution in manners and morals have
always taken place outside the boun-
daries of politics. W e r e the bobbed
hair, short skirts, and hip flasks of the
jazz are youth of the 1920's attribut-
able to the; permissiveness of Calvin
Coolidge? Are the campus rebels of the
1960's whose personalities were formed
as children in the 1950's to be attrib-
uted to the Presidency of Dwight D.
Eisenhower?
The "social issue" is one of those
great non-issues which periodically roll
across the public scene for a few years
and then vanish leaving only a few
bad memories and a headache. It is
remarkably similar to that great non-
issue of the early 1950's - domestic
Communism. In t he 'Congressional
campaigns of sixteen and eighteen
years ago, G.Q.P. orators first inflated
and distorted the Commuist issue and
then told audiences that the Republi-
can administration of that day was
kicking out Communists and "security
risks" by the hundreds. Terroristic
violence, on or off the campus, a n d
Communist espionage are both prob-
lems for police experts using counter-
intelligence methods. A Weatherman
or some other political fanatic may be
as difficult to track down today as a
Communist spy in 1950 but in neither
case are windy speeches of any help.
IT IS NOT an accident that the Vice
President, and President Nixon too,
while piously protesting that they do
not want to curb academic freedom,
keep focusing hostile public attention
on the universities. From the progres-
siveness of LaFollete to the New Deal
of Roosevelt and the New Frontier of
Kennedy, the universities have been
the staging ground of every liberal re-
form movement.
An Administration which wants to
protect existing vested interests and
usher in a new era of reaction a n d
passivity can more easily achieve its
purpose if the university professors,
the television news commentators, and
the critical newspapers are discredited
and, if possible, a little intimidated. An
Administration which has to cope with
an unpromising war in Southeast Asia,
which is more effective at raising un-
employment than ending inflation,
and which h a s inadequate programs
for the nation's cities is naturally eag-
er to distract attention to long-haired
youths, rock music, permissive parents,
the "drug culture" and other scape-
goats. T h e Administration's political
motives are as understandable as they
are unattractive; its divisive cam-
paign strategy must not be allowed to
divert attention from the real issue of
1970.
-NEW YORK TIMES
Oct. 12
AND THEREIN lies a corollary. Those
of us concerned with the real issue
must devote more energy directly to
them, and less time reacting to the
phony issues. It is incumbent on us to
make the divisive strategy fail.
-J. N.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeff Field
is a member of the "Brain Mis-
trust," a private group of Ann
Arborites who have begun to
finance research projects re-
lating to the American military-
industrial complex. On the basis
of the material in the following
article, regarding racial discrim-
ination in South Africa, the
Brain Mistrust has asked the
Office of Student Service Poli-
cy Board to enforce University
policy and ban recruiters whose
companies do business in South
Africa in compliance with apart-
heid labor laws.)
By JEFF FIELD
Daily Guest Writer
RACIAL PRESSURES in Amner-
ica have forced most com-
panies to attempt to practice a
non-discriminatory hiring and
promotion policy, and liberal in-
stitutions, such as the University
make non-discrimination a pre-
requisite for campus recruitment.
No company, reads University
policy, can use campus facilities
for recruiting if it practices racial
discrimination. Those who have
administered the Unversity policy
have overlooked the fact that
many of the companies allowed to
recruit on campus have long had
major operations in South Africa,
where racial discrimination is the
law.
AT PRESENT there are over
250 U.S. corporations operating in
South Africa. These range from
such giants as GM, Ford, Chrysler,
Gulf, the Standard Oils, and
Englehard Hanovia, to the Osh-
kosh Motor Company and Tam-
pax. Most of the American invest-
ment has been since the end of
World War II, when South Africa
cae eto appear as the continent's
bastion against Communism. In
1948 U.S. investment was $140
million; today direct and indirect
investment totals about $800 mil-
lion. Although this is only one per-
cent of total American foreign in-
vestment, it is 13 per cent of the
total foreign investment in South
Africa and it is concentrated in
the critical sectors of the South
African economy. These sectors
are heavy industry, military pro-
duction, and mining. Contribution
in these areas is helping South
Africa to become a self-sufficient
nation, a nation uponswhich any
UN economic sanctions will have
no effect.
A major American contribution
to South African growth and
stability came in 1960. Immediate-
ly after the Sharpeville massacre,
in which blacks peacefully pro-
testing passbook regulations were
mowed down by nervous white po-
lice, world confidence in South
African stability faltered. South
Africa faced a foreign exchange
crisis. This crisis was averted,
however, by a group of American
bankers who arranged for a $150
million loan through the Inter-
national Monetary F u n d, the
World Bank, Chase Manhattan
All corporations, and even the U.S. Govern-
ment, are forced to adhere to South Africa's dis-
criminatory labor laws, ... These laws ban non-
whites from forming registered trade unions,
hence, prohibiting any kind of bargaining.
Bank, First National City Bank,
-and a group of anonymous Amer-
ican "leaders." Chase Manhattan
is now the largest single share-
holder in the Standard Bank,
which operates throughout the
African continent, but which does
most of its business in South Afri-
ca. Chase Manhattan is also in-
cluded in a group of twelve banks
that operate a revolving pool of
$40 million annual credit to the
Central Bank of South Africa. If it
had not been for this American
emergency measure in 1960, South
Africa may well have lost most of
her foreign investment. Today the
nation is assured of sound credit.
As a South African businessman
AMERICAN BUSINESS leaders
are well aware of the benefits to
be gained from South African in-
vestments, whose profits can be
as high as 20-25 per cent and they
are outspoken in their confidence
in continued U.S. business ties.
James Farrell of Farrell Lines,
elected man of the year by the
World Trade Club in 1966 has
said: "The U.S. will never boycott
South Africa. This country has
many friends in America, partic-
ularly in the business communi-
ty . . . . I intend to go on pro-
moting this trade and expect to
see it grow in the future" Milton
P. Higgins, chairman of the Nor-
ton Company of Worchester, Mass.
that he is to be a guinea pig?"
AEC is responsible for the con-
struction of South Africa's first
nuclear reactor, an Oak Ridge
design, purchased through Allis-
Chalmers who also helped con-
struct it.
ALL CORPORATIONS, and even
the U.S. Government, are forced
to adhere to South Africa's dis-
criminatory labor laws. The heart
of apartheid labor policy is con-
tained in the Industrial Concili-
ation Arts of 1925 and 1956. These
laws ban non-whites from form-
ing registered trade unions, hence,
prohibiting any kind of bargain-
ing. Further they place powers of
job reservation with the minister
of labor. Job reservation means
that particular job categories are
reserved for particular racial
groups. In effect, the job reserva-
tion policy prohibits blacks from
taking any skilled or -even semi-
skilled position. This makes ad-
vancement within industry vir-
tually impossible for the African
worker. Finally, no strikes are
permitted for blacks.
Recently, there has been oppo-
sition among a few leading South
African industrialists to the job
reservation system. There is an
acut shortage of labor in the semi-
skilled and skilled areas. The gov-
ernment, however, is adamant in
its job reservation\ policy. Labor
Minister Viljoen stated in August
of this year that employment op-'
portunities for whites will be
guaranteed, that employement of
non-whites won't lead to replace-
ment of whites, that there willi be
no racial mixing at the same job
levels, and that no white will be
supervised by a non-white.
American corporations and the
U.S. Government follow this policy
i nall their South African opera-
tions. The U.S. partly avoided the
problem in its NASA installation
by employing only South African
white workers, rather than Amer-
icans or "coloreds." Thus whites
do even the menial jobs there.
The partheid laws are respon-
sible for the extreme differentials
in wages. Blacks averaged about
$252 per year in 1967, while whites
earned an average of about $4,368
per year or about 17 times the
blacks' earnings. These figures re-
flect the economic distribution as
a whole in South Africa; whites,
only 19 per cent of the population,
take in 73 per cent of the cash in-
come and possess 87 per cent of
the land.
AMERICAN INDUSTRY makes
no apologies for its operations in,
South Africa. A recent survey
taken of American businessmen
working there found that 74 per
cent would, if they were South
African citizens, vote for either
the Nationalist or United Party,
both of which proclaim the neces-
sity of apartheid. As Henry Ford,6.
II put it in 1966, "When abroad,
we must operate by the standards
of the host country or forfeit our
welcome." The classic statement,
however, comes from Frederick
Donner, former chairman of GM.
In speaking with reference to
GM's operations in South Africa,
he said, "The company operates
in its usual non-discriminatory
manner within the laws of the
country."
remarked, "So long as U.S. banks
and businesses back us, we can go
ahead."
AMERICAN corporations have
their major investments in the
mining, oil, and auto industries.
U.S. auto companies produce al-
most 60 per cent of South Africa's
cars and trucks. Standard Oil and
Mobil handle 48 per cent of South
Africa's refining capacity. Engle-
hard Hanovia, run by Charles
Englehard of New Jersey and
Johannesburg, c o n t r o 1 s Rand
Mines and holds 44 per cent of
the Zululand Oil Exploration com-
pany.
The presence of the American
auto industry in South Africa is a
potential aid for the defense of
Southern Africa. The Nationalist
party newspaper stated in June
1966 regarding GM and Ford
". .in times of emergency or
war each could be turned over
rapidly to theproduction of wea-
pons and other strategic require-
ments." Already Willys Africa
Ltd., a subsidiary of Kaiser Jeep
Overseas (Toledo) is distributing
the Jeep and Gladiator both of
which are readily convertible into
vehicles for the maintenance of
internal security.
The search for oil has been
going on in South Africa ever
since the crisis that followed
Sharpeville. Fearing international
economic sanctions, South Africa
decided to seek for oil reserves
within her borders. Gulf Oil is
now engaged in exploration in
Zululand. The Essex Corp. of
America has invested over $150
million to finance oil exploration.
Essex had never operated south
of the Equator before 1967, but as
its South African manager de-
clared: "it was decided that South,
Africa offered excellent opportuni-
ties."
and Johannesburg said in '65:
I think South Africa is going
to remain a strong country led
by white people. I think foreign
countries should leave South
Africa alone. If they leave you
alone you will get on and do a
great job.
The U.S. Government apparent-
ly agrees with the business com-
munity on policy towards South
Africa. In July of this year Secre-
tary of State Rogers said that the
U.S. opposes a cut-off in economic
relations with South Africa. The
U.S. also abstained from a 12-0
UN Security Council vote to tight-
en the arms embargo to South
Africa. U.S. delegate Buffum scor-
ed the action as too sweeping.
The U.S. Government also pro-
vides its share of investment, pri-
marily in the form of grants and
t e c h n i c a 1 assistance, mainly
though NASA, the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) and National
Institute of Health (NIH). NASA
has placed a tracking station in
South Africa. Though part of the
U.S. international tracking net-
work, a major function is to pro-
vide a training ground in adl-
vanced electronic technology fdr
South Africans. After g o i n g
through a four-year course par-
tially funded by NASA, South
African technicians are required
to work for the station for two
years, after which many of them
go on to better jobs in ind try.
NIH gave five grants in uth
Africa in 1969, totalling tout
$105,000. These grants were used
by South African medical schools
for drug research. Subjects for the
research came primarily from
black patients who had little con-
cept of Iegal consent to experi-
mentation. As one South African
NIH grantee said: "But howiam I
to tell a wild and woolly African
I
Letters to The Daily
Good faith?
To the Daily:
SOLSTIS SCHOOL has been
working in good faith with the
University for the past four weeks
in attempts to reach an agree-
ment for the best use of the prop-
erty at 706 Oakland. After initial
talks, the University made a con-
ditional agreement with us for the
leasing of the property. Solstis
School carried out its part of the
agreement.
At this point, I feel the Univer-
sity is trying to back out of our
previous agreements.kNow we are
told that more time must be spent
while Wilbur Pierpont, Vice Presi-
dent and Chief Financial Officer,
investigates the case. This comes
after it was iniplied to us that the
University was willing to sign a
lease.
Solstis School has been finding
it very difficult to operate in its
temporary headquarters in the
SAB, the Residential College and
teachers' homes. Without a cen-
tral location, our activities have
been necessarily on a smaller
scale. We have held classes activi-
ties, but it has been difficult. We
have waited patiently for the
agreement with the University to
be reached. And once we thought
it had been reached, we found that
it was not true.
I am very angry when I write
this, and I do want to see a solu-
tion reached. How does the Uni-
versity administration respond to
this? I call on them to act.
-Rowe Lee
Solstis Coordinator
Project Community
Oct. 9
Commitment
To the Daily:
THE EXPANSION of the South-
east Asian war into Cambodia and
the tragic deaths at dent State
and Jackson State College last
spring only served to heighten the
general awareness among Ameri-
cans that some things are seriously
wrong in this country.
It's obvious that campaigns
have become more and more ex-
pensive, and progressive candi-
dates often have difficulty finding
the funds that will permit them
to take their case to the voters.
For these reasons theCCongres-
sional Action Fund (CAF) was
formed in February 1970, with
former Atty. Gen. Ramsey C 1 a r k
as Honorary Chairman.
CAFS BOARD will soon be nom-
inating for finding support ap-
proximately forty more candidates
who share the Fund's commit-
ment to a significant reordering
of national priorities and who are
in substantial agreement with its
goals, which include withdrawal
of all combat and combat-support
troops from Southeast Asia by
March 1971. a reduction in mili-
tary expenditures by $20 billion
in the next fiscal year, welfare re-
form, elimination of hunger, re-
duction of environmental pollu-
tion, elimination of discrimina-
tion, and Congressional reform.
The funding criteria require that
a candidate must:
1) be in substantial agreement
with CAF's seven goals and be op-
posing a candidate who does not
support these goals;
2) be in a race where neither
victory nor defeat seems assured;
3) be in need of and want CAF
funding; and
4) be in a race where CAF
funding may have a tangible im-
pact on the outcome.
Funds raised through this nation-
wide effort are disbursed through
CAF's usual two-step process: The
Board nominates the candidates,
and then the nominees are sub-
mitted to the contributors who; by
their votes, will choose the candi-
dates to receive funding.
CAF THEN is a non-partisan,
non-profit organization and has
already been raising money for
Congressional candidates through
grass roots work in the commun-
ity. To date, CAF has given money
...,ZANIES WECHSLER..sV
The up and comsing
Senator, Muskie
IN THE aftermath of the 1968 national convention, the popular
question "Who's Spiro?" was probably rivaled in frequency only
by the debate over whether Ed Muskie's first name was Edward
or Edmund. At the time each was nominated there was little expecta-
tion that the two Vice Presidential nominees would loom so large
-on quite different levels-in the politics of the ensuing years. What 0b
is equally striking is their diverse routes to renown. Paradoxically, Spiro
Agnew became a household word by becoming the thundered of the
right while Edmund Muskie moved into prominence by heeding
Richard Nixon's admonition to "lower our voices."
In fact Muskie's style won him special distinction during the
campaign in part because it was so at variance with the tridency of all
the other candidates.
Now Agnew dominates and invies bitter debate, but the largest
speculation about him is whether he will be deemed expndable to the
Nixon ticket by 1972. Muskie, on the other hand, has gained steadily
in the polls an din Lou Harris' view, "shows every sign of pulling
away from the rest of the potential Democratic field."
There are, of course, hazards as well as advantages in achieving
this position midway between conventions, and Muskie is hardly
unaware of them. But he is equally frant about his resolve to pursue
the nomination without coyness until or unless it becomes apparent
that he is not "the right man at the right time."
HE CAME TO TOWN the other
day to speak for Allard Lowenstein
and, during an intermission, he
talked informally about where he
goes from here,
He professed a certain vexation
about the usual portraits of him as
a "man of the center" because
they often seem to suggest thata
his convictions are frail and sub-
ject to change without n o t i c e.sA>
He disputes the image with somes<:3'°r
intensity; he remarks that he has
been "boiling inside" over injustice
and oppression thoughout much
of his public lifetime and that
there is no necessary equation be-
tween shrillness and dedication.
Many who have known him
since his rise to recognition in one
of the two states that clung to the
Republican banner back in FDR's
1936 landslide agree that his lib-
eral instincts and credentials are well-established. They contend that
he has been faithful to them in an area where he has often been in
danger of getting too far out in front of his constituents.
Yet he is unmistakably being promoted in some places as the
"centrist" candidate who fulfills the requirement of reestablishing
Democratic respectability and - by implication at least - rids the
party of any "leftist" label.
MUSKIE DISCLAIMS any impulse to win a contest of caution
When one asks whether he feels he is being put forward as the candi-
date who believes the Democrats must concentrate on "middle Amer-
ica" and mute their ties with the young, the black and the poor, he
disarmingly disowns such strategic games. In reality, he says, he has
been "listening hard" to spokesmen for exactly such restive, alienated
groups and seeking to translate what they are groping for into viable
political terms.
He reiterates that his private chemistry is neither languid nor
capricious. At the same time he clearly takes a measure of pride in
his ability to communicate with diverse audiences and to create
an atmosphere of reconciliation. He believes Americans in this decade
will be looking for a "strong President-but one whose strength inspires
confidence rather than conflict."
Inevitable he is asked why he chose to move early, with the
attendant risk of "peaking too soon" or inviting a concerted alliance
of other candidates against the seeming front-runner. In effect his
responsibilities is that he suspected he could have become lost in the
crowd of aspirants if he had restricted himself to the Senate stage.
He knew that he had amassed a large amount of goodwill during
his ill-fated campaign as Hubert Humphrey's running-mate; he also
knew that the public memory is short and quixotic.
Even a brief visit reinforces the impression of Muskie as an
attractive, apepaling figure whose sometimes innocent exterior should
not be confused with lack of sophistication. In a time when the
uncertainties of existence have been dramatized so frequently, I often
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