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amega-government
By GARY THOMAS paragon of law enforcement vir- AMERICANS ARE, by tem- might see, or, even more chil- The attitude of deference w
Tq"HIS GRADUAL (and, of tue, J. Edgar Hoover), Red perament, incr, mentalists. hey ling, perhaps they do not care. show the species of "home poi
late, rapidly progressive) Scares, and the Espionage Act. seem to treat each problem as ticianis" in our nation's der
ecay of freedom goes almost But this must surely be the per- separate and unrelated; etch IT IS NOT simply that we riere does not hero matters any
without challenge; the Ameri- iod of historical reiteration. The the soluti N ic singular rather have a Ford presidency and an "Then hay~ethe infrmtin-

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can has grown as accustomed
to the denial of his constitutional
rights and to the minute regula-
tion of his conduct by swarms
of spies, letter-openers, inform-
ers and agents provocateurs
that he no longer makes any
serious protest . . . It would
surpise no impartial observer
if the motto, 'In God we trust,'
were one day expunged from
the coins of the realm by the
Junkers at Washington, and the
far more appropriate w o r d ,
'Verboten', substituted."
These words of H. L. Menck-
en in 1920 sound astoundingly
prophetic in light of recent
events.
The late iconoclast of the Bal-
timore Sun went on to say that
"the only objections heard of
cane from the persons directly
affected - nine-tenths of them
Socialists, pacifists, or citizens
accused of German sympathies,
and hence without any rights
whatsoever under American law
and equity - or from a small
group of professional libertar-
ians."
MENCKEN, of course, w a s
writing of that hysteria follow-
ing World War I - the age of
the Palmer Raids (led by that

statute under which Daniel Ells-
berg was tried was that same
Espionage Act of 1917, and now
we find governmental intelli-
gence agencies tripping over
each other in their bureaucratic

than colt cdtvc, It is as if a
doctor tried tc, treat eacn can-
cell cell in a particular organ
separately, rat her than trying to
remove the er itire disease. The
cancer will still spread, faster

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"The Founding Fathers were an unwitting collective
Frankenstein, not knowing how their creation would turn
into a monster, preying upon the very populace it was
supposed to protect. It is niow an empire, both domestic
and foreign."s
... . \':"!:..1.......1 .... : '.'. :"1:''' S :"'..:Z:

Edsel Congress. That is only
a surface manifestation of tne
deeper cancer. Our rulers a'-e
mere personalities, with differ-
ing psychologies berg brought
to bear upon our institutions.

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zeal to outspy each other. And
the citizen who is the victim of
such efforts finds little suppol t
among his fellow Americans. As
Mencken said, the only protest
heard is from those affected. It
is doubtful that our "Junkers in
Washington" would raise such
loud cries if they themselves
were not spied upon.
The erosion of civil liberties
has been steady; slow, to be
sure, but still as steady as the
wearing down of the Grand Can
von. The CIA, the IRS, the FB..
military intelligence - the list
is endless.

than the physician can treat
each cell.
So commissions are set up to
study the "CIA problem," and
another stud;- group looks at the
FBI, and stiill another commir -
tee looks at military's civilian
spying prog ram. Each issues us
report, the rages all nod ther
heads and say how deplorable
these things are - and then it
is promptly fr.rgotten.
But none of the wise men in
Washington, anuoirted with the
holiness of 'Office and blessed with
the grace af seniority, look at
all of it at; a whole. Perhaps
they are afraid of what they

It's not the drivers, it is the
vehicles they are driving.
We live in the age of mega-
government - a machine so
complex and vast that the mind
boggles at trying to understand
it. Even the most briPlant politi-
cal theoreticians cannot com-
prehend what we have created.
The Founding Fathers were an
unwitting collective Franken-
stein, not knowing how their
creation would turn into a mon-
ster, preying upon the very pop-
ulace it was supposed to pro-
tect. It is now an empire, both
domestic and foreign.

i,
they mast know best has killed
more peonle and violated more
rigits than you could count on
the fingers of the .vlnrmon Tab-
ernacle Choir. By this attitude
of massive ambivalence we
have created an American aris-
tocracy surpassed only in the
British House of Lords. With a
few exceptions, our "elected
representatives" would rather
be seen eating at Sans Souci
than in their offices Their long
noses scrape the sky, stretch-
ed that far by lies of Pinocchio-
ian proportions.
I WOULD hope that, despite
the rather black tone of this
essay, that it will be taken as a
cry of hope. I don't propose any
answers: but the questions and
observations are, I think, valid
enough to give Americans
pause. If we exercise our cere-
bral qualities long enough, we
might push thougnt into action.
I hope, for our own sake, we
can exercise our perogative for
change through something a
little heavier than telepathy.
Gary Thomas is a freshman
in LSA.

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94V £r1$& an DaiN
Eighty-four years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

Letters

to

The

Daily

Thursday, January 30, 1975

News Phone: 764-0552

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104

Frank reappraisal needed

TN THE LIGHT of the budget cut all
but promised to the University,
I decided to take a quick walk around
the Administration Building where
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Frank Rhodes resides during his
working hours. Why did I venture
into this imposing, resoundingly
empty building? Frankly, I went in
search of areas as ripe for budget
cuts, if 'not riper, than library hours
and the Pilot Program. When I rea-
lized I had no idea what an adminis-
trator does for his $56,000 a year
(President Fleming), I figured the big
brass offices might be just the place
to look.
In clean, white-painted splendor,
I was whooshed without lurches to
the Ad Building's third floor. The ele-
vator opened into a carpeted lobby;
a desk minus its occupant did, how-
ever, boast an IBM typewriter.
At the end of a short corridor, I
found another desk, this one replete
with secretary. She nodded pleasantly
to me as I noted the fancy electric
adding machine next to her IBM
typewriter. On down the corridor to-
ward Mr. Rhodes' office there were
three more desks, three more secre-
taries, and three more IBM type-
writers. No one was busy, perhaps
due to the murmurs issuing from the
sound-proofed conference room off
to my left. The bosses were meeting.
WHEN I EXPRESSED an interest in
k n o w i n g exactly what Mr.

Rhodes' job is, his personal secre-
tary's smile became a shade less
pleasant. She replied that he was
Vice President. I agreed and asked
exactly what it was he did. "Every-
thing," she replied. I suggested bud-
get and curriculum; she agreed. Feel-
ing suddenly like Daniel Ellsberg, I
asked what the files in the ostenta-
tious Sperry Rand Information Re-
trieval System covered.'"Everything,"
she repeated.
Though I have no idea exactly
what comprises "everything," I sus-
pect it does not take a passel of ad-
ministrators, assistants, and secre-
taries to accomplish. Further, must
our big brass work in the relative
splendor of the Ad Building? Surely
if our distinguished faculty can make
do with cubby-holes in Haven Hall
and buildings of its ilk, the adminis-
tration can do the same.
WHY IS IT THAT budget cuts al-
ways threaten students in the
form of increased education costs,
TA's in the form of reduced compen-
sation, alternative educational sys-
tems in the form of total eradica-
tion - indeed, everyone and every-
thing save the University's "upper
class?" Perhaps at the next of their
seemingly endless conferences, our
upper echelon could look a little
nearer home for areas in which to
cut down expenses.
-DEBRA HURWITZ

imperialism
To The Daily:
UNITED STATES imperialism
and its ally Israel continue in
their aggressive policy against
the Arab people, both in the
Arab states adjacent to Israel
and in the Arab-Persian Gulf
area. The power of the Israeli
state is currently directed
against peaceful Lebanese vil-
lagers and Palestinian c a m p
refugees in southern Lebanon
in the vain hope of wiping out
the Palestinian liberation move-
ment.
In the course of the last five
years, official Israeli terror per-
petuated in South Lebanon has
already had the effect of creat-
ing tens of thousands of new re-
figees Lebanese villagers this
time. Official Israeli terror has
also occasioned the near-total
destruction of the large Pales-
tinian refugee camp at Naba-
tiva, the death and maiming of
hundreds of Arab civilians, the
destruction by explosives of
scores of civilipn homes and the
laving to waste of large tracts
of agricultural land. Israel's ac-
tivities in the last few weeks
have caused the near-total des-
truction of the village of Eraf
Shba, the depopulation of other
nearby villages, more dead.
maimed and kidnapped, more
destroyed homes and more de-
nuded fields.
It has been in reaction *o suh
large-scale destruction of Arab
life, property, and even nation-
hod for the last 25-30 years that
the Palestinian liberation move-
ment has developed, with the
backing of the Arab people, and
has engaged in resistance, so
piously decried by Israel as
"terror".
ISRAEL HOPES, apparently,
to continue the process of de-
populating southern Lebanon so
as to more conveniently occupy
it, thereby circumventing Syr-
ian defenses in the Mount Her-
mon area, and eventually to
move north in order to cut off
the Beirut-Damascus road and
threaten the approaches to Da-
mascus. Another plum would be
the capture of the Litani River
which lies wholly within Leban-
on and which has been eyed so
covetously by Israel for the
last two and a half decades.
Israel also hopes by such hos-
tile activity to drive a wedge
between the Palestinians and
the Lebanese. In fact such ac-
tion only serves to reinforce the
lesson that Israel constitutes a
threat, not only to Palestinians
and Lebanese villagers, but to
all the Arab peoples and thus
must be counteracted by all the
resources available to the Arabs
as a whole.
Such aggressive activity by
Israel against southern Leonnon
must be seen within the general
context of imperialist policy in
the Arab world, led in the main
by the United States. The Unit-
ed States is moving more and
more into the Arab-Persian Cuiff
area in a number of guises in
hopes of consolidating its dom--
ination of the oil resources of
the Arab people.
GUNBOATS are now making
their appearance in the Arab-
Persian Gulf, as well as en-
trenching themselves at the
Diego Garcia base in the Ind-
ian Ocean. Arms are being
poured into the arsenals of the
most easily manipulable of the
Gulf rulers. In the last 3-4 years,

overtly avowed purpose of se-
curity from internal threat.
Most recently, Sultan Qabus
of Oman, located on the Gulf,
is buying U.S. heliconters and
other counterinsurgency equip-
ment to supplement Iranian sup-
plies and troops and British
and Commonwealth officers al-
ready engaged against the pop-
ular liberation forces of Oman.
In return, the United States has
obtained use of the British base
in Oman's Masira Island on the
Gulf, which wil fit into the de-
veloping Indian 'Ocean defense
network. There is also some in-
dication of the presence of
American personnel already in
Oman and servicing the Iranian
forces, the number of which will
now likely increase.
THE PURPOSE of these mov-
es in the Gulf by the United
States is to maintain its dom-
ination over the oil resources of
the Arab people. What the U.S.
government would have us be-
lieve, however, is that it merely
wants to avert the "strangula-
tion of the industrialized world"
occasioned by any future em-
bargo concomitant to a renew-
ed outbreak of Arab-Israeli
fighting, or, alternately, that
it is merely thwarting any Arab
revolutionary movement which
might attempt to cut off the
Gulf oil flow.
It is against this background
that the Kissinger-Ford remarks
about possible U.S. invasion of
Arab oil producing states must
be viewed. These latest threats,
begun in the fall of 1974, are far
from being merely a hedge
against the unlikely prospect of
"strangulation". The U n i t e d
States is moving into the Gulf
area in too rapid andconcrete
a way to constitute merely a
hedge. So much for the Kissinger
application of the "step by step
approach".
However, the Kissinger mysti-
que seems to be fading with re-
gard to the Arab world, as else-
where. The impact in the Arab
world of such threats may be
easily surmised. In Europe,
these remarks as well as the
Kissinger proposals regarding
oil and the recycling of 0 i1
funds have likewise caused deep
consternation among the leader-
ship of the EEC. Even the
American people seem not to
have accepted the government's
premise of Arab culpability in
the current energy and inflation
situations. According to the re-
sults of a U-M study released
this week, fully 75 per cent of
the respondents tested blame
the US oil companies for the
current energy situation and not
the Middle East producer states.
This in spite of the widespread
government and media c a m-
paign over the past 15 months
to soften up the American peo-
ple by painting the opposite pic-
ture and by seeking to avoid
looking at inflationary causes
within the US socio-econormic
system itself, and specifically
within its corporate profit struc-
tures. The lessons of Vietnam
and Watergate seem to have
created a more circumspect
American public.
THE US government, how-
ever, seems to be more slow to
read the lessons of history: Viet-
niam should have taught it io
forego meddling in the affairs
of other peoples; the entire i:-
sue of Palestine should h a v e
shown both the US and Isr iel
the deep resiliency with which

like embruilment in tf
world rerni'ins to be
one doubts that the U'
could take over the oil-
areas by force. It i
clear that: to maintair
supply and protection
the highly delicate an
able oil irjdustry andc
er US irjtitutions in
world, in the face of
tility from the Atlant
Gulf, would be a cost],
indeed.
THE S OD UTION, the
dangerovos situation, is
of gaiititig a footholc
Gulf, vvh ile using Isr
battering ram against t
tinians, :Lebanese and
and Ira t' against Iraq
ponular forces of Or
only solution, practica
as just., is the disma
imperia Jism and its si
ism, witth al that that
Arab p. ulations regai
trol ov tr their own to
the cr ration of a de
Palesti e where all it
are eq'ital before thel
out regard to religious
or raci al origins, and c
the Ar ebs and Third W
ples g !nerally of their
source s and national
well-buling and destinii
"_-Organization o
Students, Univc
Michigan Chap
January 23
To The Daily:
THI LSA faculty w
ly be considering a pr
give aicademic credit f
ROTC courses. This
raises, two issues which
to explore in this Jett
first concerns the t
quali:y of the ROTC pr
The! basic mechanise
depat -tment uses for ins
acad imic quality of it
is to pay very close at
the ac ademic quality o
ple who are teaching
courses. Having assui
that ;those appointed
standards, a Departme
a gr':at deal of latitu
individual instructor
with a minimum of int
and mnonitoring. Of cou
colle gie Curriculum C
must. aprove any new c
ferin g in LSA but theyc
tempt to evaluate the
tions Hof a regular facu
ber. En fact, they assu
quali:ications. The
point here is that th
mentzl mechanism for
the quality of courses
for credit is through th
selectlon of the offere
only secondarily thrc
securtty of the offering
IT BECOMES of ce

le A r a b portance, therefore, to examine
seen. No the selection process involved
S military in the ROTC program and to
producing compare it with the process for
s equally a Department., We note the
n control, following differences:
both of 1. A Ph.D. is regarded as es-
d vulner- sential qualification for a re-
of all oth- gular faculty member. Of the
the Arab approximately 15 instructors in
open hos- the various ROTC programs,
ic to the only one has a Ph.D.
Iy venture 2. When a department seeks
to fill a position, it " makes an
effort to locate the best person
en, to this available in a particular sub.
s not one field. The process involves com-
d in the parison c~f different candidates,
'ael as a all of whom have appropriate
the Pales- oualifications. In contrast, the
Syrians, ROTC instructors are nominat-
and the ed by the military services.
nan. The Their nominations are subject-
Il as well ed to posible veto by a Uni-
intling of versity committee, but there is
ster Zion- no search among competing ap-
entails-- plicants. In point of fact, the
ining con- nominations are almost always
erritories, approved.
emocratic 3. A Department obtains crit-
s citizens ical evaluations of a candidate's
law with- work from independent review-
, national ers. In most cases, confidential
-ontrol by written evaluations will elabor-
Jorld peo- ate in detail on the strengths
own re- and weaknesses perceived. No
wealrn, critical evaluations from inde-
es. pendent reviewers are available
f Arab on the work of potential ROTC
ersity of instructors.
ter 4. A Department invites can-
didates to campus to be inter-
viewed about their work and,
ROT ' typically, to make a public pre-
sentation of it. ROTC candidates
do not visit campus to be inter-
'ill short- viewed nor do they make a pub-
oposal to lic presentation of their work.
or certain The University committee which
proposal approves ROTC appointments
we wish never meets the potential in-
en. T h e structors.
academic S. A Department will typically
ogram. have the written work of a can-
m that a didate reviewed by its members
uring the most familiar with the person's
s courses area of specialization. No one
tention to reads any written work of poten-
f the peo- tial ROTC instructors.
t h o s e 6. A Department is required
red itself to justify any appointment it
meet its wishes to make to the LSA Ex-
nt offers ecutive Committee. This com-
de to the mittee requires evidence that
to teach can only be obtained by the type
erference of procedures described above.
rse, t he If a Department cannot make a
ommittee reasonable case that the person
course of- it wishes to appoint is out-
do not at- standing, the appointment will
qualifica- not be approved. The ROTC
ity mem- program is not asked to make
me these such a case for the people whom
essential the various armed services
e funda- choose to nominate.

no real assessment of quality
that is in any sense analogous
to that employed by Depart-
ments. It is quite an extraord-
inary direction for the faculty
to take if it decides to grant
credit for courses in a program
with no effective quality control
in the selection of its staff.
There is, of course, a second
issue even if one assumes that
the ROTC program has an in-
structional staff of academic
quality eoual to the rest of the
faculty. This issue concerns the
anpronriateness of an outside
organization appointing its
agents to teach courses f o r
credit in the University. N o te
that we are not raising here the
Question of the morality of the
militarv. In fact, the issue o
annronriateness would anply if
the organization in question was
the United Farm Workers, the
Catholic Church, or the Ford
Motor Company. Perhaps it is
more acute in the case of the
military because the fact that
the in4.r'ictors are acting as
seents of the outside organiza-
tion and are subect to its au-
thority is especially clear.
TMAGTNE THAT the Ford
Motor Comnany were to begin
an executive training program
and asked to have its naid em-
niovees serve as instructors and
that students in these courses
receiwe academic credit. It
would seem to us an extraordin-
arv and inapnroriate request.
The obvious alternative is for
Ford to offer scholarships to stu-
dents in its training program
and to have them take regular
courses at the University that
are relevant for their training.
The ROTC request for credit
is no different. The argument
that it isedesirable for future
militarv officers to have a lib-
eral education is irrelevapt to
the request for crediting ROTC
courses. Corses that are rele-
vant to the history and political
science departments, for exam-
ple, can be taken by ROTC stu-
dents when offered in these de-
partments. Surely the aims of a
liberal education will be better
met by having future officers
take courses by highly trained
and carefully selected independ-
ent instructors than by mili
tarv officers operating as agents
of the armed services.
We urge those faculty mem-
bers who share our opposition to
the proposed crediting of ROTC
courses to attend the LSA facul-
ty meeting on Monday, Feb. 3
to voice their opposition.
-William A. Gamson,
Sociology Dept.
Zelda F. Gamson,
Center for the Study
of Higher Education
and Residential College
January 27
dean ship
To The Daily:
THECURRENT controversy
over the appointment of Dr.
Jewel Cobb for the LSA dean-
ship has forced my letter of sup-
port for her to be written. I
have seen her in action at sev-
eral national conferences which
have focused on higher educa-
tion. women's issues, and aca-
demic administration - regard-
less of the topic, I have always
been impressed with her dynam-
ism, her leadership abilities,
and the power of her presence.
I am involved in educational

eing the economic pie

LMOST EVERYONE AGREES that
an inflation spiral consists of
either labor demanding higher wages
and management having to raise its
prices to, meet its higher payroll or
first the higher prices then the in-
creased wages to match - everyone
trying to keep their share of the pro-
verbial pie.
As any economist will gladly dem-
onstrate, despite inflation, the earn-
ing power of Americans has grown
steadily since World War II, This
doesn't necessarily mean that the pie
is getting sliced up differently, it only
means that the pie has gotten big-
ger.
Since the oil producers started
their price gouging practice, infla-
tion in the West has risen to almost
unprecedented heights. If the rea-
son for this was simply the increased
oil prices, prices would rise only to
the extent that they were dependent
on oil. The real reason is the grow-

wages or profits simply on the basis
of rising costs, not on the basis of
productivity.
AN EXAMPLE OF THIS is the "cost
of living" clause written into al-
most all union contracts today.
Wages go up whether higher produc-
tion is achieved or not. (An indirect
offshoot of this is that producers find
it easier to raise prices and thus in-
crease profits since the consumer
is guaranteed a larger income with
which to make his purchases.) Of
course, there are several valid rea-
sons for raising wages, but rising
costs alone, especially in a society as
affluent as ours. is not always one
of them.
When inflation is caused by domes-
tic blunders such as deficit spend-
ing, it is perfectly reasonable to ex-
pect people to keep their stand-
ing. But the current economic mess
is a good example of how domestic
influences are not always the cause.

insuring
s offered
e careful
ers and
ugh the
gs.
ntral im-

IN SUM, none of the proced-
ures which are normal for a De-
partment to employ to insure
the quality of its instructional
staff are present in the ROTC
program. Consequently, there is

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