MONEY AND REVENGE
EleMtd iaft aily
Eighty-Five Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Renters
sue
management
Wednesday, March 26, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
By DAN BLUGERMAN
NTEIL GOSOSH, Jeff Baill, and
Al Kelman last semester
moved into a fairly typical Ann
Arbor student apartment: filthy
hallway entrance, uneven floors,
thin walls, no storm windows,
improperly hung doors, and a
truly interesting pattern of
cracks in the ceilings.
Feeling they deserved better
for the $270 a month rent they
were shelling out, they drew up
a list of complaints about the
place and then notified McKin-
ley Associates that they were
not paying any more rent until
the premises were livable.
Starting last December, Neil,
Jeff, and Al began depositing
their monthly rent check in an
escrow account beyond McKin-
ley's grasp. The miffed McKin-
ley people promptly brought suit
Weyand gambit no bargain
TWO AND A HALF years after for-
mer President Richard Nixon
belatedly blew the whistle on Ameri-
can involvement in Vietnam, our
new commander-in-chief came dan-
gerously close yesterday to sending
in the U.S. team again. President
Ford's announcement that General
Fred Weyand, U.S. Army Chief of
Staff, will fly to Saigon today to
study the worsening military situa-
tion in South Vietnam and recom-
mend possible new American assist-
ance, cast a chill over a country tired
of sinking lives and money into the
Indochina quicksand.
The long, collective sigh of relief
we breathed when U. S. troops were
finally pulled out of Vietnam after
ten frustrating years of battle that
claimed 60,000 American lives must
now be tempered with a gnawing
fear of renewed involvement. Ford's
personal instruction to Weyand re-
calls nightmares of Nixon's closed
door policies. Ford is walking a dan-
gerous tightrope over Vietnam with
no net of American support to catch
him.
FORD'S ACTION SLAMS against a
solid Congressional wall of op-
position. Congress has so far refused
to comply with Ford's recent request
for $300 million in additional mili-
tary aid for South Vietnam as well
as $222 million in more military as-
sistance for Cambodia. Ford is giv-
ing it the old team try, however, and
yesterday told a South Vietnamese
delegation that he was making an
all-out effort to persuade Congress
to provide the requested funds.
Press secretary Ron Nessen said the
President had asked General Weyand
to assure South Vietnamese Presi-
dent Nguyen Van Thieu of his strong
support in Saigon's fight against the
insurgents. Ford had better clamp
his helmet down tight during this
playdown with Congress and listen
to his teammates who want us out of
the Vietnam playing field. Who can
assure us that we are not heading
toward a rerun of 1965, when the
Tonkin resolution first sent U. S.
troops charging into the Vietnam
turmoil?
TRAN KIM PHUONG, who led yes-
terday's delegation to the White
House, tried lamely yesterday to ex-
plain Congress's reluctance to pro-
vide more aid, declaring that views
would change if more American legis-
lators went to South Vietnam and
became aware of how determined
the country and the people were.
However, while Ford sounds off on
the domino theory, claiming our re-
sponsibility to guard vulnerable coun-
tries from toppling to the Commu-
nists, the American public, backed
by Congress, gains determination to
avoid a repeat of the Vietnam trag-
edy which so recently lost its Ameri-
can victims.
President Ford assumed his office
with proclamations of candor, and
humbleness. However, yesterday's
move bears frightening resemblance
to the closet tactics of his predeces-
sor who ultimately walked the bat-
tlefields in isolation.
mTheLighter Side:...... ;:iy
Half million spent
. find secret love
:::....... ..........:.:.:.:....:..: { :: .D ic k W est - J -
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON (UPI) - In a recent press release, Sen. Wil-
liam Proxmire accused the National Science Foundation of squand-
ering $465,600 on three "futile and wasteful" studies of love.
Here is a classic case of leaping before looking, which often
happens in senatorial press releases. Had Proxmire thought the
matter over carefully I'm sure he would have concluded the
money was well spent.
For some people, $465,600 wouldn't even pay a month's ali-
mony. Yet in this instance it could solve the age-old mystery of
why people fall in love.
The point Proxmire overlooked is that you have to know why
something happens before you can prevent it.
And certainly it would be in the public interest for people to
be able to avoid falling in love.
STATISTICS SHOW that 66.34 per cent of the people who fall
in love fall with the wrong people. Which can be a soul-search-
ing experience. As well as frightfully expensive.
If people knew why they fell in love they would then have
at least a fighting chance of tumbling in the right direction.
As it is, the process is based entirely on chance. Those who
fall in love simply stumble into it. 'Tis done without rhyme or
reason.
Well, maybe a few rhymes are involved. Moon, June, spoon.
But of reason there is none.
The result is a high rate of shattered romances, heartache,
broken homes, heavy drinking, lonely teardrops and evenings spent
making fudge, most of which could be avoided if people knew
what they were doing when they fell in love.
WE WON'T HAVE the answer until the studies are com-
pleted, but let's assume, for illustration purposes, that falling
in love is caused by tight shoes.
Here's the scene: A table for two in some secluded rendez-
vous. Candlelight and wine. Soft music and roses. Cramped feet.
The girl, as girls are wont to do, slips off her shoes under the
table. The boy, who has a hole in one sock, remains shod.
Result: He falls in love, she doesn't.
The only thing worse would be for both to keep their
shoes on and wind up unhappily married.
The point I'm making is that if people knew why they fell
in love they would stick to barefoot dates until compatibility
was established.
And that, Proxmire to the contrary notwithstanding, would be
the first faint gleam of rationale in male-female relations.
Dick West is a syndicated UPI columnist.
against their recalcitrant ten-
ants. But the prospect of fight-
ing it out in court must have
given the rental agency cold
feet. On Thursday of last week,
an agent for McKinley appr.ach-
ed the three rent strikers and,
after a short talk, reached an
amiable, out-of-court settlement.
BECAUSE NEIL, Jeff, a n d
Al were willing to back up their
complaints with action, their
lease has been amended so they
are not liable for May and they
get a half a month's rent re-
duction.
"This is more than a victory
for us," Baill commented on the
settlement. "It is an inc-,ntive
for other people in the battle
of the rental market. If people
do as we did, we can bring the
landlords down to their knees."
"We won something substan-
tial," he added, "money and
an early out of our lease."
Neill, Jeff, and Al's disen-
chantment with their housing
plight was not an isolated in-
stance in Ann Arbor.
When six students moved into
942 Woodlawn last September
they were so appalled at the
conditions of the house they
vowed to themselves not to pay
another month's rent until it was
repaired.
There was no stove, refriger-
ator or hot water for the f i r s t
week. The missing windows and
screens were never reolaced
son, "we had offered teem a
better settlement than the c :urt
finally awarded us."
But the conditions of the house
were so intolerable that bv late
October the six were looking for
another place to live before the
trial. They found one that was
open to January 1, ,ut it had
been gutted by fire and they
were forced to endure their ori-
ginal house until the first week
of February, when repairs on
the new place could be com-
pleted.
"This is an incentive for other people in
the battle of the rental market.
If others do
as we did, we can bring the landlords down
to their knees."
x":. ...x.es a
pared for the following legal
procedures and landlord reac-
tions.
First, the city suggests tnat
tenants with complaints about
their housing should call the city
Housing Division and wait for an
in.';pector to show up and issue
a violation. After the issuance,
the landlord has 30 days to fLx
it with grace periads allowed
for good effort.
HOWEVER, such a strategy
would still leave you paying
the overpriced rent for some-
place in disrepair.
Landlords are required to pro-
vide a clean, safe place to live.
If you think yours isn't con-
tact the Tenants Union or Stu-
dent Legal Aid, both located in
the Michigan Union. They can
give you informed opinion of
whether your complaint is mer-
ited. If it is, stop paying rent
immediately.
Call the landlord and tell him
you are withholding rent ai iti
the listed repairs are made.
Usually a landlord will aik for a
time schedule for the repa rs.
Here you have to mare a
choice. Inform yourself about
the person or firm and nrizeed
according to your best judg-
ment. If you find that your land-
lord has a bad track record with
repairs, withhold rent right
away. As soon as you have, mail
him a list of the repairs you de-
mand. You might also kcep a
carbon copy of this letter in a
manila envelope marked: "Vic-
tor- for Oppressed Tenants!"
"You needn't establish an es-
crow account for the money,
just make sure you have it
readily available.
Dan Blugerman is a Daily
staff writer.
and the water pipes threatened
to burst everywhere.
THEY CONTACTED L e g a l
Aid when the landlord sent tnem
a notice to pay the rent die or
vacate the premises within the
week. After determining that the
claims against Westerman, their
landlord, would hold up in court,
Legal Aid advised the six sim-
ply to sit tight.
"It was a fairly easy proced-
ure," commented Tim W'lson,
whose name appeared on the
suit. "The only difficult part
was the uncertainty. We were
constantly trying to decide
among ourselves whether tn set-
tle it or take it to court." "As
it turned out," continued Wil-
TWO WEEKS ago the case
came to trial in Judge Pieter
Thomasson's -15th District
Court. On the basis of a fiery
eight hour session led by Stu-
dent Legal Aid Lawyer .Johna-
than Rose, Judge Thomasson
ruled the six not only 3houldr.'t
pay any rent for the six months
before the trial, but that they
receive a rebate on tie single
month's rent they had paid in
advance in September.
Both of these cases -oint to
the rent strike as the best stra-
tegy for getting through to de-
linquent landlords when you feel
they've been negligent in their
duties.
If you're thinking of register-
ing a housing complaint, be pre-
Letters
to
The
Daily
Simon's right. If upper income folks get most of the rebates,
they'll buy cars and refrigerators, where we'd just fritter it
away on food, clothing and health care.'
undergraduates
To The Daily:
THE ATTITUDE of Wayne
Johnson toward the undergrad-
uate role at the University is
summarized in his statement:
"Undergraduates are mere tran-
sients, bodies that fill seats and
take notes."
As an undergraduate and
Daily reporter at the U dur-
ing the years 1964 - 1968, I would
like to point out that if we had
felt that way when we were
undergraduates, some or all of
the following conditions would
still exist:
0 Women would still have cur-
few hours in the dorms, and
would not be allowed to live off
campus until their junior year.
0 There would be no BGS
program. All undergraduates
would still be required to meet
the more rigid distribution re-
quirements of B.A. and B.S. de-
gree programs.
" ROTC courses would still
carry full undergraduate crelit.
* The Wilow Run Laborator-
ies would still be a branch of
the university, sending U pro-
fessors to Southeast Asia to
teach government armies how
to use the infrared sensing de-
vices developed at the Univer-
sity.
* The Daily would still be
controlled by the Board in Con-
trol of Student Publications, and
the Board would still have the
power to delete articles and con-
firm (or refuse to confirm) ap-
pointments for Senior Editor-
ships.
0 Students who dropped out
of school or graduated would
still be subject to a military
draft.
THE PRINCIPLE that J,:hn-
son proposes, that undergrad-
uates should worry about their
awn education and view them-
selves as transients takes a nar-
row view of education and of
citizenship in general.
Undergraduates who sympa-
thize with the situation of teach-
uate employees in the past. To
those undergraduates who are
standing on the lines with us -
thanks. If you ever go to grad-
uate school, you'll be glad you
did.
-Carole Hafner
GEO Member
misleading
To The Daily:
I WOULD like to respond to
a number of issues raised in the
Second Ward council race, and
especially to some intentionally
misleading propaganda being
distributed by Democrat Carol
Jones. In her campaign Intflet
Jones lists a number of items
that supposedly indicate her
superior performance. When all
the facts are known +hey indi-
cate just the opposite.
Jones says that the H u m a n
Rights Party did not introdu -e
a Community Development Rev-
enue Sharing proposal > coun-
cil. She fails to mention that
H.R.P. played a leading role
in organizing groups to present
their own proposals. More in-
terestingly, she does not men-
tion that H.R.P. did have a
proposal to submit to city Goun-
cil, but at a joint Democrat-
H.R.P. meeting to discuss
C.D.R.S. Jones and Kenworthy
made it clear the Democrats
would not second H.R.P.'s pro-
posal, thus preventing any dis-
cussion of it at concil. One
last point on C.D.R.S. ; Jones
voted in favor of the Mayor's
appointments to C.D.R.S. citi-
zens committees (one of which
was chaired by C. William Ced-
burn) while acknowledging that
the committees were not tepre-
sentative of the community.
JONES SAYS she has worked
for voter registration. Yet sin-
glehandedly she was respon-
sible for giving the Republican
controlled council an ecuse for
a severe cutback in voter regis-
tration services. In January of
to register, in spite of poli-ical
opposition. After the council
vote in 1974, H.R.P. filed suit
against the City for violating -he
civil liberties of student voters.
In another matter, when Dr.
William Brown from the Envir-
onmental Research Institute of
Michigan first appeared before
council neither Jones or any
other Democrat raised oniec-
tions to E.R.I.M. war reseal ch.
H.R.P.'s second ward couincil-
person Kozachenko was the only
voice of opposition. Later t h e
H.R.P. members provided much
of the energy on the Ad-Hoc
Committee to oppose E.R.I.M.
war research.
CAROL JONES supports t h e
rent control charter amendment
I guess. I can't tell from h .r
literature because she never
mentions rent control. A any
rate, rent control has been put
on the ballot (like the $5 fine,
preferential voting for Mayor
and daycare) through the pri-
mary effort of H.R.P.'s organi-
ation. During her entire term on
council Jones has taken no ,.c-
tion that would bring rent con-
trol closer to reality.
I will support Frank Shaic'iet
for City Council in April.
-William D. Wilcox'
March 14
day care
To The Daily:
THE PROPOSED charter
amendment on day-care funding
responds to two important
needs.
Day-care is of course a nie-
cessity to conscientious working
parents, particularily working
mothers. Low cost quality day-
care will allow women to join
the work force when necessary
for their economic survival.
A second need the day-care
amendment speaks to it that
of our children. Young people
from every socio-economic
background will have the chance
day-care slots in Ann Arbor.
This compared to the 9,400 child-
ren in the city of Ann A r b o r
who could make use of day-
care facilities if they were
available.
For those reasons the Ann
Arbor chapter of NOW i3 en-
dorsing the day-care funcng
amendment. We believe the fu-
ture of our children and our
society can only be improved by
proper quality day-care. We
urge all women and men in Ann
Arbor to vote "yes" on the
day-care proposal whih will
appear on the April 7 ballot.
-Kathleen M. Fojtik
President of Ann Arbor
Chapter, National
Organization for Women
March 19,
Sullivan
To The Daily:
MARK SULLIVAN'S com-
mand of the intricacies of con-
sumerism and the American
economy isastartling. Perhaps
he espouses as our new rallying
cry "Divided we stand; united
we fall."
-David Hiller
March 21
politics
To The Daily:
I FIND IT interesting, and a
bit saddening, to read, the re-
cent pre-election literature dis-
tributed by the Human R*,ghts
Party and the Democratic Par-
ty. The character assassination
and ideological rhetoric t h a t
these parties so blatantly spatter
their positionstatements with
are nothing but detrimental, if
not destructive to the eUs that
the parties are trying *o achieve.
The Democrats' character as-
sassination attempt upon the
person of Frank Shoichet does
nothing but lower both Mr. Sho-
ichet, for his activities, and Ms.
platform for a very vocal, very
minor section of the community.
The ideal concept of an effcc-
tive third-party movemeit is
one that 1) open-minded forum
for populist ideas, and 2 ) re-
cognies that the root carse and
root solution for the uniquely
American problem must be
dealt with through the political
system, rather than the Euro-
pean-style method of changing
the economic system.
The most saddening part of
the whole thing, however, 16 that
these parties are wasting an op-
portunity that cannot be re-
peated. Here in Ann Arbor
exists the makings of a micro-
cosm of America. Here in Ann
Arbor, also, exists the chance
for the political parties to try
and onerate the system the way
that it was supnosed to be op-
erated in the first place: get-
ting the people representd and
providing for all of them. "'7th-
out the suport of the people, no
governmental system can sur-
vive." With the Watergate-like
antics that the political patties
are playing it today, how long
are the real people going to
stand for it. Think about it.
-.Teff Smith
March 20
tenants
To The Daily:
THE ANN Arbor Tenants TUn-
ion plans to evaluate the politi-
cal narties and candidates in
the Ann Arbor city elections on
the basis of their records and
priorities on tenant related is-
sues.
General questions of most con-
cern to us are:
1) What have you done in the
past to further the struggle of
tenants for recent housing at a
reasonable cost.
2) Do you sunport the rent
control ballot question on the
sprine ballot?
3) If elected, how would you
It's that time again: TAXES
TAXES, ONE HALF of life's un-
avoidable duo, are due April 15,
gust three weeks away, which is
sooner than it sounds. And the mes-
sage from the Internal Revenue
Service is clear as a bell: file early
if you want your refund soon.
Returns filed today will probably
yield refunds in about ten weeks ac-
cording to local IRS officials. And,
the official warned, the closer to the
15th that an individual files, the
longer the delay in receiving the
return will be.
So if you're counting on money
from the feds to get you through
t~he smmeor nr finance a nremonfira
vacation the chances are slim you'll
have your hands on the money in
time unless you gather your W-2
forms, borrow a calculator, and get
busy.
J)ON'T BE DISMAYED by the hope-
less bureaucratic doubletalk that
fills the form 1040 instruction manu-
al. Despite their reputation as sadists
who find nothing more enjoyable
than watching citizens sweat trying
to decipher the obscure language of
the tax code. IRS staffers are only
too happy to assist you in any way
possible, including telling you which
fnrm rrni nrc hnw +t feim fhr