.: I Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan off the record In search of structure below the void s 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1973 Lettuce boycott victory THE HOUSING POLICY Board is to be commended for its decision to con- tinue the dormitory system's boycott of non-union lettuce. The residents of Alice Lloyd Hall and other students who advocated continua- tion of the boycott also deserve credit for their support of striking farmworkers, This decision is an affirmation of the principle of backing others in their strug- gles for freedom and self-determination, even when a personal sacrifice is involv- ed. It is encouraging to know that Univer- sity students can identify with poor Chi- canos closely enough to contribute to the attainment of their just goals.. The Housing Policy Board decision should deter if not destroy the efforts of dormitory gourmands who feel deprived of their right to eat only scab iceberg let- tuce. It will also reverse the University Housing Council decision, which sanc- tioned these students' efforts. THE BOYCOTT'S strength in Ann Arbor has been endangered by a recent court ruling on the illegality of second- ary boycotts. It is thus doubly imperative that those who support the farmworkers cause con- tinue to boycott non-union produce, and explain to others the necessity of fore- going a bit of salad so that the people who pick the lettuce can have safe work- ing conditions, a living wage, and the right of collective bargaining. What now for Middle East? YESTERDAY'S COLLAPSE of p e a c e talks in the Middle East is extreme- ly disappointing. Even though the short- lived calm was feeble and contrived, the shooting largely stopped for a while. Apparently the war goes on because none of the parties involved wants peace badly enough to stop fighting. , All the worst aspects of a holy war have combined with a seemingly never- ending struggle for power, influence, and ultimately oil. .. The global superpowers have discover- ed that they can hedge their bets by backing both sides in the conflict. And oil-producing nations have discovered that they hold all the aces. Eventually the Middle East can,' like Vietnam, look like the far side of the moon. t. .* .ilt t Dal Editorial Staff CHRISTOPHER PARKS and EUGENE ROBINSON Co-Editors in Chief DIANE LEVICK ...................... Arts Editor MARTIN PORTER... ,.............. Sunday Editor MARILYN RILEY .......Associate Managing Editor ZACHARY SCHILLER............ Editorial Director ERIC SCHOCH ........Editorial Director TONY SCHWARTZ ... ....Sunday Editor CHARLES STEIN ...... . .... . ... ....City Editor TED STEIN ... ............. Executive Editor ROLFE TESSEM ....... ......Managing Editor EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Marnie Heyn, Chuck Wilbur, David Yalowitz STAFF WRITERS: Prakash Aswant, Gordon Atcheson, Dan Biddle, Penny Blank, Dan Blugerman, Howard Brick, Dave Burhenn, Bonnie Carnes, Charles Cole- man. Mike Duweck, Ted Evanoff, Deborah Good, William Heenan, Cindy Hill, Jack Krost, Jean Love- Josephine Marcotty, Cheryl Pilate, Judy Ruskin, Ann Rauma, Bob Seidenstein, Stephen Selbst, Jeff Sorensen, Sue aMephenson, David Stoll, Rebecca Warner Business Staff HILL BLACKFORD Business Manager RAY CATALINO............ .. Operations Manager SHERRY CASTLE . ...... .. ..Advertising Manager SANDY FIENBERG ................. Finance Manager DAVE BURLESON ................... .Sales Manager DEPT. MGRS.: Steve LeMire, Jane Dunning, Paula Schwach ASSOC. MGRS.: Joan Ades. Chantal Bancilhon, Linda Ross, Mark Sancrainte, S u a n n e Tiberio, Kevin Trimmer ASST. MGRS.: Marlene Katz, Bill Nealon STAFF: Sue DeSmet, Laurie Gross, Debbie Novess, Carol Petok, Mimi Bar-on SALESPEOPLE: W e n d i Pohs, Tom Kettinger, Eric Phillips, P e t e r Anders, R o b e r t Fischer, Paula Schwach, Jack Mazzara, John Anderson DAILY WEATHER BUREAU: William Marino and Dennis Dismachek (forecasters) There seems to be no alternate fu- ture for the area as long as both Israel and the Arab "alliance" continue their present fight first, talk later diplomatic stance. Henry Kissinger's batting aver- age looks less impressive all the time. THE AGREEMENT of the U. S. and the Soviet Union to begin peace negotia- tions without representation from the Palestinians casts strong doubt on the benign motivation of American or Soviet intervention in the Middle East. A settlement which relegates a whole population to the status of refugees can- not be the basis for lasting peace and cooperation. Perhaps it is too much to expect that a conflict only 25 years old has gone on long enough, and that the combatants would seek a negotiated settlement. The multitude of factors involved - natural resources, pride, religion, ideology, the Palestinian refugees and Soviet-Ameri- can competition, to name just a few- complicate the situation almost beyond comprehension. ON THE OTHER hand, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt and the others might work out a trend-setting agree- ment that sets a higher priority on real human needs than on the aesthetics of national boundaries. And consumers in energy- and re- source-gobbling nations may discover two things: First, that they can survive very nicely with fewer automated gad- gets, and second, that being on the re- ceiving end of ultimatums from coun- tries that are capable of being manipu- lative--militarily or otherwise-is not much fun. The Middle Eastern countries have known that for quite some time. TODAY'S STAFF: News: Dan Blugerman, Della DiPietro, Christopher Parks, Judy Ruskin, Jeff Sorensen, Ted Stein Editorial Poge: Marnie Heyn, Eric Schoch Photo Technician: John Upton By TED STEIN " DON'T REGARD myself per se a religious writer," a tall, gaunt Arthur Miller was telling a packed Trueblood Auditorium, "however, I believe we're all deal- ing with the same problems . . . how to make of this world a home, since its hostile to us in almost every respect. A home in the sense that we will need not violate our consciences." "This is putting it very badly. But I don't have a formula for you. This is why I'm not a teach- er. Because you can't take notes on what I say. It's so unformed in that respect." Miller definitely would h a v e gotten an argument from his aud- ience had they not been so busy taking notes. For during his week and a half stopover here, the University's mosthcelebrated alumnus proved that he has quite a bit to say, and that most of it was worth writing down. Though his words turned out to be extremely notable, by the end of his visit it was evident the famous playwright didn't take to the professor's life, which made his brief stint here that much more unique. It was apparent in a scene at Rackham one afternoon late in his historic stay. It was just another in a flurry of personal appearances. But Miller seemed alone in a crowd. He looked tired. White- coated busboys in bow-ties yoked with each other oblivious of the famous playwright's presence. U.S.C By OLIVER PIUM THEENERGY crisis alarms us: our El Dorado's sink in value, car-related industries like Ponder- osa Steak House fight for their corporate profits, and we shiver in the damp cold of 68 degrees. If that's frightening, the future ain't so good either. But with all the gaff being spleen- ed out about the energy crisis, a couple of crucial items have been left untouched. Both anti-commun- ist policy-makers and leftist ro- manticists must confront these is- sues soon. The Soviet Union and Egypt didn't cause the suddenness of the energy crisis; Saudi Ara- bia and Libya did. Their character and posture in the world commands attention. Both countries are fervently Mos- lem and equally extreme anti-com- munists. Atheism is an anathema. Saudi Arabia is oil rich and as re- actionary a country, as any around -socially they exist happily some- where in the middle ages. Until a few days ago, Saudi Arabia was safety tucked away in the U.S.'s hip pocket: our staunch friend and ally. AND NOW that same ally is kick- ing us around. Their passionate Mohammaden beliefs demand Graduate students shyly hung back from disturbing him. Above the din of rattling coffee cups, Miller's Brooklyn twang could be heard. "How do profes- sors who retire survive?" he ask- ed a bookish man next to him. "I mean, after all that talking, sud- denly they don't have an audience. What do they do? IT REALLY shouldn't have been surprising that Miller was a lit- tle weary after a busy week of mini-course question-and-answer in Trueblood and hobnobbing with students and faculty members around campus. Early in his visit, he had warned, "I live a certain kind of life, I always have, that doesn't involve endless confronta- tions with people all the time." From the start Miller was out of his true element. He is happiest when writing plays on his farm in Connecticut. This is the way he feels he speaks best to people. Not from a stage or in a confer- ence room. It is also the only thing that he does, which might explain in part his tremendous success, and why great playwrights are in s u c h short supply. As he put it, "There aren't more playwrights because we're the only ones - (Tennessee) Williams and I - crazy enough to make it an obsession. Not like, 'Wel, we'll try this and if it does not work we'll do something else.' The first day Miller faced ques- tioners in his "mini-course" it was clear he was very different from University types. His lang- hoice. I, harsh terms against Israel; in par- ticular, the king wants to see Jeru- salem return to its rightful relig- ion - and they have good lever- age. Curious, but wasn't the Viet- nam War fought for the protection of resources, for continued profits, growth, and the maintenance of U.S. sphere of influence? B u t Saudi Arabia is doing so much more, inflicting such greater 1un- ishment, and the king is getting away with it. A model worth not- ing . . Libya, the other country, is even a more convincing model for the Third World. Quadaffi. Libya's youthful leader, thumbs his nose at all, demands that women wear veils that allow nothing exposed, and finds the modern world and liberal values disgusting and anti- Moslem. And to many in the Third World Quadaffi is a hero, because he prances around giving all this shit to the Big Powers - and gets away with it. His country possesses a lot (=f natural resources that the biggies want and he's using those natural resources as instruments of policy -to aid Uganda, to aid Philippine Moslems trying to break the yoke of Christian domination. His ideol- ogy is at once reactionary and re- volutionary: he has put his country uage is a down-to-earth, emphatic,. Brooklyn-hewn. You find it deliv- ers powerfully without doing any- thing fancy. He says, for instance, that in his work he's trying to "nail a few wiggling things to the wall", and the phrase rings true. ALL OF THIS, however, would have only filled Trueblood for one mini-course if Miller didn't have anything to say now about the way we live. But he does. Because what he tapped twenty-five years ago in his masterpiece Death of a Salesman still resonates in us. Through characters like Willy Loman, who destroy themselves in the struggle to affirm hollow val- ues, Miller helped expose the em- ptiness of the American Dream. And it is this consciousness that gnaws at us and tells us some- thing is wrong, though we really don't know what to docabout it. As Miller sees the current mal- aise, "It seems to me that stu- dents are notall that different from everybody else I know. There is a feeling that there is na direc- tion, no forward motion in society, in the world . . . I don't think its going to remain that way because life doesn't ever remain where it was." THOUGH SUCH confusion is rampant, Miller has held out throughout his works the search for form as a way of dealing with it. While other writers have gone so far as to celebrate the void, he has continually looked for struc- ture. "I think my temperament is such that I am compelled to seek some kind of order," he said during a mini-course session, "even though I can't always discover wha: it is. "So its a question with me, I think, of maintaining the teasion between the chaos of existence and my sense that underneath it all, is a structure, if only one were smart enough or insightful enough or acute enough to find it." challenge Nixon and his ounch, to say to them as the son does to his father in All My Sons, "You should have done better.' MILLER'S VISIT succeeded be- cause both his works and words still have incredible bite. Thsy force us to deal with the paradox- es of life and our own tragic fin- itness, and challenge us to come up with workable solutions, not ab- solute ones. The contrast of Miller's empha- tic style to that of many Univer- sity people should remind us that there is a finer essence to know- ledge that often gets lost here un- der an avalanche of theories. You cannot say, of course, that any of thistgoes very far toward explaining the art of Arthur Mil- ler, but then nothing can. After a week of Miller, however, a sense of where it came from most definitely exists. The fact that what happens when he sits down to his typewriter is still an unknown, was not erased by the week. It remains something that the rest of us can merely marvel at. This specialness is something Miller has given a great deal of thought to, and his feelings pro- vide a striking insight into his sensitivity. "I think writers for the most part are afflicted people.,They're wounded people whose glory is that they make of their wounds something beautiful. "Most people are wounded but they make only more wounds." Arthur Miller Maintaining the structure is near- ly impossible, but the search for it is necessary. There is no other way for us to rear up angry and i l o the right or the left? together, he's respected, growing in power, and has become a con- vincing model for others to follow. BUT WHAT Saudi Arabia and Libya are doing, aside from ignor- ing the machinations of the Big Powers, aside from dismissing lib- eral ideology and Marxist models, is to return to harsh national in- terest policies that serve their own policies and programs. No more serving others like Standard Oil or Phillips. Natural resources be- long to those that possess them, and all that multinational corpor- ate jargon is only so many wcrds when the crunch comes. Oil resources are only the most dramatic example of this shift. Other resources, both naturil and commodity, are in the process of being reorganized to the deri- ment of the consumers of those re- sources. All those Third World countries, our friends, are ganging up on us. Brazil, another reaction- ary friend of America, is attempt- ing to control the sugar and cof- fee trade - to the benefit of the sugar and coffee producers, and against the sugar and coffee con- sumers. Ideology has no meaning: more important is for the weak to have a united powerful position against the buyers, the consumers. Nego- tiating strength is the magic phrase in the resources and com- modity markets these dayf. THE PRICES are forced up, the consumers pay more, the markets stabilize higher on third World terms, and past exploitation of the imperialists are remembered. The key: reaction'is reactionary, but angry; anti-imperialist, but anti- liberal and anti-Marxist. The result for the U.S. will be the decline of rampant consumer- ism, the begining of higher prices for everything, and scarcity in lots of things. The international con- flict is not East against West, but North against South. Mao was al- most right: the countryside will surround the cities; the producers squeeze on the consumers of re- sources. If consumerism is in trouble, so are our very bourgeois m i d d l e class life styles. The fall of the American Empire not only means less possessions abroad, but fewer possessions in the home. An era of insecurity and changing values awaits us. The legitimacy of our govern- ment, and the bourgeois v a l u e s that we know and love, are all in doubt and dissarray. Our protect- ors in government and business are disreputable and disgusting. They no longer serve any purpose. THIS VOID in legitimacy, in values, has tremendous possibili- ties, but also serious consequences. Waste and Watergate, personal conniving and elite corruption can be replaced by real change: com- munity, cooperation, social wel- fare, concern and care could be new inspirational values. But the illiberal reaction abroad has its manifestations at home. The fervent faith, the strong lead- ership, the power and severity that Quadaffi represents, exists as a need here. The erosion of legiti- macy, of values we are comfort- able with (possessions, individual- ity, consumerism, upward mobil- ity), and the prospect on confront- ing a hostile and incomprehensible world evoke$ all our redneck re- actions. The cry will be to discipline our- selves, to sacrifice ourselves to a common societalgood, to lea±'n to bear hardships for continuing eco- nomic growth. Severity. We may need a strong leader, someone to make the world, right again, to make the world compre- hensible to us. Bourgeois and liber- al ideology face their strongest challenges abroad and at home: radicalism of the right or left may overwhelm outmoded bourgeois life-styles. Which? Social revolu- tion that has a humane and egal- itarian content, or a social re- volution that molds us into scream- ing zombies? Perhaps that's why Bobby Dy- lan is going on tour now. Oliver Pium is a graduate stu- dent at the University. I Letters to The Daily NU BLIEVE. IN AMECA4A~g IX EU*VE nIN EALEC51)AM i 1.1A4, W14Y'MY AMONEY 16 IN REAL e ai -EsipEWfl row s4 44 p 7 different gripe To The Daily: TO AN UNKNOWN female in sec- tion 32, row 89: I'm sorry I can't send this letter directly to you, but since you didn't give your name, I'm using The Daily hoping you'll see it. I'm refering to your behavior at the Michigan-Ohio State game, where you demanded to have "your" seats. I know you paid for them, but so did I and thousands of others in thestudent sections whose seats had been tak' en over by someone else. So where do you get off shoving people? I really didn't mind sitting in the aisle, and it was a great game. As a matter of fact, only your un- believable bitchiness kept it from being a perfect day. -John Feather, Grad Nov. 26 ruling bodies To The Daily: DO YOU UNDERSTAND what last Sunday's decision means? It means that if a Big Ten team is involved in a championship game that will probably end in a tie, its best chance to make the Rose Bowl game is to seriously injure the opposition's star player before the game is over. A dangerous pre- cedent has been set . . . Congrat- ulations to Bo for his outspoken defense of his team and his attack on Mr. Duke and the rest of the Big Ten amateurs. I would like to see Mr. Fat Cat Canham take this un- fair decision for what it is-an out- right rejection of Michigan on pet- precedent To The Daily: THE INCREDIBLE decision to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl is symptomatic of something that is terribly wrong with amateur' athletics in this country: there are too many 'ruling bodies' of ama- teur sports who forget th it the athlete is supposed to be the bene- ficiary and not the victim of their control. After all, who got hurt most by the director's decision? The answer is obvious: the Michi- gan players, especially the thirty seniors. Suppose the deciison had gone in Michigan's favor, would the Ohio State players have been hurt in the same way? The answer to that is no, because they knew they didn'tdeserve to go. Despite the score, they knew they were the losers on Saturday. But the directors don't recognize this, and in their haste to aid the conference (by supposedlysecuring a Rose Bowl victory), they forget that it is for the players they exist. If there were no athletes, they would need no one to rule them. This situation is not limited to the Big Ten; it is found at every level, from the Little League who won't let girls play, to the US Olympic Committee whose foul-ups in Munich are legendary. The situation of Oklahoma Uni- versity is similar and provides a possible answer. The football team couldn't go to a bowl, not because of something they did, but because of something a University official did. But, once again, who get.; hurt most - the players, only this time it is the NCAA at fault. Nov what if Michigan, in defiance of the Big Ten and the NCAA, decided that send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl as the representative of the Big Ten I was absolutely shocked. Af- ter having sat through 60 minutes of emotionally draining football in Michigan Stadium there was no doubt in my mind that Michigan had played Ohio State better than the 10-10 score indicated. The decision by the Big T e n athletic directors cannot be con- strued any other way than politi- cal. The fact that Dennis Frank- lin was injured should not have taken away from the magnificent team effort that went into the game. At this point one c a n n o t really know in what shape Dennis would be in for the Rose Bowl. Some people heal faster than others and besides, it seems totally unjust to penalize an entire team because of one individual. There is a lot of pride involved with the Michigan team and the decisiontof the directors has basically slap- ped the whole team in the face be- cause of an unfortunate circum- stance. The Big Ten has been worried about its image for the past couple of years because of successive de- feats at the Rose Bowl. Yet it seems to me that the image is even more tainted because of the decisioin to send Ohio State. The image may become even worse next year if Ohio State wins the conference championship outright. Under the current rules 0 h i o State will be ineligible to go - no team can go three years run- ning. Thus it is conceivable that Ohio State could field the number one team in the country next year and be ineligible under the current rules. rand Duke':,Gay. but superficitalart By JIM KENTCH Light-hearted gaiety and spectacle are the trademarks of the current production of The Grand Duke by the University's Gilbert and Sullivan Society in Mendelssohn Theater. The ,production conveys the effects inherent in the operetta, but not much else. Gilbert and Sullivan's work delights immensely but does not instruct; there is entertainment but no edification, sentiment but no emotion. When an actress is sentimental it is funny, but when she sings her supposedly heartfelt sorrow it is difficult to take her seriously. This art has little redeeming moral value; it is superficial and hollow but nevertheless amusing. The action spins crazily around the farcial politics involved in gaining and reaping the benefits of the Grand Duchy in, the never-never land of Pfennig Halbpfennig. The Grand Duke is toppled by his loss in a bloodless "statutory duel" and his power is usurped by Ludwig, an actor in a theatrical company. Ludwig ends up having three wives by his victory. He is saved from marrying a fourth time by the restoration, ex machina, of the disposed duke by the diligent notary. And - what else? - everyone marries and lives happily ever after. The choreoghaphy by Jim Posante stands out in this produc- tion. The stage is constantly being filled by swirling motion. The final routine juxtaposes a chorus line, a minuet, and mad but precise whirlings. The costumes also add to the spectacle. Although it seemed as though there weren't enough Austrian peasant costumes to go around, the togas and outlandish costumes of the "second- hand" nobles of the second act were very colorful. The technical aspects of the play displayed mixed quality. The set for the first act depicted the public square of a small Austrian town and was mediocre. The set for the second act, however, was a hall in the Grand Ducal Palace and was com- pletely apropos to the togas. The lighting was very unimaginative and several entrances and exits were rather clumsy. The quality of the singing also varied. Karen Lundgran's ver- satility and German accent made her stand out in the role of iiia .iidwi msecond wife. Chris Granentine as Ernest Dunb- A !I , is w I