a jfse fii tn : Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1973 DoasIsay,notas do T H E My-Left-Hand-Doesn't-Know- What-My-Right-Hand-Is-Doing Hy- pocrisy Award for the week of December 3, 1973, goes to W. Tapley Bennett, U. S. delegate to the United Nations, for his vigorous opposition to a Chinese-spon- sored proposal to seat Prince Uorodom Sihanouk. as Cambodia's representative and oust the delegate of the government of President Lon Nol. Bennett's reasoning was impeccable. He said, "The Cambodian people have not granted Prince Sihanouk any irre- vocable right to rule over them." "It is hard to conceive of a more gross or more blatant interference in the inter- nal affairs of a member state. If" this were to become a precedent, who is to say what member state might not be the next victim of such a procedure?" Who, indeed? The attempt by China, Algeria, and 31 other nations to seat Sihanouk is puzz- ling since he announced recently that he has no control over, and almost no con- tact with, the insurgents fighting against the Lon Nol regime. N ADDITION, Sihanouk says that he has sent "documents of state," held by his exile government in Peking since 1970, to rebel leaders in northeastern Cambodia. He is clearly handing over to them whatever claim to power he has. It is difficult to understand the mo- tivation behind the resolution. It is even harder to believe, however, that Bennett does not know that the government he represents is doing exactly what he so eloquently condemned in the General As- sembly. For the past three years, the United States has kept Lon Nol, a thoroughly unrepresentative dictator, in power through means that can certainly be de- scribed as "gross and blatant." The American government has cheerfully interfered with "the internal affairs of a member state" at every opportunity, and occasionally created its own oppor- tunities. THE UNITED STATES provides about 80 per cent of the budget for the Lon Nol regime, which directly represents the interests of the American govern- ment in Indochina. Nearly all the funds are for military expenses. The U. S. pays for, fuels, and services the Cambodian air force, whose pilots attempt to bomb the presidential palace with almost monotonous regularity. The alleged Cambodian navy, a flotilla of river barges and cabin cruisers, which bounces off the banks of the Mekong to and from Phnom Penh, was designed and financed by the American military. In fact, the entire Lon Nol govern- ment is the creation of the United States government, which played a leading role in the coup which deposed Sihanouk, a self - styled neutralist. It is most improb- able that the U. S. delegation to the Unit- ed Nations is unaware of the links be- tween their government and the Lon Nol regime. HOPEFULLY no one in the General As- sembly was taken in by Bennett's high-flown rhetoric. Certainly the Cam- bodian insurgents weren't. A band of about 20 commandos infil- trated Phnom Penh early Wednesday morning and attempted to blow up a key traffic artery, the only major bridge still standing, the Bridge of the United Na- tions. Ford:J By CHUCK WILBUR GERALD FORD moved one step closer to the presiden yesterday. Ford's confirmation Vice-President sets the stagef a palace revolution that will pl the conservative Michigan C o gressman in the White House sor time early next year. It is now obvious, perhaps ev to the President himself, that N on cannot remain in office ind initely. If a Ford Presidency h become inevitable, there are s some important questions rega ing his ascension that remain be answered. For starters, just who wa Ford to be President? There c tainly has been no popular grou swell for his selection as Vic President. If the public has b indifferent to Ford, Republicans Congress certainly have not. REPUBLICAN politieians ha consistently been in the forefra of those advocating a Nixon signation coupled with Fo °d's s cession. Clearly the GOP has intention of going down witht Nixon ship when a benign, blan party man like Ford offers an ternative. Republicans may see saovation a Ford-Nixon switch but, wha in it for the Democrats? For while it appeared +hat libe Democrats would hold up For nomination while impeachm procedures against the Presid continued. But, suddenly thisr sistence to Ford evaporated an the rush was on to get the no Same song, ination through Capitol Hill. big Perhaps the willingness of Con- ncy gressional Democrats to accept as Ford as Vice-President and event- for ually as President, is due to ap- ace prehensions over Speaker C a r 1 n- Albert's ability to govern. It is ne- more likely, however, that even Congress itself fears action that 'en might seriously weaken th,2 power Six- of the executive. The need for a ef- strong President is so ingrained in has the national political cons. ousne-zs till that no one asks the fundamental rd- question-Why? to THE ANSWER has something to nts do with a constituency that both er- the Republican and Democratic nd- parties share, the economic ruling ce- class, the less than one per cent een of the American population t h a t "s n controls some sixty per cent of the nation's wealth. Ever since Pres- ident Cleveland sent federal troops t. ave into Illinois in 1894 to put down tisntr ont the Pullman strike, the executive tion of re- has represented the most effective of Can uc- means for this economic elite to fundsa no exert its will. the cre the Some presidents, like FDR, have of dom nd, infuriated the wealthy and power- are a f al- ful by trying to make capitalism a amples more stable and politically tenable that h in system, but in the oaig run the Nixony t's chief executive has been their boy. But,t a And as economic power has come preside ml to rest in fewer and fewer cor- Preside d> porate hands, so has polh-cal pow- making ent er been concentrated in the execu- ments ent tive branch of government. Things re- Nixons n d THE NIXON presidency, in bet- rock b im- ter days, was a clear example of dustria. falling Ford,s Ford. exactly who ca believe Nixont the inte * and pov Nixon n sidencv la cks ti actionar iNew N sjderab The c that we old Nix a rere ~ is wro watche thousan ingtol, in Vietn on the minorit: Buto x ~should l second verse end towards the ceotraliza- power. The secrat boniing rbodia, the impounding of alcated by Congress and ation of an extensive system nestic political surveillance few of the more blatant ex- of Presidential government ave come to pas, in the years. the days of a strong Nixon ncy have waned. Now t h e ent must spend his time inane humiliating state- like "I'm not a crook". might not get worse for since his credibility has hit ottom, but the Dow-Jones in- il average is unde 800 and fast. Exit Nixol-- Enter stage right. gives the economic elite iwhat it needs, a Nixon an act, a Nixon peoole can , but most importa ytiv a who will consistently defend erests of entrenched wealth wer. THE question we face is Nixon do we want, th3 jld no one believes, whose Pire- has been shattered, who he power to pursni his re- ry political goals, or this ixon who could enov co- le credibility and power. choice is clouded by th fa: e have come to detest this on, bath as a nera and as sentative of evervthing' th"t )g with this alntry. He d football games while nds of us marched in Wash- he made the genoc.Il war ram his very '),W, h: Constitution, and tr, t-d ies with "benign negle .t". our own hatred of Nixon not obscure the fact tnat with Ford in the White House, nothing will really change. T h e interests that have dominated the country in the Nixon years will con- tinue to do so, probably more ef- fectively than they do now. THERE IS some positive politi- cal gain that can come from Nix- on's certain demise, if the Presi- dent is impeached. Impeachment, like resignation, would put Ford. in the White House but the pra cess of impeachment itself could throw a monkey wrench into the finely tuned machinery of Presi- dential government for years to come. Impeachment creates a confron- tation between two branches of government, a confrontation that would force the Congress to as- siime power usurped by executive branch. Impeachment would also have a desirable effect on the political psychology of the nation. S o m e might see impeachment as a vic- tory for the political process, but more importantly it would be a victory for the popular pressure that has made Nixon's position un- tenable. THE SEVENTIES have s h o w n that a cynical despair regarding politics only serves the interest of the status quo. Successful impeach- ment would foster the belief that there is still a reason to act poll- tically, that some popular victor- ies however small can still be won. These limited victories must be plrsued, but only with the under- standing that if greater victories are to be won, the American peo- ple must be given more than the pseudo-choice between Nixons and Fords or Kennedys and Jacksons. Corporations strike oil 0M PHILLIPS Petroleum Co. pleaded guilty on Tuesday to making an Il- legal $100,000 contribution to President Nixon's reelection campaign. It was rou- tine enough; the company and its chair- man each paid a nominal fine for what has become a routine crime. Looking back on it, however, the con- tribution was more than somewhat strange. The Nixon Administration, as well as most of its predecessors, hardly needs financial inducement from the oil companies to favor them in its policies. Wednesday, for instance, the adminis- tration decided to let refiners increase the price of heating oil by two cents a gallon while a one cent a gallon reduc- tion in price was ordered for gaosline refiners. TODAY'S STAFF: News: Dan Blugermon, Della DiPietro, Chris Parks, Gene Robinson, Judy Rus- kin, Jeff Sorensen Editorial Page: Marnie Heyn, Zach Schil- ler Arts Page: Diane Levick Photo Technician: John Upton Thus, at a time when the administra- tion would have us believe that the na- tion faces a serious energy crisis, the laissez faire carrot and stick approach is being used to deal with the problem. "Line your pockets," the government says to heating oil refiners--and therein lies the solution to the crisis. ONLY THE PRICE increase --- amount- ing to an estimated seven per cent rise in home-heating bills-will be felt by consumers. The reduction in gasoline prices is something we will never see. Once again, the public is the loser while the oil companies are treated gin- gerly. Most of America's oil corporations are making the highest profits in their his- tories. The administration's slap-on-the- wrist reluctance to deal with the com- panies effectively is most enlightening. It heightens our worry that the whole fuel crisis is fabricated, but also pro- vides a crystal-clear indication of who the administration cares about most: the powers, not the people. With a little bit of By RICHARD CONLIN MIL LOCKWOOD hasn't won an election since 1966, when he was elected to the State Senate from a rural and safely Republican district surrounding his home town of St. Louis in Gratiot County, some 50 miles north of Lansing. In 1970, he was serving as Sen- ate Majority Leader, and after a fierce fight at the Republican Con- vention, was nominated for Secre- tary of State, only to lose in the fall to D~emocrat Richard Austin. M Many defeated candidates return to private life, some to run again in future elections. Others receive appointive posts, or go into the governmental administration. Emil Lockwood chose a third route: he became a lobbyist. LOCKWOOD HAD always been a powerful politician; as Senate Ma- jority Leader with a Republican governor, he had a lot of influence over state decision making. And he had a lot of highly-placed con- tacts. One could anticipate that he would be a successful lobbyist. In fact, Lockwood approached lobbying as if he were trying to corner the market. In 1972 he started a lobbying firm in combination with Jerry Coomes, a Democrat and formerly Admin- istrative Assistant to State Senator Jerry Hart, thus covering b o t h sides of the aisle. By mid-1973 this firm reportedly had total billings of over a quar- ter million dollars. Their clients included Detroit Edison, the State Bar of Michigan, the Michigan Road Builders Association, B i u e Shield, Provincial House, Minne- sota Mining and Manufacturing, Associated Underground Contract- ors, Michigan State Pharmaceuti- cal Association, and the Michigan Nursing Homes Association. A LOT OF PEOPLE say t h a t Emil Lockwood still runs tle State Senate; a lot of companies t hI a t wanttlegislative action seem to agree. PIRGIM ran across Emil L o c k- wood early this summer, in the course of its investigation of near- ing aids. It seems that the Michi- gan Hearing Aid Society (the deal- er's organization) has retained Lockwood for a reported $1200 a month, plus expenses, to make sure that stricter regulation of hear- ing aid dealers never comes to pass. In the course of our investgati31, however, we ran across a role that Lockwood played that far oversteps the normal bounds of lobbying. A lobbyist, as defined by Mich- igan law, seeks to influence de- cisions of the legislature. Ilowever, Emil Lockwood was deeply involv- ed in an administrative decision relating to State purchase of hear- ing aids. THE CRIPPLED Children's Di- vision of the Michigan Department of Public Health purchases hearing aids for children with severe hear- lobbying... Senator Charles Zollar, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Com- mittee, Emil Lockwood, and repre- sentatives of several state agencies and a hearing aid consumer group. The Michigan Department of Public Health and the Crippled Children's Division maintained that dealer cost plus $125 was adequate and that any increase would be ex- ploiting the taxpayers to provide more profit to the dealers. ONE PARTICIPANT pointed out that the total sum involved was only $200,000 of the $75-million De- partment of Public Health bud- get; another participant remarked, "The taxpayers won5t even notice it." It was also noted that !Ie DPH budget could be cut by the Senate Appropriations Committee if t h a t body became unhappy with Public health's position. A figure of cost plus $180 w a s finally accepted by Public Health. The extra $55 per aid will cost the Michigan taxpayer $27,500 per year. It is clear that in this meet'ng the public interest was not served or realistically even considered. In fact, the governing process was corrupted by the influence of a paid lobbyist who sought a spelial favor for his clients, and was able to persuade or coerce government officials to go along. Richard Conlin is a staff mem- ber of PIRGIM. Emil Lockwood ing loss. After a long initial strug- gle, prices for State purchase were set at a standard rate of .vholesale cost plus $125. This in itself is approximately a 100 per cent mark- up for the retail dealer on an ef- fortless sale, since the Stage does the diagnosis and fitting. Even so, in 1972 the dealers de- manded more money. After another long stru-gle, a meeting took place in a Capitol office in December of 1972, with Letters to the Daily racism affairs; ,, sm O The latest move, secured by a To The Daily: narrow vote at the last SGC meet- RECENT EVENTS have shown ing was a resolution to scrap the that there is an organized effort University's Affirmative A c t i o n to promote racism on campus, and Program. The program is designed to wipe out democratic gains made to implement the Black Action by the student movement. Consider Movement (BAM) demands, which the following: were agreed to by the University 0 Since Lee Gill was elected as after thousands of students, black president of SGC, he has been ac- and white, went on strike for 12 cused of embezzlement, theft, cov- days: er-up, illegally holding office, and The University is threatening fixing the elections. There has not to reduce the budget of the Afro- been a shred of evidence to prove American Center and cut oit h e r any of these charges. Those that parts of the Affirmative Action have been brought before the Cen- Program; trai Student .udiciarv hnve been 0 Black Tniversity officiais are dent body in SGC. The racist re- action to this began with an at- tack on Lee Gill, and escalated to an all-out attack on all of the gains which have been won by white and non-white alike in the struggle against racism. Opponents of the BAM demands are again claiming that these new programs are racism in reverse. In reality these programs are design- ed to overcome the institutional racism that has always been i part of the University and American so- ciety. Special programs are needed to help overcome the special oppres- priornes To The Daily: IN REPLY TO Dr. T. A. Hep- penheimer, concerning the Uni- versity's real priorities: true sig- nificance and greatness lies not in Nobel laureates, strong depart- ments, or overall academic excel- lence. It resides in the heart, in those who care to try to exceil, to do well, to learn. Bo Schem- bechler has demonstrated that he has that kind of spirit. I have never heen sn nrond of the fot- l \\\\\ \ \ti\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\V V