'4 ,1 h4 mir4igan Thtt Eighty-two years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Capping the unreturnable container crisis 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 Another attack on the press WAYNE STATE University's student newspaper, the South End, printed three allegedly anti-Semitic articles on Jan. 10, 11 and 12; the articles included, among other things, a picture showing a swastika superimposed over the Star of David. Since then, the newspaper has received numerous threats of violence from an ap- parently outraged community. What dis- turbed the newspaper's staff even more, however, was the threat of a Wayne ad- ministration crackdown on the contents of the South End. Yesterday their fears were finally rea- lized, as the university administration de- manded the resignation of the South End's editor. The university's president, George Gullen, also "requested" that any other staff m;nembers who were involved in the publication of the controversial ar- ticles also resign. With .Gullen's attempt at a political purge of the South End's staff also came new restrictions on articles printed in the newspaper-the end result of which can only be an abridgement of the First Amendment right of freedom of the press. THE CENTRAL ISSUE, of course, is not the content of the articles or whe- ther they were examples of responsible and unbiased journalism. The crux of the matter is whether the Wayne administra- tion has the right to censor the South End's content. We think not. The actions of Gullen and the Wayne State Board of Governors are reprehen- sible. Essential to the proper functioning of any community is a free press-a press divested from control by any special in- terest group.-The public's access to infor- mation cannot and must not be cut off -or censored. Perhaps the South End did not act re- sponsibly in printing the controversial article, but it should be up to the staff of the paper to decide what is respon- sible and what is not. No outside group should be able to impose its own judge- ment. We heartily support South End Editor Gene Cunningham's refusal to be ousted; and we heartily support the South End's stand against the administration. Offic- ial censorship of the press is never ac- ceptable--and the case of the South End is no exception. -THE SENIOR EDITORS By SUE STEPHENSON CONTRARY TO the bottling in- dustries' popular opinion, a ban of nonreturnable beverage con- tainers does appear to be a viable solution to the increasing problem of waste. And Oregon's growing success with its four month state- wvide beverage container deposit taw serves to reinforce this. In an attempt to provide "fac- tual data" against such a ban on lonrefillable, nonreturnable bever- age containers, the beverage con- tainer industries recently commis- sioned the Midwest Research In- titte (MRT) to study the situa- tian nationwide. H'wvver, the fart that sch a BRv-rae Container Manufacturers A eV'atinn the Gass Container a""factrers Tnstitute, the Na- tional Soft Drink Association and the United States Brewers As- soriation, tends to make the cred- ibilitv. of the findings questionable. The basic conclusions which the MRI reached were that the na- tional impact of a hynothetical law ihanning nonreturnable beverage containers would: -reduce soft drink and b e e r sales; -consist of bottles with only eight round trips per bottle an- nuallv; -eliminate more than 164,000 jobs: -reduce personal income by nearly $3 billion, the Gross Na- tional Product (GNP) by more than $10 billion and the national, state and local tax revenue by more than $800 million; and -reduce thedtotal volume of roadside litter by a mere 11 per cent. These are grossly negative as- s'imptions! The MRI predicted a decline in .Sue Stephenson is a copy editor for The Daily. sales because it foresees a re- duced number of retail outlets handling such beverages, increased handling costs, fewer brands on the market and consumer and retailer resistance to an all-returnable bot- tle system. However, in Oregon, the f i r s t state to pass a law requiring nick- el deposits on all beer, ale and soft drink containers, beer sales sky- rocketed 47 per cent within a month. Ironically, before the Oregon law went into effect on October 1, 1972, the beer and soft drink in- dustry had made dire predictions that mandatory deposits w o u l d cut sales drastically. "It's just simply working," said Rich Chambers, a Salem, Oregon resident who has been working on the issue for approximately f o u r years, "there's no hassle. You can walk into any store and buy any brand in returnable containers," he said. According to Chambers, "Beer prices have not gone up, in fact they've gone down." This has been verified by state officials. The MRI report predicted that there would be only eight trips for returnable bottles. IIowever, it seems unreasonable to assume that the trippage rate would decline when all beverage containers were required to be returnable. PRESENTLY, THE Enforcement officer for the Oregon Liquor Com- mission, William Moore, reports that bottles are being brought back at twice the rate that they were before the legislation wen- into effect. Peter Chockola, the head of the ChockolarBeverage Comipany of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., believes that using only returnable bottles is good business. 'Throw-away bever- age containers are sheer, need- less waste being foisted onto the American consumer by the contain- er, supermarket and bottling in- dustries," Chockola say.3. RETURNABLE BOTTLES: Higher employment, less litter, increas- ed beverage sales, improved economy, and less taxes? The pros- pects are encouraging. would only happen if sales decreas- ed. and with Oregon as the exist- ing proof, this is definitely not the case. According to a national survey of the composition of roadside litter (conducted by the Research Tri- angle Institute) 22 per cent of the surveyed litter was beverage con- tainers. A study done by the glass con- tainers manufacturers institute finds 29 per cent of the surveyed litter to be beverage containers. And a prior testimony to the Sub- committee on the Environment" of the Committee on Commerce of the United States Senate states that 49 per cent of the surveyed litter was beverage containers. Each of these studies show that beverage containers comprise a more significant portion of road- side litter than the mere 11 per cent which the MRI study designat- ed. AN UNPUBLISHED in-house study done in 1971 by the Michi- gan State Highway Department states that its annual budget ex- ceeds one million dollars just for cleaning up 9,220 miles of road- sides in Michigan. Of 'the $600,000 spent to pick up litter, $140,000 per year is spent for the pick-up of nonreturnable beverage containers from Michi- gan's highways alone. And an addi- tional $155,700 per year is spent to remove throw-aways from Michigan's highway rest areas. Thus, it costs Michigan taxpay- ers a total of $295,700 annually - approximately one-third of the en- tire clean-up budget of the Mich- igan State Highway Department - to pick up nonreturnable beverage containers. Therefore, the MRI study ap- pears of little value in judging the aggregate effects of a ban on non- returnable beverage containers and the bottling industries should be cautious in using it as an ob- jective source of information. v -1 "My bottles make 45 to 50 trips and only about one half of one per cent are not returned," he said. There is no doubt that advertis- ing by the beverage industries re- inforces the consumption of non- turnable beverage containers. If the huge sums now spent to dis-, uade consumers from litering their nonreturnable containers were di- verted to a consumer-education program to encourage che use of returnable bottles, a tremendous change in consumer buying habits could be realized. Next, the MRI study concluded that a ban will eliminate more than 164,000 jobs, reduce national personal income by three billion dollars, reduce GNP by ten bil- lion dollars and reduce federal, state and local taxes by 800 mil- lion dollars. These figures not only rest on the possibly incorrect assumption of an eight per cent det ease in soft drink and beer sales, but they are outrageously incorrect. A UNIVERSITY profesor, Hugh Folk, analyzes the employment im- pacts of such a ban and results with an impression contrary to that presented by the MRI study. Folk's analysis predicts m a j o r net increases in employment; di- rectly in the returnable beverage industry and indirectly in related fconsumer industries. Nationally, this figure would be $142.8 million and this would induce 100,000 new jobs in consumer industries other than beverage-related industries. Folk predicts a national net in- crease of 130,000 jobs as the re- sult of the ban. In view of Folk's results, it seems reasonable to assert that national personal income and the GNP will increase as a result of the major employment increase brought about by a complete shift to re- turnables. Therefore, the MRI prediction of a significant tax loss due to a ba: Police power probe SO, THE HUMAN Rights Party is to hold its own inquiry into the workings of the city police department. It's a pity, in a way, because no matter what is said -and it promises to be revealing-the probe will lack the legitimacy of a full investigation by the city council. Still, there is plenty to be said. Here is Ann Arbor we have many rea- sons to be complacent about our police department. They do not seem to be over- ly obnoxious. They have a high percent- age of young, college educated patrolmen on the force. Compared with many other lawmen in other enforcement agencies, our coppers are positively charming. But complacency is a dangerous emo- tion. Although we like to think of our community as more or less liberated, the stark realities of the situation are an- other matter. No, our police are not running on a rampage around the city. They are not walking the streets kicking down doors. Many of them will pretend not to see many minor violations of the law, such as a group of youths quietly smoking a joint on the diag. But at the same time, there have been several serious incidents of late that are cause for great concern. Amongst the more outrageous have been the abortive "mistaken location" raid on a group of students living off campus. After kick- ing down the door and roughing up the occupants of the apartment, police ad- mitted they had raided the wrong place and the people they were looking for had lived next door. THEN THERE is the less definite area of so-called police harassment. Of- ficers in our town are under standing or- ders to stop "suspicious" automobiles and check the identification and other pap- ers of their occupants. While some arrests are made on these random stops, it is clear to anyone fa- miliar with the practice that the stops themselves are highly arbitrary and dis- criminatory. The 10-22s, as the police ra- dio code describes these stops, are almost exclusively directed against 601s, 602s, and 605s - in police parlance, black males, black females, and long haired youths, respectively. This has to stop. The people of this city who are paying more of their tax dollars to the police than any other city agency, should ex- pect, neigh demand, that those police respect the community they serve and endeavor to tackle the problems of the community in the best possible way. This is not presently the case. Among other things, foot patrols, which have been steadily decreasing, must be expanded to include the residential areas which are so often the targets of mug- gers, rapists and breaking-and-entering artists. Also, the huge number of police that sit around city hall all day must be made to earn their pay. One can have no sympa- thy for police demands for more man- power until one sees a more effective utilization of the people we already have. NOBODY, AT least nobody in their right mind, wants to abolish the police de- partment. In these times of rising crime such an action could prove fatal to a lot of people. But here in Ann Arbor, we should ex- pect the best police department that money can buy, and not too much money at that. The Human Rights Party hearings, which are scheduled to be held at city hall February 15 at 7:30, should be at- tended by everyone in the community who has an interest in better law enforce- ment. And that should include the po- lice themselves. -JONATHAN MILLER Uruguay undermined by U.S.? By CHRISTOPHER PARKS Co-editor CITYROOM, 1:30 P.M. -What's h-rnening?" I asked, distract- edlv flicking an ash into a spent coke bottle. An editor altgnced uGp from tb- mounds ofhwire service conv nili"g tun on his desk and said. "Not much . . oh, I Eress there's another coun in South America someplace - Uruguav, I giesq. Where the hell's that, any- wav?" NOT MANY neonle know, much leis c-r?. where Uruguay is or what hannens there. It's prett easy to forget about South Ame,- ican countries - it's easv not to take them very seriously. But reading over the cold, dis- passionate account of troons cor- doning off the capitol, and cabin- ets resigning, I felt a twinge - it all seemed to matter very much in a personal sort of way. Bein upset about a coup in Uruguay is not like being upset about Viet- nam. You can't really share it. As I read through the accournt, my thoughts drifted back, to high school. In high school I played a lot of soccer and did a lot of drink- ing with a teacher from Truguay named Carlos. Carlos was an exile of a sort, plotting for his eventual return to the homeland. He'd written some articles for a newspaper and the government didn't like them. They didn't want to execute him or any- thing - they just told him not to come home for awhile. WE USED to sit up in his apart- ment until obscene hours of the morning, sipping whiskey and play- ing some Uruguayan card game which I never grasped very well. He would talk, sometimes, about home, Montevideo - the music, the beaches, the women, playing soccer. Occasionally the conversa- tion would drift to his hitch in the army. "SHEET," he would say, ; when I was in the army we didn't do anything. We didn't fight anybody. We just sat around playing cards and drinking. The generals used to talk about fighting Brazil, b u t everybody knew the army was a joke. We just marched around in our uniforms so Uruguay could say it had an army." Then came Castro and Cuba. All of a sudden there was U.S. military aid and U.S. military ad- visors. "The army's not the same anymore," Carlos would say. "Now they have big guns and tank}. "The army scares the shit out of me. You know why we never had any coups in Uruguay? We never had any real army. Now, I dunno. It scares me." THAT WAS about three years ago and now, if the wire service reports are correct, it seems that American aid has finally borne fruit in yet another prevriously "backward" nation. Not that Uruguay was any Gar- den of Eden before the Yankees came around. But they had manag- ed to maintain for around 100 years a relatively stable, relative- ly democratic government which was in every sense of the word civilian controlled and which man- aged to set-up mass social pro- grams at least equal to those of the New Deal in America. Now, it appears that a U.S.- equipped, U.S.-trained army wi'l either take over or enforce its will through the threat of a take-over. Progress. H RP psychoanalyzed: H A split personality? By ROBERT BARKIN Feature Editor EVER SINCE Freud popularized the science of psychology, certain terms have become familiar to even the most uninterested lay- man. Perhaps the most oft-used phrase is schizophrenia, or the psy- chosis of the divided personality. In the human individual this mental disorder can be tragic. In a political party, it can be a disaster. Sorry as I am to say, my favorite, The Human Rights Party (HRP), is suffering from a mild, but hopefully curable case of the disease. One has only to look at the recent happenings in the party to see the symptoms. Not all of the members are in factions but there are factions. There are the Rainbow People, the Militant Middle, and The Chocolate Almonds, all on different political planes. My idea is that in order to satisfy all parties in this ideological dispute, two of the factions should rename their groups the Militant Marshmallows and The Rainbow Fudge, and then eventually change the name of the Human Rights Party to 31 Flavors. However my suggestion has drawn little support. The acrimonious letters and articles that have appeared on the editorial page of The Daily' are evidence enough that something has to be done. FORTUNATELY, the HRP has recognized the problem and has been undergoing intensive psychoanalysis. The transcript of the last therapy session reads like this: HRP: Doc, I have a real problem. I seem to be splitting into num- erous personalities. What's wrong? Doc: Well, you see, you are suffering from an acute psychosis. Why don't you give me some details? HRP: I'm all mixed up. I have three different personalities. I'm rock and roll and high energy. And then just as I'm grooving to the MCS I decide that the world is just an ideological game and everything is politics. Then I completely flip out and turn into a real marshmallow and can't figure out what to do at all. Doc: Very interesting. Anything more? HRP: I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming that I'm being stampeded by a herd of wild hippos. Doc: Strange. What else? HRP: Well, last election I didn't do so well. I've got to get my shit together for the next one, or else I'm going to take a leap off a high building. I'm desperate. Doc: Well, are any of the personalities becoming dominant? HRP: No, but I'm having an election to see which one will. Doc: (shrugs his shoulders) That's a unique way to settle schizo- phrenia. I ought to try it on some more of my patients. HRP: Is there anything else you can suggest? Doc: Yes. But it will take intensive therapy. HRP: Let's get started? Doc: Next week. Your hour is up. Pay the secretary. * * * WELL, THE therapy, more sessions, was to be expected. In such a complicated case, we can only wait until the problem comes to a head. Letters to The Daily, honesty and even criminal actin Good Samaitan in connection with- articles missing To The DAN~: from U offices. UNFORTUNATELY, it is indeed I trust that this letter will serve a rarity to come across an honest to both thank Ms. Byrd and edu- person. It is for this reason that I cate the U staff. wish to publicize what I thinK was -Estelle Bank a very special deed done by one Feb. 6 of a vanishing breed of good Sam- aritans. Wha's up, Doc? Last week I discovered, much to To The Daily: my chagrin, that I had lost uy IF DR. wallet. When I returned later that tFMD. SPOCOK was rejected for day to the Physics and Astronomy the Medical Sch )ol's commer'ce- building in the vain hone of pos- ment because he is a "poor speak- siblv recovering the wallet, I w er," then rhetorical style rather pleasastslysurised to learn that than substance is clearly the crikr- a custodian, Ms. Betty Brd. had io seln. sut cri es a fmini a x*nllt nrl ean itcnf1v tors are notoriously poor speakers. A (A I A The bombing continues LAST WEEK the war in Vietnam ap- peared to end. But in a "related development", Penta- gon 'spokesman Jerry Friedheim said American warplanes are flying an aver- age of 280 bombing missions over Laos, as well as "a number of targets", more re- cently, ii Cambodia. In the midst of all this, the nation breathed a dubious sigh of relief but was not moved to wild cheering when the chief, executive announced, that "peace with honor" had been achieved. And we were somewhat encouraged when the streets did not fill with angry mobs demanding that President Nixon receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Allied Chemical electric sign in Times Square flashed-"peace" and News- week magazine closed out its "War in Indochina" section, but some other things about the new "peace" bore an uncanny resemblance to the war. became "numerous cease-fire violations" instead of "scattered attacks." And the bombing continues beneath an official smokescreen. For the people of Laos and Cambodia, American foreign policy still takes the form of death from the sky. WE SHOULD NOT be too surprised if " and when Friedheim or other mili- tary spokespeople begin describing the Laos - Cambodia situation as "improv- ing". Phrases like "the tide is turning," "protective reaction," and "we seek no wider conflict" can no longer be spoken with smug military benificence. We have heard them before. Then let the people of Laos and Cam- bodia be forewarned that if their peace is "at hand", they should build fallout shelters. That Nixon's "generation of lasting peace" should begin amid continued bombing of a small Asian nation is no Milliken: Redefining state aid By CHARLEY HERRINGTON GOVERNOR MILLIKEN is to be commended for the introduc- tion of his school finance plan. Con- sidering the circumstances, it is probably the best that canbe ex- pected. The perfect solution to the school finance problem would have been the passage of proposal C, which would have abolished pro- perty taxes as a form of s chool support. Had this happened, the state would have financed the en- tire cost of school operations throughout the state. Apparently the electorate did not appreciate the need for a radical restructuring of school financing; so a more moderate proposal, such as Milliken's present plan, w i 1 1 have to do. The problem is the same as evcr. district in the state is guaranteed of at least a 38 mill tax base. Thus, the tradition of local sup- port of schools would seemingly 'e upheld. Since the taxpayer would still sendhis money to the local school, he would feel that the school is controlled locally. This however, is not completely true. WHENEVER THE state pays a large portion of anything, the state, not the local government, runs the show. This is undesirable for a number of reasons. Each individ- ual school district is bound to have its own unique problems that wwld evade any standardized ruling the state would provide as a solu~tion. The most productive course of ac- tion would be for the state monev to be accompanied by only mini- en extra money for education) gave Detroit $16 million, and Mil- liken recommended a $5 million in- crease for next year. Furthermore, the other school districts in the state are still al- lowed to pay more mills and to have their hallowed 'good schools. THERE IS ONE yawning gap in Milliken's proposal. He said that Detroit could not expect the state to "bail out" its schools, and that Detroit must findsits own mone- somewhere. But where? Obviousi J the voters are not going to come up with it in time to keep t h e schools in operation. If the ques- tion were that of the funding of street paving, he would be quite j stified in assuming such a tough . ; I