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Eighty-Iwo years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
The Arb: Not a park,
but a garden
x
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
SATURDAY, APRIL7, 1973
Gray makes the right move
PATRICK GRAY is to be commended
for making the right decision in
withdrawing his nomination as FBI di-
rector. Gray, through his past actions,
has shown himself to be unsuitable for
the job, and in withdrawing, has saved
himself the embarrassment of probable
Congressional rejection ,of his appoint-
ment. He has also now paved the way for
a more desirable candidate to be insti-
tuted as FBI head.
Gray unfortunately failed to live up to
initial expectations of him as Acting Di-
rector. Entering the office last May, he
took several steps to modernize the FBI
--women and blacks were actively sought
as agents, breaking traditions set under
former director J. Edgar Hoover's reign.
The image of the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation had suffered in recent years
due to Hoover's sometimes fanatical pur-
suit of left-wing and right wing extrem-
ists. When Gray took over after Hoover's
death, the FBI's image had a chance for
a face lifting under new hands.
For all Hoover's faults, however, he
was not partial to any particular Admin-
istration. Gray has not proved equally
objective. Gray's critics have charged
that he was too loyal to President Nixon,
and recent evidence which has emerged
from the Watergate affair only serves to
confirm this belief.
Gray was in charge of conducting the
FBI study of the Watergate affair, which,
ideally should have been conducted in
non-political settings to allow a fair and
impartial investigation to occur. Yet, he
had allowed White House Counsel John
Dean to sit in on FBI interviews of
White House staffers about Watergate.
One effect of this was that, as several
witnesses have said, the presence of
Dean intimidated them into not talking.
But perhaps most disturbing, it has been
charged that Dean was using the FBI in-
terview reports to coach key Watergate
figure Donald Segretti for his grand jury
appearance.
Furthermore, Gray's attempts to vin-
dicate his direction of the FBI Watergate
investigation only led to more disclos-
ures embarrassing to the White House.
The result was that he was put under
restrictions by the White House as to
what he could say before Congress.
SUCH ARE SOME of the reasons why
it is unhealthy for the head of the
FBI to have close ties to the White
House. And Gray does, having admitted
that he dealt with the White House
with "a presumption of regularity."
To prevent this in the future, Senator
Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has introduced
a bill to establish the FBI as a separate
institution, with no ties to the Justice
Department. The passage of this bill
would be encouraging indeed.
The Senate apparently plans now to
scrutinize carefully any candidate of-
fered for the job. This also should prove
to be beneficial to the future of the Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation.
The task now remains to find a suit-
able person to take over permanently
as FBI director.
By KATHY BYRNES
THE "ARB" is slowly dying,
"Over 60,000 people visit the 144-acre re-
serve every year, but few realize that Nich-
ols Arboretum was once a much grander
place," said Charles Jenkins, horticultur-
ist and part of the Arb's staff.
At one time Nichols Arboretum achieved
national recognition for its peony garden,
its lilacs and its natural beauty. The li-
lacs are gone, the peony garden is still
there and the beauty of the Arb remains.
But the Arb does not possess the same
standards it once did.
This is hot the fault of the people who
work trying to maintain the Arb. It is,
perhaps, the fault of the times. Univer-
sity money grows scarcer every day. High
costs squeeze out the extras. And right
now, the Arb is just a fringe benefit that
students and residents of Ann Arbor en-
joy.
Nichols Arboretum is more than just a
park to picnic in or a sanctuary to walk
in. By definition an arboretum is a place
where trees and shrubs are cultivated for
scientific or educational purposes.
IN 1906 WALTER and Esther NichoLs
donated a 68-acre tract of land to the Uni-
versity for a botany garden. But the botany
venture met with failure. Many plants were
lost to frost and the land's steep bluffs and
ravines caused planting difficulties. There-
fore through process of elimination the
tract of land became the "Arb."
The peony garden began in the 1921s
when the Arb covered 144 acres. Since over
300 varieties were donated at one time
or another, the section became nationally
known. Not only did people come to view
the beautiful collection of flowers but bo-
tanists came to study them. Labelsbidenti-
fied each peony and provided botanical in-
formation.
It is still possible to see the garden in
early June but most of the labels are lost
now. There is no longer a fence to pro-
tect the flowers from souvenir seekers,
Improper management of the Arb is onlv
part of the reason for its decline. The other
is lack of money.
Another enemy is gradually winning over
the Arb. Once; land on each side of the
gate immediately inside the Geddes Street
entrance was similar in topography. Now
the right side starts immediately to go
down into a ravine. Erosion is the culprit.
Back in the 1950s in order to control
the erosion, crownvetch plants were pur-
chased and planted along the Arb's slopes.
The roots of the plants were to stop ert ion
and help water drainage. Because they
were incorrectly planted and maintained,
Kathy Byrnes, '75, is a journalist stu-
On com b
By JIM MADDEN fic com
IN A RECENT speech at Hill Aud- This iss
itorium, Dennis Meadows, co- the hist
author of "Limits to the Limits of human r
Growth," stated that he envisions dows m
a breakdown of the "world svs- first tim
tern" within one hundred years, crisis wh
caused by exponentially increasing ens to u
rates of population, industrial out- reality,r
put, and pollution on a world wide ment fro
scale. its exist
To achieve this result, world pop- we know
ulation and industrial production self on,
rates since 1900 were extrapolated atom, ha
into the future. An exponentially- ed the a
increasing population and indus- mind to
trialization were seen to run up it and t
against the supposedly finite store For ex
of world natural resources upona
which industry depends, the capac- at that
ity of the biosphere to absorb pol- supporto
lution, and the Malthusian spectre pulation
of mass starvation caused by the orestan
dwindling supply of arable land. least. Bu
Meadow's proposed "solution" to ing and
this crisis is to halt economic and velopme
population growth, a policy called raised hi
an "equilibrium state." Such a pol- ing to a
icy is seen as maintaining the pop- led an
ulation at a stable level through exist. Th
Zero Population Growth (ZPG); by ion of a
limiting annual births to a level and stea
merely sufficient to offset annual of the a
deaths. At the same time, econ- technolog
omic growth is halted by limiting have en
capital investment to that level re- egher
quired to merely replace deprec- ence.
iated capital.
THE P
MEADOW'S VIEWS and scienti- progressi
the plants died. Since more funds are not
readily available, the plan could not and
will. not be tried again.
There was once an abundance of lilacs
along the left wall near the Geddes en-
trance. People-abuse and too much over-
growth helped wipe out that splendor, too.
Even though so much has been lost in
the Arb, there remain squirrels, racoons,
foxes, possums, ground hogs, a deer once
in a while, and approximately 83 different
species of birds.
"WE WANT TO get away from the idea
of the Arb as a park and bring it back to the
original plan. The Arb is an arboretum, not
a park," stresses Charles Jenkins.
"We are trying to dissuade skiers and to-
bogganers from using the hills," said Gil
Jaeger, head of the Arb's maintenance staff,
when outlining the plan. Outside the main
entrances posted signs not only restrict Arb
hours but state "no coasting, no skiing."
Jaeger defended the move: "We don't like
to stop people from having fun in the Arb
but activities like tobaggoning or ball play-
ing speed up the erosion process. Sin.e this
is one of our major problems, we feel the
need to restrict the use of the Arb."
As it now stands, the two full-time main-
tenance men spend 24 out of 80 wrking
hours cleaning up debris left by sledders,
picnickers and other Arb users. "If the
people destroy what we have now," said
Jaeger, "then what?"
Another Arb restriction stops creation of
new paths. The ground crew places shrubs
in the way of the walker, hopefully discour-
aging him, explained Jenkins. This forces
the walker to take a route already formed,
he added.
This new method offers protection to the
vegetation, allowing more natural growth
.of plants rather than having leaves torn
off. Professor Cares, head of the Arboretum
and on a six month sabbatical, hopes to
develop a nature center by Dow Field and
thus have nature trails. Money is not avail-
able now, though. ,
THE RESTORATION of the Arb is a=
long-term project. Right now the ground
crews are working at replacing label
on trees and th; restoring of vegetation.
Though the Huron River is too big a prob-
lem to tackle now in regards to water
pollution, the ground crews plant along
the banks to help stop erosion.
Spring is here and with it renewed use
of the Arb. The peak use periods are April-
May and September-October but thousands
use it on summer weekends, too. Several
groups come for picnics or rock and blues
festivals.
"Some visitors," noted Walter Krasny,
chief of the Ann Arbor police, "have honor-
able intentions but others do not." IHov-
ever, "complaints from area residents have
lessened in the past few years," said Kras-
ny. The abuse 'from Arb users has decreas-
ed, especially because of the back-to-nature
movement of the late 60s, added Jaeger.
Much more is needed to move the. Arb
back to its original high standards. Hund-
reds of thousands of dollars is the answer,
stated Jenkins. But no additional money
is forthcoming from the University.
Despite this lack, people continue to trek.
to the Arb. Few realize that the Arb could
be more than just a park.
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K
PEOPLE POLLUTION: Only one of the major contributors to the grad-
uail destruc tion of the arboretumr.
Y
Peace at Wounded Knee
DAY, ALMOST a century after 200 to
300 Sioux and Cheyenne died in a
massacre, the smoke has cleared over
Wounded Knee, South Dakota. After 37
tense days, leaders of the American In-
dian Movement (AIM) and government
officials have signed a six-point "treaty"
which will -end the armed occupation of
the town.. Yet, it could hardly be termed
a victory for the Indian cause,
Although the government has agreed
to let AIM leader Russell Means confe-
with White House representatives, to in-
vestigate Indian affairs throughout the
Pine Ridge reservation, and the Justice
Department will consider bringing suits
to protect the legal rights of the Oglala
Sioux Indians against abuses by tribal
governments and federal authorities, no
real commitments have been made.
However, some things are definite.
Within the hour, the agreement was
signed, Russell Means was taken into
custody by federal marshalls. The others
occupying Wounded Knee have agreed to
Today's st(ff:
News: Laura Berman, Bill Heenan, Gene
Robinson, Terri Terrell, Ralph Varte-
bedian
Editorial Page: Martin Stern, David Yalo-
witz
Arts Page: Gloria Jane Smith
Photo Technicians: Thomas Gottlieb, Steve
Kagan
submit to arrest and be taken to Rapid
City for arraignment. There will be no
amnesty.
All of this is conditional on whether
Means is satisfied after his meeting to-
day with officials in Washington. Pre-
sumably every effort will be made to see
that he is. Then Means will give the or-
der for his comrades to lay down their
arms. When they do, they will promptly
be arrested.
AT BEST the incident at Wounded Knee
has served to make a callous and
disinterested American public aware that
people known as Indians still exist, and
that the cavalry didn't do as thorough
a job as was expected. The least it has
done is to get a commitment by federal
authorities to "reexamine" its treaty
agreements with the Sioux Nation, made
back in 1868.
But the ultimate result is that the
leaders of the Indian Movement and
those disatisfied and concerned enough
to make a stand at Wounded Knee will
undoubtedly end up in jail and be for-
gotten, once again.
It is thus up to the public to keep a
watchful eye on the upcoming govern-
ment negotiations. For without close
scrutiny, the agreement may not look
totally unlike the massacre the Indians
suffered in 1880. Only this time, it will be
on paper.
itting. the environmental crisis
petence are questionable.
simply because he denies
orical experience of the
race on this planet. Mea-
aintains that this is the
e that man has been in a
here the population threat-
se up finite resources. In
mankind, in its develop-
'm an animal ecking out
ance in caves to the man
today who can put him-
the moors and split the
as consistently demonstrat-
ability to use his creative
master nature as he found
o improve upon it.
ample, cave dwelling man
technological level could
only a certain limited po-
which lived in an inter-
dard of living to say the
t in pasing from the bunt-
gathering stage to the de-
nt of agriculture, m n n
s material standard of liv-
higher level which enab-
increased populatioi to
he use of fire, the inmen-
griculture, the use of water
m power, to the splitting
tom have been dramatic
gical breakthroughs which
abled man to, progress to
evels of material exist-
POINT remains - in tie
on from lower to higher
levels of material levels of pro-
duction and existence, a growing
population has come up aginst
what are considered finite reso.rc-
es. So, what has man done in the
past? le has used his creative abil-
ity to make use of other resources
which were always in hi, environ-
ment, but which he could not har-
ness because he did not nave the
technology to .do it.
Today, what new technology -,an
make man use of to solve the
energy crisis? Thermonuclear fus-
ion is the next technological aJ-
vance man must put into operatio i
if he is to solve the problem of
an expanding population.- if ther-
monuclear fusion power were made
operational, the entire world's pop-
ulation could enjoy a material level
of existence at 20 per cent higher
than that enjoyed currently by the
working population of the United
States. And this level of existence
~ould continue for 2.7 billion years
into the future.
Furthermore, fusion power is
cheap and non-polluting. It could
also be used to convert the world's
desert areas into arable lands. Fu-
sion power would solve the energy
crisis, the pollution crisis, t h e
dwindling living space crisis, and
would maintain a higher lerel of
existence for the world's popula-
tion.
SO WHY DON'T we do it? We
have a problem: capitalism. Af
fusion power were implemented
with all of its attendant benefits
for mankind, it would undercut
capitalist property titles and in-
vestments in such outmoded and
obsolete forms of energy as i i ,
coal, natural gas, etc. Standard
Oil, Shell, and other companies
would have no reason for exist-
ence. It is asking the capitalists
to undercut their own system. So
in the implementation of fusion
power we have a clear cut confron-
tation; the needs of humanity ver-
sus the continuance of capitalist
property titles. This is where Mea-
dows comes in to do his thing.
At a time when the capitalist
tnonetary system is about to plunge
into a worldwide depression, be-
cause the capitalists will no long-
er invest in productive wealth,
Meadows calls for Zero Growth. He
spins an ideology which coincides
perfectly with the crisis of unde-
production of real wealth and the
orgy of speculation the capitalist
system is presently finding irself
in. He indeed appears to be an
ideologue for capitalism in col-
lapse.
Jim Madden is a mem'ber of the
Socialist National Caucus of Labor
Committee.
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Letters to The Daily
A proposal to aid an
overdeveloped country
By DICK WEST
THE POWER blackouts in Florida this week point up once again the
need for some kind of international program of assistance for the
overdeveloped nations of the world.
Blackouts are becoming even more reliable than robins as harbing-
ers of spring.
As warm weather returns to other parts of the nation, they, like
Florida, being badly overdeveloped in air conditioning, will begin to over-
load the circuits, too.
This summer, moreover, the power shortages are expected to be
accompanied by gasoline shortages, reflecting America's automotive
overdevelopment.
In some countries, such would not be critical. But in a country
as badly overdeveloped as ours, the natives are completely dependent
on autos and electricity.
MOST OF US could no more survive without cars and electric ap-
pliances than we could survive without headwaiters and doormen. I'd
give us 48 hours at best.
For years, the United States has been providing technical aid to
underdeveloped countries. So now is the time for them to return the
favor. They should be sending us technical experts - a sort of converse
Peace Corps - to help us lower our standard of living.
In my judgment, the United Nations would be the proper agency
to administer such a program. Many of its member countries have
existed for decades with erratic power supplies and limited auto
transportation. Thus they are rich in know-how.
What I have in mind is teams of idealistic youths from under-
developed countries going into our suburbs and actually living among
the natives, mingling with them in the shopping centers and attending
their garage sales.
HOUSEKEEPERS would be shown such things as how to sweep
carpets without a vacuum cleaner; males would be taught basic skills,
like shaving without electric razors. They,. in turn, would pass along
the instruction to their neighbors, and it wouldn't be long before all the
Cut military dollars
To The Daily:
LAST WEEK Mr. Nixon a p -
peared before us on nationwide TV.
He eicouraged us to write our
congressmen to tell them we don't
want Mr. Nixon's budget changed,
so thatour taxes will not go up.
I'd like to instead urge us to
write our congressmen and a s k
them to reduce the gigantic mili-
tary spending budget.
The Nixon administration is ask-
ing Congress for $199.1 billion in
general funds for next year, Fiscal
Year 1974. Of this amount, 41 per
cent is earmarked for current mil-
itary expenditures and 18 per cent
for the cost of past wars - 6 per
munity devel., commerce, trans-
portation, housing) : 10 per cent.
* All other (internat. affairs and
finance, space, general govt., re-
venue sharing, pay raises, con-
tingencies): 12 per cent.
Based on the budget figures from
the Library of Congress and pop-
ulation figures from the Bureau
of the Census, the average Amer-
ican family will spend $1486 in gen-
eral taxes on military-related pro-
grams during Fiscal 1974. This
compares with $126 for education
and manpower, $63 for community
development and housing, and $45
for natural resources (environment-
al programs).
Is this how we want our taxes
spent?
ers of its industrial capacity.
Are we more secure knowing we
can "overkill" the Rusisans more
times than they can "overkill ' us?
Are we more secure knowing the
needs of the American people and
others abroad are being neglected
while we pay for more "efficcnt'"
and sophisticated weapons - with
cost overruns of more than three
times the original estimates? Are
you more likely to be attacked by
Soviet missiles or by other Arrwr-
icans -- violent, hopeless, desper-
ate Americans?
iDoes spending over $80 billion
a year on the military make us
feel secure? I say no, and I invite
you to join in telling Mr.'s Is h,
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