Eighty-two years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
On
the
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.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1972
Vote Halpert forsenator
THE U.S. SENATE race here in Michi-
gan offers a clear choice between
Republican Sen. Robert Griffin and his
two challengers, Democrat Frank Kel-
ley, now state attorney general, and the
Human Rights Party's Barbara Halpert.
Hopefully one result of the election will
be, an end to Griffin's presence in Wash-
ington.
But it is always difficult-and indeed,
undesirable-to compromise one's politi-
cal beliefs over personal considerations.
Included among the tenents of this
newspaper is the belief that it is vitally
important for minority parties to be rep-
resented at every level of the election
ballot. The Human Rights Party has
proven to be the most viable "third
party" in recent history - especially on
the local level.
This is the first election year, how-
ever, in which HRP is represented on
the state-wide ballot. And in order for
it to remain on the ballot in the future,
the HRP candidate running for the high-
est political office must receive at least
15,000 votes. It is for this reason, among
others, that we endorse Barbara Halpert
for U. S. Senator.
SENATOR GRIFFIN has long espoused
ultra-conservative beliefs and sup-
ported conservative causes, and haa been
one of the Senate's chief protectors of
large corporate interests. Consumer cru-
sader Ralph Nader's recently completed
report on Congress concurs: "Griffin's
campaign contribution lists read like the
Who's Who of the Auto Industry and
Fortune's 500."
His Senate voting record speaks for it-
self. He has voted against cross-district
school busing, against increased hand-
gun control, against bills designed to
eliminate job discrimination, against
bills designed to facilitate voter registra-
tion, against a bill to raise the minimum
wage, against cuts in the military budget,
against Senate moves to cut off funds
for the Vietnam War and against cuts in
Defense appropriations.
SGC
elections
Recomnmended- Bob Black, s a n d y
Green, Louis Lessem, Margaret Miller, Ken
Newbury.
Acceptable-David Faye, David Horn-
stein.
Unacceptable- Debbie Allen, Elliot
Chikofsky, Mat Dunaskiss, Fred Friedman,
Thom Gillis, Ed Lipiner, Jeff Lis, Curt
Steinhauer, Timothy Trop, Theresa Weber,
Stuart Weiner,
No position-Betty Martin, Michele
Miller.
(These endorsements were prepared
by an open committee of The Daily's
editorial staff members.)
SARA FITZGERALD
Editor
PAT BAUER ............ Associate Managing Editor
LINDSAY CHANEY .............. Editorial Director
MARK DILLEN .................... Magazine Editor
LINDA DREEBEN ........ Associate Managing Editor
TAMMY JACOBS..........Managing Editor
ARTHUR LERNER .............. Editorial Director
JONATHAN MILLER ................ Feature Editor
ROBERT SCHREINER ........... Editorial Director
GLORIA JANE SMITH ................ Arts Editor
ED SUROVELL ..................... Books Editor
PAUL TRAVIS .......... Associate Managing Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Jan Benedetti, Di-
ane Levick, Jim O'Brien, Chris Parks, Charles
Stein, Ted Stein.
COPY EDITORS: Meryl Gordon, Debra Tha.
EDITORIAL NIGHT EDITORS: Fred Shell Martin
Stern.
DAY EDITORS: Dave Burenn, Jim Kentch, Marilyn
Riley, Judy Ruskin, Eric Schoch, Sue Stephen-
son, Ralph Vartabedian, Becky Warner.
TELEGRAPH/ASSOCIATE NIGHT EDITORS: Prakasi
Aswani, Gordon Atcheson, Laura Berman, Penny
Blank, Dan Blugerman, Bob Burakoff, Beth Eg-
nater, Ted Evanoff, Cindy Hill, Debbie Knox,
David Stoll, Terri Terrell.
STAFF WRITERS: Howard Brick Lorin Labardee, Ka-
thy Ricke, Eugene Robinson, Linda Rosenthal,
Zachary Schiller, Marcia Zoslaw.
Sosin.
ARTS STAFF: Herb Bowie, Rich Glatzer, Donald
PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF
TERRY McCARTHY............ Chief Photographer
ROLFE TESSEM .................. Picture Editor
DENNY GAINER................Staff Photographer
TOM GOTTLIEB........... ... Staff. Photographer
KAREN KASMAUSKI...........Staff Photographer
DAVID MARGOLI K ............Staff Photographer
Sports Staff
JOHN PAPANEK
Sports Editor
ELLIOT LEGOW
This kind of record must not be al-
lowed to continue. Griffin is one of the
Senate's more powerful members, and
his destructive influence can only mul-
tiply if given another term.
FRANK'KELLEY would be infinitely su-
perior to Griffin as a senator. But
his stand against cross-district school
busing and his seeming uncertainty on
some issues unfortunately negates his
liberal record as attorney general.
Kelley's refusal to support cross-dis-
trict school busing can only be construed
'as a political sellout, inconsistent with
the rest of his liberal philosophy. It is a
direct concession to Kelley's vision of the
way the state's current political winds
are blowing. In addition, Kelley's posi-
tion on the First Amendment rights of
the press, for example, is wishy-washy
at best, and ends up proposing no definite
policy on the right of reporters and the
confidentiality of their sources. His po-
sition on amnesty for draft evaders i
equally vapid.
BARBARA HALPERT, meanwhile, has
been involved with radical politics
for the past two decades. She has long
supported workers' right and opposed
to the war. Furthermore, she is bound
to the sound HRP platform. She would
be an excellent addition to the Senate
and an excellent representative of the
people of the state.
HRP is offering a viable alternative to
the state's traditional two parties. The
strong party platform, to which all its
candidates are bound, is worthy of whole-
hearted support. HRP must continue to
grow, and fully deserves to remain be-
fore the eyes of state voters. For Hal-
pert to fail to gain the requisite 15,000
votes would effectively cause all party
activity to grind to a halt while mem-
bers conducted another massive petition
drive to regain ballot stature. Such an
event would be a needless re-channeling
of constructive energy. We urge you to
vote Halpert for Senator.
This endorsement represents the ma-
jority opinion of The Daily's editorial
staff.
Now more
than ever.
RICHARD NIXON IS something of an
enigma. He is a quintessentially me-
diocre being who has capitalized on the
mediocrity of his fellow Americans. He
is a born loser who has somehow won all
the stakes, and stands to win them all
again next week for the last time.
If he is anything, Richard Nixon is un-
creative. Tricky, but uncreative. This
seems to hold on virtually every level,
from his most major foreign policy de-
cisions to the routine planning of cam-
paign strategy. Nixon attempts to "end"
the war four years too late; he refuses
to debate George McGovern.
The sad thing is, in appealing to the
American voter this way, Nixon has ap-
parently struck a chord of response. He
has succeeded in getting his way. Now
it is Richard Nixon who pushes around
the American citizen.
This phenomenon is even borne-out in
presidential sloganism. Despite the em-
barrassingly uninspired "experience
counts" of the 1960 campaign and the in-
sipid "Four more years" of the present
race, Nixon has succeeded in gathering
an ever-increasing throng to chant his
battle-cries, and rally blindly behind his
causes, or lack thereof.
This shameful appeal to mediocrity,
indeed, this massive insult to the Ameri-
can intelligence, will quite possibly ex-
ist for "four more years." But it is time
for every self-respecting individual -
intellectual and non-intellectual alike-
to rise up and say no to Nixon and his
mediocrity and his uncreativity and his
slogans.
The next time you hear one of his
automatons yelling "Nixon is the one"
or, better yet, the suggestive "Now more
than ever" of the Republican convention,
walk over and give him the rest of the
quotation, from John Keats' "Ode to a
Nightingale" (L. 55): "Now more than
n-- - n vv i4- -4-1, fn A- '
By SARA FITZGERALD
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS prob-
ably were surprised when they
picked up their copies of the Michi-
gan Student News yesterday and
read an article headlined "Daily
Board Tries to Muzzle News,"
prominently displayed on page one.
But they were probably not as
surprised as members of The
Daily staff reading an account of
their alleged "role" in the pur-
ported "muzzling" of the news.
There are a number of points
in the News' article which require
clarification.
"SGC President Bill Jacobs
disclosed today that the Michigan
Daily through its members on
the Board in Control of Student
Publications (sic) has attempted
to force the Michigan Student
News out of publication."'
*. The Daily does not have mem-
bers on the Board for Student
Publications. The board is made
up of three faculty members, three
student members, elected in SGC
all-campus elections and three
professional journalists. Another
faculty member acts as the non-
voting chairman. The editor and
business manager of The Daily,
and ofsthe Michiganensian sit in
on meetings but do not vote.
Jacobs, who with John Koza
wrote the unsigned article, said
yesterday that he was referring to
two student members, Jay Hirsch-
man and Donna Katzman, who
had received The Daily's endorse-
ment in the all-campus elections.
However, Jacobs did not know
what role, if any, these two mem-
bers played in the board's dis-
cussion of the News at its meeting,
Sept. 27. Hirschman and Katzman,
in fact, have often been critical
of The Daily and Hirschman has
advocated the establishment of a
new student publication for a long
time.
* The board's questions about
the News, according to its chair-
man, were never designed to
"force the News out of publica-
tion." Instead, education Prof.
Larry Berlin says, "The board
SG(
'muzzlin
was concerned with the extent of
its jurisdiction over student publi-
cations generally, not with this
particular publication. Our pur-
pose initially was to raise the
question for the executive officers
to find out whether they or the
Regents had any clear notions of
whether all student publications
should fall under the board's juris-
diction."
As the regental bylaws currently
stand, the board is delegated with
the "authority and control over all
non-technical newspapers, maga-
zines, periodicals, programs and
other publications edited, managed,
or promoted by students or student
organizations of the University of
Michigan for local sale or cir-
culation."
The board had expressed con-
cern at its meeting, and later, in
of the
'Student News'
ing the article, he would have
found that The- Daily supports the
idea of a competitive campus news-
paper. We believe the News pro-
vides a service in covering campus
and college governments. We also
welcome the "media criticism"
that the News is undertaking in
its current issue, but we hope it
won't deteriorate to mere pot shots
at The Daily. Indeed, we think the
News should be free from control
by the board. The history of board
control over our newspaper
stretches over 80 years and is now
basically tied to the idea that the
board owns the building at 420
Maynard St. and all the equipment
necessary to publish our paper. It
has no control over editorial policy
or content. We too would push for
independence, if it did not mean
pushing ourselves into the street.
"I didn't care to work on the newsletter be.
cause I thought we'd be covering student organ-
izations objectively, while other people wanted
to make it into a propaganda sheet. I had one
thing in mind, they had another."
-Mary Connelly, former editor,
the Michigan Student News
on the Board demanding that the
News be placed under its aus-
pices." But Jacobs said the ad-
ministrator, whom he would not
at that time identify, later made
that implication in conversation
with Jacobs.
Uniersity Secretary Richard
Kennedy, who sent the letter to
Jacobs on behalf of the executive
officers, said yesterday that, he
had never indicated that "The
Daily board members" were try-
ing to get control.
"We both know The Daily has
no members on the board," Ken-
nedy said. "Someone's trying to
make an issue out of something
that was laid to rest a long time
ago.''
Referring to the News article,
Kennedy added, "Frankly, I'm sur-
prised at Bill."
"The Engineering College's Da-
tum newsletter and the Bus Ad
School's Monroe Street Journal
are not controlled by the board
or The Daily."
0 This sentence implies that the
board (and therefore, The Daily,
by the article's reasoning) is sing-
ling out theNews as apaper to
"muzzle." On this point, Board
Chairman Berlin says, "These two
publications can be defined as
intra-school organs, with a limited
audience and limited purpose-
covering their respective colleges.
The Daily and the Michigan Stu-
dent News, however, have a mass
audience and both purport to be
newspapers of general record."
"The Executive Officers have
agreed that if The Daily wishes
to make an issue of the Michigan
Student News, they will have to
do it themselves."
" Jacobs says this quote should
be attributed to him, though be-
cause it follows a reference to
"President Flemming" (sic), it
could be construed to be Fleming's
position.
Kennedy, however, says the posi-
tion of the executive officers is
that they did not want to deal with
the question at this time-not the
position that Jacobs attributed to
them.
MORE COULD BE said about
Jacobs' quotes concerning The
Daily's views on "leaflets," "free-
dom of the press" and "involving
the University Administration
against a student group." Unfor-
tunately, he never quoted" The
Daily itself, or Berlin, or any of
the other organizations or people
involved in the article.
Enough is enough.
Mary Connelly, the News' editor
who resigned after one issue said
yesterday, "I didn't care to work
on the newsletter because I thought
we'd be covering student organiza-
tions objectively, while . other
people wanted to make it into a
propaganda sheet. I had one- thing
in mind, they had another."
We at The'Daily had hoped that
the News would assume a useful
role on campus. Some of us had
questions over whether the alloca-
tion of $2,500 per issue was th~e
most economically feasible. We
questioned whether a mass-mail
delivery system - with student
funds footing the bill--was realistic
when student addresses are often
inaccurate and there are students
who may not want to read it. We
felt, as some SGC members did,
that a distribution system like that
used for the University Record
might be more practical, though a
circulation of 33,000 is obviously a
drawing card for advertisers.
But we are saddened to see the
Michigan Student News start to
take the form of its predecessor
"SGC Action," which, although
put out by different people, be-
came the propaganda tool for a
small group of people. The Daily
is not always in the right, nor is
it completely unbiased, but it is at
least not spending student funds to
publish the views of two people.
Sare Fitzgerald is editor of The
Daily.
a letter to the executive officers,
that in legal matters that might
arise over the Michigan Student
News, the board might be sued as
it would in legal matters concern-
ing The Daily. And with a man-
agement that does not include the
name of its editor (she quit after
the first issue), does not identify
its "reporters," and does not con-
tact "the other side" in its two
front page "invesitgatory" stories,
they may well be in need of legal
assistance someday.
"Failing that, The Daily wishes
to have the News placed under
its control."
* If Jacobs had contacted The
Daily's senior editors before writ-
. ballot:
"Jacobs was informed by letter
from a high University adminis-
trator that The Daily wishes to
have the News placed under its
auspices."
* Jacobs said yesterday that the
letter stated, "President Fleming
has received a letter from the
chairman of the Board for Student
Publications inquiring about the
status of the new publication, the
Michigan Student News." The let-
ter went on to quote the regental
bylaw and said the executive of-
ficers would like to discuss the
matter with SGC.
Jacobs acknowledged yesterday
that the letter does not say any-
thing about "The Daily's members
Is it secret or not?
Info could be traced by anyone
Privacy plus recountability
By JOHN KOZA
AS ORIGINATOR of the new ballot secur-
ity system being used in the all-campus
elections this week, I would like to com-
ment on the new series of charges current-
ly circulating around campus that the bal-
lot does not provide for maximum secrecy.
All governmental elections ii the United
States (and most respectable trade unions
as well) use numbered ballots, w he n
paper ballots are used. When you vote in
rural Michigan, for example, you receive
a numbered paper ballot, and you sign
a register with your name opposite that
number. The paper ballot, with the number
still attached, is placed into a metal ballot
box.
The reason for using numbered paper bal-
lots is so that questionable ballots can be
later located and removed by a court if a
challenge or recount is taken. For exam-
ple, if someone casts a "grave vote," and
it is subsequently revealed that Mr. X is
now dead, that ballot can be located and
removed by court order. If an election were
within one vote, this procedure allows
fraudulent vote to be located and removed
and the honest result obtained. Indeed, the
absence of numbered ballots was a major
failing of previous SGC elections
WHEN YOU vote absentee by mail, you
return a numbered ballot in your envelope.
This number matches your absentee bal-
lot number in a poll book.
The only situation where your ballot can-
not be located is with the "Shoup" and
so-called "Automatic" Voting Machines
(such as used by the city of Ann Arbor).
These machines are impossible to recount
because there is no ballot generated for
each voter. One of the main objections civic
groups and ballot reformers have to these
machines is the inability to recount. There
is no way afterwards to reconstruct what
happened.
Interestingly, however, even when you
vote on a machine, you fill out the "appli-
cation to vote" form, which, even in Ann
Arbor has a place for the "number of bal-
lot issued." This is a historical residue
of the way elections should be run, and
can be directly observed by anyone when
they vote in Ann Arbor on November 7th.
In places, such as Midland,- Michigan,
where IBM voting is being introduced, the
advantages of numbered ballots are being
restored. Again, one of the main reasons for
switching from machines to IBM voting is
to restore this very ability to recount.
THE NEW SGC election system, there-
fore, uses the very same kind of preserva-
tion of secrecy, combined with ability to
recount, as is used in over 50 per cent of
the voting precincts in the U.S. today, and
which virtually every good government ad-
vocate will tell you should be used through-
out.
It should be emphasized that the receipt
cards and the ballots go into separate metal
boxes, and that the election indeed has a
secret ballot.
As for ballots being looked at years later,
I believe, SGC, like most governments, is
required to dispose of ballots 'after 30 days.
John Koza, Grad., is a GROUP member
of Student Government Council.
By JAY HACK
HE CONCEPT of a secret ballot is so
basic to existence of a democratic form
of government that its existence is no
longer challenged in true Democracies. As
a matter of fact, the United States Con-
stitution does not even explicitly guarantee
the right ofa secret ballot, presumably be-
cause that right is so necessary and ob-
vious that the framers did not find it ne-
cessary to say so. This is also true of the
Student Government Council constitution.
There is no specific mention of the right
to secret balloting in campus-wide elections.
For years, students have assumed that all
balloting would be secr ,t.
However, in the upcoming election, this
will not be the case. All students will be
required to place the last five digits of
their ID number on the ballot. Xnyone who
does not place their numbers on the ballot
will not have their vote counted, and any-
one who inadvertently makes a mistake will
also have their vote disallowed. Further-
more, the gummed sticker while each stu-
dent received in the mail this past week
will also be placed on the ballot, and there
will be a list of all of the sticker numbers
and corresponding ID numbers kept on ;a
computer file.
THIS MEANS THAT anyone with access
to the computer tape with all of the bal-
lots on it and the tape with the ID numbers
and sticker numbers would be able to find
out how each student voted. Since some
of the questions on the ballot will directly
reflect an individual's political preference
and his or her reaction to the American
Government (e.g., the question on whether
ROTC should be continued on campus), it
would be easy to sort out a list of people
based upon their personal political persua-
sion.
IF STUDENT Government Council was
so interested in insuring free Elections this
semester, then they should have developed
a better system than the one they have
decided to use now. There are enough sec-
ret elections in this country, using many dif-
ferent methods, that SGC could definitely
have found one type that was suitable for
this campus while still insuring both honesty
and secrecy.
For example, all absentee ballots for City,
State and National elections in Ann Arbor
have a consecutive number in the upper
corner that serves to identify the ballot.
However, these numbers are on a perforat-
ed corner, and all numbers are removed
when the ballot is face down just after it
is removed from the envelope so that it is
impossible to tell how any person voted.
Considering the fact that this election is
costing in the area of $6,000, I am sure that
SGC could have used a system such as this,
and probably even saved money because
of the rediculous cost of mailing those little
stickers to 30,000 students.
STUDENTS DON'T NEED elections for
SGC that' are as free as the "free elections"
in Vietnam for Nguyen Van Thieu. The
realities of 1984-style government interven-
tion into private affairs is coming f a s t
enough without any help from Student Gov-
ernment Council. I am going to boycott this
election because I think SGC should be told
that they have no business knowing how
I voted, and I urge all students at the
University to do the same.
Jay Hack, '72-3, is a former SGC ad-
ministrative vice president.
Letters to The Daily
Graduated tax
To The Daily:
SOME STUDENTS HAVE been
paying the Michigan income tax for.
severaliyears, While many have
never had that privilege. All. will.,
I think, be interested in the oppor-
tunity for genuine tax reform re-
presented by Proposal D on'the
November 7 ballot.s n
The Michigan constitution n o w
includes an archaic provision ban-
ning a graduated income tax. While
the state taxes personal income,
it does so only through a flat rate
for all income brackets - current-
ly 3.9per cent, but undoubtedlygo-
ing higher before long. Each tax-
paying family can exempt $1,200 of
income per person, but all the rest
is subject to the 3.9 per cent tax.
Proposal D would permit the le-
gislatire to convert this flat rate
tax to a graduated tax, with low-
sr rates for low and middle in-
come families and higher rates for
high income families. The burden
of the tax enld then he shifted on-
and for any married couple earn-
ing less than $18,600.
It will be several years before
most college students will be earn-
ing more -than those amounts, and
those will be the years in which
tax relief will be the most welcome
because the ability to pay will be
the least.
Most Michigan taxes - property
taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes-
are not based on the ability to
pay. It's time we had one tax
that is - and a "yes" vote on
Proposal D is the only way we
-an make this happen.
-Peter Eckstein
Proposal D Coordinator
Mich. Democratic Party
Oct. 28
Get involved-.
write your reps!
Sen. Philip Hart (Dew), Rm.
253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol
Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sen. Robert Griffin (Ren).
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