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). \\\\\\\\\ 7R \ \OM\M I