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Eighty-two years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Who are the
'Friends of Newsreel"?
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, DECEMBER 9, 1972
Busing: Roth rolls on
HEN THE Sixth U. S.. Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled yesterday on Judge
Stephen Roth's Detroit metropolitan area
busing plan it should finally have laid
to rest suspicions that the whole affair
is a conspiracy Roth cooked up in a fit
of frustration with his Detroit area
neighbors.
For what Roth did was a first. He
found that segregated neighborhood
housing patterns in the Detroit area were
not accidental, but were a result of "of-
ficial actions and inactions" by "federal,
state and local (governments), private
organizations, loaning institutions, real
estate associations, and brokerage firms."
Such de jure, or "by law," segregations is
subject to court-ordered remedies ac-
cording to the Supreme Court, under
both Earl Warren and Warren Burger.
[N ITS decision yesterday the Cincin-
nati-based court agreed with Roth
that "the only feasible desegregation
plan involves the crossing of the boun-
dary lines between the Detroit school
district and adjacent or nearby school
districts . ..
"The power of the court to disregard
such artificial barriers is all the more
clear where, as here, the state has been
guilty of discrimination which had the
effect of creating and maintaining racial
segregation along school district lines."
That, simply stated, is the crux of
the matter.
THE COURT did send the ruling back
to Roth for refinement, to allow the
52 school districts outside Detroit their
day in court before any busing can be
implemented.
However, the gist of the court's ruling,
much to the chagrin of both Robert Grif-
fin and Frank Kelley, was that Roth and
the NAACP were right, that Detroit area
schools are illegally segregated and that
sooner or later the buses will cross dis-
trict lines.
The knotty trail of appeals is certainly
not exhausted. But the ultimate unravel-
ing of the legal string is coming closer
and closer to Detroit area school offic-
ials and children.
Detroit. authorities did not invent seg-
regation, but neither did Judge Roth.
It's real. And so is his busing order.
-ARTHUR LERNER
Editorial Director
By TERRY MARTIN
DURING THE course of the past several
years, relationships between film dis-
tributors and campus film organizations
have deteriorated to the point that dis-
tributors are unwilling to rent to Ann
Arbor any longer. Unreported showings
of films, low estimates of movie attend-
ance (which distributors use to determine
how much to charge for the film), and
incidents where film groups simply ab-
sconded with the' proceeds are some of
the offenses Ann Arbor film organizations
have been guilty of.
This situation prompted the Student Or-
ganizations Board to formulate a pro-
posal for licensing all University film
groups that was submitted to the Student
Government Council for a vote this Thurs-
day.
In reaction to this, a petition against the
proposal was circulated this week by one
film group, Friends ofsNewsreel, who
contended that the licensing regulations
were "repressive and possibly illegal."
Theykwere the only film group staging
any kind of coordinated protest.
Discussion at the SGC meeting resulted
in the elimination of several of the more
restrictive amendments. However, a final
decision on the proposal was postponed
pending a reworking of the proposal at
open hearings this week.
IT IS important that extreme caution
be exercised in formulating any kind of
restrictions upoh any kind of organiza-
tions. In this case, though, the group most
concerned about submitting to licensing
proposals is ultimately associated with an
individual and an organization whose past
actions are partially responsible for the
present need for some kind of licensing.
In an article Thursday The Daily linked
Friends of Newsreel with a now defunct
organization known as the University of
GM: Inse
By MARTIN STERN noted.
GENERAL MOTORS Board Chair- to Gen
mtan Richard Gerstenberg, in media,
writing off auto factory worker dis- ics pla
satisfaction earlier this week, has job ali
shown an amazing insensitivity to light o
the needs of the modern industrial are so
worker. Is h
Gerstenberg, in a speech on Wed- cse f
nesday, explained the situation in cuos f
language most understood by the becaus
wealthy auto magnates - the lang- iseitus
uage of money. Those concerned porate
about worker alienation and work- man'sc
er dissatisfaction,kGerstenberg ey isn't
ceptionally high economic status man d
Michigan Film Society. The link between
the two groups was made on the basis of
a letter which one distributor, Films In-
corporated of Skokie, Ill., sent to Maurice
Rinkel, Auditor for Student Organizations.
The letter said that "Friends of Newsreel,
formerly the University of Michigan Film
Society" had not cleared up a previous
balance of $1024.69, and requested Rinkel's
assistance in seeing that this was paid.
It also asked that recognition of Friends
of Newsreel as a student organization be
withheld until the debt was paid.
AT THAT time, Friends of Newsreel
spokesman Glen Allvord denied any con-
nection with the Film Society. He still
denies this connection. There is more evi-
dence, however, which supports the link
between the two groups.
Dave Schaper, SGC Treasurer and mem-
ber of the Student Organizations Board,
claims that Allvord and former University
of Michigan Film Society Leader George
de Pugh are both officers of a corporation
called Community Media Projects Incor-
porated. Confronted with this information,
Allvord admitted it was correct. He said
that he founded the organization in March,
1972, and that at present it was in the
process of "reorganization."
Schaper says the organization is register-
ed as doing business under the name of
New Morning Bookstore. Coincidentally,
New Morning has the same phone number
as Friends of Newsreel.
MORE EVIDENCE is in a letter written
by the Cinema Board to SGC concerning a
meeting between Friends of Newsreel and
Cinema II. During the meeting, a "dis-
cussion of the geneology of Friends of
Newsreel" ensued. "References to ARM
(an organization headed by de Pugh) the
U of M Film Society, Conspiracy (another
former film co-op), and the New Morning
Bookstore seemed to be somewhat em-
sitive to
barrassing," the letter continued, as the
Friends of Newsreel insisted that these
groups did not evolve from ARM, but
were in fact 'fostered' by ARM. Inasmuch
as we (Cinema II) find it difficult to be-
lieve that ARM, an organization which, in
Mr. de Pue's (sic) words, "went broke
and couldn't pay its bills," could possibly
be healthy enough to foster other organi-
zations, we suggest the term "begat" as a
reasonable compromise."
The connection between de Pugh's prev-
ious organizations and Friends of News-
reel is "embarrassing" to Newsreel be-
cause those organizations and de Pugh
are on film distributor's blacklists. Mich-
ael Harpster, spokesman for New Line
Cinema, a film distributing company
which deals heavily in Ann Arbor, said
"If you know where George de Pugh is,
let me know. We've gota few things to
settle with him."
IN THE light of this, it is most interest-
ing that Friends of Newsreel have voiced
the most vehement objections to licensing,
licensing which they should welcome since
it provides a reliable reference for busi-
ness dealings with companies who might
otherwise be wary of an Ann Arbor film
group that is so intimately related to a
disreputable organization.
The evidence against Friends of News-
reel, however, goes beyond relationships
with other groups. There are current in-
cidents involving Newsreel, which, accord-
ing to U of M supervising filp pro-
jectionist Peter Wilde, raises serious doubts
as to its own reputability.
Wilde is described by representatives
of other campus film groups, including
Ann Arbor Film Co-op and Cinema II, as
an ''extremely reliable source." He is
also listed as technical adviser to Cinema
Guild.
At Newsreels' recent showings of Reefer
Madness, according to Wilde, attendance
estimates made by himself and one made
by an agent of New Line Cinema differ-
ed by Newsreel's estimates by about 600.
Figures of crowd attendance are import-
ant because they provide the basis for
a distributor's charge for rent of the film,
and thus affect the amount of profit made.
HARPSTER SAID he had not yet re-
ceived Newsreel's report for that movie.
He said there was no way to put a check
on attendance figures, and that New Line
had always accepted Newsreel's estimates
"because they do such good business." He
said he had received several letters from
Wilde advising him of the Reefer Mad-
ness discrepancy in the figures.
Charges have also been filed against
Friends of Newsreel for unsigned adver-
tising. According to Steve Bernardi, a
member of the operations committee of
the Ann Arbor Film Co-op, he has biled a
personal suit against Newsreel, citing as
a particular example the advertising for
a recent Newsreel movie, W-R, Mysteries
of the Organism.
Allvord says that if any advertising went
out unsigned, "it was an oversight."
At last night's SGC meeting, Friends of
Newsreel described as "witch-hunting" a
measure in the Student Organizations
Board Proposal for licensing film groups.
The measure prohibited the "formation of
numerous organizations (the membership
of which generally overlap)".
SUCH A measure, of course, is only
"witch-hunting" if there are witches to be
hunted. It is significant that Friends of
Newsreel was the only film group to stage
a coordinated protest to the proposal. The
tangled situation concerning Friends of
Newsreel makes some sort of licensing pro-
cedures seem even more necessary.
Terry Martin is a day editor for The
Daily.
7
"v
r I1
auto worker blues"2
Keller: A plan for thinkers
STUDENTS currently enrolled in courses
experimenting with Keller Plan may
be involved in a transitory phase of edu-
cation that will ultimately lead to "learn-
ing liberation".
The Keller plan, while not completely
freeing the student from the pompous
framework that usually governs him,
does permit him to learn the required
material at his own leisure. No longer
must he get fired up to take tests at
predetermined hours. And, with a bit of
luck, the number of students the profes-
sor can refer to on a first-name basis
may exceed a handful.
With few exceptions, the concept of
learning to satiate one's endless appe-
tite for knowledge has become obsolete.
The student's motivation now stems from
the enormous competition for grades so
he can lead the heartless rat race to grab
the spoils. After all, to get a good job,
one really don't need a good education,
just top-notch grades.
To worsen matters, starting with a
precedent set at William and Mary and
Harvard in Colonial times, students in
America's universities have been given
little freedom to determine how he shall
learn the material offered to him.
At a specific hour of a specific day, the
student must drag himself to class, either
to blindly scribble down the "relevant"
gospel dictated by the lecturer or exhibit
his progress on arbitrary exams.
With the number of eligible candidates
vying for a limited number of job and
graduate school positions increasing
faster than a speeding bullet, the current
rat race is certainly doomed to become a
perpetual marathon.
DESPITE THE popularity of this in-
novative system, there are still many
students. that appear slightly bothered.
Stemming from habit, they would still
seem to prefer have information spoon-
fed to them as it has been for years.
But, to discard one's crutches involves
a time-consuming process and the
change in the students' attitude, if any,
wilt be gradual. Perhaps the plan would
produce better results of started in the
grade schools for young people always
seem more capable of altering old mental
patterns.
At any rate, if successful, the Keller
Plan will partially free the student from
the bonds of rigid memorization and per-
mit him more time for imaginative,
thoughtful thinking..
-BOB ANDREWS
working
FACT
Most C
them a
underpr
able to1
literally
selvest
nothing
ival.
Ref on
Propose
ened w
worker
semblag
as opp
The lat
greater
But
talk ofr
againu
"The
theses
all inv(.
cost to
must in
price o
sumerr
Gerst
sarilyt
Sweden
of wor
out on
have sh
morale
Thus it seems unreasonable
eral Motors that the m a s s
politicians and social crit-
ace so much emphasis on
enation in the factories, in
f the fact that GM workers
well paid.
igh salary a justifiable ex-
or inhuman working condi-
Are factory workers happy
e they are so well paid? Or
possible that the rich cor-
powers have overlooked
other needs? After all, mon-
t everything. What about hu-
ignity? Self-respect? Decent
g conditions?
TORIES ARE discriminatory.
of those who are drawn to
re the poor, uneducated and
rivileged. These people, un-
procure work elsewhere, are
ty forced to prostitute them-
to a job which offers them
more than a means of sur-
rms are needed desperately.
ed ideas have included short-
work weeks and giving the
a greater part in the as-
ige ofthe finished product,
?osed to just one function.
Ater could give the workers
pride in their job.
Gerstenberg shrugged o f f
reform. Too costly, he cried,
using the money motive.
public does not see that
suggested remedies almost
olve an extra cost; a direct
the manufacturer w h i c h
nevitably be reflected in the
f the product that the con-
must pay."
enberg's point is not neces-
true. At Volvo factories in
, for example, small groups
kers unite in teams to turn
e car at a time. Studies
hown that besides increased
there is also an increased
rate of productivity and a decrease
in factory defect (which, inciden-
tally, is a growing problem in U.S.
factories.) It would appear that in-
itial costs required formass con-
version to a new system would in
the long run be miniscule compared
to its advantages.
IT IS PATHETIC to think, how-
ever, that long needed social re-
forms must be permanently delay-
ed because no one is willing to tear
down old outdated structures to
build new structures when expense
is involved. Thus, the problems
of the factory are ignored, until the
dehumanizing pressures of the job
becomes too much for some, just
as our slums will stand until urban
riots call attention to the plight of
the ghetto.
The auto industry has to realize
that the auto worker is human,
and as such, must be treated like
one. Money well needed for re-
forms is available, at the expense
of a lower profit margin.
People or profits? The proper
priority must be decided.
I
An auto worker: Content?
CHECKS AND BOUNCES
Always ready to help students?
Pushing peace through war
The United States, in cramming last-
minute military aid into South Vietnam,
as seen in the last few weeks, is liable to
turn the situation there into a horrible"
disaster..
The most dangerous and obvious re-
sult of saturating the South in this man-
Editorial Staff
SARA FITZGERALD
Editor
PAT BAUER Associate Managing Editor
LINDSAY CHANEY ...............Editorial Director
MARK DILLEN................Magazine Editor
LINDA DREEBEN ........ Associate Managing Editor
TAMMY JAOOBS ................. Managing Editor
ARTHUR LERNER................Editorial Director
ROBERT SCHREINER.............Editorial Director
GLORIA JANE SMITH ................BArts 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 Thal.
EDITORIAL NIGHT EDITORS: Fred Shell Martin
Stern.
DAY EDITORS: Dave Burhenn, Jim Kentch, Marilyn
Riley. Judy Ruskin, Eric Schoch, Sue Stephen-
son, Ralph Vartabedian, Becky Warner.
TELEGRAPH/ASSOCIATE NIGHT EDITORS: Prakash
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.
ARTS STAFF: Herb Bowie, Rich Glatzer, Donald
Spain.
Sports Staff
JOHN PAPANEK
Sports Editor
ELLIOT LEGOW
ner is that these imported weapons can
only delay the peace in Vietnam which
certain U. S. officials insist is their goal.
Psychological damage to the people
caused by this "give and take" relation-
ship between America and Saigon is like-
ly to hamper peace. While the Vietna-
mese become too dependent, the U. S. is
overbearing to the point of blatant im-
perialism.
Can the South's economy withstand
this volume of aid? The imported wea-
pons or war create armies and refugees
at the expense of agriculture and other
livelihoods left behind.
Military assistance merely continues to
emasculate the large neutralistic or
apathetic percentage of the population.
Besides disrupting age-old traditional
life styles, profiteering, corruption, and
graft continue to grow. This in turn wid-
ens the huge existing gap between the
wealthy and poor classes. Furthermore,
the status of military careers is en-
hanced giving the soldier a distinct ad-
vantage over civilians.
To secure a real, lasting peace in Viet-
nam, it would be wiser to cultivate that
peace instead of feeding the flames of
war with such material. For South Viet-
nam, the answer lies in helping the
people through agricultural, medical, and
construction-type aid to rebuild their
devistated nation. Maintaining the dig-
nity of the Vietnamese people can go a
long way towards repairing the U.S.-in-
flicted damage.
Richard Gerstenberg
of the American industrial work-
er."
He continued by citing f i g u r e s
showing that auto workers a r e
among the best paid workers in
the world. GM workers make from
$4.52 an hour to over $7, with aver-
age yearly earnings of $12,466, he
Martin Stern is a night editor
for the Editorial Page of Thos
Daily.
, By ROBERT SCHREINER
N ARBITRARY practice by at
least one local bank concerning
bounced checks has resulted in un-
due embarassment to students, as
well as inconvenience to the stores
and services they patronize.
The practice itself came to my
attention in a very personal way,
although the reasons behind it
proved somewhat hard to extract
from the mire.
It started in mid-October, when
the National Bank and Trust Com-
pany of Ann Arbor - that's my
bank - sent me three notices in
quick succession stating it w a s
Il
charging my account $3 (per no-
tice) "representing the fee to cover
the cost of returning your check"
to a local restaurant, pharmacy,
and the telephone company.
What had happened was that my
account was overdrawn by these
checks (but by only a fraction of
that total amount), and the bank,
rather than bother to cover my
checks until my next deposit, had
simply sent them back to the busi-
nesses they were payable to, and
charged me three bucks a check
in the process.
I WAS somewhat piqued, not so
much because I had failed to bal-
ance my checkbook properly, and
not because I was fined for it,
but because the bank did not see
fit to cover my account for the
little it was short.
My account was almost six
months old, and in that time I had
made over $1,000 in transactions
without a hitch. The least the bank
could do, I figured, was give me
a little help when I got in a jam.
At the bank one of the tellers
told me she didn't know why The
Bank had not covered my checks.
but that there was another method
sometimes used, entailing the same
$3 fine, but in which the b a n k
also covered the check. However,
she did not know the criteria in-
volved for determining the method
used in a particular case.
A person higher up did not know
what criteria were used either. In
fact, she denied emphatically that
any other method was used, except
the one used on me. "This is our
policy across - the - board", s-h e
said.
I WENT AWAY disgruntled, hut
that was nothing -compared to ;he
way I felt when upon investigating
through certain friends and ac-
them the $3, but also covering
their checks.
Recently, I talked to someone
still higher up in the bank bureau-
cracy, and he admitted that t h e
notices do indeed come in the two
tyres. It is up to a single book-
keener, he explained, to determine
which of the overdrawn checks the
computer rejects will be covered,
and which will be returned.
"With everything computerized,
it's pretty difficult to tell how god
an account it", he said. "Until we
get a better system, there are go-
ing to be some errors."
THE PROBLEM is, while we are
all waiting for a better system,
it appears that students are com-
ing out on the short end of the
stick. For whatever reasons, stu-
dents apparently are not eligible
for the same privileges afforded to
o-r more "solid citizens".
Maybe this is because students
are regarded by banks as a had
risk. But the banks, like all large
bureaucracies, should be aware ;)f
the dangers of such generalizations.
For every student who oaunces
checks deliberately, there are per-
hans several who do so unknow-
ingly, or in extraordinary circum-
stances.
Not only students, but the busi-
nesses they patronize should be
critical of the bank's policy, be-
cause it is a hassle to send in a
bounced check to be cashed and
have it ret-rned.
All in all, the bank would be
doing everyone a favor if it real-
ized that the embaras iment and
inconvenience caused to students is
just as real as that caused to
"adults", in the same way that
their money is just as green.
Robert Schreiner is an Editorial
Director of The Daily.
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