Tuesday, Oe tober -26, 1976'
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, October 26, 1976 THE MICHiGAN DAILY
i
New
York mayor orders
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.ALYOFFICIAL MLE II
investigation into club
fire
NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor
Abraham Beame ordered a top-
level investigation yesterday in-
to the city's thousands of after-
hour bottle clubs in the wake
of a weekend club fire that kill-
ed 25 persons in the South
Bronx.
The blaze in a licensed but
overcrowded Puerto Rican so-
cial club was described by au-
thorities as the work of an ar-
sonist. A search for him was
under way, but police said
there were no signs of a pend-
ing arrest.
"We don't know who set the
fire yet," said Fire Commission-
er John O'Hagan.
BEAME CALLED O'Hagan
and Police Commissioner Mi-
chael Codd to City Hall as mem-
bers of a five-member investi-
gative panel and announced:
"I have directed this panel
to concentrate not only on the
South Bronx tragedy itself but
also on the problem of similar
clubs and other gathering plac-
es to determine whether appli-
cable codes adequately meet the
needs of public safety."
O'Hagan said there were "lit-'
erally thousands" of social clubs
in the city, and that they were
"difficult to identify or to con-
trol."
"4THEY ARE IN basements,
lofts, any place that has room
and people who want to drink
after hours," a police depart-
ment source elaborated. "That's
all most of them are for - peo-
ple who want to drink after
hours when the bars close. We
never hear about them unless
Fugi ire
wins full
pardon
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)-
Forty-five years after it began,
"Scottsboro Boy" Clarence Nor-
ris won a full pardon from the
State of Alabama on Monday
and the right to live at last in
full freedom.
He had spent five years on
death row, years more behind
bars andf decades living as a
fugitive, all for a crime he al-
ways insisted he did not com-
mit.
"It's great to be free. There's
nothing like being free," Norris
said in New York, where he
now lives.
FIRST THE Alabama Pardon-
Parole Board and then Gov.
George Wallace signed a pardon
for the 64-year-old laborer who,
with eight other young black
men, was accused of raping two
white women aboard a freight
train in Alabama in 1931.
The case became one of the
most controversial in the South.
Because the alleged rape oc-
curred near Scottsboro in north
Alabama and the trial was held
there, the defendants became
known throughout the world as
the "Scottsboro Boys."
Norris, the last of the nine
defendants known to be still
alive, is working now as a la-
borer for the City of New York.
He fled from Alabama after be-
ing paroled in 1946, and the
state continued to list him as
a parole violator.
THE PARDON-PAROLE Board
not only pardoned Norris, but in
effect also recognized his inno-
cence. By law, the board-could
pardon him only if it felt their
was proof of his innocence.
Now that he is free to do ,so,
Norris said he would go back
to Alabama. "I'll go to any
state because I'm free,"' he said.
"I was born and raised in the
Soith. It's one of the most beau-
tifl places in the world."
At a news conference at the
New York headquarters of the
NAACP, which represented him
in pursuing the pardon, Norris
said there was a lesson for
black people in his pardon.
"DON'T EVER give up hope,"
he explained. "Always fight for
your rights. That's what I be-
lieve in. Even if it kills you,
stand up for your rights."
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Volume LXXXVII, No. 41
Tuesday, October 26, 1976
is edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan. ;News
phone 764-0562. Second class postage
paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Publisbed d a ily Tuesday through
Sunday norni'g during the Univer-
sity year at 420 Maynard Street, Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48109. Subscription
rates: $12 Sept. thru April (2 semes-
ters); $13 by mail outside Ann
Arbor.
Summer session published Tues-
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Subscription rates: $6.50 in Ann
Arbor; $7.50 by mail outside Ann
Arbor:
Ii~ Ill
there is trouble such as a shoot-I
ing or stabbing or a free-for-allc
fight."'
Fire broke out in the Puerto1
Rican Social Club shortly before
3 a.m. Sunday while more than
50 partying guests drank and
danced to a six-piece band. Of-
ficials said the second floor pre-,
mises had a Buildings Depart-"
ment certificate limiting occu-
pancy to no more than 20 per-1
sons.
Of the 20-by-40 foot clubroom,+
a police spokesman said "it;
was evident the place was over-
crowded."
IT WAS THE worst fire in}
New York City since 1960, when,
the aircraft carrier Constella-
tion burned at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard with a loss of 50
lives.
A fierce flash fire was set
with gasoline or some other sub-
stance in the stairway of the
club, its only regular means of,
entrance and exit.
Survivors reported that the,
blaze erupted in fury some time?
after a man had been thrown
out of the club following an?
argument over his wife's danc-
ing with another man.
IN THE IMMEDIATE after-;
math of the tragedy, suspicion
focused on one among 24 survi-
vors of the fire, most of whom,
leaped from windows of the club
as panic swept the premises.
However, this man denied he
had set the fire and said he'
never had left the club until his
leap to safety at the height of
the blaze.
"From all our investigation so
far, the likelihood that he is
the culprit becomes less as we
go along," said Commissioner
O'Hagan.
Tuesda,, October 26, 1976
DAY CALENDAR
WUOM: 2 talks by 2 newspaper-
men Charles Seib (mbudsman for
WVashington Post) "Housebreaking
c the watchdog," and J.F.terHorst
(columnist for Detroit News) "Elec-
tion & the Press: 1976," 10 a.m.
Returning Students' Lounge, Com-
misson for Women: , 3205 Union
noon.
Music School Pendleton Ctr.: "Mu-
ss at Midday," Eric Dyke, string
bass; PAIL, 2nd fl., Union, noon.
Ecumenical Ctr.: luncheon, War-
ren Miller "American Electorate in
1976." 921 Church St., noon.
Arch. Urban Planning: Edward
Steinfeld, (Syracuse Univ.) "The
well-Ordered Building: Architecture
as Social Reform," 2104 Art, Arch
Bldg.. 12:30 p.m.
Transportation Systems Ctr.: Ern-
est T. Kendall (Prog, Management
engineer. U.S. Dept. of Transporta-
tion, Cambridge, Mass.) "Seminar,
Urban & Regional Planning Grad
tud:nts." 2038 Dana, 1 p.m.; "Grad
Seminar or Energy Policy," 4217
MLB, 5 p.m.
ACRICS: open meeting, Conf.Rm
Cent. Campus Rec., 3:30 p.m.
Ctr. Coordination Ancient, Mod-
Pn Stud'es: "Democracy in the An-
dent World," Kuenzel Rm., Union,
7:30 p.m.
Page Three
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ETHICS and RELIGION
WEDNESDAY LECTURES
Gonzalo Castillo-Cardenas,
Membe.r Church and Society Movement Latin America;
World Council of Churches Program to Combat Racism;
Action-Research among Indian and Peasant communities
in Colombia.
Oct. 27 "THE PEASANT-INDIAN STRUGGLE
iN COLOMBIA: How can an outsider trained in
the Social Sciences relate to it?"
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VISIT WITH STAFF=
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UM Compu,
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Inwuko Borow k-
And nL.hBeueryJurL&
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Nov. 3 "WESTERN SOCIETY AGAINST THE
INDIANS IN SOUTH AMERICA: Government
Policies, Foreign Corporations and Christian
Missionaries-Threats to Indian Survival."
4:15 p.m. Wednesdays-Angell Hall, Aud. "A"
DISCUSSION with the speaker and other faculty members
INTERNATIONAL CENTER REC. ROOM THURSDAY
NOON-brown bag lunch.
ETHICS AND RELIGION, 3204 Michigan Union--764-7442
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