THE Summer Daily S1ummer Fdition of TiHll MICHIIGAN DAILY Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Wednesday, August 15, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552 Status of amateurs needs redefining ITH THE beginning of the National Junior Olympics today in Ann Arbsl, the old controversy of amateur- ism is brought to mind. The two-day event is sponsored by the country's bas- tion of amateurism, the Amateur Athletic Association, and involves over 700 young "amateur" athletes. A technical definition of an amateur is an athlete who has not performed professionally or has used his status for personal financial gain. But as it was pointed out by former Olympic star Bob. Seagren, amateurism has lost all its meaning since the original Olympic doctrine was established in 1896. Most of the athletes present for the Junior Olympics have spent most of the summer preparing solely for this event. Much money has been spent by parents, clubs, and 'amateur organizations, for their training. And as is said in a court of law, this may 'meet the letter, but certainly not the spirit, of the law. What this country needs is a re-definition of the status of amateurism. Other countries pay for their ath- letes training, showing a little more pride and realistic insight than does the U.S. The spirit of amateurism is also severely hurt by the constant feud between the AAU and the National Col- legiate Athletic Association, (NCAA), a pair of highly professional organizations. The constant back-stabbing, bickering and feuding over control any particular event has muddled the American waters in the Olympics and other major international events. The conduct of the U.S. Olympic Committee at the recent Munich Games, and now the foul-up in Moscow with the U. S. contingent to the World Student Games, points to sorely needed reform in 'amateur athletics. Caught innocently in the middle are the participants who despite bureaucracy, red tape, and ignorance, still strive for the Olympic ideal: Not to win, but to try. Summer Staff ROBERT BARKIN and CHARLES STEIN Co-editors GORDON ATCHESON ..... Night dior DANIEL IDDLE , ..............Night Editor DEBORAH GOOD .Assistant Night Editor JACK KROST ... .....Assistant Night Editor JOSEPHINEMARCOTTI ..... . Assistant Night Editor DAVID STOLL ................Assistant Night Editor THE SOVIET-AMERICAN WHEAT 'DEAL has drawn criticism because it has produced a grain short- age in the U.S. and has not benefitted the farmers. While both Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev and Presi- dent Nixon are both smiling here, Nixon's grin has since eroded considerably. Watergate backlash: Only a ruse By DAN BORUS NOW THE Watergate backlash. Once the pipe dream of John Erlichman, the backlash is emer- ging as the official policy of more conservative elements in an effort to explain away and rationalize the Watergate incidents. Certain to be fueled to an ever higher pitch by President Nixon's late-week speech, one of its more deceptive manifes- tations made an appearance in sev- eral Eastern newspapers this past weekend. Sponsored by a group calling itself The Ad Hoc Citizens' Committee for Fairness to t h e Presidency, the advertisement en- titled "Appeal to Fairness" makes the following assertions: * the Ervin Committee has used innuendo, hearsay evidence, inflam- matory speech in an attempt to "oust Nixon"; and * thistattempt has been aided and -abetted by a biased and cal- lous press, eager to see Nixon hang. The ad singles out Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) for his unfair and biased questioning of witness H. R. Haldeman in which the sena- tor implied that Haldeman could have accidently erased the key por- tions of the contested Presidential tapes; Sen. Lowell Weicker (R- Conn.) for his loaded questions to Haldeman which, in efect, placed the President of the United States in a position of being guilty if he F YOU SAID BACK IN MARCH THAT YET THE PROSECUTOR, THE FBI YOU HAD ASSUMED PERSONAL DIRECTOR AND THE ATTORNEY CONTROL AND HAD INSTRUCTED GENERAL TESTIFIED THEY THOSE IN CHARGE OF THE RECEIVED NO SUCH INSTRUCTIONS. WATERGATE INVESTIGATION TO HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT? REPORT DIRECTLY TO YOU. C' ii did not know what his staff was doing and guilty if he did; and Ervin (D-N.C.) for calling Water- gate the "greatest national tragedy since the Civil War." The ad then argues, as Presiden- tial aide Pat Buchanan did on the New York Times Op-Ed page, that, though reprehensible, there is little or nothing new in the Watergate scandal. Political parties have been bugging each other for years. Furthermore the headhunters, the message concludes, have gone overboard. ... "for pure hypocrisy and ven- om, the attack is without prece- dent. "Those who decried the lax se- curity measure which enabled an assassin to cut down John Ken- nedy now denounce Richard Nixon for "allowing" the Secret Service to spend public funds on security features at the western White House. "And, with a mind-boggling dis- honesty, those who have called long and hard for East-West trade now attack Mr. Nixon for the U.S.-Sov- iet wheat agreement, the most im- portant and hopeful economic ex- change between our countries in decades." A point-by-point rebuttal of the backlash contentions is in order. INOUYE'S INNUENDO - Inou- ye's queries are sound and pro- per. To preclude the possibility that damage has been done to.the tapes would be a foolish move for any investigatory body to take for it would leave the Ervin committee at the mercy of President Nixon. Although backlashers would like to elevate him back to a position of regality, the President remains un- der suspicion. Regardless of the veracity of the Dean charges, Nix- on is a party to the inquiry and has interests to protect. Haldeman, because he had access to the tapes is very much the pur- veyor of the Nixon interests and to destroy or damage the tapes may be in those interests. While the question Inouye posed to Haldeman may be tough and uncomfortable, and may suggest things that the country would prefer to ignore; not asking the question would place the truth on the fragile tapes alone, if and when they are released to the public. WEICKER LOGICAL FAL- LACY - To the average American the question "who set the example for Watergate" is the pivotal one. Although it might not ellicit parti- culars, the question hints at the key to the entire problem. This ad- ministration has encouraged enemy lists, trampled on the rights of pri- vacy and association, attempted to quash any dissent and systematic- ally destroyed Southeast Asia. These are concepts that have been traditionally considered un-Amer- ican and strike at the heart of pro- fessed American values, now so sadly eroded. The ad goes on: . . . Unable after twelve weeks of hearings, to demonstrate that the President was aware of the cover-up, Weicker asks us to condemn Mr. Nixon EVEN IF HE WAS TOTALLY UN- AWARE OF IT, because, we are asked to conclude, the President "set the example" for the entire White House staff!" This so-called guilt by associa- tion is not, as the ad so speciously tries to portray, similar to the McCarthy guilt by association. In the McCarthy era the so-called "crimes" were not done in the name of the President, while in Watergate this is .exactly the case. Real subversion has taken place in the name of the President and if he did not realize what his subordin- ates were doing for him, then is he not guilty of lax judgment? ERVIN'S INFL A M M A T O R Y SPEECH - True, the good Senator from North Carolina is a bit thea- trical, but the purpose of the hear- ings is not so much investigative as it is a chance for the American public to understand the men who had governed them and have kept their true character hidden from the public eye for the last f i v e years. And if an Ervin is needed to remind us once again about na- tional principles and priorities, then maybe it isn't an excess at all. BUCHANAN'S CHARGES-These are simply tommyrot, pure g a r- bage. This is the little child's ploy of saying "everybody does it" in order to escape culpability. NIXOI SECURITY - S u r e l y a distinction can be made between genuine security precautions and the over ten million dollars in im- provements including gardening and resurfacing of driveways made at San Clemente and Key Biscayne. THE WHEAT DEAL - No o n e seriously questions the principle of East-West trade, but the Nixon ad- ministration has not only oversold the wheat crop, causing shortage in this country, but also has repeated- ly short-changed the American farmer. These last two allegations point to the true nature of this suppos- edly fair-minded group. This ad is a partisan document, designed to lift Nixon from the jaws of defeat. The ad has exaggerated for i t s own purposes, totally misread the arguments on San Clemente and the Wheat deal and hides behind the traditional Nixon shield, the Presidency. Although the ad care- fully outlines the fact that Nixon is under attack, the name of the group, like Creep before it, uses the Presidency to deflect the faults of the man. It is not the Presidency, as such, that is under attack, but the prac- tice of the Presidency under one extremely power hungry man, Richard Nixon. This Watergate backlash m a y well prove to be an important and powerful tool. And it may be the honest sentiments of Americans confused by the scandals galore they have found in this Admin- istration. But the backlash should not be based on the doggeral that "the Appeal to Fairness" ad tried to foster onto its unsuspecting read- ers.- Dan Borus is sports editor of The Daily. The Editorial Page of The Michigan Daily is open to any- one who w i s h e s to submit articles Generally speaking, all articles should be less than 1,000 words. I f THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SFbtiidi rt-Bal syndicati.,a197