Dare to be Great... and risk your shirt
By PAUL RUSKIN
THREE HUNDRED screaming
maniacs jumping up and
down on their chairs, wildly clap-
ping their hands, singing songs
at the top of their lungs. Three
solid hours of unabated bedlam.
What makes these people yell
so frantically? Ironically enough,
half of them don't even know.
They've been told only one word:
money-lots of maney, "enough
to make you filthy, stinking, rich
for the rest of your life."
recruits an unsuspecting vic-
tim, known as a "guest" in
DTBG jargon, and eventually,
through an invidious. process,
convinces the guest that he too
wants to become an agent.
To become an agent, a guest
must pay $1,000, ostensibly for
a "motivation course" w h i c h
will teach him how to become
successful. The original agent
gets $400 of the $1,000 and DTBG
gets the rest. The guest must
also bring in two more guests,
whisked away, along with about
90 other agents and guests, to
Weber's restaurant. Here they
enjoy a breakfast of bacon and
eggs, as well as an hour and a
half introduction to the orienta-
tion program.
The breakfast is the f i r s t
segment in a five hour prepara-
ory designed to put people in
the proper frame of mind for a
subsequent three hour lecture
program, where the guests fin-
ally learn the specific details of
DTBG.
THE ORIENTATION starts in-
nocently enough with everyone,
guest and agent, introducing
himself and stating what his pre-
sent job is or, if he is an agent,
what his job was before he join-
ed the business.
"My name is Dave Gay. Used
to be a body man - mostly on
cars but a little on the s i d e
there - huh, huh huh."
Agents warn the newcomers
to "keep an open mind, take in
everything that's said. What's
about to happen to you here to-
day will change your life."
After the introductions, com-
pany officials begin to soften
you up for the kill,
"Everyone has the potential to
be great. However, they've been
conditioned since birth to think
they are useless. Factories buy
your body from the neck down
for $3.50 an hour and they dn t
let you use the part from the
neck up at all."
"WE AT DTBG think that
everyone has a right to be rich
sod we teach people how ,o do
it.'
During the speeches, people
like "Smilie" William, come tp
and relate prsonal andcdotes.
Smilie says he has made $'i,000
They've been told only one word: money-lots
6f money, "enough to make you filthy stinking
rich for the rest of your life . . . We at DTBC
think that everyone has a right to be rich and 1ve
teach people how to do it."
in the 1 weeks since he joined
the company.
After breakfast, everyone piles
back into the buses and drives
off to the-Ramada Inn, the other
stop on our trip. During the bus
ride, agents teach a variety of
songs and chants, which are
later put to good use at Ramada
Inn.
HERE'S A sample:
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
MONEY
da da da, da da da, da da da,
Ann Arbor's number one. (Re-
peat three times) da da da, da
da;- da da da, da da; da da da,
da, da, RICH (Repeat twice) -
FILTHY STINKIN RICH."
At Ramada Inn, our group is
herded into a large meeting
room along with about 200 other
persons from the East and West
Detroit factions of DTBG. Now
the fun begins.
Agents led us in the cheers and
chants which we learned on the
bus. At first many of the guests,
who wear red name tags to
distinguish them from the
agents, who have green tags,
are slightly hesitant about sing-
ing and shouting. However, the
spirit is catchy. Before long
everyone, guest and agent alike,
is standing on his chair, stomp-
ing his feet, clapping his hands,
and singing as loud as he can.
TO STIMULATE even more
enthusiasm, an agent casually
takes a couple of hundred dol-
lar bills out of hid' pocket and
organizes a competition between
the Ann Arbor and Detroit
groups. Whichever group shouts
the loudest will split the money.
After a considerable amound of
chanting, and fake arguments,
the competition is declared a tie
and neither side gets any money.
Although the pep rally contin-
ses for a tiring three hours, no
one is allowed to sit down to
take a rest. Agents walk through
the crowd and encourage, phjsi-
cally if necessary, all sitters to
stand up. Lack of enthusiasm is
See DARE, Page 9
They haven't the slightest idea
hose they are going to go about
becoming rich, but after an hour
of yelling, all rational considera-
tions seem to have disappeared.
The people now see only one
color - green they have only
one desire - wealth; they know
only one word - money.
THE EASE with which 3 0 0
seemingly rational, mainly low-
er middle class Americans could
be turned into a mob of mind-
less fanatics is frightening to
watch. In this case, the object
of their frenzy was the relative-
ly harmless subject of money.
The method, however, remains
the same whether it concerns
money, George Wallace warning
against busing, or Adolf Hitler
raving about the "Aryan race."
The 300 fanatics just described
were participants in an "orient-
ation" session held by an illegal
con outfit known as Dare To Be
Great (DTBGo, a subsidiary of
Turner Enterprises. DTBG has
one goal, making money, and to
do so they have developed an
elaborate scheme for stealing
from innocent people.
HERE'S HOW the system
works:
A Dare To Be Great agent
NIGHT EDI'Ot:
ASSISTANT NIGHT DIT(
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITC
PHOTO TECHNICIA
summ,
CAROL WIECK ..... .
BOB ANDREWS ..
ROBERT BARKIN ..
JAN 'BENEDETTI . . . .....
ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
DANIEL BOR Us....
ROBERT CONROW
LINDA DREEBEN
DENNY GAINER ....
ANDY GOLDING . .
MERYL GORDON
SHERRY KASTLE
KAREN LAAKKO ....
ELLIOT LEGOW
ARTHUR LERNER ...
DIANE LEVICK .
DAVID MARGOLICK .
JIM O'BRIEN
CHRIS PARKS. ..
NANCY ROSENBAUM
PAUL RUSKIN ...
ROLFE TESSEM . . ..
PAUL TRAVIS .. . .
GARY VILLANI.. .....
JIM WALLACE'....
DEBORAH WHITIN
who then belong to the original
agent, before he himself can be-
come an agent. Thus, the orig-
inal agent now has two more
guests, each of whom will pay"
$1,000 and will bring in two ore
guests apiece for our oi"oinal
agent.
THE' PROCESS keeps mui-
plying and theoretically, it' o'i-
ginal agent will very giticly
have hundreds of gusts, each
of whom are worth $400 to him.
The whole process sounds e -
tremely easy - and workable -
when it is first described. The
only hard part is convincing peo-
ple to pay their :1,000. ( The
DTBG motto is "git the check;)'
To convince people to pay the
money, DTBG has devised an in-
tensive orientation program.
EARLY SUND)AY morning an
agent comes to the guest's door
to pick him up for the day's
activity.
Guest and agent walk out to
the street and enter a 1572 Cad-
illac. The agent claims to own the
car, but it is actually a company
owned car which agents use to
impress their guests.
Within no time at all the tw 'o
alive at a waiting bus and are
JAN BENEDtTTI
R: NANCY ROSENBAUM
R: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
N: DENNY GAINER
r Staff
General Business Assistant
....... Associate Sports Editor
...... Night Editor
Night Editor
... ,....Co-Editor
Sports Night Editor
Books Editor
Night Editor
Photography Editor
Business Manager
Assistant Night Editor
Circulation Manager
Classified Manager
Sports Editor
Co-Editor
Assistant Night Editor
Photographer
Science Editor
.... Night Editor
Assistant Night Editor
Assistant Night Editor
... Photographer
Night Editor
.....Photographer
Photographer
Circulation Assistant
-Daily--Denny Gainer
Letters to The Daily
.O
'O
ef
To The Daily:
IT WAS recently announced
that the salary of my successor
as Women's Representative has
been cut by $3,500, one month
after she was hired. The reasons
for this cut have never been
clearly stated, and there are
many indications that this is a
further attempt at the harass-
ment and intimidation by the
University administration of wo-
men who request salaries appro-
priate to the responsibility of
their jobs.
The University purports to set
salaries according to the level
of responsibility required in any
given position. Yet, the Office
of Academic Affairs admits that
it has yet to look at the rating
given to the job in question by
its own Professional / Admin-
istrative study (presently being
conducted by Robert Hayes &
Associates). On what basis, then,
did the Administration decide to
cut her salary? The question is
still an open one, presumably
to be resolved via the grievance
procedure.
HOWEVER, there are two in-
teresting coincidences worth
mentioning. The Women's Re-
presentative works as a team
with a Representative of the
Personnel Department. This' wo-
man has recently filed a com-
plaint asking that her salary be
raised to the level of the Wo-
men's Representative, in order
to more accurately reflect t h e
aditional level of responsibility
given to her in conducting t he
File Review. This leads me to
conclude that by cutting the sal-
ary of the Women's Representa-
tive, the University is attempt-
ing to downgrade the actual re-
sponsibility required of the wo-
men in these jobs.
The University administration
is also harassing the Chairwo-
man of the Commission for Wo.
men. The University claims to
have established a "new policy"
which at present only applies to
the Chairwoman of the Commis-
sion for Women: that administra-
tive personnel holding joint ap-
pointments will no longer have a
single salary rate, but separate
rates set for each appointment.
However, I have two questions
about this "new policy": why is
the rate for the Chairwoman set
lower than the other half of her
appointment; and why has this
policy begun with the Chair-
woman of the Women's Commis-
sion?
THE COINCIDENCE of these
events and the premature term-
ination of the File Review seoem
to suggest that there is a con-
certed effort abroad to crooh
movement toward salary equity
and intimidate all those who
have been involved in it. Al-
though it is difficult for vo-
men in "showcase" positions to
fight for their own rights as
well as those of other women,
I hope they will fight these ac-
tions. Successful intimidation of
these women will be a serious
setback of the rights of all wo-
men employes on campus.
-Zena Zumeta
(former Women's Repre-
sentative)
June 26
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprint's.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552
II) 1 s i 1 lt
I _
The Victor in Vietnam