Edited and managed by students.oat the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552
Feminists rate the state
a washout on equal rights
7
t
Exhibition eontests
exploit NFL players
THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE should be cited
for unfair labor practices. Its upper echelon, decid-
ing there was big money in pre-season contests, forced
the players to start their grueling practices in early
July so they would be prepared to endure a half dozen
affairs that had no bearing on the regular standings.
In the sticky, oppressive heat of July, the gridders
must tape themselves up like mummies, then put on knee
pads, shoulder pads, hip pads, and the sort of protection
before they go through a daily workout that would alarm
even the meanest marine.
A day doesn't pass without players collapsing from
sun stroke or heat exhaustion and occasionally, more
serious injuries result.
For instance, Los Angeles' ouarterback, Roman Ga-
briel, was victimized a week ago by a collapsed lung and
had to be rushed to a hospital for surgery. Surely, the
heat wasn't te direct cause of the condition, however,
the physical activity in the southern California furnace
did not help matters any.
Although it is not overly publicized, many of the
players are unhappy with the early training schedule.
Not only does it shorten their summer vacations and in-
crease their chances for injury, but the complain that
the owners pay them next to nothing for participating
in the exhibitions.
OWNERS COUNTER by saying the prolonged training
period is necessary to get the players into shape for
the regular season which starts in mid-September. But
the players disagree claiming they can prepare them-
selves in half the time.
Last season, Joe Namath missed most of the pre-
season preparation, then needed only two weeks to ready
himself to take over the Jets' offense. Namath is on of
the growing list of disgruntled players who would love
to do asay with July football.
NEVERTHELESS, a standing room only crowd will wit-
ness the College All Star game this Friday in swel-
tering Chicago, a contest that inaugurates this season's
hefty slate of grid exhibitions.
The gates from these preliminaries will rival those
for the regular season affairs and the owners, who are
only interested in fattening their pocketbooks, are using
players to achieve their goal. If things stay as they are,
player-management relations could reach the boiling
point, even when the temperature cools down.
-BOB ANDREWS
Nixon vs. the press
TOWARD THE END of his televised news conference
on June 29-the first of its kind to which the Presi-
dent had subjected himself in some thirteen months-
Mr. Nixon managed to deliver a few revealing re-
marks on his attitude toward the press in general and
the press conference in particular.
"I have to use the press conference," he said, "when
I believe that is the best way to communicate or to in-
form the people."
- Mr. Nixon's notion that the press conference is
something to use like the presidential limousine or thO
FBI or the Americal Division-helps explain why it is a
vanishing institution.
Mr. Nixon said he had concluded that to meet the
press during the periods preceding and following his
trips to Moscow and Peking "was not a useful thing for
the President of The United States to engage ljs."
JN THE PROCESS of avoiding questions about Moscow
and Peking, Mr. Nixon also ducked a few other topics.
There was no opoortunitv, during his long period of in-
accessibility, to ask about the ITT affair, or about the $10
million raised for his campaign before the new report-
ing law went into effect, or about the war he had pro-
mised to end long ago, or the sorry performance of his
New Economic Plan, or about federal deficits and pros-
pects for a tax increase.
All these are matters that the President would rather
discuss on his own terms--if he discusses them at all ---
without rude interruptions from nosy reporters.
-THE PROGRESSIVE
AUGUST, 1972
Today's Staff.. .
News: Dan Fiddle, Meryl Gordon, Carla Rapoport
Editorial Poge: Alan Lenhoff
0 ., -n. ;.hiin- aC, Viloni
By CARLA RAPOPORT
N THE past legislative session,
fourteen bills concerning womens'
rights came before the State House
of Representatives. The score for
the session: the Legislature-I,
Women-5.
According to Mary Hellman, a
member of the Women's Political
Caucus which compiled the voting
survey, "The votes on these bills
indicate that women's issues are
not fully understood by members
of the State House."
Fourteen bills were selected for
analysis because of their effect
either positive or negative, on the
ability of women to make decis-
ions about their own lives.
The results of the survey not only
show that women's issues are
rarely introduced in the House
(only 14 worens' rights issues
were considered in an entire legis-
lative session), but that the repre-
sentatives showed a surprising in-
consistency in their voting.
For instance, Hellman says
"while all but two of the repre-
sentatives approved of the "equal
pay for equal work" bill, only four
voted for an unrestricted bill to
prohibit sex discrimination in pub-
lic accommodations."
Voting scores were poorest for
bills which would allow women to
control childbirth. According to a
member of the womens' caucus,
a bill to allow physicians to pre-
scribe contraceptives to -minors
was "soundly and repeatedly" de-
feated until an amendment w a s
added restricting the service to
those of 16 years or older. T he
abortion reform bill was not even
brought up this session.
The following are brief descrip-
tions of the 14 bills and their pro-
gress in the house as prepared by
the Michigan Women's Political
Caucus:
HJR LLL: The Equal R i g h t s
Amendment
Ratification of the ERA w as
postponed by the House on four
occasions before the first roll call,
to postpone the vote again, occur-
red. The preferred vote, a "no" on
postponement, was based on the
belief that 50 years of national
debate and t h r e e Michigan
hearings (two called by the Sen-
.ate and one by the House) w e r e
sufficient to inform legislators of
women's support for the ERA. Fol-
lowing House approval, the Sen-
ate also ratified the ERA, on a_
voice vote.
H.B. 4138: A bill to prohibit dis-
crimination on the basis of sex or
marital status in the selling, leas-
ing, renting, or financing of per-
sonal or real property.
Rep. Ferguson, sponsor of the
bill, offered amendments from the
floor to exclude the leasing a n d
renting provisions and to provide
that "a person may refuse to loan
money to a married person if he
is unable to obtain the signatures
of both the husband and wife on
the note or mortgage." These
amendments, which passed on a
voice vote; made the bill unaccept-
able, in our judgment, because its
provisions would not assure finan-
cial independence for married wo-
men. The bill is now in the Senate
State Affairs committee.
H.B. 4139: A bill to prohibit sex
discrimination in public accommo-
dations.
On the vote to concur with the
Senate-passed bill, we preferred a
"yes" vote without reservation.
The Senate deleted House amend-
ments and restored the bill to its
original form.: The House did not
concur, and the bill went to a con-
ference committee, which restor-
ed public educational institutions
as places of public accommoda-
tion and excluded restrooms, lock-
er rooms, and rooming facilities.
The conferees' bill passed b o t h
House and Senate and is now law.
H.B. 4899: Prohibited discrimina-
tion between sexes in the payment
of wages for equal work.
A cumbersome title for the
"equal pay for equal work" bill.
It passed both House and Senate
and was signed into law by the
governor.
H.B. 4576: A bill to abolish
women's dower rights.
Our preferred vote was a "no"
on the ground that inequities can
be corrected by extending rights
as well as by abolishing privileges.
' If a Constitutional amendment is
necessary to extend the equivalent
of downer rights to men, the legis-
lature should have proposed it. The
bill, after passage, was returned
to the House Judiciary Committee
on a motion by its sponsor, Rep.
Traxler.
H.B. 5084: A bill to allow physic-
ians to prescribe contraceptives
for minors under certain conditions
and without parental consent.
The vote on passage of the ori-
ginal bill failed, but the bill as
amended (restricting "birth con-
trol pills (and) other contracep-
tives" to minors 16 years of age
and older) finally passed.
Our approval of the Senate-pass-
ed version is, again, without qual-
ification. The Senate bill would
allow physicians licensed to prac-
tice in Michigan to provide birth
control services to minors. When
the House did not concur, the bill
went to a conference committee,
which, along with everyone else,
has adjourned to run for re-elec-
tion.
S.B. 3: A bill to allow physicians
to perform abortions under certain
circumstances.
The votes on this bill were pro-
cedural rather than substantive;
that is, they did- not deal specif-
ically with the passage of S.B. 3.
Nevertheless, we favored "yes"
votes on all three roll calls be-
cause we felt that the Legislature
had an obligation to vote on this
bill.
S.B. 1106: A bill to prohibit sex
discrimination in non-contact, in-
terscholastic athletic activities.
Eight separate votes were re-
corded before the bill passed and
went to the governor for his signa-
ture,
Ann Arbor's representative, Ray-
mond Smit outdid the majority of
his comrades on women's rights,
scoring a favorable nine out of
14 possible votes for womens'
rights.
The scores for each party's lead-
ers were as follows: Democrats:
Speaker William Ryan, 3/14;
Speaker pro tem Stanley Davis,
4/14; Floor leader Marvin Stemp-
ien, 5/14; Caucus chairman John
Kelsey, 5/14.
Republicans: Minority leader
Clifford Smart, 4/14; Assistant
leader Thomas Ford 5/14; F 1 o o r
leaded Roy Spencer, 5/14; Caucus
chairman James Heinze, 10/14.
/t
Letters to The Daily
To The Daily:
I LEARNED in a newspaper re-
port that you are putting the "bee"
on your university authorities to
release faculty salary data. I hope
you are successful.
I wish to suggest that you push
on in your quest for information
about higher education in Michi-
gan, not just at U. of M.
--Prof. Ralph Lewis
Dept. of Natural Science
Michigan State University
July 21
Salaries : Yes
To The Daily:
WE OF THE Michigan Women
in Science, a recently formed
group of women in some 23 sci-
ence-related departments in the
University, strongly support t h e
request by AlanLenhoff to Pres-
ident Fleming that the name, sex,
minority code, salary, years of
service and job title for all admin-
istrators, faculty and staff of the
University be published and made
available to individuals. We fur-
ther agree with his proposed court
action if this should be necessary
to obtain release of this informa-
tion, ,
This disclosure is an important
means toward documenting dis-
criminatory practices against wo-
men within the University, and al-
though it won't correct them, it
will signal a willingness on the
part of the administration to ser-
iously begin the process.
-Michigan Women in Scince
July 20 ,
. Salaries : No
To The Daily:
MEMBERS OF SACUA oppose
the publication of names and sal-
aries of University personnel. Such
listings will serve no useful pur-
pose without a thorough under-
standing of the very complex and
highly variable factors which go
into the determination of individ-
ual's salaries over a period _of
time.
To discuss all of those factors
in each individual case would not
only be impossible, but would in-
volve an intolerable invasion of pri-
vacy. Therefore, a complete un-
derstanding of this process by
the public is simply not within the
realm of possibility.
We are surprised that the same
institution, The Michigan Daily,
which has decried the divulgence
of student records as an intoler-
able invasion of privacy and there-
fore a violation of civil r i g h ts
should take the opposite point of
view in their present demands.
Has not the public, who is sup-
porting student education with tax
dollars, just as much right to know
the records of individual students,
as to know the income of their in-
structors. Perhaps it makes a dif-
ference whose rights are being vio-
lated.
-). L. 5hinernan
Chairman of SACIUA
July 21
iv es fe stival
'o T' Dtily:
AS FORMER MEMBERS of the
central planning committee of the
Ann Arbor Blues Festivals of 1969
and 1970, we would like to make
clear that the Ann Arbor B lu e s
and Jazz Festival scheduled for
this fall is in no way an exten-
sion or revival of the 1969-70 Blues
Festivals. We feel that the un-
derlying concept, behind this fall's
festival differs profoundly from
the concept behind the Blues Fes-
tivals. We wish the Jazz and Blues
Festival good luck.
-Mark Platt
Chris Seltsam
and five others
July 23
Toothpaste protest
To The Daily:
IT'S FINALLY happened. No
longer are we to be a nation di-
vided in the pursuit of our own
toothpaste - rolling methods. My
new tube of Crest bears the fol-
lowing message in bright, b ol d
colors:
"For best results, squseeze tube
from the bottom and flatten it as
you go up."
Note the clever way the manu-
facturers have avoided an out-
right totalitarian order. But the
phrase "for best resas ' will nave
such an effect anyway, as bath-
rooms-full of competitive brushers
scramble to get more 'pt of their
tube than anyone else on the block.
One more bastion of free will has
collapsed. Of course, some will pay
no attention, and grimly continue
rolling their tubes, or, worse yet,
squeezing indiscriminately. These
misguided souls are probably the
same ones who complain that it
always rains after they wash their
car. ,
-Donald Sosin
July 57