iff r irg ian Baff
Edittd 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 reprints.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 23, 1972 News Phone: 764-0572
Women sell themselves
... for The Cause
Agnew's ambitions
demand a new image
IN A COPYRIGHT story, The Detroit News yesterday
revealed that Spiro Agnew agreed to accept the sec-
ond spot on the Republican ticket only after being as-
sured by the President that he will be given "a clean
shot" and the presidency in 1976.
What this means, a high-ranking Republican told
the News, is that Nixon has promised not to block Ag-
new's candidacy in any way.
Agnew apparently feared that Nixon might choose
to promote someone else's candidacy in '76 - perhaps
that of Democratic-turncoat John Connally. But Agnew
received his reassurance from the President, and is com-
ing back to take the lumps of the vice presidency, while
keeping his eyes on the next presidential campaign.
If this story is to be believed, it means that Repub-
lican-watchers can look forward to seeing a "new" Agnew
during the coming campaign..Agnew can be expected to
move out of his "free-swinging image". No longer can he
afford to be Nixon's hatchet man.
Agnew must broaden his appeal in order to be a via-
ble candidate in '76. He must appear to be more liberal
than ever before, while carefully seeing that he doesn't
step on any of the toes of his present core of conserva-
tive supporters.
It will be a difficult tightrope for the vice president
to walk. Yet, it is not an impossible route. Nixon suc-
cessfully shoolf his image as both a "loser" and a rabid
anti-Communist in his election campaign in 1968.
NOSTALGIA FANS might recall back in the late fifties
when Nixon was Ike's comical sidekick. Agnew's
position is not very different. And like his present boss,
Agnew might be able to pull off a similar deception on
the American people.
-ALAN LENHOFF
Julie to the rescue
1ULIE EISENHOWER is a very precious commodity these
days for the Nixon administration. Julie and her
smiley husband are Nixon's house hippies (they're both
under thirty) as well as liaisons to the youth vote.
Julie is also a woman and can relate, therefore, to
the women voters for her father. But somewhere in the
Nixon entourage, Julie's powers were overestimated.
Early yesterday morning, she appeared before the
irate black caucus at the Republican convention in Mia-
mi and prepared to wave her magic wand. Unfortunate-
ly no one had briefed her for the antagonistic crowd and
she could only stutter and declare that her father's ad-
ministration has "really done the best that it can do for
the black man in America.
Blacks, youth, women . . . what's the difference to
Nixon? He's not going to listen to any of them.
-MAYNARD
Marijuana match
"JOCKS FOR JOINTS," a new California organization
of athletes favoring an easing of dope laws, has chal-
lenged members of "Californians Opposed to the Mari-
juana Initiative" to a softball game.
Californians Onposed to the Marijuana Initiative
-called COMI's ("Commies") for short - are attempt-
ing to defeat a proposition on the November ballot to
decriminalize marijuana.
A spokesperson for "Jocks for Joints" reports that
the purpose of the game will be to prove "that marijuana
smoking does not cause atrophy of the brain and mus-
cles." The "Jocks" say that they fully intend the drub the
COMI's to prove their point. "We've really become anti-
Commies," they say.
-ZODIAC NEWS SERVICE
Today's Staff:
News and Editorial Pages: Alan Lenhoff, Carla Rapoport
Photo Technician: Denny Gainer
Summer Staff
EDITORIAL STAFF
Dan Biddle, Jan Benedetti, Meryl Gordon, Jim Kentch, Lorin
Labardee, Alan Lenhoff (co-editor), Diane Levick, Maynard, Chris
Parks, Carla Rapoport (co-editor) Marilyn Riley, Gloria Smith,
Paul Travis, Ralph Vartabedian.
By JAN BENEDET'TI
'ITE TALL, ruggedly-attractive
woman marches into view on
the screen. Clucthing a copy of
"Sisterhood is Powerful" tight-
ly to her massive, but sleek,
karate-honed body, she raises her
powerful right hand in a right-
eous salute. She lowers her arm
and in a strong voice, speaks.
"Sisters. Here come the fab-
lous feminists. Rent a femin-
ist for any occasion from t h e
New Feminist Talent Associates
(NFTA) of New York City. Yes
friends, be the envy of the lib-
erated or about-to-be-sisters on
s'oor block. Having a rap session?
I-ave Betty Friedan talk to your
CR group. Buy the services of a
feminist rock group, dancers or
even hold a workshop on "Freud
is Fraud". Call today." The
image fades.
WATCH OUT. One of these
days, a version of that commer-
cial may appear on the f i r s t
break in "The Dick Cavett
Show."
Owned and run by feminists,
according to its ads, NFTA is a
newbooking agency which repre-
sents "'feminist talent."
The agency's flyer describes a
range of feminists. "Just name
your area of interest, we have
feminist experts on everything
from death and taxes to ecology
and astrology." Choose from a
"spell-binding one-woman revolu-
tion, the Mother of the Movement"
Betty Friedan or a "boat-rock-
ing panelist on TV", Robin Mor-
gan or author Warren Farrell,
"not our token man, a r e a l
feminist."
Another of NFTA's feminists,
Wilma Scott Heide, president of
the National Organization f o r
Women (NOW) is called a
"warmly witty speaker with a
W hat's tte difference?
genius for translating complex
ideas into pithy quotable lang-
uage."
Here's one of her pithy quotes
on the women's movement: "No
woman, no man, no child who is
aware of the issues of this move-
ment can ever be the same
again."
Exactly. If the women's move-
ment has accomplished o n e
thing, it has brought the issue of
sexism into the open. The move-
ment has irrevocably altered
many persons' perceptions of so-
ciety, sex, and the nature of wo-
man and man.
Most feminists nuture this
awareness of sexism. Denounce-,
ments of Madison Avenue's por-
trayal of women as either dumb
housewives or eye-shadow-and-
lipstick-bathed temptations a r e
particularly vehement.
No doubt, every one of NFTA's
feminists would attack the TV
commercial which sells a woman
along with the soap or car.
But these women have submit-
ted to their own brand of slick
packaging. They are being sold
as 'outstanding feminists of our
time" just as surely as the Play-
boy playmate's help sell maga-
zines.
BUT DON'T WORRY. Suppress
those cries of "sell-out" because
this agency may only be the be-
ginning. Imagine another ad.
The rugged, but hip, man, clad
in a slightly faded workshirt,
strides into view. He holds u5 a
copy of "Quotations from Chair-
man Mao" and displays his finger
in salute. He speaks.
"Having a convention in town?
Do you expect the same, dull fac-
es and the same dull floor fights?
Well, what about a real fight
before that next roll call v.:te.
Just call Rent-a-Radical. We've
got all kinds of radicals - white,
black, Chicano, Yippies, zippies,
even a liberal - to show we're
not elitist .. .
RALPH NADER
The land's slipping away
VVASHINGTON - A pot-boiling
controvorsy is brewing over the
ownership and use of underde-
veloped and agricultural land
throughout the country. The cries
of land fraud, land dispossession
and the need for land reform are
being heard with increasing fre-
quency from a wide diversity of
groups.
Arrayed on one side are small
farmersand landowners,econser-
vationists, elderly retired people,
and officials who take their law
enforcement duties seriously.
The trends that are feeding this
struggle over the land are:
1. A growing concentration of
land ownership, particularly in ag-
ricultural areas such as Califor-
nia, by giant agribusiness cor-
porations. The U. S. Department
of Agriculture has information on
land ownership concentration but
refuses to make it public.
2. Corporate speculators are
buying up large land tracts, and
by legal and political maneuvers,
are jacking up land prices which
influence housing and other de-
velopment costs. A great deal of
secrecy precedes these purchases
in many cases,thereby depriving
nearby residents from learning
what the corporation plans to do
that might drastically upset their
way of life. International Tele-
p~hone & Telegraph, for example,
is quietly boying up tens of thom-
sands of acres in northwest Maine
and isn't saying why.
3. Attention is focusing on the
gigantic land holdings of the rail-
roads obtained free from the U.S.
Government in the 19th century.
A group headed by Senator Fred
Harris (D.-Okla.) has demanded
that Southern Pacific Railroad
give up these surplus lands, claim-
ing they are not being used for
railroad purposes as required un-
der the original land grants.
4. Public interest lawyers in Ap-
plachia are studying the notorious
broad-form deed used decades ago
by corporate lawyers to fleece in-
nocent mountain folk of valuable
coal and other minerals on their
land. This broad-form deed is still
current in these areas.
5. Property tax reformers are
documenting their charges that
large timber, coal, and oil and gas
companies are among those who
are vastly underpaying their tax-
es through politically-inspired low
assessments. Schools and other
services suffer as .a result. Small
businesses and home owners' pay
higher taxes as well.
6. Interstate land sales frauds
directed at retired people who
sant to settle in Florida, Arizona,
or other retirement centers, are
mushrooming. High pressure tac-
tics and deception have often cost
elderly people their entire invest-
ments in misrepresented acreage.
Federal lan enforcement agencies
are paying too little attention to
these abuses.
7. Congress is presently delib-
erating a national land use policy
to prod the states into establish-
ing planning programs for such
major land uses as highways,
parks, mass transit systems, air-
ports, utilities, and other large de-
velopments. The chief sponsor of
this legislation is conservative
S e n a t o r Henry Jackson, (D.-
Wash.).
All this adds up to a recognition
of just how critical and limited
the nation's land resources are be-
coming, and the potential loss to
future generations. It is the pres-
ent and future duty of all Ameri-
cans to keep the land from being
seriously polluted or contami-
nated.
1972, Harrison-Blaine of New Jersey,
I ne.
Never in the field of human conflict have so many dropped
so much on so few for so little.