-ir U 4 ew -47 THE MICHIGAN DAILY 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Mich. Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exress the individual opinions of the author. This must be noted in al reprints. WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1970 News Phone: 764-0552 No reform is better than a bad reform THE UNITED STATES Senate is about to take final action on the Bayh Amendment to abolish the Elec- toral College as the method used in electing the Presi- dent. A year and a half ago it appeared likely that the amendment would pass the Senate. Today its passage is questionable, and it is not difficult to see why. Under the Bayh Amendment the individual who re- ceived the most votes would be elected President, assum- ing he received more than forty per cent of the votes cast. If no candidate received forty per cent of the votes, a run-off would be held between the top two vote getters. The proposed reform can be attacked from two differ- ent perspectives. One rightly, the other with less certain- ty. Some have attacked the measure because they believe the larger states would have less influence under the new system. Under the Electoral College system, where all of a state's votes go to one candidate regardless of the size of his victory in the state, mathematicians have calculated that the voter in California or New York has two and a half times the voting power of a person who lives in a smaller state. They justify maintaining the imbalance in Presidential elections by noting that the House of Representatives is unbalanced in the opposite direction, because of the constitutional provision which gives at least one repre- sentative to every state. ' SPERSIONS, HOWEVER, may be cast on the validity of this criticism. The Senate often appears to have a big state bent, which can be said to nullify the advant- ages gained by smaller states in the House. The loss of power possessed by minority groups due to an abandon- ing of the Electoral College, could be cancelled out by the influence of Southern blacks, a minority without much power under the Electoral College, would be en- hanced through the adoption of the Bayh Amendment. Finally it is difficult not to concede that a direct election scheme would be much more egalitarian than the current means of electing the President. Criticism can also be directed at the Bayh Amend- ment on the question of whether it is the answer to the country's fears that the continuation of the Electoral College could produce a constitutional crisis. Any plan which replaces the Electoral College should provide for the election of Presidents with a broad mandate as well as an orderly election campaign. It is doubtful that adop- tion of the Bayh Amendment would provide these improvements. 4 LMOST CERTAINLY the adoption of the direct elec- tion of the President would lead to a proliferation of candidates. It would have been much easier to facilitate a Eugene McCarthy fourth party movement in 1968 under a direct election system. More serious defects of the Bayh Amendment include the fact that with the large number of precincts in the country a close election result could be changed through the change of one vote a precinct and it is quite likely that each precinct would contain at least this much of an error. Another problem would involve the possibility that a candidate who would carry large majorities in one or two states, but trail in the other forty eight states, could manage to win the election. Certainly such a victor would be unable to com- mand the respect of the electorate. Obviously any system which can produce minority Presidents as the Electoral College did in 1824, 1876, and 1888 must be reformed, especially when one considers that the electors who cast the ballots are not bound by any law to vote for the candidate to whom he is pledged. How- ever, the country should not adopt just any new method simply because it is a change. It is indeed likely that no reform at all is better than an ill-considered reform. -P. ROBERT HERTZ cinema Stay away from best sellers CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS QUESTION Federal courts hear MVY Lt' By DONALD KUBIT A personal philosophy of mine has been to stay away from best selling novels and movies based on best selling novels. The reason being that if a piece of literature can satisfy that many people, it more often than not will not sat- isfy me. After seeing the movie versions of Airport and The Ha- waiians, my philosophy has not been shaken, and I remain grate- ful to my conscience for avoiding the books. The Hawaiians, based on James Michener's epic novel, is one of those glittering chapters out of history. It is the sequel to Hawaii which only told about the first half of Michener's book. By now, Hawaii has already been populat- ed and we see how white foreign- ers have raked the land and taken advantage of the people who in- habit it. The white man's eternal quest for progress leaves no color unscathed as Orientals are used for slave labor and although there is an absence of chains, it is fairly obvious that the white m a n is reaping all the benefits. Even a vain attempt by the Hawaiians to reclaim their rightful property is dismissed by the threat of a white man's revolution. The Hawaiians is a sorry tri- bute to white suprem4cy. As a movie it is nothing short of le- thargic. The acting is non-exis- tent. Charlton Heston, as a rough and tumble captain, and Geral- dine Chaplin, as his mentally dis- turbed wife, simply have nothing to work with. And two times noth- ing is still nothing. The story covers over fifty years of time and the only thing the di- rector did right was to tint his ac- tors hair so they looked older. There aren't many films around in which I can't find at least one thing good about, but The Hawai- ians is one offthose big production freaks that offers absolutely noth- ing. Airport has been in town for two months now, and people keep coming. I expect people want to see how the movie compares with the book and friends tell me they are quite similar - both dread- ful. The movie is a R o s s Hunter production and Hunter is a firm believer in 1950's films. He fills the cast with "name" actors, finds a script writer who has afternoon television experience, and uses the exact same lighting in every scene. Some people call these mo- vies "extravaganzas," when ac- tually they are nothing morethan expensively filmed movie maga- zines. Airport doesn't have a m a i n story merely umpteen sub-plots. I won't even begin to name them all, but there's a little bit of ev- erything neatly connected so that in the end all the loose ends are nicely tucked away. Save for outstanding comedy performances by Helen Hayes and George Fkennedy, Airport is a film only your mother would love. It is easy to understand why this film is so popular, because it has all that glitter and glamour made famous in the early days of Hollywood. And even though the trend is changing, there are still enough people around who sup- port it. It may interest you to know that there are plans to run a tele- vision series based on Airport and that just goes to show you where this type of film belongs. If you were one of the fortun- ate and somehow haven't s e e n either of these films yet, applaud yourself, you definitely know what to steer clear of. By The Associated Press Federal judges in two separate courts have been confronted with the question of whether the Army has a constitutional right to court-martial two sergeants charged in the alleged My Lai massacre. U.S. District Court Judge Jack Roberts in Austin, Tex., took under consideration yesterday a plea to stop the court-martial of S. Sgt. David Mitchell, 30, of St. Fran- cisville, La., who Js charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder in a March 16, 1969 attack by American troops on the South Vietnamese hamlet known at My Lai 4. Meanwhile in Atlanta, a three-judge federal panel convenes today to consider the legality of a court-martial against Sgt. Esequiel Torres, 22, of Brownsville, Tex., who is charged with the murder of four civilians, including one by hanging, and attempted murder of three others in the May Lai attack. Torres has denied the charges. Lawyers for Mitchell have asked Judge Roberts for a temporary restraining order against Mitchell's court-martial at Ft. Hood, Tex. A pretrial hearing in the court-martial is set for July 21. The Army already has been enjoined by U.S. District Court Judge Albert J. Henderson from trying Torres until the three-judge panel decides the constitu- tionality of the proceedings against him. ,Another petition for an injunction against a trial was filed in U.S. District Court on Monday in Atlanta by Army Spec. 4 Robert W. T'Souvas, 21, of San Josa, Calif., but that has not yet been as- signed a hearing date. T'Souvas has denied the two counts of premeditated murder lodged against him. Judge Henderson issued the temporary injunction in the Torres case despite gov- ernment complaints that it would cause every person being court-martialed for anything in Southeast Asia to seek civil stays. The case "strikes at the very heart of military justice," Henderson said. Hen- derson will be joined on the panel by 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Griffin Bell and U.S. District Judge Sidney O. Smith Jr. Torres' civilian attorney, Charles L. Weltner, contends that Torres' constitu- tional rights have been violated in at least 15 instailces and challenges the basic jurisdiction of a military court-martial in a case involving the death of foreign nationals on hostile soil when the nation is not involved in a declared war. Top Army and Central Intelligence Agency officials have been asked to testi- fy by deposition about the highly secret Operation Phoenix at the hearing. Weltner said he planned to take the depositions to show that it was the policy of the Army to murdercivilians in "free- fire zones" such as My Lai, and that the purpose of Operation Phoenix was the destruction of human life. poi ar de M ve sti, j u te wi ex] all cc la fe vic te rl I r/ 1. "Haven't we met eyeball-to-eyeball before? ... Was it Berlin? ... Havana?'' 9. *1 Letters to the Editor More than cliches To the Editor: I WOULD LIKE to respond to the Robert Bernard letter which commented upon Miss Cohodas' "Two Years With A. Dubcek - or The Making of an Unperson" (Daily, July 10). To begin with, I resent the deceit and confusion created by Bernard's use and ac- tually misuse of cliches such as "counterrevolution," "dismantl- ing thne 'socialst-econom,' 4"abolishing egalitarianism" etc. To discuss only o n e example from the above: in what possible sense of the word was Dubcek go- ing to make Czechoslovakia less egalitarian? And furthermore, 'in what sense was Czechoslovakia al- ready egalitarian, as is implied, when as in all Soviet and satellite countries, Party members are pre- eminent and make up, as Djilas described it, "The New Class." It is absurd to chide Dubcek for denying "political freedom." It was of course he who was trying to gain more freedom for all peo- ple in Czechoslovakia. Secondly, it is logical to extend "political freedom" only to those who would do so to you. Lastly, it is perfid- ious to accuse Dubcek of not granting political freedom to some while applauding the revoking of his and many other's political freedom by the Soviets.- AS FOR BERNARD'S last com- ment that Dubcek should return to being a machinist I would like to say that were I as misinformed and misguided as I believe Ber- nard to be then I would not be so arrogant. Bernard's letter re- fleets t h e frequently typical Western radical w h o though aware of ills in the west, primarily because he can observe them first hand, is totally ignorant of the state of affairs in Eastern Eur- ope. Perhaps Bernard would do well to. this once follow the sug- gestions of our right wingers and go and live in East Europe for a while and actually experience what is going on. Hopefully af- terwards, Bernard would have more than just cliches to throw around. -Bohan Wytwycky Ann Arbor, Mich. July 14 No understanding To the Editor: YET ANOTHER government has resigned in Italy: "the usual story" many commentators have observed. The trouble with most American reporters and commen- tators is that they do not make any effort to help the public un- derstand the cause of the Italian political instability; so that it is only too natural for many people to explain it in terms of the Latin temperament, the rigidity of cer- tain ideological convictions, and, in general, the unruly character of the Italians. Stereotype and myth are as good substitutes for informed political reporting and analysis as can be found. So, why not resort to them? Still, the explanation is rather simple: in Italy governments fall, or, m o r e often, resign because they are in the contradictory po- sition of being publicly commit- ted to a reform program which is earnestly opposed by some influ- ential right wing factions in the governmental coalition itself. THE DEVOTION OF the var- ious governments to long needed social changes has never gone be- yond much lip service; the real commitment has been to delay- ing and stopping the reforms as much as possible. The slowness of the parliamentary and bureau- cratic machine lends itself very well to this purpose, but it is not always enough, and sometimes needs to be supplemented by some other means: so, every now and then, the Prime Minister resigns- often to succeed himself after some weeks of discussions. There is a method in this ap- parent madness, since, if things wvent otherwise, it would become apparent that the right wing of the Christian Democrats and some other, American paid, "socialist" fringes are strongly against the government's program - while the Communists are for it, The meaning of the much fear- ed "collaboration with the Com- munists" is that the Communists, without claiming to participate in the coalition, would vote for any mildly progressive law, as they have done in the past, on those rare occasions in which such laws have b e e n discussed in Parlia- ment. AND THE MEANING of - the formula "delimitation of the ma- jority," on which the right wing factions, indegenous and partic- ularly American paid, insist so much, is that whenever there is any danger of having a law pass- ed with the crucial vote of the Communists (who would make up for their defection) the govern- ment should resign, or find some convenient way of "falling." Italy, however, is growing, and not only in economic terms, but also in so- cial and political awareness, as witnessed by t h e - double trend emerging in the trade-unions, to- wards unification on the one hand and towards greater independence from the political parties - both the Christian Democrats and the Communists - on the other. The country will not accept to be kept in such c an absurd straight-jacket for long. Banquets, parties and meetings, for 25 to 250, are easily handled by our experienced staff. And, our well-lighted, excellently equipped audiovisual facilities are always at your disposal CAF Ili' 'pus NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS Summer Editorial Staff ALEXA CANADY.............................. ...... Co-Editor MARTIN HIRSCHMAN ....................... o-Editor SHARON WEINER............... ......Summer Supplement Editor SARA KRULWICH..................... ...y ... ....Photo Editor LEE KIRK ...........................Summer Sports Staff NIGHT EDITORS: Rob Bier, Nadine Cohodas, Erica Hoff ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Bill Alterman, Lindsay Cbaney, Phil I ANN ARBOR'S FINEST MOTOR HOTEL 0 -Rachel Costa, grad. 615 East Huron at State - 769-2200 -Giacomo Costa, grad, -Victor Mesalles, grad. July 14