OPINION

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Page 4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XC, No. 39 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Competition and U -Celar

Saturday, October 24, 1981

S

The Michigan Daily

A black athlete and the 'U',,

U NIVERSITY Cellar officials
announced last week that they
intend to stay in the Union, despite a 65
percent rent hike. Union Director
Frank Cianciola had given Cellar of-
ficials an ultimatum - accept the rent
increase or move from the building.
Cianciola's rationale seemed fair
enough. A rate of $9.07 per square foot
is competitive with the going rate for
rent in the State Street area. Cianciola
had said that if U-Cellar didn't wish to
stay in the Union, he could find a store
to replace them; in other words,
because U-Cellar is competing with
other stores in the free market, it
should pay the free market rate.
Except there's one problem: U-
Cellar is not competing in the free
market. Because of the low mark-up
on textbooks, most book stores make
their money on other items. Currently,

some of the biggest selling items are
Michigan paraphernalia. But because
the Union has its own store that-sells
M-go-blue hats, scarves, and pennants,
Cianciola will not allow the Cellar to
sell these items. ;
So now, the Cellar must pay a fair
market price for rent, but cannot com-
pete in the fair market with the other
book stores such as Ulrich's and
Follets who may sell what they choose.
Cianciola has thrust the free market in
the Cellar's face but at the same time
has manipulated the market.
If the Union is going to be a student
center, it should have a bookstore in it.
And it seems logical that that
bookstore sell additional items that
students want. Since Cianciola has
forced the Cellar to accept a fair
market price for its rent, he should
allow it to compete in the free market
and sell Michigan paraphernalia.

Michigan, like most U.S. colleges, was
slow to integrate its varsity football
program. Whether this was by design or
by accident is the subject of much debate
and lingering controversy; The issue of
non-participation by blacks climaxed on
Oct. 20, 1934, when Michigan's halfback,
Willis Ward, an outstanding black athlete.
Replay
By
Will McLean Greeley
in both football and track, was excluded
from the Michigan-Georgia Tech football
game in Ann Arbor. After the game a
Daily editorial criticized Michigan 's
Athletic Department, and urged Michigan

to discontinue intercollegiate play with
southern teams.
WILLIS WARD SUMMARY ...
It was the peculiar characteristic of the
Ward-Georgia Tech matter that everyone
who touched it did so only to lose respect and
esteem. The athletic department, responsible
first for scheduling the contest and then for a
willingness to risk serious campus disorder
rather than cancel it, was guilty of placing the
University in a very difficult position. The
National Student League, which used the af-
fair as a means of causing as much em-
barrassment and gaining as much publicity
as possible, achieved neither its professed
purpose of putting Ward in the game nor the'
greater purpose of lessening discrimination
against Negroes-both in the North and the
South. The Tory group of the Ward protest
meeting Friday night, led by almost all the
prominent extra-curricular men on campus,
did not convince one single person, despite the
soundness of its arguments, because the
group insisted upon an appaling exhibit of bad
manners, bad taste, and bad sense.
IT WILL BE unfortunate if the Michigan

coaching stafff, as well as the coaching staffs
of other northern universities, concludes that
the manner to avoid situations of this type in
the future is to refrain from coaching and
playing promising Negro athletic material.
That is certainly a possibility, and if it is one
the rabid pro-ward group overlooked it is only
another indication of the shortsightedness of
that faction. But the easier and more decent
way, both for students who comprise the
University and the people of the state who
support that University, is not to schedule'
games with institutions below the Mason and
Dixon line.
Michigan is democratic. Its history, its
traditions, its konor is founded on a bedrock of
education for all those wfo are capable of get-
ting it, regardless of race, or color, or social
and financial position. Those principles are
incompatible with the South's position on
racial differences. Let Michigan of the future
play with those who are of her own eminently
worthwhile type.
NEXT WEEK: The Law Class of '91:
Ready with a Revolver.
Greeley's column appears every Satur-
day.

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What keeps Khomeiniafloat?

Are the tax pros wrong?

T WO WEEKS ago, a team of
Michigan economists concluded
that citizens in the state are not over-
taxed and do not desire a huge tax cut.
The team, headed by University
professor Harvey Brazer, issued a
massive report on the condition of
Michigan's economy. They found
Michigan taxpayers are willing to pay
for the state's services.
Bit perhaps the experts are wrong.
Voters in Alpena and Taylor are telling
the state's taxing bodies that "we're
mad as hell and we're not going to take
it anymore."
Alpena's schools have now been
closed for a week because its citizens
would not'approve a millage increase.
Taylor schools are scheduled to follow
suit after last week's millage defeat.
And the professors maintain
Michigan taxpayers don't want a tax
cut.
It's true Michigan voters collectively
have turned down massive property
tax reductions in recent years. But the
next time voters are given a chance to
reduce their taxes, the state may not
be so lucky.
By no means should there be a tax

cut during these most troubled times
for the state's economy. Nor are the
recent irresponsible actions taken -by
Taylor and Alpena voters acceptable.
But the storm is building on the
horizon and the prospect of a statewide
measure bodes ill for Michigan.
This week, the legislature approved
the largest budget reduction in the
state's history. And Lansing officials
warn another may follow soon, jugt to
keep the budget in balance.'
The state cannot afford to make up
the losses cities will incur after a
property tax cut. The state has
already told school districts it cannot
help them in their efforts to keep
school doors open.
Governor Milliken made a wise
decision last week in delaying his
proposal for a property tax reduction.
Cuts in the state's property tax
revenues can only further cripple the
state's ability to provide needed social
services.
With luck, the taxpayers will see the
detrimental effects of slashing proper-
ty taxes. But in light of the recent
events in Alpena and Taylor, we're not
taking any bets.

By William Beeman
Letters from Iran these days
carry an invariable phrase:
"Vaz' kharob-e"-the situation is
rotten. Destructive attacks
against the Islamic Republic con-
tinue from its opponents and are
countered by equally
demoralizing executions on an
unprecedented scale.
In the West, there seems to be a
silent question behind the repor-
ting of these events: Why doesn't
the government of the Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini fall under the
weightof such terrible internal
discord?
FOR MANY, the question may
be more of a wish than a query.
But even if one thoroughly
dislikes- the Khomeini regime, it
must be aamitted that the staying-
power of the mullahs constitutes
an extraordinary- study in
political tenacity.
Several factors contribute to
the ability of the clerical leaders
of the Islamic Republican Party
to hold together when political
bodies in other areas ofthe wold
would have long since succum-
bed.
One primary factor has more to
do with Iran itself than with then
condition of the present political
leadership.
AMERICANS TEND to believe
that strong central leadership, as
under the shah, is an inevitable
feature of the Iranian political
systers. But in fact, Iranian
history reveals quite a different
pattern.
At times monarchs were
strong; at other times they were
weak. And yet Iran always sur-
vived. During some periods of
weak and indeed sometimes
corrupt central control, as in the
19th century, there was a sur-
rising prosperity in many areas
of the economy.
The waning of central authority
was more than balanced by-
growth fostered through local
autonomy.
REPORTS FROM THE
Iranian countryside during the
past few months suggest that
local autonomy once again has
begun to develop.
The principal disturbances are
concentrated in the larger cities
and in a few special regions such
as the tribal areas of the south
and west, and the northern
province of Gilan.
The opposition to central
authority in these areas has been
going on for more than two cen-
turies If Khomeini's regime fell
tomorrow, its succession still
would have to contend with
demands for political concessions
from these regions.
EVEN IN THESE areas,

population was sure that ,over-
throw of the monarch was not
only desirable; it also was
morally correct. Now many are
uncertain. They may not like the
clerics, but the idea summed up
in the phrase "warring against
God and his messengers" gives
them real pause.
The financial situation also is
much worse for urbanites than in
1978, and this, too, seems to
inhibit the desire for further con-
frontation.
GOVERNMENT salaries
were paid like clockwork every
month until the fall of the
Bakhtiar government in 1979,
even as government office
workers hurled rocks at the ar-
my.: Since that time unem-'
ployment, inflation, and shell
shock have convinced many that
a long, debilitating struggle could
literally finish off families that
now are just struggling by.
* Although one can deplore their
inability to mobilize the Iranian
economy, the government clerics
clearly are grand masters at
political maneuvering. Early on,
they realized that the advantage-
was theirs if they could maintain
a political organization that was
so diffuse as to seem om-
nipresent and indestructible.
Thus, as with the manyheaded
hydra, when one set of IRP
leaders is blown away, by bombs
and machine guns, 10 more
spring forth to take their place.
Mujahideen leader Massoud
IRajavi, now prime minister of a
recently announced government-
in-exile, has called these leaders
"Khomeini's dolls." They may be
dolls, and the man on the street
may curse them but they give an
AP Photo unavoidable impression of
strength and stability.
Opposition groups other than
Lt many the Mujahideen, which is the
lied in the most dedicated, are divided and
1978-79. irresolute.
i the pro- Former President Abolhassan
ry guard Bani-Sadr has slipped into limbo
aqi front. in recent weeks, weakened by
d to the charges from the other opposition
groups that he must bear a good
of youths deal of the blame for the present
ities ob- situation. Rajavi has a better
experien- public standing, having never
ront both supported Khomeini. Never-
I apd the theless, due to the underground
security nature of his previous activities,
contains, he still is not well enough known
oses, the in Iran itself to commando the
many of kind of public following that could
e shah's topple the seemingly immortal
han 1,600 ayatollah.
ave been Thus, in the current test of
strength, the balance still falls to
e generalIran's present rulers.

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V Y _ _ _

'It Looks As If I'm Going To Win

The Arms Race!'

i
Khomeini: How long will he stay in power?

however, indications are that
daily life continues to chug along
as people have turned to running
their own affairs independently
of Teheran.
Much of the population sees its
fate as not much better or worse
than before-so why rebel?
A second factor is that the op-
position to the IRP thus far has
absolutely failed in the mass
mobilization of the urban
population. Intellectual support
for the leftist Mujahideen and
other opposition groups exists,
but it is mostly fearful and silent.
OCCASIONAL solitary acts of
defiance, such as former Prime
Minister Mehdi Bazargan's
recent public denouncement of
the summary executions of
Mujahideen supporters, are thus
quickly stifled.
Physical support for the op-
position comes mostly from the
young-the last generation to
receive secular education under

the shah's regime. Bu
between ages 10 and 25 d
original revolution of
Many more have joined
government revolutiona
or are at war on the Ira
Others have emigrated
West.
The reduced numberc
that remain in the c
viously has neither thee
ce nor the arms to confr
the revolutionary guard
reconstituted internal
police, SAVAMA, whichc
for all intents and purp
same staff and employs
the same tactics as th
SAVAK. To date, more t
young men and women h
arrested and executed.
THE REFUSAL of the
urban population to bec
volved is not so surprisi
one considers their situat
In the original re
against the shah, th

come in-
ing when
tion. ,
volution
e mass

Beeman, an anthropology
professor at Brown Univer-
sity, wrote this article for
Pacific News Service.

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LFTTERS TO THE

DAILY:

We need a better variety of speakers

UTo. the...Daily:1.

without regard to any specific

minorities, and others concerned
wih41. * nn rasciftt1.nl.. ana.,..

,tioned above, and therefore
T1MA AL'YA AM e1LANw A i A lwwla. .w


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