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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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Page Ten
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, February 7, 1957
T rI tt GeUahU) rUi~LJ nr E 195'7..
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_ - -
THE
POLITICAL SCENE
A
Tribute to the State
Politicul
Science
Courses
Naively Ignore Dirtier Aspects
The 'Michigan' Has Played Significant Parts in an Assa;
Training of Troops and Peacetime Work
By JAMES DYGERT
IT CAN be said, and has been,
that the only thing dirtier than'
business is politics.
Unfortunately, one does not
learn this fact in school. The
political science course is primar-
ily designed to acquaint the stu-
dent with the theories involved
in government, the laws that sup-
posedly govern governments, and
the intricate organizational de-
tails through which they operate.
The democratic form of govern-
ment, of course, is emphasized.
Predictably enough, very few
political science students become
politicians. This is mostly because
hardly anything they learn in
political science is applicable to
politics. Paradoxial? Yes. It's
paradoxical that a science exhi-
bits such little knowledge of its
subject matter. ;
SUPPOSEDLY, a study such as
political science is not neces-
sarily intended to produce re-
sourceful politicians, but is con-
sidered successful if it merely im-
parts to its students information
sufficient to guide him through
the complexities of being a voter
and contribute in part to his gen-
eral understanding of life's vital
processes.
Even in these goals, political
science is an incredible failure.
In order to vote wisely, one
must be able to see through the
subterfuges, hypocrisies and mo-
tives that lie behind issues and
candidates. One must also know
the possible ways to fortune an
office holder can find in his pub-
lic trust in order to eliminate ei-
ther the ways or the office hold-
ers who find them.
rswm.
CRACKING THE BOOKS
.. .no path to paradoxes, special interest groups
In order to understand that vi-
tal part of life known as politics,
one must be aware that there
are only few exceptions to the
general rule that men in politics
are there only to advance their
own interests. If all they want is
fame, there's comparatively little
danger. But these, too, are few.
With most of them, it's a case of
money seeming greener on the
other side of the law, either civil
or moral.
Political science shrugs off this
phenomenon with a paragraph or
two on special interest groups, all
very theoretical.
THE NEXT paradox is that few
politicians think about theory,
let alone write their own speech-
es. The rhetoric is just that. In
fact, this writer would stake his
income for the next ten years
on the proposition that if a poll
were taken, it would show that
less than 20 per cent of them
know what the word means. It's
not your principles that matter,
but how many hands you can
shake, what connections you have
and how you reward support.,
Ask Andrew Jackson, if you
know a good spiritualist. He came
right out in the open with his
patronage system. That was a
long time ago, too long ago for
today to remember, evidently; be-
cause there seem to be few people
around who realize that almost
all those who are -active in poli-
tics are working primarily for
that job or favor they'll get if
their side wins.
Even to think of power poli-
tics only in terms of special inter-
est groups, whether they be dairy
lobbies or sovereign nations, is
to be superficial. Most politicians
are not as interested in what they
car do for their special interest
groups as they are in what their
special interest groups can do for
them.
It's extremely difficult to ac-
cept that political science in any
way contributes to a fuller un-
derstanding of mankind when it
remains so obvious to the reali-
ties of politics. Perhaps the pro-
fessors know better; but if so,
they're not letting on.
WHAT ARE the realities of poli-
tics?
There have been many national
scandals, which anyone with a
conversational knowledge of his-
tory can recall. The most recent'
fad is the defense contract. Fur-
thermore, it would take a person
with supernatural naivete to be-
lieve that those scandals which
have been uncovered exhaust the
facts.
There are also plentiful oppor-
tunities for curruption on the
The Better Haircuts
you eXpect, you will
always get at-
715 North University
state level. Just before last No-
vember's election, the Republican
Party of Illinois was embarrassed
by the discovery that its state
treasurer had found a way to
benefit from high taxes. Illinois
Democrats, joyous and smug over
this windfall of campaign mater-
ial, were all the more chagrined
when some corruption of their
own was exposed in Cook Coun-
ty.
It's all too obvious that there is
little protection against collabora-
tion between government officials
and the private concerns with
which they must do business.
Some samples: road builders can
use inferior materials, saving ten
times as much as they pay offi-
cials to overlook the shortcom-
ings; an official whose election
was won on extensive financial
help from a certain businessman
can hardly turn down that man's
business, regardless of price; state
owned land can be sold at low
prices, so that officials can 'secret-
ly share in the profit when resold
at market value. Not only are
these possible, but they have been
done; and they are but a micro- -
scopic sampling of the possibility
ties.
FFME are the same opportuni-
ties in local governments.
Building inspectors can poeket '
tidy sums by ignoring building
code violations which save big-
time developers hundreds of dol-
lars per house. And so on.
It's bad enough that men whom
the voters elect betray their trusts.
Very often, because of numerous
vote fraud methods and even
strong-arm tactics that still ex-
ist, the man the people want is
defeated. Throw in the political
machines and the one-party sys-
tems in certain parts of the
United States, and the democrat-
ic cystem begins to seem some-
what undemocratic.
O course, there are some hon-
est men in politics; but it's quite
a task to determine who they
are. Too often the ones who seem
most honest turn out to be our
biggest mistakes. The wisest ap-
proach is keep a steady eye on all
of them, even though none of us
has time for that.
This is not to say that nothing
good comes from politics. On the
contrary, politicians are forced to
turn out good things periodically
in order to save their hides from
other politicians. And even the
ones that are dishonest and cor-
rupt- are not completely so. It's
See A LOOK, Page 22
By RICHARD SNYDER
Daily Staff Writer
WITH Michigan anxiously anti-
cipating the St. Lawrence
Seaway completion, residents of
the state are again taking an
interest' in the Great Lakes.
There, is something intangibly
fascinating about the history of
naval power-a wealth of human
associations and some of the sig-
nificant episodes of this country's
development are revealed in such
slogans as "Remember the Maine"
and "Damn the torpedoes, full
speed ahead!"
The Nina, the Pinta, and the
Santa Maria brought Columbus to
his "mistaken discovery" of Amer-
ica, the country which has wit-
nessed the spectacular battle be-
tween the Monitor and the Merri-
mac, the tragic first run of the
Titantic, the launching of the At-
lantic's xecord-breaking United
Etates, the initial test of the
Nautilus, and all the drama in the
sinking of the Andrea Doria.
Few Michiganders know, how-
ever, the State's contribution-if
only by lending its name-to the
development of United States
Naval power. A side-wheel steamer
and a lake steamer bearing the
namesake of the Wolverine State
have played significant parts in
events from the assassination of
Mormon King Strang to the train-,
ing of more than 10,000 Navy pilots
who saw action in World War II.
While modern seagoing vessels
make Michigan's namesakes ap-
pear like rowboats, few ships before
or since have been involved in
events as intriguing and impor-
tant.
THE waters of the Great Lakes
rose a little higher in 1843 with
christening of the Navy's first
iron man-'o-war-the start of a
new and glorious future for Navy
pioneers and initial appearance of
the State's name on a Navy ship.
After a series of diplomatic
charges and countercharges, the
USS Michigan was launched into
a generally peaceful career, only
interrupted by two dramatic inci-
dents, but two of the most exciting
incidents in Navy history.
The Great Lakes had long been
acknowledged by both Britain and
Americans as crucial in controling
the western region of the North
American continent. Great Britain
used the War of 1812 to press for
naval domination of the Lakes
and succeeded in seizing many
strategic positions around them,
including Detroit.
Following Commodore Perry's
successful challenge to the British,
peace was restored with the Treaty
of Ghent on the basis of the pre-
War geographical status.
Hoping to prevent any future
contests for Great Lakes military
supremacy, James Monroe began
negotiations between the United
States and Great Britain leading
to the Rush-Bagot Agreement of
1817.
monious boundary settlements,,1
several strains involving disarm-1
aments arose during its infancy.
One of strains produced the1
Michigan. Overt rebellion in1830's
Canada prompted the British toa
send armed vessels into the Lakes,l
violating the Rush-Bagot rulinga
of a single vessel of 100 tons
ljmit, armed with one 18-pound
gun.
The Royal Government contin-
ued to send heavy troop enforce-
ments into the area, and Ameri-
can public opinion finally pro-
voked Congress into passing the
Fortification Act of 1841, giving
the President authority to con-
struct and fit out war vessels on
the Lakes.
AS well as providing the BritishI
picturesque demonstration of+
Americaninterest in Great Lakes
naval armament, the USS Michi-
gan became the Navy's first iron
ship and the first iron vessel of
any kind in the Upper Lakes.
Since the inevitability of iron
ships had not yet been generally
accepted in the, world, the man-
'o-war was referred to for a gen-
eration as the "Iron Ship" or the
"Iron Steamer."
At the time the Michigan was
launched, adventuresome pioneers
from this country and Canada
were disputing each other's land
claims in utopia-like Oregon ter-
ritory. The War of 1812 had ended
with no definite solution to the
problem of ownership of this large
area in the Northwest. And when
Russia withdrew her., discovery
claims in 1824, the United States
and Great Britain were left as
sole protagonists in the fight to
grab additional land on the grow-
ing American continent.
Though war appeared on the
horizon in 1844 with chants of
"Fifty-four forty or fight," the
launching of the Michigan was
one of the factors involved in the
eventual easing of tensions which
resulted in the boundary compro-
mise on the 49-degree parallel.
In July, 1844, while the boun-
daries of the Oregon territory were
being negotiated, the British pro-
tested against the Michigan's arm-
ament fittings. The Secretary of
the Navy replied that the two
eight-inch guns and the four 32-
pounders on the Michigan, and
the United States' consequent vio-
lation of the Rush-Bagot Agree-
ment, had been justified on the
basis of the British violation of the
same agreement. The armament
was ultimately reduced to several
small guns, though no battle shots
were fired from the Michigan be-
fore or after the British protest.
EIGHTEEN-fifty-six saw the re-
cording of a wierd adventure
in Navy annals-an episode mys-
teriously ignored by Hollywood. To
this date the Navy has not yet
cleared itself of the possibility
that several of its officers were
part of a plot ending in the mur-
der of an American citizen.
Nine years before the melodra-
matic episode, James J. Strang
had seen the revelation of "a land
amidst wide waters and led the
movement of a Mormon colony
from outside Burlington, Vermont,
to Big Beaver Island on the north-
ern end of Lake Michigan. St.
James, as Strang came to be
known, had convinced hundreds of
gullible "saints" he was the right-
ful successor to Prophet Joseph
Smith, who had been killed by a
seething Illinois mob.
By 1949, enough Mormons had
migrated to Big Beaver to found
the town of St. James around the
shores of the Island s Paradise
Bay. Here St. James was later
crowned "King of the Earth" be-
fore 400 stunned spectators. Here
also he pronounced his famous
revelation of God's will command-
ing the establishment of poly-
gamy; and, with dash and flour-
ish, proclaimed himself the first
beneficiary of the new order.
AS the community grew, hostility
also grew between the King-
dom and residents of such main-
land towns as Pine River, now
known as the resort city of Char-
levoix. Other citizens began to
wonder how long the United States
See THE RECORD, Page 17
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