North Carolina Newspapers

75 Years 0 Editorial Freedom Bill Amlong, Editor Don Walton, Business Manager SSI Politicking .But, Please As Student Legislature's Parliamentarian David Keil remarked at SL's Thursday night meeting, "After November elec tions many a young politican's fan cy lightly turns to thoughts of spring." Spring, you see, is when campus-wide political elections are held, and both teams consider it a good thing to get in their licks at the opposition early. But Student Legislature sessions just aren't the place for them, and that's just what went on Thursday night. This seems to be a particular shame when Phil Clay's proposal for Negro recruiting the most controversial, and perhaps the most important, piece of legislation of the year was due before the body. But out of what had promised to be a useful session came the first open round of political vol leying between peronalities over party differences. At the beginning of the meeting, University Party Floor Leader Larry Richter rose to the rostrum on privileges of the floor which means that the speaker had granted him permission to talk about whatever he wanted and started into a tirade against the -Speaker of the Legislature, who-, happens to be Jed Dietz and Vice President of the Student Body and who also just happens to be in the other political party and is a likely candidate for student body president this spring. Dietz had addressed the American Association of Universi ty Professors Tuesday night about why SL had vetoed the Clay pro posal. Dietz, a strong proponent of n the bill, said that he had "tried to n categorize the complaints the body had with the bill though my opi nion was obviously biased since I favored the bill." Richter didn't like, the tone of Dietz' comments even though he and two other legislators had at tended the meeting and had been asked to rise and clarify the legislature's position if Dietz were presenting it in error. Richter said nothing then. But at Student Legislature Thursday, he claimed that "the character of Student Legislature was darkened Tuesday night and it darkened by the' words of its own presiding officer." Then he thank eel SP floor leader George Krichbaum for his kind remarks to the AAUP "in trying to rectify the damage already done." Richter next moved on to more nebulous ground the con troversial unpaid telephone bill which has on it toll calls to Washington and New York which have nobody's name beside them to show who made them. Richter said his investigation in to the matter netted him in the in formation that the New York number belonged "to one Allard K. Lowenstein." (Lowenstein is a member of the Concerned Democrats who recently endorsed Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., to oppose President Johnson for the Democratic nomination in 1968. He spoke at the UNC campus last spring urging that the United States get out of Vietnam, during the prelude to a Vietnam referen dum.) Richter turned to Dietz a personal friend of Lowenstein's and said, "Mr. Speaker, I offer no theory as to who placed these calls. Don Campbell, Associate Editor Lytt Stamps, Managing Editor Hunter George, News Editor Brant Wansley, Advertising Manager Time Again Not At I am not trying to imply any rela tionship between someone in stu dent government and Mr. Lowens tein. I am simply Morming the body and the campus of a misuse of student funds." Then he sat down, and after a brief rebuttal by Dietz, another UP strong man took over. This one was Dick Levy, vice, chairman of the University Party and a strong contender for the UP's nomination for president in the spring elections. Levy didn't go into the sort of implications that Richter had. Instead he merely said things such as "Student legislature was made a mockery of Tuesday night (at the AAUP meeting.)" He went on to say that "this body is suffering from the greatest void of leadership I've seen it in. . . And this is because of the great schism between the Speaker (Dietz) and the members of the legislature." As Dietz said in his own defense r- and Levy later seconded neither of them shies away from a good political battle. In this case, however, we agree with Dietz when he said that Stu dent Legislature sessions just aren't the place for these battles to go on. . ;:- - ';' ' Teach-In: Narcotising Dysfunction If the Teach-in proved g anything Thursday, it must be that most students just don't & care to talk about the Vietnam g war, or hear others talk about : It. X; This is an example of what the communicologists call "narcotising dysfunction." What they mean when they g use such a high-f alutin term is g that people hear so much : about an issue through mass communication that they S eventually become averse to hearing -anything more S about it. - We've all heard more g about the Vietnam war than S we'd care to admit, but turn- :i ing it out of one's mind won't ; bring the war to an end. As Dr. Lipsitz commented S at the Teach-in, it was "a chance for students to learn." Most students probably pass- S ed off the Teach-in as a forum g for left-wing propaganda. And ijij no, doubt, the more adamant g Doves predominated the S; speeches. : But one who is genuinely concerned about the war will S also be concerned with hear- g ing all opinions about the war- S He will want to hear the Doves' plan for peace just as much as he will want to hear $ the Hawks' plan for a military victory. With all the talk about the $ : credibility gap, and the polls :j which show that the American j: : people don't understand the i war, one would think that they :j: : would relish the opportunity i : to hear the war discussed in :: : academic surroundings. Thursday's Teach-in in- $ :j dicates that apathy about the J war outweighs the desire to j: :: understand it. i 1 -si . A CV f ' i h 1: I - L?? I . ' feel Mike Cozza -M J Is Backers of the administration are hotly denying it, but the President of the United States is in political trouble. Last week Sen. Eugene McCarthy an-1 nounced that he would oppose the presi dent in at least four Democrat primaries: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, and California. He said he also might oppose the president in New Hampshire and , 'Massachusetts. This week, Senators Vance Hartke of Illinois and George McGovern of South Dakota announced that they, too, might oppose the president as favorite son can didates in their respective states. Both are 'known to disagree 'with Johnson on the Vietnam issue. If there is a lesson to be learned' from this, it is that democracy really does work after all. At a time whe many people were thinking that President John son's desire for re-nomination was vri tually uDobstractable, a few were calm ly planning to give the American peo ple a choice. And now they shall have that choice. 'And before it's all over, there may be a few surprises, v'sr, A close look at the . President's 5 political situation shows that he is not as well off as an incumbent president who is seeking re-election should be. His party (machinery is not functioning properly. In almost every state there are Carol Won savage The Pound, The Dollar And The Buffalo Now that Britian has been forced to devaluate the pound, the United States may be forced to take drastic measures of its own, such as raising taxes and cutting spending, to keep the value of the dollar up, for the ills which tarnished British sterling also affect the Yankee greenback. ' . Devaluation means simply that the value of British cur rency in terms of other currencies dropped, from $2.80 to $2.40 per pound. Thus a 5 pound item in Britain (which cost $14 before devaluation) now costs only $12, while a $14 American item in England originally costing 5 pounds now costs 6 pounds. England has few natural resources and depends on im ports for her economy's survival. The value of the pound fell because England was importing more than she ex ported, she was spending more than she took in, and it cost more to produce a product in England man to produce a similar product in Europe or America. Since her costs and , prices were so high, foreign nations disliked buying her products, and still less money flowed into the country. England was forced to pay her debts with her gold holdings, which backed the pound, and her gold system, weakened by two wars, thinned rapidly. Devaluation was the only way to halt the drain. Since the value of the pound has dropped, prices to other countries have dropped, making British products more desirable with the hope exports might rise. On the other hand, foreign products will be more expensive to the British, and imports should drop. Thus a balance of trade (more exports than imports) should occur and the repay ment deficit might be cured. In addition to devaluating the pound, England raised its interest rate on loans to other British banks, thus discouraging internal borrowing while raising the interest , rates given to depositer, i.e. foreign investors. Thus more money should pour into British banks.. . The United States has the same basic problem which caused England to devaluate her currency. Because of the war effort, the foreign aid programs, and the U.S. com allace From The Raleigh Times A man who should be a real expert on how to appeal to the Deep South political mind feels that a George WTallace presidential candidacy - would have "every chance of reelecting" Lyndon Johnson. That expert is Barry Goldwater, who expressed his views recently in a copywright story in the Los Angeles Times. In the article, Goldwater wrote "There is no question in my mind that Wallace can throw up to 10 per cent of the vote to President Johnson by simply diverting it from the Republican can didate, particularly if that candidate tries to echo LB J. Wallace cannot, by any w 5' t -:7 ''j there is a moral issue involved TED olitical at least some party members who have split with the administration on ths big gest issue in the country ihe Vietnam war. We have already mentioned that McCarthy, Hartke, and McGovern are among the leading dissenters. But an ex panded list wculd have to include Bobby and Ted Kennedy, Wayne Morse, J. William Fulbright, Mike Mansfield, and Albert Gore. All are U.S. Senators who feel that Johnson's conduct of .the war is ques tionable, if not downright illegal. Of course these senators may not back McCarthy outright, but you can bet your boots they won't be doing Mr. Johnson any great favors. And that list reads like a line-up of all star Democrats. Without them, the Johnson political team will be hurt a very great deal. Besides that, the president is in. a bad position as far as campaigning is con cerned. His trouble is that he cannot campaign where the Democrats have traditionally pulled crucial majorities: in the cities and among the well educated. 4 It doesn't ' take an ; overly-astute political observer to realize that Bresi.-, dent Johnson is simply not welcome in urban America. His appearance in any major metropolitan area is apt to spark - immediate and serious violence. i US xmu jj J J V : jiji In Vote Helps Jolmson stretch of the facts I've been able to put together, draw enough votes to throw the election into the House of Represent atives, as some cf his. hotter supporters claim. That simply isn't a realistic hope. But the Wallace candidacy has every chance cf re-electing Mr. Johnson. . . "The Wallace candidacy gives voters in the South and in some states of the North as well a perfect 'out.' They -" might never support Mr. Johnson, ,and they might also hate to vote for a Republican. Instead of having to pick the Republican as the lesser of two evils, they'-culd pull away for Wallace and, without thinking, re-elect LBJ: . . - "For many voters more than either 1 i Is i t i i . . Troudble And surely Mr. Johnson realizes that more violence can only add to his pro blems. In the academic community, too, the President has made himself unwelcome. On every major college and university campus, students and professors have become more and more skeptical of the Vietnam, war. Indeed, the better educated people, the people who have studied foreign policy and history and politics, are among the most vocal critics of the present policy. Besides all this, McCarthy & Co. have the offensive. Their task will be to attack what the president has done. Considering the present run of public opinion, that should be easy. As McCarthy said in announcing his candidacy, he really doesn't have to tell people what's the matter with Johnson. They already know. There's no denying it, McCarthy has a good issue. "Peace is the most important issue in this campaign, for one simple reason: without it we will never; have, the op portunity to do some filing about the other issues that concern us.', ; '. u ! If you don't believe that's a good issue, ask President Johnson. He said it on Oct. 21, 1964. History shows that he did catastrophically well with it. McCarthy should do okay, too. r mitment to back the gold standard throughout the world (we will sell any nation gold at a set rate of $35 an ounce) we have accumulated a $35 billion deficit in our own balance of payments. The British plan to cut U.S. imports and increase her exports to us can make this worse. On top of this gold speculators have made large demands for U.S. gold at tks committed price of $35 an ounce, depleting US. gold supplies further. If the US. finds that her gold sup plies get too small to back the dollar abroad, we may be forced to devaluate. Economists say, however, that neither gold speculators nor France are powerful enough to force down the value of the dollar. Americans themselves are the only ones who can do this, or prevent it. A tax increase would lower the amounts we have to borrow to maintain our peace com mitments abroad, (Berlin, Europe, etc.) while a cut in spending in the area of the war effort and foreign aid would do the same from another angle. The Federal Reserve Bank has already raised the interest rates on inter-country loans, in hopes of doing the same thing as the Bank cf England. It seems that the financial crisis has hit the world at the worst possible moment, as far as the U.S. is concerned. We are at a period of commitments in Europe, our position of J mother to the world ' through foreign aid. And for the first time we hear cries from the people at home, cries for poverty programs, rat control, urban renewal. It seems that the wealthiest country in the world has reached a point where even it is on shaky ground. We cannot support ourselves, the world, the war, and survive. The American dollar is more plentiful than the erstwhile buffalo on the American plains, but the buffalo are gone. Prime Minister of England, Harold Wilson told Britain that it was time for "Dunkirk spirit of sacrifice and belt tightening." After two wars the British are no strangers to belWightening. And they may realize that personal deprivation is the only way up. Perhaps the U.S. should do some Delt-tightening too, before the bank vaults, like the western plains, are empty. Republicans or Democrats have been frank enough to admit so farWallace is going to be the means to register a loud protest, most of whirfi will be against the Democrats.. That is a well-reasoned lock at the situation, and it is difficult to find any holes in Senator Goldwater's s:rmary of what Wallace's candidacy could mean. This msans that those long-time op ponents of President Johnson and Democrats in general who are working for Wallace and sending in money to Wallace campaign fund actually are working hard to help reelect President Johnson. HC Qarifies Policy Decisions To The Editor: For those students who still read The Daily Tar Heel, we'd like to clarify some misconstrued points mentioned in the Dec. 7 edition regarding the Women's Residence Council's last meeting. Tvvo major policy decisions were raada there, but you'd never know it frco reading the article. The council passed a resolution statin? that "Women students at the University cf North Carolina who are 21 years of age or. seniors with parental permission residing in crf-carapus housing will not be subject to dormitory regulations as stated in the "Regulations for Women Students." The second resolution stated that Undergraduate women students residing in university housing must abide by university closing hours." We fail to see a contradiction in these Iwo resolutions. They merely emphasue that the WRCs legislative powers only apply to women in University approved housing (dormitories, sororities, and Granville Towers). Mr. Editor, we "have been trying" to simplify and clarify rules not confuse them as your reporter has. We're striving for greater flexibility in examining women's regulations this year. "Prac- . ticality in rules" and "more individual freedom" have been our primary con cerns. The second resolution about closing hours was simply a practical restatement of a vague rule ("University students must abide by University closing hours.") that could have applied to men, married students, etc. In our meeting next Tuesday, Dec. 12, v. 0 Peabody at 6:45 p.m. WRCs members, please note we will be con sidering a policy retarding no hours for senior women in dorms and sororities. We apologize to the students on this campus for the inaccurate reporting of our meetings. We urge any interested in dividual to come to our meetings in order to get a true picture of what the WRC is really "trying to do." Lesley Wharton. Chairman of the Senior Apartment Committee Sharon Rose Chairman of Women's Residence Council Prefers Pragmatism To F6olisK Paradiiig t ji To The Editor: I noticed in The Daily Tar Heel Thurs day that the Viet Cong massacred 21 in nocent people. This is undoubtably a tragedy and a disgrace. Yet I heard no protest from our ever-ready 'DEFENDERS OF JUSTICE'. My friends, I would suggest you hold a peaceful demonstration in front of the Post Office in Hanoi and Peking. I'm sure Ho Chi Mihn and Mao Tse Tung would certainly be interested in your complaints! I am by no means a war monger'. I simply prefer common sense and pragmatism to stupidity and foolish parading! ! Edward Greenberg TA Promoted Without Salary Increase To The Editor: In your article "173 N.C. Professors Sign Protest Letter," I have been pro moted from teaching assistant to pro fessor. I will gratefully accept this pro motion, if the Tar Heel staff -will make up the difference in salary. James W. Wasson Teaching Assistant Russian Department IjStte rs The Daily Tar Heel accepts all letters for, publication provided they are typed, double - spaced and signed. Letters should be no longer than 300 words in length. We reserve the right to edit for libelous statements. .............. .sft..v..............x.;.xl- ".y.w.-.w.v. The paily Tar Heel is published by the University cf S3? Student Publication's Board, daily except Mondays, examinations periods and vacations. Offices are on the second floor of Graham Memorial, lelepnone numbers: editorial, sports, n e w s 923-1 Cll:' business, circulation, advetisni2333-llC3. Address: Box 1080, Chapel Hfll, N.C Z7511. Second class postage paid at U. Post Office in Chapel imi N.C. Subscription rates: $9 per year; $5 per semester. r f t