MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, io9
PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
i
American system will decide
ivhether justice carries a price
by Frank Mankiewicz and Torn Braden
Washington The House of Representatives
will shortly face up to one of the basic questions
asked by the Nixon Administration: Is the rule
of law to prevail in America, or are we to become
a country in which grievances must be fought
out in the streets?
At issue is an amendment to the Economic
Opportunity Act, sponsored by Sen. George Murphy
of California, which has passed the Senate.
The Murphy amendment would permit state
governors to veto all or any part of OEO's legal
services to the poor. And many governors, led
by Ronald Reagan of California, are waiting
consciously or not to tell the poor that the
radical vision of America is correct, that our system
of justice Is for those whi can afford it.
In the more than four years in which the
poverty program's legal services have been
available, 1,800 OEO lawyers most of them from
the top of their law school classes and serving
at personal financial sacrifice have represented
600,000 clients in a variety of legal matters. These
include ordinary domestic matters divorce and
bankruptcy, for example which the poor cannot
ordinarily afford, but they also include establishing
legal rights which are elementary and available
in theory to all, but to which the house of Want
is unaccustomed.
For example, they have permitted migrant
farm workers to enforce state sanitation standards,
including requirements for toilets and wash
facilities in the field.
They have attacked the illegal use by large
growers of wetbacks and other illegal immigrants
knowingly hired and hidden by the very growers
who support Sen. Murphy and his amendment.
In some California counties, 20 per cent to
30 per cent of the total farm labor force is illegal.
The penalty for illegal entry is deportation, but
the deported often return at once, and there is
no penalty against the growers for concealing them,
a practice in which many indulge, thereby adding
about $8 million annually to the state's welfare
bill.
m,- rwwt f T.nhnr estimates that
between 200,000 and 300,000 Mexican farm workers
enter the country illegally each year, many of
them transported by "labor contractors ' who work
closely with the growers. These illegal entrants
are a prime source of narcotics. .
In behalf of the class of people almost all
poor sprayed by pesticides in the field, the
OEO lawyers are seeking an order from the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
outlawing the use of DDT. It is backed by scientific
studies on animals.
They have protested the use of compulsory
lie-detector tests to determine paternity one of
a number of intimidating procedures used in
California to keep Mexican-Americans from
assistance available to others.
AH of this and most of it is vigorous
representation against what citizens of ordinary
means would consider outrageous presecution
will go by the board If the Murphy amendment
becomes law. It cannot help but raise the question
as to whether Americans want law and order for
everybody or only for those who can afford it.
The battle over the Murphy amendment has
the dominant political and economic structure of
many states chiefly those with large agricultural
interests on one side and the American Bar
Assn. on the other. Murphy and his allies, so quick
to cite the ABA in other matters, choose now
to ignore the association's strong support for the
Legal Services Program and its specific opposition
to his amendment.
Murphy makes his main argument on what
he sees as the incongruity of government-paid at
torneys suing governments, both state and local.
But there is ample precedent: the federal govern
ment frequently goes to court to make a state
obey a federal law, and states and cities regularly
oppose federal decrees and orders in antitrust and
other fields.
After all, Murphy's opponents will argue, if
law and order is unavailable to the poor, where
else but to government can they turn?
Lot Anflsles Timet
Herman position
'flagrant waste'
Money is needed to fight the war on perty,
end water and air pollution, Improve educational
standards in the country, continue research in
medicine, and for countless other worthwhile ob
jectives. But look how President Nixon is spending the
country's money paying Regent Richard Herman
$28,075 a year for a purt-time position on a com
mission "To define, mark, and maintain" the boun
dary between Canada and the U.S.
The appointment is a political plum for
Herman, who served as Nixon's regional campaign
director last year. The job is a waste of the public's
money. One wonders why a commission to maintain
the boundary with Canada is even needed, much
less $23,075 for the committee members.
It's a sad state of affairs to know the University
has a Regent member so engrossed in politics
to accept a patronage job which represents such
a flagrant waste of funds.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
Sacond clatt poataot paid it Lincoln, Nab.
Talaphonaai Idllor 4MJM, Norn 471-Uif, Rutlnatt 471-Uft.
Subtcription ratal ara M ptr tamattar or M par yaar.
Publlthad Monday, Wadnatday, Thurtday and Friday durlna Iht
tchool yar oncapt durfti vacation and axam parlodt at M Ne
braska Union, Lincoln Nab.
Mambor ot Intoroollaglatt 'rata. National Iducatlonal AdvartlKni
larvlca.
Tha Dally Nabratkan It tludant publication, Indapandant ot ttio
Unlvartlty ot Nabratka't admlnlttratlon, faculty and ttudant
ovornmant.
dllorlal Stan
Idllor Roaor toyoi Mtnaaina bailor Kant Cockion, Nawt idltor
Jim Padartani Night Nawa bailor, J. L. Schmidt, Dava Plllpli
dllorlal Atililant Holly Roitnbtrgar Aitlitant Nawt Idllor
Janrt Maxwalli J port i Idllor Dandy York Nabrotkan Start
vvrlttrl John Dvorak, lilt Smltharman, Sara Schwladar, Oary
Saacratt, Slava Sinclair, lachlllar Slnah, Linda McClura, Mlka
arratt. Sua Pattay, Sylvia Loo, Ron Whlttan, Carol Andarton;
Phatoaraphar Dan Ladaly, Jim Daan, Howard Rotanbarf, Mlka
Haymani Copy Idllort Sutan Maud, Jan Parkt, Suil Schllcha
malar, Phyllis Adkliton.
utlnott Start
ualima Manafar Id tcanocjloi Local Ad Managar J. L. Schmidt
National Ad Manaaar Mamarat Ann brown Sookkaaoor Nan
bowiin luilntti Socratary and Subtcription Managar Janat
boatman circulation Manaaar J a mat Staliari Clatilllod Ad
Manaaar Juno Wagonari Advartltina Rtpratantatlvot J, L.
Schmidt, Mariarat Ann brown, Joal Davit, Job Wilton, Linda
Robin tan.
by Cater Chamblee
If a certain line of thought still prevails about
the absolute necessity of maintaining military,
economic and cultural superiority over Russia (the
black hats) because America (the white hats) must
needs continue to do its thing for democracy, the
wee kirk o' the glen, freedom, mom, and apple
pie, wah-de-dl-dah, we are, gong, in serious trouble
in one of our bastions.
I refer, of course, to War and Peace, the
monster movie now finishing up down at the Stuart
Theater. What the red peril has done Is to give us
cards, spades and Charlton lleston and beat us to
death In our own backyard.
That backyard, Is, of course, the spectacular,
Griffin and De Mille's contribution to high art.
For years we have noted with no small amount
of pique that the Auslanders were (sob) "better"
at making movies than we, even though we darn
near Invented the whole schmeer on our own. I
mean. Hollywood, right?
But with tedious regularity a sleepy crop of
Englishmen, Swedes, Frechmen, Italians, Japanese,
even, God save the mark, an occasional Argentine,
have been doing us in so that folk Interested in that
sort of thing have long been adjusted to the problem
ot learning how to mispronounce all those unpro
nounceable names.
Still, there was the spectacular. I mean, bare
Charlton lleston' truly magnificent breast, strap
Victor Mature into a corset (his teeth are young),
strip a dozen or so zoftig young ladies, throw in ait
orgy or three, destroy a city, rent the S p a n 1 s h
or Yugosicvian army to dash elegantfly about e
plain in combat, and that for you.worhi.
What with the burnir.fi of Atlanta, the parting
ooooooooooooo
eo()ILe
Nebraskan editorial page
So goes the nation
Country ponders
viable way out
"These Mothers Is Crazy. You can tell by their
clothes. One guy wears beads and they all smell
bad. We were gonna get them for a dance after
the basketball game but my best pal warned me
you can never tell how many will show up . .
. sometimes the guy in the fur coat doesn't show
up and sometimes he does show up only he brings
a big bunch of crazy people with him and they
dance all over the place. None of the kids at
my school like these Mothers . . . 'specially since
my teacher told us what the words to their songs
meant."
Sincerely forever,
Suzy Creamcheese
Salt Luke City, Utah
(from the Mother's album Freak Out!)
The - - - - of the Mothers on Verve is a collection
of the of the Mothers of Invention featuring
Frank Zappa and six of his cronies.
"Wowie Zowie" is the second cut on side one.
It is the second gigantic teenybop putdown on side
one. The Mothers' harmony can only be compared
to Little Richard, the Flutters or the Big Bopper.
Zappa says," " 'Wowie Zowle' Is carefully
designed to suck the 12 yeur old listener into our
camp. It is cheerful. It Is harmless."
"You Didn't try to Call Me" describes the
predicament of an old friend, Pamela Zarubica.
The formal structure is not really revolutionary,
MOVIES
of the Red Sea, the pulling down of the temple,
and soon, we were what Hemingway would cull
pretty good in there. (Whether or not it was worth
getting in there is another kind of question, but
once Uiere we were the best. )
Then they went and did it. With peasant Slavic
cunning, ant-like Industry, and no small amount
of style, they produced War and Peace, curse them,
the greatest spectacular of them all, and why
Charlton lleston did not rituully disembowel
himself, i shall never know.
The sweep, the scope, the massively slow move
ment of history and its attendant, often disastrous
effects on the lives of the folk walking about while it
goes on are all there. Borodino, the burning of
Moscow, the retreat from Moscow, match or
surpass anything Hollywood ever did. Further, the
development of character, or personality, or in
dividuals who live out their lives while the big
scenes smash across those lives is there as well
and that Hollywood never did.
The film is hard to talk about: that is, it is big
and long, and if you haven't seen it, you simply can
not grasp how big and long it is. That is true. (That it
bores one as little as it does is, considering, incred
ible.) What one remembers afterward are certain
shots, certain sequences.
At the beginning, at Anna Scherer'i soiree,
one recalls the languid, agonizingly slow
movements of the aristocrats gathered there to
amuse themielves before the hard rains fall. The
shots of the flaccid hitnds, as a pair of them muck up
a traditional dance, and the cuts to the hands of the
dying Count Bezukhov remind one that the decade te
ooooooooooooooo
b b a J. L. Schmidt
by Zappa's own admission, but it adds to the ovetaU
plot of the record.
"Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young
Pumpkin" is almost a purely instrumental gig
which finally comes across with the message to
ask any vegetable . . . followed by a reference
to "what a pumpkin."
"Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder," is the
real bubble gum crow on side two of this album.
Zappa says it, ". . . is very greasy. You should
not listen to it. You should wear it on your hair."
"Uncle Bennie's Farm" and "Concentration
Moon" are sort of megaphone, raccoon coat
vaudevillish. Many conclusions can be drawn from
the messages in this song. It says a lot about
plasticity.
"Hi boys and Girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black
and I'm the Indian of the group."
"Flower Punk" Is a real put down of a song
by the Leaves and several other groups called
"Hey Joe."
"Hey punk where ya goin with those flowers
in your hand? I'm goin' to the love-in and play
my bongos in the sand."
The last cut is their gigantic break song. They
finish every concert with it. "Motherly Love" is
described by Zappa as ... "A body commercial
for the band." It is openly an invitation to potential
$groupies to explore the potential delights derived
from social contact with the Mothers.
Love, grease, putdown . . . the of the
Mothers.
come brought on the Decembrists, who began the
process that culminated in the death of this useless
class.
From the battles, one remembers the whirl
of terrified horses melting into the whirl of terrified
men as the director overlays scene on scene to
give the visual equation of terrified animal equals,
after all, terrified animal.
When the door opens and Natasha enters in
a burst of light, it stick in the mind. It is corny
as well, but it sticks in the mind. When the young
girl Natasha, drunk with life, feels that she is
flying away into the lovely night, the camera
sweeps over the moon drenched forests and plains
to give us th visual image for the emotional state.
The gush of blood from the neck of the young boy is
an equation for the butchery of innocence anytime,
anywhere.
And so on. In Tolstoy's novel, Pierre enters
"a stout, heavily built man with close-cropped
hair (and) spectacles." In the film, Pierre
enters a stout, heavily built young man with close
cropped hair and spectacles. In the novel he Is
homely, clumsy, well-meaning, and engaging. So
In the film. Catch Hollywood casting a spectacular
with folk who look as graceless as you and I.
Towad the end, things tend to fall apart. The
length of the film alone makes for tedious stretches,
and the apalling sentimentality wkth which Russian
seem to view hearty peasant types and all aspects
of Mother Russia is, well, apalling.
But the excellencies outweigh by far the
blunders, and there are many excellencies. If you
didn't see it, you should have; and, if the chance
comes again, I suggest you take it. It is, as they
say, an event.
by Sen. Edmund S. Muskie
President Nixon will speak to the nation on
his Vietnam policies today. The White House has
cautioned against speculation about what he will
say, but we may hope he will clarify his views
and his plans for ending the war.
Ills reaction to the Oct. 15 Moratorium gave
little clue to what he has in mind. He did not
respond to the genuine concern of millions of
Americans, expressed in that protest against the
war. His attitude contributed to an air of con,
frontatlon rather than a constructive dialogue on
ways and means to end the war. Vice President
Agnew's Intemperate and offensive outbreak com
pounded the problem. Secretary of State Rogers
and various sources close to the President have
attempted to smooth over the situation, but the
bad taste remains.
I hope the President will move to reduce the
divisions in our society which have been widened
by arguments over the war. To do this he need
not accept every proposal made to him, but he
does need to show a sympathetic concern for the
views of those who disagree with him and he
must restore confidence in those who want to see
more evidence of a coherent plan to disengage
our troops from the conflict and to encourage a
political settlement among the South Vietnamese.
I am certain the President shares the desire
of most Americans to end the war as soon as
possible. I am also certain that he wants to end
it, ami our participation in it, in such a way as
to avoid chaos in South Vietnam and to contribute
to self-determination by the South Vietnamese.
The longer plans for disengagement are
unclear, however, the greuter pressure will build
up for an Immediate unilateral withdrawal. That
pressure will lessen the capacity of the President
and our negotiators to Influence the course of events
In Paris and In Vietnam.
There are two facets to our problem in Vietnam.
The first Is the question of ending the fighting
and killing. The second is our desire to pave the
way for a viable political solution.
I believe we can move directly on the first
by establishing a schedule for withdrawal of our
combat troops, planning to have them out within
a year. We should also make plans for removal
of our air support and logistics support at a later
date, a date which is flexible and uncertain for
the National Liberation Front and North Vietnxm.
The timing and the nature of our withdrawal
should give the South Vietnamese Government an
opportunity to adjust to that withdrawal. It should
also provide some incentive to the National libera
tion Front to work toward a political arrangement
with Saigon and the other elements in South VieU
am.
A standstill cease-fire would be the most 1m.
mediate way of ending the fighting. I believe we
should make the offer of such a cease-fire. That
would not only end the killing; it could open the
way for the political settlement.
We cannot dictate to the South Vietnamese
people what kind of government they should have.
That is a matter for them to work out. Although
both sides (the Saigon government and the NLF)
have Implied a willingness to talk about a political
settlement, we have not been able to cot them
together.
I have suggested that we try to obtain the
good offices of United Nations Secretary General
U Thant to serve as an "honest broker" in trying
to get such talks under way as a prelude to talks
among all of the social and political group
representing different tendencies in South Vietnani
The Secretary is understandably reluctant
to take on such an assignment, but I think our
government should explore the possibility.
Such Initiatives could improve the climate for
peace. I am certain they would Improve the climate
for discussion of the issue in the United Statin
Lodoar lyndtcabj, hat.