Sen. Muskie affirms Vietnam bombing stand
By BILL DICKE City editor
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Edmund Muskie confirmed last night that he sent a letter to President Lyndon Johnson several months ago urging a bombing halt in Vietnam.
He admitted that the letter had not been publicized. He was greeted by about 150 persons at Hollywood-Burbank Airport and confirmed the letter when asked a question by a Daily Trojan staff member standing in the receiving line.
Muskie will speak at Bovard Auditorium today at noon.
One sign in the airport crowd read “USC Students No. 1 for HHH-Muskie” but the woman carrying it was a secretary here, not a student.
Earlier yesterday Sen. Muskie called for a lottery-type draft system with possible nonmilitary alternatives for young men. The speech was made in Boulder, Colo.
Muskie told a crowd of several thousand University of Colorado students the alternative to actual military service would include a “broad range” of programs, including possibly the Peace Corps, Teacher Corps and Vista.
Muskie proposed that 19-year-olds be subject to a “fair and impartial random lottery system,” under which the men would be vulnerable to draft for only one year. If they were not selected during that one year they would not be required to serve “unless there was a prolonged national emergency.”
A 19-year-old draftee would have the choice of serving his time at once or waiting until he had finished two years of college or vocational education. Officer candidates could postpone their military service until completion of four years of college.
He also said military pay should be made more attractive and that civilians should be used in place of servicemen “wherever possible. He also called for strengthening local draft boards through national standards.
“We should give careful consideration to permit voluntary national service as an alternative to military service,” Muskie told the orderly crowd at his outdoor speech in chilly 50-degree weather.
Young men choosing the non-military route could launch a boad attack on poverty and the roots of deprivation at home and abroad, he said.
University of Southern California
DAILY • TROJAN
LOS, ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1968, VOL. LX, NO. 14
STUDENTS PROTEST
Shotguns for firemen?
By CARLA SWEENEY Assistant feature editor
A group began forming yesterday to protest the Los Angeles Fire Department’s plan to carry shotguns in battalion chiefs cars and on fire engines in selected locations.
Bob Birt, organizer of the movement and a member of the Black Student Union, said, “No fireman has ever been killed by a sniper. Nor have anv been fired on since the Watts riot of 1965.”
Birt will set up a table near the Student Union today at 10 a.m. to give out information and collect funds for the printing of petitions. The petitions will be available Monday.
Birt charged that the firemen intend to use shotguns to shoot their
way out when surrounded by rioters.
“But it would be much more effective to use their water hoses,” he said.
“You use tanks and weapons for war, not riots,” said Birt, a former Army military police specialist. “And because shotguns have only a 50 foot range, they cannot hit snipers on a roof-tops.”
Keith Keener, chairman of the Kennedy Action Corps, pledged his group’s support for the protest, and said that the Trojan Young Democrats, Youth for McCarthy, the Students for a Democratic Society, and the United Mexican-American Students could lend their support by passing resolutions and writing letters.
Police problem: stop 'Peter Pan’
Authorities trying to prosecute two coeds and the student producer of the University of Wisconsin’s controversial
FOOTBALL RALLY TODAY
A rally will be held this afternoon for tomorrow's Miami Game. It will begin at 5 p.m. in front of Tommy Trojan and move to the entrance of Bovard Field to greet the team. The band, cheerleaders, and pep squad will attend.
USC students are reminded by Trojan Knights that certain requirements must be met for admittance to the rooter sectior t tomorrow night's game against Miami.
White shirts or blouses must be worn and a student ticket or activity book is necessary.
play “Peter Pan,” in which the coeds appeared in the nude, found themselves in a never-never land of silence Thursday.
The parody of James M. Barrie’s classic children’s tale is the main topic of conversation on the 34,000-student campus, but police were having a tough time getting anyone to tell them about it.
Consequently, there have been no arrests.
“To say there is a reluctance to talk is an understatement,” Dane County Dist. Atty. James C. Boll said Thursday. Boll, who ruled the play obscene, said police were trying to get witnesses—there were about 1,000 who saw it Tuesday night—to talk about it.
“We have a couple of names,” Boll said. “But we have to have witnesses.
“As soon as someone comes forward and signs a complaint we’ll be ready to proceed,” he added.
A group of law sti^dents is meeting next week to plan tneir protest and the BSU, while not sponsoring Birt’s protest, is giving its full support.
The Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Sam Yorty were not consulted before the guns were ordered and have yet to take action on the issue. “So let’s contact the council, the Board of Supervisors and the mayor’s office,” Keener said.
“Are the firemen responsible people?” asked Arnold Welch, a member of the crowd that gathered around Birt yesterday.
“I can only assume that they want to get in on the killing,” Birt answered.
“I feel firemen are fairly responsible,” said another member of the crowd. “They are not going to fire unless fired on. I think they should be allowed to defend themselves.”
“They are going to provoke people,” Keener said. “And if you ask for trouble, you’re going to get it.”
CAMPUS EVENTS
BOB BIRT
Three weekend shows
Folk, soul and Paul Newman are on the entertainment calendar this weekend.
Folksingers Joni Mitchell and Mary McCaslin will appear in separate performances this evening.
Miss Mitchell will perform at 8 p.m. in Bovard Auditorium in the first ASSC sponsored concert this fall.
This will be the first major perform for the 24-year-old blonde from Saskatchewan since her return from a recent European tour.
Ticket order blanks for the concert may be obtained at the Student Activities Center or Bovard Auditorium for $1.50, $2, or $3. Previously obtained order blanks may be redeemed for tickets at the YWCA or Bovard.
Mary McCaslin will headline the bill at the Cheshire Cat coffee house in the basement of
the University Methodist Church, 817 W. 34th St.
The Cheshire Cat will offer performances at 8:30, 10 and 11:30, according to Steve Milner, the group’s president. Admission is 50 cents.
Paul Newman stars in the film “Hud,” which will be shown tonight at 7 and 9:15 in 133 Founders Hall. It is sponsored by Delta Kappa Alpha, a national honorary cinema fraternity and admission is $1.
At 11 p.m. Saturday night the grill will come alive with the soul music of the Hollywood Allstars. Various members of the four-man vocal group, have previously been associated with such groups as the Coasters, the Drifters, the Olympics and the Imperials. The Allstars’ performance, sponsored by the ASSC, will continue until 2 a.m. Admission will be 50 cents.