EDITORIAL
Dialogue II: progress of sorts Some students seem bent on trying to operate within our system, although they could benefit from more homework he dialogue we urged last week may have begun, but it is still being punctuated by gunfire. Another week and another two students dead—this time at Mississippi's Jackson State College. And judging from news reports, it might be in order to apply the same term we used in connection with Kent State: massacre. These shoot-em-ups have simply got to stop. There are a number of well-tried nonlethal ways of handling riots and other disturbances on and off campus. Let the law enforcement bodies use them as necessary with vigor but with restraint. There are also nonviolent ways for dissenters to make their points—if theyVe got any. Peaceful demonstration is one, although it's hard to see just what it achieves in real terms. Lobbying is another—and certainly a good old American pastime and one that's suited to our political system. We are glad to see students turning to it. As a matter of fact, last week's C&EN had just begun rolling off the press when we were treated to our first taste of student lobbying. Just after lunch, a half dozen or so MIT students accompanied by a professor paid an impromptu visit to C&EN's Washington offices. The students were particularly concerned, they said, about Vietnam and Cambodia, but the somewhat disjointed conversation ranged over other topics as well: the environment, the quality of our lives, our various social ills, automobile safety, "big industry" and its alleged failure to respond to the needs of the consumer, student disenchantment with business, etc. They said they wanted Congress and industry to be aware of how they felt regarding these issues. They were in town to express their views in person with Congressmen and with magazines that presumably reach industry. (Before coming to C&EN, they had called on Aviation Week & Space Technology. ) We don't doubt the students' sincerity, purpose, and concern. The discussion reflected
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them. They were struggling for the dialogue we urged last week. And they were doing it peacefully, rationally, without invective. The effort, though, deserves more preparation. For quite frankly, it seemed to us that these MIT students just hadn't done enough homework. They had come to Washington to preach awareness, yet themselves demonstrated singular lack of it, at least in certain areas. They said in effect: "We see all these terrible problems about us. Why aren't you doing something? Why don't you tell it like it is?" We think we've been doing just that. Yet one of our visitors, a chemical engineering student, knew little of what C&EN has been carrying in its editorial pages, in the news columns, in our recent Career issues, on pollution, urban decay, population problems, and involvement, or little, apparently, of what ACS in general is doing (Project SEED, for example). Another visitor, extolling the VW and complaining of what he felt to be Detroit's insensitivity to consumer needs, knew nothing of the U.S. automobile industry's previous ill-starred ventures with small cars ( American Austin, Crosley, Willys, the Nash Metropolitan, Henry J, Hudson Hornet, etc.) or of Ford's attempt to sell safety in its 1956 models, or of its current efforts to lessen pollution from its cars. Still another tried to draw a parallel between some of President Nixon's speeches and those of Hitler, which is pretty ridiculous until you realize the student believes it. We are glad to see students turning to dialogue within our system. We've felt for some time that they have something to say. But they ought to sharpen their arguments. And a few lessons in history could give them perspective.
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C&EN editorials are signed and represent only the vifews of the sisrner. Unless stated to the contrary they do not represent the official position of the American Chemical Society. Rather they are aimed at focusing attention on some controversial point, at sparking intellisent discussion, at raising legitimate questions.
MAY 25, 1970 C&EN 5
