j

explicability. New animals arepaid

for by the New York Zoological Society, not the city.
The Bronx Zoo now attracts
2,500,000 visitors every year. These
represent its opportunity to tel,l the
story of theanimalkingdom,sympathetically,
inspirationally,
unforgettably-or dully.
Its present management
acutely
feels the double
responslblllty - t o teachthe people, and to save the othcr spccles:
two interlocke8 objectives.

gether, though separated. by hidden

moats. Thus, in the American plains
scene, the bison, wolf andprairie
dog will seem to be associated on the
terrain they actually occupy in common. All theserearrangements,
of
course, will cbst a lot of money,
while the results give people a vastly truer and more dramatic sense of
h o w the rest of the animal kingdom
lives.
This zoo of thefuture wdI also
multiplyits
own headachesin
an
already complicated operation. A zoo
commissary makes a United Nations
dietary looksimple, with over 1,000
species
plus
crankyindividuals
to
feed.
Supervising
t h e rearing of
young can require twenty-four-houra-day survedlance by scientists, who
are paid by the New York Zoological
Society.(Keepers,food,fueland
haLf
of building
costs
are
provided
by
NewYorkCity.)Thenew
arrangements wdl certainlypresentunpredictable difficulties. An example is
t h a t if you drain the penguins pool
and then scare them they are likely
t o divein on tdhe concretebottom
and brain themselves. The mortality
ineven well-run zoos is distressing,
andusually inexplicalble; the aim of
the Bronx Zoo is t o reducethein-

especialIy interested in the

littleknown kouprey of Cam,bodia, which
may possilbly be a true wild ox.
T h e spirit of suchenterprises
is
admirable. O n e measure of the decency of a society must be whether
its memlbers care, or even affect t o
care, about
the
welfare of other
species of noimmediatebenefit
to
them It is not really 311 ~ n s u l tto
mankind to admire a humm~ngbird,
an albatross or a lion.
It may be noted that t.lx zoos of
Communist
Russia
are
grim,
oldTHE renaissance of the zoo, not a fashionedjails. T h a t of Communist
however,
is excellent,
pornent too soon, is not confined t o East Berlin,
theNew
York Zoological Society. compardble to the fine zoos of Bade
I n bothWashington, D.C., and Los and Frankfurt. Such,data are surely
usefulin culturalstudies
of these
Angeles, citizens committees
are
agitating Cor better zoos. Los An- countries.
I n America, the reporting on zoos
geles Mayor Poulsonsaid,Weare
stdl working toward a world-famous by the press is invariablymore
or
zoo. We-havent lowered our sights less cute, and does not seem to me
truthiul.Thetheorymay
the
In
same
area
an
amateur,
be that
Maurice Machris, IS trying to set up the press is addresseld onIy to mamrea conservation
research
ranch
of mals t h a t canread,andcannot
about 400 acres to breed rare animals. sistgivingitsreaderstheassurance
H e has already bought fifty species, that, compared to tihemselves, okapi
and whooping cranes are idiots.
The
mostly still in quarantine, and hopes
thewinning side,
for the incredilble total of 900 species. pressreachesfor
H e too
has
discovered t h s some theprocreatively
successful animal
has the price of
t o one that canreadand
important speciesaredown
ortwohundredindividuals.
H e is the paper.

THE CRIES of &e ccpseudo-con-

T h e society was formed in December, 1958, with Welcih, a redred

candy manufacturerfromBelmont,
Mass,, standing before eleven Americansgathered
at his invitationin
Indianapolis,Ind.,informingthem
thatthey were takingpart ,in the
beginning of a movement of historlcal imporstance.
Welch, d h o spoke to his guests for
two days, tosld tihem t h a t his society
- namedafteranAmericanArmy
captain
and
missionary
killed
in
Clhina shortly af,ter VJ-Day-would
function
almost
entirely
through
small Iocal chapters, cach consisting
of ten to twellty dedicated patriots,
andthatitwouldpromote
less
government, more responsibiiity and
a better world.J
a
Since then
the
society,
with

servative revolt, a movementthat

Richard Hofstadter, eminent Co1um;bia University historian, believed
had passed its peak of inf-luencein
1955, onceagain
areheardacross
the land.
Ostensilbly dedicated to fighting
communism, the
central
organization behind tlhis rCsave-America-before-its-too h e drive is the semisecret
John
Birclh Society, w,hose
self-appointed leader, Rabert Welch,
once labeled dormer President Eisenhower (a dedicated,consciousagent
of the Communist conspiracy.

HANS ENGH, r t n f f writer for the

SaTLta BarbaraNews-Press, wrote a
series o n t h e Johm Birch Society f o r
hi1 nezrs2a9e.p.
nkarch4I d , ag6r

minimum annual memlbership fee of

$24 for amen and $12 for women( !),
has gained a foothold ~n many parts
of the country. Aiming a t a membership of 1,000,000 and a budget of
$1,000,000, St appears to be particulady strong on *he West Coast.
California,
long
hothouse
a
for
extremistmovements
of -aII colors
and
vaneties,
probably
has
more
memfbers tillan any other state. Santa
Banbara, for example, a city of some
60,000 residentsonehundred
miles
north of Los Angeles, is a socdety
bastion. It has a Speakers Forum,
a Birch library, a news bulletin and
a columnist who peddles the society?s
llne in the weekily newspaper of a
neighboring community.
T h e S a n t a Barbara News-Pre-rs
recently ran a series of articleson

209

the society. 1.t resulted in ,.a barrage

of lctters to the edltol, a vast majority of thempralsing thep,aperfor
bringng the matter
into t h e open.
Leadrng n e w v a p e r s e l s e d e r e i n the
country also havefeaturedart~cles
about the soclety in recent months,
among # t h e m the Boston Herald, t h e
C h c a g o Daily N e w r andthe
Milwaukec Joumac. As aresult of thls
pubhcity,thousands of persons ivho
bel~eve in the honpred
traditions
of freespeechand
f a i r play,includingmanyconsenratlve Republiclans,
have expressed dcep concenl over
the ,socletys
choscn
method of
operation.

In the .Blue Book, the socie,tys

bible, We1c.h wrote that democracy
IS rnelely a deoeptive phrase,. a weapon of ,demagoguery and a ,perennial fraud.. Outlmngsocletyactlvltics,
he urged the establlshment of reading rooms, whiclh also can serveas
rental Libraries. H e suggested t h a t
t h e clrculat~ionof various appropriate
publlcations be expanded, that memgels embark upon letter-writing cam, paigns,
thattheyorganizefronts,
that they start crshockingJthe American people, andthattfhey
obtain
and featurc the serviccs of certain
speakers.

AT theorganizingmeeting
in Iildianapolis in 1958, Welchmade
it
whosc
clear that h . ~ ssociety would operate
members,amongotbcrthings,
are Welch ,made every effort to get the
urged Join
to
the PTAs, meet Look out of c~~culation as quickly
as undercomplete,aut11oritat.1~~conmonthly i n privatehomes as study possible. I n the,bookWelch, 111 ad- trol at all levels, with the cell leadgroul~s.Theyheartape
recordings, d ~ r i o nt o calli~lgEisenhovw a Red, ersappointed by headquarters. Describing himself as a hard-boiled,
view motion ~jictures, talk about as- also
descrlbes
former
Presidents
pects of t h e c C o m n ~ ~ n iconspirst
RooseveIt and Truman as tools of dictatorial and dynarnlc boss, he said
acy, listen t o ,book reviews,discuss
international com~nunism. The same ;t h a t , the lnen )who jorn the society
tactics-~t~cluding letter writing and label is attached to the names of t h e will do so becausetl1ey belleve ~n
w r l h g t o acceptmy
other public-opinion campaigns-and
Dulles brothers, Ne11 McElroy and m e andare
leadership.
He
said that
disloyal
in general, so they bel,ievc,
malce
othcr high governmentofficids
of
rnemlbers
would
be
elrmilaated
witlllthemselvesbetterequipped
t o meet thcE~senhoweradminlstratim~,
inwhat they tcrtn the challengeof com- cludmg C111of JusticeEarl Warren. out goulg tl~rollgh any cqngress of
munism.
,
In fact, the soclety at present is or- so-called democratic processes. T h e
councll
is charged with
Dr.
Grallville
Knight of Santa gaolzing a 1novement t o impeach national
Rqrbara, amember of the societys Warren. This was met with a force- picking a successor to Welch should
a suicide or something equally fatal
tn&i ty-clght-man national
council, fuloly critical editorid the other day
me b y the Coms a i d t h a t persons m a y attendthese
i n the
normally
conservative
Los be alrangedfor
munlsts.
meetings :by invltationonly.
The Angeles Timer.
Among the prolnibent melnbPrs of
society has not sought publicity,J he
the societys n a t ~ o n a council
l
are Dr.
s a l d , and the names of the members IN THE societys BuZZetjtb forScpN. E,, Adamson, Jr., a Bostonsurh a v e not been made publ~c to protect tember of last year - amont1lly
tllosc \-T+hod o not wsh to be *disturbed publicat~on distrrbuted t o 1~1embers geon; Thomas J. Ande,rson, editor
b y nulsance tactics.J I11 other words, givingthem
the agenda for t h c a p d publisher of F a w z and Re7tch;
thc society i s organized by cells, and 111017 th - Welch urged & a t his fol- T. Coleman Andrews,former Commlssioncr of Illterm1
Revenue;
only the ccll leader,knows the names Iowers join t h e PTAs:
Spruille
Braden,
1fol-mer
U.S. amof rhe membcrs of ocher cells.
Join your Iocdl PTA a t t h e bcgin- bassador; Col. Laurence E. Bunker,
The itatenlentthatwelchconning of the schoul year, get your
former pe~sollalaide to Gen. Douglas
side] s Eisedlonrer a Communist is
co~lservativ~
friends to do I ~ k e w ~ s c ,
i\/lacArthur;
James Simpson, Jr., forcontained, it7 a 302-page book called
and go to work to take 1 t over. You
T h e politic in,^. Originally
written
w~llrun Into real 1 u t t es clgdillst de- m e r congress ma^^; Adolphe Menjou,
terrnmcd l e l t ~ s t swho h a w h.~devery- thc actor, and threc former presias, a letter ill 1954 andexpanded,
thingtheir
way. R u t I t IS tune w c dents of the National Association of
from timeto time, the k a n u s c r i p t
Manufacturers. It is sig1Gficant t h a t
went
on
the
o f e n s ~ v et o make such
was apparently intended to mmain a
groups
the
instrumcnt
of
co~lservaWelch
picked himself for
the leaderconfidential
document
outlining
tivc
pu~posc,
wlth
the
same vigor
ship
after
baving
dlscarded
both
Welohs oprn~ions regarding t h e progand determination that the I~bcraIs fornler Vice Presidelit Nixon (a
ress of COJINIIUJI~SIII, particularly 111
have used the opposite aims. When slippery and shrewd politician) and
tllc United- States. It was reproduced
you and your friends get the local ,Sen. BarryGoldwateras
not being
by offsetin 1958 and dlstributed to
PTA group straightened out, ~ O V C
up
to
the
task.
the top leaders of the newiy organu p the ladder as soon as you can to
I n Souther11 California, society
ized society.
exert a wlderinfluence.
And dont
No dou,bt realizing t h a t he h a d
l e t the dirty tactics of t h c oppositiou chapters cut-rently are followivg
get yoll clClw:1.
i a s ~ r u c t i o m: ~ r da r ~indeed
g o m a bit t ~ foa r ill T h e PoZittciu,/l,
W E BirchSocietychapters,

I -

\V~!L!Is

210

featuring
appropriate
speakers.
Donald
Jackson,
former
Congressman
and
former
member
of &e
HouseCommittee
on Un-American
Activities, IS among the
speakers.
He isshowmgthefdm
Ope~atio?t
Abolitzo?~,t h e film onthestudent
riots which accompanied the HUACs
hearings in San Francisco last May.
. WilliamBuckley,editor
of the N u tioqlal Revicw, drew a full houseat
Santa Barbara Hlgh School recently.
welch map not quite possess t!hc IntellectualstaturetosultBuckley,
b u t the latter does termthe John
B~rchSociety a splendidorganization.

ALSO travding the speech circuit is

BillyJamesHargis
Crhristian Crusade Rally, one of whose speakers is
M a ~ t Cvetic,
t
who worked as a Communist for the FBI andhassince
appearedfrequently as aninformer
before
the
HUAC. Cvetic
flatly
termstheFundfor
the Repubhca
promoter of communismunder the
name of academicfreedom.Accordingto him, Steve Men, Dr. Linus
Paulmg, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and
a good manyothersarcadvocaking
thc Communist line, and
Cyrus
Eaton is a stupid, greedy, capitallstic pig. He says:, Join theJohn
BirchSociety tolearnxbout
Cornmunism.
Hargis hi~mself, shoutinga t tshe top
of 111s lungsandshaking
hisfist,

On the local level, society m e m bers busy themselves 111 a variety of

ways. They undertake extensme Letter-writmg
and
telephoning
campalgns, sponsorradioand
T V programs, and put pressure on legislators, educators and other persons
of
~nfluenceateveryopportunity.
Who IS the typlcal John B~rchSOclety member? Hofstadter said of his
pseudo-conservatlve
radrcals
that
they could not be idenltified .by class.
This also is true of the Birch Inembers. M a n y of tihem are poorly cducated members of tlle mlddle classes,
but some wealthy personsalso are involved.
I
111certain communities the Birchians havebeenable
t o whip up a
good deal of unrestandsuspicion.
Personsare
lalbeled Communistat
thedrop of a hat, and semi-secret
meetings create an aura
of fear and
hate. Fortunately,
even
in
these
communltlesthereare
st1t.l enough
WELCHS inab,ility to document his reasonable people around v6ho bring
a measure of balance to the situavariousallegations is nowheremore
apparent
than
in his magazine tion. It m a y be t h a t the Birch group
w d livc a hectic but short life. T o America~r opi7lioll~, whichhepub11shes eleventimcsayear.
On occa- gether- with , otlier know nothing
organizationsscatteredt:hroughthe
slon, the magazine -is devoted in its
haslc, conentirety to rsu~-veysof Communist country,itrepresentsa
i n f ~ l t r a t ~ oin
n 107 countries of t h e tmuing phenomenon in American society:that
regressive
force
which,
world. For eaoh country,
Welch,
under one guise or another, seems to
blandly and wlthoutsubstantlatron,
gives a percentagescore on degree pop u p whenever *he countryas a
whole seems destined to move intp a
of Redinfiltration.pxpertswonder
more progressive era.
where he gets his figures.

takes outafter &e nations Protest a n t miilisters,

charging
thatRed
agents are posing as clergymen. As
for - the U.N., Lets kicL t h a t nest
of s p m and safboteurs into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hetells
his audlence. , ,
Not
only
governmental
leaders
come under Welchsfire. Of the press,
he says
nhat
ra-well-intentioned
management,has ,no conception- of
how far the termites, have crept Into
the solid-looklng fnmcvvork of thelr
news gathering alld news writing.
Of the,clergy, he saysthat "onethird of theministersare
not t r u e
believersin the Divine name or the
Divine hlstory and the Div$x teachings towhichtheygive
hp service
as they 60 through their motions on
Sundaymorning.
H e c,laims t h a t
some of tlheln arc using their pulpits
t o preach
outright
communism
to
theircongregations.

country in w h i c h thc manufacturing

comlnunlty, on the w$hde, has learned to live well. What a piece of ,irony
it douldbe
if organizedla,bor
in
America should IIOW raise the banner
of HawIey-Smoot!
Surface sympt~omsof labor discontent
with
tariff
conditions
havc
taken forms like these:
VThe Amalgamzted
Clothing
Workers,whoseleadershiphaslong
cherished the recip1yocal-tradc philosophy, has decided to slam the workroom dodr on all suitings
coming
from Japan after May.
YIn Cbicsgo, d big local of the,

ElectricalWorkersnotified
eightythreeemployers Dhat, effective May
1, its lnenibers wouILl refuse, t o handleelectronicspartsimported
from
Japan and other low-wage countlies.
TThe
Inlternational
Ladies
Garm e n t Workers Iast year struck a
Roanoke,Va.,plant
of a company
t h a t had justopened,afactory
in
Ireland. The union exacted an agreemeut
the
company
will set
- that
aside part of its Ildl profits t o cornpensateworkersforanywage
10s
a t t h e Virginta plant after tWQyears
01 international operation.
7-4_orotecr;onist group hi& I D E ~

?U