THE AMERICANISTS'

...Spruille Braden, George M. Tisdale, T. I. Parkinson, Jr., all gave me the same answer: "Write to the John Birch Society, Belmont 78, Massachusetts...

...In the ' United States, Hawaii is under Communist control and "the whole slogan of 'civil rights' as used to make trouble in the South today, is an exact parallel to the slogan of 'agrarian reform' which they used in China...

...he was asked...

...It is our firm conviction that the time for debate was long ago, and that the time for action is here...

...As new members, who finally had found their devious ways to the light of Robert H. W. Welch, Jr., were signing their application blanks after the Hartford meeting, Hill noticed a group of us drifting out the door...

...The direct approach, which is the first one I took, is a journey to Belmont, Massachusetts, hard by Boston and Cambridge, where the headquarters of the John Birch Society shares a modern, two-story brick building with the local office of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company...

...Thus, he wrote of the former President: ". . . to put it bluntly, I personally think that he has been sympathetic to ultimate Communist aims, realistically willing to use Communist means to help them achieve their goals, knowingly accepting and abiding by Communist orders, and consciously serving the Communist conspiracy for all of his adult life...

...The question technique," says Welch, "when skillfully used in this mariner, is mean and dirty...

...Mrs...

...I saw the terrible distortions and omissions of the history books—I taught history—and the way they ignored the Socialist and Communist infiltration of America, the way they failed to teach the things that really made this country great—free enterprise, individual initiative—and the way the National Education Association was taking over the school system...

...Welch said some time ago, 'We mean business, every step of the way.' We do not want members who need an education in Communism, and, although this is necessary, we just do not feel time permits it...

...The world is slipping rapidly away from the grasp of the "Americanists...

...Has the publicity, I asked, to which the Society recently has been subjected hurt...

...We are out to get a million members truly dedicated to the things in which we believe," Welch said when he founded the organization at a meeting in Indianapolis on December 9, 1958...

...There are no Society rules on the matter...

...He called a warning to us: "We are alarmists and we are going to fight...

...After showing the film, he took the floor to explain the ten points of Welch's action program against Communism...

...A telephone and a fixed purpose are all the other equipment needed...

...It would be, he told me, at least a month before he could get around to meeting any newcomers to the crusade...

...Write to Tom Davis, Bertmor Drive, Stamford, Connecticut...

...The inevitable question was posed: a woman asked Hill if Welch had, as she had heard, called former President Eisenhower a "card-carrying Communist...

...I'll call and let you know when there will be a meeting...

...Why, yes, I believe I can help you...

...In personal appearances at public meetings, where there is the possibility of harassment, Welch is a nervous note-shuffler, his eyes warily searching the assemblage for hecklers...

...Unfortunately, the Society would not be blessed with the subpoena privileges or other Congressional powers of McCarthy, "which makes our job far more difficult...

...setting up anti-Communist governmentsin-exile...

...At Merwin K. Hart's office, a brusque secretary directed my inquiry—as she does all others—to the John Birch Society, Belmont 78, Massachusetts...

...To fight this diabolical scheme, then, Welch offers a militantly antiCommunist organization, the John Birch Society, under dynamic personal leadership—his...

...Hill, however, does not ask visitors to join the Society...

...For those occasions when the group is not blessed with a projector, the lecture also has been immortalized on tape...

...He would run articles composed of questions directed at suspected Communists "which would be devastating in their implications...

...When Hill had finished explaining this and other portions of the film, he opened the meeting to questions...

...Yes," she said one evening from her apartment in the East Sixties...

...There I was steered to what is known, in one of the Society's many euphemisms, as a "coordinator...

...His book, Inside the John Birch Society, will be published soon.—THE EDITORS...

...Would you rather join a chapter on Long Island...

...Friendly visitors are met with civility...

...How did Hill himself become interested...

...Milliken never called...

...Look there," he replied, waving an easy arm about him at a basement crammed with girls and office machines...

...He was in error...

...Inspired by the quotation from Welch and firm in the conviction that action is a substitute for education, Davis finds that his enthusiasm and devotion make his time quite valuable...

...Our growth in strength, especially in proportion to our numbers," he consoles his little band, "has been far above our most hopeful anticipation...

...The lonely outposts of freedom in the world are Spain, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, and the Union of South Africa...

...His answer to my letter, directed as Hill had instructed, stated: "At such a presentation we want only those individuals who are informed, at least to some degree, about the Conspiracy...

...We're all so interested in the marvelous work Mr...

...ETERNAL VIGILANCE is the price of secrecy, Robert Henry Winborne Welch, Jr., frequently counsels his followers...

...As a potential crusader unable to restrain his zeal for a month, I found the only path open to me was to attempt to meet some fortunate soul already a member...

...while a life-time of interest in things academic, especially world history, should have given me an advantage over many businessmen in more readily seeing the sophistries of dialectic materialism...

...As Mr...

...Sputnik, for example, was not a scientific achievement, but a cold war weapon designed to expand U.S...

...expanding the circulation of such ultra right wing periodicals as Human Events and National Review...

...Hill replied that Welch "had never said that...

...My trip to headquarters and my visit with coordinator Hill did not entirely solve my problem as a prospective recruit...

...The sign on the building says American Opinion, the name of Welch's magazine...

...The Admiral is also inefficient...

...And entirely without pride, but in simple thankfulness, let me point out that a lifetime of business experience should have made it easier for me to see the falsity of the economic theories on which Communism is based more readily than might some scholar coming into that study from the academic cloisters...

...His voice was warm and friendly...

...Our danger, he warns, "remains almost entirely internal, from Communist influences right in our midst and treason right in our government" while "the American people are being persuaded that our danger is from the outside, is from Russian military superiority . . . under the excuse of preparing to match that military might, of defending ourselves from this threat of outside force...

...Admiral Freeman was informative...

...Welch rather than the work of the Society) "and I'm sure we'll ^welcome anyone who is sincerely interested in the work...

...I still needed a chapter to join, although Hill, if pressed, probably would have accepted my annual dues of $24...

...An open face and the appearance of a closed mind, however, opened the door for me to the upper room of the Society, which is in the basement...

...Welch likes to see what the other side is doing...

...Women get by for half price, a discrimination never explained...

...Known enemies are barred...

...The error was rectified by a procedural reversal, however...

...Our growth in numbers, with the dedication we require," he said, "has been far slower than we originally expected...

...He was concerned...

...While it seems true that Welch had not used the exact phrase, "cardcarrying Communist," it is clear he had charged in his strange, 300-page "letter" known as "The Politician," or the "Black Book," essentially just that, and in much stronger language than that "Communism had made great strides forward...

...organizing front groups such as the current "Committee to Impeach Earl Warren...

...The publicity"—his voice lowered—"has hurt some, but it's helped, too...

...American Opinion, the occasionally published magazine, all available at a price—and explained away a random copy of the Communist Worker: "Mr...

...Also, because of the length of the presentation (about three and one-half hours), anyone invited should know how long it will take...

...But if you do, you will go to bed tonight and when you wake up tomorrow you will not remember that there is, a Communist conspiracy...

...Another aim, he said, was "to start shocking the American people . . . by exposure, which is why the Communists just had to get rid of McCarthy, and went to such extreme lengths to do so...

...He has admitted that the Society did not get "anywhere near" 30,000 members by the end of its first year...

...While talking, Hill bustled about the basement collecting printed material— The Blue Book, the Society's basic text...

...organizing letterwriting campaigns...

...The author spent several months investigating the organization for the New York Post and traveled to a number of cities to observe the Society's operations firsthand...

...The Society's program, he said, in eludes the establishment of reading rooms, "much like Christian Science reading rooms but small and inexpensive," for conservative publications...

...Would that be convenient...

...His questioner was persistent...

...The security system of the John Birch Society, however, has not yet attained that degree of efficiency demonstrated by, say, the government of the United States, which Welch estimates is forty to sixty per cent under "effective Communist control...

...But Vice Admiral Charles S. Freeman, U.S.N...

...One learns from the film that things are never what they seem...

...But then the Society does not have at its disposal the services of J. Edgar Hoover, whose nomination as Attorney General was a pre-election demand by Welch—curiously, considering Hoover's high place in what Welch considers a demonstrably imperfect internal security system...

...But Mrs...

...Merwin K. Hart, the chapter leader, who earlier had directed me to write to Belmont, now wrote an almost identical invitation, this one with the address, and where the panting recruit once had no invitation now I had two...

...Coordinators, in more direct language, are paid organizers, scattered about the country according to the vagaries of need and finance...

...in other words, under the guise of fighting Communism, we are being stampeded into the biggest jump ever towards, and perhaps the final jump right into, Socialism and then the Communist camp...

...Despite this joy through strength, the John Birch Society will not achieve a 100,000 membership by the end of the year, probably not even half that number...

...If you can get ten people together, he'll come down and talk to you...

...In New York, newspapers had published lists of the members of the council of the John Birch Society, a powerless advisory board from which Welch sometimes accepts advice, and of the Committee of Endorsers, a nebulous group whose only function is to lend the weight of members' names to the Society in much the fashion that, say, Eleanor Roosevelt might let her name be used in some worthy cause...

...We are looking to build our membership with dedicated and zealous Americanists...

...Why, he himself had only recently organized several all-Negro chapters in Texas...

...There were no questions concerning Welch's trial-by-innuendo proposal but there was another interesting colloquy...

...Such countries as India, Turkey, the Philippines, Iceland, Norway, and Venezuela are lost...

...The sole optimism Welch permits himself in a world where Communism, weakness, treachery, and conspiracy are everywhere, is with respect to the John Birch Society...

...Seth Milliken answered my call with a pleasant voice...

...A former teacher, Hill is more interested in giving instruction in the ways of righteousness than in collecting dues, and, with a teacher's patience, he answers every question...

...spending for defense, push taxes higher, unbalance the budget, create inflation, bring on price and wage controls, increase "socialistic controls" over our economy, centralize power in Washington and eliminate states' rights, bring about Federal control of the educational system, create an anti-war philosophy, and facilitate the surrender of the United States...

...Where do you live...

...He said Welch had charged in a private letter that Communism had made great strides forward in America while Eisenhower was President...

...If the program seemed like something less than a terrible answer to the terrible threat of Communism, it must be remembered that the essential threat is internal and that blows against the Supreme Court and the Welfare State are, in essence, blows against the Conspiracy...

...He claims, but does not support with figures, that the Society has been doubling its membership "every three or four months...

...I personally have been studying the problem [Communism] increasingly for about nine years and practically full time for the past three years...

...There are, however, two dramatic high points, both repeated several times, which relieve the monotony of the motion picture—Welch leaning closer to the camera to emphasize a point, and the pauses for reel changes...

...You can leave here tonight without joining the John Birch Society, and without purchasing The Blue Book...

...His drawl became more pronounced...

...After a few days, I tried again, going down the list of Society leaders...

...Were there any integrated chapters...

...Most of us in Chapter Twentysix— it's the oldest chapter in the New York area—are businessmen...

...In parting, although he had made no effort to enlist my membership, he dropped a hint...

...He is a talker by nature rather than an organizer...

...We meet at five p.m., right after business, so that we can go on home from the meeting...

...For more than two hours of this time, the neophyte must sit watching^ a film which shows only the face of Robert Welch as he reads the text of the Birch bible, The Blue Book, of which Welch is the author...

...widening the audience of such radio commentators as Fulton Lewis, Jr., and Dan Smoot...

...One of Welch's proposals concerns his American Opinion (the magazine originally was named One Man's Opinion and the title change is not atypical...

...But he neglected to say where the chapter meets...

...But in privately recorded sound or sight he remains self-assured...

...Tom Hill journeyed down from Belmont to*Hartford, Connecticut, recently to hold one of his meetings, greeting me and his other guests in a small meeting room in a South Side social club barren except for an American flag, straight-backed chairs, his projector and screen...

...On film or on tape Welch is firm, authoritative, even demanding—a posture he maintains only in a friendly atmosphere...

...and possibly also, no matter how carefully our job was done, for a lot of nuisance libel suits...

...The demand was made of Richard Nixon, who ignored it, and as things turned out, of course, the candidate was as powerless to further Hoover's fortunes as is Welch...

...and helping conservative political candidates...

...One who works out of the Belmont headquarters is Tom Hill, a Bostonian with a Southern drawl, a thinhaired man in his late thirties...

...Welch is doing" (Society members almost without exception speak of the work of Mr...

...That would be up to the local chapters themselves," Hill said...

...I'm sure we'd love to have you...

...For those whose normal association is not with Adolphe Menjou, T. Coleman Andrews, Spruille Braden, Archibald Roosevelt, Clarence Manion, various former presidents of the National Association of Manufacturers, or others high in the councils of Robert Welch, there are many paths to the truth, but none without its hazards...

...Signing up a million members seems a rather ambitious project, but Welch set himself relatively modest short-range goals: 30,000 members by the end of 1959, 100,000 by the end of 1961...

...We're busier than we've ever been...

...The recruiting meetings begin, invariably, with a pledge of allegiance to the flag, then turn immediately to the test of faith, the film...

...The John Birch Society makes stern demands of its members...

...The day of the telephone conversation, he wrote a letter which said ". . . it appears best that you attend the meeting of the John Birch Chapter Twenty-six on Tuesday, May 9, at five p.m...

...According to a Society coordinator, there are no active chapters on Long Island, although a dozen "are in the process of forming...

...His credentials presented, Welch launches on his interpretation of history and economics...

...Communist infiltrators," he warns, "could bog us down in interminable disagreements, schisms, and feuds before we ever become seriously effective...

...Yes, said Hill, there certainly were...

...I believe we have chapters in Mineola and Hempstead...

...I'm frdm Boston, but I went to college and taught school in Texas...

...But perhaps the sternest is that which comes before a member's admission to the brotherhood—the minimum of three deadly hours required to get through the recruiting spiel of its coordinators...

...So I have felt, rightly or wrongly, that my grasp of Communist purposes, and even of their methods, should have been more rapid than that of some of my patriotic friends who have gradually become staunch anti-Communists...

...North Carolina-born Robert Welch insists he is without racial prejudice, although he denounces "enforced integration...

...Non-Communist infiltrators, judging by my own experience, pose nearly equal dangers...

...It's brought us to the attention of a lot of people who never heard of us and who want to join...

...setting up a conservative speakers' bureau...

...But the Communists we are after are meaner and dirtier, and too slippery for you to put your fingers on them in the ordinary way—no matter how much they look and act like prosperous members of the local Rotary Club...

...Welch seemed to have the right idea, so I went to work for him...

...If I had become disheartened by the lack of interest in a potential member displayed in Belmont, if I had been disenchanted by the laborious task and uncertain reward involved in trying to make contact with a member, at least I had been spared—for the moment—the exhaustion of attending one of the meetings directed by such men as Hill and Davis...

...So there will be no mistake, he makes it clear right at the beginning that, in his mind, Socialism, Communism, "collectivism," and the New Deal are the same evil masked by a confusion of names...

...Davis, it turned out, will, indeed, talk to groups of ten or more, but he is a busy man and has no time to waste on the saving of the innocents...

...The White Book, a collection of the Society's monthly bulletins...

...Mr...

...Retired), was more responsive...

...And one must be truly dedicated to endure the film...

...We decided to take our chances on the morning after, and walked out the door...

...Are there any Negro members in the Society...

...And Mr...

...If the John Birch Society cannot successfully screen out the potential deviationists intent upon schism, it is quite possible that the rigors of entering the Society—rigors grounded principally in a certain pervasive ineptitude among its members—discourage many a dilettante of the radical right...

...The doubtful, however, are met with suspicion, and the suspicious with hostility...

...as a guest, if that meets with your convenience...

...There are dangers in this course however: "We have to be prepared from the beginning for a lot of smearing, as I have already said...