Westside Enterprise

WESTSIDE ENTERPRISE

A couple weeks ago we had a serious private discussion with a member of the John Birch Society.

We learned some amazing things. Among them was that Nazism is to the left of the John Birch Society.

We had always thought that when the Nazis defeated the Communists for control in Germany it was a triumph of extreme right over extreme left. But this Bircher claimed, on the basis of a talk by one of the society's leaders, that the Birch group is to the right of Nazism.

The theory expressed by the society leader was that all totalitarian forms of government are leftist. This theory, however, is difficult to accept.

WE EXPRESSED the thought that we did not fear communism in the United States-at least that our end of Maricopa County doesn't appear particularly overrun with Communists. We haven't run across any that we know of. And we also offered the viewpoint that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has done a lot to merit our faith and confidence; we believe the FBI is quite effective in controlling internal enemies.

Our faith was somewhat shaken, however; we were informed that there were plenty of Birch supported writings which could alert us to our nation's weakness within.

"In other words," we ventured, "with a little bit of effort we, too, can be afraid."

"That's right," was the reply.

WE WERE feeling quite alone and guilty about our lack of fear and our confidence in the strength of America. But we have found an ally in U.S. Sen. J. W. Fulbright of Arkansas.

In a speech before the National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces Aug. 21 Senator Fulbright had this to say:

"The appeal of certain ideas espoused by the radicals of the right is not difficult to understand. To a nation beset by onerous challenges and responsibilities, they offer deceptively quick and simple solutions. They tell us that we have only to proclaim our dedication to total victory over world communism and to root out subversives-real and imaginary-at home and our problems will be solved. They tell us that our system of alliances and our military and economic commitments abroad are unnecessary and dangerous, that somehow "play into the hands of the communists." Instead, they offer us clear and simple solutions-ringing declarations about foreigners and rooting out the disloyal at home. And those who disagree with them, they say, are 'soft on communism.'

"IT SEEMS to me that it is these extremists who are advocating a soft approach. Their over simplifications and their baseless generalizations reflect- the softness of those who cannot bear to face the burdens of a continuing struggle against a powerful and resourceful enemy...Those who seek to meet the challenge--or, in reality, to evade it--by bold adventures abroad and witch hunts at home are the real devotees of softness-the softness of seeking escape from painful realities by resort to illusory panaceas. ...

"Implicit in much of the propaganda of the radical right is the assumption that our free society is permeated with corruption and decay. It is said, for example, that the schools and churches of this country are infiltrated with Communists....

"Those who have faith in our free people and our free institutions must dismiss the wild charges of extremists as malicious and absurd. Only if our society is in an advanced state of disintegration is it as susceptible to communist infiltration as the radicals of the right contend. I, for one, believe that our free society is strong and stable. and that it is strong because it is free. ...

"INDEED, the radicals of the right, whose avowed intent is to save our society from destruction, are painting the same picture of ineptitude and decay that the Communists, whose aim is the destruction of our society, would want the American people to believe.

"There is a tendency in the history of democratic nations for overly emotional groups and individuals to react to threats from foreign totalitarian powers by permitting themselves to entertain illusions regarding totalitarian forms of an opposite tendency. Thus, for example, when we were threatened by the right-wing totalitarianism Nazi German, a few Americans suddenly professed to see democratic virtues in the Communist abolition of the left. Now that we are endangered by Communist imperialism instead, a few Americans have fallen prey to the delusion that the radicalism of the right is not totalitarian at all but is in reality the true philosophy of freedom."

That, Senator, sums up what we meant to say.

The month of October is perhaps the most important month of the year for plant quarantine inspection, reports the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture. October is harvest month over most of the country, thus products are being shipped everywhere directly from the fields and may contain insects still alive from the summer.