Moral
By JOHN EADIE
WE STUDENTS want a better world. We
want to be free of the continual
threat of thermonuclear holocaust. We
want to see nations emerge from the
control of colonial or national despotic
powers. We hope for the reforms which
will allow people to live without poverty,
suffering and exploitation. We desire the
eradication of racial discrimination and
prejudice. We want to see management
and labor work together for their own
mutual benefit, for that of the country
and of the world.
The question is what can we do to
make these aspirations a reality? Moral
Re-Armament is an ideology which has
demonstrated that it is capable of doing
this. It has a philosophy which is simple
enough to be understood by everyone and
applied by all. It is an ideology on which
people of all races, classes, nationalities
and religions can unite.
Moral Re-Armament is based upon this
idea: the solution to the world's problems
lies in eliminating the greed, fear and
hate that create them, first on personal
and then on national levels. It is neces-
sary to change oneself, change others,
reach the millions and thus take it to
nations.
MRA challenges every man to play his
part in this strategy by making the four
moral standards - absolute honesty, ab-
solute purity, absolute unselfishness and
absolute love - the criteria for his living,
by accepting God as the controlling force
in his life and then by inspiring others
to do the same.
These principles are in harmony with
the basic tenets of all creeds and thus
MRA provides a basis upon which men of
all faiths can unite. His Grace Bernardus
Kaelin, Abbot Primate of the Benedic-
tine Order from 1947 to 1959, explains,
"It is not a religion, nor a substitute for
religion. It is not a sect. It has four
mighty pillars upon which human living
must be based. Every man must accept
these ideas if he is honest with himself."
MRA also is not an organization which
can be joined. It is a way of life which
demands the total commitment of a man's
time, energy and talents.
IT WAS initiated in 1908 by the late
clergyman Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman
when he realized that the bitterness he
harbored for the six directors of the boys'
home he had headed was as wrong as
their mismanagement of the hospice had
been. He apologized to the six men for
his bitterness. That same day he took
a long walk with a Cambridge Univer-
sity student and told him of his action.
This student in turn decided to change
the basic motives of his life.
From that day until his death in 1961,
Dr. Buchman devoted himself to chang-
ing men's motives. As a result, thousands
of men and women have accepted his
challenge. They include people from every
race, class, creed and nationality. Among
Re-Armament: An A
Personal Re-Evaluation Starts
A Chain of World-Wide Reforms
them are industrialists like Frits Philips,
president of Philips Electric in Holland,
and labor leaders like John Riffe, vice-
president of the CIO before its merger
with the AFL. Riffe said from his death-
bed in reference to disputes settled with-
out strikes, "You must tell America that
whenFrank Buchman changed John Riffe,
he saved the country 500 million dollars."
African Nationalists and educators
from many countries also have accepted
the challenge. Philip Vundla, once regard-
ed by the police as "the most dangerous
man in South Africa," is now the elected
leader of 600,000 Africans in Johannes-
burg. R. Vaitheswaran, a lecturer in econ-
omics at an Indian university, was for-
merly a member of the Indian Communist
Party who as a result of his convictions
spent two years in jail for his part in
an armed uprising. He is one of many
Communists who have accepted MRA.
These people have found that MRA
provides a better solution to the world's
problems than does Communism. This
was demonstrated in the German coal
and steel center of the Ruhr. An MRA-
trained force took .a play to this area in
1949 when the Communists had 72 per
cent control of the industrial works coun-
eils. The MRA men won many Commun-
ists to their ideology, and in four years
the Communist control in the works
councils had dropped to eight per cent.
Max Bladeck, a coal miner who had been
a Communist for twenty-five years and
was head of his works council stated, "To-
day I fight with Moral Re-Armament be-
cause it is not against communism or
against capitalism: it goes to the root
of evil and changes man, who is the cause
of the failure of any system."
THE RUHR solution is one of many
examples of the role MRA has played
in resolving national and international
problems. In 1958 the Island of Cyprus
was in turmoil. The British were fighting
against the Greek and Turkish inhabi-
tants to keep control of the island, while
at the same time the Greeks and Turks
were fighting each other for leadership
of the revolutionary struggle. In this sit-
uation, men who had applied the stand-
ards of MRA to their lives fought for a
peaceful settlement. A Turkish editor
went to Athens and said in an article
which appeared throughout the Greek
press that his country and Greece were
meant to live as brothers and not as ene-
mies. John McGovern, a Labor member
of the British Parliament for twenty-nine
years, apologized to Archbishop Makarios,
leader of the Greek community on Cyprus
and the country's present president, for
the actions in which he felt that he and
his country had been wrong.
Zenon Rossides, an assistant to the
Archbishop, went to see British Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan and apolo-
gized to him for the loss of life on the
island. As a result of this conference, the
groundwork was laid for the Zurich settle-
ment which led to the island's independ-
ence in 1960. There were also many other
people who helped create the atmosphere
in which the settlement was made, and
their efforts helped make possible the
unity of the two communities. Today, the
Greeks and Turks are ruling the island
together.
Rossides, who became the first delegate
to the United Nations and first ambas-
sador to Washington from the new Re-
public, said, "If there is a case where the
spirit of Moral Re-Armament has worked
successfully, it is certainly the case of
Cyprus . . . Indeed, it is that spirit that
brought about settlement in a case which
seemed hopeless of solution, even by
force."
JAPAN is another country in which
Moral Re-Armament has proved effec-
tive. In 1957, one hundred leaders of the
four and a half million strong youth or-
ganization, the Seinendan, were invited
to Russia for ideological training. Dr.
Buchman countered this bid by Moscow
by inviting the leaders to the MRA train-
ing center on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
One hundred and two came to this
country and only seven went to Moscow,
in spite of the fact that in 1956, 70 per
cent of the Seinendan's Central Commit-
tee had followed the Communist line in
policy decisions. After three months at
Mackinac, during which they underwent
drastic moral clean-up, the Japanese re-
turned home and spread their new ideas
to the Seinendan membership.
As a result of their work, an article ap-
peared in the policy magazine of the
Central Committee of the Japanese Com-
munist Party which stated, "In 1957 the
American imperialists, through the no-
torious Moral Re-Armament, invited well
over a hundred executive leaders of the
Seinendan to the United States, serious-
ly worked on them ideologically, and suc-
ceeded to a large extent in retarding the
Seinendan work." During the past three
years not a single Communist has been
elected to the Central Committee of the
Seinendan; the president, vice-president,
general secretary and several other exec-
utive officers are MRA-trained.
Because of this leadership the four and
a half million members did not partici-
pate in the June, 1960, riots which pre-
vented President Dwight D. Eisenhower
from visiting Japan and almost toppled
the Kishi government. According to the
president of the organization, "If the
nswer
Seinendan had joined the riots last June,
the history of Japan would have been dif-
ferent. Because of Moral Re-Armament
the Seinendan stood firm and democracy
was saved."
The riots were led by another youth or-
ganization, the Zengakuren. Soon after
the riots, several of its leaders were in-
vited to attend a conference at the MRA
training center in Caux, Switzerland.
There they decided to apply the four
moral standards to their lives and to fight
for the ideology of MRA. They then wrote
a play, "The Tiger," which tells of their
experience in the riots, the Communist
exploitation of the riots, and the new
ideology they found.
Upon the invitation of national leaders,
they took their play through Europe and
then to the United States. In California
they apologized to Eisenhower for the
riots. After hearing their convictions and
the story of their play, he said, "I am
one hundred per cent with you in this
fight. I wish you would take this play
to South America."
FOLLOWING his request, they took
"The Tiger" to Latin America. In five
months over a million people in theaters
and football stadiums saw the play and
heard the students' challenge. More than
twenty million 'others were reached
through television.
Among the audiences was a group of
students from San Marcos University in
Lima, Peru, the site of the riot in which
Vice-President Richard M. Nixon was
stoned. They accepted the challenge of
the Japanese. As Enrique Tamashiro, a
"Fidelista" leader from the Economics
Faculty stated, "We faced the reality
about Latin America and about ourselves.
We realized that we talked about dignity
and justice, but we were just as dirty
as the society we criticized. The problem
is neither communism nor capitalism. It
is the materialism that rules men and na-
tions who have forgotten God. There is
a need for revolution and therefore we
have decided to commit our lives to the
remaking of the world, beginning with
ourselves."
These students wrote a-second play, "El
Condor," depicting life in Latin America
and the solution of the problems of their
people which they had found through
MRA. Early in 1962 the leaders of Recife,
the northeastern port of Brazil which
President John F. Kennedy described at
that time as the most critical spot in all
of South America, invited them to pre-
sent their play there. Several months
previously the Japanese had presented
"The Tiger" - in Recife.
As a result of the work of the Japanese
and the Latin Americans, the director of
the port co-operative was able to report
that "Looting and pilfering are going out
of fashion. Honesty has come in, so that
prices of staple foods have been able to
be cut by 35 per cent." Fathers have
stopped their drinking and gambling and
are now bringing home more money for
their families. They have all found hope
and purpose, and alcoholism has been
cut in half.
The change brought to the docks of
Recife is an example of Moral Re-Arma-
ment's capacity to solve the problems of
the iodern world. Its simple philosophy
has made it a basis upon which people
of all races, classes, nationalities and re-
ligions can unite to work together for a
new world. Its effectiveness has been
proven many times. MRA helped break
the Communists' control of the works
councils of the Ruhr. It helped bring
peace to Cyprus. In Japan it was instru-
mental in preventing the Communists
from gaining control of the four and a
half million member Seinendan organiza-
tion. This meant that the organization re-
fused to be part of the riots aimed at
overthrowing the government. MRA has
also won over revolutionary students of
Japan and South America. These stu-
dents have inspired the lives of millions.
Now we American students have the
challenge before us: to'make the better
world we want. We must take it up.
John Eadie is a sophomore major-
ing in history and mathematics
who spent last summer working in
the Moral Re-Armament f i I m
studio on Mackinac Island, Mich.
Whether Looking to the Past or Future, There Is a Si
Rdcalsm TeSach o t~
By DAVID MARCUS
RADICALISM is the search for utopia.
As opposed to moderate, liberal or
conservative politics, radicalism demands
scrapping or thoroughly redefining the
basic values of a society. It may look
backwards to the days of monarchy or
laissez-faire or forward to the promise
of a egalitarian or regulated society;
but radicalism, by definition, is always
deeply opposed to the status quo.
As one would expect, radicalism flour-
ishes in times of stress, in periods when
overwhelming problems face a society
and confidence in older methods and
values has been destroyed. The depression
saw a tremendous wave of Communist
and Fascist activities in both the United
States and Europe. The turmoil of post-
war conditions saw powerful Communist
parties emerging in many parts of 'the
world including France and Italy.
But radicalism is not confined to Com-
munism and Fascism. The John Birch
Society, although definitely not Fascistic
in the same sense as the German Nazi
Party or Adolf Hitler, is in fact asking a
major upheaval in American society. Left-
ist groups advocating disarmament and
equal rights for Negroes, if successful,
would certainly cause major shifts in
American life. Obviously, this does not
reflect on the logical validity of any of
these causes. It only points to the conse-
quences of their programs and their place
in the political spectrum.
The participants in radical movements
are the displaced and the alienated. These
are the individuals who feel that the so-
ciety has given them a raw deal, that
they are not occupying a position in the
economic or social structure equal to their
importance. These are the individuals who
will seek the new society.
THE FAR EXTREMES - Communism
and Fascism--have not made a great
deal of progress in the United States. Part
of the reason is that the displacement of
individuals and classes from positions of
power has come more slowly in the 1950's
and '60's than in periods and countries
where these movements have been pop-
ular or successful. German Nazism suc-
ceeded largely because of the support of
middle-class white collar and professional
people who found their lives suddenly
wrecked by the depression. Nazism pro-
vided, in its anti-labor, anti-big business
appeal, a Utopian alternative for the
creation of a society in which these ele-
ments would be dominant. Similarly.
Communism with its exaltation of the
working man, has met success in coun-
tries where the aspirations of the work-
ing man or peasant have not been ade-
quately recognized or have been overtly
suppressed. In each of these cases, Com-
munism and Fascism have provided an
alternative value system to those who feel
the status quo is inherently stacked
against them.
In America, it is interesting to note that
Communism does not seem to be a work-
ing class movement. The political and so-
cial aspirations of workers has been rec-
ognized as legitimate and through unions
Lincoin Rockwell: leader of many causes.
they have managed to achieve some de-
gree of power. The state of overt Fascism
is probably as bad. While there are cer-
tainly displaced middle class people in the
United States, their situation is not as
bad as that of their German counter-
parts during the depression.
More powerful and certainly more ac-
tive are groups like the John Birch So-
ciety. The Birch Society is radical. What
separates it from the ultra-ideologies is
its traditionalism. It seeks to return to an
earlier state of society. It asks a laissez-
faire approach in economics. It asks a re-
turn to traditional use of military force
in settling international disputes. It asks
total victory in the cold war in the same
sense that the Allies achieved total victory
against Fascism in World War II. It does
not advocate a utopia that might be; it
asks a return to the idealized values of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies. There is no indication within the
Birch Society of an anti-big business or
an anti-semitic attitude so characteristic
of Fascism.
HOWEVER BIRCHISM does seem to ap-
peal to the same groups as Fascism.
Very likely, most of the members of the
Birch Society are middle class small busi-
nessmen and rural gentry. These are the
individuals whose power as a group has
been slipping steadily. In a society dom-
inated by large bureaucratic organiza-
tions, both those of big business and big
labor, it is this group that has been
slighted most. For the most part, Republi-
cans have accepted the welfare state. For
the most part, Democrats have no great
quarrel with big business. Where then are
largely disorganized individuals who are
losing ground in both parties to find a
means of political expression? The Birch
Society is a reaction to bureaucratization.
What the Birchers seek to do is to
change the tone of American politics.
They see a dichotomy: there are conserva-
tives and then there are Socialists who
are leading the United States down the
primrose path to Communism. America is
losing ground in the fight against Com-
munism, they say. Their resentment
against the so-called "establishment" is
expressed by calling it a gigantic con-
spiracy of left-wingers who are sympa-
thetic to the aims of the Soviet Union.
Although this is only a sketchy picture
of the beliefs of the Society, it clearly
demonstrates the utopian aims of the
group. Regardless of whether one would
like to live in this utopia, it is a society in
which heroes like Henry Ford and John
D. Rockefeller are restored and stand as
symbols of opportunity. It is a state where
political dissent is minimized and econom-
ic freedom maximized. It is a state where
older ideals of no compromise diplomacy
and the interests of the United States
over everything, even in the face of nu-
clear war, predominate. Any attempt to
criticize the Birchers is a "smear" against
"an effective anti-Communist" and pro-
American group.
THERE ARE, of course, many other far
rightist groups dedicated to causes
ranging from the abolition of the gradu-
ated income tax to promoting a revision
of American diplomatic and military pol-
icy. The Birch Society is the most vocal
and probably the largest of these groups.
In general, they have worked within the
structure of the two existing political par-
ties, trying to promote conservative and
rightist candidates wherever they may ap-
pear. Their inability to move outside of
the already existing political structures is
indicative of their inability to capture
large segments of American public opin-
ion. The broad spectrum of political opin-
ion present within each party has also
prevented rightists from gaining direct
political power of any significance. The
Birchers are certainly vocal: but their
position as a minority both within the so-
ciety and within the political structure of
the two parties has definitely minimized
their influences.
Radical leftism is a more difficult sub-
ject to explore
thing, there is r
the left which
mind to the deg:
has on the rig
groups of any
fine their aims
segregation and
few that present
ical leftist actic
the economic pr
left has been ful
ly radical in thi
or slightly left
Another majc
ism is not really
munism in the
ment of almost r
which through
American histol
downs, is almos
erals are on tli
additional welfa
for Negroes and
gram of radical
most radical lef1
in the political s
same measures 4
radical leftist er
of the present
state, academic f
sible interpretat
equality of oppc
which the radic
involved.
TO THE DEGI
carried to tli
left is radical.
tives would nec
society. Some ap
way, and integr
in its economic
to the South, 1
Others, like disa
erate. Certainly
an effective disa
be drastic if it ei
Certainly this
tially utopian ir
ciples be carried
ing rather than
steps towards th
Radicalism, th
left, is not in
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neither has man
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But the domi
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The radical rig]
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Vocal as they :
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David Marcs
ing in English
The Daily. 1
and city pol
number of
functions am
with its found
Crowds gather in Peru to view "The Tiger."
Two views of integration; HUAC supporters.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1962-