Old Guard's NewSpokesman

Old Guard's New Spokesman

The most articulate new spokesman for the Republican Party's Old Guard is Arizona's handsome U.S. Senator, Barry Morris Goldwater, 51. Individualist Goldwater, boss of four prospering Arizona department stores developed from a business started by a Jewish peddler grandfather, was an Army Air Forces pilot in World War II, now campaigns in a twin-engined Beechcraft, has been twice elected to the Senate in a state with a 2 1/2-to-1 Democratic edge in registration. He is already the half-serious choice of Republicans in South Carolina and Arizona for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, is working diligently to gather support for the vice-presidential nomination.

In a new book. The Conscience of a Conservative (Victor; $3), Goldwater sets down what he thinks 1960's U.S. conservatives should stand for. He thoroughly belies the U.S. liberals' caricature-belief that an Old Guardist is a deep-dyed isolationist endowed with nothing but penny-pinching inhumanity and slavish devotion to Big Business. He calls for a U.S. drive to win the cold war, including liberation of the Communist satellites, outlines a creed of social and economic philosophy that both Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson could ratify. Planks in Goldwater's platform:

STATES' RIGHTS: "I believe that it is both wise and just for Negro children to attend the same schools as whites, [but] I am firmly convinced--not only that integrated schools are not required--but that the Constitution does not permit any interference whatsoever by the federal government in the field of education." Says he, taking aim at the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation decision: "The Constitution is what its authors intended it to be and said it was--not what the Supreme Court says it is."

AGRICULTURE : "There is . . . a positive evil in these [soil-bank and acreage-retirement] programs: in effect, they reward people for not producing. For a nation that is expressing great concern over its 'economic growth,' I cannot conceive of a more absurd and self-defeating policy than one which subsidizes non-production." Goldwater's solution: "Prompt and final termination of the farm subsidy program."

LABOR REFORM : "Graft and corruption are symptoms of the illness that besets the labor movement, not the cause of it. The cause is the enormous economic and political power now concentrated in the hands of union leaders." Says he, in support of so-called right-to-work bills: "As long as union leaders can force workers to join their organization, they have no incentive to act responsibly . . . If unions had to earn the adherence of their members, the result would be--not only more freedom for the working man--but much less dishonesty and highhandedness in the management of union affairs."

WELFARE: "The recipient of welfarism . . . mortgages himself to the federal government. In return for benefits--which, in the majority of cases, he pays for--he concedes to the government the ultimate in political power--the power to grant or withhold from him the necessities of life as the government sees fit."

FOREIGN POLICY : "American leaders,both political and intellectual, are searching desperately for means of 'appeasing' or 'accommodating' the Soviet Union . . . The American people are being told that, however valuable their freedom may be, it is even more important to live. A craven fear of death is entering the American consciousness." To Goldwater, the reason for the "failure" of U.S. policy is obvious: "Our leaders have not made victory the goal of American policy . . . We have . . . 'waged' peace, while the Communists wage war . . . We have tried to pacify the world. The Communists mean to own it. Here is why the contest has been an unequal one, and why, essentially, we are losing it." Goldwater would win it by withdrawing recognition of Communist nations, sending strong, limited-war forces to aid Hungary-type satellite revolts, and encouraging such strong anti-Communists as the Chinese Nationalists to watch for the proper opportunity for liberating "the enslaved peoples of Asia."

Barry Goldwater's Conscience is not likely to win many disciples to the Republican Party in an election year when the middle of the road is already overcrowded. But his book serves notice that the Old Guard has new blood, that a hardworking, successful politico has put up his stand on the right side of the road and intends to shout for all he is worth as the parade goes by.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.