DAILY NEWS NEW YORK'S PICTURE NEWSPAPER. WHAT IS THIS J. B. S.? Those initials above stand for John Birch Society. And, to paraphrase the late Will Rogers, all we know about the suddenly controversial outfit is what we read in the papers. What, actually, is all the ex- citement about? As we read and hear it, the organization was brought into being sometime in 1958 by a retired Massachusetts candy man- ufacturer named Robert H. W. Welch Jr. We don't know his political af- filiations, if any, though it's the Robert H. W. Welch Jr.: world's safest bet he's no member From candy to crusade. of the Communist Party, U. S. A. It was Welch's intense and unsecret hatred of Kremlin- guided traitors, he says, which inspired him to organize his John Birch Society. Air Force Capt. John Birch (whom Welch never had heard of until a few years ago) was murdered 10 days after the Japanese surrender, by supposedly friendly Chinese Communists. Birch then was a member of the OSS. He knew China well and spoke many of its dialects. Welch says Birch's "first cold-war murder" was covered up by U.S. Red agents. Right now, all of our country's obvious lefties, plus a considerable number of people who are not political south- paws, are howling for Welch's scalp, skin and all. They say he has called Dwight D. Eisenhower, Earl Warren, Harry Truman and John Foster Dulles, among others, Com- munists or Communist dupes. Welch Lots of Heat, denies some but not all of this. Little Light From the opposite sector of this noisy but confusing war come equally vehement statements. "Liberal" Sen. Stephen M. Young (D-Ohio) has yowled on the Senate floor that the society is a "Fascist group" containing "rightwing crackpots," that Welch is a "little Hitler." And so on. * The highly respected conservative leader, Sen. Barry Goldwater, on the other hand, concedes that the J. B. S. might include à few rabid extremists and crackpots in its membership, as well as real patriots. But, as far as he knows, the outfit's sole objective is to battle Communism night and day, and if necessary to use tactics as dirty and groin-kicking as the Commies' own. Yet, says Goldwater: this isn't "ultra-conservatism." It's just using our traitors' own tactics to lick 'em; and what, other things being equal, is wrong with that, this being a free country? Anyway, it's an interesting situation, and a unique facet is that both sides of the Donnybrook are requesting an official investigation of J.B.S. Welch himself says he'll welcome any questions which Senators or Representatives may want to fire at him, and he pledges himself never, never to hide behind the Fifth Amendment. So why not schedule one of your standard hearings on this outfit, Sen. Eastland, even though the official Commie "newspaper," The Worker, so far and most curiously, has refrained from demanding such a showdown? Reprinted With Permission Of THE NEWS New York's Picture Newspaper NO. 85