"Does the Brotherhood exist?"

"That Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you, and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is yes or no. As long as you live, it will be a riddle in your mind."

From 1984 by George Orwell

During the past year many of you have received sensitive material regarding criminal abuses within the high command of The John Birch Society from the following sources:

1. Harry Brandler -- former Illinois Coordinator
2. Tim Weir -- former JBS Staff Fund Raiser and St. Louis Coordinator
3. Donald Prang -- former JBS Comptroller
4. Rex Westerfield -- former JBS Public Relations Director
5. Bruce Taylor -- former JBS Director of Advertising and Sales
6. Dick Weiss -- former South Dakota Coordinator
7. Tim Heinan -- former JBS Ad Hoc Committee Coordinator
8. Nicholas J. Bove, Jr. -- former Research Assistant to Robert Welch
9. John Deckert -- former Coordinator for Central and Southern New Jersey
10. Ted Henrickson -- former Coordinator for Southern New Jersey and Delaware
(This is only a partial listing)

JBS Council Members - Past and present

The following biographical sketches were taken, verbatim, from a book, THE KANGAROO COURT VERSUS THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. It was published in 1963 by A.J. MacDonald and Associates and, we should add, written in defense of the John Birch Society. We have reproduced nearby the full title page of this particular volume. Observe - this copy we are using was once available from a St. Paul American Opinion Bookstore. When you finish reading these biographies, which include two thirds of Charter Members present in Indianapolis on Dec. 8 & 9, 1958, we believe you will begin to understand why American Opinion Bookstores no longer sells it.

On the following pages are listed a few of those important people who are backing and supporting the Society as members of the John Birch Council.

1. William J. Grede

In the February 1977 John Birch Society Bulletin, Welch describes Grede as a "truly great American (p. 27)." This "great American" was a "director" of none other than the 7th Federal Reserve Bank - an important arm of the infamous Federal Reserve System. As Birch authority Gary Allen states in his Rockefeller File: "For fifty years the Federal Reserve - CFR - Rockefeller Insider crowd (observe how Allen uses all of these terms together and interchangeably) has advocated and carried out policies aimed at increasing the power of their satellite, the Soviet Union (p. 108)."

That being the case, what was a founding Council Member of the JBS - a man who is now Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council - doing as a member of the crowd Allen says increases the power of the Soviet Union? Coincidence?? No more a coincidence than Grede's membership in the quasi-Masonic National Council of the YMCA - which we shall deal with later.

Incidentally, Grede is listed by Helen Peters in her treatise, Is the John Birch Society Subversive? as Chairman of National Bible Week put up by the Laymen's National Committee of the National Council of Churches. This we suppose is the "Conservative" Arm of the National Council of Churches.
 
 

2. Robert D. Love

Although Bob Love is no longer on the Council, he was still a member for a number of years and as such is entitled to some examination. Bob Love is listed here as "a Thirty-second Degree KCCH Mason, a member of the Median Shrine [emphasis ours]."

What was a Thirty-second Degree Mason doing on the Council of the John Birch Society? Indeed, he was not the only highly placed Mason on the Council. What is the significance of this?

In order to understand how significant it could be, we must consult Masonic authority Albert Pike -- whom Welch himself has identified on numerous occasions as one of the major Master Conspirators of the Nineteenth Century:

"To the crowd we must say: we worship a God, but it is the God one adores without superstition. To you Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Bretheren of the 32nd [which by the way was Love's level - N.B.], 31st and 30th degrees: all of us initiates of the high degrees should maintain the Masonic religion in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine... Yes, Lucifer is God, and, unfortunately Adonay is also God... religious philosophy in its purity and truth consists in the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay. (Albert Pike, quoted in A.C. de la Rive: La Femme et l'Enfant dinis la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle, p. 588. Also quoted by Vicomte Leon de Poncins, Freemasonry and the Vatican, p. 6).

Believe it or not, Welch has given us his answer. It is in the John Birch Society Bulletin of October, 1973. In this bulletin he does not refer directly to Bob Love as a Thirty-Second Degree Mason. Instead he comments on organized Masonry in general. On pages 13-14 he attempts to answer the charge that he himself may be a Mason. And here is his startling response: "So What?" (emphasis ours).

Then Welch continues to defend his strange (to put it mildly) defense by adding "At least ninety-five percent of the four million ordinary (observe that Pike told us what a 32nd Degree Mason believes -- a 32nd Degree Mason like Love is no ordinary Mason) American Masons are just as patriotic as you or I." Which kind of makes you wonder about Welch's concept of patriotism.

But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to state that he was invited on several occasions to "speak out against Communism at Masonic Lodges (p. 14)." And he assures us he did this with "no punches pulled." So he must have told them about Pike - the occult high philosopher of all organized Masonry. In fact Welch would have had to expose Pike if he was determined not to pull any punches. He would have had to do this because a man who believes "veracity is the very core of morality (p. 14)" would never conceal the truth. Or would he?

Andrew Lane, a member of the Belmont Staff, has stated the following in response to a concerned Bircher's inquiry (see reproduction of entire letter nearby): "Mr. Welch had made speeches exposing parts (emphasis ours) of the Communist Conspiracy before Masonic Lodges on several occasions." We wonder why Welch declined to expose the whole operation instead of just the "parts" Lane mentions. Certainly his speeches at some of these Lodges must have been recorded. If Welch has nothing to hide, why doesn't he make public to justifiably concerned members of the JBS the up-to-now secret comments which he himself has admitted making in Masonic Lodges, not just once, but on several occasions?
 
 

3. William Benton McMillan

McMillan is not listed anywhere, as far as we are concerned, as a 32nd Degree Mason. He was, however, a member of the St. Louis Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations (see reproduced page nearby from Power Behind The Government Today by Helen P. Lasell: Liberty Publications, 520 Fifth Avenue, N.Y., N.Y., 1963).

So McMillan, who was by the way present in Indianapolis for the founding of the Society and was the first Life Member of the Society -- see pages 258 and 274 of the LIFE AND WORDS OF ROBERT WELCH by G. Edward Griffin) was a member of what Dan Smoot has called the "Invisible Government." Any informed Bircher knows that the CFR is a subversive clique preparing to merge us into a Communist one-world Government. Read None Dare Call It Conspiracy for the full story.
 
 

4. Frederick Chase Koch

If it should seem strange that a founding Council member like McMillan was also a CFR member, it shouldn't be. Koch, another founding Council member (JBS* that is) was -- according to the 1964-1965 Who's Who (page 1120), available at your local non-JBS library (we have reproduced the section in question nearby). -- President of The Coleman Company, Inc., "builder oil refineries in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia (emphasis ours), Rumania (emphasis ours), Portugal, Italy, Near East..." We wonder if Koch signed that JBS petition to stop aid and trade with our Communist enemies. He probably did. Should you dare to ask Welch about the apparent contradiction here, he will very likely reply with a form letter saying: "So What? -- And thank you for checking with this office."
 
 

5. J. Nelson Shepherd

Shepherd is a member of the quasi-Masonic Rotary Club, Elks Club, YMCA Board, and last -- but not least of all -- the very elite Newcomen Society. The current president of the Newcomen Society is Charles Penrose, Jr. Mr. Penrose has been its President since at least 1959. Penrose is a member in good standing of such sophisticated subversive one-world outfits as the "Pilgrims of the United States" and the "English-Speaking Union" (see reproductions of page 2456 of the 1976-1977 Who's Who in America (Volume II) and page 545 of Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Associations on a nearby page).

So that you may get an idea of the kind of people involved with the Pilgrims and the English-Speaking Union, we have reproduced nearby the remarks of the U.S. Congressman from Montana, the Hon. J. Thorlkelson, given in a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on August 20, 1940:

Steps Toward British Union, a World State, and International Strife - Part III

Mr. THORKELSON. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my own remarks in the RECORD, I include a pamphlet by John J. Whiteford. This pamphlet should be of interest to every Member of Congress because it deals with a subject that will soon confront us, as it did in 1917:

In the past it has been largely responsible for drawing this country into the World War at a cost of thousands of our young men and billions of dollars and a long period of depression. It does not work openly and it is not generally recognized by the public. It does not yell from soap boxes in Union Square, call strikes, picket or hold parades. It operates from the top down and so it reaches into every juncture of American life. It is the far reaching power of British propaganda to make this country subservient to Great Britain and the British Empire.

The scene is a banquet held at the Hotel Plaza, New York City, October 25, 1939. This banquet was given by the Pilgrim Society of America in honor of the Marquess of Lothian, British Ambassador of the United States. It is an old custom of the American Pilgrims to extend this honor to every newly-appointed British Ambassador, the same as the British Pilgrims invite every new American Ambassador to their midst at a banquet in London.

There are several curious things about these Pilgrim functions. In the first place there is present a these dinners an array of notables, such as it would be difficult to bring together under one roof for any other purpose and by any other society. The Lothian dinner was no exception. Presiding over this affair was Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, and chairman of the American Pilgrim Society. Among the guests were John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, Thomas W. Lamont and other members of the House of Morgan. Frank L. Polk, Jeremiah Milbank, James W. Gerard (former American ambassador to Germany), the French Ambassador to the United States, Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, U.S.A. Maj. Gen. John O. Harbord (chairman of the Radio Corporation of America), the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, and many other leading figures in government, diplomacy, politics, finance, banking, shipping, law, industry, insurance and education. These men had come especially to honor Lord Lothian and to hear him speak. Before this important audience Lord Lothian's speech could not merely be a light after-dinner talk of clever stories and witticisms. It was an important as front-page news.

A few prominent Pilgrim members, past and present, are listed below: J.P. Morgan, Russell Leffingwell, Henry P. Davison, John W. Davis, John D. Rockefeller, Harry Rockefeller, Ogden Mills Reid, Henry Morgenthau, Otto Kahn, Robert Fulton Cutting, James B. Clews, John B. Trevor, William Fellowes Morgan, Henry W. Taft, Adolph Ochs, James Speyer, Charles H. Rabin, Sir Ashley Sparks, George F. Trewbridge, Phillip Rhinelander, Andrew W. Mellon, Albert H. Wiggin. J. W. Hill, John F. O'Ryan, Frank L. Polk, George R. Goeshals, Julius Ochs Adler, Alfred I. Aiken, Herbert I. Aldrich, John Whitney, W.B. Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Vincent Astor, Julius S. Bache, Robert Lew Boron, Ancell H. Bail, David H. Biddle, Robert W. Bigelow, Irving T. Bush, Newcomb Carleton, Joseph H....

In the nature of their exclusive membership and... the Pilgrims may be termed the wholesale agency for promoting the interests of Britain in this country. It is strictly a Tory organization. The retail outlet is the more widely known English-Speaking Union, which has for its avowed purpose:

"To draw together in the bond of comradeship the English-Speaking people of the United States and of the British Empire by the disseminating knowledge of each in the other and by reverence for their common institutions."

It is interesting to note that the English-Speaking Union originated in London in the fateful year of 1917 when America bared her strong arm in defense of democracy. Like the Pilgrims, the English-Speaking Union has a British organization with headquarters in London and an American branch with central offices in New York. The purposes of the two organizations are virtually the same and there is an interlocking directorate and membership.

The patron of the English-Speaking Union (London) is His Majesty the King. The honorary president of the American English-Speaking Union is the prominent Pilgrim, John W. Davis, successor to the late Walter Hines Page as America's wartime Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Presidential Candidate in 1924, and member of J.P. Morgan & Co. As treasurer of the American English-Speaking Union is listed Harry P. Davison, also a Morgan partner whose father was instrumental in having J.P. Morgan & Co. appointed exclusive purchasing agents for the British Government in America during the World War. Another director of the English-...

Elitist clubs like the Pilgrims and much less sophisticated offshoots from Masonry like the YMCA and the seemingly innocuous Elks and Rotary Clubs are in reality philosophically interconnected sects within the overall Masonic framework of the Luciferian tradition of Albert Pike. Pope Leo XIII pointed this out in his famous Encyclical, Humanum Genus:

"There exists in the world a certain number of sects which although seemingly different one from another as to name, ritual, form and origin are, however, similar due to the analogy of their aim and chief principles. Indeed, they are identical to Freemasonry which is, for them all, the central point from which they proceed and toward which they converge." (Leo XIII, as quoted by Monseigneur Jouin: The Papacy and Freemasonry, pp. 3,4)

6. Robert Waring Stoddard

Stoddard is Mr. Big on the Council. He too was a director and president of the YMCA. Even more interesting is that he is Chairman of the Board of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette (this according to the 1976-1977 Who's Who In America, page 3030 -- see reproduction nearby) --influential papers whose editors belong to the local Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations.

When John F. McManus -- during a speech he gave in Worcester, Massachusetts in the summer of 1973 -- was asked by a reporter from the Gazette about the patent contradiction of Birch Council Member Stoddard allowing CFR members to determine editorial policy for his paper, Birch Society Public Relations Director McManus replied, "Why don't you ask Bob Stoddard?" The next day McManus was severely chewed out by Welch himself for "embarrassing" Stoddard. Jack was so upset over the incident that he told the whole story to his research assistant who just happened to be this writer during that particular summer.

Stoddard is Mr. Establishment Massachusetts. After all, a Director of the First National Bank of Boston, the Wyman-Gordon Company, and the Raytheon Company (a good size defense contractor) is the Establishment. We wonder about his dedication to the "cause" which so many less fortunate Birchers have given their all for. Or perhaps Stoddard knows better? And like Welch would simply say, "So What?"
 
 

7. T. Coleman Andrews

Andrews was a founding member of the Society, present at its creation in Indianapolis -- and like Robert Love -- a 32nd degree Mason (see 1960-61 Who's Who in America reproduced Pg. 12). But we already know that being a 32nd degree Mason does not disqualify one from being on the Council. For Welch's position on Masonry is expressed in two words "So What?"

Oswald Wirth would not agree at all with those two words. Wirth speaks with some authority, being a 33rd Degree Mason and an author of many books on Freemasonry, he held an eminent position with fellow Masons as an initiate of he Grand Lodge of France. In Wirth's L'deal Iniatique, he explains the great significance of an initiation into a Masonic Order:

"It is a serious matter to ask for Initiation, for one has to sign a pact...it demands that the man's soul be truly committed in the act." (op.cit., de Poncins, p. 48)

"The beguiling serpent, who incites us to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, symbolizes one particular instinct. He breaks away from the conservative instinct and represents both a nobler and subtler instinct, whose purpose is to make man aware of his need to rise in the scale of beings".

"This secret spur is the promoter of all progress, and of all the conquests which enlarge the sphere of action both of individuals and of groups"

"That explains why the Serpent, inspiring disobedience, in subordination and revolt, was held accursed by the ancient theocracies, while at the same time he was honoured among the initiated." (op.cit., de Poncins, pp. 87-88)

"I want to convince you as I am convinced, that even under such leadership (his, that is -- N.B) we have no chance (emphasis ours) unless the specific battles are fought as part of a larger and more lasting movement (like Wirth's or Pike's Grand Orient Masonry perhaps? -- N.B.) to restore once again an upward reach in the heart of man." (The Blue Book, p. 115)

8. Spruille Braden

Braden had quite an impressive record with the U.S. State Department. He was a resident member of the Council on Foreign Relations -- check the index in The Invisible Government by Dan Smoot. But even more interesting, according to Volume 26, page 295 of Who's Who in America 1976-1977 (reproduced nearby), Braden was a director of the W. Averell Harriman Securities Corporation.

For those of you who have not heard of Averell Harriman, we refer you to page 217 of the wirebound paperback edition of The Politician by Robert Welch:

"So we'll skip all of the documentation and most of the comment in listing just a few more of the Communists, Communist Sympathizers, or extreme left wingers with whom Eisenhower has been on very friendly terms. Such a list would include: John G. Winant, Harry Dexter White, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Anna M. Rosenberg, Sidney Hillman, Perl Mesta, Jacob Javits, W. Averell Harriman (emphasis ours), Milton Katz, and Harry Hopkins."

On page 89 we find the following interesting admission:

"The banking house in which I had agreed to become a partner never passed the planning stage. I arranged with Averell Harriman to become an associate of W. A. Harriman & Company, and to make my offices with them, occupying a desk in the partners' room with Averell and Roland Harriman and other partners in the firm. Although I was a partner not in but of the firm, I bought about $25,000 worth of stock and about the same amount in the W. A. Harriman Securities Corporation, a very closely held investment trust."

Therefore, the following quote from page 94 of Braden's 1971 book we believe merits your attention:

"I was appointed an advisor particularly to help one of the delegates, Paul Warburg, distinguished (sic) as a principal architect of the Federal Reserve System deal with the Chilean delegation. I knew Samuel Claro Lastarria, its chief, and his colleagues on the delegation. I was one of a dozen or so American advisors. We would all sit around the table with delegates, who were supposed to be discussing inter-American financial problems following World War I."

"But if there was little real activity on the financial side, the social side was lively enough and Maria and I had a fine time. We became very friendly with Paul Warburg; (emphasis added) also with John J. Raskob (one of my fellow advisors on the Chilean Committee), the Dupont official who later became national chairman of the Democratic Party. It was at a reception during the conference that I first met and briefly chatted with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He was a magnificent looking man, still of course in full possession of his physical powers."

Much is available on Paul Warburg. As an example Gary Allen wrote an article in the March 1970 "American Opinion" entitled "The Bankers" - Conspiratorial Origins of the Federal Reserve. We quote from pages 27 and 28 of that article:

"Among other international bankers financing the Russian Revolution were Olaf Aschberg of the Nye Banken of Stockholm, the Rhine Westphalian Syndicate, and a wealthy banker named Jivotovsky whose daughter later married Leon Trotsky. However, the chief European funding came from Max Warburg of Hamburg, Germany, who was the brother of Jacob Schiff's son-in-law, Felix Warburg, as well as Schiff's partner, Paul Warburg. Curiously, the latter was the man most instrumental in the establishment of the Federal Reserve System."

Apparently Braden wasn't aware of things like Operation Keelhaul or maybe that's why he is smiling, and if asked about Eisenhower's participation in the murder of millions of innocent people in World War II and after, he would simply reply, "So What?"

It is hardly necessary to reproduce here the "position" of the Belmont Brotherhood on Roosevelt or Eisenhower. Although it is worth noting that these two photographs are at least 20 years apart, indicating a certain constancy on the part of Mr. Braden.

About the time of Braden's appointment as "our" Ambassador to Cuba, he reports on page 264 of his book Diplomats and Demogogues the following conversation between he (Braden) and Nelson Rockefeller:

"Now," Nelson asked, "what would you like us to do in regard to Cuba?"

"Nelson," I answered, "there's just one thing I insist on, and that is that I am the Ambassador. I want your solemn promise that nothing - and I mean nothing - will be done there by your office without my (emphasis added) prior approval. I'll be coordinating committee there and I'll cooperate with you. (emphasis added) But absolutely nothing is to be done - no one is to be employed, no contract is to be signed without my knowledge and approval. If that is understood I think we can work together very well. (emphasis added)

"Nelson agreed with alacrity."

"Obviously I had averted a great peril by obtaining Nelson's agreement to keep hands off in Cuba. And he kept his word scrupulously, even to the point of asking my approval (emphasis added) before sending down representatives to carry out an order from the President himself."

Braden devotes fourteen pages of his book to a description of a pleasant relationship between himself and Nelson Rockefeller. What, may we be so bold as to ask, was a "conservative" and future JBS Council member doing in such a relationship?
 
 

9. Louis Ruthenberg

The late Ruthenberg, like the living Bill Grede, was a Director of a Federal Reserve Bank -- this one in St. Louis. Thus we have another man who was once on the Council associated in a major way with the infamous Federal Reserve System.
 
 

10. Ralph E. Davis

Davis is another Mason on the Council. We are not told what degree he it. Not that it matters all that much however, for the lower degrees supply the pool for the higher degrees. So for all we know Davis may be a 34th Degree Mason. That would even make him higher than Albert Lantoine -- a Mason who aroused a great deal of controversy with his Lettre au Souverain Pontife in 1937. Masons of any degree should, if they are truly consistent - concur with his following observation.

"There is a higher sphere where knowledge and Faith, though they cannot meet, can at least tolerate one another. To those seeking the one, to those who possess the other, they give the same delights and the same anguish. There is much purity and grandeur in the words of the philosophers in the Word of the Redeemer.

So much the better, I say. Possessing critical and inquiring minds, we are the servants of Satan. You the guardians of truth, are the servants of God. These two complement one another. Each needs the other." Albert Lantaine, as quoted in Freemasonry and the Vatican, p. 111.
 
 

Masland is not in THE KANGAROO COURT VERSUS THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. But he was listed by Welch as a member of the Council in the JBS Bulletin for February 1960 (p. 4) which can be found in the wirebound White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960. Welch forgets to tell you here that Masland was a Mason. Who's Who for 1964-65 mentions this conveniently omitted fact (see reproduction nearby of page 1297 of 1964-65 of Who's Who].
 
 

12. Cola Godden Parker

Parker was also mentioned in the February, 1960 Bulletin (p. 4) by Welch. Although Welch forgot to mention that he was both a Mason and a member of the mysterious Newcomen Society (whose president, Charles Penrose, Jr. is directly tied in with the subversive Pilgrims and English-Speaking Union). Observe page 2106 of the 1950-51 Who's Who reproduced nearby.
 
 

13. Joseph Bracken Lee

Lee was an early JBS Council member. He is described in the 1976-77 Who's Who in America page 1856 as a 33rd degree Mason, Knight Commander Court of Honor. This puts Mr. Lee at the same level as Albert Lantoine and Oswald Wirth who, as you may recall from the above, say Masons as high as Lee honor and serve Satan!

Incidentally, we find in Who's Who in America a whole raft of extreme left wingers who are either 32nd or 33rd degree Masons. Such a list would include George McGovern (1972 Democratic Presidential Candidate) and Earl Warren (former Supreme Court Justice) who we understand the Belmont Brotherhood was trying to "impeach".
 
 

II. Other Council Members

For the most part, the remaining Council members constitute a form of window dressing to impress the average Bircher (potential, that is) with the "distinguished" leadership of the Society. We have some doctors to impress other doctors (e.g. Grady, Adamson, and McDonald); Stillwell J. Conner - a relative of Robert J. Koenig, former Major Coordinator for the Midwest currently hiding in Belmont as a Home Office Coordinator after having instructed at least one Coordinator to commit loan and stock fraud in the State of Illinois; a couple of military men (Bunker and Stone), and a variety of directors of publicly held corporations.
 
 

III. Other Birch Figures -- Inner and Outer Circles
 
 

1. Martin J. Condon, III

Condon is a non-Council member whose name appears on the Editorial Advisory Committee of American Opinion magazine. It appeared on the flyleaf of a recent 1976 issue (see page nearby.) He is a director of Schering-Plough Corporation, one of the many publicly-held corporations represented by members of the JBS Council. Condon, according to Who's Who in America, 1976-77 (see reproduction nearby of page 634), is also a member of the mysterious Newcomen Society.
 
 

2. George Schuyler - Contributing Editor to American Opinion

Schuyler is reputed to be a "conservative" journalist. Yet in 1934-35 he was -- according to volume 2 page 2795 of Who's Who in America 1976-77 (reproduced nearby) -- a special assistant in publicity for no less a notorious organization for the NAACP. From 1937 to 1944 he was business manager of the NAACP publication: The Crisis. For those of you who are unaware of the Communist connections of the NAACP, check it out in Volume One of the Biographical Dictionary of the Left by Francis X. Gannon -- available at the nearest bookstore. We are in the process of completing a study of the other current connections of Mr. Schuyler listed at the bottom of the attached Who's Who and we intend to publish these disturbing facts in an upcoming book.
 
 

3. E. Merrill Root - Former Associate Editor of American Opinion

Root, prior to his death a number of years ago, had numerous articles published in American Opinion -- not to mention those which appeared in Review of the News. Western Island (the JBS publishing affiliate) published the book, America's Steadfast Dream. He was also a close confidant and personal friend of Robert Welch.

Imagine our surprise when his name appeared in the index of a New York State Investigating Committee (see the title page of the Investigation and the article in question) which was charged with exposing the Communist Conspiracy in America in the early 1920's under the leadership of the Hon. Clayton R. Lusk.

REVOLUTIONARY RADICALISM
ITS HISTORY, PURPOSE AND TACTICS
WITH AN EXPOSITION OF THE STEPS BEING TAKEN AND REQUIRED TO CURB IT

BEING THE REPORT OF THE JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
INVESTIGATING SEDITIOUS ACTIVITIES,
FILED APRIL 24, 1920 IN THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

(This is a "humorous" weekly that is frankly apologetic towards revolutionary radicalism.)

...because they all admit it. In one respect they are all the same kind of Socialists, the kind that carefully avoids doing anything to bring Socialism about. Now if Mr. Lenin and Mr. Trotsky would only become that kind of Socialist, nothing would be too good for them.

Contempt for jail is the beginning of liberty.

(Issue of July 10, 1919)

It is so comfortable to find oneself 100% American. In the matter of adopting the red flag, I can, with all my heart, say AMERICA FIRST.

No one can say nowadays that he doesn't know what we fought the war for -- the reason becomes clearer every day: it was to decide the momentous issue whether we should be jailed by the Kaiser or Woodrow Wilson.

Personally, I would find the Kaiser more comfortable -- his sentences are much more lenient!

Another puzzle is no longer obscure, too -- Why the Statue of Liberty turns her back on America.

I don't like sermons, but I would like to hear one on the text, "Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth, preached by Woodrow Wilson and illustrated by incidents in his own life.

E. Merrill Root

(Issue of July 10, 1919.)
 
 

Varney's Committee on Pan American Policy has now become part of The John Birch Society Bulletin Agenda Section (number IV). Varney himself is writing this section of the Bulletin. Just who or what is Harold Lord Varney?

The Lusk Committee Report. Part I. Volume 2. Page 1387, reveals that Eugene Lyons and Harold Lord Varney were on the editorial board of The Workers' World: an openly pro-Communist publication. Nearby are some pages from this magazine -- note the use of the terms "class" and "comrades" -- also note the way they refer to May Day as the Workers' Holiday. Perhaps Welch will say "So What?" to this coincidence also.

Published at 7 East 15 Street, New York, Home 301 Editorial Board. Andie A. Cleveland, Eugene Lyons, Harold L Varney Published weekly by the Workers' International Information Group

May 1, 1919

The workers of the United States have a sore grievance. The polls are crowded with men and women who spoke what they thought the truth, and spoke it unafraid, who would not be driven to prostitute their consciences by threats, who dared to protest that the class war transcends and is more important than any war between groups of nations. Men and women are arrested for terms equivalent to life imprisonment for ... adherence to an ideal and loyalty to their...

There is no more appropriate time than May Day, the Workers' Holiday. Every jailer must lay down his ... And no shop or factory should be in operation. Hotels, restaurants, theatres, department stores, etc., must be closed on May 1st.

The foulest blackguardry in history has always been the blackguardry of our own class. The blackest despotism has always been the despotism of our own labor renegades -- bloated, for brief moments, with dishonourable power. It is these "men of the people" these..., these Briands, these Benedict Arnolds, these men of craven hearts and cankered souls, who stalk through history, ...labor for a handful of the masters' gold. And while liberty writhes, they exult. Such is the figure of our own American Noske -- our Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, the Great Despoter.

"THE FOLLOWING IS A SAMPLE OF THE BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA AT THE...PRINT, THE SHAME OF BEING A SCAB.

"Is there a more contemptible creature in the world than the one who deserts his fellows and helps defeat his own side? No, there is not.

"Are you aware, America and British soldiers, that you are earning such contempt for yourselves?...

"All their talk of intervention to 'save' Russia, amounts to this: that they are going to return the land to the landlords, the factories and mines to the capitalists, and incidentally to grab a bit for themselves in the way of trading rights and concessions. For of course, they want to compel the Russian workers to repay the loans contracted by the tyrannical and corrupt Czar...

"Cannot you see that this is part of the same class war that you have been carrying on in England and America?...

"Comrades! Drop your dirty work. Turn your guns on your real enemies, the ... and the capitalists?"
 
 

Dresser is listed in the 1976-77 Who's Who in America (reproduced nearby) as a Mason. He is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of American Opinion.
 
 

6. Charles Edison

Edison was also listed as a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of American Opinion early in the life of that magazine.

He was, as you may note from the attached 1958-59 Who's Who in America, Director of the Federal Housing Administration as well as a member of the Pilgrim connected Newcomen Society.

In the preceding sections we have dealt with a number of individuals on the Council and those connected in other ways with the Belmont Brotherhood. This is merely a small sampling -- the tip of the iceberg. As we write, our staff is coming up with many more "coincidences" which we just can't include to meet our publication deadline. But all of it will appear in our forthcoming book -- including more high-level Masons and members of the mysterious Newcomen Society.

IV. The Official JBS Position on Freemasonry

As we have already mentioned, Welch's position on having High Level Masons involved with the Society is: "So What?" And just to show you that we are not kidding about this or, as Welch would say, "pulling punches," we now present an uncut, uncensored official JBS reply to a specific inquiry by a then JBS member.

December 20, 1972

Dear Mr. Leiske,

The JBS has no position on Freemasonry. Some of our staunchest JBS members are also Masons. George Washington was a Mason, seek the highest degree he could earn, and so were many others among our Founding Fathers. The Boston Tea Party was perpetrated by an adjourned meeting of Masons. Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the instigators of the American War of Independence, was head of all the Masons in America. The Masons today are usually the outstanding and solid citizens of their communities. Beyond the earned degree, there may be other degrees, upon open invitation, so secret that no one but those inside know about them. It is in these upper echelons that the Conspiracy may have taken root, or may use the lower echelons as a recruiting ground. But that is only conjecture or opinion. It is not a position.

As for Dr. Stuart Crane, he is developing into a king-sized troublemaker and neutralizer and source of divisiveness. The less you listen to him, the more effective you will be as a fighter against the Communist Conspiracy.

May you have a very merry Christmas and emerge from the holiday... with a renewed spirit for this fight.

Sincerely yours, Andrew Lane

February 20, 1973

Dear Mr. Leiske,

The information you sent on the Masonic Order is very revealing and I thank you for it. I know absolutely nothing about the Order and make no claim to, but I do know many members of the Order, have over the years worked with many of them in a book, and related to several, all of whom are of unquestioned patriotism and loyalty to all that is finest in American and in Christian traditions. Now, if it is true that the Communist Conspiracy has infiltrated the Masonic Order, that does not surprise me in the least. The Conspirators have infiltrated every organization worth infiltrating, including our churches.

As for the League of Just Men, what they profess is precisely the opposite of what promote privately. Please read the enclosed copy of "More Stately Mansions" for a quick reminder of what The League really wants to institute. Nothing could be further from the minds of the Masons I know.

I do not want to engage in an interchange or whatever with you over the Masonic Orders because I know nothing about them; and if I were the coward you seem to think I am, I would hardly be in the JBS.

Sincerely yours, Andrew Lane

"Having made our views in these areas abundantly clear in various publications with which you as a member should be familiar, and having summarized those views once again in this letter, we can only add the following for the record, and so as to dispel any suggestion that we are unwilling to answer such charges directly:

'Mr. Welch is not now, nor has he ever been a member of any Masonic order.'

'To the best of our knowledge (emphasis ours -- N.B.) this is true also of the members of our Council, although we have never seen any need to poll them in this regard.'"

Naturally we don't expect such a thing to happen. Fall also included this phrase as a qualification in his letter to Leiske: "although we have never seen any need to (investigate the charges -- N.B.)" You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see the need for such an investigation. Unless, of course, you knew the charges were true and wanted to prevent them from becoming widely-known to members of the John Birch Society. Color it a cover-up -- an art at which the BELMONT BROTHERHOOD is very proficient.

Fall, like a number of Staff people in Belmont, is ostensibly a Catholic. In fact, it has been said by a number of sources that some 50% of the JBS Staff is Catholic. If that indeed is the case, those Catholics had better do their homework. Masonry has been explicitly condemned by the Catholic Church for generations and has prohibited its members from cooperation in the propagation of Masonic ideas in any way whatsoever. Below we submit a partial list of the proclamations against Masonry issued by the Catholic Church in the hope that all Christians (especially those remaining Catholics on the JBS staff) give it some sober reflection.
 
 

Clement XII	In Eminenti	April 18, 1738
Benedict XIV	Providas	March 16, 1751
Clement XIII	A. Quodie	Sept. 14, 1758
Clement XIII	Ut Primum	Sept. 3, 1759
Clement XIII	Christianae Republicae Salus	Nov. 25, 1760
Pius VI	Inscrutabile	Dec. 25, 1775
Pius VII	Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo	Sept. 14, 1820
Leo XII	Quo Graviora	March 13, 1826
Pius VIII	Traditi	May 21, 1829
Gregory XVI	Mirari Vos	Aug. 15, 1832
Pius IX	Qui Pluribus	Nov. 9, 1846
Pius IX	Omnibus Quantisque	April 20, 1849
Pius IX	Multiplices Inter	Sept. 25, 1865
Leo XIII	Humanum Genus	April 20, 1864
Leo XIII	Letter to Italian Episcopate	Dec. 8, 1892
Leo XIII	Letter to the Italian People	Dec. 8, 1892
Pius X	Vehementer	Feb. 11, 1906
Pius X	Letter to France	Jan. 6, 1907

 

V. The Unknown Soldier

The late E. Merrill Root, in his introduction to The Life and Words of Robert Welch, wrote the following paragraph:

"Until Robert Welch is fully known, he may well be the Unknown Soldier of our time. But in the time to come, if there is to be a future and a history for the United States of America, Robert Welch will be revered (emphasis ours) as the Unknown Soldier should be, with a shrine and the undying flame (emphasis ours). (E. Root, as quoted in The Life and Words of Robert Welch, p. xv).

But Welch always maintained John Birch University was paramount in his plans for the "movement". That movement (not what misled Birchers incorrectly perceive it to be) is what we intend to discuss now. In doing so, however, we do not intend to review again the repeated examples of moral turpitude in the Belmont office; the frequent instances of Birch (Belmont level) No-Win policies sabotaging local JBS operations; the questionable accounting practices to inflate the Society's financial reports; state investigations of illegal JBS securities transactions; nepotism financed by membership dues and donations and the vicious smear campaigns directed against those Birchers who dared to speak out. Much of this material has already been covered in THE BELMONT CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE and THE ANATOMY OF A SMEAR as well as in the well-documented material of John DeFriend. Many more details will emerge in our forthcoming book -- of which this brief article is just a short preview.

In all of the preceding material, we were content to expose what was going on in Belmont without attempting to give our theories as to why such strange things were happening. But now we believe we have the answers -- answers which may explain why Welch's only explanation so far has been: "So What?" And believe it or not, most of the answers can be found in the Blue Book of the John Birch Society.

So let's look at some sections of it to discover exactly what Welch believes. Welch's reflections on religion and Christianity in particular strongly resemble those of Freemasonry. Most important of all, Welch proclaims Christianity has failed:

Through many centuries Christianity, despite all of its splits and schisms, supplied the fabric of morality for the whole Western World - through its threats of punishment, promises of rewards, and the humanizing effect of its proffered love by and for a Divine Father. But despite all the billions of words that have been written to the contrary, that fabric is now pierced and torn and weakened beyond dependability (emphasis ours). For a vast majority of those who proclaim themselves Christians today, and attend Church Services, do not really and literally believe in either the punishments, the rewards (note he never explains how he found this out) or even in the physical and biological existence of a Divine Father with any interest in their personal lives and actions. The momentum of a former belief, and the customs which grew out of it, still have great value. But the fabric is worn too thin to have its old effectiveness. (The Blue Book, p. 52)

On pages 138-141 Welch outdoes himself. On page 140 he states: "One philosopher will tell you that the possession of these upward traits in some species was purely an accident of nature, another that it was due to the plan of a Divine Being. To me they are both saying the same thing." Observe the similarity of that to this statement of Albert Lantoine, a 33rd Degree Mason:

"There is a higher sphere where knowledge and faith, though they cannot meet, can at least tolerate one another. To those seeking the one, to those who possess the other, they give the same delights and the same anguish. There is as much parity and grandeur in the words of the philosophers as in the Word of the Redeemer." (Albert Lantoine, as quoted by Vicomte Leon de Poncins, Freemasonry and the Vatican, p. 11)

Let all of us thank whatever God we severally worship (the Masonic Great Architect of the Universe perhaps -- N.B.) that there is so large a remnant of the really true believers still left. We (who is we? People like 33rd Degree Albert Lantoine and 32nd Degree Bob Love perhaps -- N.B.) honor them. We need (to use for what purpose? -- N.B.) their steadying adherence to the rock of reverence, and their aspiration of unwavering obedience to ancient and Divine Commandments (observe he does not say which ancient and Divine Commandments). (The Blue Book, p. 47)

The object of the ancient mysteries was to make men like unto gods. The mystery took on more of the divine nature as it rose morally and intellectually further beyond the level of common humanity. The programme of Initiation has not changed even in our own day: the modern Mason, too, also becomes more divine, but he realizes that he can only become so if he works divinely, that is, by completing the unfulfilled task of creation. Raised above the level of man's animal nature, the Builder, by carrying out the divine plan, himself became a god, in the ancient sense of the word. (O. Wirth, Le Livre du Compagnon, p. 74 - as quoted by Vicomte Leon de Poncins, Freemasonry and the Vatican, p. 88)

Fantastic? Of course it's fantastic. But everything we are talking about is fantastic. We are living in fantastic times and a fantastic situation. Or as Welch said in The Blue Book (p. 96): "We are in circumstances where it is realistic to be fantastic."

So let's be realistic here. The reason why Welch said "So What?" is because he is on the side of Freemasonry. No other explanation is possible. To try to explain away these passages in The Blue Book and Welch's nebulous position on Freemasonry is like insisting the earth is flat. But, unfortunately for Welch, we know that it is not.

You may object: 'Look at all the great things Welch has done - he has exposed the Illuminati.' Baloney. The Illuminati was merely a branch of the Conspiracy. How can one attack the Illuminati without attacking the diabolical power behind it: organized Freemasonry? Welch has provided the most valuable service of all time to the Conspiracy. He founded an organization to neutralize millions of Americans from discovering what the true power behind the Illuminati really was. And we concede the Mason's chose an extremely clever man to do the job. Welch, with the help of the Belmont Brotherhood, plays his role very effectively.

This author and countless other former Birchers and Staff members will be smeared for bringing these facts to life. But that no longer matters to us, for our enemy is Belmont, and we do not intend to lose sight of that fact for a minute. We are fighting the Masonic Belmont Brotherhood -- nobody else. Being fully aware of the imminence and horror of the danger we face from that source, we have no intention of being distracted by the carping of our friends, or of those who should be our friends and we hope will be our friends in time. For if we do there is entirely too much likelihood -- as we have already said elsewhere many times -- that in a few short years we shall all be hanging from the same lamp posts, while MASONIC TERROR reigns around us.

Our greatest problem, however, has been neither the lies of Belmont nor its subsequent recriminations. It has been the difficulty of getting the average Bircher to sit up and take an honest look at what is really happening. Contributing most to that difficulty are three factors. First is the apathy of the Birchers, induced by the incessant cackling of the Belmont chorus: "There is nobody here but us conservatives." Second is the vested interest in error, now held by so many thousands of Birchers (though it is, thank God, rapidly decreasing due mainly to the activities of The Belmont Brotherhood). They have accepted and believed so much Belmont propaganda in the past that they must now defend it as their own. Third is a circumstance which, unlike the other two, has not been created by The Belmont Brotherhood itself. But it has long been depended on by the Brotherhood, and is still depended on by them, as one of the greatest forces working in their favor. This is the fact that the fundamentally decent Bircher simply refuses to grasp the kind of enemy with which he now has to deal.

It is our hope that this small preview of what is to come will serve to give any interested individual a clear understanding of what we are trying to do and why it must be done, in this project for which we are now receiving so much help and encouragement from all parts of the country.

Sincerely,

Nicholas J. Bove, Jr.

Chairman, The GET US OUT! (of the JBS) Committee
P.O. Box 6167
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406
 
 

The Pilgrim Society & English-Speaking Union

The John Birch Society