MRA in Washington

Last month in Manhattan, parsnip-nosed Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman launched in the U. S. the latest campaign of his Oxford Groupers--Moral Re-Armament (TIME, May 22). Last week Dr. Buchman sought to sell MRA to the nation's Capital. To the Washington Star he sounded off in the copy writers' slogans which, over a period of years, he has diligently worked up. Sample: "Suppose everybody cared enough, everybody shared enough, wouldn't everybody have enough? There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed." On Sunday night, Dr. Buchman and his Groupers held a "National Meeting for Moral Re-Armament" in Constitution Hall.

Four thousand sympathetic, plushy, perspiring people filled the hall, but did not overflow it. They heard and applauded MRA messages from bigwigs, MRA testimonials from Groupers. They gave their greatest applause to Grouper "Bunny'' Austin, British tennis star, and accepted calmly enough the one message which made headlines. For the meeting, Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote: "A program of Moral Re-Armament cannot fail . . . to lessen the danger of armed conflict. Such Moral Re-Armament, to be most highly effective, must receive support on a world-wide basis" (see p. 15).

Once more a Buchmanite meeting, without making a great number of converts or stirring up a great deal of popular enthusiasm, had conveyed the impression that a great many important people were backing it. Of the more than 80 sponsors of the Washington gathering, nearly all bore "The Hon." before their names. Among them were six Cabinet members, a score of Senators, a spate of Congressmen. These big names had been gathered very much as supporters for a bill are gathered by lobbyists.

A few of the sponsors were active Buchmanites -- ex-Congressman Fred Albert Britten, Washington Columnist George Gould Lincoln, onetime Assistant Attorney General Harry Wallace Blair. A number of other sponsors were devout men who were well aware that MRA was a Buchmanite enterprise; among them Senator Borah and Attorney General Murphy, who said: "I know nothing about [MRA] except what is good." But a majority of the Hon. sponsors were bandwagon jumpers and politicians whose attitude was, "Hell, it's not controversial, is it?" Republican Minority Leader Joseph William Martin Jr., who had signed a statement for the MRA meeting's program ("Moral Re-Armament is a great need of the day"), said: "Sure, I'm for Moral Re-Armament, whatever that is. It's just like being against Sin. . . ."

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