A Chance to Holler

As the intellectual idol of a large segment of U.S. conservatives. William F.

(God and Man at Yale) Buckley Jr.. 36, affects the role of an ideological provocateur, inciting arguments before the largest possible crowd. But except for an occasional appearance on TV--once with Jack Paar--Buckley has been forced to jab at liberals ("powerful but decadent'') and other targets within the confines of lecture halls or through his own little magazine.

National Review (circ. 65,000). This week conservatism's Cicero reached for a crowd of suitably Buckleyan size. By turning syndicated newspaper columnist, he suddenly boosted his audience to 7,000,000.

Homogeneously Conservative. Printed in 38 charter papers, Buckley's first column must have seemed something of a dud. Its target was a pamphlet. Communism: Threat to Freedom, issued last March by the Rev. John F. Cronin, S.S.,* of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in Washington. To Buckley. Father Cronin's main point--that the Communist threat is more external than internal--seemed hardly worth arguing ("the distinction has become old-fashioned and increasingly useless''). The columnist contented himself with an attack on the value of God as the Western world's ally. Wrote Buckley: "The principal error Father Cronin's pamphlet makes is to assume that we can beat the Communists by burnishing our own souls. Be honest, moral, tolerant, encourage national unity and racial integration, be charitable towards those with whom you disagree, and you will go to Heaven, to be sure, but your passage there might well be expedited by a Soviet bullet . . . Here is a secularization of the unique relationship between man and God. Be good and ye shall have nothing to fear from Soviet imperialism. It does not follow. The Communists know how to conquer good people too." Syndicating Buckley was the inspiration of Harry E. Elmlark, general manager of New York's George Matthew Adams Serv ice, whose wares run a gamut from comic strips and cooking advice to inspirational columnists, e.g., Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

"I approached the thing with some trepi dation." confesses Elmlark, a Kennedy Democrat, who felt that outspoken Right-Winger Bill Buckley might be "too hot to handle." But so far the papers Elm-lark has signed up are hardly the type to take exception to what they have bought.

From the Los Angeles morning Times (Sunday circ. 1,124,000) to the weekly Crown Point, Ind., Lake County Star (6,000), Buckley's syndication is homo geneously conservative. No New York City newspaper of any persuasion has bought Buckley.

"What Buttons to Push." Under con tract terms, Buckley will produce one column weekly, entitled "A Conservative Voice," for Sunday publication. The voice of conservatism is delighted at the chance to holler for his cause. "Conservatism," says he, "is very much alive and getting more so all the time. It's a marvelous reaction against the welfare state. Cuba, Belgrade and Russian testing enhanced the trend. So does Kennedy, who doesn't have the remotest idea of what to do, what buttons to push in that wonderful technical apparatus he is heading. And before long that liberal monopoly in our universities will be broken too. Conserva tive professors are already moving in and before long they will take over."

* The Sulpician Society, a Roman Catholic teaching order founded in France in 1642.

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