Westward Ho!

Barry Goldwater consented only reluctantly to speak last week at a Republican fund-raising dinner in Hershey, Pa. He was well aware that this was unfriendly territory: above him in their presidential preferences, Pennsylvania Republicans probably rate their own Governor William Scranton, New York's Nelson Rockefeller and Michigan's George Romney.

The Hershey Arena was only two-thirds filled. Barry's speech, as Goldwater speeches go, was singularly lacking in fire. He took on the Kennedy Administration, tied it to big-city bossism and machine politics. The audience responded with listless applause. Seated on the platform, Governor Scranton appeared to be bored. All in all, this was the unhappiest appearance that Goldwater has made in a long while.

"Talk, Talk, Talk." Moving west, however, Barry found audiences more to his liking. In San Antonio, Texas, Republicans enthusiastically welcomed their favorite, and Barry responded with a hard-hitting blast at a Kennedy Administration foreign policy that "stands wall-eyed in Berlin and cross-eyed in Paris and blind in Cuba." The Administration policy, he cried, "responds like a high-strung puppy to any mention of colonialism but shies like a frightened colt from the real problems of development in underdeveloped lands. Such nations are free in name only. And the present response to their problems has been a response in name only."

Taking on the Alliance for Progress, Goldwater ran down the list of Latin American countries where, he insisted, revolution and continued instability reflect Kennedy's failures. The Alliance, he said, has brought "no new unity, no true alliance and no real progress." The Administration has polished off Latin American problems--"as indeed the whole world's problems"--as "political sloganry. They are not solved; they are merely salved, by talk, talk, and more talk. Patch a crisis there; prescribe a pill somewhere else; make a concession here, there, the next place; promise, promise, promise; spend, spend, spend; elect, elect, elect, elect."

With San Antonio cheers still ringing in his ears, Goldwater flew into Eugene, Ore., to attend a meeting of Republican leaders from 13 Western states. Also speaking to that session was Nelson Rockefeller. Rocky, appearing in the afternoon, issued a direct challenge to Goldwater to participate in a series of debates "before the American people."

"No Stopgap Election." Goldwater shrugged off Rocky's challenge. "If he wants to debate weaknesses in the Kennedy Administration, sure, but if he wants to talk about the Republican Party and its policies, no." Then he launched into his best campaign speech to date.

"This is no stopgap election in 1964," he cried. "This is not one just for record books. This is one for the history books. We stand now at the latter end of the second century of the American experience, the American Revolution.

"But this freedom, this America, is a fragile moment in history's long span. Freedom always has been. It has not been the rule of mankind. It has been the exception. Today it remains the exception. And today it remains the issue. Controls, coercion, compromise with tyranny are the marks of the New Frontier; big words and petty deeds are its adjectives and verbs; promises are its substitutes for performance, and its vision of issue is no wider than its view of electoral expediency.

"But the real issue remains. Freedom. And which party will more effectively preserve and enlarge it? Can there be any doubt? . . . Those whom we will oppose in 1964 have defaulted their leadership to turn the tides against tyranny abroad. And they have rejected limited government at home.

"America must have a choice, and freedom must have a chance. Republican principles, Republican candidacies offer the choice, give the chance and reaffirm the right of the people of this God-blessed nation to reclaim the powers they are losing, to rededicate the will they are wasting, and to win the peace for which they are praying."

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