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John Birch ...Society InvestigatedEXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. JOHN H. ROUSSELOTOF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESThursday, June 14, 1962

Mr. ROUSSELOT. Mr. Speaker, th eEmciency Research Bureau , a privateinvestigating firm, ha s completed athorough investigation of t he John BirchSociety in Orange County, Calif. Findings of th e Bureau are reported in th eMarch 1962, issue of th e Santa AnaRegister, a newspaper published inOrange County. I bel ieve th e findingswill be of interest to my colleagues . Un der unanimous consent I place th e reportwhich appeared in the Register in theAppendix of the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD .Th e report follows :

JOHN BI RCH S OCIETY IN VEST IGATEDA privat e Inv es tigat ing firm, Efficien cy Re

search Bureau , 800 South Harbor Bou levard,Anaheim , conducted a th orough in vest igation of th e J oh n Birch Society in Oran geCounty, Calif. Efficiency Res earch Bureauwas hi red by th e pres id en t of a local manufa cturing firm to m ake an impartial s tudy .

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A five-man team of Investigators, Including. a Negro clergyman , sat In on numerous Birchmeetings an d acc umu la t ed a wealth of dataon the org anization an d It s operation . Thefollowing are th e 14 conclusions t o whichth e investigating team came, based upontheir extensive research:1. Many of th e allegation s an d rumors

against th e John Birch Society could not besupported by fact .2. The John Birch Society Is a n a nt i-Com

mun ist movement ope n t o anyone InterestedIn jo ini ng or a ttending meet ings .3 . It 's n ot a secret organizat ion, but ra the r

group s m eeti ng for di scuss ion of views an dways In wh ich t o figh t th e in ternationalCommu ni st conspiracy.4. The maj or it y of J oh n Birch Societymembers don't suppor t or agree wit h many

of th e statem en ts of Robert Welch, t h e so clety's o u ! J . they seldom disagree withhim on poli cy.5. Each ch ap ter is Ind ep en den t an d each

m ember cooper a t es wit h cha pt er, Sta te andnat iona l vi ews accord ing to the d ict at es ofhi s own conscienc e.6. Efficien cy Resear ch Bu reau investigators

attend ing th ese meetings h av e found grou psas sm al l as 15 an d as large as 59 at asing le m ee ti ng. About 15 seemed to beprefe rred.7 All indicati on s show th at t he J oh n

Birch Soci ety an ti -Comm u nist m oveme n t isgrowing conti nuo us ly and st eadily.

8. Utilizing both whi te an d color ed Invest iga tor s , It was learned th e John BirchSociety Isn 't anti-Semitic , anti-Negro, oranti an y religious gro up . That they , In fact ,have chapters comprised ent irely of coloredmembership. Also , It was found John BirchSociety has JeWish members on th e nationaladvisory council.9. Investigators f ou nd no evidence of vio

lence or unlawful actlvi ty engaged In b ~ th e J oh n Birch Society.10. Investigators d id l ea rn that there were

Ind lvidua ls who ca rr ied p erson al pre judiceswit h th em in to th e organ iza t i on . I t waslearned John Bir ch Society work s to Isolatepersons with such prejudice. If a wholechapt er is found t o sha re cer ta in prejudicesth e area coordinators t ry to d issem inate suc hgrou ps.11. In vestigators l earned th er e is a John

Birch Society maj o r coo rd ina t or for Or ange,Los Angel es , a n d San Bernardino Countiesan d he h as two coordinat ors di rect ly underhim .12. In vesti ga tor s expec te d t o find a di cta to rshi p an d d idn 't find It .13. Th e society as a whole works very

h ard to m ak e su re tha t John Birch Socie tyisn' t u sed as a veh icle t o pr om ot e prejudice s.14. I n ves ti gative work in cluded checkingout documented Informa t ion by factfindlnggroups which Is u se d a s a basis for some J oh nBirch Soc iety work.

The se s he ets a re avai lab le , In any quan ti ty ,at one c en t e ac h. Orde r fromThe John Birch Society, Belmont 78, Mas sachuset ts