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A.d.l. Finds Interest in Right-wing Causes Growing Among Students in U.S.

August 7, 1961
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A warning that American college students were becoming increasingly identified with right-wing causes was voiced here today by Alexander F. Miller, director of community service for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He disclosed that recent survey had found that one college group, whose political and economic philosophy resembled the John Birch Society, claimed a membership of 25,000 students on 115 campuses.

Addressing a leadership training conference of teen-age regional officers of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Mr. Miller said that, according to the survey, a second college group with a philosophy similar to the Birch Society, purports to have a mailing list of 13,000 students. “For the first time in our history we are seeing a dynamic radical right-wing movement with a special appeal to youth”, Mr. Miller declared, adding that the phenomenon “needs to be carefully observed.

Asserting that the current wave of political activity by college students was potentially dangerous, Mr. Miller told the youth leaders that “it could find expression in an attempt to imposed totalitarianism on the United States under the guise of protecting democracy from communism”.

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