GOP-Independent Unit for LBJ Forms

Charging that "Goldwaterism threatens to bring within our borders extremism, racism, and isolationism," the newly-formed Harvard-Radcliffe Republicans and Independents for Johnson set out this week to recruit members.

With an organizational core of about ten students, the group received official recognition from Dean Monro and the Harvard Council for Undergraduate Affairs and proceeded to "aid in the election of Lyndon B. Johnson, a calm, moderate, experienced administrator."

"This is an organization in which Republicans and Independents may assert their support for President Johnson without necessarily identifying themselves with the Democratic Party," Walter S. Mack Jr. '65, chairman, explained last night. The Harvard-Radcliffe chapter is affiliated with a New York-based national organization, formed by prominent Republicans and Independents who oppose Sen. Goldwater.

There are plans not for an active campaign in the President's behalf, but merely for the distribution of campaign literature and buttons to identify Republican and Independent Johnson supporters at Harvard and Radcliffe. The organization will constitutionally dissolve on Nov. 4.

Goldwater "Unfit"

A "Statement of Principles" issued by the national committee asserts that "the 1964 Republican Convention did not represent the will of the majority of Republicans" and that "Sen. Goldwater is temperamentally unfit for the awesome duties of the President of the United States."

Mack said yesterday that the response to the first recruiting efforts has been gratifying, and that nearly 100 people have accepted the campaign buttons. He and the group's advisor, Joseph C. Stevens, assistant professor of Psychology, stress that it will be concerned only with the Presidential election.

If there is sufficient interest, Mack suggested, the Johnson group may propose a debate with members of the Harvard Young Republican Club who support Sen. Goldwater. "We are interested in seeing on open conflict among Republicans at Harvard," he said.

Thus far, the Young Republicans, split badly after a mock convention at Wellesley last year, have indicated no plans to endorse a Presidential candidate.