Ripon Society Denounces Goldwater For Voting Against Civil Rights Bill

RIPON, Wisconsin, July 4--Declaring that "the Republican party faces its greatest internal crisis since its founding 110 years ago," the Ripon Society today unequivocalbly condemned the principles of Sen. Barry Goldwater (R.-Ariz.) as untrue to the "moral" traditions of the GOP.

Here in the town where the party was founded and from which the Society took its name, it said in a statement that a Goldwater candidacy "must invariably exploit the white backlash to the civil rights movement."

The Society, founded in, December 1962 by a group of Harvard and M.I.T. graduate students, charged that Goldwater has "by his actions in the Congress and by his silence in the face of national crisis, disqualified himself to be the leader of the party of Lincoln."

"Can the Republican party turn its back on the principles and ideals which gave it birth? Can Republicans sacrifice the conscience of their party to the conscience of a 'conservative'?" the statement asked.

Recalling the pre-Civil War stirrings of the GOP, the statement proudly hailed the precepts of the early party: "It was a moderate coalition, avoiding the elements of fanaticism and hatred that sought to capture its center. Now as never before," it continued, Republicans should seek leadership in the example of Lincoln."

The president of the Ripon Society, John S. Saloma, assistant professor of Political Science at M.I.T. issued the 1500-word statement at the "Republican House," a restaurant adjoining the one-room school house where the GOP had its first formal meeting in 1854.

The leaders of the Society had no dis- illussions about the effect of their declaration. "Our party may pay little heed to what we say here today," the statement said. But, it continued, "The spirit that gave birth to Republicanism is still alive in the land of today."

Members of the Society have been actively opposing Goldwater's candidacy. After last month's Governors' Conference in Cleveland, the group wrote a "confidential" 10-page denouncement of the Arizona Senator, which was sent to key liberal Republicans, including Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton