Letter 052, pg. 2

directing committee. I am firmly convinced that if we could get together—as you suggested in our conversation—about fifty men of good reputation and standing in their various professions, who share our political convictions—the most important step would be accomplished right there. I am still enthusiastic and, perhaps, naive enough to believe that the groundwork for the entire program of the organization could be laid out at one such meeting (probably a long one). 

If you find time on your lecture tour to write to me and send me the names of these men, I will go to see them, and I am very willing to do all the explaining, contacting, arranging and general running around. I can get any number of young people to do all the “ground” work. But if I proceed with these young people on our own, you realize what a long time it would take to achieve the effectiveness which a committee of prominent men would give us. 

I am sending this letter special delivery in order that it may reach you before you leave. I wish you great success on your tour and I know that there are a great, great many people left in America who will appreciate the ideas you represent.

Thank you for your courtesy and understanding,

Sincerely,

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* “To All Innocent Fifth Columnists” was AR’s 5,000-word critique of those whose silence aids collectivism. (“The totalitarians in this country do not want your active support . . . . All they want from you is indifference.”) It has been published in Journals of Ayn Rand, ed. David Harriman (Penguin: New York, 1997).