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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 14, 1985
PAGE 11
self-appointed public interest groups, which don't have to earn a
profit or pay a tax, look forward to protracted litigation with
all the eagerness that an old mining camp would reserve for Sat
urday night.
I ask you in all seriousness and solemnity, ladies and gentlemen,
are all the things I've des.
eribed the way for a responsible
leader of the Free World to conduct itself? Is this the way to
pursue the avowed goal of preserving our domestic minerals base?
Is this the way to fortify the ramparts of our nation's security,
if not, indeed, its survival? Is this the way to ensure that pos
terity shall have not only a habitat fit for life, but the mate
rial blessings that make possible the good life? I think not••••
Our increasing dependence on unstable or uncertain foreign
sources for our essential minerals imperils our national security
and threatens our prosperity at home. It pits our survival as a
free nation against the insatiable appetite of the Soviet for
world domination through elimination of the
u.s.
as an economic
leader of the free world.
America cannot remain a ·first rate economic and military power if
we have a second rate mining and minerals processing industry.
This, after all, is fundamental to the commonwealth of us all.
One can be certain that the Soviets are following any and all courses open
to them to foster U.S. weakness in the minerals area. This would include
worming their way into positions of subtle '
influence inside the radical en
vironmentalist movement, to promoting strife in South Africa and influenc
ing reactions to that area among leftists and civil-rights advocates in the
U.S.
In his very interesting question and answer period, Mr. Overton (now in his
mid-to-late 60s) gave an example illustrating the importance of maintaining
a strong economic base and coordinated defense posture and of displaying a
sense of national will to any potential aggressor. He told of the experi
ences he and several other U.S. officials had at the end of World War II in
terviewing top Japanese wartime leaders.
One of his associates talked with former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. He
asked Tojo: "What caused you to be so bold as to attack the United States?"
Tojo replied that the Japanese saw that the U.S. and other Western powers
did not react forcefully to Hitler's accession to power; that the U.S. was
very slow to gear up its defense industry; that even when faced with impend
ing war, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the draft law by only one
vote. "Our perspective," concluded Tojo, "was that the U.S. had likely
lost the will to defend itself."
Mr. Overton related a previously untold story of just how close the House of
Representatives came to not passing the 1941 draft law. The key figure was
the longtime doorkeeper, William "Fishbait" Miller, who retired not many
years ago. On roll calls it was his responsibility to admit or refuse to
admit those members into the chamber who were outside at the time, usually
in their offices. The basic rule he was to enforce was whether the members
were judged to be "within the hearing of the voice" of the Speaker at the
time. Miller later admitted to friends that he always considered it his re-