Dixy Lee Ray (christened Margaret) chose to name herself for the South and General Robert E. Lee, whom she admired because of his devotion to honor and principle. Later in life, she too became a general, and she inspired and led her troops until she died on January, 2, 1994, at the age of 79.

Dixy Lee Ray did battle against the enslavement of the intellect to political correctness and the subjugation of science to Washington D.C.-based politics.

The War of Enviro Aggression continues. The outcome is yet to be determined. At stake are constitutional rights and scientific progress. But if the battle is lost, the casualties will be human because human life has become dependent upon the fruits of science and technology.

In the end, truth will win. The question is, when? Will our posterity have to endure a dark age of Deconstruction before the earth worshippers, the political opportunists, and the jack-booted social engineers are finally swept away?

Like all good generals, Dixy Lee Ray studied the art of war. In her 1991 address to the 9th annual meeting of DDP, she stated:

``If we're going to respond effectively, we need to understand our opponents, the people who want to ban everything and stop everything. In the motion picture called Patton, General Patton saw Rommel coming up the valley with his tanks in formation. Patton put down his binoculars and said, `I read your damn book.' By that, he meant he knew what Rommel's strategy was going to be, and he could prepare for it.

``We have to read their damn books. How many of you read the book called Shut Down Strategies? This is a handbook of ways to shut down an industry, starting with nuclear power plants, but expanding to cover any kind of industry, such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals. There are many other books, for example, the publications of Earth First! and my favorite, a book called Green Rage. It is written by Christopher Maines, a young Fulbright scholar. In this book, he provides the philosophical support for the radical deep ecology movement, which includes all of the ecological terrorists. On page 34 of his book, he outlines what must be done in order to prevent what he calls `biological meltdown,' the destruction of all natural life on the planet. He calls for an end to all commercial logging and the restoration of wilderness by removing all roads, all dams, and all technological `intrusions' on the land. He states that preventing biological meltdown will also require the reintroduction everywhere of large predators, like grizzly bears and wolves. It will require the total banning of all pesticides and all toxic wastes (including his own?), and it will require the elimination of all automobiles, all coal-fired power plants, all petroleum uses, and all petroleum-based manufacturing, including all plastics and all synthetics. It will require the end to mono-culture and the end to raising cattle on ranges. Most important of all, it will require a reduction of human population to `sustainable levels.'

``He doesn't say exactly how he would reduce the human population, but he is a disciple of Paul Ehrlich, who also says that the human population must be reduced and has suggestions for how to do it.

``Ehrlich has now made his third prediction about famine. His first two have turned out not to be right. We didn't have famine in 1974, and we didn't have famine in 1985, but there will be famine in the United States before the year 2000, and our present population of over 200 million will be reduced to 2.5 million, the right number in his view for a sustainable population.

``The common theme underlying environmentalist proposals is the ultimate destruction of industrialization and the reduction of the human population.

``David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth, stated: `Child-bearing should be a punishable crime against society unless the parents hold a government license.' He thought that all potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, and that the government should be in charge of issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for child-bearing. (Incidentally, Brower has four children himself. It's all the other people's children that are a problem.) Carl Amery, the head of the Green Party in Germany (which I'm glad to report lost very badly in the last election), says that `We in the Green Movement aspire to a cultural model in which the killing of a forest would be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of six-year-old children to Asian brothels.' ''

How can we defeat the generals who are waging war against humanity? Our weapon is the truth. Dixy Lee Ray has provided a powerful arsenal in her books Trashing the Planet and Environmental Overkill, published by Regnery Gateway. Ask your bookstore to order them; then read them yourself. They will be her enduring memorial. The first issue that she edited of Technology: the Journal of the Franklin Institute (first published 1825) will appear posthumously. It will continue under the editorship of Alan Moghissi. For subscription information, phone (215)707-2520.

The sustainable level of human population depends upon the level of productivity, especially of agriculture. In the last 30 years, world agricultural productivity has tripled. Harvests could be boosted by an additional 50% if existing know-how were made more widely available. Important factors include: crop varieties with increased yields; modern tillage methods (which depend on the application of herbicides to the sod used to cover no-till crops); and improved irrigation systems that cut evaporative losses.

Many so-called environmentalists advocate ``organic farming.'' Under the best of circumstances, organic farming is only a half to a third as productive as chemically assisted agriculture. If the world committed to ``organic farming,'' the only way to avert mass starvation would be to plow up North America, South America, Europe, and most of Asia (Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEI UpDate, Nov., 1993). However, it is not the forests and wildlife refuges that the enviros mean to sacrifice. Rather, they would engineer the fulfillment of Paul Ehrlich's prophecy.

Other methods of reducing the sustainable population level are to forcibly restrain carbon dioxide emissions, which are currently fertilizing the biosphere (Access to Energy, Nov. 1993), and to restrict spending for life-saving medical technology.

The ``health care'' costs that are allegedly bankrupting the nation constituted less than 11.1% of the average family budget in 1992 (2.3% was spent for insurance and pensions, and 8.8% for health and personal care). The remainder is allocated as follows: 30.2% for federal taxes; 9.5% for state and local taxes; 16.3% for housing and household expenses; 11% for food; 7.3% for transportation; 4.5% for clothing; 4.6% for recreation; and 5.5% for all other (NCPA's Executive Alert Sept/Oct 1993).

We thank the reader who pointed out that the US spends a mere $41.76 billion for soft drinks (your editor relied upon memory and misplaced a decimal point). This is only 5% of the amount spent on medical care. A better example would have been tax compliance, which costs $500 billion (65% of net tax revenues.) The cost actually attributed to the IRS is only 1% of the net tax revenues; the rest is borne mostly by the taxpayers─24% for compliance and 35% in lost output due to the discouragement of work and savings (ibid.)