BMG Best Now, Says Ayn Rand

Authoress Ayn Rand drew heavy applause last night after she termed Barry Goldwater "the best candidate available at the moment." She spoke at the first program in a series of lectures on her work.

Some of the 350 persons who paid as much as $3.50 to crowd into a Sheraton Commander ballroom wore LBJ buttons. They heard a two-hour lecture by Miss Rand's associate, Nathaniel Branden, and then submitted written questions.

Miss Rand later said she did not agree with Goldwater on many issues, but came out for him last March. She said she wished he had concentrated on basic philosophical issues--"then he would win."

Branden said Miss Rand supports laissex-faire capitalism and government limited to protecting individuals' rights. He said her philosophy, called "Objectivism," stems from an Aristotelian rationalism based on axioms of existence, identity, and consciousness.