Reagan Urges Help for New Democracies : Fund-raiser: The former President was speaker at the annual dinner of the Industrial League of Orange County.

A graying but still hearty Ronald Reagan breezed into Orange County Wednesday night with a message, in case no one had noticed: that democracy was breaking out around the world like some sort of benevolent virus.

Noting the breakup of the Soviet Union, the end of the civil war in El Salvador and the Congo’s move to a centralized economy and a multi-party democracy, the former President said: “The positive contagion of democracy is spreading far beyond former Communist domains, proving the universality of its appeal. . . .”

“If there’s anyone lonelier than the Maytag salesman or repairman, it must be Fidel Castro,” Reagan told about 1,300 people jamming the annual dinner of the Industrial League of Orange County at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

But Reagan told business and civic leaders that they are needed if the democratic experiments are to succeed.

“We must help as teachers, not preachers. Those in the emerging democracies are eager to learn, but they cannot put sound institutions in place without either experience or helping hands. They need to understand and respect the essential link between individual gain and success in the marketplace.

“They need a full appreciation of human rights--to assemble, speak out, vote and serve the public.

Boris N. Yeltsin, he noted, “has launched a bold free-market plan--shock therapy--and we pray that it works.”

He revealed that he telephoned Yeltsin after the failed coup last August and congratulated the Russian Federation leader on his courage.

“I also urged him to follow the example of the United States--a federation of sovereign states.”

He also revealed that he received a letter from Mikhail S. Gorbachev the day after Gorbachev stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union in December. In that letter, Reagan said, Gorbachev spoke of their friendship and the steps taken to bring the two countries closer.

“He, like I, felt gratified that we had overcome the division of the world and, finally, the cruel pattern of mistrust was broken.”

But Reagan admitted that he had an ulterior motive in writing back to Gorbachev: He invited the former Soviet leader and his wife to visit California and the newly opened Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley.

Reed Royalty, chairman of the Industrial League, said the turnout for Reagan’s talk set a record for the organization, topping even the 1,200 turnout for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s appearance last year.

At $125 per person, the dinner grossed about $165,000. However, league officials said they could not divulge the 80-year-old Reagan’s fee under terms of his contract.

Reagan was greeted by standing ovations when he arrived and left after the speech, which lasted about 35 minutes. Throughout the talk, which was peppered with the familiar Reagan jokes and folksy humor, the crowd laughed warmly with him.

Rich Hamill, chairman and chief executive officer of Hycor Biomedical Inc. in Garden Grove, said Reagan “was absolutely right on the mark” and lifted the spirits of the business leaders who have been in the doldrums because of the economy.

“He made us forget the recession. I think if he were still President, the state of our economy would be different.”