FASCISM
AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM
IN THE
UNITED STATES 1939-45
The following is a chapter from Philip Jenkins, Hoods and
Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania 1925-1950 (Chapel
Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
From
Unity to Ruin: Into War 1939-1945
By 1939, the American far Right was
a bewildering ferment of groups and ideological tendencies. Though movements
were ethnically and ideologically heterogeneous, there were tentative signs of
the ÒBrown FrontÓ so often depicted in the jeremiads of the Left. Over the next
two years, the quest for political unity would be a dominant theme on the far
Right, and there were some successes. However, this development could not occur
in a political vacuum, and the fate of the ultra-Right was conditioned by the
wider context, both domestic and international. Initially, the threat of war
offered rich opportunities, raising the hope that the Right could project its
distinctive interpretation of the drift to war as a manifestation of Jewish
political and economic domination. In reality, the dream of a Christian
Nationalist crusade was overwhelmed by growing popular hatred and fear of the
Axis abroad and its supporters at home. The far Right was riven by the
inevitable paradox of attempting to be hyper-nationalist and ÒAmericanistÓ
while at the same time espousing the cause of hostile foreign powers (1).
The Quest for Unity
At least in theory, there were many
reasons to see the boundaries between the different sects as insuperable. For
example, both the Bund and the Italian Fascists were violently opposed
to secret societies like the Freemasons, who were a mainstay of the Klan. The
Protestant Klan similarly had little reason to love the Catholic-dominated
Christian Front with its Irish leadership, still less the Italian Black Shirts,
both exponents of a virulent Òinverted nativismÓ often targetted at traditional
Protestant power. On a core issue like Spain, Klan members were generally
delighted at accounts of a national rising intended to smash clerical power,
seize Church lands and secularize education. While sections of the American
Legion and the patriotic societies were attracted by the BundÕs anti-Communism,
these organizations loathed German militarism. The anomalous position of Black
anti-semites in such a political context needs no further emphasis.
In practice, tactical collaboration between the various
groups was always present, and there were repeated efforts to forge closer
alliances, a Òlocal AxisÓ. Pittsburgh offers a typical observation. In August
1938, ÒHenry Ringler, an official of the Pittsburgh storm troops [the O.D.],
stated . . . . that the Italian Black Shirts of Pittsburgh are extremely
cordial to the Bund; and that while they have not yet marched openly with them,
they were expected to do so in the future. Ringler also stated that the Silver
Shirts in Pittsburgh are cooperating with the Bund in that areaÓ (2). There was
a sizable overlap of membership between groups, especially the Bund and the
Christian Front, and they shared speakers in a remarkably non-sectarian way.
Roy Zachary was quite as likely to appear in a meeting of the Bund or the
Anti-Communism Society as in a gathering of his own Silver Shirts. The groups
shared propaganda and training facilities, so that the BundÕs Camp Nordland
was used by Italian Black Shirts and Ukrainian Brown Shirts as well as the Ku
Klux Klan (3). Arthur DerounianÕs masquerade as an Italian anti-Semite gave him
instant entrŽe to all sorts of other groups: German, Russian, and Ukrainian
Nazis, ultra-nativists and Klan, and
isolationists (4). In any other political context, this hearty
non-sectarianism would have been admirable.
Counteracting the centrifugal
tendencies of the extremist fringe, a number of factors encouraged harmony,
above all the shared anti-semitism, which provided an all-encompassing social
and political analysis (5). By the late 1930s, the groups were united by a
common admiration for Nazi Germany, in much the same way that the successes of
the Russian Bolsheviks had earlier cemented disparate Leftist movements into
common adherence to Communist doctrines. For the American far Right, Nazi
Germany clearly worked as a society, and it superseded other models like
MussoliniÕs Italy. Nazi iconography and symbolism provided a common rhetorical
language for domestic fascists, as indicated by the dissemination of the swastika emblem and the Horst Wessel
among nativist, Catholic and Slavic groups. German authorities cultivated
loyalty with donations of funds and by generous distributions of propaganda
packages. These offered non-sectarian pamphlets and papers from the
anti-semites of several nations in addition to official Berlin productions.
The interpenetration of ideas is
suggested by the case of Klan Grand Dragon Samuel G. Stouch. He owned many Nazi
periodicals and pamphlets,
including a German-printed
volume of HitlerÕs speeches, as well as the works of domestic authors
like James B. True, Robert Edmondson and Gerald P. Winrod: he subscribed to Industrial
Control Reports, the Edmondson Economic Service and the Defender
(6). There were character sketches of the Nazi leadership, and leaflets by the
emigrŽ ÒUnion of National Socialist Russians.Ó Stouch read the BundÕs Deutscher
Weckruf, and the newsletter Facts in Review published by GoebbelsÕ
Ministry of Propaganda. He assiduously collected the journals and propaganda
sheets of all manner of fringe groups, including Ulster Protestants and
Orangemen. CoughlinÕs Social Justice was notable by its absence,
presumably because of its Catholic stance, but Stouch favored the creation of a
ÒChristian FrontÓ coalition. He appeared on A.C.S. platforms, and corresponded
with Philip M. Allen and Bessie Burchett; he was close to Silver Shirt leader
Harry Sieber; in mid-1938, Stouch applied to join the Bund (6).
In Search of a Leader
The growth of common ideologies
seemed to created a potential for a mass party or common front, and attempts to
form a central command were apparent from the mid-decade, usually involving the
core triumvirate of Edmondson, True and Deatherage (7). In 1936, Asheville,
N.C., was reportedly the setting for a
gathering of far Right activists, including Pelley, Winrod, Colonel
Sanctuary, and the anti-semitic ÒtrinityÓ (8).
General George Van Horn Moseley was
felt to be highly promising as a national leader on whom all could agree (9). A
veteran of the Philippines and world war one, Moseley had served alongside
Pershing and MacArthur, and he was a good friend of ex-President Hoover. He
first attracted attention for political activism in May 1938, while he still
headed the Third Army, based in Atlanta. During the public debate over the
prospect of renewed mass immigration, the general asserted that future
immigrants should be sterilized as a means of protecting the American race.
That October, he again echoed the positions of the far Right when he warned
that the country was facing dictatorship. After taking retirement in 1938, he
was free to begin a speaking campaign for the purpose of denouncing Jewish
power, and its effects on America in the New Deal. As he was not known to be
associated with any one of the rightist sects, he was an attractive figure to
present to a public contemptuous of individuals like Fritz Kuhn, and he was
courted to deliver some major public speeches. These presentations were
influenced, if not actually written, by Deatherage (10).
In March 1939, Moseley addressed
PhiladelphiaÕs WomenÕs National Defense Committee, meeting at the Bellevue
Stratford Hotel. The formal invitation was issued by the umbrella organization
representing some seventy ÒpatrioticÓ groups in the city, a remarkable gesture
in light of MoseleyÕs well-known recent track record of vituperative and
controversial addresses (11). The event took place only a few days after the
nationally publicized riot at the West Philadelphia YMCA, while other speakers
included CoughlinÕs intimate Father Curran. Though the content was likely to be
inflammatory, even seditious, sponsors included chapters of such reputable
groups as the Sons of the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames, the Military
Order of the Loyal Legion, the Dames of the Loyal Legion, and the American
Legion. Other lesser known ÒfraternaryÓ groups represented the descendants of
the Continental Congress, of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
the Mayflower Pilgrims, and the veterans of virtually every American military
conflict. There were seven chapters of the DAR alone: four from greater
Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Germantown, Betsy Ross, Independence Hall), and
three from suburban counties (Jephtha Abbott, Valley Forge, and Chester
County). Though we do not know the exact process by which the sponsors decided
to invite Moseley, we can identify several key individuals within these
organizations who had demonstrated sympathy for extremist positions, including
Mrs David Good, Philip M. Allen, Judge Bonniwell, and Ralph B. Strassburger
(12).
About fifteen hundred people
attended the speech, a group that included many Coughlinites and other extreme
rightists. Moseley did not disappoint his audience in the vigor of his attack
on Roosevelt and his foreign policy. He asserted that ÒThe war now proposed is
for the purpose of establishing Jewish hegemony throughout the world,Ó and Òit
has the support of the man in the White House.Ó (13). Facing the prospect of
Jewish-Communist tyranny, desperate measures were needed. It was necessary to
Ò[exterminate] from the life of this nation all traces of the New Deal, the
principal backers of CommunismÓ, the ÒNew Dealers, Brains Trusters, Communists,
CIOÕs or what notÓ (14). The New Deal meant Òthe promotion of class hatred,
exploitation of human misery, the promotion of communism, and the sob appealÓ.
While he opposed foreign Ò-ismsÓ, he saw little wrong with Fascism and Nazism:
Òthe finest type of Americanism can breed under their protection as they
neutralize the efforts of the CommunistsÓ.
Militant action could come from
several directions. ÒIf the administration went too far to the Left and asked
our military establishment to execute orders which violated all American
tradition, that Army would demurÓ (15). Suggestions of a coup or mutiny were
reinforced by MoseleyÕs specific recommendations for vigilante action: ÒYour
city fathers must have a definite plan for the protection of Philadelphia, with
only Americans on guard at all critical points, such as your waterworks, your
electric light plant, and in all those facilities which are necessary to enable
your police and fire departments to function . . . It is also the lawful duty
of your city officials to be prepared at all times to protect your city and the
citizens therein, regardless as to the opinion on law and order of the man
sitting in the White House at the moment or in your governorÕs chair. If the
required number of police officers are not available, the plan should include
the deputizing of citizens to be called legally in an emergency . . . Remember,
it is the first twenty minutes that countÓ. MoseleyÕs reference to the
governorÕs chair was intended to exploit hatred of the recently defeated George
Earle. The general was implying that a putsch or vigilante operation would be
needed to resist a leftist assault, which might stem either from Roosevelt or a
local satrap. Apart from conditions at state-level, Moseley claimed that he was
reacting to events in the city of Philadelphia, where the fall of Mayor Wilson
had created conditions in which Òthe Mayor did not dare enter his office for
fear of being served with a warrant for murder. His secretary, who is a Jew, is
thus in command of the city and certainly this city has the jitters, and
rightly soÓ.Ó (16)
MoseleyÕs remarks were cited on
BerlinÕs World Service as the words of Òthe well known American generalÓ (17).
Within the United States, Moseley was lionized on the Right as a convincing
candidate for an American FŸhrer. In May, he was the guest at a meeting
of some fifty individuals at a house on Long Island, a meeting attended by
representatives of many groups, including Fritz Kuhn, Mrs Good and Wilhelm Kunze (18). Critics
were appalled by his speech, coming so soon after fifth columns and putsches
had been prominently reported in news from Austria, Spain and the Sudetenland.
There were calls for MoseleyÕs court-martial, and he faced a lengthy and
unnerving interrogation before the Dies Committee that May (19). He was
condemned by numerous patriotic organizations, including the head of the
American Legion in Pennsylvania, who was embarrassed by the role of some
chapters in sponsoring the presentation (20).
Another potential unity figure was
Father Coughlin, who attracted support from a number of groups. In the Fall of
1939, an anti-fascist activist in Pittsburgh warned of the danger of ÒCoughlin
our next FŸhrer, with Reynolds, Moseley, Deatherage etc our Goebbels and
GoeringÓ (21). However, CoughlinÕs Catholic following remained a stumbling
block for nativists like the Klan, and by 1940 this had become the outstanding
issue preventing a broader coalition. The two sides were brought together by
the eirenic efforts of Edward James Smythe of the ÒProtestant War VeteransÕ
AssociationÓ. He had recently declared that the Catholic church was Òa tricky
propositionÓ and that ÒWe, like Hitler, believe that the Roman church should be
driven out of political life and out of state affairsÓ (22). However, Smythe
joined Coughlinite protests and demonstrations, and it was through his efforts
that in August 1940, the Bund and the Klan allied to promote a Òmonster
anti-war pro-American mass meetingÓ at Camp Nordland, where 3,500 militants
gathered under a flaming cross. The two groups held joint paramilitary
exercises, and StouchÕs Klan predecessor Arthur Bell was portrayed shaking
hands with uniformed O D leaders. The BundÕs vice-president declared
that ÒThe principles of the Bund and the principles of the Klan are the sameÓ
(23). There were also representatives of the mainly Catholic movements, the
Christian Front and the Christian Mobilizers, who remained patient while Klan
speakers lapsed into their familiar invective against ÒRomanismÓ and Òdumb
ring-kissers.Ó (24).
Isolationism
By 1940, such promising gestures
were taking place in a delicate political environment. In response to
unflattering attention from Congress and the media, the Bund had been virtually
forced underground, and the overt display of sympathy for foreign dictatorships
had become controversial. While the Christian Front had some success in
assuming the role of a purely domestic group, its violence created public fear
and hostility, and a law enforcement reaction that culminated in the January arrests. Left and liberal groups
were now taking the fascist threat very seriously, and activist newsletters and
magazines now made investigations and exposŽs freely available to the
mainstream press. Intense publicity made it more difficult for Rightists to
operate freely, at exactly the time that the foreign situation demanded their
involvement.
However, new opportunities raised
the prospect that the extremists might still be able to secure a mass audience
for their views. The intervention issue was central to national politics from
the Fall of 1939, with the lifting of the arms embargo, and subsequent debates
over the supply of weapons to Britain, and the Lend-Lease debate of early 1941
(25). Isolationism was the perfect unity issue for the rightist groups themselves,
a cause on which all sides could agree. All concurred that pressure for war
stemmed from Jewish influence, and thus anti-war sentiment could be mobilized
in anti-semitic and anti-Communist directions. Philadelphia Bund leader Sigmund
von Bosse framed the war question quite simply: ÒThe main lineup is not
democracy versus fascism, but fascism versus Communism, and here our choice is
clearÓ (26). The same themes pervaded MoseleyÕs speech at the Bellevue
Stratford. Christian Front leaflets in Philadelphia advised ÒKeep America Out
of War. Rosenvelt [sic] and his Jewish supporters are trying to have Christians
fight their battlesÓ (27). In the Fall of 1939, Christian Front units in
Pittsburgh were mobilizing telegrams and letters to oppose repeal of the Neutrality
Act. The targets of the alleged Front conspiracy in New York city included
those Congressmen who voted for repeal of the arms embargo (28).
From this perspective, Lend-Lease
was nothing short of ÒtreacheryÓ, leaving the United States Òas helpless as Lenin
could have wishedÓ (29). To quote Bessie Burchett, ÒThe men who might defend
their homes against communists are being drafted, some are being sent out of
the country while locust hordes of aliens are still coming in to take their
jobs . . . . Is it not significant that the men who have rushed England into
this suicidal war are predominantly not of Anglo-Saxon stock? And that
in our own Administration, the men who are pushing us relentlessly towards the
same bottomless abyss are not of English or traditional American blood?Ó (30).
This foreshadowed the ruin or extermination of Óthe white race, white Christian
civilizationÓ (33). The ÒDraft BillÓ was a ÒDictator BillÓ (31). Roosevelt was plotting to abdicate American
sovereignty to British imperial and financial suzerainty (32). Russian entry
into the war in June 1941 made matters starker: ÒIf we had only kept clear of EnglandÕs war, we should now
be clear of EnglandÕs evil allyÓ (33). All this was the consequence of ignoring
Òthe expert advice of our great Colonel LindberghÓ (34).
Moseley, Burchett and von Bosse were
normally beyond the pale of acceptable political debate, but in this case their
views were echoing those of many
mainstream Republicans and conservatives. Conservatives too linked war fears to
opposition to the New Deal, and charged that the Roosevelt administration would
draw the nation into overseas adventures to distract attention from internal
problems. In February 1940, when John M. Flynn made his Presidential address to
the P.M.A., he argued that Òevery major move that the president has made during
the last several weeks has been an obvious part of a palpable plan to divert
public attention from the vital issues which face the people of this
countryÓ(35). He hoped that this was an issue on which the administration could
be restrained, Òfor the American people unitedly have served notice that they
are determined to keep out of the war in EuropeÓ. Otherwise, Òthe President
would, consciously or unconsciously, drag us into warÓ(36).
Philadelphia Congressman Gartner
indicated the sentiment of his Republican constituency when he declared in
September 1939 that his mail was running a hundred to one against any
alteration in the Neutrality Act. At a mass neutrality meeting, he declared
that the administration was planning a repeat of the scenario that had proved
so successful in 1917. American loans would be needed to maintain war
production in the United States, Òand then weÕll have to go to war to save the
people who owe us that money . . . not only American sympathies but American
financial interests will become dedicated to an Allied victoryÓ (37). Governor
James urged that AmericaÕs policy should Ònot only be one of isolation but also
one of insulationÓ. In October, Senator Davis told the Philadelphia German Day
commemoration that ÒIn effect, we are urged to replace our present form of
government with a centralized military government, in behalf of the age-old
quarrels of the rival imperialisms of the Old WorldÓ (38). Other Republican
politicians were equally concerned. In June 1939, two conservative Pennsylvania
Congressmen appeared on the executive board of Hamilton FishÕs isolationist
ÒCitizensÕ National Keep America Out of War CommitteeÓ. These were J. William
Ditter, from Montgomery County; and Robert J. Corbett, from the 30th District
in the Pittsburgh area (39). In June 1940, Philadelphia Baptist leader Daniel
A. Poling wrote of the nationÕs crying need to stay out of war as the only
means of preserving democracy (40).
Initially, the American Legion was
another focus of anti-war sentiment. In 1940, the department convention
resolved that Òpropaganda emanating from the warring nations will have a
tendency to develop un-neutrality on our part. . . . Our post proposes that the
Legion use its strength and influence to promote and encourage an aggressive
counter education programÓ (41). Pittsburgh posts claimed an upsurge of support
as a direct consequence of their neutrality campaign. Smaller veteransÕ groups
expressed similar views, and in June 1940 the state convention of the Order of
the Purple Heart declared opposition to loans or aid to Britain (42). This attitude probably changed over the
next year, or at least the interventionists gained the upper hand, but
veteransÕ groups were by no means as united as the statements of the national
organization might suggest (43).
Such opinions had a widespread
potential appeal in an ethnically diverse state like Pennsylvania, where there
were large communities with little reason to favor RooseveltÕs foreign policy,
or his obvious tilt towards the Allies. Apart from the Germans, Italians, and
Irish, Ukrainians and Lithuanians had a comparable hatred for the Soviet regime
which entered the war in 1941. This event caused serious discontent among
conservative Catholics who, though perhaps reconciled to aiding Britain,
recoiled at American collaboration with the Communist regime.
America First?
Anti-war sentiments were common in
the Republican Party at national level, and it was at the 1940 party convention
in Philadelphia that R. Douglas Stuart formed the idea of the America First
Committee (AFC) an umbrella organization to keep the United States out of war
(44). This organization was much maligned at the time as a cover for pro-Axis
sentiment, but the overwhelming majority of members had no sympathy wheatever for fascist causes (45). The
movement as a whole addressed such fundamental issues as the proper
Constitutional role of the presidency in matters of foreign policy, as well as
the ethnic basis of political power, and the degree to which the nation had
liberated itself from a European and specifically British political
orientation. As the WeckrufÕs masthead periodically declared, ÒThe USA
is not a ÔBritishÕ NationÓ. Nor, in retrospect, is it acceptable simply
to dismiss the authentic fears about the potential carnage of war, which given
technological advances, seemed likely far to exceed the horrors of 1917-18. One
did not need to be a crypto-Nazi to oppose any but a defensive war, nor to see
RooseveltÕs international policies as reckless buccaneering cynically designed
to provoke a war contrary to the overwhelming weight of public opinion.
America First was officially
established in September 1940, and was funded by sizable corporate donations.
It ultimately claimed a membership approaching 800,000, including conservatives
but also liberals, religious leaders and pacifists (46). Amos Pinchot was one
of many former Progressives in the leadership (47). The Philadelphia chapter of
America First was under the highly ÒproperÓ chairmanship of attorney Isaac A.
Pennypacker, nephew of the earlier governor Pennypacker, and law partner of
former Senator George Wharton Pepper. He was also a leading member of
PennsylvaniaÕs Sons of the Revolution (48). Another popular speaker in
Philadelphia was former Marine General Smedley K. Butler, who angrily rejected
charges of any association with racist groups like the Christian Front, and
whose earlier revelations about rightist conspiracies had made him a folk-hero
on the Left (49). Ex-Senator David A. Reed was Òprime moverÓ in the Pittsburgh
group. Both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh produced thriving chapters, including
members prominent in Republican party politics, though Pittsburgh in particular
attempted to broaden its left-labor appeal (50). Over the next year, both
cities played host to isolationist leaders, including Hamilton Fish, Philip
LaFollette, Jacob Thorkelson, Charles Tobey and Verne Marshall (51). Senator
Gerald P. Nye was actually addressing an America First rally in Pittsburgh on
December 7th, 1941, when the news broke of the attack on Pearl Harbor (52).
The political passions stirred by
the isolationism issue are illustrated by the controversy which occurred in Philadelphia in May 1941, when
Charles Lindbergh was billed to appear at an AFC rally in Philadelphia,
initially scheduled at the Academy of Music (53). However, the Academy refused
to rent its auditorium because of the danger of attendance by Nazi and
Coughlinite subversives, who had previously disrupted ÒtoleranceÓ gatherings at
this venue (54). The Academy had no wish to encourage a mob of Òhaters of
England and lovers of GermanyÓ, especially at a time when the British cause was
in such apparent danger: news headlines at this time were full of the Allied
disaster in Crete, and the sea battles which claimed the battleships Hood
and Bismarck. The Christian Front disturbances of 1939 had left
Philadelphia sensitive about the danger from Òlovers of GermanyÓ, and
advertising for the May rally was refused by radio stations KYW and WCAU, and
by the mass transit corporation PTC (55).
LindberghÕs speech was rescheduled
at the Arena, where it proceeded with a distinguished body of speakers and
platform guests that included Massachusetts Senator David Walsh, novelist
Kathleen Norris, and Lulu Wheeler, the wife of Senator Burton K. Wheeler (56).
The meeting attracted an audience of some sixteen thousand, several thousand of
whom listened outside in pouring rain (57). This was in its own right
impressive testimony to the degree of public involvement in the ongoing debate,
but only the previous night a rival ÒSave Freedom RallyÓ in the city had drawn
twelve thousand to hear pro-Allied speakers like Ambassador Bullitt and
Fiorello La Guardia (58). As there would presumably have been little overlap between the two crowds, that means
that some 28,000 Philadelphians took the trouble to participate in the
continuing national debate.
America First had great potential as
long as it maintained its character as a mainstream pressure group, but it was
discredited by the support it received from anti-semitic extremists (59). The
extreme Right had to tread a rhetorical tightrope, exploiting isolationist
sentiment to the full and employing it as an ideological vehicle, while at the same time
refraining from any suggestion that their primary goals were pro-Axis and
unpatriotic. They were rarely successful. The great Lindbergh rally at the
Arena was at first sight a patriotic gathering of concerned Americans, but
LindberghÕs call for Ònew leadershipÓ in America was viewed as potentially
seditious (60). Moreover, Òthe hall was packed with members of native fascist,
anti-semitic organizationsÓ, with reserved sections for leaders of the
Christian Front, the Bund and other German organizations (61). The Philadelphia
Record specifically remarked on the attendance of German-American activists
Sigmund von Bosse and William Schmidt, Ku Klux Klan leaders Frank Fite and his
wife, and a gaggle of Coughlinite Irish priests. Also present was the head of
the Hamburg-American line, generally regarded as an arm of German intelligence
(62). There were shouted slogans of ÒImpeach RooseveltÓ and ÒAre we going to
let the Jews run this country?Ó (63).
Reports of this extremist presence
in the Philadelphia press damaged the anti-war cause. Even the Philadelphia
Inquirer, no friend of Roosevelt, chose a suggestively Nazi-tinged word
when it headlined that Ò16,000 Hail Lindbergh HereÓ (my emphasis) (64).
The Philadelphia Record published a cartoon entitled ÒAn Appreciative
AudienceÓ, showing LindberghÕs speech being heard by a beaming trio of Hitler,
Goering and Goebbels (65). Lindbergh was tainted with fascist sympathies long
before his notorious anti-Jewish outburst in Des Moines that September (66).
Similarly embarrassing were accounts
of the penetration of local America First branches by outright fascists and
anti-semites, especially after Father Coughlin commended the movement. The
committee of the Philadelphia chapter included Kern Dodge, the associate of the
Anti-Communism Society, while Philip M. Allen wrote to Amos Pinchot expressing
full support for the work of America First: Òeverything you write that IÕve
seen finds me in such enthusiastic agreement . . . Keep up the splendid work!Ó (67). In West Philadelphia, the
America First organization was run by Mrs Joseph Gallagher, an Òactive workerÓ
in Coughlinite and other extremist
groups (68). Bessie Burchett joined her ÓMothers and Daughters of
PhiladelphiaÓ, and in October 1941, the group earned notoriety by singing the Horst Wessel at a meeting
(69). The Coughlinite ÒMothers of AmericaÓ picketed pro-Allied rallies, bearing
placards declaring ÒNo Convoys-No AEFÓ (70). Another America First leader in
Philadelphia was Edith Scott, who extended a membership invitation to the women
of a local Nazi organization. Bertha Weber used PhiladelphiaÕs ÒNational Legion
of MothersÓ as a vehicle to support America FirstÕs neutrality campaign, while
at the same time forging close ties with the local Bund (71). In Pittsburgh, a
Ògroup of the less desirable CoughlinitesÓ was prominent in the AFC chapter
until being expelled en masse in the Fall of 1941 (72). The situation
was reminiscent of Brooklyn, where the local chapter was Òlittle more than the
Christian Front by another nameÓ (73). Philadelphia rally speaker Senator Walsh
was a friend of CoughlinÕs intimate, Father Curran (74).
During 1940 and 1941, the old
activists of the Anti-Communism Society and the Christian Front focused their
rhetoric on the isolationist cause (75). In the Summer of 1940, Thomas Blisard
and the C.D.C.R. led a delegation to Washington to protest changes in the
Neutrality Act (76). In September 1941, some three hundred attended a ÒMothersÕ
meetingÓ organized by Joseph Gallagher and Bessie Burchett at the Bethe
Bellevue Stratford to protest Lend-Lease, a law Ògiving our armaments, clothes,
food, money and our men to the British; and for what?Ó Britain herself was a
parasite, unwilling to spare its own riches: ÒWhy donÕt they give up more of
their own wealth? But no, they want ours, and all for nothingÓ. Bessie Burchett
asserted that ÒRoosevelt is nothing but a Charlie McCarthy because he is
nothing but a stooge, even a stooge would know he is used as a stoogeÓ (77).
In the same months, Bund and A. C.
S. leader Herbert L. Smith was
organizing protests against ÒBundles for BritainÓ and picketing the
British consulate. In a significant juxtaposition, he wrote in May that Òthe anti-war and anti-J[ewish]
movement is getting stronger all the timeÓ (78). By that Summer, the Hour
listed Smith as one of the most active disseminators of German-produced
propaganda in Philadelphia (79). Smith and his colleagues were frequent
visitors to the German and Italian consulates in Philadelphia, where they
acquired large supplies of free literature. Even after
American entry into war, Smith stubbornly continued to hold the Jews
responsible for conflict: ÒWho are the warmongers? Lindbergh told you who they
were. Father Coughlin told you who they were. Edmondson has told youÓ (80).
Dissension
The isolationist movement was made
obsolete by the events of war, as by 1940, European events raised the prospect
that the United States might soon have to encounter alone a Germany seeking
world domination. Most Americans had by this stage decided that the Axis powers
were to blame for the war (81). In 1940, even a supporter of Irish
Republicanism like Congressman McGranery spoke in the House about the possibly
subversive ties of Hamilton Fish: McGranery voted for Lend-Lease the following
March (82). In May 1941, PhiladelphiaÕs Irish Democratic leader John Kelly was
one of the organizers of the anti-Lindbergh ÒSave Freedom RallyÓ. American
military involvement increased sharply during 1941, with growing naval
cooperation with Great Britain, with the rearmament campaign, and the
introduction of peacetime conscription (83). Vicariously at least, the United
States was in all essentials a combatant power for most of 1941.
The ideological impact of war is
suggested by the virtual collapse of the Ku Klux Klan in the aftermath of the
Camp Nordland meeting. For some time, there had been intense political debate
in the old Klan groups in Pennsylvania, especially in the "Rescue"
klavern no. 311 in Wilkes-Barre. This was the scene of controversy between
pro-Germans like Paul Winter and the more moderate ultra-patriots like Lewis W.
Button (84). With war imminent, Winter
engaged in what increasingly appeared to be sedition: ÒIn every speech
he delivered he showed favoritism for Germany. We feel that our favorite is and
should be the United States of America. He claims too that the United States is
his first love, but he certainly does not show it . . . [he] has boasted to at
least two of our members that he belongs to a German organization whose headquarters
are in GermanyÓ (85). His activities horrified the "Americanist"
faction of the Klan, as Òhis stand towards Nazi Germany was doing the Klan a
great deal of harmÓ, but he was not unique. The Nazi faction was also dominant
in the Philadelphia klaverns headed by Samuel Stouch, and Philip M. Allen of
the Anti-Communism Society urged Stouch not to apologize for the Nordland
meetings: ÒGod knows we need them [the Bund and the Klan] these daysÓ
(86).
The Camp Nordland incident made the
schism within the Klan irreparable, and Stouch was directly implicated as New
Jersey fell within his three-state realm. Lewis Button led the
"Rescue" klavern out of the Klan, and denounced the "disgusting
debacle from true Americanism . . . . Wrong rules the Klan, and waiting justice
sleeps.Ó In turn, Winter's pro-German clique expelled Button from the group: we
still have the letters of both men, appealing to Stouch for support (87). The Fiery
Cross denounced the Nordland meeting for acts which had Òshocked and
horrified the nationÓ, and urged that the whole affair be referred to the Dies
Committee. It condemned EuropeÕs dictators, not least for their suppression of
the Masonic orders (88).
The Klan had no option but to purge
the leaders who had arranged the entente with the Bund, but it was too late to
prevent remaining klaverns from falling apart across the region. In StouchÕs
New Jersey territories, ÒAmericanistÓ Klansmen were in schism from ÒHitlerÕs
Nazi henchmen.Ó (89). In October 1940, it was presumably a "patriotic"
Klan faction who burgled StouchÕs Germantown home and appropriated the complete
Klan archives dating back to the early 1920s, Òseveral hundred pounds of
materialÓ. They handed this embarrassing material over to the State Police, to
help them build a full list of likely traitors and fifth-columnists. In June
1941, the Pennsylvania State Police noted that the stolen Klan archives would
be a useful source in case the ÒLegion of DeathÓ became as active as the ÒBlack
LegionÓ had some years ago. By the
end of 1941, the Klan was unable to find a newspaper that would advertise its
meetings, even in a once-safe haven as loyal as Uniontown (90).
The MothersÕ Movement
For some Rightist groups, the coming
of war not only faild to dampen their ardor, it actually opened a new range of
propaganda opportunities. They exploited tensions resulting from the war,
notably hostility towards Jews who were supposedly failing to participate fully
in the struggle. The most influential of the continuing groups was the
ÒMothersÕ MovementÓ, a confederation of local societies, variously titled the
ÒCrusading Mothers of AmericaÓ, ÒUnited Mothers of ClevelandÓ, the ÒMothers and
Daughters of PhiladelphiaÓ, ÒWe, the MothersÓ, and ÒWe, the Mothers, Mobilize
for AmericaÓ. The movement claimed to represent the collective interests of
American mothers whose sons were placed at risk in foreign wars.
This was an ironic reversal of the
customary fascist use of the rhetoric of motherhood, which exalted womenÕs role
in producing children to serve the fatherland in war and peace. Conversely, it
was on this occasion leftist and liberal critics who employed traditional
anti-feminist and anti-suffragette rhetoric against Rightist women, who were
derided as Òthe thundering herdÓ, Òfrowsy, belligerent . . . very poor and ignorant . .
. These poor women must have been hirelings of someoneÓ. The Mothers were
condemned for their unfeminine aggression, and told condescendingly that their
authentic feminine role was at home, caring for their families. A typical jibe
suggested that if these were indeed the Mothers of America, one trembled for
the future of the race: other critics asked whether such old and unattractive
women could indeed be mothers (91). On both sides, the isolationist debate
produced odd alliances and arguments.
Like local Communists, Philadelphia
anti-semitic movements had long had a substantial female membership, and in
1939 it was noted that the attendance at A.C.S. meetings was often equally
divided between men and women (92). In late 1939, Father Coughlin announced the
creation of a ÒNational League of MothersÓ. That November, the ÒMothers of
AmericaÓ invaded the US Capitol at the time of the neutrality debates, blaming
Jewish influence for the perceived American drift to war (93). In the fall of
1940 a ÒMothersÕ March on WashingtonÓ was planned to urge the impeachment of
President Roosevelt (94). PhiladelphiaÕs contingent was led by Catherine
Veronica Brown of Darby, in Delaware County, who took the opportunity to visit
the Japanese and German embassies to apologize for American provocations, and
to plead for peace (95).
Though initial ÒMomistÓ claims were
pacifist and isolationist, groups were opposed specifically to wars carried out
against the Axis, and in their view the worldÕs chief war-mongers comprised the
sinister alliance of Roosevelt, the British government, and the Jewish
financial conspiracy (96). National leaders included extreme rightists like
Robert Edmondson, Elizabeth Dilling and PhiladelphiaÕs Mrs. David Good (97).
Local organizers had been active in the Christian Front and related groups, and
Catherine V. Brown was one of many Catholics in the MothersÕ leadership.
The campaign gained momentum on the
outbreak of war, with its appeal to women whose sons and husbands were absent
in the armed forces. In 1945, the ÒMothersÕ MovementÓ in Philadelphia was said
to be Òfast turning the City of Brotherly Love into the City of Motherly HateÓ.
The main group was led by Catherine V. Brown and Lillian Parks (98). Beginning
as the ÒCrusading MothersÓ, this group soon adopted a number of aliases,
including the ÒCurrent Events ClubÓ and the ÒNational Blue Star Mothers of
PennsylvaniaÓ, the latter title deliberately intended to cause confusion with
reputable ÒBlue Star MotherÓ groups (99). The Washington representative of the
Philadelphia unit was Agnes Waters, a well-known Coughlinite and anti-semitic
lobbyist, who successively campaigned against causes like Lend-Lease and the
invasion of Normandy (100). Catherine V. Brown herself was a close friend of
Gerald L. K. Smith (101). This was for her a ÒJew warÓ, Òthe Jew international
bankersÕ warÓ, started by ÒJew RooseveltÓ to destroy Christian civilization and
set up a Communist World Government. The group circulated Òvicious defeatist
leafletsÓ parodying pro-Allied slogans like ÒBundles for BritainÓ (102). One
depicted a corpse, and asked women ÒWill this bundle be your son?Ó (103).
The National Blue Star and other
ÒMothersÓ groups tracked families whose members had become military casualties,
and then wrote the relatives to explain that these misfortunes were the result
of schemes by Jewish or British interests, of the ÒJew bankers and Washington
bureaucrats their sons and husbands died forÓ (104). One example, sent in error
to a Jewish mother, asked ÒHow long are we going to permit our men to be slain
to save the Jewish empires all over the world? Did you know that certain Jews
by the hundreds are being trained to follow the armies and to be the ARMY OF
OCCUPATION (sic), with all the prostrated nations under their controlÓ (105).
The letter-writing campaign continued at least until the German surrender in
1945.
Leaflets distributed on the streets
were addressed to ÒChristian MothersÓ. Citing the most recent total for US
casualties, they asked ÒIs this the price you are paying for Jewish revenge?Ó .
. . ÓMust we have another million Christian casualties just to make Stalin the
world dictator instead of Churchill or Roosevelt?Ó (106). ÒNational Blue StarÓ
literature claimed that the war was fought for Jewish interests, and
constituted a ÒJew Holy WarÓ, in which gullible Christians served as
footsoldiers. Jews rarely served in the armed forces, and the only Gentiles who
received preferential treatment were Blacks, whose units had received special
warning of Axis assaults (107). The situation clearly bore out the warnings of
the movementÕs greatest hero, Congressman McFadden, about the conspiratorial
Zionist elite.
A Fifth Column?
In May 1940, Roosevelt warned in a
radio speech of Òthe Trojan Horse. The Fifth Column that betrays a nation
unprepared for treachery. Spies, saboteurs and traitorsÓ (108). Though anti-war
and pro-Axis propaganda undoubtedly continued through the war years, it is not
clear how far right wing extremists were either willing or able to make good on
the vocal threats they undoubtedly did make about armed revolution or terrorism
in the United States. Was there a genuine fifth column?
The authorities took the danger
seriously. In 1939, for example, the king and queen of England visited Canada
and the United States. The royal couple were to travel from the Midwest to the
East Coast by train, and it was believed that the German government had mounted
an assassination conspiracy, involving I.R.A. activists led by Sean Russell and
Joseph McGarrity (109). Though the train was only intended to pass through Pennsylvania, the State Police were conscientious about
surveillance of the route, and the preparations for this visit were far more
intense than those for any other celebrity for decades before or since. Though
the mobilization of police and military personnel does not seem excessive in
retrospect, it was amazing by contemporary standards. As the royal train made
its way, Pennsylvania State Police and National Guard mobilized over a thousand
officers. Every bridge and culvert was placed under constant guard, with
officers on the alert Òfor the throwing of a bomb or hand grenade by someone
standing in a crowd or someone passing in an automobile . . . for someone
sniping from a hillside with a rifle or someone in a crowd firing at the trains
. . . placing a charge of
explosives on or under any bridge or subwayÓ (110).
If fascist groups were planning
serious subversive activity, then Pennsylvania was vulnerable as a critical
center of the military build-up in 1940-41, and of subsequent war production.
At the height of the war, the
Philadelphia Navy Yard alone would employ seventy thousand workers: fifty
fighting ships were built here, and over a thousand more were repaired or
serviced. For potential saboteurs, Philadelphia also offered the Frankford
Arsenal, the Quartermaster Depot
and the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Elsewhere in the state there were Ordnance
Works near Williamsport and Meadville, the Navy supply depot at Mechanicsburg;
the Letterkenny Ordnance Depot, and the Sun shipyards at Chester. By mid-1940,
war production was in full swing in a dozen middle-sized Pennsylvania cities,
including York, Lancaster and Pottstown (111).
Would the munitions industries of
the Delaware Valley be subjected to clandestine attacks of the sort believed to
have disrupted American production prior to the first world war, symbolized by
such incidents as the Kingsland and Black Tom explosions? (112) These attacks
were cited as likely precedents for German clandestine warfare in the future
war (113). In December 1939, the FBI announced the strengthening of the
Philadelphia office in order to combat potential tampering with shipping along
the Delaware waterfront (114). The new Pennsylvania Turnpike was seen as another
obvious target: in September 1939 a dynamite attack came close to destroying a
bridge in Bedford County. Charges of railroad sabotage and line-tampering were
numerous through 1940, and there was an upsurge in patriotic vigilante
societies seeking to prevent such activities (115).
Throughout the war, critics
complained that anti-semitic and anti-war leaflets were distributed freely in
Philadelphia within sight of some of the nationÕs most sensitive defense
installations, and this in a city with some ninety thousand registered aliens
(116). Coincidentally or otherwise, Camp Deutschhorst was located close
to the factory manufacturing gauges for the armed forces, and Bund rallies here
were said to have attracted workers from the Navy Yard and the Frankford
Arsenal (117). A Bundist said to be a member Òof nearly every German club in
PhiladelphiaÓ, was employed at a factory making landing gears for bomber
aircraft. Another man, an active official in the KyffhŠuserbund, worked
for the aircraft department of a Philadelphia defense plant (118).
Rumors about sabotage at military
plants had been circulating for years, and in 1938 there was an abortive
investigation of possible tampering with shell production at the Frankford
Arsenal (119). As war grew more likely, claims about fifth column activity became abundant, with some
sources depicting as suspicious virtually every fire and explosion that could
be linked, however tenuously, to the war effort. Sayers and Kahn report dozens
of such incidents in Pennsylvania between 1940 and 1942 (120). In reality, all
industrial facilities will have a quota of accidents, and not all acts of
sabotage are politically motivated. However, some events appeared more
plausible than others, such as the three near-simultaneous explosions in
munitions plants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a coincidence which as
Secretary of War Stimson remarked Òmight suggest Teutonic efficiencyÓ (121). In
1940, the Philadelphia papers headlined a series of sabotage attempts at the
Sun Shipyards in Chester (122). In 1941, there were fires in the Philadelphia
Navy Yards and the Frankford Arsenal (123). The Philadelphia Yards had been
mentioned as a specific target of the Christian Front plotters arrested in
January 1940 (124). While the FBI denied that sabotage played a role in any of
the incidents, some modern writers have asserted that German rings were active,
operating through either Ukrainian or Irish agents (125)
The height of concern about sabotage
activity came in June 1942, with the arrest of eight German agents landed by
submarine in Florida and on Long Island. Most of the group had spent time in America, and had been Bund members.
They were assigned a number of critical military targets, which in Pennsylvania included a Philadelphia cryolite plant
producing the materials essential for the manufacture of aluminum. Also listed
was the horseshoe curve near Altoona, the destruction of which would paralyze
the production and transportation of coal, and delay troop movements to the
East Coast. The scheme bore the appropriately Pennsylvania-oriented name of Operation
Pastorius (126).
Ukrainian Networks
Though the German Nazis and Italian
Fascists were the best-publicized among the various rightist movements, other
ethnically-based organizations were available to enemy intelligence services.
Between 1940 and 1942, a number of eastern European groups attracted intense
concern, American representatives of minority nationalities like the
Lithuanians and Croats, who had allied with the Axis powers to secure their
national aspirations (127). Pittsburgh had a Croat nationalist community that
welcomed the German overthrow of the Yugoslav state in 1941, and a leading
activist here was Ante Doshen, publisher of the ultra-Rightist journal journal American
Slav (128). White Russian emigrŽs were mobilized by the pro-Nazi Prince
Anastase Vonsiatsky (129).
Much the most important group was the Ukrainians, who were
well represented in Pennsylvania (130). In 1930, some six thousand foreign-born
Pennsylvanians claimed Ukrainian as their mother tongue, with the largest
communities in Philadelphia (two thousand), Pittsburgh (one thousand) and
Scranton (seven hundred). There was also a thriving cultural network, with
several newspapers and magazines. Philadelphia was the center of the Ukrainian
Catholic church in North America, and there were some 24 Ukrainian parishes in
and around Pittsburgh, both Catholic and Orthodox (131).
Most Ukrainian expatriates were
militantly anti-Communist. During the 1930s, rightist sentiment had been
exploited by new groups closely affiliated with German Abwehr
intelligence, for whom they undertook terrorist attacks against Polish and
Soviet targets. These movements included the OUN, Organizace Ukrajinska
Nacionalistov, headquartered in Rome, and the pro-Nazi ODWU, the
Organization for the Rebirth of the Ukraine (132). All were active in the
United States in the 1930s, where ODWU militants were involved in kidnappings
in New York city. Pennsylvania provided a critical power base, and until 1938,
the president of ODWU in the United States was Gregory Herman, of Wilkes-Barre,
an officer in the US Army Reserve (133). As with the Germans and Italians,
fascist groups infiltrated and sought to annex older-established nationalist
and cultural groups, especially the Ukrainian Nationalist Association. Another
target was the Ukrainian Catholic church, which was influenced by a pro-ODWU
priest named Monsignor Ivan Buchko, who declared that the organization
represented Òthe flower of the Ukrainian nationÓ. By 1940, some publications of
the Ukrainian diocese of Philadelphia were expressing support for ODWU
positions. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the
Philadelphia Ukrainian paper America called for the establishment of a
pro-Nazi Ukrainian regime headed by one of the exile organizations (134) .
Ukrainians participated in the
emerging Brown Front. In Chicago in 1938, ÒUkrainians in greenish-brown shirts
marched with white- and silver-shirted American Nazis at the BundÕs German Day
celebrationÓ (135). A critical go-between was the White Russian leader
Vonsiatsky, who was close to native American fascist leaders like Pelley,
Edmondson, and Henry Allen, and was also linked to Wilhelm Kunze (136).
VonsiatskyÕs contact to the Ukrainian fascists was Alexei Pelypenko, the covert
FBI informant (137). Also linking German and Ukrainian interests was Captain
Leonid Klimenko, Òa fascist Ukrainian emissary from the German war officeÓ with
extensive contacts in and around Pittsburgh (138).
At least from 1934, the Ukrainian
fascists actively organized for violent confrontation and sabotage in the
United States. Initially, this was undertaken under the guise of an ÒUkrainian
Aviation SchoolÓ in New York state. Pittsburgh was the movementÕs center of
weapons training, and also for espionage activity that included photographing
industrial facilities throughout Pennsylvania. In early 1941, a US army captain
of Pennsylvania Ukrainian origins was court-martialled for betraying
information to a foreign agent (139). The Hour warned that Ukrainian
fifth columnists were spreading across the country, targeting centers like
Òvirtually the whole of Pittsburgh, with its mills, railroad yards and river
bargesÓ (140). In March 1941, Ukrainians were suspected of having sabotaged the
Pennsylvania RailroadÕs Cleveland to Pittsburgh express train, which crashed
near Ambridge in Beaver County, killing five (141). Railroad authorities were
certain that tampering had been involved, but the political motive was less
apparent. The Hour reported that the real target had been another train
which had passed the same spot some minutes earlier, carrying over forty
members of a Soviet delegation (142).
The Ukrainian networks offered a
potential subversive threat quite comparable that of any of the more conspicuous groups, though
here too fascist influence was waning before the outbreak of war. Within the
Ukrainian Catholic church, pro-fascist activities were prohibited by
PhiladelphiaÕs Bishop Constantine Bohachewsky, who reprimanded the pro-ODWU Buchko (143). Buchko left the US in late
1941 (144). In the Fall of 1940, ODWU was condemned by the mass membership
Ukrainian fraternal associations like the WorkingmanÕs Association of Scranton
(145), the National Mutual Aid Society of Pittsburgh, and PhiladelphiaÕs
Provident Association, as well as the influential Scranton paper Narodna
Volya (146). By the end of the year, the Scranton and Philadelphia
fraternal groups were demanding the exclusion of fascist sympathizers from
future Ukrainian-American gatherings (147). In 1941, the fascist Hetman
organization abandoned its US operations, and ODWU dissolved into several
factions (148).
The Sedition Trials
When war broke out, there were
extensive raids on German and Italian offices, shops and social clubs, and
signs of an incipient panic reminiscent of that in 1917. In the week following
Pearl Harbor, perhaps three thousand Germans and German agents were arrested
and interned nationwide, and federal authorities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
also seized Italian and Japanese aliens. Two hundred Òpotentially dangerous
aliensÓ were interned at the nearby Detention Center in Gloucester, NJ (149).
The American Legion helped find and intern Bund sympathizers, and maintain
surveillance on suspected Nazis (150). Camp Deutschhorst was a prime
target for an FBI raid (151). The atmosphere of the times is suggested by the
letter of a German from Emmaus, PA., to the Philadelphia Weckruf:
ÒKindly do not send the paper anymore, as this is a small town, and we
have had enough trouble and more as always since weÕre up hereÓ (152). To
forestall a witch-hunt, the German-American League of Culture orchestrated a
patriotic demonstration in Philadelphia on December 12, pledging full support
for the war effort. The main spokesman was Raymond Raff, whose impeccable
anti-Nazi credentials gave credibility to patriotic declarations (153). Even
the Herold urged German-Americans to unite Ò100 percent for America. At
a time like this, there can only be one country for all - AmericaÓ (154).
Law enforcement authorities arrested
prominent rightists as real or potential spies and fifth columnists. Kunze fled to Mexico, hoping to be
picked up by a German submarine. However, he was arrested and extradited in
1942, to serve most of the following decade in a federal penitentiary (155).
The destruction of his ring also involved Vonsiatsky and Pastor Molzahn (156).
In late 1942, the FBI arrested several Silver Shirt leaders near New Galilee in
Beaver County, including PelleyÕs daughter Adelaide Pearson, as well as Victor
Hoye, and H. Victor Broenstrupp, who was under indictment for sedition (157).
Pennsylvania produced other smaller fry (158) In 1943, Constance Drexel of
Philadelphia was indicted for making pro-Axis radio broadcasts from Berlin,
together with a list of fellow
defendants that included Ezra Pound. PittsburghÕs pro-German propagandists
included a ÒGertie from BerlinÓ who broadcast to American forces in Sicily
(159). Pro-Axis propaganda came under attack within the United States, and in
April 1942, the federal authorities barred Social Justice from the
mails, effectively killing the publication. The Philadelphia Herold was
attacked at the same time (160). In response to invasion fears, Roy Zachary and
other Silver Shirt leaders were prohibited from residing near the Pacific Coast
for the duration of the war.
Sensitivity to rightist plotting
raised hopes among liberals and leftists that finally, there would be a real
purge of the far Right that would involve a clean sweep of powerful fascist sympathizers.
In July 1941, a Grand Jury was convened in the District of Columbia under
prosecutor William Power Maloney, with the goal of examining foreign espionage
and propaganda in the United States. This body called hundreds of witnesses and
explored possible criminal violations as serious as sedition and espionage as
well as the failure to register as an agent of a foreign power, and abuses of
the Congressional franking privilege. The Jury indicted thirty or so rightists
in January 1943, but at this point the removal of Maloney began a controversial
series of events that entered the mythology of the Left. One view was that
Maloney had been Òkicked upstairsÓ for his excessive zeal in pursuing powerful
traitors whose prosecution would be embarrassing (161). A reconstituted Grand
Jury pursued the investigation and indicted a somewhat different cast of
characters, leading to a notorious sedition trial in 1944 (162).
The defendants included some well
known names, including True, Edmondson, Pelley, Deatherage, as well as
Lawrence Dennis, Elizabeth Dilling, Joe McWilliams, H. V. Broenstrupp
and Edward James Smythe, on a variety of charges concerning the distribution of
propaganda intended to undermine the morale of US armed forces. Leftist critics
of the prosecution produced a far longer list of those who they believed should
have been listed, and who had certainly been investigated as potential targets
for prosecution. Most conspicuous among the absentees were Father Coughlin and
his leading associates in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, or indeed of
anyone from the Christian Front networks. Of all the numerous Pennsylvania
activists, the only one indicted was G. W. Kunze. Among groups cited as agents
of German propaganda, the glaring omissions included a large majority of the
isolationist clubs and leagues, and most of the ÒMothersÓ movements which were
becoming the leading force in anti-war agitation. Not only were no Italian
Fascist groups or activists prosecuted, but the omission was scarcely mentioned
by critics. Nor were Klansmen represented.
The administration was unwilling to
explore possible subversive activities by organizations closer to the political
mainstream. A singularly delicate issue here was the group of twenty or so
isolationist members of the US Senate and House who had cooperated with
German-sponsored propaganda and intelligence services, permitting mass mailings
of pro-Axis literature to be distributed under their Congressional frank (163).
The Left would have liked a roster of sedition defendants to include such
political names as Hamilton Fish, Burton K. Wheeler, Robert Reynolds, Gerald
Nye, Clare E. Hoffman and (ideally) Charles Lindbergh. In the event, this hope
was dashed (164). Subsequent trials focussed not on the most influential leaders
of the pre-war Right, but on a second tier of outspoken individuals.
While political fears influenced the
selective nature of the prosecutions, federal authorities were nervous about
the strength of their cases in such a seldom tried area of law, and the 1940
Christian Front trial in New York city had been a disaster. The lesson would
thus be to focus on the strongest and most blatant cases, but even here the
sedition trials were unproductive. When the trials finally got under way in
1944, the prosecution cases proved unwieldy and confusing, and were based on
the difficult task of attempting to prove lengthy chains of association and
influence. Defense lawyers were well prepared, and portrayed the charges as a
gross attempt to muzzle free speech and discussion (165). Meanwhile,
ultra-conservative politicians like Clare Hoffman and John Rankin were
depicting the whole prosecution as a red smear directed by the White House and
the CIO, to renew the Òfifth columnÓ scare in time for the coming November elections.
In this view, prosecutor O. J. Rogge was a tool of prosecutor O. J. Rogge was a
tool of a Communist conspiracy which also included fellow travelling puppets
like Walter Winchell and John Roy Carlson (166). The case was further
complicated by a series of legal decisions during 1944 in which the US Supreme
Court overturned unrelated convictions for sedition and espionage, raising
questions about the state of the law and the criteria necessary for successful
conviction (167). The affair was closed by the untimely death of the judge, and
a mistrial was declared. In 1946, the Justice Department dismissed Rogge, who
had engaged in what proved a quixotic campaign to reopen the trial, and to
include some of the elusive political figures (168).
These anticlimactic events marked the end of the long-feared
threat of Nazi subversion within the United States. From the mid-1940s, law
enforcement attention turned rather to the alleged threats from the Left, and
investigations of the far Right declined sharply. This shift of public
attention gives the misleading sense that the movements and opinions described
here came to a sudden end with the collapse of the organizational structure,
but there was some continuity. While Pearl Harbor marked a catastrophe for the
extreme Right, it did not terminate the history of those movements.
Notes to
Chapter Eight
(1) Robert E
Herzstein, Roosevelt and Hitler (New York: John Wiley, 1994); Geoffrey
S. Smith, To Save a Nation: American Counter-Subversives, the New Deal, and
the Coming of World War II (New York: Basic, 1973).
(2) Investigation
of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) (1938-1940),
vol. 2, 1215.
(3) Ibid.,
vol. 2, e.g. p. 1192, 1210.
(4) John Roy
Carlson, Under Cover (New York, The World Publishing Co., 1943).
(5) Leonard
Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in America (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1994).
(6) P. S.
A., Klan Archives, H. M. Alexander Hartmann to Samuel Stouch, October 3, 1939.
(7) O. John Rogge, The Official German
Report (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1961), 208; ÒThe Defendants in the
Washington Sedition Trial,Ó The Facts (Anti-Defamation League), 3(1),
January 1948.
(8) Strong, Organized
Anti-Semitism, 133-137.
(9) Herzstein, Roosevelt and Hitler,
262-270.
(10) Charles
Higham, American Swastika (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 83. The George
Van Horn Moseley papers in the Library of Congress contain a substantial corpus
of anti-semitic ephemera, as well as extensive evidence of MoseleyÕs
connections with far-right theorists like Winrod, Edmondson, Deatherage, and
Reynolds, ties which endured well into the 1950s.
(11) ÒLegion
Leader Asks Patriotic Group to Repudiate Moseley,Ó Philadelphia Record,
March 30, 1939.
(12) Annual
Proceedings: Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution 1934-35 and List of
Members (Philadelphia, PA: Society of Sons of the Revolution 1935).
(13) Investigation
of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) (1938-1940), vol. 5,
3584-85; 3634-38.
(14) Ibid., vol. 5, 3634-35.
(15) Ibid., vol. 5, 3636.
(16) Ibid.,
vol. 5, 3637. Library of Congress, George Van Horn Moseley papers, Moseley to Tiffany Blake, March 30,
1939.
(17) Rogge, The
Official German Report, 285; H. L. Trefousse, Germany and American
Neutrality 1939-1941 (New York: Octagon Books, 1969), 46-49.
(18) Investigation
of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) (1938-1940), vol.
5, 3553-3560.
(19) N. A.,
Bund Archives, General Records, Box 18, folder 247; Investigation of
Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) (1938-1940), vol.
5, 3545-3704.
(20) ÒLegion
Leader Asks Patriotic Group to Repudiate Moseley,Ó Philadelphia Record,
March 30, 1939.
(21) Annette Thackwell Johnson, ÒThe
Christian Front in Pittsburgh,Ó Equality, November 1939, 30-31.
(22)
ÒKlan-Bund Rally Addressed by CoughlinÕs FriendÓ The Hour, 59, August
24, 1940, 1-2.
(23)
Carlson, Under Cover, 153;
Marcus, Father Coughlin, 150; ÒA Wedding at Wedding of Klan and
Bund,Ó Philadelphia Record, August 20, 1940; ÒThe Klan Meets the BundÓ Free
America and Deutscher Weckruf August 1, 1940; ÒThe Klan Strikes at its
EnemiesÓ Free America and Deutscher Weckruf August 15, 1940. For Arthur
Bell, see Investigation of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee)
vol. 14, 8307-8313.
(24)
Carlson, Under Cover , 152-153.
(25) Kenneth
S. Davis, FDR: Into the Storm 1937-1940 (New York: Random House, 1993);
Herzstein, Roosevelt and Hitler.
(26) Sager
ÒSwastika Over Philadelphia,Ó 6.
(27)
ÒCoughlinites in Philadelphia Prepare for ChristmasÓ The Hour, December
9, 1939, 4.
(28) ÒG-Men
Smash Plot to Overthrow US, Murder Congressmen,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, January 15, 1940.
(29)
Burchett, Education for Destruction, 151.
(30) Ibid.,
33.
(31)
Ibid., 144.
(32) Ibid.,
28-30.
(33) Ibid.,
168.
(34) Ibid.,
58.
(35) J.
Roffe Wike, The Pennsylvania ManufacturersÕ Association (Philadelphia,
PA: University of Pennsylvania Press 1960), 94.
(36) Ibid.,
173.
(37)
ÒGartnerÕs Mail 100 to 1 for Ban,Ó Philadelphia Record, September 27,
1939.
(38) ÒNavy
Pioneer Honored,Ó York Dispatch September 11, 1939; ÒNo Signs of Bund as
2300 Observe German Day Here,Ó Philadelphia Record, October 7, 1939.
(39) N.A.,
Bund Archives, Records of Other Organizations, ÒIsolationist Organizations;Ó
Henry R Hoke, ItÕs a Secret (New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1946).
(40) Gordon
Brooks, ÒThe Church vs. War Hysteria,Ó Equality, September 1940,
11.
(41) Radtke,
The History of the Pennsylvania American Legion, 55-56.
(42) Congressional Record, May 1,
1941, 3488.
(43) Pencak For
God and Country, 306; compare ÒVeterans Parade to Freedom Rally,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 29,
1941.
(44) Justin
Doenecke, In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940-41 (Stanford, CA: Hoover
Institution Press, 1990); Bill Kauffman, America First! Its History, Culture
and Politics (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1995); compare ÒWilliam A. White
Forms Group to Aid Allies,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 20, 1940.
(45) Wayne
S. Cole, America First: The Battle Against Intervention 1940-1941
(Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1953), 109.
(46)
Herzstein, Roosevelt and Hitler, 385-88.
(47) Gifford
Pinchot supported repeal of the Neutrality Act: Gifford Pinchot, ÒWe Are
Neutral, We Must Stay Neutral,Ó Philadelphia Record, November 3, 1939.
(48) Cole, America
First, 22, 31.
(49) Jules
Archer, The Plot to Seize the White House, (New York: Hawthorn, 1973);
ÒWar is a Racket, Says Gen. Butler in Armistice Talk,Ó Philadelphia Record,
November 11, 1939.
(50) Cole, America
First 171; ÒWar and Peace,Ó Bulletin Index (Pittsburgh) May 22,
1941. Pittsburgh leftists produced an isolationist paper entitled the Peace-Gazette,
a parody on the well-known Post-Gazette.
(51) Investigation of Un-American
Activities in the United States.
77th Congress. Executive Hearings 1942, vol. 6, 2517-2526; Michael
Sayers, and Albert E. Kahn, Sabotage: The Secret War Against America
(New York: Harper 1942), 203; George Britt, The Fifth Column is Here
(New York: Wilfred Funk, 1940), 113.
(52) Cole, Ameri
(52) Cole, America
First, 264.
(53)
ÒAcademy Bars Lindbergh: Flier Will Speak at Arena,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1941; ÒLindy is
Refused Use of Academy for Anti-Aid Talk,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 21,
1941.
(54)
ÒAcademy President Says Nazi Pressure CanÕt Stop Forums,Ó Philadelphia
Record, July 2, 1939. For earlier conflicts at this venue, see chapter
seven. The Academy also stands adjacent to the Bellevue Stratford, scene of
MoseleyÕs rally in 1939.
(55) Social
Justice noted the Jewish name of the WCAU executive who refused the
advertisements at that station: ÒColonel Lindbergh: A Challenge to
PhiladelphiaÓ Social Justice, June 2, 1941, 6; ÒAnti-Lindbergh Rally
Issues More Tickets Than Isolation Group,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 1941.
(56) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 197-199;
ÒLindbergh to Speak in America First Rally at Arena Here Tonight,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 29,
1941.
(57) George
M. Mawhinney, ÒBritish Flee Crete, Nazis Say; 16,000 Hail Lindbergh Here; Says
Roosevelt Seeks World Rule by US,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 30, 1941.
(58)
ÒLaGuardia and Bullitt to Address Big Rally Against Appeasement,Ó Philadelphia
Record, May 24, 1941; George M. Mawhinney, Ò12,000 at Rally Here Roar for
US Aid to Defeat Axis Powers,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 29, 1941; Will
Brownell and Richard N. Billings, So Close to Greatness: A Biography of
William C. Bullitt (New York: Macmillan 1987).
(59)
Dinnerstein, Anti-semitism in America, 129; H. L. Trefousse, Germany
and American Neutrality 1939-1941 (New York: Octagon Books, 1969), 46-49.
(60) Cole, America First, 179.
(61) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 197-98.
(62) Ò16,000
Hear Flyer Condemn FDR, Boo Churchill,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 30,
1941.
(63) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 197-98.
(64) George
M. Mawhinney, ÒBritish Flee Crete, Nazis Say; 16,000 Hail Lindbergh Here; Says
Roosevelt Seeks World Rule by US,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 30, 1941.
(65) ÒAn
Appreciative Audience,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 30, 1941.
(66) Rogge The
Official German Record 274-283. Amos Pinchot stirred intense controversy by
his defense of Lindbergh following the Des Moines speech: Library of Congress,
Amos Pinchot papers, correspondence September/October 1941. The affair had
local ramifications: In Williamsport, PA, for example, one active
isolationist engaged in a Òheated
argumentÓ with a local rabbi about the degree to which war fever was whipped up
by American Jews (Amos Pinchot papers, L. Shannon to Amos Pinchot, October 15,
1941).
(67)
ÒAcademy Bars Lindbergh: Flier Will Speak at Arena,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1941; Library of
Congress, Amos Pinchot papers, Philip M. Allen to Amos Pinchot, Sept 8 1941.
(68) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 219;
compare Cole, America First , 131-154.
(69) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942, vol. 6, 2543-4;
Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage,
219: October 16, 1941.
(70) ÒSave
Freedom Rally Tickets Going Fast,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 27, 1941.
(71) ÒWomen
for the United States of America,Ó The Facts, 2(1), January 1947, 7-12.
(72) Cole, America
First , 138.
(73)
Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in America, 129; Carlson Under Cover, 253
(74) Hoke, ItÕs
a Secret, 113.
(75) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942, vol. 6,
2544-2546.
(76) Ibid., 2619.
(77) Ibid., 2548.
(78) Ibid., 2521-6.
(79)
ÒMilwaukee Nazi Agent Arrested by FBI Linked to Philadelphia Fifth Columnist,Ó The
Hour, 110, August 16, 1941, 1; ÒNazi Activity in Philadelphia,Ó The Hour,
113, September 13, 1941, 1.
(80) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942, vol. 6, 2610.
(81)
Herzstein, Roosevelt and Hitler, 364-65.
(82) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 164n.
(83)
Correlli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely (New York: Norton,
1991).
(84)
Jenkins, ÒKlan in Pennsylvania,Ó quoting Pennsylvania Klan archives.
(85) P. S.
A., Klan Archives, Lewis W. Button to Samuel Stouch, October 7, 1940.
(86) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942, vol. 6, 2588.
(87) P. S.
A., Klan Archives, for example ÒRescue Klan #311 to J. A. Colescott,Ó nd,
August 1940.
(88) Investigation
of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) vol. 14, 8251-8331. ÒDictators Dissolve Masonic
Lodges in Conquered Lands,Ó Fiery Cross, September-October 1940.
(89) ÒKlan
Officials Removed from Office Following Alleged Klan-Bund MeetÓ Fiery Cross
September-October 1940; P. S. A., Klan Archives, J. A. Colescott to Samuel
Stouch, letters of August 20, 21 and 28, 1940.
(90) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive Hearings 1942, vol. 6, 2925.
(91)
Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in America, 134. The damning remarks are from
Olive Ewing Clapper, Washington Tapestry (New York: Whittlesey House,
1946), 250-252, and from Carlson, Under Cover.
(92) ÒDaly
Pledges Free Speech Before Meeting of
ÔAntisÕ Ó Philadelphia Record, March 17, 1939; Paul Lyons Philadelphia
Communists 1936-1956 (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1982), 87;
for women in extremist groups, compare Kathleen M. Blee, Women of the Klan:
Racism and Gender in the 1920s, (Berkeley: University of California, 1991).
(93) H. L.
Trefousse, Germany and American Neutrality 1939-1941 (New York: Octagon
Books, 1969), 46-49; Clapper, Washington Tapestry, 250-252.
(94) ÒMore
About the MothersÕ March on Washington,Ó The Hour, October 19, 1940, 2; Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942 vol. 6, 2648-2652; ÒPacifist Women Stage a Hanging,Ó Philadelphia
Record, August 22, 1940.
(95) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive
Hearings 1942 vol. 6.
(96)
Emmanuel A. Piller, Time-Bomb (New York: Arco 1945), 109-120.
(97) ÒMore
About the MothersÕ March on Washington;Ó Glen Jeansonne, Gerald L. K. Smith:
Minister of Hate (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press 1988), 85.
(98) Piller,
Time Bomb; Carlson Under Cover, 509.
(99) The groupÕs usual venue was the P.O.S.
of A. Hall, North Broad Street.
(100) Hoke ItÕs
a Secret, 172-73.
(101)
Piller, Time Bomb, 110.
(102)
Carlson Under Cover, 509
(103) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States. 77th Congress. Executive Hearings 1942 vol. 6, 2652.
(104) Hoke ItÕs
a Secret 172-174, 182.
(105) Piller, Time Bomb, 112.
(106)
Ibid., 113-15.
(107) Ibid., 113.
(108) Britt,
The Fifth Column is Here, 1.
(109)
Higham, American Swastika,
102-116.
(110) P. S.
A., RG 30, Pennsylvania State Police, Bureau of Crime and Traffic Law
Enforcement, Records of Special Duty Involving Visiting Dignitaries: Visit of
the King and Queen of England. One dangerous section of the route lay between
Philadelphia and Trenton, Òparticularly in and through Bristol, PA. Aliens and
foreign-born residents are numerous through the entire area and reside in the
vicinity of the railroadÓ: Bristol had a sizable Italian presence.
(111) Klein
and Hoogenboom History of Pennsylvania 469; compare ÒYork Pounds
Plowshares into Swords and Becomes Major Munitions Center,Ó Philadelphia
Record, June 6, 1940.
(112) Henry
Landau, The Enemy Within: The Inside Story of German Sabotage in America
(New York: G. P. Putnam's 1937); Britt, The Fifth Column is Here, 5 -7.
(113) Britt,
The Fifth Column is Here, 5 -7; Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage.
(114) ÒSears
to Head G-Men in City,Ó Philadelphia Record, December 2, 1939;
ÒWaterfront Guarded Against Sabotage Here: All of US on Alert,Ó Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 31, 1941.
(115)
ÒSabotage Suspected,Ó York Dispatch Sept. 7, 1939; ÒTroopers Guarding
Penna Super-Road,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 10, 1941; ÒRailway
Official Bares Sabotage Along Its Lines,Ó Philadelphia Record, June 5,
1940. For vigilantism, see A. J. Foglietta, Ò2500 Volunteers in State Hunting
Fifth Columnists,Ó Philadelphia Record, May 24, 1940; A. J. Foglietta, ÒState Session of
Legion to Ask Draft Speedup,Ó Philadelphia Record, Aug. 16, 1940; ÒJohn Pew Backs Vigilantes Here,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 6,
1940; ÒHyatt Claims 65,000 Members
in Vigilantes,Ó Philadelphia Record, Oct. 11, 1940.
(116) Piller, Time-Bomb.
(117) ÒProbe
Bund Camp at SellersvilleÓ Philadelphia Record, September 7, 1939;
ÒSellersville Plant Warns it Will Fire All Bund Members,Ó Philadelphia
Record, September 26, 1939; ÒDies Agents Find Nazis and Reds in Navy Yard
Here,Ó Philadelphia Record, November 16, 1940.
(118) ÒTwo
Workers Fired at Arsenal for Bund Activities,Ó Philadelphia Record,
October 9, 1940; Ò37 Seized in Round-Up of Axis Citizens Here; CityÕs Number
One Nazi Held,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1941.
(119)
ÒMysterious Tie-Up at Arsenal Halts Shell Fuse Output,Ó Philadelphia Record,
October 16, 1938.
(120) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage.
(121)
ÒEvidence of Sabotage Uncovered After Blasts in Three Plants Kill Fifteen,Ó Philadelphia
Record, November 13, 1940; Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage, 110;
ÒSurvivors Talk of BundÕs Hand in Jersey Blast,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, September
13, 1940.
(122)
ÒShip-Sinking Plot Bared at Chester,Ó Philadelphia Record, January 30,
1940; ÒVessels Set Afire, Pipes Cut in Sabotage at Sun Shipyard,Ó Philadelphia
Record, October 2, 1940.
(123) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 112-119.
(124)
ÒFather Coughlin Knows He Lies,Ó Equality,
February 1940, 9.
(125) Farago
The Game of the Foxes, 445.
(126) John
J. Stephan, The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile (New York:
Harper and Row 1978); Sayers and
Kahn, Sabotage, 122-124.
(127) ÒCity
Slovaks Hope for Peace: Pledge Loyalty to AmericaÓ Philadelphia Record,
August 27, 1939.
(128)
ÒArrest of Doshen,Ó The Hour, 114, September 27, 1941, 3.
(129)
ÒVonsiatsky and International Nazism,Ó The Hour, 8, August 15, 1939,
4-5; Stephan, The Russian Fascists.
(130)
Alexander Lushnycky, et al, Ukrainians in Pennsylvania: A Contribution to
the Growth of the Commonwealth, (Philadelphia, PA: Ukrainian Bicentennial
Committee, 1976).
(131)
Lushnycky, et al, eds., Ukrainians in Pennsylvania 53, 60.
(132) Investigation
of Un-American Activities (The Dies Committee) vol. 9, 5259-5322; Higham American
Swastika 117-133; Britt, The Fifth Column is Here 101-103.
(133) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 78-94; Investigation of Un-American Activities in
the United States (The Dies Committee) vol. 9, 5314.
(134)
ÒUkrainian Fascists Meet in New York and New Jersey,Ó The Hour, 55, July
27, 1940, 2-4; ÒUkrainian Fascists in Midwestern Drive,Ó The Hour, 57,
August 10, 1940, 2-3; ÒNazi Agent Katamay,Ó The Hour 104, July 5, 1941,
3.
(135) Investigation
of Un-American Activities in the United States (The Dies Committee)
(1938-1940), vol. 2, 1209.
(136) Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage, 70-3; Stephan, The Russian Fascists,
248-302.
(137) Higham
American Swastika 125-7;
Sayers and Kahn, Sabotage,
73; ÒVonsiatsky and International Nazism.Ó
(138) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage,
3-4.
(139) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage,
81.
(140) Higham American Swastika 120; ÒNazi-Ukrainians Photograph
US Industrial Centers,Ó The Hour, 112, August 30, 1941, 1; ÒUkrainian
Fifth Columnists,Ó Ibid. 121, December 13, 1941, 4.
(141) Higham
American Swastika, 119.
(142) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage, 3-4; ÒUkrainian Fascists and Pennsylvania Train
Wreck,Ó The Hour, 91, April 5, 1941, 1-2; ÒCareer of Kalina Lissiuk,Ó
Ibid., 93, April 19, 1941, 2-3.
(143)
ÒBuchko Criticized by His SuperiorÓ The Hour, 63, September 21, 1940,
2-3. (129) ÒBuchko Leaves US,Ó Ibid. 120, November 29, 1941, 3.
(145)
ÒLetter from Ukrainian Churchman,Ó The Hour, 62, September 14, 1940, 2-3
ÒUkrainian Fascists Troubled,Ó Ibid. 63, September 21, 1940, 2.
(146)
ÒBuchko Criticized by His Superior,Ó The Hour, 63, September 21, 1940, 2-3.
(147)
ÒUkrainian-Americans Fight Fascist Elements,Ó The Hour, 67, Oct. 19, 1940, 2.
(148) ÒODWU
and Hetman in Retreat,Ó The Hour, 68, October 26, 1940, 2; ÒUS Hetman to
DisbandÓ Ibid. 89, March 22, 1941,
1; ÒGovernment Freezes Funds of Ukrainian National Association,Ó Ibid. 122,
December 30, 1941.
(149) Farago
The Game of the Foxes, 488; ÒGermans, Italians, Seized Along With
Japanese Here,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 9, 1941; Ò37 Seized in
Round-Up of Axis Citizens Here; CityÕs Number One Nazi Held,Ó Philadelphia
Inquirer, Dec. 10, 1941; Ò115 Aliens Interned at Gloucester Include
Professor at U of P,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 12, 1941; ÒNazi Shrine
Found by G-Men in Raid on North Philadelphia Home,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer,
Dec. 14, 1941; ÒJapanese, German, Italian Nationals Rounded Up Here,Ó Pittsburgh
Press, Dec. 9, 1941; ÒProfessor, Attorney, Held in Axis Alien Roundup,Ó Pittsburgh
Press, Dec. 10, 1941.
(150)
Radtke, The History of the Pennsylvania American Legion, 56.
(151)
ÒDocuments Seized by FBI in Raid on Nazi Retreat,Ó Philadelphia Inquirer, December
13, 1941.
(152) N.A.,
Bund Archives, Records of the German American Business League Inc (Deutscher
Konsum Verband - DKV). Philadelphia Deutscher Weckruf, letter of Willi
Gruenenberg, December 11, 1941.
(153)
Russell F. Weigley et. al., Philadelphia: A Three Hundred Year History,
(New York: W W Norton 1982), 639; ÒItalians, Germans, Vow US Loyalty,Ó Philadelphia
Inquirer, December 12, 1941.
(154) ÒGerman, Italian, Papers Continue,Ó Philadelphia
Inquirer, December 12, 1941.
(155) Sayers
and Kahn, Sabotage,
121-122; Higham, American Swastika, 130-2.
(156)
Stephan, The Russian Fascists, 299-302.
(157) ÒThe
Defendants in the Washington Sedition Trial,Ó The Facts, 3(1), January
1948, 29-30; Hoke, ItÕs a
Secret, 197.
(158) Higham
American Swastika,
63; Hoke ItÕs a Secret,
294 .
(159) Rogge The
Official German Report, 310; Constance Drexel, Armament Manufacture and
Trade (Worcester, MA: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division
of Intercourse and Education, 1933); ÒGertie on Berlin Radio is Former Local
Resident,Ó Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 1943; ÒFormer Chum, WAVE,
Aided ExposŽ of Gertie,Ó Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 1943.
(160) ÒNew
Issue of Herold Allowed in Mails: Paper Still Faces Action,Ó Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 6, 1942; N.A., Bund Archives, Records of the A. V. Publishing
Co., ÒFinal Report of Samuel McK. Perry, Examiner, Acting as a Representative
of the Treasury Department,Ó 1942; ÒAttorney General to Crack Down on Social
Justice,Ó Social Justice, April 6, 1942.
(161) ÒThe
Defendants in the Washington Sedition Trial,Ó The Facts, 3(1), January
1948; Carlson, Under Cover, 484-486; Hoke ItÕs a Secret; Leo P.
Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right From the Great
Depression to the Cold War (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press,
1983), 178-224; Higham American Swastika .
(162) Rogge The
Official German Report , especially pp. 173-218.
(163) Hoke ItÕs
a Secret; Rogge The Official German Report.
(164) Hoke ItÕs
a Secret; Higham American Swastika .
(165)
Maximilian St. George and Lawrence Dennis, A Trial on Trial: The Great
Sedition Trial of 1944, (New York: National Civil Rights Committee, 1946).
(166)
Gabler, Winchell, 333-336; Higham American Swastika; The
Sedition Case (Lowell, AZ: Lutheran Research Society, 1953). For Rogge, see
Joseph P. Kamp, The Fifth Column in Washington, (New Haven, Conn:
Constitutional Educational League, 1940). For Rankin and Hoffman as
anti-semites, see ÒThe Political Scene,Ó The Facts, 3(10), October 1948.
(167) Hoke ItÕs
a Secret 294-295
(168) Albert
E. Kahn, High Treason: The Plot Against the People (New York: Lear,
1950, 256-260).