Khaki Shirts Now a Joke But Are Getting Ugly
PORTER, PAUL
Khaki Shirts Now a Joke But Are Getting Ugly By PAUL PORTER PHILADELPHIA. - A crew of would-he Hitlers have established national headquarters in this city as the Khaki Shirts o{ America....
...REAT interest is being shown everywhere as the date approaches of the great Socialist picnic scheduled for Ulmer Park on Saturday, July 29th...
...The Socialists are Creating a New Spain NO nation presents more difficulties to a Socialist movement than Spain which for centuries has been under the rule of a landed and clerical oligarchy, and yet the Socialist Party in that country is doing a better job than Socialists in other nations could expect...
...Hitler in his early days was laughed at as Smith may well be laughed at today...
...It is a revolution to evolve the political and economic 'form which its leaders believe best adapted to the Spanish character...
...1 i...
...The outline of the new nation, with its idea that physical well-being is more important than spiritual and its ideas of practical morality, has been repeated too often to require explanation, but let it be said that this is not, as so many scholarly minds seem to think, only reform to bring a backward nation up to date...
...The immediate occasion for this action was the throwing of three hand grenades at policemen, 82 being wounded and two killed...
...if it is undefeated by forces outside of its parliamentary fold...
...Organizations which has as yet not ordered tickets can still do so by getting in touch with the arrangements committee at 7 E. 15th Street, New York...
...It will be 10,000,000 by July 4th, the tentative date for "taking over the Government," he says...
...However, when questioned by this writer he revealed himself woefully ignorant of the Chinese territory over which he professes to have flown and of the armies he supposedly put to rout Scab Backers Among the backers of the Khaki Shirts is R. G. Morgan, Philadelphia open shop furniture manufacturer, who has been rewarded with a generalship that places him second in commadn...
...The last of the German Nazi organizers has also been expelled and tha party has been forbidden to engage in any political activity, to wear the swastika or other party emblems...
...Among them are many branches of the Workmen's Circle and their Ladies' Clubs, as well as their young peoples' organizations, the Young Circle League...
...One half of the enrollment fee goes into the pockets of "General Art J.Smith, founder, commander-in-chief, and in his own eyej the American counterpart of Mussolini and Hitler...
...At this time more than 150 organizations have already ordered blocks of tickets for their members...
...They are working to reestablish the labor organizations, smashed by the brutal Machado regime, and to build up a Socialist party in that troubled Island paradise...
...I Cuban A.B.C Boys Work For a Socialist Party Three Cuban students, Alfonso Oriana Chaves, Gustavo del Peso and Raul Machado (no relation to the dictator, if you please), fresh from two years' imprisonment in Cuban dungeons for political activity, have arrived in New York with a story of the secret work of the A.B.C, a revolutionary organization of students seeking to overthrow the Machado dictatorship and the reestablishment of democracy...
...They have attended Socialist, Communist, and labor union...
...If the movement spreads, the church and a .lumber of other institutions will not fare so well in some Latin-American countries as they have in the past...
...That is, Dollfuss, representing another form of reaction, would like to arrange with tha Socialists some understanding by which both would respect the status of each other in order to ward off control by Austrian Hitlerites...
...B. E. F. Chief W. W. Waters called upon the fleeing veterans to organize the Khaki Shirts of America...
...The outfit itself and the boasted store of munitions and that the facts unearthed be made known to the public...
...urnw„4 with clubs and gas pipes, and on several occa-sioas have provoked fights...
...The ¦ristocracy is to be smashed...
...In the meantime the Hitlerites have been indulging in killings and throwing of bombs, and on Monday the Dollfuss Government outlawed the Nazi party...
...They cannot be dismissed with a smile, however...
...The Madrid correspondent of the New York Times recently cabled that the party and the unions have vetoed anything but a revolutionary government and that Spain "is undergoing a revolution from the bottom to the top...
...Smith promptly announced himself "Western Commander," and when snubbed by Waters promoted himself to "National Commander...
...Their childish game of playing soldier la not wholly harmless...
...Glover is a former Republican ward leader who failed to make the grade in Vare's machine...
...Also many trade unions, as well as branches of the Socialist Party, the Yipsels, and many landsmanntchaften and societies...
...Divisions of the Khaki Shirts have been established, to the knowledge of the writer, in California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, I Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Louisiana...
...Lines Growing Sharper in Austria AUSTRIAN Socialists came to blows with Nazis in the Diet of Lower Austria last week and the Christian Socialists (Clericals) joined in punching Nazi noses...
...Smith headed a small contingent from Hollywood which had arrived in Kansas City on Bloody Thursday—the day Hoover called out the Army against the veterans...
...Libera, anti-fascist daily...
...United Workers' Federation of Pennsylvania...
...Headquarters is thick with "generals"—commanding generals, major generals, brigadier generals, adjutant generals and quartermaster generals—who swank about in natty uniforms and tinseled spiked helmets, remindful of Roman emperors or Munich traffic cops...
...Other military service he claims Is as follows: with the French Foreign Legion, with the Riffs In Morocco against Spain...
...Chaves will contribute articles on the progress of the Socialist movement in Cuba to The New Leader, the first of which will j shortly appear...
...The i churches are to be smashed...
...This hints at the conspiracy that always hovers in the background of the movement...
...We have lost ! our German fatherland through you, and never will And It again I until 60,000,000 Germans have I shaken off their brown chains...
...The principal speaker was Gi ml ii ino Valenti, editor i of La Stamjia...
...A Nazi Deputy accused the Socialists of setting fire to the Palace of Justice in 1927, and the Socialist Deputy Srhneidmandl replied that 1 Socialists had risked their lives to I prevent the burning of the Palace, | ;ind continued: "No Communist has lived—stupid as Communists are—who would do ' such a crazy thing as to give joe I the finest election slogan of centuries...
...They can get tickets in quantities, at very low prices whereby they can provide their members with a good time i and still realize a very substantial, profit...
...While the revolution seeks vast economic changes, it is not cast to make world economic innovations its primary factor...
...A large number of the Khaki Shirt followers are Italians inspired by Mussolini...
...5 Free Vacations Given Away At the Ulmer Park Picnic - ie Vacations Will Be at Camp Tamiment, Unity House, Camp Eden, Workmen's Circle Camp, and Unier Camp — Organizations Can Still Order Blocks of Tickets...
...The class conflict Is keen in the Austrian republic and workers live In constant expectation of some crisis that may make Vienna a bloody shambles...
...They will have little success but probably much sad experience...
...with the fcih Regiment, U. S. Marines...
...Physical exercise is not lacking I for these bold dictators, for every | time a general meets a general , right arms shoot forward and upward in fascist salute...
...Socialists in all : localities where the Khaki Shirts I are active should expose Smith's record, and should report all their activities to the Party national office or to The New Leader...
...All 1 that portion of the middle class i *hich is not a natural development 1 but depends on patronage from 1 ¦bove is to be smashed if it is so unfortunate as to be caught in the mill...
...We demand an immediate investigation of individuals in command...
...No, It was you Nssis who fired the Reichstsg and made the flames the Justification for all the infamies and beastialities with which from that day to this Democratic Cermsny has been over-| whelmed...
...It faces perils and the constant threat of a reactionary conspiracy but with more than a million workers organised into revolutionary unions the two arms of the proletarian movement cooperate in a fine spirit of solidarity...
...with Sandino in Nicaragua against the marines...
...He is using dictatorial force whenever necessary to push things along toward his kind of regime...
...Overseas caps are sold at 75 cents each, khaki shirts at $4...
...Increasing Interest in Hitlerlsm is found among the youth and the upper middle classes, and Chancellor Dollfuss is said to be considering an approach to the Social is ts to prevent Nazi domination...
...Of the various groups using the Khaki Shirt name Smith's group has made the most progress...
...The labor organization the Khaki Shirts are trying hardest to disrupt is the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America...
...The organization is an offshoot of the bonus march upon Washington last Summer...
...But Socialists should see that his fascist gang is nipped in the bud before it becomes really serious...
...with General Feng Yu-hsiang, "Christian General" of China, as commander-in-chief of the air force...
...It would be a mistake to call Premier Manuel Azana either a «al dictator or a real democrat...
...Smith's record is that of a mercenary—or a four-flusher...
...A serious riot occurred last Siit urday night 150 Khaki Shirt followers attacked a Communist meeting...
...Several muddle-headed and 1 independently "radical" papers : have been converted into Khaki , Shirt organs...
...The remainder is split among the recruiting officers...
...But none are so impressive as "General" John W. Glover, chief of the Intelligence Department, who receives his reports in .. pitch dark room...
...A Protest The following letter was sent to Governor Pinchot snd to the Department of Justice at Washington: "The Khaki Shirts headed by Art J. Smith, a purely Fascist Organization with headquarters in Philadelphia, threaten civil insurrection and security of peace by armed forces and munitions all over the State of Pennsylvania...
...If this new Spain idea, with its domination by the masses, is going to penetrate into the aristocratically ruled countries of South America, as it already shows signs of doing in Peru and elsewhere, there is going to be a world reverberation...
...Among the interesting features being prepared will be the giving away of five free vacations among those coming to the picnic, absolutely free, at the following well known and popular resorts of the Labor movement: Camp Tamiment, Unity House, Camp Eden, the Workmen's Circle Camp, and Un-ser Camp...
...A comic opera atmosphere pervades this fascist organization...
...The actual membership is probably around 7,000...
...Should the Nazis seise power Austria would be linked np | with Germany, or Hitler would try to yoke Austria if the other powers did not veto it...
...The Nazi terrorists also attempted to destroy the locks of a ppwer reservoir and flood a large area which would have destroyed hundreds of lives...
...Progressive political bodies and labor unions, particularly those engaged in cleaning up sweatshop evils, are threatened with extermination as Communist Futile tyranny and persecution of innocent citizens will inevitably result unless officials charged with enforce-, meat of law guaranteeing citizens cw.il rights and liberties, disarm and squelch the present threatening menace...
...A further profit is made on the sale of the swanky uniforms...
...Millions of Nats...
...Next in rank are the kitchen police...
...The answer to much of the economic troubles and fret-some wars of Latin America seems to these leaders to lie here in Spain...
...Earl White, Secretary...
...It is a revolution to create a new kind of state...
...Branch of the Continental Congress...
...Now you want to turn ; Austria into a new prison cell to I add to the huge Jail which Ger-1 many has become...
...Threatening an early Fascist dictatorship in this country, they are enrolling a considerable number of traditional suckers at $2 a head...
...More than • dozen persons were in-jured in the knifing and clubbing fray...
...Art J. Smith, who predicts that his crew of adventurers will elevate him to dictataorship not merely over the United States but over the entire world, claims s membership of 6,000,000 in the Khaki Shirts...
...Domi-n i ck S i c a, a KhakiShirt,was stabbed several times in the stomach and is expected to dir...
...In conducting its campaign hi the Italian neighborhood the Socialist Party has had fine cooperation from the Italian syndicalists and anarchists (Continued on Page Twelve) and from some Italian communists...
...with General Escobar in the Mexican revolt in 1929, as chief of air service...
...First to sense the menace of thia fascist organization and to take action against them was the So-eialist Party which two weeks ago held a large mass meeting in front of their South Philadelphia headquarters...
...It requires domination by the proletariat When it is considered that the United States political system has proved a fail-ire for many of the republics modeled on to from the Straits of Magellan northward and that dictatorship is no longer the happy game it used to be, it is obvious that the Spanish revolution occurs m a psychological moment and its progress or failure is not to be ignored...
...He describes himself as having been the only American member of Kerens ky's staff—he was 20 then—and later having fought with the Cossacks in the Russian Revolution...
Vol. 15 • June 1933 • No. 25
