8OO Fascist Groups Reach15,000,000 Americans Using Jews as Scape Goats
BIRKHEAD, REV. L. M.
8OO Fascist Groups Reach15,000,000 Americans Using Jews as Scape Goats By REV. L. M. BIRKHEAD (National Director, Friends of Democracy) ATERRIBLE pestilence has been turned loose on modern...
...The anti-Semites contend the Communists are Jews, and the anti-aliens hold out for their scapegoat...
...Smiths share responsibility...
...reinforces body activity to avoid ill health...
...Socialists and liberals agitated for the abolition of conscription for military service where it existed...
...Regimentation in Russia, as in Germany, and in other corporate states, begins with compulsory military service and is extended to every phase of the life of the individual...
...Stop this war-mongering...
...In parrot fashion they attribute to America's four and one-half million Jews all national ills: unem-^ ploy men t. labor strife, an unbalanced budgeU moral disintegration and, finally, an imaginary threat of Communism...
...And every--where at cocktail parties, bridge parties, or other social gatherings, she analyzes the European war in exactly the same way and comes to the same conclusion: this is an imperialist war...
...They have cheered every betrayal of the revolution without misgiving, without demanding an accounting, accepting official explanations blindly, condoning all the crimes of the bureaucracy against the very idealists who dreamed and bled for the revolution...
...In the common cause of peace and a greater and fuller life for man, the Congress united the representatives of practically all the nations of the world...
...But then it will be too late for us to build an adequate air force and a modern, mechanized army...
...every requirement of modern housing conditions...
...Germany was at work...
...FTC Enioint "Baby Rittk" Candy Far Uitrepra$»ntatio»$ The Federal Trade Commission has ordered the Curtiss Candy Company to cease misrepresenting advertising that "Baby Roth" candy will avoid fat...
...Those arguing against the proposal pointed out that by raising the age limit of boys for employment, the opportunity to learn trades would be hit, since conscription into service would break up the apprenticeship period...
...TTHE most important group, both as to size * and influence, is that which specializes in anti-Semitism...
...It was inevitable that the conversation should soon drift to the European war, and somebody mentioned the possibility of the United States becoming involved in it...
...Disarmament conferences were called and serious attempts were made to limit armament, both naval and military...
...With characteristic short memory Mrs...
...It has been described by one writer as "the revolt of the clumsy lout against civilization...
...IT least eight hundred organizations, for-*^eijrn and native, are engrafted in the dissemination of anti-democratic propaganda of the fascist variety in the United States...
...belongs to many clubs—social,| cultural, philanthropic, and religious—and she entertains frequently...
...Everywhere they at least propagated for a reduction of the period of forced service...
...Compulsory military service was regarded with fear...
...The War Department of this country came into existence on Aug...
...Germany does not only command service in the army by force—it also compels service in industry...
...That is why, at this tragic time in the history of the modern world, she is dangerous...
...Military service in Russia, as industrial work in that country, is compulsory...
...it is no concern of ours...
...He must defend these...
...Besides, she reads the New-Masses, Daily Worker, pamphlets published by the International Publishers, and a few "hif*hbrow...
...It was true...
...Locarno was the child of the British and French and German Socialists and liberals...
...They are far too clever for such naive methods...
...Most democracies resorted to voluntary military service...
...xt inspecting the homes where rent wifa average $20.70 per month, including all utility charges, said that they meet...
...This is an imperialist war and is no concern of ours...
...I had been in Poland—that little country that was...
...SMITH is a genial, ~W» friendly, hospitable person I in early middle life, happily married to an accountant whose annual income is $4,500...
...She is quite satisfied with her position in this dying world of ours, but she needs the romanticism of Russian communism to relieve the tedium of her existence...
...Many Germans told me that the only beneficial provision of the Versailles Peace Thepty for Germany was the requirement that they do not arm...
...The youth of Germany is called up for industrial or agricultural work...
...She won't even remember that when Wilhelm Kunze, phe successor to Fritz Kuhn, was detained in Pennsylvania the other day, the police found in his possession a large supply of "The Yanks Are Not Coming" stickers...
...The most tragic occurrence in modern times has been the fact—no matter how excused and interpreted—that the Russian Revolution, the consummation of a century of hope and sacrifice, has ended in support-in the conquering Nazi machine...
...ANOTHER type of potential fascist, and a very dangerous one, although he seldom realizes it, is the extreme religionist or Fundamentalist...
...Poland, the so-called beneficiary of the Versailles Peace Treaty, was in much worse condition than Germany...
...As Socialists and liberals we realized that democracy and regimentation cannot live side by side...
...And yet, this third form of attack, sometimes described as the "Fifth Column," is one of the most effective instruments used by totalitarianism, whether red, black or brown...
...It is an infringement on the liberty of the individual...
...Compulsory service, military and otherwise, at the dictate of Fiihrers or Duces or StaBns, has made tools of all of Europe, wielded by the hands of power-crazy dictators to destroy the culture and the civilization which it took thousands of years to develop and build...
...Yet oom-pusory military service may be the only means of protecting our way of life...
...Compulsory rather than free service to the community or country is the basis of conscription...
...With a population of less than twenty-eight million people, it had a standing army of five hundred thousand at a cost that left its second largest and other cities without sewage systems, with backward schools, few hospitals, slums of the most frightful type, and poverty at every turn...
...Raising the age limit would start boys on their apprenticeships at sixteen or over, and before completing their learning of the trade to which they were apprenticed, they would be conscripted into service, • * * *1*HE change that has taken place in the * world since the rise of Hitler and the entrenchment of Mussolini and Stalin in Italy and Russia, has altered the picture...
...The Red Cross, which is evidently~stfll needed, was founded in Geneva in 1884, on Aug...
...Are we to permit ourselves to be unprepared when the attack is launched against us ? Armament, no matter how extensive it may be—airplanes, no matter how great their numbers are—ean-nons and battleships, no matter how many they are—are of no use, wholly worthless, unless properly and capably manned...
...No country is exempt from its penetration...
...Everything that could advance rapprochement with France was done...
...Standardization of the youth of a country develops a psychology, individual as well as in mass, which accepts slavish obedience to the ruler as a normal way of life...
...There, as in Germany, the right to choose one's employment or to migrate from one industrial center to another is denied the worker, as is also denied to him the right to organize, and by concerted action, ask for improvement in his and in the lot of those with whom he is associated...
...One must give way to the other...
...never thinking for a moment that she and her kind have been the most dangerous fifth column in our midst...
...To meet the threat of military aggression, we have already committed ourselves to spend ten billion dollars in military preparedness...
...She is dangerous because it is the smug sentimentalists like her—including the Chamberlains —who have brought our world to its present desperate state...
...Those that have argued against raising the age limit for the employment of children came from countries in which compulsory military service existed, and from their point of view they were right...
...Self-government must be returned to the civilized peoples of the world...
...But what are we to do...
...Since the outbreak of the second World War, much of the fascist propaganda which came to the United States from foreign sources has been stopped...
...He must proteet them...
...SMITH is convinced that "* she is an intelligent woman who does her own thinking...
...All the changes of Stalinist dialectics leave her unchanged...
...It even found favor in the eyes of the Germans...
...That will be when Russia, having once again miscalculated, finds herself under the necessity of protecting her borders against Nazi aggression...
...Hie War Perturbs the Cocktail Front ifjeftist' Smug $[rs...
...but by slow stages...
...Smith not been blinded by sentimentalism, Hitlerism could have been stopped at the beginning...
...The training of men takes a considerable period of time...
...But in their zeal to preserve what they believe to be the American tradition, they ally themselves with America's fascists...
...or "Down with Democracy...
...This propaganda exploits such words as "The Flag," "Christian," "Constitution," "Patriotic," and "Crusade...
...There is little doubt but that in time of fancied crisis (the sort conjured by Hitler in 1932) they would goose-step and "Heil" with the "Nationalists...
...The common people were all for it...
...Smith will soon change her slogan and begin to shout that we must fight...
...Compulsory military service does not only standardize and regiment the youth of a country, but it interferes with the orderly processes of progress and education...
...He may not refuse to work...
...Conscription Potentially a Threat to Our Freedom, But Dictated by Nazi Threat By JUSTICE JACOB PANKEN POR decades Socialists, laborites and liberals, on principle, have espoused disarmament...
...The Yanks," we are told in words and music, "Are Not Coming...
...All of these sources agree''that this is an imperialist;war and that we in the United _ States ought toj go on blithely ignoring it...
...According to Fundamentalist theology, the second coming of Jesus is imminent...
...Thereafter regimentation fixed by will of the Fuhrer the hours of labor and the wages paid...
...Newspapers, libraries, schools, clubs, as well as individuals, receive this propaganda...
...At least we have not prepared ourselves to meet it...
...The company was farther enjoined from stating that use of the candy will help avoid fatigue: sustains activity...
...Thus, for purely religious reasons, the Fundamentalist often finds himself in the camp of the Nazis...
...Smith accepts the analysis and the slogans unquestioningly...
...These, of course, are not the first slogans Mrs...
...On August first, 1790, United States citizens first started to protest the invasion of their privacy by the national census takers, and on August fifth of 1884 was laid the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty, presented by the free people of France...
...Sev-tiral months ago she was full of.: contempt for all appeasers...
...If and when Russia begins to appeal to all supporters of democracy to come to her aid it will not be a happy time for the liberals of the world...
...Et i • * * T\OES Mrs...
...The programs of nearly all native fascist organizations include measures against all the above scapegoats...
...Hitler introduced him into the political scene and demonstrated how effectively he could be used...
...Around the banner of anti-Semitism they have rallied at least fifteen million people in this country...
...In truth the idea of disarmament was on the increase until 1933...
...It is certain that in a world of self-governed people disarmament could be achieved...
...Some of the late editors of the Daily Worker and New Masses—Granville Hicks, Robert Forsythe, Richard Rovere, Joseph Freeman—may disapprove of the latest twist in the Stalinist line...
...Columbus sailed oa his first voyage to America on the third of this month in 1492, and in those days of peace New" Amsterdam became New York on August 27th, 1664...
...USHA funds totaling more than-$2,000,000 have been set~aside for a second Bridgeport 7.~**9°pment which will have two sites, one for Negro and one for j *mte tenants...
...At this very moment the United States is reacting to the warfare of this force on modern civilization...
...Smith lives in Baltimore, j She is worth writing about because she also lives in New York, Boston, Chicago, Omaha, Havre de Grace, Walla Walla, and Grov-ers Corner...
...Hitlerism, instead of being merely the last wriggle of a dying order, is something at once more primitive and more modern...
...Smith is never confused...
...Smith leads a busy and civilized life...
...If armament is on the increase, it means a diminution of social progress...
...He may not associate himself with his fellow workers for improvement of labor conditions...
...Nearly 800 dwellings which formerly occupied the YeHow Mill site, were demolished to make room for the project...
...Smiths foe the Line By BRYLLION FAGIN Professor of English at John Hopkins University lilRS...
...It is not enough to arm ourselves to the teeth against totalitarianism...
...Three major instruments, old ones, but developed and perfected (and employing the latest technological improvements), are used by this force to achieve its purposes...
...He ia a serf—directed...
...The German Social Democracy believed in the coming of universal peace—not immediately the coming of universal peace—not imme-.aiataiy...
...We hate any compulsion...
...To attain that he thought of and asked for disarmament...
...He becomes a cell of the mass, booted about as to the dictator seems best or most profitable...
...After the Congress, the Socialists and labor people in every country fought for universal disarmament and world peace...
...The Germans argued that the fact that they were prohibited from maintaining an army made it possible for them to build an economy to raise the standards of living for their people...
...And It is interesting to note that these native American fascist groups, as well as the foreign variety, 'fit into a few simple categories and invariably follow the Hitler pattern...
...N what basis do these ami-able people believe that the alarm for the safety of American independence is not justified ? What is there to expect from the conquerors of European democracy ? That democracy, like ours, has been far from perfect, but unlike its conquerors, it has permitted civilized humanity to breathe...
...Of course, Mrs...
...The Arabs, the Ukrainians, the White Russians, to mention only a few, as well as the Italians and the Germans, are subjected to a barrage of antidemocratic propaganda...
...The Hamburg Conference was soul-stirring because of its sincere and real achievement in the direction of better feeling between the erstwhile enemies...
...But it is .more than a revoi- »i Is an aggressive, diabolical force that is spreading its influence and power into every nook and comer of contemporary civilization...
...INSPIRED by Hitler's success, there are many * American citizens who today emulate the German leader both as to method and objectives...
...L. M. BIRKHEAD (National Director, Friends of Democracy) ATERRIBLE pestilence has been turned loose on modern civilization...
...Let us do more than that—let us help to reestablish in the world the right of self-government to the plain people of the world, and in the wake of that, compulsory military service will become unnecessary...
...I have no illusions that if Mrs...
...McLevy Rehouses Workers As War Factories Expand BRIDGEPORT, Conn.—Determined to prevent the recurrence •ft the housing situation created in Bridgeport during the last World...
...Naval armament was actually limited...
...For in a world in which democracy fives, breathes and functions as the method of life, militarism will die with disarmament, and man will be secure in his rights to what our Declaration of Independence holds so dear: "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...
...She was working for a peaceful and toward an abundant life...
...There is but one step between forced military service and compulsory industrial work...
...And JMW she hates war-mongers...
...journals ¦ edited by "Marxian" scholars and literateurs...
...Man envisioned a peaceful world at the end of the last war...
...It is Jewish Communism or Soviet Atheism (which are synonymous) and Hitler is, or was, the great bulwark against the anti-^Christ...
...Smith have access to special sources of information from which the rest of Bs are excluded...
...WiHiam Dudley Pelley of the Silvershirts, GeorgesUeatherage of the Knights of the White Camelia, and Colonel E. N. Sanctuary of the World Alliance Against Jewish Aggressiveness (now American Christian Defenders) are typical of this category...
...Smith accepts every new wrinkle...
...She has friends, generally a few persons of her own-class, whose analysis of the world situation is clear-cut, positive, optimistic...
...Some democracies had national guard establishments on a voluntary basis, in addition to standing armies which were also created on a voluntary basis...
...Smith will be blaming American fifth column groups for our lack of preparedness...
...Mrs...
...A few:: years ago she was full of "Collective Security" and she advocated a "United Front" with ev-s erybody, including Father Divine...
...WITH the end of the last war man desired peace...
...IN 1923 the Congress to reestablish the Sec-* ond International of labor and Socialists was held in Hamburg...
...They have even cheered when "purges" resulted in the weakening, perhaps the destruction, of the very army that was to defend the revolution...
...Germany declared wax on Russia on August first of 1914, and on France and England on August third . . . and war was forever outlawed by the Kellogg Pact, signed on the 27th of August in 1928...
...These organized forces for reaction have based their destructive program upon {the, oldest and the most effective political device known to man—that of the scapegoat...
...The end result is the same...
...Perhaps their intentions are of the best...
...It constitutes a surrender of the freedom of the individual...
...It still is so regarded...
...the French, the Bel-., gians, the Dutch, the Finns (who j are all nicknamed "Manner-'heiniB''), the Poles, the Lithuani- j ins, the Latvians, the Norwe- j gians...
...It is interesting to note that some of this propaganda still comes from Nazi Germany, but it is usually marked "via Siberia," thanks to the Hitler-Stalin pact...
...No machine has any value unless it is operated by a trained man...
...That policy wfll continue as long as the threat of armament and war hovers over that free people...
...As for the third attack on democratic civilization by means of propaganda, well, we are not fully aware, as yet, of this menace and threat...
...Confronted by a reversion to barbarism organized into a cynical and efficient philosophy, they have been content to ignore or appease it, to dicker and bargain with it, and finally, as in the case of the first "Socialist Fatherland," to strike a united front with it...
...Yet man cannot surrender his right* as a human being, his aspirations as an individual, his freedom as a man...
...There is something fearfully attractive about such a program...
...In a word, Mrs...
...History has amply demonstrated that to be the fact...
...Factories, roads, dwellings, were built, production of necessities was on the increase...
...It is not easy for the unfortunate person to resist the temptation to attribute personal failure to the machinations of another...
...Social Fascists" iahe called them...
...IN a democracy man is an integral part of * the whole...
...Another sizable group of potential fascists is made up of the super-patriots of the na--tion...
...Disarmament now is catastrophic...
...She is in reality an incurable sentimentalist...
...But romanticism masquerading as "realism" pooh-poohed its importance until the world was confronted by its brutal might...
...Even to question the right of the ordering authority to order constitutes treason, punishable by imprisonment, and in some instances, even by death...
...The most important in this classification are Senator Robert Rice Reynolds of the Vindicators, the American Immigration Council, the American Coalition and the numerous super-patriotic organizations...
...In Congress after Congress reports of growth of these ideals were made...
...Man desires peace now, too...
...Smith reads this article her smugness will be disturbed in the slightest degree by it...
...Their scapegoat is the Jew, and their ultimate goal is totalitarianism...
...Armament likewise is catastrophic...
...Disarmament can still be achieved, but before that desired end is in sight, dictatorships must be abolished...
...That is proved conclusively in the light of existing conditions...
...We hate compulsory military service as we hate war itself...
...The British Labor Party did yeoman's work to heal the wounds left by the World War...
...On the other hand, the French did all they could to bring about proper understanding and an amicable adjustment with Germany...
...Undoubtedly, we will be forced to spend more...
...She will merely be confirmed in her view that liberals are confused...
...7, 1789, and Aafuat, 1940 will see the first peacetime compulsory conscription of-male citizens in the history of this nation...
...f"* TEE anti-democratic forces, ta be) do not shout "Heil Hitler...
...The same is true in the conquered and-occupied areas as well as in Germany...
...On the contrary, they pay lip service to the Constitution they wish to destroy...
...Had the Mrs...
...Today, therefore, for the first time since the Constitution was ratified a century and a half ago, democracy in the United States js threatened with extinction by an organised attack, an attack so subtle that the 'average American is unaware of its existence...
...To save the American "Republic" they say, the Jew must be destroyed...
...Many years ago she came to a conclusion that capitalism was dying and that Russie was a social Utopia...
...However, the major base for the propaganda activities of fascism has been transferred to our shores...
...To combat the economic warfare being waged against the democracies of the Western hemisphere our country participated in the Havana Conference...
...Compulsory military servke in the United States is a threat to our freedom...
...Only the paranoiac nationalists in Germany were not satisfied with demilitarization...
...War, when the influx of workers to this important munitions manufacturing center skyrocketed rents and forced many to live -in hastily-contrived shanties, Mayor Jasper McLevy, National chairman of the Social Democratic Federation,- expressed himself as pleased with the opening of the new 1,251 low-rent homes at Yellow Mills Village in Bridgeport, obtained through the efforts of the city administration...
...To perpetuate the Constitution, liquidate the Jew...
...They work in the shadows, unobserved and unchallenged by the majority of our citizens...
...But today, there is a new scapegoat—the Jew...
...They are distinguished chiefly by where they place the emphasis...
...She reads, books and magazines, listens to concerts, and attends the theatre": whenever a play of "importance": visits our city...
...In addition, she...
...I ' August — Month Of War A UGUST is the month of men of war on the march...
...Freedom of action by the individual is denied...
...On the other hand, you cannot deny that we have been bombarded by propaganda inimical to the welfare of American democracy...
...If they denied : they were pro-fascist she called | .them "unconscious fascists...
...however, before that can occur there must be the anti-Christ...
...1 Mrs...
...IB0,, arte the war-mongers ? -'• Anybody who advocates either kelp for the Allies or preparedness for the United States...
...Before that she was full of contempt for all reformers—Demo-', crats, Socialists, Progressives,' -Laborites, Opportunists — and demagogues...
...exclaimed our charming hostess...
...3. Propaganda...
...Both socialists and liberals were right in their attitudes toward, conscription...
...Other scapegoats employed effectively by various groups are union labor leaders, the Catholic Church, the New Deal, the Negro and the "Plutocrats...
...In these other cities or villages she is married to a lawyer, physician, business man, engineer, government official, bond salesman, or press agent whose in-| come is anywhere between $3,000* and $10,000 a year...
...Smith has: helped to popularize...
...Most important at the moment are such groups as the "Christian Front* and "The Christian Mo-bilizers...
...The anti-Christ has come...
...Other substandard homes throughout the city are being demolished or repaired in accordance with the United States Housing Act, and in an • attempt to jmeet the housing requirements which have arisen as a result o?-the impact of the defense program on the^-expansion of" the city's industrial plants...
...We can and we must destroy these fascist activities and organizations, if we are to save our American Democracy...
...On the 26th of the month, in 1920, female citizens of the V. S. were enfranchised...
...However, it is well to remember that the totalitarian propaganda is streamlined and "Americanized" for Americans...
...F4/IRS...
...and the first New York taxicab started its career on August 13th, 1907...
...Fifth Avenue, the most exclusive shopping street in the world, Was opened to the public on August 2nd, 1894...
...OrJgn the power-crazy dictators seek war...
...She is incapable of perceiving the contradictions in her slogans, although she sees clearly the contradictions in capitalist society...
...These instruments are: 1. Military aggression...
...It is the philosophy of the caveman supported by the weapons created by modern science...
...Probably they actually believe in teachers' oaths, in compulsory saluting of the flag, in class distinctions, in anti-alien legislation, in emasculated education, etc...
...It was hoped that the Congress would wipe out the animosities that still lingered...
...Re may not work where he desires...
...All foreign countries, in : fact, are imperialist, except the Soviet Union and, temporarily, Germany...
...He may not strike...
...The German Library of Information and the Italian Library of Information are sending propaganda from their headquarters to hundreds of thousands of American people...
...And in this, too, Mrs...
...Both are repugnant to free men...
...Germany was selected because it was intended through the Congress to recreate fraternal feeling between the peoples of the recent warring countries...
...2. Economic warfare...
...Universal disarmament...
...It is in this field that the fascists are so active in our midst...
...The other day a group of us met at the Smith home for cocktails and anchovy paste sand-' wiches...
...Perhaps the second most important group is that which' concentrates on,the alien as a scapegoat—although when they define "alien" they generally make him synonymous with Jew...
...This is their strength...
...Military establishments serve to standardize peoples, and place power in the hands of the rulers to compel obedience by force...
...Not only are native Americans the objects of the solicitation of the anti-democratic propagandists, but eveiy foreign group is subjected to attack by word-mongers...
...Next to military preparedness against totalitarianism, the most important job of the American people is mental preparedness...
...That is important, but equally important is the job of eliminating the tremendous pressure of propaganda on public opinion in the United States...
...The scapegoat device, in itself, is not new in the United States...
...My fe]low Americans, you are right on insisting that our shores have not yet'been attacked or bombarded by the guns of: the enemies of democracy...
...Let us not permit further infringement upon cur personal liberties...
...In effect, the individual disappears...
...When his services are necessary for the good of the commonweal, compulsion should be unnecessary...
...If we are to have compulsory military service, let us be vigilant...
...Compulsory military service majy be our lot, too...
...If the democracies disarm, it means capitulation to dictatorships...
...Completion of the two projects will give Bridgeport a total of 1,796 new dwellings built with USHA assistance...
...She has never been in Russia, but she is certain that life there is better than life in the United States, especially for the "workers...
...Presumably she does...
...Historically, there have been numerous attempts by anti-democratic groups to build a following on the basis of hatred for the Catholic Church, but in the past Americans invariably repudiated such programs when at last they came into the light of day...
...The Marseilles 1926 session of the Congress was urged to start a drive for the raising of the age limit for the employment of children...
...They represent a force in our life which is a sinister threat to ottr 'democratic civilization...
...In the face of these fascist groups, their activities, and their propaganda, American citizens should stir themselves from their complacency and indifference...
...There is little doubt that the Fuhrer of the Third Reich owes his success to the fact that he convinced a part of the German people—not even a majority—that the Jew was responsible for the World War, for the humiliating Treaty of Versailles, for the inflationary period of the middle twenties, for the great depression, for the menace of Bolshevism, and for the present World War...
...To meet the onslaught of German brute force, let loose by the dictate of one man and aided by the mechanical apparatus created by compulsory industrial service, EnglanS was compelled to adopt compulsory military service as a national policy...
...Accepting the theory that compulsory military service is justified, it is difficult to argue that compulsory industrial service is unjustified when it is presumably for the good of the country...
...In the United States there are several hundred important churches which have reacted precisely in this manner, and, unwittingly, they work to further the cause of totalitarianism...
...The "imperialists" are, of course, the Ertjjjish...
Vol. 23 • August 1940 • No. 32
