THREAT FROM THE RIGHT
Simmons, Anne
Threat From the Right Fascist Fellow Travelers Join CP to Fight Democracy By Anne Simmons MOST NEWSPAPER READERS are acutely aware that Congressman Vito MareaiHinio and Adam Clayton Powell,...
...and Mrs...
...is convinced that the Nazi war machine is „ not nearly as bad as that of the present administration...
...Unafraid of Nazism he opposed defense measures and declared: "Communism and radicalism are a greater danger to our way ot life than any issue of this day...
...Allen /.oil, whose earlier activities were labelled "fascist" by Attorney tieneral Tom Clark, is...
...Communism is undoubtedly a danger of the first magnitude, having for its base a country as vast as the Soviet Union, and being supplemented by the Eastern satellites and hordes of inter' national agents...
...Noah Mason of Illinois, who has for years ardently fought "Socialism" and the "Reds...
...Shafer...
...If American support for the democracies in Europe is curtailed or sabotaged, and if President Truman's program for extending democracy at home is scuttled, those on the far Right will be as guilty as those on the far Lelt...
...Dining pie-l'eail Harbor days 111, : -peeches weio (11:-11 11 HI t eil by Na/1 i'gent George S\ I \ I. ster V lei eck s propa e.amla null...
...That month, as usual, the Rightists were denouncing the Left...
...Hoffman himself has been involved with antl Semites like Gerald L. K. Smith, wartime sedition defend ants like Kh/.abetb Dilhng, and out and out Nazi agencies such as the National Workers League...
...mailing out Gwinn's Congressional speech, "The Implica tions of Federal Aid to and Control of Education...
...Yet Dondero apparently fears the western democracies more than he fears the Soviet Union, for he voted against ERP in 1948 and against its frxtesjjjon in 1949...
...New Yoi k Con gres: man Ralph (luinn, who worked with Coughlinite...
...Federal aid to education, which would enable back ward states properly to equip their voung people for life in a democratic society, is being fought bittcily by ex tremc Right wingcis...
...The extreme Rightwingers have many, many more spokesmen because, unfortunately, Rightwing ideology lids not been so orerxphelmingly rejected...
...This year is no exception...
...Edward Carus, when that couple were to be investigated by the FBI...
...this \eai joined the extreme Rightist Committee loi Constitutional Ciovei nment in mailing out litei ally hundreds of thousands of tracts against Federal aid...
...A large group of men who must be elected to office each two years, Congress is an accurate mirror of public opinion...
...Threat From the Right Fascist Fellow Travelers Join CP to Fight Democracy By Anne Simmons MOST NEWSPAPER READERS are acutely aware that Congressman Vito MareaiHinio and Adam Clayton Powell, who recently voted against continuation of F.RP, are Communist paitv liners...
...Reaction and fascism have had their chief bases—Hitler Germany and Mussolini Italy—torn away from under them...
...m the Ki n nds ol Frank Fay i .illy 'back in l!M(i...
...The Communists, the liberals busily pointed out, hoped Europe would fall into such economic chaos that the democratic countries there would be forced to embrace Communism...
...Representatives John Rankin, Claie Hoffman, William Leinke...
...Hoffman has been i aging against what he calls "Reds" for many years, but he voted against ERP in 1948 and against its extension in 1949...
...Woodruff, George A. Dondcro,\Paul W. Shafer—all of whom have long records as extreme Rightists — joined Marcantonio and Powell in voting against continuation of ERP...
...Democracy's Battle...
...Yet Rankin has consistently opposed KRP...
...These extreme Rightists have for years vehemently proclaimed their opposition to the "Reds," but when the showdown came — on the vote to support or abandon democracy in Europe—these extremists rejected democracy and sided with communism...
...Hart duly noted that only "two or three" Congressmen voting against ERP were men "whose sympathy with the Communist Party is well established...
...BUT THE LIBERALS, the leading opponents of the extreme Right, overlooked an important point that did not escape^ the anti-Semitic, Franco-apologizing Merwin K. Hart...
...But vigorously as Woodruff has opposed those whom he calls "Reds," the Congressman from Michigan sided with the Communists in voting against ERP in 1948 and against ERP extension this year...
...and Mrs...
...Roy O. Woodruff of Michigan, whe just a few months before Pearl Harboi said Harold Ickes and Felix Frankfurter were as bid as Hitler and added that, "in view of the present drain on German resources, it looks as if we may be more likely to stop Hitler than Frankfurter...
...As late as July...
...Carus shielded the Nazi agent Frederich Auhagen in 1940, when Auhagen was £. fugitive from Federal authorities...
...a measure He: Igned to stop the spread of column iii.-.ni in Km ope...
...William Lemke of North Dakota, who has been involved in the extreme Rightist movement sini'e 19,'iti when he ran for President of the United States on Charles E. Coughlm's Union Party ticket...
...Such men as these can save America...
...He further noted that seventy-five other Congressmen voted sgainst ERP, and these seventy-five he placed on his "Roll of Honor...
...he opposerl preparedness measures prior to World War II and international cooperation following the war...
...Remaining in Congress are two lonely extreme Left-wingers, Mareantonio and Powell...
...Clare Hoffman of Michigan who for > c.ir ha...
...Paul W. Shafer of Michigan, who used to cooperate with Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck, has received favorable notices in the Nazi Voclkisc/ie Reobachtcr and in the German American Bund Deutschcr Weckruj 71 iid Beohachtcr, and has attacked the House Military Affairs Committee is a " 'front' organization for interna • tional bankers...
...1943, more than a year after Attorney General Biddle had held Social Justice to be "obviously seditious," Dondero inserted in the Congressional Record a Socinl Justice editorial identifying Jews with Comhiunism...
...Hut virtually ignored is the fact that 95 percent of the opposition to KRP, from the bcginning, has come from presumably antironimunist members of Congress...
...The extreme Left-wingers have**only two spokesmen in a Congress composed of 435 members because the American people overwhelmingly reject the communist Ideology...
...Dondero is so devoutly opposed to what the Right-wingers call "Communism" that Gerald L. K. Smith, a year after the war was over, named the Michigan Congressman as one of ''the best" in the House of Representatives...
...In the decisive battle for democracy being waged everywhere, we cannot afford to ignore the threat to it from those who pose as "patriots" and "one hundred percent Americans," but who WOOld not hesitate to overthrow our Institutions and install their own brand Of dictatorship...
...He not only opposed American defense measures, but he allegedly "took the heat off" the Nazi sympathizers...
...i>ppi'setI tlie New Deal...
...But new alliances have been struck between the rightist totalitarians here and those abroad...
...Right wing reaction in this country is growing steadily in strength...
...Qeorge A. Dondero of Michigan, whose cooperation with extreme Rightist groups antedates the war...
...Woodruff's contribution to Hitler's defeat was to vote against American defense measures...
...From the standpoint of those Who would preserve democracy in Western Europe and extend it at home, the seventy-five men on Hart's Roll of Honor represent a major threat "to* democratic society...
...And evidently, Masoi...
...In addition, he inserted Gerald L. K. Smith literature into the Conyresitional Record, extended a friendly welcome to the sedition defendant Elizabeth Dilling when she visited Washingteon in 1941, and allowed his speeches to be reprinted irj Coughlin's Social Justice...
...In a preface to hi.s Honor Roll, Hart wrote: "Those who voted against ERP as patriotic Americans resisted almost unprecedented propaganda...
...Anne Simmons has worked for Friends of Democracy for the past eight years, chiefly in the capacity of editor of FOD's monthly organ...
...THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS, with its two Left wing reactionaries and its relatively long list of Right wing reactionaries, is more than" a lawmaking body which can save democracy abroad and extend it at ho/ne...
...i xtc¦ nsion...
...and in Apiil voted ;igaiii'-t F.RI...
...CURIOUSLY ENOUGH, most of the extremist opposition to the ex tension of democracy at home has always come from the far Right, not Hie for Left...
...In the years that followed, I.enike busily denounced "Commu. nists," "international financiers," and loieigners...
...le.ii., "Socialism" as represented by tin wcstei n democi acies more than luteal s Communism as i ('presented by the Soviet, for he too' voted against extension of KRP...
...Howard II...
...A case in point is the "Roll of Honor" published by extreme Rightist Merwin K. Hart in April, 1948...
...A supporter of the America First Committee, Mason was praised or quoted by Coughlm's .Social Justice and by sedition defendants Khz ibeth Dilling ami t'liailcs Hudson...
...A vigorous foe of what he calls "Communism," Short m effect voted for Communism and against democracy when he opposed ERP in 1948 and ERP's extension in 1049...
...Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that the Right will be rendered as impotent as the Left as long as those who form public opinion center their fire on the Left and pretend that the Right has ceased to exist...
...They dared to do what they thought was right.' They deserve well of their constituents and of their country...
...But despite the extensive purge of Right-wingers in the last election, ;i random cross-section of /light-wingers still populating the United States Congress includes: John Rankin of Mississippi, who lias a long record of attacks on Negroes, • lews, refugees, "foreigners," Wall Street, and labor unions...
...During that time Hips Simmons has collaborated on many undercover projects exposing . subversive activities...
...Dewey Short of Missouri, who hata long record of apologizing for the Axis powers, denouncing the Roosevelt administration, and cooperation with extreme Rightist groups...
...And Lemke, like the others named above, voted against KRP in 194a as well as against ERP extension this year...
...Meanwhile, Lemke wrote for Coughlm's allegedly seditious .Social Justice, lor the Coughlinite San Francisco lA'iidcr, and for the anti-Semitic Dayton Independent...
...Probably no one has been louder Hum Rankin in his denunciation of communism...
...And during that month the liberals, highly incensed over Left-wing opposition to ERP, forgot about the Rightists almost entirely and over and over again denounced the Reds...
...BufTctt, George Sehwabe, Harold F. Youngblood and Gerald W. Landis...
...THE LIBERAL VICTORY last No vcmber swept out of Congress extreme Left-winger Leon Isacson and a long string of those who followed the extreme Rightist propaganda line- including Richard B. Vail, Fred Bushy, Max Sclnvabe, B. W. Gcarhart, Harold Knutson, Mai ion T. Bennett...
...Apparently "radicalism," as represented by the western democracies, is more alarming to Rich than is Communism as represented by the Soviet, for Rich opposed ERP in 1948 and ERP's extension in 1949...
...Shafer of course has always been vigorous in denouncing what he calls "Communism," yet he too voted against ERP in 1948_ and against its extension this year...
...The Dixiecrats, around whose banner Biost of the fascist-like Southerners kave rallied, are still working hard to |tll President Truman's civil rights program, which would extend to several million Americans belonging to minority groups the full benefits of democratic citizenship...
...Robert F. Rich of Pennsylvania, whCyears ago became a hero in America's fascist-like circles...
...During 1938, 1939 and 1940, Soct«l Justice regularly printed articles signed by Dondero which denounced administration policies and proclaimed that the United States isn't, never has been, and never Was Intended to be a "democracy...
...Stalin, I'aitain, woild cooperation, laboi, and ale ns...
...Noah Mason, Robert F. Rich, Dewey Short, Roy...
...They were doubtless fed up on seeing tilts country rendered subservient to socialist politicians of the Old World...
...As Coughlin's Social Justice put it: "Rep...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 24
