HUCKSTERS OF HATE
Hall, Gordon D.
Hucksters of Hate By Gordon D. Hall ARECENT exchange of letters between Congressman Martin Dies and a neighbor of mine illustrates the current uncritical acceptance of the "anti-Communist" cry and...
...Anti-Communism" has given new life to the veteran hucksters of hate...
...Such a campaign is waged in the interest of "A free press and the truth," "Clean politics," and "God and Country," three of the eleven "Principles" upon which the Minute Women base their activities...
...The loaded words, the Big Lie, the quotations-out-of-context, and the "anti-Communism" of the American Flag Committee were vigorously exposed April 1, 1952 by Rep...
...Hancock's inability to distinguish between Communist and non-Communist organizations is nowhere more evident than in his pamphlet, "Unfolding That Fair Employment Practices Act," which is studded with favorable references to the KKK and relies on such authorities as Elizabeth Dilling and John Rankin...
...But postwar Know-Nothingism is not the exclusive property of the new faces like Conde McGinley and Austin Hancock...
...It cannot be found in any one of the pamphlet series...
...V, a line-byline examination shows that sentences have been so juggled that within one pair of quotation marks are sentences from page 58, followed by phrases from page 60, a retreat to words on page 58, then more material from page 59, and the inventor finishes his direct quote (italics mine) with material from page 60...
...Moreover, it helps to explode the Big Lie propagated by the Daily WbrArer that the Communists are the only people equipped to battle the forces on the Extreme Right...
...Wrth few exceptions the press has shown little muscle in dealing with the emergence of these postwar groups and the resurgence of prewar agitators like Gerald L. K. Smith and Allen Zoll...
...For the Committee has publicly flaunted its devotion to the principles of racial intolerance and religious bigotry of the Ku Klux Klan...
...Prospective recruits who are "hard to convince" are given the "clincher" treatment—a look at a letter from Sen...
...Stevenson lashed out at writer Arthur D. Morse for exposing in McCall's the drive of the extreme nationalist fringe for total conformity in American schools: "We wonder why Mr...
...Stevenson is no longer the national chairman of the Minute Women...
...Frustrated because the big dailies in Newark flatly rejected his "disclosures" of Communist subversion in the United States, the sincere but fanatical McGinley turned to publishing on his own in 1946...
...You can be certain that as long as you attempt to fight Communists and Communism, your organization and its membership will be libelled and smeared...
...Though a resident of New Jersey since the '30s, McGinley is a native Texan, whose career should serve to inspire Hancock...
...When the bickering finally ceased, the founder of the group, Mrs...
...15, 1953 issue: "Dewey and Aldrich made a good team to steamroller all opposition to Ike...
...This literature carried a picture of Martin Dies addressing a crowd of 2,000 at a San Antonio meeting sponsored by the Committee on May 17, 1951...
...The group was organized in Connecticut in the fall of 1949...
...It is Lehman who keeps Dewey in office...
...If we do not register our protests in cases like this, you can see what a distorted picture results...
...Chairman Frankston has dubbed the project "Protesting McCallism...
...This Committee, which has attracted every UN-hater in the United States, seeks "specific action against widespread efforts to expand the power of the United Nations...
...Under the caption "National Woman's Magazine Hits New Low," Mrs...
...During World War II Hall served for 31 months with the Air Force in the Pacific is either concealing his knowledge of the work of Austin Hancock and his Committee, or his knowledge of anti-democratic movements is so abysmally limited as to disqualify him forever as an "authority" on "un-American" activities...
...Hancock boasts of a growing following...
...The headquarters has been shifted to Wheeling, W. Va., and Dorothy B. Frankston has been in* stalled as the leader...
...There is no guarantee—but it's 3 to 1 that someone will dump a copy of Gerald Smith's Cross & The Flag, Common Sense, an American Flag Committee leaflet, an Allen Zoll pamphlet, a Minute Women Newsletter, or a "Report" by Austin Hancock in your lap...
...If and when the screeching begins, seek out the screechers and demand that they produce evidence to support their charges of "Communist" activity...
...Prominent among the supporters of the American Flag Committee is the Minute Women of the U.S.A., Inc., a nationwide membership organization boasting 508,000 enrolled members...
...Gerald L. K. Smith, for instance, has hailed the San Antonio faction on numerous occasions...
...Attorney-General is either "left wing" or a fellow-traveling organization, for the Legion has followed the lead of the Attorney-General by adding MacFarland to its official rogues' gallery of hate-mongers...
...His newspaper, which serves as the official organ of the Loyal American Group, now has over 30,000 readers...
...Not long after Miss Kellems' withdrawal, an equally well-known Connecticut woman left the organization...
...Together they published the novel charge that Judith Coplon "collaborated" with the Attorney-General of the United States in compiling a list of subversive organizations...
...Ex-Coughlinite Allen Zoll has bobbed up with a front called the National Council for American Education, devoted to the "stimulation of sound education and the eradication of Marxism and Collectivism from our schools and national life...
...MacFarland is no longer the associate editor of Common Sense...
...Stevenson: "This is to acknowledge and thank you for your letter of May 5th in which you inquire as to how you can have your organization publicly declared 'non-Communistic, non-Fascist, etc.' "I know of no way that you can have such an official finding made by any Congressional body...
...Some of those who have scoffed at the suggestion of peril from the extremists on the Right have learned through bitter experience that a» community can be besieged over night by these forces...
...Since the Philadelphia office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no knowledge of our organic existence three days after Clark had released his April 27th list, which included our Nationalist Action League, is it not possible that the N.A.L...
...The correspondence began when my neighbor received some literature from an organization in San Antonio, Tex., called the American Heritage Protective Committee...
...But he is still racketeering in distortion and misrepresentation, this time under the title of "Founder and Chairman" of a troupe known as the American Flag Committee...
...By inference then, the American Legion as well as the U.S...
...II McGinley calls his Common Sense the "Nation's Anti-Communist Newspaper...
...was cited, not by Clark, but by Miss Coplon, on orders from the Soviet Politburo...
...These charges were set forth in the July 1, 1949 issue of Common Sense: "Judith Coplon, alleged Red agent, recently testified under oath that she collaborated with Attorney-General Tom Clark in recommending what groups should be placed upon his list of subversive organizations...
...W. Henry MacFarland, Jr., is a case in point...
...Morse and McCall's think it necessary to disguise their apparent objective...
...The magazine had simply published a straight-forward and courageous account of the movement to wreck the public school system...
...Such action can and has nipped trouble in the bud...
...In December, 1952, the Newsletter, which serves as the regular monthly organ of the Minute Women group, rose to MacFarland's defense in this manner: "Attempts have been made to discredit and smear the American Flag Committee by every possible left wing group and fellow-traveler...
...The above is but a glimpse of mid-century Know-Nothingism in the United States...
...Space limitations prevent a more detailed picture of the myriad of nationalist and racist groups springing up in city after city to muddy and weaken the intelligent struggle against Communism...
...The young Philadelphian set up this Committee in August, 1950, as the successor to the fascist Nationalist Action League...
...A. S. J. Carnahan, Missouri Democrat, who turned his attention to the methods employed by MacFarland in seeking to discredit the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a "subversive" organization: "Taking one paragraph which it [the American Flag Committee] attributes as a direct quotation from pamphlet No...
...Wrote Hancock: "We will let you turn on the spotlight on certain men in Congress who may sell out their American political birthright for a mess of an un-American, Communistic, political P.A.C., C.I.O., National Association of Colored People, left-wing groups—the radical press, PM, Daily Worker, and certain blabbermouth 'woodpecker' radio-Communistic, American so-called radio commentators...
...I have not had any occasion to investigate the organization, but I am quite certain there is nothing Communistic or subversive about it...
...The first year and one-half was marked by strife at the policy-making level...
...Such attacks may make themselves felt in your neighborhood...
...The "Reverend-Doctor" Gerald B. Winrod has survived a wartime sedition indictment to build his monthly magazine The Defender into the 100,000 circulation class...
...This controversy arose over newspaper ads placed by the Minute Women protesting the fighting in Korea...
...But he GORDON HALL, who lectures widely throughout the country to civic, patriotic, and educational or-^^yd ganizations, has dejfe voted full-time re search for the last six H years into the background, activities, personalities, and H purposes of "hate" HQ groups and organiza-V^fl tions in America...
...The pressure campaign against McCall's has served to warn publishers that exposure invites "penalty...
...The more you endanger Communists and Communism, the greater will become the smear against your organization...
...Joseph McCarthy, addressed May 8, 1952 to Mrs...
...Hucksters of Hate By Gordon D. Hall ARECENT exchange of letters between Congressman Martin Dies and a neighbor of mine illustrates the current uncritical acceptance of the "anti-Communist" cry and underscores the growth of the hate cult in America...
...In Union, N. J., Conde McGinley sang the praises of the Committee in his publication Common Sense...
...Suzanne Silvercruys Stevenson, emerged as the leader...
...If you object to the type of slanted inaccurate articles on our schools, and who is trying to ruin them, that McCall's has published, it is your duty to protest to advertisers in that magazine, and to keep on protesting until the owners and directors of McCall's see fit to have the editorial policy of their magazine revised...
...Neither.McCall's nor the author of the article in question attempted to "disguise" anything...
...Mrs...
...This group has become an apologist for MacFarland, airily dismissing all charges against the American Flag Committee...
...This should give you some idea of the patriotic job the organization has done...
...Let's get busy now...
...She launched what has proved to be one of the biggest Minute Women projects to date—a pressure campaign against McCall's magazine...
...Hester McCullough of Greenwich, defendant in the widely-publicized libel suit brought by entertainers Larry Adler and Paul Draper, charged that the Minute Women were beginning to follow the "Communist Party line...
...Gerald L. K. Smith's Christian Nationalist Party reported contributions in excess of $200,000 in 1952...
...My neighbor wrote to Dies to inquire about the work of the American Heritage Protective Committee...
...With kindest regards, I am, Sincerely yours, /s/ Joe McCarthy" Such reassuring words have made the Wisconsin Senator the favorite pin-up boy in the Minute Women ranks...
...The Texas legislator answered April 1, 1953: "I know Mr...
...Austin Hancock, who is the principal officer of this organization, and he seems to be a very good man...
...The racist-nationalist orbit has been expanded further by younger leaders who have broken with their mentors to strike out on their own...
...Dies is quite correct when he states that there is nothing "Communistic" about the American Heritage Protective Committee...
...No community is immune to such attack...
...Whether the claim is pure fancy or fact is difficult to determine but the record clearly shows that his American Heritage Protective Committee has been warmly received by the network of racist and nationalist organizations busily spreading their poisonous doctrines while posing as foes of Communist tyranny...
...After considerable schooling as an organizer for Gerald L. K. Smith, MacFarland formed his own outfit and called it the Nationalist Action League only to have the Attorney-General of the United States quickly label the League as fascist...
...You should get some satisfaction however, out of knowing that unless you are hurting them, they would not be smearing you...
...In July of 1949, MacFarland dissolved the League by merging it with McGinley's Loyal American Group in Union, N. J. -For a brief period MacFarland moved over from nearby Philadelphia to share editorial duties with McGinley...
...The fight against "Communism" and "Socialism" continues unabated with the McCall's "project" still very much on the agenda...
...The move has paid off handsomely...
...It is generally understood that the power behind Dewey, the so-called Republican, is Sen...
...Miss Kellems has since set up a rival group called the Liberty Belles, Inc...
...Attorney-General as a fascist organization...
...He I wrote "The Hate ^^^^W^Bi^^BI Campaign Against UN" for the Beacon Reference Series...
...Herbert Lehman, the so-called Democrat, who controls every Jew vote in New York...
...Co-founder Vivien Kellems, the controversial Stonington industrialist, resigned after being accused of attempting to use the organization for partisan political purposes...
...Morse carefully traced the activities of anti-public school agitators like Allen Zoll, whose defunct group, the American Patriots, Inc., is listed by the U.S...
...Minute Women, the opposition never fails to register its approval in such cases...
...Not content with this devastating example of the kind of distortion and misrepresentation characteristic of the MacFarland "research", Carnahan pressed his case further: "Another paragraph attributed to UNESCO by the American Flag Committee is that 'the teacher is to begin by eliminating any and all words, phrases, descriptions, pictures, images, classroom material, or teaching methods of a sort causing his pupils to feel or express a particular love for, or loyalty to, the United States of America.' "This statement is a complete fabrication...
...Armed with the knowledge that the trouble-making has stemmed from extremist quarters, effective and intelligent opposition can be marshaled...
...One Minute Woman has, we know, already written as an individual to McCall's editor and to 18 of McCall's advertisers protesting such editorial bias and smear writing...
...The leadership of the Minute Women seems determined to steer its members in the direction of extreme nationalism...
...When he isn't praising men like Austin Hancock and Martin Dies, McGinley is busy charging that "Adlai and Ike Are Marxist Stooges," or offering his readers little gems such as the following from the Jan...
...She reported the progress to date in the February, 1953 edition of the Newsletter: ". . . Protests to companies advertising in McCall's, protests to super markets and other free enterprise business selling the magazine, and cancellation of subscriptions pay off...
Vol. 17 • August 1953 • No. 8
