Nazi Probe

Last week a special House committee began publicly to investigate "the extent, character and object of Nazi propaganda in the U. S. and the diffusion within the U. S. of subversive propaganda." Haters of Hitler throughout the U. S. sat up and paid close attention to the first Congressional proceedings conducted against a supposedly friendly power since the War.

Four House Democrats and three Republicans conducted the investigation, chairmanned by Democrat John W. Mc-Cormack of South Boston, precipitated by the anti-Nazi outcries of Democrat Samuel Dickstein of Manhattan. For counsel the committee retained Thomas William Hardwick, onetime (1914-19) Senator, onetime (1921-23) Governor of Georgia. A fat-faced, roly-poly little man in horn-rimmed spectacles, he rustled papers between nicotine-stained fingers, showed none of Ferdinand Pecora's mental agility in driving witnesses into tight corners. Counsel Hardwick had great difficulty pronouncing "swastika," finally compromised on "swat-sicka." For three full days the U. S. Government provided an official soundboard from which outraged foes of Nazidom could vent their indignation against Hitlerite Germany. Some revelations pried out of pro-Nazi witnesses:

P: Rev. Francis Gross, a retired Catholic priest of Perth Amboy, N. J., mopped his thick jowls in the torrid committee room as he told of an anti-Semitic pamphlet he had written called "Justice to Hungary, Germany and Austria." When his printer dunned him. Father Gross wrote him that none other than the Reich's Ambassador at Washington, Dr. Hans Luther, was his "sponsor, financial backer and promoter.'' The German Embassy, said Father Gross, had purchased 100 copies of his pamphlets at 70-c- each. The German Embassy retorted: ''It goes without saying that the German Ambassador does not indulge in any propaganda. The Embassy would very much like to see the - letters on which Rev. Gross bases his allegation."

P: Carl Dickey is a member of the Manhattan press-agent firm of Carl Byoir & Associates. Carl Byoir, onetime publisher of the Havana Post and Telegram, developed to his full stature under George Creel in the Wartime propaganda service. From Publicist Dickey the committee learned that in 1933 the Byoir agency had received $4.000 from Consul Kiep to "explain" Hitlerite anti-Semitism in publicity releases. Since then the firm has handled a $6,000-a-month campaign publicizing German Railways, travel in Germany. Of the $6,000 monthly fee, said Mr. Dickey, $1.750 went to George Sylvester Viereck.

P: An oldtime German-American propagandist. Mr. Viereck ran a paper called The Fatherland during the War to counteract Allied-- propaganda in the U. S. Of late he has been writing and speechmaking, "interpreting" the New Germany to his adopted land. When he heard his name mentioned at the committee hearing he loudly declared: "There is not the slightest touch of impropriety in the contract between Byoir & Associates and the German railroads nor in my connections with that distinguished firm. ... If it is right for the Russians to hire Mr. Ivy Lee, why is it wrong for the German railroads to employ Mr. Carl Byoir and Mr. Carl Dickey? It was specifically understood that the work involved no propaganda and no anti-Jewish activities. ... I always regarded it almost a consecration to interpret the land of my fathers to the land of my children. ..."

P: The New York contingent of the Stahl-helm (200) smuggled uniforms off German boats, owned six German military rifles, held drills, occasionally used guns borrowed from the National Guard, which many of them were encouraged to join by a Sergeant Gottlieb Haas. C. From Detroit, Henry Ford, who once singed his fingers in an anti-Semitism campaign, wired the committee that German reprints of his Dearborn Independent articles were being used against his orders.

P:Paul A. von Lilienfeld Toal, once an employe of the Silver Shirts, now an employe of the North German Lloyd line at Philadelphia, admitted writing and disseminating the following letter: "Reputable investigators seeking to establish correctly the Roosevelt genealogy are forced to the conclusion that the President's forbears were Dutch Jews by the original name of Rosenfeld, inasmuch as they can find no trace of the Roosevelts in the vital statistics of Holland. This is not meant to disparage the President or his forbears. It is mentioned to possibly explain the present Mr. Roosevelt's extraordinary leaning toward Hebrews."

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