Chicanery

rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. And when the rights of one cannot be infringed without finding a ready defense in all others who defend their own rights in defending his, then, and only then, are the rights of all safe against the usurpations of government authority. This general identity of interests is the only thing that can guarantee the stability of democratic institutions.”

The blockade of the South during the Civil War caused untold losses to the cotton industry of England and the unemployment resulting there from brought the greatest suffering upon the workmen of the Lancashire district. Nevertheless these workmen, holding freedom worthy of the greatest material sacrifices and disregarding the great distress which the War and the blockade brought upon them and their families, sent an address to President Lincoln offering him sympathy, encouragement and moral support in the heroic struggle in which he was engaged. Lincoln regarded their action “as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country”.

The Steuben Society could not, of course, be untrue to its Hitler Inspiration if it did not also mention the fact that those who favor the Boycott are actually playing the Communists’ game. For is not Hitler the self-annointed savior of Western Capitalism from the menace of Communism? Therefore, anyone who opposes Hitler, his methods and his madness is by that token an ally of Moscow. This stale dialectics has now been dished up to Washington in the hope that it will there prove a more savory and acceptable dish than it has in the capitals of Europe.

The Steuben Society in its large generosity of heart does not deny to people “the right to express themselves if they feel justified in doing so”, Quite a concession! In Berlin such an unorthodox doctrine of “non-coordination” would lead straight to the concentration camp. In May, we recall, the Steuben Society even objected to the right of Jews to express themselves in protests and mass meetings. Since then it has apparently learned that Hitler does not mind expressions, protests and resolutions. They don’t hurt. But a Boycott is quite another matter. That hurts!…

Perhaps the Steuben Society, the “American organization of American citizens”, will tell the American people why it has remained silent these many months during which time all democratic institutions, so essential a part of the great American tradition, were dismembered by the Nazis in Germany, the Republic was mangled, all freedom was suppressed, all political parties were exterminated and one of the most ruthless dictatorships in history was enthroned in the heart of Central Europe. Perhaps it will tell the American people why its American heart was stirred to protest not against the perpetrators of these iniquities but against the men who out of love and reverence for the American tradition rose up to crush them…