The Broom, Catholic weekly of San Diego, California, with its policy boxed on the masthead reading “Equal suffrage rights in the government of the nation are impossible unless each voter holds the corresponding equal share in the common stock of our national wealth,” reports in its issue of March 5, on “An Hour With the Silver Shirts”:
“We visited a meeting of the Silver Shirts in the San Diego Hotel. Mr. Lee asked us, ‘Are you a Jew, or a Communist?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you are welcome to come to our meetings anytime you like.’ So we went….
“The great difference between us and the Silver Shirts is that we are dealing with economic and political principles and are placing the blame on the ignorance of the people, therefore we try to educate them to know and do better, while the Silver Shirts are putting the blame on the Jews and so are actually side-stepping the fundamental issues, even though they may appeal to the mob passion of the people quite successfully, in some instances….
Charles P. Terry, 615 Bank of America, opened the meeting, wearing his pale blue shirt with the scarlet ‘L’ on it and his ‘number’ stitched in his necktie. He asked for a few moments of silent prayer while the audience was standing up. Behind him was the American flag displayed on one side and a white flag with a scarlet ‘L’ on the other side. On top the picture of Christ and below it the picture of Pelley, with Pelley in the honor place.
“Terry called attention to the fact that the Silver Shirts have not raised the issue of ‘religion’ but that this matter was brought up by the Communists when they instituted Atheism as the state religion of Soviet Russia and through the connection of the Third Internationals are attempting to fore the same condition upon Americans as well.
“Throughout his whole talk Terry evinced a strong aversion to everything Communistic, repeating again and again that where one finds Communists one finds Jews and that the religious issue therefore was raised by the Jews. He closed the meeting by singing patriotic songs and everybody was asked to take the oath of allegiance to the flag which the audience did….
“C. Tennant Lee outlined the economic plan. By means of a constitutional amendment the country will vote to turn the U.S.A. into a corporation giving every citizen an equal share, or stock, in the commonwealth. The corporation will pay to each citizen a yearly dividend of $1,000, or $85 a month, rain or shine, work or no work. That will give everybody the necessities of life free. Then those who are not satisfied can go to work, demand more stock, or credit, and use it to produce more wealth in which they share a part and on top of the $83. This ‘taking over’ is expected to take place around 1945. Money will no longer be issued by private banks and the government will be the only National Bank where ‘credits’ and dividends will be exchanged just like checks are being exchanged today. Emphasis was laid on the CHRISTIAN angle of the matter vs. the Jews as the BANKERS of today.
“Van Keuren, of La Jolla, read from a list of Communistic leaders in America showing that the larger percentage were Jews….
“Van Keuren said that the Jews are agitating for Pacifism, demilitarizing America and leaving it at the mercy of other countries.
“…Pelley and his followers are at liberty to preach anything they like in their own name, but as soon as they appear in the name of CHRIST, they must represent the Christ who orders us to do good to those who hate us, not to fire a man because he is a Communist. Christ warns us that those who draw the sword must perish by the sword, which is a command to Peter to sheathe the sword.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
