Fascists Are Undermining U.S. Army, Kramer Says

The long list of activities marking the development of Fascist organizations during the past year was climaxed today when Charles Kramer, California member of the Congressional committee to investigate Nazi activities in the United States, disclosed in an exclusive statement to this reporter evidence that the United States military forces had been corrupted by Fascist bands operating in Southern California.

Kramer charges that bribes have been offered and to some extent accepted by United States Army officers in Fascist schemes to overthrow the American Government. While he would name neither those allegedly accepting the bribes nor those offering them, Kramer indicated that his committee’s investigation would eventually trace authorship of the proposed insurrection to “general Fascist groups, inclusive of German Nazis and Silver Shirts.”

OPERATE UNDER CLOAK OF LAW

Congressman McCormack, of Massachusetts, has ordered the investigation committee charged with the task of probing Nazi propaganda here, to report for hearings on Tuesday when the matter of military corruption and other affairs pertinent to the Nazis will be taken up.

According to Kramer, details of the most recent charges against Nazis and American Fascist groups cannot be disclosed until they are further investigated. “To give all the facts now,” he said, “would be to jeopardize our chances of prosecuting the guilty parties.”

Kramer said that while a number of Army officers have shown their willingness to cooperate with the Nazis, information concerning Naval bribes is not yet conclusive. He said that according to his understanding the War Department is aware of the situation. He further stated that money and propaganda had been sent into the country from abroad to create political turmoil on the Pacific Coast.

NAZI MENACE REAL

While there are the most spectacular charges justified by evidence thus far come across by the writer, other information gleaned over one year’s investigation of Nazi activities both here and abroad clearly indicates that the Nazi menace to the American government is real and palpable.

Under the direction and inspiration of the League of Friends of New Germany approximately twenty political groups all of a more or less Fascist creed, are striving for numbers and unity. If such unity is ever brought about, and at the present the process is going ahead rapidly, a formidable Fascist group modeled after Hitler’s policies will be the result.

Already the threat of anti-Semitism has become real in a boycott of American Jewry under the direction of men exported by the Hitler government.

The press has been tricked into giving the Fascist movement considerable publicity which is resulting in appreciable unity and expansion of the Fascists. Nationalist drums are being sounded throughout the country, and daily more Americans are being lured into the fold of intolerance and surrender of their personal liberties, and while militancy develops amazingly within the Fascist ranks, attempts are being made to proselytize American forces and organizations without.