Trouble beset the camp of John F. Hylan, Nazi-backed candidate for the Governorship on an “I’m-against-it” ticket, yesterday.
Uppermost in the minds of his lieutenants was the hearing to be held in Albany today, which will decide whether a temporary injunction against placing his name on the ballot, issued last week, will be made permanent.
Support which he confidently expected from Hitlerites here when he threw his hat into the ring is failing to materialize. Most of New York’s Nazidom is in Chicago, attending the DAWA convention, and with election day drawing uncomfortably near, German-American leaders are either shirking the Hylan cause in favor of other, to them, more important matters, or have silently withdrawn their support due to mistrust of the former mayor’s intentions toward them.
Conclusive proof that German-Americans are by no means solidly behind Hylan was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the Roland Democratic Society of Greater New York, an organization which has about 7,000 members and describes itself as the largest German-American political group in the city.
“The standing and views of the German-American citizenry of Greater New York have been somewhat obscured by erroneous rumors and false statements made by parties who have nothing in common with our German-Americandom,” the Roland spokesman said.
“The executive committee of the Roland Democratic Society, the German-American Association of Greater New York, organized in five clubs, the Yorkville, Bronx, Ridgewood, Washington Heights Roland Clubs and the Bronx Ladies Roland Club, have been prompted in their last meeting to go on record with the following resolutions:
“1. The members of the Roland Clubs stand as ever fully behind the candidates of the regular Democratic ticket, giving it full support.
“2. The statement of other German-American parties claiming the full support of all German-Americans for an independent Democratic candidate for Governor is wilfully false and baseless.
“3. An investigation among a great number of German-American citizens confirms the fact that every attempt of injecting the question of race or religion of a candidate for office, be it city, state or federal, will be declined with profound indignation; that any such movement is considered un-American and contradictory to the fundamental principles of our Constitution.
“4. That the Roland Democratic Society will always stand on its platform which especially states its mission of uniting German-Americans in the purest principles and ideals of democracy, humanity, peace, justice, honor and patriotism.”
Many other partisan and independent German-American groups were aligned with the Roland Society in their determination to refuse to take the Hylan candidacy seriously.
Other harrassments visited on the Hylan leaders took the form of loud demands for payment on the part of professional workers who obtained the signatures to the Hylan nominating petition, now under court attack.
UNKIND COMMENTS
One particularly irate worker insisted that his claim to payment ought to be honored, even if others are not, because “MY signatures are genuine!”
Reactions yesterday to a radio speech Hylan delivered Sunday night were anything but kindly. Observers were cynical in their comments on the candidate’s acrobatic attempts to dodge the racial issue.
“It has been whispered and reported that my candidacy is sponsored and chiefly supported by radical, possibly even racial, minorities,” Hylan said during the broadcast. “This is utterly false. I have always stood, and I stand now and always will stand, for human rights, religious and race equality, without any reservation or qualification whatsoever. If any person can show a single instance in my public or private life of intolerance toward any race or creed, or that I have improperly or unduly favored any race or creed, I shall withdraw from this fight instantly.”
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.
