Major-General George Van Horn Moseley (retired), who is reported to have been sought by Fascist groups to combine them into a “national Christian organization,” last night accused the Jews of seeking war to gain world hegemony and of financing Communism.
A “battle for peace” against the “champions of war,” whom he identified with the Jews, was demanded by General Moseley addressing more than a thousand persons attending the sixth annual “National Defense Meeting” sponsored by the Women’s National Defense Committee of Philadelphia at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel with more than 70 patriotic and veterans’ groups listed in the program as participants.
While denying that he was a Fascist, General Moseley said that Fascism and Nazism were “only antitoxins and will disappear when the disease of Communism is cured,” and added that, “in fact, the finest type of Americanism can breed under their protection, as they neutralize the effects of Communism.”
Although the retired general said he spoke for himself alone, it has been reported that Fascist groups have been seeking his leadership for formation of what George Deatherage, head of the knights of the White Camelia, called “a national Christian organization that we can all back.” General Moseley was recently nominated as national commander of the Protestant War Veterans of the United States, according to a letter to the J.T.A. from Edward James Smythe, who called himself chairman of the national executive committee.
General Moseley’s speech last night aroused some resentment. Several men in veterans’ uniforms left just before he began to speak. During his address, he was booed twice — once when he attacked Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and again when he assailed Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Later last night the Philadelphia Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order to Elks, at a meeting attended by 250 persons, adopted a resolution condemning his address.
General Moseley said he stood for patriotic Christian leadership. He declared there had been a “tremendous growth” of Communism within the present administration and referred to Justice Frankfurter’s nomination to the bench as “further evidence of the President’s leaning toward Communism.”
Other speakers at the meeting were the Rev.Edward Lodge Curran, of Brooklyn, president of the International Catholic Truth Society; the Rev. Charles B. du Bell, of Philadelphia; Mrs. Joseph Francis Park, chairman of the committee sponsoring the meeting, and Mrs. David D.Good, who introduced the speakers. Representative James E. Van Zandt, who was scheduled to speak, sent his regrets.
The part of General Moseley’s address in which he referred particularly to the Jews follows:
“We must stand up and fight for our rights today. Especially must we fight the battle for peace at a time when the champions of war are powerful, yes, and encouraged in the very highest places of our Government. Once we butted in and fought a war to make the world safe for democracy. We did not accomplish our mission. The war now proposed is for the purpose of establishing Jewish hegemony throughout the world. We must recognize that fact. The Communists have forced us to state it frankly.
“Recently a speaker came to Atlanta and addressed the assembled Jews. I understand that other speakers are covering the nation with the same message. What was the gist of his remarks? He stated, in effect, that the influence of the Jews throughout the United States was being organized to force the present administration to compel Hitler to reinstate the refugees in Germany to their former status, even at the cost of war. The speaker added that they were much encouraged in their efforts by the President himself and the charming First Lady.
“In contemplating war today, we must remember that war costs money and that as a nation we are already ‘busted.’ Our former allies have not as yet paid us for what they owe us on the last war. Where, then, is the money coming from? History will have to repeat itself, and we will have to re-establish the Jew in power and borrow money from him. A partner of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., it must be remembered financed the Russian Revolution , and he was mighty proud of his achievement.
“We will also have to ask the benevolent government of Russia to come to our aid in the fight, as an ally. How perfectly ridiculous it sounds today when someone refers to the present Russian Government as a ‘democracy.’ Of course, the Communists do say that Communism is twentieth century Americanism, or sometimes they put it, ‘Communism is twentieth century democracy.’ What a beautiful picture it will be. Your sons and mine, I have three, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Communists of Russia and being paid with money borrowed, probably from the Jews. Certainly it would be far more appropriate for Russia to align herself with the dictators and thus relieve us of the embarrassment of referring to her as a democracy.”
General Mosely has made several violent speeches in recent months. In an address in New York he warned of “massacres” resulting from American resentment against Communism. In a New Orleans speech last May he proposed sterilization of refugees in the United States. This month, in Boston, he called for organization of vigilante groups to be mobilized “at all critical points” on a moment’s notice to quell any Communist uprising.
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.
