As part of a nationwide fifth column effort, seven pro-Nazis will seek high public office in the forthcoming election on a platform advocating appeasement of Hitler and opposing national defense, L.M. Birkhead, director of the Friends of Democracy, Inc., charged today in a memorandum to the Federal Bureau of Investigation urging an emergency probe of their political supporters.
The candidates named are Joseph E. McWilliams, Congressional candidate in the 18th Congressional District, New York; Kenneth A. Brown, seeking election to the House from the 1st Congressional District, Oregon; Harold A. Sparling, candidate from the 17th Congressional District, California; Louis B. Ward, candidate for Senate from Michigan; Dr. George H. Derry, candidate for the House from the 15th Congressional District, Michigan, and T.W. Hughes, Los Angeles, California. Birkhead also mentioned George Deatherage, St. Albans, West Virginia, who announced that he would run for Congress as an independent candidate of the American Destiny Party.
Birkhead’s memorandum urged the F.B.I. to investigate the nominating petitions filed by these candidates and by all Communist Party candidates for the purpose of compiling a permanent record of fifth column sympathizers. Birkhead also urged the bureau to ascertain if any of the alleged pro-Nazi candidates were recipients of financial or other support from Germany or Italy.
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