Can U.S. Survive Inroads of Fascism?

The following is the seventeenth of a series of articles detailing the rise and growth of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movement in this country in all its ramifications.

Virtually every German American society in the country is confronted with the necessity of making an immediate croice between actively supporting the Hitler government or opposing it. The Nazis, now strengthened to a point where they may well dictate to the uncoordinated units of German American society have issued the ultimatum that all must join or forever be identified with the enemies of the fatherland. They go further to state that "The enemies of Germany are also the enemies of America."

The situation within German societies which are trying to remain outside the Nazi circle may be illustrated by the plight of the North-eastern Singing Alliance, a national organization of which Gotthard E. Seyfarth of Brooklyn is president. The North-eastern Singing Alliance, as in the case of virtually every other large national singing league in the country, is incorporated in the Deutsche Saengerbund of Germany, which is mother group to the singing societies of the Reich and almost all singing societies in all foreign countries. The Deutsche Saengerbund has been made an organ of the Nazi Party by its incorporation with the Reichsmusikkammer.

THE SINGING SOCIETIES

During the latter part of this month the Professor Felix Schmidt Double Quartet from Berlin will meet with representatives of thousands of German American singing societies at a convention in St. Louis. It is widely reported that the representatives from Hitler’s Third Reich will seek to coordinate all German American singing societies with the Nazi music chamber on this occasion. It has been publicly reported that the Baltimore singing societies are trying to arrive at a decision as to whether or not they will submit to "gleichschaltung." In anticipation of this and because of the growing anti-Semitic trend in singing societies a number of Jews have resigned from their clubs.

The singing societies and turn societies have been least infected by the germ of anti-Semitism and Hitlerism. Dr. Seyfarth said that to his knowledge not one of these has joined in a body the Friends of New Germany or other Nazi groups. It is a generally recognized fact, however, that members are joining the Friends of New Germany in increasing number and to a greater extent the DAWA, anti-Jewish boycott organization of the Nazis.

Dr. Seyfarth has frequently demanded that members of his societies remain aloof from this struggle, the turn and singing societies are holding a joint Cemonstration on June 24, the tenor which will be to discourage the furtherance of either Nazi or anti-Nazi propaganda and sentiment. Dr. Seyfarth states that the same spirit will be injected into the St. Louis Convention; and he declared that the German representatives, invited here merely as a cultural and non-political gesture, will find no opportunity to extend the dictation of the Reichsmusikkammer to German American organizations. He expects withdrawal of his group from the Deutsche Saengerbund in the event of any effort to Nazify the North-eastern Singing Alliance.

Such is the situation in the singing societies, perhaps the least Nazi of all branches of German American society. The condition is more severe in other classes of German American society.

THE GERMAN PRESS

Scattered throughout the country are a number of German language newspapers, which play an important role in the "gleichschaltung" of German American societies within the ranks of the Nazis. Many of these were until a year ago poverty-stricken and ready to fold up under the forces of the depression. A number of them have recently blossomed into full fledged carriers of Hitlerite and anti-Semitic propaganda, their pages well sprinkled with advertising from Nazi business concerns and their circulation (much of which is not paid for) ever growing. The older German language newspapers find themselves in an unpleasant predicament. Unless they regulate their tone to the growing pro-Hitler sentiment of readers in the United States, they lose circulation and consequently advertising matter. If they go entirely Nazi they lose the advertising of Jewish and liberal subscribers. Again the slogan, "Those who are not for us are against us," creates discomfort. The newspapers can adopt no middle course.

In recent months almost all German language newspapers here have indicated a more tolerant tone both with regard to Hitler and organizations adhering to Hitler in the United States. Among Newspapers recognized as being friendliest to Hitler’s organization both in Germany and here are: The California Staats-Zeitung in Los Angeles, Floridas Deutsche Echo, Cincinnati Freie Presse, Chicago Weckruf, and to a lesser extent about a score of papers throughout the farming sections of the middle west.

The Nazi coordination of the German American press has closely followed the trend of organization of German American Society under the swastika. That no newspaper can survive when its editorial policies conflict with the sentiment of the class it serves is a truth which requires no explanation. Hence the editorial policies of almost all German language papers (the Socialist press being a notable exception) have changed as Nazi conversion sweeps further in the United States.

FRIENDS OF NEW GERMANY

The Friends of New Germany is the most important apostle of Hitlerite credoes. Its missionary work in New York has been described in previous articles. Its local branches throughout the country have been almost as effective in their respective areas, although the New York cell usually leads others in new schemes for Hitlerization by at least a month. The success of various cells in finding the most vulnerable point in local German society is interesting. Thus, while Nazi conversion of the turn and sport associations in New York has been of no particular consequence, in San Francisco the turn and sport vereins contribute great support to the Nazi body. The Sport Abteilung (called by some the storm troopers because of the military efficiency of the group) of the F. N. G. in San Francisco has attracted considerable membership from turn vereins.

German Americans are more closely knit together through social activities and organizations than any other class of citizen. German Americans frequently belong to a half-dozen or more clubs at the same time. It is this factor which makes the Nazi conversion process not a difficult one. When John Schmidt of the United German Societies became coordinated (as did his entire society) with the Nazis, he automatically became a Nazi emissary to (let us say) the Steuben Society, the Amt Ostener Club of the Plattdeutscher Volksfestverein, the Stahlhelm, the German American Democratic Club, the Bronx County Bakers Board of Trade, and whatever other organizations in which he had been enrolled.

MRS. SCHMIDT ACTIVE

Mrs. John Schmidt, also a member of the League of Friends of New Germany, likewise became a Nazi agitator in the half dozen women’s organizations to which she belonged. John Schmidt Jr., now an enthusiastic member of the Deutsche Jungenschaft (Nazi youth organization) gives fellow members of other German youth organizations glowing accounts of the Jungenschaft visit to Buffalo, parties aboard German steamships, and in local German halls. His exuberance wins for his organization further adherents to the policies of the Hitler Jugend upon which basis the Deutsche Jungenschaft is run in America.

Thus the Nazi organization goes. It matters little that in all America the League of Friends of New Germany has but 25,000 members. When each member of the group is as active as the Schmidt family, that figure not only will rise but adherent organizations and cooperating organizations will be brought into the fold. The 12,000 members of the League of Friends of New Germany in New York does not take into account the fifty or more organizations cooperating with the Nazi nuclear body or of the hundreds of organizations which are being swung rapidly into the Nazi ranks through the medium of the DAWA and similar (but less effective) devices.

A German American element in the United States firmly united under the Nazi banner presents a considerable threat to American Democracy. As the Nazi organization grows, it becomes more sincere in its sympathy toward not only Hitler but the Hitlerite form of government.

In the last presidential election less than forty million votes were cast. Twenty millions, under due process of law, could have changed this government from Democratic to Fascist. As Congressman Carpenter of Nebraska stated on the floor of the House in arguing against the passage of the Dickstein resolution for investigation of Nazi activities, "I say that when the time comes, if fifty-one percent. of our people say they want it (a Hitler form of Government) that is what we ought to have."

At the last election in 1932 American Fascism was unheard of. Indeed, Fascism was known only in Italy. During the last two years the political trend throughout the whole of Europe has been definitely Fascist. The Fascist philosophy has developed widely in America. With a fair percentage of the seven millions of German Americans here willing to cultivate it further, and with others indicating, as they are, a receptive attitude toward the Fascist theory and its anti-Semitic connotations, one may well consider seriously the Fascist problem.

The warning against Fascism may be considered premature. But as demonstrated in Fascist Italy, Germany, and Austria, and as seen in fully a dozen other European countries, if Fascism is not nipped in the bud it grows and eventually overwhelms Democracy, upon whose liberalism it thrives in its inceptive period. It is argued, not without considerable truth, that Fascism does away with interparty strife and endless political bickering which delay the enactment of necessary reforms. The growing ranks of reactionaries in America vindicate this contention.

No nation yet has found an effective counter-actant for Fascism once it is substantially on its way to power. Will American Democracy survive the current movement? (To Be Continued Tomorrow)