A convention of the DAWA, German-American counter-boycott organization which had hoped to show the strength of the pro-Nazi elements in the United States, ended in complete failure today when it closed several days before schedule.
Only seventy-five persons were present last night at the Hotel Stevens when the convention got under way. Only forty in the audience were delegates and most of the speakers scheduled to address the opening session of the convention failed to show up. Reservations had been made at the hotel for 600 persons. Forty appeared.
Before the convention began, officials of the organization announced that plans for a much ballyhooed trade exhibit in connection with the meeting had been abandoned.
FROEHLICH PRESIDES
C. K. Froehlich, who presided at the dismal opening session, urged the audience to buy only from firms listed as members of the organization and defended the DAWA’s use of the boycott in reprisal for the boycott on German goods.
“We will use the same means employed by our opponents,” he said, adding that the boycott is “un-American.”
Henry O. Spier, DAWA executive director, discussed “Germans as Economic Pioneers in the United States.” He stated the Germans have played an important part in building up American trade and finance and that they still are an important factor today and are once more pioneering with DAWA in the same manner. He added that DAWA is no trying to build a German colony in any particular state, but proposes to assume national scope. He emphasized that DAWA is not a Nazi organization, but that “German-Americans are privileged to sympathize with the Fatherland even if they are American citizens, as they owe a duty to Germany.
“Our efforts will be concentrated toward helping trade relations between the United States and Germany and improve political understanding,” he said.
“We intend to increase the export of German products to us. It is the duty of every individual to demand German products when buying in stores and to make our program clear to the American people.”
Referring to the boycott activities of Samuel Untermyer and his letter of protest to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Spier said: “We will get what we want to eat, not gefilte fish.”
The word Jew was not mentioned once during the abortive convention.
Delegates were present from eighteen states, the Dominion of Canada and Germany, convention officials stated.
Dr. Hugo Tanneberg, vice-consul general in Chicago, who devotes his time to Nazi propaganda work here, attempted to explain the exchange values of the mark and the dollar. He said he does not expect the mark to be devaluated or increased, but to retain its same value as an aid to foreign trade.
“Boycott the boycott” was emphasized time and again by speakers, who also demanded that a protest be sent to the American Federation of Labor, which recently adopted a resolution to boycott German goods.
Fritz Gissibl, leader of the Chicago Friends of New Germany, explained that this would be useless, but urged the delegates to contact local German labor unions and demand a clear-cut stand on the boycott.
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