The Plattdeutsche Societies, meeting in the Brooklyn Schwaben Hall on Wednesday night with committees from many other German organizations, demanded that a stiff resistance be brought to bear on all elements urging a boycott of German goods and German importers.
The meeting, marked by an intense German patriotism, was attended by representatives of virtually every Plattdeutsche Society in New York while many representatives of “High German” organizations attended to take part in the proceedings.
It was decided that pending the celebration of German Day in Madison Square Garden on December 6 and another celebration for all German-Americans of Greater New York in Brooklyn at the Labor Lyceum on November 26, little would be done in view of the possible consequences to these demonstrations.
The Brooklyn affair is under the direction of the United German Societies of Brooklyn. The United German Societies of New York were sponsors of the German Day celebration scheduled for the 165th Regiment Armory last month, which was suspended by Mayor O’Brien when he became convinced that the occasion was to be used as an attempt to propagandize Hitler’s anti-Semitism.
The committee in charge of the Brooklyn demonstration is Theodor Schmidt, president; Paul Marx, secretary; George Beatzel, and Fritz Kaelber. Another committee was appointed to report on the program for the German Day celebration in Manhattan.
Representatives of the Steuben Society, sponsors of the German Day celebration, attended the meeting and called upon all German-Americans to turn out for the celebration as a matter of patriotism toward the German element in the United States.
It was decided that a powerful thrust be made by all German-Americans and all German-American organizations against subversive elements.
The meeting received with frequent expressions of bitterness a report by the president of the Plattdeutsche Societies on an editorial recently appearing in a Brooklyn daily newspaper in which an anti-German boycott was advocated.
According to the newspaper a city judge in a speech before a lodge demanded that Americans should not only express contempt for the present political regime in Germany but should also boycott all German goods, German shipping lines, and dealers in German goods.
In a unanimous vote it was decided to make an investigation into the report, to inquire into the injury being dealt German shopkeepers, and to take action to overcome the anti-German boycott. Honorary President R. Schumacher, Addo Bielefeld, Fred Schwinge, and H. W. Meyer, were appointed as a committee to make a hasty survey of the situation in the name of the Plattdeutsche Societies of Brooklyn and report their findings to competent authorities for action.
The German American Conference, the largest German body in the country composed of 23 large federations, and the Steuben Society of America will also take part in the investigation of the boycott and measures to be adopted against it.
Cooperation between the Manhattan and Brooklyn German organizations, whether Plattdeusche or “High German” was demanded for the success of the two German festivals to be held respectively in Brooklyn and New York. Failure of previous celebrations was attributed to lack of inter-organization support.
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