Reaction to the Madison Square Garden rally of the German-American Bund Monday night continued to make itself felt today, with hostile audiences forcing withdrawal of newsreels of the affair and the New York Times demanding editorially imposition of legal restraints on “private armies.”
Shots of the rally, particularly those showing a Jewish youth being set upon by Storm Troopers when he jumped upon the Garden platform, provoked such anger during the two days they were shown at leading newsreel theatres here that Pathe News officals decided to follow the advice of the theatre managers and withdraw the films.
In a leading editorial entitled “Private Armies,” the Times advocated “wholesome and vigorous publicity” to help “scotch at its inception the vicious institution of the private army.” Using as a springboard pictures published in Tuesday’s newspapers of Nazi storm troopers policing the Garden, the Times said: “We are not accustomed to storm troopers. We do not intend to get accustomed to them. No matter how foolish the Bund may seem, we must do something sooner or later about the problem of the uniformed private army. We need to consider carefully what this something is to be.”
Describing the development of private armies in Europe and their use of “gangster tactics,” the Times continued: “We are disposed, one may safely say, to treat political gangsters like other gangsters. But at what point are the forces of law and order to begin to assert themselves? Obviously the right point is at the very beginning of the process. We ought to require the most complete publicity concerning the doings of these organizations — their lists of members, their rules and regulations, and particularly their finances. . . . There is no orderly and self-respecting body which would be injured by the requirement that it make public all information of this kind. But wholesome and vigorous publicity would make it more difficult for the sinister organization to operate successfully, and help to scotch at its inception the vicious institution of the private army.”
Enactment of a law compelling such organizations as the German-American Bund to make public its membership rolls was demanded by Frank C. Love, commander of the New York department of the American Legion. In a statement, Mr. Love declared: “If we must live next door to men and women who are in favor of racial and religious persecution, let us at least know who they are.”
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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.
