Action to expose backers of un-American pamphlets and periodicals is being contemplated by the Department of Justice, it was learned today following the Federal-State Conference on Law Enforcement problems of National Defense, held at the Justice Department.
The conference, which ended yesterday, passed a resolution stating “the publication and dissemination of all papers, pamphlets, leaflets and other printed matter having for its purpose the undermining of American principles of government is hereby condemned.”
While the resolution does not mention anti-Semitic literature, Communist or Nazi papers by name, these were discussed at the executive session dealing with espionage, propaganda and interference with civil liberties at which the resolution was framed.
The conferees, the Justice Department announced, recommended “that a thorough study of this problem be made by both the Federal and State Governments, cooperating with the legitimate press to the end that appropriate legislation may be enacted requiring those responsible for such practices to register and disclose the governments or persons in whose behalf or for whom they are acting as well as the source of the financial aid received for such purposes.”
The conferees recommended further: “The governor of each State should head a committee to hold regular but informal conferences with the leading newspaper and radio men of his state. Such conferences should be concerned with keeping the American press and radio free from subversive propaganda such as the featuring of speeches by leading Nazis, Fascists and Communists, American and foreign.”
The need for preventing any persecution of aliens also was emphasized.
“The joint task of the Federal and State Governments is to reassure the alien that registration is a friendly act and an effort to identify those who are friendly to our national institutions and to spare them from harassment and persecution,” it was stated. “It should be borne in mind that the term ‘alien’ is not synonymous with ‘fifth columnist’ and that the Federal Government is not preparing concentration camps for aliens. All citizens should remember that all persons are entitled to equal protection of the laws.”
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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.
