The New Jersey Republican Party announced yesterday it had endorsed the suspension of seven county Young Republican organizations controlled by the Rat Finks, an extreme rightist faction accused of anti-Semitic and anti-Negro bigotry.
The moderate leadership of the New Jersey Young Republican organization ordered the suspension, last Thursday night, climaxing months of inter-party struggles that began with the disclosure that members of the Rat Fink faction had printed and used a song-sheet with viciously anti-Semitic ditties sung at Young GOP conventions last year.
Webster B. Todd, New Jersey Republican state chairman, said the suspensions had ended a threat that the state’s senior Republican leadership would publicly disown the Young Republicans. A factor in the senior GOP attitude was understood to be a fear that the state’s Democrats would charge the GOP with bigotry and racism in the forthcoming state election campaign.
The suspensions were generally expected to lead to the suspension by the Young Republican National Federation of the entire New Jersey Young Republican National Federation of the entire New Jersey Young Republican chapter. This is likely because the state Young Republican federation is dominated by members allied with the Rat Finks.
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