New York Acts to Crack Down on Anti-semitic “columbians”; Jews Watching New Group

New York State acted today to crack down on the Columbians, new anti-Semitic, anti-Negro organization, a branch of which is reported to be functioning here.

In a telegram to the chief of police in Atlanta, Ga., headquarters of the Columbians, Attorney-General Nathaniel Goldstein asked for available evidence concerning the Columbians’ operation in New York. The Atlanta police had said that the group had chapters in New York, Philadelphia and Gary, Ind., in addition to the Georgia capital.

Four members of the Columbians were arrested in Atlanta yesterday while picketing a house purchased by a Negro from white owners. Several days ago police averted a clash between members of the Columbians and a group of Jewish war veterans who attended a meeting of the pro-fascist group.

Emery C. Burke, its president, declared at the meeting that “the fight has begun and we are going to make it hotter and hotter until you (the Jews) go back to the Bronx, where you came from; and I say one day we are going to march into the Bronx.” Homer L. Lewis, secretary of the group, stated that the “Jews have never taken the trouble to become American citizens in the sense that other people from Western Europe have. They think only of preserving the Jewish traditions, the Jewish way of life and, worst of all, Jewish bloodlines.”

Veterans, church and legal groups in Atlanta have condemned the organization. Meanwhile, Richard E. Gutstadt, national director of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, has revealed here that his organization is keeping “close scrutiny” on the Columbians. He characterized the movement as numerically insignificant and composed of “vicious youngsters led by even more vicious men who are seeking to gain national attention by committing acts of vandalism, creating public disturbances and attacking defenseless Negroes.”