Ralph Easley, chairman of the National Civic Federation, professional anti-Communist and distributor of the anti-Semitic German volume, “Communism in Germany”, intends to wipe out Communism in the United States if he has to “fight every Jew in the country to do it.”
Admitting that he is chief agent for the distribution of “Communism in Germany” Mr. Easley refused to ###vulge the identity of those responsible for the cost of publication of ###e book, or to name his agents in this country in whose hands block ###uantities of the book are being ###laced for further distribution, and ###eclined to discuss those subsidizing is operations in disseminating the ###ook.Among those in whose hands Mr. Easley has placed the book for distribution are William Dudley Pelley, fanatical anti-Semite and leader of the Fascist “Silver Shirts”, and George Sylvester Viereck, war-time pro-German and present-day Hitlerite propagandist.
In an interview with the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Easley admitted that he is a “professional anti-Communist”, and he declared himself ready to abolish Communism if he had to fight “every Jew in the country to do so.” He later extended the field of his campaign to “Methodists too.”
WHAT HE STANDS BEHIND
Although Easley expresses the {SPAN}###sire{/SPAN} to aid the Jews in Germany, he asserts that his professional activities embracing the distribution of the book, “Communism in Germany” will not be disturbed. The book contains such passages as, “The teachers and leaders of Communism in Germany also came direct from the school of the old {SPAN}Rus###an{/SPAN} Jewish revolution. The spirit {SPAN}###{/SPAN} the invisible ghetto impregnated {SPAN}###m{/SPAN} the start the German Communist Party and also the spirit and mental reservation which apparently was the justification for this double game, for lying, treachery and for the idea that everything was {SPAN}allow###ble{/SPAN}.” Other parts of the book are {SPAN}###potted{/SPAN} with references of Jewish {SPAN}###ffiliation{/SPAN} with Communistic {SPAN}depre###dation{/SPAN}.
Easley declared that he did not care who distributed the book, and he expressed the wish that he had “a thousand or a million more copies” to be placed in the hands of the Silver Shirts and other agents.
Concerning one of his distributors, Pelley, the Silver Shirt leader to whom Easley recently delivered 100 copies of the book for distribution, Easley recently wrote in a letter published in this paper, “And now comes an association from the South called the ‘Silver Shirts’ to combat Communism and also to fight the Jews as Jews—which latter program, if allowed to go unchecked, would develop anti-Semitism in the United States in a virulent form.”
HIS IDEA ABOUT VIERECK
Mr. Easley had this to say about George Sylvester Viereck: “I had no more use for him than had any other American during the World War. He was a German agent who was working against our country, and I regarded him as a man who should have been shot.”
Easley recounted alleged sabotage activities, which he claimed he himself had proven, in which Viereck is accused of having tried to paralyze commerce on the entire Eastern coast by calling a strike of longshoremen. Today Viereck is writing a book admittedly favorable to the Hitler regime in Germany and absolving him from many crimes attributed to the chancellor by the world press.
Easley describes his present respect for Viereck in this manner: “However, he has played an important part in the promotion of our movement to send to Germany a Good Will Commission which would endeavor to interpret there the public sentiment of this country and to report, upon its return, the state of German public opinion on this question.” Easley describes Viereck’s signature to a cable dispatched to the Crown Prince of Germany, Vice-Chancellor V### Papen, and Dr. Hjalmar Schach on the eve of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany. Their aid was asked to prevent the boycott, which, it was stated, would alienate the sympathies of the world from Germany.
KICK NAZIS HERE OUT, HE SAYS
“If, as charged, the Nazis are organizing various movements here, such as the German Legion, composed entirely of men who were in the German Army during the World War, the Friends of New Germany, and others, which, with their allied branches are alleged to be working against our country, they should be kicked out just as we kicked out the Italian Fascists two or three years ago,” Easley said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.