The Whiteshirt Corps, most recent of the American “shirt” organizations, through its sponsors, officials of the Seattle post of the American Legion, rose to its defense today against charges that the organization aped European fascist bodies.
The organization was severely attacked by P. Allen Rickles, a district grand lodge officer of the B’nai B’rith, who declared the ‘shirt’ principle to be foreign to the American spirit.
George Cohen, senior vice commander of the Seattle post, which is the largest Legion post in the State, and Max Silver, past commander of the post, revealed that four Jews had served on the committee which had originated the Whiteshirt idea.
“No organization is more opposed to the principles of the Brown Shirts, Red Shirts, Black Shirts and Silver Shirts,” they declared in a statement of reply to Mr. Rickles. “The Whiteshirts is a gesture of defiance, symbolic of pure Americanism.”
To this, Mr. Rickles, who insisted that the American flag was a sufficient symbol, reiterated his question “Why copy European shirts?”
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