William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirt chief, ex-stock swindler and metaphysician, calmly informed the Dies committee and a hushed roomful of spectators today that he advocated “disenfranchising ten million American Jews” and prohibiting them from owning property or conducting business. (U.S. Jewish population in 1937 was 4,831,180).
This was his platform when he ran for the presidency in 1936, he said, and he still sticks to it 100 percent. “The time has now come,” he informed the committee, “fan American Hitler to arise.”
Pelley, who was told by Acting Chairman Joe Starnes that he would be recalled to the witness stand tomorrow, was warned not to leave the District of Columbia, but no guard was placed over him so far as could be learned. Starnes intimated today that Pelley would be released from subpoena and the protection of the Dies committee in time for D.C. police to arrest him on the request of North Carolina authorities. The statute of limitations for the crime for which his arrest was requested expires late this month.
Pelley again attempted to “butter up” the committee at today’s hearings. He said he felt exactly as did the Dies committee about un-American activities and complimented the committee on “cleaning up” these activities in the past two years.
“Do you mean that if the committee continues its investigation the Silver Legion will fold up?” asked Rep. J. Parnell Thomas.
“Yes, sir,” Pelley replied promptly, “with my blessings.” Earlier he claimed 25,000 members for the Silver Shirts and admitted they are organized along military lines.
Pelley said he feels towards Jews in the United States “exactly as the Nazi party feels towards them in Germany.” He admitted that he knew Fritz Kuhn, jailed German-American Bund leader; and furnished him with literature on a commercial basis. He also admitted that he used official Nazi propaganda distributed by World Service, of Erfurt, Germany, in his publications without bothering to indicate the source of the propaganda.
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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.
