American newspaper editors incline to the view that the anti-Semitic swastika wave in this country does not have any great significance, it was indicated by a survey in the current issue of Editor and Publisher, the Journal of the newspaper industry.
“The incidents reported in this country appear to be the result of either teenage or adult hoodlumism with no particular significance so far as racism is concerned.” Frank Eyerly, managing editor of the Des Moines Register, told the publication in a comment that summed up the majority viewpoint.
Erwin Swanguard, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, stressed the need for dealing “cautiously” with the story because undue publicity only encouraged further acts by hoodlums. Paul A. Tierney, editor of the Long Island Star-Journal, stressed the view that “acts of intolerance and bigotry indicate a social maladjustment, which, however limited, requires sober and non-sensational exposure.”
While the number of incidents reported in the United States decreased sharply during the weekend, one of the most serious of the entire epidemic took place in the Forest Park suburb of Chicago where vandals overturned 50 tombstones and smeared 40 others with swastikas.
At Columbus, Ohio, officials of Ohio State University suspended a 23-year-old senior for having painted a swastika on the door of the Hillel Foundation at the university. Action was expected by Ohio University officials against two freshmen at that institution who had assisted him in the Job.
The New Jersey Assembly may act tomorrow on a bill providing prison terms up to three years and fines up to $1,000 for desecraters of religious, charitable and educational property.
Treason charges filed last week against three Queens, N. Y., youths who had set up their own Nazi party and had planned on “beating up some Jews” were not expected to he sustained. The charges, made for the first time in New York Judicial history, were ordered by Magistrate Milton Solomon in Ridgewood Felony Court when the three young hoodlums were arraigned on disorderly conduct charges.
In Washington, the Navy disclosed it had taken steps to dismiss George Lincoln Rockwell from the U.S. Naval Reserve, in which the founder of the American Nazi Party holds the rank of commander.
Action by the Navy followed published reports of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency which described the concern over Rockwell’s naval status.
Rockwell last month announced formation of the American Nazi party and distributed propaganda in and around the District of Columbia. His leaflets threatened Jews with “the gas chamber” and called for enlistment of American Nazis for anti Jewish activity.
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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.
