Action by the federal government on three counts in arresting the Nazi propaganda compaign in America, investigating charges of custom officials that German-made products are being imported under trade names of other nations and providing protection for American citizens in Germany, crystallized here yesterday.
Representative Samuel Dickstein, chairman of the House Immigration Committee, was to entrain for Washington tonight to interview the President and Secretary of State Hull in connection with the propaganda campaign he is investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph E. Brill was engaged in organizing an intensive investigation of firms which are alleged to be importing Nazi merchandise from which the trade sign “made in Germany” has been obliterated.
Representative Dickstein declared in a statement issued exclusively to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that word from President Roosevelt with regard to the whole German situation as it relates to Americans can be expected this week.
Representative Dickstein declared that “the Government is fed up” with the Nazis. He said that he will cooperate with labor officials in prosecuting the boycott against German goods and services.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brill will launch an investigation into illegal importation of German products. At his offices in the Federal Building he announced that three custom house officials, including Peter Sullivan, H. E. Wagner and Frank Large, are to assist him. He quoted the following paragraphs from section 304, Tariff Act of 1930, prohibiting the removal of labels from imported products.
“Every article imported into the United States, and its immediate container, and the package in which such article is imported, shall be marked, labeled, stamped, or branded, in legible English words, in a conspicuous place, in such a manner as to indicate the country of origin of such article, in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of Treasury may, by regulations prescribed hereunder, except any article for the requirements of making, stamping, branding or labeling if he is satisfied such article is incapable of being marked, stamped or labeled or cannot be marked, stamped or labeled without injury, or except at expense economically prohibitive of importation, or that the marking stamping or branding or labeling of the immediate container of such article will reasonably indicate the country of origin of such article.”
The penalty for violation of the regulation is a fine of $5,000, a year in prison, or both.
Mr. Brill said that principal offenders were importers of chemicals, gloves, bric-a-brac, clothing and jewelry. He said that arrests may be expected soon.
The feeling against Germany which is manifesting itself in the widespread boycott which now has the support of about four million members of the American Federation of Labor in addition to numerous Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, has resulted in subterfuge on the part of importers who deal with German merchandisers. The latest method, he said, of marking goods is by attaching removable labels or tags. These are removed when they are placed in retail shops, he said. Others stamp their products with the legend “made in the United States.”
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.
