Former Mayor John F. Hylan, whom the Nazi element in this city has endorsed, filed his nominating petition as a candidate for the Governorship on the “Recovery Party” ticket, it was revealed yesterday.
Royal Scott Gulden, leader and organizer of the anti-Semitic Order of ’76, also succeeded in obtaining sufficient names on his petition to permit him to run fox Congress in the Eighteenth District.
William Ingles, Gulden’s lieutenant, who also had Congressional aspirations, fell by the wayside when he was unable to procure enough signatures in the Seventeenth District.
Gulden was still pulling strings last night in an effort to convince Louis Zahne and other Nazi leaders to come into the open with an endorsement of his candidacy. Nazi approval of Gulden appeared less certain yesterday than it had earlier this week.
Another development in political circles was the withdrawal of Charles Oberwager from the Congressional race as a candidate in the same district in which Gulden will run, despite the fact that his nominating petition had been filed on the preceding day.
Oberwager, a former active participant in German-American society activities here, and a member of the Steuben Society, gave no reason for his decision except to state he is “too busy” with other matters.
It was generally believed that Oberwager was unwilling to buck the Nazi group in his district, which partly takes in Yorkville.
Hylan continued yesterday to dodge making a direct statement on the racial issue. Significance was lent Nazi endorsement of him, however, when it was learned that his first campaign speech was to be delivered at Steuben House, 58-11 Thirty-ninth avenue, Woodside, headquarters of the Steuben Society in that section.
Gulden is the “Independent Party’s” candidate for Congress in his district. The “Independent Party, he says, is Royal Scott Gulden.
GULDEN TO RUN FOR SEAL IN CONGRESS; INGLES IS UNSUCCESSFUL
He had a “big head” yesterday, he said, as a result of a “little celebration” the night before, after he had filed his petition.
NO CONNECTION WITH CONCERN
“I have no connection with the Gulden mustard business, and never have had,” he admitted to a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter yesterday. “Your story in yesterday’s paper was absolutely correct.”
Asked about his purported residence address, which is given as 375 Park avenue in the petition, he further admitted that Johann Georg Stein, alien German whose stay here came in for recent scrutiny by the Congressional committee to investigate Nazi and other un-American activities in the United States, lives there.
“Stein is an old friend of mine,” he said. “He has a salvage company. Mr. Dickstein knows all about that.”
He described Stein as “a liberal entertainer” whose home is a sort of dropping-in place for persons who sit around and chat.
“I don’t know anything about politics,” he said. “I’m just doing this for the fun of it. If I land a job in Congress, that’s fine, In any event, all this is good experience. I wish. I’d started it many years ago.”
Gulden doesn’t know yet what he will promise the voters.
“After I recover from the celebration a little,” he said, “maybe I’ll be able to think up some kind of a platform.”
Although he fervidly hopes Zahne will come out in his support, he isn’t sure yet whether he’ll get the Nazi Chieftain’s backing.
“If he does support me, I’m all set,” Gulden said. “Naturally I want him to endorse me.”
As for what his expectations are of being elected, he said:
“We’re not taking this any too seriously.”
On the general subject of anti-Semitism his views are somewhat unusual, if a little difficult to decipher.
“If the situation should get to the point where it would be hard to control,” he said, “I figure it might be better to have a fellow like Royal Scott Gulden around, who could keep matters in hand, than some of these other boys.”
In this respect, he feels, the Jews ought to feel friendly toward him, since if an attack should ever come in this country, he would do all he could to keep it on a refined basis.
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.
