Anti-nazi League, Metropolitan Press Hit Brundage Pro-nazi Speech

Mrs. Mark Harris, chairman of the women’s division of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, in a letter today to Avery Brundage, chairman of the American Olympic Committee, accused him of committing “a subversive act” in holding up Nazi Germany as an example to the United States during a speech at German Day exercises last Sunday night.

The New York Post and the New York World-Telegram severely condemned yesterday Mr. Brundage’s declaration that “we can learn much from Germany.”

The Post in its leading editorial suggested to Mr. Brundage that he be more specific and inquired what he thought America could learn from Germany. “What features of the Hitler regime would he like to see adopted here?”

Listing the chief characteristic of the Nazi dictatorship–no freedom of speech, press and assembly; one-man, one-party dictatorship; no jury trials, no right to habeas corpus or counsel; intolerance, racial hatred and religious prejudice; suppression of parochial schools, gagging the pulpit; destruction of labor unions–the editorial asks:

“Is Mr. Brundage advocating them for this country? Is there one principle of the Nazi system which would fit ours? Is there one feature of the Nazi rule that does not clash with the American way of life and government?”

Referring to Mr. Brundage’s Olympic team suspension of Eleanor Holm Jarrett as a sign that he “had learned his own lesson, all right, from Germany and Der Fuehrer,” the World-Telegram lashes out at the speech, declaring that it would “most certainly oppose his having the opportunity to impose his dictatorship upon any more American athletic teams.”

“Even before Mr. Brundage sailed for Berlin in July,” the editorial reads, “he must have studied up on dictatorships…Naturally, therefore, Mr. Brundage has returned home entranced by conditions where individual freedom is stifled, unquestioning obedience is universal and a new low has been set for oppression.”