William Dudley Pelley, commander of the Silver Shirts, denies in a circular letter appealing for subscriptions to the Silver Shirt Weekly that he has “shot his bolt.”
In the letter. Pelley makes no bones about the fact that he wants more financial backing for his magazine:
“Before me on my desk lies a national list of 1,708 people who were formerly enthusiastic readers of Liberation but who have not as yet permitted me to hear from them in the matter of our present publication. Figured at the annual subscription price of $5 per reader, that represents a potential capital of $3,540.”
Patting himself on the chest, Pelley’s letter says:
“The enemy has tried his utmost this past summer to shatter and erase us by demolishing our beautiful and efficient headquarters, impounding records, intercepting mail and carrying his campaign of criminal intimidation abroad to the individual.
“Despite mistakes of all-judgment due to pressures on me of which the nation can never know, I have gathered up the remnants of our staff, brought out seven numbers of a new magazine, reestablished headquarters, and successfully battled to the moment the strategies of Jewish legal intrigue against me.”
The epistle, which is two pages long, single-spaced, announces that the Asheville “bad boy” has prepared a new booklet, called “Put Yourself in My Place,” in which he has “rigorously” answered the “calumnies, defamations and libels” which, he claims, are being circulated concerning him.
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.
