America Yewish Periodical Cotter

Friday. December I, 1944

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

CAPITOL°--LETTER

By CHARLES BENSON

The mass sedition trial took
a peculiar twist at one recent
phase of its long and sordid his-
tory, which, if present expecta-
tions are met, will continue on
into 1945.
Almost the entire month of
November was devoted to testi-
mony and cross examination by
Henry D. Allan, a Government
witness. Allen, a man with a
prison record for a series of bad
checks, did some necessary work
for the prosecution. He linked
defendants, who at the outset of
the trial claimed not even to
know one another. Ile gave eyi•
witness evidence of metings at-
tended by several of the alleged
seditionists. He testified to com-
munications among the various
members of the alleged conspir-
acy to undermine the morale of
the armed forces, to overthrow
democracy here and set up a
fascist state. He identified let-
ters to himself from Frank W.
Clark of the National Liberal
Party, who several times made
the statement that he was the
American Hitler, plotting ex-
tremely bloody fates for the Jews
of the United States. Allen put
the finger on George E. Death-
erage of the American National
Federation who used the swastika
as his symbol, Herman Max Sch-
winn, West Coast German-Amer-
ican Bund leader, William Dud-
ley Pelley, goateed Silver Shirt
leader, and Gerald Winrod, the
Wichita anti-Semite who mas-
querades as a pastor.
Allen was able to do all this
because he himself participated
5 in some of the fascist activities
on the West Coast. It was to
his advantage to appear as Gov-
ernment witness at this point in
his affairs. This, however, didn't
mean that the tiger was going
to change his stripes. Allen, a
Government witness, under the
gentle guidance of the defense
attorneys, was able to get before
the jury and the public some of
the most vicious anti-Semitism
that has yet been heard in Dis-
trict Court since the trial start-
ed last April. And the court-
room has by no means been a
place for the past nine
3 healthful
months.
A thin, beaked-nosed, thin-lip-
ped man with prominent eye-
brows and balding grey hair, Al-
len mouthed his vitriole in a res-
onant, clear voice. With the as-
sistance of the defense attorneys,
he explained he was interested
in "the Jewish question on the
West Coast as it pertains to Com-
- monism." And he proceeded to
describe attempts by "Jewish
voices" and "Jewish faces" to
break up "anti-communist meet-
ings" held in German-American
Bund headquarters in Los An-
geles in 1938.
Ile was the one, he admitted,
who went to New York and or-
ganized the picketing of Arabs
in front of the Mayflower Hotel
here in Washington, when the
Zionists held their Palestine Con-
ference there in 1937. The no-
torious Mrs. Leslie Fry, who has
previously been under indictment
for her Nazi activities, and a
mysterious Conrad Chapman of
Boston, were the instigators, ac-
cording to Allen's testimony. Of
course, in the telling, Allen gave
his motives, as told to Gerald
Winrod, and they included every
old anti-Semitic fable and a
couple of new ones.
Although he had told his story
to Government attorneys time and
time again with little emotion,
when it came to the courtroom
telling, Allen played the scene
for all it was worth. There wer...
teats and a pair of screaming
teen-aged daughters and an hys-
terical wife—to land the sedi-
tion trial on the pages of the
daily newspapers for the first
time in months. According to
Allen's tale, the FBI and the Bnai
Brith Anti-Defamation League
had been responsible for his ejec-
tion from California, and his son
had been attacked by four Jews
with the result that he lost an
eye. A less impassioned version
of the incident of his son's acci-
dent, told to one of the attor-
neys, was that his son had had
a bad eye for some time and in
a knock-down drag-out fight had
had further damage done to it.
The accuracy of that part of the
storY, then, is open to question,
but the item about the Bnai
Brith Anti-Defamation League, at
least, is a new angle, picked up
apparently from the seditionists'
line, for when Allen was called
II
to testify a few years ago be-
fore the Dies Committee, there

i e

Page 5

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was no mention of the Anti-De-
famation League. Actually, his
remove! from the West Coast was
made at the instance of the mili-
tary who under the terms of the
Army Exclusion Act can prohibit
from either coast persons inim-
ical and dangerous to the de-
fense.
Positive note was that the Gov-
ernment counsel succeeded in
keeping out of the record de-
fense attempts to justify the anti-
Semitic propaganda circulated by
some defendants, which the pros-
ecution accuses them of borrow-
ing from the Nazis. Repeated at-
tempts were made to bring out
in cross examination of Allen tes-
explanation of attacks on the
timony supporting the defense
Jews, but Chief Justice Edward
C. Eicher sustained objections of
Prosecutor 0. John Rogge. The
defense sought to show that those
defendants who were anti-Semi-
tic were only fighting Commun-
ism, in which activity Allen de-
clared he was engaged, and which
Allen and the defense claimed
was led by Jews. But on several
occasions Judge Eicher prevented
discussion of the contents of anti-
Semitic documents. The notor-
ious "Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion," long ago proved
a forgery, was introduced—and
thrown out by the court. An at-
tempt to question the witness on
passages from the document was
blocked by a decision they were
irrelevant.
The prosecution's case has been
shaping up for the past few
months, but unfortunately only
the most unsavory and sensation-
al items now get a play in the
press, with reporters from only
the major press associations at-
tending the trial and these few
jaded from nine months on the
same assignment. Major reason
for sedition trials such as these
are as educational measures. The
trial and punishment of the few
cannot stem the tide of fascism,
of course. It has been pointed
out that a sound economy would
make such dregs of society as
are now on trial powerless, with-
out audience to be swayed by
their viciousness. However, as
secondary devise, a trial is held
by which it is hoped to show the
general public the nature of the
arguments put forth by the evil
few. At this point, unfortunate-
ly, the press is not cooperating.

The 6th War Loan is now on! Let's not let any of our fighting
pals down. The Japs are far from being pushovers—there are
73 million of them, stubborn, cruel, fanatically determined to
stop us. To save American lives, to save time, we must over-
whelm them with supremacy of materiel. Our fighting men will
need more and bigger planes, more ships, landing craft and
supplies, more of everything than in the invasion of Europe. So
let's buy that extra $100 Bond right now to help shorten the
war. Let's save other lives by saving our money!

Downtown Theaters—

BUY di LEAST AN EXTRA $100 WAR BOND!

MICHIGAN — "Kismet," co-
starring Ronald Colman and Mar-
lene Dietrich, continues for a
second week at the Michigan
Theater. The companion film is
"Days of Glory." introducing
Tamara Toumanova and Gregory
Peck.
"Days of Glory" is a tempes-
tuous romance, spiked with the
guerilla warfare of Russian pat-
riots.

UNITED ARTISTS — "French-
man's Creek" flows on for a sixth
and final week at the United Ar-
tists Theater. This is the Techni-
color romance of an indiscreet
lady of noble birth and a roug-
ish pirate. Joan Fontaine and
Arturo DeCordova are co-starred.

FOX—To everyone who re-
members the "Love Affair" of
Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer,
it will be welcome news that they
are "Together Again" in a spark-
ling romantic comedy at the Fox,
that started Friday.
A companion feature will also
be shown.

Primrose Club to Hold
Bond Rally Mon., Dec. 4

"Not now. Not while the going is toughest. Not while that
extra winning punch is needed most. Not on my life . ."

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