Secret Armies Part 14

I mention these to show the type of stuff Steele is willing to disseminate--if he is paid for it. And by permitting the use of their names, the sponsors, consciously or unconsciously, aid him in his anti-American activities.

The detailed aims of the _National Republic_ are to provide a "weekly service to twenty-three hundred editors, to defend American inst.i.tutions against subversive radicalism; a national information service on subversive organizations and activities; an Americanization bureau serving schools, colleges and patriotic groups; conducted for the public good from Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., by nationally known leaders."

The procedure of conducting the organization "for the public good"

includes high-pressuring the shekels from the suckers. Steele, a former newspaperman, learned from his a.s.sociation with that other arch-patriot, Jung. So when Steele established his own racket, he found one of his early aids in former Senator Robinson of Indiana.

Robinson was closely tied up with the Ku Klux Klan. Through Robinson and through other politicians reached with the cry "Save America," he got a long list of prominent sponsors and gradually increased it until now it reads like a _Who's Who_ of reactionary industrialists and innocent politicians. With letters of introduction from Senator Robinson, Steele's high pressure gang set out to collect in the name of patriotism.

The procedure was simple. Salesmen presented their letters of introduction to the mayor of a city. The mayor was impressed with the high "patriotic" motives and especially with the imposing list of names sponsoring the efforts. The mayor introduced the high-pressure fellows to other people--and the milking began.

Let me ill.u.s.trate a little more specifically:

On March 4, 1936, Steele sent two of his ablest dollar-pullers, Messrs. Fahr and Hamilton, into the Oklahoma oil fields where the industrialists would like to see a minimum of 200 per cent Americanism instilled in the public mind. Messrs. Fahr and Hamilton had letters of introduction to Mayor T.A. Penny of Tulsa, Okla. When the salesmen approached the Mayor, they had not only the long and imposing list of names on the letterhead but additional letters of introduction from ex-Governor Curley of Ma.s.s., ex-Senator Robinson of Indiana and Congressman Martin Dies of Texas. The drummers wanted the Mayor to introduce them to the Chairman of the Tulsa Board of Education who could help them get funds in Tulsa and elsewhere. The funds were to be used to place the "patriotic" magazine in the public school system in order "to preserve this country against subversive activities, particularly Communism."

It was a neat circulation-getting stunt, performed without Fahr and Hamilton telling what percentage of the take they got.

The Mayor gave the letters of introduction. With these letters and the excellent contacts thus established, they started down the sucker list from W.G. Skelly, head of the Skelly Oil Co., Tulsa to Waite Phillips of the Phillips Petroleum Co.

Like his former colleague Harry A. Jung, Steele works on the big industrialists by whispering confidentially that he has sources of information about which he can't talk much but which make it possible for him to keep the industrialists informed about "subversive radicals." For a reasonable price and perhaps a contribution to a worthy cause, Steele would supply the industrialist with "confidential information for members only" which would keep him up to date about the radicals threatening America. The "confidential information" must not be shown to anybody else. Extreme caution is necessary lest the radicals find out about the "information service." With all this hoc.u.m, secrecy and whispering, the industrialist becomes a member at so much per not realizing that the information thus peddled can be got for three cents a day--five cents on Sundays--by buying the _Daily Worker_. It's just one of the little patriotic rackets the boys have cooked up.

Working closely with Steele is James A. True of the James True a.s.sociates, another precious racketeer who stepped from patrioteering into efforts to organize in conjunction with n.a.z.i agents a secret armed force in the United States. With True in this effort to establish a Cagoulard organization in this country, were some of the most active n.a.z.i agents and patrioteers.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Not to be confused with Prof. Paul H. Douglas of the University of Chicago, a highly reputable scholar and a stanch defender of democracy.

[19] Father Coughlin was finally reprimanded by the Vatican for his unpriestly attacks upon the President.

X

_Underground Armies in America_

Early in 1938 native Americans, working with n.a.z.i agents, completed plans to organize a secret army along the general lines of the Cagoulards in France. The decision was made after the liaison man between n.a.z.i agents here and plotters for the secret army met with Fritz Kuhn and Signor Giuseppe Cosmelli, Counselor to the Italian Emba.s.sy in Was.h.i.+ngton.

The liaison man is Henry D. Allen, who moved from San Diego to 2860 Nina St., Pasadena, Calif. Allen, the reader may recollect, helped Schwinn organize the Mexican Gold s.h.i.+rts which unsuccessfully attempted to seize the Mexican Government. Allen is still active in a plot to overthrow the Cardenas Government, working at the moment with Gen. Ramon F. Iturbe, a member of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, with Gen. Yocupicio who is smuggling arms as part of a plan to rebel, and with Pablo L. Delgado who took over the fascist Gold s.h.i.+rt work under a different name after Rodriguez was exiled when his attempt to march on the Government failed.

To understand the feverish activities of foreign agents and native Americans working with foreign agents, one must remember that when the World War broke out in 1914, Germany was caught with only small espionage and sabotage organizations in the United States. It cost the German War Office large sums of money to build them under difficult and dangerous conditions. The n.a.z.is do not intend to be caught the same way in the event a war finds the United States on the enemy side or, if neutral, supplying arms and materials to the enemy.

The first step to prevent such a development is to build an enormous propaganda machine and to draw into it as many native Americans as possible. Because of the future potentialities of natives as spies and _saboteurs_, the n.a.z.i leaders take extraordinary precautions to safeguard their ident.i.ties. Should the United States become involved in a war with fascist powers, especially Germany, the German members of the Bund can be watched and, if necessary, interned; but native Americans not known as Bund members can move about freely, hence the care to prevent their ident.i.ties from becoming known. Schwinn, for instance, keeps a regular list of the German-American Bund members at the _Deutsches Haus_ in Los Angeles. The native American members, however, are not listed. The names are kept in code and only Schwinn knows the code numbers.

Military considerations thus lead the n.a.z.i General Staff to maintain this propaganda in the United States, despite the knowledge n.a.z.i leaders in Germany have that its activities and distasteful propaganda here are seriously hampering German-American commercial relations.

The propaganda machine is already functioning as the German-American _Volksbund_. The second step, as was demonstrated in France with the Cagoulards and in Spain with Franco's Fifth Column, is to organize secret armies capable of starting sporadic outbreaks tantamount to civil war--a procedure which would naturally deflect the country's energies in war time.

This second step was taken after careful study, and Henry D. Allen was chosen as the liaison man between those maneuvering the plot.

The private letters exchanged between Allen and his fellow conspirators are now in my possession. Some of the letters exchanged were signed with the writers' real names and some with code names.

Allen's code name, for instance, is "Rosenthal."

On April 13, 1938, he wrote to a "G.D." (of whom more shortly) as follows:

Have just sent Delgado into Sonora incognito. This move has resulted from a four-party conference held in Yuma a few days ago. This party was composed of Urbalejo, chief of the Yaqui nation, Joe Mattus, his trusted lieutenant, Delgado and myself.

Yocupicio has completely come over to our side, which you can perceive from the outcome of the little tryout in Aqua Prieta a few weeks ago. Delgado has arrived safely at Bocatete, and will get the boys in that part of the country pretty active....

Inasmuch as I am his legal and properly accredited representative in the United States, you may rest a.s.sured that there will be no doubt as to the objectives of this movement south of the Rio Grande.

I have received three letters from General Iturbe in which he tells me that they are taking the Spanish copies of the Protocols which K. sent me, and making 5,000 copies of same. In each letter he begs me to set a time and date for meeting him at Guadalajara for the purpose of effecting the necessary plans for active campaigning with Delgado. I will arrange all of this as soon as you consider it expedient....

ROSENTHAL.

Two days later (April 15, 1938) he wrote from Fresno, Calif. under his own name to F.W. Clark, 919- S. Yakima Ave., Tacoma, Wash. The letter reads in part:

Relative to the Gold s.h.i.+rts of Mexico, please be advised that we found it necessary to reorganize this group in August, 1937. The activist elements have proceeded and are now carrying on under the name of the Mexican Nationalist Movement of which Pablo L.

Delgado is the nominal head. I am the legal and personal representative of Delgado in the movement in the United States.

So much for his current activities to establish fascism to the south of us.

Most Americans who fall for n.a.z.i propaganda do not suspect that they are being played for suckers by shrewd manipulators pulling the strings in Berlin, and probably not one of the many reputable and sincerely patriotic Americans who fell for Allen's "patriotic"

appeals suspects his activities against the country he so zealously wants to "save."

Some shrewd observer once remarked that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Whenever I come across an "ultra-patriot" with foam dripping from his mouth while he beats his chest with loud cries about his own honesty and the crookedness of those running the country, I suspect a phony. As a rule, I look for the criminal record of a man who's yelling "Chase out the crooks" and "Let's have honest government," and all too often I find one. Henry D. Allen, _alias_ H.O. Moffet, _alias_ Howard Leighton Allen, _alias_ Rosenthal, etc., ex-inmate of San Quentin and Folsom prisons, is no exception; his criminal record extends over a period of twenty-nine years.

Let me give the record before I start quoting from his letters, chiefly for the benefit of those sincere and loyal Americans who thought his Swastika-inspired activities represented honest convictions.

May 17, 1910: Arrested in Los Angeles charged with uttering fict.i.tious checks. In simple language this means just a little bit of forgery.

Los Angeles Police Department file, No. 7613.

June 10, 1910: Sentenced to three years imprisonment; sentence suspended upon tearful a.s.surances of good behavior.

May 12, 1912: Picked up in Philadelphia charged with being a fugitive; brought back to Los Angeles.

July 1, 1912: Committed to San Quentin. Guest No. 25835.

April 21, 1915: Committed to Folsom from Santa Barbara on a forgery charge. Guest No. 9542.

Feb. 1, 1919: Arrested in Los Angeles County charged with suspicion of a felony. Los Angeles County No. 14554.

June 31, 1924: Arrested in San Francisco, charged with uttering fict.i.tious checks. No. 35570.

Oct. 5, 1925: Los Angeles Police Department issued notice that Allen was wanted for uttering fict.i.tious checks. Bulletin No. 233.

Allen is apparently a prolific writer--of bad checks and of long reports about his activities to his superiors.

Two of Allen's close friends are also native Americans: C.F. Ingalls of 2702 Bush St., San Francisco and George Deatherage (the G.D.

mentioned earlier). Deatherage now lives and operates out of St.

Albans, W. Va. He organized the American Nationalist Confederation which used to have its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Both these gentlemen also work with Schwinn.