 Section 1 of Preliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Groups. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Preliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Groups. Prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the U.S. Congress. Communism's present threat to the very survival of the United States and the rest of the free world has placed heavy burdens on the defenders of human freedom and dignity. The Committee on Un-American Activities is concerned to observe that this burden is being aggravated by certain individuals and organizations unscrupulously exploiting the menace of Communism to promote other activities equally subversive and equally un-American. Such activities would destroy the very foundation work of the American Republic if permitted to operate unnoticed or unchallenged. Committee investigations disclose that this organized activity falls into two patterns. One, the Neofascist organization which openly espouses a fascist regime for the United States. And two, the organized hate group which masquerades as a defender of our Republican form of government yet conducts hate campaigns against racial and religious minorities in the infamous tradition of the fascist dictatorships. Under Public Law 601, from the 79th Congress, the Committee is instructed to investigate and report on the extent, character and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States and specifically the diffusion of subversive and un-American propaganda which attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution. Advocates of both fascism and Communism are therefore of grave concern to the Committee. Both totalitarian doctrines are basically incompatible with the principle of our Republic. Both seek to destroy our constitutional government and supplant it with a godless dictatorship in which the individual is deprived of his rights and liberties to become an abject slave of the state. Both derive strength by dividing their opposition. Communism choosing to set class against class while fascism incites racial and religious discord. Despite the similarities between Communism and Fascism, so dramatically demonstrated to the world during the infamous Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939-41, their propaganda to the effect that each is the foremost opponent of the other and undoubtedly a major contributor to whatever support each has been able to muster in our population. The special Committee on American Activities warned in 1940 that the danger to American democracy lay not so much in a possible frontal attack by fascists and communists in our midst, as in the much greater chance that each extreme totalitarian group seeking by deception to advance its own cause, impaired its ranks, will succeed in convincing a really substantial number of people that their only defense against violence from the opposite extreme is to accept the violence of the one they find least objectionable. This Committee has agreed that subversion cannot be combated by subversion. Those who would support the extreme right today do as great a violence to our national institutions as do those on the extreme left. Furthermore, the appearance of neo-fascist organizations and methods in the post-war period serve only to impede the intelligent, united effort necessary in the current life-and-death struggle with Communism. The Committee does not claim to have made an exhaustive investigation into all demagogic groups in the United States now exploiting religious and racial hatred. The Committee's preliminary studies show, however, that such groups employ the Hitlerian technique of the big lie in their platforms in literature. Their vicious falsehoods are often clothed in seeming discussions of grave issues such as the Communist menace. The hate group appeals to the unwary by a cynical use of concepts, having a deep emotional appeal to the majority of decent citizens, love of God, country, home, or intipathy to Communism. Amid protestations of patriotism and religious devotion, these groups propagate hoaxes and smears aimed at setting creed against creed and race against race. They use the divisive tactics of the Communists whom they allegedly deplore. Depending on the type of audience to be reached, this propaganda is couched in language ranging from violent vituperation to subtle innuendos. The Committee believes that in its preliminary report, the Congress and the American public might best be alerted to this demagogic menace by the selection of two specific groups. One is an avowed neo-fascist organization, and the other is an allegedly patriotic organization which can best be characterized as a hate group. They represent the major methods of approach used today by the exploiters of racial and religious bigotry. Note, the Committee uses the word fascism to describe the philosophy and movement as a whole and not in the narrower sense, which refers to the actual operation of fascist regimes such as Nazi Germany or fascist Italy. The adjective fascist can be applied to any organization or individual espousing the fascist philosophy. However, the Committee will also use the term neo-fascist as a convenient method of designating organizations and individuals whose expousal of fascism is recent in nature, i.e. occurring after the military defeat of the Axis aggressors in World War II. And of Section 1. Section 2 of preliminary report on neo-fascist and hate groups prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the U.S. Congress. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Fascist Problem in the Past The greatest activity by un-American propagandists of the extreme right occurred in the United States in the late 1930s under the inspiration and often with the direct aid of fascist and Nazi regimes abroad. The first investigation conducted by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities after its creation in 1938 dealt with the German-American Boon. The Special Committee reported that the Boon, which claimed 25,000 members in this country, including 5,000 storm troops, operated in fact as an agent of a foreign power. Special Committee investigations also revealed the existence of hundreds of other fascist organizations ranging from groups openly advocating totalitarianism of the Hitler, Mussolini or imperialist Japanese variety to groups posing as patriotic Americans but invariably marked by anti-racial and pro-Nazi characteristics. All of these organizations exploit racial and religious hatreds to enlist members and gain financial support. They frequently cooperate with each other in exchanging speakers and literature. Efforts at closer coordination failed, however, due to rivalry between the group's petty sure-hers in jealousy over sources of income. It was discovered that many of the organizations were led by racketeers who operated primarily for the purpose of reaping financial profit from racial and religious hate propaganda. The Special Committee condemned such hate propaganda as un-American per se and as being particularly vicious in a period when it was a favorite weapon of the Axis powers. Unrelenting investigation and exposure, followed by legal prosecution prior to and during World War II, defeated the effort to organize fascism in the United States. The military defeat of the Axis wiped out any remaining hopes of the fascists. Even the hate-peddling racketeers were largely silenced in the face of an aroused public opinion. End of Section 2. Section 3 of Preliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Groups. Prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the U.S. Congress. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Neofascism in the United States. National Renaissance Party. The reappearance of the avowedly fascist organization on the American scene was marked by the formation in January 1949 of the National Renaissance Party, headed by young fanatic James H. Madol of Beacon, New York. The party's official organ, four-page monthly National Renaissance Bulletin, is frankly billed as the only fascist publication in America. What Hitler accomplished in Europe, the National Renaissance Party, shall yet accomplish in America, is Madol's fatuous boast in the issue of his bulletin dated May 1953. National Renaissance Party activities center on the dissemination of fascist propaganda through the bulletin, other printed literature, and through street corner oratory. The bulletin has been published in Beacon, New York, where Madol's home at 224 East Main Street has served as a national headquarters of the organization until the spring of 1954. At that time, Madol took up residence at 10 West 90th Street, New York City, and announced the new National Headquarters address as Box 238 208 East 86th Street, New York City. Street meetings have long been held at the corner of 86th Street and York Avenue in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. There, in seasonable weather, Madol may be seen haranguing some two dozen followers with a mixture of praises for Hitler and Mussolini and the tupperation against minority groups. Hecklers at times, while the audience to almost a hundred persons and the meeting occasionally ends in a stone throwing bout. A serial comic, yet repugnant feature of this neo-fascist organization is its attempt to maintain a uniform elite guard in the Nazi style. Madol is at times accompanied by a handful of young fanatics wearing dark caps and trousers and brassards on which a lightning bolt replaces the swastika. The elite guard takes an oath of unconditional obedience to the NRP leaders, whom it allegedly serves as honor guard as well as protector. The guard admittedly held secret meetings in New York City on Thursday evenings during 1953 under the joint command of Matt Cole Jr. and Hans Schmidt. Nature of Propaganda The program and propaganda of the National Renaissance Party is virtually borrowed wholesale from the fascist and Nazi dictators. Its nine-point program advocates abolition of parliamentary government in the United States in favor of government by a trained elite, establishment of a fascist corporate economy, encouragement of racial pride, preservation of the white airing and race by gradual deportation of the Puerto Ricans, Negroes, Jews, and Asiatics, and the denial to Jewish people of citizenship, professional and political posts, and the right of intermarriage. NRP propaganda contains extensive rehashes of Hitler's speeches, typical or national Renaissance bulletin articles. Adolf Hitler explains Nazi anti-Semitism, appearing in the February 1953 issue, and Adolf Hitler, the George Washington of Europe, which appeared in the issue of May 1953. NRP's own leaders imitate the Hitler line. Eustich Mullins, who has joined Madol in his street corner propagandizing, is the contributor of an article entitled Adolf Hitler and Appreciation in the Bulletin of October 1952. John M. Lundorf, Brooklyn chairman of the NRP, extolled the features of the fascist corporate state in the April 1952 bulletin and asked the youth of America to choose between parliamentary democracy with its empty promises and discord, or the clear, brave and youthful fascist principles outlined here. Chief source of propaganda for the NRP, however, is Frederick Charles F. Weiss of Middletown, New York, who is portrayed as a graduate of the University of Heidelberg and the Sorbonne. His prolific writings in the bulletin and in separate leaflets mainly racist diatribes. The NRP has also circulated literature received from Einar Aberg of Norvigen, Sweden. For example, an anti-Semitic pamphlet by Aberg entitled The War Criminals was distributed in this country under the NRP stamp. An overseas office is maintained by the NRP under the direction of Mana Truhil of 54 Audubon Avenue, New York City. Madole's group offers its fascist program as the antidote to communism. The falsity of its anti-communist role is immediately exposed by NRP's insistence that a communist is synonymous with Jew. The NRP not only violates our constitutional principles by making this minority its target, it also frequently supports the position of the very communist it allegedly opposes. For example, the NRP accuses the United States government, whether under Democratic or Republican control, seeking to promote a new world war to carry out the economic and political ambitions of a small coterie of international Wall Street bankers. This attack is identical with the propaganda line of the Communist Party, despite the different motives behind communist and fascist attempts to disaffect Americans from their government. In the leaflet entitled Asiatic Barbarism vs. Western Civilization, Madole proclaimed that only the superbly efficient totalitarian economic systems of fascist, national, socialist, and communist regimes are adaptable to the strain of total war as practiced in the 20th century. The spirit of democracy is a glorification of weakness and cowardly conduct. It glorifies the coward instead of the fighter. It raises feeble weaklings to leadership rather than a trained, iron-hard, and youthful elite. At the time of the Prague trials in 1952 and other anti-Semitic purges behind the iron curtain, the NRP defended the action of the Soviet leadership and implied that the example should be followed in Europe and America. Such an appeal to violence exposes the most vicious and dangerous aspect of the National Renaissance Party. In its printed literature, NRP has attempted to disguise such appeals, although the implications are clear in headlines such as the following. In Russia, they execute them, the Prague in Berryhill Way. In USA, they promote them the Dexter White Way. In his speeches, however, Madole has discarded caution on a number of occasions and boldly advocated six inches of steel for America's Jewish minority. NRP activities and propaganda are clearly subversive and un-American. The Committee is further of the opinion that this neo-fascist organization, by its advocacy of force and violence, contravenes the Smith Act. The Committee urges the Department of Justice to consider taking immediate steps to convene a federal grand jury for the purpose of prosecuting the leaders of the National Renaissance Party under the Act. Extent of NRP operations The National Renaissance Party has frequently appealed for support from crackpot elements, which were active in Bund and other fascist activities in the 1930s. Madole stated on one occasion that the NRP was formed to carry on the work of the Christian Front. The Christian Front had cooperated with the German-American Bund in pre-Pearl Harbor days and Bund leader Fritz Kuhn had declared the ideas of the two organizations were 100% in agreement. Daniel Kurt, self-proclaimed leader of the Christian Front in Queens, New York in 1939 became an active worker in the National Renaissance Party. Another veteran propagandist, Kurt Mirtig, became New York City chairman of the NRP. And his office at 317 East 54th Street, New York City, served as the NRP city headquarters. From the same office, Mirtig has operated as chairman of two of his own organizations, the Citizens Protective League and the German-American Republican League of Greater New York. Mirtig's letterhead state-to-leagues were formed in 1936. The Attorney General cited both leagues as fascist organizations in 1948. Mirtig himself served a six-month workhouse term in 1946 on unlawful assembly charges growing out of his participation in a Christian Front rally in Queens, New York in 1945. In the summer of 1953, the NRP announced plans drawn a candidate for Congress from the Yorkville District. Nothing further was heard of the scheme, however. The would-be candidate was H.K. Thompson, Jr., who was identified in the National Renaissance Bulletin as a former registered agent for Major General Otto Rehmer's Socialist Right Party, a neo-Nazi group in West Germany now banned by the German government. The NRP had previously publicized Thompson as the national director of a newly formed American Committee for the Advancement of Western Culture. James Maddow, Kurt Mirtig, Frederick Charles F. Weiss, and other officers and members of the NRP also were represented on this committee, which had the grandiose role of serving as a high-policy planning group for the coordination of racial, nationalist activities in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Last year, the NRP tried to extend its activities into other sections of the country. A guest speaker at one of the NRP meetings in Yorkville on June 26, 1953 was one, James R. White, who was billed as an organizer from Los Angeles. Maddow claimed that White had already organized a full uniform group in his city and distributed thousands of copies of national Renaissance bulletins. Committee inquiries disclose that James White's activities in Los Angeles have been confined to a small group and that no effective efforts in organizing the NRP in that city have materialized. A youth in his early 20s, White was the publisher of his own newsletter, Reason, in 1952. Committee information shows that several years prior to his involvement in neo-Fascist activities, White had been a member of the Spartacus Club of the American Youth for Democracy, a front organization of the Communist Party. It might be noted at this point that Manna Truhill, previously mentioned as head of the NRP Overseas Bureau, has admitted having attended the Communist-operated Jefferson School of Social Sciences in New York. This is another illustration of the common ground often reached by fascists on the extreme right and communists on the extreme left. Maddow announced in his June 1953 bulletin that a local NRP headquarters had also been set up at 2627 Hale Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky, under the leadership of J. W. Mitchell, a high school student. Subsequent inquiry by the committee revealed that the branch in Louisville never attained any significant success that it has since been dissolved. In December 1953, the party's bulletin stated that an NRP branch was being formed in Pennsylvania under the direction of E. R. Barron and Frederick Paulson, and that another branch was being created in New Jersey by Lawrence Sestito. The numerical strength of an organization such as the NRP is difficult to measure. Such fanatics exaggerate their influence and the committee would do no service in overestimating the importance of an element which will undoubtedly take pride in being publicized as a menace. Membership of the NRP has been estimated at anywhere from 200 to 700 persons. All indications point to a diminished following in 1954. The NRP charges a nominal $1 membership fee, and its monthly bulletin, which has a $2 yearly subscription rate, is often distributed gratis. The NRP has stated it held 22 street meetings in 1952 and regular Friday meetings during the seasonable weather in 1953, its most active year. The combined total of indoor and outdoor meetings of the NRP in 1952-53 has been estimated at 70. A certain decline in the organization's activities was evidence in 1954. Investigation reveals that the new headquarters address adopted by the NRP early this year is the address of a commercial firm. It is apparent that the NRP is largely a nomadic group meeting in hotels and private homes at times under the cover of another name and using privately operated mailboxes as mailing addresses, its bulletins being issued sporadically and in mimeographed rather than in its usual printed form. The committee is encouraged by the relatively restricted nature of the National Renaissance Party influence. The committee believes, however, that such organizations have no place in the American scene and that the full force of exposure and prosecution must be employed to eradicate them. End of section 3. Section 4 of Pre-Eliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Groups prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the U.S. Congress. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Hate Group. Common Sense. Growth of the Hate Group in recent years is exemplified by the publishing endeavors of Condé J. McGinley and his son C.J. McGinley in Union, New Jersey. The McGinley Senior and Junior operate as the Christian Educational Association for the purpose of publishing a semi-monthly paper, Common Sense, as well as a mass of individual printed matter. Common Sense represents itself as the nation's anti-communist paper. Subscriptions are sought from loyal and patriotic Americans in order to help save our republic. Such patriotic claims provide poor disguise, however, for some of the most vitriolic hate propaganda ever to come to the attention of the committee. Common Sense defines Communism as Judaism and devotes its pages almost exclusively to attacks on the Jewish and to a lesser extent the Negro minorities in our nation. Sympathy for the former Nazi regime in Germany also is injected into this propaganda, which is hardly distinguishable from that of the National Renaissance Party, except for the latter's open appeal for a fascist government in the United States. Despite its patriotic claims, Common Sense has in fact employed and or carried the writings of a number of individuals associated with the National Renaissance Party. Through the columns of Common Sense and innumerable booklets printed and offered for sale, the McGinleys appear to serve as a clearinghouse for hate propagandists throughout the country. Among these are many of the native fascists and hate racketeers who were active in the 1930s. In contrast to the limited appeal of the openly fascist National Renaissance Party, the McGinley Enterprise appears to be a shrewd and going business. The Organization of Common Sense. Conde J. McGinley Sr. began editing a miniature weekly paper in Newark, New Jersey in 1946 under the various titles of Think, The Think and Think Weekly. In June 1947, the paper was issued under the name Common Sense, and in November 1947 it was expanded to its present tabloid size and the headquarters transferred from Newark to Union, New Jersey. It became a semi-monthly publication in 1948. McGinley remained the sole owner and publisher until earlier this year when the so-called Christian Educational Association was created to serve as owner and publisher. Officers of the new association are Conde J. McGinley Sr., President, Conde J. McGinley Jr., Secretary and Treasurer, and Alex Jeffy-Mow, Vice President. Jeffy-Mow is employed by the McGinleys in a subordinate capacity. Only the McGinleys are authorized to handle association funds. Headquarters of the newspaper and its publishing association are located in a 14-room stone building at 530 Chestnut Street in Union, New Jersey. The building is owned by Ms. Catherine Littig of Newark, New Jersey, who has worked for Common Sense on a voluntary basis, almost from the inception of the publication. The building also houses the press which prints Common Sense and other hate literature sold through Common Sense. This mechanical equipment is owned by the Union Patriotic Press, which gives the Chestnut Street building as its headquarters. A corporation resolution of the Union Patriotic Press lists its officers as President Charles Kane of Tampa, Florida, Secretary John J. Reynolds, and Treasurer Edward J. Byrne, Heitstown, New Jersey, Farmer. Byrne is known to have been a volunteer worker in the Common Sense Enterprise. Both Byrne and Reynolds have attended rallies held by McGinley for his followers. Kane has also been in attendance prior to his removal to Florida. McGinley was forced to rely on other presses prior to 1953, and he admittedly encountered difficulties in assuring continuous printing of his propaganda. After Common Sense moved into its headquarters on Chestnut Street in the spring of 1953, an addition was built for the press later acquired by the Union Patriotic Press. McGinley announced to his readers that the press had been set up for our use and it would ensure prompt service in the future. Technically, however, McGinley leases the press from the Union Patriotic Press for a $75 monthly rental. Nature of Propaganda. During 1946 and 1947 McGinley's allegedly anti-communist publication gave little indication of its subsequent level of propaganda. At the outset, its columns carried a certain amount of factual information on communism. Beginning in 1948, however, Common Sense became increasingly outspoken in its statements of a pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic nature, who was soon almost exclusively a vehicle for the exploitation of ignorance, prejudice, and fear. The paper devoted considerable space in 1948 to the support of the late Robert H. Best, American newsman who was convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in that year as a result of his broadcast for the Nazis in World War II. A eulogy of Best appearing in Common Sense for December 15, 1952 described him as a patriot, Paul Revere, and true Christian American. An arrogant letter written by Hermann Gehring to Winston Churchill just before the Nazi leader poisoned himself appeared in Common Sense for July 1st, 1950. An editorial note recommended that the letter be read carefully by members of Congress and all others who are shaping the destiny of America. Common Sense adopted the National Renaissance Party Line, which alleges the United States government is plotting a New World War. Now that the matchless German army is destroyed, Germany laid in ruins in Europe helpless, Eisenhower asked the German people to help him prepare for another war, purporting to be a war against communism, while he protects and coddles in Washington, the same people who prevent it Germany from wiping out communism. This is to be a war against the Russian people, not communism. In this statement McGinley's anti-communist and patriotic publication apparently is not averse to serving the communist propaganda cause. Indeed McGinley has even printed such statements as the following, which he identified as being from a European correspondent. If your paper is to continue its excellent work of opposing the policy of the Jew, please do not fight Russia also, for we in Europe look upon it as the only hope to prevent Jewish world domination by means of its stupid, willing, technically clever American slaves, the destroyers of Europe's cities, the hate-monkers of the vile occupation, and the hangmen of Nuremberg. Antisemitism is the chief stock and trade of common sense, which now distortedly defines communism as a false face for Judaism. Typical of headlines which appear in the publication are Jewish leaders are crazy for power, Zionists threaten Russia with war, Brotherhood, Jew trap for Christianity, and invisible government rules both parties, Adlai and Ike, Marxists, Stooges. Articles in common sense have even attacked water fluoridation as a red plot by the invisible rulers aimed at mass destruction of the American people. The violent nature of this propaganda is illustrated by an article written by George Thomas Adams in the issue of common sense for December 1st, 1952, in the course of a discussion of anti-Semitic pogroms in communist countries, Adams stated, if the Russian people wish to throw off their Jewish yoke, what right have we to criticize them? We should be doing the same. Khande McGinley, Sr., uses the oblique method in an article in the issue dated June 15th, 1952. The German government, facing the same situation as the United States does today, put these red Jews in concentration camps. A survey of common sense propaganda fails to reveal any outright advocacy of a fascist government for the United States. The solution customarily offered by Khande McGinley Sr. to save America is an increase in the circulation of common sense. It is apparent that this publication represents a modern example of the racketeers who made a business out of un-American hate propaganda during the 1930s. Cooperation with other propagandists. Information in the possession of the committee reveals a significant interchangeability of propagandists working for the allegedly patriotic common sense and the avowedly fascist National Renaissance Party. A good example is provided by Eustace Mullins, who frankly eulogizes Hitler in the pages of the National Renaissance Party's bulletin and who has been observed at an NRP street session in New York City last year. Articles written by Mullins had been appearing in common sense since at least September 1951 and last year he became a writer on the staff of common sense. W. Henry McFarland Jr. is another individual who has been simultaneously active in both the National Renaissance Party and common sense. A resident of Philadelphia, McFarland in 1948, had organized a Nationalist Action League which was promptly cited as a fascist organization by the United States Attorney General. In 1949 McFarland spoke at a number of meetings of the National Renaissance Party in New York. He presided at a branch meeting of the NRP held in Philadelphia in October 1949. Meanwhile his name also appeared as associate editor of common sense in the issues which appeared during July and August of 1949. At that time Conde McGinley Sr. was planning to combine forces with McFarland and his site at Nationalist Action League and with another organization, the Loyal American Group, headed by William J. O'Brien. The scheme, as announced in common sense, called for McGinley's publication to serve as official organ of the Nationalist Action League with O'Brien disbanding his group to serve as national secretary of the new combination. The plan fell through, however, and McGinley resumed sole editorship of common sense. O'Brien, a printer from Montclair, New Jersey was later taken on the staff of common sense. The interlocking of common sense in the National Renaissance Party is further demonstrated by the fact that common sense has carried articles by Frederick Charles F. Weiss, chief propagandist for the NRP, and by Kurt Murtig, New York City chairman of the NRP. Common sense is also a channel for hate propaganda being issued by numerous other individuals and organizations gathered throughout the country. The literature of these fellow hate-mongers is disseminated either through reprints in the columns of common sense or in booklets published and sold by common sense. One of the most frequently reprinted authors is Robert H. Williams of Santa Ana, California, who issues the Williams Intelligence Summary, a monthly newsletter. Common sense also sells his writings in pamphlet form. Williams advertises himself as the possessor of vast intelligence information, which he gained as a member of Army Intelligence during World War II. The deception is evident from the fact that Williams intelligence duty comprised less than a year as an administrative officer for the intelligence sector of a bomber wing. In this position, he would have received no intelligence information dealing with communist conspiracy. His assignment to the military intelligence was merely in the reserve, from which commission he was relieved by official action of the Army, effective December 1st, 1950. Condi McGinley Sr. has maintained a particularly cooperative relationship with two disseminators of anti-Semitic literature from Chicago, Mrs. Elizabeth Dillon and Mrs. Lyral Clark Van Heinen. Mrs. Dillon's writings have been circulating since the 1930s. Mrs. Van Heinen is the head of an organization known as We the Mothers, Mobilized for America and Incorporated, and is editor of the publication Woman's Voice. Messages have been sent to members of Congress over the joint signatures of Mrs. Dillon, Mrs. Van Heinen, and McGinley. Mrs. Dillon is a constant source of violent articles for common sense, which prints them under such headlines as Brotherhood, Jew Trap for Christianity, and World Crucifixion in the Master Race. Mrs. Dillon has also authored appeals in common sense for support of the propaganda activities of McGinley and Mrs. Van Heinen. McGinley, in turn, has recommended Mrs. Dillon's bulletins to his readers and has offered for sale reprints of her book, The Plot Against Christianity. His also appealed for financial contributions for Mrs. Van Heinen and occasionally carried in common sense statements either credited to her or to her publication, Woman's Voice. A number of individuals notorious for their efforts creating nationwide fascist organization in the United States in the 1930s are also propagandizing again through common sense. McGinley has printed articles and letters from General George Van Horn Mosley, retired Colonel Eugene N. Sanctuary and Charles B. Hudson. He has advertised for sale a new book by Robert Edward Edmondson. The Special Committee on Un-American Activities reported in 1940 that General Mosley was being seriously considered as a national leader of an attempted union of fascist and hate groups in the United States until the plans were exposed and Mosley was called as a witness before the committee. The Special Committee named Sanctuary Hudson and Edmondson as being among the individuals who took part in this unsuccessful attempt to create a united fascist movement. Preliminary committee investigations have thus far failed to reveal any indication that present day fascists and hate groups are seeking national organizational unity. The cooperative efforts of the hate groups, however, have actually extended to the point of national conventions. Common Sense reported the proceedings of one such convention held in Chicago July 4th through 6th, 1952. Condé McGinley Sr. and William J. O'Brien spoke as representatives of Common Sense at this gathering, which was referred to by McGinley as an annual convention of nationalists. Mrs. Lyral Clark Van Heining served as moderator of the convention, which was chaired by one George Foster. The 200 delegates from all sections of the country heard speeches and adopted resolutions following the lines of the propaganda which they issue. The most significant statement was in a speech by O'Brien of Common Sense. He urged the delegates to back each other to the limit whenever any one of them is under attack. Circulation and Finances Information available to the Committee on the Circulation and Financial Status of Common Sense indicates that Condé McGinley has developed a shrewd and flourishing business out of hate propaganda. Common Sense reported in October 1948 that the number of copies which were distributed to paid subscribers during the preceding 12-months average, 7,072. In October 1949, the average paid subscriptions were reported at 9,660. And by October 1950, the figure had jumped to 21,255. The Committee has not observed any further publication of subscription figures in Common Sense since then. However, figures filed for the publication with the United States Postal Authorities show that an average of 15,796 copies of Common Sense were being distributed through second-class mail to paid subscribers during the 6-month period from March 15 to September 15, 1954. These figures do not reflect the thousands of copies of Common Sense which are sold by other means or distributed gratis. For example, McGinley has been known to make bulk deliveries and issue it to various individuals for remailing or distribution in other ways. McGinley asserted that he had 120,000 readers in 1952. Committee investigation indicated that the circulation of Common Sense tops the 100,000 mark for certain issues, but averages approximately 50,000 copies. The number of free copies averages at least 30,000. Subscriptions to Common Sense sell for $1 a year and provide a minimum of $15,000 annually based on second-class mailing alone. On the side sale of books and pamphlets brings in an estimated maximum of $1,000 a year. However, the publication also receives financial contributions, the exact amount of which has not been ascertained. McGinley solicits contributions in urgent messages printed in Common Sense as well as through special fundraising letters. A typical letter sent out by McGinley in the spring of this year stated that due to a low subscription rate and lack of advertising revenue, we must depend on real patriots to subsidize us in keeping with their ability. McGinley invariably represents himself in these appeals as a penniless patriot who has used up his life savings of $15,000 on Common Sense, yet continues to work full-time without salary or profit in order to save his country. When I am reminded of my duty and it is not for myself, he has stated, I take courage to warn you that if you do not get into this work personally and actively or give money quickly to those who are active, the hidden invisible government plot will have proceeded so far that dictators will be giving orders. McGinley adds this fly reminder that money orders can be sent under fictitious names. Such broad fund appeals appear with irregularity. They usually occur when McGinley requires large sums for a special project, such as the remodeling of his new headquarters building. Constant solicitation seemed to be unnecessary as a result of very substantial financial support rendered McGinley by a few well-to-do patrons. One of the financial angels behind Condé McGinley has been Benjamin Harrison Friedman, a retired toilet goods manufacturer of 960 Park Avenue, New York City. Friedman estimated that he had spent $15,000 on Common Sense by December 1950, according to testimony he gave on December 12 of that year before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a propaganda sheet published by Friedman in New York on January 2, 1951. He detailed his support of McGinley in this way. In 1948 Friedman met McGinley. They found that they had much in common. Friedman became interested in Common Sense as one of the most aggressive organizations fighting Marxism, Communism, to which Friedman had lent financial assistance. Since 1948 Friedman has given unsparingly of his time and his efforts to increase the circulation of Common Sense and has advanced a small fortune for that purpose. Within the past two months alone Friedman has advanced to and or for Common Sense in excess of $7,000. Common Sense was rapidly becoming an important factor in the nationwide fight against the worldwide campaign of the Marxists, Communists for World Conquest. Friedman advanced funds to McGinley to cover the cost of printing and mailing 50,000 copies of Common Sense, number 126. In addition to his financial contributions Friedman is a prominent figure at various meetings held for supporters of Common Sense. He spoke as a noted authority on Zionism at a meeting held as recently as November 14 at Common Sense headquarters in Union, New Jersey. Common Sense advertised the meeting as a pro-American rally sponsored by Americans Against Communism, an organization name occasionally used by McGinley. McGinley himself has not publicized such major financial support for fear of discouraging his smaller contributors. However, rumors that Friedman and others have been providing substantial aid to Common Sense have become widespread enough to force a recent public statement from McGinley. In a fundraising letter sent out in the fall of 1954 McGinley stated, I have learned recently that some people are under the impression that Mr. Ben Friedman and a prominent manufacturer are backing us. McGinley acknowledged in the letter that Friedman's assistance was a help in making Common Sense the most widely read factual publication on Marxism and that Friedman today continues to give all his time and is a tower of information. McGinley attempted to persuade his readers that nevertheless for some time Mr. Friedman has not been in a position to be of material financial assistance to us. With respect to the unidentified manufacturer McGinley also insisted that the contributions have been nominal although very helpful. The thriving nature of the Common Sense enterprise is attested to but McGinley himself on numerous occasions he cannot avoid boasting of his accomplishments even in the course of his urgent requests for funds. He reported for example that in 1953 he had made much progress. He referred to his excellent new headquarters which were extensively remodeled and enlarged a press at his disposal for the first time and the addition of an investigator and a writer to his staff. A fundraising letter issued this fall boasted that we now have built Common Sense into a large operation to reach numbers. However McGinley continued to announce ambitious plans including the installation of new mailing equipment in his headquarters at a cost of $3,000. McGinley has also stated hopes of soon stepping up publication to a weekly basis. McGinley's claim to work full-time in behalf of Common Sense without salary or profit is misleading and view of the facts developed in the committee's investigation. Volunteer workers perform many duties in connection with the publication. The committee has learned however that Condé McGinley Sr. has no employment or income outside of the Common Sense operation. He has for a short period in the past served as caretaker of property and union but his payment did not exceed $1,000 a year. Condé McGinley Jr. supplements his Common Sense activities by serving as a freelance salesman of aluminum windows and siding for houses. Condé McGinley Sr. and Mr. and Mrs. Condé McGinley Jr. reside in the headquarters building of Common Sense at 530 Chestnut Street in Union. Since contributions form an admittedly important part of Common Sense income, the true state of its finances is difficult to determine. The committee has been denied access to federal income tax information on the principles involved. A minimum income of approximately $30,000 annually is evident from a study of bank deposits made in the name of Common Sense or its new corporate cloak the Christian Education Association. A total of $25,965. A $0.97 was deposited in the publication's account in a Union, New Jersey bank during the 10-month period from January 1st to October 29, 1954. During the 12 months of 1953, deposits totaled $29,320.78. It is regrettable that any American may have contributed to the perpetuation of a hate factory such as that operated by the McGinleys. If loyal Americans seek to play an active part in protecting their country from subversion, they would do well to lend their support to legitimate patriotic organizations rather than to those whose real objective is another form of subversion. End of Section 4. Section 5 of Preliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Groups. Prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the U.S. Congress. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Conclusion. In this preliminary report, the Committee has concentrated on a few examples of subversive propaganda activity currently to be found in the United States. The Committee is well aware that this report conveys only a small part of the total picture of such activities in this country today. The Committee believes, however, that this preliminary report will provide useful information to the Congress, both the National Renaissance Party and Common Sense, have made unsolicited distributions of their un-American propaganda to members of the Congress, and the members have consequently made frequent inquiry of the Committee regarding the nature of these organizations. The Committee further hopes that this report will alert both the Congress and the American public to dangers which must not be ignored. The National Renaissance Party and the operators of Common Sense illustrate two types of subversion from the extreme right. The Committee condemns any such resurgence of pro-fascist and hate activity. The Committee is continuing its investigation in exposure of Communist conspirators wherever they may be found. The Committee is convinced, however, that there is a concurrent need for continuous investigation, exposure, and where necessary, prosecution, to the end that no activity of a pro-fascist nature will ever be permitted to gain substantial stature or influence in the United States. End of Section 5 End of Preliminary Report on Neofascist and Hate Clubs Prepared by the House Un-American Activities Committee for the United States Congress