The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-02-06

Washington HOW the 1anCdSllc
performances of a Fish Committee
voodoo is we'll illustrated by vivid
blue circular issued to senators and
other public men in the capital, by
a man who signs himself MAJOR
Frank Pease, National Commander, I
American Defenders, Marblehead, !
Mass, Birthplace of the American
Navy" Across tn top of this circu- |
lar is the slogan: Loyalty to In
dustry is also Loyalty to Country.
The American Defenders are sub-ti-
tied 1.-The Blue Shirts" and their
name is buttressed on either sld2
with a tiny print of the American
flag, with the motto Don't Tread
on Me-" underneath.
War Department officials charged
with holding the patriotic and mill
tariSt pulse of the country say they
cannot find Pease on any present or
past list of army Officers He may
possibly be one of the honorary
majors of the National Guard who
are appointed as decorations for a
governors inauguration, or he may
have served in some foreign army.
| His circular bears in big type the
announcement For God and Coun-
! try" but it says nothing about its
| >
| the War Department had some let
ters from Pease some ime ago, da-
ed from Hollywood and represent
ing him as being the head of an or
ganization of technicians in the
moving picture metropolis. At that
time he was warning the department
about the danger the government
would be undermined by subversive
films.
His present effort consists of "a
pledge questions, based chiefly on
the most absurd statements by an
ii radical witnesses before the Fish
Committee, and leading up to appli-
cation for membership in the Amer
lean Blue Shirts. One which caused
mirthful comment in anti-prohibition
circles is Would you defend the Of
ficials of the United States with
your life " But the next one is more
to the point: Are you unalterably
opposed to any change in our form
of government, whether by force OF
violence or by any other means
such as are being taught by COM
muniSm and other brands of revolu-
tion Then comes a suggestion that
federal laws should be enacted tC
free press and free assemblage, since
these are now being taught by com.
munists and other revolutionary agi
tators."
Fear of the American working
class and its economic discomfort Il
shown in the question, do you be
lieve that employers and employees
have everything in common, ant
that, for the continuity of produc
ton and the best interests of tn
nation cooperation, loyalty and mu
tual trust must be practiced between
them?" Any unemployed worker wait
ing in the wired stockade outsid
the Ford plant should agree that n
and Henry Ford have everything II
common, and that they should trus
each other and be loyal. But Hen
ry Ford might draw a firm blue lin
thru the words ''in common"
Pease's patriotic catechism take
the applicant thru a series of pledg
es of immediate embargo on trad
with Soviet Russia using the "con
Wet labor" and Eat the point or tn
bayonet" idea of Soviet labor rela
tions. and picturing Soviet purchas
es in this country as being a comb
nation Of communist propaganda an
the getting of war materials 70
Soviet use. He would bar revolu
tionary publications from the mails
exclude and deport all foreigner
who "agitate against our inst1tJ
tions," and thoroughly prohibit
communist thought within the Unit
ed States.
What puts the cap on this emt
tional haystack is the 32nd question
do you believe that before peaC
and safety can come to the worl
communism must be Destroyer"
Sen. Oddie Of Nevada, who seel
/. a general embargo against Sow