The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-08-18

THE TWO OUTSTANDING GROUPS of the
paciist Left are the American League Against War
and Fascism and that martial, cruSading, distaf
organization, the Womens International League for
Peace and Freedom. Strictly speaking, the two move
ments cannot be regarded separate, for the WILL
is affiliate of the former and its delegates attend
the annual Congresses Against War;" The executive
directorate of the two organizations is autonomous
with the League unquestionably the more extreme
of the two movements
IN URING THE LAST TWO YEARS, the
League Against War and Fascism has come
forward rapidly as the most advertised Of the
current peace groups. By banyhOo, by shrewdly-
staged publicity stunts, and by lugubriouS pretenses
of anh-war sentiment, it has succeeded IN drawing
to itself much Of the general public interest for
merly attached to the milder pacifst bodies. The
most amazing feature of its advance has been the
fact that prominent nonFadicalS m public life have
been willing to aid it a genuine peace movement
DESPITE IT'S UNDENIABLE COMMUNIST
CONTROL.
A CASE IN POINT was the annual Congress
staged by the League in Cleveland last January BY
CLEVER MANIPULATION, the officers were able
not only to persuade Harold q. Burton, the Repub-
ican Mayor of Cleveland, to attend the Congress
and to deliver official address Of welcome but they
also succeeded IN securing the use of the cityowned
Public Auditorium for their meetings. the display of
advertisements of the Congress in the city-owned
street cars, and traffic arrows pointing to the Audi
torium in the Streets Bishop Edgar F. Blake of the
Methodist Church. Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner, and
Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler gave responsibility to
bu oJd %ha P,1&;
at this same Congress that DIR. Harry F. Ward, the
national chairman of the League, GAVE AWAY
THE WHOLE GAME by declaring in his opening
speech:
good many times constituent forces and those
who to meetings ask US this: Is the American
League Against War and Fascsm anticapitaistic?
OF course it is How otherwise, could it stop war? We
try to show people IN propaganda that today the
economic causes OF war are rooted IN capitalistic
economies
The success of the Comrades in thrusting this
OrganiZatiOnal wedge into the American peace
ment may be ascribed principally, to their unceas-
ing exploitation of the fascist" ISSUE The coupling
of fascism and IN the title Of this League in
1888 master publicity stroke. 1t conceded with
the tumuuous reaction against AdOlph Hitler among
radical and liberal groups at the time. It disarmed
those who otherwise would have attacked the League
because it gave the controlling communist group
OF BEING ACTUATED BY FASCIST SYMPA-
THIES. By continuous reiteration of this BOGUS
ISSUE the accused were able to become the accusers
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE MANNER IN
WHICH THE LEAGUE HOLDS IT'S FASCIST
BATTING AS A CLUB over the heads of public
officials was the recent Harvey incident in Queens
Borough, New York City. The League sought
the use of Borough Hall for propaganda session.
President Harvey advised that the meeting would
be a communist rally under the cloak of an ant-war
crusade rejected the request. Events then moved
rapidly. A storm of protest descended upon him from
numerous radical and racial groups, accusing him Of
suppression of free speech. Finally a delegation,
HAND-PICKED so as to include no known commun-
ists visited him in the of the League and served
notice that in refusing the use of Borough Hall he
was giving comfort to "Fascists and Nazis." They
swore solemnly that the League was not communist
organization. At the head of the delegation was
James Waterman WISE son of the most influential
church opponent of Naz-sm in America. The protest
placed the Borough President in dangerous political
position, where persistence in his course WOULD
HAVE GIVEN HIS ENEMIES A CHANCE TO
ACCUSE HIM OF NAZI SYMPATHIES. In the
end he capitulated before this form of COMMUNIST
BL4ACKMAIL and granted Borough Hall to the
League.
In 1924, the Fifth Congress of the Communist