Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-09-30
johnson Stays
Member of
America First
But Writer Insists His
Opinions Are His Own
BY HUGH s. JOHNSON

As HAS frequently been re-
"a marked here. no independ-
ent columnist has any business
allowing his name to be used in
any high pressure committee
especially one designed TO bally-
. hoo any particular war policy.
The reason he hasn't is that
he can control neither its MEM
bership, its policy nor the public
utteranceS of other members
and yet, by reason of his name
on its stationary. he is held re.
Sponsible for all these things
when it is his stock in trade. his
daily business, TO express and be
responsible for only his own
opinions.
My own name is on the letter.
heads of the America First Com
naittee. When L permitted that
use, its chairman was Leasing
RoSenwald. It's purpose was to
insist on prompt. efficient pre-
parednesS of American defense
of the Western Hemisphere. on
no involvement in foreign wars
and in no aid 10 beitigerents
except such as comported- with
these purposes. That was about
the gist of the platform of both
political parties. and the prom
ises of both political candidates.
THERE were then other COM
Il mittees. such as that to de-
fend America by aid to Britain.
but as even its chairman, Will
liam Allen White. said it had no
purpose TO entangle us in Shoot
ing war. He said his slogan was:
5 The YankS aren't coming" All
was innocent and comfortable
enough Just then. but that was
before the debate got really hot.
Later extremists on both COM
mittees took charge. Fascist
and pelitieos flocked TO America
first. Communists and hot-eyed
-waf-Hinded men took over AID
TO Britain. Leasing Rosenwald
resigned from Craftsmanship of
America first and William Allen
White from Aid TO Britain.
AS emotions flared higher. half
a dozen war committees grew up
IN greater or less imitation of
the latter and SOIT1g pacifiSt
groups formed TO Guido America
First.
Colonel Lindbergh. with whom
have repeatedly said l am not
in agreement on strategic views,
made a speech in Des Moines
that could hardly be described as
other than anti-Semitic and the
witch-finding Senate subcommit-
tee began investigating" the
movie industry.
IMMEDIATELY / began to be
deluged with pressure in my
mail and in some papers TO re-
sign from America First. have
frequently stated my position on
that and criticized all these I'M
American, unfair and intolerant
tactics.
| have never participated in
the councils of America First or
voted on any of their principal
policies for reasons stated earlier
in this column and have in
formed them Of those reasons.
| am no longer either polled on
consulted by them on policy or
such matters as the recent dee
-fdrati0n that Lindbergh is not
anti-Semitic. AS TO that / don't
know. | know his speech was.
But am not going TO be
pushed around by hostile criti-
cism which takes no account of
these things. One reason /
joined America First with a good
deal of confidence was because
with Mr.. Rosenwald and his
business associate, Gen. r. +.
Wood, my boyhood friend and
lifelong comrade. at the head of
it, / felt sure il was not going
permanently haywire on any
question of intolerance.
l still hope that in the end it
won't AS long as il does /
shall have nothing TO do with it.
But l am not going TO resign
at the first barrage of errors
and dead cats. / am used to
them. And / am going to ex-
press an independent opinion re-
CARELESS of that of any COM
mittee or group.
This is not the only COM
mittee on which my name APP
pears. Among several others
are the committees of Award Of
the American Hebrew. the
Council Against Intolerance in
America and Bundles for Britain.
They never tried 10 influence my
opinion and nobody ever asked
me TO resign from them. 1t
would produce no result in either
case.