Evening star., 1942-05-10
Biddle Finally Cracks Down
On Fascist Segments of Press
Attorney General Hesitated Long to Guarantee
Full Freedom of Speech to Faction
Opposed to War
By Charles q. Ross.

Freedom for the thought We hate" is
an essential of democracy. In official LIE
there is no more steadfast upholder of
this freedom than Attorney General
Biddle. For weeks after Pearl Harbor,
Mr. Biddle resisted the clamor of indi-
viduals and organizations that would
have had the Government launch an
immediate attack on publications of the
ilk of Father Coughlin's Social Justice.
A meticulous regard for free speech held
him back.
The understandable-and proper
hesitancy of the Attorney General was
widely accepted by the divisionist papers.
and especially by the little verminous
sheets among them, as license to 90 the
limit.
The systematic and unscrupulous at
tack upon the war efforts of the Nation"
as Mr.. Biddle was later to describe the
propaganda of the native Fascist groups,
became more and more virulent. The
United States Attorney General" de-
clared a pamphlet distributed at West
Coast rally, "says we have perfect right
to falkland we will"
The increasing boldness of the attack
made it intolerable at last to even the
stanchest defenders of free speech.
Clearly, there was a point where a
Nation fighting for its life had to draw
the line Since the end OF March, the
Department Of Justice has been cracking
down sharply on the spreaders OF Hitler
esque propaganda. Criticism designed to
improve the war effort Of the United
States has nothing to fear; utterances
that carry a clear incitement to inter-
ference with the war effort are barred.
Pelley First to Be Arrested.
First of the Fascist sheets to fall
under Mr.. Biddle's reasonable ban was
the inef1able Galilean, published at
Noblesville, Ind, by William Dudley
Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts, who
was denounced by Dies Committee mem
bers in 1910 as "a self styled Hitler" and
"a racketeer engaged in mulcting thou
sands Of dollars annually from his
fanatical and misled followers"
Pelley was arrested April by agents
of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation
on direct orders from Mr.. Biddle. He
will be tried at Indianapolis on charges
of having circulated, through the Cali
lean, statements intended to hamper the
operations of the military and naval
forces Of the United States. Prosecution
will be under the 1917 Espionage Act,
which penalties disloyal acts or words in
wartime with Imprisonment of not more
than 20 years or fine Of not more than
$4,000, or both.
The Galilean advanced the weird
thesis, with others derogatory OF the
American war effort, that the nations
Of the world had lined up into two
stupendous camps Christian and anti
Christian, Aquarian and Luciferian." 1t
put the United States in the anti-Chris-
tian and Luciferian column, and Japan
in the Christian-Aquarian.
The Galilean went out of business
when recent issues were declared nom
mailable by the Post once Department.
Next of the offending papers to be
barred from the mails was Social Justice,
whose role as the mouthpiece of its
founder, Father Charles E. Coughlin,
had given it circulation of 100000 and
an influence probably greater than that
of any other publication of its kind.
Confronted with a citation to appear
at Post Office Department hearing and
show cause why Social Justice should not
be permanently deprived of its second
class mailing privilege, E. Perrin
Schwartz, its publisher editor, announced
Monday that the paper was ceasing pub
lication. Postmaster General Walker
thereupon annulled its franchise The
hearing adjourned without a defense
having been entered to Mr.. Biddle's de-
tailed charges that Social Justice had
been saturated with propaganda bearing
CLOSE relation" to that of the Axis.
Philadelphia Herold Accused.
At the end of April, the Post ONCE De-
partment, again on the advice of Mr..
Biddle, cited the Philadelphia Herold,
a weekly newspaper written partly in
English, but principally in German, to
show cause May IA why its second-class
mailing privilege should not be revoked.
Issues of the paper, in the meantime,
were made subject to review by the de-
partment to determine their AVAILABILITY.