Evening star., 1944-05-26
Seadition Trial
Recesses Until
After HOLIDAY
Germun Orders
To American Bund
Placed in Record
By CARTER BROOKE JONES


known as the Friends of New
Germany, later as the German.
American Bund, were contained
in a letter which was before the
jury at the mass sedition tria
in District Court today, the first
of the Governments huge store
of documents to be admitted In
evidence.
Chief Justice Edward c. Eiche]
admitted the letter Professionally, re-
serving the right to strike it from
the record later If it is not con.
nected with the alleged conspiracy
Of the % defendants to fomen,
mutiny in the armed forces and te
set up a Nazi form of government
in this country. Special Prosecute,
Joseph w. Burns read the letter tc
the jury shortly before adjournment
last night after day-long arguments
from defense counsel. They OBJ
jected to the letter as not linked
with their clients, as not convincing
ly authenticated and because it was
written in 1888. decide before the
conspiracy charged in the indict-
ment allegedly was Matched.
Long Recess Taken.
Attorneys and defendants will
have a long recess over Memorial
Day. The case was adjourned from
yesterday until 10 am. next Wednes-
day. Many planned to go to their
homes for several days. Most of
the accused are at liberty under
bond. Ten are held in District Jail.
No sooner was the letter from
Franz Spanknoebel, Nazi official
who formerly had headed the Ger
man-American group earlier known
as Friends of Hitler, introduced than
Prosecutor Burns pulled out another
letter in German, with a transla-
tion. This letter, also from Spank
noebel, was addressed to Waite,
Kappe, editor of New Germany
published in New York, the organ
of the society which changed Its
name to the Friends of New Ger
many when Hitler became Chancel-
lor of the Reich early in 1888.
The Government had reached the
preliminary stages of identifying
this letter when the session ended
It's further examination by attor.
neys on both sides and arguments
over its admissibility will be taker
up when the trial is resumed.
Gissibl Identifies Letters
The Governments first witness
Peter Gissibl, identified both letters
When the second letter was shown
the witness and he said the sigma
ture, like that of the previous let
ter, was Spanknoebel,s, William ].
Powers, attorney for william Dudley
Pelley, looked at the two letters crit
ically and observed that he didn't
think the signatures were the same.
I'D say" the attorney added,
"frorn what little I know of hand
writing that the signature on the
second letter is forgery. I'll bring
IN handwriting expert to 60 over
the letters, Furthermore, it ap-
pears from this second letter that
there was some difficulty between
this Spanknoebel, or whatever his
name was, and the witness, and this
gives the witness a chance to say
whatever he wants to get even with
Spanknoebel. The defendants are
In the middle"
The first letter from Spanknoebe
was written from Wuerzburg, Ger.
many. to Hans Strauss, of Detroit
national leader of the Friends o1
New Germany, and forwarded tt
the Chicago unit, of which Gissib
was member. The witness latel
was Chicago leader of the successor
organization, the German-Americar
Bund. Spanknoebel wrote Straus.
that he would expect further pro.
motional work from all groups" Cir
the United States and greeted al
with Hell Hitler"
do you know Spanknoebel per.
sonally?" asked Prosecutor Burns.
Eyes"
Had Returned to Germany.
The witness explained that
Spanknoebel had been in this coun
try as head of the society and hae
returned to Germany to take ar
official position in the Nazi part,
when 1t came into power.
Are you familiar with his sigma
ture?"
IT am"
Gissibl also identified the sigma
ture of Strauss.
The witness said he saw the let
ter in the Office of his brother Fritz
then leader of the Chicago unit O
the Friends of New Germany. 1
was read, the witness added, to Off
GERS OF the organization. Then, h
said, the reorganization of the OH
Friends of the Hitler Movemen
was carried out.
Was there any meeting in Chi
cago that year?"
The witness said the society me
there in July, 1888
"Ill ask whether or not you saw
any of the defendants there a
that time"
Gissibl said he saw Herman Ma,
Schwinn. The Government ha
promised to show that Schwinn late
was West Coast leader of the Bunt
and member of Pelley's Silve
Shirts.
Prosecution Reserves Questions.
The witness was not at the mo
ment allowed to 60 into matter
taken up at the convention. TIL
Government reserved further ques
tions along this line. The defens
had objected that anything tina
happened must be connected di
rectly with one or more of the de
PENDANTS.
Unfortunately" said Albert "
Dill.ne, attorney for his forme
wife, Elizabeth Dilling, the con
spiracy law is so elastic that you cal
go beck to Methusaleh to show act
connected with it, But at leas
you've first got to show there was
conspiracy. And the Government
has failed to do that"
Defense attorneys objected e,
masse to the method by which tn
Government was producing docu
ments without making copies avail
able to all defendants sufficiently il