Secret Armies Part 11

The absurdity of the excuse was so patent that I laughed. Schwinn smiled a little.

"All right. What do you know about a man named Maeder?"

Again that long, drawn-out "M-m-m-m." A long pause and Schwinn said, "Maeder is an American citizen, I believe."

"Yes; you are, too. But what's his business in this country?"

"I don't know," Schwinn said helplessly. "I really don't know."

"You know nothing about his activities or observations of American naval and military bases? Do you usually take in members without knowing anything about them?"

"Sometimes we do and sometimes we do not--"

"But orders were sent from Germany to make this an American organization--"

Schwinn nodded without admitting it verbally.

"And since you throw out all Germans who are not American citizens, you check with the Consul General in New York as to whether they are fit--"

"We have nothing to do with the Consul General--"

"What happened to Willi Sachse who used to be a member here?"

"He is supposed to have gone back to Germany."

"Have you heard from him from Germany?"

"No; I haven't heard since he left."

"You received a letter recently from him from San Francisco where he is watching foreign vessels--"

"Oh," said Schwinn, raising his hands in a helpless gesture, "I know you have spies in my organization."

We talked a little longer--of visits he made to n.a.z.i agents in the Middle West and in New York, of secret conferences with propagandists and spies. But he refused to do any more than shrug his shoulders at all new questions.

"I have said too much already," he said.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Gissibl left for Stuttgart, Germany, and leadership was taken over by his brother, Peter.

[11] Before McFadden died, I published evidence that while he was a member of Congress he worked with n.a.z.i agents in this country.

[12] As this book went to press, the U.S. Government had just begun action to revoke Schwinn's citizenship, claiming that he had obtained it by making false statements.

[13] Congressman Samuel d.i.c.kstein. The McCormick Congressional Committee was frequently referred to as the "d.i.c.kstein Committee" because d.i.c.kstein had introduced the resolution for the investigation.

[14] During the trial of the four n.a.z.i spies in New York the Federal prosecutor brought out that they also carried orders sealed in brown, manila paper.

[15] Von Bulow has since sold his home and moved into the El Cortez Hotel in San Diego.

[16] At that time working for Henry Ford.

VIII

_Henry Ford and Secret n.a.z.i Activities_

One of the Chief n.a.z.i propagandists in the United States recently ran in the United States Senate primaries in Kansas and was almost nominated. He is Gerald B. Winrod, who poses as a Protestant minister but has no affiliations with any reputable church.

Winrod, even before he tried to get into the Senate, was one of the most brazen of the n.a.z.is' Fifth Column operating in this country. He has held secret consultations with officials in the German Emba.s.sy in Washington and carries on his propaganda under Fritz Kuhn's direction.

Shortly after Winrod returned from a mysterious trip to Germany and held an equally mysterious long consultation at the n.a.z.i Emba.s.sy in this country (1935), he organized the _Capitol News and Feature Service_, with offices at 209 Kellogg Building, Washington. The "news service" supplied smaller papers throughout the land with "impartial comments" on the national scene. The _Service_ was edited by Dan Gilbert, a San Diego newspaperman, and the material was sent free of charge (as is the material sent to the Latin American countries from Germany and Italy). It was of course, deliberately calculated to spread pro-Hitler sentiment and propaganda.

Few who read Winrod's publications realize the extent of his activities. On March 1, 1937, Senator Joseph T. Robinson addressed the United States Senate on what appeared to him to be "unfair propaganda"

carried on by Winrod against President Roosevelt's proposed reorganization of the judiciary system. The Senator stated that he could not understand why the issues should be deliberately falsified by a gentleman of the cloth--that it reminded him of the old Ku Klux Klan tactics.

The Senator did not know that Winrod's propaganda against Roosevelt was only part of a propaganda campaign cunningly and brazenly organized by n.a.z.is in this country in an effort to defeat a man who, they felt, was not friendly to them. In this campaign, n.a.z.i agents worked openly and secretly with a few unscrupulous members of the Republican Party in an effort to defeat Roosevelt.

Several years ago Winrod was a poverty-stricken man living at 145 N.

Green Street, Wichita, Kansas. He called himself a minister but all church bodies have repudiated him. Without a church, he did a little evangelistic preaching and lived off collections made from his audience. It was a precarious livelihood and often the "Reverend" did not have enough money to buy even ordinary necessities.

Records in several Wichita department stores tell the story of the evangelist's poverty before an angel came to visit him. All the storekeepers with whom Winrod dealt requested that their names be withheld, but signified their willingness to present their records to any governmental body which might be interested in the sudden wealth he acquired after he became an intense Hitler propagandist. In the days of his poverty Winrod, the records show, could afford to buy only the cheapest furniture, the cheapest clothes, and pay for them on the installment plan in weekly payments ranging from fifty cents to two or three dollars a week.

I am reproducing with this chapter several of the installment cards.

The reader will notice that as late as 1934 Winrod was paying at the rate of one dollar a week. It was in this period that n.a.z.i agents in the United States were carrying on their intensive campaign, and it was also in this period that Winrod began to harangue his audiences about the "menace of the Jews and the Catholics."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Account cards for the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod in a Wichita department store, showing his straitened financial circ.u.mstances during the early thirties.]

Then one day, the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod suddenly found himself possessed of enough money to go to Germany. When he came back in February, 1935, he had new suit cases, new clothes and a fat check book. The records in the Wichita department stores where he had been getting credit for clothes and furniture show that after his return from Germany he paid all his debts in lump sums--by check. Then he became a publisher.

In his newspaper, _The Revealer_, he published a report on his trip to Europe, but did not mention where he got the money for the jaunt. The report (February 15, 1935) told of his discovery that the German people loved Hitler and that only "Jewish influence in high circles of certain governments is making it impossible for Germany to carry on normal trade and financial relations with other countries."

In this period of his new-found prosperity he established contacts with n.a.z.i agents and pro-fascists like Harry A. Jung of the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, Colonel Edwin Emerson, James True and a host of other patrioteers.

Before the Presidential election he made another trip to Germany. When he returned, he enlarged his distribution apparatus and was apparently important enough for high n.a.z.i officials visiting the United States to meet with him. One of these was Hans von Reitenkranz, who came quietly to the United States as. .h.i.tler's personal representative to arrange for oil purchases--oil which Germany needed badly for her factories and especially for her growing war machine.

Von Reitenkranz is a friend of Professor Kurt Sepmeier of the University of Wichita. He introduced Winrod to the Professor. They became friendly. When I was in Wichita making inquiries about the Reverend Winrod, I constantly came across the Professor's trail. Both he and Winrod had been meeting regularly but with an effort at secrecy.

In January, 1937, after several meetings with Professor Sepmeier, Winrod went to Washington. I also went to Washington and found that the Reverend was calling at the German Emba.s.sy. On one of his visits he remained inside for an hour and eighteen minutes. Whom he saw or what he discussed I do not know; but immediately after this long visit, the _News and Feature Service_ was organized with money enough to send its items out free of charge to the papers that would accept them.

Gilbert, who headed the _Service_, was for many years the personal representative of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts.

The n.a.z.is had been trying to get the Silver Shirts to cooperate with them in a fascist "united front" and the appointment of Gilbert was the first indication that a friendly cooperation had been established.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sample of the "Capital News and Feature Service,"

in the establishment and distribution of which the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod had a hand.]