-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- an excerpt from: Treason's Peace Howard Watson Armbruster©1947 A Crossroads Press Book Beechurst Press New York 438 pps. -- First/Only Edition -- Out-of Print --[16]-- CHAPTER XVI Counter-Propaganda & the Lobby IT IS A SAD thing to find men so money mad as to be willing to betray their country and their families for just a few more dollars. Thus Francis Patrick Garvan, in a speech before the American Institute of Chemists, summed up his feelings about those Americans who had helped his life long enemy reestablish itself in the United States. For Garvan, until the day of his death in 1937, was the implacable foe of the German dye trust—a tireless crusader who never gave up trying to warn his countrymen of the industrial Trojan Horse of the Germans had deposited on these shores. One of Garvan's greatest triumphs was the 1926 decision of the Supreme Court which decreed that: The purpose of the Trading with the Enemy Act was not only to weaken enemy countries by depriving their supporters of their property . . . but also to promote production in the United States of things useful for the effective prosecu-tion of the war. Aside from the importance of that decision in preventing the immediate destruction of our new organic-chemical industry by returning the seized patents to the Germans, it is of tremendous significance to many phases of this story. Garvan made good use of this decision in meeting the many German-inspired attacks made upon him, and to further his work as director of the Chemical Foundation. The Foundation distributed millions of pieces of educational literature; books, periodicals and pamphlets, and for many years was the strongest single force in America in pointing out the importance of organic chemistry to national security. The fact that Francis Garvan, who had wealth, power, and prestige to support his efforts, was ineffectual in curbing the encroachments of the German industrialists, makes more understandable my own many failures to break through the Farben defenses. And perhaps it should be explained here that despite the suggestion of mutual friends that Garvan and I should work together, we never did. So I fought my own fight, in my own way. >From the very beginning, the only organized support I received was of an indirect character from groups of physicians and pharmacists, mainly in New Jersey. In just one instance was financial assistance given me by one of these groups-and stark tragedy was in the aftermath of that contribution. After the recent war began, I did, however, receive very welcome cooperation from a propaganda organization which started when Hitler came to power, the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League. Founded by the late Samuel Untermyer in the early 1930's, the League began a boycott against the Nazis which included allies of Farben in the United States, and imports of Farben products. In Philadelphia, at one of its early mass meetings in 1934, the League was addressed by a local attorney named Francis Biddle, who demanded action, "in the only effective way that Mr. Hitler can understand-the economic boycott, sustained, aggressive and unrelenting." "Words become pallid," said Mr. Biddle, "a little absurd in the face of Nazi actions. We too must act." Seven years later it was the same Francis Biddle who as Attorney General substituted the "pallid words" of consent decrees for criminal prosecution, "sustained, aggressive and unrelenting. And, when the Anti-Nazi League wrote to the Attorney General about one of those polite consent decrees, the reply, by his executive assistant, the James Allen of Chapter IX, indicated that the Attorney General considered Sterling to be of great value to the nation in its war with Farben's empire. While the bellicose views of Mr. Biddle have softened with the passing of time, those of the Anti-Nazi League as directed by Professor James H. Sheldon never wavered, and its Bulletin distributed much valuable data regarding the danger of Farben, and the necessity of boycotting the products of such firms as Sterling, Winthrop, and General Dyestuff. In May 1941 after the failure of my efforts to induce Assistant Attorney General Arnold to tackle the Farben lobby (Chapter IX) I turned my attack back on the Senate with an appeal to its Majority Leader, Alben W. Barkley. My letter, in part, follows: I say that the lobby is now and has been since I first exposed it, the spearhead of the German plan of pacifism, isolation and to stop us from arming, or from using the arms we have. Some of the lobby members identified on my 1931 chart are still on the job among your members, others have joined the lobby in recent years. The vindication of my forecast and warning ten years ago gives me the right and the duty to insist that the Senate must act now to destroy this lobby as a vicious and dangerous branch of the Hitler fifth column. Should any member of the Senate oppose such action now, ask him what he is trying to cover up. Senator Barkley thanked me profusely, promised to give my request his consideration-and then retired to a hospital to recuperate. In agreement with me that the Farben lobby at Washington constituted the spearhead of Farben's subversive activities and of immunity for its allies, the Anti-Nazi League then joined in the attack, and began its own systematic effort to induce action. The Justice Department, Secretary of State Hull, and Secretary Of the Treasury Morgenthau were among those appealed to by the League, unsuccessfully. . One letter from the League, in July 1941, went to the Hon. Walter F. George of Georgia, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It referred to the activities of Farben affiliates in the United States and Latin America, and to the well-organized lobby at Washington by which "Congress is being improperly influenced." Therefore, wrote the League: For the sake of the integrity of American industry, and for the sake of national defense during the present critical time, we respectfully urge you to investigate this lobby. About that same time I also sent a letter to Senator George asking for an investigation of the Farben Lobby. The Senator's replies to these two separate requests for similar action were somewhat odd. He told the League that he thought the judiciary Committee or the justice Department should make any investigation of that character, and that he understood the latter was so doing. He told me that he was referring my request to the Dies Committee. Thus the Senator covered up on our lobby investigations demands, but he played fair, be called his shots and gave each peanut shell a name: Dies, judiciary, and justice. He must have forgotten there was a dead letter office. The latter would have served equally well. The League continued, as I did, to hammer away for investigation of the Farben lobby but it was no use. The lobby did not choose to be investigated, and even after war was declared on the United States, all such appeals fell upon deaf ears. While World War II was under way there appeared on the national scene a new organization which was called, aptly enough, "The Society for the Prevention of World War Ill." Many well known public figures were identified with this group and it has done yeoman work in publicizing the menace that is Farben, and in denouncing the plot to revive this threat to future world peace. In October 1941, on the theory that my 1931 diagrammatic chart had by then been sufficiently confirmed as to Farben's control of our national-defense industries, I sent a reprint of the chart to each member of the Senate and House with another urgent demand that my long-standing appeal for investigation of the lobby be granted. In that letter I said, in part: I suggest also that no one of you hazard the opinion that I merely guessed at the facts on my 1931 chart. Obviously I bad to know such facts to state them and not be jailed for criminal libel. Moreover that 1931 chart is now, in 1941, the irrefutable proof which Messrs. William E. Weiss, Earl I. McClintock, et al. cannot meet when they plead that they did not even suspect, years ago, just what were the subversive activities which their German associates were directing them to conduct. If I knew these facts in 1931 then they knew them even before 1931. They are not that dumb. Again, silence in the halls of Congress. Later, I submitted to the justice Department and to the Truman and Bone Committees of the Senate another appeal entitled "Tender of Proof" which outlined some of the evidence that supported the allegations on the chart. I again informed the justice Department and the Senators that the significance of this chart was the obvious fact that its circulation, a decade previously, constituted irrefutable proof that those same facts must have been suspected or known by the American industrial and financial leaders who negotiated with Farben. In September 1941, Senator Connally, of Texas, who had succeeded Senator George as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, advised me that the Department of justice was already investigating the lobby, so there was no need for his committee to do so. Then began one of the finest examples of the runaround that I have observed in a long experience with officials who are afraid to say "yes" and hate to say "no." Accepting Senator Connally's information as authoritative, I wrote Attorney General Biddle how happy I was to learn that he was at last investigating the Farben lobby, and would he please let me help. This was in the period when Tom Stokes and a few others were panning the daylights out of the Corcoran-Biddle weasel-worded consent decrees. Mr. Biddle, after due consideration, referred my letter to his subordinate, Mr. Arnold. Mr. Arnold, with his tongue in his cheek, referred me to his subordinate Mr. Sam S. Isseks, Harvard classmate of Mr. Corcoran, who had done the spade work at the funeral of the Sterling investigation. Mr. Isseks, after a brief interview, referred me to his subordinate Mr. Robert Wohlforth, ace investigator of the Antitrust Division, and former chief sleuth for several Senate Committees. Mr. Wohlforth, whom I had never previously encountered, as he had not been in on the current Farben mess, happily turned out to be too straightforward and forthright to play clown, no matter who ran the circus. After checking up to get his facts straight, Wohlforth gave me the first definite and clean-cut statement I had received from any public official in fifteen years of effort to get action on the lobby. Wohlforth's reply, condensed, was a courteous but firm "No." There was no lobby investigation in progress and there could be no lobby investigation started without orders. So that was that. To complete the record I sent out some letters headed Re: Lobby Employed by Gennan I.G. Farben-Sterling Products, et al. These letters were as follows: Dear Mr. Wohlforth: I Referring to conference with you on the 23rd instant regarding the above subject, to discuss which I was referred to you by Mr. S. S. Isseks, I regretted very much your instructions that no investigation would be made of the lobby employed by the German I.G. Farben-Sterling group. Under these conditions it would have been useless for you to have considered the information which I was prepared to present relating to this lobby but I do feel obliged to express to you my deep appreciation for your courtesy and forthright attitude. Dear Mr. Isseks: Referring to conference had with you on the 3rd. inst. regarding the above subject I regret to inform you that Mr. Robert Wohlforth of your staff, with whom you instructed me to discuss this matter has informed me that no investigation would be made of the lobby employed by the German I.G. Farben-Sterling group. Dear Mr. Arnold: Referring to your letter to me dated the 26th ultimo, regarding the above subject I regret to inform you that Mr. S. S. Isseks of the New York staff, with whom you instructed me to discuss this matter has caused me to be informed that no investigation would be made of the lobby employed by the German I.G. Farben-Sterling group. Dear Mr. Biddle: Referring to my letter to you dated the 15th ultimo, regarding the above subject I regret to inform you that Hon. Thurman Arnold, Assistant Attorney General, to whom you referred my letter has caused me to be informed that no investigation would be made of the lobby employed by the German I.G. Farben-Sterling group. Dear Mr. Chairman Connally: Referring to letter dated the 4th ultimo, regarding the above subject, in which I was advised that you considered action by the committee unwise because the Department of Justice was making an investigation of this matter. I regret to advise you that Hon. Francis Biddle, Attorney General, has caused .me to be informed that no investigation would be made of the lobby employed by the German I.G. Farben-Sterling group. The Dies Committee also has indicated to me that it has no intention of making such an investigation so it would appear that some one deliberately misinformed you on this subject. In view of the above I again request that you bring to the attention of your committee my letter to yourself of August 12 and the copy of my letter of July 18 to your predecessor Senator George, also my open letter to the Congress dated October 6, all requesting investigation of this lobby. Respectfully, H. W. Ambruster The pressure of events, or something, deterred the Senator from replying. pps. 305-312 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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