Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 51, 20 December 1948, p. 4.
Transcription/HTML Markup: 2022 by Einde O’Callaghan.
Public Domain: Joseph Hansen Internet Archive 2023. This work is in the under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Marxists’ Internet Archive as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
In 1946 the Rev. Gerald L.K. Smith, who hopes some day to be fascist dictator of America, made a national tour to speed, the growth of his sinister “Christian Nationalist” movement. It will be recalled that he ran into more than he had bargained for.
Crowds of working people, angered over Smith’s efforts to bring fascism to power in this country, picketed his meetings in city after city. Demonstrators in many places expressed their indignation over Smith’s “Crusade” in such militant fashion that police had difficulty protecting the demagogue.
Credit for ringing the alarm that aroused the militants in such places as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and Minneapolis belongs to the Socialist Workers Party. It was the SWP that called for action to stop this American imitator of Hitler before his movement could gain momentum.
Smith decided that the picketline response to his campaign was doing him no good. He discreetly moved out of the spotlight. Since then, to judge from his latest “confidential” circulars, the Christian Nationalist Crusade has fallen on evil days.
In his October circular Smith dates his troubles from 1946:
“Two years ago I was almost killed in Minneapolis. A mob of 1,000 to 2,000 Jews broke up our meeting, tore up the furniture at Leamington Hotel, while virtually enjoying the cooperation of the police department and the smiling approval of the Jew-controlled city administration.”
The truth, of course, was that Smith’s invasion of Minneapolis was bound to arouse emphatic protest in a city of such militant union traditions. If the chairs suffered at the fascist rally, full responsibility rested on Smith and the handful of fascists who had the temerity and bad judgment to attack the people that came down to voice their indignation.
Smith has not found it too easy to win friends and influence people in other parts of the country if we are to believe his “confidential” report to the fascist faithful.
“I escaped assassination by a narrow margin last fall when I visited Denver, Colorado. I was given a deadly potion of arsenic, which cost me three months in bed at death’s door plus three months of convalescence.”
The demagogue does not reveal how he happened to get rat exterminator mixed with his biscuits.
Membership in the “Christian Nationalist Crusade” appears to be at a low ebb. Even worse, however, is the financial crisis afflicting the Smith organization:
“There are some who will receive this letter who are fully able to make a donation running to thousands of dollars. You could. sell a piece of real estate. You could cash some bonds. Your contribution would lift a burden from my shoulders and release a flood of literature that would electrify the Nation. Please, O God, if there is such a person reading this letter, move him to help us. Oh, how we need help. Oh, how alone we feel at times. To the small giver, I say, please don’t quit.”
Smith’s fascist band is in a bad way for a number of reasons. First of all, the setback their leader received two years ago injured the illusion of invincibility necessary for\ a fascist demagogue to forge rapidly ahead. It demonstrated the readiness of advanced sections of the. working class to fight any attempt to build fascism in America and thereby gave pause to those who might otherwise have been prepared to pour, big money into the Smith movement.
Smith’s failure to attract a wide following in his first post-war rally showed that the soil for fascism is not favorable. Big Business as yet feels no pressing necessity to turn to a fascist regime to maintain its rule. The politicians of the two-party system are still able to deliver the goods. On top of this, American, imperialism feels that there is big future for the Prussian-type military caste which it is now building on massive scale. Already we see what a powerful role militarism plays in Washington and how the militarists have taken over the conduct of foreign policy.
In these circumstances, the would-be fascist dictators find the going none too easy. Their followers lose heart. The morale of Smith’s crew, for instance, appears very low. To pick up their spirits just before election with hope of better days to come, the Reverend outlined the fascist perspective. After a “terrific crash” in 1949 or 1950, “Unemployment will sweep the Nation, distress and chaos will prevail ... Murder, bloodshed, rioting, street fighting will be on every hand.”
Then will come the day of victory for the fascist Christian Nationalists if they are “ready with a strong, thoroughly disciplined, air-tight organization.”
The election results added to Smith’s woes. He interpreted the evidence of labor’s political power as an ill omen. The Darkness Falls – Only the Courageous Call Survive, he titled his “confidential” post-election circular.
The ousting of Taft-Hartleyites from Congress deeply depressed the Christian Nationalist leader:
“The defeat of certain constructive-minded men in Congress who were sucked down into defeat by a weak Dewey creates our greatest crisis. You ... had Better pray as you have never prayed before ... The left wing elements have tasted blood ... You can expect to see terrible times ... You can expect to see a flood of left-wing Jews move into Washington unless an alerted public mind moves to correct such a situation ... We must salvage our resources in Washington and prepare for what lies ahead ...”
The election results did not raise Smith’s hopes of solving his financial problem. “This is a crisis letter,” he confessed pleading for a contribution from the “small giver.” “I beg of you to stand with us. We approach the holidays when it will be easy for the weaker ones to forget and to neglect us. I must depend on the stronger ones to sustain us, to stand by us and to support us.”
Since a bleak perspective of continued setbacks and defeats will scarcely loosen fascist purse strings, Smith tried to find some cheer in the outcome of the election for American fascism:
“I believe ... that our Cause will grow more rapidly than ever. We can accomplish this victory. We can fulfill our destiny. With the Republican Party wrecked and the Truman, administration about to expose its dereliction, we can be ready for the beginning of triumphal victories in 1949, 1950 and 1952.”
Whether or not American fascism scores “triumphal victories” in the days to come depends in the main on what the labor movement does with its political power. If continued support is given the two-party system, then the soil can become favorable for the swift growth of fascism. If the trade unions break from the Democratic and Republican Parties, however, and set out on the road of independent political action leading to establishment of a Workers and Farmers Government, then the Christian Nationalist movement and similar native fascist formations will find the going exceedingly difficult even though Wall Streep begins pumping unlimited funds into their treasuries.
Last updated on: 29 March 2023