Elizabeth Dilling | |
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 Elizabeth Dilling addressing theSenate Judiciary Subcommittee, January 11, 1939[i] | |
| Born | Elizabeth Eloise Kirkpatrick (1894-04-19)April 19, 1894 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | April 30, 1966(1966-04-30) (aged 72) Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. |
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| Children | 2 |
Elizabeth Eloise Kirkpatrick Dilling (April 19, 1894 – April 30, 1966) was an American writer and political activist.[2] In 1934, she publishedThe Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots, which catalogs over 1,300 suspectedcommunists and their sympathizers. Her books and lecture tours established her as the pre-eminent female right-wing activist of the 1930s, and one of the most outspoken critics of theNew Deal, which she referred to as the "Jew Deal".[3][4][5] In the mid-to-late 1930s, Dilling praisedNazi Germany.[6]
Dilling was the best-known leader of the World War II women'sisolationist movement, agrass-roots campaign that pressuredCongress to refrain from helping theAllies.[7][8] She was among 28 anti-war campaigners charged withsedition in 1942; the charges were dropped in 1946. While academic studies have predominantly ignored both the anti-war "Mothers' movement" and right-wing activist women in general, Dilling's writings secured her a lasting influence among right-wing groups.[9][10][11] She organized the Paul Reveres, an anti-communist organization, and was a member of theAmerica First Committee.
Dilling was born Elizabeth Eloise Kirkpatrick on April 19, 1894, inChicago, Illinois.[2] Her father, Lafayette Kirkpatrick, was a surgeon ofScotch-Irish ancestry; her mother, Elizabeth Harding, was of English and French ancestry. Her father died when she was six weeks old, after which her mother added to the family income by selling real estate. Dilling's brother, Lafayette Harding Kirkpatrick, who was seven years her senior, became wealthy by the age of 23 after developing properties inHawaii. Dilling had anEpiscopalian upbringing, and attended aCatholic girls' school,Academy of Our Lady. She was highly religious, and was known to send her friends 40-page letters about the Bible. Prone to bouts of depression, she went on vacations in the US, Canada, and Europe with her mother.[12]
In 1912, she enrolled at theUniversity of Chicago, where she studied music and languages, intending to become an orchestral musician. She studied the harp under Walfried Singer, theChicago Symphony's harpist. She left after three years before graduating, lonely and bitterly disillusioned.[12] In 1918, she married Albert Dilling, an engineer studying law who attended the same Episcopalian church as Elizabeth. The couple were well off financially, thanks to Elizabeth's inherited money and Albert's job as chief engineer for the Chicago Sewerage District. They lived inWilmette, a Chicago suburb, and had two children, Kirkpatrick in 1920, and Elizabeth Jane in 1925.[12][13]
The family traveled abroad at least ten times between 1923 and 1939, experiences that focused Dilling's political outlook and served to convince her of American superiority.[6] In 1923, they visited Britain, France and Italy. Offended by the lack of gratitude from the British for American intervention inWorld War I, Dilling vowed to oppose any future American involvement in European conflict.[6][14] They spent a month in the Soviet Union in 1931, where local guides, who Dilling claimed were Jews, told her that communism would take over the world and showed her a map of the US in which the cities were renamed after Soviet heroes. She documented her travels inhome movies, filming such scenes as bathers swimming nude in a river beneath aMoscow church. She was appalled by communism's "atheism, sex degeneracy, broken homes [and] class hatred."[6][14]
Dilling visited Germany in 1931 and, when she returned in 1938, noted a "great improvement of conditions".[6] She attendedNazi Party meetings, and the German government paid her expenses.[6] She wrote that "The German people underHitler are contented and happy. ... don't believe the stories you hear that this man has not done a great good for this country."[ii][6] In 1938, she touredPalestine, where she filmed what she described as Jewish immigrants ruining the country. While touring Spain, then embroiled in theSpanish Civil War, she filmed "Redtorture chambers" andburnt-out churches, "ruined by the Reds with the same satanic Jewish glee shown in Russia."[16] She visited Japan, which she viewed as the only Christian nation in Asia, and in 1939, she returned to visit Spain, for a second time.[17][18]
Dilling wrote of Nazi Germany in 1936:
"Nazism has directed its attacks more against conspiring, revolutionary Communist Jews, than against nationalist German Jews who aided Germany during the war; if it has discriminated against the innocent also, it has been with no such ferocity and loss of life as the planned and imminent Communist revolution would have wreaked upon the German population, had it been successful as in Russia."[19]
Our family trip to Red Russia in 1931 started my dedication to anti-Communism. We were taken behind the scenes by friends working for the Soviet Government and saw deplorable conditions, first hand. We were appalled, not only at the forced labor, the squalid crowded living quarters, the breadline ration card workers' stores, the mothers pushing wheelbarrows and begging children of the State nurseries besieging us. The open virulent anti-Christ campaign, every-where, was a shock. In public places were the tirades by loud speaker, in Russian, (our friends translated). Atheist cartoons representing Christ as a villain, a drunk, and the object of a cannibalistic orgy (Holy Communion): as an oppressor of labor; again as trash being dumped from a wheelbarrow by the SovietFive-Year-Plan – these lurid cartoons filled the big bulletin boards in the churches our Soviet guides took us to visit.
Dilling's political activism was spurred by the "bitter opposition" she encountered upon her return to Illinois in 1931, "against my telling the truth about Russia ... from suburbanite 'intellectual' friends and from my own Episcopal minister."[22] She began public speaking as a hobby, following her doctor's advice. Iris McCord, a Chicago radio broadcaster who taught at theMoody Bible Institute, arranged for her to address local church groups. Within a year Dilling was touring theMidwest, theNortheast and occasionally theWest Coast, accompanied by her husband. She showed her home movies of the Soviet Union and made the same speech several times a week to audiences sometimes as large as several hundred, hosted by organizations such as theDaughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and theAmerican Legion.[23][24]
In 1932, Dilling co-founded the Paul Reveres, an anti-communist organization with headquarters in Chicago which eventually had 200 local chapters.[25] She left in 1934, after rejecting the co-founder Col. Edwin Marshall Hadley's anti-semitism,[26] and it folded soon after due to lack of interest. With McCord's encouragement, her lectures were published in a local Wilmette newspaper in 1932, and then collected in a pamphlet entitledRed Revolution: Do We Want It Here? Dilling claimed that the DAR printed and distributed thousands of copies.[23][24]
Beginning in early 1933, Dilling spent twelve to eighteen hours a day for eighteen months researching and cataloging suspected subversives. Her sources included the 1920 four-volume report of theJoint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities, and RepresentativeHamilton Fish's 1931 report of an anti-communist investigation. The result wasThe Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots, hailed with irony inThe New Republic as a "handy, compact reference work". The first half of the 352-page book was a collection of essays, mostly copied fromRed Revolution. The second half contained descriptions of more than 1,300 "Reds" (including international figures such asAlbert Einstein andChiang Kai-shek), and more than 460 organizations described as "Communist, Radical Pacifist, Anarchist, Socialist, [or]I.W.W. controlled".[27][28]
Far more than theSpider-Web chart of the 1920s – a chart composed by a member of the DAR that plotted suspected red-affiliated organisations with progressive individuals –The Red Network revealed the power of "guilt by association," a tactic that would be used all too often by future Red baiters with devastating effectiveness.
— Christine K. Erickson,Journal of American Studies, 2002[29]
The book was reprinted eight times and sold more than 16,000 copies by 1941. Thousands more were given away. It was sold in Chicago book stores and by mail order from Dilling's house. Subscribers toGerald Winrod's new journal,The Revealer, received a copy;fundamentalist preacherW. B. Riley, president of theNorthwest Bible Training School, claimed he had given away hundreds of copies; and it was advertised and sold by the Moody Bible Institute. It was endorsed by officials in the DAR and the American Legion. Copies were bought by thePinkerton Detective Agency, theNew York Police Department, theChicago Police Department, and theFederal Bureau of Investigation. ALos Angeles arms manufacturer bought and distributed 150 copies, and atear gas manufacturer bought 1,500 copies, which it distributed to theStandard Oil Company, theNational Guard, and hundreds of police departments.[27][30]
In 1935, Dilling returned to heralma mater to accuse such people as university presidentRobert Maynard Hutchins, educational reformerJohn Dewey, activistJane Addams, andRepublican SenatorWilliam Borah of being communist sympathizers.[31] Retail tycoonCharles R. Walgreen asked for her help to obtain a public hearing after his niece complained that professors at the university were communists. They demanded the closure of the university. TheIllinois legislature convened to discuss the matter, ultimately deciding that the claims were unfounded. Dilling delivered a frenetic half-hour speech at theIllinois General Assembly, with calls from the audience to "kill every communist".[32] She declared, "It is certain that the University of Chicago is diseased with Communism and that its contagion is a menace to the community and the Nation."[33]
Dilling's next book,The Roosevelt Red Record and Its Background, published two weeks before the1936 presidential election, was less successful. Like much of her later writing, it was largely a disjointed series of quotations. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was already a central theme ofThe Red Network, and it was already being debated elsewhere. Dilling later claimed that theHouse Un-American Activities Committee was founded largely thanks to her two books. She wrote a pamphlet attacking Borah, entitledBorah: "Borer from Within" the G.O.P., fearing that if he won the presidential nomination voters would be forced to choose between two communists. She distributed 5,000 copies at theRepublican National Convention, and claimed credit for his defeat.[iii][35][36][37]
In 1938, Dilling founded the Patriotic Research Bureau, a vast archive in Chicago with a staff of "Christian women and girls" from the Moody Bible Institute. She began regular publication of thePatriotic Research Bulletin, a newsletter outlining her political and personal views, which she mailed free of charge to her supporters. Editions were often 25 to 30 pages long, with a youthful photograph of the author on the cover conveying a personal touch.[35] The masthead of early issues reads: "Patriotic Research Bureau. For the defense of Christianity and Americanism".[38]
Dilling was paid $5,000 in 1939 by industrialistHenry Ford to investigate communism at theUniversity of Michigan.[39] As well as distributing his antisemitic newspaperThe Dearborn Independent during the 1920s, Ford was a financial supporter of dozens of antisemitic propagandists.[40] Dilling discovered hundreds of books at theuniversity library written by "radicals".[41] Her 96-page report stated that the university was "typical of those American colleges which have permitted Marxist-bitten, professional theorists to inoculate wholesome American youths with their collectivist propaganda." She reached a similar conclusion when theLos Angeles Chamber of Commerce paid her to investigateUCLA, and when she investigated her children's universities,Cornell andNorthwestern.[42]
In 1940, hoping to influence thepresidential election, Dilling publishedThe Octopus, setting out her theories ofJewish Communism. The book was published under the pseudonym "Rev. Frank Woodruff Johnson".Avedis Derounian reported Dilling claiming that "The Jews can never prove that I'm anti-Semitic, I'm too clever for them." Her husband feared that allegations of antisemitism would damage his law practice.[43] She admitted that she was the author at her divorce trial in 1942. She explained that she wrote the book as a response toB'nai B'rith. She stated: "It airs their dirty lying attempts to shut every Christian mouth and prevent anyone from getting a fair trial in this country" (for which she was cited forcontempt).[44]
Besides relying on a gendered appeal to patriotic duty, Dilling enjoyed portraying herself as a helpless victim confronted by diabolical evil. One telling example was when a federal subpoena in 1941, issued by the Justice Department, ordered her to Washington DC to explain her alleged affiliations with Nazi sympathizers. She described her experiences at the "New Deal O.G.P.U.," an unsubtle reference to Stalin's secret police, in the format of a play, in which she acted the part of the victim interrogated by an agent of the New Deal. The dramatic scene overflowed with "sinister glower[s]," "sarcastic questions" and "long harangue[s]." The victim, "a bit weary with the endless hectoring," answered unfair questions with righteous indignation. Throughout this little skit, Dilling downplayed her public role and denied the accusation that she was "an important woman" and that her "name carr[ied] weight." A sincere act of humility this was not, but it did reveal Dilling's inclination for martyrdom and self-importance, as well as a talent for propaganda.
Dilling was a central figure in a mass movement ofisolationist women's groups, which opposed US involvement in World War II from a "maternalist" perspective. The membership of these groups in 1941 was between one and six million.[46][47][48] According to historian Kari Frederickson: "They argued that war was the antithesis of nurturant motherhood, and that as women they had a particular stake in preventing American involvement in the European conflict. ... they intertwined their maternalist arguments with appeals that were right-wing, anti-Roosevelt, anti-British, anti-communist and anti-Semitic."[10]
The movement was strongest in theMidwest, aconservative stronghold with a culture of antisemitism, which had long resented the political dominance of theEast Coast. Chicago was the base offar-right activistsCharles E. Coughlin,Gerald L. K. Smith and Lyrl Clark Van Hyning, as well as theAmerica First Committee, which had 850,000 members by 1941. Dilling spoke at America First meetings, and was involved in the founding of Van Hyning's "We the Mothers Mobilize for America", a highly active group with 150,000 members who were tasked with infiltrating other organizations. TheChicago Tribune, the newspaper with the highest circulation in the region, was strongly isolationist. It treated Dilling as a trusted expert on anti-communism and continued to support her after she was charged with sedition.[v][37][50][51]
In early 1941, when the movement was at its height, Dilling spoke at rallies in Chicago and other cities in the Midwest, and recruited a group to coordinate her efforts to opposeLend-Lease, the "Mothers' Crusade to Defeat H. R. 1776". Hundreds of these activists picketed theCapitol for two weeks in February 1941. Dilling was arrested when she led a sit-down strike with at least 25 other protesters in the corridor outside the office of 84-year-old SenatorCarter Glass. After a sensational trial lasting six days, she wept as she was found guilty ofdisorderly conduct and fined $25.[48][52] Glass called for the FBI to investigate the women's groups, and stated inThe New York Times on March 7 that the women had caused "a noisy disorder of which any self-respecting fishwife would be ashamed. I likewise believe that it would be pertinent to inquire whether they are mothers. For the sake of the race, I devoutly hope not." Isolationist leaderCathrine Curtis believed that the image of theMothers' movement had been wrecked, and privately criticised Dilling's "hoodlum" tactics as "communistic" and "un-womanly".[53][54]
Many of the women's groups continued to oppose the war after theattack on Pearl Harbor, unlike their allies, the America First Committee.[55] Dilling campaigned forThomas E. Dewey in the1944 presidential election, although she accused him of "fawning at the feet ofinternational Jewry".[56] Her political activity decreased as a result of her highly publicized divorce trial, beginning in February 1942, during which dozens of fist fights broke out, involving both men and women, and Dilling received three citations for contempt. The judge, Rudolph Desort, said that he feared he would suffer "anervous breakdown" during the four-month trial.[vi][58][59]
Agrand jury, convened in 1941 to investigate fascist propaganda, called several women's leaders to testify, including Dilling, Curtis and Van Hyning. Roosevelt prevailed uponAttorney GeneralFrancis Biddle to launch a prosecution, and on July 21, 1942, Dilling and 27 other anti-war activists were indicted on two counts of conspiracy to cause insubordination of the military in peacetime and wartime. The case was the main part of a government campaign against domestic subversion, which historianLeo P. Ribuffo labelled "The Brown Scare". The charges and list of defendants were extended in January 1943. The charges were again extended in January 1944. The judge,Edward C. Eicher, suffered a fatalheart attack on November 29, 1944. Federal judgeJames M. Proctor declared amistrial. The charges were dismissed by federal judgeBolitha Laws on November 22, 1946, after the government had failed to present any compelling new evidence of a German conspiracy. Biddle later called the proceedings "a dreary farce".[60][61][62]
Following the 1946 trial dismissal, Dilling continued to publish thePatriotic Research Bulletin. She later became a Holocaust denier and accusedDwight D. Eisenhower of secretly being Jewish.[63] In 1964, she publishedThe Plot Against Christianity.[64] The book purports to "reveal the satanic hatred of Christ and Christians responsible for their mass murder, torture and slave labour in all Iron Curtain countries – all of which are ruled byTalmudists". After her death, it was retitledThe Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today.[65]
TheUN Charter and treaties are constructed to make way for the "man of sin," theAnti-Christ who will hold supreme power over life or death as he briefly heads this last Red satanic world empire.
— Patriotic Research Bulletin, September – October 1954[56]
Dilling died on April 30, 1966, inLincoln, Nebraska.[66]
According to the Library of Congress records, Dilling self-published the original printings of her books inKenilworth, Illinois, then some 20 miles north of downtown Chicago. They were later republished by printing houses throughout the country, such as the Elizabeth Dilling Foundation in the 1960s,Arno Press in the 1970s and Sons of Liberty in the 1980s.
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