Undercover Reporting

City Slave Girls: Thanks "The TImes"

The Trades and Labor assembly at its meeting yesterday indorsed the course of The Times in its crusade in behalf of the white slaves of Chicago.  A vote of thanks prevailed unanimously, with the exeption of three assembly delegates printers connected with the other papers.  The debate upon the resolutions offered lasted over an hour, the advocates of the indorsement of THE TIMES's course giving in detail the arguments for their adoption.  Their testimony corroborated the truth of the statements taht have been made in the course of the investigations.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-20

XXIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

In the mass of letters recently received by The TIMES was the following: Chicago, Aug. 21 - To The Editor: A poor white slave wishes to thank you for your efforts in behalf of her poor sisters, the shop-girls of Chicago.  I have worked with them for four years and love them dearly.  your reporter was brave indeed when she battled with those terrible bosses.  I fled from them and left my week's work with them unpaid for.  I was a sad coward.  I , the pet sister of two brave solders who gave their lives to free the slaves of the south.  They told me to "take care of another and be good and brave" and I never saw them more.  I took care of mother till she went to her boys, and I have tried to be good, but I can not fight for my rights, and this is the case with many of us.  We will not stand up for ourselves.  Oh, you have not told half: you do know know have we have to bear.  We are indeed slaves, worse slaves than those my brothers died to free. I wish you could see my book for the last month; you would wonder how I have lived.     You have my best wishes for your goodness. May God bless you is the prayer of the white slaves.  Mary McGray -- State street.  P.S. - My hand is cramped with twenty-five years sewing. I can not write very well.      Curious to know something about the home life of the author the undersigned undertook to answer the letter in person.

Chicago Times  1888-08-27

XXII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

What the shop-girl and the factory-girl needs and must have if her welfare concerns society is training - a training that the scholastic stuffing of our public schools does not supply nor the limitation of the Sabbath schools permit.  The pupil children of 10 and 12 who at 14 and 15 swell the ranks of labor must be equipped for the battle of existence if pauper labor is to be averted.  The girl must have a sufficiency of physical culture not only to enable her to protect and preserve her health, but to promote it an to economize her strength for a future generation; she must be taught that if the injury done to her health must be atoned for by her children, and that her wifehood and motherhood is influenced and largely governed by her girlhood and young womanhood.  She must have her eyes and her fingers trained even at the expense of mentality, and some practiced science must be mastered before or in connection with the apostle's creed, the rule for at least common multiples and the population ofthe ten largest citites in the world.  If manual schools can not be opened to girls why not provide a vast kitchen garden where the bright motherly little maiden can mind real live babies, cook real dinners, knit real stockings and hoods, and hem napkins, quilts, rubber cloaks, and ragged garments that will be examined and paid for if satisfactory? 

Chicago Times  1888-08-26

XXI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Nothing short of a Philadelphia lawyer, a Chicago health officer, a proprietor, or a "devil chaser" that hits the spot once in a thousand times could without a guide explore the labyrinth that as known as II. Schultz & Co's paper-box manufactory, 31 to 38 East Randolph street. It occupies only the three upper floors of a four story building, but the stairways are so dark and narrow that one must grope his way from somewhere to a supposititious somewhere else, which resembles nowhere when he gets there because the rooms are so overcrowded with material that one employe cannot in many instances see her nearest neighbor two yards away. 

Chicago Times  1888-08-19

XX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Princess Knitting company: pretty name, isn't it? Done in gens d'arm blue letters on a navy-blue ground it makes an exceedingly effective sign.  The very colors suggest the claims of long descent and blue blood.  But the Princess company of West Washington street has nothing to do with the blue blood or gentle women, and there is nothing pretty about it but the sweet young girls of 15 and 16 and the frail children of 5 and 10 whose lives are being wound about the great wooden bobbins and from whose cheeks the roses of health and beauty are slowly absorbed by the flying threads in shuttle, needle, and spindle.  Princess Knitting company is only another name for the women's shirt factory at 155 West Washington street.  Up one flight of stairs I pass into a tidy little office where a fine looking gentleman gives me greeting and calls the forewoman, Mrs.McWilliams.  She is young and pretty.  Her voice is sweet and she has a good face.  "Yes, I have work but it won't pay you. You can't live on the salary.  I wouldn't advise you to take it.  The table girls only get $3 a week. Their work consists in sewing on buttons and finishing the arm-holes of the shirts.  We have generally employed little girls of 12 and 13 to do it.  Better work pays by the piece, 5 cents and 10 cents a dozen for knitting a finish about the neck and arm-holes and bottom of the shirts.  But you would have to be experienced; we couldn't tae the time to teach you."  

Chicago Times  1888-08-18

XIX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

On the southwest corner of Washington boulevard and Union street towers a spacious brick building, onthe third floor of which Henry W. King & Co manufacture much ofthe clothing that supplies the country trade.  The place is far from uninviting.  Clean halls and well-swept stairs croclaim the faithful service of a janitor, and the girl who has worked in "other shops" blesses the man at the rope every time she rides in the neat, mirror-lined elevator.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-17

XVIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson -Chicago Daily Times

If you want to see a snowstorm in summer, or its counterpart in appearence, go to the "separating room" of the mattress and pillow manufactory of Perren & Menzie, 353 to 261 Twentieth street. If you have any curiosity to know how it feels to be featherlined on the inside go to the same room.  One minute will do the work satisfactorily. The above suggestions are for people of poetic temperment or who think they are.  But the practical masses msut enter the "picking" and "dusting" rooms to get an intelligent idea of what a factory of that kind is.   We will go through the matterss department first.  The materials for filling are hair, fine and coarse shavings knows as "exelsior," palm-leave, corn husks, woolen and cotton rags, and grass. 

Chicago Times  1888-08-16

XVII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

In all this wide, weary, work-a-day world there is not a better, brighter, nobler girl than the one who stitches, lines, binds, and vamps your slippers and shoes.  She is a heroine if there ever was one outside of a civil or religious war.  She knows nothing of self-love, nothing of fear, and nothing of her own just rights.  Her life is made up of years of toil, months of privation, and weeks of struggling and striving to keep up with the rushing throng ravenous for her bread and envious of her miserable position.  She works from dawn almost to dusk, carrying every dollar of her earnings to some wretched home in which abide parents, brothers, and sisters often, too, relatives having absolutely no claim on her, none of whom lover her and none of whom show by word, ast, or deed that her generosity, goodness, and real nobility of soul is appreciated.

Chicago Times  1888-08-15

XVI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

One of the white slaves of Chicago stood in the prisoner's dock at the armory police court yesterday moaning piteously.  She was young and her face was pretty.  The big policeman who stood at her side said he had arristed her for soliciting men upon the street.  She was booked as Kitty Kelly.  The frail, unfortunate girl brushed away her tears and told a story that went straight to the heart of every man in the crowded court room. She was a white slave and might have worn away her frail life sewing that her character should remain pure and unsullied, but the grinning skeleton of starvation haunter her day and night, and in desperation she sold herself to the tempter.  She was pale and thin and fierce hunger had left marks upon her young face.  "Oh judge I never did such a thing before! I never did it before! For God's sake have pity on me." and she wrung her hands in agony and sobbed convulsively.  "Nonsense," said the justice, trying to be stern. "You all say that."  "My baby! my baby! Oh what will become of her? For mercy's sake don't fine me! I have no money, not a cent.  Oh have mercy. I never was out before, surely I never was."  The big justice looked inquiringly at the big officer and the big officer said with a touch of emotion in his voice, "I never saw her before, your honor."  "Will you promise to keep off the street?" "I can't, no, I can't promise you that.  God knows I would if I could. But when I see my baby starving and there is no other way to find food for her, what else can I do?" and the wretched woman sobbed as if her heart was breaking.  The justice looked stern. Oh, sir," she sobbed, "If you only knew the misery and sorrow, the despair and degredation to which I have been humiliated, you might pity me.  I was young when I was married.  For awhile I was so happy. Then my husband sickened and died.  That was but little more than a year ago.  Soon after my baby was born.  I had no friend and no money. I was alone in this great city and no one to help me or even to give me a bit of advice. Vainly I sought for work.  I could not go into service and take my baby with me, and I could not bear the thought of parting from it.  At last I found employment in a factory.  There I made overalls and toled from morning until night, week in and week out.  But work as hard as I could, I could only earn $4 a week.  Baby took sick and I had to pay for a doctor and medicine, and it cost more than I could make."  

Chicago Times  1888-08-14

XV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Saturday the TIMES reporter and inspector Rodgers of the health department visited more than a score of "slop-shops."  If "Little Hell" is on the North side, certianly "Little Warsaw" is on the West, and they must be labled to be readily distinguished.  As a matter of fact the latter locality is practically labeled, as the largest building in the region is the Kosclusko school, named in honor of the patriot who made Freedom shriek.  If Thaddeus' ghost were to be transported blindfolded from the heroes' hereafter back to earth and landed at the corner of Milwaukee avenue and West Division street it would feel perfectly at home.  It would find the descendents of its fleshly prototype and his companions true knights as becomes their noble heritage - "knights of the goose."  

Chicago Times  1888-08-13

XIV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

The birthright of an American girl may be a glorious attribute on the deck of a trans-atlantic steamship or the floor of a London ball-room, but it is not worth the flop of a brass farthing in the cloak factories of Chicago.  It was high noon by the Jesuite college clock when I got to the rear of 230 West Twelfth street, where David Kafasick has his shop.  Nobody in but an old man.  His face is seamed with wrinkles: he has a big nose the color and texture of a mushroom: his head and half his face is covered with hair of chinchilla shades: his back is humped at the shoulders and his clothes are fithy and worn.  I ask for work and am told that no hands are needed.  He has a pocket that hangs across his waist and into which he puts rags, pieces of thread, hooks and eyes, pins, buttons, and the empty spools that he on the floor about the vacant machine-chairs.  I watch the silent old man as he drags his loos slippers across the floor, and behold I have the key to wealth! But it doesn't profit me worth a copper.  So I survey the premises.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-12

XIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

"I can show you some clothing factories by the side of which those heretofore described by THE TIMES will appear as places.  If you will accompany me along South Canal, Clinton, and Jefferson streets, around Twelfth Street, you will see things that will give you an insight into the way our clothing dealers get rich and the shop-hands are compelled to be satisfied with wages that constitute less than 10 per cent of what the purchaser pays for the article."  The man who spoke these words had come to the TIMES office and offered his service in the disclosures of slave-driving in this city.  This voluntary guide was a Jew named Schlesinger.  Having worked in tailor-shops for a few years he was in a position to point out not only the causes of the prevailling misery in this branch of industry but by personal acquaintance could locate the shops in the vicinity which he considered the worst.  He confined himself to the cloak factories, and took a reporter through a dozen shops, introducing him as an operator from New York who was looking for work.  He said this ruse was necessary as otherwise the factory lords would not allow his companians inside their shops.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-11

XII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

"Do you want 'to visit a manufacturing establishment, generally held in high repute, where a girl's tenure of place depends upon the degrading concessions she may be induced to make to her employer?'" The question was put to a reporter for The TIMES by Inspector George Bodgers of the health department.  They had just formed a temporary copartnership under the name and style of "we" to make a thorough examination of the hells and holes where human beings hive, delve, and thrive or die under the guise of 'employes'. [sic] "Well, I'll tell you the story and I know it to be true and so does my wife. A girl of good development and modest demeanor had for some time been employed in a book bindery and had become fairly well-skilled.  One afternoon she turned in, as the result of her day's work, four books.  The foreman complained that the work was imperfect - in fact, that the books were spoiled, and told the girl she must pay for them.  She asked for particulars but could get little satisfaction.  She became indignant and was thrust aside.  Remembering that other mouths than hers were awaiting the food her scanty earnings must purchase she pleaded first for justice and then for mercy. "You quit work with the rest at 6 o'clock," said the foreman. "Come back fifeteen minutes later and perhaps I may straighten out your account so that you will owe nothing."  The girl, hesitating between hope and fear, crossed the bridge as if to go homeward and then returned to the office.  The foreman was at the door, welcomed her within, and turned the key.  he assured her that he had helped many of the girls in the employ of the firm to balance their accounts after business hours.  Be that as it may, he had made a grave miscalculation in this case, and in less seconds than it takes to tell it he was glad he hadn't lost the key to the door.  The girl came directly to my house, told her story, and never returned to the tiger's lair.  Her case is but one of many, and if she adheres to her present decision it will be the particular one of many before the firm and the foreman hear the last of it.  Now come with me and we'll take a trip through the binderies and printing establishments, and before we get through I'll show you the fiend who endeavored to ruin this young girl.  

Chicago Times  Friday, August 10, 1888

XI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

It was 7 a.m. by all the whistles in "Little Hell" when I reached that section of the city in search of an opening in a slop-shop.  The streets were crowded with shop hands hurrying to their day's work - men and boys with pipes in their mouths carrying dinner pails or lunch baskets; little girls in groups of two and three in beggarly rags; young women and old women, some of them white-haired and stooped with age, wearing shawls about their heads and shoulders and the meanest apologies for shoes.  Many girls were bare-headed and some went through the streets in old skirts and dilapidated waists that had neither collar nor sleeves.   At the corner of Elm and Wesson streets is an immense tailor shop into which the girls fairly swarmed, some going into the main and some into the rear building. Both buildings have three stories, each containing a shop under a different "boss." I followed the crowd through both buildings beginning in the basement and going up and up and up the narrow, dirty covered stairs, stopping on each floor to see the "boss" and apply for work.  No success.  The vest shops were full and so were the trousers shops.  In the jacket shop there was room for experienced hands only at the munificent salary of $3 a week.  The garments were cut and the sewer had the entire making.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-09

X-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

For dismal surroundings, economy of comforts, and heartless treatment, to the Boston store belongs the palm.  I did not work in that establishment although I tried very hard to do so.  I was in the store at 8 o'clock on Friday morning as arranged with Mr. Hillman, who had partially promised to hire me.  "One of the girls in the hoisery department," he had said "is sick, and if she doesn't come back Friday morning I will try you."  I could not find the gentleman, although I hunted the main floor and the floors above and below.  My plan of fluctuation was to take the elevator up one story and walk down, and then ride up two and walk down the third flight, in that way I took in the entire store and a great part of the employees.  I began at the bottom and spent a full hour in the basement, where I saw so much and suffered so much that the upper floors had no surprised for me.  In the first place the atmosphere was almost unendurable.   Hot! It must have been 100 degrees above! Out in the open air not a breeze was stirring and the heat was sizzling.  Down where I was I could not see a single opening to admit the air, firey as it was, excepting the open door at the extreme south-east corner of the floor, leading up a short flight of steps to the sidewalk.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-08

IX-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

"When we're late and get locked out we go to the dago shop.  Were you ever in a dago's." "No." "Well, you can always tell them by the 'Ladies Entrance.' Some of them are real nice, with beautiful carpets and lace curtains and mirrors on the wall.  There's a place over on Madisan street where you can get crackers and pop for a nickle.  Some of the girls go down-town and shop, but when it rains the police lets us wait in the tunnel." "How long," I asked."Till 9 o'clock. You have to be here at 7:30 o'clock, and if you're late the door is locked and you can't get in till 9."  The above conversation took place in the Dearborn Feather Duster company's place at 50 Canal street, where I applied for work Saturday morning.  The building is in a substantial brick and extends back to the river. The factory is on the third floor and reached by two long flights of stairs that needed sweeping and repairing.  I suppose the surroundings were suitable for the business carried on, but they were far from comfortable and wholly uncharming.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-07

VIII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Nothing ever heretofore printed in The TIMES has provoked more comment or attracted more widespread attention than the exposures made during the last six days of the condition of the girls who work in some of the sewing shops of the city.  The entire public seems to be watching the progress of the revelations made by Miss Nelson not only with interest but the constantly increasing indignation at the slave-drivers who are responsible for the state of affairs.  Hundreds of letters are recieved at this office daily commending the work and urging that it be prosecuted until the public is so thoroughly aroused that the evil shall be specially and permanently corrected.  Several of the writers have spent sums of money varying from $1 to $25 requesting that Miss Nelson distribute it among the poor girls who are so bitterly and shamefully oppressed, or make such use of it as her good judgement and experience may suggest. 

Chicago Times  1888-08-06

VII-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Wednesday morning I began my career as a dry-goods clerk.  It took all my wits to get an opening.  At Field's Mandel's, Walker's, and Schlesinger's no help was needed and none would be taken without experience.  By all the managers I was treated politely. Lloyd didn't want any more help and told me so with vehemence. The big blonde who manages the Bee Hive was "very sorry he could not offer anything before the fall trade opened."  I told him I was quick at figures and knew I could sell goods if only I had a chance.  No, it was too late in the season and I had better come in again.  I asked how much he thought I would be worth. "Oh, $3.50 or $4 till you are experienced."  "Couldn't you give me $5?"  "Hardly."  "Not if I prove to you that I can make and keep custom?"  "You can't expect $5 any place in town.  You see, you are green: you don't know anything about the business."  "The goods are all marked, aren't they? Well I know enough about mathematics to master the intracacies of your check and order stub in ten minutes, and I must have work right off with salary enough to live on."   He put his foot up on a chair and with a show of genuine interest wanted to know what it cost me to live.  As I gave him the figures borrowed from a single girl in Julius Stein's employ, he took them down on a stub:      Lodgings: -------------------------------$1.70 Car fare:--------------------------------- 60 Lunches:---------------------------------- 30   That makes $2.40, and if you pay me $4 I will have $1.60 a week to live on.  Perhaps you can tell me where a girl can get food and clothes for that amount?  "No I can't.  But why don't you go to the factory and sew?"  "Make shirts for 80 cents a dozen and cloth jackets at 25 cents each? One trial is enough.  Now I am going to see what I can make clerking" and thanking him for his attention I withdrew.  In the City of Paris the manager told me I would have to begin on a small pay, $3 or so, till the season opened, and that I might come in the next morning and he would try me.    

Chicago Times  1888-08-05

VI-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Never so long as reason reigns shall I forget the day I worked in II Goldsmith's tailor-shop, and never when I pray shall I forget to add, "God help the shop girls." Thursday morning I stepped from an Ogden avenue car and walked down Market street in search of work. It was boiling hot and I carried my brown veil on the breeze, and a small pasteboard box containing a cracker and a lemon, a paper of needles, a thimble, and a pair of scissors.  On the way I met two unhappy looking girls of whom I made labor inquiry.  One had sewed carpet at $5 a week for the Chicago Carpet company but was out of employment.  The other said she earned $6 a week in WB Brothers' caravat department.  Her [unreadable] was sick and the forewoman had "let her off for the day."  The first clew I got to a place was a wooden sign with "Sewing GIrls Wanted" that hung below the north window of 153 Market street, where Messrs. Hart, Abt, & Marx manufacture clothing.  I read the sign and entered the main store - a nice, big, clean cool place.  A little girl sat at the big typewriter making such a clatter with her letters that it was useless to try to call her.  In the office were two gentlemen.  One was the very prototype of Munkaesy's Jesus Christ, and he I addressed for work.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-04

V-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

Two Weeks ago, Ref. Mr. Goss Preached a sermon relative to the morals and progress of the working woman. Among other things he referred to a "good Jew" who having the comfort of the hundred odd girls in his cloak factory at heart, "provided every day for 1 cent a substantial lunch."  I sent the reverend gnetlemen a note, inclosing a stamp for the address of the "Good Jew" and in reply came the name of H. Zimmerman, 255 Monroe street.  On went poverty's respectable rags, and off I posted for shop-work and a penny spread. The elevator carried me to the top of the building, where every week thousands of jackets, sacques, circulars, dolmans, and cloaks are turned out to supply the country trade of the northwest.  Here in a crowded room, with low ceiling and dingy walls, poorly ventilated and insufficiently lighted, sit between eighty and 150 young girls surrounded from Monday morning until Saturday noon by the ceaseless clatter of the sewing machines in an atmosphere so thick that it can be cut with a knife. 

Chicago Times  1888-08-03

IV-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

On Thursday morning when I started to renew my factory life I discovered after getting on a South-side car that I did not have a cent in my pocket.  In putting on my shop-girl disguise I had left my purse at home.  When the conductor asked for the fare I had none to give him.  It was very hot, the clouds threatened rain, and the shop was at so greata distance that I did not feel as if I could walk.  I concluded to throw myself on the generosity of the conductor and told him I had forgotten my purse.  He looked ugly and told me to get off.  Just as he placed his whistle to his lips to signal the gripman to stop a distinguished, well-dressed man paid my fare. I thanked him for his courtesy and told him if he would give me his card I would send him the money he had so kindly paid.  He smiled and said: "A mere bagatelle, miss, and not worth mentioning."  At Eighteenth street I left the car to go to a vestmaker's place at 2153 Archer avenue.  I was crossing the three points where State and Nineteenth streets intersect when who should come abreast but my benefactor.  Instead of raising his hat he jauntily cocked his left eye and came so close to me that the sleeve of my "never-rip" jersey was pressed against the waist-line of his light grey suit."   "Aha, here we are again!"  Although I distinctly heard every word of his remark, I said, "I beg your pardon" with as much of the Newport chill as I could affect.   "Come, come now," he said, with increased gayety, moving his waistband still closer to my jersey. "Oh, you are the gentleman to whom I am indebted for car-fare.  You want your money, I suppose; if you will give me your card I will write you an order."   "Do you work in this neighborhood?"  "No sir"  "Where then?"  "No place" "Where are you going?"  "For work."  "What kind?"  "Any kind.  May I have your card? I am in something of a hurry." "Mayant I have yours?" He asked "Certainly, I haven't my case, but if you will lend me a pencil I will write you one."   "With pleasure, my dear."  "You are mistaken, sir, that is not my name."  "Ha ha ha! I see you are a little mischevous, but for all that you are my dear," producing three inches of Faber. "A card, please"  "Bless me, I had forgotten," and the natty sack-coat was ransacked for a suitable card. Ah, here, this will do, I hope, in lieu of something more conventional," carefully placing on my sewing-box a small card with the address down.  I reversed the pasteboard and read on the back: Dr. Charles Gilman Smith Office Hours ----------- Residence ------------   "Dr. Smith! I know him quite well."  "Oh you do, eh?" In a tone that left no doubt that his stock in me had dropped.  I wrote:  Reporter. The Times.    And handed it to my companion, who read it with eyes that seemed to have been wired open.   

Chicago Times  1888-08-02

III-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

One of the chance acquaintances I made at the never-rip jersey factory worked three days for Julius Stein & Co., 122 Market street, received 63 cents for her labors about ten days after leaving. One-third of 63 cents is 21 2/5 cents.  That is the way Stein & CO solve the problem; but the question is one that capital, Christianity, and civilization are invited to analyze.    "Don't never go to Stein's" the little girl said, "It's an awful place."   On Saturday I tumbled out of bed at 6 AM and donned my factory clothes.  On the way down-town the street-car met with an eight-minute obstruction in the shape of a load of bricks, and when I reached the manufacturing establishment of Julius Stein & Co. it was 8:32 o'clock.  The elevator took me up one story and I was told to "get out."  I told the boy at the rope that I wished to go up to the work room.     "You're too late," he said. "Have to take the freight elevator down at the back of the store."   Down I walked as directed past long tables that towered with long cloaks, dolmans, ulsters, jackets, and short wraps; past two or three busy, unobserving clerks, past a pair of forbidding looking men who glared at me from under their black hats and blacker brows; past an earthen-grey stringy crash towel that waved at hast mast above a dirty wash-basin; past a tier of closets that emitted a stifling odor, and on down to the packing room.  I waited for a big, lusty packer to finish pummelling the mischevous little Swede who ran the elevator and was carried up to the top floor with a box of cloth.  When the car landed I found myself at the extreme end of a room 50 X 180 feet, in an inclosure of wire-fence, packing-boxes, and cutting-boards, beyong and between which I could see perhaps two-hundred persons, mostly women, bent over machines, and working only as slaves ever work.  The thundering [two unreadable words] of the machinery deadened every other [two undreadable words] even that made by the cutters as they ran their heavy shears through the [undreadable] and muslin trimmings.  

Chicago Times  1888-08-01

II-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily Times

I did not realize the ignominious position of respectable poverty till I went to Ellinger's cloak factory, 262 Madison street, where labor is bondage, the laborer a slave, and flesh and blood cheaper than needles and thread.  Corporations are said to be without heart, but this concern is a commercial inquisition.  it puts its help on the plane of slavery and nothing but civil law prevents the use of the lash.  The factory is on the third floor of the large brick building at the east end of Madison street bridge on the south side of the street.  Elevator? Not much. An elevator is a luxury and luxuries have no place at Ellinger's You will be short of breath when you reach the top of the fourth flight, but in recovering, you have time to take in the surroundings - a great barn of a place with the single charm of good light.  There is plenty of vacant room but the women are huddled together, elbows touching along the line of the machines.  Beneath the west windows flows the river; at the south end of the room, not ten feet from the crowded table, is a tier of closets, and on hot days the combined odor of the two is shocking.  Nobody in his employ dare complain about smells, cold, head, work, wages, or rules.  But whoever heard of martyrs complaining? 

Chicago Times  1888-07-31

I-"City Slave Girls" - Nell Nelson - Chicago Daily TImes

Tuesday, July 10, according to instructions from THE TIMES, I made up for the role of shop-girl and with a list of factories in one hand and gentle peace in the other sailed down State street under a brown braize veil as impenetrable as an iron mask, I applied at two feather factories and three corset shopws, but aside from the exercise up and down several flights of stairs got nothing.  The feather people did not need any help and the corset folks had not yet started on the winter trade.  I was treated with civility, however, and given permission to "drop in in a week or so."  The fifth place on my list was the "Western Lace Manufacturing Co.," 218 State street.  Ascending one flight of stairs I stopped to take off my veil and adjust my eyes to the low light.  That done I looked about and finding a door marked "Office of the Western Lace Manufacturing Co." with "Come In" On the glass I complied.  A young girl followed and leaving her to close the door, I fell into a chair, the only one about, and proceeded to perspire and scrutinize the place.  The office was not uninviting.  The floor had cheap carpet, the ceiling was high and the room well ventilated and admirably lighted.  On a long table, that served as a sort of fortification for the private office of the company, were the samples - "antique crocheted goods" - as they are listed, in various shades of white.  All were of different pattern and unvarying ugliness.  There were round tidies and oblong tidies, square mats for a bureau and smaller ones of oval and circular design, intended for a lamp or cusion.  Behind the table, secheting between a writing stand and a desk, was a young man of 30 or so, of the blonde type, with a stationary scowl between his eyebrows and an otherwise pleasing manner.  That is, I thought the manner pleasing until I began to get acquainted with it and then my opinion changed.  After a lapse of five minutes or so, the fair-haired gentleman turned to the young girl with a deeping of the scowl and a must unalluring "Well?" 

Chicago Times  1888-07-30

II-"The Blackbird Cruise" - W.H. Brommage - San Francisco Examiner

". . .The story of the cruise of the “blackbird” steamer Montserrat was told in yesterday’s “Examiner” by the special correspondent, mr. W.H. Brommage, who had shipped as a sailor for the voyage. In obedience to the instructions under which he set out Mr. Brommage confined his narrative to a simple and accurate statement of the facts with no attempt of sensational effect. In fact, the story was modified by the suppression of some details which would have thrown the horrors of the traffic into stronger relief. To-day our correspondent makes some additions to his narrative which will be found exceedingly interesting. . ."

I-"A Sale of Souls" - W.H. Brommage - San Francisco Examiner

". . .On the 23rd of last April the tramp steamer Montserrat left San Francisco for the ostensible purpose of a trading voyage among the South Sea islands, but in reality, as was suspected at the time, to go on a slave-trading expedition. Her purpose was to make laboring contracts with the simple people of the islands to work on the plantations of the fever-stricken west coast of Guatemala for five years. On the face of it, the contract is legitimate, but when it is known that for little or not pay these people leave their beautiful island home, go into a strange country, among a people whose language they do not understand, live like dogs and die like sheep in the cane-covered marshes, and under the burning suns of tropical Guatemala, the cruelty of such deportation becomes apparent. Such traffic in the South Seas has gone on for years under the familiar name of “blackbirding,” but the ships that come out of the Western Pacific, packed with the half-garbed natives of the islands, are no less slavers than those swift barks that in other days sailed from the west coast of Africa to the southern shores of America. This enterprise was under the joint management of San Francisco and Central American capital. The manager-in-chief of the expedition was W.H. Ferguson, whose connection with a similar slave ship, the ill-fated Tahiti, in which 400 natives were drowned, will be remembered. In command of the Montserrat was Captain Blackburn. Dr. R.J. McGittigen of San Francisco, a graduate of the Cooper Medical College, accompanied the expedition as surgeon, and James S. Osborne, a young San Franciscan, went along as passenger. With a full crew, provisions and supplies to last four months the vessel sailed, and after visiting eleven islands of the Gilbert group carried 388 imprisoned laborers to San Jose de Guatemala, and there delivered them to the wealthy Spanish plantation owners, who lodged them upon their sugar plantations along the coast to labor out the five years of their contract or to die with the infectious diseases coming to that marsh district. On board the Montserrat was a reporter of the “Examiner” in the guise of and performing the functions of a sailor. His vivid story of the methods used to secure the laborers, their weary voyage of twenty-three days from their sea-girt (?) home to Guatemala’s coast, their painful journeys overland to the plantations in the interior is told below. . ."

XIII-"Who are the players? What are the problems?" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

What stands in the way of cleaning up California's rapidly growing $3.5 billion garment industry, centered in Los Angeles and officially recognized as "the dirtiest in the state"? After an intensive eight-month investigation, which included a month's undercover work posing as an illegal garment worker, the Herald Examiner discovered that the garment industry's major problems revolve around the manufacturers, not the contractors. These people, the manufacturers, control the purse strings of the industry yet are not held legally accountable for the health and labor conditions under which their garments are made. 

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-28

XII-"The retailer's side of the story" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

Talk to major retailers in Los Angeles, the impeccably dressed corporate executives who reap grand profits from selling high fashion and style, and they will completely disavow the problems of the garment industry.  But talk to labor commission officials or even spokesmen from various contractors' or manufacturers associations, and they will tell you that until big retailers agree to accept responsibility for their part in perpetuating flagrant labor and health code violations, the industry will continue to be "the dirtiest in the state."  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-27

XI-"It’s Another Mike Wallace Trick!" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

If Linwood Melton was a good example of a manufacturer insinuated from the exploitation of the industry, Norman Blomberg, the president of Sauci Inc., an $8 million budget-blouse company, was someone who seemed to know the story. "So it's a horrifying business. What's new?" Blomberg said when I told him the conditions under which I worked on his rose-and-cream-colored short-sleeved blouse at Felix Mendoza's shop. He seemed sure of himself, a man with arough exterior.

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-26

X-"Employer Meets Employer—Merlina, Melton, Mendoza" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

The only manufacturer who agreed to prove publicly that he paid a fair price to his contractors was Linwood Melton.  When we met, Melton was the president of High Tide Swimwear, the $7.1 million subsidiary of Warnaco Inc., maker of such brand names as White Stag, Hathaway Shirts, and Warner's Intimate Apparel.  Warnaco Inc., one of the largest apparel conglomerates in the United States, recently liquidated its HIgh Tide division because, according to one of its Connecticut corporate exacutives, "its relatively small volume was not compatible with the rest of the business."  Melton is no longer with Warnaco. 

IX-"The fading of Felix Mendoza's dream" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

Felix Mendoza is the first to admit that he should go out of business. No excuses. No bitterness. He says there is hardly a chance to make a go of it as a garment contractor in Los Angeles.  You remember Mendoza. He was the slightly built man who thought I was another poor illegal and gave me a job in his small and dank sewing factory near Central Los Angeles.  His shop was filthy, nightmarish.  And for a full week's work, I earned a pitiful $38.74

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-23

VIII-"The work is 'killing' Martha and Oscar" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

The manufacturers' response to knowing I worked on their garments seemed miled to the way Oscar and Martha Herrera greeted the news that I was a journalist, not a Brazillian garment worker.  The first time I entered the shop as a newspaper reporter, one sunny Tuesday afternoon, the Herrera's responded to me cooly but politely.  Oscar stood over the mangle, swiftly arranging the blue trousers on the roller before he lowered the steaming top.  As I approached, he looked up with a puzzled expression on his face.  Some of the other workers that had befriended me when I worked in the shop came forward, like Sergio from Guatemala.  He recognized me immediately and smiled. He knew something was up.  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-22

VII-"'I"m not Joan of Arc. I'm a garment manufacturer.'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

To hear wealthy dress manufacturers Richard Freedman and Lowell Meyer talk, you would think that single-handedly they overcame the recession and every other obstacle in a competitive business, to put their firm on top.  Listening to smooth-talking women's sportswear manufacturer Warren Handler talk, you would think that all it took for him to succeed was good design and lots of hard work.  And I might have believed them, all of them - had I not been demeaned and exploited as a worker in one of their contractor's unhealthful shops.  Or had I not know about the manufacturers' sanctioned edge over everyone else in the Los Angeles germent industry.  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-21

VI-"Merlina faces the labor commissioner - and wins" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

The offices of the state labor commissioner, on the fifth floor at 107 S. Broadway, are painted hospital green and off white, a no-nonsense kind of place.  In the large, rectangular shaped entry room, clerks stand behind an old, built-in wooden counter that divides the space into offices and a waiting room.  That day, nearly everyone in the waiting room was either black or spoke Spanish. I never would have complained to the Labor Commission had I not know that what happened to me at Ernst Strauss Inc. happens to garment workers every day. Labor Department officials believe that many employers regularly refuse to pay but because the workers are largely undocumented - an estimated 90 percent of them in Los Angeles are here without papers- they get away with it.  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-20

V-"Seven Hours in a Union Shop for $2.50" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

Make no mistake about the quality of the operation over at the union-organized Ernst Strauss Inc.  The shop, maker of very expensive, fine-quality women's suits and coats, is considered the best in Los Angeles.  Ask garment industry leaders, union officals, ask the owners themselves.  "The pay is the highest in California - maybe the country," said one owner.  "The workers are so loyal you couldn't beat them away. " said another.  "It's a union shop," explained someone from the International Ladie's Garment Worker's Union.  "A 30-year member. Everything is done right."  But "right in the undisputed best shop in town is a relative term.  On June 12, a Thursday, I went to work as a sewing machine operator in Ernst Strauss factory.  As before, I posed as a poor, illegal brazillian germent worker. I no speak English. Espanol, por favor.  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-19

IV-"Homework: The Alien’s Secret Support System" Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

No one seemed to know how much garment industry homework is done in Los Angeles.  And I had no idea how work illegally filters down to homes from the contractors or manufacturers.  So at the end of May, I decided to find out on the streets.  I had a few preconcieved notions about homework.  In the Mendoza shop where I worked in early May, I witnessed trusted sewing machine operators carry out unfinished blouses stuffed in large, green plastic garbage bags, presumably to be finished later at home.  For nine days, from 8 AM to 5 PM, I walked the residential streets of the city, from Central Los Angeles to Sunland in the north, to Wilmington, the "Heart of the Harbor," to El Monte on the east.  I chose streets where it seemed working-class and poor people lived; man neighborhoods were largely Spanish-speaking.

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-18

III-"'This is the filthiest of all industries'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

The Los Angeles Country Health Department found Felix Mendoza's shop a full month before I knocked on the door looking for work there.  Since October 1979, when a county ordinance mandated the Health Department to locate and license the estimated 3,000 sewing shops in Los Angeles County, health officials have been trying to clean up what Richard Dinnerline, L.A. county chief of occupational health, called "the filthiest of all industries."  According the the Health Department's Dec. 30 1980 figures, 2,746 garment factories have been found and licenced in the past year.  Health officials believe there are hundreds more, especially in outlying areas of the county where immigrant workers often live.    

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-16

II-"Five Days' Work for Felix Mendoza, $38.74" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

I was beginning my second odyssey into the $35 billion California germent industry, another weekling, nine-hour-a-day journey into the underworld of fancy clothes and high style.  I knocked on the wooden door behind the grate at 331 N. Mountain View in Los Angeles. Just when I thought no one would answer, a small, thin, dark-eyed man slowly opened the door.  He was Felix Mendoza, a Mexican-born sewing contractor who had been in business for only six months.  "I'm looking for work," I said in Spanish through the bars.  "Can you sew?" he asked.  It was his only question. 

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-15

I-"Merlina's Job in Oscar Herrera's Factory" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

It was almost 5 P.M. on a Tuesday when I stepped out of the elevator onto the factory room floor.  I stood quietly, looking anxiously to both sides of the now empty sewing shop.  Near the entrance, a dark-haired man in a white t-shirt stood working at a long, wooden table piled high with red cloth.  His name: Oscar Herrera, owner of the shop.  Late afternoon light filtered through the rows of sooty windows that formed one entire wall of the large production room.  He motioned for me.   "Venga venga! Come here!" he said in Spanish.  "What are you looking for?"  "Busco trabajo. I am looking for work," I said nervously.  "Do you know how to sew?" he countered.  I nodded yes, not wanting to lie outright.  He told me they had work and that if I could make this jacket - he walked over to a rack of clothes and held up a white blazer - and this dress - he held up a short-sleeved red one - I could have a job.  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-14

XIII-"It can happen here;" Nazi Torturer Tells How" - John Metcalfe and James Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

Throughout the summer Billy Rose swings his colorful water carnival at the Clevelant Great Lakes exposition to a might climax while a chorus sings, "It can't happen here!" Black shirts, brown shirts, reds collapse in a fantastic dance when a peace loving legion of Americans marches onto the stage.  But in a basement apartment a few miles away, I meet an Amerikadeutscher Volksbund fanatic, who is convinced "it can happen here."  He is Adolph Scheidt, alias Schmidt, 564 E. 120th st., a sheet metal worker employed by the General Aviation Corp., and secretary of the Cleveland Bund post.  A disabled German world war veteran, Scheidt apparently is in almost constant pain.  he breathes hard and occasionally twists his body and grips his side as if to ease the pain.  His icy eyes stare at me suspiciously as I meet him in front of his apartment.  I introduce myslf and he gives me the nazi salute.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-24

XII-"Chicago Police 'with Us,' Ex G-Man hears Nazi Boast" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

Initial subscriptions for the Chicago Bunds' proposed camp near Grays Lake total $2,000, Fuehrer Fritz Heberling tells me on Aug, 18.  "With an insurance company taking a mortgage for $4,000, we need only $2,500 more," he says.  "because we already have 1,500 in the Bund fund, the total cost will be $10,000. We are going to have baby bonds.  But first we have to have a charter and make a corporation.  It will take about two months.  We don't have an option on the property, but we are not worried about that." 

XI-"Ex G-Man Finds Friction in Nazi Ranks" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

Fritz Matthes, commander of the Deutscher Volksbund storm troops, tells me how he fooled reporters who wanted to know the name of the Chicago Fuehrer at the Kenosha German day celebration. "First we told them it was Goldburg," he laughs.  "then we say his name is Dickstein."  I tell him it was a good joke and pretend to enjoy it heartily.  Matthes gives us a lengthy speech on staying out of trouble when we are in uniform and denouncing those who did not make their appearence in uniform, declaring they apparently lacked the courage to join us.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-22

X-"German Citizens Join U.S. Bund, Ex G-Man Learns" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

The fact that the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund has opened its membership to German citizens "some day may cause a lot of trouble," Fritz Heberling, fuehrer of the Deutscher Volksbund tells me.  We are seated in Heberling's home at 3240 W. Warner ave. for a "school" session.  I have volunteered to help Heberling with English pronunciation and grammar and he is to help me with German. He says he never could conscientiously become an American citizen because he could not be loyal to two countries at the same time.  "you know," he explains, "one time I went to the courthouse - the federal office - to file my intention but when I went up the steps and saw those people writing out papers and swearing, I just could not do it.  I turned around and went out again.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-21

IX-" Ex-G-Man Hears Bund Edict on Kenosha March" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

Fritz Matthes, drillmaster of the Deutscher Volksbund, tells me not to attempt to retaliate if the CIO or "the communists" start trouble when we parade at Kenosha, Wis., on German day.  "I'll issue the commands if the situation requires action," he warns.  This warning comes six days before the Kenosha celebration after a drill night at the Bundscheim.  At this meeting and at the business meeting of the Amerikadeutscher Bund two days later, a dozen members asks for copies of the pictures I took at Hindenberg camp the previous Sunday.  Members at amused at the stories of the Hindenburg camp celebration in the Milwaukee Sentinel headed "Fail to Heil Hitler."  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-20

VIII-"Nazi in U.S. Boast German Counsul Control" - William Mueller, John C. Metcalfe, James J. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

By the very pinnacle of American naziism - Der Fuehrer Fritz Kuhn - the TIMES was informed of a "special arrangement" between the German-American Bund and Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany.  Ramifications of the "arrangement" Kuhn declared, include a secret relationship between the Bund and the new German ambassador to the United States and German counsuls throughout the country.  Publicly, Kuhn has said repeatedly:  "We are strictly an American organization with no connections with Germany." But in the privacy of his executive office on the second floor of the Bund national headquarters at 178 E. 85th st., New York, he had a different story to tell one of the reporters who became a trusted storm trooper. 

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-19

VII-"Storm Trooper's Love Flight Told By Chicago Wife " - William Mueller, James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

A bewildered little woman, aged beyond her years, sat in her shabby basement apartment at 2631 Lakewood ave., today sobbing for "justice" from her American nazi storm troop husband who deserted her for a childhood sweetheart. She is Mrs. Freida Lee, 54, and she told her story after identifying a picture of Robert Lee, Los Angeles member of the Amerikadeutsher Volksbund, as the husband who deserted her on Dec. 13, 1932.  The picture appeared in the TIMES Sept. 10 in connection with the series on American nazis.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-17

VI-"Bunds Push Jewish Boycott" - William Mueller, John C. Metcalfe, and James J. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

Backed by a flood of nazi propaganda, a movement to boycott all Jewish merchants and all newspapers, movie theaters, and radio program sponsors employing Jews in preference to gentiles is being pushed strongly today by the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund and allied organizations. The movement was started by the Friends of New Germany, predecessor of the Bund, in 1935 to counteract the boycott of German goods. Rebate stamps are issued to customers who purchase in Bund-approved stores. Most recent support for the campaign came from Donald Shea, Baltimore, founder of the National Gentile League, inc., who spoke at the Bund's camp Nordland Sept 5. He was widely cheered when he announced his organization would join the Bund's boycott.

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-16

U.S. Nazi Toys Teach Kids War

Nazi swastikas wave ... a cannon "booms" ...sparks fly from machine guns...signal communication lights flash.  It is WAR, but a miniature war.  A war played by American boys and girls with toy soldiers which are exact copies of the new Hitler military machine.  Toy soldiers imported from Germany instill in American children the "glory" of war, TIMES reporters "covering" American nazidom learned.  Two German import stores in the Yorkville section of New York City sell hundreds of nazi toy soldiers each year.  The stores have smaller displays of American soldiers but they are not nearly as popular as those of the nazi regime.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-15

V-"Nazi in U.S. Blast Church" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

American nazis, aping the Fuehrer of their homeland, applaud vicious attacts on Chicago's Cardinal Mundelein, the Roman Catholic Church, and all Christian religions which conflict with national socialism.  But the Chicago leader of the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, buck-toothed Peter Gissibl, a tailer, makes cassocks for priests and is actively soliciting their business.  Early this month, Times reporter James Metcalfe, who became a Deutcher Volksbund storm trooper under the name of Oberwinder, drafted a letter for Gissibl which his business partner said was to go to 250 Catholic priests. 

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-14

IV-"Nazi Swastika Burns Like Fiery Cross" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

". . . 'You've won the most important prize of the entire drawing!' the speaker is an Amerikadeutscher Volksbund storm trooper and he is referring toa copy of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' (My Battle) which I discover is just as much a 'Bible' to American nazis as it is to Hitler's Schutz Staffel guards in Berlin.  I hold the ticket which wins 'Mein Kampf' in a drawing at the fourth annual German day of Nassau county June 6 at the Brauhof in New Hyde Park, L.I.  The main prize is a round trip to Germany but loyal storm troopers feel it is no more important than a copy of Der Fuchrer's account of his struggle. . ."

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-13

III-"Fascist Union U.S. Nazi Goal" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

"The Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, U.S. voice of nazism, is seeking to consolidate all fascist elements in America, wit their vari-colored shirts, into one great movement which the Hitler-inspired Bund will lead.  TIMES reporters who joined the Bund marched with Italian black shirts and Ukranian brown shirts.  Leaders revealed plans to enlist the support of other fascist-inclined groups.  At the same time Newton Jenkins, perenially hopefully political candidate of Chicago is attemption to unite "nationalist" groups in a third party and the Bund is looking for a leader of its third party movement. . ."

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-12

II-"U.S. Children 'Heil' Hitler" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

I am a stranger in the crowded bar at Camp Siegfried, summer home of the German-American Bund near Yaphank, L.I.. It is Sunday, May 23, and American nazis of the New York metropolitan area are celebrating the official summer opening of their camp.  The air is heavy with conversation in German and it is difficult for me to catch snatches of it since I have forgotten much of the German I learned in Berlin as a boy.  My aim is to become acquainted with a Bund member who will invite me to a meeting where I can become a part of the organizations.  I talk about the inevetable weather toa kindly appearing man next to me and soon we take our beer out to a picnic table under the tall trees that surround the restaurant-bar building.  I tell him I am a stranger in New York and that I came to Camp Siegfried because I wanted to be with people of my own race.  

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-10

I-"Secrets of Nazi Army in USA" - William Mueller and John Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times

"The regimented tread of marching men under the flaming nazi swastika resounds from coast to coast in the United States today. In uniforms strangely suggestive of those worn by Adolf Hitler's nazi storm troops a relatively small but rapidly growing army is preparing for the American counterpart of "Der Tag," when it plans to seize control of the United States. "We are not plotting a revolution," leaders tell their followers. "But we are going to be prepared to wrest control from the communist Jews when they start their revolution. We will save America for white-Americans. . ."

Chicago Daily Times  1937-09-09

"Our Fascist Enemies Within" - John Roy Carlson - American Mercury

In a previous article I reported in detail how the America First Committee had been infiltrated and thoroughly polluted by support and actual adhesions from the most sinister pro-Nazi and fascist-minded groups in the country.  Although most of this support was uninvited, it was largely tolerated even by best-intentioned leaders and in many local chapters it took over control.  Thus was created the distinctly totalitarian atmosphere in which the Committee found itself when the attack on Pearl Harbor put us into the war.  My article tried to differentiate sharply between the honest, principled isolationists and the hate-mongering elements acting as agents of foreign nations or misusing the movement as a convenient vehicle for their own special brands of fascist notions.  America's entry into the war makes that differentiantion even more important.  Tens of thousands of yesterday's "isolationists" are today without reservation on America's side of the war. 

American Mercury  1942-03-01

"The Shame Game" - Douglas McCollam - Columbia Journalism Review

"It was just before 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon last November when a contingent of police gathered outside the home of Louis Conradt Jr., a longtime county prosecutor living in the small community of Terrell, Texas, just east of Dallas. Though the fifty-six-year-old Conradt was a colleague of some of the officers, they hadn’t come to discuss a case or for a backyard barbeque. Rather, the veteran district attorney, who had prosecuted hundreds of felonies during more than two decades in law enforcement, was himself the target of an unusual criminal probe. For weeks the police in the nearby town of Murphy had been working with the online watchdog group Perverted Justice and producers from Dateline NBC’s popular “To Catch a Predator” series in an elaborate sting operation targeting adults cruising the Internet to solicit sex from minors. Dateline had leased a house in an upscale subdivision, outfitted it with multiple hidden cameras, and hired actors to impersonate minors to help lure suspects into the trap. As with several similar operations previously conducted by Dateline, there was no shortage of men looking to score with underage boys and girls. In all, twenty-four men were caught in the Murphy sting, including a retired doctor, a traveling businessman, a school teacher, and a Navy veteran . . ."

Columbia Journalism Review  2007-01-01

"Dateline: To Kill a Predator" - Jesse Wegman - Huffington Post

"Well, Dateline: you finally got what you wanted - a live execution, with cameras rolling. Are you satisfied? A man is dead, technically by his own hand: Louis Conradt, an assistant district attorney in a small Texas town, about to be arrested for chatting online with and planning to meet a minor (he thought) for sex. He did not actually leave his house, but he did talk about it online, and in Texas that's enough to constitute a crime. So the cops descend on his bungalow with Dateline in tow, and they get the goods, if not the guy: a loud bang echoes from inside the house as their cameras approach. Moments later, Conradt is wheeled out on a stretcher, his bloody hair waving in the breeze."

Huffington Post  2007-02-23

Over the line: the questionable tactics of "To Catch a Predator" - Deborah Potter - American Journalism Review

". . .The 'To Catch a Predator' series on 'Dateline NBC' has been a smash hit for the network's news division since it launched more than two years ago, drawing a substantial audience and public praise for bringing sex offenders to justice. But the program's tactics have always been controversial, and now they've landed NBC in court. The charge is breach of contract, but the complaint paints a picture of a program willing to cross ethical lines to win ratings. Former 'Dateline' producer Marsha Bartel, who worked at NBC for more than 20 years, was let go last December just a few months after being promoted to sole producer of the 'Predator' series. Bartel says the company told her she was being dropped in a general round of layoffs. While there's no question that NBC has been downsizing, Bartel believes she was forced out because she complained to her supervisors that the 'Predator' series repeatedly violated the standards of ethical journalism. . ."

American Journalism Review  2007-08-01

"Ethics of NBC's Sting Show 'To Catch a Predator'" - Neal Conan - Talk of the Nation NPR

The online watchdog group Perverted Justice lures sexual predators by posing as minors online and inviting them to meet up in person. And Dateline NBC's wildly popular "To Catch a Predator" series has captured audiences nationwide with a mix of fear and voyeurism. Guests: Douglas McCollam, attorney and contributing writer for Columbia Journalism Review Chris Hansen, host of NBC Dateline series "To Catch a Predator" Richard Rapaport, San Francisco-based freelance writer, author of "Dying and living in 'COPS' America" a critique of "To Catch a Predator." Xavier von Erck, founder of pervertedjustice.com

Talk of the Nation  2007-01-16

XIX-"To Catch a Predator: Potential predators go south in Kentucky" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"Bowling Green, Ky. — We're at it again, catching potential online sex predators in the act of attempting to meet young girls. Elliott: I’ve had that fantasy in the back of my head. Chris Hansen: About being with a young girl? Elliott: A young girl, yes. We're in a new state, in a new part of the country -- southwestern Kentucky. What's not new is the men's reaction to meeting who they think is a young girl. Armstrong: I haven't had a kiss yet. Elliott: Gosh, you're pretty. West: Well, I’m going to give you a hug. McPhetridge: I’d like to hold you. Decoy: And then what? McPhetridge: And kiss you. That's why I was asking you to come up here. We're set up in this six-thousand square foot home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We've outfitted the house with thirteen hidden cameras and seven are outside, capturing a potential predator as he drives into the development, up our street and into our driveway. Then five cameras inside pick up his every move as he walks in the door."

Dateline NBC  2007-12-28

XVII-"To Catch a Predator: Expensive home rich with potential predators" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"OCEAN COUNTY, N.J. — We're in Ocean County, New Jersey for our eleventh internet sex predator investigation. Mike: You're Chris Hansen. Hansen: I am. Here, men will show up after making a date online, apparently hoping for sex with a young teen and knowing exactly what they’ve walked into… Justo Benavides: This is the Dateline thing. ...seem to realize what they are doing is illegal… Hansen: So you know what happens next. Lubrano: Yup (hands behind back)."

Dateline NBC  2007-05-25

XVIII-"To Catch a Predator: No day at the beach" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"OCEAN COUNTY, N.J.— We’ve been catching suspected Internet sex predators for more than three years, exposing men on the hunt for sex with young teens. More than 200 men have been arrested. After 11 investigations in eight different states, a 117 men have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty by a judge or jury. Yet there are still men out there willing to take the risk of getting caught. It seems no matter where in America we go, we find men apparently ready to molest young teens. During our latest investigation in Ocean County, New Jersey, it’s no different. Men familiar with our reports show up anyway. It's a beautiful stretch of beach and a picture-perfect summer vacation spot for parents and children. But it's also for potential predators. Michael Lubrano: You’re Chris Hansen? Chris Hansen: I am.  One who actually appears happy to meet me... Jeremy Keister: It’s nice to meet you. Chris Hansen: Thank you.  (laughter)"

Dateline NBC  2007-07-18

XVI-"To Catch a Predator: The scariest potential predator" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

FLAGLER BEACH, FLA. — Who wouldn’t want to visit Flagler Beach? This small, idyllic spit of land on Florida’s east coast attracts thousands of visitors every year. But some of the visitors you’ll meet   aren’t just coming for the sun, sand, and surf. Flagler Beach it seems, is a town ready to take on  potential sex predators. Officer Kevin Pineda explains the kind of complaints his department has been hearing. Officer Kevin Pineda: Older gentleman going to our beach—that much isn’t a crime, they’re just staring at people.  But when they start making advances towards the young generation in our city, it causes concern.  Having seen Dateline’s investigations, Pineda decided to conduct his own experiment.  He  set up his own decoy profile online in local chat rooms, posing as a 14-year-old girl named “Jenna,” screen name “flaglerbeauty14f.” Officer Pineda: Within about 5 to 10 minutes the screen was just cluttered with instant messages, you know, emails.  It was just unbelievable. Over  just two days, Pineda received messages from more than a hundred people, mostly older men and their intent was unmistakable. One guy sent an image of his penis, and his wife performing oral sex on him.

Dateline NBC  2007-03-06

XV-"To Catch a Predator: Flagler Investigation: Online and on the beach" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

FLAGER BEACH, FLA. — It’s December in Flagler Beach Florida (population: 5,000), and it’s time for the annual holiday parade. The entire police force of Flagler, a town some 20 miles north of Daytona, is working parade duty. But later that evening, most of those same officers are working one of the biggest investigations they’ve ever tackled. The police are hiding in a garage behind our latest undercover house, waiting to arrest the man who’s about to walk inside. 34-year-old Mohamad Abdalla works in real estate.  He’s married, and has an 8-year-old daughter.  Female decoy (on hidden camera): Come inside.  It’s cold out here.  Come in.  Come on in.  Hi.  How are you?  How was your drive? Mohamad Abdalla: Can I leave the door open?  Decoy:  You can leave the door open. Abdalla: How you doing? Decoy: Sit down. Good. Long before he got to the house, Abdalla used the screen names ‘blondy91972’  and ‘midos1972’  to chat with someone who told him she’s a 13-year-old girl. But he was really talking to a decoy for the online watchdog group Perverted-Justice, a group we hired because of its experience pretending to be teens online who are curious about sex.

Dateline NBC  2007-02-27

XIV- "To Catch A Predator: Murphy, Texas" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

Dateline NBC  2007-02-13

XIII-"To Catch a Predator: Potential Predators Adapt to Recent Stings" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"Long Beach, Calif. — 22-year-old Corye Blagg is walking into Dateline’s undercover house in Long Beach, California, a house with 15 hidden cameras. They’re recording every move he makes. Blagg, an ex-Marine, works for a computer company in San Diego, and just drove 100 miles to get here. Why?  Blagg had chatted on line with someone he thinks is a 13-year-old— and he says he wants her to be his girlfriend. Blaggca (chat transcript): All I’m missing is a sweetheart to share my love with. But Blagg is really chatting with a decoy working for Perverted-Justice,an organization that exposes men who sexually target minors on-line.  Perverted-Justice works as a consultant for Dateline—setting up computer profiles, and pretending to be underage teens interested in sex. Remember, he’s 22 years old, and the decoy says she’s a 13-year-old female."

Dateline NBC  2007-02-06

XII-"To Catch a Predator: Scary Chats and a Repeat 'Predator'" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

Long Beach, Calif. — We’ve always been aware that the men coming into our undercover houses could be dangerous, but as we set up our “To Catch A Predator” operation in Long Beach, California, the very first man who arrives has us especially worried. 29 year-old Michael Warrecker, an unemployed computer technician uses the frightening screen name “can_i_rape_you_anally.” He thinks he’s coming to meet a girl who said she was 13. What Warrecker apparently doesn’t know, is he’s really been chatting with an adult decoy from Perverted-Justice. That’s an online watchdog group Dateline uses as a consultant to do what it normally does, go into chat rooms, mostly at Yahoo and AOL, set up computer profiles, and—in this case —pretend to be children—under the age of 14 who are interested in sex.  In his online chat, Warrecker tells the decoy, “Maybe we should hook up...” and says he would like to have anal sex with her. The decoy says: “Ouch. I think that would hurt a lot.”

Dateline NBC  2007-01-30

XI-"To Catch a Predator: Prominent Men Caught in Petaluma Sting" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

PETALUMA, CALIF.— We set up a house where a young teen is supposed to be home alone. Like moths to a flame, potential sex predators can’t stay away. That is of course until they see me. Even though millions of people have seen our series and we’ve caught 150 men, in this latest investigation, our seventh one,  we have one of our largest turnouts ever.  29 men show up at this upscale house in Petaluma, California in just three days. We’ve rigged it with hidden cameras—the street, driveway, garage, alley and every inch of the backyard are covered.  But our guests have no idea they’re being recorded. Inside the house, members of the online watchdog group Perverted-Justice are in chat rooms posing as young teens. Dateline has paid the organization a consulting fee. The PJ members are pretending to be 12- and 13-year-olds who are interested in sex and whose parents are away. If a man in a chat room hits on one of the decoys and proposes sex, he’ll be given the address of this house and invited over. Dateline hired an 18-year-old actress to play the part of the 12- or 13-year-old home alone...and the men seem happy to see her.

Dateline NBC  2006-10-06

X-"To Catch a Predator: Potential Predators in Petaluma" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

Petaluma, Calif. — A girl appears to be home alone and looking for company. She keeps waving men into the garage... and they keep following her all the way to the backyard where she offers them a drink. Anyone watching this scene repeat itself over and over might be wondering what’s going on. The girl is an 18-year-old actress hired by Dateline.  She’s inviting suspected sex predators to sit at a bar in a backyard that is wired with hidden cameras. Decoy: Where do you work? Gopi:  I work in Apple. Decoy: Oh, so you sell fruit? Gopi: Sorry? Decoy: You sell fruit? Gopi: I’m a software engineer. Decoy: Oh, software, oh, like the computer.  Oh.  (Laughter) Gopi: Yep.  Yep. She chats with the men making them feel more at ease and then I come out. Chris Hansen, Dateline Correspondent (walks out):  So you had quite the commute today, huh?  Why don’t you have a seat over by the bar there.  How’s it going?  Please sit down.  Did you enjoy your drink? It’s all part of Dateline’s latest investigation into online sex predators.  As in the past, men from all walks of life show up. A respected doctor and a carpenter who gave us the most revealing confession we’ve ever heard.

Dateline NBC  2006-09-29

IX-"To Catch a Predator: Going the Distance" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"In community after community, vulnerable young teenagers are still at risk from grown men online. On Sept. 22, Friday, our hidden cameras are in Georgia. This time among the suspected predators caught on tape are three military men — two served in Iraq. Now they could be serving time in prison. Again, we want to warn you, some of what you'll read below is explicit. FORTSON, GA. — Even when men know it’s against the law, know there’s a chance they’ll be apprehended, men still show up at a house where they were told a child is home alone and willing to have sex with them.  And the number of men who continue to arrive at the door during each undercover operation is alarming—like our latest investigation (the sixth one), this time in Harris county, Georgia.  We’ve rigged this house with 12 hidden cameras— five inside and seven outside. From a control room inside the house a crew operates the cameras and records a man’s every move from the moment he drives up to the house. We’ve hired a young-looking 19-year-old to be play the part of a young girl—a decoy who will invite the men in. Meet 24-year-old Reymundo Anguiano. He thinks he’s here to see a 14-year-old girl named Diane. He met her online just hours ago in an AOL chat room. To give you an idea why he might be here, take a look at what he said online. Using the screen name truesweetguy69, he asks a decoy—an adult pretending to be 14 --  if she’s good at giving oral sex. The decoy says “nobody ever complained, didn’t do it lots but i know how to do it.” Then truesweetguy69 asks if he shows the girl a picture of his penis would she give him oral sex. The decoy, who he thinks is 14 says “oh yeah.” And sure enough, truesweetguy69 sends her a picture of his genitals."

Dateline NBC  2006-09-22

VIII-"To Catch a Predator: They're still showing up" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"Like moths to the flame, they just keep coming. It's been more than two years now since we first began our series of reports investigating online sex predators. Five different states... 129 men exposed. On Dateline Wednesday, investigation number six. This time, we've set up our hidden cameras in a rented house in rural Georgia. And once again, even men who've seen our reports show up at the door.  We should let you know, some of what you'll see and read below is explicit. This report first aired on NBC, Sept. 13. FORTSON, GA. — On a stormy summer night, on a winding country road, a potential sex predator slowly approaches a house where he believes a child is waiting for him.  He’s driven a long way for this meeting- almost two hours. But the driver won’t find a young girl inside—instead a Dateline investigative team awaits his arrival. Why is this man making such a long trip in the dead of night? Perhaps because he believes a 15-year-old girl is alone inside ready to have sex with him. But his journey didn’t begin that day— it began more than a week earlier when he entered a Yahoo Georgia chat room and decided to hit on a decoy, an adult posing as a 15-year-old. It didn’t take long for the 23-year-old, screenname “scoobydooat101”, to steer the chat towards sex. He asked all kinds of sexual questions like “What positions have you tried? U like doggie?” "Scoobydoo" says “Well if we ever have sex, I’ll introduce it to you. But I switch positions a lot, so you’re bound to learn a few new tricks.” Now the man with the bag of tricks is walking in our house.  Wehired a very young looking 19-year-old to play the part of the girl . . ."

Dateline NBC  2006-09-13

VII-"To Catch a Predator: A Cyber Twilight Zone in Ft. Myers, Fla." - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"FT. MYERS, FLA.— A 49-year-old man talks to a teenager he's never met before. He probably believes she’s the 15-year-old he’s been chatting online with for the last week and a half. Actress, decoy (hidden camera footage): Hey, I just have to change my shirt real quick, but just come in and watch some TV. I’ll be right there. Michael Wilusz: Okay. What Michael Wilusz doesn’t know is she’s really a 19-year-old actress we hired to be a decoy. He walked into a Dateline hidden camera investigation. Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent (walking in): Come on in over here. Have a seat there. Wilusz: Oh wow. (laughs, eating cookies). Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: Hungry? How does it taste? Wilusz: Great. Wow, these are home-baked? Hansen: Do you want time to finish your cookie? Wilusz: Not really. Hansen: So you’re good if I ask you a couple of questions? Wilusz: Yeah. It’s the latest in our continuing series of investigations into online sex predators. For the first time we’re in the south: Fort Myers, Florida. Hilton Daniels is Fort Myers chief of police . . ."

Dateline NBC  2006-05-31

V-"To Catch a Predator: Admitted child abuser caught in sting" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

"This report airs May 3, Wednesday, 9 p.m.. It's the latest in Dateline's month-long series of undercover investigations: children at risk from grown men online. We're back in small town America, where the investigation leads us to one of the most disturbing cases we've ever found. A warning: some of what you're about to read is explicit. GREENVILLE, OHIO. — It’s was a busy three days here in Darke County, Ohio. A house, equipped with hidden cameras inside and out, has become the destination for men hoping to hook up with young teens they met online. From their Internet chat, it’s clear that most of the men are here for one thing: sex.  But as soon as they see me, they know there’s been a change of plans and their stories change as well. Most folks who live here think that this area would be immune to this sort of activity, and think “It wouldn’t happen here.” But as we showed you last week, we find  in rural America what we found in every other location— men lining up at our door, ready to keep their date for sex with a minor. A 30-year-old, screenname “Meatrocket8,” starts chatting online with a girl posing as a 15-year-old virgin.  The decoy referring to her virginity says “I bet you’re scared of that.” “Meatrocket8” says, “Actually you find it quite attractive. I’m honored to be considered the candidate for your first time.” Later as the chat gets more graphic, he asks for her address . . ."

Dateline NBC  2006-05-03

VI-"To Catch a Predator: Caught on camera, but not surprised" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

This report airs May 17, Wednesday, 9 p.m.: This month, millions of people have been watching our investigations into computer sex predators — among them, some of the suspected predators themselves.  And what's most surprising is that even knowing that they may be walking into a sting is not enough to keep some of them away. Tonight, we're back in Florida, where we started our investigation last week.  We want to remind you that some of what you'll see and read is explicit.  FT. MYERS, FLA. — Like all our previous investigations, the potential predators in Ft. Myers, Fla. kept us busy. Some are surprisingly candid... Donald Morrison: They arrested me for possessing child pornography cause I had nude pictures of her on my computer. They ended up dropping the charges. Others tell us stories we’ve heard before... Thomas Coffen: I just came over to say "hi." That was it. They all had something in common: everyone of them chatted online about having sex with a person posing as a young teen, made a date to meet, and then showed up at our undercover house. Chief Hilton Daniels, Ft. Myers, Fla. police: A number of these individuals traveled quite a ways. I believe the furthest one drove 223 miles, to Fort Myers to have sex with a child. Chief Daniels says it’s frightening to think what would have happened if there really had been a child home alone.

Dateline NBC  2006-05-17

III-"To Catch a Predator" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A month ago, Dateline launched its third investigation into a growing national epidemic—grown men trolling the Internet, many looking for sex with children. This time, to expose them, we set up multiple hidden cameras in a house in Southern California. A decoy coaxes the men in, but instead of finding a 12- or 13-year-old home alone, the men looking for sex will meet me. Here’s an example of the kind of confrontation we’re in for: A 37-year-old, Kurt Lemke, a truck driver, calls himself “haloballfan” online. He thinks he’s here to meet a 13-year-old boy named Dave, but we really send him a decoy photo. During his chat, he makes plans to give the boy oral sex.

Dateline NBC  2006-02-03

II-"To Catch a Predator: Catching potential Internet sex predators" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

In any home where there are kids with computers, there are parents with concerns. Teenagers can spend hours chatting online, but who are they chatting with? On the other end of that instant message could be a complete stranger — or a sexual predator. It's a dangerous side of the Internet, one that's growing and many children are at risk. So we went undercover, filling a house with hidden cameras. Soon, a long line of visitors came knocking, expecting to find a young teenager they'd been chatting with on the Internet, home alone. Instead, they found Dateline. We want to warn you some of what you'll read is explicit.  But parents need to know what their kids can confront when they sit down at the computer. The problem seems to be getting worse — and the profile of the suspected predators more frightening. Just this past summer, an editor for “Weekly Reader,” a newspaper for school children was arrested for using the Internet to solicit sex with a 14-year-old boy. He pleaded not guilty. And this past spring, a New York City cop, a youth officer, was also caught attempting to meet a child online for sex. He pleaded guilty last month “to attempted use of a child in a sexual performance” and agreed to serve six months in prison. Law enforcement officials estimate that 50,000 predators are online at any given moment. And the number of reports of children being solicited for sex is growing says Michele Collins of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Dateline NBC  2005-11-10

I-To Catch a Predator: Dangers children face online" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

Instant messaging on the computer has become the phone for kids today. Children spend hours chatting online with their friends, and sometimes with strangers. A recent study found that one in five children online is approached by a sexual predator, a predator who may try to set up a face-to-face meeting. In a Dateline hidden camera investigation, correspondent Chris Hansen catches some of these men in the act. Also, scroll to the bottom of the page for the software mentioned in the story and more resources. To follow the trail of an Internet predator prowling for children, from seduction in a chat room to a face-to-face meeting, Dateline rented a house, wired it with hidden cameras, and enlisted the help of an online vigilante group called "Perverted Justice." Volunteers from the group posed as teens in chat rooms, saying they were home alone and interested in sex. Within hours there were men literally lining up at our door. The men who turned up in our investigation included a New York City firefighter and a man with a history of mental illness and a criminal record. And they all had something in common: the same excuse. Just about every man who came to our house said it was the first time he had done something like this and most claimed they really had no intention of having sex with a minor. Here's an excerpt of what we found: Steve, 35, thinks he's got a hot date with a 14-year-old girl. Instead he'll be meeting Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen. At first he seems to think I am a police officer. I haven’t told him yet that I'm a television reporter and at this point he has no idea he's being videotaped.

Dateline NBC  2004-11-11

Bill Moyers talks with Ken Silverstein

BILL MOYERS: Every day people from all walks of life make their way up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to pay their respects to the martyred president. From here Lincoln broods over the city he imagined would become the seat of government of, by, and for the people. But this is no longer their city. or Lincoln's. This is an occupied city, a company town, whose population of lobbyists constitute the permanent government. The number of lobbyists registered to do business in Washington has more than doubled since the year 2000. There are now twenty five lobbyists for every member of Congress. This is where you start if you want to know how it is that some truly awful regimes around the world keep on winning favors from our government. I mean regimes ruled by dictators, despots, and tyrants of every kind -- governments that send their critics to prison, torture dissidents, steal from their own people, control the press, and make a mockery of human rights...yet still wind up with trade agreements, U.S. tax dollars, business deals blessed on high, and a hearty welcome in Congress and the White House. If you've ever asked yourself, why are we helping those guys, you are about to meet a tour guide of our nation's capital who can show you what dirty little secrets lie behind some of Washington's fanciest addresses and prominent letterheads.

Bill Moyers Journal  2007-06-22

"In New Expose, Ken Silverstein of Harper’s Magazine Goes Undercover to Find Out What US Lobbyists Do for Dictators" - Juan Gonzalez - Democracy Now

JUAN GONZALEZ: "Foreign agents — what US lobbyists do for dictators," all it takes is the right amount of money and a little help from the skilled lobbying firms in Washington, D.C. That’s according to an article in this month’s edition of Harper’s Magazine by Washington editor, Ken Silverstein. In February, Silverstein visited Washington’s top lobbying firms posing as a representative of a fictitious investment firm with a financial stake in Turkmenistan. He claimed that he was eager to bolster the image of a regime widely described as one of the most authoritarian in the world. Silverstein’s expose is titled "Their men in Washington: Undercover with D.C.’s Lobbyists for Hire." It focuses on two prominent firms, APCO and Cassidy & Associates, that fell for Silverstein’s bait and were soon vying for a lucrative contract to remake Turkmenistan’s tarnished image. For $600,000 to $1.2 million dollars a year, they promised unparalleled access to Washington’s decision makers and improved media coverage. AMY GOODMAN: Ken Silverstein joins us now from Washington, D.C. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Ken.

Democracy Now!  2007-06-28

"'Gotcha' Without a 'Get'" - Matthew Felling - CBS News

"A tempest in the sweltering DC teapot has developed this past week with regards to an investigative report in the upcoming issue of Harper's. Ken Silverstein, Harper's Washington Editor, has a piece called "Their Men In Washington" that is causing some consternation in the media circles … Or at least along those mediaphiles that aren't obsessing over a certain former jailbird. In order to expose the depths and depravity of Washington, D.C.'s lobbyist community, Ken Silverstein decided to get … creative. Here's how he describes it in his own words: My story in the July issue of the magazine details how two beltway lobby shops I approached, on the pretense that I represented a shady London-based energy firm with a stake in Turkmenistan, proposed to whitewash the image of that country's Stalinist regime. He whipped up some business cards, made a website, assumed a name and began the PR courtship process with the firms APCO Worldwide and Cassidy & Associates. His article (unfortunately available only to subscribers) is a fairly by-the-numbers accounting of the back and forth he engaged in with the lobby shops, which – it would be generous to say – were rather forgiving about Turkmenistan's less savory practices. Silverstein found, unsurprisingly, that it seemed they wanted to work with him. He found that they were willing to organize tours for convincible politicians. He found that they proposed a rather typical media strategy, including op-ed placements and other attempts to generate news items about Turkmenistan. He found that they were available to do what we already know they do for clients – occasionally tuck their conscience in the attic for a check."

CBS News  2007-06-28

"Hospitals: Army pledges fixes at Walter Reed" – John Irvine - The Health Care Blog

"Less than 24 hours after this weekend’s two part series in the Washington Post on substandard conditions at an outpatient facility at Walter Reed Medical Center, Army officials and VA spokespeople were at the facility apologizing and pledging repairs. An undercover investigation by Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull found serious problems at Mologne House, ranging from run down conditions in patient rooms to shocking levels of bureaucratic incompetence. From the Post’s report:    The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely — a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. The story was quickly picked up by the national press. White House spokesman Tony Snow found himself dodging questions from the press corps about the way the Bush Administration has handled care for veterans returning from the war. Democrats called on the Department of Defense to launch an investigation into conditions at nearby Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where critics allege similar problems have been ignored in the past."

The Health Care Blog  2007-02-21

"Planned Parenthood Agreed to Accept Race-Motivated Donations" - Josiah Ryan - CNS News

(CNSNews.com) - According to telephone conversations taped by a student pro-life publication, The Advocate, at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Planned Parenthood locations in Ohio and Idaho agreed to accept money targeted at minorities even when racist intentions were expressed.Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio confirmed to Cybercast News Service that the telephone conversation with a presumed donor occurred in mid-summer 2007, adding that it was not the policy of Planned Parenthood to accept donations specifically to underwrite abortions among minority women.James O' Keefe, a first-year law student and an advisor for the The Advocate, made the telephone call posing as a potential donor to Planned Parenthood of Ohio.The tape begins with a portion of the call in which O'Keefe confirms the location of the Planned Parenthood facility in Columbus, Ohio. According to Lila Rose, the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and a sophomore at UCLA, the tape then cuts to the relevant portion of the call in which O'Keefe offers a donation:

CNS News  2008-07-07

"At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die" - Charlie LeDuff - New York Times

It must have been 1 o'clock. That's when the white man usually comes out of his glass office and stands on the scaffolding above the factory floor. He stood with his palms on the rails, his elbows out. He looked like a tower guard up there or a border patrol agent. He stood with his head cocked.One o'clock means it is getting near the end of the workday. Quota has to be met and the workload doubles. The conveyor belt always overflows with meat around 1 o'clock. So the workers double their pace, hacking pork from shoulder bones with a driven single-mindedness. They stare blankly, like mules in wooden blinders, as the butchered slabs pass by.It is called the picnic line: 18 workers lined up on both sides of a belt, carving meat from bone. Up to 16 million shoulders a year come down that line here at the Smithfield Packing Co., the largest pork production plant in the world. That works out to about 32,000 a shift, 63 a minute, one every 17 seconds for each worker for eight and a half hours a day. The first time you stare down at that belt you know your body is going to give in way before the machine ever will.

The New York Times  2000-06-18

Turkmenistan Reaction: "Lying to Get The Truth" - Mark Lisheron - AJR

"Kenneth Case and Ricardo, a fellow consultant for The Maldon Group, sat at a brightly polished conference table for 20, a pitcher of water zested with lemon nearby, and waited for the pitch. Among the bipartisan suits doing the selling were a former aide to Rep. Roy Blunt, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, and Chuck Dolan, a top public relations consultant for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign. There were specialists with serious domestic and political connections and experts in dealing with the nation's top news organizations. Case had come to Cassidy & Associates with a problem. It seems The Maldon Group had considerable interests in Turkmenistan, on the northern borders of Iran and Afghanistan, a country with the fifth-largest reserve of natural gas in the world and a wealth of oil. Investors, however, were having nothing to do with this backward former Soviet republic because, until his death in December 2006, the country had been under the heel of Stalinist despot Saparmurat Niyazov. That Niyazov had been succeeded by his personal dentist, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, did not exactly kindle confidence. Was it possible, given this climate, that Cassidy & Associates could make the U.S. government see that Berdymukhamedov had reforms planned for Turkmenistan, that things were looking up? Case asked."

American Journalism Review  2007-10-01

"Lobbyists Offer Dictators a Door to D.C." - Neal Conan - Talk of the Nation NPR

"Foreign governments with poor records on human rights, democracy, and freedom of press still manage to find friends in high places in Washington. Ken Silverstein, Washington editor of Harper's Magazine, went undercover to find out just how far some lobbyists go to promote the interests of dictators."

Talk of the Nation  2007-06-19

"Lobbyists For Hire" – Leonard Lopate - The Leonard Lopate Show WNYC

Ken Silverstein of Harper's Magazine found out firsthand what U.S. lobbyists are willing to offer the leaders of oppressive regimes. His article in the July issue is "Their Men in Washington: Undercover with D.C.'s Lobbyists for Hire."

The Leonard Lopate Show  2009-11-05

"'Our Costly Dilemma’ and welfare revisited, 50 years later" (Ed May) - Buffalo Evening News

“Newburgh, N. Y., June 26 — Right wing activists in this small upstate community moved one step closer to criminalizing the welfare system by passing a 13-point plan which would begin welfare reform by forcing new applicants to undergo a police interrogation complete with fingerprinting. Hence forward, new applicants to welfare in this community will be treated ‘like immigrants.’ ” Is this a news item from the future of the “tea party” movement? It might sound like it. But actually it is a brief synopsis of a story that appeared in 1961. The “relief revolt” helped bring attention to the work of one local reporter who gained national fame for his analysis of the welfare “dilemma.” Fifty years ago, The Buffalo Evening News published the results of a six-month investigation of welfare in Erie County conducted by News reporter Edgar May. May worked undercover as a caseworker for the Erie County Department of Social Welfare in order to gather research for the 14-part series entitled, ”Our Costly Dilemma.” Five decades have passed since the Pulitzer Prize-winning series was published, and yet our “welfare dilemma” appears to be as costly — and divisive — as ever. The year of publication, 1960, seems to have been a high water mark for American optimism, in retrospect. The problem of welfare dependency seemed one that could be contained, if not entirely solved.

Buffalo Evening News  2010-06-13

"FBI agents pose as photographers during Aryan Nation trial" - Louis Rolfes - News Media and the Law

Dozens of reporters descended on the small town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to cover the trial in August. In all, more than 60 journalists including reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio requested credentials.The few protesters who appeared were demonstrating against the Southern Poverty Law Center's civil suit against the Aryan Nation and Butler on behalf of a mother and son who were assaulted by armed guards after driving past the group's compound. They said their car backfired, and the guards, thinking they had been shot at, chased them. Two guards were sentenced to prison for the attack.Capt. Ben Wolfinger, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, granted seven press passes to FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents monitoring protestors outside the courtroom.Tom Clouse, a reporter for The Spokesman-Review, uncovered the plan and wrote about it for the newspaper. Clouse suspected the motive was to allow undercover agents to photograph suspected Aryan Nations members. Clouse said Wolfinger, not the county sheriff, suggested the FBI use media credentials to blend in.During the first day of the trial, Clouse said the large number of journalists made it difficult to spot the imposters. However, as the trial moved into the second and third day, journalists began taking notice of some photographers' strange behavior.

News Media and The Law  2000-10-30

"Ends vs. Means: The Ethics of Undercover Journalism" - Emily Esfahani Smith - The Blaze

". . .Is it ever permissible to lie to get the truth? This is a perennial question of moral philosophy and religious thought, but one that also bites into the very core of undercover journalism–an issue that’s been in the news lately, with the work of the controversial, conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe and pro-life activist Lila Rose making national waves. You may recall that Lila Rose, right, sent undercover agents to a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Jersey. The agents, posing as a pimp and prostitute couple, taped their interaction with a Planned Parenthood rep who eagerly gave the couple advice about procuring contraceptives and STD tests for underage sex slaves. O’Keefe, below, has been responsible for many undercover ambushes. The most famous one confirmed that certain members of ACORN were legally-challenged. The most recent one exposed that certain executives at NPR are mentally-challenged (which, of course, is not a crime). These undercover videos beg an important question: can you misrepresent yourself in pursuit of some higher aim? Does the greater good ever allow you to lie? . . ."

The Blaze  2011-03-09

"SPJ, RTNDA protest FBI agents' posing as journalists" - Freedom Forum Staff and Associated Press

 Two journalism organizations have criticized the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an incident in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, last week in which federal agents posed as journalists. The FBI agents were trying to blend into a crowd so they could photograph neo-Nazi skinheads rallying outside the Coeur d'Alene courthouse, where the leader of the Aryan Nations white-supremacist group was on trial for civil rights violations. The agents were uncovered by real journalists covering the trial of Richard Butler. The Kootenai County sheriff's department revoked the agents' false credentials on Aug. 30. Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger admitted he initially directed seven agents to obtain media passes so they would look like news photographers covering the trial. "I was surprised it became an issue," he said. Advocates for the news media said it is dangerous for law officers to pose as journalists. Such deceptions could lead to physical threats against reporters, who are not armed, said Kyle Elyse Niederpruem, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.  

Associated PressFreedom Forum  2000-09-05

"PRESS RELEASE: SPJ demands FBI discipline agents for posing as journalists" - Society of Professional Journalists

INDIANAPOLIS - The Society of Professional Journalists is asking FBI Director Louis Freeh today to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action against agents in Idaho who posed as reporters. “Morally and legally what the FBI did was just plain wrong,” wrote Kyle Elyse Niederpruem, president of the nation’s largest journalism organization and an assistant city editor at The Indianapolis Star. The agents were “uncovered” by real journalists covering the civil trial of Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler. According to news accounts, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger admitted he initially directed seven agents to obtain media passes so they could blend in better with photographers covering the trial. The credentials apparently were yanked after area reporters complained to the sheriff.

Society of Professional Journalists  2000-09-01

XXI-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 All my life I’ve regarded Eliza’s stunt of crossing the Ohio on the floating ice floes, with bloodhounds baying at her heels, as a pretty heroic adventure. Not any more. The night I came up out of the deep South in a Jim Crow bus, I’d have been glad to take a chance crossing on the ice if anything had happened to stall our jolting chariot on the Kentucky shore. And there’d have been no need of any bloodhounds to put me into high gear. We rolled out of Kentucky across that old Ohio River bridge into Cincinnati - into safety and freedom and peace. Again I was free with all the rights of an American citizen. Again I was no, not white. Not yet. It wasn’t that easy. Down South my friends had done too good a job of making me into a Negro. For many days I’d been looking forward to an elaborate meal in a luxurious restaurant with fancy food and prices and service and attention. I found one. And then -take it or leave it-I didn’t go in. I found a little lunch counter and ate there.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-09-01

XX-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Strangely enough, the Negro in the South doesn’t hate the white man. It could well be that my four weeks as a Negro in the deep South falls grievously short in equipping me as an authority on the subject. But I’ll still stand on my opinion. Remember that I talked at length with the real leaders of the Negro not all of them by any means - but with scores of them in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. They are the men on the firing line who are battling for Negro rights and Negro progress where it’s dangerous to do it. They are the local heads of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ministers, business men, college professors, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, Negro plantation owners, men of substance and influence in their own communities among both whites and blacks. I wasn’t a white man interviewing them, remember. I was a Negro from the North, a friend of Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP. I was a guest in their homes. We sat for hours over their dinner tables. I slept in their guest rooms. We were just a group of Negroes talking things over.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-31

XIX-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Atlanta Negroes like to boast that their town is the "Black Capital of America." They react with horror and indignation to outrages against Negroes in the smaller towns of the South. They contribute thousands to defense funds to protect the rights of their people or avenge their wanton murder. For hours they’d sit and assure me that "It can’t happen here." But the bloody record of Negro killings in their own town proves them wrong. Reluctantly they’ll finally admit it. That’s another thing I’ll never understand - the intense local patriotism of the Southern Negro. If he lives in Atlanta, then Atlanta’s the finest town in the world. And Georgia is the greatest state. He wouldn’t live anywhere else. And the Mississippi Negro will pound the tale and tell him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. As a temporary black man I’ll tell the world right now that there isn’t a square foot of the South that I like and if I were permanently black, if you ever caught me south of the Smith and Wesson line you could shoot me. But if you’re black it isn’t too hard to get yourself thoroughly killed by a white cop, or a street car motorman or just a plain everyday gun totin’ citizen, in this "liberal" town of Atlanta.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-30

XVIII-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Here and there and now and then in the deep South you’ll find a Negro with a shrewd Yankee instinct for business, who is smart enough to turn the Jim Crow obsession of the southerner to his own substantial profit. And quite frequently that profit stems not from his own oppressed people, but from the lordly white man. I know at least one Negro who is an operator in a big way in downtown Atlanta business property. He works through a dependable white lawyer and his name rarely if ever appears in a transaction. Usually you’ll find Negro real estate operators dealing in white occupied property have to work that way. But in one up and coming Georgia city we found a Negro real estate man who works it exactly in reverse. He’s one of the richest men, black or white, in his county. We stopped over with him one night. Nowhere but in the South with its inviolable Jim Crow tradition could you hear a success story like this one.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-28

XVII-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 For three hot and dusty weeks and 3,000 hot and dusty miles I’ve been looking forward to Brunswick and Savannah; the broad white beaches of the Georgia coast and a couple days of ocean swimming. All right - here are Savannah and Brunswick. Here are the broad white beaches. Here is the wide blue Atlantic Ocean. But there’ll be no sea bathing for me. I’ve dragged those swim trunks all these miles for nothing. And why? Because this is a strictly Jim Crow ocean and I’m black. Along all the hundred miles of Georgia’s coast line with its scores of beautiful island and shore beaches, there’s not a single foot where a Negro can stick a toe in salt water. North and south, South Carolina and Florida have public and private beaches reserved for us black people. Not Georgia. Georgia is going to keep her share of the Atlantic pure and undefiled - and lily white.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-27

XVI-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 This thing of bald and unashamed discrimination against little black American citizens in the matter of education can get really brazen. Witness the situation down here in District No.4, Madison county, Miss. What these lordly exemplars of white supremacy have done down here in the Delta country is to use the tax money paid into the county treasury by Negro property owners to build themselves a magnificent school plant at the Negroes’ expense. What the Negroes got out of their tax money and the usual state contribution for school purposes is right here in front of us, hidden away on this back country road, a desert to dust in summer and a morass of mud in winter. This school is new. And that’s all that can be said for it. When the white folks took Negro tax money and built themselves their fine school, they at least built a new school for the Negroes. But not until there was a storm of protest from all over the state - from whites and blacks alike. The white folks of District No. 4 were going to let the little Negro pupils continue to pick up what education they could in their two schools, one in a church and the other in a lodge room.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-26

XV-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In this little, straggling Negro cemetery, its graves weed-grown, its headstones leaning drunkenly, stands a magnificent sarcophagus of white Alabama marble. It is an astonishing thing to find here on the edge of this Mississippi Delta town of Clarksdale. Quite likely there’s nothing like it all up and down the Delta in either white or Negro cemetery.Within it lie the bodies of a dark woman and her baby, both dead in the hour of the baby’s birth. Proudly, Dr. P. W. Hill, wealthy Negro dentist, shows us through this gleaming mausoleum where his wife and baby lie and where some day he too will rest.In all simplicity he regards it only as his tribute to the ones he loved.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-25

XIV-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Black of the rich earth and green of the springing cotton plants stretch from horizon to horizon. This is the fabulous Mississippi Delta, last outpost of feudalism in America. Here is land more fertile than any other in the world. Here close to half a million Negroes toil from childhood to the grave in the service of King Cotton, from sunup to sundown if they share-crop, from 6 to 6 if they work by the day. Here are feudal baronies that run from 5,000 to 20,000 acres, where as many as 6,000 sharecropper families, wives and children, parents and grandparents follow the one mule plow and the chopping hoe all their lives. On these tight little Delta principalities "The Man" (the landlord), is the middle justice, the high and the low. Mississippi law stops dead in its tracks at their boundaries. No sheriff, no peace officer takes a man, black or white off these acres until "The Man" tells him he may  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-24

XIII-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Here on the outskirts of the pleasant, thriving little Georgia town of Bluffton in Clay county I go to school again. And what a school! This dilapidated, sagging old shack, leaning and lop-sided as its makeshift foundations give way, is the lordly white’s conception of a schoolhouse for Negroes. This leaking old wreck of a shanty must be nearly half a century old. The warped old clapboards are falling off. Holes bigger than your hand give permanent cross-ventilation. There are no desks, no seats but rude benches. Two rough tables serve as desks. A few dog-eared school books are scattered on the tables. A "blackboard,"’ apparently home made, just a sheet of cardboard about two by three feet, is nailed to the bare studding. Only redeeming feature of this thing called a school is the teacher. Tall and spare, gentle and soft spoken, earnest and intelligent, she reminds you of a typical New England school-marm with her sharp aquiline features - except for a deeper sun tan than one could ever get on a beach.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-23

XII-"I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days" - Ray Sprigle - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 Right here this Jim Crow thing gets to the point where it’s just plain silly - if a thing so replete with heartbreak and tragedy can ever be properly called silly. Here we sit in the waiting room of Dr. - well let’s say Dr. Bradford Gordon. He’s got that kind of a New England sounding name but why mention it here, when it might be the cause of getting him Kluxed. The room is filling up after the noon hour, white farmers in from the country with their wives and youngsters to get their teeth "fixed up." Other, better-dressed whites, men and women, plainly city dwellers. And a handful of Negro mothers with their children. No segregation here. When Dr. Gordon appears he proves to be very, very black. He Is a towering figure of a man, graduate of a famous northern university and a star on its football team. The man seems to beam with kindliness and courtesy. If he isn’t a gentleman, I never saw one. We chat a while.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  1948-08-21