300millionlittleusas: July 2021

Friday, July 23, 2021

it almost happened here

former williamstown resident nazi robert sterling clark was part owner of the singer sewing corporation and after being involved with the nazi uprising in germany in 1933 tried to overthrow the united states of America to install a fascist dictator, allegedly because fdr was going to take the u s off the gold standard because the japanese had learned to turn mercury and later lead into gold, which is what former williamstown resident sinclair lewis based his 1935 novel 'it can't happen here' on

- sinclair lewis in williamstown

'It’s the story of the 'Plot Against America'. I don’t mean the Philip Roth novel, nor even the Sinclair Lewis book, 'It Can’t Happen Here', but rather the historical events upon which these two works of fiction were based...

...In November 1934, federal investigators uncovered an amazing plot involving some two dozen senior businessmen, a good many of them Wall Street financiers, to topple the government of the United States and install a fascist dictatorship. Roth’s novel is developed from several strands of this factual account; he assumed the plot is actually carried out, whereas in fact an alert FDR shut it down but stopped short of retaliatory measures against the plotters.'

- harper's July, 2007

'And who paid for it all? The two Clark brothers did directly, but indirectly it was ordinary Americans buying sewing machines, for these two, Robert Sterling Clark (who went by his middle name) and his younger brother Stephen Carlton Clark, were heirs to the Singer Co. fortune initially earned by their patent-lawyer grandfather, Edward, who was half-owner of I.M. Singer & Co.'

- chicago tribune may 19th 2007

'The Art Collector Who Wanted to Stage a Fascist Coup Against FDR'

'Sterling—as everyone called him—had approximately thirty million dollars at the time, in addition to a valuable art collection, sumptuous houses in America and France, and vast holdings of silver, rare books, vintage Burgundies, and other collectables. He was a bon vivant who took great pleasure in acquiring things and in living well; he was also a man given to intense and consuming rages. A lot of his fury was directed toward his three brothers, with whom he had had a violent dispute concerning family trusts; Sterling was enraged that he could not secure more of the family’s fortune for his wife and her daughter.'

- the history news network

'During WWII, Singer’s U.S. factories made bomb sights, M1911 handguns and M-1 self-loading rifles. Singer’s Germany factory made machine guns for the Nazis. After chasing the German army back across Europe, the Soviets captured Singer’s Nazi weapons factory and confiscated it. Charles Kindleberger, the U.S. State Department official in charge of German Economic Affairs (1945-48) said the U.S. did “not think that was an appropriate war trophy.” He worked for the Office of Strategic Services (the CIA’s precursor) and Army Intelligence (1942-45).'

'Singer fared well in Germany, where it was among the top 25 U.S. investors, in the late 1920s. In 1930, the agent in Saudi Arabia for Singer, Standard Oil NY and Ford Motor, was British fascist, Harry St. John Philby (whose son, Kim, became an infamous Soviet spy). Harry, who supplied weapons and money for Arabia’s fight against Ottoman rule in WWI, was the go-between for King Ibn Saud and U.S. oil companies.'

- press for conversion

'Clark also bankrolled MacGuire’s seven-month trip abroad in December of 1933, in which the bond salesman was to survey the transforming political tides of Europe. He observed the ascending Nazis. He appreciated the Italian Fascists and their symbiotic relationship with the country’s powerful business interests. But MacGuire’s ultimate model ended up being a right-wing nationalist league in France called the Croix-de-Feu, which had managed to summon 150,000 supporters, many of whom were veterans.'

smedley butler was awarded the medal of honor twice