Chicago Thorn

Lots of mystery, lots of intrigue, lots of sock. For nearly three years that has been Managing Editor Louis Ruppel's formula for making the tabloid Daily Times Chicago's liveliest sheet. Shortly after Publisher Samuel Emory Thomason went to the Times early in 1935 he sent a reporter to an Illinois asylum, plastered the Times with inside revelations gained from "Seven Days in the Madhouse!" He headlined Edward VIII's abdication "LONG LOVE THE KING!" and disguised Times photographers as clergymen so they could sneak into a hospital, scoop a picture of an injured motorman after an "L" crash. Last week Editor Ruppel outdid himself in a stunt which brought his program of gingery oldtime journalism pretty close to the hysterical.

Last January Editor Ruppel decided to investigate U. S. Nazis. Using the sleuthing methods he had learned as an agent of the U. S. Narcotic Bureau, he picked for the Nazi-hunt the Times's German-born Real Estate Editor John Metcalfe, his brother James, an old G-man, and William A. Mueller, a seasoned newsman.

John Metcalfe went to New York's Germanic Yorkville in February, made friends, was "persuaded" to join the nationalist Amerikadeutscher Volksbund. Soon he was put in charge of Bund propaganda activities. Back in Chicago fortnight ago Metcalfe exchanged notes with Brother James Metcalfe and Mueller, who had also done extensive prowling among German-Americans. Together with Managing Editor Ruppel they took over the Times's first nine pages to reveal "Secrets of Nazi Army in U. S. A.--by Times men who joined it!" Sample secret: "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 [20,000] but rapidly growing army is preparing for the American counterpart of 'Der Tag.' "

Readers who read beyond this purple lead were told more soberly that Bund leaders in more than 60 camps (chiefly near New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) do not actually plot a revolution, but plan "to wrest control from the Communist-Jews when they start their revolution.'' The Times's investigators said that each Bund post has its select uniformed force "drilled in the goose step and . . . ready for any emergency," and that the policies of the Bund weeklies duplicate those of the Hitler-controlled press. No direct evidence connected the Bund with the German Government but Editor Ruppel got a rise out of old Senator William E. Borah, who bumbled about a Congressional investigation.

Whether or not Editor Ruppel's most ambitious stunt to date was up to the standard Times readers have come to expect, the Times's Nazi expose sent its city & suburban circulation rocketing above its evening rivals, the News and Hearst American, for the first time.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.