POLITICAL NOTES: And a Pamphlet, Too

As if his uphill campaign for California’s governorship weren’t enough of a load, U.S. Senator William Fife Knowland had to have a pamphlet too. At least his well-meaning wife, Helen, thought so. So she distributed some 500 copies of a 30-page diatribe against A.F.L.-C.I.O. Vice President Walter Reuther, Meet the Man Who Plans to Rule America. Then she asked about the rate for 10,000 more pamphlets, writing Author Joseph P. Kamp that his was “a powerful message which could actually swing the pendulum in California if it could be gotten into the hands of millions of people.”

What Helen Knowland did not know was that Author Kamp, a Westport, Conn. crackpot, is a longtime espouser of fascist causes, is well-versed in the techniques of antiSemitism, tried to undercut President Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign by picturing prominent Jews who supported Ike.

Since populous Southern California has the nation’s second largest concentration of Jews, Democrats were delighted. Knowland’s front-running opponent, Attorney General Edmund (“Pat”) Brown, demanded that Knowland disown responsibility for use of the tract, drew only the surprisingly lame comment: “I don’t think I’m called upon to agree or disagree with every piece of material that comes to my attention.” All but lost in the uproar was Helen Knowland’s plea that she had never known about Kamp’s background—although any newspaper reader would remember his association with Gerald B. Winrod, Gerald L.K. Smith et al. It was left to Republican National Chairman Meade Alcorn to make the political riposte. Said he. in reply to a telegram from Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler: “I think you realize, Paul, that neither you nor I can control the utterances or writings of an Eastland, a Faubus, or a Kamp.”