The Development of Fascism in the United States

Abstract

r HE first recognized appearance of fascism in the United States was in the form of various minor organizations patterned after the first Fascist gangs organized by Mussolini and then after Hitler's Storm Troops. The Black Shirts who appeared among our Italian population and the Brown Shirts who emerged later among German-Americans were partly imitations of, and partly inspired and directed by, their European forerunners. They were accompanied by propaganda that was carried into far wider circles-on university campuses, for example. But they struck no roots in the American soil. They were met by counter movements among the national elements which they tried to organize, for these had merged too far in the main stream of American life to be recaptured by European forces. The impotence and diminution of these movements of foreign origin was the first indication that American fascism would develop in its own way. More extended, and for a time more threatening, were similar organizations that were more indigenous-like the Silver Shirts, the Vigilantes, and the Order of '76. They were in part imitative of European precedents and sometimes receptive of foreign aid, but mostly they followed the American pattern of the Ku Klux Klan and our milder secret societies. Also, either in the coarser form of high profits from the sale of uniforms and supplies or the more refined form of capitalizing the fears of the patriotic profiteers, they usually exhibited themselves as typical American financial rackets. They have already passed into a welconme eclipse. VARIOUS FASCISTIC MOVEMENTS