Horace Haase

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Horace Joseph Haase (January 4, 1909 - July 22, 1999)[1] was a leading figurer in the America First Committee and the founder of Americans for Peace. He was the author of The Economic Democracy (1940) and headed the New York School of Democracy.

Haase led the Brooklyn speakers bureau of America First Committee. When the Committee disbanded after Pearl Harbor, Haase started Americans for Peace in March 1942 and isssued their bulletin America’s Hope. Americans for Peace offices were located at 1165 Broadway in Manhattan.

In January 1943 he was arrested by the FBI in New York City on charges of evading the draft. He reportedly stated he had no intention in supporting the US in a war and declared, "The USA is fighting on the wrong side of the war…the Germans and the Japanese are fighting on the right side."[2] In an interview with the Brooklyn Eagle he later denied he said Germany and Japan were on the right side of the war.[3]

New York attorney Julien Cornell handled his conscientious objector case.

In July 1931 Horace Haase married Grace Valeskino;[4] they had a son born ca. 1934. The couple were divorced in 1939.[5]


Sourcetext

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On December 17, 1941, ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a secret gathering of America First leaders was held in New York City at the Beekman Place home of Edwin Sibley Webster, Wall Street broker and former Executive Director of the New York Chapter of the America First Committee. Webster's guests included Charles A. Lindbergh and other key America First national leaders.[6] The purpose of the gathering was to decide the future of the America First Committee.

According to New York newspaper reporters who discovered and exposed the clandestine meeting, one of the chief speakers was Horace J. Haase, former Brooklyn America First leader. Haase told the other America First leaders:

"It is obviously necessary for leaders of America First like [ General Robert E.] Wood and Webster to keep quiet. But the organization should not be destroyed. I have never been in the limelight and I have nothing to lose. I can remain active in a quiet way. I should like to offer to keep the files. We must get ready for the next attack which must be made upon this Communist Administration. . . ."

Haase spoke of the day when the America First leaders would be able to come into the open again and head a new mass movement in the United States. "If and when that moment comes," said Haase, "I feel sure that our leaders, especially the Colonel [Lindbergh], will take the leadership and lead us to victory."
Source: The Plot Against the Peace (1945)

External link

Notes

  1. Persons born 04 January 1909 in the Social Security Death Master File
  2. The Hour, Number 149, January 30, 1943
  3. "Draft Evader Haase Divorced", Brooklyn Eagle, January 20, 1943, page 3
  4. Marriage Licenses Brooklyn Standard Union, July 24, 1931
  5. "Draft Evader Haase Divorced", Brooklyn Eagle, January 20, 1943, page 3
  6. Charles Lindbergh’s diary claims 40 American First street speakers attended the meeting which was actually held on Tueday, December 16. Lindbergh argues with the more radical American First members (e.g. Haase and others ) it was the right decision to disband the AFC. The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh, page 568