DEFEND YOUR HOMES - YOUR UNIONS - YOUR AMERICA - SMASH HITLER!

Rally for America! Printed handbill/broadside. New York: N.p., dated 25 October [1941]. 2 pages, 4to, 8 1/2 x 11 in. 

UNIQUE HANDBILL ADVERTISING THE PRO-WAR & ANTI-HITLER "RALLY FOR AMERICA!" LED BY THE AFL, CIO, & MAYOR LaGUARDIA

An extremely rare, possibly unique handbill advertising a rally held on 25 October 1941 at Madison Square Park in New York City in favor of the United States entering World War II. Stated clearly, the Rally was chiefly "In support of the President's Effort to Repeal the Neutrality Act NOW! / To Urge the British Governemnt ot Open a New Front NOW Against Hitler, Aided by the United States".

The speakers included Mayor Fiorella H. LaGuardia, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the leaders of several prominent unions. The Daily World reported, "The determination of American labor to see the country's economic and military resources thrown into the war against Hitlerism was vividly expressed here yesterday when 60,000...cheered speakers...who called for national unity behind President Roosevelt's foreign policy." 

The inclusion of Stephen S. Wise, a prominent and charismatic Reform Rabbi, also indicates that early awareness of the persecution of the Jews in Europe was included in the proceedings. 

The handbill expounds: "The cause of humanity and the future of our own country may well depend on the outcome of the battles now raging against Fascist aggression. A Hitler victory on the Eastern Front will be followed by invasion of England and an immediate attack on our own borders. In this grave hour, Soviet Russia deserves more than mere admiration. Military help must be forthcoming NOW." 

Interestingly, Charles A. Lindbergh would lead an "American First" rally at the same location five days later, advocating American isolationism. 

EXTREMELY RARE, POSSIBLY UNIQUE. OCLC locates no copies. We traced no copies ever sold at auction or elsewhere. 

[World War II, WWII, FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Allied, Axis, George S. Patton, Air Force] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers]