Conde McGinley

Michael Conde McGinley (October 13, 1890 – July 2, 1963) was an American publisher. From 1948 until his death in 1963, he was the editor and publisher of the semi-monthly newspaper Common Sense, which reached a paid circulation of more than 100,000 by the mid-1950s. While initially anti-Communist in orientation, the newspaper later developed into a pro-Nazi and antisemitic broadsheet.

McGinley gained attention due to his campaign against the nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg as assistant secretary of Defense in the administration of President Harry S. Truman. This campaign led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Early life
Born in Norman, Oklahoma, the eldest of three surviving children of Irish Catholic immigrant Connell B. McGinley (1852 – 1941) and his wife, Catherine. McGinley preferred to be known by his middle name Conde. He married Celia Brown around 1918. Around this time he claimed that he was "Secretary of the Grady County Highway Association" in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He moved with his parents to the Dallas, Texas, area, where his daughter Nona was born in 1927, and where his father died in 1941.

Common Sense
McGinley moved to New Jersey in 1929, opening a chain of restaurants along the shore. During World War II, he worked as an inspector in a defense plant. In 1946, he began editing a weekly paper in Newark, New Jersey, called variously Think, The Think and Think Weekly. By June 1947, it was issued as Common Sense. In November 1947, the headquarters were transferred to Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. The paper became semi-monthly in 1948.

Although the first issues were anti-Communist, it later developed into a mostly anti-Semitic broadsheet, produced by himself, with his son and daughter-in-law. Around 1948, he sued America magazine and others (including Walter Winchell) for libel, and the case dragged on for about seven years.

In one issue of 1948, a major part of the paper was taken up by support for Robert Best, who had been convicted of treason (broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Germany during World War II). In the July and August 1949 issues, W. Henry MacFarland Jr.'s name appears as associate editor. "At the time Conde was planning to combine forces with MacFarland's Nationalist Action League, as well as with the Loyal American Group, headed by William J. O'Brien." O'Brien later joined the paper's staff.

The paper carried articles by Eustace Mullins starting September 1951. In 1953, he became a writer on staff. In addition, articles were written by Frederick C. F. Weiss, Kurt Mertig (founder of the National Renaissance Party), Elizabeth Dilling, Lyrl Clark Van Hyning, Gen. George Van Horn Moseley, Col. Eugene N. Sanctuary and Charles B. Hudson. In April 1942, Charles B. Hudson was sentenced to 90 days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions from a special grand jury investigating Nazi propaganda and agents in the United States. He was released from jail after serving five days, after agreeing to cooperate.

The paper's contributor, Col. Eugene Sanctuary, had, among other things, written a pamphlet, Is the New Deal Communist?, in which he made a 35-point comparison of The New Deal to Karl Marx's 1848 program. He also wrote an editor's note in I. B. Pranaitis' The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians (1939).

Involvement with the House Un-American Activities Committee
At the confirmation hearings for Anna Rosenberg, McGinley and others associated with him were prominently figured, including Benjamin H. Freedman, who had partially financed Common Sense. The fallout of this dispute brought him into the sights of House Un-American Activities Committee, which issued a 1954 report condemning his propaganda:

"Growth of the hate group in recent years is exemplified by the publishing endeavors of Conde J. McGinley and his son, C.J. McGinley, in Union, N.J. The McGinleys, senior and junior, operate as the Christian Educational Association, for the purpose of publishing a semimonthly paper, Common Sense, as well as a mass of individual printed matter.

Common Sense represents itself as the "Nation's anti-Communist paper." Subscriptions are sought from "loyal and patriotic Americans" in order to "help save our Republic".

Such patriotic claims provide poor disguise, however, for some of the most vitriolic hate propaganda ever to come to the attention of the committee. Common Sense defines communism as "Judaism" and devotes its pages almost exclusively to attacks on the Jewish and to a lesser extent the Negro minorities in our Nation. Sympathy for the former Nazi regime in Germany also is injected into this propaganda, which is hardly distinguishable from that of the National Renaissance Party except for the latter's open appeal for a fascist government in the United States.

Despite its patriotic claims, Common Sense has in fact employed and/or carried the writings of a number of individuals associated with the National Renaissance Party. Through the columns of Common Sense and innumerable booklets printed and offered for sale, the McGinleys appear to serve as a clearinghouse for hate propagandists throughout the country. Among these are many of the native fascists and hate racketeers who were active in the 1930s.

In contrast to the limited appeal of the openly fascist National Renaissance Party, the McGinley enterprise appears to be a shrewd and going business."

In response, "Conde McGinley of Common Sense urged the committee to hold a public hearing and 'if we cannot prove our statements we'll be very willing to cease publication'."

Christian Education Association
In 1954, McGinley formed the Christian Education Association with himself as president, his son as secretary/treasurer and Alex Jefimow as vice-president. The operation was at 530 Chestnut Street in Union, a building owned by Katherine Lettig, who was also a volunteer for the paper. The group also operated the Union Patriotic Press, whose officers were Charles Kane, John J. Reynolds and Edward J. Byrne.

In 1955, he was sued for $250,000 in punitive damages, for libel, by Rabbi Joachim Prinz (1902-1988) in Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey. McGinley had published that Prinz was "expelled in 1937 from Germany for revolutionary communistic activities". McGinley was defended by three attorneys, including Albert Dilling, former husband of Elizabeth Dilling Stokes, and their son, Kirkpatrick Dilling. The jury awarded Prinz $30,000, agreeing that "the biweekly publication was lying when it characterized him as a 'Red Rabbi'".

Death
McGinley died July 2, 1963, at his home in Union, New Jersey, aged 72. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters.

Closure of Common Sense
In a display ad in The New York Times on June 16, 1972, it is stated that although Common Sense had a May issue, it is "now defunct".