San Bernardino man faced sedition charges in WWII

Sedition.

That’s one of those nebulous crimes involving dangerous actions against the government rarely sought by prosecutors. Some of those arrested in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol may be tried for it.

During World War II, David J. Baxter of San Bernardino found himself accused of sedition, believing he was a patriot trying to convince the country of its errors. The government said he was a radical tool of Nazi Germany.

You won’t find much about Baxter in any history book — he was once a publisher of a weekly newspaper in Twentynine Palms and later owner of a San Bernardino outdoor advertising business. During the war, he found himself frequently on the front page of most major newspapers, accused of treasonous activities.

He was actually indicted three times for his antiwar, seemingly pro-German writings. He, nor any of 28 other men and women accused of sedition in a highly publicized seven-month trial in 1944 were convicted.

Once a Franklin Roosevelt supporter, Baxter later joined the America First Committee, the nation’s most vocal anti-war group whose spokesman was famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. It opposed U.S. involvement in a European war or aiding Britain which in 193940 was teetering on the brink of defeat to Adolph Hitler.

“I became convinced that there really was an international conspiracy that was using our nation as a pawn, as had been the same in World War I,” Baxter wrote in a memoir that later appeared in the Journal of Historical Review in 1985. “I believe firmly that an international conspiracy of Jewish … bankers existed and influenced the President and government.”

He wrote later, “I also tried to organize a correspondence circle of anti-war people to be called the Social Republic Society, but it never amounted to anything. Or so we thought.” It was his views in that newsletter — published in Colton — that brought the government’s attention to Baxter.

He was first indicted in 1942 with 26 others “for conspiring ‘to break down morale in the armed forces’ and thus ‘obstruct and defeat the war effort’,” reported the Sun newspaper, July 24, 1942.

The newspaper said Baxter “was known in San Bernardino as a harmless radical, always taking the leftest viewpoint on any and all issues.”

It also said he was once

“slugged in the head when a group of husky union truck drivers broke up a meeting of ‘reds’ at a West Third Street hall.”

He joined the Democratic Party in the Morongo Valley but his radical opinions caused “a break in the organization, and there was talk of his being ‘ridden out of the desert on a rail,’” the Sun reported.

Unwilling to back down from his views, Baxter and his family moved to San Bernardino where he was occasionally targeted. He wrote that two gunmen “tried to bushwhack me” at his house one night but were driven away. His wife Bernice was fired from her job at the San Bernardino Air Depot because of his notoriety.

The Sun article said Baxter reportedly held a 1940 meeting in San Bernardino in which he introduced others to an alleged German prince, Kurt von Zur Lippe. Zur Lippe was described as “the German-born undergraduate who recruited Nazi supporters” at USC, in “Hitler in Los Angeles,” a recent book by author and USC professor Steven J. Ross. Baxter also was accused of serving as a liaison to Nazi agents in Los Angeles.

The first indictment against Baxter and the others never went forward, nor did a second attempt to prosecute them a year later. However, in May 1944, the trial finally began, with

Baxter bringing his family with him to stay in Washington, D.C. With his limited savings, he was able to buy a small boat on which they lived along the Potomac River as the trial dragged on.

Prosecutor John Rogge, in his opening statement, accused Baxter of helping Zur Lippe write Nazi progaganda and being paid by Fritz Wiedeman, the German consul in San Francisco.

“The defendant Baxter stated that he and Zur Lippe were trying to get the people of California to see things the right way — the conspirator Hitler’s way,” Rogge said. “He openly stated he was a Nazi and an active propagandist for the Hitler ideology.”

Baxter maintained at the time and years later that he never conspired with any Nazi nor directly aided them in the way Rogge claimed.

“I may have been something of a political rebel, (but) I always upheld our American form of government as the Constitution defines it,” he told the Sun on Sept. 20, 1944.

As the weeks passed, the trial was often bogged down by the mass of defendants and evidence.

After one defendant died in July, Judge Edward Eicher started tossing out the cases against a few of the other 28, including Baxter. Eicher said he released him because his near-deafness made it difficult for him to follow the proceedings, reported the Associated Press on July 14.

“It is mighty good to be knocking around again in the balmy atmosphere of the good old ‘Friendly City’ again,” Baxter told the Sun on Sept. 20 after returning to San Bernardino. “It is good to be greeted by old friends, many of whom lent us strong support in the midst of adversity.”

After Baxter left Washington, the trial plodded on until November when Eicher died suddenly. His replacement later declared a mistrial.

In subsequent years, Baxter said he later worked for the Santa Ana Register newspaper, wrote a syndicated column and studied theology, all the while thinking his troubles were over.

But several years after the war, he was told that Rep. Adolph J. Sabath of Illinois proposed to resume the sedition proceedings against him and others.

“I gave up,” he said, fearful of going through another trial. As he had been called an anti-semitic, it was suggested he write a letter to Sabath, who was Jewish, saying that while he had recently become a devout Christian, he apologized for his anti-semitism and vowed never to return to political activity.

He was initially reluctant to make such a plea but went forward with the letter to spare his family more turmoil. Baxter got a cordial reply, ending the threat of more litigation.

“I had given my all to be a solid American but there’s a limit to every person’s endurance,” he considered in his memoir. He always hoped that Congress would someday acknowledge the “injustice” done to all 29 who were accused and never convicted in the sedition case.

Baxter died at age of 80 in 1989 and is buried in Morrilton, Arkansas.

Camp Cajon

My colleague Mark Landis will present a Zoom talk on June 26 about the Camp Cajon Monument along the 15 Freeway in Cajon Pass.

From 9 to 10 a.m., Landis will discuss the camp that was once a roadside oasis for travelers, offering eating and camping facilities. He played a role in the creation of the Camp Cajon Monument that was dedicated on July 4, 2019.

The Zoom ID for the talk is 961 194 5998 with a password of 979 035. Go to Zoom.us and enter the ID and password.