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ART SMITH: We left Capt. Art Smith yesterday at the end of World
War I.
As you may recall, Smith was a soldier of fortune who held some
rather unorthodox views about the world. Out conclusion today of
the story of this Crosby native, as told by the Democrat newspaper
on Feb. 9, 1933:
“After the World War, Smith went through several Central
American revolutions and fought against Spain with the Riff
tribesmen in Morocco.
“He had become an airplane pilot and later participated in the
Mexican revolution headed by Gen. Escobar. When Escobar was
decisively defeated, Smith flew his plane into the United States
and nearly ran afoul of the federal authorities.
“His luck held good, and he was released.
“He was a flying instructor at airports in Olean and Atlanta for
a time.
“The Crosby soldier of fortune disappeared a year ago and was
next heard of when he returned from China, where he had been a
member of the Chinese air forces during the Sino-Jap war.
“Until word was received of him Tuesday, he was supposedly in
Hollywood, Calif., as a technical expert in a movie studio.
“Tuesday’s news dispatch said that Smith had leased the old St.
Luke’s Hospital building in Philadelphia as national headquarters
for the Khaki Shirts and will start a drive for 100,000
Philadelphia members.
“Whether Capt. Smith is obsessed with the idea that he can
duplicate the spectacular rise of Adolph Hitler and his Brown Shirt
movement in Germany remains to be seen. Smith at least has the
nerve to try.”
A 1939 clipping contains Smith’s obituary. By then he was a
“general” and the newspaper reported that one of Smith’s goals with
his Khaki Shirts was “to make President Roosevelt a dictator.”
Ironically, this soldier of fortune died at the age of 41 of a
heart attack suffered in a hospital in Shamokin where he had been
employed as a WPA foreman.
TODAY’S QUOTE: “Without whistle blowers on the inside, there are
no press reports on the outside,” said columnist Sidney Blumental
of Salon.com in 2006.