Schwinn stared at me and then smiled. "You can't prove anything," he said with assurance.
"I have affidavits about all these items and more--affidavits from men on board the Nazi ships."
"It's impossible!" he exclaimed. "No German on the ship would dare to sign an affidavit!"
"You intend to publish them?" he asked, a cunning look appearing in his eyes.
His eagerness to discover who had given me affidavits was funny and I laughed. "I'll publish the information contained in them," I explained. "The names of the signers will be given only to an American governmental or judicial body which may look into your 'patriotic' activities. But let's get on. Do you know the Nazi Consul in Los Angeles--Dr. George Gyssling?"
He sat silently for a moment as if hesitating whether to speak.
"Don't be afraid to talk," I said. "The Consul isn't. You know, of course, that he does not like you?"
A deep red flush suffused his face. "It's mutual!" he said. "I know he talks--"
Throughout the interview Schwinn tried almost pathetically, despite his obvious dislike of Gyssling, to cover up the Consul's interference in American affairs. When I told Schwinn I had affidavits showing that Rafael Demmler, President of the Steuben Society of Los Angeles, got two hundred dollars in April, 1936, from the Nazi Consul to help maintain the _Deutsches Haus_ as a center of Nazi propaganda, he shook his head bewilderedly; and when I pointed out that he himself got one hundred and forty-five dollars in cash from the Nazi Consul on Tuesday, April 28, 1936, to cover expenses incurred by Schwinn in the effort to bring the German-American groups together for the better dissemination of Nazi propaganda, his face turned alternately white and red and finally he exploded:
"I'm not saying who told it to me. But let's get on with some of your other 'patriotic' activities. On Thursday, June 18, 1936, you visited Captain Trauernicht in company with Count von Bülow--"
For the first time since the interview began Schwinn sat upright in his chair as if I had struck him. All the other subjects had left him slightly disturbed but still with an obvious sense that he was not on particularly dangerous ground. But at the mention of Von Bülow's name a look of actual fear spread over his face.