Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1180196
24 THE CAPITOL DOME pared German military forces, European countries then fell like dominos with Germany's May 10 invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Later the same month, Holland and Belgium surren- dered to Germany followed by Norway's surrender in June. Germany also invaded Romania and Yugoslavia that year. Italy declared war on Britain and France in June 1940. Germany began air raids on London and declared a blockade of the British Isles. As America's allies came under attack, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense treaty, the Tripartite Pact, on 27 September 1940. The three nations together came to be known as the Axis Powers. As Hitler ignited a conflagration across Europe, the American court finally made its ruling. Court Decision On 23 January 1941, 558 days after the preliminary injunction against Noram Publishing, the court's final ruling was made against Noram on the basis of copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Murray Hulbert presided over the consent judgment on Houghton Mifflin Company v. Noram Publishing Company. The court ordered the impoundment and destruction of all remaining copies of the Crans- ton-translated, Noram-published edition of Mein Kampf. Payment of damages for the plaintiff was ordered, adjudged, and decreed. Amster Spiro, who was primarily responsible for Noram's establishment and operations, was fined $1,000. In the months prior to the final ruling, Noram Publishing's office in New York City had ceased operations and the company came to an end. By the beginning of 1941, Hitler's plan to spread the Third Reich across the continent was well underway, yet there was still no consensus in America on Hitler and Nazi Germany. Germany's aggression continued with the invasion of Russia in June 1941. It was not until the Japa- nese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that the United States entered WWII. The day after this attack, the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. On 11 December Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. Isolationism could not be sus- tained in the face of the blatant and brutal attack. Con- gress acted swiftly to declare war, with one lone vote cast against war with Germany. Lifelong pacifist Rep. Jeannette Rankin (MT)—the first woman to be elected to Con- gress, in 1916—was the only Member of Congress to vote against U.S. entrance into both WWI and WWII. Aermath Noram and its officers made no profits from the Cranston edition due to its low selling price, and the expenses incurred for its printing and distribution negated any gains. Moreover, the court ordered that all unsold copies were to be destroyed. How many of these copies survived over the decades is unknown. If the court had not ruled against Noram, how many more people in the United States might have read and heeded Alan Cranston's dire warning about Hitler? Would the Crans- ton edition have ignited a more meaningful and impact- ful discussion in America to stop Hitler in the months leading to and the early days of WWII? Would more time have made it possible to marshal support from the pub- lic, the press, government officials, legislators, and other dec ision ma ker s? If so, wou ld t he Cra nston ed i- t ion's i n fluence have extended beyond America's bor- ders? Would exposing the full measure of Hitler's evil ideology in this way have put him on trial in the court of world opinion and made a difference? We will never know. Of the half million copies that were sold, we have no way of knowing how many of them survived the past 80 years. We do know for certain that at least two American citizens own original copies of the Cranston edition. Alan Cranston located and bought a copy of his own work from a private seller decades later for $50, a remarkable markup from its original price of 10 cents. The other person who searched for and purchased a copy from a private source is the author of this article, who also worked for Cranston during his service in the U.S. Senate. LORRAINE H. TONG was Sen. Alan Cranston's for- eign policy legislative aide and advisor for eight years. Her work included nuclear arms control, human rights, and US-China-Taiwan issues. She also worked for Sen. Jacob Javits. After working in the Senate, she was an ana- lyst for many years at the Congressional Research Service (CRS). This article and the views expressed are her own, and do not reflect or represent in any way those of CRS. Tong is the author of Hitler on Trial: Alan Cranston, Mein Kampf, and The Court of World Opinion.