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: 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==