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"Turners Falls Post Plans Alien, Propaganda Check" article from Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper

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Well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into World War II, American Citizens were being asked by the Federal Government to make preparations to defend the home front. In Turners Falls and other Western Massachusetts towns the American Legion, a veterans organization, volunteered to form a home defense committee. Committees such as the First Aid and Ambulance Unit, the Emergency Supply Unit and the Fire Arms Survey Unit would aid the community in the event of an emergency or prepare it for attack. Among the committees formed was a Propaganda Unit to "check all information distributed in public libraries, check up on all aliens and all un-American activities." The United States Congress passed the Alien Registration Act of 1940 which was meant to protect the country from internal attack.

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