Chicago, Apr. 3.
R. Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior, warned the nation tonight in a speech broadcast throughout the country that the real menace to free American institutions was Fascism which he characterize d as "arrogant, devoid of conscience and knowing no mercy to man, woman or child."
Mr. Ickes said he rejected claims that Communism constituted a threat to American institutions, indicating he believed Communism had made slight headway in the United States.
He severely criticized "those who cry in tones of simulated anguish that at this moment a dictatorship exists in the United States."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.