Clippings and Press Releases, 1920-1931

Individual correspondents of note include Friedrich Adler (1910-1933); Victor L. Berger (1903-1926); Julius Henry Cohen (1914-1915); Eugene V. Debs (1903-1925); Charles Dobbs (1903-1916); Julius Gerber (1920-1934); Adolph F. Germer (1917-1929); Maxim Gorki (1906-1928); Job Harriman (1900-1925); Camille Huysmans (1905-1917); Harry W. Laidler (1919-1933); Algernon Lee (1904-1933); James Oneal (1923-1934); Clarence O. Senior (1929-1934); Norman Thomas (1922- 1934); and Bertha Hale White (1924-1925).

Organizational correspondents which figure largely in the collection include the American Labor Party (1923-1924); Conference for Progressive Political Action (1922-1925); International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (1909-1933); International Socialist Bureau (1905-1915); JEWISH DAILY FORWARD (1926-1933); Labour and Socialist International (1923-1933); League for Industrial Democracy (1922-1933); National Farmer-Labor-Progressive Convention (1924); NEW LEADER (1923-1933); NEW YORK CALL (1912-1923); Rand School of Social Science (1907-1933); Socialist Party of America (1914-1933); and Socialist Party of New York City (1931-1933).

Among the subjects covered in this collection are conflicts within the socialist movement (1900-1913), including ideological differences within the Socialist Party of America and disputes on the issues of state autonomy, trade unionism, and relations with the Socialist Labor Party. Also discussed in this period are the establishment of the Rand School of Social Science, Party propaganda activities, Hillquit's campaigns for a seat in Congress, his friendship with Maxim Gorki, his attendance at International Socialist Congresses and his service as international secretary of the American Socialist party.

Also documented are Hillquit's anti-war activities (1914-1918) and his involvement with fellow socialists tried under the Espionage Act of 1917; Bolshevism and red-baiting (1918-1921) and the effects of the Russian Revolution on American socialists, deepening divisions within the Socialist Party, activities of the Lusk Committee, including attempts to revoke the charter of the Rand School, Hillquit's legal defense of five New York State Assemblymen ousted from office because of their Socialist Party membership, attempts to obtain amnesty for Eugene V. Debs and others imprisoned for anti-war activities, and Socialist Party relations with the Labour and Socialist International.

Papers for the years 1922-1924 discuss "fusion politics", cooperation with organized labor and the organization of the Conference for Progressive Political Action and endorsement of the presidential candidacy of Robert M. La Follette. As well as correspondence, reports, and executive committee minutes of the Conference for Progressive Political Action, correspondents include the Farmer-Labor Party, the Committee of Forty-Eight, the American Labor Party, the Joint Committee for Independent Labor Political Action, and the Committee For a National Farmer-Labor-Progressive Convention. Bertha Hale White, the Party's national secretary, figures prominently in the correspondence dealing with fusion politics.

After 1924, the collection is largely concerned with internal Party affairs. Correspondence with Bertha Hale White, George C. Kirkpatrick, and Eugene V. Debs discuss the Party's economic difficulties. Also included are minutes of the National Executive Committee, reports of the national secretaries and correspondence with Julius Gerber, James Oneal and Nathan Fine discussing activities of the New York local.

Trade union materials (1909-1933) document Hillquit's involvement with the New York City Shirtwaist Makers' Strike (1909-1910), the Protocol of Peace negotiations, activities as counsel for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Hillquit's defense of union leaders charged with murder in connection with the 1910 Cloakmakers' Strike, his service on a nonpartisan Council of Conciliation to negotiate a settlement in the cloakmaking industry (1915), and his involvement in the ILGWU's internal struggles with communist factions and the New York Joint Board of Cloak Makers' Unions.