Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081 U.S.A.
National Council Against Conscription
Records, 1944-1960
Document Group: DG 052
Provenance: Donated by NCAC, 1960
Size: 4.5 linear feet
Restrictions: None
Microfilm: None
Finding Aid: Collection re-processed and checklist revised by Anne Yoder,
Sept. 2002
This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
Historical Introduction
The National Council Against Conscription (NCAC), an outgrowth
of the National Council Against Peacetime Conscription Now (which was founded
in 1945 and merged into the NCAC)), had its first official meeting on Dec. 13,
1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mordecai Johnson was elected as the first
chairman pro tem, and Walter Sikes as secretary. In Feb. 1946, Carlyle Adams
was approved as Director and Sikes as Associate Director,, with headquarters
in the Witherspoon Building in Philadelphia. In April 1946, Adams resigned,
and Sikes was appointed Interim Director. In June 1946, Sikes resigned; in Dec.
1946, John Swomley Jr. became the Acting Director, and was appointed the Director
in Oct. 1947 and stayed in that position until the NCAC disbanded in Dec. 1959.
Members of the Administrative Committee (i.e., Board of Directors) included
Alonzo Myers, George Buttrick, Francis McGuire, Elsie Elfenbein, Ray Newton,
Mildred Scott Olmsted, Denis Cardinal Dougherty, and Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Swomley was the editor of Conscription News, which was begun in Nov.
1944 while he was still working for the Fellowship of Reconciliation; when he
became the director of the NCAC in 1947, it took over the sponsorship of the
newsletter. The newsletter ceased being published in Dec. 1959 when the NCAC
disbanded.
The NCAC worked to defeat various legislative measures which promoted universal
military training and peacetime conscription, by lobbying Congress, public speaking,
publishing detailed analyses of proposed legislation, corresponding with magazine
and newspaper editors about their coverage of UMT, and producing literature
on the subject. It also worked on related issues such as international cooperation,
disarmament, conscription, militarism, disarmament, racism, the United Nations,
and prevention of war.
Correspondents include Frank Aydelotte, Bruce Barton, Charles F. Boss Jr., Louis
Bromfield, Henry J. Cadbury, Roscoe S. Conkling, John Dewey, Albert Einstein,
Harry Emerson Fosdick, John Haynes Holmes, Ray Newton, Richard W. Reuter, Eleanor
Roosevelt, John M. Swomley, and E. Paul Weaver.
Scope and Content
This collection includes meeting minutes, correspondence, publicity material,
literature and reference material. Some material that came from John Swomley
and reflects his work before joining the NCAC, was removed to his personal collection
(CDGA: Swomley) in Sept. 2002. Three filmstrips and three phonodiscs were removed
to the Audiovisual Collection.
Series A. General
Box 1
History & purpose
Meeting minutes, 1945-1955 [incomplete set?]
Financial records
Officers / Executive Group / Members / Sponsors lists
Directors' reports
NCAC Youth Division, 1948-1953
Series B. Correspondence
Correspondence re: suggestions for people to serve on National Committee, 1944
Correspondence re: suggestions for people to serve on National Committee, 1945,
n.d.
Correspondence with Sponsors / Members, 1945-1947
Correspondence with Sponsors / Members, 1948-1950
Correspondence with Sponsors / Members, 1951-1959
Correspondence with Members, 1945
Correspondence with Members, 1946
Correspondence with Members, 1947-1959, n.d.
Box 2
Correspondence with Executive Group / Committee
Correspondence with/about General Herbert C. Holdridge
Correspondence: general, 1944 (Nov.) - 1945 (Oct.)
Correspondence: general, 1945 (Nov.)
Correspondence: general, 1945 (Dec.)
Correspondence: general, 1946
Correspondence: general, 1947
Correspondence: general, 1948
Correspondence: general, 1949
Correspondence: general, 1950
Box 3
Correspondence: general, 1951
Correspondence: general, 1952-1953
Correspondence: general, 1954
Correspondence: general, 1955
Correspondence: general, 1957-1959 [1956 missing]
Correspondence with Congress, 1945-1947
Correspondence with Congress, 1948-1951
Correspondence with Congress, 1952-1959
Correspondence with magazine / newspaper editors, 1945-1946
Correspondence with magazine / newspaper editors, 1947-1949
Box 4
Correspondence with magazine / newspaper editors, 1950-1955
Correspondence etc. re: charges against NCAC of being communist, 1947-1948
Correspondence etc. re: charges against NCAC of being communist, 1949-1950
Correspondence etc. re: charges against NCAC of being communist, 1951
Correspondence etc. re: charges against NCAC of being communist, 1952-1959
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: California
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Colorado
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Connecticut;
District of Columbia
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Illinois
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Indiana;
Iowa
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Kentucky;
Massachusetts
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Michigan;
Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: New
Hampshire; New Jersey
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: New
York
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Ohio;
Oregon; Pennsylvania
Correspondence with and material about state and local anti-UMT groups: Washington;
Wisconsin
Series C. Outreach
Box 5
Publicity: press releases, 1946 - 1948 (March)
Publicity: press releases, 1948 (April) - 1949
Publicity: press releases, 1950-1959, n.d.
Media coverage
Form letters to "Friend," 1945-1947
Form letters to "Friend," 1948 - 1960 (Jan.), n.d.
Form letters to Group / Committee / Members
Form letters to "Sponsors"
Form letters to miscellaneous groups
Box 5a (1/2 box)
Calls to action / issue statements, 1945-1949
Calls to action / issue statements, 1950-1955
Calls to action / issue statements, n.d.
Box 6
Calls to action, etc. [by the NCAC?]
Published literature, 1945-1949
Published literature, 1950
Published literature, 1951
Published literature, 1952-1959
Published literature, n.d.
Published literature: leaflet series "Questions for Congressmen" #1-8,
ca. 1954
Published literature: pamphlet series "Conscription Factfolder" #1-12,
ca. 1954-1959
Published literature: pamphlet series "Facts About -- " [unnumbered],
n.d.
Published literature: pamphlet series on disarmament #1-4, ca. 1950-1951
Literature lists
Index to Conscription News #1-150
Congressional testimony
Series D. Program Work
Strategy discussions re: UMT, 1947-1949
Strategty discussions re: UMT, 1950-1959
Questionnaire on policy program of the NCAC [filled out]
Petition by religious leaders [signed by 652 clergymen], started by Allen Knight
Chalmers, 1947
Commendations of Swomley's work and of Conscription News
Box 7
Program work: miscellaneous
Work re: opposition to communism, 1945-1946
Work with labor groups, 1946-1949
Work with religious groups and denominations, 1946-1949
Work re: radio broadcasts and UMT [includes Swomley's appearances], 1946-1955
Work with farm groups, 1946-1955
Work re: opposition to communism, 1947
Work re: President's Advisory Commission on Military Training, 1947
Work re: race relations and UMT, 1947-1948
Work re: race relations and UMT: involvement with Committee Against Jim Crow
in Military Service and Training, 1947-1949
Work re: American Legion and UMT, 1947-1951
Work with educators re: UMT, 1947-1959
Box 8
Work re: opposition to communism, 1948
Work re: opposition to communism, 1950-1956
Work re: evaluation of newspaper coverage of UMT, 1946-1952
Work re: army's illegal use of funds to promote UMT, 1947 [includes Harness
Investigative Committee]
Work re: army's illegal use of funds to promote UMT, 1947: letters of constituents
to/from Congress
Work re: army's UMT Experimental Unit at Ft. Knox (Kentucky), 1947
Work re: UMT Week, 1947-1948
Work re: pamphlets on militarization [and collection of signatures], 1947-1949
Work re: opinion polls on UMT, 1947-1955
Work re: cost of army reserves, 1947-1955
Work re: magazine coverage of UMT, 1947-1955
Work re: militarism in education, 1950-1955
Work with labor groups, 1950-1959
Box 9
Work with religious groups and denominations, 1950-1959
Work re: the drafting of 18-year-olds, 1951
Work re: Coronet films on UMT, 1951-1952
Work re: pamphlet on conscription of women, 1951-1952
Work re: production of anti-UMT filmstrips, 1951-1954
Work re: conference on UMT for religious leaders [sponsored by Pentagon], Jan.
1952
Work re: armed forces' textbook promoting military service, 1955-1956
Work re: pamphlet on conscription, 1958
Series E. Reference Material
Peacetime conscription / UMT: miscellaneous
Peacetime conscription / UMT: [includes National Youth Assembly Against UMT]
Peacetime conscription / UMT: government sources
Armed forces' textbook promoting military service, 1955
Pro-UMT groups: American Legion
Box 10
Pro-UMT groups: American Legion (cont.)
Pro-UMT groups: Citizens Committee for a National Service Act
Pro-UMT groups: Citizens Committee for Military Training of Young Men Inc.
Pro-UMT groups: Citizens Committee for Universal Military Training
Pro-UMT groups: Citizens Emergency Committee for Universal Military Training
Pro-UMT groups: National Security Committee
Pro-UMT groups: Women's National Committee for the Universal Training of Young
Men
Anti-UMT groups: Break With Conscription Committee (NY)
Anti-UMT groups: Chicago Committee to Oppose Conscription (IL)
Anti-UMT groups: Colorado Council Against Conscription
Anti-UMT groups: Committee to Oppose Peacetime Conscription (CA)
Anti-UMT groups: Greater Philadelphia Committee Against Peacetime Conscription
(PA)
Anti-UMT groups: Minnesota Committee to Oppose Peace-Time Military Conscription
Anti-UMT groups: New Haven Committee of One Hundred to Oppose the Wartime Adoption
of Peacetime Conscription (CT)
Anti-UMT groups: New York Committee Against Peacetime Conscription
Anti-UMT groups: Philadelphia Youth Council to Oppose Conscription (PA)
Opposition to UMT prior to establishment of the NCAC
Anti-conscription and anti-UMT resolutions by miscellaneous groups, 1947-
Statements of religious bodies re: UMT
Labor groups and UMT
Doctors' draft, 1950-1955
Biographical information about and writings of General Herbert C. Holdridge
Box 11
Newsclippings of letters to the editor and articles re: UMT and peacetime
conscription (pro and con), 1944-1953, n.d.
Excerpts of letters to the editor and articles re: UMT and peacetime conscription
(pro and con)
Removed to Audiovisual Collection
Filmstrips:
1/ "Way of Life" ["How to Defend a Way of Life"]
2/ "Good for Your Boy?" ["Would UMT Be Good For Your Boy?"]
3/ "Security?" ["Would UMT Bring Security?"]
Phonodiscs (33 and 1/3 RPM) from Series "Must Your Son Be A Soldier?":
1/ "How to Defend a Way of Life"
2/ "Would UMT Be Good For Your Boy?"
3/ "Would UMT Bring Security?"
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