Document Group: CDGA
Size: 7.5 linear inches
Provenance: Unknown
Restrictions: None
Microfilm: See Introduction section below.
Finding Aid: Checklist prepared by Anne Yoder, Archivist, July 1999
This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
Introduction
The New York Bureau of Legal First Aid was founded on May 11, 1917 with a $100 grant from the Woman's Peace Party. It was initially sponsored by the People's Council, the Socialist Party, the Civil Liberties Bureau and the Workmen's Council. In May 1918, the group changed its name to the New York Bureau of Legal Advice. The Bureau was the first organization to provide free legal service to men who resisted the new draft laws related to the entry of the United States into the first world war. Its primary efforts went into monitoring the government's attitude toward conscientious objectors to war, and campaigning for their humane treatment and eventual amnesty from prison terms. It also opposed the deportation of labor union radicals (especially members of the International (Industrial) Workers of the World), and the harassment of others opposed to the war. In September 1918, the Bureau was raided by the FBI which temporarily disrupted its work.
Frances Witherspoon, a feminist and socialist peace activist, served as the Bureau's Executive Secretary. Charles Recht, a Czech-born attorney, was its General Counsel. Members of the Executive Committee included Tracy D. Mygatt, Roger Baldwin, Martha Gruening and Fola La Follette (daughter of Senator La Follette).
The Bureau closed in the fall of 1919, shortly before the Armistice.
The bulk of the Bureau's records (5.42 linear feet) are located at the Tamiment Institute Library (Collection #44), New York University's Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012. These records have been microfilmed. The Peace Collection owns a set of this microfilm (Reels 142.1-142.10). Please contact staff at the Peace Collection or at the Tamiment Library for the finding aid of this collection.
See also:
Records of the Woman's Peace Party (DG 043)
Papers of Tracy Mygatt & Frances Witherspoon (DG 089)
Papers of Julius Eichel (DG 131)
Photos of WWI C.O.s (Photograph Collection)
Contents of the Collection
Box 1
Checklist; removal form; holdings in Tamiment Library
Programmatic material (includes bylaws), 1917-1919
Correspondence with army camp commanders etc., 1918-1919
General correspondence re: C.O.s, 1918 - Jan. 1920
Letters from C.O.s, 1917-1919
Letters from C.O. Bruno Grunzig, 1918-1920
Letters from wives & fiancees of C.O.s about visits to camps/prisons, 1918-1919
Statements of C.O.s re: their convictions, and reports of conditions (& treatment) in camps/prisons
Reports re: court-martials of C.O.s (including Julius Eichel), March 1918 - Feb. 1919
Statements from 2 C.O.s who were deported from the U.S.
Answers to survey of 256(?) C.O.s
Lists of C.O.s [includes some notes re: conditions in camps/prisons]
Box 2
Newsclippings re: C.O.s [removed from scrapbook; photocopied]
Newsclippings re: C.O.s, 1918-1919, n.d. [photocopied]
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
For more information, contact Wendy Chmielewski, Curator, at wchmiel1@ swarthmore.edu or call 610-328-8557.
For other resources, see the college's online library catalog (Tripod).
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This page was last updated on August 5, 2005.