Mauritz Alfred Hallgren was an American journalist, editor, and author. Hallgren is remembered as a leading liberal public intellectual of the 1930s, writing extensively on current affairs for The Nation

The Nation

The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

magazine.

Career

During the first half of the 1930s Hallgren was a frequent contributor to The Nation

The Nation

The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

magazine, contributing articles on domestic and international affairs and reviewing non-fiction books. In 1934, Hallgren left The Nation to take a post on the staff of the Baltimore Sun.

As an active opponent of fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 and supporter of loyalists to the Spanish Republic

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, Hallgren was a member of the Communist Party USA

Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

-sponsored League of American Writers

League of American Writers

The League of American Writers was an association of American novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, and literary critics launched by the Communist Party USA in 1935...

 and a signer of the organization's 1939 convention call.

In January 1937, Hallgren made headlines by publicly resigning as a member of the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky

American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky

The American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky was a pseudo-judicial process set up by American Marxists following the first of the Moscow Trials. It had no powers of subpeona, nor official imprimatur from any government...

, an organization of leading intellectuals which took testimony to test the veracity of political charges made against Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 as part of the Great Terror

Great Terror

Great Terror may refer to:* Reign of Terror , a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution, last weeks of which are sometimes referred to as the Red Terror or Great Terror...

 in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Hallgren charged that the committee had "become an instrument of the Trotskyists

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 for political intervention against the Soviet Union." Hallgren's resignation letter to the Committee's secretary, Felix Morrow

Felix Morrow

Felix Morrow was an American communist political activist and newspaper editor. In later years, Morrow left the world of politics to become a book publisher. He is best remembered as a factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement....

, was later published as a 1 cent propaganda pamphlet by the Communist Party's International Publishers

International Publishers

International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City specializing in Marxist works of economics, political science, and history. The company was established in 1924 by A.A. Heller and Alexander Trachtenberg, using funds earned through a lucrative trade concession granted...

 in 1937.
In his January 27 letter to Morrow, Hallgren explained that he had joined the Trotsky Defense Committee as an expression of his belief in" the right of asylum for persons exiled because of their political or other beliefs." With the granting of asylum to Trotsky by Mexico, this aspect of the committee's work had come to a close, however, Hallgren noted. However, with the completion of the second great Moscow show trial

Show trial

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...

, Hallgren came to a belief that

"the very unanimity of the defendants, far from proving that this trial is also a 'frame-up,' appears to me to prive directly the contrary. For if these men are innocent, then certainly at least one of the three dozen, knowing that he faced death in any case, would have blurted out the truth. It is inconceivable that out of this great number of defendants, all should lie when lies would not do one of them any good."

Hallgren asserted that while he readily agreed that "Stalin has his faults," nevertheless "every fair-minded person must concede that under its present leadership the Soviet Union has made remarkable progress toward establishing socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

." It was only among the Nazis, fascists, and reactionaries, as well as a handful of socialist

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 adherents of the Second International

Second International

The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...

 and the Trotskyists who contended that the USSR was not progressing towards socialism, Hallgren wrote to Morrow.

"The outcry against the Moscow trials first came from the Trotskyites," Hallgren charged. Given the weight of the public evidence, Hallgren concluded:

"...I shall remain convinced that the present liberal movement to win justice for him is nothing more than a Trotskyite maneuver against the Soviet Union and against socialism. I am equally convinced, as I must be under the circumstances, that the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky has, perhaps unwittingly, become an instrument of the Trotskyites for political intervention against the Soviet Union.... I do not intend under any circumstances to allow myself to become a party to any arrangement that has for its objective purpose (whatever may be its subjective justification) the impairment or destruction of the socialist system now being built in Soviet Russia."

Others joining Hallgren in resigning from the Trotsky Defense Committee included journalists Carleton Beals

Carleton Beals

Carleton Beals was a radical American journalist, author, historian, and a crusader with special interests in Latin America.-Early years:...

 and Lewis Gannett

Lewis Gannett

Lewis Gannett is an American writer.Gannett is the author of the books The Living One, Magazine Beach, The Siege, as well as two Millennium novels: Gehenna and Force Majeure.-External links:*...

, as well as Nation magazine editor Freda Kirchwey

Freda Kirchwey

Freda Kirchwey was an American journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to liberal causes. From 1933 to 1955, she was Editor of The Nation magazine.-Biography:...

. These resignations were touted by the Communist Party as evidence that the committee was nothing more than a publicity bureau for Leon Trotsky and the political movement which he headed.

Later in 1937, Hallgren published a book entitled A Tragic Fallacy, a work later hailed by historian Harry Elmer Barnes

Harry Elmer Barnes

Harry Elmer Barnes was a prominent American historian in the 20th century. A "progressive who had some classical liberal impulses," he was associated for virtually his entire career with Columbia University.-Early career:...

 as "the definitive indictment of American interventionist diplomacy from Wilson to Roosevelt."

Death and legacy

Mauritz Hallgren died November 10, 1956 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was 57 years old at the time of his death.

Books and pamphlets

• Seeds of Revolt: A Study of American Life and Temper of the American People During the Depression. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933.
• Why I Resigned from the Trotsky Defense Committee. New York: International Publishers, 1937.
• The US Plays Ostrich. New York: American Friends of Spanish Democracy, n.d. [c. 1937].
• The Tragic Fallacy: A Study of America's War Policies. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937.

Articles

• "The Patriotic Radio Trust," The Nation, July 20, 1927.
• "Price-Fixing in Queensland," The Nation, August 10, 1927.
• "The Radio Trust Rolls On," The Nation, January 11, 1928.
• "Oil in Venezuela," The Nation, April 25, 1928.
• "French Prosperity Fades," The Nation, October 22, 1930.
• "The Polish Terror in Galicia," The Nation, November 5, 1930.
• "Congress in Confusion," The Nation, December 3, 1930.
• "Fascism Bankrupt," The Nation, December 17, 1930.
• "Poland Courts a New War," The Nation, January 21, 1931.
• "Young Bob LaFollette," The Nation, March 4, 1931.
• "Hard Times and Hard Facts," The Nation, March 11, 1931.
• "Our Vanishing Liberties," The Nation, March 18, 1931.
• "Progressives Turn to the Left," The Nation, March 25, 1931.
• "Secretary Wilbur and the Cancer Cure," The Nation, April 8, 1931.
• "Chicago Goes Tammany," The Nation, April 22, 1931.
• "Governor LaFollette," The Nation, April 29, 1931.
• "Easy Times in Middletown," The Nation, May 6, 1931.
• "Detroit's Liberal Mayor," The Nation, May 13, 1931.
• "Making the Country Safe for War," The Nation, May 27, 1931.
• "The Farce of Power Regulation," The Nation, June 24, 1931.
• "Why Must the Miners Starve?" The Nation, July 29, 1931.
• "Danger Ahead in the Coal Strike," The Nation, August 5, 1931.
• "The Manchurian Battleground," The Nation, October 28, 1931.
• "Japan Defies the Imperialists," The Nation, November 11, 1931.
• "The Federal Farm-Relief Scandal," The Nation, Part 1: December 2, 1931; Part 2: December 9, 1931.
• "American Secrecy About Red Russia," The Nation, February 3, 1932.
• "How Many Hungry?" The Nation, February 10, 1932.
• "Mass Misery in Philadelphia," The Nation, March 9, 1932.
• "Panic in the Steel Towns," The Nation, March 20, 1932.
• "Bankers and Bread Lines," The Nation, April 6, 1932.
• "Hitler Versus Hindenburg," The Nation, April 6, 1932.
• "Bloody Williamson is Hungry," The Nation, April 20, 1932.
• "Pigs, Plows, and Charity," The Nation, May 4, 1932.
• "Help Wanted — For Chicago," The Nation, May 11, 1932.
• "Russia Could Help Us," The Nation, May 18, 1932.
• "Franklin D. Roosevelt," The Nation, June 1, 1932.
• "Beer, Bums, and Republicans," The Nation, June 29, 1932.
• "The Milwaukee Miracle," The Nation, July 13, 1932.
• "The Bonus Army Scares Mr. Hoover," The Nation, July 27, 1932.
• "Grave Danger in Detroit," The Nation, August 3, 1932.
• "Judge Manton and the IRT Scandal," The Nation, October 26, 1932.
• "The Revolutionary Crisis in Japan," The Nation, November 9, 1932.
• "Billions for Relief," The Nation, November 20, 1932.
• "The Secret International," The Nation, January 25, 1933.
• "The Ohio Gang Protects the Bankers," The Nation, April 19, 1933.
• "A $100,000,000 Tax Scandal," The Nation, May 10, 1933.
• "The Power Trust Picks Its Own Judge," The Nation, June 21, 1933.
• "The Recovery Machine Starts," The Nation, July 12, 1933.
• "More Relief for Farmers," The Nation, July 26, 1933.
• "Liberia in Shackles," The Nation, August 16, 1933.
• "The Drive for Spoils," The Nation, August 23, 1933.
• "Drifting Into Militarism," The Nation, October 4, 1933.
• "The Right to Strike," The Nation, November 8, 1933.
• "The NRA Oil Trust," The Nation, March 7, 1934.
• "Japan Over Asia," The Nation, July 25, 1934.
• "Soviet China," The Nation, October 3, 1934.