People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace
Encyclopedia
The People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, commonly known as the "People's Council," was an American pacifist
political organization established in New York City
in May 1917. Organized in opposition to the decision of the Woodrow Wilson
administration's decision to enter World War I
, the People's Council attempted to mobilize American workers
and intellectual
s against the war effort through publication of literature and the conduct of mass meetings and public demonstrations. The organization's dissident views made it a target of federal, state, and local authorities, who disrupted its meetings and arrested a number of its leading participants under provisions of the Espionage Act. The People's Council was succeeded in 1919 by a new group based in the same New York City headquarters, the People's Freedom Union
.
in August 1914 saw its response in the United States of America with the emergence of a national peace movement. One of the pioneer American pacifist
organizations was the Woman's Peace Party
, initiated by Chicago social worker Jane Addams
. In October 1914 the Minneapolis chapter of this organization passed a "Tentative Program for a Constructive Peace," which called for the convocation of an international conference of Neutral countries to bring an end to the European conflict. The Woman's Peace Party organized a mass meeting in Chicago early in December 1914, from which emerged a December 19 session which brought together 21 delegates from various peace, labor, political, religious, and civic organizations. This alliance of interested organizations constituted itself as the Chicago Emergency Peace Federation.
The Emergency Peace Federation elected socialist
Louis P. Lochner
its executive secretary, with Jane Addams continuing to play a leading role in the organization as well. The group issued a publication known as the Emergency Peace Federation Bulletin, and was the organizing force behind a national peace conference held in Chicago from February 27 to 28, 1915.
Throughout 1915 and 1916, a coordinated campaign was conducted in the United States on behalf of military "Preparedness," culminating on July 22, 1916 with Preparedness Day. This campaign for increased military spending in the shadow of the European bloodbath drove American pacifists
to action. One of the groups organized in an effort to staunch America's slide to war was the American Union Against Militarism
, founded in January 1916 from an "Anti-Preparedness Committee" established the previous year. In early 1917, the American Union Against Militarism were leading advocates for the idea of holding of a national referendum
on the question of American entry into the European war, believing that those agitating for foreign intervention were a distinct minority of the population.
A third pacifist organization emerged in February 1917, just as America appeared on the cusp of entering the European conflagration. This New York group, originally called the Emergency Peace Committee, dedicated itself to agitating for a continuation of the policy of American neutrality
towards the World War combatants. This group later emerged as the New York Emergency Peace Federation, and worked hand-in-glove with the Chicago organization of the same name.
Despite the best efforts of these and other groups, on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson
delivered a speech to Congress calling for a declaration of war against Germany
. As pro-war fervor swept the country, a new phase was entered by activists in the American peace movement — attempting to terminate Wilson's so-called "War to Make the World Safe for Democracy." In keeping with this new task, these three main pacifist organizations of America joined forces in a new organization, ultimately known as the People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace.
government of Soviet Russia
— including Morris Hillquit
, Norman Thomas
, and Roger Baldwin
— and those who favored a more moderate and Americanized approach. When this latter group, headed by Lillian Wald
of the American Union Against Militarism
, realized that it was in the minority, it walked out of the meeting in order to retain its independence from the forthcoming organization.
Those remaining determined to establish a new peace organization, patterned loosely on the workingmen's councils
of Russia. Socialist leader Morris Hillqut was named the ceremonial Chairman of the organizing committee of the new group and Louis P. Lochner
was tapped as Secretary, in charge of day-to-day activities.
Lochner's attempt to build a broad-based organization ran into difficulty. Prominent liberals sympathetic to the Wilson administration, such as attorney Frank P. Walsh
, refused to associate with the organization. Radicals were more sympathetic, with a number of prominent members of the Socialist Party of America
and left-wing members of the American Union Against Militarism joining the new group's ranks, as well as key members of the Emergency Peace Federation, such as rabbi
Judah L. Magnes.
A "Tentative Program" was circulated on May 7, in preparation for the gathering. New York City's Madison Square Garden
was booked for an organizational mass meeting. Stanford University
President David Starr Jordan
, a leading public figure among the American peace movement, was sought as a keynote speaker.
Lochner appealed to the American Federation of Labor
to also lend its support to the new peace organization. AF of L President Samuel Gompers
replied angrily in the negative, answering Lochner's cable with a terse declaration that "I prefer not to ally myself with the conscious or unconscious agents of the Kaiser in America."
Despite Gompers' refusal, work on the new organization proceeded apace, with a program committee consisting of Hillquit, Lochner, Norman Thomas, Henry W. L. Dana of Columbia University
, and peace activists Rebecca Shelly and Elizabeth Freeman
named. The committee decided to endorse a peace proposal calling for peace without annexations or indemnities and the self-determination
of all peoples as a basis of its own demands and to cooperate closely with the staunchly anti-militarist Socialist Party.
Leading academics were targeted by Lochner and brought into the new organization's fold during the initial preparatory period, including such worthies as economists Emily Green Balch and Scott Nearing
. Lochner envisioned an organization which was nationwide in scope and that would unite local peace organizations from around the United States.
mobs intent on dispersing attendees. Policemen carrying riot guns were posted on street corners surrounding Madison Square Garden, while police vehicles cruised the streets. More than 400 policemen were detailed to the operation.
Delegates began work on a preamble which called upon Americans to "aid our government in bringing to ourselves and the world a speedy, righteous, and lasting peace." Magnes delivered the keynote address, later published as a pamphlet in an edition of 50,000 copies, in which he bitterly attacked Britain and France for pursuing a war which offered little of worth to the working class, and intimating that the United States was engaged in a war to preserve capitalism
in Europe.
Also addressing the gathering was Algernon Lee
of the Socialist Party-affiliated Rand School of Social Science
, who detailed ongoing efforts of the Zimmerwald movement to hold an international peace conference at Stockholm
. Lee read a statement written by Morris Hillquit detailing a concrete plan for the participation of the leading belligerents in such a gathering and the establishment of an international body to resolve future economic disagreements amongst the warring parties — proposals which met with strong approval from the assembled delegates.
Afternoon speakers included Professor William I. Hull, a former college student of Woodrow Wilson's, who cautioned the President against making secret agreements with the Entente powers which might in the future commit the United States to participation in future wars. Former Socialist Congressman Victor L. Berger
also spoke, bitterly condemning the wartime profiteering of the American ruling class.
An evening session on the labor movement was addressed by James Maurer, a Socialist Party activist who was the elected leader of the AF of L in Pennsylvania. Maurer focused his rhetoric upon Samuel Gompers and the national leadership of the AF of L, which he charged had sold out the interests of the working class to the interests of the capitalist class
. Maurer was followed at the rostrum by Scott Nearing, who emphasized the need of Americans to support an activist labor movement, without which American workers would be suppressed by the combined forces of big business and the government during the war.
On the second day of the conference, sociologist Florence Kelley
called on the Wilson administration to improve working conditions of American workers. Numerous speakers followed calling for the repeal of military conscription and an endorsement of the policy of immediate peace without annexations or indemnities.
In the afternoon a formal call was made by Rebecca Shelly for the establishment of a new national organization, the People's Council of America, composed of locals across the country organized through universal suffrage and national referendums. Shelly called for a national convention to be held in the Midwest on September 1, for the establishment of a national office for the fledgling organization, and for the publication of a regular bulletin for national distribution. These proposals were approved by the assembled delegates, and the People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace was formally born.
, was quashed by the coordinated mass singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Effort was made to hold a national conference in Minneapolis on September 1, but the organization was denied use of a hall in the city. When the alternative of meeting in a circus tent was advanced, With less than a week remaining before the start of its scheduled national convention, Minnesota
Governor Joseph Burquist
of Minnesota intervened to ban the People's Council from gathering anywhere in the state on the grounds that it would give aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.
The People's Council scrambled and attempted to hold its convention in Chicago, but the event was broken up by the police. When Chicago Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson
attempted to reverse this action, on the grounds that "pacifists are law-abiding citizens" and that he would not "have it spread broadcast that Chicago denies free speech to anyone," Illinois Governor Frank Lowden
responded by mobiling the Illinois National Guard
, sending four companies of troops to Chicago the next day to make sure that the People's Council could not gather.
The People's Council sought to make Stanford University
President David Starr Jordan
its delegate to a proposed September 9, 1917, peace meeting in Stockholm
, but political pressure seems to have forced Jordan to decline the appointment and sever all relations with the organization as its treasurer effective September 1 of that year.
The organization also issued a plethora of pamphlet
s, including material written by Max Eastman
, Judah Magnes, Scott Nearing
, and Alexander Trachtenberg
.
, which operated from the same New York headquarters and carried forward the People's Council's publishing imprint, "The People's Print." This new incarnation of the People's Council dedicated itself to the fight to free political prisoners, to stop the spread of militarism, and to halt military intervention in Mexico
and Soviet Russia
.
An archive of papers relating to the People's Council of America may be found at Swarthmore College
in Pennsylvania. The bulk of the collection has been filmed on two reels of microfilm, both of which are available through inter-library loan.
Papers related to the People's Council of America as well as the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy may be found in the Frank Leslie Grubbs collection, housed at the Hoover Institution archives
at Stanford University
in Palo Alto, California. The collection includes one folder of material and ten reels of microfilm gathering correspondence, minutes, and printed publications.
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
political organization established in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in May 1917. Organized in opposition to the decision of the Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
administration's decision to enter World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the People's Council attempted to mobilize American workers
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s against the war effort through publication of literature and the conduct of mass meetings and public demonstrations. The organization's dissident views made it a target of federal, state, and local authorities, who disrupted its meetings and arrested a number of its leading participants under provisions of the Espionage Act. The People's Council was succeeded in 1919 by a new group based in the same New York City headquarters, the People's Freedom Union
People's Freedom Union
The People's Freedom Union was a left wing American political group which existed from 1919 to 1920. Established as a federation of liberal and radical organizations in New York City, the People's Freedom Union conducted marches in support of political prisoners detained under the Espionage Act...
.
Forerunners
The eruption of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in August 1914 saw its response in the United States of America with the emergence of a national peace movement. One of the pioneer American pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
organizations was the Woman's Peace Party
Woman's Peace Party
The Woman's Peace Party was an American pacifist organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct action tactics such as public demonstration...
, initiated by Chicago social worker Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
. In October 1914 the Minneapolis chapter of this organization passed a "Tentative Program for a Constructive Peace," which called for the convocation of an international conference of Neutral countries to bring an end to the European conflict. The Woman's Peace Party organized a mass meeting in Chicago early in December 1914, from which emerged a December 19 session which brought together 21 delegates from various peace, labor, political, religious, and civic organizations. This alliance of interested organizations constituted itself as the Chicago Emergency Peace Federation.
The Emergency Peace Federation elected 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,...
Louis P. Lochner
Louis P. Lochner
Ludwig Paul "Louis" Lochner was an American political activist, journalist, and author. During World War I, Lochner was a leading figure in the American and international anti-war movement. Later, Lochner served for many years as head the Berlin bureau of the Associated Press. He is best...
its executive secretary, with Jane Addams continuing to play a leading role in the organization as well. The group issued a publication known as the Emergency Peace Federation Bulletin, and was the organizing force behind a national peace conference held in Chicago from February 27 to 28, 1915.
Throughout 1915 and 1916, a coordinated campaign was conducted in the United States on behalf of military "Preparedness," culminating on July 22, 1916 with Preparedness Day. This campaign for increased military spending in the shadow of the European bloodbath drove American pacifists
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
to action. One of the groups organized in an effort to staunch America's slide to war was the American Union Against Militarism
American Union Against Militarism
The American Union Against Militarism was an American pacifist organization active established in response to World War I. The organization attempted to keep the United States out of the European conflict through mass demonstrations, public lectures, and the printed word...
, founded in January 1916 from an "Anti-Preparedness Committee" established the previous year. In early 1917, the American Union Against Militarism were leading advocates for the idea of holding of a national referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on the question of American entry into the European war, believing that those agitating for foreign intervention were a distinct minority of the population.
A third pacifist organization emerged in February 1917, just as America appeared on the cusp of entering the European conflagration. This New York group, originally called the Emergency Peace Committee, dedicated itself to agitating for a continuation of the policy of American neutrality
Neutrality (international relations)
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
towards the World War combatants. This group later emerged as the New York Emergency Peace Federation, and worked hand-in-glove with the Chicago organization of the same name.
Despite the best efforts of these and other groups, on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
delivered a speech to Congress calling for a declaration of war against Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. As pro-war fervor swept the country, a new phase was entered by activists in the American peace movement — attempting to terminate Wilson's so-called "War to Make the World Safe for Democracy." In keeping with this new task, these three main pacifist organizations of America joined forces in a new organization, ultimately known as the People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace.
Establishment
On May 2, 1917, more than 40 members of the Emergency Peace Federation assembled at the Hotel Astor in New York City to consider the course for the peace movement in America. Participants were split between radicals and pacifists who favored the peace conditions advanced by the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government of Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia usually refers to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. It may also denote:* Soviet Russia , magazine of the Friends of Soviet Russia in the United States...
— including Morris Hillquit
Morris Hillquit
Morris Hillquit was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of America and prominent labor lawyer in New York City's Lower East Side during the early 20th century.-Early years:...
, Norman Thomas
Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...
, and Roger Baldwin
Roger Baldwin
Roger Baldwin may refer to:* Roger Nash Baldwin, , founder of ACLU* Roger Sherman Baldwin, , US lawyer and politician* Roger Baldwin , blackjack strategy pioneer, see Blackjack Hall of Fame...
— and those who favored a more moderate and Americanized approach. When this latter group, headed by Lillian Wald
Lillian Wald
Lillian D. Wald was a nurse; social worker; public health official; teacher; author; editor; publisher; activist for peace, women's, children's and civil rights; and the founder of American community nursing...
of the American Union Against Militarism
American Union Against Militarism
The American Union Against Militarism was an American pacifist organization active established in response to World War I. The organization attempted to keep the United States out of the European conflict through mass demonstrations, public lectures, and the printed word...
, realized that it was in the minority, it walked out of the meeting in order to retain its independence from the forthcoming organization.
Those remaining determined to establish a new peace organization, patterned loosely on the workingmen's councils
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
of Russia. Socialist leader Morris Hillqut was named the ceremonial Chairman of the organizing committee of the new group and Louis P. Lochner
Louis P. Lochner
Ludwig Paul "Louis" Lochner was an American political activist, journalist, and author. During World War I, Lochner was a leading figure in the American and international anti-war movement. Later, Lochner served for many years as head the Berlin bureau of the Associated Press. He is best...
was tapped as Secretary, in charge of day-to-day activities.
Lochner's attempt to build a broad-based organization ran into difficulty. Prominent liberals sympathetic to the Wilson administration, such as attorney Frank P. Walsh
Frank P. Walsh
Francis Patrick "Frank" Walsh was an American lawyer. Walsh was especially noted for his advocacy of progressive causes, including decent working conditions, decent pay for workers, and equal employment opportunities for all, including women. He was appointed to several high-profile committees...
, refused to associate with the organization. Radicals were more sympathetic, with a number of prominent members of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
and left-wing members of the American Union Against Militarism joining the new group's ranks, as well as key members of the Emergency Peace Federation, such as rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Judah L. Magnes.
A "Tentative Program" was circulated on May 7, in preparation for the gathering. New York City's Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
was booked for an organizational mass meeting. Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
President David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
, a leading public figure among the American peace movement, was sought as a keynote speaker.
Lochner appealed to the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
to also lend its support to the new peace organization. AF of L President Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
replied angrily in the negative, answering Lochner's cable with a terse declaration that "I prefer not to ally myself with the conscious or unconscious agents of the Kaiser in America."
Despite Gompers' refusal, work on the new organization proceeded apace, with a program committee consisting of Hillquit, Lochner, Norman Thomas, Henry W. L. Dana of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and peace activists Rebecca Shelly and Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman may refer to:*Elizabeth Freeman , the former slave*Elizabeth Freeman , suffragist and civil rights activist*Betty Freeman, American photographer and philanthropist...
named. The committee decided to endorse a peace proposal calling for peace without annexations or indemnities and the self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
of all peoples as a basis of its own demands and to cooperate closely with the staunchly anti-militarist Socialist Party.
Leading academics were targeted by Lochner and brought into the new organization's fold during the initial preparatory period, including such worthies as economists Emily Green Balch and Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living.-The early years:...
. Lochner envisioned an organization which was nationwide in scope and that would unite local peace organizations from around the United States.
First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace
At 10 am on May 30, 1917, the Madison Square Garden organizational meeting, called the First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace, was gaveled to order by Judah Magnes. The meeting was held amidst a strong presence by New York City police, who feared violence either by revolutionary participants or nationalistNationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
mobs intent on dispersing attendees. Policemen carrying riot guns were posted on street corners surrounding Madison Square Garden, while police vehicles cruised the streets. More than 400 policemen were detailed to the operation.
Delegates began work on a preamble which called upon Americans to "aid our government in bringing to ourselves and the world a speedy, righteous, and lasting peace." Magnes delivered the keynote address, later published as a pamphlet in an edition of 50,000 copies, in which he bitterly attacked Britain and France for pursuing a war which offered little of worth to the working class, and intimating that the United States was engaged in a war to preserve capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
in Europe.
Also addressing the gathering was Algernon Lee
Algernon Lee
Algernon H. Lee was an American socialist politician and educator, best known as the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science for 35 years.-Early years:...
of the Socialist Party-affiliated Rand School of Social Science
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America in 1906. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served as a research bureau, a publisher, and the operator...
, who detailed ongoing efforts of the Zimmerwald movement to hold an international peace conference at Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. Lee read a statement written by Morris Hillquit detailing a concrete plan for the participation of the leading belligerents in such a gathering and the establishment of an international body to resolve future economic disagreements amongst the warring parties — proposals which met with strong approval from the assembled delegates.
Afternoon speakers included Professor William I. Hull, a former college student of Woodrow Wilson's, who cautioned the President against making secret agreements with the Entente powers which might in the future commit the United States to participation in future wars. Former Socialist Congressman Victor L. Berger
Victor L. Berger
Victor Luitpold Berger was a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and an important and influential Socialist journalist who helped establish the so-called Sewer Socialist movement. The first Socialist elected to the U.S...
also spoke, bitterly condemning the wartime profiteering of the American ruling class.
An evening session on the labor movement was addressed by James Maurer, a Socialist Party activist who was the elected leader of the AF of L in Pennsylvania. Maurer focused his rhetoric upon Samuel Gompers and the national leadership of the AF of L, which he charged had sold out the interests of the working class to the interests of the capitalist class
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. Maurer was followed at the rostrum by Scott Nearing, who emphasized the need of Americans to support an activist labor movement, without which American workers would be suppressed by the combined forces of big business and the government during the war.
On the second day of the conference, sociologist Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...
called on the Wilson administration to improve working conditions of American workers. Numerous speakers followed calling for the repeal of military conscription and an endorsement of the policy of immediate peace without annexations or indemnities.
In the afternoon a formal call was made by Rebecca Shelly for the establishment of a new national organization, the People's Council of America, composed of locals across the country organized through universal suffrage and national referendums. Shelly called for a national convention to be held in the Midwest on September 1, for the establishment of a national office for the fledgling organization, and for the publication of a regular bulletin for national distribution. These proposals were approved by the assembled delegates, and the People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace was formally born.
Repression
The People's Council frequently saw its gatherings banned or disbanded. On August 24, 1917, a meeting of the organization in Philadelphia was disrupted and shut down by a mob of soldiers and sailors. That same day, city authorities in Memphis denied the group use of a public hall for its meeting. On August 28, a People's Council gathering in Fargo, North DakotaFargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
, was quashed by the coordinated mass singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Effort was made to hold a national conference in Minneapolis on September 1, but the organization was denied use of a hall in the city. When the alternative of meeting in a circus tent was advanced, With less than a week remaining before the start of its scheduled national convention, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
Governor Joseph Burquist
Joseph A. A. Burnquist
Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist was an American politician. He served in the Minnesota State Legislature from 1909 1911, was elected the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota in 1912, and then served as the 19th Governor of Minnesota from December 30, 1915 to January 5, 1921. He became Governor...
of Minnesota intervened to ban the People's Council from gathering anywhere in the state on the grounds that it would give aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.
The People's Council scrambled and attempted to hold its convention in Chicago, but the event was broken up by the police. When Chicago Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson
William Hale Thompson
William Hale Thompson was Mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", Thompson was the last Republican to serve as Mayor of Chicago, and ranks among the most unethical mayors in American history.Thompson was born in Boston, Massachusetts to William Hale...
attempted to reverse this action, on the grounds that "pacifists are law-abiding citizens" and that he would not "have it spread broadcast that Chicago denies free speech to anyone," Illinois Governor Frank Lowden
Frank Orren Lowden
Frank Orren Lowden was a Republican Party politician from Illinois, who served as the 25th Governor of Illinois and as a United States Representatives from Illinois...
responded by mobiling the Illinois National Guard
Illinois National Guard
The Illinois National Guard comprises both Army National Guard and Air National Guard components. The National Guard is the only United States military force empowered to function in a state status. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and...
, sending four companies of troops to Chicago the next day to make sure that the People's Council could not gather.
The People's Council sought to make Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
President David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
its delegate to a proposed September 9, 1917, peace meeting in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, but political pressure seems to have forced Jordan to decline the appointment and sever all relations with the organization as its treasurer effective September 1 of that year.
Publications
Beginning August 7, 1917, the People's Council published a tabloid-sized monthly (later semi-monthly) newspaper called The Bulletin of the People's Council of America. The publication was terminated effective with the issue of January 1919. A run of the publication exists on microfilm as reel 2 of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's People's Council of America papers.The organization also issued a plethora of pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s, including material written by Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
, Judah Magnes, Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living.-The early years:...
, and Alexander Trachtenberg
Alexander Trachtenberg
Alexander "Alex" Trachtenberg was an American publisher of radical political books and pamphlets and activist in the Socialist Party of America and later the Communist Party USA...
.
Dissolution and legacy
The People's Council was succeeded in the post-war period by the People's Freedom UnionPeople's Freedom Union
The People's Freedom Union was a left wing American political group which existed from 1919 to 1920. Established as a federation of liberal and radical organizations in New York City, the People's Freedom Union conducted marches in support of political prisoners detained under the Espionage Act...
, which operated from the same New York headquarters and carried forward the People's Council's publishing imprint, "The People's Print." This new incarnation of the People's Council dedicated itself to the fight to free political prisoners, to stop the spread of militarism, and to halt military intervention in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia usually refers to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. It may also denote:* Soviet Russia , magazine of the Friends of Soviet Russia in the United States...
.
An archive of papers relating to the People's Council of America may be found at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
in Pennsylvania. The bulk of the collection has been filmed on two reels of microfilm, both of which are available through inter-library loan.
Papers related to the People's Council of America as well as the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy may be found in the Frank Leslie Grubbs collection, housed at the Hoover Institution archives
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in Palo Alto, California. The collection includes one folder of material and ten reels of microfilm gathering correspondence, minutes, and printed publications.
Pamphlets
- Report of the First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace, Held at Madison Square Garden, New York City, May 30th and 31st, 1917. New York: Organizing Committee, People's Council of American for Democracy and Peace, n.d. [1917].
- The People's Council for Democracy and Peace. New York: People's Council for Democracy and Peace, 1917.
- British Labor Demands: A People's Peace... New York: People's Council of America, 1917.
- The Case Against Universal Military Training. New York: People's Council, 1917.
- Democracy and Peace: Why the World is at War and What Must Come Out of the Struggle. New York: People's Council of America, 1918.
- Patriotism by Patriots: For the Heroes of 1917. Los Angeles: Southern California Organizing Committee of the People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, n.d [1917].
- Peace Terms of Belligerent Governments. Committee on Terms of Peace of the People's Council of America, n.d. [1917].
- People of America, Unite for Peace. New York: People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, n.d. [1917].
- People's Peace Terms. New York: Committee on Terms of Peace of the People's Council of America, n.d. [1917].
- Secret Diplomacy and Profiteering: Hidden Treaties Published by Bolsheviki... New York: People's Council of America, 1918.
- Three Things You Should Do! New York: People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, n.d. [1917].
- Who are the Bolsheviki? The Truth about the New Government of Russia. Chicago: Chicago People's Council, n.d. [c. 1918].
- Max Eastman, Washington to Petrograd — Via Rome: Some Observations on President Wilson's Reply to Pope Benedict XV. New York: People's Council of America, 1917.
- Judah Leon Magnes, For Democracy and Terms of Peace: Address at Opening of First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace, New York City, May 30–31, 1917. New York: People's Council, 1917.
- Judah Leon Magnes, Let the Peace Conference Convene. Chicago: People's Council of America, 1917.
- William E. Mason; James H Maurer; and John D. Works, Things We Care About. New York: People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, 1917.
- Basil Maxwell Manly, War: Who Gets the Profits? What are You Going to Do about It? New York: People's Council of America, 1917.
- Scott Nearing, Open Letters to Profiteers: An Arraignment of Big Business in its Relation to the World War. New York: People's Council of America, 1917.
- Theodore Schroeder, The Meaning of Free Speech for Pacifists: A Statement. New York: People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, n.d. [c. 1917].
- Alexander Trachtenberg, The Message of New Russia: The Answer Given by the Largest Nation in Western Civilization to the Question: What Shall We Do with Plutocracy at Home and Abroad? Excerpts from an Article. New York: People's Council of America, n.d. [1918].
- John D. Works and Morris Hillquit, Why We Are at War. Milwaukee: People's Council of Milwaukee, 1917.
Further reading
- American Liberty Defense League, Who's Who in the People's Council: First Constituant Assembly, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 1 to 6, 1917. Chicago: American Liberty Defense League, 1917.
- Frank L. Grubbs, Jr., The Struggle for Labor Loyalty: Gompers, the AF of L, and the Pacificists, 1917-1920. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1968.
- C. Roland Marchand, The American Peace Movement and Social Reform, 1898-1918. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.
- Elizabeth McKillen, Chicago Labor and the Quest for a Democratic Diplomacy, 1914-1924. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
- H.C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite, Opponents of War, 1917-1918. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.
- John Spargo, Our Aims in the War: An Address Delivered by John Spargo at Minneapolis, Minn., September 5, 1917 under the Auspices of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy. New York: American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, 1917. Speech in opposition to People's Council at the September 1917 counter-convention of the AALD.
External links
- People's Council of America for Democracy & Peace Records, 1917-1919, finding aid, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore College.