Guide to the Austin Lewis Papers, 1913-1944

Processed by The Bancroft Library staff

The Bancroft Library.

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Note

History --History, California --General Social Sciences --Political Science --General Social Sciences --Law

Guide to the Austin Lewis Papers, 1913-1944

Collection number: BANC MSS C-B 467

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Contact Information:

The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Processed by:: The Bancroft Library staff
Encoded by:: Charlotte Gerstein

Collection Summary

Collection Title: Austin Lewis Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1913-1944

Collection Number: BANC MSS C-B 467

Creator: Lewis, Austin, 1865?-1944

Extent: Number of containers: 1 box, 4 cartons

Repository: The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Abstract: Relating primarily to his interest in civil liberties, to various causes including efforts to free Tom Mooney and Warren Billings and to repeal California's criminal syndicalism law, and to his legal career. Include correspondence, MSS of his writings and lectures, legal files and clippings.

Languages Represented: English

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Austin Lewis Papers, BANC MSS C-B 467, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Biographical Sketch

Austin Lewis was a lecturer, writer and attorney with law offices in San Francisco and Oakland. He devoted his career to so-called radical causes, such as the pardon of Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings and the repeal of California's criminal syndicalism law, and to defense of civil liberties in general, usually involving persons with little or no money. He helped organize the Northern California Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and served as its counsel and on the Advisory Committee.

Scope and Content

The papers relate mainly to his career. The bulk of them were given to The Bancroft Library in 1952 by Saxon A. Lewis and Mrs. Ralph H. Sliter. Some additional correspondence came from Mrs. Mary H. Hutchinson in 1965.

A key to arrangement follows.

Key to Arrangement

box Box

Letters written by Lewis, 1913-1944

Scope and Content Note

Letters dated 1913 to 1934 are typed copies written mainly to Roger N. Baldwin relating to legal cases involving civil rights and efforts to free Mooney and Billings. Those from 1938 to 1944 are originals written to Mary E. Bulkley and comment on international events, literature, friends, his health, etc.

Letters written to Lewis

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization. A partial list of correspondents follows the key to arrangement. Unlisted letters are arranged alphabetically in a miscellany at the end of the file.

Carton 1

Manuscripts of Lewis' writings

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically.

American Labor and the Crisis

The Basis of Solidarity

Bibliography of Poverty

Centralization and Decentralization

The Chalice of St. John (fiction)

The Citizen and Social Planning

Education and the Working Class

Effects of Breaking Regulations of Hours, etc.

German Militarism Under Hitler

Huey Long and His Background

Inflation and the Worker

Labor is a Commodity

Liberalism

Mexico and U.S.

The National Disgrace - Child Labor

[Poetry]

Social Credit

Some Matters of Law in Persecutions under Criminal Syndicalist Law of California

Syndicalism and Political Socialism

Syndicalism and Poverty

The University and the Working Class

What Happened to Quincy

What Is Syndicalism?

The World Turned Upside-Down

Miscellaneous

Clippings of Lewis' writings

Additional Note

Published mainly in New Review.

Arranged alphabetically.

The A.F. of L. Convention

The Basis of Solidarity

Company Owned Towns in California

Additional Note

Incomplete.

The Mechanics of Solidarity

Movements of Migratory Unskilled Labor in California

Additional Note

Incomplete.

Organization of the Unskilled

Additional Note

Incomplete.

Potential Solidarity

Solidarity and Scabbing

Solidarity - Merely a Word?

Syndicalism and Mass Action

Additional Note

Incomplete.

War and Public Opinion

What Is Syndicalism?

Manuscripts of lectures by Lewis

The Coming Struggle for Power

Contemporary Political Theory

Labor Organization in the United States

Marx and Marxism

Miscellaneous

Notes

Scope and Content Note

Mainly excerpts from books and articles re economics, labor movements, philosophy, politics, etc.

Manuscripts of writings by others

Scope and Content Note

Typescripts, arranged alphabetically by name of author.

Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, Sabotage

Lewis, Saxon A., Law of Conspiracy and Combinations of Labor in Great Britain and the United States

Rorty, James, The Pretensions of American Poetry

Scharrenberg, Paul, Minority Report - Wheatland Hop-field Riot Investigation

American Civil Liberties Union. Northern California Advisory Committee

Financial statements, June -Aug. 1935

Reports to the director, Jan. -Mar. 1935

Minutes of meetings, Jan. -Apr. 1935

By-laws and miscellaneous Papers

Pledge cards (signed)

Miscellaneous publications

Committees, national and state, concerned with efforts to free Mooney and Billings

Miscellaneous form letters, etc.

Labor Defense League of California

Miscellaneous papers

Pamphlets re equal rights for women, labor unions, syndicalism, etc.

Miscellany

Carton 2

Legal files

Alden vs. Pacific Coast Lumber and Mill Company

Additional Note

(Lawsuit to recover damages, industrial accident.)

Bensen vs. Bensen

Additional Note

(Dissolution of marriage.)

Hartman vs. Cassity

Additional Note

(Land ownership dispute.)

Hugo, Gustav V.

Additional Note

(Articles of co-partnership.)

Kintner vs. Southern Pacific

Additional Note

(Automobile accident.)

People vs. Ford and Suhr

Additional Note

(Murder case.)

People vs. Madsam

Additional Note

(Arson case. Incomplete.)

People vs. Welton, Casey, Dunn, etc.

Additional Note

(Violation of criminal syndicalism law. Incomplete.)

People vs. Wieller

Additional Note

(Violation of criminal syndicalism law. Incomplete.)

Rockledge Resilient Spring Company

Additional Note

(Incorporation and patent papers.)

Skrocki vs. Stahl and McGettigan

Additional Note

(Slander case.)

Carton 3

Transcripts of court proceedings in cases involving civil liberties

Additional Note

Lewis was attorney in some of the cases.

Carton 4

Newspaper clippings

Scope and Content Note

Lewis' folder titles, arranged alphabetically as follows:

Abyssinia

Behind literary London

C.I.O.

Communism

Contemporary politics

Economic nationalism

Economics

Fascism

Fascism, America

Foreign

Free speech

Isolation

Labor

Labor, American - history

Labor and N.R.A.

Left deviation

Liberalism

Liberals

Mexico

Middle class

Mooney case

N.R.A.

Revolutionary parties

Right and left

Russia

Social credit

Socialism

Socialism, etc.

Wells [H. G.] on America

Miscellaneous

Scrapbook

Scope and Content Note

Clippings concerning civil liberties, world conditions, etc. Includes postcard written by John D. Barry and a letter written by Alice L. Park.

Partial List of Correspondents

American Civil Liberties Union

3 letters, 1920-1935

Additional Note

Letter dated 1935 written to Mary Hutchinson.

See also Baldwin, Roger Nash.

Baldwin, Roger Nash, 1884-

55 letters, 1917-1935

Additional Note

Written mainly while Director, ACLU, and member, National Mooney-Billings Committee. Some letters are written to Mary H. Hutchinson and some are copies of letters written to others.

Barry, John Daniel, 1866-1942

Postcard, Oct. 17, 1935

Additional Note

In Scrapbook, Carton 4.

Billings, Warren Knox, 1884-

See Hunt, Henry Thomas, 1878-

Bulkley, Mary Ezit, 1856-

2 letters, 1944

California. University. Extension Division

3 letters, 1932-1933

Additional Note

Written by Bernice Hubbard. Included also: Notice of Organization of Class to be taught by Lewis.

Coolidge, Mary Elizabeth Burroughs (Roberts) Smith, 1860-1945

Letter, July 13, 1920

Ettor, Joseph J.

Letter, n.d.

Additional Note

Transmits article, "What the I.W.W. Intends to Do to the U.S.A.," written with William D. Haywood.

Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 1890-1964

See Carton 1 for MS copy of her article, Sabotage.

Hunt, Henry Thomas, 1878-

2 letters, 1929

Additional Note

Letter, Apr. 9, transmits copy of letter from Warren K. Billings.

Hutchinson, Mary H.

6 letters, 1929-1935 and n.d.

Additional Note

Copies of letters to Roger N. Baldwin and others.

Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931

Letter, July 16, 1920

Kellogg, Paul Underwood, 1879-1958

Letter, Oct. 8, 1925

Laidler, Harry Wellington, 1884-

Letter, Sept. 30, 1913

Lane (John) Company

5 letters, 1913-1914 and n.d.

Additional Note

Discuss possible publication of Lewis' book on syndicalism.

Lewis, Saxon A.

See Carton 1 for MS copy of his article, Law of Conspiracy and Combinations of Labor in Great Britain and the United States.

Macmillan Company

2 letters, 1913-1914

Marx, Guido Hugo, 1871-1949

Letter, July 14, 1920

May, Bernice (Hubbard)

See California. University. Extension Division

Mooney, Thomas Joseph, 1882-1942

Letter, May 6, 1929

Park, Alice Locke

Letter, June 24, 1920

See also letter, Oct. 14, 1935, in Scrapbook, Carton 4.

Peixotto, Jessica Blanche, 1864-1941

Letter, Feb. 7, 1929

Additional Note

Written to Mary Hutchinson.

Rehfisch, Carol A.

Letter, Mar. 7, 1924

Additional Note

Concerning dangers of protective legislation based on sex.

Rorty, James, 1890-

See Carton 1 for MS copy of his article, The Pretensions of American Poetry

Rowell, Chester Harvey, 1867-1948

Letter, July 13, 1920

Scharrenberg, Paul

See Carton 1 for MS copy of his article, Minority Report -Wheatland Hop-field Riot Investigation.

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