by: Pro­fes­sor Samuel Walker

School of Crim­i­nal Justice

Uni­ver­sity of Nebraska at Omaha

This is the first part in a series that was intro­duced ear­lier.

Roger Bald­win was direc­tor of the National Civil Lib­er­ties Bureau (NCLB) from its found­ing as an orga­ni­za­tion inde­pen­dent of the Amer­i­can Union Against Mil­i­tarism (AUAM) in Octo­ber 1917 until his res­ig­na­tion in Sep­tem­ber 1918. His res­ig­na­tion fol­lowed a U.S. Jus­tice Depart­ment raid on the NCLB offices on August 30, 1918, but was pri­mar­ily prompted by his plan to refuse to sub­mit to the draft. Selec­tive ser­vice had been extended to men up to the age of 40, and Bald­win at age 36 was eli­gi­ble. He was sub­se­quently con­victed of vio­lat­ing the selec­tive ser­vice act and sen­tenced to prison. Upon leav­ing prison in the sum­mer of 1919 he began the work of reor­ga­niz­ing the NCLB into a per­ma­nent civil lib­er­ties defense orga­ni­za­tion. The ACLU was sub­se­quently founded in Jan­u­ary 1920. The doc­u­ments in this sec­tion relate to these events. Par­tic­u­larly impor­tant is Baldwin’s state­ment to the judge upon being sen­tenced to prison, which was widely cir­cu­lated and helped to estab­lish Baldwin’s national rep­u­ta­tion (Doc­u­ment # 3).

Reel 14/Vol. 108/p. 195L

With this Sep­tem­ber 6, 1918 let­ter, Roger Bald­win resigns as direc­tor of the National Civil Lib­er­ties Bureau. The let­ter refers to the U.S. Jus­tice Depart­ment raid on the NCLB offices on August 30th and the pos­si­bil­ity of the pros­e­cu­tion of NCLB lead­ers under the Espi­onage Act. The pri­mary rea­son for his res­ig­na­tion, how­ever, was the fact that he had bee served with a draft notice and planned to refuse to sub­mit to mil­i­tary ser­vice. Selec­tive Ser­vice had recently been extended to men up to the age of 40, and he was now eligible.

Reel14/Vol.108/p198R

Reel14/Vol.108/p199R

The Sep­tem­ber 30, 1918 Min­utes of the NCLB Direct­ing Com­mit­tee dis­cuss Baldwin’s sit­u­a­tion with the draft and the organization’s response (Agenda Item # 4). The min­utes also cover the NCLB’s evic­tion from its office at 70 Fifth Avenue, which was prob­a­bly due to gov­ern­ment or pub­lic pres­sure. The land­lord, Mr. Plimp­ton, is a rel­a­tive of George Plimp­ton who was a noted edi­tor and author in the 1950s and 1960s.

Reel7/Vol69/p379-386

The Indi­vid­ual and the State(November 1918) is a reprint of Roger Baldwin’s state­ment to Judge Julius Mayer on Octo­ber 30, 1918, upon being sen­tenced to prison for refus­ing to sub­mit to the draft. Baldwin’s state­ment imme­di­ately attracted atten­tion, was widely quoted and reprinted, and estab­lished Baldwin’s national rep­u­ta­tion as a per­son of con­science. This ver­sion was reprinted and dis­trib­uted by the NCLB. It was reprinted dur­ing World War II when the issue of con­sci­en­tious objec­tion to par­tic­i­pa­tion in war reap­peared. This pam­phlet also includes Judge Mayer’s response to Bald­win and pro­nounce­ment of the sentence.

Reel14/Vol.108/p.204

These Min­utes of a spe­cial meet­ing of the NCLB Direct­ing Com­mit­tee on Octo­ber 31, 1918, imme­di­ately after Baldwin’s sen­tenc­ing, record the dis­cus­sion of pos­si­bly pub­lish­ing Baldwin’s speech to the court. The com­mit­tee decided not to, and hoped that his friends would pub­lish it pri­vately. The NCLB changed its mind and pub­lished and dis­trib­uted the speech.

Reel5/Vol.44/p.225–6

Reel5/Vol .44/p.230

The first let­ter, from the NCLB let­ter to its mem­bers, Feb­ru­ary 21, 1919, includes a let­ter from Roger Bald­win, who was then in prison for refus­ing to sub­mit to the draft. In addi­tion to dis­cussing the pend­ing peace­time sedi­tion bill and amnesty for con­sci­en­tious objec­tors in prison, he declares that he would not accept any per­sonal par­don that would allow him to be released from prison early. The sec­ond let­ter, undated, is from Bald­win to Albert De Sil­ver object­ing to any efforts to obtain a par­don for him.

Reel 14/Vol. 108/pp. 368R

Reel 14/Vol. 108/pp. 369R

These let­ters from Albert De Sil­ver to Bald­win on July 12, 1919 and July 13(not clear) dis­cuss plans for a wel­come home party fol­low­ing his release from prison, to be held at the apart­ment of Nor­man Thomas.

Reel14/Vol.108/p.370

The for­mal invi­ta­tion to the wel­come home party for Bald­win from Nor­man Thomas, July 17, 1919.

Reel14/Vol.108/p.373

The famous rad­i­cal Eliz­a­beth Gur­ley Flynn accepts invi­ta­tion to the wel­come home party for Bald­win, July 18, 1919. Bald­win and Flynn were close col­leagues in these years. In 1940, how­ever, they had a falling out when Bald­win engi­neered the adop­tion of an ACLU pol­icy bar­ring mem­bers of total­i­tar­ian orga­ni­za­tions from serv­ing in offi­cial ACLU posi­tions, forc­ing her expul­sion from the ACLU Board of Directors.

Reel 14/Vol. 108/pp. 366L

The caterer’s bill for the wel­come home party for Roger Bald­win at Nor­man Thomas’s apartment.

 

 

NOTE: For doc­u­ments on Roger Baldwin’s activ­i­ties regard­ing the found­ing the ACLU in late 1919 and early 1920 see the doc­u­ments under the topic “The Found­ing of the ACLU.”

For more of the col­lec­tion that has been dig­i­tized you may browse the Find­ing Aid.