Document 7: Liberty Union Defense Letter ca. July 31, 1918, Frank P. O'Hare Collection, Box 12, Folder 4, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.



Introduction:

This letter from the Liberty Defense Union, an organization set up to free wartime activists jailed under the Sedition Acts, shows what other members of the peace movement were doing throughout the nation. A variety of prominent activists such as Roger Baldwin [A], Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [B], Amos Pinchot [C], Max Eastman [D], and Eugene V. Debs, constitute the leaders of this national organization devoted to freeing those unjustly jailed. This group's efforts are a fore-runner to O'Hare's efforts on behalf of prisoners after she herself is freed (see Document Thirteen, Document Fourteen ).




Officers

Charles W. Ervin, Chairman
John Haynes Holmes, Vice Chairman
Helen Phelps Stokes, Vice Chairman
Roger N.Baldwin, Secretary

Liberty Defense Union

To organize popular support in behalf of per-
sons prosecuted for the exercise of their con-
stitutional rights of free speech and free press.

138 West 13th Street
New York City

Executive Committee

The officers and
Fred'k. A. Blossom
Max Eastman
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Julius Gerber
Edwin Hansen
Louis P. Lochner
Theresa S. Malkie
Darwin J. Messerole
Scott Nearing
Amos Pinchot
Joseph Schlossberg
Norman M. Thomas
B. Charney Vladeck
Fannie M. Witherspoon

General Committee


Emily Greene Balch, New York
Anita C. Block, New York
S. John Block, New York
Ella Reeve Bloor, Massachusetts
Franklin P. Brill, New York
Morris Brown, New York
M.L.Clawson, Indiana
H.W.L. Dans, Massachusetts
Eugene V. Debs, Indiana
Solon DeLeon, New York
James H. Dillard, Virginia
Charles F. Dole, Massachusetts
Horace A. Eaton, New York
Abraham Epstein, New York
Harold Evans, Pennsylvania
Paul H. Douglas, Oregon
Sara Bard Field, California
Gilson Gardner, Washington, D.C.
Alfred Hayes, New York
Daniel W. Hoan, Wisconsin
David Starr Jordan, California
Daniel Kiefer, Delaware
Winthrop D. Lane, New York
Meta Lilienthal, New York
Wm. Bross Lloyd, Illinois
Duncan McDonald, Illinois
James H. Maurer, Pennsylvania
Wm. C. Rempfer, South Dakota
Boardman Robinson, New York
George E. Roewer, Jr., Massachusetts
M. J. Scanlan, Nevada
Theodore Schroeder, Connecticut
Abraham I. Shiplacoff, New York
Sydney Strong, Washington
Geo. F. Vanderveer, Illinois
Harry F. Ward, Massachusetts
C. E. S. Wood, Oregon
John D. Works, California
Arthur Young, New York
 To the Secretary:

Several hundred men and women, chiefly of the working class, are now on trial, on their way to jail, or serving sentences for having spoken or written matter held to be in violation of existing statutes. The cases of Eugene V. Debs, Rose Pastor Stokes, Kate Richards O'Hare, and Scott Nearing are known to everybody. But there are hundreds besides them- men like Anton Fedotov of New Jersey, Hulet M. Wells of Washington, H. E. Kirchner of West Virginia, Ralphy W. Tillotson of Pennsylvania, and Jean Jacques Coronel of Connecticut- who have likewise been prosecuted for exercising their constitutional rights of free speech and free press.

On the evenings of Wednesday, July 31st, and Thursday, August 1st, a Conference of Trade Unions, Branches of the Workmen's Circle, and other Progressive Labor Organizations of Greater New York, will be held in Webster Hall, 119 East 11th Street, for the purpose of organizing the workers into a permanent central body for aiding all persons prosecuted who are in need of help, and of arousing public opinion against the further suppression of constitutional rights and liberties.

The Conference will be held under the auspices of the Liberty Defense Union, and has been endorsed by the United Hebrews Trades and the National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle.

Among the speakers who will address the Conference are Max Pine, Abraham Epstein, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Scott Nearing, Alderman B. Charney Vladeck, Rose Pastor Stokes, Roger N. Baldwin and Charles W. Ervin.

Your organization is cordially invited to send two delegates to the Conference. Enclosed you will find a registration card. Please return it at your earliest convenience.

Fraternally yours,

(Signed) Louis P. Lochner,
Director Liberty Defense Union
Roger N. Baldwin
Director National Civil Liberties Bureau
Max Pine,
General Secretary United Hebrew Temple
Frederick A. Blossom,
Treasurer Liberty Defense Union
Joseph Schlossberg,
General Secretary Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Abraham Epstein,
President Workmen's Circle
Charles W. Ervin
Socialist Candidate for Governer
Abraham I. Shiplacoff, Assemblyman
B. Charney Vladeck, Alderman



A. Roger Baldwin (1884-1981)- founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.

B. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964)- prominent member of the International Workers of the World who later joined the Communist Party.

C. Amos Pinchot (1873-1944)- Progressive who led the Progessive wing of the Republican Party, he worked towards industrial and labor reform and was one of the initial members of the ACLU.

D. Max Eastman (1883-1969)- Socialist journalist whose early radicalism gave way to conservatism.

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