Series I. National Files

This series contains considerable correspondence pertaining to a variety of SDF affairs and the first SDF convention held at Pittsburgh in 1937. The items within each of these five files are arranged in chronological order. The bulk of the national correspondence (X:l, X:2) pertains to such routine SDF matters as scheduling meetings and special events, receiving dues, resolving membership problems, handling literature requests, and organizing fund raising campaigns. Besides these routine items, the correspondence also contains information on the Socialist Party split in 1936, the controversial alliance between the SDF and the American Labor Party, the numerous attempts to unite the Socialist Party with the SDF, the recruitment of SDF members and the defection of Socialist Party locals to the SDF, the repudiation of the "Popular Front" issue, the SDF's strong support for American participation in World War II, the SDF's attitude towards the 1940 and 1944 Presidential campaigns, the SDF's support for full employment and fair employment practices, the decline of the SDF in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the steps taken towards the 1957 merger of the SDF and the Socialist Party. Most of the correspondence is from August Claessens, but there are numerous letters from Leo Meltzer, Algernon Lee, William Karlin, Sarah Limbach, Louis Waldman, Tom Mooney, Lena Morrow Lewis, Sonia Teitelman, Jasper McLevy, Roger Baldwin, Darlington Hoopes, Esther Friedman, James Oneal, George H. Goebel, and Norman Thomas. The SDF convention files (X:3 X:5) include press releases, organizational papers, correspondence, minutes, resolutions, and the SDF constitution and bylaws.