- unitid
-
{"value"=>"1076", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 1076", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1916/1933", "value"=>"1916-1933"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1916
- date_inclusive_end
-
1933
- keydate
-
1916
- date_start
-
1916
- date_end
-
1933
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Free Trade League records"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"6 linear feet (6 boxes)"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">Stephen A. Schwarzman Building</span> <span class=\"addressline\">Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The Free Trade League split off from the American Free Trade League (founded in Boston shortly after the Civil War) in 1919. George Haven Putnam was president of the Free Trade League in New York City until 1930. R.R. Bowker took over the presidency and helped to form the Council for Tariff Reduction which sought to achieve modest reductions in tariff levels by exerting pressure on Congress. The Free Trade League (and Council) ceased operations in 1933. Collection contains correspondence, financial records and printed matter of the Free Trade League and the Council for Tariff Reduction. The bulk of the records consists of Free Trade League correspondence, 1916-1933. Other League records include treasurer's acounts, 1919-1923; financial statements, 1919-1929; and miscellaneous printed materials. Also, correspondence, 1928-1932, of the Council for Tariff Reduction."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"Materials in English"}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Free Trade League records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Free Trade League", "type"=>"corpname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Free Trade League owes its origin to the American Free Trade founded in Boston shortly after the Civil War. The economist and free trade theorist David Ames Wells was one of its founders. From the 1890s until the First World War the league appears to have been dormant. In 1916 the N. Y. C. publisher George Haven Putnam (1844-1930) was elected its president. A staunch free trade advocate and disciple of Wells Putnam launched a vigorous campaign aimed at combating the protectionist sentiment that was being generated by the war in Europe. Putnam correctly anticipated the wave of protective tariff legislation that was to follow the war. He believed that tariff barriers were one of the leading causes of war, and that their elimination would usher in a new era of peace and economic prosperity. Until 1919 the headquarters of the AFTL, its secretary (Kenneth B. Elliman) and most of it's executive committee were located in Boston, Putnam carrying on the duties of president from New York. A growing dispute between Putnam and some members of the Boston group resulted in the splitting up of the organization in 1919 and the founding of the Free Trade League in New York under the presidency of Putnam. The members of the Boston group carried on for a short time under the title International Free Trade League. Putnam's dispute with his Boston associates arose from his objection to their pacifist views and from their attempts to combine free trade theory with single tax theory, a practice which he thought only served to alienate respectable scholarly support. During the 1920s the work of the league was carried on mainly by Putnam and Richard Rogers Bowker (1848-1933), but they were hampered by lack of funds and dwindling public support. Following Putnam's death (February 1930) the FTL continued until 1933 under Bowker's presidency bat to no avail for the deepening depression and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1931) signified the defeat of the free trade movement. A final attempt at breathing new life into the cause occurred in 1931 when Trumbull White and other members of the league formed the Council for Tariff Reduction which sought to achieve modest reductions in tariff levels by exerting pressure on Congress. The Council urged prompt and moderate tariff reduction and not free trade. Its immediate objective was to agitate for revision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. Its organizing committee distributed a printed statement to scholars, academicians, businessmen and others who were asked to endorse the statement and become members of the Council. There is no evidence that the Council ever got off the ground. It appears to have ceased its functions in 1933.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The bulk of the records of the FTL consist of correspondence. There are some unsorted administrative records, financial records, printed ephemera, and essays on free trade. The correspondence (incoming and outgoing) vis arranged alphabetically by two-year intervals. The bulk of the correspondence is that of George Haven Putnam with officers and members including Richard Rogers Bowker, Kenneth B. Elliman, A. Augustus Healy. George Foster Peabody, Edward J. Shriver, Edward N. Vallandigham, and Irving Winslow. The correspondence relates to membership, annual dinners, the publication of the league's bulletins, rivalries and ideological quarrels between Putnam and other officials, a memorial on free trade that was submitted to the Paris Peace Conference, the London conference (1920) on free trade, congressional tariff policy, the Fordney Tariff Bill, and other matters. The correspondence with Vallandigham relates in part to labor relations during the war period. Other correspondents include Edmund J. Burke, The <em render=\"underline\">Cobden Club, John</em> S. <em render=\"underline\">Codman, George</em> H. Grubb, <em render=\"underline\">and</em>. A <em render=\"underline\">few letters by prominent persons are present including</em> James <em render=\"underline\">Bryce, Cordell</em> Hull, David Starr <em render=\"underline\">Jordan, Franklin</em> D. <em render=\"underline\">Roosevelt</em>, Ida <em render=\"underline\">M</em>. Tarbell, Henry <em render=\"underline\">Van Dyke and</em> William <em render=\"underline\">Allen White. The administrative records include minutes of meetings, membership lists, constitution, form letters, and some correspondence of Bowker with office secretaries. Some minutes are also</em> filed <em render=\"underline\">in the correspondence for 1922-23. The financial records consist of financial statements (1919-29), cash book (1919-23) and a few cancelled checks. The printed ephemera</em> include <em render=\"underline\">pamphlets, flyers, press releases, circular</em> letters, clippings <em render=\"underline\">some of which was generated by the</em> FTL. The <em render=\"underline\">essays on free trade (three items) were prepared by students. The records of the Council for Tariff Reduction consist of correspondence (1931-32) of Trumbull White, its organizing secretary, with businessmen, merchants, scholars, academicians, and others who were requested to sign a printed statement on the need for tariff reduction. Some of the correspondence overlaps with that of the FTL as White was also at the same time corresponding secretary of the FTL. Correspondences include Whidden Graham</em>, George Foster Peabody and F. W. Tausig. Included also are index card files of members (?) of the council.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>1935, Received from Trumbull White</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Accessioned by John Stinson, 11/6/1985</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
6 linear feet (6 boxes)