Scope and arrangement
The records of the Campaign for World Government's Chicago office document the activities of an organization dedicated to the creation of a democratic world government in the service of peace and the citizens of the world. The bulk of the collection dates from 1938-1995 and consists of correspondence, writings, notes, surveys, press releases, pamphlets, flyers and photographs.
The records are arranged in three series: correspondence, subject files and publications. Chronologically-arranged correspondence comprises about two-thirds of the collection, and subject files make up most of the rest. Correspondents include officers of the Campaign, members of Congress, and other national and international grass-roots groups promoting peace, world government and related issues. There is relatively little material in the collection by Lola Maverick Lloyd or Rosika Schwimmer, despite their founding of the Campaign; the two key figures in the Campaign were, in earlier years, William Bross Lloyd, Jr., and, from 1944 onward, Georgia Lloyd, and most correspondence or writings were written by one or the other. Other major figures in the Campaign with substantial correspondence are Tracy Mygatt and Edith Wynner.
Earlier material in the collection is more voluminous and substantial than in later years; in its more active early years, the Campaign was part of the peace movement pressuring the United States government to stay out of World War II, and the records contain much lobbying of members of Congress concerning Senate and House resolutions on peace issues. The inclusion of the Campaign as independent observers of the 1944 Dumbarton Oaks conference to plan the United Nations produced a wealth of correspondence, notes, and literature. The organization continued to monitor the world body for decades after its founding, and advocated for its reform. The Campaign also kept in close contact with many other world government groups around the globe, such as the United World Federalists (for which it was the United States affiliate). Files (1950s-1980s) contain surveys of Congressional candidates to determine their stands on world government, the threat of nuclear war, and disarmament, the results of which were announced to the public.
The Campaign for World Government. Records of the Chicago office is arranged in three series:
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1936-200066 boxes
Most of the correspondence is arranged chronologically under the "general" heading, with the exceptions of Congressional correspondence and correspondence of members of the Lloyd family, Rosika Schwimmer and Tracy Mygatt, which are all arranged at the beginning of the series. The Congressional correspondence concerns House and Senate anti-war resolutions. Correspondence of the Campaign from its 1937 founding until 1944 is usually that of William Bross Lloyd, Jr. After his service in conscientious objector camp began in 1944, Georgia Lloyd, Tracy Mygatt and Edith Wynner became the primary correspondents of the Campaign; Georgia Lloyd was the sole voice of the Campaign in its later years.
Researchers should note that further correspondence from all these parties (William Bross Lloyd, Jr. Georgia Lloyd, Lola Maverick Lloyd, Tracy Mygatt, and Rosika Schwimmer) can be found arranged under the general (chronological) heading as well. This is particularly true for Tracy Mygatt, whose extensive correspondence throughout the collection is usually with Georgia Lloyd (the majority of the correspondence filed under her name is copies of her outgoing letters). Congressional correspondence can also be found under the general heading, mostly from the years 1939-1943, when lobbying on the part of the Campaign was most active. Further congressional correspondence is under Congress in Series II.
After World War II, most of the Campaign's correspondents were like-minded organizations with a similar mission such as World Movement for World Federal Government, United World Federalists, the World Association of World Federalists, and other groups and like-minded individuals. Notable individual correspondents include Fyke Farmer, Hamilton Fish, Henry Usborne and Jerry Voorhis. These groups and individuals often have their own files in Series II as well.
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1932, 1935-1995, undated29 boxes
This series consists of subject headings containing correspondence, writings, notes, photographs and press releases, arranged alphabetically. Four of the major units in which the files are arranged date from 1938-1944, when William Bross Lloyd, Jr. was running the Campaign. These are Campaign Organization, Congress, International Affairs, and Peace and International Organizations. The remainder of the file headings date from Georgia Lloyd's time leading the campaign from 1944 until the mid-1990s. The largest of these are Congressional questionnaires, National Political Conventions, Organizations, People, and the United Nations.
Campaign Organization contains files documenting all activities of the Campaign under William Lloyd's direction. These included lobbying Congressman for legislation (including the Alexander Peace Bill), and public education and grassroots advocacy, with the primary goal at that time of preventing the entry of the United States into World War II. These files also include speeches by William Bross Lloyd and correspondence and writings by Rosika Schwimmer. The folder in this heading labeled Office opening contains a rare photograph of Rosika Schwimmer and Lola Maverick Lloyd together, ca. 1938. The folder labeled Publicity contains a photograph of Georgia Lloyd marching in a peace demonstration in 1940.
The Congress heading also documents the Campaign's government lobbying activity and contains correspondence with Congressmen and Senators regarding peace resolutions. The Congressional questionnaires heading contains surveys the Campaign periodically sent out to candidates for Congress to determine the level of support for world government and peace issues, as well as the responses sent back by the candidates, some of them quite detailed. Also in the political realm, the Campaign tried to influence the composition of Democratic and Republican platforms at their national conventions from 1940-1968. Correspondence regarding these efforts is under National political conventions.
The International affairs heading contains correspondence and memos regarding a wide variety of issues both domestic and international, but focusing mainly on economic and political points of conflict globally. This heading contains personal correspondence from Lola Maverick Lloyd.
Two consecutive headings, Organizations and Peace and International Organizations, have similar content, the only difference being time of creation. These contain correspondence with and information about other private and non-governmental organizations concerned with peace and world government. The files contain documentation of conferences attended by Campaign members (usually Georgia Lloyd), including the Campaign for the World People's Convention Pocono conference of 1947 and the People's World Convention conference in Ghent, Belgium. There are also folders documenting various meetings in the 1950s and 1960s of the World Association of World Federalists and the World Movement for World Federal Government.
The United Nations files contain Georgia Lloyd's notebooks from the 1944 Dumbarton Oaks conference, as well as documentation of efforts the Campaign made over the years to reform the UN and make it into more of a governmental body.
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1937-1993, undated3 boxes
This series contains press releases, open letters to elected officials, petitions, pamphlets, flyers and other printed matter produced by the Campaign, as well as some correspondence discussing their content and production. It begins with Lola Maverick Lloyd and Rosika Schwimmer's pamphlet Chaos, War Or A New World Order? in 1937, and continues through nearly every year of the Campaign, with a lull during the late 1960s and a renewed burst of production during the late Cold War years of the 1980s. Because the United Nations began formation and planning in 1944-1945, those years saw a large burst of publishing activity as the Campaign advocated for its vision of what the UN should be.
Earlier material includes speeches and transcripts of radio appearances by William B. Lloyd centered on U.S. neutrality in the Second World War. Later material includes warnings about the dangers of nuclear war, educational pamphlets about the need and organizational plan for a world government, press releases on the need for UN reform, and publicity for the results of the Campaign's surveys of Congressional candidates.