70-13,988 BROWN, David Evan, 19 33- THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL THOUGHT OF LEWIS COREY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1969 Political Science, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL THOUGHT OF LEWIS COREY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David Evan Brown, B.A, ******* The Ohio State University 1969 Approved by Adviser Department of Political Science PREFACE On December 2 3 , 1952, Lewis Corey was served with a warrant for his arrest by officers of the U, S, Department of Justice. He was, so the warrant read, subject to deportation under the "Act of October 16 , 1 9 1 8 , as amended, for the reason that you have been prior to entry a member of the following class: an alien who is a member of an organi­ zation which was the direct predecessor of the Communist Party of the United States, to wit The Communist Party of America."^ A hearing, originally arranged for April 7» 1953» but delayed until July 27 because of Corey's poor health, was held; but a ruling was not handed down at that time. The Special Inquiry Officer in charge of the case adjourned the hearing pending the receipt of a full report of Corey's activities o during the previous ten years. [The testimony during the hearing had focused primarily on Corey's early writings and political activities.] The hearing was not reconvened, and the question of the defendant's guilt or innocence, as charged, was never formally settled. Corey died on September 16. ^U. S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, In the Matter of Deportation Proceedings Against Louis Fraina, alias Lewis Corey . [et ai.~], File # E-23362/A-^9358IT, July 2?, 1953. (hereafter to be referred to as Deportation Proceedings). 2Ibid.. p. 87. ii His death, under these circumstances, was indeed a "final irony," as one commentator has stated. It came "at the point when he had begun to write a testament of political faith in America,"3 but had to divert his energies in order to fight an injustice, the source of which was the very government whose virtues he was currently celebrating. The celebrations were not without qualifications, nor were they lacking in designs for change. But they did express hope, and faith, in the possi­ bilities of progress within the framework of the existing system. Clear­ ly, the liberal democratic, pluralistic and reformist proposals of this man under a McCarran-Walter Act indictment contrasted sharply with the burning revolutionary sentiments he had expressed as Louis Fraina some thirty-five years earlier. Thus, if one assumes that the threat of de­ portation was inspired by something more than the Justice Department* s meticulous concern for the letter of the immigration law, it would seem that the government had indicted the wrong man.^ If it was a communist 3Editor's Note (signed only D. B.) in Esther Corey, "Lewis Corey (Louis C. Fraina), 1892-1953: A Bibliography with Autobiographical Notes," Labor History. IV, No. 2 (1963), pp. 103-01+. ^Fraina had re-entered the United States in 1923, using an alias. He was, at that time, both an alien and still technically a member of the (or, more accurately, one of the) Communist Party(ies). He was also an agent of the Communist International. But that was thirty years prior to the date of the hearing.- Besides, Lewis Corey, by 1953, was widely known for his anti-communist sentiments and activities. Yet, he had once been a communist. By his own standards, he was a liberal, a civil libertarian, a reformer; at times, a non-Marxian democratic socialist. Thus, taking into account the climate of opinion during the period when this charge was brought against him (McCarthyism remained a potent force), it is very likely that in spite of his current anti-communism Corey was being tried as much for having been a communist at one time and remain­ ing a radical much of his life as for apparently having committed an infraction of the immigration law. iii subversive the government sought, then Louis Fraina, who had returned to the United States in 1923 from months of revolutionary activities abroad, was a likely choice. Not so Lewis Corey. Corey had dis­ associated himself from the Party in 1923» renounced communism during the 1930's, "reconsidered" and rejected tactical Marxism and Marxian socialism by 1940^ and published two books during the next ten years which argued forcefully that communism constituted a threat to the principles of freedom and democracy with which he now identified him­ self.6 The irony deepens as one considers some other aspects of this case. For example, the Justice Department proceedings against Corey could be seen as a mere footnote in a volume of harassments recounting how Corey's ex-comrades and their progeny attempted to anathematize him in liberal and left-wing circles, at the same time reminding his non- or anti-communist employers of his communist past. And, further, one can readily understand Corey's disappointment and bitterness in being forced to resign his position as educational director of the Butcher Workmen's union upon public disclosure of the charges against him. He had been, after all, an eloquent and vociferous spokesman of free and potent unions; and his opposition to communism was well known in the ^Lewis Corey, "Marxism Reconsidered," Nation, CL, No. 7 (February 17, 19**0); No. 8 (February 24, 1940); No. 9 (March 2, 1940). The next issue of Nation (March 9» 1940) contained replies to Corey's articles by Norman Thomas, Earl Browder, Bertram D. Wolfe, and Algernon Lee, 6The Unfinished Task: Economic Reconstruotion for Democracy (New York: Viking Press, 1942); Meat and Man: A Study of Monopoly, Unionism and Food Policy (New York: Viking Press, 1950). iv the labor movement. Yet no sooner had his indictment become known than pressure for his resignation began to mount. The leadership felt that the bargaining position of the union would suffer were they to continue their association with such a highly publicized ex-communist. Only two years before, Corey had published Meat and Man, in which he was as unstinting in his anti-communism as he was in his praise of the union.'7 Small wonder that he felt betrayed and abandoned.® A final note in this connection, although many more could be cited: the illegal entry into the United States which was charged in the indictment occurred in 1923* Corey recalls that his decision to leave the Party took place in 1922, prior to his return to the United States. Shortly after his arrival, he announced that decision.^ It is, then, an especially bitter irony that the government should choose this particu­ lar transgression as the keystone of their attack on Corey1 s communist affiliations. This final dramatic incident in Corey*s life suggests more than simply irony, however. Here, at a glance, one confronts an outline of a man's life: a life apparently at once active and contemplative, tragic and triumphant, boldly experimental and cautious. Most of all, it suggests a life constantly involved in the process of change, ?Corey, Meat and Man, pp. 281-312. ^Letter, Lewis Corey to Patrick E. Gorman, The Lewis Corey Collec­ tion, Nicholas Murray Butler Library, Columbia University (hereafter to be referred to as The Corey Collection). ^Lewis Corey, "One Rebel's Years: An Autobiography of A Generation," 1953» PP« 6-7 (unpublished notes in the Corey Collection). v personal as well as social. A catalogue of the changes which took place in Corey's political or economic views during his lifetime would easily fill a separate volume. Even so, as change always implies con­ tinuity, there are discernable threads which run through Corey's career of thought and action. For while it is true that the gap separating Fraina's revolutionary communism and Corey's liberal pluralism must be measured in more than mere years, it is also true that the youthful flamboyant agitator and organizer and the mature, dynamic writer and educator shared a great many characteristics. Doubtless, it was the same concern for social justice and the alleviation of human suffering which moved Fraina to encourage class warfare and Corey to promote the reconciliation and cooperation of all functional social groups. This brief look at the deportation proceedings, and the circum­ stances surrounding them, serves not only to introduce the reader to the subject of this study but also to indicate the many dimensions which such a study must necessarily take into account. Corey's personal life will be dealt with only insofar as it sheds light on the central problem of this undertaking: a statement and analysis of Corey's social and political ideas. But this hardly con­ stitutes a limitation on the multi-dimensionality of the study. We are considering here a body of ideas which underwent a complicated evolutionary process of development. Hence, if only the critical junc­ tures in that transformational process are treated, the task remains a large and complex one. Corey's own words, quoted here from the depor­ tation proceedings transcript, illustrate this point* Question (Examining Officer): Did you still believe in Marx­ ism after you terminated your membership in the Communist organization in 1922? Answer (Corey): Yes and No. I mean that . complications arose. I became a Marxist very early. I read Marx, which most of the others didn't do incidentally, and so that when I quit the CPA in 1922 and the Communist International I did not at once completely throw my Marxism overboard.