THE MAURICE SUGAR COLLECTION Papers, 1907-1973 58 1/2 Linear Feet Accession Number 232 Maurice Sugar was one of the first American lawyers to become what is now known as a "Labor Lawyer." Before he was made Chief Legal Counsel of the United Automobile Workers, a post he held between 1937 and 1948, he had practiced as a labor lawyer and defender of the poor since 1914. Born in Brimley, Michigan in 1891, he was educated in the Detroit school system. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School where he was Editor of the Michigan Law Review. In 1914 he and Jane Mayer were married. She later became Supervisor of Elementary School Physical Education for the City of Detroit. Sugar's first client in 1914 was the Detroit Typographical Union (AFL), and before his work with the UAW he represented nearly all Detroit area unions including the Detroit and Wayne County Federations of Labor (AFL) and various AFL international unions. During the Tool and Die Makers Strike of 1913 he handled over two-hundred cases in the courts. During World War I Sugar was indicted and convicted in a conspiracy trial (1917-1918), as he was a pacifist, but he was subsequently readmitted to the bar and pardoned. Active during his youth in the Socialist Party he later became an important spokesman for what were then considered "left wing" causes, including civil rights and racial equality. He was one of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild and an early advocate of pensions, unemployment compensation, social security and other such measures. He was singled out for provocation and even death by the notorious Black Legion, a Michigan-Ohio organization similar to the Ku Klux Klan. Sugar's work as UAW counsel saw him through many of the high points of the UAW history of which he was a part. These are also reflected in the collection. He represented executive board members whom Homer Martin tried to expel and was strongly involved in the local unions' litigation which was an important part of the factional power struggle. The sit-down strikes and the union organization of the Ford Motor Company, and litigation with it, were other important episodes of UAW history in which he participated until 1948, when he was dismissed. He continued in private practice, and with his civil rights interests, and his life­ long pleasure in writing songs until and even after his retirement. He died at age eighty-two in 1974. Part 1 The Maurice Sugar Collection 2 A list of publications from the Sugar Collection that have been placed with the holdings of the Archives Library is included with this guide, just before the index. The index includes major correspondents and subjects of the Sugar Collection and lists most pamphlets that were left in the collection because of special relevance. Photographs and display items are deposited in the Archives Audio-Visual Department. Printed convention materials and reports, are, with many of the publications, also in the Archives Library. Note should be taken that the clippings included in several different parts of the collection were the special effort of Maurice Sugar. Arranged on a day to day basis they were selected from Detroit and other newspapers and with a special discernment as to what would, at least later, constitute a matter of historical significance. Among the subjects covered in the collection are: George Addes Ford Motor Company Union Organizing Automobile Labor Board Injunctions Black Legion Legal Services to UAW Clippings of Interest Homer Martin Conventions (UAW) Walter Reuther Election Campaigns (Sugar's) Sit-Down Strikes Factionalism Songs by Maurice Sugar Foley Square Trial, 1950-51 Sugar Conspiracy Trial Sugar Diary Other subjects will be found in the index. Major correspondence can be located through the index. Among many others) correspondents include George Addes, George Crockett, Ernest Goodman, Homer Martin, Wyndham Mortimer, Lee Pressman, Walter P. Reuther, and Bud Reynolds. See the index for others. Papers having to do with Maurice Sugar's interest in and work with the National Lawyers Guild will be found at the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute at Berkeley, California. A partial listing of those holdings (about 3 1/2 l.f.) is appended at the end of this guide. Part 1 The Maurice Sugar Collection 3 SERIES DESCRIPTION This collection is divided into two general series. The first is comprised of files including those selected by Maurice Sugar for his own writings; the second concerns his interest and work in the United Automobile Workers union. Series I - Boxes 1-24 Book Files and Personal Subject Files Boxes 1-7 Book Files, 1918-1973 8 Student Writings, 1907-1916 9 Conspiracy Case, 1917-1918 10-13 Election Campaigns of Maurice Sugar, 1935-1937 14 Songs by Maurice Sugar 15-17 Personal File and Writings 18-23 Black Legion and Clippings 24 Legal Cases, Decisions Series II - Boxes 25-117 The United Automobile Workers Boxes 25-40 A. Sit-Down Strikes and Clippings, 1936-1949 41-52 B. Factionalism and Clippings, 1936-1941 53-61 C. UAW and the Ford Motor Company, 1932-1942 62-117 D. Maurice Sugar and the UAW 62 Injunction and Appeal Board Cases, Chrysler Corporation and General Motors Corporation 63 R.J. Thomas 64 George Addes 65 Walter P. Reuther 66-74 UAW Correspondence 75-78 UAW Legal Services - Bills 79-94 UAW Executive Board Meetings 95-96 Conventions and Constitutions 97 -117 Labor Clippings and Scrapbook on the Ford Hunger March Part 1 The Maurice Sugar Collection 4 Series I Book Files and Personal Subject Files Intending to write his autobiographical recollections, Maurice Sugar selected various documents.and folders from his papers and numbered them in the order he preferred. Although his project was not finished/the papers that were left in this book file remain in his intended. order. His numbers are the ones in parenthes~ Other papers of personal interest complete the series. Box 1 - Book Files Folder 1-4 Industrial spies, 1923, 1933, 1941 (1) Briggs Strike (1933) Statement; Union Spy at National Automotive Fibres (1936-8); R.W. Dunn Pamphlet; Sugar Pamphlet; Affidavits; J. Polanski Speech. 5 Poetry Prize - R.G. Dunn Cigars 6-8 Writing a Book: Clippings, notes, correspondence (3) 9 Foreign Born, notes, clippings 10 Maurice Sugar and his father (3) 11 Letters to editors (3) 12 Proposal for a Legal Department, UAW 13 Automobile Labor Board, 1934 (4) 14-18 Foley Square Trial, 1950-1951 (6) George Crockett, and "Lawyer Troubles in political Trials" (pamphlets) (6); Clippings; Notes on the English language (6); Petition, U.S. Supreme Court, Case of communist leaders, 1951, Transcript. 19 Black Legion (7) clippings, correspondence 20-22 UAW c1 i ppi ngs· and notes (8) 23 Integration clippings (9) 24 Memorandum on existing situation in the international union, May 23, 1946 25 Homer Martin accusations vs Sugar, 1939 26 University of Michigan, clippings (9) 27-29 Maurice Sugar - notes and clippings, biographical and phi 1osophi ca 1 (11) 30 Quotations (13) Box 2 - Book Files Folder 1 Sugar election campaigns (14-A) Recorder's Court, 1935; Common Council, 1935; Congress, 1936; Common Council, 1937; Recorder's Court, 1941. Notes, dance programs, correspondence. SEE ALSO Boxes 10 - 13. 2-10 Sugar radio talks, 1940-1941 (14B) 11 Bridgman Case, 1922-1923 (15) Notes, pamphlet 12-17 Disbarment, 1918 (18) Part 1 The Maurice Sugar Collection 5 Box 2 - Book Files (Cont'd) Folder 18 James Couzens (20) 19-20 Reinstatement to Bar, 1919 (21A) 21 Reinstatement, United States District Court, 1931 (21A) 22-23 Russian trip and speaking tour, 1932-1933 (21) 24 Frank X. Martel (22) Clippings 25 Homer.Martin clippings (24) 26 Anderson, Indiana - Hugh Thompson and Ed Hall, 1937, 1938 (26) 27 Maurice Sugar "Cotter Investigation of Me," 1950 (27) 28-29 Publications - Selected pamphlets (28) Box 3 - Book Files 1 Judge Jane 2-3 Depression - Notes and clippings 4 George Addes - Newspaper Guild Controversy, 1943 5-20 Frank Murphy (30) Notes, tributes, correspondence, clippings 21-23 Josephine Gomen, 1951, 1952, 1960 24 Charles P. Taft, 1939-1940 25 Homer Martin, 1938 (Maurice Sugar letter to) (30) 26-27 Wyndham Mortimer "My Trip to the Soviet Union" and correspondence 1966 28 Union League of Michigan - Committee on Subversive Activities, 1930-193:1; (31) 29 Stanley No~ak, indictment and dismissal, 1942-1943. 30-31 Maurice Sugar - "Michigan Passes the Spolansky Act," 1931, Manuscript and Nation Article. 32 Bud Reynolds (31) 33-38 Larry S. Davidow, 19Lt.l-1947,1970 (31) Box 4 - Book Files 1 Maurice Sugar - Pardon, 1934 (37) 2 License to carry weapon, 1939-1940 3 United States. District. Court reinstatement, 1947 4-7 Detroit City Affairs Committee, 1919-1949 8-14 McCarran and Smith Acts- Articles, clippings, pamphlets 15-21 General Counsel, UAW 1937-1947 (39) Letters, expenses, termination, UAW board meeting, November 28 - December 1, 1947, minutes (excerpted) Box 5 - Book Files 1-3 Finishing the UAW legal work, 1947-1948 (40) Memoranda, lists. 4 First Yearbook and History of the Automotive Industrial Worker's Association, 1935 (41) Part 1 The Maurice Sugar Collection 6 Box 5 - Book Files (Cont'd) Folder 5-8 Maurice Sugar - Speech, March 25, 1948. Rogge meeting. (42) Civil Rights and labor in Detroit. Clippings and notes. Detroit News comments and resolutions. 9 Maurice Sugar - Speech, July 14, 1947, on Taft-Hartley (42) 10 Maurice Sugar - Speeches, January 21,1948, and. April 30,1948 (42) 11 Maurice Sugar. notes, "We Must Act" and "Socialism" (42) 12-13 Detroit Race Riot - 1942-1943 (43) Pamphlets, clippings, notes, reports, 5-14 Ku Klux Klan (44) Scurrilous mail, 1938, 1940.