Guide to the Papers of Isaac A. Hourwich (1860-1924)
1882-1924
RG 587
Processed by David A. Wolfson. The microfilm was prepared by Cecile E. Kuznitz with the assistance of a grant from the S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation. Additional processing by Rachel S. Harrison as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 246-6080
Fax: (212) 292-1892
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivoinstitute.org
©2011 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. All rights reserved.
Center for Jewish History, Publisher.
Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Rachel S. Harrison in July 2011. Description is in English.
Descriptive Summary | |
| Creator: | Isaac A. Hourwich |
|---|---|
| Title: | Papers of Isaac A. Hourwich |
| Dates: | 1882-1924 |
| Abstract: | This collection contains documents relating to Isaac A. Hourwich’s role as an economist, publicist, statistician, lawyer, author, and authority on immigration, as well as his involvement with the labor movement and the formation of the American Jewish Congress. There are reports, minutes of meetings, memoranda, clippings and correspondence, and manuscripts and articles about Jewish labor, Socialism, Russia, Marxism, immigration, and other subjects. These materials demonstrate Hourwich’s important role in American labor, immigration theory, and political and economic theory. |
| Languages: | The collection is in English, with some Russian, Yiddish, German, French, and Italian. |
| Quantity: | 6 linear feet |
| Identification: | RG 587 |
| Repository: | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research |
Biographical Note
Isaac A. Hourwich was born April 27, 1860 in Vilna to a middle-class maskilic family. His father, who worked in a bank and knew several European languages, made sure to give his two children a modern secular education. Hourwich graduated in 1877 from the classical gymnasium at Minsk, and later studied medicine and mathematics. As a student, he became interested in nihilistic propaganda. His activities with a revolutionary Socialist circle in St. Petersburg led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1879 on the charges of hostility to the government and of aiding to establish a secret press. He was sent to Siberia as a "dangerous character," from 1881-1886. While in prison, he studied the settlement of Russian peasants in Siberia, and wrote a book in Russian, The Peasant Immigration to Siberia, which was published in 1888. After his release, he studied law at the Imperial University in St. Petersburg. He earned his legal degree from Demidoff Lyceum of Jurisprudence in Yaroslavl, Russia and was admitted to the Russian bar in 1887. He then practiced law in Minsk and continued his involvement in radical political movements. He helped to found the first secret Socialist circles among the Jewish workers in tsarist Russia, along with his wife Yelena (Kushelevsky) Hourwich and his sister Jhenya Hourwich, who later translated Marx’s Das Kapital into Russian.
In 1890, Hourwich fled Russia, leaving behind his first wife Yelena (Kushelevsky) Hourwich and four children, Nicholas Hourwich (1882-1934), who was later involved in the founding of the Communist Party, Maria (Hourwich) Kravitz (1883-), Rosa Hourwich (ca.1884-) , and Vera (Hourwich) Semmens (1890-1976), although Hourwich’s parents continued to support his family. He first went to Paris but he had to leave there as well, at which point he immigrated to the United States. He divorced his first wife and married again, to Louise Elizabeth "Lisa" (Joffe) Hourwich (1866-1947). Lisa Hourwich had taught school in Russia, and, after immigrating to the United States with her family, attended law school, eventually passing the Illinois bar, although she never practiced as a lawyer. They had five children, Iskander "Sasha" Hourwich (1895-1968), Rebecca Hourwich Reyher (1897-1987), who was a prominent suffragist, Olga "Dicky" Hourwich (1902-1977), George Kennan Hourwich (1904-1978), and Ena (Hourwich) Kunzer (1906-1989).
In New York, Hourwich joined the Russian Workers Society for Self-Education, later the Russian Social Democratic Society, which was made up mostly of Jewish immigrants from Minsk. The Society helped to finance the Group for Liberation of Labor (1883-1903), which Georgi Plekhanov, Pavel Axelrod and Lev Deutsch formed in Geneva, Switzerland for the dissemination of Marxist ideas in Russian. From 1891-1892 he was a fellow at Columbia University where he earned a Ph.D. in economics in 1893. His thesis was published under the title The Economics of the Russian Village and a Russian translation was published in Moscow in 1896. He then taught statistics at the University of Chicago from 1892-1893, after which he returned to New York City, where he practiced law while also contributing to Marxist legal magazines in Russia. In 1897-1898, after the creation of the Social Democratic Party by Eugene V. Debs, Hourwich founded the first party branch in New York City with Meyer London. He also edited a Russian Socialist newspaper, Progress, from 1901-1904.
Hourwich moved to Washington, D.C. in 1900, where he worked for the United States government for several years, first as a translator at the Bureau of the Mint in 1900-1902, then at the Census Bureau in 1902-1906 and in 1909-1913 as a statistician and expert on mining. He was a statistician for the New York Public Service Commission, 1908-1909. During this period he developed his knowledge of American politics and economics which he used in his writings in the English and Yiddish press. He briefly wrote for the Forward after it began publication in 1897, even though he did not then know much Yiddish and had to learn it as he went along. For his articles in the Forward and other Yiddish periodicals he used the pseudonyms “Marxist” and “Yitzhok Isaac ben Arye Tzvi Halevi” so as not to bring attention to the fact that a government employee was writing for radical newspapers. His articles about American politics and economic institutions, particularly for the Tog (Day), were important in popularizing Socialism and were often the main source for explaining American economics and politics to a Yiddish-speaking audience in the United States. In addition to various essays in the Yiddish press, Hourwich published: "The Persecutions of the Jews," in The Forum in August 1901, "Russian Dissenters," in The Arena in May 1903 and "Religious Sects in Russia," in The International Quarterly in October 1903, to name only a few.
In the wake of the October 1905 revolution, Tsar Nicholas II declared amnesty for political prisoners and Hourwich took advantage of this to return to Russia where he ran for a seat in the second Duma in Minsk in 1906. He was the nominee of a new Democratic People’s Party. The Jewish Socialist parties resented his intrusion and his non-Socialist campaign, particularly the Bund, which was running its own candidate. He was elected and would most likely have gained the seat in the Duma but the senate in St. Petersburg annulled his election and his name was taken off the final list of candidates. When the Duma was dissolved in June 1907 Hourwich returned to the United States and his government job. He also continued to write for various English magazines. Hourwich was an expert on immigration, and his book Immigration and Labor was published in 1912. In this work, he defends unrestricted immigration by arguing that the influx of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe was beneficial to the American economy. This argument was based upon economic figures and was the first defense of open immigration based on economic, rather than humanitarian, reasons.
Hourwich was active in the garment workers union at the time the agreement known as the “Protocol of Peace” was in effect. Engineered by Louis D. Brandeis following the cloakmakers’ strike of 1910, the Protocol was a system for resolving conflicts between workers and manufacturers in the garment industry without resorting to arbitration. This system was proving difficult to implement when Hourwich was appointed Chief Clerk of the Cloak and Skirt Makers’ Union in early 1913. He was in favor of reforming the Protocol, including a change from conciliation to arbitration, exactly what Brandeis had been against when drafting the Protocol. Hourwich’s position earned him the enmity of other union leaders, of his old friend, Meyer London, and also of Brandeis, who had represented the garment employers in Boston against the union during the 1910 strike. In addition, the heads of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, Abraham Rosenberg and John Dyche, vehemently opposed Hourwich for asserting the power of the local union against its parent organization and were concerned that his actions would lead to another strike. The officers of the ILGWU tried unsuccessfully to force Hourwich out, although the majority of garment workers supported him for his populist views, despite his lack of trade union experience.
In November 1913, the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers’ Association refused to negotiate with Hourwich as the union representative and demanded his resignation. Although the heads of the union were united in their dislike of Hourwich, they supported him in resisting the manufacturers’ pressure. However, in early 1914 when the manufacturers threatened to break off the Protocol and a strike appeared imminent, Hourwich stepped down rather than compromise, despite the protests of many rank-and-file union members. The so-called “Hourwich Affair” showed the weakness of the Protocol as a means of settling disputes and hastened its eventual reform. It also revealed the various power struggles taking place between the International and the local unions, as well as between the union leadership and the mass of garment workers.
Hourwich was an early critic of the totalitarian tendencies of the Bolshevik government. Nevertheless, he maintained some sympathy for the Marxist cause and served as legal advisor to the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Ludwig C.K. Martens. He was also connected with the weekly magazine, Friends of Soviet Russia, published by the Soviet Agency, although he never wrote in support of the Bolsheviks. A visit to the Soviet Union in 1922 disillusioned Hourwich, however, and he returned firmly opposed to the Soviet regime.
Despite his commitment to Socialism, Hourwich did not strictly adhere to party doctrine and often crossed political boundaries in his allegiances. For example, in 1912 he supported Theodore Roosevelt and ran for Congress on the ticket of Roosevelt’s Progressive Party, an unthinkable act for a Jewish radical, although he seems to have been unconcerned with any criticism this raised. He was involved with the Socialist Democratic Party but did not join the Socialist Party of America, despite its Marxist program. He wrote for various Yiddish newspapers of every political affiliation, including the Socialist Jewish Daily Forward, the anarchist Fraye Arbeter Shtimme (Free Workers Voice), where he published his unfinished memoirs Zikhroynes fun an Apikoyres (Memoirs of a Heretic), the Warheit (Truth), the Tog (Day), and the Tsukunft (Future). His non-ideological approach led some to label him a political opportunist. He was an ardent supporter of President Wilson and his advocacy of the New Freedom and social reform until Wilson’s 1916 appointment of Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Hourwich was still holding a grudge against Brandeis for his involvement in the “Hourwich Affair.”
In his later years Hourwich became active in the Zionist movement, and in 1917 he helped to organize the American Jewish Congress. Hourwich’s books in Yiddish include Mooted Questions of Socialism (1917), a Yiddish translation of Marx’s Das Kapital (1919), and a four-volume edition of his collected works (1917-1919). Hourwich died of pneumonia on July 9, 1924.
Return to the Top of PageScope and Content Note
The Papers of Isaac A. Hourwich consist of manuscripts, printed materials, reports, minutes and records of meetings, legal documents, financial records, pamphlets, memoranda, clippings, and correspondence relating primarily to Hourwich’s intellectual and organizational involvement in the labor movement, including his extensive participation in arbitration proceedings. There are also materials relating to the labor movement and labor laws in Russia, on Socialist theory and the Jewish Labor Bund. Materials on the Jewish labor movement in the U.S., particularly the garment workers industry, during the era of the Protocol of Peace include documents of the Independent Jacket Makers Union of New York and Federated Hebrew Trade Unions of Greater New York, minutes of meetings of the Board of Grievances of the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Industry, minutes and reports of various arbitration proceedings, and materials relating to the episodes known as the “Hourwich Affair” and “Moishe Rubin’s Rebellion.”
There is correspondence with Abraham Cahan, Judah L. Magnes, Zalman Reisen, and Isaac Sturner, articles by Hourwich on Socialism, Capitalism, Jewish rights, and Zionism, Hourwich’s unfinished memoirs, a bibliography on index cards of Hourwich’s works compiled by A.S. Kravetz, and documents on the organization of the American Jewish Congress, among them much statistical data on the Jewish population of the United around the time of World War I. The manuscripts and articles in the collection represent a cross-section of Hourwich’s writings on Russia, Socialism, Marxism, the labor movement, immigration, and American government and economics. There are also a large number of clippings covering many of Hourwich’s activities and interests.
The collection dates from 1882-1924 and is in 12 manuscript boxes, measuring 6 linear feet. There are also three reels of microfilm of materials not physically represented in the collection, which have a different microfilm number.
Return to the Top of PageArrangement
The materials in this collection are generally arranged topically by series. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent according to the Latin alphabet, including materials that are written using either Hebrew or Cyrillic letters, which have been transliterated and integrated within the Latin-alphabet materials. Personal names of correspondents have been transliterated, journal titles and organization names have been transliterated and translated, and the titles of speeches and writings have been transliterated and translated and are in quotation marks. Yiddish names have been transliterated according to YIVO standards except when the individual is known in English by another spelling. Additionally, if the name appeared in Latin letters anywhere within the folder, that spelling was used rather than a standard transliteration. The languages of materials that are not in English are in parentheses following the listing of the material. The page numbers sometimes refer to the number of sheets and sometimes, for double-sided documents, to the number of sides. The collection is on two sets of microfilm. Folders 1-133 are on 11 reels numbered MK 501, while folder 134 is only on 3 reels of microfilm numbered MK 407, and does not exist physically in the boxes. Folders 127 and 128, clippings of Hourwich’s memoirs and obituaries and clippings about him after his death, were originally microfilmed as one reel numbered MK 351, however they also are represented in MK 501. The papers are divided into 6 series.
- Series I: Russia and the Labor Movement, 1882-1924
- Series II: Jewish Labor Movement, 1897-1919
- Series III: American Jewish Congress, 1915-1919
- Series IV: Correspondence, 1891-1924
- Series V: Miscellaneous Materials, 1899-1924, undated
- Series VI: Manuscripts, Clippings and Microfilms, 1897-1924
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
Permission to use the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archivist.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish part or parts of the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archives. For
more information, contact:
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History,
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email:
archives@yivo.cjh.org
Related Material
The YIVO Library has a copy of Profiles of Eleven by Melech Epstein, in which Hourwich is one of the profiles. There are also several books and other writings by Hourwich. The American Jewish Historical Society Archives have American Jewish Congress records I-77, and there are also American Jewish Congress materials in other collections at AJHS and YIVO. In addition, the YIVO Archives have the Bund Archives RG 1400, as well as materials about unions, Socialism, Communism, and labor.
Return to the Top of PageSeparated Material
There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.
Return to the Top of PageMicrofilm
This collection is on two sets of microfilm. MK 501 is 11 reels and contains the contents of folders 1-133, while MK 407 is 3 reels and contains what is called folder 134, which is not physically represented in the collection.
Return to the Top of PagePreferred Citation
Published citations should take the following
form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Papers of Isaac A. Hourwich;
RG 587; folder number; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Acquisition Information
Mrs. Rebecca Reyher, Hourwich’s daughter, donated the papers to YIVO in July 1969. Mrs. Reyher gave those of her father’s papers dealing with immigration to Harvard University.
Return to the Top of PageProcessing information
The collection was originally processed by David A. Wolfson in 1971. The microfilm was prepared by Cecile E. Kuznitz with the assistance of a grant from the S.H. and Helen R. Scheur Family Foundation in 1990. Additional processing was completed in July 2011.
Return to the Top of PageAccess Points
Individuals:
- Cahan, Abraham, 1860-1951
- Magnes, Judah Leon, 1877-1948
- Pavlotsky, Vigdor
- Rejzen, Zalman, 1887-1941
- Sturner, Isaac
Organizations:
- Allgemeyner Idisher arbayṭerbund in Liṭa, Poylen un Rusland
- American Civil Liberties Union
- American Jewish Congress
- International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union
- League for Industrial Democracy
- Partīia sotsīalistov-revoliutsīonerov
- Socialist Party (U.S.)
- Tog
- United Hebrew Trades
- YIVO Archives
Subjects:
- Arbitration, Industrial -- United States
- Civil rights -- United States
- Clothing trade -- United States
- Communism
- Jewish labor unions
- Labor laws and legislation
- Labor movement
- Philosophy, Marxist
- Socialism
Places:
- New York (N.Y.)
- Russia
Document Types:
- Administrative reports
- Correspondence
- Financial records
- Legal documents
- Manuscripts
- Memoranda
- Minutes
- Newspaper clippings
- Pamphlets
Container List
Series I: Russia and the Labor Movement, 1882-1924. | |||
| 25 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series consists of manuscripts, articles, pamphlets, and correspondence primarily in Russian with some English materials. These documents relate to pre-Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union, Marxism, Socialism, and the labor movement. They include notes on Hourwich’s trip to the Soviet Union in 1922, articles and lectures on Marx, and an analysis of population statistics from the 1900 U.S. Census. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 1 | "Economics, Politics and Political Economy" | 1882 | |
- manuscript (Russian), 204 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 2 | The Fifth Congress of the Jewish Labor Bund | 1903 | |
- August 7-20, 1903, report (Russian), 1 pg. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 3 | Karl Marx | undated | |
- "Economic Theories of Karl Marx," 3 lectures, manuscript (Russian), 70 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 4 | Das Kapital | undated | |
- notes, manuscript (Russian), 4 typed copies with annotations | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 5 | Novaya Zhizn (New Life) | 1917-1918 | |
- materials pertaining to Hourwich's work as a correspondent for this publication, including letters from the Western Union Telegraph Company, letters from the Commercial Cable Company, letters from the Censorship Board, and cables from Petrograd (St. Petersburg), manuscript and typed (Russian, English), 44 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 6 | Changes in Russia | 1923 | |
- notes on changes which took place in Russia, written after Hourwich's visit in 1922, (Russian), manuscript, 21 pgs., typed, 13 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 7 | Foreign delegates of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party to the Conference of the three International Federations of Socialist and Communist Parties | 1922 | |
- memorandum, conference held in Berlin April 2, 1922, printed, 7 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 8 | "The Last Illusion (Is a Socialist State Possible Without a Revolution?)" | undated | |
- typed (Russian), 31 pgs., incomplete | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 9 | "The Czar's Responsibility" | 1910 | |
- lecture by V. Bursev, delivered at Cooper Union, N.Y.C., on April 25, 1910, pamphlet, (Russian), 16 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 10 | "The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia" | 1920 | |
- pamphlet, N.Y., 48 pgs | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 11 | Declaration by representatives of organized labor | 1899 | |
- draft, August 17, 1899, manuscript, 5 pgs., typed, 4 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 12 | Correspondence pertaining to the legalization of the Independent Workmen's Circle | 1908-1909 | |
- 4 letters and notes (Yiddish, English) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 13 | Social Democratic Party | 1899, 1924, undated | |
- "An Economic Basis for an American Labor Party," address by Hourwich before the League for Independent Democracy, June 26, 1924, typed, 7 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 14 | "Class Conscious Labor Politics" | undated | |
- article by Hourwich, manuscript, 8 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 15 | "De Leonism" | undated | |
- manuscript, 9 pgs., signed "Marxist," Hourwich's pen name | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 16 | "Social-Economic Classes in the Population of the U.S." | undated | |
- based on the U.S. census of 1900, statistical tables, typed, 216 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 17 | "The Counter Revolution" | undated | |
- article by Hourwich, typed, 13 pgs., 2 copies | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 18 | "The Class Struggle in the United States" | undated | |
- manuscript (Russian), 79 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 19 | National constitution of the Socialist Party | 1912 | |
- pamphlet, 16 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 20 | United Hebrew Trades circular | 1915 | |
- addressed to the officers and delegates of the American Federation of Labor, October 30, 1915, 2 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 21 | New York Call (publication) | 1917 | |
- memorandum of the N.Y. Call to the Third Assistant Postmaster General demanding that its second class mail privileges should not be revoked, 27 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 22 | American Civil Liberties Union pamphlets | 1920-1921 | |
- "Justice to the I.W.U.," 1920 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 23 | Department of Justice pamphlets | 1919-1920, undated | |
- "Lynch Law and the Immigrant Alien," by Frederick C. Howe, undated | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 24 | "Reform or Revolution" | 1920 | |
- address by Daniel De Leon, January 26, 1896, reprint | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 25 | Material for a case against the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad Company | 1908 | |
- tables and notes | |||
Series II: Jewish Labor Movement, 1897-1919. | |||
| 33 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series consists of papers in English and Yiddish. It includes minutes of meetings and hearings, reports, legal documents, correspondence, clippings, magazine articles, and pamphlets. These materials relate to the Jewish labor movement, particularly in the garment workers industry, and comprise the most important series in the collection. Perhaps most significant are documents about the “Hourwich Affair” and the crisis in the Protocol of Peace it precipitated. Among these is correspondence between Hourwich and union officials, including the Manufacturers’ Association’s demand for Hourwich’s resignation and his letter of resignation itself. Other correspondence includes copies of letters Hourwich sent to Meyer London during a power struggle between the two men. There are also legal documents and correspondence relating to several conflicts which served as tests of the Protocol machinery, namely the cases of B. Schnall, Jaffe and Katz, and Levay and Friedberg. This series includes reports of hearings on the Protocol held by the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, the first case considered by this body created to investigate labor unrest. In addition, the series contains material from the Cloak Operators’ Union Local 1, which Hourwich served as legal advisor. Of particular note are documents relating to a conflict between the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and the local union known as “Moishe Rubin’s Rebellion.” In 1916-1917, the pro-Hourwich leadership of Local 1 defied its parent body in an attempt to show its independence, and in turn had its charter revoked by the International. Materials in the series include papers from disputes between the local and union members, financial records of the union, pamphlets, and clippings. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 26 | Official documents | 1897-1899, 1914 | |
- papers of incorporation of the Independent Childrens' Jacket Makers Union of New York, 1897 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 27 | Minutes of the Session of the Joint Board of the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Makers' Unions of New York | 1913 | |
- February 1, 1913, typed, 59 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 28 | Minutes of the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- Cloak, Suit and Skirt Industry, January 27, 1913, typed, 26 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 29 | Complaints before the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- May 15, 1913 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 30 | Arbitration Proceedings between the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Unions of New York and the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers' Protective Association | 1913 | |
- August 3-6, 1913, 2 volumes, typed, 1500 pgs., volume I | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 31 | Arbitration Proceedings between the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Unions of New York and the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers' Protective Association | 1913 | |
- same as above, volume II | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 32 | Report of a special meeting of the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- August 13, 1913, typed, 87 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 33 | Report on Board of Grievances matters and recommendations | 1913 | |
- Exhibit E, September 10, 1913 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 34 | Minutes of the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- In the matter of B. Schnall, September 5, 1913, typed, 73 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 35 | Regular Meeting of the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- report on the Schnall Case, September 3, 1913, typed, 106 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 36 | Regular Meeting of the Board of Grievances | 1913 | |
- same as above, second copy | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 37 | Cloak and Suit Arbitration | 1913 | |
- October 4, 1913, 12 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 38 | Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Arbitrators with representatives of the Shirt and Cloak Makers' Unions of New York and with the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers' Association | 1913 | |
- October 12-13, 1913, 392 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 39 | Hourwich and Abraham Bisno | 1913-1914 | |
- minutes of the meeting of the Court of Honor, convened to consider charges against Hourwich by Bisno, March 7, 1914, 16 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 40 | Materials relating to the garment workers' unions | 1912-1914 | |
- especially the Joint Board of the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Union, including materials on the "Hourwich Affair" | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 41 | Materials from cases brought before the Board of Grievances | 1913-1914 | |
- complaint against Jaffe and Katz | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 42 | Statistics on lockouts and stoppages of work | 1913 | |
- materials from an inquiry undertaken by the Board of Arbitration on wages earned by workers in the garment industry | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 43 | Correspondence | 1912-1913 | |
- regarding Hourwich's appointment as Chief Clerk of the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Union, 1912 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 44 | Correspondence | 1913-1914 | |
- regarding the Manufacturers' Association's demand for Hourwich's resignation, including Hourwich's resignation itself | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 45 | United States Commission on Industrial Relations | 1914 | |
- telegram from Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Commissioner, to Hourwich | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 46 | Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Arbitrators | 1914 | |
- selected by the representatives of the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Unions of New York, and the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers' Protective Association, January 18, 23, and 24, 1914, stenographic report, typed, 2 volumes, 87 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 47 | Board of Arbitration | 1914 | |
- memorandum presented to the Board of Arbitration pertaining to wage increases, typed, 31 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 48 | Council of Conciliation in the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Industry | 1915 | |
- report and recommendations, July 23, 1915, typed, 6 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 49 | Documents from cases which Hourwich handled in his legal practice | 1915 | |
- Hill Coal Company vs. Bernet Shapiro | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 50 | Controversy between Cloak Operators' Union Local 1 and the ILGWU | 1915-1918 | |
- terms of settlement of the controversy, correspondence, briefs, pamphlets, clippings (English, Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 51 | Legal cases involving Local 1 | 1917-1919 | |
- briefs, summonses and correspondence | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 52 | Financial matters of Local 1 | 1917-1919 | |
- financial transactions, audit, bonds, mortgages on personal property | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 53 | Miscellaneous materials relating to Local 1 | 1897, 1917-1919 | |
- manuscript pages, depositions, two drafts of a manuscript, "Di Zitsung fun der Unterzukhungs Komite vegn di Elekshuns far di Ekzekutiv Bord fun Local Eyns" (The Meeting of the Inquiry Committee aboul the Election for the Executive Board of Local 1), typed, 7 and 8 pgs., (English, Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 54 | Fur Workers' unions | 1917 | |
- minutes of the conference between the firm of A. Hollander and Son, Newark, N.J. and the Fur Dressers, Fur Workers and Dyers Union, Local 54, 1917, typed | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 55 | Constitution of the ILGWU and by-laws for local unions | 1917 | |
- printed booklet with Hourwich's name printed on cover (English, Yiddish), 127 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 56 | Cloak Operators' Union, Local 1 | 1917 | |
- 4 statements by a certified public accountant for an audit of the local, typed, 23 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 57 | Newspaper clippings | 1913-1915 | |
- pertaining to the needle trades and in particular to Hourwich's resignation as Chief Clerk | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 58 | Articles | 1913-1915 | |
- articles about the Protocol of Peace by Hourwich in The New Review, June 15 and July 15, 1915 | |||
Series III: American Jewish Congress, 1915-1919. | |||
| 11 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series consists of minutes and reports of meetings, correspondence, financial and election records, manuscripts, legal documents, and clippings. These materials are in English with some Yiddish documents. They relate to the American Jewish Congress, particularly its formation during 1917-1918. Included are papers from the planning of the election for delegates to the Congress. Among these are statistics on the American Jewish population circa 1916-1917, which Hourwich gathered to determine how delegates to the Congress should be apportioned, and successive drafts of the rules for the elections. There are materials from the elections themselves, such as correspondence regarding hotly disputed elections and official ballots and ballot reports. The series also contains papers relating to the financial situation of the Congress, among which are financial records and documents from a case where the Congress was sued for failing to pay its bills. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 59 | Writings by Hourwich | 1916-1919, undated | |
- "The American Jewish Congress," manuscript, 24 pgs., undated | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 60 | Materials relating to the election of delegates to the Congress | undated | |
- statistics on the membership of various Jewish organizations and the number of delegates allotted them | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 61 | Materials on determining the rules of elections to the Congress | 1915-1917, undated | |
- memoranda, reports, minutes of committee meetings | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 62 | "Plan of Elections to the American Jewish Congress" | 1917, undated | |
- various drafts, manuscripts, typed, and printed with handwritten corrections | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 63 | Correspondence relating to the proposed rules of election to the Congress and proposed changes to the rules | 1917 | |
- reel 7, frame 819 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 64 | Correspondence relating to the election of delegates to the Congress | 1917-1918 | |
- correspondence from: | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 65 | Correspondence | 1917-1919 | |
- regarding mail delivery at the Congress's offices, 1917 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 66 | Financial materials | 1917-1918 | |
- financial records of the Congress's Executive Committee, 1917-1918 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 67 | Jewish Memorial to the Peace Conference and Special Memorandum on Pogroms | 1919 | |
- presented by the Committee of the Jewish Delegation at the Peace Conference, 1919, typed, on the stationery of the Congress's Executive Committee, 6 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 68 | Official report on ballots cast and voided ballots | 1917 | |
- reel 8, frame 30 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 69 | Briefs from Grayzel Press, Inc. vs. Samuel Ellsberg, Treasurer of the Congress | 1916 | |
- a legal case where the Congress was sued for failure to pay its bills | |||
Series IV: Correspondence, 1891-1924. | |||
| 10 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series contains correspondence from individuals and organizations in Yiddish, English and Russian. It is arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent according to the Latin alphabet even when the materials are in either Yiddish or Russian. Among these correspondents are Alexander Berkman, Abraham Cahan, Judah L. Magnes, Zalman Reisen, and Pyotr Struve. There are also letters from several Yiddish newspapers to which Hourwich contributed, such as the Fraye Arbeter Shtimme (Free Workers Voice), the Forward, the Warheit (Truth), and the Tsukunft (Future). This series includes correspondence with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union in which Hourwich describes his version of the events of the “Hourwich Affair.” | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 70 | Alpert to Fraye Geselschaft | ||
- Alpert, Dr. N., 1919 (Yiddish, English) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 71 | The Forward | 1903, 1921-1922 | |
- letter of Hourwich to the Forward Association, 1903 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 72 | Gyer to International Ladies' Garment Workers Union | ||
- Gyer, Harry, undated (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 73 | Intercollegiate Socialist Society to Jewish Writers Club | ||
- Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1921 (includes copy of constitution, letter of Harry W. Laidler, and Hourwich's reply to Laidler) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 74 | Knopf, A., Inc. to Ossen | ||
- Knopf, A., Inc., 1922 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 75 | Pavlotsky, Vigdor | 1923-1924, undated | |
(Yiddish, English) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 76 | Poalei-Zion to Sturner | ||
- Poalei-Zion (A. Chertoff), 1908 (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 77 | Voronoff to Der Yidisher Kemfer | ||
- Voronoff, H., undated (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 78 | Yiddish Literary Publishing Company to Di Zeit | ||
- Yiddish Literary Publishing Company, 1914 (Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 79 | Zionist Organization of America to Di Zukunft | ||
- Zionist Organization of America, 1919 | |||
Series V: Miscellaneous Materials, 1899-1924, undated. | |||
| 28 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series consists of correspondence, legal documents, agreements and contracts, financial records, manuscripts, clippings, pamphlets, proofs from a book, and a bibliography of Hourwich’s works on index cards. These materials are in English, Yiddish, Russian, German, and Italian. They concern various professional activities of Hourwich’s, including his partnership with Meyer London, his campaign for U.S. Congress in 1913, the creation of a new Yiddish newspaper which he was supposed to edit, and the publication of his books in translation. In addition, there are proofs of Hourwich’s translation of Das Kapital. This series also includes documents from several cases which Hourwich handled in his legal practice, among them the Manya Vilbeshevitch case, the Evalenko case, and Yanovsky vs. Liber. The papers of the Manya Vilbeshevitch case contain an exchange of letters with Vladimir Medem. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 80 | Partnership agreement between Hourwich and Meyer London | 1899 | |
- typed, 2 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 81 | Correspondence relating to Hourwich's campaign as a candidate for the U.S. Congress | 1913 | |
- reel 8, frame 597 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 82 | Correspondence relating to the Yiddish Press | 1916 | |
- contract between Isaac Straus and Hourwich for Hourwich to become editor-in-chief of a daily Yiddish newspaper | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 83 | Announcements of lectures and courses by Hourwich | ||
- bulletin of the Rand School announcing lectures by Hourwich, 1908 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 84 | Correspondence with German publishing houses | 1923 | |
- pertaining to the publication of translations of Hourwich's Yiddish and Russian books, 13 pgs. (Russian, German) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 85 | Quote about one of Hourwich's books from an Italian newspaper | undated | |
- copied by Hourwich, some shorthand notations (Italian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 86 | Miscellaneous items of a personal character | ||
- certificate from the Socialist Party, undated | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 87 | Materials relating and operation of the Yiddish Literary Publishing Company | 1915 | |
- agreements, financial data, notes, letters, 62 pgs. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 88 | Materials relating to the Manya Vilbushevitch case | 1921-1922 | |
- clippings of newspaper articles by Vladimir Medem and by Hourwich (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 89 | Materials relating to the Evalenko case | 1910-1911 | |
- correpsondence of Evalenko, L. Menstchikoff, and Hourwich (Russian, English) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 90 | Materials relating to Yanovsky vs. Dr. B. Liber | 1914 | |
- a case of slander for which Hourwich was Yanovsky's attorney and Alexander Berkman, Michael A. Cohn, and Leon Moisseiff were arbitrators | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 91 | Unidentified manuscript | undated | |
- 19 pages of a manuscript, part of an article which Hourwich had with him at the hospital before his death (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 92 | "Thoughts of a Profane Person about the Accursed Problem" | undated | |
- manuscript, 31 pgs. (Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 93 | Clippings about Louis D. Brandeis | 1914-1916 | |
- his testimony before an Interstate Commerce Commission hearing and about Brandeis' appointment to the Supreme Court | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 94 | Fragments | undated | |
- article by U. Steklev (Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 95 | Article by Hourwich against Henry M. Boies's book Prisoners and Paupers | undated | |
- against Boies' proposal that criminals be castrated, manuscript, 4 pgs. (Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 96 | Pamphlets | undated | |
- Sidney Webb, "The Labor Party on the Threshold," 1923 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 97 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 98 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 99 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 100 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 101 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 102 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 103 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 104 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 105 | Proofs of Hourwich's Yiddish translation of Das Kapital by Karl Marx | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 106 | Notebook containing notes on various clubs in New York City | undated | |
- handwritten, not in Hourwich's handwriting | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 107 | BIbliography of Hourwich's work until the time of his death | undated | |
- including his articles, books, and Ph.D. dissertation (Columbia University, 1892) on "The Economy of the Russian Village" | |||
Series VI: Manuscripts, Clippings and Microfilms, 1897-1924. | |||
| 27 folders | |||
Scope and Content:This series consists of articles, manuscripts, clippings, and microfilms of clippings in Yiddish, English, Russian, German, and French. Included are articles by Hourwich on Socialism, World War I and the labor movement. There are also manuscripts and transcripts of his lectures on immigration, Soviet Russia and Marxism. The clippings include material about Hourwich himself, about the crisis of the Protocol of Peace, the Socialist response to World War I, and the Soviet Union. The microfilms pertain to Russia and the Soviet Union, the labor movement and the Protocol, Socialism, and World War I. There are also microfilmed articles both by and about Hourwich. Of particular interest are the clippings about Hourwich, including articles about his run for the Duma in 1906, his unfinished memoirs Zikhroynes fun an Apikoyres (Memoirs of a Heretic), and obituaries and remembrances of Hourwich. Also in this series are a large number of clippings on Soviet life in the 1920s, as well as many Socialist periodicals and Russian magazines from the turn of the twentieth century. | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 108 | Articles by Hourwich from The International Socialist Review | 1900-1902 | |
- "Trusts and Socialism," October 1900 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 109 | Articles by Hourwich from The International Socialist Review | 1902-1903, 1915 | |
- "Sociological Laws and Historical Fatalism," April 1902 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 110 | Articles by Hourwich from The Socialist Review | 1920-1921 | |
- "The Czar's Police," February 1920 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 111 | Articles by Hourwich from The New Review | 1913-1915 | |
- "Social Economic Classes in the United States," March 8, 15 and 22, 1913 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 112 | Articles by Hourwich from The Intercollegiate Socialist and The Survey | 1917-1918 | |
- The Intercollegiate Socialist: "Socialists and the Problem of War," Symposium, April-May 1917 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 113 | Articles from Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik (Journal of Economics and Statistics) | 1897-1900 | |
- reprints of 2 articles by Wladimir Gregorievitch Simkhovitch (German) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 114 | Articles by Hourwich from Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik (Journal of Economics and Statistics) | 1914 | |
- "Why England and Germany Went to War," The White Papers of England and Germany, reprinted from The New York Times, August 23-24, 1914 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 115 | Articles by Hourwich | 1912-1914, undated | |
- American Journal of Sociology: "Immigration and Crime," January 1912 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 116 | Articles by Hourwich from Zhizn (Life) | 1898 | |
- "The Triumphant Plutocracy," June 10, 1898 (Volume 16) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 117 | Articles by Hourwich from Na chuzhbine (In a Foreign Land) | 1914 | |
- "The Russian Colony in the United States," November 23, 1914 (2 copies) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 118 | Articles by Hourwich from Svoboda i Ravenstvo (Freedom and Equality) | 1907 | |
- "The American Man," March 6, 1907 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 119 | Articles by Hourwich from Pravda (Truth) | 1904, undated | |
- "The Economic Consolidation in the United States," September 1901 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 120 | Articles by Hourwich | 1911, undated | |
- "The Wool Schedule," A speech by Victor L. Berger delivered in Congress, June 14, 1911 | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 121 | "Di Imigratsie un der Amerikaner Arbeter Klas" (Immigration and the American Working Class) | undated | |
- manuscript, parts I, II and III (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 122 | Typed transcriptions of lectures in Yiddish by Hourwich | 1917-1918, undated | |
- "Notes on the Yiddish lecture delivered December 13, 1917" | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 123 | Writings by Hourwich | undated | |
- "Bolshevism," manuscript | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 124 | "Der Handel mit Rusland" (The Trade with Russia) | undated | |
- fragments of an incomplete manuscript (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 125 | Fragments of manuscripts and incomplete manuscripts | undated | |
(mostly Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 126 | Cartoons and other clippings about Hourwich, the Cloak Makers' Union, and the "Hourwich Affair" | 1913-1914 | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 127 | Clippings of "Zikhroynes fun an Apikoyres" (Memoirs of a Heretic) | 1921-1922 | |
- Hourwich's unfinished memoirs, from Di Fraye Arbeter Shtimme (Free Worker's Voice) (Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 128 | Obituaries and clippings about Hourwich at the time of his death | 1924 | |
(Yiddish, English) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 129 | Clippings about socialist attitudes towards World War I | 1914-1918 | |
(Yiddish, English, German, Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 130 | Clippings about socialist debates about World War I and anti-war propaganda | 1914-1918 | |
(Yiddish, English, German, Russian) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 131 | Clippings about the Soviet Union | undated | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 132 | Clippings of articles by Hourwich on immigration, Soviet Russia, and other topics | 1904-1918 | |
(Yiddish) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 133 | Clippings of articles by Hourwich on immigration | undated | |
(Yiddish, English, German) | |||
| Folder | Title | Date | |
| 134 | Microfilms of clippings from Yiddish, English, Russian, and German newspapers and magazines | 1900-1924, undated | |
- MK 407, 3 reels | |||
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