The American Fund for Public Service, commonly known as the Garland Fund, was a

philanthropic organization Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material g ...

established in 1922 by Charles Garland. The fund, administered by a group of trustees headed by Roger Baldwin of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

, ultimately disbursed some $2 Million to a variety of

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

and

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politic ...

institutions, including the

Federated Press ''This is not to be confused with the independent, research-based organization of Toronto, Canada, also called that targets executives, lawyers, professionals.'' The Federated Press was a left wing news agency, news service, established in 1920, ...

labor news service, the

Vanguard Press The Vanguard Press was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left-wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array of books on ra ...

publishing house, ''

The New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both '' The Masses'' (1911–1917) and ''The Liberator'' (1918–1924). ''New Masses'' was later merge ...

'' magazine, '' The World Tomorrow'' magazine, and to the legal defense fund associated with the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike, as well as a host of similar projects. The fund was terminated in 1941.

Institutional history

Establishment of the fund

In 1920, Charles Garland informed the

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...

of his father's estate that he would refuse to accept a $1 Million

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

from the

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representativ ...

of his deceased father. Garland explained to a reporter at the time that he would not accept money from "a system which starves thousands while hundreds are stuffed" and which "leaves a sick woman helpless and offers its services to a healthy man."''Harpers'' magazine, no. 142 (February 1921), pg. 397. Cited in Gloria Garrett Samson, ''The American Fund for Public Service: Charles Garland and Radical Philanthropy, 1922-1941.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996; pg. 1. Garland indicated to this reporter that he was not refusing to accept these funds because of

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

beliefs, but rather because as part of his study of the teachings of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and the works of

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and

H.G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, he had come to the earnest belief that the money "is not mine." Hearing of the young man's decision to refuse his inheritance and his rationale, the socialist author

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

urged Garland to accept the money not for his personal gain, but rather to put it to a higher use. Sinclair suggested making $100,000 donations to a set of specific organizations seeking to change the economic and social system of which Garland disapproved. These organizations favored by Sinclair included '' The Liberator'' magazine, the socialist daily newspaper ''

The New York Call The ''New York Call'' was a socialism, socialist daily newspaper published in New York City from 1908 through 1923. The ''Call'' was the second of three English-language dailies affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, following the ''Chic ...

,'' the communist daily newspaper ''

The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

,'' the Federated Press news service, the

Intercollegiate Socialist Society The Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) was a socialist student organization active from 1905 to 1921. It attracted many prominent intellectuals and writers and acted as an unofficial student wing of the Socialist Party of America. The Societ ...

, the

American Union Against Militarism The American Union Against Militarism (AUAM) was an American pacifist organization established in response to World War I. The organization attempted to keep the United States out of the European conflict through mass demonstrations, public lectu ...

, and the magazine edited by 1916

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

Presidential candidate

Allan L. Benson Allan Louis Benson (November 6, 1871 – August 19, 1940) was an American newspaper editor and author who was the Socialist Party of America nominee for President of the United States in 1916. Known for his outspoken anti-war views, Benson and hi ...

, ''

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

.'' While Garland did not immediately take action upon this suggestion, it seems as though the idea of accepting the inheritance in the name of establishing a radical philanthropic organization derives from this time. In 1921, Garland was approached by Roger Baldwin, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, probably through ACLU attorney

Walter Nelles Walter Nelles (April 21, 1883 – April 1, 1937) was an American lawyer and law professor. Nelles is best remembered as the co-founder and first chief legal counsel of the National Civil Liberties Bureau and its successor, the American Civil Libert ...

, a law partner of

Swinburne Hale Swinburne Hale (1884–1937) was an American lawyer, poet, and Socialism, socialist, best remembered as one of the leading civil rights attorneys of the 1920s. Hale was a Harvard College classmate of Roger Nash Baldwin and law partner of Walt ...

, who had recently married Garland's widowed mother. Baldwin convinced Garland to accept his father's inheritance and to establish with it a "national trust fund" which would aid efforts to expand "individual liberty and the power of voluntary associations." On July 5, 1921, the American Fund for Public Service was formally incorporated by Lewis Gannett of the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

,''

Robert Morss Lovett Robert Morss Lovett (December 25, 1870 – February 8, 1956) was an American academic, writer, editor, political activist, and government official. Background Lovett was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University i ...

of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, and Roger Baldwin.Robert C. Cottrell, ''Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 2000; pg. 130. In July 1922, it was formally announced that Garland would use $800,000 of his inheritance to endow the fund. The money behind the fund was held in the form of

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

at the First National Bank of New York. In preparation for the task of distributing the funds, Roger Baldwin reached out to the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and

Russell Sage Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig Party (United States), Whig politician from New York (state), New York, who became one of the List of richest Americans in history, rich ...

foundations to determine how those philanthropies handled grant requests. The board of directors included Roger Baldwin, H. H. Broach, Robert W. Dunn, Morris L. Ernst,

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Libe ...

William Z. Foster William Z. Foster (born William Edward Foster; February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a radical American labor organizer and Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1945 to ...

, Lewis Gannett,

Benjamin Gitlow Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party of the United States, Communist Party USA. At the end of the 1930s, Gitlow t ...

, Clinton S. Golden,

James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...

Freda Kirchwey Mary Frederika "Freda" Kirchwey (September 26, 1893 – January 3, 1976) was an American journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to liberal causes (anti-Fascist, pro-Soviet, anti-anti-communist). From 1933 ...

, Clarina Michelson, Robert Morss Lovett,

Scott Nearing Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. Biography Early years Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga County ...

, and Norman M. Thomas. According to the James Weldon Johnsons's autobiography: While the board of directors in charge of distributing grants from the Garland Fund exhibited great cooperation during its initial phase, gradually the fratricidal hostility which characterized American radical politics in the 1920s made its way into the board's discussions. The board seemed to split between a

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

left and

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

right wings, with a small number of centrists tipping the balance. After the successful establishment of the fund, Garland "took up a farmer's life."

Notable contributions by the fund

From an early date the Garland Fund's board of directors determined not to give money directly to political parties, instead targeting funds to groups or institutions engaged in original groundbreaking efforts on behalf of the working class or oppressed minority groups.Cottrell, ''Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union,'' pg. 132. Some of the institutions receiving significant financial injections included the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

Brookwood Labor College Brookwood Labor College (1921 to 1937) was a labor college located at 109 Cedar Road in Katonah, New York, United States. Founded as Brookwood School in 1919 and established as a college in 1921, it was the first residential labor college in the co ...

, the Furrier's Union, and the

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was a labor union for employees in the women's clothing industry in the United States. It was one of the largest unions in the country, one of the first to have a primarily female membersh ...

. At end of the 1920s, the Garland Fund earmarked a fund for the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, to finance "a large-scale, wide-spread, dramatic campaign to give the Southern Negro his constitutional rights, his political and civil equality, and therewith a self-consciousness and self-respect which would inevitably tend to effect a revolution in the economic life of the country. . ." The lawyer Nathan Ross Margold was retained by the NAACP to lead the legal drive based on these. He produced the Margold Report, outlining a different strategy for a legal drive funded by the Garland Fund. Based on this strategy, he argued '' Nixon v. Condon'' in front of the Supreme Court and won, overturning a Texas state strategy to exclude blacks from voting in national primaries. The Texas Democratic party was quick to adjust, however, finding a new way to circumvent the law, demonstrating the weakness of Margold's strategy. After granting almost $20,000 of the $100,000 initially earmarked for the NAACP, the fund ended its support - the stock-market crash had demolished much of the fund's resources.

Termination of the fund

On June 18, 1941, the board of directors of the American Fund for Public Service announced that it had voted to terminate the fund, returning its "few remaining assets" to Charles Garland. Garland was assigned $24,626.18 in outstanding loans, as well as the organization's final cash balance of $1,619.13.Samson, ''The American Fund for Public Service,'' pg. 219. Over the course of its 19-year existence, the Garland fund had contributed nearly $2 Million to almost 100 enterprises.

Beneficiaries and clients of the fund

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Founded in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids (commonly referred to as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation o ...

* Commonwealth College * ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' * Equity Printing Co. * Furrier's Union *

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent Germ ...

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

* Labor News Reel Service *

Manumit School The Manumit School was a progressive Christian socialist boarding school located in Pawling, New York, from 1924 to 1943, and in Bristol, Pennsylvania, from 1944 to 1958. Founded on purchased farmland by the Rev. William Fincke and his wife H ...

* '' Minneapolis Daily Star'' *

* ''

'' * New York Call Printing Co. * ''

Novy Mir ''Novy Mir'' (, ) is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine. History ''Novy Mir'' has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine ''Mir Bozhy'' ("God's World"), w ...

'' * '' Oklahoma Leader'' * Polish People’s Publishing Company *

* Russian Reconstruction Farms * ''

Seattle Union Record The ''Seattle Union Record'' was a union-owned newspaper edited by Harry Ault. The paper was published weekly from February 20, 1900 to April 2, 1918 and was published daily from April 24, 1918 until it discontinued publication in 1928. In its ...

'' * Summer School for Women Workers *

United Mine Workers of America The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...

Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL pla ...

References

External links

American Fund for Public Service records, 1922-1941.
New York Public Library. Catalog and finder's aid for 59 boxes and 39 reels of microfilm containing records and correspondence.

{{Authority control Organizations established in 1922 Political and economic research foundations based in the United States Organizations disestablished in 1941