World Citizens Association. Central Committee. Records, 1939-1953

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International Affairs and World Federation

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When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: World Citizens Association. Central Committee. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

The World Citizens Association was an outgrowth of S. de Maderiaga's attempts at founding an American division of the World Foundation. Maderiaga advanced this endeavor with the help of Ruth Cranston of Boston and Ann Morgan of New York. The World Citizens Association was founded in Chicago in 1939 and was financed solely by Mrs. Anita (Emmons) McCormick Blaine. It was a membership organization with fees of one dollar, which entitled members to all the Associations publications. Additionally, members at large, that are those members who were not part of the Central Committee of which the Executive Committee was a part, offered no direct voice in the development of the organization.

The Central Committee, headed by Ray Lyman Wilbur and later by Mrs. Blaine herself, met rarely. The majority of the work of the Association was carried on by an Executive Committee composed of: Anita Blaine (Chairman), Quincy Wright (Secretary), Edwin H. Cassels (Treasurer), and an executive director and other staff. The executive directors were Rodger S. Green (1939), Edwin C. Clough (1940-1941), Henri Bonnet (1941-1943), Jean Miner (1943-1945), and Virginia Roderick (1945-1953) consecutively.

The Association did not advocate a specific plan for world political organization, but rather was primarily interested in arousing an interest in and a sense of the importance of a new approach to international relations, pointing towards the creation of a climate of opinion in the United States that would permit the United States Government to participate more fully in some kind of reorientation of political relations of national states.

In an attempt to increase public awareness around international issues, the Association published various reports and articles and distributed them via a free mailing list that at one time was composed of as many as 150,000 names. The Association also held a conference in 1941, which they had hoped to be the first of a series. The Owentsia Conference led to the production of a report that was eventually circulated widely, and whose object was the examination of the questions regarding a system of international relations.

Like Maderiaga's World Foundation, the Association favored establishing and sponsoring local groups owing allegiance in principle to the Central Committee. Only one group however, the Chicago Group (whose papers are now in the MSS collection of the University), was ever established. The papers of the Association contain much material relating to the Chicago Group.

Contains correspondence, financial records, minutes, and information on the history of the Association and World Foundation groups, manuscripts, publications, speeches, reports, membership files, and a scrapbook. Material relates to the administration of the Association, publications and activities sponsored by the Association, and cooperative efforts with similar organizations. Includes files of Edwin H. Cassels, treasurer and an executive director. Also includes correspondence of members and officers of the Association, including Frank Aydelotte, Anita M. Blaine, Henri Bonnet, Edwin Clough, Edwin Embree, Paul Kellogg, Adlai Stevenson, Henry W. Toll, Ray Lyman Wilbur, and Quincy Wright.

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Aydelotte, Frank, 1880-1956
  • Blaine, Anita McCormick
  • Bonnet, Henri, 1888-1978
  • Cassels, Edwin Henry, 1874-
  • Clough, Edwin M.
  • Embree, Edwin R. (Edwin Rogers), 1883-1950
  • Kellogg, Paul Underwood, 1879-1958
  • Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965
  • Toll, Henry Wolcott, 1887-
  • Wilbur, Ray L, (Ray Lyman. 1875-1949
  • Wright, Quincy, 1890-1970
  • World Citizens Association
  • International organization-Societies, etc.
• Subject
  • Peace-Societies, etc.
  • International cooperation
  • International relations
  • International organization
  • Internationalism