Research: Topics: Business & Labor: The Lusk Committee
The Lusk Committee
L0026. Hearing Testimony and Executive Session Transcripts, 1919-1920. 1.6 cubic feet.
Arrangement: Organized into three subseries: Subseries 1, Committee Hearing Transcripts, 1919-1920, 0.8 cubic foot. Subseries 2, Executive Session manuscripts, 1919-1920, 0.4 cubic foot. Subseries 3, Chairman's Transcripts, 1919-1920, 0.4 cubic foot. All are arranged chronologically.
The series consists of over 3,000 pages of testimony given before the committee to gather information about activities of suspected radical organizations and to investigate the roots of communist or socialist movements worldwide, but particularly in the United States and New York.
Testimony consists of statements by New York's attorney general, members of his staff, State and local police, and those called before the committee who were members of suspected subversive organizations, including ethnic organizations. Most of the testimony relates to radical activity in the New York City area but there is information about groups active in Buffalo, Rochester, and Utica. The testimony includes verbatim transcripts of correspondence, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and other material seized by the committee during raids on suspected radical organizations. Included are transcripts of documents from the Russian Soviet Bureau, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Rand School of Social Science, and national and local branches of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.
The Executive Session Transcripts are largely testimony from representatives of businesses engaged in various aspects of the international sugar beet industry showing why there were consistently high consumer prices for sugar. The committee had concluded that many individuals were being attracted to radical philosophies because of a belief that capitalism unnecessarily raised prices of products. The committee hoped to use this testimony to help educate people on the positive benefits of the capitalist system.
The Chairman's Transcripts, three volumes of transcripts of committee hearings and executive sessions, were possibly kept by Senator Lusk himself and may duplicate portions of Subseries 1 and 2.
Finding Aids:Folder list.
Indexes:The first folder in Subseries 1 contains an incomplete index generated by the committee to exhibits, topics, and witnesses
