New York State Defense Council Subject Correspondence Files

A4241-78: Alphabetical by subject.

A4241-12: Arranged by subject.

The series consists of correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, and circulars relating to the council's work to administer and supervise programs for food conservation, motor convoys, and non-war construction. The correspondence covers these three subject areas, which are subdivided into more specific subjects and chief correspondents. The records document the "creation of relations" with which the council was charged (Chapter 369 of the Laws of 1917) to "render possible immediate concentration and utilization of the state's resources for military purposes" during the war. The series especially documents council cooperation with the U.S. Food Administration and the U.S. War Industries Board.

Materials of special interest in the series include: a federal advisory (originating with Herbert Hoover, then U.S. Food Administrator) to Governor Charles S. Whitman and the council, and thereby to chiefs of police, on a conspiracy to destroy grain and cattle by fire; materials on the patriotic "Cleanup Campaign" initiative of Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Food Administration, to enlist homemakers in "Hoover's Army" to conserve food; copies of federal circulars (and some extracts) by the War Industries Board on priorities for non-war construction, including a preference list issued in September 1918; correspondence on truck convoy transport (generally traveling through New York State en route to Baltimore), including planning of routes, inspection of roads and bridges, and copies of telegrams sent to report on departures, conditions, progress en route, and arrivals of the convoys; and materials relating to non-war construction (at factories, businesses, cemeteries and schools), including suggested application forms for construction licenses, correspondence on applications for permits, requests for informational circulars on regulations or explanations of new rulings, and reporting on projects by local defense councils.

Chief correspondents include: Frederic E. Foster, Assistant Secretary of the State Defense Council; Charles E. Treman, federal food administrator; George F. Bailey, commanding officer in charge of motor convoys; Esten A. Fletcher and William Fellowes Morgan, regional advisors for the federal War Industries Board, Resources and Conversion Section; and D.R. McLennan, Chief of the Non-War Construction Section of the War Industries Board.

A4241-12: This accretion contains materials sent from the State Defense Council to local organizations and facilities, including County Defense Committees. There are also several notices, forms, and instructions sent by Federal agencies to the State Defense Council, many to be passed on to local agencies. Some folders contain materials related to a specific topic, while others include a variety of Defense Council forms and letters, most with multiple copies. Subjects include health and hospitals, the U.S. Public Service Reserve, deserters and delinquents, and local defense policies.

A4241-78: Microform is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

Folder lists are available at the repository.

A4241-78: Roll list is available at the repository.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.