New York State Defense Council Correspondence with State Agencies

Alphabetical by name of corresponding agency and therein roughly in reverse chronological order.

The series consists primarily of carbon copies of outgoing correspondence, along with smaller amounts of incoming original letters, sent among the State Defense Council and other state agencies associated with emergency war efforts. Also included are newspaper clippings, telegrams, bulletins, and pamphlets relating to council activities, coordination of efforts among agencies, and wartime issues and regulations. The subject matter of the correspondence generally reflects the coordinating position that the council held relating to other government agencies. A considerable amount of the correspondence represents referrals of questions to more appropriate venues or requests for routine information for which only the response or transmittal letter by the council was saved.

Transportation systems, hospital and medical services, industry, volunteer organizations, and the supervision of aliens all fell within the scope of operations of the State Defense Council and are represented in the series correspondence. The series also includes material relating to council-controlled appropriations for general mobilization of the state's resources, for regulating food supplies, and for a military census.

Plans for work in these areas were worked out by the Adjutant General's Office through divisions within the Resource Mobilization Bureau. Two of that bureau's key parts, the Division of Aliens and Division of Co-Operating Agencies, were both abolished shortly after the council's Industrial Division was organized, and their functions were assigned to the new division. Correspondence files of these offices are of special note in the series.

Topics covered in the letters include: supervision of war charities; dissemination of organizing materials promoting "Americanization Day" activities (national service and allegiance) throughout the state; pubilicity and informational materials regarding aliens relating to conscription, draft registration, citizenship, loyalty, and questions on the military census; reclamation of waste material and conservation of fuel; subscription campaigns for Liberty Bonds; and distribution of gubernatorial proclamations relating to support efforts on the home front.

The bulk of material in the series pertains to the work of several large state agencies. The file of the Adjutant General's office (Charles H. Sherrill) contains transcriptions of memoranda to/from chairs of the county home defense committees and general correspondence from several divisions within the important Resource Mobilization Bureau. Copies of reports on hospital facilities for contagious diseases (done for the U.S. Public Health Service) are found in the Department of Health file. Information from the Commission on Highways includes rulings on use of materials in construction work; inspection of state roads and bridges; commentary on the suitability of routes for a truck convoy from Buffalo to Albany; and other matters important to movement of supplies during wartime.

The chief activities of the council's important Industrial Division are also documented in the series. These included fire prevention; investigation of the labor market to plan for replacement of workers withdrawn for military purposes, and substitution of women for men in industry; acting as a clearinghouse on information to alien residents (replacing the discontinued program of the Division of Aliens that had established "plant correspondents" to report on aliens employed in the state); coordination of the county women's committees with members of the county home defense committees; and carrying out various other plans, such as those to reduce the number of retail deliveries made by business, to refuse the return of unsold bread by wholesale bakers, and to survey important industrial manufacturing plants (i.e., munitions) to report to the adjutant general on their security needs.

Microform is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

Folder and roll lists are available at the repository.

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