The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Grand Old Lady: Bertha H. Mailly THE NOTE in last week's "Between Issues" that "Bertha Howell Mailly celebrates her 90th birthday," started a lively tangle of...
...THE NEW LEADER, throughout the course of its existence, has made its home there...
...Under its present manager, Ben Josephson, it has steadily grown...
...President Roosevelt once said that his New Deal would have been impossible had it not been for the impact of the Socialists...
...As a political organization, in fact, it was never important...
...The philanthropic and social- minded Socialists soon found themselves in possession of a beautiful and popular camp...
...But the Socialists were on the alert...
...Its institutes, conferences, forums and concerts reach a constantly growing public both in New York and in Pennsylvania...
...But that minority was made up of lively, idealistic, forward-looking people...
...The International Ladies Garment Workers Union bought a lovely lake and a fine stretch of forest in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania...
...But it remains true to the ideals of its founders and has become a notable cultural institution...
...These people, being active, venturesome and imaginative, started many educational and cultural enterprises: schools, forums, libraries, publications, musical and theatrical organizations...
...The building is still in existence and has recently been taken over and improved by the local organization of the Machinists' Union...
...Their activities were effective because they were educational...
...They were not, like the Communists, anti-American, anti-religious, anti-decency...
...Milwaukee's Socialist government created a long record of honesty and efficiency which has lasted to the present day...
...This school, dedicated specifically to the education of trade-union members, began its activities early in this century, in an old house on East 19th Street...
...The lake was bought...
...At its new location on 15th Street, the Rand School expanded in attendance and influence...
...There are many who recall the lively fund-raising campaign which made it possible to acquire this structure...
...The working "party" never had more than a 100,000 or 125,000 members...
...Camp Tamiment has grown with the times...
...Mailly, who had studied to be a teacher and combined the talents of educator and practical business person, was at the very heart of it...
...In the early days of the Rand School, most working-people did not have any vacations worth mentioning...
...With a faithful friend, Morris Berman, she went exploring beyond the ILGWU camp and there, entirely unimproved and unknown, she found Lake Tamiment...
...But scores of cities and towns had Socialist administrations...
...Many of the most distinguished scholars of the time taught and lectured there...
...I was connected with the Rand School from 1929 to 1941, and wherever I go I find men and women who feel that they owe a great debt to its intellectual help...
...Among these was the Rand School of Social Science...
...All of these things probably would not have happened had it not been for the faithful, thoughtful, kindly activities of Bertha Howell Mailly...
...It offered the best educational advantages available to thousands of foreign-born working-people...
...There is no longer a Socialist party in this country...
...Recently, it has taken over the Rand School library and turned it into a center of information on American social movements...
...To understand Bertha Mailly's importance, one must know something of the world in which she lived, i.e...
...It meant a new sort of life for thousands of working-people...
...Again there was great excitement in the selling of bonds to the faithful...
...Our thanks go out to her as she turns the corner of her 90th year...
...Bertha Mailly, as Secretary of the Rand School and manager of Camp Tamiment, became a quiet but effective leader in educational and cultural affairs, combining efficiency and friendliness...
...But the era of Woodrow Wilson and the muckrakers produced some forward-looking people...
...When the Communists were struggling to take over trade unions and other organizations, it was the Socialists who stood up against them—and in those days the fighting was tough...
...And Bertha Howell, who had married William Mailly, the Secretary of the Socialist party, also dared to think that the Rand School might find a place where its students and their families might escape from the horrors of the New York slums...
...Comparatively few of our fellow citizens then knew what issues were at stake...
...American Socialism and all the movements and institutions connected with it...
...Among them were countless trade union leaders and members and numerous men and women distinguished in the learned professions...
...At the height of its development it never drew more than about five per cent of the votes in a presidential election when a Socialist candidate was running...
...The camp was built...
...In 1917, it moved to a building on East 15th Street, which was purchased from the Young Women's Christian Association...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Grand Old Lady: Bertha H. Mailly THE NOTE in last week's "Between Issues" that "Bertha Howell Mailly celebrates her 90th birthday," started a lively tangle of memories in my old mind...
Vol. 42 • February 1959 • No. 7
