Research

Scope and Content Note

This series contains primarily legal papers relating to the investigations including affidavits, briefs, court orders, court stenographers' minutes, petitions, search warrants, lists of seized property, and subpoenas. The series also includes correspondence, testimony of witnesses, trial notes, legal memoranda, and other records relating to committee searches and prosecutions.

Approximately half of the material relates to searches of the Rand School of Social Science and the subsequent attempt to revoke the charter of the school's parent organization, the American Socialist Society. Other material relates to searches and prosecutions of the Communist Party of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Russian Soviet Bureau, and the Socialist Party Left Wing Section. The material provides information on the structure, staffing, meetings, publications, educational programs, and other aspects of the activities of these organizations.