Between the Covers

Softcover. Pamphlet. Narrow octavo. 7, [1]pp. Stapled self-wrappers. Creases on wraps, a couple tiny tears on front cover, very good.
The Committee of 48 was a short-lived American liberal political group formed in 1919 as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. Notable members of the committee included historian and philosopher Will Durant, attorney Dudley Field Malone, pacifist minister John Haynes Holmes, and writer and academic Robert Morss Lovett. Approximately 300,000 copies of this pamphlet were mailed out as a call to action to join liberal and independent voters from the 48 states at a Conference in St. Louis from December 9-12, 1919 with the purpose of adopting a platform for the party. The pamphlet refers to the Republican and Democratic Parties as "a single group moved only by their common purpose of making government a profitable business for themselves and for the interest who finance their periodical sham battles" and goes on to list "facts" of what the two opposing parties have done stating "they have challenged our right to free speech and free assembly, and ignored our right to a decent living for a day's work." This is followed by a remedy for the situation in which they suggest that liberal citizens can control the government and solve its problems, but only if they unite. Due to fractured ideologies and goals the party was defunct by 1923. Also prints a list of members.

Item #619228