507
(30) Interview with Frank Trager, May 17, 1973.
(31) "Oral History Interview with Sara Barren," 21,39.
(32) "Oral History Interview with Sara Barren," 10; Interview with Frank Trager,
May 17, 1973; Whitmore to Turner, June 21,1934.
(33) Interview with Sigmund Diamond (session 1), April 19, 1988.
(34) For an overview of politics in Baltimore during the Progressive era, see James
B. Crooks Politics and Progress; Tlie Rise of Urban Progressivism in Baltimore (Baton
Rouge: 1968).
(35) Norman Markowftz, The Rise and Fall of the People's Century: Henry A.
Wallace and American Liberalism, 1941-1948 (New York: 1973), especially 3-9.
(36) The "Platform of the Socialist Party of Maryland" (1930), in the Vertical Files,
Enoch Pratt Free Library, is a good example of the kinship of early 1930s Socialism
and social liberalism. Another indication of this kinship (and of the changing
meaning of political vocabulary) is the use by both Frank Trager and Broadus
Mitchell, in oral history interviews given decades later, of the word "liberal" to refer
to the militant Socialism of the early 1930s. In my opinion, this usage is probably
not a question of interviewees imposing language contemporary to the interview
process on old memories. After all, the Cold War purged the term "liberalism" of
its radical implications in the dominant discourse, and, given their subsequent
histories, neither Trager nor Mitchell would have like sought a word that
minimized the radicalism of their earlier activities. Rather, it is my impression that
by using "liberal" to describe Socialist militancy in the early 1930s, both Trager and
Mitchell were inhabiting an earlier discourse during their reminiscences. See the
interview with Frank Trager by Roy Rosenzweig, May 17, 1973 and "Reminiscences
of Broadus Mitchell" (1972).
(37) "Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell," 85-89; Broadus Mitchell, "Elisabeth
Oilman" in Notable American Women, 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary, 42-43.
(38) Evening Sun, November 12, 1934; Mitchell, "Oilman."
(39) Among those who accepted Oilman's hospitality were Morris Hillquit, Harry
Laidler, Scott Nearing, Paul Banshard, Jennie Lee and Arthur Henderson;
"Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell," 88-89.
(40) Mitchell, "Oilman," 43.
(41) "Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell," 87; Mitchell, "Oilman," 42-3.
(42) Trager to Thomas, March 7,1934.
(43) "Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell," 1-155; Hall, "Broadus Mitchell," 31.
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