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@ -44,11 +44,16 @@ relations:
role: "associate editor"
start: 1927
end: 1935
fn: 35
fn: 38
- type: informant_for
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
role: "met regularly with FBI officials to report on the faculty, by his own acknowledgment in private letters"
start: 1930
fn: 32
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Institute of World Affairs]]"
role: "gave an address at the inaugural meeting, November 17, 1943"
start: 1943-11
fn: 29
---
@ -92,29 +97,31 @@ The committee's records hold a New School file for 1933 to 1945, and they includ
In 1941 Johnson facilitated the establishment of the [[Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes]] at the New School, which the school's archive calls the Free French School. The school's finding aid says the Ecole Libre offered courses from 1942 to 1946, that it was legally part of the New School, and that its board included [[Henri Focillon]], [[Jean Perrin]], [[Paul van Zeeland]], [[Jacques Maritain]] and [[Gustave Cohen]]. The school severed the Ecole Libre in June 1947.[^27] The Foundation's records group an Ecole Libre file, titled "Refugee Scholars - New School for Social Research - (French Institute)," under its New School grants.[^28]
Johnson gave an address at the inaugural meeting of the [[Institute of World Affairs]] on November 17, 1943. Transcripts of his address and of Lowe's were printed as the pamphlet *Studies of the Institute of World Affairs: The Aims and Organization of the Institute of World Affairs* (1944).[^29] With [[Ernest Hamburger]] he wrote the occasional paper "The Economic Problem of Germany" (1946), which the Institute distributed.[^30] Speier wrote to Johnson on March 5, 1944, a letter that Daniel Bessner cites in connection with the invitation to join the Institute's council.[^31]
### Reporting on the faculty
Rutkoff and Scott write that after 1947 Johnson's anticommunist rhetoric intensified, "and in his private letters he acknowledged that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty."[^29] The same history quotes [[Sidney Hook]] that on at least one occasion Johnson "wanted to get rid of a Communist Party member" but "delegated it to [[Clara Mayer]]," and says that in 1940 Johnson supported the adoption by the [[Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science]] of "an explicitly anticommunist clause in its charter" in response to the school's difficulty with the [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] and immigration authorities.[^29]
Rutkoff and Scott write that after 1947 Johnson's anticommunist rhetoric intensified, "and in his private letters he acknowledged that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty."[^32] The same history quotes [[Sidney Hook]] that on at least one occasion Johnson "wanted to get rid of a Communist Party member" but "delegated it to [[Clara Mayer]]," and says that in 1940 Johnson supported the adoption by the [[Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science]] of "an explicitly anticommunist clause in its charter" in response to the school's difficulty with the [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] and immigration authorities.[^32]
Rutkoff and Scott write that a Rockefeller Foundation memorandum "indicated that Johnson had also monitored files of 'enemy aliens' in the early 1940s for the federal district attorney." Their endnote for the passage cites a memorandum of January 27, 1942, in the "Hans Eisler File" of the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, with a letter from Johnson to Urban of December 9, 1948.[^30] In the early 1950s, the same history reports, the school's administration received "inquiries from congressional and Senate committees, the FBI, and numerous individuals."[^31]
Rutkoff and Scott write that a Rockefeller Foundation memorandum "indicated that Johnson had also monitored files of 'enemy aliens' in the early 1940s for the federal district attorney." Their endnote for the passage cites a memorandum of January 27, 1942, in the "Hans Eisler File" of the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, with a letter from Johnson to Urban of December 9, 1948.[^33] In the early 1950s, the same history reports, the school's administration received "inquiries from congressional and Senate committees, the FBI, and numerous individuals."[^34]
### Enemy alien hearing board and the 1942 panel
Johnson's memoir records that after America entered the war he was appointed to an enemy alien hearing board, with [[Maurice Davidson]], chairman, and [[Joseph Leary Delaney]]. He writes: "Case after case came before us, well prepared in advance by the FBI. After we had studied the record and had heard the FBI investigators, we would hear the accused."[^32]
Johnson's memoir records that after America entered the war he was appointed to an enemy alien hearing board, with [[Maurice Davidson]], chairman, and [[Joseph Leary Delaney]]. He writes: "Case after case came before us, well prepared in advance by the FBI. After we had studied the record and had heard the FBI investigators, we would hear the accused."[^35]
In early 1942, Rutkoff and Scott write, Johnson, Hans Staudinger and [[Alexander Makinsky]] met with State Department officials in Washington at a meeting Johnson requested after complaining of departmental "high jinks." They spent the day testifying before what the history describes as "a governmental panel comprised of representatives from the FBI, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence, and the Department of the Army," and Johnson "had to defend himself against charges of heading a 'Communist outfit.'" Rutkoff and Scott add that officials of the Visa Division regarded the creation of the Gaullist Ecole Libre at the New School as dangerous to American policy.[^33]
In early 1942, Rutkoff and Scott write, Johnson, Hans Staudinger and [[Alexander Makinsky]] met with State Department officials in Washington at a meeting Johnson requested after complaining of departmental "high jinks." They spent the day testifying before what the history describes as "a governmental panel comprised of representatives from the FBI, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence, and the Department of the Army," and Johnson "had to defend himself against charges of heading a 'Communist outfit.'" Rutkoff and Scott add that officials of the Visa Division regarded the creation of the Gaullist Ecole Libre at the New School as dangerous to American policy.[^36]
### Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
The *Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences* appeared under Seligman as editor-in-chief, with Johnson as associate editor. The title page of volume three, published in 1930, gives that credit.[^34] Bessner writes that Johnson accepted Seligman's offer of the associate editorship in 1927, and that "both the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations contributed $1.25 million to the project, which the [[Social Science Research Council]] oversaw."[^35] Rutkoff and Scott name a different pair of funders, the [[Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial]] and the [[Russell Sage Foundation]], through which Seligman "secured financial support."[^36]
The *Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences* appeared under Seligman as editor-in-chief, with Johnson as associate editor. The title page of volume three, published in 1930, gives that credit.[^37] Bessner writes that Johnson accepted Seligman's offer of the associate editorship in 1927, and that "both the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations contributed $1.25 million to the project, which the [[Social Science Research Council]] oversaw."[^38] Rutkoff and Scott name a different pair of funders, the [[Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial]] and the [[Russell Sage Foundation]], through which Seligman "secured financial support."[^39]
### New York anti-discrimination work
In 1943 Johnson served as vice-chairman of New York State's [[Commission on Discrimination in Employment]]. The New School's finding aid says he helped draft and pass the New York Fair Employment Act of 1945, and that Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]] sent him the signing statement and pen.[^37] The [[New York State Division of Human Rights]] describes the 1945 measure as the [[Ives-Quinn Act]], which Dewey signed and which prohibited employment discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin.[^38] In February 1947 Johnson resigned as chairman of the State Committee Against Discrimination in Education because of his duties on the State Commission for a State University.[^39]
In 1943 Johnson served as vice-chairman of New York State's [[Commission on Discrimination in Employment]]. The New School's finding aid says he helped draft and pass the New York Fair Employment Act of 1945, and that Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]] sent him the signing statement and pen.[^40] The [[New York State Division of Human Rights]] describes the 1945 measure as the [[Ives-Quinn Act]], which Dewey signed and which prohibited employment discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin.[^41] In February 1947 Johnson resigned as chairman of the State Committee Against Discrimination in Education because of his duties on the State Commission for a State University.[^42]
### Papers and later years
The New School Archives hold the Alvin Saunders Johnson collection, 6.5 cubic feet dated 1908 to 1973, in four series: biographical, correspondence, subject files and writings. Its correspondence and subject files concern fundraising, a proposed labor college and a Faculty of Retired Professors.[^40] The finding aid places institutional papers from Johnson's New School years at the [[Yale University]] Library, and says that papers from his [[West Nyack, New York]] home went to the Love Library at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, which it places in Omaha. Bessner cites a Johnson collection at the Love Library in Lincoln.[^40][^41] Yale University's Manuscripts and Archives holds the Alvin Saunders Johnson papers (MS 615), 1902 to 1969, 5.75 linear feet in 15 boxes, given by Johnson, [[Agnes de Lima]] and Edith Levy in 1967, arranged as correspondence, biographical and subject files, and writings. Its scope note says the papers contain only a very limited amount of material on the New School, the University in Exile, the Ecole Libre and the state commission on discrimination in employment.[^42] Johnson's autobiography, *Pioneer's Progress*, was published in 1952.[^40] He received honorary degrees from [[Brandeis University]] in 1957, [[Hebrew Union College]] in 1960 and [[Freie Universität Berlin]] in 1964.[^37]
The New School Archives hold the Alvin Saunders Johnson collection, 6.5 cubic feet dated 1908 to 1973, in four series: biographical, correspondence, subject files and writings. Its correspondence and subject files concern fundraising, a proposed labor college and a Faculty of Retired Professors.[^43] The finding aid places institutional papers from Johnson's New School years at the [[Yale University]] Library, and says that papers from his [[West Nyack, New York]] home went to the Love Library at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, which it places in Omaha. Bessner cites a Johnson collection at the Love Library in Lincoln.[^43][^44] Yale University's Manuscripts and Archives holds the Alvin Saunders Johnson papers (MS 615), 1902 to 1969, 5.75 linear feet in 15 boxes, given by Johnson, [[Agnes de Lima]] and Edith Levy in 1967, arranged as correspondence, biographical and subject files, and writings. Its scope note says the papers contain only a very limited amount of material on the New School, the University in Exile, the Ecole Libre and the state commission on discrimination in employment.[^45] Johnson's autobiography, *Pioneer's Progress*, was published in 1952.[^43] He received honorary degrees from [[Brandeis University]] in 1957, [[Hebrew Union College]] in 1960 and [[Freie Universität Berlin]] in 1964.[^40]
### Footnotes
@ -146,17 +153,20 @@ The New School Archives hold the Alvin Saunders Johnson collection, 6.5 cubic fe
[^26]: New York Public Library, MssCol 922, container list: Series II, New School file, 1933-1945, box 148, folders 1 to 12; Series VI, executive committee correspondence, "Johnson, Alvin 1940-1945," box 190, folder 8; Series I.B, Non-Grantees: Riezler (box 107, folder 16), Speier (box 118, folder 17), Ascoli (box 38, folder 46), Colm (box 50, folder 5), Brecht (box 46, folder 36), Simons (box 117, folder 3), Staudinger (box 119, folder 3), Marschak (box 93, folder 52), Lowe (box 91, folder 23), Lederer (box 86, folder 44), Reich (box 105, folder 36).
[^27]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "David Hahn Ecole Libre papers," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/526 (Johnson facilitated the establishment of the school in 1941; courses 1942 to 1946; board members Focillon, Perrin, Van Zeeland, Maritain and Cohen; severed from the New School in June 1947).
[^28]: Rockefeller Archive Center, DIMES catalog, Rockefeller Foundation records, RG 1.1, Series 200, file group "Refugee Scholars - New School for Social Research - (French Institute)," https://dimes.rockarch.org
[^29]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 226: "in his private letters he acknowledged that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty"; Hook: Johnson "wanted to get rid of a Communist Party member" but "delegated it to Clara Mayer"; 1940 "an explicitly anticommunist clause in its charter." Note 22 (p. 296).
[^30]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 226, text: "A Rockefeller Foundation memorandum indicated that Johnson had also monitored files of 'enemy aliens' in the early 1940s for the federal district attorney." Note 22 (p. 296): "Johnson to Urban (December 9, 1948), JPYU; memorandum (January 27, 1942), Hans Eisler File, Rockefeller Foundation Archives; Sidney Hook, telephone interview with Professor Roy Wortman, Kenyon College (June 20, 1981)." The note names no author for the memorandum. Sole source for the enemy alien monitoring.
[^31]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 228: the administration "also received inquiries from congressional and Senate committees, the FBI, and numerous individuals" during the early 1950s.
[^32]: Johnson, *Pioneer's Progress*, p. 370: "After America entered the war I was appointed to an enemy alien hearing board, with Maurice Davidson, chairman, and Joseph Leary Delaney. Case after case came before us, well prepared in advance by the FBI. After we had studied the record and had heard the FBI investigators, we would hear the accused."
[^33]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 135: "In early 1942, Johnson, Hans Staudinger, and Makinsky met with State Department officials in Washington. Johnson, having complained of departmental 'high jinks,' requested the meeting. They spent the day testifying before a governmental panel comprised of representatives from the FBI, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence, and the Department of the Army"; "Johnson had to defend himself against charges of heading a 'Communist outfit'"; Visa Division officials "regarded the creation of the Gaullist Ecole Libre at the New School, in particular, as dangerous to American policy."
[^34]: *Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences*, vol. 3 (New York: Macmillan, 1930), title page: "Editor-in-Chief Edwin R. A. Seligman, Associate Editor Alvin Johnson." https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofso0000unse_b9t1
[^35]: Bessner, *The Night Watchman*, dissertation text on the encyclopedia and note 14: Johnson accepted Seligman's 1927 offer; "Both the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations contributed $1.25 million to the project, which the Social Science Research Council oversaw." Competing account at note 36.
[^36]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 67: "Seligman secured financial support from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller and Russell Sage foundations."
[^37]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Alvin Johnson honorary degrees and family photographs," NA.0035.01, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/567 (vice-chairmanship of the New York State Commission on Discrimination in Employment in 1943; the 1945 letter and Dewey's signing pen; honorary degrees from Brandeis University in 1957, Hebrew Union College in 1960 and Freie Universitat Berlin in 1964).
[^38]: New York State Division of Human Rights, "About the Division," https://dhr.ny.gov/about (Governor Thomas E. Dewey signed the Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination Act in 1945, prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin).
[^39]: "Dr. Alvin Johnson, Chairman of the State Committee Against Discrimination in Education," *The Omaha Guide*, February 8, 1947, p. 2. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn93062828/1947-02-08/ed-1/seq-2/
[^40]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Alvin Saunders Johnson collection," NS-01-01-01, abstract, arrangement, biographical note and related materials (see note 1).
[^41]: Bessner, *The Night Watchman*, note 15: Alvin Johnson Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Love Library, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Box 47, folder "Graduate Faculty-University in Exile."
[^42]: Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives, "Alvin Saunders Johnson papers," MS 615, https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/3846 (accessed October 9, 2026).
[^29]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Studies of the Institute of World Affairs: The Aims and Organization of the Institute of World Affairs, 1944," Institute of World Affairs records, Box 16, Folder 17. https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/27156
[^30]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Institute of World Affairs records," NS-02-16-01, IWA Bibliography (Occasional Papers). https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/235
[^31]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD diss., Duke University, 2013), p. 164 note 3 (Hans Speier to Alvin Johnson, March 5, 1944, Speier Papers, Box 4, Folder 115). https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/232a76ac-f2d8-4827-99fe-50b3b109fa6c/content
[^32]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 226: "in his private letters he acknowledged that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty"; Hook: Johnson "wanted to get rid of a Communist Party member" but "delegated it to Clara Mayer"; 1940 "an explicitly anticommunist clause in its charter." Note 22 (p. 296).
[^33]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 226, text: "A Rockefeller Foundation memorandum indicated that Johnson had also monitored files of 'enemy aliens' in the early 1940s for the federal district attorney." Note 22 (p. 296): "Johnson to Urban (December 9, 1948), JPYU; memorandum (January 27, 1942), Hans Eisler File, Rockefeller Foundation Archives; Sidney Hook, telephone interview with Professor Roy Wortman, Kenyon College (June 20, 1981)." The note names no author for the memorandum. Sole source for the enemy alien monitoring.
[^34]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 228: the administration "also received inquiries from congressional and Senate committees, the FBI, and numerous individuals" during the early 1950s.
[^35]: Johnson, *Pioneer's Progress*, p. 370: "After America entered the war I was appointed to an enemy alien hearing board, with Maurice Davidson, chairman, and Joseph Leary Delaney. Case after case came before us, well prepared in advance by the FBI. After we had studied the record and had heard the FBI investigators, we would hear the accused."
[^36]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 135: "In early 1942, Johnson, Hans Staudinger, and Makinsky met with State Department officials in Washington. Johnson, having complained of departmental 'high jinks,' requested the meeting. They spent the day testifying before a governmental panel comprised of representatives from the FBI, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence, and the Department of the Army"; "Johnson had to defend himself against charges of heading a 'Communist outfit'"; Visa Division officials "regarded the creation of the Gaullist Ecole Libre at the New School, in particular, as dangerous to American policy."
[^37]: *Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences*, vol. 3 (New York: Macmillan, 1930), title page: "Editor-in-Chief Edwin R. A. Seligman, Associate Editor Alvin Johnson." https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofso0000unse_b9t1
[^38]: Bessner, *The Night Watchman*, dissertation text on the encyclopedia and note 14: Johnson accepted Seligman's 1927 offer; "Both the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations contributed $1.25 million to the project, which the Social Science Research Council oversaw." Competing account at note 36.
[^39]: Rutkoff and Scott, *New School*, p. 67: "Seligman secured financial support from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller and Russell Sage foundations."
[^40]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Alvin Johnson honorary degrees and family photographs," NA.0035.01, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/567 (vice-chairmanship of the New York State Commission on Discrimination in Employment in 1943; the 1945 letter and Dewey's signing pen; honorary degrees from Brandeis University in 1957, Hebrew Union College in 1960 and Freie Universitat Berlin in 1964).
[^41]: New York State Division of Human Rights, "About the Division," https://dhr.ny.gov/about (Governor Thomas E. Dewey signed the Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination Act in 1945, prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin).
[^42]: "Dr. Alvin Johnson, Chairman of the State Committee Against Discrimination in Education," *The Omaha Guide*, February 8, 1947, p. 2. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn93062828/1947-02-08/ed-1/seq-2/
[^43]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Alvin Saunders Johnson collection," NS-01-01-01, abstract, arrangement, biographical note and related materials (see note 1).
[^44]: Bessner, *The Night Watchman*, note 15: Alvin Johnson Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Love Library, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Box 47, folder "Graduate Faculty-University in Exile."
[^45]: Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives, "Alvin Saunders Johnson papers," MS 615, https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/3846 (accessed October 9, 2026).