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Clarence Streit Papers, 1913-1984

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Streit, Clarence, 1896-1986
Title
Clarence Streit Papers
Dates
1913-1984 (inclusive)
Quantity
9.5 linear feet
Collection Number
Mss 160 (collection)
Summary
Clarence Streit was a journalist and advocate for world peace through the Federal Union. The Streit Papers include correspondence between Streit and a number of the country's most influential figures in the fight for federal union of democratic nations, including: Theodore C. Achilles, former Director of Western European Affairs, William Clayton, whose efforts resulted in the Marshall Plan of 1947, former Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts and former Congressmen Paul Findley and Estes Kefauver.
Repository
University of Montana, Mansfield Library, Archives and Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections
Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
University of Montana
32 Campus Dr. #9936
59812-9936
Missoula, MT
Telephone: 406-243-2053
library.archives@umontana.edu
Access Restrictions

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana--Missoula.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Clarence K. Streit was born in California, MO, in 1896. At the age of 15 he moved to Missoula, Montana, where he founded the Konah, a high school paper that is now one of the oldest in continuous publication. Streit worked in the summers surveying in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains to finance his education at Montana State University, (now the University of Montana), where he edited the college newspaper, the Kaimin, and served on the debate team.

Streit left Missoula in 1917 and volunteered in the 18 th Railway Engineers for war service. One of the first 50,000 American soldiers to land in Europe, he reached France in August of 1917. In 1918 he joined the Intelligence Service where for a time he served as one of the guards of President Wilson. After his time in the service, Streit returned to Missoula where he won a Rhodes Scholarship which enabled him to study history at Oxford. Once in England, Streit met Jeanne Defrance of Paris, and they married in 1921.

In 1925 he joined the New York Times as a foreign correspondent and in 1929 went to Geneva as a correspondent for the League of Nations, a post he held for nearly ten years. During his time as a journalist, Streit covered such prominent issues as the Sino-Japanese war, the depression and the rise of Nazi dictatorship. His interest in such international issues led Streit to resign his position at the Times in 1939 and publish his first book, Union Now, an appeal for a federal union of the democracies.

After the success of Union Now, which admirers hailed as democracy's answer to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, Clarence and Jeanne Streit continued to commit their lives to the cause of union. In 1940, the couple founded Federal Union, Inc., an educational organization committed to universal world government. Chapters opened in towns all over the nation, including the formation of a Missoula chapter in 1940. Streit served as president of Federal Union as well as editor of Freedom and Union, the organization's magazine. Streit was one of the founding members of the Atlantic Union Committee that merged with other organizations in 1962 to form the Atlantic Council. His works on behalf of world peace earned Streit a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Clarence Streit died in 1986.

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Content Description

The Streit Papers include correspondence between Streit and a number of the country's most influential figures in the fight for federal union of democratic nations, including: Theodore C. Achilles, former Director of Western European Affairs, William Clayton, whose efforts resulted in the Marshall Plan of 1947, former Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts and former Congressmen Paul Findley and Estes Kefauver. Other prominent figures include President F. D. Roosevelt, President Nixon, and former Senator Mike Mansfield. The collection includes documentation concerning Streit's personal involvement in organization's such as Federal Union, the Atlantic Union Committee and the International Movement for Atlantic Union. Records from these organizations, as well as his personal speeches and writings, make up the bulk of Streit's collection. Also included is the record of proceedings from the 1951 Conference of Strasbourg, a special meeting between European parliamentarians and US members of Congress, which Federal Union and the Atlantic Union Committee helped organize with the goal of creating a North Atlantic Assembly.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to The University of Montana.

Preferred Citation

[Name of document or photograph number], Clarence Streit Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Maureeen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana--Missoula.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is divided into twelve series:

Series I: Personal Documents, 5.0 linear feet, 1913-1983

Series II: Atlantic Union Committee, 0.3 linear feet, 1949-1968

Series III: Federal Union, Inc., 1.5 lienar feet, 1939-1982

Series IV: Association to Unite the Democracies, 1 folder, 1984

Series V: Freedom and Union, 0.5 linear feet, 1946-1971

Series VI: International Movement for Atlantic Union, 0.4 linear feet, 1959-1984

Series VII: NATO Information Service, 1 folder, 1962

Series VIII: Streit Book Promotion, 1 folder, undated

Series IX: Student Federalists, 0.3 lienar feet, 1944-1974

Series X: Union Now, 1 folder, undated

Series XI: Related Topics, 1.5 linear feet, 1939-1980

Series XII: Photographs, 7 items, 1983

Location of Originals

Many of the documents in this collection are copies of those held in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Custodial History

The materials in this collection were housed by several different entities before donation to the K. Ross Toole Archives.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. Clarence Streit, the Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, and the Federal Union, 1989, 1992, and 1994

Processing Note

The actions of the original processors are unknown. In 1999 this collection was reprocessed by applying series designations onto the existing organization and re-describing materials for more comprehensive identification.

Separated Materials

During the 1999 reprocessing seven photographs were physically separated from the collection and are currently stored in the UM photo collection: 1999-3550 through 1999-3556. These photographs remain intellectually integrated with this collection and each item is described in Series XII.

Related Materials

The main portion of Streit's papers, totaling 90 linear feet, is held by the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Democracy
  • International relations
  • Internationalism--Societies, etc.

Personal Names

  • Achilles, Theodore C (Theodore Carter), 1905--Correspondence
  • Clayton, Will, 1880-1966--Correspondence
  • Findley, Paul, 1921---Correspondence
  • Kefauver, Estes, 1903-1963--Correspondence
  • Kefauver, Estes, 1903-1963--Correspondence
  • Nixon, Richard M (Richard Milhous), 1913---Correspondence
  • Roberts, Owen J (Owen Josephus), 1875-1955--Correspondence
  • Roosevelt, Franklin D (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945--Correspondence

Corporate Names

  • Association to Unite the Democracies
  • International Movement for Atlantic Union, Inc.
  • University of Montana--Missoula--Alumni and alumnae
  • Atlantic Union Committee
  • Federal Union (U.S.)
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Information Service
  • Conference of Strasbourg (1951)

Occupations

  • Internationalists--United States

Titles within the Collection

  • Freedom & union.

Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Cummings Jones
1999

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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