A report on the activity of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society at the University of Michigan, a leading figure of which was future Michigan Communist and civil rights lawyer Maurice Sugar. The University had a number of important radical professors before the war, including leading Socialists Frank Bohn and William E. Bohn (no relation).

‘Socialism at the University of Michigan’ from The Intercollegiate Socialist. Vol. 1 No. 2. Spring-Summer, 1913.

The University of Michigan Chapter is most active this season. Alexander Irvine addressed a meeting before Christmas, attended by 600 students, and created splendid enthusiasm. On January 29th, Prof. Reeves of the Department of Political Science spoke to us on “The Meaning of Democracy.” The following meeting was an “amateur night,” the speeches being made by the student members. Frederick Bishop discussed the recent strikes; Robert Hess reviewed Berger’s career in Congress; Joseph Richards dwelt on the suffrage movement in England and Melvin Case told of the condition of the student waiters in the Ann Arbor boarding houses. After the last named speech a committee was appointed to report on the advisability of launching a movement for a student waiters’ union. This action has secured much publicity, and it may be that the university will be treated to a sample of industrial unionism here at home.

“The Uprising of the Unskilled” was the subject of Dr. Frank Bohn’s speech in Newberry Auditorium, February 24th. As a result of our use of the telephone (500 people at least were in that way informed of the lecture), the posting of notices on all the campus bulletin boards, and the announcement of a lecture in a number of class rooms, over 400 were present to hear Bohn’s address.

The students also came out in large numbers at the Carrie Allen and Samuel Ball lectures under the direction of the Socialist Lyceum Bureau. We are trying to secure Charles Edward Russell, Rev. Algernon Cropsey and others. Seventy-five students have signified their willingness to sell tickets for the Russell lecture.

A unique feature is the inauguration of what we call the mentor system. Ten members of the Society, well versed in the Socialist philosophy, are placed in charge of small squads of three or four. These meet regularly to keep their group posted on Socialism and on the current happenings of interest to Socialists. A course in Socialism is being planned during the Summer Session and next year by Dr. R.W. Sellars of the Department of Philosophy.

In the recent oratorical contest held at the university. five of the sixteen contestants were members of our Chapter. Louis D. David, who was selected to represent the University in Chicago against representatives of Chicago, Northwestern, Minnesota and Wisconsin, is also a member of the club. His subject was “Social Reformers.” A number of the members, including Morris Sugar, Peter Fagan. Robert Hess and Louis Reimann have been doing considerable speaking on Socialism in different parts of Michigan. As a result of the various activities of the club. Socialism is one of the most discussed subjects on the campus. THE SECRETARY.

The Socialist Review was the organ of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, and replaced The Intercollegiate Socialist magazine in 1919. The society, founded in 1905, was non-aligned but in the orbit of the Socialist Party and had an office for several years at the Rand School. It published the Intercollegiate Socialist monthly and The Socialist Review from 1919. Both journals are largely theoretically, but cover a range of topics wider than most of the party press of the time. At first dedicated to promoting socialism on campus, graduates, and among college alumni, the Society grew into the League for Industrial Democracy as it moved towards workers education. The Socialist Review became Labor Age in 1921.

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