Evans Clark

Evans Clark (August 9, 1888 – August 29, 1970) was an American writer strongly committed first to Communist and Socialist causes and then liberal socio-economic issues, served for a quarter century as first executive director of the Twentieth Century Fund (renamed The Century Foundation), and was husband of Freda Kirchwey (editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, to which he contributed).

Background

Evans Clark was born on August 9, 1888, in Orange, New Jersey. His parents were William Brewster Clark, a New York physician, and Fanny Cox. He attended private schools in New York City and The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In 1910, he earned a BA from Amherst College. He studied law in Columbia University but received an MA in government and politics in 1913.

In 1919, Clark also joined the left-wing American People's Freedom Union (1919–1920). The union's executive secretary was Frances M. Witherspoon, and secretary of it Free Political Prisoners Committee was Tracy Dickinson Mygatt. Other members included Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Lewis Gannett, Harry W. Laidler, Jessica Smith, and Norman Thomas, as well as sociologist Winthrop D. Lane.

In 1920, he helped organize the Labor Bureau, Inc. (LBI), an independent professional group, with George Henry Soule Jr., Alfred L. Bernheim, David J. Saposs. The LBI acted as economic advisers and public relations counselors for labor unions.

Clark taught at the Rand School of Social Science (a "property of the American Socialist Society") as a "specialist in municipal affairs." Fellow "noted lecturers and teachers" there included: Charles A. Beard, historian (Bureau of Municipal Research); Franklin H. Giddings; Alexander Goldenweiser; Benjamin B. Kendrick; William P. Montague; David Saville Muzzey; James Harvey Robinson; E. M. Sait; James T. Shotwell; Lester F. Ward; David Starr Jordan; Willard C. Fisher; Ellen Hayes; Vida D. Scudder; Charles Zueblin; Juliet Stuart Poyntz; Dorothy Brewster; George R. Kirkpatrick; Harry W. L. Dana; Morris Hillquit; W.E.B. DuBois; Jack London; and Max Eastman among others.

In the early 1920s the Socialist Party was in severe membership decline and funding of the New York Call became correspondingly tenuous. In a last-ditch effort to save the paper, it was reorganized in the fall of 1923 to include non-Socialists in its management. On October 1, 1923, the name of the paper was formally changed to the New York Leader as a reflection of this new orientation. Pacifist minister Norman Thomas, formerly of The World Tomorrow, was named as editor of the publication. This effort to stabilize the daily newspaper's funding was unsuccessful, however, and the New York Leader was terminated just six weeks later.

Evans died age 82 on August 28, 1970, in Nyon, Switzerland, where his wife and he were visiting their son.

Writings

Books:

Clark wrote the following:

Facts and Fabrications about Soviet Russia (1920) Financing the Consumer (1930) Boycotts and Peace (1932) How to Budget Health: Guilds for Doctors and Patients (1933) The International Debts of the United States (1933) Stock Market Control (1934)

Articles: Clark wrote articles based on fund studies and his own research into social and economic problems for the New York Times, The Nation, and other publications.