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This document describes a collection of materials held by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu

Posted to Internet: March 2003

Acquisition Note: This collection was donated to the University of Iowa Libraries by Ruth Putz in 1983.

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

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Biographical Note

Herbert Joseph Putz (Erik Bert) was born on November 25, 1904, in the Bronx, the son of Jakob Putz, a machinist, and Anna Marie Uzelmeier. The young Herbert went to public school in the Yorkville section and attended German socialist Sunday school. Later he attended Stuyvesant High School, Columbia University, and the University of Berlin.

In 1929 or 1930 Herbert Putz became active in the Communist Party and adopted the name Erik Bert. In November 1931 he became editor of The Producers News: National Edition, the official weekly organ of the United Farmers League. From 1934 until 1936 he edited the Farmers National Weekly, the official paper of the Farmers National Committee for Action. In 1941 he joined the staff of the Daily World, a position he occupied for the rest of his life. He died on June 11, 1981, in Brooklyn, New York.

Scope and Contents

The papers include subject files, correspondence, notebooks, typescripts, and published writings. A linkage between agriculture and communism in the United States is one of the major subjects.

Box 5

Notebooks

Box 7

Notebooks, cont.

Box 8

Notebooks, cont.

Box 9

Notebooks, cont.

Box 10

Notebooks, cont.

Box 11

Notebooks, cont.

Box 12

General Subject Files

Agricultural History -- U.S. Incomplete early drafts (5 folders)

Box 13

Agricultural History -- U.S., cont.

Agricultural Land Policy

Agricultural Situation. Typescript, 1956

Agricultural Tenancy, 1971

Agriculture

Box 14

Agriculture, cont.

"The American Farm Crisis" by E. Bert. Political Affairs, Vol. 39, #7, July 1960

Analysis: Report of National Commission on Food Marketing, 1966. First draft typescript

"Another Look at the TR Statement" by E. Bert. Political Affairs, Vol. 44, #8, August 1965

Bicentennial, 1973, including a letter from Herbert Aptheker

Big Business and Agriculture, 1962. Notes

The Big Farmer Long-Range Program for Agriculture, Typescript

Big Farms, 1965. Notes

"The Big Food Chain Rip-Off, A Report to the [South Dakota] Farmers Union State Convention," by Homer Ayres, October 1975

"Capital Requirements for Mechanization in Agriculture," by Robert J. Beiter, June 1959

China, 1957 -- 1971, Printed material

Box 15

Civil Rights Commission, 1962 -- 1967

Clippings about Erik Bert, 1981

Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC), 1961 -- 1966. Notes

Communist Party -- Canada, 1971 -- 1979

Communist Party -- Farm Resolution, 1966, Typescript

"La Concentration Capitaliste dans l'Agriculture des Etats-Unis," by E. Bert. Economie et Politique, September 1962

Consumer Installment Credit, 1958, Typescript

Consumer Installment Credit, [1958?] Typescript and notes

Cooperatives, 1958 -- 1966, including a letter from Herbert Aptheker

Correspondence, 1941 -- 1977, including letters from Herbert Aptheker, Lem Harris, and Gus Hall

Box 16

"La Crise dans l'Agriculture," by E. Bert. Democratie Nouvelle, Vol. 14, October 1960

Critiques (Typescripts)

Crop Sales. Notes

The Development of Agriculture in the United States, 1949. Typescript with corrections

The Development of Capitalism in Agriculture, 1948. Typescript with corrections

Election Leaflet -- Farm, 1976. Typescripts and notes

Exports -- Food, 1962 --1966. Notes

Family Farm, 1959 --1966. Typescript and notes

Family Farm Policy, undated. Notes

Farm

Box 17

Farmers Educational Co-operative Union of America. Montana Division, undated

Farmers National Committee for Action, 1932 -- 1935

Farmer's Union

Food Stamp Survey, 1966 -- 1967

The Further Development of Capitalism in U.S. Agriculture. Typescript

German Communists on Agriculture, 1945 -- 1968

Iowa Agriculture, 1960 -- 1961. Typescript and notes

Land

Box 18

Land, cont.

"Die Landwirtschaftskrise in den USA," by E. Bert. Aus Der Internationalen Arbeiterbewegung, Vol. 21, #105, 1960

"Lenin on Agriculture"

Long Range Program for Agriculture, 1948. Typescript

Long Range Program for Agriculture, October 25, 1948. Typescript of three articles

Box 19

Machinery in Agriculture

Marx, Karl

Minneapolis Report, May 28, 1960. Typescript

Box 20

Minnesota Agriculture, 1956. Typescript

Multiple Unit Farming. Typescript and notes

National Negro Commission, May 19, 1968

Negro Question. Typescript

Non-Farm Income, 1964. Notes

North Dakota Farm Size Trends -- A Rebuttal, September 7, 1949. Typescript

Number of Farms. Perspective

Off-Farm Work and Income. Notes

Optimum Farm Size. Notes

Organizations -- Farm

"Our Changing Farm Economy," by E. Bert. Political Affairs, Vol. 43, #6, June 1964

Outreach function -- U.S. Department of Agriculture

Political Economy. Class notes (2 folders)

Population -- Farm, 1965 -- 1966

Poverty, 1962 -- 1968

President's Farm Message, 1962. Typescript

Producers News: National Edition, 1933

Productivity -- Agriculture, 1950 -- 1966. Typescript

Box 21

Progressive Farmers of America and Progressive Farmers of Montana, 1926

Publications -- Miscellaneous, 1918 -- 1970

"Radical Farm Organizations and Periodicals in America, 1920-1960," by Lowell K. Dyson. Agricultural History, Vol. 45, April, 1971

Recreation, 1966. Notes

"Reformism in Disguise," by E. Bert. Political Affairs, Vol. 49, #1, January 1970

Rent, 1963. Farm real-estate notes

Resolution on Rural America -- Communist Party, 1969, including a letter from Lem Harris

Reviews by Erik Bert

Rural Development, 1964 -- 1966. Notes

Rural Electrification, 1962 -- 1966. Notes

Soviet Agriculture, 1961 -- 1975. Printed material

Box 22

The Structure of Agriculture in the United States. Typescript

"Tin Horns and Calico," by Henry Christman, 1945. Typescript

United Farmers League, 1930 -- 1934

U.S. Agriculture at Mid-Century

Viability of the Family Farm. Typescript and notes

"What the New Census Figures Mean to Agriculture," by H.L. Stewart. May 15, 1961

Workers and Farmers Co-Operative Unity Alliance, 1931

Workers Library -- Publications on Farming, 1932 -- 1943

Box 23

Published Writings

"Die amerikanische Arbeiterklasse gegen den Wall Street -Neokolonialismus." Nationaler Befreiungskampf and Neokolonialismus, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1962

"Eliminate Looseness and Imprecision." Political Affairs, vol. 47, #6, June 1968, pp. 48 -- 54

"Entwicklung and Struktur der Landwirtschaft in den USA." Wirtshafts Wissenschaft, vol. 10, #7, July 1962, pp. 1085 -- 1100

Box 24

Published Writings, cont.

"Entwicklung and Struktur der Landwirtschaft in den USA." Wirtschafts Wissenschaft, vol. 16, #3, March 1968, pp. 468 -- 487

"The Further Development of Capitalism in United States Agriculture." The Communist, vol. 22, #7, July 1941, pp. 62 -- 634

"The Government and Agriculture." Political Affairs, vol. 44, #6, June 1965, pp. 26 -- 35

"Monopoly and Capitalist Society." Political Affairs, vol. 45, #5, May 1966, pp. 57 -- 61

"Myerson on Hamill's 'Socialism'." Political Affairs, vol. 54, #9, September 1975, pp. 5 -- 65

"The Nature of Small Business." Political Affairs, vol. 44, #11, November 1965, pp. 51 -- 60

"Notes on the Strength of American Capitalism." The Communist, vol. 9, #4, April 1930, pp. 32 -- 335

"The President's Farm Program." Political Affairs, vol. 41, #5, May 1962, pp. 14 -- 23

"Razvitie i struktura sel'skogo khoz aistva Soldinennykh Shtatov Ameriki." Ekonomika Sel'skogo Khoziaistva, vol. 32, #12, December 1961, pp. 107 -- 112

"The Trotskyite Species of Counterrevolution." Political Affairs, vol. 68, #5, May 1979, pp. 48 -- 56

"U.S. Agriculture and Tasks of the Communist Party." The Communist, vol. 9, #3, March 1930, pp. 280 -- 285

Book Reviews

Ackerman, Joseph and Harris, Marshall, eds., Family Farm Policy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1947. "Family Farm Fantasy." Political Affairs, vol. 27, #10, November 1948, pp. 103 -- 1044

Harrington, Michael, Socialism, Saturday Review Press, N.Y., 1972. "Harrington's 'Socialism'." Political Affairs, vol. 51, #11, November 1972, pp. 55 -- 64

Lochman, Jan Milic, Church in a Marxist Society, Harper and Row, N.Y., 1970. "The Road to Transcendental Marxism." Political Affairs, vol. 49, #12, December 1970, pp. 57 -- 64

McMillen, Wheeler, Too Many Farmers, William Morroy and Co., N.Y., 1929. The Communist, vol. 9, #2, February 1930, pp. 188 -- 190

Sakharov, Andrei D., Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom, W. W. Norton and Co., Inc., N.Y., 1968, with introduction, notes, and afterward by Harrison Salisbury. "Salisbury via Sakharov." Political Affairs, vol. 48, #11, November 1969, pp. 57 -- 64

Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of Business Enterprise, The New American Library. "Veblen on Capitalism." Political Affairs, vol. 38, #4, April 1959, pp. 60 -- 64