Colton, Ethan T. (Ethan Theodore), 1872-

American relief worker with the European Student Relief and the Young Men's Christian Association in Russia.

From the description of Ethan Theodore Colton papers, 1918-1952. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754867209

Biographical Note

• 1872: Born, Palmyra, Jefferson County, Wisconsin
• 1892: Enters Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota; becomes active in campus YMCA and Mitchell Epworth League
• 1898: Graduates from Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota
• 1899 - 1904 : Staff member with Student Young Men's Christian Associations (YMCA)
• 1904 - 1917 : Works for YMCA to build local Associations' support for YMCA World Service
• 1918 - 1924 : Administers European Student Relief (ESR) aid services in Russia and Siberia and to Russian émigrés in Europe; serves as YMCA liaison to American Relief Administration (ARA)
• 1921 April: ESR conference at Turnov, Czechoslovakia
• 1922: Arrives back in New York from field work in Europe
• by 1923 to at least 1924: Works from Student Friendship office, 341 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
• 1923: ARA programs conclude
• 1925: ESR programs conclude (See Box 6)
• 1925 - 1932 : Executive secretary, YMCA World Services
• by 1925 to at least 1932: YMCA Press correspondence is directed to Colton at 341 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
• 1929: LL.D. degree
• by 1931: Resident of Upper Montclair, New Jersey
• 1931: Author of The X Y Z of Communism (New York, Macmillan Company), a response to Bukarin and Preobrazhensky's The A B C of Communism (1921)
• 1932: Retires from YMCA World Services executive secretary position at age 60, per YMCA requirement; continues YMCA committee work
• 1932 - 1942 : Annual lecture tours, writes books
• 1935: Author of Four Patterns of Revolution; Communist U.S.S.R., Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, New Deal America (New York, [YMCA] Association Press)
• 1940: Author of Forty Years with Russians (New York, Association Press), forward by John R. Mott
• 1943 - 1946 : Executive director, YMCA War Prisoners? Aid Services in United States
• 1944: Author of Toward the Understanding of Europe (New York, Association Press)
• 1952: Author of Memoirs of Ethan T. Colton, Sr., 1872-1952, self-published
• 1953: Author of The Russia We Face Now (Washington, D.C.: The Public Affairs Institute)

Historical Note

The European Student Relief program (ESR) was instituted in 1918 as a complement to the US-government-funded American Relief Administration (ARA) program, to provide European students, and later professors and technical workers, with food, clothing, and shoes, and sometimes medical services, tuition aid, and textbooks, and other support for intellectual work. ESR relief work pursued a limited scope, focusing on university-affiliated populations to support the reconstruction of war-torn Europe, and to build goodwill between students in Europe and the U.S.

Colton's papers reflect the complicated organizational relationships in the administration of the American Section of ESR (also known as ASESR). According to histories of the YMCA, the European Student Relief program was inaugurated by the World's Student Christian Federation (WSCF), a Geneva-based organization founded in 1895 as a trans-national complement to the YMCA. WSCF founding general secretary John R. Mott served as general secretary throughout the ESR period, while simultaneously serving as the general secretary of the YMCA from 1915-1928, and from 1926-1937 as president of the YMCA's World Committee and the general secretary of President Wilson's National War Work Council. While ESR was a program of the WSCF, in the public ESR was frequently conflated with the ARA, and in ESR reports Colton is sometimes identified as a member of the staff of ARA Director General Colonel Haskell.

Documents in Colton's papers describe ESR's mission, organizational structure, personnel, and mode of operation (Box 2), and note a Russian expulsion of the YMCA in 1918 (Box 1).

In supporting ESR work to build goodwill between students in the United States and war-torn Europe, the WSCF created a Student Friendship Fund (SFF), which conducted publicity and fundraising work in the US, provided grassroots fundraising strategies and materials to college students and Christian youth organizations, and collected donations of cash as well as second-hand clothing and shoes for ESR to distribute in Europe.

References:

Colton, Ethan Theodore, Forty Years with Russians, New York, Association Press, 1940; especially pages 128, 132, and 161 on YMCA Press

Hopkins, C. Howard, History of the Y. M. C. A. in North America, New York: Association Press, 1951; especially page 687

Nobel Foundation, "John R. Mott: The Nobel Peace Prize 1946," "Biography" and "Presentation Speech," 1946, [viewed 2010 January 26] http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/mott-bio.html ; http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/press.html

Rouse, Ruth, The World's Student Christian Federation: A History of the First Thirty Years, London: S. C. M. Press Ltd., 1948, especially pages 55, 79

Shedd, Clarence P., Two Centuries of Student Christian Movements: Their Origin and Intercollegiate Life, New York: Association Press, 1934

Shedd, Clarence Prouty, "and other contributors," History of the World's Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations, London: S.P.C.K., for the World's Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, 1955; especially pages 355-6, 353, 472, 565, 674, 701

Stuer, Kenneth, "'For the Millions of Men Now Under Arms': American YMCA Prisoner-of-War Diplomacy in Western Europe," chapter 4 of Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity,' New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, [viewed 2010 January 12] http://www.gutenberg-e.org/steuer/

From the guide to the Ethan Theodore Colton papers, 1917-1952, 1918-1935, (Hoover Institution Archives)