Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140

MS 33
Don Lytton Berry (1880-1974)
Papers, 1933-1960, undated


Descriptive summary

creator: Berry, Don Lytton (1880-1974)
title: Papers
dates: 1933-1960, undated
extent: 1.89 linear feet (4 document boxes, 1 half document box)
collection number: MS 33
repository: Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

 

Administrative information

access: Open for research
publication rights: Consult Head, Special Collections Department
preferred citation: Don Lytton Berry Papers, MS 33, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

 

Abstract

Editor, publisher and politician, Don Lytton Berry (1880-1974) was born in Indianola, Iowa. Berry was involved in many Republican Party activities both in Iowa and nationally including as a delegate to the 1936 Republican Convention and Executive Secretary of the National Republican Farm Study Committee (1941). He also worked as an editor and farmer for several years before devoting more of his time to politics. This collection contains news clippings, correspondence, speeches, notes, and reports from his various activities with the Republican party and other committees and organizations that he worked for from 1933-1960.

 

Biographical note

Editor, publisher and politician, Don Lytton Berry (1880-1974) was born in Indianola, Iowa. He graduated from Simpson College in 1903, and joined the staff of the Des Moines Register and Leader. In 1905, he married Bertha Sloan. He left the Register and Leader (1904) to farm full-time, and later bought (1920) the Indianola Record. He remained editor and publisher of the Indianola newspaper for forty years until he retired in 1960.

Berry was a delegate to the 1936 Republican Convention. He served on the Resolutions Committee and as a "State Committeeman" on the Platform Subcommittee on the Farm Plank, in which capacity he was in charge of county hearings in Madison, Marion, and Warren counties. The Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee was a special committee of the Iowa State Planning Board, appointed by the governor. Its purpose was to investigate the "farm tenure problem" (the increase of farms operated by renters, rather than owners). The percentage of rented farms had reached fifty percent by 1935.

In 1939, Berry conducted an editorial campaign against Harrison Spangler' tenure as Republican national committeeman from Iowa. The claim made by Berry (and others) was that Spangler was pro-Hoover, and that his ten years in the East had made him insensitive to the problems of Iowa farmers. A great deal of editorial comment, both for and against Spangler, was generated.

Berry was chairman of the Iowa Postwar Rehabilitation Commission, which was established by the state legislature to "study the economic and social conditions of the state with a view to recommending to the 51st General Assembly such legislation...as may provide work which needs doing...to enable Iowa to reabsorb smoothly the returning...service personnel and after-war workers". (See December 12, 1944, letter from Berry to Governor Hickenlooper in 6/9).

In 1941, Berry was appointed Executive Secretary of the National Republican Farm Study Committee under the chairmanship of Clifford Hopee, Representative from Kansas.

 

Collection description

This collection (1933-1960, undated) consists of correspondence, news clippings, notes, administrative records, writings and speeches about state and national Republican Party politics. Included are correspondence and news releases concerning the National Republican Farm Study Committee; the 1936 Republican Convention; the Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee; Harrison Spangler; and the Iowa Postwar Rehabilitation Committee. The final report of the Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee, June 1938 (see folder 6/6) is also included, as well as other reports and questionnaires conducted by the Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee. Subject files include notes from meetings and interviews attended by Berry. In addition to correspondence, there are also files pertaining to the 1936 Republican Convention containing news clippings and delegate name tags. Several of Berry's writings and speeches are also included in the collection.

Correspondents include: William Beardsley, Myers Y. Cooper, John M. Henry, Clifford Hope, Alf M. Landon, Harrison Spangler, Walter A. Sheaffer, Dan W. Turner, William W. Waymack, and Kenneth S. Wherry.

 

Related materials

Related materials can be found in the National Farmers Process Tax Recovery Association Files, MS 44 (box 43, folders 1-4)

 

Container list

Box

Folder

Title

Dates

1

1

Outgoing correspondence

1936

1

2

Outgoing correspondence

1937

1

3

Outgoing correspondence

1938

1

4

Outgoing correspondence

1939

1

5

Outgoing correspondence

1940

1

6

Outgoing correspondence

1941

1

7

Outgoing correspondence

1943

1

8

Correspondence: A

1937

1

9

Correspondence: B (Includes Justin Barry, William Beardsley)

1936-1941

1

10

Correspondence: C (Includes C. F. Curtiss)

1936-1943

1

11

Correspondence: Cooper, Myers Y. (former governor of Ohio)

1936-1939

1

12

Correspondence: D

1936-1940

1

13

Correspondence: E-F (Includes letter about Alf M. Landon by C. J. Evans, John W. Evans, Kirk Fox)

1936-1943

1

14

Correspondence: G

1936-1942

1

15

Correspondence: Gustafson, A. C. (chief clerk, Iowa House of Representatives and Executive Secretary of Committee of 100 and of the Iowa Club)

1937-1939

1

16

Correspondence: H (Includes J. R. Howard)

1936-1940

1

17

Correspondence: Henry, John M. (chariman, Iowa Republican County Central Committee)

1938-1942

1

18

Correspondence: Hope, Clifford (Representative Republican from Kansas)

1936-1943

1

19

Correspondence: I-J

1940

1

20

Correspondence: K-L

1937-1943

1

21

Correspondence: Landon, Alf M. (Governor of Kansas and Presidential candidate, 1936, Includes comments on Herbert Hoover)

1936-1943

2

1

Correspondence: M

1936-1937

2

2

Correspondence: N-O

1936-1940

2

3

Correspondence: P

1936-1941

2

4

Correspondence: R (Includes George Washington Robinelt)

1936-1941

2

5

Correspondence: S (Includes Harrison Spangler, National Committeeman from Iowa; Vincent Starzinger, Des Moines lawyer)

1937-1940

2

6

Correspondence: Sheaffer, Walter A. (president of W. A. Sheaffer Company)

1936-1940

2

7

Correspondence: T

1933-1940

2

8

Correspondence: Taylor, E. H. (Associate Editor of Country Gentleman. Includes comments about Thomas Dewey (March, 1939; February, 1943) and Harold Stassen (1943 circa))

1936-1943

2

9

Correspondence: Turner, Dan W. (former Governor of Iowa)

1937-1939

2

10

Correspondence: W (Includes William W. Waymack, editor of editorial pages of the Des Moines Register and Tribune)

1936-1941

2

11

Correspondence: Controversy over Harrison Spangler or William J. Goodwin for Republican National Committeeman from Iowa, December, 1939. (Correspondents include John M. Henry, George Olmsted, William A. Sheaffer)

1939

2

12

Republican Farm Study Committee correspondence: general

1941

2

13

Republican Farm Study Committee correspondence: A-G

1941

2

14

Republican Farm Study Committee correspondence: H-M (includes John M. Henry and Glenn W. Martens, chairman, South Dakota Republican Central Committee)

1941

2

15

Republican Farm Study Committee correspondence: Clifford Hope, chairman, Republican Farm Study Committee

1941

2

16

Republican Farm Study Committee correspondence: N-Z (includes Kenneth S. Wherry, chairman, Republican State Central Committee of Nebraska, and Joseph Wishart , lawyer, Lincoln, Nebraska)

1941

2

17

Republican Farm Study Committee: expenses

1941

3

1

Republican Farm Study Committee: press releases

1939

3

2

Subject files: Farm-to-Market editorial, correspondents include Justin Derry and Bourke B. Hickenlooper

1940

3

3

Subject files: interview and meeting notes, notes to editors, correspondence, report, and The Way Farmers Look at Landon and Roosevelt (mimeo)

1936-1939, undated

3

4

Subject files: Joseph W. Walt, The Story of Don Berry, Iowan. Palimpsest, November, 1963, XLIV (II).

1963

3

5

Correspondence

1936-1960

3

6

Writings: The Farmer's Crop is Good Security

undated

3

7

Writings: guest editorial re: Bell system

1939

3

8

Writings: Comparing Decline of Venice to Our Day

1940

3

9

Writings: Statement on the Wage-Hour Law and Its Effect…

1944 circa

3

10

Writings: On the Hershey Strike and the Necessity of Many Voters Having a Stake in Their Own Business

1943

3

11

Writings: address to Council of State Government draft and final copy

1944

3

12

Writings: From E.J. Meredith to Now, includes correspondence

1945

3

13

Writings: George Washington speech

1950

3

14

Writings: talk to Iowa Natural Resources Council representing Three Rivers Watershed Council

1955

3

15

1936 Republican Convention: news clippings

1936

4

1

1936 Republican Convention: news clippings

1936

4

2

1936 Republican Convention: delegate name tags

1936

4

3

1936 Republican Convention: Landon presidential campaign and Deeds Not Deficits by Richard B. Fowler

1936

4

4-8

1936 Republican Convention: Landon presidential campaign news clippings

1936

4

9

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: State Summary of Comments (long questionnaire)

undated

4

10

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: Summary of Findings, Part II - Summary Tabulation of Long Questionnaires

1938

4

11

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: Summary of Findings, Part III - County Agricultural Planning Reports

undated

5

1

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: Summary of Findings, Part V - Public Hearings on Farm Tenancy

1938

5

2

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: Summary of Findings

1938

5

3

Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee: Report and Recommendations of the Iowa Farm Tenancy Committee

1938

5

4-5

Harrison Spangler: news clippings

1939-1940

5

6

Iowa Postwar Rehabilitation Commission: correspondence

1944

5

7

Iowa Postwar Rehabilitation Commission: highway report

1944