Student Activism in the 1930s
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ASU Autobiographies

American Student Union Summer Training Institute Autobiographies


Pat Clark

1. The story of my life, as it relates directly to my attendance at this American Student Union Leadership Institute, can well be divided into three distinct phases.

2. The first phase includes the years I spent with my family. Until I was eleven, that family was complete, consisting of my mother, father, brother and myself. Then my mother died, and my brother joined the Navy, leaving Dad and me to keep going together. My childhood was abnormal only in that I had to take on the responsibilities of housekeeper in addition to my schoolwork. In some ways this was the means to making me mature very rapidly, but mentally I was of just about the same norm as my friends.

3. At sixteen, I graduated from a high school commercial course and went immediately into a business school. My course there completed, I worked as a stenographer for the next two years for several firms, and my salary ranged from $7 to $12 a week. In 1933, through a personal friend of Dad's, I had the opportunity to take a job with the National Recovery Administration at a weekly salary of $30. Because I was only 18, the district manager was hesitant about hiring me, but finally did on condition that I "make good" in two weeks. By the time the Supreme Court decision of June 1935 declared the NRA unconstitutional, I was secretary to the executive director. In spite of this apparent efficiency, I must point out that while I was mentally alert, I was doing absolutely nothing to improve upon my "formal" education. However, one virtue of my dormant existence was that I was saving about half of my salary regularly. My father was extremely interested in current events and read a great deal, and encouraged me to take a little initiative in self-education ....but I didn't.

4. 1935 was my black year. Dad died in October and the NRA office closed officially in December. This is about the end of what I call the dormant period of my life.

   My Awakening

5. I was fortunate enough to find another job in the following month. About the same time, I moved into an apartment with three other girls, one of whom had worked with me at the NRA office. These girls were all college graduates, but particularly impressive to me was that my friend had a degree only after nine long years of nite school work. I began to be aware of the difference in the kind of literature they read and the run of magazines that I read. When I was unable to find any "light" reading around, I started to read the Nation, New Masses, and the New Republic. Often, however, I felt thwarted because I couldn't understand what the articles were all about, although I began to realize that life and living meant more than dates and clothes and how much money I could earn if I stuck to my job long enough.

6. I began to have new and different friends--people who talked about newspaper articles as if they were of some importance, instead of the sheets that were in front of the funnies. So, I decided to go to night school, and the more I learned, the more I realized that I had practically thrown away twenty-one years of my lift--that I was an important person with a definite role to play. But needed education--and needed it fast.

   Awake and Learning

7. I quit my job, which had developed into a private secretaryship at $35 per, packed my suitcases and went to college. I had no other choice but Northwestern, because I had not sufficient high school mathematics for regular entrance, and I could get into Northwestern through a "drag," During the period of my "awakening," I met a young man who was a very ardent member of the Chicago Newspaper Guild and began to attend Guild meetings with him, When the strike was called on December 5, I did a great deal of work after school at Strike Headquarters in the kitchen, on the picket line and typing bulletins. In January at school, I happened to notice that Don Stevens, one of the CNG officers whom I know well was to speak at an ASU luncheon about the strike. I knew nothing about the organization, but went to the luncheon where I talked to the chapter president about the strike. Well, Don failed to arrive and I was asked to take his place, I made my first public talk which lasted an hour. The following week, I was literally hounded to become an ASU member. When I finally realized what kind of an organization the ASU was, naturally I joined. Within the month, after a couple of meetings, I was elected president of the chapter. At the time I knew virtually nothing about the ASU, but the members seemed convinced that I would make an efficient leader.

8. I was not as convinced as they, but was determined to do a good job or die in the attempt. Looking back on the semester's activities, I think I almost did both. In the course of work with the organization, I came to believe very thoroughly in the American Student Union, its principles and its aims. At twenty-five, I am a little older than the average ASUer, but since I still have three more full years of college work, feel that there is a great deal of good work that I can do in the ASU for democracy that will, at the same time, do a great deal for me.

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