Student Activism in the 1930s
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SLID Essays (Summer, 1935)

Molly Yard


Chicago, Ill.

1. Babbling Well Road in Shanghai, China is known as one of the seven most beautiful roads in the world. It was here that I was born on July 6, 1912. My parents, missionaries for the Methodist Church, were refugeeing at the time due to the Chinese Revolution which established the Republic of China of the great Sun Yat Sen. My father, during times of peace, was stationed on the beautiful plateau of Western China which borders on Thibe headquarters was at Chengtu, the ancient capitol of Szechaun Province, now the center of the battle of the Chinese Red Army versus the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai Shek.

2. I lived here until ten years of age. Our community was made up of about three hundred white missionaries scattered throughout the city and surrounding districts, serving a Chinese population of about one million persons. This group contained many rather progressive persons of high intelligence with the result that my early childhood was not as pious as it might have been. In 1922 we moved to the coast, living in Shanghai. In 1925 we left China, returning to this country by way of Europe. I had all of my high school and college education in this country. High school years were spent in Connecticut, N.Y., Pennsylvania coal mining region, and the stronghold of smug conservatism—Evanston, Ill. All four years in college were spent in Swarthmore taking courses in the Social Sciences.

3. My mother comes from a New England family of high personal integrity- thrifty, honest, with an ideal of duty. My mother is the most essentially ethical person I know. I have never known her to practice other than she preaches. My father comes from a New Jersey family. He early had the idea of going into some sort of religious work and with this purpose in view worked his way through college and theological seminary. He is a belligerent idealist. He has the soul of a poet, and is forever studying. It was thus that he became well acquainted with Chinese civilization, her art, her literature, her history, her language, and came to see that here religion is as good as ours, her civilization in many respects superior. He became a racial in the missionary movement and after approximately two decades of service resigned from his position as he did not see eye to eye with those in control. Several months later he became religious director of Northwestern University. He was there five years, taking a decisive stand on all problems of race, economics and religion. At the end of this period his contract was not renewed. His decisive stand was in the wrong direction.

4. Such is my background. I think it well to state that because of my parents' beliefs and their stands I have had quite a thorough education in the realm of social progress. Because of being brought up in the Orient I have the happy state of mind of having no racial prejudice whatever. This I count as one of my most precious belongings. The further result of this is that I am an internationalist.

5. In the realm of actual experience in radical activities I have had little to do. While in college during the presidential campaign of 1932 I went with a group through Delaware campaigning for Norman Thomas. I cannot say that we were a too successful group. The only other activity which counts for much was my organization of the forces in college, which were opposed to fraternities. We abolished women's fraternities at Swarthmore in 1935.

6. Since graduating from college I have been working in social agencies. One of these was a private agency in Washington, D.C., the other a public agency- the county relief board outside of Philadelphia. Prior to the Washington job I worked a few months in a tea room as a waitress. This tearoom employed girls, except for myself, who had always been in that work. My experience working here was especially interesting because it was at the time of the inception of the N.R.A. This and my other two jobs have served to give me a point of view, which I wish to have backed up by a through knowledge of the socialist movement and thought and by an understanding of the trade union movement.

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