Consumer Reports. Colston E. Warne papers, 1910-1995 and undated

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Summary

Creator:
Consumer Reports (Firm)
Abstract:
Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. Colston E. Warne was an economist and consumer advocate who served as the first President of Consumers Union from its formation in 1936 until his retirement in 1980. The Consumer Reports Colston E. Warne papers include correspondence, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, manuscripts and texts of articles and speeches, reports and other printed materials. Correspondents include Arthur Kallet, Dexter Masters, E. Scott Maynes, Edward Reich, James Mendenhall, James Morgan, Jean Whitehall, Leland Gordon, Morris Kaplan, Persia Campbell, Rhoda Karpatkin, Ruby Turner Morris, Walker Sandbach and William Pabst. Institutions represented include the American Council on Consumer Interests, Amherst College, Consumer Federation of America, Cooperative Distributors, Council of Economic Advisors, International Organization of Consumers' Unions (later Consumers International), League for Industrial Democracy, National Consumer Energy Advisory Committee, National Consumers League, National Recovery Administration and the University of Pittsburgh. Topics addressed include academic and intellectual freedom, communism and subversion, consumer and worker education, economics, labor and war-time advertising. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Extent:
60.0 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.11784

Background

Scope and content:

The Consumer Reports Colston E. Warne papers include correspondence, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, manuscripts and texts of articles and speeches, reports and other printed materials. Correspondents include Arthur Kallet, Dexter Masters, E. Scott Maynes, Edward Reich, James Mendenhall, James Morgan, Jean Whitehall, Leland Gordon, Morris Kaplan, Persia Campbell, Rhoda Karpatkin, Ruby Turner Morris, Walker Sandbach and William Pabst. Institutions represented include the American Council on Consumer Interests, Amherst College, Consumer Federation of America, Cooperative Distributors, Council of Economic Advisors, International Organization of Consumers' Unions (later Consumers International), League for Industrial Democracy, National Consumer Energy Advisory Committee, National Consumers League, National Recovery Administration and the University of Pittsburgh. Topics addressed include academic and intellectual freedom, communism and subversion, consumer and worker education, economics, labor and war-time advertising. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Biographical / historical:

Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. Colston E. Warne was an economist and consumer advocate who served as the first President of Consumers Union from its formation in 1936 until his retirement in 1980.

Colston Estey Warne was born in Romulus, New York on 14 August 1900. He grew up in Ithaca, New York and entered Cornell University in 1916. Warne originally planned to become a banker, but later developed a qrowinq interest in labor and social concerns. Warne majored in economics and graduated with a A.B. in 1920 and an M.A. in 1921.

Following a teaching position as an instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, 1921-1922, Warne studied political economics at the University of Chicago. He wrote his dissertation on the consumers' cooperative movement in Illinois. He received his doctorate in 1925.

Warne was an associate professor of economics at the University of Denver, 1925-1926. In 1926 he was appointed to the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor of economics. He taught at Pittsburgh until 1930 when he went to Amherst College as an associate professor. He became a full professor in 1942. Dr. Warne taught at Amherst College until his retirement from teaching in 1969.

While at the University of Pittsburgh Dr. Warne became involved in social issue movements such as civil liberties, trade unionism, and the consumer movement. Attracted by the idea of product testing, Dr. Warne became associated with Consumers' Research (the first consumer-product-testing organization) as a member of its advisory board. When workers at Consumers' Research went on strike in 1935, Dr. Warne sided with the strikers. In 1936, some of the strikers and their supporters banded together to form a competitive consumer-product-testing organization, Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. Dr. Warne became Consumers Union's first president.

Under the leadership of Colston Warne, Consumers Union has overcome financial difficulties, subversive charges, and internal disputes to become the world's largest and most influential consumer-product-testing organization. Dr. Warne served as president of Consumers Union until February 1980.

Among his many consumer-related activities, Dr. Warne has served on the Consumer Advisory Committee of the Council of Economics Advisors (1947-1951), the Consumer Advisory Council of the Council of Economic Advisers (1962-1965), the President's Committee on Consumer Interests (1964-1965), the Consumer Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1959-1962), the National Association of Consumers (member of the board of directors, 1947-1956), the Cooperative League of the USA (member of the board of directors, 1926-1929).

Dr. Warne was also affiliated with People's Lobby (president, 1934-1936), the Western Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union (member 1938-1941), the Pittsburgh Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (chairman, 1927-1930), the Industry, Panels, Wage and Hour Administration, United States Department of Labor (member, 1943-1944), and the United States Coordinator of Fisheries (consultant, 1943).

Largely through Dr. Warne's direction, the International Organization of Consumers' Unions was founded in 1960. Dr. Warne served as I.O.C.U.'s president, 1960-1970, and as treasurer, 1970-1976.

Colston E. Warne died May 20, 1987.

Source: Linda J. Long, Consumers Union Archives revised finding aid, 1989.

Acquisition information:
The Consumer Reports. Colston E. Warne papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2019.
Processing information:

Minimally processed by Richard Collier, Nov. 2019;

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2019-0130

Arrangement:

Organized into the following series: Individuals; Organizations; Government; Subjects; General Files; University of Pittsburgh; Amherst College; Consumers Union; Writings, Speeches, Testimonies; Personal Materials; and Additions.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Consumer Reports. Colston E. Warne papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.