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Wilbur Hugh Ferry Papers

The Wilbur Hugh Ferry Papers consist of documents related to Ferry's speech, “Myths, Cliches and Stereotypes”, which he gave to the Western States Democratic Conference in Seattle, Washington on 7 August 1962. Since the speech attacked Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, it generated a nationwide response from the media and many letters, favorable and unfavorable, from the public. Included in this collection are reference materials, collected by Ferry regarding a former FBI agent, Jack Levine, and his claim that many FBI agents were members of the Communist Party acting as informants. Ferry also saved news clippings about the American news reporter, James Worthy, Jr., who was sentenced to three months in prison for illegally re-entering the United States from Cuba without a passport. J. Edgar Hoover's speech to the American Legion on 9 October 1962, which makes reference to Ferry's Seattle speech, is also part of this collection. Lastly, the collection is completed with a memorandum from the Ad Hoc Committee on the Triple Revolution sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson by a group of economists, labor leaders, publishers and writers headed by Ferry. This memorandum asserts that revolutions are occurring in three fields in the United States: “cybernation” (a term Ferry describes as the combination of computer technology and automated self-regulating machines that will require progressively less human labor), weaponry and human rights. The committee believed these revolutions would lead to fundamental changes in the approach to jobs and work.