The Union for Democratic Action Administrative File is arranged alphabetically by subject. The material has been kept in the order originally maintained by the UDA office staff, with the exception of alterations made in misleading folder titles. The correspondence within each folder is arranged chronologically by years and months, and is placed first in each folder. Miscellaneous printed and mimeographed materials follow the correspondence and may occasionally overlap the inclusive dates given for the correspondence.

Much of the UDA administrative file relates to purely business and social activities of the organization including arrangements for dinner and luncheon meetings, various topical conferences, speaker's bureau, and tours such as that arranged for Patrick Gordon-Walker in 1946-1947. There is little financial information and only scattered correspondence and minutes of the National Board, although there is correspondence for National Director James Loeb Jr., 1941-1946, and National Chairman Reinhold Niebuhr, 1942-1947, as well as miscellaneous correspondence, 1940-1946.

The UDA actively supported many political, social, and economic issues between 1941 and 1946, such as fair employment policies, anti-discrimination measures, the Bretton Woods Monetary Agreement, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, civil liberties, and world food supply. Although there is not a great deal of material in this series on any one of these issues, the collection does contain considerable information on UDA's fight for full post-war employment and its support of Henry A. Wallace for the position of secretary of commerce in 1945.

Included in this series are files relating to local UDA chapters, arranged alphabetically by state. The largest single chapter represented is the New York City chapter. The files for this chapter cover much of the same material found in the entire UDA administrative file including full employment activities, New Republic Supplement, Dumbarton Oaks Conference, and issues of minority groups. Also included are files for the New York Administrative Committee, materials relating to publicity, fund raising, and membership activities, and files for various social activities sponsored by this chapter.

There is an overlap of materials in both the New York City chapter files and the National Organization files. Prior to the summer of 1945 both groups occupied the same office in New York City and utilized many of the same staff members. The arbitrary location of certain folders in either location does not always indicate the original file location of these folders.

Most of the work of organizing chapters was by the national director, James Loeb Jr., although various other staff members aided. Two of the organizers were William Dnotes, who worked in the West in the summer of 1945, and Richard Bollings, who worked in the Midwest in the spring of 1947.

This series also includes the files of the Washington Bureau and its director, Thomas R. Amlie. Amlie's New Republic Supplement of May 14, 1942, was sanctioned by UDA and served as a campaign document for the supporters of the Roosevelt administration. Attacks upon the UDA by the Dies Committee in the summer of 1942, and a lack of funds, caused the temporary closing of the Washington office in the winter of 1942. Amlie's correspondence with James Loeb Jr., Howard Y. Williams, and Bruce Bliven is located in the files "Amlie, Thomas" and "New Republic Supplement." [See also Thomas R. Amlie Papers, Mss 452.]

Paul Sifton, a former employee of the National Farmers Union, reopened the Washington Bureau in November 1944. Under his leadership the Washington Bureau's main function was to make known and to influence national legislation. To aid in this project, UDA published the UDA Congressional Newsletter.

In 1946 the UDA Educational Fund Inc. established a London Bureau, headed by David C. Williams. The London Bureau's basic purpose was to inform Americans of the new economic and social experiments being carried out by the post-war government of Great Britain. It also had the function of interpreting American political, social, and economic developments to the British. This was partially accomplished by publishing the UDA London Letter. In addition, Williams arranged for tours for Patrick Gordon-Walker, M.P., and labor leader Jennie Lee.