Dana Converse Backus

Dana Converse Backus was a 20th-Century American attorney based in New York City served at the founding conference of the United Nations.

He was born on February 26, 1907, in Bayonne, New Jersey. He studied at (then) Harvard College, followed by Harvard Law School.

Backus became a partner in the Manhattan firm of Windels, Marx, Davies and Ives (now Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf. In 1945, he served as a lawyer for the Secretariat at the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco. He served as vice president of the Citizens Union and retired in 1981.

Backus and his wife had four daughters. In 1943, his wife chaired the Education Committee of the League of Nations Association, Inc.

He lived in Manhattan and also in Sands Point, Long Island. Backus was a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

On June 7, 1987, he died of Alzheimer's disease at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn on Long Island, age 82.

On June 4, 1948, he wrote to the New York Times a strongly worded letter "The Mundt-Nixon Bill: Suggestions Given for Revision of Proposed Legislation." Backus opened by stating that with regard to American Communists, "a sense of proportion" is necessary so Americans might "realize that we are dealing more with a microbe than a menace." In his opinion, "the best weapon against a Communist is to know that he is one," while preserving civil liberties. The Mundt-Nixon Bill would outlaw communist parties in the U.S. and thus "encourage a multiplicity of Communist front organizations." "I suggest scrapping this whole attempt to register Communist front organization." Instead, he recommended that any organization which solicits funds should have to declare any officer or director or equivalent is a communist; if the organization has communists, then it should then have to declare so when soliciting funds, while it should also lose its tax exemption. Backus considered this proposal a temporary, "cautious experiment" for extraordinary times.

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