The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-29
On Recognition
of the Status of
Political Prisoners
BY EMANUEL EIsENBERG

"WHER people are made TO see
W that the political prisoner is
no criminal at al but a worker who
tried to make his fellow-workers
conscious of their rights, the poll
teal prisoner will cease to be. Until
then it is absolutely imperative to
fight for the privileges and the diff
ferent treatment to which a pris-
oner sentenced on such a count is
unqUestionably entitled"
The speaker is Lawrence Emery,
assistant national secretary for the
International Labor Defense. He
was arrested in Imperial Valley in
April, 1890 for attempting to organ
ize the agricultural workers union.
The charge was criminal syndi-
calism and the sentence from three
to forty-two years. He stayed in
San Quentin prison where Tom
Mooney is heidi for three years and
was then released with a years
parole. The parole was recently up.
Emery is one of the numerous
guests whom the National Commit
tee for the Defense Of Political
Prisoners has invited to the jam
boree being given at the Renais-
sance Ballroom C138th Street and
Seventh Avenue) this Friday even
ing, June LIST. This is to raise funds
for the campaign toward the Rec
ignition of the Status Of Political
Prisoners. The funds will enable
delegations of writers, artists and
speakers to visit different iails
throughout the country and place
before the wardens the committees
demands for freedom in writing as
many letters as they choose and re-
ceiving not only letters but visitors
and all radical literature in unlim-
tied and uncensored quantity.
IN an effort to dig up some of the
political reasons for imprison-
ment, I got in touch with a few
former political prisoners.
Earl Browder. general secretary of
the Communist Party, turned out
to be so swamped in activity that
his brother william, circulation
manager for The New Masses. was
interviewed for both, Bill Brow
der told us that the two brothers
land even a third we're all i'm
plicated in the same arrests.
The first occurred in Flat City.
Mo. they were imprisoned in Octo-
Der, 1917 for refusal to register in
the Army and released in Septem-
Der, 1918. The charge of anti
patriotism is one of the most facile
and the one Immediately raised into
activity during war.
The brothers were re-arreSted on
July 10, 1919, for conspiracy to
defeat the draft law, and released
from Leavenworth on November l,
1920. Since draft evasion involved
a maximum of merely two years,
the three Browder brothers were
convicted under the Oleonargarine
Conspiracy Act believe it or not j,
which provides q six-year maximum.
Good behavior managed to get
them out in q year and q half.
DAT TOOHEY, editor of Labor
l Unity, has been jailed so many
times that he can't keep track OF
them any more.
"As one who has lain around in
the filthy cells and counted the
days one after another as they
went by" said Toohey, "I know
what the ScottSboro boys and
Angelo Herndon must be going
through"
Harry Raymond Daily Worker re-
porter, was a member of the COM
mittee leading the unemployment
demonstration on March s, 1880 He
and others, including Bob Minor
and William Foster, we're charged
with unlawful assembly and incit-
ing to riot; the sentence was three
years. He was released after ten
months of rotating from Welfare
Island to Riker's to Harris.
Now is the time, when restric-
lions grow steadily tighter, to fight
for the status of the political pris-
oner," said Raymond. Workers, in
tellectuals and professionals must
be drawn into the struggle to force
the issue. Every possible opportu-
nifty is being seized to lock UP
everyone who attempts demonstra-
ton or organization.
All these former prisoners, and
numerous others who we're out Of
town last week and could not be
reached for inclusion in this group
of interviews, will be present at the
Jamboree on Friday night. Groucho
Marx, Bill Robinson, Mara Tartar
and the casts of Men in White"
and "stevedore" will be there to
entertain.