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Subject: [KY-COALMINERS] 1931
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 10:37:50 -0400
NEW YORK TIMES
NOV 11, 1931
Dreiser Indicted By Kentucky Jury
Bill Follows Judges Instructions On
Allegations of Misconduct With Woman.
Called A Frame-up Here
Piot to Discredit Findings on Terrorism in Mine Fields,
Authors Defenders Say
PINEVILLE, KY. Nov 10
Indictments against Theodore Dreiser and Marie Pergain. Charging
misconduct at a hotel here during the novelists investigation in the
Southeastern Kentucky coal field, were returned By the Bell County grand
jury today.
The offense, a misdemeanor under Kentucky law, carries a fine of $20 to
$50 upon conviction. Bond was fixed at $200. Each, but since extradition
is not possible for the offense officials indicated that no attempt
would be made to serve the warrants unless Mr. Dreiser or the woman
returned to this state.
The woman was not identified except by the name given in the indictment.
Mr. Dreiser, whose trip with committee of writers was sponsored by the
New York office of the National Committee for the Defense of Political
Prisoners, issued a statement last night denying the charge and
asserting that it would have been impossible for him to commit the
offense charged to him.
Circuit Judge D. C. Jones declined to make any comment on Mr. Dreisers
charges or on the case, beyond saying that when he arrived in Pineville
yesterday he was advised that warrants had been issued against Mr.
Dreiser and the young women but not served, and that he put the matter
before the grand jury. Mr. Dreiser had left Pineville before then and
the woman also was understood to have left as well.
Author at Norfolk
NORFOLK VIRGINIA
Nov. 10th
Theodore Dreiser tonight eluded reporters who had watched him during the
day but had elicited from him only the statement that his plans were
none of their business.
Arriving here unexpectedly this morning he registered at a hotel and
checked out tonight. He was not observed to leave by the front entrance
and it could not be ascertained whether he remained in the city or
started for New York by boat or train.
Call Case A Frame-Up.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Committee for the
Defense of Political Prisoners joined yesterday in denouncing the
indictment of Theodore Dreiser a frame up designed to discredit the
findings of his committee in advance of their publication.
Friends of the author here professed to know nothing about Marie
Pergain, who was named in the indictment, and said she was not on the
train so far as they knew when the committee started for Kentucky.
Roger Baldwin, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union
said his organization was prepared to defend Mr. Dreiser if the facts
bear out our suspicion that the whole case is the result of a frame-up.
From what I have observed of the actions of Judge D. C. Jones. Said
Mr. Baldwin, he has shown anything but a judicial attitude in the whole
matter. The attitude of the Harlan County officials seems to have been
to get members of the committee by any means available.
The New York office of the National Committee for the Defense of
Political Prisoners issued the following statement:
This charge against Theodore Dreiser is another one of the frame-ups
with which Judge D. C. Jones and the Harlan County officials have been
fighting the miners strike in every attempt to expose the real issues of
starvation and terrorism in Harlan and Bell Counties.
The charge against Dreiser is a typical method of discrediting the work
of the committee and its investigation and of diverting attention from
the real facts laid bare by the open court which Mr. Dreiser and the
writers committee held in the coal strike fields.
These facts will shortly be released in a report. Judge Jones refused to
testify at any of the hearings of the committee.
Neither Mr. Dreisers secretary nor his friends were able to say when he
would return to New York.
CALLS DREISER COMMUNIST.
Representative Fish Denounces Authors Defense of Miners Union.
Representative Hamilton Fish in an address made before presidents of
womens patriotic organizations in Brooklyn yesterday called Theodore
Dreiser an out and out Communist
And deplored his recent activities in the mining fields of Pennsylvania
and Kentucky.
One of the first moves of Communists here was an attempt to take over
the American Federation of Labor, said Mr. Fish. They were
unsuccessful. Now we find Dreiser denouncing the A. F. of L. and
supporting the National Miners Union which is admittedly a Communist
organization.
He would deny that he is a member of the Communist party, but if asked
if he believed in the principles known to be communistic, he would
freely admit that he did. He is an out and out Communist, believing in
and supporting Communist principles and the people should know it.
The speaker criticized pink intellectuals who in addressing groups of
women denounced the country as a failure because of the present
depression.
The meeting was that of the Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth
Century, held in Plymouth Institute, Orange and Hicks Streets. Miss Mary
Hathaway Billings, president general, presided.
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