Biography
Alfred Mitchell Bingham was an editor of Common Sense and a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. In June 1934 he joined furniture workers picketing the Miller factory in Jersey City during Mayor Frank Hague's campaign against labor organizing. He was arrested and jailed. Judge William J. McGovern sentenced him to thirty days on June 28 for disorderly conduct. Arthur Garfield Hays represented him, and Bingham was released on $500 bail pending appeal. He later served on the ACLU's board of directors from 1940 to 1947.
The June 28 Jersey City dispatch says the six Miller furniture pickets, including Common Sense editor Bingham, received thirty-day terms that day and were released on bail pending appeal. June 28 therefore supplies the actual bail-release day for this case. The imposed thirty days is not thirty days completed in custody. Daily Worker, June 30, 1934, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n156-jun-30-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Daily Worker, July 16, 1934, page 2: National Furniture Workers Industrial Union secretary Joe Kiss reports that Corliss Lamont, Alfred Bingham and Justine Tulin Wise, Rabbi Wise's daughter, were arrested with about fifteen union members during the Jersey City frame-shop dispute. The union resisted employers moving four Brooklyn shops under Mayor Hague's promise of protection from picketing. Kiss reports a July 2 National Labor Board decision directing reinstatement of former employees without discrimination. That labor-board order is not a criminal acquittal or physical jail release, and the earlier solidarity arrest is not duplicated. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n169-sect-one-jul-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
New Leader, July 28, 1934, page 4: The Newark Court Order Vacated item reports Federal Judge Avis vacating a previous Chancery Court order restraining furniture-union picketing at the Miller plant in Jersey City. It identifies Alfred Bingham and Corliss Lamont as having picketed and submitted to arrest, and expects them to testify at another hearing July 31. The vacated picketing restraint is not a criminal acquittal or jail-release order; the announced hearing and expected witness appearances are prospective in this issue. This adds legal-defense context to the existing Jersey City arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1934/v17n30-jul-28-1934-NL.pdf
Page 2's July 5 New Jersey report recalls his arrest the previous week while supporting the Jersey City Miller Parlor Frame Company furniture strike. It reports a National Labor Board direction to rehire pre-strike workers and stop anti-union intimidation. This is labor-dispute context for the existing arrest, not a criminal acquittal or physical jail-release order. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n161-jul-06-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
PDF page 3's Four More Framed for Picketing N. J. Furniture Factory reports his thirty-day sentence the previous day for picketing Miller Parlor Furniture with Rose Dickter. It says both appealed and were out on $500 bail pending a July 2 hearing. This corroborates the existing June 28 sentence and appeal release, without turning the announced hearing into a completed result. Enlarged original confirms the co-defendant's surname is Dickter, not OCR Dickler or Auerbach. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n155-jun-29-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Yales MS148 finding aid independently confirms Binghams 1934 arrest and jailing for Jersey City civil-rights picketing and subsequent release on appeal. It places his Yale College graduation in 1927 and Yale Law degree and Connecticut bar admission in 1930, his 1930-1932 reporting journey, and his 1934 marriage to Sylvia Doughty Knox. Bingham and Selden Rodman launched Common Sense in 1932. The guide records his 1940 election and 1941-1943 Connecticut Senate service, later legal practice and 1949-1951 workers-compensation commissionership. An earlier narrative paragraph says 1941 election; the detailed political-files section clarifies 1940 election and 1941 service, so no extra election is inferred. Source: https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/4108.pdf#page=5 and https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/4108.pdf#page=57
Daily Worker, July 16, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
New Leader, July 28, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 6, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 29, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
