Biography
Carl Martin was one of six men jailed during the September 1939 raids on Communist organizers in Sioux City, Iowa. After a private meeting at the Jackson Hotel, police arrested Ted Baer and two companions, then raided Baer's home at 2:30 the next morning and arrested Martin, Bob Carson and Wilbur Howard. They initially held the men on open charges and confiscated political literature and correspondence. Authorities then charged them under Iowa's criminal-syndicalism law. The International Labor Defense secured their release on September 13 on $500 bond each. Martin described the arrests in a letter published by New Masses.
Bob Wirtz’s ILD letter reports a September 13 telegram from Emma Baer saying that six men were in Sioux City jail, with literature confiscated. ILD obtained release within four hours on $500 bond each. Carl Martin’s quoted letter describes Ted Baer and two unnamed companions arrested after a private Jackson Hotel meeting, followed at 2:30 the next morning by a raid on Baer’s home and the arrests of Bob Carson, Wilbur Howard and Martin. Initial open charges became inciting hostilities against the government and membership in an organization advocating violent overthrow under Iowa criminal-syndicalism law. This is the existing September case; the account supplies the September 13 release, but does not unambiguously date the preceding meeting or first arrests, and no exact continuous custody total is inferred.
