Biography
Clarence Miller was a National Textile Workers Union organizer convicted on October 21, 1929, of conspiracy in the death of Gastonia police chief Orville F. Aderholt during the June 7 police raid on the Loray Mill strikers' tent colony. Miller received a sentence of seventeen to twenty years. He was held in the Gaston County and Mecklenburg County jails during the prosecution, with an earlier period free on bail. On November 30, 1929, the International Labor Defense secured his release from Mecklenburg County Jail on $5,000 bond. Miller later jumped bail while his appeal was pending. A letter dated December 30, 1930, placed him in Moscow with Fred Beal, Joseph Harrison and K. Y. Hendricks.
His signed letter from Mecklenburg County Jail, printed November 13, 1929, says notice of appeal was filed on the day of sentencing and discusses the International Labor Defense effort to raise the collective $27,000 bail. His expectation that the remaining Gastonia defendants would soon be released was prospective, not an accomplished discharge. Collective references to months in jail are not an individual measured custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-nat/v06-n214-NAT-nov-13-1929-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, June 10, 1929, page 2: The young-workers organizer was reportedly severely beaten after arrest during the Gastonia tent-colony raids. The report expects a shooting accusation concerning Deputy Charles Roach. This is early custody and alleged mistreatment in the existing Gastonia case, without a new conviction or manufactured release day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n080-NY-jun-10-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929, page 1–2: The June 13 bulletin names this prisoner under assault with intent to kill, alongside fifty-two unnamed people. This records the accusation at that stage of the Gastonia case, not a separate prosecution or final verdict. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n084-NY-jun-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
The September 26, 1929 Charlotte report published September 27 introduces Miller’s letter from Mecklenburg County jail to the Communist Party of France. He thanks the French party for its support and Marcel Cachin’s delegation and describes wage and working-hour conditions and federal aid to the prosecution. The report places him among sixteen held for the prospective September 30 retrial. The collective counts do not supply unnamed defendants or a release date and do not remove the already documented bail gap. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n174-NY-sep-27-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 6, 1929 Daily Worker, page 1, announces Miller’s expected New York arrival that evening after his Gastonia bail release the previous week. It also recalls his sixty-day Washington antiwar/John Porter defense sentence. These corroborate his two existing cases; the announced arrival is not a new custody endpoint. The identified small portrait is not substituted for his existing photograph. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-nat/v06-n234-NAT-dec-06-1929-DW-Q.pdf
The August 26, 1929 report names this defendant among the sixteen assembled for the Charlotte Gastonia trial before Judge M. V. Barnhill. It distinguishes nine Southern Loray workers from seven organizers and discusses the defense’s planned police-violence evidence. The allegations are attributed defense accounts. Trial appearance is not a new arrest or proof that a previously bailed defendant had been returned to jail; later convictions and individually established bail releases remain separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n146-NY-aug-26-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The November 12 jail protest attributes crowded, vermin-infested First Precinct cells, restrictions on communication and refusal of food to the prisoners. The November 14 trial account describes Judge Hitts’s local park-ordinance prosecution for using the street between the War Department and White House and distinguishes six leaders’ $100-or-sixty-day alternatives from the others’ $50-or-thirty-day alternatives. Collective refusal-of-bail language conflicts with its individually reported Crouch appeal-bail release; it is not used to infer a new remand for every named defendant or turn nominal terms into actual service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n270-NY-nov-14-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1 Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n270-NY-nov-14-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5 Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n268-NY-nov-12-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Daily Worker, December 28, 1929, pages 1–2: The seven convicted Gastonia defendants are individually named among the textile delegation attending the International Labor Defense convention in Pittsburgh. The report describes sentences up to twenty years while placing them in the traveling delegation. These are imposed terms, not actual continuous imprisonment through the convention; no new arrest or exact bail-release day is established. The paper prints the last name Hendricks on page 1 and Hendryx on page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-nat/v06-n253-NAT-dec-28-1929-DW-Q.pdf
The December 9 Washington account places this already recorded antiwar defendant at Occoquan and describes the authorities’ questioning of prisoners by Barnard and Schoen. This supplies conditions during the existing November prosecution, not another arrest. The collective report that twenty-two others had completed thirty days is not automatically assigned as this person’s individual total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n292-NY-dec-10-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Pages 1 and 3 individually name this Gastonia defendant among five still jailed while the ILD sought $20,000 bail. Beal and the man printed Red Hendryx were already out. The proposed Friday Harlem welcome did not itself prove this defendant released, and the later appeal/bail history remains preserved. The source adds a definite pre-release observation rather than uninterrupted custody or another sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n213-NY-nov-12-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
1920s custody-date review: The contemporary November 11 dispatch names Clarence Miller among those arrested and jailed in the previous day's Washington demonstration. Arrest and initial jail entry are recorded as November 10, 1928, not December. No release date is inferred from a group sentence or a later advertised speaking engagement. A sentence length is not used as a measure of time actually served.
Sources: Daily Worker, November 12, 1928, pages 1 and 3; Daily Worker, November 14, 1928, pages 1 and 5, trial and bail follow-up.
A reported sixty-day Washington sentence, not sixty days proved served
The December 6, 1929 profile identifies Clarence Miller and retrospectively says that in 1928 he was sent to jail for sixty days for participating in the Washington demonstration against war preparations and for John Porter’s release. This supplies a reported sixty-day sentence for the earlier Washington case already recorded here, not another episode or proof that all sixty days were served. The independently sourced November 10 arrest and jail entry remain unchanged; no discharge day, back-calculated endpoint or additional counter is inferred. The article also prints a portrait captioned C. Miller beside text naming Clarence Miller. The scheduled December 6 welcome is prospective and does not replace the already documented November 30, 1929 Gastonia bail release.
Daily Worker, December 6, 1929, original pages 1. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The textile union selected Miller, then its executive-board secretary and free on $5,000 bond in the Gastonia case, to lead its delegation to the International Labor Defense convention in Pittsburgh. This documents post-bail organizing rather than a new confinement or exact release date.
The Raleigh dispatch dated August 20 reports that the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the Gastonia convictions. It individually names Fred Beal, Clarence Miller, Louis McLaughlin, George Carter, William McGinnis, Joseph Harrison and K. Y. Hendricks, and gives 117 years as a collective sentence figure. Its continuation describes the ILD’s criticism of Judge Barnhill’s instructions and a proposed further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The collective term is not allocated to individual defendants or treated as actual service, and affirmance is not a new physical admission, discharge or exile endpoint. The source’s William McGinnis is matched by the same seven-defendant Gastonia case to the existing W. M. McGinnis record.
A jail letter defending the pending appeal
This issue introduces a letter by Clarence Miller as written from his Mecklenburg County jail cell to the New Republic. Miller disputes the magazine’s treatment of the Gastonia trial and says notice of appeal had been given on the day the sentences were imposed. He describes the International Labor Defense effort to raise $27,000 in bail; the accompanying report says the quota for Miller’s release had not yet been raised. These are contemporary custody and legal-defense statements, not proof of an exact letter-writing day, a new incarceration, or completed release. The collective prediction that the other defendants would be free in two or three days did not itself free Miller and does not replace his separately documented November 30 release. His printed seventeen-to-twenty-year term is imposed punishment, not time served; all existing physical dates, bail gaps and numerical fields remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, November 13, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Statements and allegations remain attributed to the newspaper and named writer.
Daily Worker, June 10, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 6, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 28, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, November 12, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The November 25, 1929 Daily Worker prints a statement signed by Louis McLaughlin, Joseph Harrison, Clarence Miller, W. M. McGinnis and G. W. Carter, introduced as written in Mecklenburg County Jail before McLaughlin and McGinnis obtained bail. The signers accused former defense lawyers Jimison and Neal of withholding bail funds and defended the International Labor Defense’s support during their imprisonment and appeal. These are the prisoners’ contemporary allegations in a dispute over their legal defense, not judicial findings or a new sentencing or custody endpoint.
The Passaic strike report individually names Weisbord, Rubenstein and Miller as defendants facing prosecution; Rubenstein is specifically said to have been hospitalized after police beatings. The caption identifies Weisbord behind bars and separately shows Nina Shafransky being arrested. Anticipated prison terms are not completed service, and the article gives no individual release or final duration.
