Biography
David Lasser was an engineer, an early advocate of spaceflight and national president of the Workers Alliance of America. During the campaign for higher WPA wages, police arrested him with Herbert Benjamin and John Kelly in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 1936. Lasser and Benjamin were charged with parading without a permit and released that day on $25 bond each. After his release, Lasser met presidential secretary Marvin McIntyre to present the workers' demands, though the delegation was unable to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937, page 1: A captioned portrait identifies Lasser as president of the Workers Alliance, alongside Charles Rossio, Illinois unemployed leader, and vice-president W. K. Patrick. Brendan Sexton's report describes planned national January 15 Washington relief demonstrations with over 3,000 delegates and demands against WPA reductions. This supplies contemporary organizational context, without a new arrest or proof every announced event occurred. The existing identified production portrait was preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%202-96.pdf
Printed page 2 reports thirty-three Workers Unemployed Union members were arrested during the Easter Sunday Fifth Avenue relief protest. It names David Lasser (chairman), Edward Welsh (vice-chairman), Neil Russell (secretary), Ruby Weber (financial secretary) and Saul Parker (organizer). Arrested around noon, they remained until Night Court, defended by Morris Shapiro and Max Delson, with Norman Thomas a defense witness. Magistrate Dreyer convicted the defendants of disorderly conduct but imposed suspended sentences. Thomas's page 20 column says almost twelve hours in jail, an approximate collective account rather than exact personal endpoints. This 1935 New York prosecution is separate from his 1936 Washington arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/v1n06-apr-27-1935.pdf
Page 8's United Press Washington dispatch dated October 24 reports the Workers Alliance delegation's higher-WPA-wage protest. David Lasser and organization secretary Herbert Benjamin were arrested when police broke up their parade outside WPA headquarters, and were released on $25 bond each on parading-without-a-permit charges. John Kelly, a Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania organizer, was released on $10 bond. All three struggled when removed from the march. Lasser subsequently reached presidential secretary Marvin McIntyre; a Tuesday court appearance and possible Civil Liberties Union representation were still prospective, not a completed trial. Source: https://newspapers.swco.ttu.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12255/13954/The_Big_Spring_Daily_Herald__1936-10-25.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=3
The November 3, 1936 New Masses report describes Lasser and Benjamin leading a four-hundred-person Workers Alliance delegation to Washington seeking equitable WPA wage scales. It reports their arrest for parading without a permit after unsuccessful attempts to see President Roosevelt, and WPA assistant administrator Aubrey Williams expressing regret while blaming metropolitan police. This corroborates the existing October 24 arrest and adds the delegation’s purpose; the issue supplies no individual conviction, release or completed custody duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v21n06-nov-03-1936-NM.pdf#page=14
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Big Spring Daily Herald, October 25, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The April 11, 1936 Socialist Call reports that David Lasser and other unemployed demonstrators were taken to a police station and held without specific charges during the Madison Square demonstration on February 15. It describes a citizens’ jury accusing police of unwarranted brutality and unjustified refusal of a parade permit and asking city officials to repudiate protective custody. Those findings are attributed to the unofficial citizens’ inquiry. This New York detention report is separate from the already recorded Easter 1935 protest and October 1936 Washington arrest. The report supplies no physical release day or completed custody duration.
