Biography
George J. Saul organized Southern textile workers for the National Textile Workers Union and worked for the International Labor Defense. He was jailed in Gaston County after police broke up his November 18, 1929 speech at Mount Holly and was released on bail on November 24. Saul received a six-month chain-gang sentence during the Southern organizing campaign. A new trial was granted in 1930. That July he joined the Communist League of America (Opposition) and announced that he would return south for trial. He had also worked with Hugo Oehler in the Colorado coal strike. The Daily Worker of July9,1930 dates the new-trial grant to July8 and reports that the retrial was set for August18 in Gaston County.
The July 26, 1930 Militant reports Saul free to work in the Kansas harvest while preparing to return for a new trial, and records his work in southern textile organizing and joining the Communist League opposition. Its South Carolina trial reference conflicts with other reports locating the prosecution in Gaston County, North Carolina. The jurisdiction conflict is retained; no new arrest or continuous chain-gang service is invented. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1930/28jul1930.pdf#page=1
The September 14, 1929 Daily Worker identifies Saul as an International Labor Defense organizer jailed among the North Charlotte eight, with habeas being prepared. The September 27 issue separately reports him speaking at a Winston-Salem meeting on September 25, demonstrating later liberty without identifying his exact prison-exit day. This September detention is distinct from his November and January prosecutions. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n163-NY-sep-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The September 25, 1929 Winston-Salem meeting drew about three hundred workers despite revocation of the courthouse permit. Saul spoke for the International Labor Defense on the courthouse steps in the rain. This is an observed public appearance, without a back-calculated release date from the earlier September raid. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n174-NY-sep-27-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The November 25, 1929 report corroborates the bail release already recorded: Kurland on November 24 after a reported two years and six months, and Saul at 9:30 a.m. November 24 after his Mount Holly organizing arrest. These are bail interruptions, not sentence expiration. No complete custody total is inferred. Daily Worker, November 25, 1929, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-nat/v06-n224-NAT-nov-25-1929-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
November 18, 1929 Mount Holly arrest
The November 25, 1929 Daily Worker report, datelined Charlotte on November 24 and headed “Geo. Saul Is Bailed Out; In Leaksville,” individually names George Saul and says he was arrested on November 18 at Mount Holly when police raided the National Textile Workers Union's weekly meeting. It reports his completed release on bail at 9:30 a.m. on November 24. The separately reviewed November 23 issue carries a November 21 Charlotte brief naming only Saul, describing a raised $2,000 bond and fingerprinting; the later named report describes the same escalating bail dispute.
The arrest is therefore narrowed from November 1929 to November 18. The already recorded November 24 release is retained. This targeted report is not used to equate the arrest day with an independently established physical admission day: the existing admission remains month precision, all duration storage remains unchanged, and no six-day total is invented. The separate 1930 chain-gang prosecution is untouched. The account's allegations about police and employers remain attributed to the contemporary newspaper.
Daily Worker, November 25, 1929, original page 1, complete Saul article; November 23, 1929, original page 1, Charlotte brief.
Two contemporary accounts disagree about the Mount Holly arrest day
The November 18, 1929 Daily Worker carries a Charlotte bulletin dated November 17. It says the weekly Mount Holly meeting was broken up that day at 3 p.m., George Saul was arrested and held incommunicado, and National Textile Workers Union youth organizer Elbert Tetherow was arrested when he went to police headquarters to ask about charges and bail. Workers followed the police to the jail. This points to November 17, whereas the later November 25 named report already cited in this profile explicitly gives November 18. The conflicting contemporary arrest-day accounts are preserved rather than silently treating either as a new physical-admission date. This earlier bulletin does not establish the release day, a continuous measured duration or a separate second arrest. The existing November 24 bail release, month-precision admission and all stored counters remain unchanged pending reconciliation.
Daily Worker, November 18, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary allegations and recollections are attributed to the newspaper.
