Biography
Harold S. Hartley was one of the defendants actually arrested in Detroit on February 6, 1940, in the federal prosecution alleging conspiracy to enlist volunteers for the Spanish Loyalist forces. The official investigation printed in the Congressional Record lists 2 indictments and bail of $20,000. Unable to post bail, he was committed to the federal correctional institution at Milan, Michigan, and remained confined until the charges were dismissed and the defendants released February 16. He was a former welfare director of UAW Local 174 and a WPA historical-records worker, denied Communist Party membership, and described an earlier Milwaukee arrest for peacefully picketing the Italian consulate against the invasion of Ethiopia, approximately 1935. Norris states he had served twenty jail days in that earlier incident; Hartley was uncertain whether the charge was disorderly conduct or obstructing traffic. The report by Henry A. Schweinhaut defended the agents, while Senator Norris and the printed defendant statements disputed their treatment; these are differing attributed accounts, not an uncontested finding about all alleged mistreatment. Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86-14.pdf#page=9; https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1940-pt5-v86-14.pdf#page=14
