Biography
George Harrison was a Chicago journalist for Industrial Workers of the World newspapers. Federal prosecutors included him in the Chicago mass IWW prosecution during World War I. He was convicted, sentenced to five years in prison, and fined $30,000. Stephen M. Kohn records two periods in Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary: September 1917 to August 1920 and April 1921 to February 1, 1923. A Justice Department assessment described him as a “brilliant writer.”
In his first-person column in the Daily Worker of November12,1936,pages1and4, Harrison George recalled hearing the Armistice whistle while held in Leavenworth on November11,1918 and wrote that he completed his sentence in February1923. This contemporary recollection corroborates the final month of imprisonment recorded here; it does not supply a more precise release day.
The Daily Worker of January 15, 1930, page 3, identifies Harrison George as a member of the Communist Party Central Committee and Daily Worker staff and says that he had edited an Industrial Workers of the World newspaper. It announces his Workers School forum on the history of the IWW for January 19. The January 17 issue, page 2, gives the announced lecture title as "Why the I.W.W. Failed." These announcements document his later labor journalism and political work, not a new arrest or proof that the proposed lecture occurred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n268-NY-jan-15-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster, under the printed name GEORGE , HARRISON, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28, 1917. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6 , 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act. Convicted , 5 -year sentence . Bail , $ 5,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison. This is the contemporary labor organization’s account. Indictment, bail and imposed sentence are distinguished from physical admission, actual release and complete time served; no missing custody endpoint is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=10
Contemporary labor and defense account, August 1925
Harrison George authored “Twenty Years After,” a critical assessment of the IWW on its twentieth anniversary. Thurber Lewis separately identifies him as an ex-class-war prisoner who presented the resolution for release of political and industrial prisoners at the June 28, 1925 founding conference of International Labor Defense. These reports document his writing and defense activity after imprisonment, not another arrest.
The Workers Monthly, August 1925, printed pages 447–448, 460–461, 476–477.
The Kansas City item describes George already released after serving his Leavenworth term and auctioning his government-issued overcoat for $12 for Russian relief. It corroborates completed release without supplying a new exact gate date.
The March1922 official report lists Harrison George in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act, etc. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 5 years Leavenworth; fined $30,000.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF8]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 8.
