Biography
James Albert McGlynn was prosecuted under Montana’s sedition law for challenging wartime atrocity propaganda. Convicted in Carter County on November 21, 1918, he refused to pay a $500 fine and was jailed. He obtained release through habeas corpus and continued his appeal. The Montana Supreme Court reversed his conviction on June 27, 1921.
Work describes Nonpartisan League organizer J. A. “Mickey” McGlynn’s abduction in Miles City on April 7, 1918. Captors took him to the Elks Club basement, beat him and forced him onto a westbound train. This extrajudicial captivity preceded the later sedition prosecution; its exact duration is unknown. Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, title page and chapter10 pp133–147, original PDF page 13. Source: https://mhs.mt.gov/education/WWI/WorkChap10.pdf#page=13
Work reports that McGlynn was arrested on a sedition warrant on May 13, 1918 while testifying in the trial over his earlier kidnapping. Officers stopped him at gunpoint and jailed him. This is separate from both the April abduction and his later November imprisonment following refusal to pay a fine. Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, title page and chapter10 pp133–147, original PDF page 14. Source: https://mhs.mt.gov/education/WWI/WorkChap10.pdf#page=14
The history identifies J. A. “Mickey” McGlynn, a Sidney farmer and Nonpartisan League organizer. At the May 13, 1918 Miles City courthouse hearing into the April 7 loyalty-committee assault against him, County Attorney Frank Hunter had prepared a sedition warrant over his remarks about wartime atrocity propaganda. The sheriff served the warrant after McGlynn testified, and the account explicitly places him in a jail cell. This establishes an earlier detention than his November Carter County confinement, without continuity or a May release date.
