Biography
John Dos Passos was named among those indicted for criminal syndicalism after the November 1931 Dreiser committee investigation of hunger and repression in the Harlan and Bell County coalfields of Kentucky. The November 17 Daily Worker says prosecutor W. A. Brock planned to seek extradition. It lists Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, Charles Rumford Walker, Adelaide Walker, Marie Pergain, Samuel Ornitz, Celia Kuhn, George Maurer, M. P. Levy and Harry Gannes; the introductory counts do not agree neatly with that ten-name roster. The first six are described as committee visitors to the mines; Gannes is identified with the Daily Worker. The indictment and extradition plan do not establish an actual arrest, jail admission, conviction or term served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n276-NY-nov-17-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 1931 issue identifies Dos Passos as a representative at the June 14 Workers Cultural Federation conference and names him among writers helping organize the Prisoners Relief Fund with the International Labor Defense. The stated goals were five dollars monthly for each prisoner and twenty dollars for dependents; these were intended relief amounts, not an individual prison term or proof that each payment occurred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1931/v07n02-jul-1931-New-Masses.pdf#page=41
