Biography
Karl Reeve was the editor of the Labor Defender. Karl Reeve was one of the leaders arrested in the November 1928 anti-war and "Free John Porter" demonstration in Washington, D.C., when police jailed some two dozen workers and several children. Some defendants received fine-or-jail sentences. Individual custody must be distinguished from the sentence imposed.
The Chicago report names Reeve with Thurber Lewis and John Hecker in an earlier street-speaking arrest at North Avenue and Orchard Street. It reports actual release at eleven o’clock after William F. Kruse and Norman Tallentire furnished $100 bail each. The time has no AM/PM specification and supplies no measured total; the scheduled Monday court appearance was prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-nat/v02b-n101-may-11-Chi-1925-DW-mfilm.pdf#page=2
The November 12 jail protest attributes crowded, vermin-infested First Precinct cells, restrictions on communication and refusal of food to the prisoners. The November 14 trial account describes Judge Hitts’s local park-ordinance prosecution for using the street between the War Department and White House and distinguishes six leaders’ $100-or-sixty-day alternatives from the others’ $50-or-thirty-day alternatives. Collective refusal-of-bail language conflicts with its individually reported Crouch appeal-bail release; it is not used to infer a new remand for every named defendant or turn nominal terms into actual service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n270-NY-nov-14-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1 Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n270-NY-nov-14-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5 Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n268-NY-nov-12-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
A lumber-workers resolution adopted April 5, 1931 and printed April 17 identifies Karl Reeve (also printed Carl Reeve) and George Powers as prosecuted following the February 25 Minneapolis relief demonstration. It demands withdrawal of their charges and release of the other arrested workers. This is distinct from Reeve's 1928 Washington case; the resolution does not establish an individual numerical sentence or release date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n093-NY-apr-17-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
The April 25 report places Reeve’s actual arrest on the Loray picket line the previous day and says he was held under$200 bail. This adds an April 1929 Gastonia detention without treating the amount as paid bail or merging other cities’ prosecutions. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n044-NY-apr-26-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s custody-date review: The contemporary November 11 dispatch names Karl Reeve among those arrested and jailed in the previous day's Washington demonstration. Arrest and initial jail entry are recorded as November 10, 1928, not December. The November 11 dispatch explicitly reports this organizer released on bail that day. That release ends the initial detention only, not the prosecution; any later custody remains unverified. A sentence length is not used as a measure of time actually served.
Sources: Daily Worker, November 12, 1928, pages 1 and 3; Daily Worker, November 14, 1928, pages 1 and 5, trial and bail follow-up.
1920s duration reconciliation: The source-supported interval 1928-11-10 through 1928-11-11 computes to 1 elapsed days (end minus start). This is the specific documented custody episode, not necessarily lifetime custody; earlier or later unquantified detention is excluded. November11 contemporary dispatch gives previous-day arrest/jailing and same-day bail.1day valid for initial detention only. The previously blank audit expectation was superseded by this explicit evidence-based calculation; no event dates are changed here.
Custody record
The June 13, 1924 Daily Worker reports Reeve confined in a Cicero cell after distributing Western Electric leaflets, then released on bond. This is a separate jailing from the 1928 Washington case; the cellmate’s two-day stay is not Reeve’s documented duration.
Sources: Source 1; Source 2; Source 3; Source 4; Source 5; Source 6.
