Biography
Powers Hapgood was a Harvard-educated coal miner, Socialist and labor organizer, who was arrested and jailed numerous times over his life for his activism. During the Somerset County Pennsylvania coal strike Hapgood was reportedly arrested more than a dozen times for leading marches and entering company-owned mining towns to organize or picket. During the Sacco–Vanzetti trial, he was arrested several times for attempting to speak or organize demonstrations including one arrest where he was committed to the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Hapgood later became a prominent CIO organizer and served two months in 1937 for leading a Lewiston–Auburn Maine shoe strike in violation of a court injunction banning strike activities.
The July 31 Camden dispatch in the Daily Worker of August 1, 1936, page 2, documents an additional RCA-strike prosecution. It reports original bail of $10,000, a first habeas-corpus reduction to $5,000 and Federal Judge William Clark's further reduction to $100. Defense attorney Abraham Isserman argued that Hapgood represented the Committee for Industrial Organization and had not even been on the picket line; Clark criticized attempts to enlist courts in labor disputes. The same page names Hapgood chair of a developing Citizens Defense Committee. These are bail and defense developments, not a conviction or proof of release, and belong to the 1936 RCA case rather than the later Maine shoe-strike imprisonment.
The August 30, 1935 Voice of the Federation reports Hapgood jailed in Terre Haute for remarks critical of the military while visiting Leo Vernon, who had been jailed after a mass-meeting speech. The report names militia major E. E. Weimar but supplies no individual arrest day, release or served term. This episode is separate from Hapgood’s other recorded prosecutions. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19350830.pdf#page=4
The Daily Worker of July 28, 1936, page 1, in a Camden July 27 dispatch, individually names Powers Hapgood and Harry P. Harmer among eighteen RCA-strike prisoners on hunger strike in Camden jail. A deputy said they refused supper the previous night, while the report calls the strike declared that day; this ambiguity is preserved without assigning an exact start day. The $160,000 bail figure is an aggregate for the group, not an individual bond. This corroborates actual detention in the existing RCA case; it gives no new arrest, discharge, final sentence or completed custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n180-NY-jul-28-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The March 7 Wilkes-Barre dispatch says the Hapgoods had been in Luzerne County jail since Sunday, March 4, and reports Judge William S. McLean granting habeas writs with a hearing set for the next day. It gives $1,000 bail at this stage, differing from amounts in the later accounts already recorded. The headline’s freed wording and procedural writ are not used to replace the separately recorded March 8 physical release or four-day stay. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n057-NY-mar-08-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Kendrick’s Camden account says Hapgood was seized while leading a peaceful shipyard-workers’ march carrying Release the Prisoners placards. A disorderly-conduct charge became riot, with $5,000 bail, despite the officer’s admission that he saw no riot. It reports the remaining twenty-four detainees, including Hapgood and Harmer, hunger-struck two days and were released after supporters posted $185,000 bail. The article supplies no exact gate-release day and does not establish all their custody lasted only two days. New Masses, August 11, 1936, original PDF page 11. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n07-aug-11-1936-NM.pdf#page=11
The Socialist Call, June 26, 1937, page 12, reports Hapgood still confined at Androscoggin County jail for violating the Maine shoe-strike injunction, alongside other organizers under six-month terms. Norman Thomas describes his jail visit, the obstacles to appellate review during court vacation, the prisoners' health and morale, and the shoe workers' determination to win an organizing election. The same page announces Thomas's Lewiston mass meeting. The six months is the imposed term and this issue does not document physical discharge or override his later measured service. The printed portrait is identified as Powers Hapgood; his existing photograph is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%203-119.pdf
Contemporary case reporting
The September 4, 1937 Socialist Appeal, page 8, says Hapgood and other Maine shoe-strike leaders had recently been released from jail. This contemporaneous report confirms that his release preceded the issue date, but supplies no exact discharge day. It does not improve the already recorded July 1937 release to day precision.
Terre Haute acquittal reported by December 1935
The conference for recognition of political prisoners sent greetings to Powers Hapgood and other Socialist workers recently acquitted in Terre Haute, Indiana. The conference was held on Sunday, December 8, 1935, the same day as Angelo Herndon’s New York welcome. This confirms that the acquittal had occurred by that conference, but gives neither its exact date nor individual physical custody dates. It is not converted into a release date or an additional completed jail term.
Daily Worker, December 11, 1935, original PDF page 4, Conference Maps Fight For Political Prisoners.
Daily Worker, August 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Associated Press Lewiston dispatch dated April 22, 1937 reports Captain Joseph Picard arrested Powers Hapgood, William J. Mackesy and Ernest Henry at their hotel that day on a riotous-assault warrant connected to the stoning of state police Lieutenant George Fowler the previous day. It places the arrests within the 6,400-worker Lewiston–Auburn shoe strike, the injunction and National Guard deployment. The report establishes actual arrest, not guilt, discharge or a complete custody total. This criminal accusation is distinct from the separately recorded later contempt sentence.
A July 23 Camden United Press item says CIO organizer Powers Hapgood was held under $5,000 bond for the county grand jury on riot charges connected with the RCA strike. This adds the grand-jury/bond stage of the existing Camden case, not a second arrest.
Socialist Call, June 26, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Aaron Levenstein's July 31, 1937 account identifies Powers Hapgood and attorney Sidney Grant among the Maine shoe-strike defendants sentenced to six months for violating an injunction. It reports that they were out on bail pending appeal after having served "some two months." Bail had initially been denied; Arthur Garfield Hays obtained their release through a writ of habeas corpus while acting for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Workers' Defense League. The reported service is approximate and distinct from the six-month sentence. The article supplies no exact admission or discharge day and does not establish a measured sixty-day total.
Socialist Call, July 31, 1937, original PDF page 2, Strike for Closed Shop Illegal in N.J..
The October issue reports Powers Hapgood’s September 5 Terre Haute arrest on vagrancy charges after protesting the arrests of Madison organizer Leo Vernon and Labor and Socialist Defense Committee secretary Aaron Gilmartin. It calls this Hapgood’s second jailing in two weeks and connects the arrests to renewed Columbia Stamping picketing under martial law. No physical release day or completed duration is supplied.
