Biography
Sam Scarlett was a machinist and IWW lecturer from Chicago, Illinois. Sam Scarlett was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to twenty years in prison and fined $20,000. He served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from September 7, 1918, to January 31, 1923. Scarlett's sentence was commuted when he agreed to be deported to England and swore never to return to the United States. In 1939, the FBI reopened its files on Scarlett when it was rumored that he had been arrested in Canada for helping to publish certain articles in The Clarion, a pro-communist newspaper in Toronto. Incredibly, the FBI continued its search for Scarlett from 1940, when he was rumored to have died, until 1959, simply to confirm his death. Scarlett's FBI record, released in 1990, was riddled with withheld and deleted pages.
From Kenyon Zimmer's Red Scare Deportees index (kenyonzimmer.com, compiled from INS deportation case files): Originally a member of the International Association of Machinists, he was radicalized and joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911, becoming a prominent speaker and organizer reportedly arrested about 160 times. Among these arrests was his detention during the 1916 strike on the Mesabi Iron Range on murder charges that were later dropped. A defendant in the federal IWW trial of 1917–1918, he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a $20,000 fine. His sentence was commuted in 1923 on condition of deportation, and he was deported to England in April of that year.
That August he emigrated to Canada and resumed organizing for the IWW in the Vancouver area, especially among miners. Canadian authorities attempted to deport him in 1924 using evidence supplied by US immigration officials, but the case was dropped. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Canada. He became an organizer for the party’s Mine Workers’ Union of Canada and was arrested in connection with the violent Estevan strike of October 1931, receiving a one-year sentence that damaged his health. Around 1938 he became chairman of the party in Toronto and of its newspaper The Clarion. When the party was outlawed in 1940, Scarlett lived underground and clandestinely entered the United States, where he remained illegally until his death in 1941.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as SCARLETT , SAM, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1917. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6, 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act . Convicted , 20 year sentence . Bond, $ 10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison. The roster is a contemporary labor-defense account. Its indictment, bail and imposed-term information is kept distinct from actual admission/release and complete time served; no missing gate date is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=19
The editorial reports Scarlett, described as a deportee after five years at Leavenworth, speaking at the World War Veterans amnesty meeting. This documents actual freedom by the meeting; the approximate service statement is not a new exact measured total or departure date.
Thompson individually names Sam Scarlett among organizers arrested during the 1916 Mesabi Range strike on a theory that their speeches caused deputies’ deaths. The book describes a defense arrangement under which three miners pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the organizers went free. It supplies no personal physical-arrest or release day and no actual detention total; no date is copied from the strike’s ending.
Fred W. Thompson and Jon Bekken, The IWW: Its First 100 Years, physical PDF pages 129. Source179 SHA256 aa128f62023cae68c84b07606880c2cb665c80266f78854951758922bab40afa.
The March1922 official report lists Sam Scarlett in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Seditious conspiracy. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 20 years at Leavenworth; fined $10,000.. 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. [PDF17]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 17.
