Biography
Sigfrid Stenberg was the manager of the IWW paper Alarm, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sigfrid Stenberg was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $30,000. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from September 1917 to November 1919 and from April 1921 to November 1922. Stenberg had a wife and one child. Stenberg was released on the condition that he would be deported to Sweden and never return to the United States.
From Kenyon Zimmer's Red Scare Deportees index (kenyonzimmer.com, compiled from INS deportation case files): Born 1892, Sweden. Painter; editor. Migrated to US 1912. Wife and daughter in Sweden. Joined the IWW and became business manager of its Swedish-language newspaper Allarm in Minneapolis. Defendant in federal IWW trial 1917-1918; convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to ten years in prison and a $30,000 fine. Sentence commuted on condition of deportation; deported January 13, 1923.
Immediately joined the syndicalist Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC), which he viewed as a direct continuation of his activism on behalf of IWW and “the idea that cannot be downed.” In 1928 he became a journalist for the SAC’s daily newspaper Arbetaren, which he also edited from 1930 to 1940. In addition he served as chairman of Sweden’s Executive Committee of the Newspaper and Printing Federation from 1932 to 1942, and treasurer of the anarcho-syndicalist International Working Men’s Association from 1938 until his death in 1942.
INS file 54616/52
See also: Mark Wyman, Round-Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880-1930; https://www.sac.se/Om-SAC/Historik/Biografier/Stenberg,-Sigfrid-1892-1942
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as STENBERG, SIEGFRIED, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1917. Con- spiracy to violate Sections 6, 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act. Convicted , 10 year sen- tence . Bond, $ 10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison. Released on $ 10,000 bond pending appeal . 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=20
The March1922 official report lists Sigfried Stenberg in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy (espionage act, etc.). a sentence of August 30, 1918, 10 years at Leavenworth and fined $30,000.. 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. [PDF18]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 18.
