Biography
Tom Scott was an International Labor Defense organizer prosecuted for organizing the defense of workers arrested during the South River needleworkers strike. His trial began February 20, 1933 before Judge Lyons. The February 23 Daily Worker reported that a jury convicted him of subornation of perjury late February 21 and that he was jailed. Sentencing on the following Friday was still prospective; seven years was reported exposure, not an imposed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n046-NY-feb-23-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The Young Worker of April 1, 1933, printed page 2, identifies Scott as a Young Communist League member helping the International Labor Defense defend workers prosecuted after the 1932 South River strike. It reports him still jailed after a subornation-of-perjury conviction and facing a possible long prison term. This adds political affiliation and confirms the report’s continuing-custody claim; the unspecified possible term is not recorded as an imposed sentence, and the publication day is not an exact release or booking date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/youngworker/v11n01-10-yw-1933-Jan-June.pdf#page=10.
Labor Defender, May 1934: The roster gives a two-to-three-year imposed sentence and quotes Scott reporting that the institution’s Board of Managers voted to bar Labor Defender. This is a contemporary account of prison censorship, not a new prosecution or custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n05-may-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
Page 3's August 17 Newark dispatch explicitly reports Scott released August 16 and identifies him as a YCL member imprisoned over the South River strike. It describes an eighteen-month jail sentence, differing from his first-person two-to-three-year imposed-term account; the disagreement is preserved and the rounded figure is not entered as measured uninterrupted service. The explicit discharge date now refines the previously year-only release. A welcome carnival was still prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n198-aug-18-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The March 3 New Brunswick dispatch reports a two-to-three-year penitentiary sentence imposed on the South Raritan ILD organizer on a vagrancy accusation. An appeal was being prepared. No complete service or physical discharge is established. Daily Worker, March 4, 1933, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n054-NY-mar-04-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Sources
Labor Defender's September 1936 article "The C.I.O. and Jersey Justice" states that Tom Scott was released from prison in 1934 while discussing New Jersey labor prosecutions. It supplies no release month or day and no measured total time in custody.
Labor Defender, September 1936, PDF page 14 (printed page 12).
Daily Worker, August 18, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
