Biography
Emma Brletic participated in the 1933 Ambridge steel strike in Pennsylvania. She was convicted of inciting to riot and sentenced to two years in Beaver County Prison and a $500 fine. The Superior Court affirmed her conviction on April 9, 1934; her appeal had stayed enforcement of the sentence. Brletic was subsequently confined in the county prison. Judge William Appleton McConnel released her on parole in February 1935 after a defense campaign.
The Daily Worker of February 2, 1935, page 3, reports that the Pennsylvania State Pardons Board notified the Frankfeld Liberation Committee on February 1 that it would consider pardon applications for Phil Frankfeld, Emma Brletic and Dan Benning on February 20, announce the result by February 23, and, if hearings were granted, hold them no earlier than March 20. This documents a planned pardon process and a defense campaign, not an actual pardon, hearing or physical release on any of those future dates.
The November 12, 1934 Daily Worker names her in the Frankfeld-Egan Liberation Committee’s campaign for prisoners convicted of rioting in the 1933 Ambridge steel strike. It reports a future Frankfeld hearing, without supplying a new arrest or an individual discharge date for Brletic. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n270-NY-nov-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 20, 1934 Daily Worker reports an appellate affirmation and planned further appeals in the campaign involving her, Jim Egan, Phil Frankfeld and Dan Benning. The body prints variant spellings Brletich and Grletich and connects her prosecution with Ambridge picket-line activity. This corroborates the existing steel-strike case without adding another arrest or measuring service from the appellate date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n173-jul-20-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Daily Worker, July 16, 1934, page 1: The July 15 Pittsburgh report says the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the sentences of Egan, Frankfeld, Emma Brletich, Dan Benning and Paul Verkovich. It prints Emma Brletich among the three Ambridge defendants whose sentences were affirmed. The ILD intended a further Pennsylvania Supreme Court appeal and, if necessary, US Supreme Court review. Affirmation and an intended further appeal do not establish a fresh arrest or complete actual service. The separate Rankin defendants' new trials are not applied to the Ambridge defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n169-sect-one-jul-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 5 prints Emma Breltic, aged forty, actually serving a two-year term at Blawnox Workhouse, Allegheny County, for inciting to riot after running an Ambridge strike-relief kitchen. It reports a $500 fine and $200 costs, fourteen pounds lost in the first weeks, lack of medical attention, an unemployed husband and children aged six and nine. The spelling variant is preserved within the existing Ambridge identity. These are reported prison conditions and imposed penalties, not completed service or an exact new admission. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n302-Nat-dec-19-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, February 2, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 16, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 19, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
In her first-person letter in Labor Defender, Emma Brletic states that she physically left Beaver County Prison on February 19, 1935, after serving four and a half months. She describes the release as unconditional and recalls the imposed two-year term and $500 fine. Her account is preserved as the source for the precise release day and its qualification, without deriving an admission date or converting an approximate month count into exact days. Labor Defender, May 1935, printed page 20.
