Biography
Scott Nearing was a radical economist, pacifist, and later a founder of the American back-to-the-land movement. Dismissed from two universities for his politics, he wrote the antiwar pamphlet "The Great Madness" (1917) for the People's Council of America. In 1918 he was indicted under the Espionage Act for obstructing recruitment; at his 1919 trial the jury acquitted Nearing personally even as it convicted his publisher, the American Socialist Society — a notable free-speech verdict.
The October 18 issue refers retrospectively to Nearing’s arrest at Wheeling. It does not date the event or give a measured stay; this is not treated as the same episode as his earlier Espionage Act prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n247-NY-oct-18-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The Daily Worker’s June 13, 1926 issue carried a Boston report dated June 11 about suppression of public meetings. It recalled that Scott Nearing had been arrested, later released and permitted to speak outdoors when Paine Memorial Hall was closed to him during the Anthony Bimba controversy. This Boston arrest is distinct from Nearing’s earlier Espionage Act prosecution and the separately reported Wheeling arrest. The brief report supplies neither the arrest and release dates nor a statutory charge, trial outcome or prison term.
The Daily Worker, June 13, 1926, page4, Boston Mayor Bans Freedom of Speech.
