Benjamin Stolberg

Benjamin Stolberg (1891–1951) was an American journalist and labor activist.

Career

Stolberg worked as associate editor of The Bookman, as well as a columnist for leading US newspapers, such as The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune'.

Stolberg was a member of the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky and served on the Dewey Commission investigating the Moscow Trials.

Libel Suit

Stolberg wrote for the Saturday Evening Post – and from 1939 to 1945 he and its publisher, the Curtis Publishing, defended themselves from a libel suit brought against them by Jerome Davis for the September 2, 1939, article "Communist Wreckers in American Labor." Stolberg had called Davis a "Communist and Stalinist." Davis brought on ACLU co-founder Arthur Garfield Hays as his lawyer. Stolberg hired Louis Waldman, an "Old Guard" Socialist and anti-communist labor lawyer. The case went before the New York Supreme Court, with Justice John F. Carew presiding.[1][2][3]

On December 4, 1939, Davis brought a $150,000 libel suit in Manhattan against Curtis Publishing and Stolberg.[4] The trial included testimony from American Federation of Labor president William Green,[5] form YMCA president Sherwood Eddy,[3] Reverend Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise of the American Jewish Congress,[6] former CPUSA head Earl Browder,[7] former Saturday Evening Post editor William W. Stout and American Federation of Teachers vice president John D. Connors,[7] AFL vice president Matthew Woll,[8] American Mercury editor Eugene Lyons,[9] and Georgetown University president Dr. Edmund A. Walsh.[10] Davis' attorney Hays added $100,000 to the suit.[11] On June 9, 1943, a New York Supreme Court discharged the jury for failing to reach a verdict, and Justice Carew ordered the jury not discuss their deliberations.[12] On June 14, 1943, New York Supreme Court Justice Louis A. Valente denied a second motion for immediate retrial and set October 1, 1943, as date to assign retrial action.[13] Finally, on January 18, 1945, Davis settled with Curtis Publishing and Stolberg in court for $11,000 of his $250,000 libel suit before Supreme Court Justice Ferdinand Pecora.[14]

Legacy

Benjamin Stolberg's papers are housed at Columbia University in New York City.[15]

Works

Stolberg wrote histories of the labor movement, including:

  • The Economic Consequences of the New Deal (1935)[16]
  • Preliminary Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials (1937)[17]
  • The Story of the CIO (1938)[18][19]
  • Tailor's Progress: The Story of a Famous Union and the Men Who Made It (a history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) (1944)[20]
    • Ṿi azoy Sṭolbergs bukh "Teylors progres" zeṭ oys in di oygn fun a ḳloḳmakher (Yiddish translation) (1944)[21]

References
  1. Waggoner, Walter H. (24 October 1979). "Jerome Davis, Educator, 87, Dies; Active in World Peace Movement". The New York Times.
  2. Kutulas, Judy (1995). The Long War: The Intellectual People's Front and Anti-Stalinism, 1930-1940. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 49 (Stalin), 134 (non-communist), 202 (libel). Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  3. "Dr. Davis Defened by Sherwood Eddy: Former Teachers Union Head 'Always Attacked Evils of Communism,' Jury Hears". The New York Times. 20 May 1943.
  4. "Libel Suit Asks $150,000: Head of Federation of Teachers Sues on Magazine Article". The New York Times. 5 December 1939.
  5. "Dr. Davis Testifies in His Libel Action". The New York Times. 18 May 1943.
  6. "Fosdick, SS Wise Testify for Davis: Minister Says Plaintiff in Libel Suit 'Couldn't Be a Communist if He Tried'". The New York Times. 22 May 1943.
  7. "Browder Is Quoted in Davis Libel Case: Stolberg Says Communist's Books Were Part of His Basis for Calling Teacher a Red". The New York Times. 26 May 1943.
  8. "Woll Links Davis to Ranks of Reds: Even 'Some Communists' Thought Educator Was Party Member". The New York Times. 28 May 1943.
  9. "Soviet Leanings Seen in Book by Dr. Davis: Former Moscow Correspondent Points to 'Omissions' in Work". The New York Times. 2 June 1943.
  10. "Dr. Davis Classed As 96% Red Backer: Catholic Educator First Says Union Leader Is 10% Short of Favoring Communism". The New York Times. 3 June 1943.
  11. "$100,000 More Asked in Davis Libel Suit: Hays Reveals Court Granted Motion to Seek Higher Damages". The New York Times. 8 June 1943.
  12. "Jury Discharged in Davis Libel Suit". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 10 June 1943. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  13. "New Davis Please Denied: Justice Valente Acts on Second Motion for Libel Retrial". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 15 June 1943. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  14. "Libel Suit Settled: Dr. Jerome Davis Accepts $11, 000 in His $150,000 Suit". The New York Times. 19 January 1945.
  15. "Benjamin Stolberg Papers, 1914-1951: Finding Aid," Columbia University Libraries, Archival Collections.
  16. Stolberg, Benjamin; Vinton, Warren Jay (1935). The Economic Consequences of the New Deal. Harcourt, Brace. LCCN 35001989.
  17. Stolberg, Benjamin; Dewey, John; La Follette, Suzanne; Glotzer, Albert (1937). Commission of inquiry into the charges made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow trials. Harper & Brothers. LCCN 37029395.
  18. Stolberg, Benjamin (1938). The Story of the CIO. Viking. LCCN 38031214.
  19. Cantwell, Robert (23 February 1938). "The Communists and the CIO". Retrieved 11 December 2016. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. Stolberg, Benjamin (1944). Tailor's Progress: The Story of a Famous Union and the Men Who Made It'. Doubleday, Doran & Co. LCCN 44005351.
  21. Stolberg, Benjamin (1944). Ṿi azoy Sṭolbergs bukh "Teylors progres" zeṭ oys in di oygn fun a ḳloḳmakher. Translated by Joseph Breslaw. Ḳloḳ un sḳirṭ presers yunyon, loḳal 35. LCCN 61057998.

External sources


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