The Dreiser Committee was formed by the novelist Theodore Dreiser in 1931 as a reaction to the working conditions and labor situations of the eastern Kentucky coal miners. Alarmed by the shooting of Bruce Crawford, a member of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP), and concerned over the allegatons of the United Mine Workers of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the International Labor Defense's (ILD) contention that Harlan County, Kentucky, coal mine operators, in conjunction with county officials, were inflicting a "reign of terror" over mine workers, Dreiser convened a two day investigation of the alleged abuses. Dreiser, who at the time of the investigation was also the chairman of the NCDPP, appointed ten persons to this unofficial committee. The other committee members were: John Dos Passos, Samuel Ornitz, Lester Cohen, Bruce Crawford, Charles and Adelaide Walker, Harry Gannes, Melvin P. Levy, George Maurer, and Celia Kuhn. An eleventh person, Marie Pergain, attended but did not participate. Both the NCDPP and the ILD had strong ties to the American Communist Party. Therefore, in his own reaction to the committee, Governor Sampson, of Kentucky, asked Major George M. Chescheir of the state's National Guard, to escort the members around the region, and report on the activities of this private and unofficial, but highly visible and vocal committee's investigation.
From the description of Report on the observation of Dreiser Investigating Committee in Harlan and Bell Counties : 1931 Nov. 5-1931 Nov. 10. (Kentucky Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 37325301
