Steel. The poems in the book commemorated the 18 steelworkers killed by US Steel during the 1937 Little Steel Strike, and also discussed the Spanish Civil War. Following the publication of Steel 1937, Lowenfels quit writing poetry and would not resume for 17 years. In 1938, Lowenfels moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he became involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles of working people. He began writing for and became the editor of the Pennsylvania edition of The Worker (weekend edition of the Daily Worker), a position he held until 1953. As a journalist and editor, his work focused on the lives of working people, especially African Americans. He was active in various causes, including the campaigns to free the Scottsboro Boys and Willie McGee, an African American veteran accused of rape in Laurel, Mississippi. (McGee was later executed.) He also supported striking coal miners, and campaigned to draft Franklin Roosevelt for a fourth presidential term. During the early years of this period, he only worked half time for the paper, supplementing his income by selling intercommunication devices door-to-door. He later worked full-time for The Daily Worker and the Pennsylvania Edition of The Worker, and his family's income depended heavily on his wife's public school teaching salary. On Christmas Day, 1949, Lowenfels published an article in the Worker entitled "Santa Claus or Comrade X?," in which he mused about the "difficulties" of living with five women (his wife and four daughters) who spent their time washing, sewing and worrying about their clothes. The article was fiercely criticized by the paper's feminist readership, and the paper published several letters to the editor critical of the piece. Lowenfels' attempts to redeem himself in subsequent articles served only to anger his critics further, and the incident damaged his standing within the Party and the larger movement. The incident was examined as an example of efforts to confront male supremacy within progressive movements in a book by the historian Kate Weingard. In about 1951, Lowenfels suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered. He purchased a cabin in rural Weymouth Township, New Jersey, where he and his wife took up residence. Trial At 2 a.m. on July 29, 1953, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Lowenfels' cabin and arrested him. He was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the US government, a violation of the Smith Act. He was tried with five co-conspirators,