The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 12, 1926, Page 13

By MAX SHACHTMAN, EATH draws near to Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The de- nial of a new trial by the supreme court of Massachusetts hammers home again to the workers the terrible truth that the two innocent Kalian workers are but a step from the electric chair. It is now a month more than six years since they were arrested and charged with the murder of Frederick Parmentier, the paymaster of the Slater and Merrill Shoe Company of South Braintree, Massachusetts; they were also accused of having murdered Parmentier’s guard. And in the six years of their arrest and trial and ap- porching death sentence the workers thruout the entire world have ex- pressed their protest unmistakably, both in resolutions and in demonstra- tions, against the proposed legal as- eassination of these two formerly ob- scure workers. It was the splendid demonstrations of solidarity from all sections of the working class, in ell the countries of Europe and Latin America, that prevented the death of Sacco and Vanzetti when they were threatened a few years ago. And the growing protest that is now being re- mewed thruout the world may again stay the black hand of capitalist in fusttice. A few weeks before their arrest, the little group of Italian workers to which Sacco and Vanzetti belonged in East Boston got word of the arrest without warrant of law of two Italian printers in New York, Salsedo and Elia. The two printers were being held in the offices of the department of justice in Park Row, New York, and were being slated for deportation as dangerous reds. This was in the period of the heyday of Mitchel Pal- mer and his red raids and terrorism and frightfulmess, the days when the mildest progressives, protestants and liberals were bunched together with syndicalists, socialists, Communists and anarchists as “reds” and there- fore subject, if foreign born, to de- portation, and, if native, to the firing squad the next morning. His group sent Vanzetti to investi- gate what they could do for Elia and Salsedo. Vanzetti returned with an appeal for financial aid for the hiring of a_lawyer and a proposal to hold mass meetings at which to reise the Tequired sum. But a few nights be- fore the meeting, at which Vanzetti ‘was to be announced as a speaker, he and Sacco were arrested on the mur- der charge. On the same morning, the news came that Salsedo had been killed by a fall from the fourteenth story of the building in Park Row where he had been illegally held pris- oner by the D. of J. The latter stout- ly maintained that he had jumped out of his own accord; but those who have read the affidavit of Elia who was summarily deported, know that the worthy agents of the government department failed to extort any “con- fession” of guilt from the innocent Salsedo despite all their tortures which preceded his fall to the pave- ment below. It is sufficient to have the slightest knowledge of American frame-up methods to realize how, combined with the antired and anti-foreign sentiment which had been whipped up to a high pitch at that time, it was easy to secure a conviction against the two Italians in Massachusetts, A score of witnesses testified that neither of the two was within miles *of the murder when it occurred; but in this case their testimony was dis- ‘missed with the phrase: “You know, these wops stick together every time.” The star witnesses for the state were caught time and again in palp- able falsehoods, in conflicting testi- mony, to say the least. But neither did that sway the jurors or judge to a decent verdict, As the trial proceeded it no longer mattered whether or not the numer ous witnesses proved one thing or an- other about the real murder. Prose- eution and judge had swerved in their attack and demanded the heads of Vanzetti and Sacco because they were workers who had fought for their o class; because they were foreigners; and, ipso facto, enemies of society. The judge, in his remarks to the jury, waved the red, white and blue almost into tatters. He adjured the twelve peers of the defendants to do their duty to the “boys who had done their duty in Flanders Fields.” It was difficult to differentiate between the prosecution and the honorable oc- cupant of the judicial chair. The black-robed alguiefi of capitalist in- justice was as ready to pounce upon the victims as the attorneys for the state. Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty. Glee there was only in those quarters which had been troubled by the organizing work of the two Ital ian workers who were every ready to fight in behalf of their oppressed brothers and comrades. The shoe manufacturers were satisfied; the anti-red hysteria put two more notches into its gun. But the electro- By A VOYAGER. 7 young Brazilian, pampered son of a rich widow, was returning heme. Blond, tall and gay of heart, he had spent his time at college in “the states” breaking hearts and wast- ing his mother’s substance in riotous living. She had recalled him to Rio to keep him in range of the maternal eye lest worse befall. As the boat heaved onward day after day, headed southeast around the con- tinental triangle whose eastern tip at Pernambuco lies in a longitude a thousand miles east of New York, the young Brazilian whiled the weary hours away teaching the “unattached” girls the Charleston and bantering with two young Argentinians, also col- lege boys going home, concerning the coming war between Brazil and Ar- gentine. ee et nets nin ne nen nat ene Nap RS ran Par mn cine ee a nn SAT a HE war to be is accepted as & cer- tainty. The moot point is, who is going to win, Argentine or Brazil? The Brazilian boasted of the great resources of his country, the fourth largest country of the world, with more man power, besides, than Argen- tina hes. Brazil would crush Argen- tine with sheer force of numbers and, while doing so, sweep over little Uru- guay between as the hosts of Kaiser Wilhelm swept over Belgium in 1914. Especially if Uruguay aided the hated Argentina. A Uruguayan on the boat shrugged his shoulders and admitted his country’s weakness. The Argentine lads were equally as sure that Argentine would win the war. One of the two boys, the most forceful of them, felt his confidence enhanced by his own present triumph, he having won out against the Bra- zilian in a silent war for the clandes- tine favors of a Damish girl going south to marry her fiance, but who had succumbed, as many a maiden does, to the witchery of the ocean under tropical moons, and given her caresses if not her heart to the Argentinian in the propitious shadows of the lifeboat davits as the boat plunged forward during the tropic nights with the phos- phorus gleaming in the foaming tor- rent at the stern and the southern cross hung sparkling in the heavens above the bow. TP\HE Argentinian was just as eure that Argentine would win the war, Argentine was more progressive, and he ridiculed the motto, “Order and Progress,” as lettered on the Bra- macacos* have he The Argentinian boasted of the strength of the Argentine army and navy. He had a host of friends in the navy. An assignment of 150 naval officers from Argentine was in the United States learning the art of war from the “peaceful” Yankees, who also were assisting his country by loaning millions and millions of dollars to Ar- gentina, besides great industrial in- vestments, **Macaco,” a Showisedaey. term meaning & malformed of misbegotten hethg, or ape. nn en nn ne te cen eution of the two workers was delay- ed for a time. The mighty voice of protest from the throats of mililons, Mterally millions of workers ‘thruout the world, the huge demonstrations in front of every American embassy halted the legal murder for a few years. a we) appeal was filed for a new trial some three years ago. A hearing of the five motions for a new trial was set for January 11, 1926. And on May 12, 1926, the supreme court de- nied them a new trial. The impending menace of death to these two workers, who have fought bravely for their principles, denying nothing, withdrawing nothing, brought a new wave of protest and solidarity with their cause. The cause of labor’s struggle for freedom, happiness and union was what they stood for. And they were the symbol of the more bit- ter struggle for these things which is Life and Freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti! fought by the worker who comes te America from another land, The ap peal of their cause was so universal that it had been endorsed by anarch- ists and conventions of the A, F. of L, by socialists and Communists, by lib erals. churchmen and the I. W. W. With death looming grimly Van zetti appealed to the people, to the workers as the only ones who could save Sacco and himself. Internation- al Labor Defense, to which he ad- dressed his appeal, imediately an- swered with a call for aid and protest and solidarity. Meetings everywhere. A broad and enlightening stream of publicity. Resolution of support. Financial aid, As the judicial tools of a cynical capitalism goad these two workers to their death, labor must remember the last words of Bartolomeo Vanzetti: “They are preparing the fire on which to burn us alive. . . Only the peo ple can give us life and freedom, . .” Under the Southern Cross The more the United States exerts itself in favor of harmony between Peru and Chile the more strained become the relations between the two. Isn't it peculiar? “The monkeys,” he said, referring to the Brazilians, “thrive on bananas.” That would probably have settled the argument, but the Brazilian retorted that Argentine is one of Brazil’s best markets for bananas. “If monkeys thrive om bananas, then the Argen- tinians are monkeys, not we. We raise them, but you eat them.” A PROFESSOR of sociology from a Yankee college intervened. He was a gray-haired but well-preserved old codger, unready to yield to youth; as was apparent by his having brought on board in the status of wife a very young woman easy to look upon, whose anxious and perhaps indignant parents had to be placated by numer- ous radiograms, The* professor proved, to his own satisfaction, that there was no reason for enmity between Argentine and Brazil. Historically, he proved that neither country had wronged the other, Ethnologically, of course, both were inferior to the “higher” Anglo- Saxons, but both were Latins and should “get along together,” even if one spoke Spanish and the other Por- tuguese. Geographically they were. not quarreling about boundary lines. And as both countries were large and the populations small, if they would only practice birth control—a panacea for all social ills for the professor and his attractive companion—they had no reason for war. War between them was “quite illogical, quite. ” | i phe in spite of it being quite illogt- cal, the government of Brazil, con- trolled by British imperialism, and the government of Argentine, ruled by Walt Street bankers, proceed arming and preparing for conflict. All of which goes to show that whe Brazil and Argentine go to war witl each other neither will win the war. The victor will be either Morgan or Rothschild, either the United States or Great Britain will triumph, while the young Brazilians and the young Argen- tinjans will officiate as canmon fodder. This wag not, and is not expected to be, comprehensible to professors of sociology. ee anne Saceo and Vanzetti SACCO ae VANZETTI SHALL ET BE FREE ‘That the future shall be brighter, So wait a litt Six mi That the hangman shalt be mocked, Standing by an empty rope; That You shall yet be free! tonger— years Have a into dy pasted | The waters of the distant past That your burdens shall be lighter, ba pees recall; ‘ie we never forget a fighter ears that were black On the ee of Labors’ ranks; sown Mi gil ‘wet torture That you shail yet be free! mare— ° ry Sam ar of Eternal duration, Brothers, so loyal to our Cause, So fymreces, What matters a days? Comrades, who knew not the word:} Wai ~ “Pause.” The Giant of Labor rises, We greet you! And proclaims with voice of thunder And we promise And eyes that huri ti le 94 That Plutocracy shall be shocked, At_the Lords of Wea! That the cells shall be unlocked, * THAT YOU SHALL YET BE FREE! °