The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 22, 1928, Page 3

| | THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1928. SEVEN YEARSIN HELL. FOR SACCO,VANZETTI 1919 APRIL 5—The state supreme! court denies all pleas for a new! NOVEMBER 7—On the second] trial, anniversary of the Bolshevik Revo- : lution, agents of the Department of| AERIL 9—Judge Thayer hands | Justice, under instructions from A.|@0Wn a decision that Sacco and| Mitchell Palmer, attorney general, V@7zetti shall die in the electric swooped down on Communist meet- | Chair on July 10, 1927. ings, workers clubs, societies, ete.,) APRIL 10—International Labor | and jailed hundreds of workers as| Defense issues call for demonstra- a first step in the campaign of “red| tions of protest thruout the United raids.” | States, and appeals to the labor MARCH (During first week)—| movement of the rest of the world| Andrea Salsedo, Brooklyn printer, is/to join in a final mvoement to save | arrested for radical activities. Held) Sacco and Vanzetti from being mur- | Eeennen in a secret detention | dered. KY room of the Department of Justice in) APRIL 23—Gov. Alvan T. Fuller Park Row, New York. .|of Massachusetts institutes his star/ MAY 2-— Bartolomeo Vanzetti| chamber investigation committee to | bel deena i asa sd bape a give sanctity to the legal exécuion. | tive of the Galliani anarchist group! Tt includes President Lowell of Har- in New England to arrange for legal/ vard, and President Stratton of | defense for Salsedo. They had} ; That thas he dub boing subjected| Massachusetts Institute of Tech-| to third-degree tortures by the de-|"°°8¥- partment of justice. |, JUNE. 29—Gov. Fuller. postpones MAY 3—The body of Salsedo is|the date of execution to August 10. found crushed on the sidewalk be-| The postponement refers to Sacco, | » fore the Park Row building of the| Vanzetti and Madeiros, vee The Family of Bartolomeo Vanzetti: Labor Martyr By H. W. L. DANA. ILLAFALLETTO,” cried the railway guard at last, and as I stepped off the train at a little isolated station in northern Italy, I read on a sign the word that had been already imprinted on my mem- ory: “Villafalletto.” Often during the long seven years of his imprisonment, Bartolo- meo Vanzetti used to describe to me his native town. “Villafalletto rises on the right bank of the Magra in the shadow of a beauti- ful chain of hills,” he wrote jand | added, “The deep green of the north {Italian valleys is a living thing in my mind today.” Shortly before he was put to death he wrote to me urging me, if ever I were in Italy, to go and visit his family. Now! at last I was able to do so and had come to see the surroundings in which he had grown up and which had always meant so much to him. Twenty Years Ago. | As I got off on the platform, I Department of Justice. The impact} had crushed it to a pulp. It is now} generally agreed that Salsedo was} either pushed from the 14th floor of} the building or threw himself out) when he could endure the torture of | the Department of Justice agents no longer. | MAY 5—Nicola Sacco and Bar-| tolomeo Vanzetti are arrested on a} street car while going from West| Bridgewater to Brockton, Mass., while engaged in arranging protest | meetings among Italian workers of| the community following the death| of Salsedo. | 1920 AUGUST 16—Vanzetti is} charged with attempteing to rob a} cashier in Bridgewater on Decem- ber 24, 1919, and is sentenced to prison for from 12 to 15 years by Judge~Thayer in Plymouth. SEPTEMBER 11—Sacco and Vanzetti are accused of being the chief participants in the murder | JULY 7—A quarter of a million | workers strike in protest in New| York. Over 25,000 attend demon- stration in Union Square. JULY 17—Sacco and Vanzetti * x * (In the meantime, strikes, de- monstrations and meetings are taking place in every part of the world, demanding the release of | Sacco and Vanzetti, or the grant- | ing of a new trial. Tens of mil- | lions of workers are set. into mo- | tion against the planned assas- | | | begin a hunger strike. | | sination. Some of the worker's leading men and women of letters, arts and science join the world- wide protest - movement. Gov. Fuller's office is swamped with thousands upon thousands of let- ters, telegrams and cablegrams of protest.) | * AUGUST 8—The supreme ju-| dicial court of Massachusetts re-| eae | realized that it was here at this | same railroad station that Vanzetti had said goodbye to his family twenty years ago when he had left home being, as he put it, “drawn to America by my love of freedom.” The freedom for the working class which he had not found there, he had fought to give America, and America had given him death. From the railway station it was more than a mile’s drive up to the “VILLAFALLETTO,’ A VISIT | TO FAMILY OF VANZETTI VANZETT!I TO JUDGE THAYER “Tf it had not been for these things, I might have live out my life, talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have die unmarked, unknown, a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we hope to do such work for tolerance, for joostice, for man’s onderstanding of man, as now we do by an accident. Ou words—our lives—our pains— nothing! The taking of our lives—lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler—all! That last moment belong to us— that agony is our triumph!” er her death and the he used to stand and y at the bed of the with characteristic thoughtfu and naivete: “Give Professor white wine because suited to America: ness Dar better is , Since they not accustomed to drink.” With a ly did not share, did not |smile they offered. me my choice unde and Vanzetti’s views, but I from the well supplied wine f always felt their ardent confidence |the father. in his character and their complete Vanzetti’s Letter. conviction of his innocence. If they ‘After: supper, Tread them the ‘4.n0t raise their voices in stele utter.” SOpPers them the Gent outcries against the deep various letters I-had received from’ 4°) tio. or hie taking off, it Bartolomeo, and showed them the Corer ee ee eee of that pictures in the néwspapers, the car- “°°emec to me only @ park of thal Pr cit tuatiaitede ake ut S me dumb submission to unjust au- nae aan ieee Thad thority which I had already felt = one when I first spoke to these hum- in America and the variou tries of Europe. They showed me family port: tures of Bartolomeo at v: coun- turn village workers in Mussolini‘s But there was not a trace of any sense of shame, only of sie blé in pic- Ss ages f ; lent pride from earliest childhood, and a long F series of letters from him during, » His Last Letter. the seven years of the trial—much, This was brought out clearly {when they came to read aloud to the most complete record of his thoughts that exists and one which|™e Vanzetti’s last letter of which that occurred in South Braintree|fuses to grant a writ of habeas! on April 15, 1920, where, near the| corpus in order to halt the execu-| shoe factory of Slater and Morrill | tion. Judge Thayer again refuses | Co., Ferdinand Parmenter and his | to grant a new trial. gvard, Alexander Berardelli, were | AUGUST killed. The $1000 payroll in their tetore the ti possession had been stolen. 1921 |thruout the world are demonstrat- A | ing their hatred to the Massachu- MAY 31—Sacco and Vanzetti are| setts murderers—on the _ streets, brought to trial in Dedham, Mass.,| Goy, Fuller continues the torture of again before Judge Thayer. They the two workers by again postpon- are indicted on a charge of first | ing the date of execution to August | degree murder. | 22. | 10—Twenty minutes ime set for the execu- tion, and while millions of workers | JULY 14—After five hours, the | jury returns a verdict of guilty of | murder in the first degree against | Sacco and (Vanzetti. OCTOBER 12—The workers of | Paris conduct a huge protest de-j} monstration against the verdict. | Twenty workers are wounded when | the demonstration is broken up by the police. (It is impossible, here to | list the tens of thousands of meet-| ings, demonstrations, strikes, etc., that took place in every corner of the world in solidarity with the two martyrs.) OCTOBER 30—Workers in Cuba, in a demonstration before the American consulate, demand the re- lease of Sacco and Vanzetti. DECEMBER 24—Judge Thayer refuses to grant a plea for a new trial. 1922 JANUARY 1—The defense an- nownces that it is in possession of | new evidence to prove the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti. MARCH 23—The workers of Sofia, Bulgaria, warn the American embassy that they will not remain silent if the American capitalist | class determines to murder Sacco and Vanzetti. 1923 FEBRUARY 16—Sacco ‘begins a hunger strike in the Norfolk County | Jail which lasts 30 days. | 1924 OCTOBER 1—Judge Thayer de- nies five motions or the defense to challenge the verdict of the jury in the Sacco-Vanzetti case. NOVEMBER 21 William Thompson, former Boston district attorney, assumes charge of the de- fense. The defense enters a bill of exceptions to make possible the in- stitution of a new trial. 1926 JANUARY 10—Celestino Ma.-)| deiros, a sentenced criminal, de- clares that he knows that the mur- der of Parmenter and Berardelli was committed by members of the | notorious Morelli gang of Provi- dence, R. I. ‘ MAY 12—The state supreme} court denies a new trial to Sacco and Vanzetti on the basis of the bill | of exceptions. The court maintains that they were legally convicted. ° SEPTEMBER 13—The defense demands a new trial on the basis of the Madeiros confession. ' OCTOBER 21—Judge Thayer de- | nied the motion for a new trial. NOVEMBER 19—Twenty thou- | sand workers gather in Madison Square Garden, New York, to de- mand a new trial for Sacco and Vanzetti. 1927 JANUARY 27—Defense attor- neys argue before the judges of the state supreme court and demand new mn on the basis Judge AUGUST 11—Judge Sanderson | decides that the question of a new) trial*must be decided. by the full, court. Vanzetti ends his hunger) strike. | AUGUST 15—Sacco ends his, hunger strike, because he'is threat- ened with forcible feeding. AUGUST 16—The defense ar- gues before the supreme judicial court for a new trial, demonstrating { the prejudice of Judge Thayer. AUGUST 19—The court denies the pleas of the defense, | AUGUST 20—Justice Oliver | Wendell Holmes, “liberal” member | of the United States supreme court, denies the plea of the defense for | a writ of habeas corpus. Fuller re- fuses to grant any further post-| ponement. | AUGUST 21—Louis Brandies, | another “liberal” member of the| U.S. supreme couft, also denies the | pleas of the defense attorneys. AUGUST 22—Rosa, wife of Sac- | (co, and Luigia, sister of Vanzetti, | approach Gov. Fuller for last pins lute action. He dedlines to act. | er. | A few minutes after midnight: the execution. The current of death is sent thru the tortured bodies of the workers. The Puri- | tan hyenas of Massachusetts | capitalism have won their vic- | tory. ' Above, in the foreground, is the father of Bartolomeo Vanzetti. sis Behind him are Vanzetti’s mother, his sisters, Luigia and Vincenzina and his younger brother, Ettore. The picture was taken in Vanzetti's native town of Villafalletto. HOW PALMER TRIED TO FRAME MARTYRS By ART SHIELDS ;. His cell neighbor talked to him (Federated Press). in the corridor when they were both MET Nick Sacco first eight years| !et out for an exercise period. The years ago. He had already been man claimed he was arrested in a caged six months and prison paller payroll case like Nick, that he was hed set in. Nick was muscular and|®, Tadical, too, an I. W. W. from supple, but lack of exercise and agent ide iat nO ts ih prison food were telling om him. Dre a ene tee eee ony On my’ second yisit’ to“ Dedham friendly feeling for wobblies. How- jail, just after Thanksgiving Day, ever this fellow did not ring true. 1920, a department of justice spy| A little later the stranger sug- who had been put in the cell ad-|gested Nick ask his radical friends joining Sacco was discovered, Fred)|to bring dynamite and blow up the Moore, Nick’s attorney, was along.) prison. Then Nick became pretty Moore had uncovered spies before| sure the man was crooked. At this when he was handling cases for|point he noticed that’ the prison western loggers and oil workers and/| authorities had prolonged the exer-| the textile workers of Lawrence,| cise time to two hours. That looked| Mass., and his quick thinking was| queer. | successful n ths emeirgency. } wipher ais * # | Nick was nervous when they led| MOORE listened to the story, then him through the barred doors of the |! acted like a flash. With a dis- corridor to the central waiting room| arming smile he was at the keeper’s of the prison. He bent forward and/|side, engaging him it careless con- whispered his suspicions as the fat versation. In another minute, be- gray old keeper sat sleepily some fore theold fellow woke up to the | distance away by the desk where the situation, Moore was copying an|mercy from his class enemies, and prisoner’s entry book rested. Nick | Italian name from the prison book. said a strange Italian was put into, There was a fat-handed attempt of| the next cell. That stranger, posing the keeper to get the book away, but) as a fellow radical, sought to incite| the western lawyer’s hand was too him to enter into a bombing con-| strong. The strange Italian was) spiracy. lcharged with attempted assault and robbery, but no magistrate was listed. committing hill town of Villafalletto itself. I got into a covered wagon crowded| ettempt to write the full story of with villagers who had returned by |his life. They told me of the ter the train and the wagon made its/rible days of suspense they h way slowly up the winding road to-| passed and the night of anguis wards the little town among the| waiting for the final news. They foothills. Already the sun had set} spoke too, of the family of Sacco at behind the mountains and the night | Torre Maggiore in the extreme| was fast coming on. southeast of Italy as they were in| Villafalletto and Dedham. the extreme northwest. Half the| At length we rattled across the| night was spent in our talk before| little bridge over the Magra’ and|we finally went to bed. | passing through an old gateway) The next day they took me out like that of a castle entered the| of doors, through the courtyard sur- town of Villafalletto. The one cen-| rounded by galleries and through a| tral street with the stream of wats| lane to the vegetable garden where | er flowing through the middle of| Bartolomeo had told me he used to it at which the women washed their | love to work as a boy. Here now clothes offered a striking contrast|his young brother, Ettore, was at to the wide lawns of the bourgeois | work and pointed out with pride the | Jestates in the town of Dedham,| trees Bartolomeo had planted. The| Massachusetts, where Vanzetti had| cousins told me of the sympathetic been condemned to death. I thought | fondness he had felt for all living once more of the contrast in the|things in this garden. It all bore courtroom between the bronzed fig-| out Sacco’s spontaneous character- ure of Vanzetti himself and the/ization of Vanzetti as “the man shrivelled form of the New England kind to all.” judge. In the two towns as in the 4 evo ies, Tein "labor and” Arcot: ane ever? must be taken into account in any they allowed me to make a copy. It was a letter written just before s death—a ‘etter full of calm preparation and proud strength. It was dated: “The New Era: The | First Day” and was in part as fol- lows: “I am calm and prepared for all that may come. I swear to you my complete innocence of the crimes attributed to me and of all other crimes. Do not feel ashamed of me. A day will come in which my life will be known such as it really was and then all you who call yourselves by the name of Vanzetti will be, happy and proud of that name. Already all those who know me love and respect me. I have inscribed my gravestone with twenty years of life consecrated to the pursuit of justice and liberty for all. If I must now die through fault of the greatest injustice of men and of circumstances, I can rest as- sured that no one of those who have been my enemies will be mourned as I shall be....I shall That stool-pigeon was placed in| C@n capital seemed face to face. the cell next to Sacco at the order| As I alighted then from the car-| of the department of justice and|Tiage and set foot in this town, I) District Attorney Katzmann. A con-| found myself trembling with shame | fidential agent of Moore got that and indignation for my own coun- from the sheriff’s office soon after.| try. Here was I from Massachu- It was a definite link connecting A.| setts, venturing to come here. At Mitchell Palmer with the prosecu-| the inn, said to be the oldest in tion of the two workingmen and in| Italy, I asked for Vanzetti’s home. pamphlets ,news stories and maga-|I was conscious at once of pene-| zine articles that followed, the at-/trating glances and yet a avarm | tack was driven home. |sympathy. There had been around | I met Vanzetti about the same|the whole world a great rending time at Charlestown penitentiary. Ijcry at the execution of Sacco and met him again during the years, as| Vanzettizthe voice of an “inter- he grew older in body but not in|national of justice” such as the| spirit in his Massachusetts cage.| world had never heard before. One day he summed up his two chief} In Czechoslovakia in one of the bidity si gee cities the central square that had “Tf I am ever free,” he said, “I| ten years ago been christened “Wil-| want to live in the open air close| son Square” has now been tendmadd to nature and T want to live for the/ “Sacco and Vanzetti Square.” In social replution.” Moscow there is a “Sacco and Van- Vanzetti was more given to ab-| zetti Theatre” with large portraits tract thought than his comrade; he! of them on the facade. Instances read more and he wrote more. But of this sort can be found today in Saceo’s last days showed to the| Very country showing that their memory is still alive. “Gentle, Thoughtful.” Yet the-inhabitants of this little town of Villafalletto seemed un- aware of the world importance their Both| Bartolomeo Vanzetti had come to/| hold. They pressed around me with) questions about the trial and the| execution in America and volun-| teered all sorts of information about Vanzetti’s life at Villafalletto. One old woman remembered him as the} world a realistic outlook that any revolutionist might be proud of. He saw that there was no hope for yet he was entirely fearless. met their deaths with supreme beauty and courage—yet differently: Vanzetti with forgiveness for his enemies, Sacco with defiance. ONE YEAR HAS PASSED Fast! Fast! One year has past! Dead! Dead! You will reborn never! Who said, “There will be resurrection”? Why did we not see any of those Who were willing to take your places? What are the uses of petition, protest and demonstration? They may now refire the cold ashes of our martyrs, And can never soften the murderers’ hearts. What are the uses of tears, sighs and complaints? They may expect the embraces of their dear mothers, And can never get pardons from Have you ever seen the sheep and pigs being dragged to the axe? How pitifully thy ery! How terribly they tremble! Yet men all enjoy their delicious flesh, just the same! Sheep, pigs, workers, foreigners! Your flesh is fresh, Your blood is sweet, Your sweat is fertile. O Vanzetti! Did you say: And haven't anything in th Isn't it a great insult to (In Memory of Sacco and Vanzetti). By H. T. TSAING O martyrs! Dead! Dead! You were dead. . Never, never Live again. Fast! fast! But one year has past. Years are piling up the immortal! O martyrs! Look at the autumn flowers They are dying! Dying! dying! But The trees, the roots from which The flowers are coming, Never, never die! When the spring comes gentlemen the blood-thirsty masters. We shall again see the pretty flowers Blooming, Perfuming, Salute to the warming sun; Wrestling with the mild wind And kissing with the charming butterflies. by there dropped in an aunt, some * O martyrs! young cousins, and a woman who,| Dead, dead. You are dead! Vanzetti had told me, had been af- | But ter his mother’s death a sort of ‘ Your human tree and your human root “I wish to forgive some people for what they are noW doing to me”? Certainly, you can forgive them as you like, But: you are the Wop, the fish peddler, the worker. k, Is budding, Blooming, sisted in giving me things to eat| And growing! and drink. In the letter of intro- Ke Listen to the war cries of your living brothers! duction which Vanzetti had given to your honorable master? ‘This is the incense we are burning for youl me to bis family he had written wad ey : He eae aed Pe Toi most gentle and thoughtful boy their town had ever known. One of | his schoolmates told me of his bril- liance in his studies and of his un- quenchable ardor for reading. One and all in Villafalletto were con-| vinced of his complete innocence of the crime attributed to him. But I found in them a sort of mute ac- ceptance of injustice which I came to feel characteristic of poor work- jers like these under a fascist re- | gime. They pointed out to me across the darkened street the yellow lights from the windows of Vanzetti’s house. There I found his family warm-hearted in their hospitality through all the anguish of their suf- fering. I came to see in them the | very traits I had learned to love) in him, His two sisters, Luiga and | Vincenzina, were kindly thoughtful | and alert in interest. His younger | brother, Ettore, was a shy but) friendly lad. The father,.a fine old, Italian with a face that seemed carved out of hardest granite, came in later. He was courteous and kind but seemed a broken man, un-! able to talk about the case and sat) throughout our conversation omin-/ ously silent. From neighboring) houses in the course of the evening | 1 bricks of your lofty monument. second mother to him. | They led me to a table and in-| ti oy Pw - ie teetadememelimmet tenance ac nrnrne The sisters showed me the room where their mother had died while Bartolomeo was a boy and I re- : membered his account of his pathe-| ed the dignified, ex- tic attempts to stop all sounds that /|alted look on the faces of the fam- might disturb her during her sick-| ily as they stood listening to the ness, rushing out into the street to| reading of this letter, I felt confi- implore noisy groups of young men| dent that they had lifted up their please to go elsewhere. We saw) spirits and that they were proud to the forest where he used to wander| bear the name of Vanzetti. fight to the last moment in order Sacco and Vanzetti By HENRY REICH, JR. A year has passed—and these two shining names Still move like fire across the earthly lands, And weld our brotherhood in singing flames And join again the countless workers’ hands. These names, withstanding all the blows of fate, Now rise immortal from the earth again To mock the masters’ venom and their hate, To live forever in the hearts of men. Vanzetti! Sacco! These two names shall spell Another word for revolution now, Upon the winds these names shall rise and swell, Upon men’s lips they shall be like a vow. For when the revolution’s mighty tide Shall sweep the earth and rend reaction’s gloom, Our crimson banners then afolt in pride Shall bear these names that seal the masters’ doom! . \. Books on Sacco and Vanzet The Cast of Sacco and Vanzetti By FELIX FRANKFURTER $1.00 Sacco and Vanzetti Cartoon-Book By FRED ELLIS 25 cents Saeco and Vanzetti: Labor’s Martyrs By MAX SHACHTMAN 25 cents The Life and Death. of Sacco and Vanzetti By EUGENE LYONS 5 $1.50 The Sacco-Vanzetti Anthology of Verse ( 25 cents ALL THE ABOVE CAN BE SECURED FROM WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS _ 43 EAST 125th STREET, NEW YORK CITY