ELEVAN ON TRIAL
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
Eleven on Trial Question Constitutionality of Smith Sedition Act By William E. Bohn 1H A FXJWArtMf 6Y TRIALS, invMfigtflddf and pfopagTHtda the people of the United States are trying to make...
...therefore, we had more neett for passing lews and taking action against Internal enemies...
...To one sitting in the courtroom day after day, trying to put himself in the jury's place, it seems certain that the prosecution is making its case successfully...
...I have no way of knowing to what extent the defense has succeeded in discrediting these witnesses in the minds of persons dependent on the press and radio for their knowledge of the trial...
...owsaefcer it - appears that the problems connected with this trial are tied up with the ultimate interpretation of the Smith Act rather than with the convincing character of the case presented by the prosecution...
...The accusation that the eleven did "advocate, abet, advise or teach the . . . desirability of overthrowing" a "government of the United States by force and violence" has been substantiated by the testimony of Sir...
...Mewy ttttags ean nappe* t» produce a surpvtea ending to almost any trial...
...twists and turns of this prowess has |>een sharpest in connection with the trial of the eleven leaders of the Communist party...
...Things may turn out differently now...
...As far as I know, no Bund member has ever been caught by the Smith Act...
...When the party line changed in the summer of 194S, the turnebottt was practically inetantaneoue across the country...
...The testimony shows that this party, as constituted and...
...In ths» tWt0l0...
...to organise...
...The remaining relevant paragraphs merely describe in detail the movements whereby the individual or group can carry on such activities...
...It side-stepped the is3ue entirely...
...Many of the witnesses were active CP members until the very moment they took the stand...
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...We should now be able to size up the entire performance...
...But that was during the war...
...As members of its executive body, they have been actively in control of its policies...
...The emphasis has been on developments since reorganization of tho Communists in the summer of 1945— that is, after the war, when the Frenchman Duclos wrote his famous article, when Earl Browder was made to walk the plank and the Communists came out straightforwardly as a revolutionary party...
...Several described meetings and other activities in which they had participated the night before the opening of their testimony...
...Theoretically1, we were stffl neutral...
...We had no outlet for oar emotion* through deeds ef war...
...that the parts of the Smith Act relevant to this case have no reference to any deed aimed at the overthrow of fife GkWeVsBhettt ef fa* Unitde States...
...Lonis Budenz and an impressive succession of Communist party members who have been regularly reporting to tha FBI...
...Since the deeds of the Bolsheviks in October, ltl7, were completely illegal and undtsguisedly violent, Aenerttan c*mnw*n*rt writers ar^^^^^^^x ^^-^-Jf JRS^^gug CbKJ a^gtfMeAkat^fcafA Iffltt WsWOWfV WsW9 HNm W mnpiBmtxG apSaiLAan' ^^^fj^^«t^ug|g^^^Kg^g^eT * a^aa* t^ikaaatft ^ ^aAastdagrStee TIM...
...la W th# CMtntMeiii ^feVl"- aV|N»^ )Me£ JaJQriVJtflVfe are is* ftwtof Wtm...
...WHAT IS THE PICTURE which these witnesses have spread upon the record...
...Tho question is: If this case is carried to the Supreme Court, will the constitutionality of the Smith fcet stand up...
...Lpufe substantiate the assertion that in this country * small btM earnest and determined group of men and women are* doing precisely the things proscribed in the Smkh Act...
...actually, we were- against the Nazis and Fascists...
...The Smith Act was passed in 1840, after the wir had started but before our entry into It...
...The prosecution presented evidence for more than two months...
...This act makes speech itself a crime...
...Those provisions of the law into which the evidence is being fitted by Prosecutor McGohey refer exclusively to organizing, teaching, advertising, printing, advocating...
...When woven together, details gathered from events, speeches, meetings, classes and publications in cities from Boston to St...
...I realize that for the jury and the Officers of the court the problems presented are precise and amenable to the laws of evidence and logic...
...But whether the eleven go to jail ' or not, as an educational project this trial is a brilliant success...
...For two months more defense witnesses have occupied the "stand...
...Witnesses have testified that teachers, writers and party officials consider this volume to be the bible of American Communists...
...A listener gets the impresejpn that a sralft grrvtK fi*BWttg alefttdfef W 0...
...So the Smith Act was placed upon* the books to catch such fellows as members of the German Bund...
...Eleven on Trial Question Constitutionality of Smith Sedition Act By William E. Bohn 1H A FXJWArtMf 6Y TRIALS, invMfigtflddf and pfopagTHtda the people of the United States are trying to make up their mine*, about communists...
...Rut to- the nnlawyerlilte...
...group end assembly of persons who teach end advocate the overthrow and destruction of the Government of Jhe United States by force and vteience' and that 'it wee further a pert of ¦aid eonsprraey that said defendants would publish and circulate, and cause to be published end esreureted...
...The most distinguished case ever prosecuted under it was that of the eighteen Trotskyites found guilty before the federal court in Minneapolis, December, 1941...
...tncjeastaos...
...They have to do, rtot with any direct action against any government, but with organizing classes, printing books, papers or pamphlets—in short, using all of the vark>U6 means of communication and organization to encourage the idea of overthrowing the government...
...THE TRIAL HAS BEEN running for nearly seven months...
...The attorneys for the Federal Government seem to have assembled an irresistible amount of evidence...
...And that is one subject on which the American people coul.l use an entire college course...
...The lawyers for the defense and writers for the Daily Worfcer have done their best to discredit the goveifHMMfS witnesses as "s**SgjeV,r aWf "Stool pigeons...
...Farrell Dobbs, National Chairman of the Socialist Workers Party, stated recently in a pamphlet: "The heart of the CP indictment reads that 'they did conspire...
...d^^^^a^gu^^h'A j jbewyew sew sstteeasry' itesewew 10 pwplw«»): (he* ouawwie of » togaf aoflon...
...Watching the slow judicial process unfold in th* green - marbled, brown-paneled room on Foley Square, I have felt as ff the defendants and their attorneys on one tide, and the judge, jury, newspapermen and public on the other symbolize the great intellectual ferment which our 150,090000 people are experiencing today...
...led, by these men, advocates and teaches the overthrow of the Government of the United States, thai it has often advocated or condoned the use of violence, and that these men have been conspicuous • in such activities...
...The cumulative effect of the testimony it to give the impression of complete eeatreUaatien of control of the CP...
...and that party members couW hope for" success only to the degree to which they follow tho Russian example...
...It is a notable and shameful fact that the Communists—the veYy men who are equealing so pitifully at present—wrote letters to the Attorney General demanding the prosecution and conviction of the Trotskyites...
...books, artlesse...
...T*ey do not deseribsr anything* Mke Justice Holmes's "clear arid present danger...
...These men, opposed to the war, were sentenced on December 8, the day alter Pearl Harbor...
...Conditions have since changed...
...My eApertewee with the...
...ere supported by the eutWttMttV weight of American tradtflMtV ftwspt-' ing criminal cases, we are ita* sweat* tomed to undercover woffr fit this country...
...The judge, the prosecutors, the members of the jury, the newspapermen, the spectators, and, I trust, the millions who read and hear the reports, are learning something about the nature of communism...
...They all played a part in founding it and drawing up its constitution...
...We know the case presented by the prosecution, and we can graph tho course of the defense on the basis of its case so far...
...WNKft TUB TJtOTSKYITJES, whose campaign against the war was based on the old communist theory that all capitalistic wars are imperialistic and hence immoral, were sent to jail, no one was more unashamedly exultant than Browder, Foster and the eleven who now face judge and Jury in the U.S...
...So far, this proposition has not been passed upon by the Supreme Court, for that court refused to consider the case of the Minneapolis Trotskyites...
...The Important thing for cftfsens to bear in mind is...
...are iattf edbosli'tly prepared s» torn Axtmtem krto a replica of Rantta...
...It took approximately two months to select the jury...
...We have a natural feeling of revulsion against a spy...
...a society...
...Court for the Southern District of New York...
...The prosecution contends that the eleven men in court —twelve, counting William Z. Foster, who is excused because of ill health— are responsible for the character and deeds of that party...
...WrlflSff psfiaaaty...
...The Government is not required to prove any act or even the threat or danger of any act...
...MAffY BOOKS have bee* introduced, but the prosecution hat most often fastened on Joseph Statin's History of the Communist Party in Soviet Russia...
...but tha people in the courtroom, it seems to me, have not been impressed...
...Article 1(a) under Title 18, Section 10 of the Act reads: "It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or willfully le advocate, abet advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing any government in the United States by force or violence or by assassination of any officer of sach sfoVermneni...
...And, in a sense, it thus implied that the Smith Act is constitutional...
...and news* papers advoesftnfl the pi'ltwspfts Of Marxism and Leninism.'" fc Mr...
...The skeletal faets which I have recorded in my own notes are enough to give substance to the accusations made in the indictment...
...Dobbs, who, as one of the inare%d Trotskyites, was at the center of the Minneapolis trial and later served* time in jail, goes on to explain that the indictment of the eleven is drawn up in conformity with the terms of "the Smith Act, and is precisely similar to the one under which he and his friends were convicted...
Vol. 32 • July 1949 • No. 30
