PUBLIC DEMANDS NEW TRIAL IN SACCO CASE
Public Demands New Trial in Sacco Case Doubt Existing Over Evidence in Trial of Alleged Radicals Leads F. W. Taussig and Others to Urge Supreme Court Review The editorial which follows appeared in...
...The supreme court overruled a bill of exceptions but expressed no judgmnt whatever as to the validity of the verdict or the guilt of the defendants...
...Stop me if you've heard this one," he said...
...Just then one of the telephones rang again...
...How They Line Up A partial transcript of the table issued by the Children's Bureau is interesting...
...Don't be rude...
...3936," etc...
...The changes are rung on certain phrases, also, as "fraudulent conspiracy between these two great governments," meaning the governments of the United States and Massachusetts...
...Just sign on the dotted line and I will let you in...
...What is this...
...I got up and put another stick of wood upon the fire...
...This university is for students, but there are a lot of students who aren't for the university...
...He leaned over and whispered into my ear...
...We have no sympathy with the half-baked views which they profess...
...I was reclining lazily in the only comfortable chair in the chapter house, toasting my feet at the open fire, and idly perusing the morning's copy of the Daily Cardinal...
...You will have to move along...
...so I wandered away, leaving him to glare at the receiver in response to a feminine demand to "Guess who this is...
...Rather annoyed by the impoliteness of the little fellow, I went on to the next section...
...Finally I came upon a door marked "Entrance," but was surprised to find that the door had no handle...
...I stalked off in disgust leaving him to light a perfecto between sobs...
...Thrusting his hands deep into his pockets he hurried off, but turned and shouted back over his shoulder, "I'm only the President, you know, but next year I am going to be promoted to football coach...
...We submit, also, that Judge Thayer's language contains many innuendos which surely are unfortunate in such a document...
...But as months have merged into years and the great debate over this case has continued, our doubts have solidified slowly into convictions, and reluctantly we have found ourselves compelled to reverse our original judgment...
...The petition for a new trial is based in part on the affidavits of two men, Letherman and Weyand, connected respectively with the United States government for thirty-six years and eight years, and both now holding responsible positions out of the federal service...
...Capt...
...His replies were understood to mean that he believed the bullet came from that weapon...
...I sat down on the edge of the plank and began to read the diploma, after carefully putting the red ribbon into my pocket...
...I have only cigars...
...The figures for New Zealand are almost unbelievably low...
...he asked, reaching into his pocket...
...Before I had an opportunity to question him, the Registrar vanished in a whirlwind of typewriting paper...
...Just after my arrival someone shouted, "Skyrocket for the Red...
...What a shame," he moaned...
...I asked in astonishment...
...I was rather bored by his actions, and was about to proceed on my way when he looked up again...
...I asked in bewilderment...
...I picked myself up from the ground and saw that I was face to face with a serious-looking man who wore an overcoat up around his ears...
...Get a girl and we'll go to the Loraine for dinner...
...The spirit which pervades your own handling of the case is admirable...
...You'll have to pardon me," he said hurriedly...
...Immediately the place became a bedlam...
...the shadow of doubt, which abides in the minds of large numbers of patient investigators of this whole case, will have been removed...
...Just at this moment a distinguished looking man who sat in the largest of the easy chairs gravely handed me a roll of white paper done up with a red ribbon...
...The Kappas finally have a Prom Queen, the editorial writer vindicates the World Court, "Skyrockets" gives evidence of a recent visit to a burlesque show...
...so you will have no trouble in getting out all by yourself...
...We submit these views with no reference whatever to the personality of the defendants, and without allusion now to that atmosphere of radicalism of which we heard so much in 1921...
...Turning around, I was confronted by a seedy little chap who wore an enormous red necktie...
...But his affidavit contradicts that testimony...
...To me the editorial means a breaking of the ice and the dawn of—well, not a new day, but a new trial for the long prosecuted men.—Elizabeth Glendower Evans...
...The site is bounded by La Vergne avenue on the east, Potomac avenue en the south, Hirsch street on the north and Laramie avenue on the west...
...I wrote my name in the book he carried and passed through the entrance...
...C. H. Proctor of the State Police...
...There is a handle on the other side...
...Public Demands New Trial in Sacco Case Doubt Existing Over Evidence in Trial of Alleged Radicals Leads F. W. Taussig and Others to Urge Supreme Court Review The editorial which follows appeared in the conservative Boston Herald, October 26...
...The room had grown cold...
...But it seems to me clear that the case as it now stands should be reconsidered with the utmost care by the supreme court, as, of course, it will be if again brought before the court...
...On the next section I found an enormous plank which was marked "Board of Regents...
...Comparing them with prewar figures, the relative change is singularly small...
...This number of deaths the first year per 1,000 births is known as the infant death rate...
...Safe Place for Babies The safest place in the world to be a baby is in New Zealand...
...We have no idea what the files may contain...
...We do not know that this is true, but we know there was co-operation...
...His evidence now is offered in behalf of two other men whose lives also are at stake...
...Here I found a sorrowful looking young man who wore enormous tortoise-shell glasses, seated at a roll-top desk which was marked, in big letters, "Grind...
...His affidavit states what the record implies, that a device was fixed up in advance for dodging direct answer to a direct question...
...Now when the supreme court dealt with that point it expressed no opinion as to whether or not an "ambiguous answer" had to be arranged to "obtain a conviction...
...661," "B...
...The court has ruled on exceptions to the old trial, never on all evidence for a new one...
...Tone of the Advocate WE HAVE read the full decision in which Judge Webster Thayer, who presided at the original trial, renders his decision against the application for a new trial, and we submit that it carries the tone of the advocate rather than the arbitrator...
...Some were arguing in favor of enlarging the house, while some wanted to push him into the present house...
...A group of men sat around the plank in easy chairs, watching the antics of a tall, collegiately dressed young man who was struggling and squirming in the attempt to get into a toy house that was only about half as big as he was...
...In 1924, of every 1,000 babies born in New Zealand, only 40 died before reaching the age of one year...
...If on a new trial the defendants shall again be found guilty we shall be infinitely better off than if we proceed to execution on the basis of the trial already held...
...The writing seemed to be becoming indistinct...
...It brought immediate response from many well known and disinterested observers...
...A moment later, however, the opposing side burst out with a "Skyrocket for the Black," whereupon the black ant redoubled his efforts and the battle waged more furiously than ever...
...We submit that Madeiros should be placed on the stand in open court, facing a jury and a judge, and subjected to examination and cross-examination...
...We respectfully submit that the supreme court never approved that verdict...
...Noticing my bewilderment at this procedure, he looked up at me and said in a squeaky voice: "You see, my head can only hold just so much knowledge...
...he shouted...
...We hope the Governor will grant another reprieve to Celestino Madeiros so that his confession may be canvassed in open court...
...Weyand said in his affidavit: "The conviction was the result of co-operation between the Boston agents of the department of justice and the district attorney...
...Lloyd Center, 17 acres of unimproved land in Union Park, Chicago, was set aside by the West Park Board last night as La Follette Park, in honor, of the late Wisconsin Senator...
...But a few thousand miles across the Pacific eastward from New Zealand one comes to Chile, and the infant death rate is 283...
...Two groups of perspiring students seemed frantically intent upon some activity that was going on at the base of the signpost...
...I looked down and saw that I was sitting in a leather arm chair...
...Put In All Evidence WE SUBMIT that evidence, if any, in the files of the department of justice having any bearing on this case ought to be examined in open court, or examined in private by the United States attorney general and reported upon by him before this case shall finally be decided...
...the department and the attorney joined in placing a spy in the cell next to Sac-co's and the prosecution admitted the fact in court...
...That is, of every 1,1)00 children born, only 40 die the first year in New Zealand, and seven times as many, or 283, die in the same time in Chile...
...I have no opinion on the merits of the case...
...Where is your fee card...
...All around the edge of the floor were little tables bearing telephones upon which placards reading "B...
...The whole group of sections was surrounded by a high fence which was beautifully decorated with millions of streamers of red tape...
...See the pretty gilt lettering...
...Proctor did not here reply to direct questions...
...There was a pile of books of various colors and sizes on either side of the desk...
...The young man would pick up a book from one pile and read it through from start to finish, after which he would read it backward from finish to start before discarding it upon the other pile and starting the process all over again on another book...
...Judge Thayer knows this, yet allows himself to refer to the verdict as "approved by the supreme court...
...In the middle of the first section I came to was a signpost reading "Cheering Section...
...Evidently, it isn't all a question of latitude...
...In front of me was the fireplace and in my hands was a copy of the Daily Cardinal...
...After I had knocked rather timidly, the door suddenly opened and an elderly, impressive-looking man stepped out...
...And if on second trial Sacco and Venzetti should be declared guiltless, everybody would rejoice that no monstrous injustice shall have been done...
...We hope, in case our supreme bench finds itself unable legally to authorize a new trial, that our Governor will call to his aid a commission of disinterested men of the highest intelligence and character to make an independent investigation in his behalf, and that the Governor himself at first hand will participate in that examination, if, as a last resort, it shall be undertaken...
...so I set out by myself on a tour of the field...
...I was about to join in the discussion when someone dashed up behind me and knocked me down...
...That is your diploma," he replied...
...Finding myself in the group supporting the red ant, I began to cheer for the Red, but had no sooner finished my first skyrocket when I was rudely elbowed from behind...
...At this he burst into tears...
...The death rate of Australian babies is low, too...
...Moved by a lazy curiosity, I stood up, stretched, yawned and stepped between the lines...
...so I have to unlearn all I learn before I can go on and learn some more...
...Now as to Madeiros: A criminal with a bad record, true, and under sentence of death...
...The supreme court did not vindicate the verdict...
...The men in the easy chairs seemed to be debating among themselves as to what to do about getting the young man into the toy house...
...A ben<T issue will be asked to finance the improvement.—Chicago Tribune .Oct...
...The lines of the paper seemed to blur, and then slowly to widen, until there was a space of several feet between two rows of type...
...Judge Thayer says that one of these men "seems, for some reason, to be willing to go the limit in his affidavits against the government of the United States," and he refers to "prejudiced affidavits, which appear to be quite easily obtained nowadays...
...I am the Registrar," he whispered, wiping his nose glasses on a silk handkerchief...
...he snapped...
...Prof...
...We do not know whether these men are guilty or not...
...The whole thing ended in a noisy exhortation to the red ant, who began to carry off the morsel of bread...
...The circle of easy chairs was fading into the distance...
...At first I could not discern the center of attraction, but I finally saw that two ants, a red one and a black one, were fighting over a morsel of bread...
...but they have been running close to that mark for a long time, and statistics in that region are carefully kept...
...but where it was high before the war, it is high now, and where it was low before the war, it is low now.—From Labor...
...But I don't know any girls here," I protested...
...At one side of the dance floor was an orchestra of seven men, each member of which was playing a different selection in whatever time suited his individual fancy...
...Dodges Direct Answer WE SUBMIT that doubt is cast on the verdict of the jury by the important affidavit made after the trial by Capt...
...The question is—would the new evidence be a real factor with a jury in reaching a decision...
...You have to have a fee card and fifty cents, or you can't support the team...
...The cheerful glow of the fire began to have a soporific effect upon me...
...The court certified that, whether the verdict was right or wrong, the trial judge performed his duty under the law in a legal manner...
...Editorial From The Boston Herald, Oct...
...He allowed that impression to go abroad...
...The court ruled only that the trial judge had decided that no such pre-arrangement had been made, and that the supreme court could not "as matter of law" set aside the ruling of the trial judge...
...The poor, perspiring devil in the fur coat was wearily dancing his way from table to table, taking only a moment upon one telephone before picking up the next...
...he inquired pettishly...
...What is a fee card...
...I have to go somewhere to make a speech about something...
...I felt the plank becoming soft and resilient underneath me...
...he asks "who pumped this curiosity into Madeiros...
...The judge asserts a conspiracy charge which was not made by counsel for the defense...
...On the stand, testifying as an expert, his evidence was understood by the jury and the judge to be that the fatal bullet issued from Sacco's pistol...
...Would you care for a cigarette...
...At the outset he refers to "the verdict of a jury approved by the supreme court of this commonwealth" and later he repeats that sentence...
...Still impelled by curiosity, I wandered around the outside of the fence, looking for an opening...
...only 57 per 1,000 births...
...26, 1926...
...One might suspect from those two instances that the southern hemisphere is a rather healthy place for children...
...1488," "B...
...Some of the brothers were playing cards in the next room...
...But the government relied in part on one of his confessions to convict him of a murder...
...IN OUR opinion Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti ought not to be executed on the warrant of the verdict returned by a jury on July 14, 1921...
...Let it be remembered that the new trial is asked for on the basis of evidence never before the supreme court previously...
...he compliments the prosecution and refers slightingly to counsel for the defense...
...F. W. Taussig, the eminent economist, wrote the Editor of the Herald the next day and said: "Let me express my appreciation of the position which you have taken in your editorial columns concerning the Sacco-Vanzetti case...
...Like most of us, it has been impossible for me to follow either the evidence at the original trial or that which has been adduced since...
...Why, yes, thank you," I replied...
...Most of them are for 1923 or 1924—the last year available in every case...
...We hope the supreme judicial court will grant a new trial on the basis of the new evidence not yet examined in open court...
...He sighed and went back to his work...
...New Trial Justified FOR THESE and other reasons we hope that the resources of our laws will prove adequate to obtain a new trial...
...What the court did is stated in its own words thus: "We have examined carefully all the exceptions in so far as argued, and finding no error the verdicts are to stand...
...The infant death rate has decreased almost everywhere...
...The field was divided up into a number of sections which seemed to be arranged with the mathematical precision of a checker board...
...Joe College in Wonderland BY JACK ERNEST ROE IT WAS a drowsy, winter evening...
...In each case, the figure given is the infant death rate for the country named, the number of deaths under one year of age per 1,000 live births: New Zealand _______________________ 40 Norway ____________________________ 55 Australia __________________________67 Netherlands _________________________ 61 Switzerland_______________________61 Sweden _____________________________ 63 United States_____71 England and Wales__________________75 France_____________________________85 Italy___________________________128 Germany _________________________ 132 Spain ____________________________ 145 Austria ____________________________ 164 Japan______________ 166 Hungary __________________________ 195 Chile ____________________________ 283 These figures are not strictly comparable, because not all refer to the same year...
...The hiss of a million serpents was followed by a terrible thunderclap and a despairing sigh like the last breath of the lost souls in ten purgatories...
...When he saw me, he looked up with a tired smile...
...He may be lying, but the criterion here is not what a judge may think about it but what a jury might think about it...
...His evidence was accepted against himself when his own life was at stake...
...Careful examination of the record discloses curious facts...
...15, 1926...
...I found myself at the edge of a vast, open field, lit up brilliantly by a gigantic electric sign which flashed on and off in rapid succession, first reading "College," and then "Eventually, why not now...
...Now you can go out into the world and be a bond salesman...
...The preceding day had brought forth the usual number of provincial commonplaces, as preceding days have a habit of doing...
...The next section was made up of a large dance floor covered with broken bottles, upon which a good looking young chap wearing a big raccoon coat was valiantly doing the Charleston in his bare feet...
Vol. 18 • November 1926 • No. 11
