New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-24
He and Giovannitti Make Dra-
matte Pleas to Jury as Their
Trial for Murder of
Woman Ends.
DECL ARE THEIR INNOCENCE
Both Call on Jurors to Render a
Just Verdict, and Assert
Their Willingness to
- for Cause of
ccialism.

salem. Mass. Nov. 23.-"If YOU think
us guilty of numbering our sister, give
us death. History will record our end.
We will 20 10 a higher Judgment seat,
ard millions of workers will take up
our nag Of labor when we drop II in the
ditch"
This. in substance, was the closing
statement Of two Of the most remark
able pleas ever heard in a Massachu-
sets courtroom, when Joseph ]. Ettor
and Arturo Giovannitti, leaders in the
TEXTILE strike at Lawrence last winter.
rose In the prisoners cage in the Essex
County court to-day TO speak for them
sslyes and their comrsde, Joseph Ca
ruso. accused Of the murder Of Anna
LopiEzo in a strike riot lest January.
Rttor, q labor leader, and Giovannitu'
2 Socialist writer, relief organizer IN
the strike, formerly a missionary VINO
sacrificed his church relations for the
cause Of Socialism, the dreamer" az
h. termed himself, held the crowd in
ths courtroom spelIbcund for more than
al hour
District Attorney Attwill had just
denounced both men. He had spoken
the last word for the commonwealth
charging that the utterances of Ettor
and Giovannitti to the Lawrence strik-
ers were reasonable; that such as they
we're not needed in the commonwealth
of Massachusetts, 70 aid in the solution
OF its problems; that instead OF being
uhilanthropistS and apostles of peace
and workers for the betterment OF hu-
manity. they were q menace to free
government. agents Of mob rule and
cestroyers of the sovereignty OF the
state.
Prisoners Allowed to Spesk.
The defendants lawyers held g short
consultation with Judge Quinn, telling
him the prisoners wished to speak. The
Judge announced that under the law OF
Massachusetts they could speak to the
jury, but he warned them not to dis
cuss anything outside the evidence tnst
had been introduced.
Ettor nodded assent and then rose to
his feet. Every eye in the courtroom
was on him. The usual crimson aush
in his cheek faded. Pale and trembling
hs stood for moment, and then, in a
clear, bell like voice, he began TO speak.
Deliberately and coolly he analysed his
case, declaring he had been tried not
on his acts, but his views. Once in his
statement he hesitatsd, saying;
Perhaps his honor, the court, will not
let me say what ! am about 10 say. II
Is In Hns with what ] have said about
lhe agents Of the mill owners planting
the stteetoar riots 70 discredit the striK-
egs.
You may proceed" said the judge,
and thSn Ettor declared with emphasis
that his sister, Giovannitti's sister. Ca
ruso's sister, Anna LoptsSO," had been
killed, az ha believed, as tie result Of
another plot Of the Mill owners TO break
the strike.
Protests His Innocence.
Ettor protested innocence Of murder
or tnoising to riot, not only for him.
self but for his comrades. He urged
that II the jury thought them guilty
they should be sentenced to death. and
not shut ap In prison, where they could
not continue their work for the better
ment Of the working class and ultimate
attainment Of their idsaL a condition
where laborers would earn ell the profit
Of their labor"
He pictured the GROSS. the guillotins,
the saliows and the electric chair an
unable through all history to choke q
osnttnasa % feussh page. htsa cst.mn.