The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-01-28

men ana the duulllOHdl CnaTRe OF
taking part in the Bridgewater af-
fair was placed against Vanzetti
who had been more prominent in the
agitation over the outrages commit
ted on Salesdo and Ella.
No steps were omitted to clinch
the charges. Witnesses of the
Brdgewater and South Braintree
crimes were brought into the police
station where they saw the Italian
prisoners surrounded by police Off
GERS. 1t is we'll known that Italians
look more or less alike to the eyes
of many Yankees, but in spite of
this several witnesses said positively
that these were not the men they
had seen. But others took it for
granted that the men the police
were holding must be the right men.
The police made them assume the
crouching positions and other poses
that the bandits were said to have
taken in action, and then they were
placed in an automobile roughly sim
liar to the bandit car and taken
over the routes followed April 18th
and December oath.
Farcial Trial of Vanzetti
Vanzetti was rushed to trial in
the following month for the Bridge
water attack while the public mind
was still super-heated with sensa-
tional stories about italian hold-up
men," He was practically convict
co before the first witness was call
ed. Vague identifications of the
foreigner with the mustache" were
accepted, and no credence was given
the albi furnished by eighteen re-
spectacle fellow townsmen who es-
tablished his movements for the en-
ire day of December oath, when he
was too busily engaged in his reg
dlar pursuits as fish salesman to be
in Bridgewater twenty-eight miles
away. The police collected thous-
and dollars reward.
Murder Witnesses Fail
Indictments for the South Brain
Tree murder followed preliminary
hearing given Sacco before Judge
Avery in the East Norfolk District
Court, no preliminary hearing being
necessary in the cast of Vanzetti,
lheady held on the other charge.
The indictments were based on the
doubtful testimony of three en-
ployes of the Slater & Morrill, Com
oany,-Louis L. Wade, Miss Frances
Devlin and Miss Mary c. Splaine-
Ill losing their certainty of identi-
tication in the matter of fact en-
vironment of Judge Avery's court,
fhough they all had shown more as
surance in the prejudiced environ
ment of the police station when
first confronted with the prisoners
encircled by uniformed men
In Judge Avery's court Mr.. Wade
admitted that 81 might be mistak-
en-" page SO, official record
He said he was fully eighty PAGES
away when the shooting occurred.
The two women likewise lost their
certainty of conviction in the court
room. They were both office work.
ers and claimed to see the after
math of the shooting from the sec
ond story windows of the office
building on Pearl and Railroad
Streets. Miss Devlin said that the
man leaning out of the escaping
automobile whom she had previously
identified as Sacco was tall and well
built. When Sacco's lack of stature
was called to her attention she
agreed that her Identification was
wrong in that respect.
"Do you say positively he is the
man." asked the defense attorney.
II do not say positively" she an
swered. page At, official record.)
Miss Splaine also changed her tes-
timony with the words, 81 could be
mistaken" Page So, official rec
crd)
The uncertainty of their memory
was further brought out by their
divergent recollections of what they
had seen, Miss Devlin saying that
the man in the car moved from side
to side, firing at the crowd, and
Miss Splaine thinking that he had
stood at one place in the back, lean
ing out, with his body slightly in
clined forward and the level of his
gaze turned no higher than the Win
dows of the cobbler shop on the first
floor of the building next door to
the office. This gave the women
looking from higher elevation an
imperfect view of the mans face
as he peered out from under the
covered top of the machine which
was running along at a distance
never closer than one hundred feet.
On the slender evidence of these
three witnesses the murder indict-
ments were brought, and with such
material the prosecution expects to
weave the moose for Sacco and Van
zetti-a presumption not astonish-
ing to the student of American legal
methods.
Life and Labor Records of SaccO
and VanZetti
Thus runs the coil of perverted fate
against two workingmen who thought
they were coming to the land of the
square deal when they arrived here
twelve years ago. Sacco began Amer
lean life as water boy in upper
New York State at $1.15 a day, and
soon after graduated to the earning
capacity of $1.75 as pick and shovel
man. Then deciding to learn a trade
he acquired the highly skilled art of
shoe cutting and in the course of
several years of application developed
into one of the best artisans in the
great leather goods centre around
Brockton, Mass, one of his employers
saying he was the fastest cutter of
some three thousand that had passed
through his factory. At the time of
his arrest he was employed by the
3 X Shoe Company near his home in
South Stoughton, During his long
years at the trade Sacco is estimated
to have cut more out than one hun
bred thousand shoes, a more sub
stantial contribution to his adopted
country than was ever offered by
most of the descendants of the May
flower in the villas near his home.
Sacco was married and had one child
before his arrest, another having been
born since. He made high wages, as