The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-02
MILLIONS WIN
COURTS EAR
FOR SLAYERS
Workers Blood Money
Aids LOeb-LeOpOId

TIC iItiiilOU-NOhot AClCtAoN
of Nathan Leopold and Richard
Loeb, confessed sIayers of
Robert Franks, won its right to.
present mitigating evidence"
by the testimony of dozen or
more alienists. 1t was expected
from the beginning of the legal
battle between defense counsel
Clarence Darrow and states at
torney Robert e. Grove that
the defense would win, because
Judge John r. Caverly had
ruled Immediately against
Groves demand for a jury if
mental responsibility" were
to be brought up.
1t was a triumph of the newer
ethics over the old; victory for sci
entifc criminology as opposed to the
old melodramatic vengeance of life
for life" 1t might be called an
achievement of human kindness over
the hard-boiled hanging narrow-mind-
edness of Grove and his associates.
Money Has Won.
But all that is really beside the
point. The fact is that the millions
for-defense" have triumphed. In lit
orally thousands of other cases more
or less similar, where youth and en-
doctrine gland irregularities and other
abnormalities short of insanity could
be offered to lessen the harsh SEN
tence Of hanging, there are no mil
lions-for-defense" and the young who
have misbehayed are ruthlessly given
the rope.
In countless lesser cases where cap
italism is to blame for depriving
youngsters of proper physical develop
ment, of sufficient education, and of
work that would yield an adequate in
come to say nothing Of an income
without work, such as Loeb and Leo
pold have, the unfortunate young men
or women are sentenced with all the
viciousness the court can use against
the helpless. It is only where there
are millions for-defense," as in the
case of the wealthy young slayers, or
in the Harry Thaw case, that science
gets a hearing and reason is given
chance.
What Of Polish Lads?
The two Polish lads, Walter Borcya
and Ignatius Clombras, who aped the
rich Jewish boys kidnapping threat
and were caught trying to intimidate
Jacob Franks, the usurer, again will
not have NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. yet
certainly as PLAUSIBLE a case of
mental disease, but not insanity"
could be made for their defense.
They may not be the degenerates that
Loeb and Leopold are because they
have not enjoyed" the wealth and
carefree environment which allowed
vicious experiments.
These boys, who are even younger
than Loeb and Leopold, have always
been very poor; have had to work for
years; have had to help support their
families instead of being supported;
have not had much education; have
been beaten down by a system which
bAfNo AhAAAACAo " oOhAC anu ~ tACAA
and their fellow workers a scant liv-
ing.
Squeezed Out of Workers.
And the "millions-for-defense which
will try to keep (and almost assuredly
succeed) Loeb and Leopold from the
gsllows are being squeezed and ex-
torted out of the workers in the Nor
ris Paper Box Mills and the Sears
Roebuck Company, as the DAILY
WORKER is showing in other col
umns
The outcome of the trial means lit
tie to these exploited workers, or to
any other workers, except as the out
come Of any drama which is outside
ones own life. barrow must be ad-
mired for his intelligent plea, which
is sincere, as his life has shown. He
has defended labor cases with equal
skill and feeling for the injustice of
the system Of society which allows
such topsy-turvy justice to be meted