The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-10
The Class Issue in the Case
of Sacco and Vanzetti

ercised by great metropolitan daily.
Even a contributor to The Nation
recently accepts the reactionary char
acterization of Moore. He refers to
Moore's 'long black hair his some
what dark visage, his dour manner"
and offhandedly to "Moore's unfamil-
iarity with Massachusetts practice"
Those who were close to the case can
only smile at this as a secondhand
caricature. Moores appearance is
what movie people might call west
ern he-man" and in any other case
he would not be mistaken for the
stage version Of a long-haired anar-
chist implied in the quotation.
TN any event, his appearance did not
prevent him from saving Ettore,
Giovannitti and Caruso from the cleo
trio chair when he was their counsel
in the famous Casa Massachusetts,
case, incidentally, in which he learned
more about court practices in that.
state than 80 per cent of the bourgeois
native lawyers will ever know. 1t did
not prevent him from wrenching a
hundred wobblies form the grip of
Justice" in the famous Everett, Wash
lngton, cases. Or from clearing
Charlie Krieger of the Standard OIL
frame-up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Or
from taking the lead in the San Diego
free speech fight. His ignorance of
Massachusetts practice is a journal
istic euphemism for the courts fran
tic and fearless defender. Thompson
can testify to that, having come splen.
didly to Moore's assistance at that
time.
TT is not my intention to minimize
Thompsons talents or usefulness.
Moore's last act upon retiring from
the defense was to bring Thompson
into it for the supreme court argu-
ment. But feel it necessary to pro
test against the short memory Of the
labor and liberal press. 1t was Moore's
work that gave the case its true
status. Just before he came to the
scene a New York newspaper man
was induced to go to Boston to inves-
tigate the arrest of the two Italian
workers. He returned to report that
there was mo story" in 1t, not even
for the New York Call-just a couple
of wops" in jam. Several months
later, with Moore on the job, 1t be-
came not merely a story, but the big
gest story of its kind internationally.
II he were not "labor lawyer" iden-
titled with unpopular causes for so
many years, and therefore one of our
own people," so to speak-if he were,
for instance, a conservative corpora.
ton attorney who took a conscience
case for a change, or a histrionic lib.
eral espousing dramatic causes-would
his gigantic job on the Sacco-Vanzeth
case be so easily sighted? OF
course he made mistakes, just as
Thompson, being human and fallible.
is probably making them now. Five
years is a long time for any human
being to go without mistakes. And
hindsight is too easy an indulgence,
DUT it Is not only Moore's work
II that is being forgotten. That IL
Just part of the whole process OF max
ing the case respectable, and even
those who are least interested in such
contamination are helping the pro.
cess unwittingly. The prosecution OF
Saeco and Vahzetti is class prose.
cution. Their defense should be
class defense in which the services OF
kind-hearted bourgeois attorneys and
philanthropists are merely necessary
evils. Cordially yours,
Eugene Lyons.