The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-02
BY UPTON SINCLAIR.


VOU will find in the life Of Henry
D. Thoreau an anecdote of the
time when he refused to pay taxes
to a state government which captur-
ed Negroes and returned them to
slavery.
In due process of law he was con-
fined in Jail for his offense; and Ralph
Waldo Emerson came to visit him and
said:
Henry, what are you doing here?"
The answer was
Waldo, what are you doing not
here?"
In line with this high precedent,
went about year ago to call upon
one of the worlds gentlest spirits,
now confined in the Massachusetts,
state prison at Charlestown. He did
not rebuke me for my failure to join
him; nevertheless, by his beauty and
sweetness of spirit, he made me so
ashamed of myself that shortly after
wards also was moved to get my
self into jail. So spreads the spirit
of martyrdom!
Who is this great man of Massa-
chusetts? 1 have before me his auto
biography, it is entitled 1.-THE Story of
Proletarian Life" by Bartolomeo
vanzetti.
In this book / learn that he was
born in the town of Villefalletto in
Piedmont, Italy. He was the child of
peasants, and was eager for knowledge
and was promised an education, but
when his father read in a newspaper
that AZ lawyers had applied for posi-
ton in Turin which paid only seven
dollars a month, he decided that an
education was not what it was cracked
up to be.
So, at the age of thirteen, the boy
was turned over to the mercies of
baker, who worked him from Z o'clock
in the morning until 10 o'clock at
night, seven days a week, except for
three hours off every other Sunday.
After six years the boy went home
ruined in health and, after watching
his mother die in great agony, he
decided to come to our land of prom
Use. He landed forlorn and friendless
at the Battery and was permitted to
work as dishwasher In rich club"
Apparently the club was not rich
enough to be generous to its dish
washers, because the hours were long,
the garnet in which the workers slept
was suffocatingly hot and the vermin
did not permit them to sleep.
So Vanzetti went to work in one OF
the most famous restaurants of New
York's Bohemian life. Many times, no
doubt, you have dined in this restau-
rant, perhaps with celebrities. If so,
you were busy with celebrities and
never thought about the dishwashers.
Listen! -
1.-THE pantry was horrible. There
was not a single window in it, When
the electric light for some reason was
out it was totally dark, so that one
couldn't move without running into
things. The vapor of the boiling water
where the plates, pans and silver were
washed formed great drops of water
on the ceiling, took up all the dust
and CRIME there, then fell slowly one
by one upon my head as l worked be-
low.
During working hours the heat was
terrific. The table leavings amassed
in barrels near the pantry gave out
nauseating exhalations. The sinks hah
no direct sewerage connection. In
stead, the water was permitted to
overrun to the floor. In the center of
the room there was drain. Every
night the pipe was clogged and the
greasy water rose higher and higher
and we trudged in the slime"
The young Italian was afraid to
stay here on account of the possibility
Of consumption, so he went out into
the Country, and the farmers and the
wives of the poor were kind to him,
and he got work with pick and shovel.