The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-12
BY MAX sHAcHTMAN.

- and Bartolomeo Yanzetti. The de-
NAL of a new trial by the supreme
court of Massachusetts hammers home
again to the workers the terrible truth
that the two innocent italian workers
are but q step from the electric chair.
1t Is now month more than six
years since they were arrested and
charged with the murder of Frederick
Parmentier, the paymaster of the
Slater and Merrill Shoe Company of
South Braintree, Massachusetts; they
were also accused of having murdered
Parmentier's guard. And in the six
years OF their arrest and trial and ap-
porching death sentence the workers
thrUout the entire world have ex-
pressed their protest Enthusiastically,
both in resolutions and in demonstra-
lions, against the proposed legal as
eassnation OF these two formerly OBJ
scure workers. It was the splendid
demonstrations of solidarity from all
sections Of the working class, in all
the countries of Europe and Latin
America, that prevented the death Of
Sacco and Vanzetti when they were
threatened a few years ago. And the
growing protest that is now being re-
newed turnout the world may again
stay the black hand Of capitalist In
Justice.
A few weeks before their arrest,
the little group of Italian workers to
which Sacco and Vanzetti belonged in
East Boston got word Of the arrest
without warrant of law of two Italian
printers in New York, Salsedo and
Ella. The two printers were being
held in the offices of the department
of justice in Park Row, New York,
and were being slated for deportation
as dangerous reds. This was in the
period of the heyday of Mitchell Pal
mer and his red raids and terrorism
and frightfulness, the days when the
mildest progressives, professionals and
liberals were punched together with
syndicalists, socialists, Communists
and anarchists as reds" and there
fore subject, If foreign born, to de-
portation, and, II native, to the firing
squad the next morning.
His group sent Vanzetti to investi-
gate what they could do for Ella and
Salsedo. vanzetti returned with an
appeal for financial aid for the hiring
of a lawyer and a proposal to hold
mass meetings at which to raise the
required sum. But few nights be-
fore the meeting, at which Vanzetti
was to be announced as a speaker, he
and Sacco were arrested on the muir
der charge. On the same morning.
the news came that Salsedo had been
killed by a fall from the fourteenth
story of the building in Park Row
where he had been illegally held pris-
oner by the d. of ]. The latter stout
ly maintained that he had jumped out
of his own accord; but those who
have read the affidavit of Ella who
was summarily deported, know that
the worthy agents of the government
department failed to extort any con
fession" of guilt from the innocent
Salsedo despite all their tortures
which preceded his fall to the pave
ment below.
1t is sufficient to have the slightest
knowledge of American frame-up
methods to realize how, combined
with the anttred and antiforeign
sentiment which had been whipped up
to a high pitch at that time, it was
easy to secure a conviction against
the two Italians in Massachusetts. A
score Of witnesses testified that
neither of the two was within miles
of the murder when it occurred; but
in this case their testimony was dis
missed with the phrase: you know.
these wops stick together every time"
The star witnesses for the state
were caught time and again in palp-
able falsehoods, in conflicting testi-