Evening star., 1927-10-16
BY III. G.. WELLS

by Mr. Felix Frankfurter. His precis
was so startling that I got the book
itself forthwith and read it. 1t was
manifestly thoroughly honest and
competent book. and it's exposure of
the prejudice imported into the
case by the prosecution amazed and
shocked me profoundly. 1 inquired
further who this Mr.. Felix Frank.
furter might be. He was, 1 discover
ed, member of President Wilson's
Government, and he is now profes.
sor of administrative law at Harvard.
Thls seems good enough to go upon.
The Communist movement had seiz-
ed upon this trial and made it an oc-
casion for demonstrations and out
RACES throughout the world. The IA
vorite role of the extreme Red seems
always to be that of agent-provoca.
teur for reaction. The extreme Red
is the curse of creative Liberalism.
But the misbehavior of excited crowds
here and there has nothing to do with
the essential offense of this case,
which has been stated for history and
all time by Frankfurter. Frankfurter
is no more Red than am, and had as
little to gain by taking up this un-
popular case He took it up because
it shocked him and he impaired his
shock to me. The trial and the man.
ner of the trial are the facts that
most concerned him. There they are.
Now, the curious thing is that a
great number of Americans do not
seem to see in the least what is the
point at issues They do not get, many
Of them do not seem able to get, what
it is that has aroused the Liberal opin.
ion of all Europe against the courts
of Massachusetts. There is a profound
psychological difference laid bare in
this case. The guilt or innocence of
these two Italians is not the issue
that had excited the opinion of the
world. Possibly they were the actual
murderers, and still more possibly
they knew more than they would adj
nit about the crime years after the
crime.
The Massachusetts police (who have
certainly been as much on trial as the
actual murderers) produced some very
impressive evidence against Sacco and
his associate. They exhibited a bullet
which they depoSe was the bullet
found in the body of the victim. and
a pistol which they testify was found
upon Sacco at the time of his arrest.
The particular bullet is shown conclu-
siVely, by quite beautiful piece of
scientific analysis, to have been fired
from that particular pistol. This must
have been very decisive with Gov.
Fuller's committees of inquiry. But
these facts were not before the court
in the original trial, and. anyhow.
they have nothing to do with the
monstrous way in which the politics
of the accused were dragged into the
case.
That. I urge upon the American
reader. is what perplexes Europe. Eu
rope is not "retrying" Sacco and Van
zetti, or anything of the sort. It is
saying what it thinks of Judge Thayer.
political opponents as po.
litical opponents after the fashion OF
Mussolini and Moscow we can under.
stand, or bandits as bandits, but this
business of trying and executing mur
derers as Reds, or Reds as murderers.
seems to be new and very frighten
ing line for the courts of a State In
the most powerful and civilized Union
on earth to pursue.
So much for the Sacco and Vanzetti
case. I realize the electric storminess
that broods over 1t. Wrathful Mas.
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