The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-07
BY JOSEPH r. BRODSKY.

HCHARLES T.. Ruthenberg, what
Ahave you say why judgment
should not be pronounced against you
according to law"
The place was the Extraordinary
Trial Term, Criminal Part, Of the
Supreme Court of the State of New
York; the date was October 20, 1920,
and the speaker was Judge Barlow
S. Weeks, a typical example of the
rich, ultra-conservatiye supporter of
the present order, bitter and vicious,
who sat as the presiding judge in all
of the criminal anarchy prosecutions
that featured the year of 1920 in
New York.
On the Stand.
The defendant who stood before
him was Charles E. Ruthenberg, exc
cutive secretary of the Communist
Party of America; tall, broad Shout
dered, blue eyed and serene. For
three weeks the trial of the People
of the State of New York against
Charles Z. Ruthenberg and l. E.
Ferguson had been in progress; for
several days &C. E." had sat on the
witness chair fearlessly and earnest
ly exposing the rottenness of the
capitalist system and simply. intelli-
gently and bravely explaining the
principles of Communism, that Com
munism which he eagerly prophesied
would bring the dawn Of better and
brighter day for the down-trodden
and exploited workers Of the world.
The Defiance.
Ruthenberg looked at the judge
calmly and without fear; and then
he spoke:
81 have merely this to say for my
self, that I have in the past held GER
tain ideals for a reorganization Of
society on a new basis. / have up
held those ideals and gone to prison
for them when they were connected
with the late war. have stood by
those principles in which ! firmly be-
lieve, and still stand for those prin-
ciples, irrespective of the result Of
this particular trial.
81 expect in the future, as in the
past, to uphold and fight for those
principles that, when the time comes
that those principles triumph, and a
new society is built in place of the
present social organization. l real
lied from the beginning of this trial,
as | have in any other trial that !
have taken part in as a defendant,
that this court, and all the instru-
ments of this court, are merely a
part Of that organization of force
which we call the capitalistic state;
and ! expected no other results from
an organization Of the eapitalistic
class to protect the capitalist system,
than the result that has been re-
turned by this court in this particu-
lar case, and of course, accepting
this as case Of class justice, case
Of the use Of the organized force Of
the state in order 70 suppress the
desires of those who today are suf-
fering under the oppression Of the
present system, will accept the SEN
tence in that same spirit Of defiance,
realizing that ! go to prison because
Of support Of a great principle that
viii triumph in spite of all the
COURTS, in spite Of all the organiza-
tons of the capitalist class"
AS he finished he was smiling the
brave, proud smile of fearless
| fighter in a just cause.
In the Shadows.
The dows we're creeping
through the tall, heavily curtained
windows of the court room when he
concluded; his comrades sat- with
clenched fists, tight throats and with
hearts throbbing wildly and eyes
shining with love and affection for
] their brave leader who was about to