The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-30
The Baumes Law: A New
Weapon Against Labor

I a separate trial to which each defend
ant was previously entitled. Another
law relieves the prosecuting attorney
of the necessity of offering evidence
Immediately after his opening adj
dress. By making the opening address
of the defense follow that of the pro-
secutor and not, as heretofore, upon
the closing of the case for the State,
the law hopes to hamper the defense.
Then come the infamous series of SEN
I tence-dsalings-thc browning sue
/ cess Of the Baumes Punitive Expedi-
/ ton. For robbery or burglary in the
first degree. the punishment has been
raised to a minimum of fifteen year.
! For the same offence in the second de-
gree the maximum punishments have
been increased from ten to fifteen
years and from five to ten years re,
spectively. To the existing penalty
for felony five to ten years have been
added to the first offense, ten to fiji
teen years to the second, fifteen to
twenty-five years to the third, ana
hfe-sentence is made mandatory for
the fourth offender. In addition there
are laws setting obstacles in the way
of appeals; check has been put on
executive clemency; indeterminate
sentences have been extended by max.
ing two-thirds of the previous maxi
mum sentence the new minimum;
communication of a sentence cannot be
made to less than year; the grant of
parole has been restricted; and COM
pensation for good conduct has been
considerably diminished.
On such stuff is the salve our heal
ers offer to the crime-infested body
of society. In an age when criminol-
ogy has definitely established the
economic substratum of crime, when
statistics show the incontrovertible
correlation of crime and economic con-
ditions, when judges and lawyers in
confessional moments, attest that
practically every criminal case that
comes before them is directly or in
directly chargeable to enc of the
many social evils resulting from our
heinous economic system-in such an
age the law-givers of the Empire |
State of the greatest, the grandest, |
the most enlightened, ETC., land in
the world bring before the people with
much pomp and circumstance a Grim !
inal code that takes no cognizance CT
the social order from which crime
springs. The Baumes laws are an at
tempt to bring back 1nadiaevalism. |
They will no more deliver us from
crime than the rack and the torture
chamber in whose spirit they have
been created. They are punitive and |
brutal in intent, procreated by reac-
tionaries and procreating reaction.
In what way will the workers be
affected by the Baumes laws? In one
way or another every repressive law
is utilized against labor. The Espion-
age Act, nominally a wartime mea-
sure designed against offenders who
might give aid and comfort to the |
enemy, was turned into savage on
slaught on the labor and radical move
ments. The Clayton Act, notwith-
standing its pro-labor sections, has
been repeatedly turned against labor
in times of strikes.
1t stands to reason that the bosses
will not be slow to utilize the Baumes
laws against the workers on every
pretext. The fact that these laws are
not couched in anti-labor language
will not stand in the way Of their
being used against the workers. Mil
liant workers are always felons in
the eyes of the capitalist law; and all
the laws against felony will be used /
against them. They will be finger
printed and stigmatized. They will be
held under excessive bail. They will
be arrested for strike-duties, and their
offenses will be counted as felonies
punishable with long prison-terms.
They will be arrested in masses while
picketing and be given a blanket-trial
to expedite their conviction and i'm
prisonment.
The workers of New York must
take a stand against the infamous
Baumes laws. They must not wait
until the laws have done their deadly
work. Every plan on the part of the
bosses to throttle labor must be frus-
trated, every effort nipped in the bud.
Organized labor throughout New York
State must demand the immediate re.
peal of the monstrous Baumes laws
and the abolition of the Baumes Com
mission.