Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-02
Pardon of Charlotte Whitney
Is Praised as Act of Justice

The act Of Gov. c. c. Young of Cali.
fornia in freeing 60-year-old Charlotte
Anita Whitney, convicted of violating
the California criminal syndicalism
law, is generally approved by the press
as a deed not only of mercy, but of
real justice in keeping with American
traditions
I'm pardoning Miss Whitney, the
governor has not endangered the Gov
eminent of the United States nor that
of the State of California, but he has
prevented the infiiction of grave in
justice on a good woman, and the peo-
pie generally will applaud his course"
says the Santa Barbara Daily News,
with which opinion the San Francisco
Bulletin and the Los Angeles Times
in the main agree, although the for
mer suggests the case might have
been equally well met by parole" and
the latter would not have the fact
overlooked that the action affects
neither the status Of the law itself
nor the fact that Miss Whitney was
found guilty OF it's breach"
zone of the men who helped draft
the criminal syndicalism act and get
it passed by the California Legislature
has declared publicly that it should
not have been invoked against Miss
Whitney" observes the Kansas City
Post, which believes that GOV. Young
has done Il sensible thing in granting
the pardon" The Pocatello Tribune
characterizes the California syndical-
ism law as lone of the worst fruits or
wartime hysteria,' since 1t made any
individual member Of an organization
words said. by other members, which
constitutes a startling advance on the
theory of Joint responsibility" while
the st. Louis Post-Dispatch contends
that to have imprisoned Miss Whitney
for guilt by association, as 1T was
nronosed to do, would have been to
inject into our free American lnstltu-
tons an abhorrent principle on ac-
count of which many Of our forbears
fed Europe"
X X X X
"The Woman's conviction came from
the strained construction OF too'drds
tic law" says the Omaha World her
aid, and the Dayton Daily News eA
presses the thought that out OF the
incident should and doubtless Will grow
an effort in California to revise It's
political crime laws to make them ap
ply only to dangerous people. inns
opinion is also voiced by the New
Bedford Standard, which says the par
don docs no more than meet the re-
o,,irements Of Justice; now the LeSis-
lature should change the law SO that
like hers will not be pos
sible under it"
In reference to the Supreme Court
tfttnhnI1 CALIFORNIA S
right to pass such a law" the Milwau-
kee Journal points out that Judge
Brandeis. in a separate concurrins
opinion with which Judge Holmes
agreed, regretted that the court had
not been able to pass on the question
whether Miss Whitney's act did ac'
t,Iallv violate the law. That went as
near as these justices could go with
propriety to saying they thought MISS
whitney ought not to have been con-
victed." concludes the Journal.
lust what Miss Whitney's act was
ia recalled by the Ohio State Journal
which says: Miss Whitney's crime lay
In the fact that in the Fall of 1919
she defied the local authorities and
spoke in Oakland in behalf of John
McHugo. an accused +. w. w. leader.
She was arrested and brought to trial
in the following January, when she
was found guilty. There was never
any evidence" continues this journal,
that she was in sympathy with the
I. w. w. movement or that she was
in any way or at any time an advocate
of lawlcssness or Of violence"
Declaring that because Miss Whit
ney was interested in the unskilled
worker, she was made the victim OF
hysterical postwar legislation" the
New York World states that lit would
have been an ugly stain on Califor-
Mas history If this philosophical So
cial worker had been sent to San
Quentin for the crime Of belonging