The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-08


of immigration and against the rising trade unions.
The great Lawrence strike breaks out in 1912 A
year later we find Sacco helping conduct strike
in Milford Vanzett also becomes "goddam
agitator, punished by the blacklist.
Against this background of New England fac
tories, strikes, and labor agitation the figures of
Sacco and Vanzetti become human and their suisse
quent fate ineligible BY taking part in the struggle
against the brutal rule of the textile barons they
are making it possible for judge to say day,
"the defendants ideals cognate with the crime"
They become the enemies of society,"" e of capital
list society.
More than that America enters the war. The
of bankers and industriasts turns loose
an army of spies against the enemy within" With
the aid of the A. F. of L. bureaucrats radicals
especially foreign-born radicals-are hunted down,
arrested, and deported. The American ruling class
suffers from "red nightmare" Sacco and Van
zetti active on behalf of comrades caught
in the net of the department of justice. They have
prepared leafet showing up the imperiast nature
of the war for democracy, and civilization" They
go about their daily work, Sacco as shoemaker
and Vanzett fish peddler.
Suddenly they are arrested. They imagine the
police wants them for political offense They I'M
derstand capitalist society too well not to realize
that they are guilty" of wishing to overthrow it.
They contradict themselves on examination in order
to protect other class conscious workers. But the
fact is that they charged with robbery and muir
der at South Braintree and Bridgewater.
They breathe freely knowing they innocent
of the crimes charged And perhaps if they were
merely two ordinary individuals they would have
been freed but from the very beginning, the pro-
secutor, baying for blood, dragged out the radical
records of the two and from that moment they
doomed
The of he iS
of the most striking details are collected for the
first time in Lyons book. Analysing New Eng
lands fears for working class protests the author
traces the lies and contradictions of prosecution wit
nesses. He invests the various figures with flesh
and blood. We get full length portraits of Thayer
and Katzmann, Painting Lola and the boy who lied
on the witness stand and retracted their testimony
and then again retraced their retractions the var-
pistol experts; the defense attorneys, including
Fred H. Moore, whose figure looms heroically in
the Dedham courtroom; Governor Fuller and Judge
Grant; above all Sacco and Vanzetti themselves
holding to their social faith throughout seven years
of torture The book also tells in a lucid way of
the legal battles, the appeals and denials the work
ers' demonstrations all the world and the pres
sure brought to bear by the ruling class to crush
the two who had become the symbol of work
ing class revolt. The struggle is followed step by
step to the final moment when American capital in
defiance of protests in every country includ-
ing this one, asserted its will and killed Sacco and
Vanzetti.
eff it had not been for this thing" Vanzett said
to Judge Thayer shortly before his DEATH "I might
have lived out my life talking street corners to
scornng men. / might have died unmarked I'M
known, failure. Now we are not failure This
is our career and our triumph Never in our full
life could we hope to do such work for tolerance
for justice, for mems understanding of men as now
we do by accident Our words-our lives-our pains
nothing! The taking of our lives-lives of good
shoemaker and poor fish peddler-all! That last
moment belongs to us that agony is triumph"
Of the many true, and beautiful and strong words
which Sacco and Vanzetti said during their seven
struggle these among the BEST as are those
letters urging their fellow workers outside of prison
to carry on the battle against oppression and for
emancipation.
This story of the "Lfe and Death of Sacco and
Vanzett" will reach workers in every country; it
is already being translated into Russian German
Italian and other languages. The book is illustrated
of nd T,J