Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-27
Foreign Criticism Discounted
i'm SaccO-Vanzetti Execution

! These men would have overturned the
present social system. 1t was, there.
fore, the duty of the present social
system to vindicate it's existence as
founded on law, order and Justice
Foreign misconceptions receive some
attention in the American press. The
New York Sun finds, in foreign prints.
amazing and reckless deviation from
fact" and asks, IF four leading lib
eral weeklies of England can be mis-
led, what wonder is it that prcJudlced
or unintelligent publications have de-
ceived unthinking readers?" The San
Francisco Chronicle says: ut was
made to appear, not only in this coun-
try. but more particularly abroad.
where the common people could not
readily come by the facts, that SaccO
and Vanzetti were being tried for their
radicalism, To this propa-
ganda we now owe the hatred of Amer.
lea which has been stirred in all these
thousands of foreigners"
Replying to the charges Of failure
to give adequate opportunity to the
defendants, the Canton Daily News
says, 'It is because these men are
known as radicals that many Amer
leans who are not radicals
have favored the most careful re-eX-
animation of the case before letting
the men be executed" The Worcester
Evening Gazette, Akron Beacon Jour-
nal and Watertown Daily Times feel
that under other circumstances they
would have been executed years ago.
The Springfield Union states that If
the officials had been influenced by
misrepresentation, prejudice or
venom, that would have been q stain
on the reputation of Massachusetts"
The Salt Lake Deseret News Is con.
WINGED that "few cases in history have
been more searchirgly reviewed"
X j. X X
The Birmingham News sees the adj
verse opinion abroad as possibly due
Somewhat to the ill-feeling now pre-
vailing throughout the world against
this country, but even more to the
no uncertain feeling that, for reasons
of public policy as well as for reasons
of justice tempered by mercy, this
death penalty might very wisely have
been committed to life Imprisonment"
The Waterbury Republican calls COM
mutation 1.-The nobler course" and
the Milwaukee Journal adds that this
case ''strips the capital punishment
advocates Of every argument they
have had"
eff there are lessons for American
justice in what has happened" accord
ing to the New York Evening World,
sober American thought will note
and apply them in due course without
promptings from passion or violence.
1t is a time for opinion of all kinds
TO remember that its best strength IS
in calmness and restraint The
Baltimore Evening Sun declares: 1t
was largely the pressure of British
and American public opinion that in
duced France to reopen the Dreyfus
case. 1t was foreign opinion. largely
American, that forced MusSolini to
make a pretense Of trial of the
accused in the MatteOtti case. 1t is
regard for public opinion. always
partly foreign. that restraints tyranny
in every civilized country"
Sacred justice is the only stable
foundation Of popular government.
Time will be required to tell how
severely this foundation has been
shocked" declares the sMorgantown
New Dominion. and the Chattanooga
News laments that 1.-The Indictment of
American justice in the minds of the
world is a grave and horrible thing"
The st. Louis Post-Dispatch concludes:
THE law has spoken and good citizen
ship must accept it. But In the
Justice the department of Sacco and
Vanzetti will remain as a conscious:
ness of innocence
X x *
IF the law were to provide that a
sentence for life imprisonment make
impossible the setting free of a con-
victed person through the exercise of
executive pardon, there would imme-
diately be many converts to abolition
of capital punishment" according to
the Utica Observer Dispatch The
Rocky Mountain News wonders If 1.-THE
ones responsible for the conviction of
the two and their execution are salts
fled with themselves" The New York
Times. Trenton Evening Times and
Raleigh News and Observer suggest
that advisabilty of change in the
Massachusetts courts which would
provide for more adequate review OF
cases in higher courts.
''The case is more than likely to
go laundering down the ages as one
of the most celebrated involving the
righteousness of American Justice,
says the Omaha World-Herald. and
the Portland oregon Journal con-
cludes: 1.-THE debate Is ended There
is no Sacco or Vanzetti to dispute
over. II they were not guilty. II Is
now too late, No human force can
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