The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-13

ing class. State troopers on spirited
horses trained to NOW down picket
lines. Coal and iron cops with muir
der in their eyes. :.
The courtroom is gloomy. Few
friends and comrades to cheer the
worker on trial for his life, for
spectators are barred from the
courtroom, on this, the first of his
days in court"
Salvatore Accorsi is led in, hand
cuffed to a sullen prison guard.
He is slight of built, keen-eyed, in
telligent. Whom does he remind
one of? Another Italian worker,
Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker. Glad
in gray he sits in q chair behind
Ills attorneys at the counsel table
ihd watches the selection of the
1ury with profound interest. He is
pale from the seven months con-
finement in prison; during that time
he has lost nearly Is pounds.
Two tables, ends together, have
been placed in the courtroom fac
ing the judges bench. Here are
seated the lawyers for the prose-
cution and defense, and, at the far
end, a dozen newspaper reporters.
One OF these is the tall, long-legged,
red-haired Sinclair Lewis, satirist
of American provincial life and the
successful" business man. Lewis,
roaming around the United States
gathering material for labor novel,
has stopped in Pittsburgh long
enough to study, at first hand, the
operations of the American frame
up system.
The prosecution is in the hands
Of George F. Langfitt and Jacob 4.
Kalson, assistant district attorneys.
Neither have ever played stellar
Asles, but getting a conviction OF
dis apparently friendless Italian
worker seems comparatively SIM
pie Job; and if Accorsi is electro-
cuted-and these two gentlemen are
determined that he will be--tFen
promotion awaits them both. Sitting
bv their side is John j. Tomek, the
state trooper who arrested Accorsi
in Staten Island last June, nearly
two years after the Cheswick
demonstration which was broken
up by the Pennsylvania cossAcRs.
Accorsi, who had taken an active
part in the miners strike Of 1877,
was evicted by the Pittsburgh Coal
Co.. two months after the Cheswick
meeting. With his wife and three
children he went to live at Harwick,
Pa, where he remained until April,
1928. Then, failing to find work,
he moved to Staten Island, where
he worked as laborer until he was
arrested June Il Of this year.
Republican Judge.
The Judge, J. A. McLaughrey, IS
a hard-boiled Republican politician
from the adjoining county OF Mer-
GER. where workers meetings are
crushed ruthlessly by city and
county authorities. McLaughrey was
at one time superintendent OF schools
of Mercer county, which is in the
grip of the United States Steel
Corp. and the Westinghouse Elec-
fric Co.
He is an old man, past 90, heav-
Nv constructed, with pouchy eyes
covered by broad, shell-rimmed
glasses and a dull, listless manner.
Chief of defense counsel is Jacob
Margolis, a Pittsburgh lawyer, who
was disbarred about 10 years ago
for his courageous legal battles in
behalf of the foreign-born victims
of the 1919 Palmer raids in Pennsyl-
vania. Assisting Margolis, is Mau-
rice Schneirov and John M. Henry,
both of Pittsburgh.
"Naw," the burly, officious at
tendant assured me, ut won't take
no more'n a week to finish thi.
case, and he's done for, too" He
couldn't see why so many reporter:
were present and when I explained
that thousands Of workers on tht
outside were vitality interested in thu
outcome of the trial, he eyed me W
and down suspiciously and spat out
A "Hell, he's just god gamn wop!
"
The International Labor Defense
which at the Charlotte trial wal
singled out for attack at the very
outset, was once more the target oil
the bosses prosecution here.
"Have you received in the mail'
or read any of the printed circulars
or propaganda dealing with THU
case?, Prosecutor Langfitt hurled Al
each prospective juror.
Langfitt later Indignantly tolt
newspaper men that information ha'
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