The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-12-17

The prisoners at the bar. or rather not at
the bar but in the theatre box, are a number of
important looking, well-dressed clean shaved.
European people of prosperous appearance.
Without hustle they take their seats sit quietly
in stubborn silence and coolly look around.
All the eyes are fixed on then-the military
guard, the Soviet and international Communist
press reporters on the left side and the foreign
bourgeois press reporters on the right, photog-
raphers, searchlghts. movie camera men, talkie
men, and all the public in the partiere and the
balconies of the Hall of the Columns.
Everyone makes preparations to listen to them.
The stenographers sharpen their pencils for the
last time, the correspondents smooth out their
pocketbooks, the microphones expectantly glitter
on their stands, the black loud speakers impa-
tiently cape. The telegraph operators take their
seats by their apparatus to send out lightning
dispatches to all parts of the country to all
countries, to all the world.
The miners in the pits of the Don Basin and
the Ministers in Cabinets of Paris, the night edi-
tors of hundred thousand newspapers in Eur
ope, America, Australia-all are listening all are
awaiting the first words of this little group
sitting on the dais of the Dom Soyusov Grade
Union HalD, this handful that has made itself
so prominent in all parts OF the world and has
riveted on itself the attention of hundreds of
millions of people.
The secretary of the court long and monoto-
nously reads out the voluminous indictment.
The public begins to whisper, to discuss under
their breath the starting details the unparalleled
circumstances of the plot which was foiled.
The correspondent of German paper speaks
in sophisticated tone of crack reporter.
Until hear it with my own ears, 1 don't be-
ieve anything. That is my rule"
Until you hear what?"
Until I hear them plead guilty themselves
until hear them relate all these incredible facts
shall not believe anything. And you can't con-
vince me. That's the sort of chap I am"
Very well. You can be that sort of chap.
have no time to convince you and no need either.
Just wait half an hour"
We have to wait half an hour before the mon
otonous reading of the indictment is finished.
What will happen next? Who knows what will
happen in half an hour! There are all kinds of
indictment in the world and all sorts of things
are written in them.
Here for instance is what appears in the Par
isian white-guard paper --latest News" written
with furious energy and fierce indignation.
THE savage fantasies of Krienko typed onto
the 80 pages Of the indictment, surpasses every
thing that might have been expected even from
Soviet prosecutor. The Indictment consists of
such a capricious tangle of baseless fantasies,
prov >tic-al effects direct lies and q complete
confusion of the happenings of the last ten years,
that no person in his right mind could possibly
read its pages without indignation and feelings
of fastidious aversion towards its author"
Poncare howls in unison with the Russian
White Guards that the indictment is Just the
delirium of mailman.
But the prisoners gave this testimony at the
preliminary investigation Well, they might say
a lot of things behind the bars when alone be-
fore the examining judge, and in face of the
SCARF ing questions of the GP.U. 1t is one thing
to have preliminary investigation and another
matter to have an open public trial where it is
possible to speak out to query, to oppose. Thus
writes the social democratic press: Populaire,
Vorwaerts, Arbeiter Zeitung and Deutsche Herald
But here, in face of the whole world, in face
of the diplomatic corps of the great powers, in
the face of hundreds of correspondents from the
biggest newspapers and the telegraph agencies
of Europe and America, these eight men may
talk in another manner.
The reading of the indictment is finished In
the huge hall there is dead silence. Slowly dis
tinctly the presiding Judge puts the question
guilty or not guilty to each oof the prisoners.
Now we shall hear Now the thunderous voices
Of the venerable Professors Fedotov and Stnin
will be heard, now the reticent aged Larichev
will burst out, in moment we shall hear the
energetic and youthful looking Ramzin storming
forth.
But no. Nothing Of the sort happened One
after the other; the eight men approach the
Judge, bow. and rapidly. without any hesitation,
answer.
II confess
Guilty
II confess my guilt
These are no longer respected persons with
confident PROFESSIONAL appearance They are