The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-09

the 1. L. d. attorney: If you per-
Sist i'll that line of questioning, I'll
get some testimony before the court
by testifying myself"
It is significant that the A. P. re-
porter does not follow up this bull
lying challenge OF the Southern
prosecutor by the l. L. D. attorneys
answer Why? The reason is OBJ
vious. The A. p. and its Southern
representative want to give the APP
pearance that the ruling-class at
torney general is a damned smart
fellow; that he is much too clever
for them damn Yankee lawyers.
If the A. P. had carried the story
of precisely what happened, it
would have shown the attorney
general to be the simple minded,
-illiterate, Negro hating tool OF
the Alabama landlords that he &C
tually is. In order to make it look
as if all the wit, cleyerneSS, and
erudition are on the side of the
prosecution, the A. P. distorts the
truth. That is one of the old fam
liar features Of courtroom trials
involving Negro workers in the
South.
Another is the heartleSs callouS-
ness Of the whole state apparatus.
For instance, the nine boys are all
locked UP in a filthy bull pen"
which the newspapers frankly sd-
init was condemned as unsanitary
and Insecure two years ago and
since then has been regarded as
unfit Tor white prisoners" The New
York Times reporter at Decatur
writes that "only Negroes are lock-
up there, white prisoners being
taken to the Jail at Huntsville,
thirty odd miles away" In addition
to being forced to live in this I'M
healthful place, the prisoners are
so situated that they face an old
gallows in the jail yard. At the
prison from which they were re-
Gently taken they were compelled to
look perpetually at the electric
chair.
OTHER old familiar features that
" are cropping up at the present
trial are the lying witnesses pre-
sented by the prosecution to dis
credit the Negro defendants; the
righteous indignation" of the for
mer prostitute when the defense
suggested that she had been friend
" with Negroes; the ease with
which she "disremen1bers" the plac-
es where she sought work two years
ago; the ease with which she eden
tilted" the prisoner Patterson Gas
related in the New York World
Telegram in the court room, as if
a mere idiot could not do the same
thing under similar circumstances.
Cor Patterson was sitting in such
q position that everybody in the
court knew who he was.)
And the reporters for the ASSOC
lated Press, and for the ruling
class press in general, Slobbered
gleefully whenever they told OF
hearing some white man in the
crowd utter threats if a Negro
dared" respond to jury call
WHAT makes this trial different
w from others Of it's kind is that
the working class Of the whole
world, rallying to the call of the
International Labor Defense, stands
behind the innocent prisoners, sup
porting them with the mighty
power of its pressure. If for an in
slant this pressure should be re-
Iaxed, this trial would turn out pre-
cisely as others of its kind have
turned out; with the state COM
hitting the murder which ordinar-
lily would have been committed by
the landlords and their tools. We
must not relax our pressure. The
working class of the world is res
ponsible for the successes won thus
far; the working class Of the world
alone can assure complete victory.