The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-15

Dallas Ramsey, one OF the Negro
witnesses In the Decatur trial.
terson many of its branches have
already cooperated with the LID. in
the defense, and hundreds OF N. A.
A. c. P. members have been involved
in it.
The International Labor Defense,
the statement said. welcomes this
offer of cooperation from the leaders
of the N.A.A.C.P., coming as it does
especially, at the height Of such a
mass movement as has never before
been achieved behind the issues rails
ed by the LID. in the case, and be-
hind its fight TO save the lives OF the
boys.
The text of the statement, which re-
views the previous activities Of the
N.A.AC.P. in regard to the Scottsboro
case, follows:
with the announcement on Sun
day, Anril 8, of the monstrous lynch
verdict against Haywood Patterson
by an au-white jury in Decatur, the
defense struggle of the Scottsboro
boys entered a new phase. The
worldwide protest against the frame
I'D of the Scottsboro boys, under the
leadership of the International Labor
Defense. which for two years had
kept these boys alive, rose to IN
precedented heights ss word flashed
around the world of this verdict made
with complete disregard Of the evid-
ence presented at the trial.
Had Attacked Defense
1.-THE first reaction of the national
board OF directors Of the National
Association for the Advancement Of
Colored People to this verdict was an
attack upon the Scottsboro defense,
in tie form of a statement to the
press which said that the Alabama
lynchers would not have returned
this verdict had not the Communists,
as the NAACP. statement chose
to call the International Labor De-
Tense, entered the case.
The statement of the board OF
directors put forward the descriptive
proposal OF forming new defense
committee though the Information
al Labor Defense has from the be-
ginning been the authorized defenders
Of the boys, and has carried on
consistent and bitter fight to save
their lives for two years, q fight
which included struggle against dis
r1iptive maneuvers OF the NAACP
leadership
Statement Contained Falsehood
'The statement contained the as
sertion that the NAACP was the only
organization to go to the aid Of the
boys in their first trial deliberate
falsehood. The NAkCP has never
been legally connected with the case,
and its first attempts to enter it came
after the international Labor De-
Tense had already raised storm Of
mass protest against the original
lynch verdicts, and after their attor-
neys had been authorized to repre-
sent them by the Scottsboro boys and
by their parents
"At that time The NAACP. in an eff
fort to take over control of the case
at all costs, even that Of the lives
Of the boys, retained Stephen Roddy,
member of the XXX, who had
appeared at the first trial but &C
cording to the record was not de-
Tense attorney regularly employed,
VINO failed to make any of the legal
moves which might lay the basis for
an appeal, and who, according to his
own statement, considered his very
presence in the court room to de
fend' nine Negro boys an unpleasant
duty
From that time on the NAACP
defense of the boys consisted solely
in attacks upon the boys authorized
defenders. and in raising money, OF
which only $1,000 out of an admitted
$1,000 raised, has been turned over
to the defense. This money was
raised without being at any time
backed by authorization Of the boys