The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-07-11
DIR. LOWELL IN WORD AND DEED

TINE retiring president of Harvard univer-
Il sity, DR.. Abbott Lawrence Lowell, made
some noble remarks to the Harvard seniors.
Among other things he said:
"Our ignorance of what we are doing does
not relieve us of all responsibility for our con-
duct or our opinions, for to think Alright to the
best Of our capacity is a very grave obligation
to those dependent upon us, to those who may
he influenced by us, to the community of
which we form a part &. i.
Truly, in times of public distress or ex-
element the salt of the earth are those who
hold on to themselves who keep their calm
ness and balance of mind trying to see things
in their true proportions undistorted by pre-
possessions. . -.
1.-THE cardinal virtues-justice, prudence
temperance, and fortitude-are not evanescent
nor can they ever become obsolete. Above
ALL let us bear in mind that a good citizens
first duty-mark you, by no means his only
duty, but his first duty-to the public is to pre-
serve untarnished his own moral integrity"
These are lofty sentiments Had one not
noted that they were ascribed to DR.. Lowell
by the newspapers, one might have imagined
that they had been voiced by Plato, Seneca, or
Marcus AureliuS. Lest we forget, however, this
same Dr. Lowell was the leading member of the
committee whose report sent Sacco and Van
zetti to the electric chair.
Here was his great opportunity to appear
vertably the salt of the EARTH keeping his
"calmness and balance of mind" and "preserv-
ing untarnished his own moral integrity" How
well did he measure up to the ideals he now
eXtols?
The dean of American philosophers, a man
certainly of greater intellectual eminence than
DR. Lowell expressed his opinion thereupon
in the New Republic of Nov. 90, 1927. In a
profound and searching article on the psychol-
ogy of the Lowell report. John Dewey pre-
sented his final estimate in the following
burning words:
lone is Inundated profoundly at the reve-
lation of an attitude which, it is submitted, the
record amply sets forth, the record placed be-
fore the bar of history. The sense of hunilia-
ton is akin to that of guilt, as if for share
in permitting such a state of mind as is exhib-
tied in the record to develop in a country that
processes respect for justice and devotion to
fraternity and equality"
We have no space here to go into details
of the mental attitudes revealed by the whole
Lowell report, but we may present represent
alive example of the "untarnished mental in
tegrity'' as exhibited in the handling of Sacco's
alibi.
Sacco claimed that he had been in Boston
on April Is, 1920, the day of the murders, and
hence could not have shot anybody in South
Braintree. Two supporters of his alibi were
Felice Guadagri and Albert Bosco.
They stated that they remembered having
seen Sacco in Boston on April Is and identi-
fed the day because it was that upon which
a dinner had been given to Mr. Williams of
the Boston Transcript.
Dr. Stratton OF the Lowell committee COM
municated with Mr. Williams and the latter
told him that the dinner took place on May
Is. 1920, and that there was only one dinner.
The Lowell committee believed that it had
blasted Sacco's alibi. Members suddenly called
Guadagni and Bosco before them and asked
these men if they felt sure that the dinner
took place on April IS. Both reiterated their
certainty that it did. Then the Lowell COM
mittee triumphantly put before them Mr.
williams statement that the dinner took place
on May l3
But the men remained firm. They fur
nished copies of their paper, La Notizia, of
April l6, 1920 and it carried an article de-
scribing the dinner to Mr.. Williams The lat
ter then admitted that his memory had been
defective and that there had been two din