The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-30
Students Unite
On SCOttSbOrO
Continued from Page y

elimination in the colleges and high
schools.
Plans are already under way tc
organize a delegation of college edi-
tors to go to Alabama during the
Christmas holidays to present q
student petition demanding the i'm
mediate release of the ScottSborc
boys.
In the letter of the LID. protest
ing the Nations" attack on the
mass fight and peddling of the lies
Of Samuel S. Leibowitz that the
LID. had collected several hun
dred thousand dollars" for the
Scottsboro defense, Anna Damon
brands the editorial as a deliberate
distortion of facts, and a web OF
outright untruths, and demands g
retraction of these statements and
the publication in full of the protest
of the LID.
Nation" Lies on Funds
Perhaps one of the most reveal
ing things about the Nation edi-
torial," she writes the editors, lis
matter of omission rather than
commission. Nowhere in the entire
editorial do we find any attack
upon the state of Alabama or its
courts or officials for their frame
up Of the boys, nor for their man
ner of conducting the trials"
Damon points out that the ma
ton" has been kept fully informed
on the sums collected by the LID
in the case and that such informa-
ton was readily available, and that
therefore the Nations" statement
that several hundred thousand dol
lars have been raised for prop
uganda" in the Scottsboro case can
lead to no other conclusion than
that the editors of the Nation
have deliberately misstated the
facts. The financial statement OF
the LID, showing total of
sos, 1882 raised and spent by the
LID. on the Scottsboro case. was
sent at that time to the editors of
the Nation" Damon points oui in
her letter to the editors. In addi-
ton, the LID. has spent several
thousand dollars more on the case
than it has collected.
Reply to Nation"
Without the propaganda the
ScottsborO boys would not have
been alive today, according to your
own admission" she reminds the
Nation editors, land without it
the huge amOunts-between forty
and fifty thousand doIIars-which
have been involved in purely legal
expenses, could not have been
raised"
In the editorial objected to, the
Nation" admitted:
There is small question that
only the widespread publicity
which the mass pressure move
ment gave to the case could have
produced this result that the de-
PENDANTS are still alive after three
and a half years-Editor of the
Daily Worker. There can be no
doubt, however, that mass protest
does, at a certain point, stiffen
the resistance of the organized
forces-in this case the courts of
Alabama-against which it is di-
rected."
Wholly ignoring the fact that
eight Of the nine boys had beer
sentenced to burn in the electric
chair before the LID. took ovel
their defense, the Nation" Their
proceeded to attack the mass de.
tense tactics of the LID.
Issue of National Oppression
Damon also takes issue with the
Nations attempt to hide tn,
monstrous national oppression o.
the Negro people which shows itsel
at every point in the Scottsbort
case.
In answer to the Impartial pro.
posal of the impartial" Nation
for an impartial committee K
decide the question as to who SHOULD
really represent the boys, Damon
writes.
The proposal itself is one which
coming as it does at the end of 6
review of the Scottsboro case which
is anything but impartial, we can.
not take seriously. This is all thu
more true because you suggest a.
impartial persons, Mr.. Arthur Gar.
field Hays and Mr.. Morris Ernst
both outspoken in their enmity t,
the LID. If truly impartial, anc
truly representative group were sin
cerely to attempt to put an end tc
the controversy opened by Mr.
LelboWitz, we would be willing tc
cooperate as we have always been
willing to cooperate in any move
to strengthen the defense of the
Scottsboro boys. Under all circum-
stances, We shall continue as We
have been doing during this con-
troversy, to devote ourselves to the
preparation of the best possible legaI
defense, and the best mass defense
that 1t is possible to organize, in
spite of disruptive tactics by the
enemies of the Scottsboro boys"
behind the struggle for genuine I'M
49, Il