The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-24
Communists Rap Roosevelt Housing Campaign BaIyhoC

see, you want decent people of
America to help you. You fool
around with these reds and we can
not help you. You know Mr.
Leibowit8 is a great man, and it was
all we could do to keep him in the
case to help you mothers and the
boys. We have all faith in him
and as a matter of fact the Min
isterial Denominations Con-
ference in New York voted to keep
/ Mr.. Leibowitz, and these reds should
/ be gotten out of your case, they are
( not helping you at all. If you moth
ers will just put your trust in Leib-
owit5 and god your boys will be
/ saved and Leibowitz and god are
/ the only ones that can save them
now Now, mothers, just as sure
/ as you sit in that chair, your boys
/ are going to be burned on Dec. r.
But then, after he said that, he
said, We are not trying to influ-
ence you, we are not trying to per-
suade you, we want you to do this
of your own free will and we are
not trying to influence you They
said furthermore, We have talked
the whole situation over among our
selves and with Mr.. Leibowitz, and
we agree with Mr.. Leibowitz that
the reds have to be gotten out be-
cause the reds will keep you from
getting any consideration from the
Alabama courts In other words,
the fourth main argument used was
the red scare.
Then the fifth main argument
was Leibowitz's alliance with the
court system itself. Terry told the
mothers that Mr.. Leibowitz had
talked the whole thing over with
Tom Knight, with Governor Miller,
and they assured him that if he got
control of the case that the boys
would get life and as soon as they
served few months, they would
get out by a pardon. OF course,
this is absolutely impossible, but
the mothers did not know it.
80 they told the mothers all
these things and the mothers be-
came panicky, naturally, and signed
OfSAs 4NAos I aOVCASOll SlSllCQ, N1IS.
Wright signed, Mrs. Williams would
have signed but she was sick in bed
at Mrs Patterson's house and could
| not get down there. But she did
finally make cross mark and some
one else signed her name. That
was the first statement repudiating
the l. L. D.
Deliberate Misrepresentation"
Davis, from his investigation in
Alabama, affirmed that many docu-
ments were presented to the BOYS
by the Leibowitz crew, and to their
mothers, with deliberate misrepre-
sentation.
Il will say that the mothers, Mrs.
Wright and Mrs Patterson, neither
one of them knew what they were
signing when they signed the Lei
bowitz retainer the first time; and
the boys certainly did not know the
effect of what they were signing,
because they could not sign these
papers to keep out our lawyers and
| still maintain the warm, friendly
and enthusiastic relation they did
with me and the I. L. D. at all
times"
Now that the Scottsboro case is
up before the United States Su-
preme Court on appeal, with the
death sentence against two of the
boys set for Dec 7, the efforts of
the Alabama authorities to drive
the I. L. D. out Of the case was
made plain by Ben Davis from his
first hand investigation of the in
tricate threads Of the new plot
against the Scottsboro boys. The
framed-up defendants realize that
1t was the I. l.. D. that has saved
their lives thus far, that has rallied
millions of workers all over the
world in their defense. Despite the
trojan efforts of the state lynch
authorities, now cooperating with
Leibowitz and his forces, despite the
fact that the boys are maltreated,
bulldozed, beaten, intermingled with
promises, they cannot be torn away
from their allegiance to the I. L. D.,
no matter what tricks are used to
get them to sign papers under
duress and threats.