The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-23


cronies do not give a damn whether
the Scottsboro boys are legally MUIR
dered or not. Their concern is to
make capital out of the case for
the capitalist parties, and especially
for the Democratic Party-the party
Of the lynchers. Leibowitz last year
attempted to exploit his connection
with the case in the interests OF
the candidacy of Joseph Mckee for
Mavor Of New York City.
What to such people is the cues
ton Of the oppression of the Negro
people, of the lives of nine innocent
Negro boys?' For them the case
merely offers an opportunity to try
to cover the infamous anti-Negro
policy Of the Democratic and Re
publican parties.
Boys Back l. L. d.
We do not know whether the bows
have signed new affidavtts retain
ing Leibowitz, as reported in the
capitalist press We do not know
whether Leibowitz and his BODY
guard, Terry, backed by the prison
wardens and the whole power of
the capitalist state, have succeeded
in coercing and tricking the boys
into repudiating the I. L. D. We do
know that Leibowitz's bodyguard
attempted to incite the lynching of
Ben j. Davis, Jr.. and threatened
to run Comrade Davis out of Mont
gomery, Ala. People who will de-
scend to the tactics of the lynchers
will not hesitate at anything. II is
not impossible that these boys
two confined in the death cells in
Kilby Prison, the other seven. held
for months in solitary confinement
in jefferson County Jail, Birming-
ham, Ala. have in desperation
signed the statements demanded by
Leibowitz, with the help of the
warden and ali other means. Of ier-
rorizing. 1t is Of the greatest sig
nificance that the iailers of the
boys have within the last few days
barred representatives of the I. L.
D. from seeing the boys, under the
pretext that the boys have re-
quested Governor B. M. Miller of
Alabama to protect" them from the
organization Of which they have
time and again declared that had
it not been for the I. L. D., we
would have been dead long ago"
But the Conference and every
sincere friend of the Scottsboro
boys will see one question clearly
today, will realize that, apart from
the legal defense, the main ques-
ton is to arouse new millions of
workers and intellectuals, white
and Negro, to build such a united
front mass defense movement in
this country that will at the last
moment stay the bloody hands of
the lynch rulers.
This is what the Conference
set as its practical task: the mo-
bilization of new millions in the
fight to save the boys, the hold
ing of meetings, demonstrations,
the enlisting of every honest per-
sen in the broadest United Front
movement to raise this mass cry:
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS MUST
BE SAVED! THE BASIC RIGHTS
OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE MUST
BE SECURED AND AN INTOLER-
ABLE SITUATION ENDED UN-
DER WHICH NEGROES ARE
HUNTED, TERRORIzED AND
MADE THE PREY OF EVERY
LYNCH GANG AND DEMAGOG,
AS THE HISTORY OF THE
SCOTTSBORO CASE so ORA
MATICALLY DISCLOSES.
Let any sincere friend of the
Scottsboro boys imagine what would
have happened if the Communist
Party and the International Labor
Defense had not entered the Scots
boro Case three and half years
ago. The boys would have been
dead long before this, and Mr.. Lei
bowitz would not have been able to
boast upon his return from the De-
catur trial that he was now "a
made man."
It is the two-fisted policy of the
/. L. D. of mass pressure on the
lynch courts, supplemented by the
best legal defense in the lynch
courts, that has saved the boys so
far. This is generally recognized.
It was recognized by Sundays con-
ference, which endorsed the I. L. D.
policy and called for the most in
tensified mass protests in the fight