Evening star., 1937-08-09
WIFE STRUGGLING
TOSAVE ESCUDER
Seeks Aid Throughout World
for Ex-Editor Facing
Doom in Spain.
BY Radio to The Star.

MRS. Joseph M. EScuder, a native OF
Tampa, Fla, and former instructor
at Barnard College, Columbia Uni
versity, New York, sits here racking
her brain for means of making his
tragedy stand out above all the thou
sands Of others that daily wet Spain S
earth with tears.
She believes that II the world can
be made to know his tragedy. it would
be shaken. ''It would do something
she says. Surely, there is something
it could do"
The attempt to shake a world pre-
occupied with it's own troubles goes on
in hastily found room here where
Mrs. Escuder is living under an
assumed name. Communists had
bounded her from her husbands side
in Barcelona, where she was devoting
| herself to relief work for refugee chill
dren while her husband, we'll known
in New York, was editing La Batalla, "
P. o. U. M. party of Marxist Unity
newspaper. When she came 10
Paris, ''somebody-perhapsC Communist
agents." started opening her mail, SO
that an assumed name and change
in residence became necessary.
Gables Make Two Foot Pile.
II send letters and cables to every
body" she says. Il tell everybody
who knew of my husband, whether
personally or by reputation, and get
them to protest. Former Premier
Largo Caballero, who says himself that
his refusal to arrest my husband was
one of the reasons why the Commun-
friend of mine the cables of protest
over the crime against my husband
came from all over the world and
made stack feet high on his desk
There are people left on earth who
want to see justice done
If he dies, will he have died for his
| principles?
Mrs. Escuder, just turned 30
| dainty featured, large eyed, short
| determined, crisp-talkine, did not
| blink the question or wiring her hands.
If a social conscience is a principle,
the answer is yes she said, but then
only indirectly. Directly, he will have
died for his enemies lack of prin-
ciples. He has been trapped by a
| political machine, and that is what
will mangle him"
Her husband, she said, was ar
rested by the Communists without
the knowledge of the government and
along with leaders of the P. o. U. NJ
party.
| The P. o. U. NJ has 10000 sub
scribing members and was the first
| revolutionary party in Catalonia to
send volunteers to the front. 1t OBJ
jected in speeches and in its press to
| the Communist minority's attempt to
| dictate the policies of the govern
ment-an attempt made powerful,
out of all proportions to its popular
| strength, by the Soviet government s
| aid to the loyalist forces. So the
| Communists had the P. o. u M. sup
pressed, at cost of 500 lives in a
single day 80 far, and had its leaders
arrested on. of all things, charges
| Of espionage for the Fascists and
Trotskyism. My husband was not
even party leader, but merely editor
of the party paper. He was taken
along.
Father Owned Chain Stores.
Espionage for the Fascists? III
tell you this about that: My hus-
| bands father was chain-store owner
and u,opfnT fn HI i,,
Of wealth, But he turned his back
| on that and, as boy in his teens,
Joined the fight against the monarchy
He used to live in cellars with a
portable press, issuing handbills in
behalf Of republic and hunted by
the dictator's terrOrists.
He might have been anything. He
wrote well, he painted beautifully
he had a head for business. But
he was cursed with a social con-
science. He could not be happy while
the poor suffered. His grandfather
used to visit the slum quarters in
Barcelona as sort of everyday Santa
Claus. What do you need most of
all right noW?' he would ask the poor
he visited. A doctor, bed, a broom
medicine, shoes He would buy it
right away. My husband went around
among the poor with his portable
press.
Just before the revolution broke
out in July, 1885, We returned to the
United States for visit. The United
States was my home and a second
home for my husband. He took a
position with Twentieth Century-Fox
Films and we had an apartment and
might have been happy.
Il remember that Summer, how he
used to sit all night long before the
radio with tortured eyes, waiting for
news bulletins
He wanted to 60 back right away
But his friend, Andres Min, recent
victim of assassins in Madrid, then
minister of justice for Catalonia, told
him he could do better work explain
ing the Loyalist cause to Americans,
raising funds, buying supplies. In
the Fall came cable from Min, offer
ing him post in the government. He
sailed as soon as he could pack.
Italian Ships Menacing.
italian warships were then of
Barcelona and Italian planes were
nesting on Majorca. A bonlbardment
Of Barcelona was expected momen-
tarily and he said I should not come
with him, but he would send for me
as soon as he felt it was safe.
While he was on the high seas Min
was forced out of the cabinet by the
Communists. My husband undertook
work for American magazines and
newspapers in order to live, and edited
La Batalla. Last Christmas he wrote
me that what was happening in Bar
celona would go on happening with
out change for years and that I could
join him.
so I went to him. In Barcelona
he worked himself into sickness ]
never saw him during the week: only