Evening star., 1944-10-07

The President
commuted BroWder's sentence May
is, 1912, two years before the present
campaign. Browder had served Il
months. In considering the case
the President had before him petl-
ton signed by eminent men ano
women in all walks of life. There
were also letters from a former
president. of the American Bal
Association, an extremely respect
able Republican; from an Episcopa!
bishop; from deans OF various law
schools and many well-known edu-
Gators. Each offered his own.argu-
ment. Some followed the line taken
by Wendell Willkie two years earlier
Now said Willkie, you may hate
Communism even more than you
hate Naziism (and am surprised at
the number of people who do) but II
you truly believe in protection OF
civil liberties, you will wonder
whether Browder was sentenced to
four years in Jail and a $4,000 fine
because he made asfalse statement
on a passport application, or because
he was Communist party member" ;"
Reason For Action.
Back in 1884 Browder obtained
a passport by fraud" The fraud
consisted of not telling that he had
previously had a passport. The
truth was that this son of Kansas
had obtained passport at least
twice before, but had done so under
an assumed name. The use of the
assumed name, Browder seemed to
think, made it safer for him to travel
In certain countries.
The case against Browder, how
ever, was not his obtaining" a
passport by fraud, since the statute
of limitations had run out on that,
but his later use" of the passport,
itself a statutory offense. The use
consisted of showing his passport
to the inspectors who came aboard
the returning boat in New York
Harbor. Actually, Browder, as an
American citizen had right to en-
ter this country with or without
passport.
But, returning from Europe, in
April 1887 and in February 1888, he
showed his passport to the inspec-
tors. Twenty-one months after the
second instance he was indicted.
The Court, for reasons of its own,
gave Browder the stiffest sentence,
with one exception, in the history
of the present passport law, enacted
in 1918. In fact, only in rare cases
had misuse of a passport been
treated as more than petty
offense.
In the New York district in which
Browder was tried, there were 1877
cases between 1918 and 1941. OF
these Is were never brought to
trial, 28 resulted in suspended SEN
tences, and II were dismissed with
fines. In AZ cases sentences from
80 days to six months were given;
in IA cases, six months to one year;
In seven cases, one to two years; in
one case, three years. In two cases
the sentence was for four years.
One of these two cases was Brow
der's-that is, he was sentenced on
two counts, for two years on each,
the sentences to run consecutively,
not concurrently as was the usual
practice. He was also fined $4,000
Coolidge Pardoned One.
The other four-year sentence was
given in 1926 to one Angelo de
Angels. This angel of the angels
operated passport mill'; he vio-
lated the law as business. Indicted
on 20 counts, he was convicted on
Ave, the others being dropped. He
was not fined.
President Coolidge pardoned him
after 33 months in prison.
The one sentence more severe
than Browders was that of Claus
Freeze, who, during the last war,
used fraudulent passport to enter
Mexico-to offer plans for a new
United States Army gun to the Ger
man consul. His sentence, five
years.
He was pardoned by President
Harding after two years.
That Is the record the President
had before him when he took up the
petition in Browder's behalf, the
record on which he acted
Nobody should understand better