Evening star., 1949-11-10
Judge Medina Gets
$4,000 Fan Letters
After Red Trial Ends
By Dovid Smell
North Amerieon Newspaper Alliance

NEW YORK, Nov. 9.-When
the end came in the nine-month
Communist trial and the ponder
GUS case moved from the juris-
diction of Federal Judge Harold
r. Medina into the appellate
courts, that harassed man turned
tired eyes from law tones to the
more cheerful literature of travel
folders.
Your reporter paid a call at
the judges chambers, expecting
to learn that his honor was relax
ing so far from New York that
only capitalist could afford the
postage to send him a copy of the
Daily Worker.
But what's this? There sat the
judge. drudging at a Uttered desk
His chambers, once the ivory
tower of a thoughtful, scholarly
man. were alive with the buzzing
activity of clerks, secretaries and
stenographers.
THE trial was an ordeal"
Judge Medina said explosively,
but this thing has just about put
me under!"
The thing" was his skyrocket
rise to the new role of national
hero. a phenomenon easily cali
brated by the pile Of more than
$4,000 letters and kilograms which
have arrived since the trials end
Its like falling in love over
and over and over and over and
over again." the judge said,
putting down a cleaning letter
opener and making a pantomimic
gesture of exhaustion. D..
I Looking closely, the reporter
saw on his face the same troubled
lines and cocker-Spaniel sadness
which froze there when he was
the target of abuse from the jack
in-the-box battery of defense
lawyers for the Communists.
| A Nationwide Red-organized
pressure campaign had dumped
bales of letters and kilograms of
protest on the Judges desk dur
ing the trial, but on the day the
jury returned it's verdict against
the II defendants. that stopped.
1T was almost as though some
one had turned off the spigot," ="
the judge said.
/ In the three days after the
verdict. 10000 letters of a vastly
different tone arrived, and they've
been coming at the rate of $500
day. The new correspondence,
springing spontaneously from a
deeply moved American public.
was gigantic pat on the back
for the judges emphasis on fair
play and his tireless efforts to
protect the administration of
/ justice.
4 Observers at the trial, to whom
the defense lawyers seemed to-
tally unpredictable, marveled at
l the judges knack for anticipat-
ing what was coming next. But
the fan mail was one shot which
the judge failed to call, and II
has touched him deeply.
ut almost makes tears come
in my eyes," he said.
BY long and hard work, the
judge has been able to read about
10000 letters. Keeping abreast Of
each days mail requires all hi.
time and energy and that of hi:
staff. and the great backlog which
piled up Immediately after the
close of the trial remains almost
untouched. If the reading Of one
out of every five letters gives a
representative sampling, the mai
is entirely commendatory. The
judge has not found one letter
of adverse criticism.
The judge said that the letters
have come from the great anc
near-great, "but mostly from those
whom you might call the little
people-taxi drivers. department.
store clerks. bricklayers, and al
the people who really make ur
America" The letters have come
from every State and a great
many foreign lands. g..
When the largeness Of his task
became apparent, the judge de-
cided to reply first to invitations
from those who wanted him te
make speeches and appearances
and accept awards and medals
These included invitations from
hundreds of bar associations, civic
clubs and American Legion posts
He refused them all-and hopes
that those whose invitations are