Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-08-05

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viction in the mind of its
reader that every varied
aspect Of the seven-year case
Is the best Of its kind in the
literature Of real or fictional
crime.
First there are the two pay
roll holdups in 1919 and
1920, one thwarted, one sue
cessful. Each event had many
witnesses. Both are recounted
by the seriatim testimonies of
people who saw incredible de-
tail or virtually nothing at all
during the crucial minutes.
Mr.. Russell creates scenes of
extraordinary realism by the
device used by Joyce to de-
scribe life in the streets of
Dublin, and, since he is a
student of Ulysses" his
model is doubtless not an I'M
conscious one. The compli-
Gated pictures are so wildly
presented that one flash-the
pursuing police stopping to
brush out Of the road tacks
thrown from the murderers'
vanished CARS conspicuous
as the only puzzle.
Secondly, there is the XII
netic picture of the two pac-
ifist anarchist defendants,
both breathing individuals,
as they we're before the crime
and as they developed dur
ing the years of trial and
imprisonment. The gift of
self-expresSion was slowly
acquired by both. Vanzetti,
who was an electic reader,
but who learned to write
English only during his years
In prison, became an English
stylist-an indubitable styl-
ist in a language Of which
he had only an imperfect
understanding.
. .
Thirdly, there is the luck
Of the law in holding the
two men on evidence that
amounted, initially. to little
more than a couple of loaded
guns. The skill with which
Vanzetti was defended in his
first trial, at which he was
not a witness, can be indi-
Gated by the fact that though
the prosecution had only two
identifying witnesses, one
who said he ran like a for
eigner." and the other who
said he was driving the rob-
bers' car. it was never men,
toned that he had never
driven any car. that he did
not know how to driveO
In the fourth place. there
is the dramatic irony of
Communist and other leftist
support being. in the end, the
salient cause of the mems
ultimate defeat by American
society. Neither Sacco nor
Vanzetti was a Communist
their philosophic opposition
to government was complete.
Democracy and communism,
the extreme authoritarian
state. they hated equally.
When the anarchists, poor
and badly organized, set up
a defense committee, they
soon. not without some mis-
giving, chose as chief coun-
sci Fred Moore, an magma
tive and capable Californian
with a good reputation as de-
tense attorney in labor cases.
He at once saw that the case
was more than lust a cou-
pie of wops in a JAM" He
realized the propaganda val
ue Of his clients as symbols
Of the oppression of CAPT.
talism, and If it was per-
haps true that he was more
interested in building up the
biggest labor case in history
than in the fate of the men
involved, it is possible that
only in hindsight can he be
censured for at once publ
cising the case to the four
corners of the earth. The
response was immediate. and
the clamor for the release of
the defendants grew year by
year, until protest was reg
istered in every part of the
western world by general
strikes, bombings and civil
rioting. In the end Massa-
chusetts came to feel that
either clemency or a new
trial was capitulation and
cowardice.
On the other hand count
less men among the most re-
spected in America worked in
behalf of the pair (some feel
ing they were innocent and
unjustly tried, some with
only the second conviction,
not only lawyers like Felix
Frankfurter. Roscoe Pound
and Francis B. Sayre, but
men and women of every
other profession-the arts,
business, the church, the