Chapter I: Front Matter

FACING THE CHAIR
STORY OF THE AMERICANIZATION OF TWO FOREIGNBORN WORKMEN

_by_

JOHN DOS PASSOS

PUBLISHED BY

SACCO-VANZETTI DEFENSE COMMITTEE
BOSTON, MASS.

1927

“AND I WILL SAY TO YOUR HONOR THAT A
GOVERNMENT THAT HAS COME TO HONOR
ITS OWN SECRETS MORE THAN THE LIVES
OF ITS CITIZENS HAS BECOME A TYRANNY
WHETHER YOU CALL IT A REPUBLIC, A
MONARCHY OR ANYTHING ELSE.”

—_from Atty. William G.
Thompson’s argument before Judge
Thayer, pleading for a new
trial_.

_ANATOLE FRANCE’S APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE_

October 31, 1921

_People of United States of America_,

Listen to the appeal of an old man of the old world who is not a foreigner, for he is the fellow citizen of all mankind.

In one of your states two men, Sacco and Vanzetti, have been convicted for a crime of opinion.

It is horrible to think that human beings should pay with their lives for the exercise of that most sacred right which, no matter what party we belong to, we must all defend.

Don’t let this most iniquitous sentence be carried out.

The death of Sacco and Vanzetti will make martyrs of them and cover you with shame.

You are a great people. You ought to be a just people. There are crowds of intelligent men among you, men who think. I prefer to appeal to them. I say to them beware of making martyrs. That is the unforgivable crime that nothing can wipe out and that weighs on generation after generation.

Save Sacco and Vanzetti.

Save them for your honor, for the honor of your children, and for the generations yet unborn.

ANATOLE FRANCE.

_EUGENE V. DEBS TO THE WORKERS OF AMERICA_

_Gene Debs is dead. Gene Debs lives in the hearts and minds of
millions of Americans. This is his last appeal for justice._

The supreme court of Massachusetts has spoken at last and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, two of the bravest and best scouts that ever served the labor movement, must go to the electric chair.

The decision of this capitalist judicial tribunal is not surprising. It accords perfectly with the tragical farce and the farcical tragedy of the entire trial of these two absolutely innocent and shamefully persecuted working men.

The evidence at the trial in which they were charged with a murder they had no more to do with committing than I had, would have convicted no one but a “foreign labor agitator” in the hydrophobic madness of the world war. In any other case the perjured and flagrantly made-to-order testimony, repeatedly exposed and well known to the court, would have resulted in instantaneous acquittal. Not even a sheep-killing dog but only a “vicious foreign-radical” could have been convicted under such shameless evidence.

Sacco and Vanzetti were framed and doomed from the start. Not all the testimony that could have been piled up to establish their innocence beyond a question of doubt could have saved them in that court. The trial judge was set and immovable. There must be a conviction. It was so ordained by the capitalist powers that be, and it had to come. And there must be no new trial granted lest the satanic perjury of the testimony and the utter rottenness of the proceedings appear too notoriously rank and revolting in spite of the conspiracy of the press to keep the public in ignorance of the disgraceful and damaging facts.

Aside from the disgustingly farcical nature of the trial which could and should have ended in fifteen minutes in that masterclass court, the refined malice and barbaric cruelty of these capitalist tribunals, high and low, may be read in the insufferable torture inflicted thru six long, agonizing years upon their imprisoned and helpless victims.

It would have been merciful to the last degree in comparison had they been boiled in oil, burned at the stake, or had every joint torn from their bodies on the wheel when they were first seized as prey to glut the vengeance of slave drivers, who wax fat and savage in child labor and who never forgive an “agitator” who is too rigidly honest to be bribed, too courageous to be intimidated, and too defiant to be suppressed.

And that is precisely why the mill-owning, labor-sweating malefactors of Massachusetts had Sacco and Vanzetti framed, pounced upon, thrown into a dungeon, and sentenced to be murdered by their judicial and other official underlings.

I appeal to the working men and women of America to think of these two loyal comrades, these two honest, clean-hearted brothers of ours, in this fateful hour in which they stand face to face with their bitter and ignominious doom.

The capitalist courts of Massachusetts have had them on the rack day and night, devouring the flesh of their bodies and torturing their souls for six long years to finally deal the last vicious, heartless blow, aimed to send them to their graves as red-handed felons and murderers.

Would that it were in my power to make that trial judge and those cold-blooded gowns in the higher court suffer for just one day the agonizing torture, the pitiless misery, the relentless cruelty they have inflicted in their stony-hearted “judicial calmness and serenity” upon Sacco and Vanzetti thru six endless years!

Perhaps some day these solemn and begowned servants of the ruling powers may have to atone for their revolting crime against innocence in the name of justice!

They have pronounced the doom of their long suffering victims and the press declares that the last word has been spoken. I deny it.

There is another voice yet to be heard and that is the voice of an outraged working class. It is for labor now to speak and for the labor movement to announce its decision, and that decision is and must be, SACCO AND VANZETTI ARE INNOCENT AND SHALL NOT DIE!

To allow these two intrepid proletarian leaders to perish as red-handed criminals would forever disgrace the cause of labor in the United States. The countless children of generations yet to come would blush for their sires and grand sires and never forgive their cowardice and poltroonery.

It cannot be possible, and I shall not think it possible, that the American workers will desert, betray and deliver to their executioner two men who have stood as staunchly true, as unflinchingly loyal in the cause of labor as have Sacco and Vanzetti, whose doom has been pronounced by the implacable enemies of the working class.

Now is the time for all labor to be aroused and to rally as one vast host to vindicate its assailed honor, to assert its self-respect, and to issue its demand that in spite of the capitalist-controlled courts of Massachusetts honest and innocent workingmen whose only crime is their innocence of crime and their loyalty to labor, shall not be murdered by the official hirelings of the corporate powers that rule and tyrannize over the state.

It does not matter what the occupation of the worker may be, what he is in theory of belief, what union or party he belongs to, this is the supreme cause of us all and the call comes to each of us and to all of us to unite from coast to coast in every state and thruout the whole country to protest in thunder tones against the consummation of that foul and damning crime against labor in the once proud state of Massachusetts.

A thousand protest meetings should be called at once and ring with denunciation of the impending crime.

A million letters of indignant resentment should roll in on the governor of Massachusetts and upon members of the house of representatives and the senate of the United States.

It is this, and this alone, that will save Sacco and Vanzetti. We cannot ignore this duty to ourselves, to our martyr comrades, to our cause, to justice and humanity without being guilty of treason to our own manhood and outraging our own souls.

Arouse ye toiling millions of the nation and swear by all you hold sacred in the cause of labor and in the cause of truth and justice and all things of good report, that Sacco and Vanzetti, your brothers and mine, innocent as we are, shall not be foully murdered to glut the vengeance of a gang of plutocratic slave drivers!

“WHEN KATZMANN ASKED ME WHAT I
THOUGHT OF SACCO AS A PARTICIPANT IN
THE BRAINTREE HOLDUP, I EXPLAINED TO
HIM THAT ANARCHISTS DO NOT COMMIT
CRIMES FOR MONEY BUT FOR A
PRINCIPLE, AND THAT BANDITRY WAS NOT
IN THEIR CODE”.

—_from a letter dated Chicago,
Ill. September 29th written by
Feri Felix Weiss to the editor
of the Boston Globe, published
with an accompanying affidavit
in the New York World, October
13, 1926_.

_AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR DEMANDS INVESTIGATION_

_On October 11th, 1926, the American Federation of Labor Convention in
Detroit, representing millions of working men passed the following
resolution proposing that the American Federation of Labor demand an
investigation of the activities of agents of the Department of Justice
in the Sacco-Vanzetti case._

Resolution No. 74.—By Delegate Samuel Squibb, International Granite Cutters’ Union.

WHEREAS, The case of Sacco and Vanzetti has again come before the public; and

WHEREAS, After six years of imprisonment those who take an interest in this case are now more convinced than ever that Sacco and Vanzetti are not guilty of the crime they were charged with and convicted for; and

WHEREAS, The motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, primarily on the confession of Celestino F. Madeiros, is now before the court of Massachusetts; and

WHEREAS, On this motion for a new trial, affidavits of former agents of the Department of Justice of the United States have been produced that show that there are records on file in the office of the Department of Justice, establishing the fact that there was collaboration between the Department of Justice and the District Attorney of Norfolk County to convict Sacco and Vanzetti on charges of a crime, of which the Department of Justice did not believe them guilty; and

WHEREAS, The Attorney General has refused access to the records in the case to the Counsel for the Defense, in spite of his urgent request for the same; and

WHEREAS, A large number of the International Unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor are deeply interested in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti and have by resolutions adopted at their conventions, expressed the sentiment of their members on this matter; be it, therefore

RESOLVED, That the American Federation of Labor in convention assembled demand an immediate investigation by the Congress of the United States of the actions of the agents of the Department of Justice; the connection of Department of Justice with the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti; and the refusal of the Department of Justice to disclose its files on the Sacco and Vanzetti case; be it further

RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be sent to the President and Congress of the United States.

The convention of the American Federation of Labor of last year and of several years prior thereto have repeatedly declared that Sacco and Vanzetti should be accorded a new trial in order that no man’s life may be placed in jeopardy without a just and fair trial and be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This insistence for a new trial was predicated on the doubt of many as to the guilt of these men and because of the belief that the enforcement of this decision without a retrial and a full and complete opportunity to present all possible evidence having come to light either as to the guilt or innocence of these men would be a miscarriage of justice.

The resolution presented indicates or at least raises a doubt that evidence has been or is being withheld by the Department of Justice relating to the guilt or innocence of these men. This in itself places the Department of Justice into serious question. It adds further doubt as to the guilt or innocence of the men charged and found guilty of crime. Regardless of the character or attitude of mind of these men toward our government or its institutions as a people we are deeply concerned that the power of government, or that of any of its departments shall at no time be used unconstitutionally to jeopardize the life and liberty of any person. And because of the serious charge thus made we recommend reaffirmation of our former demand for a retrial and reference of this resolution to the Executive Council, with directions that it proceed immediately to inquire into the charge made and to have determined the truth or falsity of this charge by Congressional investigation, if that be necessary.

The report of the committee was adopted by unanimous vote.

“The department of Justice in Boston
was anxious to get sufficient
evidence against Sacco and Vanzetti
to deport them but never succeeded
in getting the kind and amount of
evidence required for that purpose.
It was the opinion of the department
agents here that a conviction of
Sacco and Vanzetti for murder would
be one way of disposing of the two
men. It was also the general opinion
of such of the agents in Boston as
had any actual knowledge of the
Sacco-Vanzetti case; that Sacco and
Vanzetti, although anarchists and
agitators, were not highway robbers
and had nothing to do with the South
Braintree crime. My opinion and the
opinion of most of the older men in
the government service, has always
been that the South Braintree crime
was the work of professionals.”

—_from the affidavit of Lawrence
Letherman, July 8, 1926._

“By calling these men anarchists, I
do not mean necessarily that they
were inclined to violence, nor do I
understand all the different
meanings different people would
attach to the word ‘anarchists.’
What I mean is I think they did not
believe in organized government or
in private property. But I am also
thoroughly convinced and always have
been, and I believe that is the
opinion and always has been the
opinion of such Boston agents of the
Department of Justice as had any
knowledge on the subject, that these
men had nothing whatever to do with
the South Braintree murders, and
that their conviction was the result
of co-operation between the Boston
agents of the Department of Justice
and the District Attorney. It was
the general opinion of the Boston
agents of the Department of Justice
having knowledge of the affair that
the South Braintree crime was
committed by a gang of professional
highwaymen.”

—_from the affidavit of Fred J.
Weyand, Boston, July 1, 1926._

FACING THE CHAIR

_The evening of May 5th, 1920, Nicola Sacco, an Italian, working as edger in a shoe factory, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, also an Italian, a fishpeddler, were arrested in a streetcar in Brockton, Massachusetts. The two men were known as radicals and were active in Italian working class organizations in the vicinity of Boston. In Sacco’s pocket at the time of his arrest was a draft of a handbill calling a meeting to protest against the illegal imprisonment and possible murder of Salsedo by agents of the Department of Justice. Salsedo was the anarchist printer whose body was found smashed on the pavement of Park Row under the windows of the New York offices of the Department of Justice, where he and his friend Elia had been held without warrant for eight weeks of the third degree. Sacco and Vanzetti were armed when arrested and lied when questioned about their friends and associates. It came out later that they had been trying to get the Overland car of a man named Boda out of a garage in order to go about the country to their friends’ houses warning them of a new series of red raids they had been tipped off to expect. At the same time they were collecting radical newspapers and any literature that might seem suspicious to the police. They were arrested, because the garage-owner phoned the police, having been warned to notify them of the movements of any Italians who owned automobiles._

_A couple of weeks before, the afternoon of April 15, a peculiarly impudent and brutal crime had been committed in South Braintree, a nearby town, the climax of a long series of holdups and burglaries. Bandits after shooting down a paymaster and his guard in the center of the town had escaped in a Buick touring car with over fifteen thousand dollars in cash. It was generally rumored that the bandits were most of them Italians. The police had made a great fuss but found no clue to the identity of the murderers. Public feeling was bitter and critical. A victim had to be found. To prove the murderers to have been reds would please everybody. So first Vanzetti was taken over to Plymouth and tried as one of the men who had attempted to hold up a paytruck in Bridgewater early in the morning of the previous Christmas Eve. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. Plymouth is owned by the largest cordage works in the world. Several years before Vanzetti had been active in a successful strike against the Cordage. Then he was taken to Dedham and tried with Sacco for the murder of the paymaster and his guard killed in South Braintree. After a stormy trial they were convicted of murder in the first degree. Since then sentence has been stayed by a series of motions for a new trial. One appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has been refused and another is pending._

_The most important evidence that has come up in the course of the motions is the series of affidavits procured by the defense, proving, as the labor press has always claimed, that operatives of the Department of Justice were active in the trial, and lacking evidence on which to deport Sacco and Vanzetti as radicals, helped in the frameup by which they were convicted as murderers._

_“They were bad actors anyway and got what was coming to them,” one detective is quoted as saying. That means that any man who gives up his life to the hope of humanizing the treadmill of industry is a bad actor in the minds of the governing class and governing class police. Sacco and Vanzetti are not the only men who have been framed, but they have become symbols. All over the world people are hopefully, heartbrokenly watching the Sacco-Vanzetti Case as a focus in the unending fight for human rights of oppressed individuals and masses against oppressing individuals and masses._