_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._