Last Saturday Sacco and Vanzetti, the two Italian Socialists whose
trials in the United States have become famous, were condemned to death. Unless the Governor of Massachusetts respites them they will be executed in July. It was in July, 1921, that they were originally found guilty of the murder of a pay-roll clerk. As they had both been arrested during a political sweep-up of Socialist and Communist elements in Massachusetts there was a good deal of criticism of the trial. This criticism was not confined to the prisoners' political friends. It was suggested that the trial had taken place in a prejudiced atmosphere. During the past six years the case has been reviewed two or three times and oddly enough the judge who has heard the appeals was the judge who presided over the original trial. After the failure of each appeal there were violent demonstrations among Communists in various parts of the world. For our part, we know too little of, the trials to criticize them, but we may be allowed to say that six years seems a lamentably long time to keep men under sentence of death.
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