[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sui,—The article in your
issue of August 13th, on Sacco and Vanzetti, surprises me as coming from you.
Many of us had doubts as to their guilt. But, after the minute review of the whole case by Governor Fuller and his commission of as fair and high-minded men as live, it would seem as if all doubts should vanish.
Their study included personal contact with the eleven surviving jurymen, with witnesses, counsel and prisoners. They were under the greatest responsibility, and their decision involves perils both immediate and remote to personal and
family life.
- As for "the torture of remaining for six years under sentence of death," are not the anxieties of the law to make no mistake and the tireless activity of the defence committee responsible ? Every possible legal delay and device was availed of. It is credibly stated that the defence committee has had $350,000 at its disposal. Propaganda has brought the political views of the accused to the fore, and given them a weight which Governor Fuller and his commission do not believe them to. have had in the minds of the jury.
The case is one of great complexity. Is it not presumptuous for those who are neither responsible nor fully informed to decide it ?
May I commend to you articles in the Independent of August 20th and September 3rd ? From the former I extract Lord Birkenhead's final summing up of the Es-maters- Thompson case. After expressing a "lingering doubt" as to the verdict, he says, "But I was not present at the trial and no amount of reading will be equivalent to seeing the witnesses and hearing them give testimony."=I am, Sir, &c.,
FREDERICK C. SHATTUCK.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
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