.,,.___‘.‘.“fio.-- -.q—¢-.‘«-oyov "’V‘MV' —~ — - . . . - ‘- V ‘1! DiSCERNlBLE BIAS 1N NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF AN AMERICAN ouncm. TRIAL, 1949 . . \ ‘ ' .J ‘ . l ' . ’ .5. V fir. I. T -1- l a . ' .I'n ’ v . " .7 . ' Thesis for jthe Degree of M. A. 1 ' MlCHIGAN STATE UNIVERSiTY SAMUEL STEWART WETMORE 1 97 3- "\ ‘ . ' l \ 2' I .. ..' .‘~- .~ .0 . . ,‘r -h . o-- a,‘ .s A— ‘C'. N. 0.“. . . . - . , ‘1 ‘ o r a -V .w- ‘ v sV' ‘ 0.x. ' . ' . . _ ' .h ' . o \N _ ' ' ‘V- a , - . - e . _~.. - .. . ~ O n ' o a a ..- . . , . . . . 3‘ - . “I ‘ ' . J o ' o VP, ’ e - . :. . . _ . . a ’ o ' l- J.. ‘ ' — ' o —I 0.". a . u - as ' " ' ‘ ’ ' - - .. u- . ‘ o . ‘ A ' B. . , . ' I - ' e - _ - - . _ _, ‘.._ . a - o . z . . . .. . , v _ 'l“ . . . . . . . a . ,4 I . o . . . 4 Id ' . o - A4. . 0' . r. . . ._ .‘_. n o I . ¢ . . o ---- . . o . v - I v -. . . - - ,.. < V,. . . . a” . o o . c- — . .. .d . - . o r v -v .., ’ . _ H' v t - | r . . ' vl ' - .a _ , . , _ It“ I v ' ' . . I: c or... ... _ _— , '.' . ¢ . . 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'4 .- CAZ 51L“; ‘) —.-J._ —_ax ‘— ‘ ‘ L flammn—M- A” ..., '1‘ 'Btipu ABSTRACT stcmmLE BIAS IN manna commas or AN mmcm POLITICAL TRIAL, 19h9 By Samuel Stewart wetnore President Harry S. mush was ill-prepared for the role of the chief executive when he seemed it on the death or Frnnklin Roosevelt in 1916. The world after World War Two was s maelstrom of revolution and the situation called for delicate mains and skillful leadership, which ‘h-mnm lacked. He hed “privately considered Roosevelt a faker,"1 and didn't understand the Soviet post-war intentions nor the hits. Conference, against which atruilts in the United States were stirring up public opinion. Faced with distrust end misunderstanding Soviet intentions, Tunes formulated a hard line against communal: theTrmanDoctrine. ThisdrovetherminingNwDeachnocrats away Iran Trmn and toward the United Nations and a more peace-oriented policy. Chief among these was Henry Agard endless, former vice-president , who became more and more disenchanted with the Truman forces. ‘nhllece announced his intention to run for the presidency on a third party ticket in the election of l9h8. Truman faced a tough campaign. He was caught between the Republicans, the States Rights Danocrats and wallace's Progressives. Woe had made the fatal error of not refusing the support of the Communist Party and this proved. his undoing. With tining too convenient to be accidentelntm days before the Progressive Convention-«~the twelve leaders of the Comm-1315 Party of the United States of Merice were indicted for conspiracy to overthrow the goverment by force and violence. The indictment crippled wellsce's Samuel Stewart Wemore campaign; ‘l‘rman took a more liberal stance and won the presidency. me trial or the Cmunmists was held in 1919 and 15 the subject of this study. Was it reported correctly or were the papers biased in favor of the government? Three papers, the New York Times, the Milwaukee Journal and the San Francisco Examiner were ennined. A content analysis was made; consideration included Space allocation, biased language, propaganda attempts and biased handling of the stories. The study revealed that the New York Times and its reporter Russell Porter were most in line with the Trunan Doctrine and the _'1‘i__.nn__s_ copy virtually convicted the Commnists before the Jury did. The methods of bias included selective quoting of words, out-ot-balance space allocation and clear favoritism toward the goverrment's case. The Milwaukee Journal and the inn Francisco Erminer used Associated Press capy which was less biased in language. The Miner, however, ran only selective stories and gave a biased view or the trial. The Journal showed the least amount of bias, but still showed a pro-government attitude as the trial progressed. lAlden hhitmsn, "Truth in Death, " Newsweek Magazine, March 12, 1973, p. l3e 0130mm ans In museum mm); or in human: POLITICAL mm, 19h? By Smel Stewart Meteors AWE sanitized to nichigan State University in partial Wt 01 the require-onto for the degree of mm (I ARE School of Journausl, College of Nation Arts 1973 Dedicated to MAS BADGER WEDDRE, whose fatherly example of teerlessnees against lien, governments, and “isms", and his respect for the truth and uncynical willingness to wonder, set the example for n life. Accepted by the faculty of the School of Journalism, College of Coemmication Arts, lfichigan State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree. \Z‘M WM. Director of Thesis MADE Dnringtheeraofthecoldflu',theu'itermsdistressedtoseethe United States tearing itself apart. The trials, hearings, nae—calling and hatred dividedthecountryinto veryvocalninoritiesilicheeeuedto involve nearly every citizen. The trials of the 'traitore"-Hiss, Coplon, the Ga- nunist leaders—occupied such of the new media. The Ccl-uniet Mal of 19149 was discussed in the writer's clusrocu, and in offices where he subsequently worked. The central question was this: Has the trial reported accurately so we, the citieens, could tell whether it was a fair trial or a political trial? No definitive answers no available. This study, undertaken for the degree of Master of Arts at Michigan State University, will attupt to answer part of that question. The writer would like to offer his appreciation for all the assistance givenhinbythefacultyendthesteff, especiallythe librarians inthe More Section and in the Special Collections Room and particularly to his wife, Mary Ruth Coffey We for encouragement, criticisn and two T ABLE OF CONTENT) mmTIONOOOOOOOoeeeooooe0000000000 1 Chapter I.THEPRE-TRIALCHALLENGES..............18 II. moommmn-SCASE............... 31: III.THEDEFmBE.................... 57 Iv. AQUANTITATIVEIDOKATTHEGOVERAGE........ 87 v. CONCLIBIOIB.....o..............1.00 BEWHIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO1w Table 1. 2. 3e 5. LIST OF TABII'B Page TOTAL SPACE 13mm T0 STORY mm BY TIME NEhBPAPEi’S . . . . . .87 SPACE ALIDCATION IN THE NEW max rims DURING THE TRIAL . . . . . . .89 SPACE ALIDCATION IN THE SAN FRANCISCO mm comm . . . . .90 SPACE AmocA'rION IN ma mmmm JOURNAL common . . . . . . . . . 91 NE REIATIONSI’EP BETWEEN REPORTERS ' STATMEN'IS AND COVHIAGE BIAS wmmIALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCOOOOOOOOO97 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. PAGE DISTRIBUTION 0? mm 31mins IN THE NEWPAPE‘RS . . . . . . 92 MUNICH 'vhen Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty-second president of the United States of America, succunbed on April 12, 191:5, his death became a watershed for the political processes of the country. ' The bipartisan policies folloved dining World War 11. by the two nador political parties had been severely strdned when Roosevelt ran for his controversial fourth tern, but at his deaththeyallbutdisappeared, evmthoughthemrhadnotyetbeenbrought to a successful conclusion. Much of the opposition to Roosevelt centered on the Yalta Conference, free which Roosevelt returned in February. To those opposing elaents in the country, Roosevelt's vision of world cooperation was a sellout to the Con- animate. As this retrospective view of the pried by a conservative uriter shows, the conservatives stood in little we of Roosevelt's oharisntic leadership: Factisthatflirtationuitbthen‘ulinwasthefadof tragical'lq.r ignorant progressives who guided the nation in the years of crisis, and that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under the continuous influence of the First lady, was obsessed with turniu his chains on Uncle Joe Stalin. Fact is that Roosevelt, usrnhearted and vigorous, but also excessively conscious of his own importance, surrounded hinself with agangofmyopio yes-nenwho, likeHarryRopldm, Georgec. nan-shall, Joseph E. Davies and Elliott Roosevelt, frivolously praised the Soviet Union to the skis. fi‘I-il’i'I-I'ii‘lfl’i'ttfi‘lifi-I’fi‘kfl-*fi-‘l-I’fi‘l’i'l’i'ii'l'i Fact is that the slap-happy indulgence toward the Soviet Union of Roosevelt and his palace guard permitted the cynical conspirators of world revolution to cover our government and industry with a network of ncscow-trained and Hoscow-guided spies, to set up an incredible systu of fronts, and to infiltrate and corrupt every 1 branch of our public life, including the schools and the churches. *******************************§* haciated, pallid, and troubling, the once ebullient donor andnsgnificent hunch player had come tothe and of the road. The illusion to which he had sacrificed the principles of the Atlantic Charter, the lives of free men, and the honor of his country, had vanished in clouds. Stricken with despair, the President died a broken man. One reason the opponents of world cooperation were able to nice their view of the Ialta Conference as a sellout was that Roosevelt's death elevated to the presidency a nan free the interior of the country. Harry S. Truman, scion of the Pendergast Machine of Kansas City, Missouri, was not a aubu- of the liberal eastern contingent of Roosevelt's forces. instead of the seamrd looking one-worldisn of the coastal clan, Truan hroughttothepresidencyaconceptofthewcrldthathedevelcpedonthe Great Plains, where the cry of "isolation" could be bruited to counterfeit urgency, aidedbythebroadsurromzdingcountryandthe insulationfron foreign co-erce. “bureau's accession to the vice-presidency had been, some say, a letter of capraaise. In 19th, Roosevelt had accomlished his parting of theweyswithnuu'yigardmlnceinanostnbiguous way. In the 191:0 Deaocratic Convention, Prasideut Franklin D. Roosevelt had‘ virtually dictated the selection of Harry A. We, 13am new, The Ialta Betr (emu, Idaho: The cm m, Me, 1-953), PP. "’ e 211314., D. 98s then Secretary of Agriculture, as his fellow candidate, threatening to refuse the third-tens nomination for Wolf if his wishes were not met. The reluctant delegates had to accept as Roosevelt's running mate a man who was anathema to many, a "renegade Republican" to others, and an unwanted candidate to practically all. By 1.91414, however, the situation was nearly reversed. Despite the majority popular support indicated in the poll. and the political strength exhibited on the convention floor, Wallace received what amounted to a kiss of death frau Roosevelt. Instead of giving tillace the strong stxpport of 191:0, or the clear-cut endorsement that would have sufficed in 19131:, the President saw fit to send a letter to Senator Samuel. D. Jackson, permanent chainnan of the Chicago National Convention, in which he announced that he "would vote for him (Wallace) personally if he were a delegate," but that he had. "no desire to appear to dictate to the convention. "3 Even that lukewarm support frau Roosevelt was quenched a short tin later, however, when Roosevelt sent a second letter to National Calmittee Chaimn Robert Hannegan, which allowed the anti-Wallace forces to operate with thite House blessing to turn out Wallace. Perhaps an editorial in the Manchester Guardian stated it best: me party bosses . . . the machines, and the conservatives of the South could not stand Mr. Wallace who in the popular mind eebodied the New Deal and racial equality. So they t ed to the colorless Truman who has never upset anyone's prejudice. To assuage feelings Roosevelt made Wallnce his Secretary of Cameras. But Roosevelt died in the fourth month of his new term and Trunan became president. Sixteen days after Roosevelt's death the bodies of the Italian 3Karl H. Schmidt, H A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 19118 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, §%51, p. 2. hEditorial, Manchester Guardian, n.d., quoted in Schmidt, H}; Menace: Quixotic Crusade 191:8, p. 14. dictator Benito lhxssolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were hung by the heels in Milan.5 Two days later Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler shot himelf in the mouth while his new bride Eva Haun took poison and the Third Reich folded under the pressure of Allied arms.6 Truman soon faced and made his most fateml decisions and the world's first atonic bombs were dropped on 33:0st on August o, 1915 and on Nagasaki on August 9. The Japanese surrendered on August 1h and the postwar world was begun.7 Trunan's handling of the presidency was less than masterful at first. Having come from ten years in the Senate, where he had enjoyed life among legislators he had learned to respect, Trmnan held the familiar belief that he could rely on his old colleagues for advice and co-operation. He came very close to saying, as some other Presidents-«such as Grant—had, that it was the business of the Congress to legislate and of the President to execute. Senators do not believe in Executive leadership 3 they will combat or stifle it whenever they can; and if the President will allow thu they will apprOpriate one after anotha' of the powers he ought to reserve to himself. It took Trmnen nearly two years to get rid of illusions. He gradually discovered at least part of what the Presidency required. Rant 1 was a longer and even costlier education than most Presidents ”do To be fair, the postwar world that Trunan inherited was no pastoral garden of earthly delights; it was a maelstrom of dependent pepulatione, 5William L. Shire-r, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Crest Books (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1960), p. 11168. 6D1de, pe 114710 7The 1973 World Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: The World Almanac, 1972 )’ Pe 823e 8Rez'ford Guy Tugwell, How They Mame President (New York: bimon & Shasta, 19&), p. 1436s displaced persons and, most of all, revolution. The world that merged iron the ashes of war was about to be swept by a revolutionary tornado. Presidert Roosevelt perhaps had this in mind when on August 19111, four months before Pearl Harbor, he induced Winston Churchill, "sanewhere in the Atlantic," to sign a charter proclaiming the Allied war aims. Section 3 of that charter premised "sovereign rights of self-government . . . to those who have been forcibly deprived of than." The people of the colonies, long deprived of national independence, now had their pledge in writing frm the leaders of the alliance, and Roosevelt reinforced it in private conversations with the Sultan of Morocco and others. mroughout Asia and Africa young men joined the war with the Allies convinced that o e victory over Hitler had been achieved, independence would be theirs. Truman's costly two-year education was more costly than many realised. The masterful leadership of Roosevelt was gone, but the delicate world political situation demanded careful handling and Trmnan failed in that task. Trunan was a good politician, but he had little knowledge of the canplerities of international politics and specifically of Eastern European developments. Because he had not been involved in foreign policy decisions or discussions during the Roosevelt Administration, he found it flfficult to lead the public at a time when enlightened leadership was imperative. His vacillation caused public confusion about the rationale for the Administration's foreign policy and Soviet actions in Eastern Ian-ope. His ignorance of prewar Eastern Ehrepean politics and his lack of sympathy for Soviet objectives in that area adversely influenced his presentation of the Achninistration's foreign policy to the public and to the Soviet Union. His suspicions unnecessarily caused Soviet doubts about 11.3. good faith and the 0.3. public '8 doubts about Soviet good faith. Trmnan's distrust, coupled with political developments in Eastern Maps, contributed to a shift in the popular concept of the Ialta Conference. Originally, people in the United States had recognized York : 9American briends Service Comittee, Mam of Anti-Communism, (New Hill and Hang, 1969), p. 6-7. Ialta as a hopeful beginning for peace, but gradually they came to attribute postwar difficulties to the Soviet Union's violations of its Ialta pledges. By the sununer of 191.6 Tnnuan was being slowly toasted over two fires. n1. first, critical of his handling of the United States' foreign policy, was led by Henry Wallace, who had ranained quiet for a year in his post as Gauerce secretary, but increasingly urged adherence to the policies of the New Deal. "The second, critical of dunestic policy, headed by labor leaders, (was) thinldng in teams of a new and powerful labor party."11 The storm broke when Henry Wallace spoke at Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 12, 1916. He had checked the text with President Truan, but the speech created an uproar. Although Inlallace endorsed the stated administration objective of seeking peace through United Nations cooperation, he presented three main points of departure: (l) a warning against allowing Mican foreign policy to be dominated by the kitish; (2) a warning that "the tougher we get with Russia, the tougher they will get with us"; and (3) a tacit acceptance of a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, much as the lbnroe Doflrine had implied an American sphere of influence in Latin America. The speech, however, was at variance with the stated foreign policy of Secretary of State James Byrnes and Byrnes and the Republicans duanded and got billace's dismissal from the cabinet. loAthan Theoharis, Seeds of Repression Harry 3. Trash and the Orig! of W (Chicago: WROM, 971). P. 33. 11m). M. Schmidt, ma. 'rhllace: Quixotic Crusade 191.84 p. 18. 12min», Pe 20o By approving the speech in advance and then bowing to the dams! that he dismiss Wallace, Truman was seen to vacillate. ‘rhile Trunan was vacimting, his sides were busy feathering their own nests "in the tradition of courthouse polities."13 11; Added to that "the devil theory“ was operative in American politics. The Cmunists were the cause of all the trouble and new cries went up to curb Conumist activities in this country. The House Ccemlttee on Un-herican Activities, probing into communism with the help of such men as Louis Francis Budenz, managed to include a fair number of New Deal programs in the proceedings. Budenz swapped a promising career as a rising red for the more promising and lucrative career as a true—blue anti-Ommiet witness, author and college professor. His testimony before the House committee "touched off (a) crisis in the Eisler family. "15 Ruth Fischer, sister of Gerhart meler, was cpen with the ccmnittee, even to the extent of naming her brother as a masher of the Soviet secret police, and part of her testimony with Chaiman J. Parnell Thomas shows the "devil theory" in practice: THE CHAIRMAN: Miss Fischer, why do you say that Gerhart Eisler we head of the Russian secret police in the United States? MISS FISCHER: I don't say he was head of the secret police, because there are various ranges of activities, and I am sure that the missian secret police has other agents than Mr. meler, but I regard all those who work for the Moscow headquarters, under whatever names they are working, as branches of the said Russian secret police. The “Buford 6w Tugwell, How They Becae President, p. 1:36. “Erich Severeid, quoted in American friends Service Omittee, Mot hti-chuxfigp, p. xiii. 15 Eric Bentley, Thirty Years of Treason, (New York: The Viking Puss, 1971)’ p. m. Oomintern is nothing else but a branch, a division of the Russian secret state police, with intematioral branches in all the countries. So whoever poses as a representative of the Connnnist Party in other countries is, for me, nothing else than an agent of the Russian state police, a CPU agent, identical with a Gestapo agent as the time when the Nazis were in power. THE CHAIRMAN: You would say that every mrican Ccmnist was, in effect, a manhcr of the Russian secret police? MISS FISCHER: i. wouldn't say that, Mr. Chairman, because I am sure that the American Communist Party is divided into various groups. Only those really considered as reliable-- THE CHAIRMAN: is what? KISS FISCHER: «as reliable and tested for the secret police are taken in. There are mam others who are regarded as innocent and incapable of doing this type of work and have to carry other kinds of missions—propaganda, trade-union work, or all kinds of organi- sation work, and who are not infomed about the activi ies of the secret branches, and are kept completely in the dark.)- hith ”hr. New Deal" Henry kallace out of the cabinet and with growing labor apposition (The Brotherhood of Railway Traimen, angered by Truman's threat to draft striking railway employee, asked Wallace to address their convention), Truman was pressured to decide which side he favored and on March 12, 19M, he decided. He asked Congress to appropriate choc,ooo,ooo for aid to Greece and Turkey to embat W-the h-men Doctrine. Congress, with its Republican majority, was quick to approve the Doctrine. The Cold War took a giant step forward and Merican billions began to pour overseas to combat Cmunist-inspired revolution. The reaction to the Trunan Doctrine and to the Federal loyalty Progr-l, also instituted by Tnman in March, was one of glee in the Republican camp. 1611316... PP. 67‘ae .1.an a Getting saltier with the Russians and "cracking down" on Comunists at home seemed to be paying off in popularity for Harry Truman. sixty percent of the voters polled by Gallup approved of the way the President was handling his Job last week, as compared with 52 percent at election time last fall. Democratic Part leaders heped that their man had found the formula for victory in 19 8. Republican Majority Leader Charles Halleck (1nd.) told his party caucus in private: "Ever since the election, the President has followed the lead of the Republicans. He finally momd to clean out the Cmudsts and other subversives we have been after for years. Truman's popularity is rising because he's a smart Pendergast boy who lmows which way the wind blows. He's done everything except register Republican. "1 But along with the approval fran Republican quarters came disapproval wide variety of sources, and it was not gentle. The opposition to the Trtman Doctrine was vehement. It came from isolationists like the New York Daily News frcn pacifists like the National Council for Prevention order, iron RuSSOphiles libs Senator Claude Pepper, from Liberals like Fiorello LaGuardia, who would feed the starving of Greece, but leave Greece's Communist troubles to (LN. It came from such Red outposts as the W and the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. or its vehanence it was scattered. No one man had yet sounded the cry around which all factions could rally. Thisueifi one man tried. Henry Wallace spoke at Madison Square Garden. Wallace's second Madison Square Garden speech was four-sqmre against the Truan Doctrine and for the United Nations. "Sooner or later, " he said, "Truman's progran of unconditioral aid to anti-Soviet goverments will unite the world against America and divide America against itself."19 We didn't stop at that, either, after a trip to E‘urOpe he continued around the country 17"ng the Spark, Civil liberties," New Republic Masai. .1130, , April 7, 19117, p. 7. 18"Rallying Cry," Tine Basins, April 7, 19137, p. 2h. 1911m. 10 stumping for the United Nations and, not incidentally, awakening a third party rebellion around the country. By fall, however, the third party swell seemed to have subsided and shllace announced his "intention to work within the Democratic party realm."20 In other quarters, however, the third party movement was still a definite goal: It is quite clear that the coalition of the Roosevelt era, in which the administration in Hashington was a part of the People‘s coalition, no longer exists. President Truman is not just yielding to the Hoover-Dewey-Tat‘t Republicans but is seeking to outstrip than in reaction. Truman betrayed the Roosevelt program. It is almost Republican tweedle-dee, and Democratic tweedle—dum. What this country needs is a new political party in which Labor and the people-~Negro and whiten-will be the dominant force in its policies, instead of the National Association of Manufacturers and the 0.3. Chamber of Commerce and assorted Wall Street pirates.21 That call to form a third party was issued in Decanber 19h? by Benjamin Davis, New York City councilman and chairman of the legislative committee of the Cosmlunist Party of the United States of America. He got his wish when, after a flurry of maneuvering, wallace announced his candi- dacy on December 29. Wallace ‘8 support however, was far fran nationwide. Of the five main groups that had composed Wallace's chief support at the 1914).: Convention--the old line New Dealers, the 010 Political Action thee, labor leaders, the Negro groups, the sprinkling of professional politicians, and the Cormunist fringe-- only one grouputhe Camustsunow remained intact and finely behind the third-party candidacy. Wallace had declared his apposition to any and all forms of red-baiting and his willingness to accept the support of any and every group working in the interests of peace, with the wistful hope that the Cmunist 20ml M. Schmidt, Hey A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 19h§, p. 33. 2113mm J. Davis, I'm a Commmist, (New York: Columnist Party of the United States 0 America, Decanbcr 191:7), pp. 20-21. Party would avoid passing any resolutions of support for his. The Cumunists proceeded at once to offer him their firm support.22 Truman was clearly in trouble in early 19148. He had. made the decisive move to establish the Truman Doctrine, only to have it credited to "his Republican advisors."23 He had established the Federal loyalty Program, only to have the Republicans say they were glad he had finally come around. Worst of all, the polls were showing public opinion about him to have a strange split. Most (53 per cent to 17 per cent) believed he was opposed to "giving in" to the Communists, but more (73 per cent) also believed that he was "too soft" on Camunists.2h Clearly, with wallace on his left and DeHey and later the angry States Rights Dmocrats on his right Tnman stood a good chance of being lost in the shuffle. He had to do something to distinguish the Danocratic Party from the Republican Party and from the new Progressive Party. But the resources of an incumbent president are vast and Truman found the key. On July 20, 1948, practically on the eve of the Progressive Party convention, a grand jury returned indictments against the twelve national leaders of the Caznnunist Party of the United States of America. The charge was conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States by force and Violence. The move neatly crippled Wallace's campaign by solidifying the public Opinion that he was the dupe of the Commists, but not a Camunist himself e By September articles began to appear in magazines roundly condemning 22Karl M. Scht, MA. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 19% p. 37. 23Athsn Theoharis, _S_eeds of Repression, p. 11. 21‘lhid. 12 Wallace and his Columnist backers. One, by Professor-fitness-Author Louis Francis Budenz, appeared in Collier's Magazine. Calling Wallace “a men of extraordinary unawareness," Budsnz said: Because of what they'd done for him, the Connmniste would demand representation in Wallace's cabinet. And before Nallace, immersed in his visionary plans, knew what was going on, glue Calvinists would be finely entrenched in the government. 2 By indirection and without mentioning his name, Baden: included in the article a firm antlers-sent of Harry Irman as the savior of the nation: If all this seemssomewhet fantastic, consider how narrowly Henry Wallace missed becaning President when Roosevelt died in April. 191:5, a year after Moscow had gathered Wallace to its boson and while the Commists in this country were already boasting that they were "taking Wallace into custody.” whether Roosevelt was aware of the Kremlin's absorbing interest in wallace is unknown. But if he hadnotrefusedto aceeptWallace ashis runningmate, thecorn ed hero of the comrades would be sitting in the ‘vhite House today.2 Gradually the liberal support for Wallace faded away, leaving Trmn ideological room on the liberal side. Rexford Guy Tugwell, without mentioning the indith coup, described what happened. But the Wallace threat woke Truman at the last moment. In mid-campaign he turned suddenly liberal. His speech-writing teen was augsented by more capable assistants; he went out on whistle-stop trips and on the whole exhibited a wholly new and more aggressive personality. It seemed incredible, but he won. It wasn't as incredible as it seemed. With thllace marked out as the dupe of the Comunists, Trmnan was free to become the anti-Cummist liberal champion. The Americans for Democratic Action, formed as the anti-red 25mm Francis Budene, "How the Reds Snatched Henry Wallace," Collier's New Septuber 18, 191:8, p. 15. 261nm. 27mm Guy Tugwell, How M Boom President, p. h37. l3 liberal base, could back a liberal Tnman, as could many other groups. Many could back Wallace himself, but not a Wallace under orders frm Moscow. without the dramatic indictment of the Commnist leaders , Trman probably would not have won-mot Iran a loss of votes to the Progressives, but from a lack of maneuvering roan between the two ideological camps. Theyeu'l9h9wasoneofgirdingforwarandofthe0pming sldrmishes in the Cold War. Triman's hard line was answered by an equally hard line from the Russians and the two opponents began to "clean house." The Gauntlets staged a show trial of the Roman Catholic primate or Ehmgery, Joseph Cardinal lundssenty. The ems grand Jury which had indicted the United States Omnunist leaders had also indicted a high State Department official in the Roosevelt era, Alger Rise, for perjury in connection with the delivery of secret government papers to the Soviets. Another grand Jury indicted 3. State Departmert aide named Judith Uoplon and said she passed United States secrets to her boyfriend, Val. Gubitchev. Mao Tse-tung's armies were gaining in China, which under the "devil theory" had been sold out to the Commists by Roosevelt at faith. The Russians blockaded the City of Berlin and their move was answered by a massive America air lift. and in the United States, left over fraa World HarII,werethetrialsofMildred"Ald.sSally“ Gillars aners. 1. Toguri. D'Aquino-JTokyo Rose." The Commmist leaders went on trial, after many delays on January 17, law. It was a manentous trial because the Commmists represented thenselves as a political party. Could the reporters for the United States newspapers cover the trial or the Comunist leaders objectively or could a discernible 1h pro-government bias be detected in their coverage? This study will attempt to answer that question. The Method Three newspapers were selected for the study: the New York Times, because of its index and because it is the newspaper of record in the city where the trial was held; the Milwaukee Journal, because it is a major newspaper in the Midwest and because its editorial policies were liberal in 191:9; and the San Francisco mandner, because it is the Hearst newspaper and could be expected to take a less than liberal view of the news and because it represented a major news entity in a city on the opposite side of the country from the trial. 'l'heNewYork‘l‘imeswas mindunderasampling techniquewhichwes not randaa, but purposive. All stories were read, but close reading and analysis were applied to the stories in the Tuesday and Friday issues of theNewYorkTimes eachweek. Undertheovernightformatofthepaper, this sapling technique would result in the analysis of the Monday and mursday trial sessions. The trial showed a fairly regular rhytl'n and movenents begun on Mondays mually peaked on mursdeys, giving a good overall. view of the trial. he sampling technique resulted in analysis of 1:3 per cent of the stories on the trial published by the New York fines. II"hen the sane technique was applied to the San Francisco Miner, it was discovered that the coverage was so irregular that all but eight of the total number of stories published by the War were analysed in the first operation. That being so, it was a simple matter to analyse the retaining eight stories, with the result that the “sample" for the m 15 is 100 per cent. The Milwaukee Journal was irregular enough in its coverage and handling of the trial story to preclude the use of the sapling technique. Accordingly, every story the Milwaukee Journal printed on the Ccmnnmist leaders' trial was sought out, read and analyzed, resulting in another 100 per cent “sessile.” The analysis was divided into four main considerations: how the story was handled, an eucamination of the language used, consideration of the propaganda elements of the coverage, and logging of significant related stories or sidebars and photographs used in conjunction with the trial stories. The first two categories of analysis, as expected, proved to be the most revealing. They also required the most careful reading to determine. In the "handling of the story" section, a problan 01‘ measurtnexrt occurred. The Probial 01' Measurunent Since all of the measur-ncnt was carried out on the Hichigan State University Library microfilm readers, some system of relating the measured microfilm images to the actual printed newspaper had to be found. Measure- ments on the surface of the viewing board on the films prodded column widths from 53.5 millimeters to 60.5 millimeters and a fairly standard 3 We on the film. Since the Recordak Film Reader Model HPE has 16 a magnification ratio of 19 diameterszaan average had to be figured. Maw measurements made among all the three of the filmed newspapers produced an average column width of 57 millimeters on the vieanng board. That is not surprising since the 3 millimeter column width is magnified 19 times by the reader. The 10.5 pica column (uh millimeters) of the printed newspaper is thus 77 per cent of the film-image columns and multiplying the figures in this study by .77 will give as accurate a relationship as is possible for comparison with the printed versions of the newspapers. More accurate relationships among the three newspapers are possible, however. The total Space devoted to the stories and headlines was included in the total figures, but when leading was detected in one paper were no leading had been unployed in the others, line counting was uployed to facilitate the comparisons between space devoted to sub-story elements considered in the study. In addition to the over-all space devoted to the trial story, the total inches devoted to the Recap, the Prosecution (witnesses and prosecutors), Defense (witnesses and attorneys) and Defendants (in witness and non-witness roles) were logged. “nether section of the analysis was devoted to prepaganda devices, when detected. r‘actors such as name-calling, the glittering generality, card stacking and the bandwagon effect were noted. Related stories were logged for space taken, position, head size and subject. Photographs were likewise logged for size, position and 28Hubbard W. Ballou, ed., Guide to Micro-Re reduction ' ‘ nt (Annapolis, Maryland: National Microfilm association, l9 9 , p. J. 9. 17 subject matter. The photographs were not included in the space measurements. Nearby stories on different subjects were logged and an interesting pattern emerged in the case of the New York Times. The heart of the analysis was a study of the language used by the reporters to describe or refer to the participants in the trial. Complimentary or negative use of the language was noted. I One test, the mood of verbs in the stories, failed. The journalistic training for using the active mood whenever possible prevented checking the use of verb mood to denote approval or disapproval. The test was envisioned on the theory that speakers use the active mood for subjects of which they approve and the conditional mood for subjects of which they disapprove. In addition to the reporters' training, the reason for the failure of the test was that many of the stories concerned only one side of the litigation with no language of am mood devoted to the other side. In total, the analysis yielded material which will allow comparisons of space devoted to the story and the participants in the trial, some observations about the language used by the reporters and attendant observations about related and nearby stories and propaganda elements in the trial. As a final point, the writer, having lived through the Fifties, and cognizant that such a political situation may again appear in the United States, would like to affim that he is not now, has never been and can envision no circumstances which would make him become a manber of the Gommnist Party of the United States of America, amr of its corollary front groups, or any group that holds allegiance to the ideas or policies promoted and supported by such groups. CHAPTER I THE FEE-TRIAL CHAIJENGES than Monday, January 17, 191:9, came around, the trial of the Conunist leaderswasfaniliarnewe. TheNeonrkTineshadcarriedalltheprelimlJl-ry maneuveringanongthelasyers sincetheindictnents hadbeenhanleddownthe previous July. Central issue was the Gamist leader bullish Zebulon Foster, who claimedhewas too illto stand trial. 'l'heraaining eleven Omnists entertained the idea or refusing to go to trial without Foster, but Judge Harold R. Medina ordered doctors to emit» Foster and his case was semedtromtherestandthetrialof the elevenwas orderedto proceed. me New York Thee solved a canon journalistic problal neatly. Instead of cluttering the story with the list of eleven names, the % simly referred to than as "the eleven" and used as a caption for a three-colI-n cut at the top of page one: Left to right-Just row: Robert Thompson, Henry Winston, hngcmis,OusHallandJohnhfl.lliamson. Rearraw: Jack gmménmomfigfl Banter, Benjamin J. Davis Jr. , John fixatdevieeenabledthemreportermmselll’orta‘toconcentrate on the action of the trial without bothering with introchlctions and identi- fication. me prosecution staff was introduced in a sidebar by Harold Faber: 29m York Times, Jamaal-y 18, 19149, p. l. 18 19 The crier was William Boman, clerk of the court. He tool: his place below Judge Medina. In front of him were the prosecutors, John 1". I. ncGohey and his assistants, Irving S. Shapiro and Iawrenco K. Bailey. They set at a table in front of the defense attorneys, who mllbored ton at the morning session an! six in the afternoon.30 he defense attorneys were left to Porter and by describing the proceedings he managed to idmtify as defense attorneys Harry Sacher, Richard Gladstedn, Iouis F. We, George H. Crockett Jr., and Abrahan J. Isserman. Frost-ably these were five of the "six in the afternoon," and proved to be the trial attorneys. In addition Porter managed, in a veryfewperagrephs, to characterisetheactionoftheentire trial, thoughheconldnotknowit at thattzlme: Judge Harold R. Medina rejected nine out of ten defuse motions, and announced there would be no postponuent. He held one motion in aheyance-nthat no one in the court roan, not even policnen, be allowed to carry arms. me judge said that defense arguments boiled down to the contention that this would be a "political" trial and that the defmdants' constitutional rights would be flouted to insure “nmme Hesaidthiswesnotthecase,andpledgedhilselfto nahosurethatthedefmdmtsgotafairtrial. At the same tine he warned defame counsel that the latitude heallowedthayesterdaywouldnotbepomittedwhenthejuryis inthecourtrocm. Aftertheduryis selectedandswornin, hesaid, he will not per-ix such profuse and prolix argtnent" and "so such rqletition" as characterised the day's proceedings. HedinshhrnsDefense Jtldgemdinaaddedthatheintendedtortmthingsas "atrial, not a spectacle,“ and that he, not defense counsel, would conduct proceedingsincourt. ”bide, Po 3e 20 He displayed much patience, even when defense counsel interrupted him several times while he was talking. As a rule, hespokegentlewordstothu, butattimesheputasharpedge onhis was aswhenhetoldthmaome oftheir argtments were "ahead." The stage was set, with the adversaries well drawn, the gentle, soft-spoken Judge, the stalwart prosecutors and the belligerent, argmen- tative defense attorneys, but with the defendants all but forgotten in a cutline on page one. The San Francisco Enminer had the services of one of the Hearst International News Service star writers, Janse W, for its trial Opener, which because of the time differential appeared on January 17, 191:9, instead of January 18, as the New York Tines because of its earning for-at had printed it. lilgallen wrote a fair]: straight account of the trial, but included aviewthatJudgeHedinaandothersoftheprosecutionwerestpainstodav all through the trial: ' In effect, the future of Communism itself in the United States will go on trial with its [aerican chieftaim. Should the men be convicted, the partyig operation in the United States virtually will be outlawed. Kilgallen's substitution of the verb "will" in sequence with “should the non be outlawed" rather than the more usual "wouldu may be indicative of his thinking. Astorywhich appearedin the Examiner sixdays later indicates that he say have had inside information which influenced his thinking. Here about that will be discussed later. 31mido, p. 1. 328st: bencisco m January 17, l9h9, p. 1. Kilgallennotedthstthe “arena"aspects ofthetrialwerestrengthened by the mnbering of the press section seats, as in a theatre. He identified Prosecutor John F. I. McGohey and said "He will have four top-grade federal assistants.“ Besides McCabe, Sacher, Issenuan, Crockett and Gladstein (the. he misspelled as “Gladston‘ ), Kilgallen added a sixth attorney Charles E. Houston. He listed the defendants by name and position in the Ca-unist party. His was a thorough, worlmanlilne piece of work, with only one minor slip in a name. The Miner used the Associated Press account on January 18 and it gave an accm'ate view of the rabble-rousing tenor of the defense gmbitsu Barry Sacher complained that the public had fewer seats at this trial than were available at the blur-berg trial: “These men, some of when fought the Nasis--they can't get here what the Nazis got at Nuranberg, he “Kidd's“3 The January 18 Examiner story also contained an exchange between Harry Sacher and Judge Medina about Medina's consenting {on the University of North Carolina's refusing to allow John Gates, one of the defendants, to speak. Sacher said he thought those comments, in which Medina said he wondered "if a university cmpus ought to be extended as a public fom to a defendant," indicated a state of mind prejudicial to the defendants. But Medina told the attorney he "certainly had no intention of indicating, nor have I indicated he believed in the guilt or innocence of the Conunist leaders. The interesting thing about that exchange is that the information also appears in the January 18 New York Tines story, indicating that the 33lebid., January 18, 1919: Po 1- ”as. 22 hammer also used overnight copy. Kilgallen was back in the writer's position on January 19 and he allowed Sacher to characterize the prosecution as "a parade of liars, spies and stool pigeons, " and quoted Roachey a very political fore of self-congratulation: "I an proceeding with this trial under aw oath as a public official. I have never offered a witness whu I believed to be a liar."35 After another Associated Press accomt which gave straight coverage to the defense views on January 20, Jack Lotto of the International Net. Service took over as reporter on Friday. On Saturday, January 22, Lotto correctly surmised the intention of the Columnists! challenge that the Jury systanby which the grand Jury was selected was unconstitutional : lhe subpoenaed grand Jury is the same which indicted Alger Hiss , former State Department official on perJury charges growing out of the theft of government documents. If the defense wins its points, the ind§gtnents against their clients and against Hiss will be voided. It was on Sunday, January 23, however, that the Miner published its bombshell: NEW YORK, Jan. 22--Sensational new eVidence showing that the Conuunist Party set up spy rings in this country twenty-two years ago to steal American military secrets, will be introduced 351mm, January 19, 191:9, p. 2. 36mm, January 22, 191:9, p. 1. 23 hytheOovu-mentintbconspiracytrialoftheelevenfled Fascist boardnmbers, itwaa learnedtodq. ****************************** These witnesses include not only former high-ranking Commiste, but also persons who have never before figured in Wet trials. Worked For FBI-- One of these persons associated with many of the eleven defendants as a trusted Comanist for nine years, although he mymfi agent, and daily reported on secret The author of the article, which was too accurate to be guesswork, wasfimnrdfiushnore, mowasmtidmtifiedbythemliner. messes BowardRusl-oretm'nedupinSeptenber l9h9as "afomercommnwhois now a reporter for the New York Jonasl-herican"38vmo was nauim names and mung accusations for the muse tin-American Activities Cunittee. Rust-crew accuracy with the details of Herbert Philbrick's service for the FBI almost twelve weeks before Philbrick was put on the stand indicates thethehadareliable informatrtinthegovermt. Sanenemberofthe House Un-hnerican Activities Cmittee would be a good guess in this case. Sincetheexposestoryappearedinthefibminer attheendofthefirstweek of the Can-misty trial, the International News Service reporter James Kilgallen may have been privy to that intonation and it may have colored his thinking right from the first day's story. he Journal-American was, after all, the flagship newspaper of the Hearst chain in 191.9 and, as such, would be the headquarters of the International News Service. 371mm,, January 23, 191.9, p. 1. 38New York fines, Septanber 15, 191.9, p. 1. 2h Interesting, also, is Rushmre's use of the term "Red Fascist" in referring to Commists. That pm-aseology was noted in only two instances in all the reading done for this study. Midently, for the popular mind, a villain had to be called a "Fascistu for him to be a villain. World War II was only four years before and the Fascists were the sunny then. From the anti-Soviet view, however, fascism was how Soviet Russia was actually operated, so the term Red Fascist may have been more accurate than calling the men Oomunists. After the events of 1919, however, no cars in titling the party was necessary-~0mmists had become "the shew" under any appelation. The Milwaukee Journal was liberal enough in 1961; to be denounced in None Dare Call It Treason: The Post-Dis tch viewpoint differs little from those of other top " ug mo " newspapers, the New York Times W Milwaukee Journal, Louis e ourier camel, etc. Whether the slanting, distortion, and control of news is tfizymiocifisréufisgim flats, or actual cmnists . . So it is fairly safe to seem that it was liberal in 1910. It was probably this attitude that caused than to refer to the Commists' "alleged subversive activities" in the Opening story instead of repeating the charge in the indictment that the Gommdsts sought to overthrow the United States Government by force and violence. The defendants were referred to as "CaI-nzist Chiefs” and the defense attorneys again gave trouble. The Detroit attorney George W. Crockett Jr. was identified as a "Negro defense 39John A. Sterner, Nam Dare Call It Treason, (Florissant, Missouri: Liberty Bell Press, 1984), p. 1513. 25 attorney from San Francisco," while Harry Sacher, another defense attorney who 1'22. fro: San Francisco, was not identified as to city of origin. Along with the straight Associated Press account on Tuesday, January 18, the Journal reproduced the front page of the Monday, January 17, 191:9, Ilsa: Worku‘ with a headline reading "Frame lip/Trial of 12/011 Today." The Journal was the only paper of the three to reproduce this cover, but the New Xork Tiles mentioned 11-. and described the headline. The Journal was the only paper, however, to reproduce the DES! worker editorial page, which consisted of a cartoon of a club knocking the torch from the hand of the Statue of Liberty. The cartoon was headlined "America Goes on trial." By Wednesday, January 19, the Journal was able to publish copy frm Robert H. Wells, 8. member of the Journal New York Mean. His trial coverage centered on the defendants and contains one of the very few, if not the only, negative cament about John F. x. HcGohey, the prosecutor, to be foulfl in any of the papers considered in the coverage. Take a look at the defendants. These 11 men, together with Willian Z. Foster, national party chairman, represent the crane of the crepcfAnericanReds. Eachisananberofthenationalboardofthe Ocmmist party. hch has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the govermt by force and violence. How do they look? The obvious shown- is, of course, Just about like amone else. There isn't a man snong than what you would single out on a casual meeting as a dangerous fellow. With one or two enceptiom they are dressed neatly. They all have haircuts--there's not a bum haired cartoon Cmunist among than, and one or two couldn't growabuskvheadofhairiftheytried. An Air of Authority With the exception of (Eugene) Dennis, they are no w you wouldpiclcout ofacrowd. Dennis, who has come alongwavinthe 26 party since his Wisconsin era, has an air of authority about him. He is tall. His waistline is not what it was 10 years ago. His unruly hair is a mixture of brown and gray, with the latter gradually getting the upper hand. He is amanwho looks as thoughhewas accustmedtogiving orders. The others seem to defer to him just a little. As general secretary of the party, he commands their respect. Hmry Wimton, the party's organizational secretary, is a bignan. Helooks asthoughhewouldbeathoneinacollege backfield. He wears a discharge button in his lapel, and on the thirdi‘ingerofhis lefthandis a goldweddingring. Winston is one of two Negroes on trial. The other is Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. Like Winston, he is powerfully built. He is a member of New York's city council and Tuesday afternoon he obtained the judge's pennission to leave the courtroom and participate in a regular council session. John Gates, editor of the Daily Worker, is there. He is short. As with Winston, there is a discharge button in his lapel. He appears nervous as the courtroom shrmishing progresses. He chewhisnailsorrubshis smallmustachewiththebackofhis hand when the going is tense. Green A mpper Fellow Gilbert Green, the Illinois state chairman of the party, is a dapper fellow, with shiny, curly black hair. Robert G. W, New York state chaiman, looks like a cocky young man who never quite outgrew adolescence. He wears a rumpled shirt and a habituil half ”flee Gus Hall, Ohio chairman, isabigmanwithasnallmstsche. John mllianson, labor secretary, is a balding fellow with a stubborn mouth who looks like a not very successful small town druggist. Glance over the rest of thaw-Jack Stachel, with his rugged, heavy brewed face, Carl winter, who has the air and appearance of a Judge; Irving Potash, the labor leader, whose lips turn down and who looks as though something was worrying him. TheJudge is ananwhodanands respect. The UnitedStatee attorney, John F. I. HcGohey, looks like the kind of a fellow who would use two middle initials--three if he had than. But it is the defendants who are the stars of the draw that is being unfolded 27 here--vil_lains to most and heroes to some, but stars nonetheles An watching than, you can tell that every one of then knows it. Reporter Wells' slightly humorous surface view shows he had no fear of "villains" nor any unnecessary reapect for, Establishnent authority. His was a readable account, but it avoided the central issues of the trial. These issues were dealt with in a Milwaukee Journal editorial the same day. The Reds on Trial The American Peeple will do well to keep a close eye on the trial of the ll Communist leaders that is now getting underway in the federal court room in New York. This could be one of the more important trials of Anerican history. This trial should result in spreading before the public gaze the workings of whatever Comunist conspiracy there is in this country. It should reveal any connection there may be between the American Cmmmists and the fountainhead of communism in Moscow. It should bring into the light the real purposes of the Connunist party and the truth of falsity of the party's claim that it is an Arnerican political party with true devotion to American principles. The trial may prove whether the present laws of the United States are sufficient to deal with cammism or with smr conspiracy against the country conducted by citizens with a foreign allegiance. In view of the world situation today, with its conflicts between Amsrica and Soviet Russia, and between democracy and comufism, all these things should be clarified in the hnerican minds. The editorial then speculated on whether the present laws of the United States were strong enough to convict the Comunists if a conspiracy be shown. It caressed fears for the safety of America. If helplessness is shown, alongside evidence of a present danger to the nation, then there must be new laws. America cannot go unprotected. ‘3? 1*? it 4(- fi' 3!- *' it 31' '21- ‘K- ‘3‘- it ~26- * 5(- ¢.‘ '2? it is ‘K- 61- '32- {L- -25- '23 7‘1- -}2- it '5 ‘31' it ~X' "it hgrulwaukee Journal, January 19, l9h9, p. 6. 28 u» very future of the Alerican nation as a denocrac may to a considerable extent be at staloe in the New York trial. he editors revealed theuelves to be firmly in accord with the Truman Doctrine, a fact that became very clear the next day in the three papers' coverage of Truan's Inaugural Address. .30, each of the papers had begun covering the story in its own fashion, with editorial policy influencing the handling of the copy. The editors ' evaluation of the story was evidenced by their handling of the pro-trial Jury challenge, which lasted until March h, 191:9. In that period, the New York Times published Just about twice as many stories as either of the other two papers with thirty-three stories in a regular heeday through Saturday pattern, with gaps ten the court was out of session for any reason. he San Francisco Miner published eighteen stories with unexplained three- and four-day gaps in coverage. me Killianlcee Journal published 17 stories during the period, but only fourteen were original capy. The other three were repeated fran the Final edition ofthepaper. Ifthestorywerelatebrealdngit wouldoftenappearin the Final edition first, then be repeated in the regular edition, but the oppositesituationoccmedifmestorywereinportantenoughtorunin all editions. The Journal's Final edition was much more sensational in map!!! than the regular edition, and one story, on January 28, featured an eight-calm manner for a headline: “Threaten Judge in Red Trial.” he Associated Press story was a calm account of an exchange in court when both the defense attorneys and Judge Medina revealed they Ila-132.9... , Pe 18e 29 received threatening letters. The story allowed Judge Medina, in his defense, to characterize himself: "I represent not the rich, not the poor, but all the people and the majesty of the United States Goverment, andeiJthrytodothebestIca.u."h2 This statuent, like the one permitted to Prosecutor John F. X. McGohey on January 19, (mentioned above) served amnirably to separate the federal officials from the defense attorneys, who "popped up" and "angrily demanded, “wand the defendants , who made "loud, sectional and extravagant chuges,’ or the defense's main witness in the challenge to the Jury systu, Professor Doxey balkerson. ’thlkerson wasn't too impressive as a witness. Prof. Doxey Wilkerson, former one-tine Columnist "ethication director" was on the stand for the fifth consecutive day. He had with him a welter of charts, maps and statistics, and at one point declared the lower East Side of New York is "predcunsntly Jewish." United States Attorney John F. I. HcGohey asked that the stataent be stricken Iran the record undess (sic) the witness had factuslprooftobackuptfi ranark. Judgemdinarnledthatno such proof had been shown. hotelier coverage givento the storybytheNeonrk'rigs showed thd'. Judge Medina didn't stop at ruling no proof had been presented, he managed to slip in a little propaganda: You know, we're supposed to have religious toleration and m)l‘l:l.lwaul:ee Journal, Final edition, January 18, 191:9, p. l. whet: York Times, January 28, 1910, p. 18. M935, February 1, 19119, p. h. “San Francisco Miner, February 1:, 191:9, p. S. 30 daeocracyinthiscotmtryandthisideaoftryingtofindouthow many Jews live in 2 block and how many in that block doesn't appeal to me at all. mm the federal officials were presenting America in its best light, which could be classed as propaganda, Judge Medina was continually accusing defense attorney Harry Sacher of trying to turn the trial into a political The Judge told Mr. Sacher he was not proving his case, but merely prolonging it by "raising your voice and repeating nere assertings over and over again. "I suppose," the Judge added, “that yo do it for ease purpose not connected with this Judicial proceeding. 7 01‘: "It makes me think," the Judge said, "there must be sonething here affecting his interest I ought to know about, there must be sanethingnoreinthisthanneets theeye.” Or: The Judge told Mr. Sacher he was becoming “pogitively irnolent'I and was making statuents for "propaganda purposes.” 9 AsidefrcnthehericanDaooracyversusSovietCammistbiasbedng set up, the earlydays of the trial, the pro-trial Jury challenge, notntch biasonthepertofthenewepaperscouldbediscerned. Ample, thong: unwitting, bias on the part of the Court was shown, however. 1“shew for]: files, February 14, 191:9, p. h. ”93.3., February 8, 191:9, p. h. mags, POW ll, 193-19, Pe he ”Did.” PM 15, 191499 Pe 8e 31 "Well, let us suppose," Medina said, "a witness may have a family in which Negro blood goes back four or five generations. Is it necessary to bring up such a sore spot?" Sacher then leaped to his feet and said: “Negro blood is as good as any kind of blood. me question put by your honor indicates prejudice on your honor's part.n "I fail to see how I have so indicated," said W50 Hsdins's statement might appear more biased in 1973 than it did in 19139, but even then it contrasted sharply with the propagandistic, idealistic view of the United States promoted by the federal officials. when the Conunists' attorneys started calling all the Jurors and aJlthetederalJudges to backuptheir claimthattheNewYorlc systuot selecting Jm‘ies was discriminating against working people, Jews, and Negroes and selected only rich men, Judge Medina cut of! further testimom on the subJect. After Judge Medina had acted to speed up the Comnists' Jury challenge, President Hwy 8. Trumn entered the case--as he was dared to do so. TheCamanistleaders Hillianz. FosterandmgeneDennisissueda statuent continuing Truman's anti-Soviet stand and saying they would tight for the Soviet Union if war brains out between the 0.5. and Russia. In. result was esplosive. Truman denounced the Commists as traitors and advocated more stringent measures against Comunists in the United States to the leaders of Congress. me President's cmt left little doubt about the intention or the govermmt and, by their statuent, Foster and Dennis had assured that 503m Francisco W January 28, 1910, p. h. 32 the world would regard their trial as a political trial no matter how fair it might be. The shape of the reporters' impressions of the trial is revealed in the colunn inches each paper devoted to the various personages in the trial. he proceedings merge clearly as a contest between the Judge and the defense attorneys. Of the total 261.75 inches given to the trial by the San Francisco Miner 3h.5 were devoted to the defense attorneys and 140.25 to the Judge, but only 13 to the prosecutor. The glam Journal gave the defense attorneys and Judge about the same space, 20 and 23 inches reapectively. The prosecutor received attention in only 2.5 inches, however. The sample of the New York Times showed that of the No.50 inches inches in thirteen stories, the prosecutor and the defense attorneys get almost identical space, 1.7 and 1.2.5 inches respectively. Judge Medina, however, received attention in lh8.0 inches. The careful coverage of the Judge 's words and activities in the T£ continued throughout the trial. me New York fines also gave good coverage to the "why" of the story, a recapping of the charges against the defendants. The 1% 88“. a continuing listing of the charges in each story a total of h7.5 colunn inches. The other two papers virtually ignored tin recapping of the charges, with 8.5 inches devoted to than in the W andsWSJinWintMHilmkeekmal. A final note on bias would have to mention a form of bias which mono not 1‘me with the habits of American page canpositors and editors would class as "guilt by association" bias. Since conpositors 33 and editors tend to cheap like stories together to increase the chance of readership the trial story of the American Cummzist leaders nearly always appeared on the same page or the facing page with the "Adds Sally" trial, the Coplon-Gubitchev trial, actions in the flies case, or, mile it lasted, the trial of Cardinal MiMszenty. CHAPI‘EI II THE GOVERMIENT '8 CASE The Jury was picked with maxim. wrangling after the Camnunists' Jury challenge had been ruled out. Judge Medina lost little time in reinforcing the government's case. When defense attorney Harry Sacher was reading the indictment during the examination of Jurors, Medina stopped him with: "You leave out the words 'the overthrow and destruction of the Government by force and violence' after 'teacb and advocate',“ the Judge rounded him. “I'm going to tell the Jurors, so there'll be no misunderstanding about this, that these defendants are not being tried merely because they're Commists or because of their associations, but each one is specifically charged with the organisation of the Cmnist party with specific intent as ed in the indictment. I'm going to read the indictment to tha.’ Judgeheflmcontimedtodrucmparisonbetwemtherealadversaries trial: Micah Dmocracy and Soviet Communism. Without mentioning Soviet Russia or other Columnist countries, the Judge then pointed out that in "some" coggtries everyone is not entitled to counsel as in the United States. Or: Afterdirectingtbealternatestogivethedefendantsfull preemption of innocence until proved guilty and to let nothing but the evidence influence their verdict, the Judge said: 5 “net's the way we administer Justice here in the United States." 3 511M! York Times, March 8, 1919. P. 3. szlbidc, m 18, 19149, pe 1e SBIbid" Pa 11:. 35 men the Jury selection was final, the laws of chance had dealt the Commists an mbarrasnent: the foreman of the jury was Mrs. Thelma Dial, a Negro. Defendant Eugene Dennis dismissed his attorney and decided to act as his own counsel and earned himself two characterizations, in the §_a_n_ Francisco Erminer and New York Times: ". . . tall, greying Columnist leader."Sh Mr. Dennis replied in a voice that seemed small and hesitant cming free a big man--he is one of the largest of 531m defendants in size and is said to wield much power in the party. Vhen the opening statements were reported, the M reporter [hissell Porter revealed which side he was on--his reporting began to tabs on a decidedly Government slant. For instance, Prosecutor John F. 1. McGohey's openingetatenentwasspelledoutinmll, withextensivequotesibile Eugene Dennie' statuent was broken up, characterised in part and interrupted by the words of Judge Medina. Dennis was also characterized, perhaps fairly but not kindly: Mr. Dennis talked while standing at a pulpit-like stand in the camera: theaurybox. Atall, heavinbuilt, red-facednn, uthaayinghair, he spokeinaweakandtreeblingvoice. **§****************************** Judge Medina stopped him, saying it was irrelevant "to show what good boys you were in other respects." "men a nan is accused of a crime," he said. "It is never . proper defense to show that he did some good things."55 W Haven 18, 1919, p. 7. 551m: York Times, March 18, 191.6, p. 11;. I 5613111., Hitch 22, 19’49, p. 13. 36 Bob Considine, who covered the trial for International News Service that day, referred to "high-voiced Edgene Dennis" and "McGohey's hour-long opening statenent, " but otherwise concentrated on the Government's charge, as revealed in McGohey's statement. McGohey said the Cos-uniat Party of the United States of America had been formed from the wartime Commist Political Association on the express orders of Josef Stalin and that the message was contained in an article by Marcel moles, the Branch Commist leader. The party was reorganized, McGohey said, to overthrow America. Dennis tried, with little success, to describe the Wet Party of the United States of America as a political party with peaceful aims fully in accord with American Denocracy. The first govermerrt witness was louis Buienz, the u-Comunist accuser who helped torpedo Henry Wallace's campaign with his articles in Collier's Magazine. Budenz said that Dnitri Z. Manulilsky, the Ukranian delegate to the United Nations conference at San Francisco delivered orders to the American Canunists. His testimony could be taken as a blow at the nascent United Nations as much as it could an attack on the Comnist defendants. The news was sufficiently sinister to merit good coverage in all three newspapers. The San Francisco Miner grandly hailed it as the "latest bombshell dropped by the Government's No. l Anti-Commist witness."57 Budens also charged that the Columnists wrote and spoke in "AesOpian" languageuthat what they wrote and said didn't mean what they wrote and said but indicated that they wanted to infiltrate and destroy the United States 5738.11 Francisco W5, March 25, 19h9, p. 1. 37 goverment. This is a cannon anti-propaganda technique, in which the government which objects to ease material or other can claim it doesn't mean what it says, but that it really means what the objecting government says it does. l'ous, whatever propaganda is involved, the objecting government can put arv meaning it wishes on the material. The technique is still in use: mm, Bert, Mr. Hooper, the Cookie honster and Big Bird, the characters of the "Sesame Street" television program, have been declared agents of neocolonialisn and imperialism by a Rmsian cultural newspaper. According to the newspaper Sovietskgya Kultura, "Sesame Street" ispartofansmericaniuperialistplottoreshapetheminds of peoples in other countries and make them subservient to herican Behind its facade of attemting to teach children the alphabet and numbers, the article said "Sesame Street" conceals a more subtle aim: Inculcating in others the values of the herican middle class reg such matters as preperty, money and the (aviation of labor. Il'he "Sesame Street" article appeared in a colum devoted to lighter newsanditmaythusbeconsideredthattheeditorsoftheDetmitheeh'ess regarded the theory as sensing. The same technique "Aesopian language" was presented by the United States Goverment in all seriousness in 1911.9, however, andwas regardedas akeypointinthe guilt ofthedefendants. Judge Medina indicated he was fully in accord with the testimmw: In refusing to striloe out the Radon definition of "lesopian' or “protective" language in the Comnist constitution, the Judge said the whole Omanist "literature" seened to be permeated with "the sort of jargon that would not be intelligible to persons not on the inside." Therefore, he said the jury needed a key to such I'double--ta2l.k." ”Detroit Free Presg, August 19, 1973. p. 15-11. 38 . Shaldng his head toward the end of the day, he said, "This has been the dog-gonest trial I ever saw. "59 Inthesane story, Hedinawas quotedas givingthsmeaningthe govermsnt put on the material: "If the defame theory of the law was correct," the judge said, "any conspirators could sign a document like the Communist Party constitution, saying their intentions were innocent, and then count any crime with impunity. "60 The San hancisco Examiner and the Milwaukee Journal had by this time (early April) begun to depend on the Associated Press for coverage. Hearst's International News Service stars, Kilgallen and Considine, had been detailed to cover the Ooplon and Hiss trials respectively, and the Milwaukee Journal had used the Associated Press for the Communist trial story with few "Journal New York Bureau" bylines since the first feature describing the personages in the trial onJanuary 19. The New York Times, however, kept Russell Porter on the trial story and Porter filed more than thirty inches or copy a day and developed some odd habits of punctuation. Moving from the proper quoting of individual words in sentences referring to "Aesopian" language, Porter gradually develOped, probably unconsciously, a pejorative form of quoting, in which doubt was cast. An example of the form might be: John Doe, a "graduate" student in Jomdism at Michigan State "University. " Porter continued using the quotes in this manner throughout April and occasionally in May, quoting words soeetimes and not quoting the same words at other times. 59N6" York Times, April 1, 19149, p. 16. ”ma, p. 1. 39 At this point, Judge Medina cautioned Mr. Gladstein on his “peculiar way" of questioning. The judge said he felt himself getting “nervous" and “twitchy” and a witness might get "excl " and "fixed up" so as to forget what he was being asked about. . . . a new "line.“62 met-must literature . . . . b3 . . . official party umpwpfih . . . "true" principles of "Marfin-Lmism."6§ . . . "educational" d:!.re6 Portc- was also fashioning strong leads out of the evidence presented by the mverment's witnesses: A Moscow-dadnated American Politburo ran the Canunist party of the United States by totalitarian control over the party's nominal ruling bodies, according to yesterday's evidence at the Cmiet tm1.67 It might seen that, at this point, this study has fastened on the New York Times and on the writing of Russell Porter unfairly. no effect is heightened because the Milwaukee Journal and San Francisco Examiner were using Associated Press reports which were roughly one-fourth to one-half the length of the Times copy and contained restrained language. The nest witness for the government was its first informer and, finally, 61111141. , April 5, l9h9, p. 20. 62 Es, m1 8’ ”1‘9, pe 11‘. 63m Porter used no quotation marks here, but he used quotes on "Cannnist'rflterature in other stories. we ‘Prfl- 12: 19,49: P0 3)“ 65.1.129- “2.12- 67lla:l.d., April 5, 1919, p. 20. Porter uses "evidence" here instead of Imus? to strengthen the lead. to one of the most famous persons to figure in the anti-Cmmunist era, writing a book and inspiring a motion picture and a television series: Herbert A. Philhrick. The Associated Press reports referred to Philbrick as a "33 year old Boston advertising man,"6ain the kaminer, and, in the Journal: Philbrick, a slight and studious dark man, with curly hair and gold rinsed glasses, declared "During the entire nine years of w activities I have been continuously in touch with the FBI. °9 Contrasted with those references, Russell Porter's description of Philbrick is little short of the praise reserved for presidents, mubers of cabinets and judges : Hr. Philbrick is the intellectual-looking young advertising manwhoservednineyearsintheBastanComunistmavuentasan unpaid volunteer for the Federal Buz'eau of Investigation until he appeared in the trial last week as a surprise witness. On his second day of crass-eradnatian, defense counsel not onlyfailedtobreakhindawn, but actuallybuilthinupasa Gavernnent witness. Wearirg a red, white and blue tie and sitting under the Great Seal of the United States with its outstretched wings of the American Eagle an the wall of a Federal courtroom, the witness saidhejoinedthe Commist PartytainfarmtheFBIafits activities, as a patriotic duty. 70 The witnesses following Philbrick, Frank S. Meyer and Fred Cook were nowhere as interesting as the Boston infamer and got uneven coverage. me Times covered bath, the Journal mentioned Cook, an FBI agent, and the Examiner covered neither man. Without cross checking, readers of the WandtheJaurnalwauldbeconfusedastatheorderafthewitnesees betwoen Philhrick and the next witness who gained the attention of all three 688m Francisco Rainer, April 8, 19149, p. 8. 69mlwaukee Journal, April 7, 1919, p. 3-H. 70% York Timeg, April 12, 191:9, p. l. hl newspapers : Moscow-trained William O'Dell Nowell. Nowell testified: "We were taught at the (Ienin) Institute," he testified, I'it wasnecessary for the Columnist Party of the United States to begin the organization of Negroes in the black belt in the South toward establishment of a separate Negro nation to facilitate the revolution and dictatorship of the Proletariat." 71 The San Francisco Erminer ran the Associated Press account of Nowell's testimony and bold faced a key paragraph: "The revolution in the South," the witness went on in a hushed federal Courtrooe, "would aid the Northern industrial was?” in bringing about revolution throughout the whole country. " he Exainer went further than that, however. By chance that day, Cecil F. Poole, a Negro, started as aide to the district attorney in San Francisco. miner reporters interviewed him and the editors ran the interview story in the column next to the trial story in which Nowell described the organization of Negroes for revolution. The lead of that interview indicates either that the day's trial news was in common currency in San Francisco the same day it appeared in the haminer or that Examiner reporters provided the infamtion to Poole to obtain the lead they wanted: herican Negro” are not being taken in by Conwaism, despite the glittering promises that Columnists are offering all minority poops suffering economic hardship and discrimination.7 me Journal gave Nowell's testimarv about twice the amount of space it normally gave to testimony free the trial, but referred throughout its coverage to "Willi“ O'Dell,n leaving the "Nowell“ off completely. at the next two witnesses, one, Charles W. Nicodemus, gave startling enough testimony to merit coverage in the top spot, while the other, 711nm, April 19, 191s, p. 11;. 725m Francisco m April 19, 19149, p. 14. 73Ibid. hz Garfield Herron, merely added details to Nicodemus' story. Nicoduus said, according to the New York Times: American Canunists have planned their revolution for the time when the Soviet Union is ready to invade the United States by the way of Alaska, Canada and Detfioit, according to yesterday's evidence at the Conunist trial.7 An incident in the courtrocn while Nicodemus was testifying also merited coverage in the New York Times and the San Francisco Examiner, but was not published by the Milwaukee Jourml. The accounts of the _Ti_£e_s_ and the Associated Press (used by the miner) also differed in word choice, with the gaming words more derogatory to the defendants. From the New York Times: Federal Judge Harold R. Medina rebuked the defendants for derisively in the presence of the jury when Mr. Nicoduus testified about Camusist plans for a Russian invasion. "All the defendants are smiling broadly, “ the Judge said. "his may seal very runs“ to then; they seen to enjoy it. But I'm mt going to have any country-club atmosphere in this court. " Richard Gladstein of defense counsel said the defendants had a right to "smile their contenpt“ at such ludicrous testimony. John Gates, editor of the DE Worker and one of the defendants, got up and asked: "Does yom' honor forbid us to smile? It's bad enough to forbid us to think." "You are evidently a very bold man; you get up and have your say," the Judge replied. "But I'm not going to have any hilarity in this court. I'm going to insist on order in this court." From the San Francisco Examiner: The eleven defendants, all top party officials smiled openly at the testimony. 75 7% York Tina, M 23, l9h9, p. 1. Ibide, P. 3e 1&3 . Federal Judge Harold R. Medina described this as “an atteupt to laugh it off.“ His conment led to a sharp exchange with one of the defendants, editor of the Comunist paper, the Daily worker. "Are you forbidding us to smile?" asked Gates. “It's bad enough they're trying to forbid us to think without forbidding us to smile.“ The Judge answered: "You are a bold man, but you may get up and hav your say. But I'm not going to have any hilarity in this court.7 The contrast between "smiling derisively“ and ”smiled Openly" is obvious. The New York Times also includes the word "rebuked" which Porter used frequently in situations where the Associated Press staffers and other reporters used "reprimanded" or avoided direct reference to the manner of the Judge's words. The situation in which Porter said the Juige "rebuked the defendants" is represented in the Examiner as the Judge describing it as ”an attempt to laugh it off." The key difference, however, occurred in the quotation attributed to John Gates. In the New York Times version Gates said "It's bad enough to forbid us to think," while the Associated Press version in the Examiner makes the quotation, "It's bad enough they're trying to forbid us to think without forbidding us to smile." In the T__i_m_e_s_ version Gates seems to lay the blame directly on the Judge, strongly indicating a charge that the trial was being rigged personally by Medina. In the Examiner version Gates' paranoia is assigned to the mythic "they", taking in all of society and the forces of law and democracy ranged against the defendants. The Minor version also makes 7%“ fimiaco WOr, April 23, 19119, P. 2e hh Gates hopeful: "trying to forbid us, " while the 13.1133} "bad enough to forbid" makes the situation final. The T_‘_i_1__ne_s_ reporter semingly has decided the case, in his language at least. The evidence given by the government witnesses was evidently weighing heavily against the Communists in the Opinions of the Milwaukee Journal editors about this time also, for they reprinted an editorial fran the "Vet News" on April 21, a day in which they had no story from the trial. The reprinted editorial '3 headline was "Look at the Reds «and laugh!" The next trial day after the "smiling" incident, a very serious clash occurred between Medina and defense counsel. The continual bickering between the defense attorneys and Judge Medina had occupied much of the space devoted to the trial story in the New York Times and the San Francisco Miner, but had been played down or ignored in the Milwaukee Journal. The clash on Monday, April 25, however, was Judged to be serious enough to interest the editors of all three papers. The incident was ended by Judge Hedina, who walked out of the courtroom in a sudden recess. The W Journal, in a rare departure from its usual policy, gave an soctmded account: Judge Medina was trying to cut short an argument by a defense attorney when mgene Dennis arose to mks "a brief observation." "Mr. Dennis, I do not desire any further argument on that point, " the court told the defendant, general secretary of the United States Columnist party, who is acting as his own attorney. "I've never heard so much propaganda in a court room in my life ," continued Judge Medina. Dennis began again. "I do not desire to hear you, " the court repeated. 00111118 paliStfie "I suppose you are daring me to do something to you," Judge Medina told the defendant. "You can be just as disorderly just as disobedient as you like, but you will not goad me into dojfig something which will be a source of difficulty later in the trial." The Journal's coverage of the disruption in the courtroas was only the second the paper carried since the first of the trial. Using Associated Press accounts which contained occasional references to the judge repriauanding Harry Sacher, the paper had avoided giving full attention to the defense attorneys versus the judge clashes, keeping the focus of the stories on the testimony, with little side detail. On April 0, in its only other "clash" report the Journal had included the complaint from Harry Sacher that he was being “treated like a dog in court."78 The San Francisco Examiner story for the April 20 clash which Medina ended by walking out was written by Jesse Kilgallen of the International News Service, indicating that the Hearst organization was keeping close tabs on the trial in spite of the fact that the Miner was consistently using the Associated Press accounts in preference. Il.'he New York Times' Russell Porter covered the clash, then offered his conclusion: The judge and defense counsel have clashed almost daily in the fourteen-week trial, but yesterday's episode was the most serious. For their part defense counsel repeatedly have charged the judge with judicial misconduct, prejudice toward their defendants and unfair rulings and counsents. 77Milwaukee Journal, April 26, l9h9, p. h—M. 7811314., April 6, 191.9, 26—11. to The judge has allowed defense lawyers and even individual defendants to get up in court and attack his motives in court. He has clamped down on prolonged legal arguments and court-room speeches made in the guise of argument, but has refrained from using force when his directions have been disregarded.79 The analysis has a slightly pro-Medina ring, affirming Porter's acceptance of the government's view of the trial. The next witness was undercover agent Angela Calomaris , a New York photographer who appeared the-next day in stories dated April 27. The Milwaukee Journal was sufficiently impressed with the fact that the informer was a girl, or had been waked up by the courtroom clash the day before, but for some reason the Journal editors put the trial story on page one of the main edition for only the third time since the trial began. The trial Opener had been on the front page and on March 23 the Journal. had given page one treatment to an impressionistic color story on the trial, tucking the Associated Press story of the testimony into the armpit of the color story. Angela Calanaris, however, was given page one without 9.ch a color story and she was described in a complimentary m in the story, which had no attribution of source : Miss Calomeris, dressed in a ch'gc black suit, smiled frequently as she testified in a low, even voic . 0 The story also included a quote from defendant Benjamin Davis, which indicated the novelty of the situation : "In the past the FBI stool pigeons have been males. Now they have found . renslefil The Calomaris testimony was as damaging to the Commists as the other informers' stories ; Angela Calamaris said: ”New York Times, April 26, 1919, p. 12. 80Milwaukee Journal; April 27, 19h9, p. l. 81 Ibid. h? . . . socialism could not be achieved by evolution, but that it was necessary to violently overthrow the existing government. All games oi mists“ “151:3?12ave880 be abolished and a dictatorship pro e a we o ow. The "slender brunette"83"slight, black-haired young man"8hgovernment witness didn't inspire the San Francisco Examiner or New York Times editors to give her page one treatment, even when she testified that the Cammists had had a part in the formation of the Progressive Party. "Witness Swears Cmumlsts/Set up mince Party in us?" said the New York Times headline 011 P380 3 on March 3. The name "Wallace" was a headline writer's choice when "Progressive" wouldn't fit, for the story contained no reference to Henry Wallace and didn't even mention his name. The Milwaukee Journal account from the Associated Press was slightly more restrained. It related that Angela Calomaris had testified that the Cosmumists discussed the Progressive Party long before Wallace's party was founded. She was quoted as suing the Gmmists met in the winter of 19147, and that the Wallace party had been famed in July 191:8. Wallace, however, announced his candidacy on Decuber 29, 191:7, which i__s_ nidwinter 19m, so the discussion didn't occur too much in advance of the Wallace third party movement. It was made obvious that the Columnists were discussing a third party moment in December 19h? when Benjamin Davis published his "my I Am a Cmmist." This is illustrated in the quotation from that pamphlet on page 10 above. Angela Calcuaris left the stand after testimony appearing in the newspapers on May 3. Thomas Younglove, a St. Louis businessman and undercover agent for the FBI, took the stand the next day. On the second 8223-51. 83San Francisco Miner, April 29, 1919, p. 8. 8""New York Tiling, April 29, 19149. P. 11. 1:8 day of his testimony a serious clash occurred between Judge Medina and defense attorney Harry Sacher. The Associated Press gave it the most attention and illustrated the level of tension in the courtroom fairly. Both the San Francisco Ebb-miner and Milwaukee Journal used the copy: Sacher maintained as he often had before that this (introduction of "The History of the Columnist Party of the Soviet Union") constituted a violation of the First Amendnent to the Constitution in that it “placed a book on trial." The Judge interrupted to say: "more is no way for me to get you to st0p without using a piclcax . . . why do you do that.“ "Because I have clients to defend, ” replied Sacher. "All right then talk your head off, " said Medina. Sacher sat down commenting, "I have no desire to talk to a judge who won't listen." "I'm having a little study made of the thousands of pages devotedto the argunents in this case and it will make interesting reading," Hedina went on. “Yes," said Sacher, rising again, "it would if you devoted yourself to trying the defendants but you scan to have determined teputthelawyersontrial.“ Hestartedtoaddthathehadappeared before many Judges, but Medina broke in: "You'll never try another one before me, I'll tell you that." "We won't be intimidated, " the attorney responded. “I won't be intimidated either," the Judge asserted.85 The Times, to its credit, put the focus of its story on the real issue of the dim, whether books and ideas were on trial instead of the defendants: The question of whether "books and ideas" are on trial was debated between Judge Medina and defendant mgene Dennis, the 85111an Journal, Final edition, May 5, 19h9, p. l. h9 party's general secretary, in the absence of the jury. Mr. Dennis is acting as his own attorney. , Mr. Dennis argued that it was a violation of the free speech amendment to the United States Constitution to permit introduction of the “History" in evidence. "Let us suppose for the purpose of argument, " Judge Medina said, “that a group of individuals have decided they will organize a larger youp to overthrow or teach and advocate the overthrow of the United States Government by force and violence. "Let us suppose they get some pamphlets and books written years ago but which show just how a violent revolution was brought about, how to do it, how to have persons get uniforms of soldiers and put them on and make out they are part of the Army and-Navy, how to get control of the railroads by violent means~-and how to do all the various things that will, if the teaching and advocating go on to its ultimate conclusion, bring about the overthrow of the Government by force and violence. "Now how can it be that those books and pamphlets are being triedwhenthecharge isthat the individuals insuchagroupused these books and pupth and papers, of one kind or another, as mere instruments for the perpetration of a conspiracy? "How can that be a trial of books? How is it that the book is being tried? I wish you would explain that to me." The Judge was unable to get an answer to that question from Mr. Dennis or anyone else. Mr. Dennis merely repeated his original assertion that books and ideas were being put on trial without offering any substantiation. "The important thing," Mr. Dennis said, "is what interpretations and conclusions we defendants have placed upon the books. that the Goverment is attuptingto do is to ascribetous things whichwe haven't taught or advocated.“ "Well, there is the issue in the case,“ Judge Hedina declared. ”You and the other defendants here say: 'This was all a perfectly innocent thing. We never advocated or taught or intended to teach and advocate the overtth of the Goverment by force and violence at all. All we wanted to do was to bring about certain salutory social reforms and to do it by a perfectly legitimate party.“ "Now this is the issue in the case and that, as I.see it, goes right to the heart of the matter that is going to be decided. " Judge Medina said he had heard enough argmnent and directed So that the Jury be brought back, but Mr. Sacher, who already had talked at length, insisted on talking again. Interrupting him, the Judge said he was having a study made of "the thousands of pages taken in this record devoted to the argments by defense counsel alone." _ When Mr. Sacher started to tell about arguments he had made in other courts, Judge Medina said: "You will never try another case before me.“80 The difference between the two versions is significant. In the m version, the Judge says he is having a study made of the "thousands of pages . . . devoted to arguments by defense counsel alone, " while the Journal story saws “a little sturhr of the thousands of pages devoted to the mate in this case," not mentioning the defense attorneys. The Minor edited the quote out of its Associated Press version, if it were there in the first place. Which version is the more accurate? Seemingly, the New York Times story hits closer to the truth since, when the Judge presented the results of his study on May 11, its purpose seemed to be to unbarrass the defeme attorneys. So leaving th. out of the Judge's May 5th quote as the other papers did, would seem to be bias in favor of the defense or simple carelessness. In coverage of the next witness, William Ourmnings, however, lines; reporter lhxssell Porter included this paragraph: At that time Columnists and their sympathizers all over the world were starting the cold war and predicted that the Merican free-enterprise system would collapse in the inmediate post war period, with . to ten million Americans out of work in the winter of 19164.6. ’ 86New York Times, May 6, 1910, p. 8. 87bit, by 10, 19,-l9) p. Se 51 Porter gave no attribution for that paragraph and its placement inflcates that it was his personal analysis. Porter continued that kind of analysis on May 13, while Cmings was still on the stand. Defense attorneys were arguing with Judge Medina throughout the day, according to the press reports, and finally the Judge was goaded into saying: Ihavedertenninedthatthis trialis goingtobeheldinan orderly and proper way and I don't intend that a single one of you We for defense shall get away with anything while I an sitting here. Porter's analysis of the situation shows complete agreuent with the Judge: Throughout the seventeen-week trial Judge Medina had been compelled to admonish counsel almost daily for calculated insolence to the court and for efforts to delay and disrupt the administration 0: Justice. Checlcnated by the Judge's refusal to let than turn the trial intoacircus ortOprovokehinintounfairtreatnmtcfthedefenients which night cause a retrial or reversible error in the higher courts, defmss counsel recently have adopted a new tactic. 'mis consists of one lawyer doing or saying something that cmsestheJudgetonakeaccmmtfr-mthebmch, usuallyto clarify or put into perspective something that has been obscured or twisted out of proportion, whereupon ”other lawyer Jumps up and accuses the Judge of Judicial misconduct. Mugs' testimony was as damaging to the defense as the rest of the government's witnesses. He told the Jury that Russia expected to occupy BircpeandAsiaintheeventofmrwith the UnitedStates. Undercover agents John V. Blanc and Balmes Hidalgo, Jr. were the final two goverment witnesses and while Blanc was on the stand one of the trial's very rare light moments occurred: As Blanc testified, Federal Judge Harold R. Medina bent his 88mm, new 13, 19119, p. in. 89mm. 52 head away from the Jury and put his hand to his face as though stifling a chuckle. Defense Attorney Harry Sacher obJected to the Judge 's smile. However, John F. X. ricochey, United States Attorney, said he detected smiles on the faces of the defendants. Up stood defendant John H. Gates, editor of the 93.21 Worker, who told the court: "In. the record show I did not smile. “9° TheHilwaulcse Jomalwelcomedthehmnorinthedrearytrialsommhthatthe editore ran the story on th. first page of its Final edition and repeated it in identical wording in its local section the next day. he York Times reporter Russell Porter was still uploying his odd use of quotation marks, quoting "education" director, but not quoting organization We The final goverment witness was its seventh undercover agent Balmes Hidalgo Jr., who had Joined the Ccnnmist party in New York in 19% to help the FBI. His testimony was so aplicit that the New York Times published it in numbered paragraphs: '13:. seventh witness "planted" in the Commistmovment by the FBI, Hr . Hidalgc corroborated previous testimom' that the defendants, as members of the party's merican Politburo, had used conspiratorial and anti-democratic methods on orders from Moscow to train professional revolutionists to: l. thaloit grievances of labor, Negroes, Jews, youth and various minority groups to foment a social revolution "vixen the time is ripe," in a period of war or serious depression. 2. Seize power fran the revolutionaries in a counter-revolution modeled on lenin's "second" revolution in Russia in 1917. 90mlwaukee Jom'nal, Final edition, May 17, 19149, p. 1. 53 3. Perpetuate theaselves in power like the Rmsian Bolsheviks by fore; and Violence to suppress individual freedaa and minority rights. 1 The government rested its case and Judge Medina made an massing stat-sent: ' United States Attorney John F. x. HcGohey rested the Govsrment's case yesterday against the eleven Communist leaders charged with conspiracy to teach and advocate violent overthrow of the Goverment. Federal Judge Harold R. Medina then held the Goverment had presented such a strong prima facie case he wggld hear only limited arguents on defense motions to throw it out. The statusent was carried in different form in the San Francisco W, butnotintheflilwsnkee Journal. ThsNewYorkTimeswasthecnly paper of the three to carry the Judge's May 21: statment, in which he stated the same thought in even stronger terms: The Judge reinforced his decision that the Government had made out a clear prima facie case by comparing the position of the defendants to that ofamanchargedwithfirst degreemu'derand shown to have held a grudge against his victim, gone to a store and bought a gun and annuities, hiddeg in the man's house and waitedtillhecanehasetoshoothim.3 . Hithsuchstateeents, Judgehedinacouldbeseeninthepro-Gcmnist press as part of the prosecution and by the mti-conmnist press as comfortably protectingthegoverment, butaJudgetmcwouldbeullingtobequotedin suchopinionsafterhearingone sideofacasewas, andis, inadefinite minority DIn-ing the presentation of the goverment's case the reporters seaed to fall in line with the goverment's idea of the case. The W‘ Russell Porter sensed to stray most fran ideal obJectivity and to begin a 9W: W 20» 191:9. p. 12. ”aid" p. 1. 93W m 2h. 191.9, p. 13. Sh sort of advocacy Journalism. His change was subtle and only in reading the stories in sequence at the same time could it be detected. His pro-Medina analyses sensed accurate, because they matched what he had just written about the clashes between the Judge and the defense attorneys. His selective quoting for peJoritive effects developed slowly, at first sealing to be individual words pulled from quotes which were also given and later in the capricious quoting of am activity of the Coss'mnists which might seem to make than consistent or intelligent i.e. "edited" the newspaper or "education" director. The Associated Press reporters sensed to have struck much closer to the ideal, but whether it was the stringencies of space on the wire or expert reporting is impossible to tell. The San Francisco Examiner edited the Associated Press copy more heavily, but was concentrating more on the more sensitive Kiss and Ceplon trials and gave only routine coverage to the Cumunist trial. The Hilwaukee Journal did a creditible Job in presenting the story, but editorially came around to running anti-Communist items, one of which was mentioned above. Space given to the trial varied widely among the newspapers. The New York Times sample included 21 of the 1:8 stories run by the __’Ti_m_e£ in that period, but the space given by the Tye; in those 21 stories far outweighed the coverage in the other twa papers. The _Tim__e_§_ devoted 716.5 column inches to the story in its 21 stories, while the San Francisco Mariner, with its complete coverage (22) totalling only one more story than the Til-'9; sample, devoted only 258.25 to the story. The W Jamel ran h? trial stories in the period and used 512.25 column inches 55 doixg so. The column inches devoted to the testimom' are even more divergent. The 292. sample included 239.5 inches of testimomr. By analogy, the complete glossary of & stories, if the space given to testimony held to the equation, the ‘1‘__in_ge_ night have run something over h70 inches of testinmw. The San Francisco Banner in its 22 stories, ran only 113 inches of testimny while the Hilwaukee Journal, with complete coverage Just one story less than the canplete 2% coverage, gave the testimom' 313.75 calm inches. he m cmpleteness could explain its inches of testimony and the San Francisco Miner ' g concentration on other trials could «plain its lack of coverage. The liberal Milwaukee Journal did a creditible Job of presenting the case against the Columnists. If the Journal devoted as much space to pro-Columnist defense testimony, no pro-goverment bias could be charged. it not, the charge holds. The New York Times continued to give Judge Medina his due, with 118.5 inches devoted to him in less than half of the stories run in the period. The other two papers gave him little space: the Journal only 19.5 inches and the Miller 18 inches. 'Ihe defense attorneys likewise got good coverage in the W with 35 column inches devoted to their antics . The J ournal gave them only 15 inches and the Examiner 18 inches . The prosecution got 98 inches in the __Tim_e_§, 20 inches in the Journal and only 8 inches in the W. The "guilt by association" placement of stories assumed a more sinister air during the government's owe, with the New York Times and the 56 San Francisco Examiner surrounding the trial story with stories about Gerhard Eisler, Axis Sally, the House Un-Am'erican Activities red probe and stories of the Russian war colmnsnd being shaken up. On March 11, 191:9, when the story of Axis Sally or Mildred Gillars' conviction was run, the New York Times wrapped the Omunist trial story around a picture of Miss Gillars leaving the court. 'Jhe trial story was in the position a story accmpaming the picture would ordinarily take, and finding the Gillsrs story was difficult. The anti-American parallel, however, could not be missed. me Milwaukee Journal, on the other hand, ran stories of Judith Coplon and her Russian lover close to the trial story on two occasions during the period, but mostly paired the story with c0py detailing a Etussian agency's Opinion that Dennis' speech had been curbed, a Yale Hallace backer leaving the college, or the fact that the AFL said the Reds' goal was the samntruly related stories. The laughable bias measure night, after all, have some basis in fact, for, as Shakespeare said: "Company, villanous cannery, hath been the spoil of mo."9h ”Shakespeare King Henry the Fourth, Part 1 III.iii.lO. CHAPTEI III THE DEFDBE John Gates was the first on the stand for the defense, after Judge Medina had turned down all the defense motions for acquittal or a mistrial and had told thu their legal arguments reduced the clear and present danger argmmt to absurdity. William Z. Foster had also been heard from, issuing a denunciation of the trial. Gates, however, got differing treahnent in the three newspapers when he began to testify. file ldndest coverage was afforded by the Associated Press, as it was published by the Milwaukee Journal. In that story, Gates' early life was described smathetically. It was , the Associated Press reporter said, a story of "a sensitive mind persimded by Marxist d.oct1.':|.ne."9s m. 3.2 Franciscohminerranaveryaaallstoryof theopeningofthedefense case by James Kilgallen, mispelling his byline "Kilhellm." The New York T4191 canbined the denial of acquittal pleas, the absurdity statelmt and Mes Hedina's likening the defense to a murderer, as detailed above. Gates was Just one element in the story which recapitulated the goverment Imm.fl Ulnar defense questioning Gates countered the Innis Edens testimm' with idealis- straight out of the Commist literature : Commists "fought for the things people needed right any, the improvement of their living conditions , the protection of ”aimless Jamel, May 21;, 1919, p. 13-14. 57 58 duocratic rights and opposition to war . . . " *********************** . . . The complet; fight for econond.c and political equality for the Negro people. 6 The Milwaukee Journal's Associated Press account characterized Gates as a "35-year-old veteran" and headlined the story quoted above: "Red Says 'No' to Revolt lale.“ The euphoria of sensitive minds and idealism vanished during Gates' first week on the stand however: Defense lawyers in the Comunist conspiracy trial centered violent protests on Federal Judge Harold R. Medina again Wednesday after he rams to admit in evidence an article written in 1939 by John Gates. By Friday, May 27, the New York Times was again reporting that Judge Medina had called defense attorney Harry Sacher "deliberately contenptuous" and quoting "heretofore dignified" Benjamin Davis as saying: “I don't see what pleasure the Goverment could get, " Mr. Davis interrupted, "i3 bringing this ridiculous and stupid trial in the first place.” At the same time, Gates' idealistic explanation of Uommist aims continued on the stand: He said assmnption of power by the "working class“ could be peaceful or violent. materially, he said, it was violent only when "the ruling class attempts to thwart the will of the majority by force and violence," so that the “workers" used force and violence in self-defense. 9 96mm" May 25, 19h9, p. ll-M. 97mm" Hay 26, 19149, p. 31-u. 98K” York Times, May 27, 191:9, p. 8. ”Did. 59 In the papers June 1, Judge Medina was still denying onenunist documents achuission as evidence, and in doing so being contanptous of the defendants: Mr. Sacher argued that the document "negated" the Govermsntls charge, but the judge said it was a "self-serving declaration by the defendants" and inadmissible. "The witness himself says they did this after Mr. (Iewis B.) Schwellenbach preposed outlawing the party, " the Judge said. "They said they'd show what good boys they were. his party was under attack, he told 1,000 peeple, 'I'm absolutely innocent; we're Just a legitimate political party,‘ could the entire 1,000 peeple be called in to say they're good.boys?"100 312111 on the stand Gates denied his guilt with continued defense of Gamnist doctrine: Mr. Gates rqaeated earlier denials that he had taken part in the alleged conspiracy and said that in his opinion Marxist-leninist principles advocated by the party did not call for the violent overttu'cw of the United States Goverment.101 However, he refused to name other members of the Communist party when the prosecution went on a fishing expedition fa' more information and this refusal got him into trouble. He said: "I'm not going to become a stool- pigeon and finger w and: conradesj‘oz Fellow defendants came to his aid; the party's general secretary told wlv Gates refused: Dennis, who is serving as his own lawyer, declared that the prosecution question had a "sinister objective." He made a long argment defending Gates' refusal to answer. If the witness complied with the court ' 3 order, it would have the effect of maldng him "an accanplice to the prosecution in dragging in innocent persons," Dennis contended. He added that a% persons named would be "subject to being lynched in the South." 3 100m, Jun. 1, 1919, p. 17. 101mm,, June 3, 1919, p. 1. 1029;13- 1651“”. Journal. June 3, 191:9, p. 22-u. The judge ordered Gates to answer the question, but Gates refused and he was declared "in clear contempt" and sentenced to jail. That stirred up the other defendants, as reported by the San Francisco Examiner a day late, on June 11: I M I d J Henry Winston, husky Negro who is party organizational secretary, was heard to shout something about ”lynching." The judge said to him, "I direct that you be r-nanded.“ Gus Hall, bullqr Ohio State chairman of the party, roared he had seen "fairer justice" in police courts. Hedina eyed him through his spectacles : "Let's see, that's Hr. Hail,“ he said. "You are rananded for th. balance of the trial. "1 .. n1. Examiner, by this time, was showing the beginning of a pattern. Gaps in the publication resulted in the Miner's readers missing nest of the defense testimony, but being fully informed about the clashes in court. The gilwaukee Journal published the Jailing of Hall and Winston in a well-known Journalistic fashion. The picture page of the June It Journal carried a three-column cut in the lead spot showing a pair of portly, broadly smiling, hand-cuffed Commmists, Hall and hfinston, being led off to jail. The issue carried no story of happenings at the trial. The Spanish Civil War entered the trial by a tangential route. Gates wasmadeto admit thathehadliedthree tines underoathinordertogoto Spain. It was the only way an American could get to Spain during that war, due to an American embargo. ms. Roosevelt was likewise very active in Spanish relief work, often being subjected to strong criticism for this reason. ld‘San Francisco Running, June h, 1919, p. 2. 61 Her efforts were fully appreciated by the Spanish Governmnt, which on February 13, 1939, presented her with a collection of Goya etchings through Ambassador de los Rios in comerstion of her humanitarian activities. TodecreasefurtherthedangerofinvolveuentintheSpenish Civil War, the State Dopertment announced early in 1937 that hericans desiring to travel abroad must make an affidavit that they did not intend to travel in Spain. "No conceptions have been dened feasible, ' Secretary Hull stated, "notwithstanding the chinence and fine character of the oriagisatiom under shoes auspices apersonorpersonsmygotoSpain." 0 Gates emitted the lies to obtain a passport because he, like Robert G. manpoon, anotlnr defendmt, was proud of his service in Spain. How use this reported? he San Francisco Miner's record made clear which side it use on in the controversy. Few papers and magazines of the secular press in the United States were sympathetic to General Hanna. Perhaps the nest notable «sample of this small group were the newspapers controlled by William Randolph Hearst. These papers habitually branded the loyalists as "Reds," played down their victories, 8.111 built up their defeats. The Hearst press used Spanish-American War nethods in Irititg about "atrocities" in Spain. In an editorial entitled "Red 3mgesofSpain,"theeditorsofthelos leaks-inersteted that out of a total of 33,500 priests , . been slain by the "Reds" and in twenty-three dioceses "all" crunches had been burned.106 .Withthstpedigree,theEraninermightbeexpwtedtogimthestorysuswhst similar treatment, but it didn't. NEW m, June 9-(AP)-0ne or the American Comist leaders on‘trihlinFederelGom'technittedtodsyheliedinvfluhenhegot a passport which enabled him to fight with the Spanish Republicans. ButJohnW. Gates, BSyesroldodita'oftheCc-sunistnefly Worker testified he did not consider it a "lie of substancefl since he believed its purpose was Justified. ********************************** 1052. Jay Taylor, The United States and the 32222 Civil war L92:1922' (New Iork: Boolean Assoc es, , pp. - . 1061bid., p. 123. 02 Gates said: "I couldn't state I was going to Spain to fight on behalf of the Republican Government of Spain because if I had said I was going to Spain, I never would have gotten there." "107 The Milwaukee Jamal also used the Associated Press version of the story, but the New York Times' Russell Porter filed the following report: John Gates, editor of the gaTilz Worker, admitted under cross-examination at the Comunis r1 yes erday that he had lied under oath three times and insisted the end Justifies the means in 131380 i The end in these cases, he said, was to get a passport enabling aniooasem as a Commist political comisar in the Spanish Civil The differences are significant. The Associated Press version doesn't fall into the anti-Conmmist slogan ”The end justifies the means" in writing the lead as Porter did, although the Associated Press reporter came very close to doing so. “mere is also a difference in the roles Gates was seeking in Spain. The Associated Press makes him a "fighter" and quotes him that my. me New York Time calls him a "political camisar" with no quote to back it up. On June 114, l9h9, the Milwaukee Journal reported that Gates had testified that John s. Reliher, president of Local 1151; or the 010 United Electrical Workers had been fired from the Stewart Narner plant in Chicago after being named as a red by Garfield Herron, the FBI informant who testified in April. The Journal quoted Gates as saying this backed up his refusal to name Cmmists.l°9 The account was by the Associated Press. 107.‘.’.an Francisco Eyeliner, June 10, 1919, p. 2. 1081!“ York Time, June 10, 1919, p. 10. ”mm Jami, June 1h, 19h9. p. 1b,. 63 0n the same day, flussell Porter, in the New York Times, summed up Gates' appearance on the stand-«for the prosecution: In his thirteen days on witness stand Gates has convinced Government counsel his testimony has been a net gain to their case. They View him as having created the impression of a typical young Goummnist league graduate, thoroughly indoctrinated with class hatred, and trained as a professional revolutionary. By his own testimony, as the Government sees it, he has shown himself above the law anglgustifies lying by the doctrine that the end Justifies the means. here was no balancing quotation from the defense on their Opinion of the first defense witness. In the same story Porter illustrated how defense attorney Abraham Isserman fared in the hearing on John Gates' appeal of his sentence for contempt: He declared this was a “political" trial and that the defendants were entitled to a "presumption of legality“ as a political party. It was explained fran the bench, however, that the Gavel-mm charges a criminal conspiracy, not political activity. Gilbert Grew, the Con-mist Party's Illinois chairman was the next witness to take the stand for the defense. Under defense questioning he had a fairly easy time discussing Earl Browder's shortcomings and the reason the Gallunist Party had dumped Browder and his cooperative policies after the war. He also testified about the peaceful m or the Comnist Party. His testimony wasn't enough for missell Porter, however, and in the report he filed for the Times was this statement: In yesterday's testimony Green followed the lead set by John Gates, another defendant who preceded him on the stand. Faced 11on York Times, June 11;, l9h9, p. 11;. mlbid. oh with the diam of admitting the advocacy of force and violence or repudiating the historic position of the Conmnndst party12 Green, like Gates, repudiated it—at least for the record. John F. X. McGohey couldn't have said it better! Under prosecution examination, however, Green refused to answer questions and showed little respect for Judge Medina. In stories published June 20, 19119, Green was presented as arguing with Medina with disastrous “fthe Green, who has been a defense witness for the last several days, had argued off and on with Federal Judge Harold R. Medina throughout most of the day. finally Green said: "I thought you were going to give us a chance to prove our case." Medina interrupted sharply: "Mr. Green, you are hereby remanded for the balance of the trial.“113 Russell Porter reported the incident, but added that (been had made the ranark "mgrilr' in “a sullen, whining tone."nh The San Francisco Examiner, used an Associated Press account as the Journal had, but it included an explanation of Medina ' s behavior : Medina, irked by the dragging process of the ninety-three day old trial, had exchanged ranarks with Green, a wgtness in his own defense since June 16, and finally (h‘een said:11 Medina's language while he was being irked was recounted in the Times: 11233111., I’m 17, 19149, Pe 3e 113uiiwankee Journal, Final edition, June 20, i9h9, p. 2, and p. 3am, Jun. 21’ 1%: 1mm York Ting, June 21, 19149, p. 15. 11585111 Francisco Escazniner, June 21, l9h9, p. 2. 65 Ian don't so. to realise that these defmdsnts, including yourself, are in the sales position as parties to other litigation. It is essential to the ministration of Justice thst proceedings be commuted in an orderly way. The amount of disorder and contemptuous behavior I have witnessed here is beyond amthim I could have thought possible in anhericencourt. Iintendthereshallbemnoreofitom Sofom'oftheelevendefmdantshedbeenaailedbynedinaand, on June 21:, Porter noted the beneficial effects of the policy: he Jeilings have had an ”unprecedented" effect on the com-so of the trial. Yesterday the defendants behaved tit-selves in court, and no insulting statuents were directed by an defense lawyer at the Judge.]-17 Abouttmetimethenflxaukee JournalpansediniteSundayedition to take stock. An editorial section article by James Marlow detailed all fheCcuunisttrialsandtoldwinapreuble: The attack on American Gammiets, past and present, is beet-ingsowidespreadthstthebewilderedpublicishavingtrcuble keeping track of the trials, canittee hearings , investigations “51.18 reports. This story lists the main line of anti-Ocuunist action. 0nJune29,theMilwaulceeJoumalaJsoreportedanotherofthetrial'srare bite of germine Inner: Oneof thefewlightncnents inl‘uesday's testimnycuewhen Illinois Columnist Party chaiman Gilbert Green recalled that he had engaged in a debate in 19147 at Roosevelt College, with an editor of the 9M0 Journal of Genome. "he subject was 'Shall the Communist Party of the United States be Outlered?" Green said. '1 took the negative,“ he added seriously.n‘9 116” York lines, June 21, 191:9, p. 15. 317235., June 21., 191.9. p. s. nslfllweube Journal, Editorial section, June 26, 191.9, p. 1. “9133;" June 29, 1910, p. 6-1:. ButGreen's testinowofpeacefulardtranquilainsoi‘theCouunist Partywasm’ckenbytheprosecution, uhichhaddone its honesorkuell,and Greenusforcedtoechitheusslymg. A national leader of the 0mist Party admitted at the Communist trial yesterday that the party teaches its nnbers how to use the third party moment, in which it supported Henry A. We for President last year, to help it eventually seise power. He abitted it also teaches than how, after seizing power, to destroy herican dunocracy and set up a dictatorship modeled on the “people's dnccracies" of Eastern Eurcge to suppress apposition and perpetuate itself in porn by terrcr.12 Green's adlissicns continued under pressure fro. the prosecution. In the paperschuIySheuasquotedesteJJJnghowtheAmericancouunistsat the Omnist International in Moscow in 1935 voted for sending a greeting toStaJJn,haililghimas"om'leader.“121AndonJuly6z Greenamits "heel-oteanarticleinlS’Bhwhenhe officinl of the Young Conunists league. Itwas readto by united States Attorney John 1". I. meow. mitthedefendsnt said, "mmtproceedtcapplythe principlescflsnininthestruggles foruinningthenaaoritycf the proletarun youth for the revolutionary overthrow of American capitalial and for a Soviet Marisa. " man til-3m In his direct testinom' Green, head of the Illinois Party,122 donned he ever advocated the violent overthrow of the covert-st. Thenctdefendsnt onthe stamina City Gmmoihsn Bends-in Davis, ardunderdefensetutehgehevasanouedtorecomthowhebecnea Colonist. Hesddhewasnistreatedbyadecrgisjudgetdlenhems defendingaueg'ocanunist, Angecherndoncheorgia. Davissaidthe judgecflledthu'mggm'ufl'dsrlcles'andthreatenedtojailhin,the 12% York am, July 1, 1919, p. 1.. 1211mm Journal, July s, 191.9, p. 11.-n. 228m Francisco W, July 6, 19119, p. 9. 6? attorney, as well as his client. Davis said he read the Communist literature to prepare Herndon's defense and that the books and philosophy I‘Imde sense to bin." Judge Medina, inhis unwitting 191.9 bias, treated Davie much in thesaneuytheumsneddeorginjudgehad: Sitting in the witness chair, Davis frequently thanped the tableinfrontofhinwithhishandtoenphasizethepointsinhis testilaow. HedidthisoncetcooftenuhenJudgeHedim,rulim outadefenseexhibiteaid: "ifterallthequestionhereisncttherights orthe Negro peeple-." "But it is! internmted Davis, thuping the table. “Now Mr. Davis,“ warned the Judge in a mild voice, shaldng his finger half-playfully, "be a good boy.“ "I don't want to be a good bcyl," replied Davis curtly. "v.11, you'lltalkyourself right into Jailinaninutecr two if you don't stop,” said the Judge.123 With post-1960s perspective, it is easy to see that Judge Medina would not havegcttenoutthatnneinatrialinl973, anditis onlyspeculative tctrytcgenge its effectonthedefendant, anattcrney, aNegroanda m of a party that preached, however falsely, the equality of the races. Russelchrter, inthesanerifistory, however, gavehisviewaf the trial's process: All three defendants who have taken the stand have shown ateulene‘yto dawandehit the Goverment's charges in almost the sale breath, partly because of special meanings they seal to igtech to work liloe 'd-ccracy,“ "majority," "elect," and "decide." 123m... I. or..k on», Jul: 12. 1919, p. h. ””213. The Ti___me_;_s_ also placed the story on a page containing the Coplon trial story in the next calm and, in the last coluln, a story headlined "Free Speech Is Allowed Traitors . “ The last mentioned story was coverage . of New York's lieutenant Governor Joe E. Henley's talk before the United Spanish War Veterans. A sample quotation will yield the import of the speech: Patrictisn of peace is just as important as patriotism of war. No one has a better right to say how the nation shggld be run in peacetime than the men who fought for it in wartime.“ Ihe prosecution caught Davis in lies also, though: NEW YORK, July 12-(AP)-City Colmcilnan ijanin J. Davis Jr., Co-unist conspiracy trial defendant, admitted today information in his auto license application and voting registration was false. The emissions were made under cross emirwtion by United States Attorney John F. X. HoGohey. Before the cross -emination began, Davis uphatically denied the Mican (ks-mist Party or its leadership even advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Government by force and violence!126 with that exculple indicating that the 19h? copy editors of the §_a_n Francisco Miner couldn't recognize a non squlitur when they saw one, no cmnt on their objectivity is possible. The next three witnesses for the defense were not defendants, but party worloers. The first was Miss Emmy Barnum of Boston, who, acceding to the Associated Press in the Journal, was '"a man official of the Colonist Pu'ty,‘ "a pltnp woman with glasses ," and a "gray-haired graduate of Smith College."127 She had been called to refute Philbrick's testinow, 12Slibid. 1263M Francisco Examiner, July 13, 191:9, p. 11. 127Hilaraullaee Journal, July 11;, 19149, p. 6-L. 69 since he had done his undercover work in Boston. The prosecution was too much for her, just as it had been for Gates and Green: After denying that violent revolution had ever been taught in these schools, she was confronted with, forced to read to the Jury, and made to admit that she has taught the following conclusion frcm "Foundations of leniJfisn" by Premier Joseph Stalin of the SOVie't Union: "The dictatorship of the proletariat cannot rise as a result of the peaceful bourgeois society and of bourgeois denocracy; it can arise only as a result of the smashing of the bourgecés am; the bourgeois bureaucratic machine 3 the bourgeois police.”-2 Porter '3 admiration of the relentless McGohey shows in his verb sequence "confronted with, " "forced to read" and "mde to admit, " but in this case it qualifies as good writing rather than bias. The ancestry of the next two defense witnesses amused the reporters. Daniel Boone Schimer was described in the Journal (Associated Press) as a "self-described descendant of Daniel Boone," and when "Blueblocd" Francis Hood of chbury, Massachwsetts, took the stand, the Journal headlined the story "Great Names/Fathered Reds."129 Porter of the Times described Sclnrner thm: Mr. Schirner is a tall young man with black hair, a pale face, an intense manner and a tendency to mice long pauses and stare into space with the air of a “dedicated" Commist.13° If it is true that "dedicated" Commists act like that, the FBl's Job in spotting than should have been very simple. The San Francisco Bhominer did not cover Hrs. Hood. 1281M York Ting. July 15. 1919, p. 13. J’zgliilwalnoee Journal, July 21, 19149. P. 8-H. 13°14“ York Times, July 20, 19149, p. 6. 70 Run Hubert J. Phillips, a Ccumnist professor who had recently been fired by the University of Bushington one to the stand, his treatment in the newspapers varied mushlgly. The New York Times gave him serious coverage, noting that the defense was "sarcastic" and “contaptuousfl The San Francisco hing: used the Associated Press cepy for straight coverage. The Milwaukee Journal edited its Associated Press copy carefully andpresentedPhinips asananwhousedwords that weretoobig for Judge Hedimandolndsteinthedefense attorney. JudgeHedinacutoff the professor's testimony because the course he was describing was not taught under the direction of the defendants, "but not," the Associated Press reported, “until the problu of polysyllables arose as Phillips was telling about a class in Marxian-Minis: he taught."131 "Red rancher/A Tall m/ Dismissed as fitness“ was the headline the Journal put on the story. While the next witness Anthoxv Krchlnarek, an Ohio economist official, was on the stand, Judge Medina was forced to relieve Juror George L. Smith because of a persistent foot problun that had caused his abseme before. Juror Smith was replaced by Mrs. Jane Schultz. In his testimomr Krotnarek triedtoremtethetestinonyotFredCtmings. lh‘s. Yolanda Hall, the next defense witness was given to making long speeches, and Judge nedine's constant complaints about his stamina and health cans to a crisis. I wish to state for the record that I simply as physically andnentanyincapableotgoiaxsthroughverymuch-oreotthis wranglingandarguing. . . e 2 laminate. Journal, July 22, 191.9, p. 1741. 132M Iork Times, July 29, 1915, p. 8. 71 Sohetoolcaten-ninutebreathertcliedown"afteranothsrinhundredsof verbal flareups occurred at the federal court trial of 11 top Ccmnist officials."133 in. Judge also limited Mrs. Hall's testinom' saying: Ithink I amfrcnnowon going to begin to curtail the expansiveness of this testimxv or I'm attaid we'll never get through it.13h Medina said he was stepping further defuse charges of fares and violence against “American democracy.“ He also took action against the obstreperous defense attorneys and found then in contempt: "I have heard counsel for the defense here give various excuses, say that they have forgotten or that it was inadvertent and I have warmd th- again an! again," said the Judge. "I now say such conduct must be and I find it willfully and deliberately done and conmous.”13 Thelengthofthetrislmsbegngtowearoneveryone,butittooka faulty paragraph frcm Russell Porter to put it into perspective: ' Judge lledina repeatedly charged defense counsel with trying to "wear hi- down" by their delaying and Jumping up-and-dcwn tactics in attacking his rulings. The trial has lasted so long that one juror has been forced out by illness. Yesterday a special recess hadtcbecallsdbecause oflsge slight illness cfoneofthethree roaming alternate Jurors. It was probably the first tine in medical history that a foot disease had bean caused by court testimnyl Edward J. Shake, a Cleveland Gomunist official, was next on the stand and got routine coverage. But the defense attorneys continued to irk Judge Medina, trying to goad him into a reversible error. men Hrs. 133m1waulnee Journal, July 28, l9h9. p. 1. 131nm, July 29. 191.9, 1). 3-K. 135m York Times, August 2, l9h9, p. 2. 136Ibid. 72 Geraldyne Lightfoot, next witness, was on the stand, he took action against one of the defense lawyers. It started when Judge Medina became displeased by Mrs. Lightfoot's testinorw: A few nimtes later the Judge turned toward the witmss and lifted his finger in an admonitory gesture, telling her to "stop the emu-location." In answering another question, Hr. Gladstein Junped up again. "I obJect to the court pointing his finger at the witness in an intimidating way," he shouted. "Hr. Gladstein you are perfectly wonderful, the way you make things up,“ replied the Judge, beginning in a half-Jocular manner, but then becoming serious. "I raised w finger, but the rest of it is sheer-inagination--but done deliberately. “I know what you are up to. You and your colleagues have again and again made positively false statements in the record for the purpouofmhngneappeartobebiasedandpr ced. Iannot going to sit by silently and have you do that."1 7 Gladstein continued to obJect and would not sit down. Medina called a narshal to sit him down, but before the marshal. could canplete the action, Gladstedn sat dam. The next day, Judge Medina, mid even more arguments with defense counsel, gave voice to his obJections : It is the nost extraordinary thing that lawyers for defendants in a criminal case and their witnesses shall persistently and deliberately decide what questions they will answer and what questions they won't, and then, further have the affronteryuat least one of than did-ate say that was the traditional policy of workers and labor. I am pretty sure that statenen is resented by a good new working people in the United States.1 1371mm, mist 191.9, p. 1. This page was not counted in the _ computations But was added to get the New York Times coverage of the situation. 138mm, August 5. 1910, p. 8. 73 The courtroom was in fairly ragged shape. According to the Associated Press lead, as printed in the Journal for August h, 19149, "United States Marshals roamed the federal courtrou Wednesday to shut off floods of oratory at the Ccmnist conspiracy trial.139 Medina was cracking down, but neither he nor the prosecution was prepared for the frankness of the next witness. Robert G. Thomson, New York State chairman of the Canunist Party and a defendant in the conspiracy trial was next. Die-pson was a veteran. 3 had fought with the International Rigade on the Republican side in the Spanish w and had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroisn inactioninNewGuima. hefirstdayhewasrebuhedbythejudgeand prosecution for saying that General Douglas MacArthur "was not a liberal nan.‘ monettday, inAugustlZ, 19h? stories, hetoldthejudgehowitwas: memuassisverynnapttogiveupits controluf industry, capital and political power in this country, and is very apt to meet every move of the workers and the peeple with violence, so that no peeple's front or working class-led goverment could Just take over ready-made the various phases of state apparatus that are corroded fish fascist-minded and in new instances lynch-minded elments. ms mlwaube Jom'nal published the statanent in about the same wording as the New York Times. The San Francisco Examiner ran no story that day, nor any day until August 25. . In the August 12 story, however, Judge Medina cleared up some of his ideas about how it would be "after the revolution. " He asked Thomsm: 1391411waukee Journal, August 1;, 19h9, p. 37-14. 11401,“ York Times, August 12, 19,49, p. 8. 7h "Would they (the workers' government) let Senators and Representatives in the opposition argue against them in Congress 7" asked Judge Medina. “That is a speculative question," said the witness. "It might not be so easy to do these things without Just mm down people who opposed than. Do they contemplate doing t?" "Hell, om: Conunists never considered that Senators are necessarily the most important figures in effecting social developmt.‘ "Theycould be waved aside?" . “The important thing is such a government could never come into power and could never ranain in power without the nest energetimupport of the overwhelming majority of the American people. ll Such talk could hardly be comforting to an American Jury, but the defense witnesses continued in this vein. The next, Howard Johnson, New York State Educational Director for the Cmnnmist Party testified that the revolution wouldn't "necessarily" be peaceful. He was followed by Joseph Starobin, the DE; Worker correspondent to the United Nations. He admitted using material from the Eislers in his reports. That brought up Abner w. Berry, the Harlneditor oftheStmdazHorkJsr. Hewasviewed asahelptothe prosecution : A defense witness yesterday, replying to questions from the bench, strengthened the Goverment's case with two statements. 1. That America is not an exception to the Marxist I'law" that capitalism must give way to socialism through revolution and that a peaceful evolution is inpossible. 2. That when Commists talk about Numeracy" in the fern mIbid. 75 of a “naJoritr' decision or when and how socialism shall be brought about, they do not mean a decision by the ballot, but by "unidentified mups" of e whm the Commists consider "good people who want good things." That was Just what the government said the Camunists were doing] m, with the trial in its thirty-second week, the Gmntists played what they thought was a trtmlp card. Through the offices of I'actress and singer" Carol Nathanson, they had managed to caupronise Juror Russell Janney, author of "Miracle of the Bells" and a theatrical producer. She had engaged Janney in conversations about the trial, in spite of the atonition from the Judge that Jurors not talk about awthing happening in the can't, even to their immediate families. Miss Nathanson quoted Janney in several prejudicial statamts: How can you believe amthing (the defendants) say on the witness standp-you don't know when they're lying and when they're telling the truth. If anyone ever mentions Harnsm-Ieninisn to me again I'll crown him. I don't know what the exact opposite is, but whatever it is, I'm for it. may don't they get out of here and go live in Minna This was the first incident in the trial since August 10 to attract the attention of the Miner editors enough for then to run a story on it. me Nathanson incident was used by the Communists, even though the attorneys deniedstaging it, to tryforanistrial. Judgenedina remsedto grants mistrial and also refused to dimes Janney as a Juror. The trial, inch had cost the government over a million dollars to this point, couldn't be sacrificed. I 11.211316», August 23, 19119, p. 18. 11433“ Francisco Examiner, August 25, 1919, p. 8. 76 Now that the Conunists were emitting what they were about in the United States, the New York Times placasent of the story took a strange turn. In the August 26 paper, when the mistrial was denied and the Communists were accused of Jury tampering, the trial story was on page one of the Egg. In the armpit of that story was a story of a speech by President Tim-an. On page eleven, the Jlnp of the trial story was under a three-column picture of President Truman welcoming American legion girls to Washington. In the August 30 edition of the Times, when Max Weiss, the former editor of "Political Affairs", the party's theoretical organ, was on the stand, the trial story was wrapped around a four-column picture of G.A.R. manbers in wheelchairs gathering in Indiana for the eighty-third annual emergent. The placement didn't look like an accident; the contrast was devastating. Weiss' testimony was serfs-n]: as the other Commists' had been and a pattern was seen to be merging: The (Max) Weiss tsstimory, given as the trial entered on its thirty-third week, marked the completion of a shift of ground by the defense. At first defense witnesses insisted that nothing but |‘peaoeful" revolution was taught and advocated, but United States Attorney John F. I. Motley made than admit they used Hardst-Leninist textbooks on the “inevitability" of force and violence and the “mossibility” of peaceful means in the achieveuent of socialism. ' since then the defense has been moving toward the position thatitdoesnotteachthattheoverthrowdthegovermurtwould necessarily be violent. On the contrary, it says, it holds that the use of force violence is not “inevitable" until "after" the partytaksspower. EarlyinSeptuberthecrowdattendingaconcerttobegivenbyPaul Robesonin Peekskill, New York, was attacked by snob. Defendant Irving Potashwasinthecrowdandwas injuredsothetrialwasdelwedfcraday. 1“th YorkATimgsJ August 30, 19119. P. 11. 77 On the day the story of the delay was published in the New York Times, a nearby story reported that Neman Levy, a New York criminal lawyer, had m'ged the American Bar Association to disbar the attorneys defending the Commists. (n September 8, the defendant Carl winter took the stand and his performance was characterised in the New York Times as that of an "evasive fencer.”m5 He was a little too evasive for Judge Medina and on September 12 received a 30-day sentence for oontupt for refusing to answer question. ‘me some day that it reported the contempt story (Septubsr 13), the gig reportedthatagi-oupofnnistershadcomiumedthetrial, buthadrefused to approve a press release saying that they condemned it. On September 15, ticGohey's "quiet but unrelenting cross-examination" caused Winter some trouble: Hr. Nchhey got the witness so badly tangled up over his use 3:: m :h‘tb'ugtozr; $011236: til;- wag? courtroom, even the other 9 . The New York Times reported on September 20 that William Z. Foster's deposition was read in court. It contained the usual colorful red rhetoric: The Red flag is the flag of the revolutionary class and we are part of the revolutionary class. All capitalistic flags are flags of the capitalist class and we owe no allegiance to them. *********************************** 'me workers of this couflry and every country have only one flagandthatisthefiedflag. 7 be September 20 story in the Milwaukee Journal ms the story of the defense ”snide, Sept“ 9, 19159) p. lSe M6Ride, septm 16, 19,-l9, P. 114s ”filled" Septmber 20, 19149, p. 16. 78 attunpt to call. Paul Robeson as a witness: NEW YORK, N. Y. m(AP)--Singer Paul Robeson testified for 20 minutes Tuesdayin theCcuunist conspiracy trial. Butaboutallhegottosaywasthatheknewallthe defendantsuand that he once studied law at Colmbia University under Federal Judge Harold R. Medina, who is presiding at the trial. The Covert-lent objected to virtually everything else the Negro baritone was asked, and Medina upheld the objections. iclinax came when defense counsel, George J. Crockett, Jr., also a Negro, inquired of Robeson: "I think you shared a platform once with President Roosevelt?" ' "0b: action, u said United States Atty. John 1". x. McGohey. "Sustained,“ said Medina. The Judge added that Crockett seemed to be trying to establish facts even though the questions were being ruled out. mother Robeson did or didn't share a platform with the late presida'rt, Medina said, had nothing to do with the case. Crockett said that in view of the rulings he found it impossible to get the testinom' he wanted from Robeson. "I don't think you should have called him,“ Medina cmntedo Robeson left the stand a {fig minutes later after McGohey said he didn't wish to cross-examine. Defendant Henry idnston, the organisational director for the party, was the last on the stand for the defense. When Winston began to give his view on lynching, racial prejudice and wars in China and Spain, Medina ruled out his testimomr. Later, when defense attorney Harry Sacher was trying to exonerate Winston by proving he was not in the country at the time of the fomation of the party, he made a serious error. The attorney l"‘BML'IMaukee Journal, September 20, l9h9,p. 8-11. 79 introduced Winston's service record to prove his point and on the record United States Attorney John F. X. McGohey found the infomation that Winston had returned to the United States on June 23, 1916, before the charged conspiracy, not after.m9 After that both sides rested and Mdina dismissed the jury until October )4. He then called for defense motions on September 28. On that day Medina rejected all the defense motions for a mistrial and for quashing the goverment's charges. The issues were tense and on the subject of secrecy, which the Uomsunists insisted was their right, Sacher and Hchhey clashed: Mr. (Harry) Sacher then began his attack on hr. (John F. x.) McGohey. . "The early Christians used false names," said the defense lawyer, his voice rising. "They met in secret. They did so many things more than this evidence disclosed that if Mr. McGohey were a contemporary of Jesus he would have had Jesus in the dock." At this point Mr. Sacher was shouting in an angry voice. The short, stoclqr black-haired defense lawyer paused with a melodramatic gesture and looked at the tall, slender, gray-haired prosecutor. The quiet and mild-mannered Mr. 14ch shook his head with a surprised air, but in a moment recovered himself. Addressing the Court, he said in a loud voice: "Your honor, I resent that.” l "I don't blame you," said Judge Medina sternly. 50 It is easy to see that Reporter Porter for the Times is more on the side of the "tall, slender" prosecutor than he is on the side of the "short, stocky“ ”9W Sepmber 23. 191.9, p. n. 150%” September 30, 191:9, p. 21. 80 defense attorney in that mhange. The other papers didn't report the exchange. The defense attorneys began sunning up on October 10, and the speeches were reported in the papers October 11. They were a good show, according to the Times story: The Jury was treated yesterday to a display of old-fashioned cratorical intonations and gestures by MP. Sacher and Richard Gladstein, attorney for Robert Thompson, the party's New York State chaiman, and Gus Hall, the Ohio chairman. They let their voices rise and fall, threw their one around, approached the Jury box with confidential whispers, and 5drew back to their counsel table to let out more of indignation.1 1 Again Harry Sacher got the most coverage. His sum-up had elments that outdistanced the other attorneys' talks and he got good coverage in the T392, better than the others. Sacher's words also garnered more of the We Journal's space. he prosecutor's sum-up got good coverage in the ling, but wasn't mtioned in the Journal. The San Francisco Mar carried none of the sun-11p speeches. Sacher made charges and predictions that proved to be fairly accurate, even if not for the reasom he assigned to than: 7 "That (the prosecution) came from the Great mite Father in hashington,“ Hr. Sacher asserted. Hethensaiditmssigrniicantthatthedefendantswere indicted on July 20, 191.8, W0 days before the opening of the Progressive Party convention in Philadelphia , which nominated Henry A. Wallace for the presidency with Comunist support. Sacher pointed out the Conmmists had backed Hubert H. Islam for the Senate in 191.6 and the Government had already then the reports of Herbert A. Philbrick, Boston advertising man, and Miss Angela Calooaris , New York photographer. 151D“. , (”tom 11, 19149, Do 18. 81 "more was no prosecution in 19146 or 191:7, " he went on. "But in 19148, when the Communist party announced that-candidates of the Democratic party no longer deserved the support of progressive forces in.the United States and.the charge was made in the election campaign that the Democratic party was being supported by the Communists, it became necessary. "0n the one hand, it was punishuent for defection and on the other hand a willingness to endanger the civil liberties of our country in the interests of a political candidacy; "Then, when the election purpose was served, the prosecution took on another meaning and became an instrument in the 'Cold War', in which ey relied on a monopoly of the atom bomb which no longer mu.e1 2 In the Hilwankee Journal: Sacher told the jurors that they held the .Life of the Omnist Party an! other minorities in their hands and declared: "You 12 will say whether a minority party in the United States will live or die. Ibu.will attest the rights of the Anerican_people in the 15 literal sense or the word when.you have killed a political.party3“ 3 The last paragraph.is interesting in that Sacher's choice of tenses "when you have killed," if reported accurately, shows he has no hope the Jury willfindanyoflderwaythanagainst his clients. Judge Harold Medina charged.the jury on October 13; stories appeared on that day in the Milwaukee Journal's Final edition and in tin San Francisco Bhnaniner and the New York Times on October 1h. The Associated Press stories in the Journal and Miner were short and gave very little of the content of Medina'e charge. The Examiner story was 1h.75 inches long and contained 17 lines of quotes from the charge; the Journal's account was 7.75 inches lens and referred to Hedina's charge, but gave none of the content. The ggg;§g§§ Times, in its usual “all the news" tradition, devoted 81 inches of space to 152%. 153rfllwamcee Journal, October 11, 19149, p. 10—14. 82 the charge story and gave the content practically verbatim, and also included a characterization of the Judge: The judge read swiftly and in a clear, calm voice with a diapassionate manner. Hearing his black robe, he leaned back in his chair behind the bench and rocked back and forth gently under the American flag and the Great Seal of the United States in the high-ceilinged court room with its black marble wainscotting and walnut-paneled walls. ********************%***fi'fi-d’rfl-fl-‘i'fii’fi- He said what the case required was "calm, cool deliberate consideration of the evidence.“ The Jurors should return "2 just and true verdict, no matter when it hurts," he added.)- it The Jurors got the case at 3:55 P.M. Thursday. may deliberated for seven hours and returned a verdict of guilty on all. cents for all defendants. All three papers gave the conviction story the top Spot on page one, but the San Francisco Miner's treatment was the most Spectacular. After virtually ignoring the story, leaving one- and two-week gaps in their coverage, publishing little of the defense testimony and none of the earning up speeches, the Examiner devoted 67.75 inches to the conviction story. It began in the prime page one spot and jumped to page two. All of page two was given to the Jump and related stories and huge pictures of all the participants. There was a five-by-six—arfl-three-quartw-inoh picture of the eleven convicted Comunists being filmed for the newsreels, a three-by-nine-and-one—quarter-inch out of the jurors leaving the courthouse and a fow-by-six-and-one-quarter-inch shot of the five attorneys who had been convicted of contempt of cent. The sudden interest the Minor 1'5 1‘New York Tings, October 1h, 19149, p. l. 83 editors gave the story was all the more impressive after their lackadaisical coverage of the story since the goverxnent case was closed. The presentation of the defense case scanned to strain the tolerance of the newspapers' editors to the utmost. Much of it was an attack on the ills of Mica, end the part of foreign policy that most Americans don't like to emit i.e. the support of some frankly right-wing dictatorial regimes in order to assure that commiem wouldn't spread. 'mose words distressed the court so much that Judge Medina was moved to rule out further testimony on those subjects. no "guilt by association" placement referred to above, asstned a character in the New York Times during the period that defies characterising it as accidental. In the beginning, the trial story was paired with Coplon and Rise and other Cmmist-related trial stories. Then all the anti-Commist state and local stories were placed around it. Suddenly, however, the Grandirmyof theRepublic, President Trmnanmilinghiswaythrougha bevy of American Logion beauties, coverage of the American Legion convention inWashingtonandthenattheend, crinestories ofthesortintdiicha father admits slaying his three children and other such horrors. The emparison and contrast was at all tines too great to be accidental and added up to a very effective and very nearly subliminal form of biasing the reader on the part of the %. Considering the coverage as a whole andnotingwhat stories surromdedthetrialstorywes theonlywaythe pattern could be discerned, but the effect on a reader, and even on a researcher, was quite acute. The coverage also varied more widely on the defense case than it 8h had on the other portions of the trial. no story had, of course, been runninga longtime. Theflilwauloee Journalhadagruesme localnurder running almost concurrently with the trial, a murder case in which the Journal took so nmch interest that it ran page after page of verbatim testimony at the height of the murder trial. The San Francisco hailing: had the Tokyo Rose trial in its city and gave that trial much attention, but the consistent pattern of ignoring almost all of the defense testimony and concentrating on the acerbic clashes in court showed definite bias on the pert of the editors of the W. A sample of forty-two of the ninety-five stories run by the New York Ti! during the presentation of the defense case reveals that the exhaustive space available to M reporters resulted in caaplete coverage, but not necessarily unbiased coverage. In the 1,297.5 inches of copy in the .-’ a sample, reporter Russell Porter became almost the voice of the prosecution. The recapping of the charges was a definite element in the Ling, which devoted 125.5 inches to the facts of the charge. Included in .wlrs that total was 22.5 inches devoted to telling what the prosecution had "proved" against the defendants. Not included, but noted were many instances in which Porter reren testimony frm the anti-Comist Iouis Budena to refute the Gammist defendants' efforts to refute the 19th. This ranlm as good coverage, but Porter reran the testinomr at unrelated intervals, 3 seemingly to renind the readers how guilty the defendants really were: i The Milwaukee Journal's fifty-eight stories filled 558 inches of” I space and, in contrast to the Lin—9.3.) devoted only 18 inches of that total to recapping the charges. The San Francisco Ebcaniner ran twenty-eight 85 stories at unpredictable intervals during the period and filled only 298.75 inches with trial copy. The Miner ' s efforts at recapping the charges filled 15 inches. The testimrw of the witnesses for the defmse showed great contrast, too. The M 362.25 inches (in the sample) tepped the bill as expected. me Journal edited the Associated Press capy fairly tightly, but still ran 202.25 inches of defense testimony. The San Francisco Miner had available the same Associated Press cepy and mod it to the exclusion of almst everything else, but in concentrating on the clashes, the Minor presented only 59.25 inches or capy on the defense testinom‘. This contrasts to 113 inches of prosecution testimony printed in the Examiner even though the defense presentation lasted over twice as long and more than twice the number of witnesses were on the stand. Judge Medina continued to get special coverage in the Ego-g, garnering 27h.25 colmn inches to the defense atta‘neys' 108.75. The defense attorneys got scant attention from the Journal and Minor editors , getting only 6. 75 and 8.5 column inches respectively. Judge Medina was given almost identical space in the two non-New York papers, despite the fact that the Journal ran more than twice the number of stories, Judge Medina got 39.75 inches in the Journal and 37.5 inches in the when. The 9.95;. sample included about half again as much space for the prosecutors as was given to the defense attorneys, even though the defense test-1mm was being given. The prosecutors got 162.5 inches ani the defense attorneys, as noted, only 108.75. The prosecutors get less than ten inches in the Journal (6.75), but they received 13 inches in the We 86 The editors of the Journal, by design or oversight, made the story of the conspiracy trial very difficult to find on many occasions. Four times during the defame period, the trial story was run in the Journal's local section, supposedly devoted to stories of metropolitan Milwaukee. On one of these occasions, the placanent was in a half column at the head of the first classified page. It seemed as 11' the editors were 11ng the story, but the effect was probably due to the time the copy reached the Journal. It g be to the Journal editors' credit that they squeezed the story into the papers regularly, whenever it came in, but in a nine-month trial a certain regularity of coverage could be expected, so that credit is probably not due that. CHAPTER IV A QUANTITATIVE LOOK AT THE COVfilAGE Analyzing the ordered chaos that goes into coverage of a story by a newspaper can often reveal patterns that are merely suspected in reading the stories that make up that coverage. The measured and line-counted figures appearing at the em of each of the descriptive chapters above reveal such a pattern, when taken in totals and converted to percentages. TABLE 1 TOTAL SPACE DEVOTED TO STORY Elm BY WEE NEWSPAPERS Newspapers fluent of Story NJ. Tiles SJ. Miner Milwaukee Journal of Charges 11.00% 6.75% 6.001 Prosecution 15.50 9. 50 2.50 Defense 3.00 21.1.50 0.60 Defem Attorn:ys 9.25 12.75 s.to Prosecution Testinow 12.00 23.50 145.00 Defense Testinorw 18.25 12.50 26.50 Dorm 3.75 5.75 h.75 MG. 27e50 17e75 9.25 87 88 From the table, it can be detemined that the New York Times devoted the most space to the words of Judge Medina, while the San h‘ancisco Ehcaniner and the Milwaukee Journal put their main emphasis on the prosecution testimomr. The Journal gave only about half the space to defense testimony as it did to prosecution witnesses, but its share of the total Journal coverage was still more than the other two newspapers. The Examiner, using the sale Associated Press cOpy as the Journal, ran only about half as many stories and exhibits the sane two to one ratio between space devoted to prosecution testimony and defense testimony. me Tfl devoted about a third more space to the defense testimory as to the prosecution, which could be expected, since the defense took nore than twice the time to present as the prosecution. The difference in editing between the Minor and the Journal shows in the table also. The defense category (references to defense strategy with no attribution to specific attorneys) shows that it is a major category in the Miner, but edited almost entirely out of the Journal. Refermces to the prosecution were also edited heavily by the Journal staff. References to the defendants in non-witness reles show about the same strength across the board. Ifthedata arehrokendownintothetlu'eemainperiods ofthe trial for a time-set, the developnent of interest in the various eluents canbeobserved. Thethinlcingofthe reporters andthe editorsasthey viewed the trial shows up clearly. The change in emphasis during the trial also can be ascertained. Defendants and testimony were not considered in the pro-trial challenge since the defexwiants did not take the stand and the testimony had no direct bearing on the innocence on guilt of the defendants. 89 TABLE 2 SPACE ALIDCATION Bi THE NEW YORK TIMES DURING THE TRIAL h‘isl Pre-‘l'rial Government Defense M Challenge Presentation Presentation Recap 15.00% 8.20% .Ll.SO$ Prosecution 1h.75 17.20 linso Defense 10. 25 0.20 2.00 Defense Attorney: 13.50 6.15 9.50 Defendants - 5.75 3.50 Testimomr - h1.75 3n.oo Judge 1:650 20. 75 25.00 Itcanbe seeninthetablethat while theNisorkTimes gaveagood amount of space to the testimorw in both the govermerrt's case and the defense case, very much space was also given to the Judge and to the prosecution and relatively little to the defense. -_ .. The continuing heavy aphasia on the prosecution's view and the close coverage of the Judge biased the story in the favor of the government. his influence of this bias was even felt by the researcher, who in spite of an effort to raisin neutral found himself taking sides, but only in the gig) not in the other newspapers. The San Francisco Eminer exhibited a different pattern of interest in its coverage of the trial. The technique mentioned above of leaving out stories which didn't match the manor philosophy was one method of biasing, but the coverage which was published shows a fairly ordinary- pattern. TABLE 3 SPACE ALIDCATION IN THE SAN FRANCISCO MHNER COVERAGE Trial Pro-Trial Government Defense Element Challenge Presentation Presentation Recap 6.00% 14.00% 9.805 Prosecution 9.00 11.10 3.50 Defense 29.00 2.50 8.00 Defense Attorneys 25.00 9.50 5.50 Defendants - O. 90 5 e 00 Testinoxv - o1.oo 38.70 We 31.00 11.00 2h.50 'me hummer, the table shows, gave the Judge a most generous share of attention in the pre-trial and continued to give him some attention, but devoted the most space in the trial prOper to prosecution and defense testimony. but in the trial proper the prosecutor received more space. The defense attorneys got a lot of attention in the challenge, The Milwaukee Journal showed yet another pattern of interest, despite the fact that its editors were using the Associated Press copy used by the Erminer editors. comparison of the tables. Differences in editing show up clearly in a 91 TABLE h SPACE mocmou IN THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL common went m‘lhg‘al Won l?!’1.°‘£smelr£:tation heap 10.110: 5.60% 6.255% Prosecution b.7o 1.90 3.00 Defense 3.70 0.50 0.25 Defense I Attorneys 37.70 3.60 2.50 Defendants - i 0.140 h.50 Testimotw - 82.00 70.00 Judge 10.50 6.00 13.50 _ The Judge and the defense attorneys got the attention of the Journal's editors in the pre-trial challenge, but after that, the overwhelming amount of Journal space was devoted to the testimony, more to the exclusion of the other slanents than in the other newspapers. The attention given to the Judge chopped precipitously after the initial clashes with the defense attorneys. The prosecution and defense attorneys show a similar decline in the interest of the reporters and editors. The defendants, almost ignored during the govermnent's case, got a respectable amount of space during the defense presentation. 0n the theory that important news should be kept in the forefront, i.e. the front, hard news section of the newspapers, a check was made of the pages in which the trial story appeared over the nine-month duration of the litigation. FIGURE 1 PAGE DISTRIBWION OF TRIAL STORIES IN THE NEIGPAPL'JB Number of Observations 1‘04? LEBEND it fl N.Y. Times o S.F. Miner ----------- 35? Milwaukee Jo -o---- F ”ii 25;? it o 20-" 15. ‘r at in“ 1’. 5... .r \\ " 1 J 1 1 J_ J_ .1 4 L 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 364.0 h1-hs Pagination 'me graph shows that all three newspapers made a good effort to keep the story of the conSpiraoy trial among the news: in the hard news sections. The Milwaukee Journal editors let the story wander through its pages more than 93 the other papers' staffs. The graph also does not show the twenty-fem- times the Journal put the story on pages one and two of its Final edition. me Final edition had only two pages for news and treated the trial story in a sensational warmer. On one occasion the headline consumed much more space than the story. It was a full 8-colunn headline of Bh-point type with a 36-point drop head of three lines for a six-inch story. Also not included in the graph are the five instances the Journal relegated the story to the Local section, behind the Main section, the Editorial section, the Women's section and the Sports section. Probably, however, if the Journal editors had not had the Option of inserting late-breaking stories in the r‘inal edition, often repeating than on inside pages of the Main section the next day, the Journal's "hard new" record would have been more impressive. The San Francisco W, which seats to have done an excellent Job of keeping the story “up front, " ran such small editions in 1919 that the editors had little other choice about where to put the trial story. The pages were scarce, small and heavy with advertising, leaving little roan for news. Mienever bias is discussed, the obverse concept, obJectivity or fairness, must be dealt with at some point. A defense of obJ activity or fairness or a decision of whether it exists or should eocist is beyond the scope of this stub. The writer is not a believer in the existence of obJectivity as a fact, but rather regards it as a cherished goal. The sad fact is that the most delightful writing possible is a Jaundiced piece of invective which exactly matches the ideas of the reader: H. L. Henken's description of mllian Jennings Bryan for an anti—fundamentalist, for 9h instance. It is possible, however, to expect copy from reporters which should be acceptable to all the parties in the story. That copy should avoid one success: the fault of favoritism for one side or the other. The previously mentioned methods of influeming the reader, selective quotation marks, out-of-balance space allocation, pairing with stories of the opposite philosophy, were all toms of biasing the reaction to the story. An analysis of the language used in the stories needs a definition of objectivity to proceed beyond the "you can 't do that" argments of critics. 'llhis study will adopt a very safe definition as a standard, for it is the standard that was achieved in the majority of the Associated Press stories about the conspiracy trial encomtered in this study. The difference between biased and non-biased statements can be taken as the difference in word choice. The statements "he said,” “he shouted,“ "he whined" and ”he shrieked," all contain a slightly different view of the method of statenent. We, the statanents “who always took notes," “who always took copious notes" ard "who elxays took caraml notes” all contain a different view of the action. In the first sample, the reporter could observe whether the statmnt was made in a quiet manner or a noisy manner, but when he characterizes the noise as whines or shrieks, he enters the reel: of opinion and leaves the realm of possible objectivity. One man's sm‘iek my be another man's bel canto- me second example contains two observable actions, “who took notes, " and "who took copious notes" and one in the realm of Opinion, "who took careful notes." Without access to the notes, a reporter couldn't say whether the notes were careful or a mish-nosh of half-realized ideas interspersed with tick-tack-toe games . 95 The stat-ants tabulated in this study range from the fully orchestrated visions of Philbrick and Medina sitting-with their red, white and blue tie and black judicial robes under the Great Seal of the United Statesm-to the above-mentioned observation "who always takes careful notes." These are clearly favorable statuients . The unfavorable statments range from referring to the defendants as "good boys" to "in a sullen, whining tone,“ to describe a statment by Gilbert Green, a defendant. The ideal that was achieved in many of the Associated Press stories, then, was the presentation of the trial information, the complete facts, without biased characterizations. This is not, however, to say that Q the Associated Press copy achieved this ideal. Many instances contained statunmte prejudicial to one side or the other, but this is to be expected when the defense attorneys were being as unpleasant as possible to try to good the Judge or the prosecutors into reversible mistakes and to make as much propaganda as possible. The definition of obJ activity for this study is that reporters should describe scenes accurately and use the language which suits the action, but to observe a_l;'_l._ parties involved in the story with the same view, be it acerbic or chauv'inistic. The reporter should be neutral. In reading the story, no reader should be able to determine which side the reporter was on personally. Some delightful estalnples of neutrality were observed in this study, for instance, the presentation of Professor Herbert Phillips as anentdiousedtoomanvpolysyllabic words forthe Judge and attorney. Many of the mles observed in this study and tallied for 96 presentation here, exceeded the neutrality guidelines. Many excesses, w - probably, were the result of a view of the Communists which was heing established in 1919, vilich grew to fruition in the l950s and is still the ,h—hu the mqaected statements Iran courtrooms under the American systan of Justice. Under the United States systan, the prosecutor often assumes the role of the avenger for society and the judge often renains grandly aloof from the courtroom fray, diapensing advice, admonitions and decisions with courtesy and dignity. These are roles played under the canons which make up our legal system. In covering a trial, however, it takes either a very young or a very biased reporter to be taken in by these roles to the extent that he covers the trial from that angle rather than listening to the testimony and recording that for his readers. Defendants are still innocent until proven guilty under the American systan. The prosecutor tries to make it appear that the defendants are guilty and the defense attorneys try to make it appear that their clients are being unfairly charged. The Judge is supposed to remain the neutral arbiter of the proceedings. In the conspiracy trial the attorneys tried to turn the trial into a shambles and, by and large, they succeeded. The Judge took the bait and his words and action turned the trial into a political trial in which personal references abounded, not so much on the part of the attorneys, according to the reports, but mainly on the part of the Judge and prosecutor. The attorneys confined their Jibes to the judicial abilities of the Judge and prosecutor and refrained from belittling ranarlcs of the more personal sort employed by the government representatives . 97 The statements tallied in this stub were limited to stories which occurredmenavdtnesswasonthe stand. Thiswasdomtoafi‘ordthe maximum chance for personal references, which could go either way. The statmts which were clearly about persons in the trial-witnesses, the Judge, the prosecution-«lore tallied in three categories. This ms also designed to test the hypothesis that the relationship between these rmrlcs and their occurrence in all three papers constituted a pattern of bias in the coverage of the trial and that this was encpressed in the language chosen by the reporters to describe personages in the trial. The hypothesis was tenable, as is disclosed in Table 5. TABLE 5 THE RELATIONSEE’ 3mm mommy smrmxms AND commas BIAS or THE mm Newsp - F able ' N utral . Unfavorable up” a": 59) (i3 - 65) (N - 93) New I k . 7 20 1 55 3 mar €22}; (13) (51) s n :13 ' 20 W °° as) €32) (13) Milwaukee 32 us ‘ 2:5 Journal (19) (30) (214) Totals 100 x 100 s 100 x x2 - 2h.051; P (.001 98 It may be observed from the table that the New York Times accounted for the greatest Int-her of entries in the study. This is accounted for not only by the greater lumber of stories published by the Ting, but also by the space afforded than. The average _% story on the trial was 33.09 inches, while the average lengths in the other two papers were 12.1 inches in the San Francisco Examiner and only 10.5 inches. in the Milwaukee Journal. The last two figures are deceptive. The San Francisco Miner usually edited its stories much tighter than the Milwaukee Journal, even though both were using almost identical Associated Press cepy. The Milwaukee Journal, however, often repeated the stories in its Final edition in much tnmcated form. The frequent Final edition stories lowered the story-length average for the Journal. '13:. Journal published almost twice the amber of stories than the Recliner did and they were generally longer. Inthenatterofbias, theNewYorkTines againseanedtobeinime top position, with a greater number tallied in the favorable and unfavorable "opinion" columns than were tallied in the neutral column. Russell Porter, thetrialreporterfor new triedto coverthe exchanges inthe courtroo- cmpletely and, in doing so, often ventured into opinion in characterizing the stat-arts made by the attorneys and court officers. His personal allegiance with the prosecution was evident in his copy, but it was a patriotic allegiance of which he was probably unaware in 19149. The United States bad Just completed a worldwide conflict in 191:5 and the patriotism denanded of citizens and newspapers during that war was considerable. The citizens of the United States were united in a war effort that had had no equal in history. The complete mobilization of the arm and defense plants 99 took patriotism beyond what had ever been demanded free a peOple before. likewise, newspapers cooperated with the govment in holding the release date of stories and accepting without question the commiques of the War Department. Anything that would harm the war effort was avoided without fail. Probably, in 1919 , the vestiges of this cooperation were still in force in the newspaper and a patriotic bias would not be noticed by the copy readers or editors. Porter's language was more out of balance than the Associated Press or Hearst reporters, however, and his use of quotes to bias his capy should not have been permitted in any newspaper copy that claimed to be unbiased. It was probably this same unquestioning feeling that the goverment was right that led to the pattern of bias shown in Table 5. CHAPTER V CONCIJB 1016 It is easy to see now the conspiracy trial against the eleven Omnist leaders could be regarded as a political trial. he Conuunists were being tried for criminal activity in the political area. The law under which they were being tried was a wartime measure, which had never been tested in the Suprcne Court. The Judge, although not known as a right wing politician, had gained a measure of notoriety in his career by defending successfully the appeal of a convicted pro-Nazi traitor. 'me prosecutor, McGohey, wore an American Legion cables in his buttonhole during the trial, a direct link with one of the more vociferous groups dennnding the outlawing of the Conmunist Party at the time. Probably the main reason that it could be called a political trial, though, is the era in which it occurred. Following the death of Franklin Roosevelt the extremists whipped up public doubt that he had acted with his full faculties at the Yalta conference, but had been duped by the Cammmists and had "sold out" the United States. Amid the sniping of his critics, Roosevelt's unprepared successor could see no other path to maintain his leadership. The world was tense and the revolutions were nearing the pandemic stage when human formalated his hard line against the Soviet Union. His role in that period is just now being assessed by historians, relieved of the obligatory adulation accorded presidents . The goodness conferred by death is especially obnoxious , it scene to me, in the case of public men, our Prosidents, our governors, 100 101 cm: mayors. Although history has a way of catching up with these personages, most often years later, the ixmediate history, as unbocned in obituary comments, portrays them as great and good public servants. Harry S. human died in the odor of sanctity, yet he was one of the willing architects of a malefic foreign policy that brought death to thousands in Korea and that involved us in a fruitless cold war. A narrow man who privately considered Franklin D. Roosevelt a faker, he has nonetheless endured in the popular mind as Good Old Harry who sure did stand up to Uncle i2? and wouldn't take any sass from those slant-eyed gooks in Korea. Theissue athandwhenthe indictment was issuedwas certainlya presidential election. But the issue when the trial was staged was preparation for war. The two sides in the affray, the United States and Soviet Russia, were "cleaning house" of dissidents and maxing show trials in much the sue mmner as medieval amiss put enemies to death in repugnant manners to incite cmbat. The Comnists put the prelate of Hungary in the dock and the Americans began a series of trials of Uomunists that eventually reached across the country. The New York Times Index lists sixteen such trials. The 191.9 conspiracy trial was the needed test of the Smith Act and served the goverment as a prosecution vehicle in the other trials. Other measures taken in the United States included the loyalty program for federal employee , promulgated by President Trmnan and soon copied down the line into the smallest bm‘eaucracies. The hearings over the anti-Cannaist crusade gave avian rights to two fledgling menbers of Congress, Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. The crusade also vastly affected the cultural life in the United States, not only in the blacklisting of motion picture performers, directors and writers, but also in the calming down of the anti-Nazi protests against performances of Metropolitan Opera star Kirsten 155Alden tuition, "Truth in Death, " Newsweek Iisgazine, march 12, 1973, p. 13. 102 Plagstad and pianist 'uh’lheln Backhaus. Probably the most drastic effect it produced, however, was a system of military and industrial priorities which eventually would consume thousands of American lives and a major portion of their output in work, money and goods. But the trials of 19h9 were the beginning of all that followed. If the conspiracy trial was not a political trial, it was not because the defense attorneys were not trying to make it one. Their antics and the ridiculous ploys , such as challenging the New York jury systcn in an effort to get the indictment vacated. The "rich man's club" idea smacks of a paranoia that probably existed in any such anti-Establishment group such as the Commist Party or the United States of America. How else could they explain their lack of success in litigation and at the polls? ‘me attempt to compromise the jury was probably the most successful action by the Cmnists, it they engendered it. In almost any other trial the effort probably would have been effective in causing a mistrial, but the government had so much invested in time, effort and money that a mistrial would have damaged the anti-Commist movunent drastically. The judge simply couldn't afford to let that happen and he, denied the attenpt. .In doing so he set the trial up for charges of politically engendered unfairness. Although the outcome of the trial wasn't as sure as the Columnists thought it was, they acted as if the decision would go against than and thus showed utmost contempt for the proceedings. Even at their sentencing and afterward, they continued to show their contanpt. When Robert G. lhcmpeon was rewarded for his war record by having a year out from his sentence, he railed against the Judge for thus prejudicing him with his fellow Omanists. 103 After the final upholding of the sentences by the Supreme Court, Gus Hall and Gilbert Green failed to report for their imprisonment, thus showing contempt for the proceedings. Probably the most distressing finding in this stumr was the performance of the newspapers. The San Francisco Miner could have been expected to be in line with any anti-Omsk. lusteria, but for the other two nevupepers to raise no questions and to reflect the government view right through the heavy moves against dissidents until there was a real danger that an alternate form of government might be established in the United States was disappointing. A view fran 1956 spells out the dangers . . . Not only do Ehrepeans read far more extensively and study far more intensively the classic doctrines of Omnisn than do their opposite numbers in our country, but they are and always have been far closer to the actual practices of Columnist governments and large Commist parties than we have been. In fact, precisely what multiplies the armistice of Europeans when they contuplate present trends in our domestic and foreign policies is their own painfully vivid experience of the last few decades. They rancher that whenever a government of marked power began to make the thus of anti-Comsunisn more and more the central focus of all its policies, when repressive measures against the left began to pile up one after the other, when laws to restrict, to censor, and then to penalize with jail sentence began to multiply, when the activity and influence of secret police and military began to increase sharply, when the public institutions-“education, the arts, science, trade unions, bar associations, the churches, press, radio, screen and the likenbegan more and more to accept and act upon the idea that they must get rid of the radicals and purge theaselves of any taint of lefties, when the government began to construct large concentration centers where these thought politically dangerou could be held in an "mergency" (many Anerican citizens do not sent to realise that a program of such construction has been authorised by \the federal goverment), when things of this kind began to happen in increasing volume Ierpeans saw, time and time again, that the country in question became saddled with an outright fascist or nasi regime, whether the people of the country had intended such a result or not. This was the story of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. “You 101; must tolerate us," said such regimes to their peOples. "Nay, you mstwelcone us, becausews are goingtofreeyeufralthe mace. Harsh measures will of course be necessary, but are we not agreed that the sauce must be completely stamped out ?" Apparently, the peOple of those countries reached a point where they agreed,» at least where they were afraid to say that they did not agree. And they paid a price which neither they nor their immediate neiglmors are likely to forget for a long time. To speak candidly, it is highly improbable that when law Flu-opeans are moved to weigh the possible consequences of our present lines of policy they are thinking primarily of the sufferings which the American peeple might be bringing down on their own American heads. khattheyaretmmngofprinarilyiswar,andtheinpactofwar upon the-selves. Inthisregard, twefacts havebemverypainfullygravenon the tablets of thedr nuory: (1) Once an outright fascist regile has been fastened on a country it cannot be gotten rid of until it losesawer. (2) That sortofregine, farfronbeingafraidofwar, becomes a cult of war, placing more and more reliance upon, and taking more and more pride in, the development of military power, so that were are precipitated where they might otherwise have been eveidedéw6 John Smerville's 1956 warning in the quotation above about what happens under a fascist regime comes uncomfortably close to the foreign and domestic policies of the United States in the years since it was written. 'nie administrations in the United States have by no meam been fascist, but the pride in militaris- and the constant wars have been a fact. has newspapers have supported the achinistrations through most of the years until thelastfew. Inl9'13, as theyhave foreveryfewyears, they are showing sign of being the adversary press that they definitely were not in 19149. The 1919 reporters, particularly Russell Porter of the New 1 " ” w“ ”W" ”54‘ York Times were won over to the goverment's view when they should have a k \ .efvu-a‘rnn -e'm (we ‘M%‘- -v -I-reww‘I-JRW. UFMMWI “ Hie-x. ‘~“"fl‘ ll . stayed neutral and questioned motives. The perfomance of Porter, , v.1 elm-ennu-n ' “mm _, vii” m 156m Sousa-ville, The Connunist Trials and the American Tradition (New York: Cameron fleecing, I955), pp. 50-51. 105 which he became almost the voice of the prosecution, was most distressing. um...“ "We. “ For the New York Times “Mittfie "afoot bias of the three newsme was _.-—e-—~‘-'"'—"" '1 erase-.LH ..-. H“. .q-r RM um «HAM rm ~u MW. I an unpleesant surprise. me messes permitted to Porter by the editors were astounding. They probably would not be permitted by today's Times editors, but they illustrate a problem faced by editors of newspapers todw: whether to trust the reporter's view of touchy stories. Political Winquiries in -M. .....___ h-h‘flwt t-W - uployment fern; would probably be repugnant to nest newspapermen, but editors ' “W's...- caeronly trust rgporters to bring back unbiased reports when the oppoeite ‘Mm~-~~—L—‘JM—.__nh. ~...._- -m ~~fiql .—-.—. -_ F... .._ night be true. One remedy for the situation, albeit expensive, would be to "doublewtog" sensitive stories i.e. to send two reporters to cover the same story, thus affording the editors two views of the story. A viable coups-miss between doing nothing and assigning two reporters might be to assign different reporters to a story if it runs for months as the conspiracy trial did. This might prevent the "capture" of a reporter's nindasseanstohavehappmedinflzei‘ificoverage. hefactthatintwo recent years the Pulitiser Prise has been awarded to reporter team indicates that newspapers are realizing the value in more than one view on stories. The ideal would, of course, be to develop a group of newspaper reporters who were not political and not gullible, but adversaries of any personwhosets hinselfupasapower. For onlybybeinganadversery can reporters come up with the incisive questions that bring out the truth; only by being adversaria can they put in the plodding hours of grindingly dull labor necessary to produce the news break that opens the hidden facts to view. Under the provisions of the Smith Act, the eleven Commist leaders 106 were obviously guilty. The traditional Commrist literature promotes collectivism with the workers in power and recommends revolution as the way to obtain that system. Such a systun is the antithesis of deuncracy. But the Commists were not a powerful group. In the national elections from 192).; to 1910, the Communist candidates attracted the votes of 336,1428 to 102,785 citizens. The high number of votes occurred in 1932, with the neact highest total in l936--80,158--in the middle of the Great Depression. In all the other electiom the Comunist candidates attracted fewer than 50,000 votes.157 Anti-Commute prefer to answer that fact with the fact that at the time of the Russian revolution, only a small minority of Russians were members of the Commist party. The differences in the majority of the American and Russian citizens, not nerxtioned in the two statemnts above, is impressive. One of the factors in the conspiracy trial which was used to fornmlate the "clear and present danger" decision was that the Communists had infiltrated American industry. There have been various infiltrations since that trial. Central Intelligence Agents have infiltrated the National Student Association, Federal Bireau of Investigation agents have infiltrated practically every politically active minority since the 19505. There are unsubstantiated reports that Conservative groups, principally the John Birch Society and the Minutemen, have infiltrated the police forces of the cities of the United States. an. oil interests and big business might be said to have "infiltrated“ the United States government. But political trials in almost all these cases would probably be impossible to stage or would 157"Presidential Candidates frcm 1788 to 196)» " 2229'9535-01‘31 W31 Special Report, Decanber 15, 1961;, pp. 21-23. 107 probably, in these days of the early'l970s, go against the government. The reason.is that the nation.now has, for better or worse, an adversary'press. A.passive press which falls in line with government dictuns is worthless. This study revealed that the press of l9h9 was pa331ve and its "1“"! 't-l V.K- silence on issues was one of the direct causes of the excesses of the $503. BIBLIOGRAPHY NOB American Friends Service Comittee. mtg! of Anti-Commas. New York: H111 and mg, 19690 Arlc‘m, Herbert and Colton, Raymond R. ' Statistical Methods. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970 3111011, Hubbard W., ed. Guide to Micro-Production W. Annapolis, lid. : National Mic Assoc a on, . Bentley, Eric. Thirty: Years or Treason. New York: The Viking Press, 1971. Bemstein, Bart‘gn J., ed. The Trunan Administration. New York: Harper & ROW, 19 e Chase, Harold H. Securi and Libert The Problem of Native Commists lam-355. WWW” Bods-an, Charles D.3 Selby, Snuel 14.3 and Rust, Robert 0., eds. Hathmtical ”has 01".“: Oman Rubbor ”115111118 000’ 1963. me 1973 World Almanac and Book of Facts. New York: The World MC, 1972. McCullough, Celeste and Van Atta, Louche. Statistical Concgfig. New York: Nearest-Hill Book Compaq, 1963. Scmidt, Karl. Lem A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 1914s. Syracuse: Syracuse Duvet-city Prue, . Shakespeare, mm. The Dramatic Works or 1:11an Vol. 111. London: Thane W, n.CI. Shira,WillianL. meRiseaniFallortheThirdReich. CrestBooks. New York: Sinonm . Sonsrville, John. m Cmmnist Trials and the American Tradition. New York: Cameron ”seem, 1955. " " "' """'" ""' ' Spolanslq, Jacob. The Columnist Trial in Imerica. New York: The McMillan Conpamr, 1951. Starobin, Joseph Robert. American Communism in Crisis Qhklzgz. Cambridge: Harvard University ess, . 108 109 Sterner, John A. None Dare Call It Treason. Florissant, Missouri: Liberty Bell m88,—fime Taylor, F. Jay. The United States and the _§panish Civil We; £32122. New York: man Associates ,m. __ hecharis, Athan. Seeds of ression S. Truman and the Origins of W case: 0 , . Tagwell, Reactord Guy. How Thez Became President. New York: Simon and ‘ Slmster, 1961:. 0.3. Congress. Rouse. Casaittee on tin-American Activities. 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Jan. 17, 19h9-0ct. 15, 191:9. 8m Franco Ma's Jane 17’ 19h9‘mte 15, 19h90 111111111111111 lllll llllllllllllllll ll 3102369034