Vol. VIII.
TORONTO, ONT., AUGUST 12, 1927
No, 42
Editorial
IT IS BETTER TO ERR ON THE SIDE OF MERCY
By RABBI FERDINAND M. ISSERMAN
As this editorial is being written the fate of Sacco and Vanzetti is ?till in the balance. Last-minute efforts of council to stay their execution may syll prove effective. . Though the impartial committee appointed by Governor Fuller arrived at a decision upholding the verdict, there are many who feel that there is some doubt about the guilt of these men. That doubt is shared by millions of men and women in the world, who do not share the anarchist or communist philosophy of the condemned men. If these men are executed, these millions will lose faith in the processes of law and their ability to secure justice. If after their execution, evidence proving the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti is uncovered, there is no penance that Massachusetts officials will be able to do whereby they may atone for their error.
I am opposed to capital punishment. A state has no more right to kill than an individual. Life is a gift of the mysterious Power behind the universe, and none dare take that gift away from anyone. The law of a life for a life should be abolished. It does not square with the religious philosophy of modern society.
But for a state to take human life when there is the slightest doubt about the culpability of that life is cruel, brutal and ungodly. A state can afford to err on the side of mercy. It cannot aftord to err on the side of cruelty. For Governor Fuller in this case, it would have been better to have erred on the side of mercy. So would the prophets of Israel have preferred to err. So would Governor Fuller's God, the Jewish carpenter of Nazareth, have preferred to err.
EDUCATORS AND THE PEACE OF THE WORLD
The conference of the World Federation of Education Associations, which concludes its sessions in Toronto to-day, brought educators of more than thirty nations together to discuss their common problem of laying the foundations for an improved society in the future. The addresses given by representatives at the opening sessions struck the same note, the note of goodwill, comradeship and the need to strive for international peace. One would have imagined that one was at a peace congress rather than at a conference of teachers, *'hi!e attending the sessions. That is most significant and hopeful. It indicates that these teachers realize that their chief task is less the mere dissemination of information and more the promotion of the welfare of mankind. If universal peace is to come.it will be fashioned more by the schools, by the teachers who mould the young, than by diplomats and their chicanery. Where Genevas fail, the teacher can succeed. If only all teachers would realize this opportunity of holding the ideal of peace before their pupils, the prophetic millennium would seem more attainable. If this conference of edu-cs'ivx does nothing else but drive home to these representatives �' nuny nations that in all the countries of the work! there are mf- and women who are striving to establish world peace and who
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
DEATH BY TECHNICALITIES
The topic uppermost in the minds of many people throughout the world is the fate of Sacco and Vanzetti, the two Italians sentenced to death in Massachusetts state.
Governor Fuller's finding that the trial of the two convicted men had been fair, and his consequent decision not to afford them an opportunity for a second trial, have failed to convince the public that justice has prevailed in this case,
It is true that the Governor is supported in his decision by the recommendation of the special commission which assisted him in renewing the evidence. The commission was composed of three men of unexceptionable character and standing.
Nevertheless there is the feeling that the Governor and his commission allowed themselves to be unduly influenced by technicalities and legal red-tape. It may be that, when read in print, the evidence adduced at the trial will appear to be reasonable and well within the bounds of evidenciary propriety. But the printed protocols cannot reproduce the atmosphere which prevailed in the courtroom at the time of the trial and which was conceivably a factor in the verdict. The records may not in themselves bring out the important fact that the mental state of the judge and jury was such as to render them incapable of judging the case impartially. But extraneous evidence can be adduced to establish such a contention. Legal-istically extraneous proof may not be admissible. But when the lives of human beings are at stake, an executive official acting in an informal capacity might be expected to subordinate legalism to humanism.
Millions of people throughout the world are firmly convinced that Sacco and Vanzetti are innocent of the crime of murder of which they had been convicted. They are convinced that these men were railroaded into the death-chamber because they dared to hold views on economics and politics designated as radical.
This opinion is shared by men who had followed the case very carefully and are conversant with all the evidence brought out at the trial. Some of these men are persons of the highest standing in the academic and public life of America. Felix Frankfurter, John Dewy, Morris Cohen and Prof. Hocking are names that command the profoundest respect in the intellectual circles in America. Their espousal of the cause of the ill-fated Italians is satisfying proof that there is merit in the claims of the defence.
The conviction that the Sacco-Vanzetti verdict was a case of gross miscarriage of justice will not down. It is not an uncommon thing to order retrials on the grounds of small technicalities. The judicial authorities in Massachusetts might have found some technical grounds for granting Sacco and Vanzetti another trial. If the latter were really gjilty, then the state could have visited the deserved reprisal upon them, and their clamorous supporters could have been satisfied that justice was being meted out. If, on the other hand, they could establish innocence, then the state would save itself the odium of judicial assassination.
As it is, the notion prevails and will continue to prevail for a long time to come, that Sacco and Vanzetti are twentieth-century martyrs
CONTrNTJED ON PAGE 19