The Four Hundred

For a week and a day now eleven Communist leaders have been on trial in New York City. The issues involved are briefly these:

1) Did the defendants violate the Smith Law?

2) Is that Law constitutional?

3) Is the law, even if constitutional, a good law?

The first two are legal matters, inaccessible to lay opinion. They are in the process of being answered by the trial. The last issue will not be available for competent debate until both the government and the defense make their cases.

One thing, however, is certain: the final decision on these questions will shape the future character of political freedom in America. It must be reached in an atmosphere of honest and intelligent inquiry.

The Communist party, admittedly, is not going to extend itself to create this atmosphere. It ought to have been surprising to nobody when the Daily Worker called for a pilgrimage of "The Devoted?" to the Federal Courthouse in Foley Square. This particular pilgrimage consisted of somewhere under 500 of the pamphlet passing placard carrying species of Communist. All this comes under the heading of one of the fundamental maxims of the American CP, to wit: "the best way to get a fair trial is to insult the judge."

The New York police department responded with the assignment of a detail of 400 policemen and appropriate attendant publicity. Now it is one thing for the Communist Party to attempt to make a Keystone Comedy out of the trial; it is another matter entirely for the City of New York to help them. In the first place the presence of that many police says, in effect, that the defendant's followers are ready to use violence against the federal judiciary. But that is the charge upon which the eleven are being tried. Conceivably, the sight of all that blue serge could influence the jury.

Even so, the detail--The New York Times said it was the largest ever assigned to a court case in police history--would be justified if there were no other way to insure the peace. But it takes time for a crowd to develop into a riotous mob. Enough time for a modern police force to reinforce a moderate guard. In fact, an excess of police could do just as much to trigger trouble as to prevent it.

Finally, what if the Government proves its case and the defendants are convicted? Why give them a boost towards undeserved martyrdom? The Communists are all too ready to shout "Cossack" as it is. There is no need for the New York Police Department to be their straight man.