Sacco andVanzetti
InIIJ1 7 J.communist re volu tio nhad taken place
in Russia. SomeA me ricansfeared that revolution-
aries, or " reds:'were plottingJ.sim ilarlake- over
in the United Slates .A" red scare"began. Peopl e
who crit icizedthe way A m er ican so ciety was
o rga nizedrisk edbeingaccused of disloyalt y.This
risk wasespeci ally grea t foranyo ne who su p-
po rtedsocialist i deas.Suchideas were thought t o
be fo r eignand " un-Arnerican."Peop lew hoheld
th em werefearedand persecuted , especiallyifthey
were foreign-bo rn.
011 April 15, 1920 ,twopeople wereshotdead
ina $15,000ro bber ynearBo ston. Witnessessaid
that twoo f the robbers looked "very Italian."
Three weeks latertwo Italianimmigrant s named
Nico la Saccoand Bartol om eo Vanzet ti were
arrested.
Bo thhadalibisfortheti m eo f the murder. But
Saccoo wn edagunthat couldhaw been use d inYet there were lotsofpoorAmericans.A surn'yin
1929 showedthathalfth e A meri ca n peoplehad
hard ly eno ughmoneytobuysufficientfood and
clothi ng .In theindustrial citiesofth eNort h,suchas
C hicago and Pin sburgb,immigr ant worke rsstill
lab o red longhoursforlo ww agesIIIsteelnulls.
factories and slaug h terho uses. In the So uth
thousand sofpo or farme rs. bothblackand white,
work ed(ro msunrise to sunse ttoearnbarely eno ugh
tolive0 11.The wealththat Repu blicans saidwould
benefit everybod y neve rreachedpeople like these.
T he main reasonfo rpo vertyamong ind us trial
workers waslo ww ages.Farmers andfarmworkers
hada hard time for di fferent reaso ns.In theSouth
lIlallY farm,..rs didnotownthelandthey farme d.
T hey w ere sharecrop pers. Fo r rent, a sharecro pper
gan'rhc landowncrpartofwhathe g rl'w-o ftenso
muchthat hew asleft withhardlyenoughtofee d his
family.
In theWcstm o st farme rso w nedth eirland .Bu t they,
too ,faced hardtim es.Durin gtheFirs t World War
the y hadbeenable to sell t heir w heattoEuropefo r
highp rices .By 1921. ho we ver .the count riesof
Eu ro pe no lo nger neededso much Am erican food.
22 TucR OI\ Il I NGTW'EsTlI.sth e killin gs. Bot h men were dar k-sk in nedand
lo ok ed Italian. And both were fo reigner swho
held left -w ingpolitical ideas.Thejudge attheir
trial dislikedall thesething s. Heto ldfrien ds that
he was going to get "thoseanarchistbastards,"
andeventua lly sentencedboth Sacco andVan zerti
to death.
Man ybelievedth atSaccoand Vanzett i had been
condemnedfortheirorigins andpoliti cal beliefs,
not because of the evidenceagainstth em .Forsix
yearspeopl ebothin theUnitedStatesand abro ad
fo ugh t for their release. On Aug ust 22, 1927,
howe ver , both men wereexecuted.
Saccoandvanzctt ip rotes tedto the end thatthey
were innocent .Tothis day neit her th e guilt nor
the in no cence ofSacco and Van zetti hasbeen
filially pro ved , Butthei rcase is remem bered asan
exam pleo f ho wracial andpoliticalprej ud ice may
cause just icetosuffer ,And far m erswerefind ingitmoredifficult to sell
theirp rod uceathome.Immig ration had fallen. so
th e nu m ber o fpeopleneedin g food wasgrowing
m o reslowly.All thenewcarsdidn't helpeither.
C ars ranallgasoline.noto n corn andhaylike hor ses.
A mer ic an farmers fou nd themselvesgrowlllg
products they couldnotsell. By 192 -1,aro und
600 ,000 of t hemw ere bankrupt.
Burto Amer icansw hoownedshares or "s tock,"III
indus tria l com paniesthefuture loo ked bright. Sales
ofconsumergoo dswent onrising.T his mean t
bigger pro fits fo r thefirm s that made them .T h i s i n
turnsentupthevalueo f s haresinsuch firms.In 1928theAm eri canpeo ple elect eda newPresident.
H er bert Hoo ver.H ooverwassurethatAmerican
p ro speri ty would goongrowingand that the
po vert y in whichsomeAm er icans stilllivedwoul d
be rem em bered assomethingin the past. HI.'saidthat
th ere wo uldsoonbe"achickenin everypot andt wo
cars 111 everygarage."
Looking at the waytheirstand ardoflivinghad risen
durin gthe 1920s.manyotherAm ericansthoughtthe
same.
93