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James K. Trimble of Philadelphia telegraphed: ". . . We are members of the New York Stock Exchange and deal in long investments. . . . For God's sake do not canonize two saints for future generations of Reds."
Professor Ellen Hays, 67, head of the English Department at Wellesley College, said: "I feel I must voice a protest." She joined picketers at the State House, was arrested.
Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote a poem beginning, "Let us abandon then our garden and go home." She also picketed, was jailed.
Boston Common, for the first time in history, was closed to public orators. Order there and elsewhere was maintained by the full Boston police force on 24-hour duty. Riot squads were equipped with automatic rifles, hand grenades, tear bombs. Exciting looking characters were immediately boxed in by police and marched off "to protect them from mob violence."
Relatives: Machine guns, search lights and fire-hoses were added to the defenses at Charlestown Prison, which none might "approach closer than 1,000 feet. Relatives of the prisoners, however, were admitted to the death house. To reach the death cells they had to pass the electric chair. Prisoner Vanzetti was allowed to leave his cell and embrace his sister, Luigia whom he had not seen for 19 years. Prisoner Sacco saw his wife and 14-year-old son, Dante, to whom he later wrote a farewell letter telling him to comfort his mother, fight the rich, help the weak.
Union Square. In a typical U. S. square (Union Square, Manhattan), 10,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder before a bulletin of the Daily Worker. Toward midnight they read :
SACCO & VANZETTI CALMLY AND HEROICALLY AWAIT END
WITNESSES OF EXECUTION BEGIN TO ARRIVE
THEY ENTER THE DEATH CHAMBER
ONLY WORKERS' COURTS CAN GIVE JUSTICE TO WORKERS (Perfunctory cheers)
STRENGTHEN YOUR UNIONS TO PROTECT OUR FUTURE CHAMPION (Louder cheers)
MORE NEWS TO FOLLOW
A newsboy: "Betcha I know what they'll show next — Vanzetti or one of them strapped down."
The bulletin: SACCO MURDERED! (Loud but orderly cries of indignation, booes, catcalls. But no fiercer than the noise that a 10,000 base ball-crowd makes when a favorite disappoints. Flares and the Internationale, which soon died.)
The bulletin: DON'T FORGET OUR MARTYRED COMRADES. KEEP ON FIGHTING. (Moderate cheers)
JOIN THE WORKERS PARTY AND FIGHT ON
WOLL-GREEN AND THE SOC PARTY BETRAYED THEM (Angry groans and catcalls) VANZETTI MURDERED! (Cries, as above)
Voices in the crowd: "Take your hats off! Hats off, there! (The 25% of curiosity-seekers kept them on — Some of them old, dilapidated ones, specially worn for the occasion. But there was no violence.)
The crowd dispersed.