The Foster Trial

A brief summary of the main features of the Foster criminal syndicalism case follows: Last August the secret convention of the American Communist Party was raided by Federal officers in the sand dunes near Bridgeman, Michigan. Warrants were issued for 32 delegates, about two-thirds of whom were captured in the raid. The remainder surrendered voluntarily shortly before their comrades were to come to trial. William Z. Foster, leader of the Steel Strike of 1919, and next to Eugene Debs the most prominent radical in the country, was the first of the Communists to be brought to trial. The specific charge was violation of the Michigan state criminal syndicalism law. The prosecution contended that Foster was a member of an organization (the Trade Union Educational League, a subsidiary of the Communist Party) which advocated violence in overthrowing the Government of the United States. The star witness of the prosecution was "K-97," an agent provocateur in the employ of the Burns Detective Agency, who attended the convention as a delegate and turned informer on the defendants. The defense, conducted by Frank P. Walsh, former joint chairman with ex-President Taft of the War Labor Board, attempted to prove that the defendant's advocacy of revolution and his revolutionary connections did not necessarily imply violence, and that his activities came within the Bill of Rights described by the Constitution.

Last week the trial was stopped for nearly half a day because it was rumored that the Civil Liberties Union had tried to tamper with the jury in the interests of the defendant.

A motion to dismiss the trial, made by Mr. Walsh, on the ground of insufficient evidence, was denied.

A verdict by the jury is expected as we go to press.