" Unthinkable"

Her ancestors really did come over in the Mayflower; Her uncle (the late Stephen J. Field) was an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court (1863-97). She had devoted most of her life to welfare work and during some 52 years had failed to exhibit anything in the nature of criminal tendencies. Yet last week it required a pardon from Governor C. C. Young of California to save Charlotte Anita Whitney from an indeterminate sentence of from 1 to 14 years in the San Quentin prison.

For, in 1919, Miss Whitney was arrested in Oakland after having defied civic authorities in making a speech in behalf of one John McHugh, I. W. W. member. At her trial, Miss Whitney admitted having joined the Communist party. True, she had never been accused of hurling bombs, preaching revolutions or even damaging machinery (sabotage), but California had, still has, a criminal syndicalism act by which membership alone in certain proscribed organizations is in itself considered worthy of a jail sentence.

After her conviction, Miss Whitney refused to petition for a pardon maintaining that such an act would be an admission of a guilt which she did not feel. Friends, however, carried her case to the U. S. Supreme Court which last May (TIME, May 23) upheld the constitutionality of the Syndicalism Act. Miss Whitney, now 60 years old, prepared to serve her sentence, said that in comparison with Sacco & Vanzetti, she had little cause for complaint.

Last week, however, Governor Young issued her an unconditional pardon, said that to put her in a cell was "unthinkable." Governor Young carefully added that the law under which she was convicted was undoubtedly constitutional, but that "abnormal conditions attending the trial" greatly influenced the jury and that "under ordinary circumstances" the case never would have been prosecuted. These latter remarks presumably referred to the fact that in 1919-20 the U. S. nation engaged in a widespread Radical-hunt, and "Bolsheviki" became a common epithet for one small boy to hurl at another.

Meanwhile the Whitney pardon encouraged the friends of many another person convicted under the California syndicalism law. In 1925, there were 72 such serving sentences in California jails.