Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘When the Constitution Failed’
In regard to “When the Constitution Failed” by Bruce Bennett [Arts&Letters, March 30-April 1, 2007], I would like to draw attention to a pertinent fact. Both the counsel for Sacco and Vanzetti, Fred Moore, and the muckraking journalist and author, Upton Sinclair, were thoroughly convinced that the accused were guilty of robbery and murder of Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter.
Sinclair found out from Moore that not only were Sacco and Vanzetti guilty, but that Moore fabricated evidence to try to get them acquitted. While Sinclair struggled with “the most difficult ethical problem,” in the end, he decided that he did not want be “a traitor to the movement” nor lose his reading audience but would rather continue his defense of Sacco and Vanzetti, which made “much better copy” anyway.
This was covered by the Los Angeles Times in a December 24, 2005, article by Jean O. Pasco. The Chronicle of Higher Education in its March and April 2006 issues came to the defense of Sinclair by arguing that Sinclair was justified in “not allow[ing] the literal facts … to interfere … [by being] faithful to the more important truths of [the] story.”
FELIX BRONSTEIN
Brooklyn, N.Y.
