The Devil in the Book

By Dalton Trumbo

This is Trumbo's essay protesting the conviction of 14 California socialists and union activists under the Smith Act, which charged them with advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839745447

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

The Devil in the Book

BY

DALTON TRUMBO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

The Devil in the Book 5

THE SMITH ACT 5

THE DEFENDANTS 6

THE JUDGE 9

THE JURY 10

THE BOOKS 11

THE WITNESSES 15

THE VERDICT 17

THE SENTENCE 20

THE APPEAL 21

THE SUPREME COURT 22

THE SUPREME COURT 29

CERTIORARI 32

THE PEOPLE MUST REVIEW 35

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 39

The Devil in the Book

THE SMITH ACT

THE ALIEN REGISTRATION ACT of 1940, as passed by the Congress in that year, aroused only nominal opposition. War against the Axis powers was imminent and the new law was generally accepted as a regrettable but necessary device for curbing the activities of enemy aliens and fascist spies during the perilous years to come. As administered, however, the law had a somewhat different effect. Zechariah Chafee, Jr., of the Harvard Law School later wrote of it: Hundreds of Communist workmen have been rounded up by immigration officials and deported. So far as I can ascertain, not one Nazi and not one Fascist has been arrested and shipped overseas.

Attached to the 1940 registration law was an obscure amendment called the Smith Amendment—later to become known as the Smith Act—which enacted into legal statute provisions for regulating, suppressing, and punishing any speech which was deemed a conspiracy to teach or advocate the overthrow of the government by force and violence. Its author was Howard W. Smith, whose intellect and devotion to constitutional principles may be judged by his recent presentation before the House of Representatives of the Southern Manifesto against desegregation.

Like the Alien Registration Law of which it was a part, the Smith Amendment was never really intended for use against fascists even in time of war. It was aimed not against the right but against the left and has consistently been so used. Just as legislation against fascists is almost always used against Communists, the prosecution of Communists inevitably imposes sanctions upon the activities and speech of millions of persons who, inimical though they may be to Communism, nonetheless struggle in specific areas for social objectives which both liberals and Communists desire.

The Smith Act has thus become the hallmark of a decade of repression and restriction not only of Communists but of the entire national community. The means by which Communists are imprisoned therefore becomes the concern of the whole people, since it is their liberty which is diminished by each conviction under the act.

For the purposes of these notes, the conviction of the fourteen California Smith Act defendants has been taken as a typical case. The quality of the defendants in all trials is approximately the same; the theory of the prosecution is the same; and above all else those dozens and dozens of books stacked on the table of the U.S. District Attorney—books which the government asserts to be the habitation of all manner of heretical devils—are invariably the same books.

In addition to its typicality, a further reason for selecting the California Smith Act trial lies in its untypicality: it is the first such case since the original Dennis decision which the United States Supreme Court has deemed to involve such substantial questions of law as to be worthy of the Court’s review.

THE DEFENDANTS

There are fourteen convicted defendants in the California case. All of them are or have in the past been public officials of the Communist Party, in which capacity they have openly and vigorously professed their political views through every medium of communication open to them. They are not private and secret persons: they are public and voluble.

They are persons in the lower economic brackets, earning an average income of perhaps fifty dollars per week. Whatever crimes they are alleged to have committed were not done for