Page:Max Eastman's Address to the Jury in the Second Masses Trial (1918).pdf/13

 our opinion that there is in Russia the beginning of the Socialist state—that there is not anarchy in Russia, that there is no pro-German intrigue on the part of any of the people who are in power in Russia—that there is no wanton or indiscriminate reign of terror in Russia—that an offer of co-operation with the United States Government in the war against Germany was formally made by Lenine and Trotsky through Raymond Robbins, the head of the Red Cross and the virtual representative of President Wilson in Russia, and that John Reed saw that offer in writing in three languages and read it while it was held in Raymond Robbins's hand. It is our opinion that there is the beginning in Russia of a co-operative system of production, in which human brotherhood and not a reign of terror will be the prevailing mood and the prevailing fact. I have said this, because I think that the District Attorney has accomplished a very pretty trick in this trial, and I admire his skill in accomplishing it, but I don't intend to let him get away with it at all. He has succeeded in introducing into the evidence our sympathy with what we believe to be the state of things in Russia, but he has succeeded in keeping out of the evidence our opinion about what the State of things in Russia is. And his intention is by playing upon our confession of sympathy with that state of things, and then using his opinion, or perhaps your opinion, of what that state of things is, to influence your minds against us—to make you think that we believe in pro-German intrigue and a general reign of terror. Therefore, I want to say this—that if there is pro-German intrigue on the part of the people who are in power in Russia, then we are not in sympathy with those people. If there is an indiscriminate reign of terror in Russia, then we are not in sympathy with the conditions which prevail in Russia. If there is a movement to