Page:Max Eastman's Address to the Jury in the Second Masses Trial (1918).pdf/3



October 4, 1918.

OUR Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury: I am going to confine my argument principally to the question of intent. I think that if I can prove to you that we had in the publication of the e article no intention to promote mutiny or disloyalty or refusal of duty in the army, or to obstruct recruiting or enlistment, I shall have proven that we are not guilty of any of the crimes charged in any of the counts in the indictment. The District Attorney has offered no evidence whatever and made no attempt to prove that we actually succeeded in obstructing recruiting or enlistment. He has only endeavored to show that we were wilful to do it. He has not charged us with succeeding in stirring up a mutiny or in promoting disloyalty. He has only charged us with attempting to do it. And in addition he has charged us with a conspiracy.

Thus in three of the counts of the indictment there occurs the word "attempt." In three of the counts there occurs the word "wilful." And in one of the count there occur the word "conspiring." Each of these words implies an intention. We could not attempt to do something without intending to do it we could not wilfully do it without intending to do it, and we could not conspire to do it without intending to do it. Therefore, I think that the legal question in this case is exactly the same question that any common sense man would ask about the case: Did we intend to ob-