◆ SpookStack

The Henry Winston Family denry Winston and Gil Green returned, not to their homes, but to leng prison terms under the thought-control Smith Act. Meanwhile, family life may seem almost normal once again for Larry Fine, for Harriet and Kathy Jackson, and for Johnny and Bob Normén. But they know that these are still uncertain days. For their fathers, political refugees for five years, have returned home to become defendants in the current New York Smith Act trial, , * * * ‘ There are fresh and hopeful winds blowing across our land. Outstanding public figures—such as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, B. F. McLaurin, A. J. Muste, Lewis Mumford—speak out today for freedom of the Smith Act ; political prisoners and emphasize that they were jailed for their political ideas, not for a single illegal act. The Supreme Court has up- set state sedition law convictions; it has up- held the Fifth Amend- ment; it has sent the infamous McCarran Act ruling against the Communist Party back for re-consideration and criticized the government's use of perjured, tainted testimony; it has agreed to take a second look at Smith Act convictions in both “conspiracy” and “mem- bership" cqses, Emboldened by these new winds, trial juries hove had the cour- age to acquit a number of Smith Act defendants in Cleveland and Connecticut. Tha Gilbert Green Family There is much to give us all new hope and new confidence. But our children do not view the scales of politics with objective long-range eyes. To the six- and five-year old Perry boys this is still another summer high- lighted by continued trips to Danbury prison to see their father. To Ellen Thompson, as to Arvo and Barbara Hall, and to Fred and Carl Jerome, as to Susan Weinstock, the future continues, as in the past years, to center around trips to see their fathers in Atlanta, Leavenworth, Lewisburg, and Danbury prisons. Sixteon men and women are still in pris- on today serving Smith Act sentences. Five of these will be released in the Fall. But Henry Winston and Gil Green have just started eight year terms. Gus Hall and Robert Thompson have three and four years still to serve. Eliz- abeth Gurley Flyna, Pettis Parry, Alexander Bittelman, V. J. Jerome, Arnold Johnson, Louis Weinstock—each have another year in prison, Sid Stein finishes a three year sentence in a few months, but he and six others are currently on trial in New York. The Fred Fine Family Appeals Court decisions ore awaited by 71 men and women in Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Seattle, California, St. Louis, Connecticut, Denver, Hawaii. Eleven await trial in Puerta Rico, Seven new Smith Act arrests were just made in Massachusetts on May 2”. Sixteen are involved in “member- ship” indictments (four have been cenvictect} in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago, South Carolina, Connecticut, Detroit, Montana. kok * In the midst of this uneven situation are— the children. Their spe- cial summer and child core needs are as real today os last summer. Periodic, but brief, reunions in prison vis- iting rooms are still the highlight in the lives of Smith Act prisoner and family alike. These