Robert Coover - Public Burning

JAMES

But, Julius, I am giving you the opportunity to cooperate!

JULIUS

Sure! Judge Kaufman made a terrible blunder with the outrageous sentence and he has the bull by the tail and he can’t let go!

JAMES

( as the CHORUS enters behind him )

That’s right, Julius! He needs you to help him change this sentence and you can do this by telling all you know!

CHORUS

Judge Irving Kaufman has served with dignity and propriety!

Judge Irving Kaufman is a Jew by birth, by affiliation, and by religious beliefs and practices!

Yet, in this amazing society of ours, a judge of the Jewish faith sentences two spies of Jewish origin for treason!

Americanism triumphed!

Not even the most vindictive anti-Semite can ignore the heartbreak of the judge in this case!

Yet he has, in his own words, been “hounded and pounded!”

Never before has a judge in an American court been subjected to such organized mass pressure!

Even the life of that wise and courageous jurist has been threatened!

Judge Kaufman’s life and the lives of his wife and children!

He received so large a volume of vituperative mail that he had to stop reading it!

He was called on the telephone day and night until he stopped answering calls even from personal friends!

And from the left he has been subjected constantly to the bitterest abuse and vilification!

All of whom seemed to view Judge Irving Kaufman as an ogre—

JULIUS

( interrupting the CHORUS with vehemence )

I cannot bail him out of his mistake, for we never should have been brought to trial!

JULIUS

JAMES( Duet: ) This pressure on us is cruel and unconscionable!

The only decent thing to do is to tell Mr. Brownell to recommend clemency— The only way is for you to cooperate and convince the officials in Washington!

Then, they will have a basis to ask for clemency—

( They are abruptly interrupted by the prison bells signaling twelve noon . JAMES departs abruptly. The TURNKEY enters and leads JULIUS out .)

CHORUS

Instead of trying to save their lives by making a clean breast of their crimes, the Rosenbergs prefer to make a plea for their lives by asking for tolerance!

Why is it that we, who are loyal Americans,

are always being asked to prove that we are tolerant?

Why all this agitation over the Rosenberg case?

Too many violent demonstrations against American justice are being tolerated!

The time for suppressing this vicious attitude is long overdue!

National self-protection demands that other saboteurs should not gain the impression

that spying is relatively safe or that Communist intimidation can gain them immunity!

Any nation has the inalienable right to protect itself and its people from its forcible overthrow!

Those who join conspiracies must expect to die by them!

There will be no compromise with treason!

SCENE 2

Twelve noon, the same day, same scene as before, though a sign explains that it is now part of the women’s wing . ETHEL is wandering around with a tin plate of food in her hand, calmly studying the blown-up diagram of the electric chair, as JAMES enters and announces himself. The TURNKEY, who has ushered him in, and a MATRON present with ETHEL slip away, stationing themselves discreetly at the outer barred gate to the corridor . JAMES repeats the theme of the Overture:

JAMES

Let me come right to the point, Mrs. Rosenberg!

Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., has directed me to inform you that he could make available to you any official to whom you might care to divulge any espionage information you have hitherto withheld!

If you cooperate in this fashion, the Government stands ready to invalidate the death penalty!

I’ve been visiting with Julie for an hour, and now I am anxious to have your viewpoint!

ETHEL( Aria, short and sweet: ) I am innocent, my husband is innocent, and neither of us knows anything about espionage!

And if the Attorney General were to send a highly placed authority to see me, I should simply reiterate what I have just stated and urge that clemency be recommended to remedy a shocking situation!

JAMES

( gently, coaxingly )

Let me urge you to cooperate!

It is the only way you can help yourself!

Surely you must know something!

ETHEL

Well, now, how could I when I did not participate in any way? In order to cooperate as you desire, I should have to deliberately concoct a pack of lies and bear false witness against unoffending individuals!

ETHEL

JAMES

( evenly )

( properly horrified ) ( Duet: ) Is that what the authorities want me to do — to lie?

Is that what the authorities, etc. Oh, dear, no!

Of course we don’t want you to lie!

Oh, dear, no, etc .

CHORUS

( intruding angrily upon the scene)

This is the story of two kinds of justice — Russian and American!

In Russia, in any Iron Curtain land, these defendants would have been shot long ago!

In Soviet Russia the Rosenbergs would have been put to death as soon as their crime was discovered!

And as soon as they had been forced by subtle torture to name all their accomplices!

To illustrate the Russian justice, let’s look at what happened to Willi Goettling of Berlin!

When will Willi Goettling be tried?

And may he appeal if found guilty?

And ask for a rehearing or a stay of execution?

Don’t be silly!

They sent Willi

before a firing squad and shot him!

That’s Soviet justice in action!

Were the Rosenbergs taken out and shot, as they would have been in Russia?

You know that they weren’t!

And yet there isn’t a shadow of a doubt as to the guilt of the Rosenbergs!

Justice may be hard but in the nearly three years since they were indicted the Rosenbergs received far more of it than totalitarianism affords!

Doesn’t this make one wonder how an American citizen, possessing all the rights and privileges we hold dear, can embrace this doctrine of Communism?

( ETHEL, disdainful of the CHORUS, has been casually eating her meal from the tin plate. Now, with magisterial aplomb, she presents the plate to the MATRON, then steps downstage and in a clear ringing voice repeats her aria coloratura as though giving an encore .)

JAMES

( interrupting the aria )

Ethel, the Government claims to have in its possession documents and statements that would dispute that; so if only you were willing to cooperate, there might be a basis for a commutation!

ETHEL

( entirely unimpressed )

If what they have is so damaging, why do they need me to confirm it, at this late stage? I will tell you this very bluntly:

( Aria aspro: ) The most powerful Government on earth has sent its representative to approach us with a disgraceful proposition, because it is fully aware that the convictions were illegally procured, the sentences vindictive!

And rather than risk exposing their participation in a rotten frame-up, and with a double execution they are anxious not to carry out only days away, they have the effrontery to try to forcibly wring from us a false confession, by dangling our lives before us like bait before hapless fish!