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EZRA POUND 237
quent broadcast to the United States and elsewhere from a radio
station in Rome, Italy."
Count 16 names the amount received as seven hundred lire; Count
18, three hundred and fifty lire. Pound stated in an interview on
April 30, 1958, "I got three hundred lira for writing and three
hundred and fifty lira when I registered them. When I left Italy I
had twenty dollars in occupation currency. The [broadcast] money
barely covered my necessary expenses."
Pound had accepted no payment for the broadcasts until 1942,
when his modest funds from England and the United States were
cut off. He then accepted payment that would cover the expense
of his train fare to Rome and his return to Rapallo.
The indictment concludes:
"The defendant Ezra Pound, committed each and every one of
the overt acts herein described for the purpose of, and with the
intent to adhere to and give aid and comfort to the Kingdom of Italy
and its military allies, enemies of the United States, and the said
defendant, Ezra Pound, committed each and every one of the said
overt acts contrary to his duty of allegiance to the United States and
in the form of the statutes and constitution in such cases made and
provided and against the peace and dignity of the United States
(Sec. 1 U.S. Criminal Code)."
The indictment was signed by Albert V. Llufrio, Foreman of
the Grand Jury, and Theron L. Caudle, Assistant Attorney
General. Caudle was later to win fame as "Mink Coat Caudle" in
one of the most astounding scandals of the Truman regime, a
scandal which played a considerable role in sweeping the Democrats
out of office in 1952.
Since the case was never brought to trial, the indictment is
now of historic interest, but one can only wonder how the government
officials could have prosecuted it successfully. In one comment
upon the indictment, Westbrook Pegler wrote that an attempt
"to create racial prejudice in the United States," as cited in Count 2,
violated no statute of the United States. It would, indeed, be
almost impossible to prove that the broadcast had created racial