The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-04-20
STATEMENT BY
TOM MOONEY

/ do not know why l was denied
the poor privilege Of making state
ment in the court room where | had
just listened to the sentence of death.
1t could hardly have been fear upon
the part of my accusers that | would,
in such an hour, say something that
would arouse them to a realization
of the crime they had committed
against me, and so incline their
hearts to a tardy justice. One
brought to the shadow of the gallows
for deed that he has not committed,
and of which, indeed, he has had no
knowledge other than common report,
could perhaps, from the outrageous
ness of his situation, find words 9TH
erwise denied him. But no man,
stand where he will, or face whatso-
ever horror, could find words to quick
en- the consciences of those who for
weeks have-almost nonchalantly-
engaged themselves with the weaving
of prejudice and perjury, of hate and
fear and even so hideous a thing as
the greed of blood money into a
hangman's moose and a shroud of
shame for one guiltless of other Of
tense than devotion in his own way
to what he conceives to be the rights
of his kind.
l do not know why life, as we
workers have to live it, is sweet,
but it is. | do not know why one
should wish to prolong this unceas-
ing battle, but l do. Because of this
feeling, which may be little more
than mans instinct to live, l
would have uttered one final protest
futile there, no doubt, but not with
out avail, l trust, in the ear of the
public, which, when permitted to
know the truth, is always committed
to justice.
l wanted to ask the gentlemen of
the jury if they had voted to take
my life because of the testimony of
Oman who writhed in the witness
chair and could not meet my eyes, or
if their verdict rested upon the evil
dence of the miserable creature call
ed Mcdonald, whose baseness was
proclaimed in every feature and atti-
tude, or if they believed both of
these pillars of the prosecution,
though each contradicted the other.
| wanted to inquire of the twelve
men who, virtually without delibera-
ton and certainly without heed to
the evidence in my behalf, have con-
victed me, whether they believed
those damning statements of the
Edeau woman, sworn to with glib
assurance at my own trial or the
equally glib but utterly incompatible
statements made by them at the trial
of Warren K. Billings.
l wanted to ask the prosecution
why, when it had used in the Billings
trial one set of witnesses to establish
a certain part of it's theory, it aban-
doned those witnesses in my own
case. Having deserted one set of
willing witnesses because of the ex-
posture of their characters and their
motives, will it desert another, SINH
larly exposed, when my innocent COM
,oo,oionc co,oa 10 t,,o10
| wanted to talk of my alibi and
that of my wife. | wanted to hurl
into the teeth of my condemners
that which they can not and will not
deny, but can only bluntly and with
out conscience disregard fact
that sixteen photographs and twenty
five witnesses have given indisputable
evidence that we were far distant
from the scene of the explosion at
the time that it occurred, yes, at the
exact time that the witnesses for the
prosecution, from motives which they
themselves best understand, swore
that we were assisting in the placing
of the instrument of destruction. No
such conclusive, impeccable alibi has
ever been produced and disregarded
in any case of note, and / wanted to
look into the eyes of the prosecutors
and those who by manufactured tes-
timony have brought about my con-
viction, and read there the evidence
that some faint spark of conscience
yet remained alive within them. The
shadow Of the gallows is black-black
even when one will carry to the
grave, if he must die, the conscious
ness of innocence and faith that his
death shall not be utterly in vain,
but that shadow will be immeasur-
ably deepened if l must go to the
end with the knowledge that the
struggle for existence has produced
men so monstrous as to be without
those humane emotions and natural