Denver labor bulletin., 1917-01-20


As for Mooney, photographs obtained
by the prosecution and now in posses
sion of the defense, show that he was
on the roof of the building in which
his wife's Photographic studio was sit
uated, nearly a mile from the scene of
the explosion, at the time the bomb
went off. The front of the building hau
been completely hidden behind a huge
American flag, and Mooney and his wife
had gone to the roof with other occu-
pants of the building to view the parade.
Edward Nolan had returned from the
national convention of the international
Association of Machinists at Baltimore
Just four days before the explosion
Mooney kept his bicycle in the cellar oil
Nolan's house, and this circumstance led
to his arrest. Nolan has the reputa-
tion of being a particularly intelligent
and active trade unionist, and had been
leader in important strikes against
anti union employers in the metal trades
of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
As for Weinberg his chief offense,
aside from being an officer in the union
of those jitney bus drivers who have
so materially cut down the revenues of
the United Railroads, was that he had
permitted Mooney to use his jitney bus
during Moneys recent attempt to or
ganize the car men employed by the
street railway corporation. This en-
deavor by Mooney had the sanction of
the international officers OF the Amalga-
mated Association of Street Railway
Employees, and altho unsuccessful, it
had caused the United Railroads consid-
erable annoyance and expense.
Frame-Up By Detectives.
Not only has District Attorney Flick
, ert always been notoriously in political
partisanship with the corporations which
had long been determined to get"
Mooney and the others. but the detec-
tive in charge of working up the cases
against the four union men was actually
taken out of the employ of the same
interests in order to gather testimony
which should send them to the gallows.
Within week preceding the bomb out
rage, Martin Swanson had approached
Weinberg and Billings, according to their
testimony, and offered them jobs and
money if they could aid in convicting
Mooney of having taken part in a prev
ious alleged dynamite outrage. This
same Swanson, then in the employ of
the Pacific Gas and Electric company
and formerly a Pinkerton, became an
employe of the district attorneys office
on the night of the bomb outrage and
took charge of gathering evidence
Al the very time of the bomb explo-
, sion, Billings and Nolan were active in
the conduct of strike against non
union machine shops where automobiles
were repaired. and all five of the de-
PENDANTS knew perfectly well that pr-
vate detectives were watching them in
connection with these strike activities
Not shred OF evidence was produced
at the Billings trial, or is claimed by
the prosecution, showing how and where
the plot was Matched, or of the details
leading up to the explosion. Nor is it
possible to believe that men of the in
telligence of those defendants would
have attempted such a crime while IN.
der close surveillance by detectives in
the employ of powerful and hostile cor
porations.
Nor did the prosecution attempt to
prove that any of the large number of
warning letters sent out by the perpc.
traitors of the bomb outrage was writ
ten by any of the defendants. The fact
that they could not have written these
letters, was, however, conclusively dem
onstrated by the defense.
Every act and utterance of the dis
trict attorney today is that of a man
who is being baffled and desperate over
the carrying out Of his determination
and to prove the guilt of the men
against whom his animosity and that Of
his real hackers is directed.
How Billings Was Convicted.
A jury composed largely of profess
sional jurymen who receive large part
of their income in jury fees has already
convicted of first degree murder Warren
X. Billings, past president of the Shoe
Workers Union. Altho the prosecution
contcnded that Billings had himself
placed the bomb, the prosecuting attol-
ney in closing his case spoke leniently Of
the defendant, urged verdict recon-
mending life imprisonment instead of
death. and explained that Billings was
a young man who had got on the wrong
path and who should be given an oppor-
tunity to "do the right thing" In so
many words he asked for a verdict of
guilty in order that Billings, facing a
life sentence, might be forced or per
suaded to turn on his 20 defendants and
swear their lives away.
Within the past three weeks District
Attorney Fickert indicated even greater
desperation when he asserted in news
paper interviews that Israel Weinberg,
active in the Jitney Bus Drivers Union,
and a co-defendant, hal wished to Sc,
him and talk freely and had Leen pre-
vented by Maxwell McNutt, attorney for
the prisoners. This assertion wa.
promptly denied by Weinberg and by
Sheriff Thomas Finn and his deputies,
who were with Weinberg when agents
of the district attorney came to him
and attempted to take him from the
jail to the prosecutors office, and who