The Alaska daily empire., 1918-02-13
Full Text of the Report by the Commission Ap- pointed by the
 President.
RECOMMEND NEW TRIAL
Though Mooney Was an AgItator, Evidence That an Attemp Made to
 Railroad Him.

Mooney cases by the President s Mediation Commission to the Presi dent of the United States:
 Washington, D. C., Jan. 16. The President
 Agreeable to your instructions, your Mediation Commission, informally and without publicity, inquired into the circumstances attending the Mooney case, and herewith begs to report the result of it's investiga- ton.
 l. On July 9, 1916, while the San Francisco Preparedness Parade was in early progress, an explosion occurred on one of the citys side streets filled With paraders and the public. Without question: the eX- plosion was murder designed on a large scale and it's purpose was eff fectual. Six poole were killed out right and about forty were wounded, )f whom three or four subsequently lied. Indisputably most heinous crime had been committed. The Identification of it's perpetrators alone had to be established.
 Threatening Letters Received
 2. The community was deeply stirred. Aggressive activity was at once taken by the police department, and the press was filled with clues md theories for the solution of the .ragic mystery. No premonitory acts furnished a clue, except that a number of letters were mailed, prior 70 the parade, to prominent citizens md leaders in the movement for the parade, threatening destruction if the parade be undertaken. These letters undoubtedly had a common source. They all avowed pacfist purposes )f threats of violence against such manifestations of "militarism" as a preparedness parade was conceived to be by them. The public authori- ies, however, did not deem these 'etters significant and the identity )f their writers has never been es- ablished.
 g. The police and the district at 'orney turned for explanation to a different quarter Arrests were made If Thomas J Mooney and his wife, 2ena Mooney, Warren K. Billings, fsrael Weinberg, and Edward D. Nolan
 Antecedents of Persons Arrested
 4. The antecedents of these five persons, particularly of Thomas J. Mooney, have occasioned the war importance of the case. Mooney at he time of his arrest was a we'll inown labor radical on the Pacific Coast. He associated with anarch- sts. He was a believer in direct lction" in labor controversies. He lad once been indicted for attempt ed dynamiting of property of a San Francisco untiity, but after three trials was acquitted. In the spring of 1916 Mooney and his wife were 'eaders in a bitter and unsuccessful fight to organize the carmen of the United Railroads in San Francisco. Only shortly before the preparedness parade explosion it was sought to connect Mooney with the recent dy- namiting of the Pacific Gas & Flee tric Go In a word, there can be no doubt that Mooney was regarded as labor agitator of malevolence by the utilities of San Francisco, and that he was the special object of their opposition. Mrs. Mooney, a mu- " xktiIa Hir. cle of pupils, was sympathetic with his general social views. Billings, a youth touched by radical propaganda, was one of Mooney's friends. He, too, was a believer in direct action He had been previously convicted of carrying explosives on a passenger car Weinberg. whose son was a pupil of Mrs Mooney. was a jitney bus driver who had occasionally driv- en the Mooneys Nolan was radi- cal labor leader of some prominence and a friend of Moneys. Mooney is the center of the case; the other defendants have signifiance only be- cause of relation to him.
 Peculiar Elements in Case
 ,. The utilities against which Mooney directed his agitation, or who suspected him of mischievous activity, undoubtedly sought Ito get Mooney. Their activities against him were directed by Swanson, a private detective. It was Swanson who had engineered the inevstiga- tion which resulted in Moneys pros. ecution. It was Swanson who was active in attempts to duplicate Moon ey in the dynamiting of the electric towers in 1916, attempts which fail ed, it appears, because Billings and Weinberg refused offers of reward by Swanson to duplicate Mooney. Shortly after the preparedness pa rade explosion occurs. Immediately Swanson took a leading part, now acting for the district attorney and the police, in the investigation of the crime Within four days under