Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-01-26
PRESIDENT WILL fight TO
SAVE CONVICTED BOMB
MURDERER MOONEY'S LIFE

! ments of criminal justice were con
sciously or unconsciously made use o.
Iagainst labor by its enemies in an indus
trial conflict -
A just disposition of the Mooney case
the commission believes, is vital because
it g affects influences far beyond the
confines of California and California
can be counted on to see the wider i'm
plications of the case.
"War is fought with moral, as well as
material resources" said the report
"We are in this war to vindicate the
moral claims of unstained processes of
law. These claims must be tempered by
| the fire of our own devotion to them
at home.o
Apparently expecting the California
supreme court confined as it is by jur-
isdictional limitations, to sustain the
conviction of Mooney, the commission
urges the president to prepare to seek
cooperation of the California govern
ment and its prosecuting officers that
new trial of Mooney may be "put to
the test of unquestionable justice.
This result can be accomplished, the
commission advises, by postponing
Mooney S sentence of execution to await
the outcome of new trial based upon
prosecution under one of the tried in
dictments against him.
This is the course President Wilson
will pursue.
Commissions Report.
The report of the mediation commits
sion was submitted to the president to-
day. 1t follows:
"To the president:
"Agreeable to your instructions, your
mediation commission, informally and
without publicity, inquired into the cir
cumstances attending the Mooney case
and herewith begs to report the result
of its investigation.
"One-On July %, 1916, while the
San Francisco preparedness parade was
in its early progress, an explosion oc-
CURED on one of the city's side streets
filled with paraders and the public.
Without question the explosion was
murder designed on a large scale, and
its purpose was effecutuated. Six people
were killed outright and about 40
wounded, of whom three or four sub
sequently died. Indisputably most
heinous crime had been committed and
the Identification of its perpetrators
alone had to be established.
"Two-The community was deeply
stirred. Aggressive activity was at once
undertaken by the police department
and the press was filled with clues and
theories for solution of the tragic mys-
terry. No premonitory acts furnished
clue, except that a number of letters
were mailed, prior to the parade, to
prominent citizens and leaders in the
parade, threatening destruction if the
parade was undertaken. These letters
undoubtedly had common source. They
all avowed pacifist purposes, threats
against such manifestations of 'militar-
ism as a preparedness parade was con-
ceived by them to be. The public auth
critics, however, did not deem the let
ters significant and identity of their
writer's never has been established
'fThree-The police and district at
torney turned for an explanation to q
different quarter. Arrests were made Of
Thomas j. Mooney and his wife, Rena
Mooney, Warren X. Billings, Israel
Weinberg and Edward Nolan.
"Four-The. .antecedents of these five
persons, particularly Of Thomas j. Moon
ey, have occasioned the war Importance
of the case. Mooney, at the time Of
his arrest, was a well known labor radi-
cal on the coast. He associated with
asfr