The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1918-06-12
SHALL MOONEY
DIE WITHOUT AN
HONEST TRIAL?

HONEST TRIAL?
Sentence again has been passed upon Thomas j..
| Mooney, convicted OF murder in connection with a
| bomb explosion in San Francisco on July 26, 1916,
| while preparedness parade was being held
! Six people instantly killed and about 40 were
wounded, OF whom four subsequently died. Arrests
| were made of Thomas j. Mooney and his wife, Rena
Mooney, Warren X. Billings, Israel Weinberg and
| Edward ID. Nolan
of the molders union For many years he had been
one of the most widely known labor leaders on the
| Pacific coast
Mrs. Mooney was music teacher; Billings, youth
| of radical tendencies and follower Of Mooney in
labor agaton; Nolan also was friend of Mooney
and radical labor leader of lesser prominence.
| Weinberg jitney driver hired at times to
|vey Mooney and his assistants to labor meetings He
was accused of driving the automobile that said
to have carried Mooney and the others to the spot
where the bomb was planted"
| Billings first tried, convicted and sentenced
to life Imprisonment He still protests his innocence
Mrs Mooney and Weinberg have been tried and ac
quilted. Nolan has been put to trial.
/ Tom Mooney was convicted of first degree murder
and sentenced to be hanged.
i Mooney and thousands of labor organization lead
insist that he is being rairoaded to the galows
because he labor leader of pronounced radical
ISM They assert that his life is sought because of his
fierce antagonism to the "open shop" program in
San Francisco.
This belief is not confined to persons living in San
Francisco yet in California alone. It is held by
hundreds of thousands of labor in all parts Of
the United States and in other countries.
| That Mooney was not honestly convicted, and
therefore should have trial, is the announced
belief of the U. S. Mediation Commission, of which
Secretary of Labor w. B. Wilson is chairman.
H This also is the conviction of the president of the
Il United States.
Il District Attorney Charles A. Fickert, who prose-
cuted Mooney processes to be sure of his guilt de-
spite evidence which has to light since the trial
II This evidence has to do with witness named Ok
man, who swore that he saw Mooney and the other
defendants near the spot where the bomb exploded
shortly before the internal machine brOt death to
parade watchers.
/ After Moneys conviction, letters confessedly
written by Oman were exposed. The plain import
of these letters is an attempt by Oman to suborn
perjury-to false witnesses The cases against
Mrs Mooney and Weinberg fell to the ground, and
Nolan not tried.
All these facts told in the report of the United
States Mediation Commission, appointed by Presi-
dent Wilson, in its report to the chief executive of
the United States.
Here follow few quotations taken from that re-
|pOlt:
labo Of maevolence BY the utilities me.nins
"s = , a. s.,
..fhe attorney general aske supreme
view Of the OMAN exposure the case should be returned
We are in to viniicate claims o,
unstained processes such
processes may tempered by the
devotion to them at honle."
II The president of the United States has asked the
governor of California to commute Moneys sentence
to life imprisonment The governor cannot grant
Mooney new trial. This in the power of the,
California supreme court when it heard the appeal
and refused to order the back to the trial court
for rehearing.
H What should be done of course, is to send Mooney
back for another trial and whether jury will
convict him the strength of Oxman's evidence now
That would be simple justice If he is guilty, sec
ond Jury could convict him-and remove all doubt. If
he is not guilty. by all he is entitled to acquit
tai But justice and law do not always 60 hand in
hand-and the law of California would rather take
MONEYS life than remove all doubt by new trial
H Tom Mooney must die-unless Gov. Stephens of
California commutes his sentence or pardons him.
Will the governor pay no heed to this appeal from
Judge F. A. Griffin, who presided at the trial OF
Mooney and who sentenced him to death:
II 81 BELIEVE THAT ALL OF US WHO WERE
IN THE TRIAL CONCUR THAT