The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-04
Bosses WereOut GetMOOneY

In the spring of 1916, bitter
struggle was raging in San Fran
cisco between the bosses, organized
in the Chamber of Commerce and
the workers in the trade unions.
Strikes were the order of the day.
A state of open warfare existed.
There was violence, shooting, club
bling and murder. In the midst of
this class war, Tom Mooney,
fearless, incorruptible organizer,
was attempting to weld the street
car men into union. For years
previously, the bosses had at
tempted to get" Tom Mooney.
They couldn't buy him. Here he was
again in the center of the class war.
Build Frame-up
The Chamber of Commerce raised
a fund of million dollars to crush
the workers. With the press, the po-
lice and the local government in
their hands, they saw in the ris-
ing war hysteria an opportunity to
smash the unions and beat down
wages and conditions of labor. The
United Railroads, where Mooney
was attempting to organize the men
on the job, had hired Martin Swan
son, who before had attempted to
frame Tom Mooney. Swanson had
offered Weinberg, a jitney driver,
$4,000 to swear he. had driven
Mooney out to the hills 10 miles
south of San Francisco where on
June IL, transmission towers of the
United Railroads had been dyna-
mited and for which both Mooney
and Billings had nearly been
framed. 1t was Swanson who also
had offered Billings $4,000 and a
good job for evidence" that Mooney
had done the job.
To whip up patriotic hysteria the
Chamber of Commerce organized a
preparedness parade for July %.
Every union man was given notice
that he must march in it or lose
his job. The feeling between the
bosses and the workers was now
at white heat. The parade began
at 1880 and at 2 o'clock a terrific
explosion son Stuart Street near
Market, killed six people and
wounded "A. Here was the oppor-
tunity. Get Tom Mooney" was
the word passed along. 1t was in
the press and openly talked of in
the street. Meanwhile the strike
that Mooney was trying to organ
ize among the street car men had
failed. Tom and Rena Mooney,
after trying days of organizations
work left for a holiday in the coun-
try, two days after the explosion
On learning from the papers that
they were wanted" they imme-
diately communicated with the po-
lice. intimating their activities
we're an "open book" and were ar
rested on the train returning to
San Francisco.
AQmltS INO ENiuchSc
Police Captain Matheson de-
clared later he had no evidence
against them at the time of ar
rest. Yet for eight days Mooney
was not allowed to see friends OF
secure legal aid, Three of their
friends, Warren X. Billings, Israel
Weinberg, a jitney driver, and Ed
ward Nolan, a labor leader, had al
ready been arrested. On August /
all of them jointly, with Rena
Mooney, were indicted for the MUIR
der of each of the victims of the
bomb explosion, eight of whom had
already died.
In September, Billings was con-
victed of murder and sentenced to
life Imprisonment. In January, fol-
lowing, Mooney was placed on trial
| for murder. Between these two
trials the defense obtained court
order permitting them access to the
negatives of photographs held by
the district attorney, which he did
not present at the trial of Billings
showing Tom and Rena Mooney on