The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-07-10
The Fight Goes On

Governor Young Of California had an opportunity
to right a miscarriage Of justice that has been
blazoned around the world for more than a decade
by every enemy Of Americas democracy. He had
opportunity to prove that the American system of
government still operates on the principle that all
men are equal before the law.
Governor Young failed.
Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings, sent to
prison fourteen years ago on the perjured testimony
of hired witnesses, have been denied pardons again.
They must stay in Jail until c. c. Young changes his
mind or a new Governor. with vision enough to see
the right and courage enough to do it, is elected IN
California.
throughout the world today is racing the news
that innocent men, deprived Of liberty during the
hysteria Of war times, can be kept there ten years
after the war fever has subsidized and, seemingly, as
long as they live.
Throughout the United States are thousands OF
thinking men and women, shaking their heads at
this news and saying: This is what breeds Com
munism, this puts a more dangerous weapon IN the
hands of revolutionaries than any which they nave
been able to fashion for themselves"
To these thinking ~people-to the thousands Of
t,rists. statesmen, social workers. teachers, editors
labor leaders, business and professional men ana
women who believe Mooney and Billings are innocent
to the Judge and jurors who tried Mooney ana WHO
now believe him innocent-to these people Governor
young says, IA gOu nav AN
of the cases, while I have spent many many months
studying them"
they do not need to study that voluminous mass
of documents to see plainly that Mooney and Billings
never should have been sent TO prison. They have
onlv tn read what the Governor himself has written,
after his exhaustive research, and what the supreme
court and the board of pardons have to say after
their exhaustive studies, to be convinced that more
than a reasonable doubt exists as to the guilt OF these
two men.
The gist of these three INSTRUMENTATION $4,000
words of explanation, arguments and conlmentS-ls
that Mooney and Billings must remain in prison be-
cause of the testimony of one man, a man who con-
fessed himself to be a perjurer and whom Governor
Young. the supreme court and the board of pardons
Ill designated as a perjurer.
This man is John McDonald, a tramp and a dope
hend. He and F. C. Oxman were the only two wit
nesses ever produced in the trials of Mooney and
Billings who said they saw them at the scene of the
bombing of the Preparedness day parade in San
Francisco on July q. 1916.
Since then Oman has been proved to be a per-
jurer. It has been proved that he was in Woodland,
Cal, at the time Of the explosion and not on Market
street in San Francisco.
Governor Young dismissed him by saying. 81 have
made a thorough study Of Oxman's testimony and
desire to say that I thoroughly discredit it, believe
that Oman was nothing more or less than a pub
licity-seeking romancer."
Therefore, upon the testimony of Macdonald
alone rests the entire structure of the Mooney and
Billings cases.
And Macdonald. in an affidavit several years after
his testimony had sent Mooney and Billings to prison,
confessed that he had lied at the trials, that he had
not seen Mooney and Billings at the scene of the ex-
plosion.
The Governor. the board Of pardons and the SUI
pzeme court make a great point-their one point-ot
their doubt that Macdonald told the truth in his af-
hdavt. They profess to believe that he did tell the
truth in the trials.
How can they know when he lied and when he
told the truthP
They know he is a liar.
Yet on his testimony alone they keep in prison
two men who already have spent fourteen years be-
hind steel bars.
Governor Young makes a gesture toward holding
open the door for further consideration of these cases.
He suggests that Macdonald be found and brought
to California to tell whether he lied during the trials
or when he made the affidavit.
Macdonald did come back to DO that. He came
eight years ago TO tell the grand jury that he lied
during the trials. He was threatened with imprison-
ment for perjury if he told. He said he would tell
anyway. But he was advised by friends Of Mooney
that his AFFIDAVIT was sufficient and he need not
~jeopardize his liberty by facing that hostile grand
jury. So Macdonald drifted away.
He wrote TO friends in California for several years.
But he has not been heard from since 1927. He may
be dead. He may be drifting around. somewhere.
However. the record stands. He IS or was a
perjurer. Every other witness in both trials has been
proved a perjurer.
Justice stu is on the defensive.
Mooney and Billings. as individuals, mean nothing
20 this newspaper. nothing to the thousandsef other