The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-13
A. F. of L. Leaders Betray
Tom Mooney

to high degree union wages and conditions in
the flourishing industries cf that CITY, The unions
we're So favorably situated in San Francisco that.
soon Los Angeles merchants manufacturers and
builders. vino maintained open shop conditions,
successfully began to underbid and underseu the
products of the northern city.
Faced with such situation, the unions had
no alternative. They had to organize Los An
geles or they would inevitably suffer a setback
in San Francisco with general driy2 on the
part the employers to slash wages engthen
hours and generally undermine the compare
lively high conditions which had been so la
bariously secured. The former course was de-
cided upon. The unions nominated 26 of the
foremost labor leaders OF San Francisco as mem
bers of a Los Angeles Metal Trades Strike Com
mittee," and instructed them to organize Los
Angeles This committee secured a fund of
100000 and imported organizers from the East,
among whom was ]. B. Mcnamara, one of the
on standing mltantS of the movement. The
immediate results are now history. With the
destruction of the Los Angeles Times" building
the drive was smashed, the McNamaras were
indicted, and Clarence Darrow was retained by
the San Francisco unions to defend them.
Darrow was betrayed by his trusted con-
fidential investigator, who sold all the defense
evidence and information to the National Erect
ors Association and the Burns Detective Agency.
For this reason he informed the McNamaras
that If they were tried by jury, many of the
rs men belonging to the Metal Trades Strike
Committee would be placed in jeopardy as John
Doe indictments charging first degree murder
had been brought against some of them. Con-
sequently, the McNamaras agreed to plead guilty
provided definite assurance was given thst all
indictments placed against some of the San
Francisco members of the Metal Trades Strike
Committee, and others, we're dismissed. This
was done. the McNamaras pied as agreed, and
the case was closed The 26" speedily lost
their interest in organizing the industries o Los
Angeles, and that city is still the traditional
home of the American Plan" non-union scab
open shop
A short time after this Tom Mooney came to
San Francisco, fresh from militant struggles in
the East fought in the interests of the workers.
When he arrived he was amazed at the extreme
conservatism of the local labor leaders He
found them willingly playing the game of the
employers and the Chamber of Commerce anxi-
Gus to appear respectable" and to remove the
black spot attached to their records by the not
forgotten narrow escape from murder indct-
ments. Mooney set about correcting this sit
uation, and began to be effectively active in
movements for higher wages, and better condi-
tons for the workers. He soon became marked
as an "agitator," as dangerous Red" He
was thorn in the side OF the labor leaders who
were now concerned solely with proving to their
masters that they were harmless creatures who
could be depended upon to keep the workers in
check so that there would be no more recur-
rences similar to the Los Angeles affair The
labor leaders could not afford to have man
like Tom Mooney around who was constantly
stirring up the workers and agitating strikes.
Mooney would have to be put away.
So eager were they to appear respectable
that not only did they actively oppose a mill
tant fighter such as Mooney. but they even be-
trayed the men who saved them in 1910. After
the McNamaras and their partners were in San
Quentin, and the labor leaders had become GER
tain the prisoners would not implcate them they
lost all interest in the men who were willing to
sacrifice their lives for what they considered
the best interests of the labor movement. Calf
ornia has n liberal parole law: every prisoner,
no matter what his crime, is eligible for parole;
yet these labor leaders we're SO cowardly that
they would not involve themselves to the extent
of helping j. j. Mcnamara, General Secretary
Treasurer Of the International Association of
Bridge. Structural and Ornamental Iron Work
erS Union. obtain a parole on his ,15-year sem
tence, and Dave Captain, a member Of the Bar
bers Onion, on his l0-year term These two
men served their full sentences, though with
the sree- political influence Of the labor leaders