The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-11
A. F. of L. Leaders Betray
Tom Mooney

or create material that might be used as text
for preconceived verdict. AS events have
proved all of his associates, with one notable ex
ception, were willing to go along with Justice
Preston.
The majority report to the governor on the
Billings application is Intellectually dishonest
a document as any set of judicial officers has
ever dared to produce. Six Supreme Court JUS
tees have said: Billings is guilty. He was
fairly tried. Estele Smith and John Mcdonald
told the truth at his trial. but were enticed
from the truth by illegal and iIlegitimate means
and were induced to deny their sworn testimony
We believe their trial testimony, we do not be-
lieve their denials. Billings is the kind of man
who would have committed such a crime. He
has not proved himself innocent he has not
produced an alibi. The people who worked for
his release came very close to suborning perjury.
They tried to tear down the structure of the
courts and besmirch justice in California. We
resent that effort bitterly. We deny the prison.
er's petition for a pardon. He is now in prison.
Let him stay there, where he belongs" That,
we believe, is fair digest of the thousands and
thousands of words in the Supreme Courts ma
jority decision. Nothing we might say of it could
be so scathing as the words of the seventh men,
Der of the court, Justice William H. Langdon,
whose courageous dissenting report fully merits
the nationwide approval that it will receive.
Says Justice Langdon:
Considered either as an argument of an adj
vocate or as a judicial review OF the evidence.
the consolidated majority report is unsOund and
indefensible. 1t is unsound because its conclu-
SionS are not founded upon established facts
Suspicious conjectures, unwarranted differences,
irreconcilable inconsistencies and admitted per-
juries treated as facts. 1t is indefensible
because it appeals to passion and prejudice"
And he goes on to demolish, with few words
the laboriously erected fabric OF partial truths
and outright falsehoods by which Justices Pres
ton and Richards attempted to rehabilitate the
original perjuries of John Mcdonald and Estelle
Smith, while he also exposes the unreasonable
and unwarranted" requirement that Billings
must absolutely prove his innocence in spite Of
failure of proof (of guilt to such on extent
that there is not even a semblance of case
against him."
Was there ever more damning indictment
brought against high court of justice than this
by one one Of its own members?
EDITORS NOTE.-References by Mooney
to Outraged Public Opinion and his feeling
that Justice Langdons dissenting opinion was
courageous" show the remnants of the original
confusion which kept him from openly ex-
posing the A. F. of L. leaders years ago. Not
public opinion" but the rallying of masses Of
workers. defending their own fellow workers
in prison, will win freedom for Mooney and
Billings. Similarly, 1t has many times been
shown that there are usually one or two "dis-
senting voices in each hypocritical court de-
cision in an important case That does not
take courage, for capitalism is rather glad to
have little harmless evidence that "the case
is not fixed" Such minor defects as these
here noted do not detract from the impor-
lance of MONEYS statement)
TO BE CONTINUED.