The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-04-10
BY MIRIAM DE FORD


All If the week of March 10th
was consumed in continuation OF
Cunha's direct examination, and
when the sessions ended on Friday
it was not over yet. Cunha was
allowed by the referee to get away
with anything he wished, includ-
ing speeches revealing his fanat-
ical hatred of radicals and his I'M
governable prejudice against Moo
new personally. At the same time
he blandly denied the testimony OF
all the Witnesses-McDonald, G. A.
Griffin, Denton, Fitch, Mckenzie
who had geven direct evidence
against him. Again he accused
Mooney of being ga mailman, who,
overcome by his own Importance,
was going to put over this revo-
luton by dynamite" He said
Mooney "was proud of his dyna-
hitting career" and that in effect
he had "pleaded guilty, because ne
couldn't bare his breast before the
Jury" The ease with which Cunha
loses his temper was evidenced
when he accused Finerty of "mak-
ing speeches for the newspapers, !"
and called it "cheap shanty Irish
stuff" The next day, belatedly
and grudgingly, he apologized.
He quoted Oman as saying that
he didn't know there was re-
ward offered" Cd, and asserted
that he never went farther in in
fluencing Mcdonald than to tell
him that "just because he was
down and out was no reason he
shouldn't have character, and they
were depending on him.!
Then Cunha went on to tell of
the search of Billings and Nolan's
homes, the seizure of letters and
documents from Mrs. Hammer
berg's, and interviews with the
sheriff-or his son-in Martinez
He repeated all the false accusa-
tons about MONEYS possession OF
"a Maxim silencer, a gun with ar
aluminium finish" etc.-actually
stuff planted by Martin Swanson
in MONEYS boat. All this he was
permitted to set forth on the
ground either that it referred tx
his conversation with John FITCH
or that it went to show his stat'
of mind and his reasons" for sus
pecting Mooney and Billings. (Th'
inference being that there was NJ
reason to frame them, since the!
we're legitimate suspects in Flick
ert's and Cunha's eyes).
Then began long, dreary days o
entering into the record dozens o
letters from Moneys files. Mos
Of these were routine business let
tiers, many of them having no pos
sible connection with the cas'
They referred to organization c
the Iron Foundry Workers Educe
tional League, the Internation'
Workers Defense League, Tn
Blast, and the U.R.R. strike, an
there was, naturally, nothing il
eliminating or illegal in any o
them. Cunha remarked that h
remembered "only the strong lie
ters-such as those saying tina
Mooney belonged to the Sociali
Party"- He had marked with n
pencil every reference to "Reds
'the Revolution" or Socialists
and persisted in interpreting evel
allusion to direct action (strike
etc., as a threat Of dynamitin
and violence. He was even allow
to read, out of their context, lor
excerpts from articles and ed
torials in The Blast, the Anarchi
paper published by Alexand
Berkman in 1916. Incidentally, |
this material had been marked
the back in Swanson's handwritil
and Cunha had to acknowled
that Swanson was Railways aroun
and that he had got lot of
information" from the exp.
and E. detective.
When the week ended, Cunl
was deep in talking himself out
charges that he had been in tou