Montana labor news., 1937-07-08

San Francisco and hNA Los Angeles.
Citizens of California:
Through the courtesy of these
radio facilities, I am able to speak
briefly on the subject which at the
present time is uppermost in my
mind. 1 refer to the cause of justice
for Thomas ]. Mooney. What could
be more important or more funda-
mental than the integrity and purity
of the processes of justice? The
very foundations of orderly govern
ment are undermined when people
know that p~rotracted wrong has
been suffered by any individual at
the hands of the state. If our hearts
demand justice for valiant Tom
Mooney, champion of Labor, framed
and falsely convicted and wrong
fully deprived of his liberty for
twenty years, our heads no less
should demand that we do all that
is possible at this late date to re-
trieve the name and reputation of
the state of California.
Two decades ago two atrocious
crimes were perpetrated. One crime
was the explosion of a bomb on Pre-
paredness Day at Steuart and Mar
ket Streets in San Francisco by some
person or persons who were never
apprehended. It resulted in the loss
of ten lives and injury to various
other persons. The second crime, no
less atrocious, and which may or
may not have been part of, or con-
nected with, the first crime, was the
deliberate framing and convicting of
Thomas J. Mooney by a mass of
perjured testimony.
1t is not my purpose to discuss
how widespread was the guilt of the
frameup. Perhaps that isn't known.
It is known, however, that no effort
was made to follow various clues
that pointed elsewhere. And it is
known that all the testimony by
which Mooney was convicted was
later shown to be perjury. 1t is also
known that all evidence in the pos
session of the district attorney and
the police that was favorable to
Mooney was suppressed.
Judge Franklin A.. Griffin, who
presided at Moneys trial, long ago
stated as follows: Quote "In the face
of this demonstrated perjury, in
light of its wilful presentation to the
jury trying Mooney, and in view of
the wilful suppression at the time, of
all evidence favorable to him, no
fair-minded person who will famil-
iarize himself with the details of the
truth Of the Mooney case will now
deny that Mooney is entitled to be
pardoned." Unquote.
That statement was made years
ago by the trial judge, Franklin A.
Griffin. 1t merely summarizes what
is now common knowledge to all
persons only casually familiar with
the Mooney case. Yet after twenty
years Tom Mooney is still in prison.
AS a matter of fact, not only did
all the testimony prove to be per-
jury, as for example that of the
honest cattleman who arrived in San
Francisco from Woodland, Cali
fornia, after the bomb exploded, but
the case goes beyond that of showing
perjury of all major witnesses.
MONEYS innocence was proved by
suppressed photographs of the pa
rade taken from the Eilers Building
showing Mooney in the foreground,
on the building, and a street clock
in the middle distance showing such
time as made it impossible for
Mooney to have planted any bomb
at Steuart and Market Streets.
How could Mooney have been con-
victed? The answer is that Mooney
was framed. Probably it would have
been impossible to have framed him,
even with such a collection of shame
less perjurors, if popular feeling in
1916 had been quite sane. Much of
the convicting testimony a in
credible and even preposterous, but
the country was in the fever of pre-
war days with the Great War i'm
minent, and the local feeling in San
Francisco was accentuated by a
sharp conflict taking place between
Capital and Labor. Mooney was a
very effective Labor leader. Many
circumstances furnished the occasion
for a frameup. That is what took
place, and that is why Mooney be-
came one of Labor's martyred cham
pions.
Certain evil forces, so powerful
they are difficult to locate specifi-
cally, would like the Mooney case to
be forgotten. Tom Mooney will new
er be forgotten, and the Mooney case
will never be settled until Mooney
has a pardon, with exoneration.
A legislative pardon measure
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