Montana labor news., 1938-02-17
UNIONS DEMAND
RELEASE OF MOONEY
Continued from Page u


friends and supporters in Montana.
With warmest personal regards.
(Signed) Tom Mooney, 1921,
San Quentin Prison.
Washington, D.. c., February 9, 1888.
Mooney Mass Meeting, Butte, Mont.
Greetings to the friends of Tom
Mooney assembled in Butte, Mon
tana, tonight. We are particularly
pleased to send greetings to the
Mooney boosters in the city which
gave Jerry O'Connell to the Con-
gress Of the United States. Not I'M
til Jerry O'Connell of Montana came
to Congress was there ever a man
with the courage to introduce in the
Congress of the United States a reso-
luton calling for the freedom Of
Tom Mooney. Because of this ac-
ton, this initial step on the part of
Jerry O'Connell, hundreds of con-
gressmen and senators have joined
in the fight until now it seems a
certainty that Tom Mooney will be
indicated. Keep up the fight. Send
Jerry O'Connell and more like him
back to US, The nation needs such
fighters, From Tom Mooney him
self I send you warmest greetings
and heartfelt thanks.
(Signed) John w. jenkins,
Chairman Tom Mooney De-
Tense Committee, Washing
ton, D. c.
Noble Burton was scathing in his
condemnation of Fickert, the whole
judiciary-political setup in the state
of California for its cruelty to Moo
ney and Billings and other labor
persons.
The last speaker of the evening
was Left Erickson, County Attorney
at Sidney, Richland County. It is
doubtful if any audience was ever
treated to a clearer exposition of the
Mooney case than that given by him
at this mass meeting. He traced the
corruption and the deceit that ac-
companied the trial from its very
beginning and ended by showing
how the powerful financial interests
are keeping Mooney in Jail, not be-
cause he is guilty but because they
had to fasten the crime upon some
one; because they could not find
the real culprit and because Mooney
and Billings subscribed to radical
ideas. They placed these men in
jail and are keeping them there, be-
cause they have beliefs opposed to
the present cruel social order. Mr..
Erickson was at his best and was
a~pplauded by the audience. He is
a brilliant speaker and intensely
liberal in his ideas.
The meeting adopted a resolution
calling upon the national authorities
to liberate these two innocent men.
Resolution on Mooney
WHEREAS; informed public opin-
ion throughout the country, led by
Trial Judge Franklin A. Griffin, and
the jurors, recognizes that Tom Moo
ney was convicted on perjured testi-
mony in a frameup because Mooney
was an aggressive labor organizer,
and
WHEREAS; There has been in
troduced in the Congress a joint reso-
luton by Senator James E. Murray
and Congressman Jerry ]. O'Con-
nell of Montana Isl 127-HJR 297)
calling upon Congress and President
Roosevelt to memorabilia Governor
Frank F. Merriam of California i'm
mediately to grant a full and IN
conditional pardon to Mooney, and
WHEREAS; No hearings have yet
been granted on the resolution by
the House Judiciary Committee
Congressman Hatton w. Summers,
chairman) and only a brief prelim-
mary hearing by the Senate Judi
ciary Subcommittee appointed for
the purpose Senator Joseph c..
O'Mahoney), therefore be it
RESOLVED; That this meeting
composed of members of organized
labor and their friends, assembled
at the Miners Union Hall, Butte,
Montana, on February 10, 1888, urge
that adequate hearings on the Muir
ray-O'Connell resolution be held
forthwith looking towards its swift
passage and all efforts be made to
secure the presence of Mooney at
these hearings as chief witness, to
the end that the grossly unjust
twenty-one-year Imprisonment of
Mooney on false charges of dyna-
hitting the Preparedness Day parade
in San Francisco in 1916 brought
against him by the bitterly anti
labor corporate interests of Cali
fornia, be speedily terminated, and
be it further
RESOLVED; That copies of this
resolution be sent to Congressman
Summers, Senator O'Mahoney, Sena-
tor James E. Murray, and Congress
man Jerry J. O'Connell and also to
Tom Mooney.
The Miners Union Auxiliary No. Z
held their annual valentine party at
the Miners Union hall Tuesday eve
ming after the business meeting.
Dolly Tonkin won first prize for the
prettiest decorated valentine box.
The old members of the Auxiliary
will entertain the drill team at the
Miners Union hall Friday evening,
February 18th, with a card party to