NAWSA SUBJECT FILE Mooney, Tom [male head-shot picture] 1916 BEFORE "FRAMEUP" ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND MAKE ALL FUNDS PAYABLE TO Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee P. O. BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO FORMED BY MEMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS UNION 164 PHONE HEMLOCK 7277 TOM MOONEY--DIRECTOR 203 [male head-shot picture] 1931 AFTER 'FRAMEUP" My dear Comrades, Friends, and Fellow Unionists: "EVERY DAY THAT MOONEY REMAINS IN PRISON FROM NOW ON WILL BE A CRIME OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AGAINST MOONEY." These words from the impassioned appeal of Attorney Aaron Sapiro in the final plea before Governor Rolph for my unconditional pardon had hardly been uttered, when the Governor announced that he would turn the case over to his legal "advisors," Attorneys Lewis Byington ad Matt. I. Sullivan, and that it would take at least four months before they could arrive at a decision. This action on the part of the Governor followed a year of procrastination on my pardon application, and had it not been for the great friendship existing between Gov. Rolph and Attorney Sapiro and Mayor Walker, plus the fact of great demonstrations for my freedom all over the country and all over the world, the hearing would never have taken place. The people of California elected Governor Rolph. They gave HIM very definite responsibilities. They expect HIM, not Messrs. Sullivan and Byington, to fulfill those responsibilities. Governor Young, in order to shirk his responsibility in the Mooney case, hid behind the skirts of his chief "Justice" of the Supreme Court. Governor Rolph cannot escape his responsibility by hiding behind Messrs. Sullivan and Byington. He doesn't need anybody to look over the facts. He, who was Mayor of San Francisco, marched in the parade, and personally offered a reward for the apprehension of the perpetrators of the bomb outrage, KNOWS ALL THE FACTS. Governor Young's evasion sent him into political oblivion and Governor Rolph should profit and take heed from the experience of his perdecessors. The whole procedure smacks of another Sacco-Vanzetti decision. These martyrs for labor, after a dastardly frame-up, were kept in prison for eight long years, during which time every evasion, subterfuge and shameless maneuver possible was resorted to in delaying decision before they were finally burned in the electric chair. For almost sixteen years they have been using the same sort of procedure to prevent my hearing. There is very little difference between the behavior of Governor Fuller of Massachusetts and Governors Stephens, Richardson, Young and Rolph of California. Governor Fuller tried to evade responsibility by referring the case to a so-called impartial commission who were to "examine" the evidence. They did some splendid "examining"--the result was that two noble souls and fighters for labor were turned into corpses. Governor Rolph, when protests for my pardon became deafening, finally granted my hearing. He then turned the facts over to his advisors to be "examined". Indications are that the "examination" will result in my dying a long, lingering death in San Quentin. FOUR MONTHS TO RENDER A DECISION! They could do it in four hours, if they meant business. Any person with the mentality of a ten-year-old child could take all the "evidence" that remains in this case and make a decision in a few days. Yet these high-powered legal minds need four months. THEIR ACTION IN DRAGGING THIS THING OUT IS THIS COMMITTEE IS THE ONLY ORGANIZATION AUTHORIZED TO COLLECT FUNDS FOR THE DEFENSE OF TOM MOONEY ONLY PART OF THE DELAY AND EVASION IN ORDER TO KILL THE LIFE OF THIS CASE! THIS DELAY IS CRIMINAL! The dictatorship of Capital has decreed that I die in prison. California Plutocracy, an all-powerful foe, backed by the combined wealth and power of this nation, has sealed me for life in this tomb. The Plunderbund of California who framed me and who have kept me in prison for almost sixteen years do not intend to pardon me. However, in view of the world-wide publicity brought about by the recent hearing, they do not dare an immediate negative decision. SO THEY ADOPT THE POLICY OF DELAY IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY LULL MY SYMPATHIZERS TO SLEEP AND THUS DESTROY MY DEFENSE ORGANIZATION. THAT IS THEIR TACTICS. Friends! It took sixteen years of continuous agitation and the protests and demonstrations of millions of workers all over the world, and the financial support of thousands of people, to expose the monstrous Mooney frame-up, and to keep it exposed before the whole world. Only the support of my thousands of friends and the activity of the militant workers will keep the issue alive and defeat the plans to put my case in cold storage. The protest of the Russian workers saved me from hanging thirteen years ago. Only immediate action on your part will save me now. Dear Friends! The Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee is powerless without your support. Our printer has positively refused to do any more work for us until we pay him at least part of the $2200 we owe him. The Committee is harassed on all sides by bill collectors who threaten to remove our office equipment - indispensable tools in getting the facts before the public. They are even faced with the possibility of the phone being disconnected and the gas and lights shut off! My Defense Committee is in a most desperate condition. We are wholly without funds and our defense activities are completely crippled. For the past three weeks no employee of my Defense Committee has received any pay. Half of our staff receive no salary whatever; they work for bare living expenses. The other half get very meager pay and have been getting it only when we have it to give. Yet they continue to work hard and long - never less that twelve hours a day and often as many as sixteen hours. In spite of everything, they carry one. TOILERS, FRIENDS AND SYMPATHIZERS! Will you answer my desperate earnest plea for immediate help? Don't let this case die! Do everything in your power RIGHT NOW! Protest, demonstrate, agitate feverishly and incessantly against this criminal evasion of official duty! But without funds to carry on the fight I am utterly lost! Please do not fail me at this crucial moment. My sixteen-year fight is approaching a climax. Today, as never before, I need your help. Dear Friends! I plead with you, I urge you, I implore you, not to desert me in this crisis, not to forget me at this Christmas time - my sixteenth in prison. At this season, when all are giving gifts to those dear to them, I hope you will not forget me. Nothing you can do for me would make me happier than your helpful assistance to carry on my fight for freedom. Send my Defense Committee a liberal donation - one commensurate with your financial ability and the worthiness of the cause which this case symbolizes. Our financial situation is truly desperate. YOU MUST HELP ME NOW! For all of your loyal support and helpfulness, please accept my profound gratitude, warmest person regards and fraternal greetings, I am Sincerely yours, [*Tome Mooney*] 31921 P. S. -- Please make checks payable to Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee, P. O. Box 1475-X, San Francisco, California. TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P. O. BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 7, 1938 Two thousand San Franciscans heard a rousing address by Congressman Jerry J. O'Connell of Montana in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium on February 3rd, calling on Congress to "Bring Tom Mooney to Washington." O'Connell is author of the Murray-O'Connell Resolution, which would memorialize Governor Merriam of California to grant Tom Mooney a full and unconditional pardon. The audience responded with cheer after cheer as Rep. O'Connell lashed out at the reactionary elements responsible for the continued imprisonment and persecution of Mooney and called on "all labor, C.I.O. and A.F.L., to reunite under the symbol of Tom Mooney's fight for freedom." Rep. O'Connell, one of the leaders of the block of young, liberal Congressmen known as the "Young Turks," with his wife and Herbert Resner, Secretary of the A.F.L. Mooney-Billings Committee, visited Mooney at San Quentin the day following the meeting. Rep. O'Connell pledged his continued and uncompromising efforts to obtain Mooney's freedom, and was warmly received by the world-famous labor prisoner. Other speakers at the meeting, which was presided over by Harry Bridges, Pacific Coast Longshore and C.I.O. chief, were J. Vernon Burke, Secretary of Labor's Non-Partisan League of California and President of A.F.L. Newspaper Web Pressmen Union Local No. 4, and Resner. Burke stated, "Labor's Non-Partison League will not support any candidate for governor who will not declare that his first official act will be to grant Mooney a full and unconditional pardon. Labor is united politically in California through the League, and will play a leading role in electing a governor friendly to labor who will pardon Mooney if he is not free before that time." Defense Committee Secretary Resner urged the audience, "Support the campaign to have Tom Mooney called to Washington to testify before the Senate and proclaim his innocence in that forum." Congressman O'Connell's address follows: "Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, and my fellow fighters in a common cause: I am awfully happy and I am awfully proud tonight to be introduced to this gathering by that outstanding labor leader in this nation, by that outstanding fighter for democracy, by that outstanding fighter for trade-unionism, Harry Bridges. "You know, after all the red-baiting and all the labor-hating things that I have heard about Harry Bridges, tonight was the first opportunity that I had to meet with him and to see him. And I was terribly disappointed. I thought I was going to see some individual who had a great mustache, who had a long beard, who had horns coming out of his head, and above all was going around carrying a bomb in each hand. But when I saw how he was received by this audience and by you people here, I felt very safe for American democracy, I felt very safe for this government of ours, because I knew that all the red-baiting and all the labor-hating of the corporate interests of this country and the great organized greed and intrenched wealth of this country was not enough to take you away from those liberties and those rights which are near and dear to every good American's heart. "I am awfully happy and very proud to come here tonight and see in this audience many Montanans who have since come to California, and I want to thank them sincerely and wholeheartedly from the very bottom of my heart for having come here tonight. I promise them that, as long as I am a Representative in the Congress of the United States, that they will never have to apologize to any of the people of Montana for what I will be doing while I am in that body. -2- "You know, my interest in the Mooney case goes back many, many years. My interest in Tom Mooney and Warren Billings goes back to the time when I was on my widowed mother's knee. I had a wonderful dad who died of miner's consumption in the hell-holes of Neversweat Mine in the City of Butte when I was just a lad of six years of age and had four younger sisters, my baby sister only three months old, and left my lovely widowed mother with the five of us without a dime in the house, without anything to carry on with, wondering whether we were going to live, wondering whether we were going to eat, and where we were going to sleep. "And that lovely mother took me on her knee many a night and told me I must fight, told me how I must see that children in American would not suffer what I had to suffer and as she was suffering on that night, and told me to fight as I had never fought before against those who would persecute the loaders of labor. "And that dad of mine was a good union man and a good miner, and knew that Tom Mooney had been framed, and talked to my other about it many times. And only last year, shortly after I was elected and seated in Congress, I brought that lovely widowed mother down to Washington, an on every door in my office I have an immense poster demanding that the American Congress and that the American Government and the Supreme Court of the United States free Tom Mooney. And when my mother came in that door she had tears in her eyes, and she looked at that poster and she said, 'Your dad would be awfully happy if you could free Tom Mooney.' And I said, 'Mother, as long as I can come here, as long as I can fight for him, I promise you that as long as there is a breath of life in my body, I will not stop fighting until Tom Mooney is free.' "I don't have to tell you people out here about the Tom Mooney case; I don't have to tell you the framed up charges; I don't have to tell you about the perjury; I don't have to tell you about the intrenched greed and the organized wealth of this State which placed Tom Mooney behind those bars. I don't have to tell you any of those things, but tonight I come to tell you why we must carry on this fight. "Tonight Tom Mooney in San Quentin represents labor shackled, if you please. Tonight Tom Mooney in San Quentin represents the struggle of American labor in this country to attain a fair share of the profits and of the wealth which it is producing in this country. Tonight Tom Mooney is a symbol to every real American, to every red-blooded American who would demand that this government of ours be governed and ruled by the people and not by the profiteers. Tonight Tom Mooney is a symbol to every one of us young men down there who are fighting for you people. "And I am happy and proud tonight of that group of 100 men, sometimes even more than that -- of 100 young men, some of them from your State, in whom we have great pride and in whom we are very happy that you sent them down there -- the Honorable Jerry Voorhis of California, a great battler for the American people, an outstanding liberal in the Congress of the United States despite he has been just a few short months in that assembly; the Honorable Byron Scott of California, another great liberal fighting for you in that body; and the Honorable Ed. V. Izac of California, who despite the fact that he is a retired Naval officer, has had enough liberalism and has had enough fight in him to become a great representative of the great masses of the people of California and of the United States; and the Honorable Franck R. Havenner, who, too, goes down in the House and who, too, goes into that body along with us and fights along with us "Young Turks" to see that the American people may have some representation in the greatest deliberative body in the world -- but I bring you tonight the greetings of these hundred young liberals, a hundred young liberals who believe and who won't stop fighting until Mooney and Billings are free, a hundred young liberals who are demanding day in and day out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and of the House Judiciary Committee that Tom Moonoey be brought to Washington to testify in his own behalf and expose the blackest spot ever written on the pages of judicial history, not only in the State of California but in the United Stated; yes, my friends, a hundred young liberals who told me to come out here and talk to you about Sacco and Vanzetti, who told me to come out here and talk about the Hay Market murders, who told me to come out her and talk to you as we go to other places in the country, as we have gone to New York, to Philadelphia and to Pittsburgh and to all the great cities of the East -- told me to come out here and plead with you that you may go along with us in a liberal program in behalf of the great masses of the American people. "Our fight for Tom Mooney is now being fought on a three-fold front, as we have done in the Scottsboro case, as we have done in the Angelo Herndon case. And the only way you can free these men who are tied in as Tom Mooney is, is by the greatest court in the world, by the greatest judiciary in the United States,- the light of public opinion in the United States. -3- "And you know as well as I do that the case of Tom Mooney is now before the Supreme Court of the United States, and we know that that case will be heard very shortly. We know that with the new composition of that court, with new liberal Judges on that court, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the greatest President who ever sat in the White House, filling that court, we know that when that decision is handed down that the five liberal Judges on that court will say: 'Shame on you, California; shame on you, Frank Merriam, stool-pigeon, reactionary; yes, shame on you, Mr. Fickert; shame on all of the vested interests of this State that have kept that man in prison without any right, without any justification, without any reason whatsoever for twenty-two long years;' and will say that: 'You have denied him the liberty granted to every American citizen under the Constitution of the United States. You have denied him the liberty and the freedom guaranteed to him under the Bill of Rights added to the American Constitution. You have done wrong, and Tom Mooney must be freed, and you must set him free and set him fee now.' "Not content, my friends, to leave that only in the Supreme Court of the United States, one of the first acts, or I think my first official act as a member of the Congress of the United States, was to introduce this resolution that Harry Bridges has so ably described to you. And the purpose of that resolution is to get an investigation in the Congress of the United States and expose to the great American people the shame and the blackest spot on California's history, to expose to the light of public opinion that which has been done to Tom Mooney and Warren Billings; and after it has been exposed, after we have fought, after we have proved and laid down the necessary legal briefs that the Congress of the United States has the right and has the power and has the legal means, to bring Tom Mooney to Washington to plead in his own behalf. "This no longer is a California case. This no longer is a local San Francisco case. This case stands before the American people, stands before American labor as the greatest symbol and as the greatest means and the greatest medium around which we must all unite. And in the name of Tom Mooney, tonight, I plead with the A. F. of L. and I plead with the C.I.O. to unite. Yes, in the name of Tom Mooney, we plead with both of you to unite as you never united before. We ask you to get this united front, because in the election here in California, in the election in every Congressional District in the United States, in the election in all of the various Senatorial Districts in the United States, the greatest campaign of propaganda will be carried on against labor, will be carried on to destroy labor unionism, will be carried on to destroy the Wagner Labor Relations Act, will be carried on to defeat every liberal who has had enough courage to fight in behalf of the American people; will be fought, my friends, to bring to America the Fascism that exists today in Italy, in Germany and in Japan. And that is the issue, by friends, that is the campaign, that is the fight, and labor must not be divided. Labor must not be spread out, must not be tearing at each other's head. Labor must go down the line in unity and solidarity to restore and maintain the American form of government in behalf of the great majority of the people of the United States. "There are ways it must be done. We have in the House of Representatives reactionary Southern Democrats who are unworthy of the name of Democrat, who are unworthy of the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, men who today shame the American form of government by their Fascistic filibuster against the Anti-Lynching Bill in the Senate of the United States. And those reactionary Southern Democrats have a chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House by the name of Hatton Sumners, who from the day nearly a year ago when the Mooney resolution was introduced has denied us any hearing, has denied us any consideration of the Tom Mooney case, so that it became necessary for us to put a discharge petition on the Speaker's desk demanding the discharge of that bill or that resolution from consideration of this Judiciary Committee. And on that petition we have 182 names. On that petition, if you please, are 182 men who are demanding justice for Mooney and Billings. "But you here tonight must do something about it. We have twelve of the twenty Congressmen from the State of California, and we ought to have all twenty. And you can do something about it. Instead of going home tonight as you usually do, and saying, 'Didn't Harry Bridges make a great speech? Didn't all these other men who talked here make great speeches? Didn't Herb Resner say some marvelous things? Didn't Jerry O'Connell make a rotten speech?' -- Instead of doing that, when you go home, take a little piece of paper and take a pencil or some pen and ink and write a letter to your Congressman and to the other Congressmen that you can think of from this State, write a letter to the Senators from -4- this State, and particularly that tired liberal, Hiram Johnson -- write them a letter, if you please, and demand that they sign this petition, demand that they do everything to free Tom Mooney and that they support this resolution; that those Senators demand that they bring Tom Mooney down to Washington to testify in his own behalf. "And then, as long as you have that piece of paper and your pencil in your hand, write another letter to the Governor of this State and start it out by saying: 'Mr. Merriam, you are the greatest reactionary, stool-pigeon Governor who has ever sat in the Governor's chair in the State of California,' and tell him what you think about the Tom Mooney case and about the sneaky, dishonest, unjustifiable way in which he has acted all through; tell him above all that you are going to retire him from the Governorship of the State of California, and elect a liberal and a progressive whose very first official act on his assumption of the Governor's chair shall be a full and complete pardon to Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. "And I promise you if you give us this aid, if you give us this assistance, if you give us this support, we will fight as we have never fought before -- fight knowing that you are with us, because it is all the encouragement in the world to know that you feel as you do, to come out here and see you applaud as enthusiastically as you do tonight. Do that, my friends, and we promise you that we won't stop fighting until Tom Mooney has been brought out of the dark dungeons of San Quentin, has been brought down to the City of Washington; and we won't stop fighting until he is free to go out as labor's champion and tell his story of persecution against labor in the United States and lead labor to its position of political importance and political influence, and social and economic importance in the government and in the economics and in the society which is the United States. "Then, I may be assuming a little bit, but I come out here tonight particularly to appeal to you, particularly to appeal to Labor's Non-Partisan League, particularly to appeal to labor, both A. F. of L. and C.I.O.: for God's sake, not to be divided in the next Governor's race. I plead with you to do everything you can to unite on one man,- one man, if you please, who will carry the banner of labor, who will go on. And you must be vigilant; you must read everything you can get hold of in a liberal way; you must attend mass meetings of this kind; you must organize; you must unite; you must demonstrate; you must learn in every single, solitary way that you know how to find out who the right candidate is, to find out what the real issue is, so that there will be no mistake and you will have in the Governor's chair of the State of California a real liberal and a real progressive that will take the black mark off of the State of California, that will give California its place in the sun with the other States in this nation, give it its place as a State that is not inimical to labor, as a State that is willing to give labor its just due and permit labor to have just wages and labor conditions and its rights to collectively bargain with representatives of its own choosing. "Oh, I might go on talking to you about the Mooney case, but I know you people out here know all about it. I am going to have the greatest, the most wonderful experience in my life, when tomorrow morning I go to San Quentin Prison to visit Tom Mooney. It is going to be the biggest thrill and the biggest moment in my life when I see him. But I know that if he were here tonight that he would not regret it if I spend a few more moments of my time on this platform telling you about the international situation, about my experiences in Spain, about my experiences in Europe, and tell you a little bit about the domestic situation in the United States. ************ I have talked to you a long time tonight; I hope I haven't tired you too much. But in closing, I plead with you, as I never pleaded with my audience before, I plead with you to fight with us that Tom Mooney and Warren Billings will go free before this year is very old. I ask you to do all these things that I have asked you to do. I ask you to remember that we stand on the greatest threshold of the greatest fight in behalf of the common people that will ever be waged in the history of this country. I ask you to remember that we stand on the threshold, stand closer to another great war than we have ever stood before since the great world conflagration. And I ask you and plead with you tonight to go out and fight as you have never fought before, to go out and unite, to go out and organize, to go out and demonstrate that you still believe in freedom, that you still believe in liberty, that you still believe in all the great principles upon which this government was founded. I ask you to go out and fight the good fight, fight the common cause of the common man and the common woman in the United States. And if you do, democracy will triumph over fascism, progress will triumph over reaction, and peace will conquer war. I thank you very much. TON MOONEY DEFENSE CONFERENCE OF GREATER BOSTON 74 Sponsors: Joseph F. Barry Miss Alice Stone Blackwell Dan S. Callahan Mrs. E. A. Codman John S. Codman Dr. George W. Coleman James Crowley Rev. Albert C. Dieffenback Dan Doherty Robert Fechner Aldino Felicani Michael J. Flaherty Dr. Sheldon Glueck Conrad Hobbs Mrs. Cerise C. Jack Gardner Jackson John J. Kearney Alfred Baker Lewis Reuben L. Lurie James T. Moriarty J. Arthur Moriarty David K. Niles Rev. George L. Paine Arthur C. Parker Abraham Pearlstein Rev. Henry W. Pinkham George E. Roewer Rev. E. Tallmadge Root Mrs. Helen Rotch Mrs. Ida S. Ripley Prof. A. M. Schlesinger Mrs. Mary Thompson Mrs. Gertrude Winslow 1241 LITTLE BUILDING BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Dear Friends: There will be a meeting of the signatories on this letter Monday October 5th at 4 P.M. in the office of David K. Niles, Room 1242 Little Building, 80 Boylston Street, Boston. The meeting is for the purpose of arranging for the Tom Mooney Mass Meeting to be held October 11th on Boston Common in the afternoon, and in the evening at the Twentieth Century Club, 3 Joy Street, Boston. Owing to the limited time in arranging the meeting and the importance of the matter, it is quite necessary that we have your co-operation, and I sincerely hope that you can be present. Very truly yours, Leonard Craig, Secy. pro tem Mooney Defense Conference of Boston BSAOEU 14965 Mooney Meeting Tom Mooney P.O. Box 1475 San Francisco, Calif. TOM MOONEY ? [male head-shot picture] TOM MOONEY 1916 BEFORE "FRAMEUP" [male head-shot picture] NUMBER 31,921 1931 AFTER "FRAMEUP" Issued by Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee, P. O. Box 1475 O, San Francisco, California 203 A VOICE COMES UP FROM California State Prison, San Quentin, Calif. June 12, 1931. Fellow Unionists: The victim of a foul frameup instigated by agents of non-union corporations, I send you greetings from the iron tomb in which I have been confined for the past fifteen years. I write to ask what you are going to do to help in my campaign to obtain a pardon from the new governor of California, James Rolph, Jr. I feel that my twenty-nine years of membership in the International Molders' Union gives me the right to ask my brother unionists to assist me in my efforts to win liberation from this prison I was cast into because of my loyalty to the trade union movement. Fifteen years of imprisonment--for no other reason than that I attempted to frustrate powerful corporations at war with trade unionism in California. Try to imagine the misery of fifteen years of isolation in a fog-draped penitentiary. Count the bleak days, the black nights, the toil uncompensated, the wrack of constant surveillance, the ever-present feel of stone and iron, the fangs of injustice biting into the heart! And the inevitable lockup at sundown, the clang of steel doors, the rasp of bolts, the whang of metal against metal as the voice of the prison, big and bitter, carries over the Marin hills. This penitentiary has consumed the prime of my life and will eat up the balance unless the world cries out loud enough against the injustice I am suffering. I appeal to you because I am one of you. You are my brothers of the labor movement. Like you I have known the burden of the long workday. Like you I have known the irk of unfair working conditions. Like you I have OUT OF IRON DEPTHS stood up before the masters and demanded a fuller measure of the good things of life in return for my toil. But they felt in my case that I spoke too insistently. So they conspired to "put me away." The Federal Commission appointed by President Wilson many years ago to look into my case spoke the truth when they said: "The utilities against which Mooney directed his agitation undoubtedly sought 'to get' him. Mooney symbolized Labor for all the bitter opponents of Labor. The Mooney case soon resolved itself into a new aspect of an old industrial feud." And because these "bitter opponents of Labor "cast me into the penitentiary by means of perjury and fraud, I look to that militant Labor which I have come to symbolize to get me out. And what can you do to that end? Adopt resolutions favoring my pardon and mail or wire them to the Governor of California. Vote contributions of money to the Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee and help meet the cost of printing, mailing, office help and other expenses incident to my campaign to win a pardon. With my pardon petition soon to be presented to the new Governor of California, it is necessary that the pressure of public opinion in my behalf be directed toward the Executive Mansion at Sacramento. It costs money to do that. And my Defense Committee is very much in need of funds. My twenty-nine years of continuous membership in the organized labor movement should move you to eagerly share in my struggle. I implore you not to fail me. Again I send you fraternal greetings. Sincerely and fraternally yours, [*Tome Mooney*] 31921 Railway Clerks Aid Tom Mooney In Fight to Win Pardon In his battle to win release from San Quentin Prison where he has spent fifteen years as the result of a corporation-inspired frameup, Tom Mooney received both moral and financial support from the recent convention of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks in session at Denver. Resolutions adopted by the convention called upon the new Governor of California to pardon the internationally famous victim of the outstanding injustice of modern civilization. The resolution also pledged each delegate to contribute to the Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee the sum of $2 out of the funds allowed him for convention expenses. And the Grand President was instructed to write all System Boards and local Lodges recommending that Tom Mooney's defense forces be given financial aid--at this time very urgently needed. In moving to help the Mooney Defense Committee financially, the convention acted on knowledge that the campaign to win a pardon for Tom Mooney recently came to a complete standstill due to lack of funds, and that the defense force is still badly handicapped. A new governor having been recently inaugurated in California, it is very important that the pardon campaign be kept alive at this time. But without money the good fight cannot be carried on. And the coming petition for a pardon will suffer unless Governor Rolph has at his elbow expressions of public opinion from all parts of the United States in favor of Tom Mooney. The Defense headquarters is facing heavy expenses for printing, typing, mailing, stenographic help and general office overhead. As this leaflet goes to press, news comes from Chattanooga, Tenn., that the American Federation of Musicians, in national convention, has taken action to support Tom Mooney. A California delegate to the Denver convention of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks summed up the situation as follows: "I am sure I am reflecting the unanimous sentiment of the resolutions committee when I say that the Mooney-Billings resolution is one which so vitally affects Labor, which so vitally affects every delegate here today, that we cannot afford to look upon it in any light than as considering it the most important Labor resolution of this character. "When two exponents of Labor are tried for their lives, and only escape through a miracle, for crimes that were not committed by them, and are now committed to prison for the rest of their natural lives--and it was all done merely because they were exponents of Labor--that placed this resolution in the category of the most vital of its character before this convention. "That is the reason why the committee recommends the deduction of $1 from the pay of each of the delegates here assembled, and in doing so, we will make the statement that that is a small sum indeed to pay for a battle for liberty and justice." (Applause.) The convention amended the resolution pledging each delegate to give $2 instead of $1. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY RAILWAY CLERKS "Whereas: Warren K. Billings and Thomas J. Mooney have been incarcerated in California prisons for fifteen years for alleged participation in the Preparedness Day outrages in San Francisco, July 22, 1916; and "Whereas: Subsequent to their conviction facts became known and witnesses signed confessions which proved beyond all question that both Billings and Mooney were convicted on perjured testimony adduced in an atmosphere of intense social prejudice aroused against the two defendants at the behest of certain influences in San Francisco on account of their labor activities and unpopular economic theories; therefore be it "Resolved: That the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, in its fourteenth regular convention, assembled in the City of Denver, Colorado, deplore with all the emphasis it can command the continuation of the martyrdom of these two victims of hatred and tyranny; and be it further "Resolved: That the Grand President of this Brotherhood be instructed to at once telegraph the sentiment of this convention to the Honorable James Rolph, Jr., Governor of the State of California, and urge the immediate issuance of an executive pardon to Thomas J. Mooney and the exercise of his influence in bringing about such an amendment to the laws of the State of California as will enable him to likewise pardon Warren K. Billings, which a technicality now prevents his accomplishing, and to confirm this letter by telegram at the earliest practical date; and be it further "Resolved: That each delegate of this convention donate the sum of $2 to the Mooney Defense Committee, the amount to be deducted from compensation as delegates to this convention; and be it further "Resolved: That the Grand President be instructed to direct a general letter to all System Boards and local Lodges of the Brotherhood, urging those bodies to forward resolutions or letters to the Governor of the State of California, urging justice to Billings and Mooney and send donations of money to the Defense Committee to permit continuance of its costly work; and be it further "Resolved: That these resolutions be printed in full in 'The Railway Clerk' and that copies be forwarded to all recognized standard railway labor organizations, to 'Labor' and to the general press." Help Tom Mooney Win Pardon Brotherhood Editor Urges Phil E. Ziegler, editor of "The Railway Clerk," official organ of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, has written an editorial calling attention to the recent action of the Brotherhood voting the Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee financial assistance and urging all railroad labor bodies to do likewise. At its Denver convention, the delegates, following the adoption of pro-Mooney resolution, contributed a total of $1200 to help replenish Tom Mooney's depleted defense fund. Ziegler's editorial follows: Never during the long struggle to free Tom Mooney have the chances that justice would finally triumph seemed brighter. Although the latest revelations in connection with the famous case have not weakened the determination of the reactionary forces of California to keep Mooney forever buried in prison, they have at the same time aroused liberty-loving Americans as they have not before been aroused to the terrible injustice that has been committed against this innocent man. The Mooney case has more friends and more powerful influences behind it today than ever before. Great newspapers have taken up the fight and public sentiment throughout the nation is being created favorable to Mooney's pardon. California cannot long withstand the pressure of this nation-wide sentiment. Now is the time for organized labor to act! The Brotherhood of Railway Clerks at its convention last month adopted a resolution strongly urging the pardon of Mooney, and contributed over $1200.00 to the Defense Fund to aid in carrying on the fight. If all the great international labor organizations should take similar action it would give the movement to free Tom Mooney an impetus that the reactionary employers and politicians of California could not longer resist. (Signed) PHIL E. ZIEGLER. Gratitude to Brotherhood Expressed by Tom Mooney (The following article was written by a newspaperman long in friendly contact with the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks.) San Quentin the larger of the two state penitentiaries of California, is situated on what the original Spanish settlers called "La Punta de San Quentin," or Point San Quentin, on the upper portion of the incomparable Bay of San Francisco. When the fog hangs over the bay, the fortress-like prison buildings are cold and grim and seem fittingly placed. But when the fog rolls away and the bright California sunshine plays on the blue waters of the bay and reveals the hills which bound the view in every direction the ugly buildings are a blot on the lovely picture, an eyesore, a desecration. I had elected to visit San Quentin for the purpose of conveying to Tom Mooney, its most notable inmate--or rather victim--the good wishes of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees. As our automobile swung around a curve and the prison came into view, a gray fog was hanging over it and I felt a perceptible chill come over me. A gang of prisoners clad in denim trousers and gray flannel shirts, engaged in some road work, waved cheerfully, must as other laborers often greet the passerby. Leaving the car at the outer gate, I was permitted to pass afoot after registering and to traverse a road for about 100 yards to the building in which was located the office of the Captain of the Guard. My announcing that I had come for the purpose of visiting Tom Mooney brought a sharp, penetrating glance from the guard. I quickly produced a card of introduction from the office of the Sheriff of San Francisco. I was then required to report to the office of the warden. Here a secretary intercepted me and asked me the reason I desired to see Mr. Mooney. I said I merely desired to pay him a visit on behalf of the railroad and steamship workers represented by the Brotherhood. He disappeared into the warden's private office and returned in a few minutes and stated that I might return to the Captain's office as my request would be granted. A prisoner in a perfunctory manner asked me to sign a slip of paper and indicated the waiting room where I was required to wait about three-quarters of an hour before I was admitted to the inner room where the prisoners are visited. In passing it is but fitting to state that the excess of formality attaching to one's visiting the famous prisoner is a portion of the refined punishment which is now being meted out to him in retaliation for his denouncing the former Governor who was exceedingly busy attempting to escape being "smoked out" on the Mooney case just prior to the last election --a piece of political "artful dodging" which cost the said former Governor a perfectly good election. Tom Enters "Mooney!" a guard at last called, and I followed him into the Reception Room as the cheerless chamber is called. It is equipped with long tables divided in the center by partitions about a foot and a half in height. As I reached the door Mooney, clad in white trousers and shirt, in keeping with his present duties in the prison kitchen, was rapidly advancing to the table. He smilingly reached over the partition and shook hands with me and expressed his gratitude to the great Brotherhood which he had been informed had spoken and acted so effectively on his behalf. The guard pressed a chair against me by way of getting me efficiently seated much in the fashion of waiters in first-class restaurants, which action, I suspect, was not related so much to service as to the technique of getting visitors and prisoners quickly into position for conversation-- and effective watching. Women visitors and prisoners would embrace and kiss over the awkwardly paced barriers. I had always pictured Mooney as a bitter and crushed individual. Instead I found him a genial personage--one gifted with humor and philosophy, which, with a valiant fighting spirit, have enabled him to survive fifteen years of persecution. He is of medium height, heavily built and is now in middle life. His head tends toward the massive--high forehead with the hair-lines retreating, bushy eye-brows, greenish eyes, well modeled nose, large ears, mouth firmly set, chin neither aggressive nor retreating--a frequent Irish type. His hair is now heavily streaked with gray, but not more so than is common with men in their early fifties. Mooney is a fluent speaker--and a convincing one. His choice of words is good as is his grammar. His thoughts are well marshaled and he is one of those rare individuals whose faces "light up" when they speak or constantly change with their thoughts, that is to say, possess mobility in more than the ordinary measure. "Tell the members of the Brotherhood that I am profoundly grateful for the action of their convention in so generously extending both their moral and financial aid to me," Mooney said. Then in a wistful tone he expressed his sorrow at his helplessness in these trying times when the world of labor so needed every one of its sons to wage the battle for economic and political justice. "But don't you know," he added with a sort of quiet courage, "I often feel that I am not at all removed from the battle, which is always going on as it will go on to the final issue, and my place in it is that of a symbol--the symbol of the class struggle!" Woman Sobs Hysterical sobbing interrupted us. A woman visitor had fallen across the table weeping bitterly while the thin-faced prisoner whom she had come to see leaned far over the petition with features taut with pain and sought to comfort her as men do with their women out in the great world we call "free." Mr. Mooney's expressive face re- [*Tom Mooney Co*] flected ready sympathy as he looked toward the suffering couple, "Ah," he said, "we have these painful scenes with us always. The women cling to their faith in the prisoners or when the men fall ill they hope to secure their release and their pain is almost too much when their efforts fail." We resumed our conversation which covered a wide range--the present economic plight of the world and the repercussions which must come from it--the details of the amassing legal conspiracy responsible for Mooney's fifteen years imprisonment--the plans for the continuance of his fight for freedom--the local and National political situations --the future of the Labor Movement--and other topics. "Tell me, Mr. Mooney," I asked suddenly. "What were your reactions while you were under sentence of death? Were your mental sufferings almost beyond endurance? Did you experience tremendous fear?" "No I cannot say that I suffered in the manner implied in your questions," he answered slowly and simply. "At all times I considered that I was in a great battle and I was struggling with every resource at my command. This feeling I had with me even when my execution was seemingly only a few days removed. And I still have it and shall have it always. If it were not for that I could never have gone through the ordeal; indeed I could not now exist." "In the event of your release what plans have you for your future activities?" I asked. He smiled incredulously. "I never dare to anticipate my release and, therefore, have no plans for the future." And he added that none knew better than he the power of the forces which had immured him in San Quentin and kept him there. It was clear, though, that he hoped for release and had faith in its being achieved if the lovers of Liberty everywhere would marshal their forces until the cry, "Justice!" would be a universal one that could not be ignored. The guard indicated that my hour's visit must terminate. ADIOS Mooney shook hands and in parting begged me to thank every member of the great Brotherhood for him. And he added: "I thank you for coming with your message of good cheer and courage. I feel that your visit has helped me greatly, in fact, it has stimulated me more than any I have had for a long time and I am very grateful." On leaving the dismal building I found that the fog had been entirely dissipated and the glorious bay and hills were revealed in their matchless beauty. Yet I could not throw off the depression which came from contact with the doleful institution which blights "La Punta de San Quentin." Climbing into the waiting motor car, I was soon being driven across the beautiful countryside through the towns of San Rafael, San Anselmo and Fairfax up and over the hills to the west of the last village and to the north of Mt. Tamalpais, down into the valley in which lies Alpine Lake and then up a second high ridge covered with the glorious Redwoods of California--and then the great Pacific Ocean sang its ceaseless song. Our road took us down to the edge of the ocean and for miles we followed it, either thundering along its glorious beaches or along shelves high on rocky bluffs. I have never been able to resist the calming influence of the ocean and by the time we reached the ferry at Sausalito my depression had lifted materially. I had a more practical outlook on the Mooney case--that of doing everything possible to bring the truth to the people of the nation; therein lies the hope of eventual justice. Make all Money Payable to TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P. O. Box 1475 O, San Francisco, Calif. San Francisco, California August, 1931 Dear Friend: The fate of Tom Mooney is in your hands. Powerful forces, which engineered his frame-up and secured his conviction by fraud and perjury , are now trying to block his pardon. Governor Rolph has been in office eight months. And Tom Mooney is still in San Quentin Penitentiary. Unless you and the rest of our friends make it possible for us to reach the people with our message; unless we receive immediate and generous financial aid, Tom Mooney faces four more years of agony. At this critical moment when our entire battle-line should be ablaze with fire, our guns are silenced for lack of ammunition. At the time when hundreds of thousands of people should be stirred into action, we have not enough money even for the stationery on which to send this S. O. S. to our friends. Nor is this due to lack of economy or efficiency. Most of our work is done by volunteers; those few who receive compensation accept but a very meager pay. The quality of their work, their enthusiasm and devotion deserve the highest praise. The books of the Committee are audited monthly by a certified public accountant of unquestioned standing. Enclosed is a financial statement covering the period since the reorganization of the Committee--September 1928 to May 1931. Mimeographed copies of the June and July statements are available upon request. Since May 1931, the last month mentioned in the enclosed statement, contributions have been insufficient. We are facing a deficit and debts amounting to $3600. And until at least a portion of our printing bill is paid, we must dispense with even our well-known letterhead. Our financial difficulties are due to the wide scope of our work; the unavoidable expenses connected with it; and the insidious activity of powerful enemies. Recently, one of their mouthpieces, The Lost Angeles Times, again published a scurrilous and libelous attack upon Tom Mooney and his Committee. Undoubtedly the Times wished to thwart the powerful effect of the Wickersham Report to the President. "Shocking to one's sense of Justice" was the Wickersham verdict, echoing the conviction of millions the world over. Many who were prejudiced or indifferent are not willing to study the case. We know that once all the facts are known the indignation and resentment of the American people will sweep aside the dark forces that would rule or ruin. Appealing for financial aid is to us an increasingly painful task. But we must again appeal or concede defeat. We must obtain more funds or discontinue our efforts on behalf of Tom Mooney. Our plight is desperate. We must ask you to come to our aid in this emergency. Will you help? THE FATE OF TOM MOONEY IS IN YOUR HANDS. Very sincerely yours, TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE Kindly address all communications and make all funds payable to: TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE, P. O. Box 1475N, San Francisco, Calif. Tom Mooney Attend to TOM MOONEY MOLDER'S DEFENSE COMMITTEE Box 1475, San Francisco Date 6/1/37 Received Five Dollars ($5.00) Name Alice Stone Blackwell Street 29 Wendell St City Cambridge Mass Organization Tom Mooney, Secretary DW No. 19585 TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE Receipts and Disbursements September, 1928, to May, 1931 San Francisco, Calif. June 20, 1931 Dear Friends: Herewith is a financial report of all moneys collected and spent by the Tom Mooney Molders Defense Committee during the past two years and eight months; September, 1928, to May, 1931. The report was compiled by an outstanding certified Public Accountant, Mr. A. Schapiro of San Francisco, under date of May 31, 1931. Thank you heartily for the support you have given Tom Mooney. Sincerely yours, Tom Mooney Molders Defense Committee. 203 Tom Mooney 1916 BEFORE "FRAMEUP" NUMBER 31,921 1931 AFTER "FRAMEUP" FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE September 1, 1928, to May 31, 1931 Tom Mooney Molders Defense Committee, San Francisco, California. Gentlemen: In compliance with your request to audit the books of the Tom Mooney Molders Defense Committee from its reorganization in September, 1928, down to May 31, 1931, I submit herewith the results of my audit. Before coming to the actual figures constituting the most of this audit, it will not be amiss to make a few remarks concerning the records and routine leading up to the final entry of these transactions on the books. As mail came into the office, it was segregated after being opened, into two groups, one containing donations, and the other all other matter. The former group would then have individual receipts issued from numbered receipt books made out in duplicate, the duplicate being permanently retained in the book, the original, perforated, being mailed to the donor wherever the name and address were indicated either in the letter or on the envelope. The letters, or if none were enclosed, the envelopes, were then marked with the corresponding receipt number, and filled numerically so that access could readily be had to the original data concerning any contribution. The information on receipts was then entered into the cash book, and the amount received deposited in the bank. Incidentally, during the last month or so, additional precautions and safeguards have been instituted in the handling of cash which make for greater accuracy, and greater ease in auditing. A number of suggestions made in my previous audit have been followed out, namely issuing receipts for all cash that came in, regardless of the source; also a complete set of double entry books to insure accuracy and completeness of records; and the signing of checks by two individuals-- all of which make for more accessible and more accurate information. Disbursements have all been made by check, with the exception of payment of small bills out of a petty cash fund, and are practically all substantiated by properly authorized vouchers. Following this foreword are a number of statements setting forth the financial transactions of the Defense Fund at different periods of time and places, all of which have been consolidated into one schedule and constitute the complete financial work of the Committee. Report No.1 covers the period under which the funds were managed by Mary Gallagher, and which were the subject of an audit rendered by me at the close of 1930. The figures on the present statement are taken from my former report and agree therewith except that book entries such as transfer of funds from one account to another, loans temporarily made and subsequently repaid, have been eliminated so as to show only actual contributions and disbursements. Furthermore, the present statement embodies all the transactions under the Gallagher administration, to the final disbursement of the funds in payment of unpaid bills outstanding at the time of the former audit. It will also be noted that a more detailed separation of the source of receipts has been compiled so as to show contributions from individuals as distinguished from various groups of organized labor. Statement No. 2 sets forth the transactions of the Defense Fund from the time that Mary Gallagher left down to May 31, 1931. These figures have all been obtained from the records which were all available, and I am satisfied that all cash received and disbursed during this period has been properly accounted for or authorized. Statement No. 3 is a copy of a report made by Harry F. Booth, a certified public accountant in the city of Los Angeles, and covers the financial transactions of the Los Angeles division of the Mooney Defense Committee under the direct supervision of Miss Barnsdall. Certain eliminations and combinations have been made in transcribing the figures in this report which however in no way affect the actual receipts and disbursements. Statement No. 4 is a short statement setting forth by percentages the various sources of receipts. Statement No. 5 sets forth the consolidated results of the three foregoing statements, and presents a bird's eye view of the administration of the Mooney Defense Fund from its reorganization in September, 1928, to May 31, 1931. In addition to the expenses incurred as set forth in the foregoing statements, there are at the date of this audit unpaid bills in the amount of $1,982.31, representing bills incurred for the printing of pamphlets and circulars, and the purchase of necessary office equipment for more economical handling of office and addressing routine. The balance in the bank was reconciled with the bank statement at the end of May, 1931, and found to be correct. Respectfully submitted, A. Schapiro, Certified Public Accountant. Statement No. 1 STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 - DECEMBER 1, 1930 Receipts: General public ... $17,544.39 Miss Barnsdall ... 5,200.00 A. F. L. Unions outside of California ... 5,142.42 International Molders Union ... 2,323.60 A. F. L. California Unions ... 1,174.48 Unions not in A. F. L. ... 1,468.00 TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS ... $32,852.89 Interest on bank funds ... 310.02 Sale of pamphlets, Hunt's Book, etc. ... 2,618.02 TOTAL RECEIPTS ... $35,780.93 Disbursements: Rent of office ... $1,442.91 Mailing expense--Freight and postage ... 2,710.75 Publicity and clipping expense ... 2,044.02 Office, clerical and addressing salaries ... 6,941.37 Secretary's salary ... 2,967.00 Photos and drawings ... 144.65 Circulars and pamphlets ... 7,589.62 Newspapers and magazines ... 168.29 San Quentin trips ... 77.00 Affidavits and transcripts ... 1,153.80 American Civil Liberties expenses ... 266.90 Freight ... 11.91 Rental of halls ... 615.58 Advertising ... 1,109.04 Telegrams and Telephone ... 737.71 Office petty cash ... 258.58 Travel expenses ... 1,562.41 Legal expense ... 2,350.00 Miscellaneous expenses ... 1,057.74 Stationery and office supplies ... 233.54 Rent of safe deposit and postoffice boxes ... 34.00 Prisoners' Fund ... 662.61 Walter Liggett -- Salary and expenses ... 1,402.73 Transferred to Billings Defense Fund ... 119.38 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS ... $35,661.54 Balance in bank December, 1930 ... $119.39 Statement No. 2 STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE DECEMBER 1, 1930 - MAY 31, 1931 Receipts: Balance on hand December 1, 1930 ... $119.39 General public ... 6,941.22 Miss Barnsdall ... 5,000.00 A.F.L. Unions outside of California ... 561.32 International Molders Union ... 72.75 A.F.L. Unions in California ... 160.00 Unions not in A.F.L. ... 103.00 Miscellaneous income ... 34.25 Sale of pamphlets ... 1,139.70 TOTAL RECEIPTS ... $14,131.63 Disbursements: Rent ... 305.00 Mailing expense--Freight and postage ... 1,956.95 Salaries--Publicity and field workers ... 1,563.20 Office and clerical salaries ... 2,107.98 Secretary's salary ... 276.25 Printing circulars and pamphlets ... 2,649.14 Newspapers and magazines ... 73.02 Advertising ... 185.96 Travel expenses ... 85.28 General expense ... 500.09 Stationery and office supplies ... 433.70 Prisoners' Fund ... 15.60 Telephone ... 65.02 Field workers ... 967.95 Furniture and fixtures ... 182.76 Walter Liggett--Salary ... 1,700.00 Walter Liggett--Expenses ... 536.50 Hearse expense--No. 1 and No. 2 ... 613.08 Trips to San Quentin ... 41.81 Telegrams ... 16.38 Affidavits and transcripts ... 42.80 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS ... $14,318.47 DEFICIT--May 31, 1931 ... $186.84 Statement No. 3 MOONEY DEFENSE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STATEMENT OF CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS JULY 25, 1930 - DECEMBER 31, 1930 Receipts: Miss Barnsdall ... $4,050.41 Disbursements: Printing ... $2,449.41 Salaries ... 475.00 Postmaster--Advance deposit ... 250.00 Signs ... 381.00 Distributing expense ... 154.35 Press Clipping Bureau ... 110.63 Typists ... 94.50 Stationery and office supplies ... 30.80 Auto expense ... 32.95 Typewriter rental ... 27.00 Postage ... 17.57 Miscellaneous ... 27.20 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS ... $4,050.41 BALANCE IN BANK ... none Statement No. 4 ANALYSIS OF CONTRIBUTIONS of TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 - MAY 31, 1931 Individual contributions ... 74% A.F.L. Unions outside of California ... 11% Sale of pamphlets, etc ... 7% International Molders Union ... 5% A.F.L. Unions in California ... 2% Miscellaneous ... 1% TOTAL ... 100% Statement No. 5 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS TOM MOONEY MOLDERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 - MAY 31, 1931 Receipts: General public ... $24,485.61 Miss Barnsdall ... 14,250.41 A.F.L. Unions outside of California ... 5,703.65 International Molders Union ... 2,396.35 A.F.L. California Unions ... 1,334.48 Unions not in A.F.L. ... 1,571.00 Interest on bank funds ... 310.02 Sale of pamphlets, Hunt's Book, etc ... 3,757.72 Miscellaneous income ... 34.25 TOTAL RECEIPTS ... $53,843.58 Disbursements: Rent of office ... $1,747.91 Mailing expense--Freight and postage ... 4,947.18 Publicity and Clipping Bureau and field workers 4,685.80 Office, clerical and addressing salaries ... 13,016.45 Photos, drawings and signs ... 525.65 Circulars and pamphlets ... 12,688.17 Newspapers and magazines ... 241.31 San Quentin trips ... 118.81 Affidavits and transcripts ... 1,196.60 American Civil Liberties expense ... 266.90 Rental of halls for meetings ... 615.58 Advertising ... 1,295.00 Telephone and telegraph ... 819.11 Miscellaneous expense ... 1,843.61 Travel and auto expense ... 1,680.64 Stationery and office supplies ... 725.04 Legal expense ... 2,350.00 Rent of safe deposit and postoffice boxes ... 34.00 Prisoners' Fund ... 678.21 Transferred to Billings Defense Fund ... 119.38 Furniture and fixtures ... 182.76 Walter Liggett--Salary ... 3,000.00 Walter Liggett--Expenses ... 639.23 Hearse expense--No. 1 and No. 2 ... 613.08 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS ... $54,030.42 DEFICIT--MAY 31,1931 ... $186.84 FREE MOONEY AND BILLINGS TOM MOONEY A MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS UNION FOR 34 YEARS ON AUGUST 2, 1936 WARREN K. BILLINGS PAST PRESIDENT OF THE BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS LOCAL UNION NO. 216 OF SAN FRANCISCO Class War Prisoners for 20 Years on July 27, 1936 The Victims of a Monstrous Capitalist Class Frameup County Jail #1, San Francisco. August 13th, 1936. Dear Friend Irene: Your letter reached me recently and I thank you for the enclosed clippings. I have only a few moments in which to write this evening so this will have to be brief. I am trying to answer most of my mail and get things ready for my return to Represa, which I think will take place some time early next week, probably about Tuesday. The taking of testimony at this hearing was concluded today and we have only a few more documents to present during the session tomorrow and then it is likely that the hearing will be definitely closed on Monday when both Frank P Walsh and John F. Finnerty, the eastern attornies, will be present. Of course there will be some argument and other proceedings before the case is submitted to the court but I will not need to be present for that as I am merely here as a witness. Sorry to hear that it has been so hot and dry in your district and hope that the drought has been broken long before this and that at least a part of the crop has been saved. I received quite a few letters from Minneapolis and St. Paul Unions as a result of our 20th anniversary celebration, - it seems that New York, Minneapolis & St. Paul, and San Francisco and Los Angeles are the only places where there was much activity in our behalf, - at least most of our letters came from those places. We had a good meeting here, - about 9500 people present and collected $1880. The meeting held in N.Y. was quite a success too, I understand, although I have not yet head the detailed report on it. It was held on July 30th, - ours was July 26th. The International Ladies Garment Workers Unions, - the Railroad Brotherhoods and the Maritime Federation unions were the ones who made our meeting a success. More than 3000 of the members of the Maritime Federation Unions marched past the jail shouting "Free Mooney and Billings". Now the unions here are being asked to make Labor Day another Mooney-Billings Day and many of the unions are planning to have their members wearing sashes bearing our names when they march in the parade or to have them carrying banners demanding our release. Havent time for more just now. Hope I will be able to write to greater length next time. Sincerely always, Warren K. Billings [*I took one of these pictures and mounted it and hung it on the wall of our rooms. Do not send this back. Please use it or pass it on.*] July 31, 1930. NOTE. To the Members of the National Mooney-Billings Committte: I enclose herewith the minutes of the last meeting of the committee together with a mimeographed copy of the Governor's statement and the Supreme Court's recommendations in the Mooney-Billings case. If any of the members of the committee have any suggestions for activities other than those covered in the minutes. please let me have them. Very truly yours, Roger Baldwin RNB:RW TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P O BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 30, 1937 STATEMENT BY TOM MOONEY Once again a partisan and prejudiced California court has refused to do simple justice in my case and has denied my petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Had the court granted the writ, I would at last have been freed. The majority of the court, however, listening to the dictates of the powerful special interests which framed me and are not intent upon keeping me in prison in spite of my admitted and unequivocally established innocence, has once more shamed the name of California justice. I am not discouraged. The case will be appealed immediately to the United States Supreme Court, where we have every hope of freedom and vindication. While Justice Langdon's dissenting opinion unequivocally declares: "Mooney was not accorded due process of law," it was disheartening to the point of keen disappointment when we recall the scathing indictment of the majority opinion of the California Supreme Court written by Justice Langdon in Warren K. Billings' application for a pardon recommendation in 1930. Justice Langdon states in his two-paragraph dissenting opinion: "No useful purpose would be served by reviewing the evidence. The preponderance of the material, credible evidence in the record leads me to conclude that on his trial petitioner (Mooney) was not accorded due process of law. For that reason, the writ of habeas corpus should issue." Justice Langdon did review the case in a most masterly fashion in the 1930 proceedings above referred to, where both Billings and Mooney were denied the right to present evidence in support of their claim of innocence and establish California's culpability in the Mooney case. I am firmly of the opinion that all the pressure and power that has been arrayed against me for the past twenty-one and a half years has been leveled at Justice Langdon during the past few months and that this has caused him to withhold what every liberty and justice-loving citizen had a reasonable right to expect of him,- a fearless and courageous review of the dastardly frame-up which the majority of the members of the California Supreme Court attempted to justify through rationalizing the downright perjury and fraud and conspiracy on the part of the public officials in San Francisco who framed us twenty-one and a half years ago. The majority of the Court has ignored the facts, disregarded the record, and consciously refused to recognize the whole rotten mess of perjury, lies and corruption on which our original conviction and continued imprisonment rest. It is one of the keenest disappointments of my life to see how Justice Langdon has fallen short of our expectations. I can understand why, because I have known the cruel lash of that all-powerful pressure for more than a score of years. -2- We are not going to seek a re-hearing on our writ of habeas corpus, because the only knowledge I have of where the California Supreme Court has ever granted a motion for a re-hearing was in the Fair will case, in which former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, Frederick W. Henshow, changed his vote for $10,000.00 and then reversed his original decision, permitting the heirs of the Fair estate to break the will. For this, Justice Henshaw received $400,000.00. According to the Densmore Report, the disclosures gathered by the United States Department of Labor in 1918, Associate Justice Henshaw was the intellectual guiding genius in the foul conspiracy to frame and railroad us to a living death. As a result of the exposure by the Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee, Frederick W. Henshaw was driven from the California Supreme Court in shame and disgrace. It is very fitting that this Court would further show its prejudice and vindictiveness by continuing the monstrous injustice that is the Mooney case. Furthermore, we haven't $10,000.00. California has once more proven that justice is not only dead in this State but it is so deeply buried that it will never be resurrected. Official California has forfeited the last shred of respect due her by lovers of justice throughout the world. Justice Landon's opinion should become the majority opinion of the United States Supreme Court. This court has a record of integrity in cases involving civil rights. This fact and the universal cry for justice that will be raised throughout the country should result in our freedom. In the event the United States Supreme Court fails to do simple justice by freeing me with honorable vindication, I will appeal to the court of last resort,- to the workers of this nation now aroused as they never before have been to the consciousness of their own economic and political power, to bring our ultimate, unconditional freedom and vindication through a stoppage of all work. Meanwhile, I call upon the hosts of labor and all progressive and liberty-loving people to protest the decision of the California Supreme Court by holding mass meetings and demonstrations to expose and condemn this monstrous miscarriage of justice and the cowardly refusal of public officials to remedy this great wrong. The united protest and strength of organized labor is the only sure key to our freedom and honorable vindication. [*Tom Mooney*] TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P O BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA PRESS SERVICE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 23, 1937 CLOSING ARGUMENT ON TOM MOONEY'S WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT BY MOONEY'S ATTORNEY, GEORGE T. DAVIS Petitioner's case does not rest upon conflicts of opinion, but on demonstrable facts and evidence. A fair analysis of the evidence proves the issues stated in this proceeding, namely, perjury, knowledge of perjury and suppression of evidence. Casting aside the cloak of prejudice that has shrouded the Mooney case for more than twenty-one years, we now find the following situation. For twenty-one years a continual effort has been made to undo the wrong that was done this man, to rectify the injustice that was committed upon him. The courts have held every prior judicial attempt ineffectual, not because the facts do not justify the remedy sought, but for the reason that the Constitution and laws of California prevented them from even hearing the facts of petitioner's case. Now, after recourse to the Supreme Court of the United States, this court has recognized the existence of a remedy in the Mooney case. It remains to be seen whether the recognition of the remedy will be followed by an application of the principles upon which the remedy is based. In its opinion in the case of People VS. Mooney in 1917 it was held by this court that it "has no authority to consider these matters as thus presented." Today there can be no question as to the authority of this court to act and to consider these matters as now presented. The legal rule is that for every wrong there is a remedy. The imprisonment of a human being, and the deprivation of liberty, resulting from the use of perjury, knowledge of perjury, and suppression of evidence, is a violation of those fundamental principles of justice which lie at the base of our civil and political institutions. For twenty-one years Tom Mooney has been wrongly branded a vicious criminal and has been tied to California's industrial whipping post. For more than a score of years the Mooney case has been a political football. Fickert, the district attorney who framed Mooney, was repudiated by the people in the next election following the frame-up - and twenty years later he testified in this proceeding, a broken, degenerate spectacle of humanity - a paid state witness - analogous in every respect to John MacDonald, the man whose testimony he coached and framed twenty years before, and every governor of California who has rejected Mooney's plea for a pardon has been defeated for reelection. You have heard the Attorney-General brand MacDonald an unmitigated liar - you have heard him admit that Oxman intended to suborn the perjury of Ed Rigall. You heard him tell you that even if the Edeaus lied, their perjury was in itself no proof of knowledge by the district attorney. The record of this proceeding fills every gap between the admissions of the Attorney-General and the allegations of our petition. This case was a deliberate, vicious and criminal attempt by the public officials of California to murder an innocent man. They were driven by industrial forces masquerading under the guise of law and order, and dominated by a desire to establish the open, non-union shop in San Francisco, and, if necessary, to crush ruthlessly organized labor's struggle for the right to organize. Had Tom Mooney never attempted to organize the 2200 platform men of the United Railroads, he would not have spent the past twenty-one years, the full flower of his manhood, in San Quentin. The very crime of which he is innocent and was falsely convicted would, in all probability, never have been perpetrated on this community. -2- The very people who framed Mooney for this monstrous crime are themselves responsible for it, because it is they who committed it. Mooney was arrested, every clue pointing to any other person was rejected, and the evidence was framed to fit the arrested man by fabrication, coloring of testimony, actual subordination of perjury and suppression of all material evidence favorable to Mooney. For twenty-one years, and until the bearing which has been granted by this court, Tom Mooney has been balked at every turn to justice. He has met a course of judicial conduct which, if persisted in, threatens the whole fabric of civilization, for the whole purpose of civilization is the protection of life which the agencies of civilization here conspired to destroy. The United States Supreme Court in sending this case back to California said: "Without attempting at this time to deal with the question at length, we deem it sufficient for the present purpose to say that we are unable to approve this narrow view of the requirement of due process. That requirement, in safeguarding the liberty of the citizen against deprivation through the action of the State, embodies the fundamental conceptions of justice which lie at the base of our civil and political institutions. It is a requirement that cannot be deemed to be satisfied by mere notice and hearing if a State has contrived a conviction through the pretence of a trial which in truth is but used as a means of depriving a defendant of liberty through a deliberate deception of court and jury by the presentation of testimony known to be perjured. Such a contrivance by a State to procure the conviction and imprisonment of a defendant is as inconsistent with the rudimentary demands of justice as is the obtaining of a like result by intimidation. And the action of prosecuting officers on behalf of the State, like that of administrative officers in the execution of its laws, may constitute state action within the purview of the Fourteenth Amendment. That Amendment governs any action of a State, whether through its legislature, through its courts, or through its executive or administrative officers." Gentlemen, we have laid facts and circumstances before you which clearly indicate beyond all reasonable doubt that the very instrument created by the people for protection of human life and private property - the altar of justice - has been desecrated by the very agents created to enforce and administer justice. Only the all-seeing God above prevented the appalling judicial crime committed against Tom Mooney from reaching the consummation which induced its perpetrators to plan it. Gentlemen, we rest our case in your hands sincere in the conviction and hope that justice, once fled from the California courts to a refuge in the bosoms of the men and women who constitute the masses of our population, has returned to grace the intelligence of this court. The showing we have made before you leaves only one course to follow and that is for this court to wipe out this stain upon the administration of justice in California by immediately, uncompromisingly and unequivocally setting free the petitioner, Thomas J. Mooney. MOTHER MOONEY IN LIFE AND IN DEATH California State Prison, San Quentin, Cal. 10-27 34. My dear Comrades, Friends and Fellow Unionists: The cruelest blow I ever suffered in my whole life - the death of my dear faithful and loving Mother, on September 2, crushed me for days, but I am slowly recovering from its almost paralyzing effect. There was a strong but tender bond of love that bound my Mother to me.There was nothing that she would not do for me. No task was too great, no errand too difficult for her to run to help "her boy," and thereby help the working class. She lived and worked for just one thing - to see me free. This became life's main object with her, - the dream of her life and mine, - and we were robbed of that which could have proved to be a very happy day for both of us - my freedom while she was yet alive. Now it is my tragedy,- only one of the many many cruel sledge-hammer blows rained upon me during this eighteen year crucifixion by a vicious cut-throat capitalist class because of my devotion and militant loyalty to the workers. The story of Mother Mooney is one that must not be lost to the working class. It will inspire many a working class mother to greater efforts in the age-old historic march of the Proletariat to their real economic freedom. This story will be prepared and given to the labor movement later on. The all important thing right now is to make a grand last minute effort to finish Mother Mooney's fight to free her son. That was the pledge made to her by ten thousand workers who came to the San Francisco Civic Auditorium on September 8th. 1934, to pay their last reverent, loving and revolutionary working class respects to my dear departed mother. Upton Sinclair, former Socialist and internationally known champion of right and justice has declared that if he is elected governor of the State of California his first official act will be to pardon Tom Mooney. This is the first time during my 18 years in prison that any candidate for governor of the State of California on the democratic or republican ticket has publicly pledged himself to pardon Tom Mooney if elected. Upton Sinclair was nominated for governor on the democratic ticket in the recent primary election, by a vote of 438,000, 100,000 more votes than were cast for the present acting Governor Frank Merriam, seeking re-election on the republican ticket. Governor Merriam is an absolute tool of the bankers and captains of industry. He was given a $30,000. primary election campaign fund by the ship-owners for calling out the State Militia during the recent Pacific Coast Longshoremens' Strike. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company contributed $13,000. to his campaign. This public utility corporation is one of the most active enemies to my freedom - they were also most active and instrumental in framing me. Acting Governor Merriam, at the behest of these cut-throat capitalists has refused to pardon me. He refused to permit me to attend the funeral of my Mother; he even refused to let me see my Mother for the last time, in death, when my brother and sister brought her to the very gates of San Quentin Prison only to be turned back. The bankers and industrialists are now spending millions of dollars in every conceivable way to defeat Upton Sinclair. They will not stop at anything, even murder, to accomplish their foul purpose. They will hire some agent provocateur to commit some dastardly crime and accuse the Sinclair forces of it. Unquestionably the outstanding issues in this campaign are, the feeding of millions of unemployed and starving workers in California, and the pardon of Tom Mooney. The Master Class and their political henchmen are desperate because of the drift to the left. The great masses are determined to end starvation in the midst of plenty. The Sinclair EPIC Plan-End Poverty in California - will be tried. If it fails to satisfy the masses of the people they will march still further to the left, and ultimately to social revolution. They will not die starving without a struggle. This campaign FOR THE ELECTION OF UPTON SINCLAIR for governor offers the greatest hope for my freedom since my arrest 18 years ago. The Mooney case will be one of the greatest factors in electing Sinclair. No Governor of California refusing to pardon me has ever been re-elected. We want to give the story of Tom Mooney's Frame-up to thousands of California voters before the November election. Will you help us do this? I hope you will extend yourself more now than ever before because of the urgent need in order that we may be able to fully do our part by bringing the real meaning of the Mooney case to the attention of every voter in California. Give something personally if you have it, get others to give, urge every union and all other organizations of workers to donate. Take up collections and rush all funds immediately to the Tom Mooney Molders' Defense Committee, P.O. Box 1475-B, San Francisco, California, to help us end the Mooney Case in California. Speed in this matter is most important. Only three weeks remain before election. Take immediate action. Ten dollars now is better than one hundred later on. All smaller sums in proportion will be thankfully received and greatly appreciated. The election is drawing near - hurry. Can I count on you in this emergency? My warm personal regards and firm proletarian greetings, Sincerely, Tom Mooney 31921 TO MY DEAR MOTHER-----MARY MOONEY. A FOND AND LOVING FAREWELL FOREVER TO THE MORTAL REMAINS OF MY DEAR, DEVOTED, FAITHFUL AND LOVING PROLETARIAN MOTHER. YOUR DEATH HAS CRUSHED ME FOR THE MOMENT BUT I WILL RALLY AGAIN IN YOUR BRAVE SPIRIT AND CARRY ON FOR YOU. THE MEMORY OF YOU WILL FOREVER REMAIN GREEN WITH ME AND MILLIONS OF OTHER TOILERS ALL OVER THE WORLD. AND HOW I WILL MISS YOU MOTHER DEAR. NO ONE CAN EVER REALLY KNOW ALL THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TO ME. YOU HAVE ENSHRINED YOURSELF BEAUTIFULLY IN THE HEARTS OF ALL TRUE WORKERS. A WONDERFUL PLACE AWAITS YOU IN WORKING CLASS HISTORY AND NOTHING CAN ROB YOU OF THAT, OR OF THE WARMTH THAT WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY HART FOR YOU. I'M PROUD OF YOU, MOTHER DEAR, AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE, AND MY PROLETARIAN BLESSINGS WILL FOREVER AND ALWAYS BE UPON YOU. AGAIN, MOTHER DEAR, WITH AN ACHING HEART, I BID YOU, FOR THE LAST TIME, A LONG LAST FOND AND LOVING FAREWELL FOREVER. YOUR LOVING AND GRATEFUL GRIEF-STRICKEN PROLETARIAN SON, Tom Mooney 31921 LABOR DAY, SEPETEMBER 3,1934. CALIFORNIA STATE PRISON, SAN QUENTIN, CALIFORNIA. MOONEY AND BILLINGS. Governor Young's statement denying Mooney's pardon. July 8, 1930; The decision of the Supreme Court of California on the application of Warren K. Billings. July 2, 1930 Reprinted by National Mooney-Billings Committee 100 Fifth Avenue, New York City. GOVERNOR'S STATEMENT "I have before me an application for pardon in the case of Thomas J. Mooney, now undergoing life imprisonment in San Quentin Prison, together with a communication from the State Supreme Court in which six of its seven members refused to recommend a pardon to Warren K. Billings, convicted of the same crime, though at a separate trial. "Mooney was tried during January and February of 1917 and convicted of participation in a bomb explosion on July 22, 1916-- an explosion which took a toll of ten lives and maimed and wounded many more. SAVED FROM NOOSE "The original sentence of death imposed upon the defendant a year and a half later was commuted to imprisonment for life. "Although two previous Governors had refused to pardon Mooney, I have nevertheless given his application most thorough and exceedingly careful consideration. "I have been in receipt of many hundreds of communications from all portions of the world, most of them evidently a sincere belief in the prisoner's innocence and urging his pardon, though in practically every instance with no first-hand knowledge of the case except what they have been told by others, or have read either in the press or in literature sent out by the Mooney defense committee. "Therehas been no propaganda or pressure of any kind directed to the keeping of Mooney in prison. "In making my study of the case I have done so with absolutely no prejudice against Tom Mooney or any social theories he may hold, or for any other crimes with which he may have been charged or may have been capable of committing. CASE OF WANTON MURDER "If he was innocent of this particular crime, to keep him in prison would be an ineffaceable blot upon the good name of the State. "On the other hand,if he was not innocent he was guilty of one of the most uncalled for andatrocious crimes ever committed--the wanton murder of unsuspecting men, women and children gathered upon a public street to witness a patriotic demonstration of San Francisco citizens. "Coupled with the case of Mooney was the parallel case of Warren K. Billings, who several months before had been convicted of participation in the same crime, and who had already served a term -1- in prison for another offense. "The constitution of California expressly forbids the Governor to grant executive clemency to a twice convicted felon, except upon the recommendation by a majority of the Justices of the State Supreme Court, and on November 7,1929, Billings applied to the court for such a recommendation. REFERRED TO BOARD "In order to secure all possible assistance and advice as to the case of Mooney, I referred it to the advisory pardon board, which i regularly constituted by law to assist in investigating applicatio for executive clemency. "Their report is now before me, and is hereby made a part of statement. "Although I have spent many months studying these cases, and have carefully read the transcripts of the trials as well as thousands of pages of briefs, petitions, affidavits and other documents filed with me, as continuously stated during my investigation, I have not been able to convince myself of the innocence of the prisoners; but I have been convinced that innocence or guilt of the one implied corresponding innocence or guilt of the other; that whatever treatment was accorded the one should, in all fairness, apply to the other. WELCOMED COURT AID "Accordingly, it was with much satisfaction that Billings had applied to the Justices of the Supreme Court for a pardon recommendation; for I realized that this would mean an independent and unbiased study by the highest judicial body of the State, composed of men of specialized training and outstanding ability; and I sincerely welcomed this assistance in a case which I had found exceedingly difficult and baffling. "Early in November, 1929, I expressed myself on this matter as follows: "In all the maze of conflicting testimony at the trial, and i all the doubt raised since that time, one thing stands out clearly, and is conceded equally by those who favor and those who oppose the pardon--that both men are guilty or that neither is. "'Although they were tried separately for the same offense, t evidence at both trials in all essential particulars applies to one as well as to the other. Therefore, whatever recommendations the Supreme Court makes or refuses to make in the Billings case applies with equal force to the case of Mooney.' KNEW NOTHING OF DECISION "I have quoted this statement which I made when Billings first made application to the Supreme Court Justices, for I would not have it thought that I have changed my attitude in this matter in any particular . "In fact, I have consistently stated that the Justices' decision after their independent and unbiased study would of necessity be conclusive; and in order to insure independent study, I have scrupulously refrained from discussing the matter with members of the court. "In fact, until their communication of July 2 was sent to me, I had not received the slightest indication as to what their recommendation would be. "In denying Billings' application for a favorable recommendation, the Justices laid particular stress upon the witness, John MacDonald, who identified both Mooney and Billings as the men who placed the bomb which caused the loss of life. "Both Billings and Mooney now content that MacDonald's original testimony was wiped out by an affidavit made four years later in New York city, in which he repudiated his original testimony. -2- SHOULD TRACE AFFIDAVIT. "The question naturally arises as to how this repudiation was secured and on what basis it is entitled to more credit that the testimony given on oath at the trial--testimony which might easily have led to a death sentence for both defendants. "For various reasons, which are set forth at length, the Justices distrusted this affidavit. But in order to give Billings the benefit of the doubt, determined: 'Some effort should be made to locate John MacDonald,with a view to such further light on circumstances and motives attending and animating the making of the affidavit.' "This was the wisest and fairest action members of the court could have taken, for if it could be shown that such witnesses as John MacDonald had issued false affidavits through improper motives, obviously no pardon or commutation could be recommended; while if it could be shown that the repudiating affidavits were true and dependable, the case against Billings would be materially weakened. BILLINGS HALTED QUIZ. "Right here comes an action on the part of Billings that seem to admit of no explanation--namely, a letter under date of May 4, 1930, addressed to the court, protesting any such outside investigation as they were proposing and stating his belief that neither the constitution nor the penal code conferred on the Supreme Court the right to make an investigation. "On receipt of this letter the Justices abandoned any attempt to secure the presence of MacDonald. "Meanwhile, there is no escaping the fact that Billings threw himself open to suspicion through his apparent fear to have MacDonald come before members of the court where the circumstances surrounding his affidavit might be investigated. "In the case of Mooney there were two witnesses who testified to seeing Billings and Mooney at the scene of the explosion. One of these was MacDonald, who also testified in the Billings case, and the other was the cattle dealer, F. C. Oxman, who did not testify in that case. OXMAN PUBLICITY SEEKER "I have made a special study of Oxman's testimony and desire to say that I thoroughly discredit it. I have personally and at great length interviewed both Mr. and Mrs. Hatcher of Woodland, where Oxman visited on the morning of July 22, and am convinced that he did not arrive in San Francisco until hours after the explosion took place. "I believe that Oxman was nothing more or less than a publicity seeking romancer, though I do not believe that his connection with the case was through any connivance or conspiracy with the prosecuting officials. "I cannot agree, however, that the case against Mooney falls with the discrediting of Oxman, for the testimony of John Macdonald is as strong in that case as in the case of Billings. "I thing there would be a general agreement with the concurring opinionof Associate Justice Shenk, who, though conceding that the showing now made by the applicant does not warrant a recommendation for pardon, nevertheless insists that the means should be made available as occasion might require to disclose the circumstances and conditions under which a witness thoroughly examined and cross-examined at a public trial has later cast reflection upon or repudiated his former testimony given under oath in open court. MUST ARRIVE AT TRUTH "The important thing is to arrive at the truth of the matter, and in order to do so we should have the power to employ any appropriate means to satisfy ourselves of the truth or falsity of the repudiation, especially in the absence of any statue or rule governing the procedure in these premises. -3- "If we should exercise that power it might be that the truth would be satisfactorily brought to light, either for or against the application. "In view of Justice Shenk's observation in this regard, I would most respectfully suggest to members of the Supreme Court that, should MacDonald or any other material witness who has repudiated his former testimony appear before them for the purpose of proving that such repudiations are trustworthy, and that their former testimony was perjured, it may be only just and right to consider the propriety of giving a hearing to such witnesses in the case of Billin just as I would desire to do in in the case of Mooney. AFFIDAVIT LACKS STRENGTH "Until the truth of the repudiation affidavits can be definitely established, no one can question the decision of the Supreme Court or the reasoning of the advisory pardon board, for there are certainly some portions of the MacDonald's affidavit which appear patently untrustworthy. "For instance, in his affidavit MacDonald alleges that proper identification of either Mooney of Billings was made by him -- that Lieutenant Goff took him to the door of Mooney's cell and said, 'This is your man -- this is Mooney,' and that he subsequently took him to Billings' cell, asked the turnkey to open the door and said, 'Come out here, Billings.' "Upon careful investigation I am convinced that nothing of this kind occurred; nor can any one believe that Billings and Mooney and their attorneys knew of such spurious identification without calling attention to the matter in either of the trials. MUST REFUSE PARDON "In view of what has been said above, and in view of the fact that from the very first I have considered the case of Billings and Mooney as parallel and in common with all others have recognized that both must be guilty or both innocent, until some further light is shed upon the case which I do not now possess, I manifestly must accept the conclusions of the Supreme Court and the pardon advisory board, and accordingly must at this time deny a pardon to Thomas J. Mooney. "I am aware that this decision will be disappointing to many, particularly to those who have come to feel strongly upon the subject without having had the opportunity to study the case first hand; but in a matter like this I must be guided by a conscientious regard for my oath of office rather than a willingness to respond to popular appeal. "Along this line I possibly can do no better than to quote from a letter I wrote in December of last year to Mr. Fremont Older, who has from the beginning taken such an earnest and sincere interest in these cases: " 'Although I realize just as well as you that whatever decision I reach may be seized upon by political opponents even though they themselves with similar study would have reached exactly the same conclusion as I, nevertheless the proper disposition of these cases is a duty too sacred to justify attacks by those who would seek to use it as a political football. " 'The good name of the State demands that this whole matter be removed from the realm of politics; and trust that it is not necessary to pledge you my word that whether I am in a position to decide these cases before a campaign or during a campaign, or after a campaign, my final decision will not depend one iota upon when it is made' "That this 'final decision' has been made at the present time rather than six months ago is due to my feeling that out of deference to the Supreme Court I could not properly act upon the case of Mooney until the members of the court, in accordance with the constitution, had acted on the parallel case of Billings. "I am announcing my decision at the earliest possible moment after receiving the communication from the court." oOo -4- CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT DECISION. To his excellency, C. C. Young, Governor of California: Pursuant to the requirement of section 1 article VII of the State Constitution and of section 1418 of the penal code, Warren K. Billings has presented his application for the written recommendation of a majority of the members of the Supreme Court of California that his petition for pardon heretofore addressed to your excellency as Governor of California be granted. Accompanying his application is the record upon which he relies as the requisite therefor, from which it appears that prior to the applicant's conviction of the particular felony by virtue of which he is now in confinement under a life sentence in the State prison, and for which he is seeking said pardon, he has been convicted of another felony. CONSIDER ALL EVIDENCE. In addition to the official record showing these two convictions the applicant also presents for our consideration a considerable amount of material, consisting of briefs, exhibits, letters, affidavits, etc., in support of his aforesaid application, all of which we have duly considered and to some of which we shall hereinafter refer. The judicial record of the applicant's first conviction discloses that on September 15, 1913, Warren K. Billings was arrested in the city of Sacramento and charged with the unlawful possession and transportation of a considerable quantity of dynamite, found in a suit case carried by him from Oakland to Sacramento and in his possession at the time of his arrest. He was proceeded against upon this charge and was brought to trial thereon before the Superior Court in and for the county of Sacramento on November 10, 1913, and was thereafter and on November-, 1913, convicted upon said charge and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of twoyears in the State Prison at Folsom. MEMBER OF GANG During the course of said trial it was developed in the evidence that Warren K. Billings was a member of a group of persons, men and women, who believed in and advocated the adoption of and not only employed themselves, but persistently endeavored to both teach and lead others (chiefly among the laboring classes) to adopt violent means, such as the use of dynamite, in the destruction of property during labor disputes. The evidence further discloses that such labor disputes were at the time impending between the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and its employees and their sympathizers, of whom the defendant was one. The evidence further disclosed, inferentially at least, that the unlawful purpose which the defendant and his associates had at the time of said arrest was that of dynamiting the transformers and other appliances of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in that region, a number of similar attempts having recently been successful. No appeal was taken or perfected by the defendant from the judgment and sentence and he served his allotted term in the State prison. Upon his release he returned to his home in San Francisco, where he continued to reside up to the time of his arrest upon the charge from the conviction of which and judgment andsentence in which he is now seeking pardon. STATE'S WORST TRAGEDY On the 22d day of July, 1916, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, occurred the greatest tragedy conceived and carried into effect by criminal design in the history of the State of California. It is known as the "Preparedness Day Disaster," in which ten innocent persons lost their lives, and in the course of which scores of equally innocent persons, while there engaged in or observing a public, patriotic demonstration, were cruelly and in many instances of a dynamite bomb upon the public streets of said city, then thronged with people, at or near the corner of Steuart and Market streets therein, andwhile there was in course of progress at and near the place of the explosion the so-called "Preparedness parade." Four days thereafter Warren K. Billings, with certain other persons, was arrested for the commission of the crime, and thereafter and on or about August 1, 1916, was indicted by the Grand Jury of the city and county of San Francisco upon eight charges of murder; and on the 11th day of September, 1916, was brought to trial upon said charges before Honorable Frank H. Dunne, Judge of the Superior Court of that city and county, and a jury then regularly drawn and impaneled. -5- PLANTED BY EXPERT. We have done this for the purpose of satisfying our minds as to whether the dynamic elements and forces which produced such explosion were coordinated, contained and concealed in a suitcase which a few moments prior had been placed upon the sidewalk at or near the corner of Steuart and Market streets, and that the content of said suit case had been so coordinated with the aid of a timing device as to explode at a particular moment not long after it had been deposited in place. There is not tangible evidence in the record before us that the explosion was arranged for or occasioned in any other way. The suitcase which thus exploded at six minutes after 2 o'clock upon that fatal day had obviously been carried to and placed at the precise spot which it occupied at the time of such explosion by some person who was familiar with its contents and the probable moment of its explosion. It became an important element in the case, therefore, to show, if possible, that the defendant, Warren K. Billings, had been seen carrying a suitcase of the general form and dimensions of the one which had been destroyed in the explosion at a time and place shortly before and not far from the scene of the explosion. We have carefully examined the record in this particular regard and find that the evidence, entirely aside from the testimony of John McDonald, sufficiently shows that the defendant was so seen. The witness, Herbert A. Wade, principal of a school in Hawaii, and a teacher of twenty-two years' experience, was called as a witness for the prosecution and testified positively and circumstantially that he had seen the defendant at 721 Market Street in San Francisco at the hour of about 1 o'clock on the day of the explosion and that he was carrying a suitcase of particularized dimensions and appearance which corresponded in a general way to the suitcase which other witnesses described as having been within a comparatively short while thereafter deposited at the place where the explosion occurred. The testimony of this witness as not shaken upon cross examination and has not since been seriously impaired. The witnesses Louis Rominger, Peter Vidovich and Estelle G. Smith also testified to having seen the defendant, Warren K. Billings, with a suitcase in his possession at the same place and practically at or about the same time which the former witnesses particularly described and handled and which was very heavy, weighing according to his estimate about thirty pounds. UNSHAKEN IN TESTIMONY These three witnesses were not shaken upon their cross-examination nor during the trial, buthave been since bitterly assailed upon grounds which, it is contended, render them unworthy of belief. As to the witness Louis Rominger there was presented upon the defendant's motion for a new trial the affidavit of one William A. Kelch, who deposed that he had also seen the man whom Rominger had seen at said place carrying a suitcase and that it was not the defendant Billings. The trial court had this affidavit before it at the time it passed upon the defendant's motion for a new trial and must be presumed to have weighed and determined where the truth lay between these twowitnesses at the time it denied the defendant's motion for a new trial. It is also contended and sought to be shown by certain ex parte statements that each of these three witnesses had been guilty of certain moral and legal delinquencies which discredited their testimony; as, for example, that Rominger had been living in adultry with the mother of Estelle G. Smith; that Estelle G. Smith had been mixed up in a sordid murder case in Southern California, and that Peter Vidovich had some years before been convicted of petty larceny in Alaska and sentenced to pay a fine of $100. -8- The impeachment of these three witnesses, if they be such, were not presented at the trial of Billings nor upon his motion for a new trial, but are of later discovery and presentation. As to these discrediting circumstances affecting each of these witness it may be said that they do not supply any legal ground for disregarding altogether their and each of their circumstantial story giv under oath upon the witness stand. CAN'T CHOOSE WITNESSES. The State in criminal trials does not manufacture its witnesses, but must take and rely upon such persons for witnesses as the circumstances and environment afford. The testimony of a witness who may have moral delinquencies, or who may even have been convicted of some offense foreign to that under inquiry, is to be weighed by the usual standards for determining the credibility of witnesses and should not be altogether disregarded in the particular case unless it be shown that the witness had some interest or some motive which might furnish a temptation to commit perjury. As to the testimony of Nellie Edeau and her daughter, we think it was sufficiently discredited by the affidavit of William Smith of the Oakland Police Department, as well as by her own later retraction, to be wholly disregarded upon this inquiry. BILLINGS NEAR SCENE. We are, however, fairly satisfied that the evidence, taken as a whole, presented at the defendant's trial sufficiently shows that the defendant Billings was seen upon Market street in the city of San Francisco within a few blocks of the scene of the explosion and within a short time before it occurred carrying a suitcase of the general dimensions and color of that which contained the time bomb which exploded at said time and place. This conclusion destroys all of that portion of the attempted alibi of the defendant which relates to his conduct and whereabouts during the hour which preceded the explosion. His testimony in that regard that he had no suitcase and that he was not at or near the place where these witnesses placed him during that time we are sufficiently satisfied is false. ALIBI LACKS SUPPORT. As to that portion of his alibi, sworn to only by himself, which relates to his whereabouts at the precise time of the explosion and during the half hour which followed its occurrence, it has the not infrequent infirmity of being unsupported by the testimony of any other witness, and it would seem to be almost incredible that if Billings was upon the public streets of San Francisco during that fatal hour, and at other wheres than the scene of the explosion, he would have been unable to show that fact by the supporting testimony of persons who saw him at the time and places where he alone gave testimony o have been. On the other hand, there is certain evidence aside from that of John McDonald, that Warren K. Billings was seen and spoken to within a few hundred feet of the place of the explosion and within the space of five minutes after it occurred. RECOGNIZED BILLINGS. John Crowley testified at the trial that he was standing at the corner of Steuart and Mission streets just after the explosion had occurred; that he knew Billings and saw him there right after the explosion occurred,; that when the band began to play a patriotic air and everyone else took off their hats Billings did not take off his hat, and was called to by a man in the crowd to "Take off your hat;" whereupon Billings moved away toward Howard Street. He is positive in his identification of Billings and states that he "cannot be mistaken about it." -9- This witness was also unshaken upon cross-examination, and the only way in which he is now sought to be discredited is by a showing that in the year 1911 he was convicted of failing to support his wife, and was admitted to probation. This, as we have seen, is not a sufficient ground for disregarding wholly the positive testimony of this witness, who is not shown to have had any interest or motive for falsifying in this particular case. There is another and very significant body of evidence to be considered in relation to Billings' part, if any, in this terrible crime. TRACE BOMB SLUGS After the explosion had occurred considerable material was picked up upon the scene or extracted from the bodies of the victim indicating the content of this time bomb prior to its explosion. The District Court of Appeal made the following comment upon the evidence thus collected and the connection of Billings with the manufacture of the bomb established thereby. It said: "The devilish ingenuity which constructed this infernal machine did not rest content with placing it in the explosive alone. It was filled with pistol cartridges, with pieces of iron pipe and with steel balls like the ball bearings of automobiles. From the debris of the explosion and from the bodies of the dead and wounded many of these articles were discovered and introduced in evidence. When the defendant was arrested his room was searched and in his room was found a can of bullets and pistol cartridges like those placed in the infernal machine. Automobile ball bearings were also found in his room. The defendant admitted that this can and its contents were his property and said he "used them when it was thought necessary." Asked where he bought them he said he did not remember. It will be seen from the foregoing that the case against Warren K. Billings at his aforesaid trial did not rest wholly for its support upon the testimony of the eye witness to the placing of the suitcase at the place of its explosion, John McDonald. Aside from the testimony of that witness, to which we shall presently recur, there was and is sufficient evidence in this record to create at least a strong probability that Warren K. Billings was one of those who placed, prepared for and finally perpetrated this unspeakably infamous and inhuman crime. SAYS HE'S REFORMED In this connection it is to be remembered that the presumption of innocence which attended the defendant at all stages of his trial and up to the moment of verdict and judgment, ceased with such judgment. Upon motion for a new trial, upon appeal, and also we are satisfied upon this instance proceeding, the presumption of the integrity and correctness of such verdict and judgment prevails, and in so doing places upon the defendant and applicant herein the burden of making such showing as shall convince our reason that he is entitled to a recommendation for pardon, either because he was and is an innocent man wrongfully convicted through false and perjured testimony, or because, though guilty, he has so far reformed and repented of his crimes and of the evil courses and criminal motives which let to their commission as to be entitled to our merciful consideration, or because by his punishment thus far imposed he has sufficiently expiated the offense. -10- The only one of those three alternatives upon which the applicant urges our recommendation for a pardon is that his conviction was brought about by the false and perjured testimony of certain witnesses, and chiefly by that of the witness, John McDonald, who was the only eye witness to the defendant's immediate part in placing the suitcase containing the time bomb at the place of its pres explosion. CONSIDER RETRACTION. With the foregoing background, we address ourselves to a consideration of the testimony of John McDonald presented at the defendant's trial and to his subsequent attempt, as embodied in his ex parte affidavit, to retract certain portions of his said testimony. On the afternoon of July 22, 1916, within a short time after the explosion John McDonald, a waiter by calling but who was not working at the time, having recently been released from a hospital where he had been under treatment for a stomach affection, told several persons with whom he casually came in contact that he had seen a man deposit a suitcase which had exploded at the place where it had stood prior to the explosion. In these conversations he described and repeated in detail the appearance and actions of the man and also of his confederate who had apparently been waiting his coming in a nearby saloon. He was advised to tell his story to the police. GAVE POLICE STORY Accordingly on the following Monday morning John McDonald went voluntarily to the Police Department, where he met Duncan Matheson, lieutenant of police, to whom he told hisstory, which according to the testimony of Matheson given during the trial was "substantially what he said here on the witness stand." He did not at that time personally know either W.K. Billings or his associate at the scene of the explosion, T.J. Mooney, but when these two men were arrest a few days later and he was brought into their presence he identified them and each of them as being the men whom he saw in connection with the suitcase a few moments before the explosion. At the time John McDonald first told his story and at the time he identified the two men no inducements were held out to him so to do and no reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the crime had been offered. The trial of Billings began on September 11, 1916, and occupied eleven days. DESCRIBES BOMB SCENE. On September 18th McDonald was called to the witness stand and sworn, and after stating that he had been at the corner of Steurt and Market streets a few moments before the explosion occurred, was shown a picture of scene, whereupon he identified the place where he was standing when and where he saw the defendant Billings first upon the scene. He then proceeded to describe in detail and with but little questioning on the part of the prosecuting officer the appearance, conduct and actions of Billings from the time he came into view with the suitcase and placed it upon the sidewalk down to the moment when the latter disappeared from the scene a few moments before the explosion. His description was circumstantial. His reasons for his particular observations of both Billings and T. J. Mooney, whom he met upon the spot, bore every resemblance of sincerity and truth, and were in accord with what would, it seems, have been the natural conduct and actions of men engaged in such a perilous and nefarious enterprise. POSITIVE OF IDENTITY. His identification of Billings was positive and complete, and when he was asked, "You observed his across the street and are positive he was the man?" his answer was, "I certainly am as God is my judge," and when later and on cross-examination he was asked, -11- "By whom was he accompanied at the corner," he replied, "By a man I afterward picked out as Mr. Mooney," and when further asked, "Are you as sure that it was Mr. Mooney as you are that it was Mr. Billings:" he answered, "Yes, sir, just as sure as I am sitting in this chair." His cross-examination proceeded at considerable length during the course of which McDonald repeated without material variation the statements which he had made upon his direct examination, with, if anything, more of detail, consistency and assurance. At a later state of the trial he was recalled to deny that he had made to a witness produced by the defense any other statement inconsistent with that to which he had testified upon the trial. BELIEVE FIRST STATEMENTS. The foregoing two sentences contain the only two statements in the McDonald affidavit wherein its affiant undertakes to directly cast discredit to his sworn testimony given at the trial of both Billings and Mooney, wherein he positively, and, as we have seen, emphatically identified these two defendants as having participated in the placing of the time bomb at the place of its explosion. However much McDonald may have sought to discredit himself and his former testimony by the making of such an affidavit, we are satisfied that, placing his two conflicting statements together and considering each in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, the original testimony of John McDonald as given with so much of circumstance, and detail upon the trials of each of these men, within a short time after the occurrence of the tragedy for the causation of which they were being tried, bears stamp of truth, while, on the other hand, this belated affidavit, wherein he undertakes with so much of the intermingled untruth to cast discredit upon his former testimony, bears the stamp of falsity, and that the substance and effect of this affiant's former positive and damning identification of both of these men as the perpetrators of this foul crime has not thereby been overthrown. FAILED TO GET REWARD Reading McDonald affidavit as a whole, and in the light of the foregoing consideration of its essential content, it would seem upon its face to have been inspired by McDonald's reiterated sense of injury and complaint against the police and public officials of San Francisco because he failed to receive the reward which he claims to have been promised by them or certain of them, but which promise he claims have been violated., This seems to constitute the main gravamen of McDonald's affidavit and, so far as its face discloses, his chief motive in having made it at the time he did. What other motives or influences may have inspired him to travel from his home in Maryland to the offices of the legal counsel for one of these defendants in New York we may not even attempt to surmise. KEY WITNESS DISAPPEARS It may be stated, however, that upon the receipt of this application the members of this court felt that some effort should be made to locate John McDonald with a view to such further questions as might serve to shed light upon the circumstances and motives attending and animating the making of the affidavit in question; only to find that McDonald had apparently disappeared. Some publicity having been given to out disposition in that regard, the applicant herein on May 4, 1930, addressed a letter to the members of this court, stating that some such rumor had reached him and that "being the applicant in propria persona, I consider it my right to suggest that inasmuch as neither the Constitution of the State nor the penal code specifically provides any such jurisdiction for the investigation or carrying on of private investigation in matters of appellate jurisdiction, that it is not the intention or spirit of either the constitution or the code to grant such powers or such jurisdiction to the court in matters pertaining to an applicant for recommendation to executive clemency which action is very much in the nature of an appeal from the findings of a lower court. LIMITED TO RECORD "It is my contention that the court must under the statute decide the matter upon the record of the case, supplemented by such sworn testimony as may be filed with them in the form of affidavits and such briefs as may be submitted by the applicant." Without determining definitely what the powers of the court or its membership -12- may be in the premises, or in any like situation, we have herein accepted and acted in accord with the applicant's views as above set forth, and have confined our investigation of this matter to the record and material presented with this application and to our own official records and those of the Appellate Court relating to the trials and appeals of these two defendants. We have considered the various letters and communications of those persons, who, with varying motives, have seen fit to recommend the granting of a pardon of this applicant. UP TO THE GOVERNOR These, however, are rather for the consideration of the chief executive, who, subject to the above constitutional provision, is charged with the ultimate discretion of granting or withholding clemency with respect to persons convicted of a crime. The foreign mass of material presents no judiciable issue and does not, therefore, come within the purview of the powers with which the members of this court are invested by the terms of the constitution and statute above cited. We have given the matters which are properly before us a prolonged and most careful consideration, both on account of the gravity and atrocity of the crime of which this applicant stands convicted, but also because of the wide-spread interest in the cases of Billings and Mooney which has been awakened in the public mind. It is by reason of this latter situation that we would wish to add to our foregoing review of the record before us certain further reflections, based upon the record and material submitted for our consideration, and germane, we think, to the responsibility and duty with which we have been invested. The application for pardon of Warren K. Billings as presented to the chief executive and as forwarded to us is not an application for executive clemency or for our recommendation that is should be exercised, based upon any claim supported by an affirmative showing that, with relation to the Preparedness day tragedy, Billings is an innocent man. The utmost effect of all that has been herein proposed or presented is to cast doubt upon the regularity of his conviction. Upon the trial of T.J. Monnet, as the records of this court disclose, held in the following month, John McDonald was again called as a witness and again repeated, with the same consistent detail and circumstance, the statements to which he had sworn upon the trial of Billings, and was again subjected to a searching cross-examination during which his story, and particularly his identifications, remained unshaken. Both of these defendants were convicted of murder in the first degree, the latter with the death penalty, but in the case of Billings, possibly on account of his youth, possibly because of the closing remarks of counsel for the prosecution to the effect that there was some hope that Billings, who is described as a "mere puppet," would sooner or later tell the whole story of the crime, recommended life imprisonment. Both of these convictions were affirmed upon appeal during the succeeding year. REMAINED IN SAN FRANCISCO McDonald remained in San Francisco for the following three years, working as a waiter, during the course of which there was much public agitation and discussion, both in and out of the courts, over questions, controversies and personages revolving about the cases and convictions of both Billings and Mooney. During that period John McDonald made no sign. He later went to Maryland, where certain of his relatives lived, and he engaged there in several occupations, but finally returned to his old calling as a waiter, in which he was engaged when in the year 1921 he went to the city of New York to the office of an attorney named Frank P. Walsh, to whom he was sent by those in charge of the New York office of Mr. Burke Cochran, the lawyer who had conducted the defense of T. J. Mooney, as one who had been active, or at least interested in the latter's release. In the office of said Walsh the affidavit was prepared which John -13- McDonald then and there signed and sore to before a notary public. BASED ON AFFIDAVIT. It is this affidavit of John McDonald upon which the applicant herein most strongly relies in the proceeding now before us. It is to be observed at the outset of our consideration of the effect to be given to this affidavit that it is purely an ex parte affidavit and that as such it cannot be accorded the force or effect to which its statements would be entitled ifmade in the course of a public trial, or even if given as a deposition before a commission, wherein interested parties would be afforded the privilege of cross-examination calculated to disclose the motives and influences which had led the alliant to change his testimony to any extent from that given by him upon the trials of Billings and Mooney five years before. The fact that this affidavit was thus ex parte and was made under the conditions attendings its execution requires us to examine its context with more than ordinary care and scrutiny for the reason, if for none other, that the person making it is placing himself in the class of a self-confessed perjurer to the extent that he is seeking to contradict or minimize his sworn and specific testimony given several years before upon a public trial, the result of which has long since become final in so far as a further recourse to the courts is concerned. BLAMES SAN FRANCISCO POLICE. When we come to consider the affidavit of John McDonald in detail we discover that the main gravamen of its statements consists in an attempted showing that his first identification of Billings as the man he saw placing the suitcase at the place of its explosion was brought about by the crude and archaic plan on the part of the police officers of callings Billings from his cell by name and thus presenting him for the affiant's identification, and that the same procedure was had in the case of Mooney. If it be true, as the affiant states, that his first identification of these two men was procured through such crude and improper means, that fact occurring in the presence of each must havebeen fully known to both Billings and Mooney when each was placed on trial and being so known would in reason have been communicated to their able and zealous counsel, and it is unbelievable that if so communicated they would not have taken full advantage of it to bring discredit to the affiant's identification of these two men as sworn by him at their respective trials. Yet nothing of that kind occurred, nor was the slightest showing attempted at either trial by cross-examination or otherwise to the effect that the affiant's identification had been brought about by any such irregular means. We are satisfied, therefore, that the affiant's statements in the foregoing respect are a tissue of falsehoods. The falsity of McDonald's affidavit in the above respect casts its discrediting shadow upon the further statements therein which relate directly to the matter of identification. The affiant's statement is "I did not know Billings and did not remember ever having seen him before and could not identify him had Lieutenant Goff not brought me to his cell and told me who he was, " and again with reference to Mooney he states, "I did not know Mooney and could not have told him that that was Mooney had Lieutenant Goff not pointed him out to me in the cell." We have, as has been seen, arriving at the conclusion that sufficient doubt has not been thus cast upon the regularity of the conviction of Warren K. Billings of the crime for which he is now undergoing punishment to justify a recommendation that he be granted a present pardon. We might well let the matter rest here, but in view of the widespread public interest which by various means and methods has been aroused in this and its companion case we deem it our duty to direct attention to the fact that the applicant herein has made no attempt to offer anything in the way of an affirmative showing that with respect to the crime in question his is in truth and in fact an innocent man. We are brought to the conclusion that the applicant was bound -14- to tender some such showing as a basis for his application for a pardon, in view of his prior conviction of a cognate crime and of the other facts and circumstances which, as we have heretofore stated, point gravely, even if not conclusively, to his participation in the later crime. The record sufficiently shows that prior to and at the time of his conviction of his former offense he was the friend and associate of an organized group of persons, men and women, who were actively engaged in plotting, attempting and even executing crimes of violence against both property and persons not only during labor disputes but generally as a means of uttering their protest against both the political and industrial forms and movements of modern society. CONTINUED GANG TIES. The evidence further discloses that between the commission of the first and second crimes this fellowship on the part of Billings continued to exist, with the fair inference at least and with no showing to the contrary that the opinions, motives, purposes and passions which had moved him to commit his first crime still continued to rule his life. There is sufficient in the record before us to show that the deliberated and fiendishly prepared for crime and Preparedness day was in all human probability conceived and carried forward to its execution by the same group of evilly disposed individuals, whose friend and associate Billings for several years had been and into the inner councils of which he was wont to come and go. It is a matter of public history that for several weeks prior to the preparedness day parade there had been going forth from the inner councils of this group of persons a rabid opposition to the holding of said parade, coupled with all sorts of suggestions by public speaking and newspaper propaganda as to how this patriotic demonstration could be discouraged or prevented, even to the extent of the advocacy of violence as a means to those ends. FAMILIAR WITH PLOTS. It is fairly inferable from his past and present affiliations that Warren K. Billings was familiar with the plot and plans of this group of his most intimate associates, and this being so it is an almost irresistible conclusion that if Warren K. Billings did not himself prepare and plant the deadly time bomb of the Preparedness day disaster, he and his intimate associates and co-defendant, Mooney, know and have always, both before and since the occurrences of that tragedy, known who did prepare and plant that bomb, and the deadly purpose for which it was prepared and planted. Yet there has never come from the lips of either of these defendants, or from out the inner circle of their associates, the slightest tangible hint or aid to the public the public officials as to any one else which might lead to a discovery of the real perpetrators of this revolting crime, if these two defendants werenot the guilty ones; -15- nor has there ever come to public notice during all the years which have elapsed since the commission of the Preparedness day crime the slightest clue or trace which might serve to point public official inquiry to any persons or group of persons other than these defendants and their associates who might reasonably be suspected or charged with the disposition to conceive or commit such a crime. From the foregoing considerations and from the inferences which we think are fairly deducible therefrom as to the actual or probab guilt of this applicant, we are unable to recommend to your excellency a consideration of the application of Warren K. Billings for pardon. William H. Waste, Chief Justice Emmet Seawell, Associate Justice. John E. Richards, Associate Justice. Jesse W. Curtis. Associate Justice. John W. Preston, Associate Justice. W. H. Langdon, Associate Justice. Dated: San Francisco, Cal. July 2, 1930. Mooney & Billings NATIONAL MOONEY-BILLINGS COMMITTEE MINUTES of the Mooney-Billings committee, held at Dewey's Restaurant, 139 Fulton Street, New York City, at 12:30 P.M. on Jul-- 16, 1930. Present: Messrs. Hunt, Parton, Riis, Barnes, Baldwin; by invitation, Mr. Willard Heller. 1. The committee noted that recent developments in the Mooney-Billings case, particularly the plans of the Mooney Defense Committee to bring the witness John MacDonald to California, and the publicity campaign by the Scripps-Howard newspapers. 2. It was agreed that if the MacDonald testimony does not produce results, or if it is helpful meanwhile, that the committee would secure and publish comment on the Supreme Court decision in Billings' case by well-known lawyers. The following were suggested: Raymond Moley, Columbia; Dean Smith, Columbia; George Howard, Professor Borchard, Yale; Roscoe Pound, George W. Kirchwey, William Draper Lewis, John W. Davis, Emory Buckner, Elihu Root, Jr., Raymond Fosdick, Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., Frederick Coudert, Jr., Samuel Untermyer, Julian W. Mack, Newton D. Baker. 3. The committee authorized the expense of mimeographing the Supreme Court statement and the Governor's decision. 4. It was agreed that publicity on the evidence in hand as to who really set off the Preparedness Day bomb should be held back until the present developments in proving Mooney-Billings' innocence have come to further conclusion. 5. The committee discussed the proposal to have a commission of men of national reputation go to California under some appropriate auspices to investigate the case publicly and to report its findings. It was agreed that neither the National nor the American Bar Association would be effective auspices. The Federal Council of Churches, together with representatives of the Catholic and Jewish organizations, seems to offer the best hope of enlisting support for whatever findings they would make. 6. It was agreed that if the case drags on much longer, a book of popular appeal should be written on it. W. E. Woodward was suggested as the most suitable author. 7. It was also agreed that if the case drags on, it should be put to the Federal Law Enforcement Commission with a view to their making an investigation. Mr. Baldwin stated that he has heard from a member of the Commission that they already have it in mind. 8. Concerning the committee's deficit, Mr. Baldwin was asked to write Miss Gallagher to determine whether or not the Mooney Defense Committee will pay that deficit to avoid our making a circular appeal. 9. For the moment it was agreed not to do anything to stimulate magazine articles or public meetings beyond what is already being done by others. o O o O o FREE MOONEY LABOR'S CHAMPION 31921 A CLASS WAR PRISONER FOR 18 YEARS ON JULY 27, 1934. THE VICTIM OF A MONSTROUS CAPITALIST CLASS FRAMEUP. MEMBER OF INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS' UNION FOR 32 YEARS. For information on the Mooney Case, communicate with TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P. O. Box 1475-X, San Francisco, California TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P O BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL NO NEW DEAL FOR MOONEY AND BILLINGS "Neither Mooney nor Billings are yet included in President Roosevelt's New Deal. They are still in prison. Such is justice in the U.S.A." REYNOLD'S (LONDON) ILLUSTRATED NEWS 1916 Tom Mooney BEFORE FRAMEU[P] 1934 31921 No. 31921 AFTER FRAMEUP ". . . . THE FOULEST CONSPIRACY EVER" "No one can read the proof which I have before me and not feel that Tom Mooney is the victim of one of the foulest conspiracies ever perpetrated in this country, and it was done because he was active in labor circles in California." U. S. SENATOR BURTON K. WHEELER FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 19, 1935 TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P. O. BOX 1475 SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA *********** The big event of the fifth week of the hearings before Referee Shaw was the production as a surprise witness of Charles A. Griffin, now of Seattle, who was on the Eilers Building roof with Tom and Rena Mooney on Preparedness Day, and who went to Fickert with his information only to be told that he was not wanted. More, Fickert tried to make him accept a job in New York or Chicago, and told him that if he would tell no one what he knew, he would get him a steady job as court reporter with the Grand Jury. (Griffin had previously been assistant reporter in Judge Lawlor's Court.) He had long known Tom Mooney by sight, first having him pointed out at the Ferry Building by Jack London. Though his keeping quiet so long, after he knew of the convictions and knew that he had testimony proving the frame-up, is hardly commendable, it is understandable. In the first place he had a family to support and did not want to jeopardize his living; in the second place, he felt that his testimony would have no effect when he saw how complete and formidable the frame-up was, and finally, until recently, he had had faith in Fickert, whom he had known since 1913, as a man of integrity, and he felt he had done his best and had been turned down. Now he has come forward, and, corroborated by his wife, has told the entire story. Previous witnesses of the week were Mr. and Mrs. Earl K. Hatcher of Woodland, who told how Oxman telephoned them early on the morning of Preparedness Day, how Mr. Hatcher spent the morning with him at the Byrns Hotel in Woodland, brought him home for lunch, let him take a nap, and then accompanied him to, and put him on, the 2:15 train. Under a gruelling cross-examination the Hatchers stuck to their story, though acknowledging that when not under oath they had signed (without reading them) statements to the effect that it was the 9:13 a.m. train on which Oxman had left Woodland. They did this because Oxman was in business with Mr. Hatcher and they were his friends as well and wanted to help him, but when they were finally put under oath in the Grand Jury hearings of 1921, they told the truth as they told it again this week. Two witnesses refuting the story of Mrs. Mellie Edeau also testified-- Thomas Stout and William Burgess, who worked with her in the Oakland tailoring shop where she was employed immediately after Preparedness Day. EDITORS: PLEASE PUBLISH THIS COMMUNICATION. County Jail No. 1 San Francisco, California October 19, 1935. To My Friends and Supporters in My Fight for Freedom: We have reached a most serious crisis in our fight for freedom. Something must be done about it immediately if we are to have anything like a chance for our liberty. The unseen hand of that all mighty and powerful combination of Capitalists is still at work in our present hearing as they have been all throughout these nineteen years - still framing us and doing all in their power to prevent the exposure of their dastardly conspiracy that has robbed two innocent trade unionists of 19 of the best years of their lives because they were loyal, devoted and faithful to Labor. Frank P. Walsh has steadfastly remained my LEGAL ADVOCATE for the past fifteen years, always paying his own personal expenses and hundreds of dollars from his own pocket on the Mooney case. He has been here in continuous attendance at my habeas corpus hearing for six weeks and pledges to remain until it is over, which, from every present indication, will be in the new year. Our other Attorneys, John Finerty and George Davis, are less fortunately situated and very reluctantly accept their personal living expenses and transportation while engaged on the work of this case. Much of the work done at our defense office is volunteer labor, willingly contributed by devoted friends of our cause. I mention these facts, merely to let you know that almost all of the funds contributed to this case go directly into the fight they are intended for. I have had my defense committee send you a weekly press release on the habeas corpus hearing that you may be informed on what is taking place daily in this present struggle. I hope you will make some good use of these news releases in your community. Take them to your local papers or magazine and ask that the information contained therein be published in your local periodicals. My counsel started last night with the Commissioner-Referee, on a five thousand mile trip taking depositions that will cost my defense more than one thousand dollars. The Court Reporter has refused me a transcript of the testimony for the past ten days because we owe him seven hundred dollars that we are unable to pay. This testimony is absolutely indispensable to us in our work, yet we are compelled to work in this crippled fashion without it for lack of funds to pay for same. The California State Supreme Court has refused to give us a free copy of the testimony. The Court has also refused to pay transportation and expenses of our witnesses. Those heavy burdens we must bear and are unable to do it without the continuance of that splendid and magnificent generosity of those most wonderful people and organizations in the world to me- friends and contributors to the Mooney case. The best chance we ever had for our freedom is now completely in jeopardy because of lack of funds to carry on the fight. This is truly a crisis in our struggle. Our Defense Committee is absolutely penniless and desperately in need of at least two thousand dollars for IMMEDIATE COURT EXPENSE IF WE ARE TO HAVE A GHOST OF A CHANCE. Won't you help me in this hour of my greatest need? I place my cause in your hands. With your help I can win- without it I am lost. With my warm regards I send you firm fraternal greetings. Sincerely, Tom Mooney P.S. Have this communication read in every labor and working class organization that you can and have them do something about it. DIRECT ALL FUNDS AND COMMUNICATION to: TOM MOONEY MOLDERS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE P. O. BOX 1475, SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA. -2- She had never mentioned to either of them having been near 721 Market St., but said she and her daughter had been at Steuart and Market Sts., when the explosion occurred. She claimed to have seen two suspicious looking men with a suitcase near this corner, and when, urged by Stout, she took her story to Chief of Police Peterson of Oakland and he sent her with an officer to see if Mooney and Billings were these men, she came back and told both Stout and Burgess that she could not identify them, since they were much younger than the two she had seen. Next week the hearings will be adjourned while the referee and attorneys go to Portland and Cheyenne to take depositions concerning Oxman's entrance into the case as a witness. Meanwhile Fickert has been located in Los Angeles, and has been subpoenaed to appear at the hearings when they re-convene on October 28th. The petitioner and his attorneys are very badly hampered by the situation arising from their lack of funds to pay for a copy of the daily transcript. They have been enabled to get a copy from the court reporter for three cents a folio, but this had already run up a bill of $250. or more, and since neither this nor the previous bill of $300. for MacDonald's testimony taken in Baltimore has as yet been paid, the reporter has stopped furnishing them a copy. They are obliged to borrow the copy belonging to the state, at great inconvenience. The petitioner has not sufficient money to pay even the Baltimore bill and thus start receiving daily copies again. It will be of the greatest help in this crucial and climactic effort to present in orderly fashion the entire story of the frame-up of 1916, if individuals or organizations will contribute toward the payment of this bill. Checks should be made payable to the Mooney Molders' Defense Committee, P O Box 1475, San Francisco, California, and if desired may be earmarked for this purpose. Tom Mooney's final fight for vindication and justice is being seriously obstructed by his lack of sufficient funds to function on an equal footing with the respondent in the hearings. Appeal was made to the State Supreme Court to pay for the petitioner's copy of the transcript, but met with refusal. Temporarily the reporter is laying aside a copy of the transcript for the petitioner, but will not deliver it until the Baltimore bill at least is paid. ********* [*Tom Mooney*] Sacco And Vanzetti Face The Electric Chair They Must Be Saved! The Main Facts In The New England “Money Case” Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, thinking workers, will be tried shortly at Dedham, Mass. for alleged murder. They are innocent men. They have been framed up as Mooney and Billings were framed. Sacco was a shoe-worker; Vanzetti an eel-seller. For years they were aggressive in solidifying Italian workers in New England in demands for decent wages and working conditions. Sacco was active in Ettor-Giovannitti-Caruso defense at Salem in 1912 and in the Hopedale foundry strike. Vanzetti was a leader in the big cordage walkout at Plymouth in 1916; after that he was a marked man. Both men were arrested two days after Andrea Salsedo plunged 14 stories to death from his secret prison in the Department of Justice offices in New York City. They had sought zealously to uncover the still hidden truth about Salsedo’s fate. At first they were held as “reds”; overnight criminal charges were substituted. Flimsy “identifications “ connected Vanzetti with a holdup at Bridgewater. He was hurried to trial. Nine creditable witnesses testified that he was selling eels 28 miles away at the time of the attack. But Vanzetti was convicted-on evidence never introduced in open court. The trial judge knew about this evidence when he sentenced Vanzetti, but said nothing; the defense had no chance to combat it. Vanzetti is now serving 15 years in prison. He was indicted for another holdup and two murders at South Braintree without a hearing. Sacco was also indicted on “identifications” furnished by three witnesses who admitted they were not positive. Both men were miles away when this second crime was committed. District Attorney Frederick Katzmann, who prosecuted Vanzetti, has refused to let the defense examine the exhibits used against him...A stool-pigeon was lately planted in a cell next to Sacco, with the indorsement, it is authoritatively stated, of the Department of Justice....Two vital witnesses are missing through the fault of the state authorities. The Italian government has made an exhaustive investigation of the case, and has asked the United States State Department to make sure that every right of the defendants be safeguarded. Unqualified support is being given by the Boston Central Labor Union to the fight to obtain a fair trial for these workers. And money and other aid has been given by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Amalgamated Textile Workers, Amalgamated Metal Workers, United Mine Workers, International Jewelry Workers, Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers, Women’s Trade League and numerous other labor organizations. This bitter conspiracy against decent working men is completely analyzed in a 32-page pamphlet by Arthur Shields. Send ten cents for it to the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, 32 Battery Street, Boston, Mass. 51 Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.