FREEDOM FIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1935, Page 9

FREEDOM FIGHT.

TOM MOONEY CASE. THE "AMERICAN DREYFUS." BOMBING OUTRAGE RECALLED fl'rom Our Own Correspondent.', SAN FRANCISCO, September 25. The "American Dreyfus," Tom Mooney, who was convicted for complicity in the Sail Francisco Preparedness Day parade bombing, in which ten persons Were killed and 50 injured, and who lias been incarcerated in San Quentin Peniteniary, near San Francisco, since : that outrage in 1910, staged his "lastditch" fight for freedom when he ■ appeared in the Hall of Justice in Sail Inuicisco before 11 Californian Supreme Court referee, Commissioner A. E. Shaw, under a habeas corpus hearing seeking I his vindication and freedom. He was I defended by three of the greatest lawyers in the United States, Frank Walsh, tho noted New York attorney, John j Finerty, of Washington, D.C., and 1 1 George Davis, of San Francisco. Opposing the granting of Moonev's freedom was the deputy-Attorney-General, William J. Clearv, of San Francisco, and a staff of legal assistants'. World-wide interest continued in the sensational case which lias caused industrial unrest in various parts of the I world for the last 19 years. There were some 42 reporters present, representing all the leading newspapers of the world, and a battery of photographers took pictures ad lib at various junctures of the lengthy proceedings, which v,-e: e expected to last 30 to 40 days. After the taking of the testimony before Referee Shaw the Supreme Court of California en bane will thoroughly consider the depositions and conic to a deci--ion. Should the Supreme Court of California decide against Mooney his lawyers plan to take the case to the court of last appeal—the United State.' Supreme Court, which has had much to do with the reason for the present hearing. Mooney's wife, Rena, his brother, John, and sisters were in court and watched the opening of the proceedings very closely. Admits Being Radical. I Mooney, who looked the picture of 'health, with full cheeks and of splendid physical build, during the course of his j examination 011 the witness stand, discoursed for 15 minutes on his ideas of and belief in a "social revolution," set- . ting up as seeming justification for his attitude the assertion that President . Roosevelt believes the same thing. He I declared a dictatorship of the working , class is "probably" necessary to the socialisation of civilisation. If so and the abolition of all "class" distinctions ' arc a concomitant he favours it, or : any "efforts of workers to free tlieniI I selves." "I have always been," he 'jreplied to a question by Deputy Attor- - 11 ncy-Gdieral Cleary, representing the State, "in favour of the principles of the I.W.W. The President of the United States favours the same thing." The I.W.W. to which he referred was the radical counterpart in Mooney's . I time of the present-day Communists. | President Roosevelt, he insisted, "wants to organise all workers in an industrial union." Asked if he believed in an industrial revolution, Mooney replied: "I believe in social revolution. My purpose is to make the unions strong." Full-faced, healthy-looking, but grayer than when he made his last appearance for a technical procedure three years ! ago, Mooney spoke calmly in an effort ' | to refute asserted perjured testimony he maintains convicted him and from ! which he seeks escape through a writ : f of habeas corpus. He began bv dcclar- ! ing he was too far from the scene of ' the explosion at Market and Steuart Streets —not far from the Ferry Building—at the stipulated time of the blast, 2.00 p.m. on July 22, 1910, to have had any part in it. "I never was away from the vicinity of Fourth Street that day," Mooney asserted, "nor within a mile of the explosion." Fourth Street intersects Market Street and is more than a'mile from the blast scene. "A Vulture" Witness. As the world knows, virtually all of the prosecution witnesses ultimately recanted their incriminating evidence, and when defence Lawyer Walsh now mentioned the name of Mrs. Mellie Edeau, a prosecution witness who placed Mooney near the bombing scene, Mooney said she reminded him of a vulture. "Her testimony on the stand was absolutely* false," lie shouted. "Likewise was the testimony of Frank Oxman." Oxman was another prosecution witness at the original trial, but he was stated to have been hundreds of miles away in Oregon when the explosion occurred. v A photograph'which has taken a prominent part in previous proceedings once again achieved crucial significance in Mooney's hope to have his case reach the nation's highest tribunal again. It is that of a man and a woman atop the Filers Building, several blocks out Market Street from the scene- of the bombing. The picture includes within its boundaries clocks timed at 1.55 and 1.59 p.m. It is Mooney's contention that he is the man on the building top. If so, he insisted now, it would have been a physical impossibility for him to have come down off the building, threaded his way through streets jammed with the thousands of parade spectators, and reached the blast scene in time to plant the bomb. Several witnesses, including the recanting John Mac Donald, the decrepit waiter, who Mooney declared looked like a "sewer rat," and from whom another deposition was taken recently in Baltimore, have testified they identified Mooney at the explosion intersection with the suitcase described as holding the lethal bomb. It is the testimony of these witnesses, including that of Frank 1 Oxman, now dead, that Mooney contends was mistaken or perjured. Regardless of his views on social revolution, and despite an admitted personal pride in his efforts to organise workers during a bitter tramway strike which preceded the 1910 Preparedness Day bombing, Tom Mooney told Referee Shaw that he never participated in the dynamiting of anything nor took part in any acts of terrorism which signalised the strike in California in those days of fighting between capital and labour. Mooney's Wife Testifies. The second witness called was Rena Mooney, the wife of "America's Dreyfus." She stated that she had graduated from an Eastern Conservatory of Music, and gave lessons to pupils in the Eilers Building. She gave a ■detailed account of pupils who had I visited her on July 22, and said she and ' her husband went to the roof of the building to view tho parade. She idtini tified herself in the photograph atop the 1 Filers Building. She said on the .follow- i

ing day she and her husband* went for a vacation some GO miles from San Francisco, and on the following Thursday in Montesanto, near Monte Rio, while they were enjoying their vacation, she casually purchased a daily newspaper and saw there was a "nation-wide search for Mooney" in connection with the bombing on Preparedness Day. She t(?ld of Mooney's determination to hurry to San Francisco immediately to clear himself, and he dictated a telegram to her which was forwarded from Monte Rio to the San Francisco police authorities saying Mooney was coming to have his name cleared. In the meantime he was arrested and taken by train with his wife to San Francisco, she said. Asked about her presence 011 the roof of the Filers Building, Mrs. Mooney repealed she and her husband went up there with other people to see the parade, and during the progress of the parade a policeman came up to them ordering them from the roof. "What business have you to be here?" the policeman asked, and she answered that she and her husband lived in the building. "You will have to get off the roof," said the policeman. Asked for the reason, the policeman said: "Some people have been throwing bombs from roofs downtown." Mrs. Mooney at the afternoon session was taken over trials where a number of revolutionists were charged with sabotage in and around San Francisco about the time of the Preparedness Day bombing and she admitted she attended the trials and took notes for the reason that her husband had been under suspicion and she wanted to know what was said at the trials. She declared Mooney had nothing to do with the acts of violence in this sabotage campaign. An Amazing Document. After lengthy cross-examination, Mrs. Mooney was excused from the witness stand and then an imposing document was brought forward, which proved to be a transcript of the proceedings when Mooney was brought to San Francis jo Hall of Justice and questioned by th 3 District Attorney and numerous other police oflicials. It was 011 this occasion that lie was charged with participation in the bombing outrage. The document was read in a loud, clear voice by Mr. Walsh and occupied over an hour and a half in reading. In it Mooney appealed scores of times to the police to permit him to consult counsel. The grilling continued, Mooney answering questions pertaining to himself but whenever he was interrogated about others he invaiiably said lie would answer only through an attorney. When charged with the bombing crime, Mooney replied: "I consider this 0110 of the most dastardly pieces of work to try to connect mc with it." Ho described the crime as "fiendish, heinous," and said he was an innocent man. Asked why he would not tell the whole story, Mooney replied: "There are many tricks in this and I want counsel. There is 110 justification for this charm and von know it," said Mooney, according to the transcript. The police told hint they knew he had clean skirts, but they wanted him to tell the whole stoi'7. He replied that there was "not the slightest scintilla of evidence to incriminate him in the bombing charges." I -When the reading of the amazing document ended, Mr. Walsh asked Mooney if hi: knew the transcript existed and Mooney replied: "I did not know of the existence of it, but am very proud of it." This closed the third day's hearing. Threatened Deadlock. Warren Billings, one of the codefendants, and who has been serving a term in the California Folsoin Penitentiary, having been convicted as an accomplice in the Preparedness Day Parade bombing, at this stage injected [hie presence into the hearing and filed a motion seeking an injunction to halt the.hearing unless he were allowed to be present at the taking of testimony and be permitted to defend his interests against derogatory witnesses. Two days were occupied with these preliminaries, and on the third day the California Supreme Court summoned a special session in the California State Building in San Francisco, when the Chief Justice and his confreres sat in camera and fully considered the motion. With the assent of Deputy-Attorney-General William J. Clearv the Court granted the application of Billings and issued n. writ permitting his attendance at the Mooney sessions. According to a prearranged programme, the Referee and the various lawyers and Mooney assembled the same afternoon at the San Francisco Hall of Justice, and acceptance of the motion was announced. The Court adjourned to permit the transfer of the other principal from Fo'som to the hearing 011 the following day.