CALL A STRIKE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 9

CALL A STRIKE?

TOM MOONEY'S PLAN.

Alleged Miscarriage of

Justice.

SPENT 21 YEARS IN GAOL.

SAX FRANCISCO, November 8.

In a statement from his cell, Tom Mooney, the Labour leader, said that should his petition to the Federal Supreme Court fail to gain him his freedom, he will adopt the suggestion by Harry Bridges, the Australianborn Labour leader, and appeal to the workers to join in a nation-wide protest strike.

Mooney's petition for a writ of habeas corpus failed recently before the Supreme Court of California, which acted on the advice of a referee.

Since Mooney, an Irish-American, was sentenced 21 years ago to life imprisonment, after a bombing outrage in San Francisco, agitation for a declaration of his innocence has not ceased.

When Mooney and a man named Billings, were arrested after nine people were killed and 40 injured by a bomb thrown during a procession on July 22, 1916, the wrath of the community fell on them. The district attorney and the police claimed that the guilt of the two men was beyond question, and long before the trial California had condemned them.

Disclosures of perjured evidence have convinced many thousands of sympathisers that failure to pardon the men is a shocking denial of justice.

The judge who tried Mooney, later considered that Mooney had been unfairly convicted, and said that he was entitled to a new trial. The AttorneyGeneral filed a stipulation in the Supreme Court admitting error in the trial and agreeing to a new one, but the Supreme Court decided that it was without power to g»ant a new trial.