A Pardon For Tom Mooney

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 106, 7 May 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

A Pardon For Tom Mooney

TOM MOONEY, the 'Dreyfus of America," world's most famous prisoner, has been pardoned after 21 years' imprisonment. The Californian State Assembly has voted a legislative pardon.

The resolution of the Assembly will go before the State Governor, who alone has the power to authorise Mooney's freedom. The voting in favour of the pardon was 41 to 30. When Tom Mooney pleaded his case before the Assembly the vote was then 37 in his favour againet 33, a majority four lees than required by law. Famous American Labour leader whose admittedly wrongful conviction for a San Francisco bomß outrage nearly 22 years ago earned him. the title of "Dreyfus," Thomas J. Mooney wae born in Chicago in 1883. His father wae a coalminer, his mother an Irishwoman who spent the declining years of her life fighting for her son's release. Mooney and hie friend Warren K. Billinge were swept into world prominence in 1910, when it appeared likely that the United States would enter the World War. A gigantic Preparedness Day parade was organised in San Francisco on July °2 A bomb exploded in one of the crowded strcete. Ten people were killed, 40 injured. Xext day Warren K. Billings, Edward Xolan and Israel Weinberg were arrested. Police said they were seeking Moonev.

Mooney and his wife returned to San Francisco and surrendered to the police. He was brought to trial in 1917, confided of murder, sentenced to death. A commission appointed by President Woodrow Wilson reported that the trial had not been fair. This was followed by hie sentence 6eiii£ commuted to life imprisonment. With the aid of numerous friends Mooney struggled relentlessly against the indictments, and in 1933 he sue-

ceesfullv won the right to another trial. In this he was found not guilty on the charge of murder. His mother visited England in 1932 to rouse public opinion in his favour.