The Power That Keeps Tom Mooney in Jail
Oneal, James
The Power That Keeps Tom Mooney in Jail Capitalist Masters of California Pulled Strings Behind Rolphf and Three Other Governors /iy James Oneal JAMBS J. ROLPH, JR., is the fourth California...
...Two other wltnesees, Mollle Meau and John McDonald, a drug addict, were later proven perjurers...
...This liberaiting governor must pillory the ruling gangsters as Altgeld pilloried the bourgeois scoundrels in his day...
...He was In Woodland, BO miles away when the explosion occurred...
...Anarchist," they howled...
...His logic seared the thick hides of the politicians, the capitalists and legal gangsters like a hot branding Iron...
...Rol(>h's refusal to pardon Mooney was prompted not so much by a desire to keep Mooney in jail, as it was an expression of vindlctlveness agalnat those who wanted him out, by the members of the Plunderbund responsible for the governor's decision...
...Who is guilty...
...Police Captain Matheson re« versed his opinion of the guilt of Mooney and declared the "trial" a terrible miscarriage of justice...
...Altgeld did not hesitate...
...Serene, calm, confident of his course, John Peter Altgeld faced the bourgeois gangsters...
...All this reaches up into the ruling politics of the state...
...Governor Rolpb was instructed to deny a pardon for three reasons...
...We knew what the decision would t>e when Governor Rolph named his advisen In the easel" SulUvaa's Record Matt L SulUvan...
...A vast shower o4 working class ballots for a working class party will do the job...
...Altgeld did not rest content with tills act of justice...
...Will the workers take it on the chin, that is, will they make complete obeUiance In the diist before their self-appointed masters, or will they organize for action...
...Here "patriotic" racket*ring has been developed Into a fine art...
...Editors turned their servile pens to the task of ruining the man...
...Bolph and Altgeld Then he calmly awaited the blow...
...The«e damning facts were before Governor Rolph's legal advisors...
...It was my parade...
...What Nextr What's to be done...
...The Governor haa slammed the prison gates In the face of Mooney...
...Make tbe Mooney case as Infamous u tbe Dreyfus case in France...
...California has the most notorious anti-syndicalist law of any state...
...Cartoonists pictured him with a torch la one hand and a bomb in the other...
...Traitor," they yelped...
...Altgeld Had Courage There was a governor of another kind some forty years ago in Illinois...
...He issued a document reviewing the hideous farce, the prostitution of the court and the packing of the jury, the perversion of the law and other Infamies perpetrated in an infamous "trial...
...Friends warned him that to pardon the victims would mean political suicide...
...The question now paramount Is, what does the...
...And yet, in his latest pronouncemoot, the governor declares he reviewed the case In a spirit of disinterested ImparUality...
...It is the will of the capitalists written into law...
...No Altgeld wUl be found in tbe c^>ttanat parties of that state...
...The final diapoaltlon of thla case dependa upon Uie education and organization of the worketa of the state, the nation and the world, and the character of action tha workers decide to taka...
...Sullivan on a previous occasion bad rendered a decision hostile to Mooney and BilUng...
...Contrast this former executive of Illinois with the four executives of California who have burled Tom Mooney at San Quentln Comparison only brings out a revoking contrast Governor Rolph had even a bet-Pit pass and a better opportunity than Altgeld had...
...From the m(»nent of that Interview, all persons who knew the situation were convinced of the Impossibility 0 ^ expecting a pardon at the hands of Governor Rolph...
...John Peter Altgeld faced the old problem of doing his duty or surrendering to his ambition...
...When Rolpb turned vehemently upon Robert Wtaltaker, famous California writer and speaker, in the governor's executive offlcea in Sacnuoento a year ago, aaylDg, "If ICooney Is not gultty...
...First—Rolph's financial connections with and bis dependency upon certain San' Francisco men of wealth who had decided Mooney's fate before the Preparedness Day explosion gave them the opportunity to railroad their victim to prison...
...They advised against « pardon...
...He placed them In the dock where the accused had been...
...Judge Turned Pleader Judge Griffin who presided at the trial 1« convinced that his court wa« made the scene of an infamous conspiracy...
...This la a tabloid history of the case...
...Altgeld pilloried every low Creature Identified with this prostitution of Justice...
...A state that for decades after the Ovfl War was looted by railroad and other corporate bandits and that today is the kept mistress of banking-, landed and utility capitalists, this decision need surprise no one...
...than Altgeld had...
...Today Altgeld lives In the affections of those whp appreciate the measureless courage of a man Who refused to bury human beings alive in order that he might translate this Infamy into offices for himself...
...So they thought, but historians of a later generation have dealt kindly and generously with him and they are beginning to pillory his accusers...
...Nay, more than tliat...
...Every unbiased Investigator of the evidence long ago concluded that Mooney is Innocent of the crime charged against him...
...Out of tbe Socialist movement must come a Ooveraor pledged to swing open the prison gates and release both Mooney and Billings...
...If this latest Insult by the master class Is not resented by an awakened and aroused working class, then, indeed, has the blood of tbe workers grown cold and their brains turned into muah...
...He opened the prison doors and the illegally convicted men were restored to their families...
...No wonder Edwin V, McKenzie, attorney for the Mooney defense, declared the decision had been anticipated by those supporting pardons for Mooney and Billings, adding: "The Mooney case is now nothing but a political football...
...How could he be expected to reveiae that decision at this tlmoT The fact of the matter Is Rolpb affpoiated tfaa 'Mytoem" to concoct and present plausible "reasons" for a refusal to pardon Mooney, thereby enabling him, the governor, to shift responsibility for the decision, in a measure, from executive shoulders to those who composed the advisory board...
...They prefer to bury an Innocent man alive rather than to Jeopardize their future in politics...
...This decision provM the utter impossibility ol any militant worker ever securing justice in a capitaliat-oontroUed court...
...The Mooney Decision—A Defi to Labor Only Hope for Labor's Martyr Is Organized Force of ClassConscious Workingmen and Women By George H. Shoaf Emuat the intelligence and courage of American workers have degenerated, or the plutocracy of California made a mistake in instructing Governor Rolpb to deny a pardon to Thomas J. Mooney...
...If there was a mistake, however, tbe btood and brains of the working-class will resent this premeditated and deliberate Insult with action that virin make its repetition forever impoasible...
...Here Is the nearest approach to the old Prussian caste to be found in the United States...
...A picture oif Mooney on top of a building, a mile from the explosion and showing a clock Indicating a time that made It impossible for Mooney to be near the explosion waa »upiprtssea ai me in»i...
...Since the beginning of the present depression the men and women of labor throughout Amorlea have strangely submitted to aiMtrary unemployment, to drastic wage cuts, to evictions, to contemptuous charity, to every conceivable Insult which tbe racketeers of capitalism could impose...
...May thia education and organlaaflon, pre* llmtoary to InteUlgMk mMm proceed aiNwtl...
...All of the living membera of the Jury that convicted Mooney are convinced that he is innocent...
...for tbey correctly reason that if the people submit to Rolph's determination to keep Mooney In jail, they will continue to sulmiit to any outrage the masters of capitalism may Inflict...
...wlio iar That'a a fair queaUon lent itt I led th« parade when the explosion occurred...
...Mooney'a True Worda In the language of Tom Mooney, himself: "Governor Rolph and tils advisers did not base their findings on the facta of my frame-up, but merely carried out the bidding of ttaelr masters...
...Of the three reasons this last is the most outstanding and Invportant Rolph's Questtons Persons who have followed the case closely, and have watched the governor's attitude thereto, are not disappointed at the decision...
...The Power That Keeps Tom Mooney in Jail Capitalist Masters of California Pulled Strings Behind Rolphf and Three Other Governors /iy James Oneal JAMBS J. ROLPH, JR., is the fourth California Governor that has refused a pardon for Tom Mooney...
...Second—The necessity of preserving the so-called integrity of the California judiciary which had given the Mooney conviction a review and an endorsement...
...He did not leave the investigation of the record to a committee, one of them already on record against the framed men...
...Frank Oxman, who testified that he saw Mooney at the place of the explosion, was proved to be A perjurer...
...However regarded, it must be borne In mind that this refusal to pardon Mooney la not so much the decision of a puppet governor, as It Is the voice of an arrogant plutocracy speaking deflemce to the working class...
...Third—The determination of the plutocracy of California and of the United States to demoaatrate, dictatorially, by this pardon refusal, tbe supremacy of those who own over those who work...
...He spent months going Into the record himself...
...Open the doors o' the San Quentin tomb...
...Any governor who would free Tom Mooney would thereby end his political career...
...his interest In Mooney's guUt was exposed and his animus was clearly shown...
...Altgeld finished his term and passed into political oblivion...
...Somebody exploded a bomb...
...Tbe modem Altfeld wlU be found to the ranks of the workers...
...What of OaUfomlftT The worit* ing massea and otliere Intereetedin the release of Mooney should...
...The big men of Industry and finance have openly boasted their ability to work their will regardleas of the wishefl or interests of the working class, and they make no concealment of their glee when tbey behold a nation of workers abject and submissive to the point of cowardice...
...The governor's decision hinged not upon Mooney's innocence or guilt...
...It is "open shop...
...The road to liberation throu|^ capitalist parties has been travelled for sixteen yeani and it la as hopeless now as it was sbcteen years ago...
...Bach of these executives who has refused to do the right thing now knows this...
...It is a slogan worthy of enlightened and class conscious worklngmen and women I in California...
...Innocent people were killed and injured...
...If there vna no mistake, tbe workers of state and' nation wlH take tbia amaOhlng blow like yeUow oum...
...BeUnd Rolph's Declaion EJmiboklened by the experience of the last few years, the exploitera of labor and the robbers of the nation's wealth decided to make tbe iaaue of the Mooney pardon at oace a ohallenge and a threat to evw7 ettaoa »rlio guMtiotM Uw social and economic status quo...
...That measure of justice Is long overdue...
...His enemies had "finished" him...
...These refusals to free Tom Mooney were written by four governors but the power mat determined their actions is located in the offices of as merciless a crew of labor exploiters as ever ruled a state...
...turn to tbe job of placing a John Peter Altgeld in the exeoutive'a chair at Sacramento...
...working class propose to do about It...
...The case of the surviving eight-hour day martyrs was before him...
...principal "advlser" and the one who wrote the "reasons" for the governor's refusal to pardon, was former chief justice of the State Supreme Court, and a politician of tbe most disreputable type...
...According to report, his subserviency to big business Is syeh that hia bias against the working class is more pronounced than that constantly exhibited by the memben of tbe judiciary in Los Angeles, and that is going some...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 18
