Facts About the Preparedness Bomb

Out here in the big West, a whooping, yelling mob of “Vigilante” business men is trying to wipe out the last labor union. Hiring an army of bristling gunmen for a spy- and strike-breaker system, they have slowly advanced from conquered Los Angeles to the siege of San Francisco.

The opening fight here was to force Labor, against its will, into a “preparedness” parade. Every organized man refused to move, and the parade for military piracy was cut down to a handful of the unorganized who were bulldozed into line.

Organized Labor, victorious, was satisfied and completely through with the affair before the day of march.

But some individuals, fired by the wild propaganda for military violence, sent hundreds of warnings through the mails, saying that they would blow up the parade with a bomb. Employers and newspapers tried to keep this quiet, but Organized Labor men discovered it and requested their followers to avoid any chance for such a thing to be laid at their door, by abstaining from all activity and treating the parade with silent contempt. This was done.

The ranks of the unorganized marched down Market street behind their employers and society women, unaware of the warnings. A bomb exploded which killed six people outright, three more dying later. A prominent Chamber of Commerce man was heard to remark: “This is a fine chance for the open shop.”

Immediately the Chamber of Commerce, through its tools in public office, swooped down on its most hated enemies in Organized Labor ranks. They took the leader of the recent attempted street car strike, Thomas J. Mooney (as well as his wife, an inoffensive music teacher), ignored his complete alibi and charged him with heading a “conspiracy.” The chief of pickets of the recent Machinists’ strike, Edward D. Nolan, was taken for vengeance’s sake, without evidence, and they announce, in the papers that they “have the hemp stretched around the necks of all.” Israel Weinberg, prominent in the Jitney Bus Operators’ Union, which is troubling the United Railways, was jailed and accused of murder. Warren K. Billings, past president of the Shoe Workers, was charged with the actual dynamiting, and an eye-witness who saw an altogether different man place the supposed suit-case bomb, was assaulted in the office of the prosecutor.

Five conspicuous enemies of the employers were thus caught and apparently doomed. The warnings in advance that had been received through the mails, were thereafter ignored. Direct evidence of eye-witnesses was ignored. The Chamber of Commerce had the men it wanted.

Every newspaper blandly declined to print a word without approval of the “Law and Order Committee.” Several newspaper men working on the case came secretly to us to whisper that they knew the men were innocent, but “for God’s sake don’t mention us!” One detective working for the prosecution told a member of the International Workers’ Defense League that the men were to be convicted on fake evidence, now being cooked up, but “not to let on who told you.” Only by keeping the men from having any defense could they be convicted, so the prosecution had the indecency to try to prevent any prominent lawyer from taking the case. A judge forced upon the principal defendant, fighting for his life, a greenhorn lawyer of one year’s experience.

By making it clear to a prominent criminal lawyer that the accused are not guilty, we have gotten him, through a sense of justice, to take the cases for a fee much lower than his usual charge. But we have not even that much money.

Twenty-one Thousand Dollars blood money is in the sight of the horde of ex-Pinkertons and United Railways detectives, and they will not give up their prey without a tough fight. The prisoners are in the hands of men who consider labor unionism in itself a crime. They are now proving this by making peaceful picketing a prison offense.

We have demonstrated to many unions the innocence of the men and gotten them to send delegates to the League.

We are not defending bomb throwers, but innocent men. They will be executed practically without trial if we don’t get the money to defend them.

Send money, and much of it, QUICK, to the International Workers’ Defense League, Robert Minor, treasurer, 210 Russ Building, 235 Montgomery street, San Francisco.