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Show R, X - Ac Mooney- Case. $& - , ? V'l','"-..v ..'. i, JPJMH ."Y- ' - . 3 .-.' K p' v ojjg j Mdbhey will not hang. His life has been j spared; Governor Stephens of California commuting the B sentence to life imprisonment. . 4 HF 'To be condemned to remain forever behind prison! f-; bar3 is, however, worse than death. There is only, one1 Bp x ray of hope that in future years good conduct may win M-tr a parole, but in the Mooney case this would assuredly be HLm: a forlorn hope. Hl Mooney was tried and convicted of perpetrating a B W" bomb outrage that causedthe death of ten persons kand B the injury of scores of others. If guilty he should be K r hanged; if not guilty, he should be freed. ' J K ' More pertinent, however, than the question of guilt B k or innocence was the question ,as to whether Mooney had B been granted a fair trial. If the governor believed Moon- B y ey had been given a fair and impartial healing, then it B j&? was not his place to interfere; the judgment of the court B w and jury; should have been carried out. But, if the gov- B errior found reason to believe that Mooney had been the B $ victim of a "frameup," as has been charged, or that his B ; conviction had been brought about by perjured, testimony B if or that in any, other way his trial had been unfair, then Bpk it was his duty to direct that Mooney have a new trial. Bj The compromise decision reached by the California Bp w executive indicates he has sought an easy way out, but in Bv,4 so doing he has sorely bungled the situation. It isn't a Bjf question of what Mooney has done in the past, whether Hlt' he is an anarchist, a' dangerous citizen, a fool or an ad- B' vanced thinker; it doesn't matter whether he is a true B; Mend of union labor, o ra false friend; it -counts noth- 5 ing whether corporate interests had 'reason to fear him, B fe" or whether their fears were groundless the whole issue B 4 was whether Mooney had had a fair or unfair tial. R-P,, The duty before Governor-Stephens vas clear and H.;' clean cut Mooney should be hanged, or he should be B. granted a new trial. The. governor dodged the issue. B & Like the boy who puts ajlank in the seat of his troupers K j!, he feared the Ruhishmerit to come from fearless action B kf and hetried to squirm into a soft spot far from the wood B f shed whero, there might be an honest reckoning. Salt h Lake Telegram. ' KS |