Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-10-09
M'NAMARA TELLS
STORY OF LIFE
TELLS OF WHAT HE TERMS "UN.
EVENTFUL CAREERS" OF
BROTHER AND SELF.
Both Were Born in Cincinnati, O.,
but Led Different Lives-John Nc
Nama.a Was Interested in Labor
Unions, While James Was Never
Especially Active in Union Affairs.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9-Slttlng III
q corridor just outside his cell in
the county Jail. John J. Mcnamara,
secretary-treasurer of the 1nterna-
tional Association of Bridge and
Structural Ironworkers, briefly
sketched what he termed the unevent-
ful lives of himself and his brother,
james B. Mcnamara.
81 was born in Cincinnati, December
%, 1876 he said, "and / am the
Oldest OF six children living, al
though there were ten children orig
inally. attended the common
schools in Cincinnati until l was IL
years old and then took a three-year
course in a business college.
Nothing of any Importance hap'
pened to me until the panic began IN
1892 when ] turned my hand to any
thing to keep the pot boiling, as they
say ...-
g; die my first bridgework at Gin
cinnati in 1898, joining the union the
next year. Between 1893 and l9O4,
visited various sections of the middle
west. following my trade and working
on stee! bridges, viaducts and SIM
i.a~ structures.
81 have held all of the Offices in
local unions, particularly in those OF
Cleveland, and have attended all the
conventions of the international as
scciation since 1902. l was elected
second vice president at the conven-
,ion in 1903 and was chosen secre'
tary.,reasure1 at Toronto in 1904. |
have held that Office ever since.
1.-The las. building worked on
was the Rockefeller structure in
cleveland. left that job to 60 to
Toronto, and it was held open for
ME i l wanted to 60 back, hut l
didn't as l had been made secretary
treasurer end had my time fully taken
up with the duties of that office
"The Offices of the international as
sociation were in New York when 1
was first elected. Later, for senti-
nlenta! reasons, l was instrumental in
having tHem moved to Cleveland.
Two years after the offices were re.
moved there, another change was
male tc Indianapolis, for the reason
that so many labor organizations had
their international headquarters
there.
Il never planned my life far ahead.
The work of an ironworker probab.
ly precludes such planning, for such
a man does not know when he leaves
home in the morning that he will re-
turn at night. 1t probably tends to-
wards fatalism.
81 wanted to learn of the organiza-
ton in which l held Office, particu-
larly the legal end of it, and so l at
tended the Indianapolis College of
Law and was admitted to practice in
1909.
There is little else about my life
except my arrest. I am an inveterate
reader, and always have been, of
books treating with economics and in
dustrial matters"
James B. Mcnamara, who sat
quietly by while his brother talked,
also was born in Cincinnati. His
birthday was June 2. 1882. He at
tended the common schools and then
learned the printers trade. which he
followed almost continuously ever
since, working in job offices in Chi.
cago, Cleveland, Cincinnati and other
cities.
unlike me-" said John J. McNa-
mara, "my brother has never been
especially active in trades union af
fairs"