The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-12-02
THE McNAMARAs GUILTY AND
CONFESS.

the admission of their guilt, will come
as blow to union labor however
much It may be minimized And ir
they are guilty Of dynamiting the
Times office where twenty-one lives
were blotted out how many more OF
those dynamiting cases where men
were killed are they responsible for?
These men admit part of the long
list of crimes and we see no reason |
to doubt that they We're guilty of a !
number Of other similar murderous
acts. The only punishment which |
would have fit their case would have |
been first degree murder such GRIM
mails are not fit to live. They have
lost all semblance of moral human be-
ings and are monsters.
The fact that these men were oper-
ating with other high officials i'm the
labor organization looks bad also. Its
tendency will be to cause people g.
believe some of those men have made
dynamiting and murder part of their
creed of propagandism. 1t is entirely
indefensible for any org9nization or
set of men to carry their opposition
TO the commission of such crimes "a
arson, dyiamlting and murder, or to
any criminal action, and these crir1
will react and do the cause of labor
harm.
Another feature Of this case was
the payment Of $500 Oto bribe a tales
man. possible Juror and it shows
that bribery was being resorted to by
somebody interested in the defense
whoever engineered that job Is en-
titled to at least flve-year sentence
in prison. 1t looked little like Clar-
ence Darrow felt the fire getting too
hot for him and while he may not |
have authorized the expenditure of
$4,000 to corrupt talesman yet the
case Of the defense collapsed pretty
soon after that discovery was made
1t is suspicious circumstance. any
how untl cleared up.
one of the pecullarlties of this case
was the unqualified support given |
these McNamaras, who are now self
confessed murderers not of one man
hut Of more than a'score Of innocent
people. by Gompers aal other labor
leaders Although tho mCt iucrim-
mating evidence was discovered in
connection with their arrest yet Com
pers assumed they were absolutely IN
nocent and urged union laborers to
stand by them. thus misleading tens
of thousands of people. This confess
sion will leave them without very
much to stand on.
1t is wonderful vindication of that
labor organization which refused to
consider the MIcNamaras as entirely
innocent and also refused TO con-
tribute as an organization and sug-
gested that It would be appropriate TO
take that matter mp after those men
had been acquitted by legal tribunal.
There was also entirely too much
done to frustrate justice by attempt
ing TO show that the McNamdras were
kidnapped" II they were guilty all
honest men should desire TO see them
arrested and punished no man has
right to protect his 1iiew partisan
or operative or fratofRaDst. II ne il
probably murderer. std shield him
from punishment l<RSwing the ex-
tent Of their vlllainy. Detective Burns
took no chances with them but re-
sorted to those methods,which he con.
ceived to be necessary TO arrest and
mold men guilty Of such atrocious
crimes 1t is a good thing that this
matter has been probed and clean
up made. even, we believe, for the
cause Of labor.
But all this matter should not preju-
dice ana mislead the public with re-
gard to the great cause Of labor and
the rights of men. Only the cham
pions of labor shouldArefuse TO defend
men who resort to murder and other
crimes to carry out their policies La
bor frequently does not get us right
ful share of the profits of enterprise
II is frequently crushed ana oppress-
ed by the iron hand Of the operator
and the capitalist. Men and women
Frequently work at starvation wages
while the capitalist lives in aifluenee
on the results of their toll This prob
lem OF getting for labor It's rIhtfu
share OF the fruits Of enterprise ranks
with the most important in human az
fairs. These efforts to improve the
condition OF the workmen must 60 OF
regardless of such mistakes as som'
labor leaders have made in these Me
Namara cases but it viii DE helpful
for the labor leaders TO put a ban OF
an such measures as dynamliing AM
murder