The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-12-04
THE M,nAMARA CONFESSIONS.

THE MCNAMARA COME sioMs.
The papers are filed with discus
sions of the Mcnamara confessions
which all unite in declaring to be
highly important In themselves and
far reaching in their consequences.
There is also unanimity Of opinion
thai organized labor has sustained a
severe blow because of its hasty
championship and defense of dynamit-
ers and murderers. When the Nc
Namaras were arrested and taken to
California for trial labor leaders and
their lieutenants raised the cry of
inv aston of liberty at the instigation
of plutocracy" Now that the whole
truth is known and cannot be denied
we do not hear anything about the
precious liberty of those scoundrels.
Indignation has taken the place of
sympathy, real or pretended. The
Cedar Rapids Republican in an arti-
Gle on the subject says:
One can not but be astounded in
the presence of such confession.
The blowing up of the Times building
cost the lives of twenty-one men,
most of them workmen. They were
blown up by the McNamaras because
the Times did not work under the
rules of the union to which they had
sworn allegiance But the blowing up
of the Los Angeles newspaper was
only one in a series of such crimes.
1t has been stated that 155 buildings
and bridges, structural iron work have
been blown up or damaged with dyna-
mite during the last half dozen years.
"As We look at it, the McNamaras
are entitled to no credit for their
last step. The credis all belongs to
Burns and the others who have been
ferreting out their crimes. If they
had seen an opportunity to clear
themselves, whether by perjury or
bribery or intimidation. they would
have persisted in it. The only rea-
son they confessed is that they were
caught like rats in trap and there
was only one way out of the trap.
They are entitled to no credit for
their confession aad their punish
ment should not be tempered by the
fact that they did confess. Their
punishment should be the extreme
! penalty of the laws. They can never
be punished enough in this life. Their
crimes smell to heaven They have
been the murderers of hundred men
through their diabolical system of
dynamiting. If they had succeeded
in freeing themselves, it would have
been most serious thing for the
whole country for it would have
.cfo Hill he'd q 80 f,,++ A.
that would have meant a reign of
terror in the industrial world.
The catching of these men and the
catching of them SO effectively that
! they had to enter pleas of guilty is
one of the greatest victories for JUS
tice in the history of American in
dustrialism
: Men like Mr.. Gompers, who have
/ been defending these dynamite Grim
/ inals and denouncing the men who
rave hunted them to justice, should
: take lesson from the outcome OF
the Mcnamara cases. II they have
really believed that such men would
not resort to such methods, they now
! know better"
Men who will use dynamite to furth
er a cause in which they pretend to be
: Interested and thus make possible ar
awful sacrifice of human life deserve
! to be hanged. This is the pronounce
5 ment of the Des Moines Capital
: which predicts that from this time
S forth union labor in this country vii
I be wide awake to the necessity of sup
e pressing the elements which. through
mercenary or other Interior motives
would bring it into disrepute and 0
putting its cleanest and best and mos
i intelligent men to the front. On
l. especially fortunate phase of the Lo
t Angeles situation to which the Capita
calls attention is that
g 1T will now be impossible to Pre-
4 duce any new list of martyrs to an
4 real or imaginary cause Demagogue
!. will be SO stunned that it will be som
g time before they can get into actio
a again. The yawpers who make
!. specially of assailing the courts hay
been robbed of choice supply of an
munition
In other words. Justice. puresan
y unaduiterated, as though impelled b
some supernatural and irresistibl
o. force, has made its way to victor
Of almost without parallel in the annal
ID of American criminal litigation"
The McNamaras and their associa
n. ed dynamitards murdered and d,
9. stroyed for an idea. Theirs was n
of act of individuals but an organize
Sc policy of terrorism as deadly and d.
he termined and pursued with as cru,
a purpose as any ever conceived in al
A archy In celebrating upon TIL
o o. thought the Marshalltown Times-R
a. publican forcibly declares:
~ Dynamite is the last word of vi
VI lence, murder the final argument
hate. There is more of tyranny in n