The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1912-02-22
ARRESTS MADE IN
DYNAMITE PLOT
More Officials of Iron Workers
Union Under Arrest When Gov
eminent Dragnet II Drawn In
Federated Labor Not Convicted

indianapolis, Ind, Feb, i8.--Gov-
ernment agents in many cities to-
day simultaneously moved in the
roundup of labor leaders accused
as units in the dynamite conspiracy
Among the first arrested was
Frank NJ. Ryan, president Of the
International Association of Bridge
and Structural Iron Workers. He
was taken to Indianapolis, where
the iron workers international
headquarters are located, and
where J. j. Mcnamara. the convict
ed dynamiter, was arrested last
April.
Eleven business agents of the
iron workers, four or five officials
and some members of the executive
board, who are charged with know
ing what Mcnamara did with mon
ey used to buy explosives, are
among those indicted.
Spurgeon P. Meadows, business
agent of the district council of the
International Brotherhood of Car
pentcrs and Joiners, was also arrest
ed in indianapolis. He represents
one Of the three labor unions alleg-
ed to be implicated in the conspir-
acy. The officials Of the other un-
ion represented is G. f. Dowd of the
Machinists Union, under arrest at
Rochester, n. y.
Frank C. Webb, a former member
of the iron workers executive
board, who was arrested in New
York, figures prominently in 0rtie
MeManigal's confession. Webb is
charged with meeting McManigal
and showing him where to do
"jobs" in Hoboken and Jersey City.
Webb and Patrick Farrell, former
liz OF the iron workers executive
committee, were held in $4,000
bonds.
John Il. Butler, Buffalo, N. u,
vice-president of the International
Iron Workers, and Herbert s.
Herkin of Detroit, second vice
president and acting secretary
treasurer, and Fred Sherman, local
business agent, were arrested in
indianapolis after Ryan was taken.
Herkin succeeded J. ]. Mcnamara,
now in San Quentin prison in Cali
fornia, as secretary-treasurer.
0rtie McManigal. in his confess
sion, declared Herkin was the man
who put him in the dynamiting
business"
1t is charged in the indictment
that Herkin went TO Detroit in June,
1907, and induced McManigal to
take up dynamiting.
The bonds Of Ryan. Herkin and
Butler have been fixed at $4,000
each, and those of Meadows and
Sherman at $1,000 each. 1t is said
if they soon did not furnish bond
they would be taken to Jail.
II the indictments it is held the
Mcnamara brothers and McMani-
gal were merely the agents of a
vast conspiracy. and that their
work in blowing up structures had
been carried on for years at the
behest of their superior officers
and at the solicitation Of officials
of local unions.
Five of the indicted we're MEM
bers of the executive board when
j. J. Mcnamara was directing his
dynamite operations from his Of
flee in Indianapolis and when he
was receiving $1,000 a month from
the Iron Workers union, for which
he was not required to make any
accounting and while the govern
ment charges were used TO pur-
chase and pay for the transporta-
ton of explosives. These executive
board members were present in
McNamaras Office when he was ar
rested last April The charges in
the indictments are divided into
two groups. The first group
charges violation of the Federal
statutes regulating the interstate
shipment of explosives. aiding and
abetting TO violate the law and aid
ing and abetting to conceal the vio-
lation.
The defendants in this class are
termed accessories before and after
the fact.
The second group charges con-
spiracy to violate the law by fur
thering the plans of carrying ex-
plosives.
While the possible penalties for
violations range from less than iS
months to two years Imprisonment,
it is said, the punishments may be
cumulative so that one defendant
charged with more than one Of
Tense may face a punishment equal
10 the accumulated penalties for
all his offenses.
Frank NJ. Ryan was formerly a