Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-02-15

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E. E. Phillips, a former official of
the iron workers. union, was arrested
at Syracuse, N. Y, and Edward Clark
and Ernest G. w. Basey, also iron
workers, were arrested at Cincinnati.
John r. Butler, Buffalo, N. Y, first
vice president of the international
Iron Workers, and Herbert S. Hockin
OF Detroit, second vice president and
acting secretary-treasurer and Fred
Sherman local business agent, were
arrested here after Ryan was taken.
Hockin succeeded j. J. Mcnamara,
now in San Quentin prison In Cali
fOrnia as secretary-treasurer.
Ortie McManigal in his confession to
the government, charged that Hockin
was 1.-The man who put him in the
dynamiting business. 1t is charged
in the Indictment that Hockin went
to Detroit in June, 1907, and induced
Mechanical to take up dynamiting.
Ryan and his associates Immediate
ly conferred with District Attorney
Miller in reference to bend. 1t is
said the bonds required for all fifty
or more defendants will aggresa'"
100000. The bonds are for their ar
raignment here March -.
Eugene A. Clancy, San Francisco; ].
E. Munsey, Salt Lake City; Olaf A.
Tvietmoe San Francisco, and Ortie
McManigal, already indicted on the
Pacific coast, and J. J. Mcnamara, al
ready convicted, are again indicted
here.
The bonds of Ryan, Hockin and
Butler later were fixed at $4,000 each
and those of Meadows and Sherman
at $4,000 each.
McNamaras Held Merely Tools.
In the indictments it is held that the
Mcnamara brothers and Mechanical
were merely the agents of vast con-
spiracy and that their work in blowing
up structures included the Los Angeles
Times in October. 1910, had been car
ried on for years at the behest of their
superior officers and at the solicita-
ton of officers of local unions.
All defendants are charged with
conspiracy to transport dynamite and
nitro glycerine in violation of the
federal statutes
Some of those indicted were men,
hers of the executive board when ].
]. Mcnamara was directing his dyna-
hitting operations from his office In
Indianapolis and when he was receiv-
ing $1,000 month from the iron work
ers' union for which he was not re-
quired to make any accounting and
which the government charges was
used to purchase and pay for the trans
portation of explosives. These execu-
tive board members were present in
McNamara's office when he was ar
rested last April.
Charges In Indictments.
The charges in the indictments are
divided into two groups. The first
group charges violation of the federal
statutes regulating the interstate ship !,
ment of explosives, aiding and abet-
ting to violate the law, and aiding and !
abetting to conceal the violation. The
defendants in this class are termed |
accessories before and after the fact
The second group charges con-
spiracy to violate the law by further
ing the plans for carrying explosives.
While the possible penalties for
violations range from less than eigh.
teen months to two years imprison-
ment, it Is said the punishments may |
be culminative so that one defendant
charged with more than one offense
may face a punishment equal to the
penalties for all his Of
lenses.
Frank M. Ryan formerly was a
structural iron worker in Chicago. His
home previous had been in Providence,
r. l. He was elected president of the
Iron Workers union in
1903, succeeding Frank Buchanan OF
Chicago, now a member of congress.
As head of the iron workers, Ryan held
positions on important committees of
the American Federation Of Labor.
The Iron Workers union, whose
headquarters are in Indianapolis, has
about $4,000 members with 107 local
unions in the United States and
Canada. Soon after it became known
the officials were to be indicted Mr..
Ryan asked the members of the union
to establish special fund of $1,000
a month. 1t is believed this fund will
now be utilized for defense at the
trials.
Correspondence between the iron
workers international headquarters
here and the officers Of many local
unions are said to have shown that
business agents had knowledge Of the
system of dynamiting against struc-
lures under construction by employers
who maintained the "open shop" and it
Is charged that Jobs" often were ar
ranged by letter,
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