The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-12-18
Arguments for the Government Are
Opened In the Dynamite conspIr-
acy Case Against Forty
Union Iron Workers.
LONG PRISON TERMS
In Spite Of Sworn Evidence, Defend
ants Have BIandIy Denied Ev-
erythtng When Placed Up
on Witness Stand.

UNITED Press Leased Wire Service
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, Dec. 49,
Arguing In favor Of long prison terms
for the forty union iron workers
charged with conspiracy and unlawful
shipments of explosives, Special AS
sistant District Attorney James Noel
opened for the government today.
Lies and explanations that don't
explain" he termed the defendants
denials of testimony and their inter
pretations of ambiguous or openly in
eliminating passages in official union
correspondence.
The fact that some of the indicted
dence lad been introduced were not
called in their own behalf was sar-
| castically commented upon by Noel.
The defense feared to add perjury
to their other officers" declared the
| special prosecutor Perjury was
his common qualification of the de
malls given on the witness stand by
some of the defendants. Noel point
ed out the testimony of from two to
la dozen government witnesses
against the unsupported denials Of
/ the indicted labor leaders.
Ridicule was heaped on the claim
i of the defendants who swore they did
i not see in their audits of the unions
4 books the $1,000 items paid to ]. j.
q Mcnamara and confessedly used by
q him in his dynamitings. Mcnamara
could no. have been alone in this dia-
4 bolical plot to win the union shop at
s any cost of human life and private
4. property declared Noel, emphasiz-
ing the governments claim that the
i executive committee at least was in
4 the conspiracy. He referred to the
. sworn identifications of Herbert
[ Hockin as a purchaser of nitro-gly-
cerine and dynamite and traced Hook
! in's close Affiliations with the other
i defendants.
4 Detailed elaborations of these
I Eclaims We're expected to take up the
governments four days of argument
! District Attorney Charles Miller will
close for the government.
!, I'VE are not to consider whether
) the fight of these men was just OIL
unjust, but whether the laws of the
: country have been violated, saic
Noel
Noel opened with a general sum
mary of the alleged conspiracy from
y its infancy and followed by CONNECTING
+. the various defendants with the plot
u He called attention to the letters writ
y ten by the defendants and said tina
y when men write about lawful propo
= sitions they use plain language.
Y Since the arrest of the Mo
Namaras,'' Noel declared, there ha
# been only one explosion on structure
1t steel work in the country. We hav
IS shown that between 1905 and 191
le there were ninety-two explosions an
'e not all against members Of the M
e tional Erectors' Association. The col
7. spiracy was general"
e., Noel barely mentioned the struggl
Il between capital and labor.
There may be such thing as el
IS thusiasm in crime" stated Noel, r.
- ferrlnS TO Orue McMdhiSai oPiii.
TO his dynamitings when conyentlo
will rise and face the west in siler
SIX prayer for one of the worst crimina
al in history" Noel referred to tt
Milwaukee convention that voted j.
of Mcnamara martyr.
of "It only takes a minute TO JON
ne conspiracy said the special prosec
er tor. referring to the four days Defen
= ant Herman Seiffert was busine
agent OF the Milwaukee local