The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-30
HEAVIEST PENALTY IN DYNAMITE CONSPIRACY TO
 PRESIDENT FRANK RYAN

against the 3S men.
 For more than an hour before the men were brought to court, the wives and children of many of them stood around the corridors of the federal building weeping. The plan to exA clude the women from the courtroom were sentenced was not carried out.
 The 38 convicted men were in their places in court at s:45. They looked pale and serious and the frivolity Which marked some of them hereto fore was conspicuously absent.
 Att Attorney q1 Krum' for the defense. nied. His next motion to stay judg- ment was also overruled.
 Judge Anderson asked if any of the defendants wished to speak in their own behalf He waited silently a mo- ment. No defendant arose.
 Judge Anderson repeated his re- the room. The judge then asked Pat rick Farrell, of New York. one of the prisoners, to come forward and an- swer some questions.
 Anderson asked Farrell about his appearance before the union executive board in 1907 relative to strike in New York at that time. The court said that he heard Farrell had voted then to end the strike against the American Bridge Company This point had not been brought out at the trial.
 "I was not in favor of the dynamite campaign answered Farrell, T have not had a card since 1eo8." It was the first time in federal to bring out a favorable point for a prisoner about to be sentenced. The faces of some of the convicted men lighted up with hope. Farrell was questioned at length in detail and Judge Anderson seemed impressed in his favor. The court said if Farrell had opposed the dyna- nitting he deserved consideration. District Attorney Miller said that his action against Farrell during the trial would have been different if the defense had brought out these favor able points.
 "He is one of the least guilty. be- would have moved his discharge had Farrell
 T will never sentence a man I be- lieve not guilty, regardless of the ver- dict" declared Judge Anderson.
 Farrell sat down. No final action in his case was taken at this point.
 James Cooney, of Chicago, was call ed forward.
 The court told. cooney he need mot answer questions" 'tI do not fear" questions that he had been a member of the Illinois bar and believed in the constitution.
 Miller told the court there was no evidence against Cooney but Ortie McManigaps statement that they once committed dynamit1ng in Chicago.
 1nS QlSIrlcC attorney, unlike his a.C- ton in the Farrell case, opposed leni- ency for Cooney.
 "Cooney is mentioned in a letter from Hockin to McNamara,'' said the prosecutor, ''as introducing McMani- gal to President Frank Ryan and talking too much'."
 The court asked Miller where was the evidence of Cooney's knowledge of explosions. Miller replied it was all inference but was strong circum- stantia1 evidence. Cooney said he did not believe in dynamiting. He said Ortie McManigal did not like him and that probably was the reason McMan- igal testified against him.
 Frank Murphy; of Detroit. who came up next, admitted he was ar rested and acquitted for melting a riot in Des Moines in July, 1911, fol- lowing his arrest in the dynamite con spiracy case. Miller called attention to this but said he felt Murphy was much less guilty than the others thought 8 guilty man should be pun thought a guilty man mould be pun ished.9
 Certainly replied Murphy. Hiram Kline of Muncie, was asked if he thought Robert Ross, the prin- cipal government witness against falsely against him. Kline said no except Ross was ney-4 CT particularly friendly. ] William Bernhardt, of Cincinnati, appealed to the court for Ieniency. The court told him he had written some bad letters and helped the con- spfracy along. "I hope God strikes me down if I am guilty" pleaded Bernhardt.