The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-12-28

ranks of the McNamaras n McMan-
igal, n it was he who finally was
charged with "betraying for his own
gain tn those Sc. with ,rdn whom Ic%R e4 he WAS Tniop ANIL
G~ray-haired and old beyond his
years sat Frank M. Ryan, president of
the iron workers union by virtue Of
which office he was a leader in ma
| tional labor circles, with a seat in the
councils Of the American Federation
of Labor.
McManiga1, the self-confessed dyna-
inter, for weeks occupied the witness
stand, relating calmly, decisively and
without any apparent concern for him
self a narrative of violence seldom
Antecedents of Trial.
And what were the antecedents of
this trial?
Back in the summer of 1905 dyna-
mite was our at New Haven, Conn,
on a job on which ~non-union workmen
were employed. Later the iron work.
ers' union called a strike on several
contractors, and the strike became
general. That was the beginning, ac-
cording to the government, and it
spread until Mcnamara organized a
"dynamiting crew" Altogether 100
explosions occurred, those at Los An
geles being among the number.
Two striking condolences attended
the trial.
One was that on Oct. 1. 1911, exactly
one year after The Los Angeles Times
| uulluILS was bAO"i ~ a 1Ooo VA
twenty-one lives, the federal authori-
ties at Indianapolis first considered the
possibility of prosecutions for illegal
interstate shipment of dynamite and
n~itroglycerine on passenger trains.
Ortie e. McManigal's confession, OBJ
| tanned after he and the Mcnamara
brothers had been arrested, implicated
| others as having actually carried eX-
| ~plosives in suit-cases on trains, or as
having entered into a conspiracy. This
indicated, in Dist. Atty. Charles w.
Miller's opinion, the necessity for a
grand jury investigation. ~1ndianapo-
lis was the headquarters of John j.
| Mcnamara, secretary of the iron work.
ers' union, and the point at which it
was charged, the conspiracy was en-
tered into and from which the explos-
ives were carried.
Another coincidence was tha the
trial began on Oct. 1, 1912, the second
The federal grand jury, after several
months investigation, returned indict-
ments against 1fty-four union labor
officials. Before the defense began its
case this number had been reduced. to
f%ortyvone on account of various elimi-
nations.
AS a motive for the crimes charged
the government referred to the strike
against employers of labor,
| consisting of bridge, viaduct and build
ing contractors who maintained an
/ open shop policy, employing workmen
regardless of whether they belonged
to the union or not. This strike never
has been called off. 1t was alleged
that a warfare waged by the union
spread all over the country until vio-
Hence was resorted to, or, as was
stated, "picketing spread to smuggling,
smuggling to dynamite, and dynamite to
nitroglycerine,"
the union in Indianapolis, although
later named by witnesses as the active
perpetrator of the explosions, was then
unsupported by the contractors, But
the advent of McManigal and James
b. Mcnamara, brother of the union
secretary, as regularly hired dynamit-
ers, working under John J.'s direction,
and, as McManigal charges, with Hook
ms leadership, the explosions became
so bold as to arouse suspicion that
they were the work of an organized
band.
Detectives already had been work
ing on the case when the killing of
twenty-one people in Los Angeles by
a bomb set off at 1 o'clock in the
morning, showed that the desperation
of the dynamiters had reached the
murder stage.
New Evidence. 1
Much of the evidence that was pre-
| cluded at Los Angeles by the pleas of
guilt by the Mcnamara brothers came
out here. Federal Judge Albert B.
Anderson ruled that while the specific
charges were illegal transportation all
other evidence relative to explosions
might be offered as showing a motive.
L Inc testimony was that TIC uSSlEuE-
lion of The Times building was not
strictly a part of the campaign against
n%on-union iron and steel work, but
was done in an effort to unionize var
fous trades in Los Angeles. James B.
| Mcnamara, who set the bomb, was a
printer. witnesses stated that Nc
Namara afterwards expressed little re-
greet that twenty-one people were kill
ed, and, In fact, expressed disappoint-
ment that he had not killed Cen. Har-
rison Gray Otis, proprietor of The
4 Times; that the dynamiter was sent to
the coast at the solicitation of Tveit-
moe, a recognized union labor leader,
and that Tveitmoe furnished David
Captain and M. A. Schmidt, who We're
also indicted for murder, but who
never were captured.
All the 100 explosions came in for
scrutiny by the JURY here, and the field