Montana labor news., 1936-10-08

ago,
The petition is the first formal
move made for the freedom of the
two labor prisoners since their con-
viction. In point of years served,
Mcnamara and Schmidt are the old
est labor prisoners in the world.
They have served rs and 81 years
respectively. During that time, Mrs.
Herrick said, every prison in the
world has been cleared of labor and
political prisoners at one time or
another through general amnesties,
or Individual releases and pardons,
except San Quentin, where these
two men have been confined until
a year ago when Mcnamara was re-
moved to Folsom Penitentiary at Re-
pressa, California. Schmidt is still
in San Quentin.
The petition, after reciting the cir
cumstanees of the dynamiting of the
Los Angeles Times building, discus
SEES the plea of guilty" entered by
Mcnamara:
Sat the time of the trial growing
out of the dynamiting of the Times
Building an agreement was arrived
at between the prosecution and the
defense that J. B. Mcnamara should
plead guilty to murder occasioned
by the dynamiting of the Times bui-
lding and that j. ]. Mcnamara
should plead guilty to the dynamit-
ing of the Llewellan Iron Works. 1t
was further agreed that j. B. Nc
Namara should be paroled at the
end of seven years and that ]. J.. Nc
Namara should be paroled at the end
of three years and three months. 1t
was further agreed that there should
be no prosecution Of any of the 9TH
er alleged conspirators and p%articu-
larly that Matthew A. Schmidt and
Dave Caplin should never be prose-
cuted if they remained out of the
state of California. The agreement
was broken almost at once by Judge
Walter Boardwell who sentenced j.
j. Mcnamara to fifteen years in the
penitentiary. The agreement was
kept by the then District Attorney
John D. Fredericks so long as he was
in office. When Fredericks was de-
feated by Thomas Lee Woolwine for
the office of district attorney, the
later, disregarding the promise made
by his predecessor, and in coopera-
ton with W. ]. Burns, brought Dave
Caplin back from Washington and
tried and convicted him of manslau-
ghter. He was sentenced to ten
years in the penitentiary and served
the full time of six years and six
months. Matthew Schmidt was bro
ught back from New York, tried for
murder, sentenced to life imprison-
ment in the penitentiary and has now
served twenty-one years.
81. B. Mcnamara has never asked
for parole to which he is entitled UNI
der the agreement as a result OF
which he pleaded guilty, since he
feels that to do so would be a vio-
lation of his duty towards Schmidt
who was never to be prosecuted il
the McNamaras pleaded guilty"
The petition closes:
"As neither of these defendants
had the slightest intent or desire to
take life and have paid by their
many years of Imprisonment (25 in
the case of Mcnamara - 81 in the
case of Schmidt) we submit that both
these prisoners should now be re-
leased. Measured by prevailing
standards the punishment of McNa-
mara and Schmidt has already been
extremely severe. Since the turn
of the century there have been many
sharp troubles including great vio-
lence between capital and labor in
various countries and tens of thous-
ands of workers have been imprison-
ed in consequences; but none have
suffered such long Imprisonment as
the two men in question. Though
one search all over the world one
cannot find another prisoner who
has been imprisoned for his labor
activity for such a long period as
have j. B. Mcnamara and M. A.
| Schmidt.
when Mcnamara and Schmidt
entered prison they were young men
They have spent the best years of
their manhood behind the grim pen
itentiary walls. Now, with health
impaired they enter into the autumn
of life. 1t would seem that even
the most bitter opponents of their
release should be satisfied by such
a severe penalty as these two men
have suffered.
"An enlightened public opinion
would clearly demand that these
two men should be Internationally
freed at once. We trust therefore,
that you will see fit to release ]. B.
McNamara and Matthew A. Schmidt