|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Our History
A Union is Born
The Turbulent Years
The Conspiracy Trials
The Beginning of the
Morrin Era
The Depression and a New
Deal For Labor
World War II
Ironworkers Grow in the
1950's Part Two Part Three
John H. Lyons Jr.
Elected President
The Tradition Continues
Pathways to the 21st
Century Under The Leadership of General President Jake West
|
Part Five
LINCOLN STEFFENS ENTERS THE SCENE Lincoln Steffens was the most famous of the muckrakers of his day. He was from a wealthy California family, whose former home is to this day the Executive Mansion of the Governor of California. He was a close friend of President Teddy Roosevelt and his magazine articles on important Progressives like "Fighting Bob" LaFollette of Wisconsin had made them into national figures. His book Shame of the Cities had helped to rid many communities of their corrupt Mayors and their city councils. In 1911 Steffens would come to Los Angeles on behalf of a newspaper syndicate in the east to report on why the McNamaras had bombed the Times. Steffens believed that the brothers were guilty but wanted the nation to understand why men had resorted to such means to bring about change , He thought he could settle the case by appealing to Otis, Chandler, District Attorney John Fredericks and twenty businessmen as "Christian Men." Darrow began to realize that the McNamara brothers could never get a fair trial in Los Angeles, and both of them would be given the death penalty. Throughout Darrow's life he opposed the death penalty. He often stated that no client of his had ever been executed, no matter how hideous the crime. Therefore Darrow began to listen to Lincoln Steffens proposal. It would be as follows:
THE PLEA BARGAIN IS VIOLATED A plea bargain was reached but it was never put in writing. The businessmen, led by "General" Otis, refused to allow John J. McNamara to go free and insisted on a ten year jail sentence. The defense reluctantly agreed to this but later the judge refused and increased John's sentence to fifteen years. The joint labor-management meeting in Los Angeles never took place. The charges against the other International Officers were not dropped. Because of his role as lawyer for the defense, John Harrington lost the mayoral election. A "Good Government" slate backed by "General" Otis and the Merchants and Manufacturers Association won the election, and the union movement in Los Angeles suffered. Not satisfied with their victory over the unions, Otis and his friends went after Clarence Darrow, who was brought to trial on bribery charges. Bert Franklin, who had been hired by Darrow, was supposed to have bribed a juror in the McNamara case for Darrow. Franklin turned out to be a former Los Angeles detective and a friend of the prosecutor, District Attorney John Fredericks. After two years in Los Angeles, Darrow was finally found not guilty. He returned to Chicago financially ruined. He would never again return to California. The American Federation of Labor as well as every union member was crushed when they read about the guilty plea made by the McNamara brothers . This case would have the effect of making the American Labor movement more and more conservative in order to be acceptable to the general public. Immediately the A. F. of L. and its many individual unions would try to distance themselves from the case. Clarence Darrow would never again work for any union. "General" Otis and the Times as well as conservative papers across the country had won.
WERE THEY GUILTY? As you can see, there were many loopholes in this case. No one seemed to pay any attention to the earlier report that the gas leak had caused the explosion. Why had Otis and his son-in-law, Chandler, moved all their papers out of this location earlier and prepared a second printing site? Why would the Ironworkers be interested in bombing this site which employed none of their workers? The staging of the kidnapping of our Secretary/Treasurer was certainly illegal. The entire case served to keep Los Angeles in the control of Otis and gave the National Erectors Association what it had wanted for years...a chance to try break the only remaining union in the steel industry. The chief prosecution witness in both Los Angeles and Indianapolis, Ortie McManigal, would write a book titled The National Dynamite Plot, published by the Neale Company of Los Angeles. He called it ...."the authentic account of the attempts of Union Labor to destroy the Structural Iron Industry." Like a similar book published to promote the Pinkerton Detective Agency after the Haymarket Affair, this book helped to promote the Burns Detective Agency in its union busting efforts. It's interesting that all the private McNamara papers of both "General" Otis and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, were destroyed. What an interesting story they might have told! Certainly bombings on some job sites, but no lives were lost and the damage was small. After the guilty plea by the brothers, Eugene Debs wrote the following to a friend:
Scroll to the top and click on "The Conspiracy Trials and Aftermath - 1912 to 1918 - Part One"
[Home]
[Officers]
[Upcoming
Events] [Links
to Other Unions] |
