Plan To Dynamite Locks At Panama.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 8, 1912:
McNamara Suggested It, Says Mr. Miller, "to Take Their Minds Off Los Angeles."
CLARK'S PLEA OF GUILTY
Will Not Gain immunity, However — Carpenters' and Machinists' Unions Also Accused.
Special to The New York Times.
    INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 7.— That the dynamiting of the locks of the Panama Canal was contemplated by the McNamaras a short time before their arrest was the sensational accusation by District Attorney Miller, which divided interest, in to-day's dynamite trial proceedings, with the filing of Edward Clark's change of plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" on all the counts against him — five of conspiracy and fifty of being a principal in the actual illegal inter-State shipment of dynamite and nitro-glycerine.
    The Government authorities are confident Clark's confession will bring in its wake more changes of pleas. Attorney Newton M. Harding, for the defense, said to-day that Clark, had maintained to him his innocence until a few days ago. His change of plea will not free him from punishment, nor give him immunity from the sentence of the court to the Federal Prison at Fort Leavenworth.
    It has been rumored that in the possession of Detective W. J. Burns and the Government are the confessions of others of the defendants.
    Clark's announcement came at the opening of the Federal Court this morning, after District Attorney Miller had resumed his lengthy statement of charges against the forty-six men indicted for alleged conspiracy to transport dynamite. The sudden appearance of Detective Burns and a brief conference which he held with Mr. Miller were connected with the change in Clark's plea. It was discovered that Burns had had Clark's confession in hand for months. It had long been known that other defendants had admitted their guilt, but that Clark, one of J. J. McNamara's close friends, was one of these was hot known outside Government circles.
    The incident, in reference to Panama, Mr. Miller told the jury, occurred just before the arrest of the Los Angeles dynamiters, when they were becoming desperate in their efforts to secure explosives without betraying their identity.
    "John J. called James B. McNamara, his brother, and McManigal to the headquarters of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers," said Mr. Miller. "John J. said to McManigal: 'We can't get any more dynamite around here without stealing it. Now, you go to Panama and see what you can do down there. The McClintic-Marshall Construction Company has a lot of dynamite stored down there. You could easily get hold of it and blow up the locks. That would make 'em sit up and take notice and take their minds off the Los Angeles affair.' McManigal refused to go at that time. Soon after they all were arrested."
    The contractor mentioned was one of those who had declared for the open shop in the United States.
    Olaf A. Tveitmoe of San Francisco, now on trial, was accused in the Government's statement to the jury as having been the protector of the dynamiters on the Pacific Coast, who pointed out how the Los Angeles Times Building and the Llewellyn Iron Works were to be blown up who wanted the Baker Iron Works and The Times auxiliary plant blown up, and who promised the dynamiters that his (Tveitmoe's) friendship with P. H. McCarthy, then Mayor of San Francisco, would insure protection from the police. Tveitmoe was then editor of a trade paper and Secretary of the Building Trades Council of California.
    Events implicating other defendants as charged by Mr. Miller before the jury, were as follows:
    W. Bert Brown, then Business Agent of a local union at Kansas City, Mo.; James B. McNamara, and "a citizen" whose name was not divulged, in August, 1910, had a conference about blowing up a $1,500,000 bridge being constructed by an employer of non-union labor across the Missouri River at Kansas City. Previously negotiations had been conducted by Brown and William J. McCain, also a Business Agent at Kansas City, with the iron workers' headquarters in Indianapolis.
    James B, offered to employ the "citizen" regularly, saying: "There's lots of money in it. We're going to Los Angeles and blow the whole town to hell. We have unlimited money back of us, and if we ever get in trouble we'll have the best lawyers that money can buy." The "citizen" did not go into the deal. On Aug. 22, McManigal, after being three days in Kansas City, placed twelve quarts of nitro-glycerine, divided, in three four-quart paint cans beneath the under-structure of the bridge. The explosions did not occur until the next day, after McManigal had replaced the weak batteries on the bomb-timers with stronger ones. Some of the cans were recovered by the Government.
    Charges against Clarence E. Dowd of Rochester, N. Y.; Charles Wachmeister and Frank J. Murphy of Detroit, William K. Benson, now of East Galway, N. Y.; Spurgeon P. Meadows of Indianapolis, and Hiram Cline of Muncie, Ind., involving unions other than the ironworkers' were outlined by the District Attorney. He said it would be shown that they all met in Detroit in 1911 "to have a wholesale blowing up," but that J. B. McNamara hesitated about the jobs "because there were too many in on the deal."
    Cline and Meadows were officials of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners; and Dowd was a National organizer of the International Association of Machinists.
    "A map of Detroit was prepared," said Mr. Miller, "with five locations marked where explosions were to occur, McManigal was sent to do the job and was given a list. McManigal said: 'There are only four on the list — where's the other place?' J. B. McNamara replied: 'We are to throw a false bomb on the porch of the home of a member of the Detroit Merchants and Manufacturers' Association. McNamara and McManigal were on their way to do the jobs in April, 1911, when they were arrested."
    Edward Clark, the first of the accused to admit his guilt, was business agent and President of Local Union 44 of the international Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, from January, 1908, to July, 1911. His activities in promoting explosions Mr. .Miller asserted, were carried on through letters written by Frank. M. Ryan, President of the union, and the McNamaras. An ivory handled umbrella bearing the initials "E. C.," found in the wreckage of a dynamited bridge at Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Miller said led to the disclosure that Clark had actually caused the explosion, having used the umbrella to protect the dynamite from the rain and left it behind.
    Pointing toward Eugene A. Clancy and Olaf A. Tveitmoe of San Francisco, Mr. Miller said it would be shown that they helped in promoting The Los Angeles Times disaster, and that "Jack" Bright,known as J. E. Munsey, for two weeks after the explosion harbored J. B. McNamara in Salt Lake City.