The herald., 1896-08-10
'Tis the
Peoples
Cause

LOS ANGELES, Cal. Aug. 8. 1895.
workingmen and Friends Of Labor.
Greeting:
1t has become again necessary to
call your attention to the attitude Of
the Los Angeles Times toward Or
ganiZed labor
The Times, as many Of you are
aware, has been for the past five
years an unfair newspaper. With
the exception of a few months. when
compromise was in effect between
it and the Typographical Union, 1t
has not only employed non-union
help exclusively, but has. with re-
lentless tirelessness. and malignity
gone out of its way in its attempts
to misrepresent and injure the print
ers and other craftsmen of Los An
geles who have banded themselves
together for mutual protection and
assistance. On three separate occa-
sions it has furnished men to displace
union men in other cities who were
striving to resist infringement Of
their rights and excessive reduction
of wages-first at San Diego, next
at Sacramento. and lastly at Taco
ma. Wash.
Space prevents us from entering
int 10 Jafa AFs al al
Otis many brutal attacks upon the
industrial classes. A perusal of the
files of his paper about the time of
the Pullman strike, and on many
occasions before and since, will sat-
isfy any right-minded, libertylov-
ing American that he has truly
earned the position in the Temple of
Infamy equal to that of Carnegie,
Frick and Pullman.
An extract from a conservative
and excellent magazine will serve
to show that the Times is properly
estimated, even in places distant
from the immediate field Of its op-
erations.
The Overland Monthly for July,
1896. in lengthy article calling the
Times to account for its attempt to
injure the Overland because 1t had
expressed opinions differing from
those of the notorious paper, says:
THE Los Angeles Times does not
want self-respecting workingmen.
1t is in cearch of abject docility. 1t
waits men who are willing that the
laborer shall forever remain a clod.
and so 1t declared boycott against
the Typographical Union"
1t may. perhaps, be of interest to
those who have come to'Los Angeles
since the fall of 1890 to learn the ORR
gin of the trouble with the Times.
In August, 1890. the proprietors
of all the daily papers in Los Ange-
les We're inveigled into. a combina-
ton with H G. Otis to reduce wages
20 per cent, as well as demanding
other unreasonable concessions.
Four newspapers, the Tribune be-
ing at that time in existence-10s
men in all-were affected. After
two days the Tribune and Express.
accepting concessions which the Ty-
biographical Union offered, took
back all their union employees at the
old scale of wages.
About seven weeks later Messrs.
Ayers & Lynch, who were at that
time publishing The Herald, also
concluded that union help was more
profitable than non-union, and
squared" themselves accordingly.
Not so with Mr.. Otis. He had been
for long time waiting for the oppor-
tunity which the retirement of Gen.
eral Boyce from the management of
the Tribune gave him. BY tele-
graph he secured a crew of Kansas
City Printers Protective Fraternity
men, as they style themselves. These
men DelOISeu 10 an organization
started by notorious individuals ex-
PEELED from the Typographical union
for immoral and criminal conduct
of various kinds. Otis was COM
PEELED to enter into a one years con-
tract with these men at the same
scale of prices which he had refused
to pay his union men.
The sympathy Of workingmen and
their friends had such an effect upon
the Times and it's principal patrons
that after a little over two years
time Colonel Woodward CJayhawk-
er') met committee representing
the printers and an arrangement was
entered into by which the union
placed four men in the Times office,
the understanding being that in a
short while a union man would take
the foremanship, and gradually and
quietly introduce union men; this
plan being suggested by his repre-
sentative to save Mr. Otis dignity"
and ''let him down easy" Nine
months after the people had been Of
ficially notified that satisfactory
arrangement had been made and the
fight declared off, Otis repudiated
"Jayhawker's" authority to act in