The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1910-10-06
Times Plant and Building Are
Entirely Destroyed at
Early Hour.
TERRIFIC EXPLOSION
Management Lays the Blame
to Organized Labor as
Result of Warfare.

Los ANGELES. Calf. Oct. The
building and plant of the Los Angeles
Times, one of the best known news
papers in the Southwest and of which
General Harrison Gray Otis was edi-
tor and principal owner, was COM
pletely destroyed by an explosion and
fire soon after l o'clock today, result
ing in the death of upwards of TWEEN
ty of Its employees and financial loss
of nearly half a million dollars.
The management OF the newspaper
lays the blame of the explosion to la
Dor unions with which the organiza-
ton of the Times had long been en-
gagged in bitter warfare.
1t is charged that unknown persons
set off charge of dynamite in a blind
alley which ran in the center of the
building, completely wrecking the in
terror and setting it on fire from roof
to basement.
Terrific Explosion.
The force of the explosion was ter
rife. 1t was heard for miles and all
windows in the vicinity of the Times
building were shattered. Between
fifty and seventy-five employees weer
in the place at the time, and until the
whole list of employees is checked
over, 1t can not be known how many
lives we're lost.
Have Narrow Escapes.
Most of the dead worked in the me-
chanical department of the newspaper.
The responsible heads OF the newspa-
per had narrow escapes, many OF
them having left the building only
short time before the explosion.
The office was equipped with gas
fittings and the force of the explosion
tearing these pipes into bits released
the gas which instantaneously ignited
every part of the building. No other
cause but that of dynamite explo-
sion is advanced by witnesses except
ing in the case of telegraph operator
in the building who stated that he
detected odor of gas through the build
ing earlier in the night
Two Arrested.
A few minutes after the explosion,
the police arrested near the scene two
men and locked them up on suspicion.
Following the explosion the flames fol-
lowed SO quickly that those in the
building had little chance to escape.
Many leaped from windows and were
severely injured. Between fifteen and
twenty were taken to hospitals.
The building was a block three
stories high.
Editor Is Killed.
The explosion took place directly
below the composing room of the
newspaper from which the dead and
missing principally come. In the local
room Of the paper all the editors and
reporters with the exception of two
or three men had gone home. Among
the dead is Assistant City EDITOR Har-
vey c. Elder. He jumped from third
floor window and was so badly in
iured that he died soon afterwards,
Harry L. Crane, assistant telegraph
editor, is among the missing. He ia
believed to be dead
For twenty years the paper and its
oaner, General Otis, were engaged in
war with labor unions starting with
strike by members Of the typograph-
ical union. Assistant General Mana
ger Chandler says there is no doubt
the explosion was caused by dynamite.
He said many threatening letters had
been received for number of years.
LOS ANGELES, Calf, oct IF. ].
zehandalaaT, secretary Of the Mer-
chants and Manufacturers Association
telephoned the police station this
morning that charge of dynamite
had been found under his house. The
police sent out to investigate, 1t is