The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-11-11

We HoNN Sdiu Jbdl Nthtidl OtlS 10
capable of the monstrous crime of in
sisting that the cause of The Times
disaster was dynamite, in order that he
might turn it to account in his cam
paign against unionism, and at the
same time himself escape the eonse-
quences of criminal negligence.
This il an opinion of union men.
Read now the opinion of Hiram John
son, Republican candidate for Cover
nor of California, an opinoin expressed
in a speech delivered in Los Angeles
during the present political campaign.
johnson is not n member of a labor
union. He is a lawyer who first gained
the enmity of The Times by his part
in the prosecution of the "higher-ups"
in the San Francisco graft scandal,
friends of General Otis. Later he led
the "insurgent" element in it's efforts
to GUST the Southern Pacific from its
age-long control of the Republican
party in California Said Mr. Johnson:
"In the city from which I have come
we have drunk to the very dregs the
cup of infamy; we have had vile of
ficials; we have had rotten newspapers;
we have had men who have sold their
birthright; we have dipped into every
infamy; every form of wickedness has
been ours in the past; every debased
passion and every sin has flourished.
But we have nothing so vile, nothing
so low, nothing so debased, nothing so
infamous in San Francisco, nor did we
ever have, as Harrison Gray Otis. This
man has attacked me on the only side
to which I will not respond, concerning
which, rather than respond, I will lose
the governorship of the state of Cali
tia, with gangrened heart and rotting
brain, grimacing at every reform, chat
tering impotently at all things that are
decent, frothing Tuning violently glib
bearing, going down to his grave in
snarling infamy. This man Otis is the
one blot on the banner of Southern
California: he is the bar sinister upon
your escutcheon. My friends, he is the
one thing that all California looks at
when, in loking at Southern California,
they see anything that is disgraceful
depraved, corrupt and putreseent-that
is Harrison Gray Otis"
And this is the man whose Influence
is very strong upon the press dispatches
and news reports sent out from Los
Angeles relating to the disaster, who
dominates the investigation into its
causes. and who will attempt to direct
the prosecution in case any union man
should be arrested for suspected com
plicity in the alleged crime!
The theory upon which General Otis
is trying to make the world believe
that organized labor blew up his shop
is the theory of motive; that is, that
organized labor expected to profit by
such disaster in its efforts to unionize
Los Angeles.
The answer is that no sane union
member could have expected anything
of the sort.
There is not a union man in Cali
fornia who could not have foretold
that, if The Times were blown up, evil
dence or no evidence. organized labor
would be accused of the job; that The
Times would be the first to make the
accusation; that every union-hater in
the universe would take up the cry;
that Employers Associations, Mer
chants and Manufacturers Associa-
voice of Big Business, would join in the
chorus of accusation; that the incident
would be ioyfully seized upon as an ex-
cuse for inflaming the mind of the pub
lie against unions and unionism, for in
shutting a more bitter, unfair AMI
lawless campaign against organized Ia
Dor than has ever been seen before, for
bringing every available weapon into
play to realize the ambition of General
Otis-the determination of the unions.
And exactly this thing happened!
"The unions did it," shouted Otis,
Chandler, Andrews, and the NJ. & NJ.
And every unfair employer of labor,
every professional scab, every lick
spittle newspaper, every tool of Big
Business, took means to spread that
impression among the people.
The Los Angeles Herald declared:
"The police force of our city should
at once begin cleaning out process
and should not rest until every man
who has been attracted to the city by
the pending labor troubles has been
driven from the city or incarceratcd in
jail"
When the Los Angeles Record,
newspaper which was not whipped into
line, published a manly editorial point
ing out the probability of an explosion
by gas, a concerted attack by members
of the NJ. & NJ. caused the withdrawal
of so many advertisements, and the
threatened withdrawal of so many more
as would have compelled less courage
Gus newspaper to cease its demands for
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