The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-10-21

iiHieS anu the SnulIng out OF twenty
human lives is another of the atrocious
crimes committed in the heat and pas
SION OF the class war. Who committed
that crime? Harrison Gray Otis, pro
prietor of the Times, and the capitalist
press of the Pacific Coast in general
charge it directly and specifically up.
on organized labor The shock of the
explosion was followed by the charge
that union labor was guilty of the crime
as swiftly as the capitalist press could
telegraph the Indictment to the coun-
try.
1t appears well settled in Mr.. Otis
statement and the Times account that
the Times building was blown up by
dynamite, and equally well settled that
the crime was committed by labor
unionists. As one who knows the Los
Angeles Times by personal experience
with that vicious, lying and criminal
sheet | want to express it as my de-
liberate opinion that the Times and its
crowd of union -haters are themselves
the instigators, if not the actual per-
petrators of that crime and the muir
ders of the twenty human beings who
perished as it's victims.
First of all, let me relate my own
experience with General Harrison Otis
and the Los Angeles Times. At the
time of the railroad strike in 1894, the
Los Angeles Times lied about me out
rageously, charged me with every con-
ceivable crime, editorially stated that |
deserved the gallows and did all in its
power to send me there. Shortly after
the strike I went to Los Angeles to
give a public address. The following
morning the Times had column of
editorial abuse and vilification the like
of which has rarely appeared in public
print, but not a word of my address.
| was charged with arson, conspiracy
treason, murder, and assassination.
There were in this villianous article
thirteen deliberate, clear-cut made to-
order, montsrous lies. ] at once con
cluded to return to Los Angeles after
filling my immediate engagements and
make answer to this outrageous indict-
ment; and here let me say that any
man who would make such false and
fiendish charges against another to glut
his insane hatred of organized labor
would commit any other crime to serve
the same base end.
A few days later I returned to Los
Angeles to find the old Hazards pa
vilion packed to the doors, every inch
of standing room occupied and thou
sands turned away, to hear my answer
to Otis and the Times. 1t so happened
that I had in my grip the documentary
evidence, including government reports,
to prove my innocence of the most
vicious of these charges. In one hand
held up the Los Angeles fines and
in the other the positive proof of its
criminal mendacity. | went through
the thirteen charges seriatim and liter
allv tore them to tatters. | had not
proceeded far until some one in the
audience shouted, "Otis is in the house.
and this proved to be true. l at once
challenged General Otis to come for
ward and face me, whom he had so out
ragelously maligned, before his own
people. 1t is needless to say that, al
though the crowd yelled "Otis, Otis,
Otis" he did not dare to come and he
would gladly have disappeared if the
packed and jammed condition of the
hall had not barred his escape.
But from that day to this, although
their monstrous lies have long since
found them out, General Otis and his
leprous sheet have never uttered one
word of retraction, and it is not their
sault that was not lynched or hanged
for crimes of which | was as innocent
as are the union men of Los Angeles
upon whom General Otis is now seeking
to fasten his atrocious calumnies as
he did upon me and my fellow-union-
lists fifteen years ago.
Now let us examine some of the facts
in regard to the blowing up of the
Times and some of the circumstantia
evidence, and let us see if it is not inn
possible to escape at least the inference
il not the positive conclusion, that OTIS
and his gang are themselves the con
spirators and criminals.
The theory that he who is benefited
by crime is most apt to have a hanc
in it's commission is peculiarly appli
cable to this case. Financially ans
morally Otis and the Times have every
thing to gain as certainly as organized
labor has everything to lose in bearing
the crushing odium of the crime. lie
II he remembered that General Otis wa
perfectly certain that the outrage, al
most before it was committed, was th
dastardly act of union labor. He per
sonally was at safe distance, and al
the victims were wage slaves, and wha
do Otis and his crowd of exploiting
pmtoerats care about the lives o
slavesY Now for few of these facts
First. The class war on the Pacifi
Coast had reached its acutest stage am