Arizona republican., 1910-10-05
PHOENIx. ARIZONA, OCT. 5. 1910
The Los Angeles Horror.


 President Lynch of the International Typographical Union, and President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor were too precipitate when they asserted that the destruction of the Los Angeles Times plant and the killing of more than twenty workingmen was the result of an ac- cidentaI leakage of gas. MT. Lynch was undoubtedly right in repudiating any intimation that union printers were responsible, for it is inconceiv- able by any person who is familiar with the character of the printing fraternity that any member or the typographical union Is guilty, even remotely. Printers as a class are not only the most intelligent of all union men, but quite universally they are men of good character. In dealing with employers they shrewdly bargain for the best terms they can get, which is an entirely legitimate procedure, but they are not anar- chists, and it is extremely seldom that a law breaker is found among them. There seems to be no reason to think that out of their long con- troversy with the Times over its refusal to operate a closed shop any member of their organization was implicated in this hellish crime. Several union printers were killed.
 But as above stated, MT. Lynch unwisely jumped at conclusions in his assertion that the terrible affair was an accident.
 The enormous rewards offered by the authorities of Los Angeles and by the people of Los Angeles for the arrest of the authors of the crime, prove that there is a fixed be- lief that there was no accident. In deed, the suggestion is no longer heard that there was an accident"
 All the circumstantial proof goes to show that the building was de- stroyed by an unusually powerful explosive, and that the explosion having broken large gas mains lead ing into the building, great quantities of gas were instantly ignited and the whole structure filled with devouring flame A quantity of dynamite was found at the house of Secretary Zeehandalaar of the merchants or ganization-Mr. Zeehandalaar and his associates have been active in their opposition to the efforts to make a "closed shop" of Los Angeles-and attached to this explosive was a clockwork appartus which had been set to explode at one o'clock in the morning, the hour at which the Times building was destroyed. At the same hour. one o'clock, the watch man at the Times warehouse in an- other part of the city discovered
 
 building through the roof, and he fired at them, frightening them away. Later in the dreadful day, a care taker at the residence of General Otis, editor and proprietor of the Times, found a suit case lying by the side of the house in the shrub bery, and notified the police. Upon the suit case being picked up, the buzzing of a clock was heard Inside, and the dreaded package was hur- riedly carried to the street, every body hurried away from the scene, and a moment later there was a rend- ing explosion from the suitcase.
 All these facts convincingly sup port the proposition that there was a conspiracy to blow up at the same moment, the Times building, the home of Secretary Zeehandalaar, the Times warehouse, and the home of General Otis Gas" and accident" dld not dO all or lneSe things
 Moreover, it has been ascertained that few days previous to the hor- TOT, five hundred pounds of excep- tionaIIy deally explosive were pur- chased by three men from a powder company in northern California; that no other sale \of this rare explosive had been made recently, and that an analysis of the explosive left at the house of Secretary Zeehandalaar showed it to be identical in character with that purchased by the mysteri- ous three men from the powder com pany.