The Green Forest tribune., 1910-10-07
NEWSPAPER PLANT
 WAS BLOWN UP
LOS ANGELES TIMES BUILDING DESTROYED BY A TERRIFIC
 EXPLOSION.
NINETEEN LIVES ARE LOST
Flames Succeeded the Explosion Sc Quickly That Escape Was Cut
 Off for Many Employees.

Los Angeles. Cal.-The Times. one of the oldest papers on the Pacific Coast, was destroyed by 2 terrific eX- pIosion, and at least l9 men, mostly employees of the composing room, are known to have lost heir lives, while many others were seriously injured by jumping from windows
 The force of the explosion was terrific It was heard for miles and all the windows in the vicinity of the Times building were shattered. Be. tween 90 and - employees were iii the place at the time. and as the eN- pIosion was immediately followed by fire, there was no hope for those on the upper floors.
 The responsible heads of the paper, including the assistant general man ager, had narrow escapes from death, many of them having left the build ing only a short time before the eX- plosion.
 The office was equipped with gas fittings, and the force of the eXplo- sion tearing these pipes into bits re- leased gas, which was instantly ig- nited in eyer@ part Of the building.
 The ruins of the building are be- ing searched for victims. but so far only five bodies have been recovered, and these were burned and crushed so as 10 make identification almost impossible. Nearly all of the vic tins were married men with families, and many heartrending scenes have been enacted at the wrecked build ing by the widows and orphans.
 The building was equipped with gas fixtures, and one of the telegraph operators had complained Of smelling escaping gas throughout the night.
 Il is declared by the owner of the paper. however that dynamite was placed in a blind alley between two sections of the building, where tho destruction would be complete.
 The foreman of he composing room states that the explosion seemed to have been directly beneath the linotype machines and that the floor
 
 linotype machinist was standing be tween two machines and his body was hurled through the ceiling.
 An attempt was made the follow ing day to destroy the residence of General Otis by means of an infer nal machine, which was discovered and carried away by two police Of ficers, who dropped it in a park and sped away When about 100 feet away the internal machine exploded with d crash that threw the entire neighborhood into panic. Prior to this, stick of dynamite had been found at the home of the secretary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, but it was removed with out an explosion following.
 The entire city is in a high staJe of excitement and police are guarding the home of General Otis and the plants of several -.rms recently in- volved in strikes. Rewards aggregat- ing $1S,5G0 have been offered for the apprehension of the bomb placers.
 Three suspects have been arrested but there is no direct evidence to connect them with the disaster.
 A monster labor parade had been planned for next week, but this has been declared off by the labor lead CTS, for fear of starting a riot
 A committee of dynamite experts and engineers has been appointed b. the chief of police to investigate the wreckage in an effort to learn the character of the explosive used
 For many years the Times has been conducted as a non-union paper and of late years has waged a relentless warfare on organized labor in the city of Los Angeles and has thereby aroused much antagonism. Major General H. G. Otis, owner of the pa per, was in Old Mexico at the time of the explosion, but immediately hur ried home, and at once expressed his opinion that the destruction of his newspaper was due to the efforts oi organized labor This is vehemently denied by the labor leaders of both Los Angeles and the nation, whc have offered all possible aid in deter mining the cause of the explosion and punishing those guilty if the explo sion was not an accident.
 For number of years the Times has maintained an auxiliary printing establishment in another part of the city and no time was lost in getting out extra editions at this plant. Mr Otis states that this auxiliary plant was established through fear that his paper would some day be de stroyed by vandals.