Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-07-30
HARRISON Gray OTIS
dies AT Los ANGELES
Best Known On Pacific Coast
for Winning Fight Against
Union Labor


Los Angeles, Cal, July 30.-General
Harrison Gray Otis, founder and editor
OF the Los Angeles Times, war veteran
and life long opponent of organized la
Dor, died suddenly today at ten o clock
at the home of his sonin-law, Harry
Chandler, in Hollywood.
Death was due to the bursting of a
blood vessel in the heart, according to
DR.. Ferdert, attending physician.
Chandler and Mrs. Chandler were
with him when he died.
General Otis came down to breakfast
as usual this morning, apparently en-
joying his usual health.
just as the negro maid was serving
him, he put out his hand and said:
"Take away the tray Lucy, / IN
gone"
He died instantly.
General Otis, soldier, journalist, life
long opponent of union labor, was born
near Marietta, Ohio, February 10, 1887.
He enlisted as private in the Twelfth
Ohio Infantry at the outbreak of the
Civil War and rapidly rose through
foAAOuo ~ budt VI lltuItuduG-
colonel of volunteers, being highly hon
ored when mustered cut.
Entering civil life, he became Of
ficial reporter of the Ohio house of
representatives the year after the close
of the war, and later was named for
superintendent of the government print
ing office in Washington. In 1870 he
was made division chief in the patent
office later being transferred to the
treasury department and was given
charge of the Seal Islands of Alaska.
| In 1878 he became editor and general
manager of Los Angeles Times where
he remained until his death. at the out
break of the Spanish-American war
Otis was appointed brigadier general of
volunteers and was sent to the Philip
pines. He led his brigade in the cap
ture of Caloocan, for which gallantry
he was promoted to a major general
ship. He was discharged in 1899.
As the owner of the Times, he began
a fight on unionied labor which he
carried on up to the time Of his death.
Tn 1910 during the heat of the Times
labor fight, the Times building was dy-
namited and more than twenty employ
es of the paper were killed in the re-
sultant fire.
The Merchants and Manufacturers as
sociation of Los Angeles, employed
William j. Burns to run down the guilty
persons and as result John J. McNa-
mara, secretary of the Inter
national Association of Structural Steel
and Iron Workers and his brother James
were arrested in Detroit and Indianap-
oils.
After sensational trip across the
country the McNamaras were brought
to trial. Clarence S. Darrow, of Chi
cago, were retained to defend them. Ar
ter weeks spent in selecting jury, the
Mcnamara brothers came into court
suddenly and pleaded guilty. John was
sentenced to fifteen years i'll prison and
james to life Imprisonment.
Ortie McManigal, the state IS star
witness in the case, declared that he
and James Mcnamara had actually
placed the fatal bomb, after attaching
to it cloellwork arrangement which
would set it off after they had left
the city.
General Otis Times attacked the Nc
Namara brothers fiercely during the
trial and later. Shortly after the SEN
sational climax to the Mcnamara case,
Clarence Darrow, chief defense counsel
was indicted On charge of attempting
to bribe jurors. He was acquitted after
lengthy trial in which he made the
chief plea to the jury in his own de-
Tense Several years after the McNa-
mara excitement had died down, David
Caplan and NJ. A. Schmidt were arrest
! ed in the state of Washington and con-
vieted of participation in the Times
conspiracy.
As the direct outgrowth Of the Nc
Namara case, practically all Of the in
ternational Officers of the ironworkers
union were indicted in indianapolis and
convicted of Transporting explosives IL
legally on passenger trains. They serv-
ed various prison terms in Fort Leaven-
worth federal prison, the last of them
having been liberated only recently.
/ General Otis was also constant ad-
voeate of American intervention IN
Mexico, where he had large land hold