New-York tribune., 1917-07-31
Aged President of "Los
Angeles Times" Had Been
at Desk Every Day
His Plant Dynamited
Entire Nation Interested in
His Fight Against Or
ganized Labor

Los Angeles, Cal, July 3O.-General
Harrison Gray Otis, president and gen.
eral manager of "Ihe Los Angeles
Times" died to-day at the home OF his
n-in-law, Harry Chandler.
Heart failure was said to have been
the cause. Although he had suffered
occasional attacks of Illness recently,
General Otis, who was eighty years old.
had been at his desk in the Times
Office nearly every day within the last
few weeks.
General Otis was being served his
breakfast in his bedroom, and aprar-
emily felt the attack coming as a maid
entered the room. take away the
tray! am gone" he said, and he died
before either Mr.. or Mrs. Chandler,
who were in another part of the house,
could reach his side.
General Harrison Gray Otis, himself
a veteran of two wars, came of long
line of military and statesmanship ar
cestry His grandfather was a soldier
of note in the Revolutionary War and
the Otis stock produced James Otis,
Revolutionary patriot and orator, and
the first Harrison Gray Otis, once
noted as a Senator from Massachu-
setts. General Otis was born on a
Washington County, Ohio, farm, Feb
ruary 10, 1887.
Fought in Civil War
Over five years of General Otis's life
was spent as a volunteer soldier of
the United States. In 1861, at the age
of twenty-four, he enlisted in the 18th
Ohio Volunteers, and was promoted TO
a captain in 1864. In that year con-
solidation of regiments placed him in
the 23d Ohio Veteran Volunteers. his
colonel and captain being, respectively
Rutherford B. Hayes and William Nc
Kinley. Otis was twice wounded and
received seven promotions, including
two breyets, retiring with the title of
major and lieutenant colonel by brevet
With the outbreak of the Spanish
American War, in 1898, Major Otis
az the age Of sixty-one, volunteered
his services to President Mckinley,
and was made a brigadier general of
volunteers. He was assigned to duty,
first, at Camp Merritt (Cal), and
then to the Philippines. He resigned
his command in April, 1899. Upon
discharge he was brevetted major gen.
eral for "meritorious conduct in &C
ton"
Edited 'The Los Angeles Times"
Following the Civil War Otis re-
turned to the trade of printer. for
which he had abandoned school at an
early age, acquiring finally, in 1882, a
fourth interest in "The Los Angeles
Times"
Quite early in his career as editor
and publisher of "The 1imes"-for he
speedily secured full control-0tis
came into conflict with organize /
labor, and thereafter until the day of
his death he waged an unrelenting war
fare for what he termed industrial
freedom. On October 10, 1910, his
building and printing plant were dyna-
mited and twenty Of his workmen
killed. The arrests and trials which
followed were matters of nationwide
interest.
General Otis acquired a large fort
une. In politics his paper ever re-
fected the attitude Of its editor-ag-
gressive, uncompromising Republican
ism-Otis's connection with that party
dating back to 1860, when he was sent
from Kentucky as a delegate to The
convention which nominated Lincoln.
General Otis was prominent in the
Grand Army of the Republic and nu-
merous other patriotic orders and a
member of the American Academy Of
Sciences.
The bride Of General Otis's young
manhood, Miss Eliza Wetherby. vas
his constant associate in journalism
and literature until her death in 1904.
Of the five children born TO them two
daughters survive.