started in the offices of the four Los Angeles newspapers, but
finally concentrated on The Times. On October 1, 1910, occurred
the widely known disaster which resulted in the destruction of
the building of The Times and the loss of the lives of twenty
members of its force when the plant was dynamited by lawless
labor unions. While the attitude of the owner of The Times
toward organized labor would not be within the scope of this
book, the following official resume* of the publisher of the paper
may be quoted :
The Times has never objected to lawful and legitimate organizations formed and maintained by laborers in any branch of industry. The paper does not do foolish things, but what it objects to is the tyranni- cal management of labor unions by the generally irresponsible, always ignorant, and frequently vicious leaders of these organizations. There has never been a word printed in The Times objecting to lawful or- ganizations of working people per se. All the fault ever found in the columns of the paper with these organizations has been leveled at some gross and mischievous abuse in the management of the organi- zations by the leaders of them. It has been a fight made for legitimate labor more than for any other interest in the country.
Mr. Otis, before his death, denounced the destruction of his building as "the crime of the century." His side of the contro- versy has been described in a small brochure entitled "The Story of a Sixteen Years' Battle."
OTHER LEADERS OF THE WEST
While the newspapers especially in the East were be- coming more distinctly |impersonal in character, there were in the West numerous editors who, during the decade of 1880- 1890, impressed their personalities upon their newspapers. Among these leaders of Western journalism were Murat Hal- stead, of The Commerial Gazette, John R. McLean, of The In- quirer, and Charles P. Taft, of The Times-Star, in Cincinnati, Ohio; Edwin Cowles, of The Leader, William W. Armstrong and L. E. Holden, of The Plaindealer, in Cleveland, Ohio; General J. M. Comley, of The Commercial Telegram, in Toledo, Ohio; W. D. Bickham, of The Journal, in Dayton, Ohio; J. S. Clarkson, of The Register, and John Watts, of The Leader, in Des Moines, Iowa; John Arkins, of The Rocky Mountain News,
