In September of 1910, a group of Bridge and Structural Iron workers made a plan to destroy the LA Times building. The workers had started to go on strike in mid to late September and were furious because the LA Times wages were 40% lower than those in San Francisco. On October 1st, a worker left a suitcase with 16 sticks of dynamite inside, and an explosion caused flammable ink to take the lives of at least twenty people. After the word of the bombing got out to the public through different media, some claimed that “The act was supposed to be symbolic and not deadly.” Meanwhile, two men named George Alexander and Job Harriman were running for mayor of Los Angeles. Harriman had been doing well politically until the explosion, but his campaign fell when the men for whom he was pleading innocence, the McNamara brothers, confessed to the bombing.
Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Otis tried to stop organized unions from forming, which was one of the reasons wages were 40% lower in L.A. than in San Francisco.
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The Los Angeles Times Building before it was bombed by two brothers, J.B. McNamara and J.J. McNamara, on October 1, 1910.
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The ruins of the Los Angeles Times Bombing. Workers were angry about the low wages which led to the LA Times being bombed. Sixteen sticks of dynamite obliterated part of the building and caused 21 deaths on October 1, 1910.
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J.B. McNamara (left) planted sticks of dynamite and J.J. McNamara, (right) was an official of the International Assn. of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers union who ordered the attacks.
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(The kahoot will take place in the main zoom at 4:35)
