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The ''Los Angeles Times'' bombing was the purposeful dynamiting of the ''Los Angeles Times'' building in Los Angeles, California, on October 1, 1910 by a union member belonging to the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. The explosion started a fire which killed 21 newspaper employees and injured 100 more. It was termed the "crime of the century" by the ''Times''. Brothers John J. ("J.J.") and James B. ("J.B.") McNamara were arrested in April 1911 for the bombing. Their trial became a ''cause célèbre'' for the American labor movement. J.B. admitted to setting the explosive, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. J.J. was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bombing a local iron manufacturing plant, and returned to the Iron Workers union as an organizer. ==Background== The Iron Workers Union was formed in 1886. As the work was seasonal and most iron workers were unskilled, the union remained weak, and much of the industry remained unorganized until 1902. That year, the union won a strike against the American Bridge Company, a subsidiary of the newly formed U.S. Steel corporation. American Bridge was the dominant company in the iron industry, and within a year the Iron Workers Union had not only organized almost every United States iron manufacturer, but had also won signed contracts including union shop clauses.〔Rayback, p. 219-220.〕〔Taft, p. 275-276.〕 The McNamara brothers were Irish American trade unionists. John (known as J.J.) and his younger brother James (known as J.B.) were both active in the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (the Iron Workers). In 1903, officials of U.S. Steel and the American Bridge Company founded the National Erectors' Association, a coalition of steel and iron industry employers. The primary goal of the National Erectors' Association was to promote the open shop and assist employers in breaking the unions in their industries. Employers used labor spies, agents provocateurs, private detective agencies, and strike breakers to engaged in a campaign of union busting. Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies generally cooperated in this campaign, which often used violence against union members. Hard pressed by the open shop campaign, the Iron Workers reacted by electing the militant Frank M. Ryan president and John J. McNamara the secretary-treasurer in 1905.〔Taft, p. 276.〕 In 1906, the Iron Workers struck at American Bridge in an attempt to retain their contract.〔〔Foner, p. 8.〕〔Stimson, p. 380; Fine, p. 33-46.〕 However, the open shop movement was a significant success. By 1910, U.S. Steel had almost succeeded in driving all unions out of its plants. Unions in other iron manufacturing companies also vanished. Only the Iron Workers held on (though the strike at American Bridge continued).〔Foner, p. 7-8; Welskopp, p. 156-157; Gottlieb and Wolt, p. 88-89.〕 Desperate union officials turned to violence to counter the setbacks they had suffered. Beginning in late 1906, national and local officials of the Iron Workers launched a dynamiting campaign. The goal of the campaign was to bring the companies to the bargaining table, and not to destroy plants or kill people. Between 1906 and 1911, the Iron Workers blew up 110 iron works, though only a few thousand dollars in damages was done.〔〔 The National Erectors' Association was well aware who was responsible for the bombings, since Herbert S. Hockin, a member of the Iron Workers' executive board, was their paid spy.〔 Los Angeles employers had been successfully resisting unionization for nearly half a century. Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the ''Los Angeles Times,'' was vehemently anti-union. Otis first joined and then seized control of the local Merchants Association in 1896, renaming it the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association (colloquially known as the M&M), and using it and his newspaper's large circulation to spearhead a 20-year campaign to end the city's few remaining unions.〔〔Cross, p. 278; Kazin, p. 203; Milkman, p. 35.〕 Without unions to keep wages high, open shop employers in Los Angeles were able to undermine the wage standards set in heavily unionized San Francisco. Unions in San Francisco feared that employers in their city would also soon begin pressing for wage cuts and start an open shop drive of their own. The only solution they saw was to re-unionize Los Angeles.〔Cross, p. 282.〕〔Stimson, p. 331-333.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Los Angeles Times bombing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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