Pro-union newspaper finds a Labor Day crowd is beyond reproach.

Los Angeles in the 1900s

September 1907

by
George Garrigues

Los Angeles Record, September 3, 1907

NO SUCCOR YET FOR THREE-LEGGED DOGS

(SPCA claims a society woman owes it $1,500 from a fund-raiser)

B-z-z-z-z — Bing!

If words were endowed with the attributes of the bullet, there might be more than one woman, and perhaps a man or two, missing in the ranks of local charitable and society circles.

The subject which the eternal feminine has been serving up in every form known to its ingenious, collective brain has to do with the possession of $1,500.

This sum was the proceeds of a fete given under the general direction of Mrs. Rufus I. Horton in the new Friday Morning Club house grounds last June for the benefit of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. . . .

Mrs. Horton . . . declines to hand over the money until she has seen and approved of the plans of the proposed animal rescue home and furthermore until the institution has been started. . . .

The society has set forth the fact that it cannot do anything until it has the $1,500.

The story being told . . . is that Miss Helen Mathewson and Mrs. E.M. Deardoff, both prominent anti-cruelty-to-animals advocates have a man slated to take the place of Officer Zimmer [the city's humane officer; click here for another mention of Zimmer].

[This is said] . . . to have had

a good deal to do with Mrs. Horton's withholding of the $1,500 — in the hope of bringing about the desired change of management.While the women wrangle over who’s who and to whom the spoils belong, three-legged dogs and tired-out horses are losing the chance of spending their final days in a haven of perpetual rest, juicy bones and sweet hay. . . .

Los Angeles Record, September 3, 1907

Labor Day Brings Snug Sum to Temple Fund

All records for holiday crowds were broken in the outpouring of the friends of labor at Chutes Park [postcard photo at right] Monday.

Not only numberically was it a record-breaking throng that packed the big enclosure of the popular resort, but also in clean, decent, manly and womanly deportment did it establish precedent.

There were no unpleasant incidents to mar the day’s pleasure. It was the biggest and best-natured crowd in the holiday history of the resort.

It is estimated that nearly $3,000 was taken in, which insures a snug conribution to

 the Labor Temple fund, after the expenses of the celebration are paid.

The committee in charge of raising funds for the temple expects to have it ready for occupancy by Jan. 1.

Though the splendid structure will not be entirely completed by that date, it will be far enough advanced to house the local unions.

Note: It is obvious that the Los Angeles Record, unlike the L.A. Times, was a pro-union and pro-labor newspaper. Click here for more references to the L.A. Record.
Chutes Park, where the 1907 Labor Day fete was held, was pretty far out from the center of town — at 19th (now Washington Boulevard) and Main streets, just south of where Interstate 10 now runs. The property is now occupied by the
12-story L.A. Mart.

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