TWO PARK EMPLOYEES CHARGE A COP WITH BRUTAL,UNPROVOKED ARREST

Telegraphers are being trained to meet demands of new federal law

Automobiles

Two Tourist cars make a difficult trip far up the Big Tujunga

Driver gets ready to bust the record between San Francisco and L.A.

The

Los Angeles Times

and Its

Anti-Union Crusade

Times broadside sums up ‘battle for freedom’

Sarcastic gibes lobbed at Labor Day parade

The Times policy: Pay loyal workers a good wage

Union is no help to a church-breaking member

Was this a case of ‘suspicion of homosexuality‘? Read on . . .

Lawrence L. Stevens and Hugh R. Stevens of 326 N. Beaudry Ave., both employed in the Water Department of the city, were arrested and brutally handled by a member of the police force.

The name of the policeman is not known to the two men, but they secured the number of his star, and that corresponds to the star issued to Patrolman P——.

[Inasmuch as this story does not give the side of the officer involved, his name is being omitted from this Web page.]

Added confirmation to the belief that P—— is the man who so brutally exceeded his authority is to be found in the fact that such treatment of prisoners in times past has been characteristic of that officer.

On numerous occasions he has displayed such utter disregard for the rights of others that in police circles it has been predicted that sooner or later some of his victims would shoot him.

The men who suffered from this latest outrage will file

[This apparently involved locking up “suspicious” people until it could be determined if they had committed a crime or were wanted elsewhere. See this story for an example.]

“I intend to find out whether an honest man can walk about the streets without being bullied and beaten by some brutal officer,” he [Lawrence Stevens] said last night.

“. . . Yesterday, with my brother, I was working on the installation of water pipes in Elysian Park. When we finished work and washed our faces, we were accosted by two men who were hanging about near the park entrance.

“Both men were dressed like tramps or hoboes who wished to borrow money. My brother and I were comparatively well-dressed and our clothes were clean.

“Finally one of these men approached and demanded to know where I was going. I

“I drew away and forced him from me, thinking he was a thug or highwayman. At that, he drew a pair of handcuffs and struck at me. I drew back and he flashed his star.

“He handcuffed me, and with my brother I was taken through the streets.

“I called to a man on a wagon who happened to be passing, calling his attention to the fact that I was handcuffed and might want him as a witness. At that the policeman jerked my wrist so hard that the handcuff dislocated it.

“He held me at the station for 45 minutes and then released me without any explanation and warned me to keep my mouth shut about the affair.”

If any report of the arrest was made to the officials of the Police Department, neither the report nor the fact that it had been made was made public.

(Image is from EchoPark.net.)

Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1908

STAGGERING

Law Lopping Hours Hits Big Lines Hard

Railroads Must Spend Millions Hiring More Telegraphers

Railroad managers of Los Angeles are wrestling with one of the biggest problems that has confronted them in all their years of service, one that in the next few weeks will set the transportation heads of the entire country by the ears:

[That is,] compliance with the federal law effective March 1 next, which restricts the work of telegraph operators and train dispatchers to nine hours a day and prohibits train and engine men from working more than 16 consecutive hours without rest.

Ten thousand additional telegraph operators, at a conservative estimate, will be required on the railroads of the country to enable the companies to comply with the law.

At least 200 will be required in the immediate vicinity of Los Angeles.

The added cost to the railroads will be enormous — something like $10 million a year in salaries for the new operators alone. [That is $1,000 a year for each operator.]

Compliance with the “16-hour law” will mean the delay of hundreds of trains every day because of the stricture laid down that trainmen who may have worked 16 hours in succession shall stop their trains and rest eight hours before proceeding.

In their effort to meet and master the situation . . . the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe are graduating operators as rapidly as possible from telegraph schools that have been started in Los Angeles.

There are 45 pupils at the Santa Fe school and about 20 at the Southern Pacific college.

Experience operators cannot be turned out in a few weeks, however; it takes months for them to become fairly efficient, years to become expert. So the schools do not promise full relief.

Fortunately for the railroads in California, however, there always are hundreds of telegraph operators in the East who want positions on the Coast. Dozens of letters are received daily by local heads of telegraph departments from men and women who wish to come here.

Scores of applications in person are made by victims of the recent silly strike on the Western Union and Postal commercial lines. Hundreds of efficient operators lost good places through that folly, their places being filled at once by willing workers.

Those idled want work now, wherever they can get it. . . .

[Frankly, if I had to work more than 16 hours straight, I would go on strike, too.]

Gallery of the Telegraph.

The Times has recently printed in a special sheet, for the information of new readers, at home and abroad, a compilation of articles reviewing its long and successful battle for freedom in the industries. The sheet contains, besides, a special condensed industrial exhibit, setting forth the growth of Los Angeles during a period of 26 years.

A synopsis of the articles treated is as follows:

(1) “Industrial Freedom,” reprinted from the December issue of The World’s Work.

(2) "Against the Lawlessness of Organized Labor,” from American Industries.

(3) Republication of an address presented to the editor-in-chief of the Times by hundreds of business men and citizens of Southern California. Response of General [Harrison Gray] Otis thereto.

(4) Word picture representing a labor delegate at the confessional, admitting defeat of all attempts to make the Times a “closed shop.”

(5) “The Battle on — the Armament,” or “Bound to Keep the City America’s Freest.”

(6) Presentation of the marvelous strides of progress made by Los Angeles, due to the maintenance of the “open shop.”

(7) “What the Times Stands For.”

(8) Interesting story of 17 years of persistent warfare made upon the Times.

(9) “Memory’s Tablets” — how the Times has prospered in the fight of these past years.

Persons desiring to secure copies of this special industrial sheet can do so on the following basis:

Copies of this issue for sale at the Times office in bulk. Prices, without postage: 10 copies, 30 cents; 33 copies, $1.00; 100 copies, $1.50. Postage extra at the rate of 2 cents per copy.

LEAP YEAR

(Toning and some retouching badly done by the Web site owner.)

INTO THE JAWS OF BIG TUJUNGA

Rocks and rushing river no bar to auto

The other car appears to be in the background at the right.

From a 27-mile journey to the head of the Big Tujunga Canyon [apparently from downtown Los Angeles], William Shroeder and a party of 12 auto enthusiasts have just returned.

Shroeder and J[oseph?] A. Nikrent drove two Tourist automobiles across rocky gorges and over many fords to the head waters of the Tujunga, eight miles beyond the point previously reached by an automobile.

The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Shroeder and baby girl, Mr. and Mrs. Nikrent and baby, Louis, Fred and Kenneth Nikrent, the Misses Grace Duggan and Helen Goodrick and Mrs. F. Nikrent and Martin Berry.

A four- and a two-cylinder car were used, and the party enjoyed a picnic lunch at the head of the pretty cañon after the hard drive.

The run to the Big Tujunga is through the most picturesque country close to Los Angeles. Beside towering walls of granite [perhaps the Cahuenga Pass], the auto glides into fern strewn cañon beds to emerge again into a more open country where the going is fair roads for about 10 miles [undoubtedly the San Fernando Valley].

Then the auto dips down into the Pacoima Cañon through more beautiful scenery [see note below].

Passing through San Fernando, the run is made by fair roads to the mouth of the Tujunga, where the remainder of the way is through streams in order to reach the head of the pretty dell.

The road winds around the rocks and in places is a mere trail.

Shroeder was anxious to test both cars, and on the run took the lead. He sent the four-cylinder dashing through the streams, but the smaller car kept close behind and went wherever he dared to send its big brother.

About noon of the day they left Los Angeles, the party of adventurers reached the point far up the cañon where an automobile is supposed to stop. The remaining eight miles has always been made on foot by autoists who have ventured into the cañon.

Shroeder decided to drive. He sent his car ahead over what appeared to be a mere thread of a trail, and for a portion of the way drove up the bed of the creek.

At times it was necessary to roll the larger boulders out of the path of the cars before proceeding.

Finally, after a supreme effort, the machines reached the extreme limit of the cañon and were obliged to stop where a sheer bank barred the way.

The return was made without mishap. Pictures of several of the pretty scenes along the way were taken, and the autoists were repaid for their efforts by a view of the finest scenic auto route hereabouts.

“Pacoima Canyon drains the northwest corner of the San Gabriel mountains, flowing west between two substantial ridges before slicing south through precipitous terrain to emerge into the San Fernando Valley. In its gentler upper reaches it is a broad and gradual canyon but with quite precipitous walls created by Mendenhall Ridge on the south and Santa Clara Divide ridge to the north.” From Adventure Hikes and Canyoneering in the San Gabriels.

The Tourist automobile was manufactured in Los Angeles. For a better picture of one, click here.

Hansen Dam was built in 1939-40.

Try, Try Again

CALL OF TROPHY CUP ALLURES

Another effort to lower the record from San Francisco to Los Angeles is about to be made.

A four-cylinder Tourist, driven by F. Nikrent, with three other passengers, will leave the Bay City within two days, if good road conditions are favorable, for a run to Los Angeles.

The Tourist must make the 500 miles at an average speed of 30 miles an hour in order to break the record of 18 hours, 13 minutes . . . .

Nikrent has twice been over the road within the past two weeks, and he has marked every bad place and knows just where he can make his fastest time and where he must pick his way carefully over the bumps and hollows

Fernando Nelson of San Francisco, who gave the handsome perpetual

It was his four-cylinder machine, carrying four passengers, which lowered the record in 1906 . . . .

The cup is solid silver, two feet high, 16 inches in diameter, and is valued at $800. . . .

. . . machines shall start from the intersection of Market and Guerrero streets, San Francisco, and finish in front of the Times building in Los Angeles.

Timers are to be newspaper men from both cities. Only four-cylinder machines carrying four passengers are eligible. . . .

When the trophy was offered, it was intended as an incentive for the building of a better highway between this city and San Francisco.

Fernando Nelson