What the Course of “The Times” Shall Be
Letter of Gen. Otis to Mr. and Mrs. Chandler
Their Statement

Nearly three years ago General Harrison Gray Otis addressed to his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Chandler, to whom his controlling interest in The Times was transferred, a remarkable letter or declaration. It was in the form of carefully-wrought instructions and suggestions as to the lines on which The Times should be conducted after his demise.

While expressing confidence in the purposes of Mr. and Mrs. Chandler, it laid down in an affectionate, fatherly and confident way his parting injunctions to his successors in interest, control and management.

This document is a classic in the annals of journalism and will be read with world-wide interest. It is the ultimate wisdom of the venerable editor and manager, whose sagacity and able generalship made The Times a wonderful institution. To comment on this telling document would be superfluous. Mr. and Mrs. Chandler are now the controlling owners and managers of The Times. The General’s letter to them is here reproduced and, following that, their statement as to the future course of this journal:

DECLARATORY
LOS ANGELES (CAL.,) Nov. 12, 1914.

To Harry Chandler and Marian Otis-Chandler, his wife:

Dear Harry and Dear Marian: After mature deliberation I write you as follows:

I. In placing in your joint and trusted hands the high trust and valuable property conveyed or to be conveyed by me, I explain at the outset that my matured purpose in thus acting will be to concentrate the future ownership and control, and also the destiny, of the most precious of all my material possessions, the Los Angeles Times, in the hands (before my death) of members of my own family, whom I specially trust in this connection and who have had long, practical experience with me in the building up, care, control and training of this stalwart child of our mutual efforts and affections, and of my own almost lifelong professional skill, labor and devotion. In doing this, I lay upon you only these fundamental injunctions as to its future course and conduct in your hands, and (as far as I may properly enjoin you personally) as to your own course as its future responsible conductors, viz.:

(1.) Using the legal and other legitimate powers and prerogatives that will be yours as the sole owners of more than two- thirds of the capital stock of the corporation, take and exercise at all proper times complete control and authority in all departments, including especially the editorial and business, as well as the news-gathering branches, which impart tone, temper, character and stability to a journal, and make it respected and influential. Make sure of ybur board of directors and of the loyalty, zeal, competency and faithfulness of your lieutenants and the entire working force at all times.

(2.) Preserve and protect with steadfastness and determination the record, traditions and achievements of The Times, and continue its fixed and leading policies and methods; uphold its aims, purposes and aspirations in all large and essential particulars, and throughout the varying mutations of present-day journalism, perpetuate unimpaired its independent and unfettered course.

(3.) Constantly, consistently and loyally uphold and defend the Constitution and the Flag, the Congress and the courts, the executive power within its prescribed and lawful limitations, and cherish the Army and the Navy, those bulwarks and strong arms of the government.

(4.) Stand undeviatingly for Liberty under Law, for industrial and all other forms of republican freedom, and for sound government as the surest safeguard of the nation, the State, the city and the home. Bravely face in their defense, whenever the need comes, the frenzied mob and the proscriptive madness of the hour.

(5.) Stand for honor, honesty and order in the State, the nation and the home, and for that private and public morality which are essential to the perpetuity of sound, human government. While courageously supporting these virtuous principles, at the same time oppose with all your might their opposites and whatever tends to the demoralization of human society or jeopardizes the safety of the land or the rights and liberties of its citizens. Antagonize unceasingly all allied private or semi-pivate industrial combines which would unlawfully wrest from the free-born American citizen his guaranteed constitutional right to industrial, personal or political freedom and make him the slave of an arrogant and monopolistic trades despotism. While striking hard and deserved blows against these and other intolerable evils, keep in mind that better state when there shall be “peace upon earth and good will among men.”, Scourge as with a whip of scorpions dishonesty, pretense, hypocrisy, scoundrelism, treason to Truth and the country and every form of evil that threatens with destruction the home, the community or the country, and at the same time encouraging every sound tendency and condition in human society that makes for its preservation, stability and endurance on high and right lines.

(6.) Stand for sound, rational and tested business methods and policies in the management of The Times newspaper, as well as in the conduct of commercial and public business, in order that this journal and all honest people may “live long and prosper, grow in grace and be happy. Hold up the hands and cheer the hearts of the lowly and deserving, no matter how humble they may be; quail not before the aggressions of unjust power, and live and die game and true. Fear God and do right.

(7.) Encourage all free, independent and honest labor, no matter how humble, so .it be honestly conducted; at the same time not hesitating to support and defend powerful financial, commercial and industrial alliances, provided that they, too, operate honestly and legitimately, when organized to accomplish mighty and worthy tasks too formidable to be undertaken by single individuals; for true it is that it is not the size of the operation, but the integrity with which it is conducted, that determines its legitimacy. Always bear in mind the demonstrated truth that it is, after all, the sane, brave, level-headed, self- restrained, right-hearted, honest men and women of the land upon whom rests, and will always rest, the responsibility for holding the family, society, business, government and the country together.

(8.) Continue the upstanding and long-pursued policy of this journal in working, day in and day out, for the upbuilding on sound lines of the favored and favorite city and section wherein The Times and its makers have their homes; and continue also to aid and abet the unhalting advance of all California, the entire Pacific Coast and the “ultimate West.”

(9.) Ever place patriotism, duty and honor, public and private morality and the true interests of the State and country before mere commercialism or material success in the conduct of The Times. Thus may this journal of ours be caused to grow in strength, usefulness and power, able to plough through the turbulent sea of journalism like a full-rigged man-of-war.

(10.) Concerning the all-important subject of the matter and scope of the general contents of the paper after it shall have come under your ownership, control and management, it is, of course, neither practicable nor proper for me to speak here, except in a very general way. You know, and will always bear in mind, the paramount fact that this journal is, and must continue to be, first of all a newspaper—a vehicle for the dissemination of current news reports and information; a faithful recorder of contemporaneous history and affairs, of new knowledge and of the tremendous daily happenings of the mighty Present around all the globe, no matter of what nature or complexion the occurrences may be, provided they possess human interest. Moreover, The Times, being a proper medium for thinkers, they will be given, as always in the past, impartial hearings in its broad columns whenever they are able to enlighten the world, or contribute to those transcendent problems of human life, human living and human government which, if they are to be wisely solved, will always require the best thought and effort of the best men and women upon earth. In the columns of The Times will be found, I doubt not, in the future as in the past, graphic accounts of the doings of the far-flung human race; absorbing narratives of adventure and achievement; of research and investigation; of travel and discovery; of progress in the arts, sciences and invention; of toil and triumph; of hardship, endurance and ultimate success; of everything, indeed, that is new to men and of living interest. The press is a colossal surveyor of the world-wide news field, scanning the entire civilized globe and faithfully purveying to an ever-waiting public the luminous record of daily and mighty happenings among men and nations. I am convinced that you will continue to make The Times do its full share in the strenuous work of the press in general, making it what it has long aimed to be—but even more so—a powerful, far-reaching daily news-field-glass, exposing to the public view the world’s foremost events and occurrences, and proclaiming them widely to the sons of men at Sol’s diurnal revolution; to make this newspaper, in brief,

“A map of the busy world,
Its fluctuations and its vast concerns.”

So may we confidently hope for The Times an honorable, a foremost and a permanent place in the large field of American journalism, and that always those men and women who serve it faithfully may feel high and genuine pride in their personal alliances with “Ours.”

Accurate news-gathering, correct reporting, skillful editing, graphic illustrating and good printing all go to make up a finished modern newspaper, which should, of course, be written in pure, forceful, unstilted and luminous English.

II. Finally: Bearing in mind that Truth is the greatest thing in all the world, and Duty the first concern of good men and women, I enjoin the foregoing precepts, principles and practices upon you in the future conduct of the Los Angeles Times, because of my affections for you and for it. I enjoin you both to guard well your precious health, as well as the sacred trust now by me committed to your trusted and trustful hands and hearts.

With good aims and generous purposes toward all concerned in this pregnant transaction, with unfeigned regards and my living blessing, to be followed, let us hope, by a blissful reunion in the mysterious Beyond, coupled with undying associations and imperishable recollections of our mutual campaigns upon earth,

I subscribe myself your steadfast and affectionate father,

[Signed]
Harrison Gray Otis
“The Bivouac,” Westlake.

Statement
by
Mr. and Mrs. Chandler

In assuming the sacred trust and grave responsibilities conveyed to us, the faithful carrying out of which is dearer than life itself, it is fitting for the undersigned to say:

(I.) That in so far as human power and limitations will permit, The Times will be conducted in harmony with the indomitable spirit, high ideals and well-considered injunctions of its great architect and builder, Harrison Gray Otis. The Times will continue to be THE TIMES—The Times of Gen. Otis, The Times that he made.

(2.) That every man and woman concerned in the issuing of The Times from day to day is so thoroughly imbued with the convictions, aims and policies for which it has so long stood, and so heartily in sympathy with the causes for which it has so long battled, that it would be impossible for them to disregard the last instructions of the great chief or to produce a newspaper out of tune with the principles he has laid down.

(3.) That not only duty and affection and devotion, but inherent conviction, will co-operate in the hearts and hands of the makers of The Times in carrying on the work so efficiently directed by Gen. Otis for more than a third of a century, and this shall and must be the sound, brave newspaper that he would have it be. Men may die, but influences do not; and the spirit of its great achieving editor shall still dominate The Times.

(4.) There could be no loyalty finer than that of the coowners and fellow-workers who have helped Gen.’ Otis raise up this great newspaper and to whom it owes so much; and shoulder to shoulder they will keep up the warfare for truth, for freedom, for the protection of honest labor, for the decent treatment of honestly-acquired wealth, for the encouragement of noble enterprise and tor the development of the Southland and the State.

(5.) It was often said by Gen. Otis, and may be now reiterated, that The Times could not have won its victories and registered its achievements for truth and right, but for the loyal and steadfast support of the great body of men and women, made up of Southern California’s best citizenship, who have been its friends and patrons in every stress and circumstance. In its third of a century and more of toil and struggle and success, The Times has been heartened and nourished by the wonderful faith and support of the truest, most devoted and most sympathetic clientele that it was ever the good fortune of any newspaper to be blessed with. It shall be the highest endeavor of The Times to merit and secure a continuance of this friendship and co-operation.

(6.) The years have vindicated the rightfulness of Gen. Otis’s stand in the long and arduous campaigns against tyranny and injustice and for liberty and fairness which he waged.

With an inspiration and a loyal force like ours, there can be no faltering, no wavering, no shadow of turning. The Los Angeles Times will go on, and on, and on, never surrendering one inch of its ground, never yielding one hair’s breadth of the vantage it has gained for liberty and right.

[Signed]
Harry Chandler
Marian Otis-Chandler