Button usually seen as 7/8". This is our first 1.25". Issued by A.F.of L. in support of their members "kidnapped" by authorities. Button is Exc. Just 1/8" by .5" surface paper off W&H backpaper. On October 1, 1910, an explosion destroyed the printing plant of Los Angeles Times. Harrison Gray Otis, the publisher, immediately blamed unionists. Prior to the Times building incident, Secretary-Treasurer John McNamara of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers Union (based in Indianapolis) dispatched his brother James and associate Ortie McManigal to Los Angeles to protest anti-union ordinances. Investigator William J. Burns was hired and eventually came to focus on the trip to Los Angeles by James McNamara and Ortie McManigal. When Burns confronted McManigal, he offered to tell all in exchange for immunity. The McNamara brothers were arrested and extradited to Los Angeles. Both pleaded not guilty. Famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow was persuaded to take the case. He believed his clients were as good as sentenced to death row. Prosecutors feared the labor movement would make the McNamaras into martyrs but with the judge's approval, the McNamaras agreed to change their plea to guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. James McNamara admitted he had placed a dynamite-laden suitcase with timer in an alley way between the two sections of the Los Angeles Times plant. Rare variety.