In 1897, it created the annual Fiesta de las Flores to promote locally produced goods and services.
But when Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, joined the body in 1896, the association underwent a transformation.
It adopted a new name (the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, or M&M), and began vehemently promoting the open shop.
Otis declared the bombing the "Crime of the Century" and used his newspaper's large circulation to whip up public sentiment against unions.
In April 1911, Ortie McManigal, a staff representative with the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, was apprehended by private detectives in Illinois.
The state of California was on the verge of accepting the plea bargain when Darrow was arrested for attempting to bribe a member of the jury.
Sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, the group was led by Paul Shoup, a retired vice chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Southern Californians was founded ostensibly to promote the welfare of Los Angeles, but in testimony before the United States Congress later that year its leaders admitted that its sole goal was the preservation of the open shop.
Southern Californians spent $48,000 to create two other front-groups: The Neutral Thousands (which claimed 109,000 members but had had only 250; it had copied names out of the telephone book and put them on its "official" membership list) and Women of the Pacific (led by a strikebreaker from Seattle).
Voters were outraged when a private detective employed by the reform group was nearly killed by a car bomb planted by Shaw's organization.