Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-04-03
Build Up a Home Shipping.

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The shipping trade of the country
draining into the Los Angeles Valley
gives constant employment to somesix
or eight steamers and about fifteen
sailing vessels. This Is q coast trade.
Not one of these vessels is owned here,
where they gain their business.s The
vessels are run and the profits reaped
by men living in San, Francisco and
the East. Why not own the vessels
here Why notbecome our own ship
pers About $4,000 tons of freight.
pass yearly through the port OF Will
mington. Judging from the rate of
increase during the past three years,
and taking into consideration the rapid
extension of our railroad line, the
freighting will have yearly increase
of from twenty to thirty per cent. "A
glance at the map in this paper and an
examination offacts published in other
articles, will show the large shipping
interest that with each succeeding
year must center more andm about
the harbor of Wilmington. Avtfa a.ns 8
Why not own here the ships that
must be engaged in that business ?
One great drawback has been the lack
of surplus capital. 49,.
So many openings have been pre-
sented for the profitable investment of
money that our home capital has been
diverted to other channels. ass @
The time for this state of affairs has
now gone by. We must become indie
pendendent of shipping lines owned
abroad. While we were still compelled
to ship through an open roadstead
the old state of affairs was inevitable.
Even if a vessel or line of vessels had
been owned here, the mere fact that it
must make its headquarters, have its
docks, do its repairing and have its
stores at some other point where Sc
cure harbor rendered these things pos
sible, this state of affairs made it es-
sentially foreign line. m at'Lost
Now, however, with the rapid i'm
provement of the Wilmington harbor,
the owning and controlling of lines Of
ships and steamers is rendered posi-
BILE. No roadstead or landing could
help us; aharbor gives base of opera
tons that il. unassailable. 5 ~
A line of vessels making it's actual
headquartersat Wilmington will have
many advantages over all competitors.
1t will be home line and will natur-
ally be favored by shippers. 1t can
secure at trifling expense wharf and
dock room, have repairing facilities,
space where vessels can lie off, storage
for supplies-advantage and conven-
fence which must always involve a
heavy expense near large city like
San Francisco. A shipping line can
secure these things as yet very cheaply
at Wilmington. Five years hence it
may take ten times as much to secure
the same facilities
The class of vessels needed for two
or three years to come will be steamers
of 500 to 1900 tons burden, sailing YES
sells from 200 to 1000 tons. After
probably very few years the stage of
coast line trading will be passed and
the. time for shipping directly to for
eign ports will have come. Then with
the constant improvement of the Will
mington harbor heavier class of ves-
sells will be needed; then begins the
era of direct importation and exporta-
ton; then the valley becomes what
the mountain passes and the natural
railroad routes, together with shorter
lines of transportation naturally make
it, the supplying and shipping center
of Southern California, Southern Ne
vada and Utah and all of Arizona.
The new Wharf and Shipping AS
ISOLATION" enterprise at Wilmington
is a step in the right direction, but
there is room and business for more.
We have not enough spare capital in
the country. With all we can do
among ourselves, we shall still be able
to extend a generous welcome to per-
sons and capital coming from abroad
to establish shipping business. Ship
owners from Maine and the Lake
States could not have more favorable
opening. Come and see! and then go
back alter your ships ai