Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-08-22
immigration Movement.
To tie Citizens Of Los angeles
COuatY:

To tie Citizens Of Los AageleI
County,:
The undersigned were appointed
u committee to address you as tt
the nature and object of the presen
movement, and to solicit your care
ful consideration Of the situation.
You are aware of the fact that il
this county not one.fifth of the till
able lands are under cultivation
and that the present population Ii
not sufficient to cultivate all of the
lands. There is not enough pro
duced in the county to justify for.
eign shipments on large and eco.
nomical scale. Were our lands
under full cultivation, the surplus
produced would sustain large
commerce with European ports, as
well as with the Eastern seacoast
cities. You all realize that this
surplus product cannot be had un-
less immigrants having sufficient
means to purchase small tracts of
land and cultivate them are called
here and induced to settle.
Land-holders assure us that for
the purpose of inducing immigra-
tion, they are willing 10 reduce the
price of land to very reasonable
rates. You are also aware OF
the fact that the soil is OF
sufficient productive capacity
to yield to industrious, economical
farmers of small tracts properly
cultivated better returns than
many of such persons are now OBJ
tanning in their present homes in
the Eastern States and in Europe.
1t is also a fact that in every
munity in the East and in Eu-
rope there are one or more families
which have decided to leave their
present homes fer some new place,
hoping by the same labor and care
to better their condition. Such
persons will move to some
place; - to Texas, Kansas
or some other State. They know
not where the best place is. Other
new States have organized agen-
cies and are at work to turn such
persons to their unimproved lands.
We must do the same or have the
tide of immigration turned from
us.
Now, it is the object of the pres
ent movement to lay before such
persons the facts relating to our
soil, climate, products, etc., so that
they may select this county in
stead of some other place; also to
aid them i'll reaching this place by
securing through tickets at lowest
rates. After arriving here they
will receive the benefit of such adj
vice and experience as experienced
persons here can give to aid them
in securing land adapted to the
purpose for which each immigrant
may want it; to secure it at what it
is reasonably worth, and to see that
he gets a good title. Each part OF
the county will be equally open to
selection of homes by him. No eff
fort will be made to bring here
persons without means. To ac-
complish this object it will
be necessary to send pro-
per agents, with carefully pre-
pared and printed information
relating to this county. These
agents will find out such families
in each community as intend to
move somewhere and try and in
duce them to come here. Colonies
viii then be organized by each
agent to leave some fixed point at
a given day, on special through
train for Los Angeles, thus pre-
venting the immigrants from be-
ing turned Off to some other place.
To put in one years work will
require an expense of about $4,000.
With this amount spent judicious-
ly Los Angeles county can in two
years be placed where it will take
ten years to put it without an ef-
fort.
Asa business investment it will
pay each property owner in this
county to bear his part of this ex-
peEse. For, by the Investment in
this of reasonable amount, all the
interests of the county must be adj
vanced many thousands of dollars.
Canvasslng committees have
been appointed for each district OF
the county to wait on the people
and secure statement of how
much each will be willing to give
to accomplish this object-the
amounts to be paid, one-half in
September and one-balf in Janu-
ary, 1880. If the full amount is not
secured the matter will be dropped
and no money will be asked for.
In case the amount is raised 1t
will be placed in the hands of the
following-named persons, who will
all arrangements for carrying out
the details of the work:
lie. Hollenbeck, President COM
mercial Bank; l. w. Hellman,
President Farmers & Merchants
Bank; J. S. Slauson, President Los
Angeles County Bank; J. r.. Tober-
man, Mayor Los Angeles city, Gen.
J. II. Shields, B. Dreyfus, Eugene
Meyer, Bryant Howard, n. II. Vail,
n. Nj. Widney.
We therefore ask you to consider
this matter and act ON it as q busi-
ness affair.
So far the people have not sub.
scribed with as much liberality as
the Importance of the matter de-
mands, and there is danger that the
whole matter will be dropped with
out further effort. This is probably
the last time that the enterprise
will be placed before the people,
and you should so contribute that
the amount will be raised. You
cannot afford to have this matter
fail, and you will suffer more by its
failure than you will by subscribing
literally to it.