Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-19
our Imperial situation.

politics.
Our Imperial situation.
The wonderful progress made by the
city of Los Angeles-its growth from &
city OF eleven thousand to over seventy
thousand in little over decade, with
blocks of imposing business buildings
risen and rising in every direction, ant
its business streets multiplying and ex
tending-is the result OF no factititious
boom, but is due to the fact that our coun-
ty is one of the most extensive and rich
est in its agricultural possibilities in the
United States. With an area of about
three million acres, at least two millions
of which are composed of the best lands
to be found anywhere. and which are
adapted to the most profitable growths,
the only wonder is that it took thirty
years for the people OF the Eastern States
to wake up to the marvellous opportunities
which nature held out here to the hus-
bandman. And when we see that our
unapproachable soil is supplemented by
climate of matchless serenity, we are
astonished that Los Angeles did not
reach her present splendid stage of
prosperity twenty years ago.
One can count on ones fingers the
years that have elapsed since beautiful
Pasadena was sheepwalk; since lux
uriant Pomona was part of grazing
ranch; since prosperous Santa Ana and
Orange were mere wilds; since the rich
vineyards and groves OF Florence were
an open prarie; since San Fernando was
unknown to the plow; since the extern
sive orange groves and vineyards
of San Gabriel were confined to
a few hundred acres of trees
and vines. Now all these places are
marvels of beauty and of productive
wealth. But how wonderfully have
these magnif cent colonies been supple
mented in the past two or three years
So rapid has been the settlement of new
lands that it is difficult for even the
closest observer to hold the names, much
less to keep the run of all the places that
have grown up into thriving localities
during that short time. Azusa, Glen
dora, Alosta, Monrovia, Sierra Madre
Garvanzo, Glendale, Burbank, Pacoima,
Etiwanda, and many others that we
cannot now recall, are the nuclei of
settlements which will soon rival
the older ones in wealth and productive
ness. All these, however, form but a
drop in the bucket to the fourishing
localities which are yet to grow up in our
county. Our extensive valleys and up
lands, our foothills. and our mountain
sides. will in few years be covered with
vines and orange orchards-with citrus
and deciduous fruits and all the cereals.
Thriving towns will then be found every
few miles, and the productive wealth of
the county, splendid as it is now, will then
be as "Ossa to wart." A back country
like ours is alone sufficient to build up a
great commercial metropolis; but Los
Angeles city does not alone depend upon
her immediate back country for her as
sured prosperity and growth. Tributary
to her, commercially, is nearly all of
Southern California, Arizona Territory
and Southwestern Nevada.
The development of deep-water port,
where ship and rail will be brought to-
gether at San Pedro, is destined to
cut an important figure at no distant
day in the expansion of our COM
merce. The harbor improvements now
being made at Point Firman will give US
deep-water port that will do away with
all lighterage charges, and enable our
merchants to extend their trade far be-
yond their present limits. San Francisco
will be unable to compete with city
having equal harbor facilities with herself
and in addition the advantage of four
hundred miles closer proximity to its
customers. When deep sea ships dis
charge their cargoes directly into the
cars We shall be sole masters of the
commercial situation, and Los Angeles
will rapidly become the rival in size and
wealth and business activities of the
heretofore commercial metropolis of the
Pacific.
A finer situation could hardly be i'm
agined than ours. We possess the two
great factors for unlimited urban growth
"a back country of our own matchlesslv
rich in soil and climate, and unsurpassed
transportation facilities inland with a
perfect key to open to us the traffic of
the ocean. These are advantages which
the dullest comprehension can appreci-
ate, and which would build up a great
city in any part of the world.
In the meantime we are steadily forg-