Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-10-02
WRDNEsDA.. ooTosER "a :::.u.
They Point q Fallacious Moral.


WEDN ENDAv. OCTOBER q :seg.
They Point q FallaclOus Moral.
That the newspapers of the East see
many of their best citizens depart for |
California with great regret is beyond
question, and we encounter frequent evil |
dences Of that fact in the journals pub |
ished in that section. A Sacramento
paper was at great pains to collect the
statistics of the "bursted paper town"
boom which were presented at the State
Board of Equalization for the purpose of
reducing our assessment, and the facts
embodied il its article, afterwards elab-
Grated by the San Francisco Bulletin, are
being extensively copied from Maine to
the Gulf.
The Bucksport (Me.) Clipper, of Sep
TENDER 2lst, eagerly reproduced these
statistics, with some sage reflections of
it's own, as thus:
The stay-at-home friends Of the numer.
GUS Maine men who invested heavily in
California lands, can read the following
and congratulate themselves that they
W0I0 ll5tcu dluuAS Vic OiO lJBlob.
Because patch of sand lies under a
cloudless sky it is not necessarily valua-
BILE real estate. as the people who invested
long ago are finding out. Before the
ton of taxes, which is now in session,
some interesting statements are coming
out. O1e piece of land in Los Angeles
fv hot orld fuvo -
teen thousand dollars, has since returned
to its owner for six thousand dollars, the
face of the mortgage which he had.
1t is pretty safe to assume that, not
withdrawing the melancholy picture
drawn in the foregoing, it would require
q pretty strong traction to draw whilom
inhabitant of the Pine Tree State from
Los Angeles back to his old home. 1t is
unpleasant to be caught in boom. but it
is infinitely more uncomfortable to be
caught in a blizzard.
Our Maine contemporary by no means
exhausted its moralizing tendency in the
choice extract We have already given.
1t goes on to say:
The history of the collapse of this real
estate boom, which was 30 fourishing
two years ago, has it's lesson. Because q
new region is booming" as it is called,
is no sure sign that that region is on the
steady march of progress. Some care
full business men eaid two years ago that
they did not care to invest in Southern
California because there was, and prob.
ably always would be, too much
sand and too few people there;
but other people inferred be-
cause the place was booming, that it
had conspicuously great future before
it. There are some places that are
bound to "boom" safely and continuously
because they have the location, the sur
roundings and the natural advantages /;
and there are other places that do not
have these qualifications and never can
60 to the extent of the expectations of
those interested in them. The condition
Of real estate in Los Angeles county
shows that altogether too much was
hoped for it.
The Northern California papers which
devoted themselves to blazoning the facts
upon which the Los Angeles assessment
was reduced ten per cent. were very
careful to omit mention of the circum-
stance that, even when reduced, it re-
NAMED somewhat over ninety millions OF
dollars, as against only thirty-seven
millions of dollars three years ago.
In other words, the taxable valuation of
Los Angeles county had nearly trebled
in three years, and that on the most con
sentative estimates.
One thing carefully overlooked by the
journals which have given the Eastern
keynote to depreciation of Los An.
geles is that this region has filed up with
the most eclectic population of the
United States during the past four or five
years. that the city is graced by many of
the handsomest business blocks in
America and by innumerable resi-
dences that may fairly be called
palatial, that We have ten commercial
and five savings banks, which carry q
larger percentage of deposits than can be
shown in any banks in Northern or
Central California or in Maine, that we
are just completing cable car system,
built by intelligent Chicago capitalists,
at an outlay of 81, COO, 900, that we have
created splendid street system, have
just finished a beautiful city hall.
and are we'll on the way with
. court house which will be one
of the most superb edifces of the kind
on the continent. The Sacramento
papers, and those Eastern journals which.
quote from them, never made the mistake
Of informing their readers that, "bursted
boom" and all, Los Angeles is today the
liveliest city in California, with only one
exception, if San Francisco is an excep.
ton; and that, with three completed
transcontinental railways with Los
Angeles as their termini, and innumerable
local ones, with too serviceable harbors
on the broad Pacific, and an unrivaled
ability to produce the manifold staples of
commerce, corn, wine and oil. garnished
by oranges, olives, fgs and pomegranates,
and an unapproached climate, she is de.
termined to maintain and increase her
lead.
There is no doubt that great many
foolish things were done here during the
boom, but it il q fact that the paper