Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-19
THE RAILWAY PARTY
A Train Load of Southern
Pacific Officials.
President Huntington, Col.
CrOcker and Six Others.
They Visited Santa Barbara and
Santa Monica Yesterday.
An Interview With President Hunting
An Interview With President Hunting
ton-He is Reticent-vice-Presi
Crocker's Views-Their Plans.


Huntington, arrived in this city yesterday
afternoon, and went on to Santa Monica
where they spent the night. The party
consisted of President G. p. Huntington,
Vice-President G. F. Crocker, Third
Vice-President j. G. Stubbs, General
Superintendent j. A. Fillmore, G. f.
Smurr, general traffic manager, Arthur
Brown, superintendent of bride build
ing, Ben Welch, master car-builder and
H. j. Small, general master mechanic.
The special train carrying the party
consisted of baggage car, two private
cars, the Sacramento and the Oneonta,
and directors car. 1t arrived at Santa
Barbara at II O'clock in the morn
ing. A deputation of prominent citizens
of Santa Barbara met the train at the
Victoria-street station and most of the
members of the party were induced to
take ride about the town in carriages
which had been provided. The train
waited at Santa Barbara about an hour
and half Mr.. Huntington after a
short drive in the residence section of
the town was taken to the Arlington
hotel and an informal reception was
rendered him in the parlors. The mat
ter of the completion of the line
fran Santa Margarita to Ellwood
was brought into conversation
several times, but the president
avoided making any statement as to
definite time, and contented himself
with saying that the project would be
carried out at the earliest period when it
was considered by the authorities of the
fn 1a ht,Ci
ton.
A little after noon the train started for
Los Angeles, and ran through, making
only two briefs stops. 1t arrived at the
Arcade depot at 80.
A reporter Of this paper came on
board the train at Santa Barbara and
was courteously lgiven transportation to
Los Angeles. Mr.. Huntington was
found in the parlor of the directors car
together with Colonel Croker and
Messrs. Stubbs, Fillmore and Smurr
True to the tradition of his order, as
prominent official of great railway,
Mr.. Huntington was unwilling to do
MUCH talking, and such replies as he
gave to questions were in the form of
generalties, having no special impor-
tance as news.
Il know the HERALD very we'll" said
he, "and have long regarded it as an ex-
cellent exponent of the development of
the southern section of the state. The
Southern Pacific road is profoundly in
terested in everything that tends to the
increase in wealth and population Of the
southern part of California. The in
terests of the road and the section are
identical. We are here to stay and we
do not propose to be behind hand
in doing our share of what is necessary
to fire up the country. believe that
this section is all right-that it will
soon enjoy good times again-better
than it has ever seen before, because
based on a securer foundation. | am
not in position to make any statements
with regard to the plans of the road in
the matter of construction in this part
of the state, for the reason that as yet
we have no plans-none at least that in
volve action this year. The coast line is
to be completed just as soon as we can
reasonably resume the work. 1t is an
expensive and difficult undertaking, as
is well known.
''With regard to the union depot pro-
ject in Los Angeles, the matter has been
recently brought before us and is in a
way under consideration. A union
depot would doubtless be an excellent
thing, but we are very well satisfied
with our present facilities"
On several of the matters which came
up in the brief conversation Mr.. Hunt
ington declared that Colonel Crocker
was much better informed than he was
himself. The reporter appealed to him
with variety of questions, to which
answers came about as follows:
SfVbat noonla ora 10 most
anxious to hear about in the affairs of a
railroad is it's plans for the construction
of new lines. Unfortunately, just at
present we have no work Of this kind in
this vicinity which we are considering
with view to undertaking it in the inn
mediate future. There are plenty of places
where it is perfectly clear case that
development must come before very
long. Take for example the line from
Burbank through the Simi pass to Santi-
coy. 1t has been planned and will in
time be undertaken, l have no doubt,
and will help to develop very fine piece
of country. But before any such piece
of work is undertaken, it must be care
fully considered with a view to ascertain
ing how soon it can be made to pay and
whether the road will not find the in
vestment more satisfactory in the long
run by delaying it for time. The
present is rather bad era for railway
construction, especially in this section
of the union. Most of the roads of the
country are passing through period OF
hard times, owing to the general depres-
sion of business, which diminishes their
traffic, and also to the steady falling OF
rates. The only way to make railway
securities decently profitable form of
investment is for the roads to limit con-
struction to territory that will afford
satisfactory traffic.
GAS a matter of fact, Southern Cali
fornia is at present very well equipped
with railroad lines. The relations be-
tween the Southern Pacific and the
Santa Fe are quite harmonious, and
while this is 50 there is very little cause
for our paralleling any of their lines,
and between them and our system the
southern country is pretty we'll covered.
"The improvements at San Pedro were
discontinued for the reason that the
traffic through that point had suffered
such a considerable falling off. When
we undertook the construction OF the
deep water wharf we believed that
there would be ample business to justify
it. The work can be resumed at any
IL.