Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-14
THE SANTA FE'S WORK,
Its Effect on Southern Califor-
MAS Prosperity.
what It has Accomplished in This
Part of the State.
The Progress of semitropicdom-A Re-
Prospect of Past Work-The SUI
perb Prospect in View.

ject of the progress and development OF
Southern California covers a matter
worthy the careful consideration of
thinking men; and it is none the less
pregnant with meaning because it has
already been the subject of much won
der and the theme OF innumerable boom
ers in town-site pamphlets and descrip-
tive newspaper articles. Although many
circumstances have aided the phenom-
email development of the resources and
commercial capacities, there is one fac
tor, as we shall show in the course of
this review, which is the mainspring
that first set the wheels of progress in
motion and has since made possible
their increasing momentum. the ap-
pearance of this factor was the signal
for the first movement in sheep-raising,
hide-drying and ain-shipping in South
ern California, and it has eince been at
work in diversified industries and inter
eBts.
With all the mechanical aids OF the
present day five years is not thought a
long time in which to construct a single
large public building, yet within dec
ade we of Southern California have seen
great cities of from 10000 to 70, 900 peo-
pie, with all the concomitants Of water.
sewerage and street railway syetems and
magnificent public buildings, rise from
the plain or grow from email villages OF
few hundred people. Immense en-
gineering works In the way of reservoirs,
railways and harbors have been con-
structed, calling for the outlay OF enor-
nous wealth and remarkable faith in
the future of country where the visible
resources were so email. In the three
southern counties the assessed valuation
has risen from $22, ,470, ,975 in 1882 to over
$l33, ,781 ,469 in 1891, and the population
has grown from 49, 7S3 to over l6l 1898 in
the same time.
These things have not come by
chance, but are the results of improved
railway facilities, the very thing for
which you of San Francisco and the
northern part of the state now suffer,
the difference being only in degree. The
ten years from 1882 to 1892 have not
been without difficulties for the build
ers of the new Southern California, but,
viewed from the standpoint of 1892, the
results are altogether satisfactory and
the promise for the future bright.
Briefly summarized, the conditions in
1882 In what are now the FIVE principal
cities Of the southern counties were about
as follows: Los Angeles was distlibut-
ing point for supplies for the grazers,
sheep raisers and largeranch owners !; its
trade was principally in retailing the
products OF the eastern manufacturers
and in the gathering and shipping of
hides, wool and grain, three commodities
which at that time we're almost the sole
articles of trade. San Bernardino was a
small village, Pasadena was winter re-
sort, known as the "Indiana colony" I"
with but few attractions beyond cli-
mate. San Diego was small trading
point, with population of less than
4G00, having, however, promise of future
greatness in the aact that it was the ter
minus of the California Southern rail-
road, then building northward to a con-
nection with the Southern Pacific at
Cotton. Riverside was small colony of
), enthusiastic experimentere. But it was
reported that the California Southern
railroad was backed by the. same capital
as that interested in the Atchison, To-
lpeka and Santa Fe railroad.
Men said: "This means good times !;
the California Southern was completed
to Cotton and in the fall of 1888 to San
Bernardino. Disastrous floods occurred
in the spring of 1884 which nearly de.
stroyed the new line. In the recon
Btruction which followed the Atchison
company interested itself openly, and
in the fall Of 1885 the line wascompleted
to Barstow, the junction with the
Atlantic and Pacific. and through
trains from Kansas City direct to Los
Angeles commenced running early in the
following year, reaching Los Angeles
from Cotton over the track of the South
ern Pacific company, and in June, 1887,
the new line'was completed TO Los An
geles. The era of prosperity commenced
in 1883. The building of Atchison lines
in the east had always been followed by
unexampled prosperity, and its manage
ment had always been known as men
not content with the mere building of q
track on which merchandise could be
transported, but, on the contrary, as
men who were capable of developing in
all avenues the resources of new
country, and who drew about them
other men of like enterprise.
A thrill of new life was felt by all.
Thoughtful men interested in the new
line came and viewed the results of irri-
cation on smaM scale at Riverside, and
reasoned that the same or better results
were possible at other points. The con-
sequences are best told in pointing to
the monuments of their enterprise
and the enterprise of their associates.
See the Los Angeles of today, with it's
growing wholesale trade its miles of
magnificent streets, its sewerage, water
and street railway system, it's schools
and it's public buildings, and its popula-
tion increased from about 10000 in 1882
to $1,000 in 1892: see the beautiful
city OF Coronado; see San Diego. city
of20,000 people, grown from 1000; sab
stantial wharves line the bay, and
steamers from Pacific coast and Central
American ports may be seen in her har-
Dor; see San BernardiMo, with it's popu-
lation Of 10000 people. its banks and
railroad shops; see Pasadena, with an
equal population, it's rose e-embowered
homes and its broad acrea of orange and
decidaous fruits; see Riverside, with its
miles of irrigating pipes and canals. and
its annual shipments of over 500 600
boxes of oranges, increased to that
amount from $4,000 boxes in 1882. This
wonderful growth has been reported in
smaller cities and towns as we'll as in
the rural districts, for it must be borne
in mind that cities grow from without
not from within, and it is only by the
increased produetiveness of the farm
and orchard that this remarkable show
ing is possible. Look also at the inn