Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-31
ABOUT The GROWTH OF clrIss.

Whilst Mr.. Carter Harrison Of Chi
cago, who paid Los Angeles pleasant
visit several weeks ago. writes very nice
things in his paper about our country
and climate, he seems to have arrived
at peculiar conclusions az to the limita-
tions of our city's growth. He thinks
that Los Angeles may become city Of
twice the population it now has, and
that beyond that it can hardly 60.
Old residents of Los Angeles are ia
miliar with the eastern visitors ideas
about the possible growth Of our city.
When our population numbered 10000
these gentlemen could not see where the
business to support city of more than
double that size could come from. The
very highest reach our census could pos
sibly attain was limited to $4,000. But
we have learned to value these views at
their true worth, and have shown by
actual fact that Los Angeles with a
population Of 10000 is only upon the
threshold of its march to city Of several
hundred thousand inhabitants.
It is easy to account for the errors
which easterners fall into when they
treat of the possible growth of city
like Los Angeles. They start out upon
premises that will not apply to our sit,
uation. They have been used to study the
causes of the abnormal growth of such
cities as Chicago. Minneapolis and Kan
sas City, and have seen that it required
the products and industries Of uumegopp
and extensive states to supply them
with the business that has made them
reach their present Importance in size
and population. The tributaries, for
instance, of Chicago are commensurate
with the whole northwest. and although
she has now over one million inhabir-
ants, she is still growing. OF course
Los Angeles does not pretend to be 80
situated that she can hope to become a
rival, even at long distance, Of Chicago.
But let US confne ourselves to, say,
Kansas City or Minneapolis. There il.
no reason whatever why Los Angeles
should not become as great center as
either of these cities. Their growth
and development have depended mainly
upon the cereal products Of the states
in their vicinity. Their back country is,
of course, far more extensive than ours
but one acre Of our back country, it
must be remembered, is capable of pro-
ducing crop values from sixteen to
twenty times as great as one of their
back country acres. The five thousand
square miles of agricultural country inn
mediately tributary to Los Angeles is.
equal to $4,000 or 100, 900 square miles
tributary to the western cities, and will
support q population from sixteen
to twenty times as great as
that supported by the immensely
larger territory tributary to those cen
ters. 1t will therefore be readily
seen that calculations about our growth
made by visiting easterners are not to
be relied upon. They start out upon
false premises, and come to conclusions
from parallels that are not at all appli-
cable to estimates Of growth made for
this coast.
Let us formulate it in this way: If
100000 square miles of agricultural
country in the, western states will sup.
port ten persons to the square mile, that
would give western city the produc-
tions OF LOCO, 900 people to draw upon.
If 5000 square miles of agricultural
country in Southern California will sup
port twenty times the people western
lands will support, that would give US
200 persons to the square mile; there
fore Los Angeles would also have the
productions of 1000, 900 Of agriculturists
to draw upon.
When the easterner learns to look at
the productive possibilities of coun-
try like Southern California in compar-
ison with those of the western states, he
will realize that our cities can reach as
great expansion as the western centers,
upon an infinitely smaller margin of
back country than they require.