Los Angeles herald., 1892-04-05
A MendaciOus Circular Attack
ing San Pedro.
The Document Which Was Dis
tributed in Washington.
CONGRESSMAN Bowers's Apathy Over an
Outrageous Circular = The
Document In
Full.

0esA&
Pedro's development as harbor, and
to watch the interests of this city with
an eagle eye, but it appears that he looks
after these interests with an eye which
is more OF buzzard's optic than any
thing else. For two or three weeks past
some liars and lobby buncoers have
been flooding Washington with a
wretched circular referring to San Pedro
with solid mass OF invective and falsity.
Yet Mr.. Bowers has not had the idea
that it was his duty to let the people here
knew of this action, the very people,
by the way, who elected him, when it
was case W it'll him of going to congress
or of going to work. A friend OF Los
Angeles has sent the HERALD copy of
the circular. 1t is headed by map
which is as misleading as the text. The
map shows three proposed" lines OF
railroad from San Diego to Yuma, and
shows no railroad from Los Angeles to
San Pedro. As matter of fact, San
Diego has been offering purses of half a
million dollars to railroad companies for
half dozen years as an lnducement to
build road east from that town, but
without success.
As specimen OF malicious invention
the circular is worth reading:
To the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States:
Another effort is about to be made by
the Southern Pacific Railroad company
to obtain large appropriation from
this congress for the purpose of making
harbor in the bay OF San Pedro, on the
southern coast of California, in the vi
,nst of / ich tn
spectiully call your attention to some
facts relating to this matter:
The government has already expend-
ed about $l,000,000 i'll the attempt to
make a harbor in this bay, and yet the
large share of this expenditure has
amounted to nothing, and the break
water which has been built is subject to
destruction by any great ocean storm. l
understand that they propose sinking
many more millions in this undertak-
ing. If this expenditure could at any
time result in the making of harbOr of
any real capacity at San Pedro, it would
vet he of no real benefit to the people of
the United States, for the Southern Pa
cific company has control and monopo-
Lies the water front of the
proposed San Pedro harbor. Another
reason why no such expenditure
should be made is that Southern Cali
fornia is already provided with an ex-
cellent harbor at San Diego, located at
the best point possible to shorten the
lines of traffic across the continent. l
understand that General Vandever pub
licly stated that San Diego harbor was
located in the wrong place because
there were no railroad passes in the
mountains east OF San Diego, but this
Of orb 10
proven untrue by the surveys made by
the government, and l append herewith
map outlined from the United States
land office map, showing the position Of
San Diego harbor and the passes east
wards for railroads, and showing that
San Diego harbor is at least one hundred
miles nearer the eastern business than
the bay of San Pedro. San Diego is ten
miles nearer the San GorgoniO pass, and
100 miles nearer Warmers pass, 130
miles nearer Jacumba pass and 100
miles nearer Yuma. The building up
of the harbor of San Pedro would there
fore only be an accommodation possibly
to the vicinity of Los Angeles, while
San Diego harbor would accommodate
all.
1t is probably we'll that your atten-
tion should be called to the true reason
why such an effort should be made to
get an appropriation for San Pedro bay.
When the Southern Pacific railroad was
completed to Los Angeles that company
secured the railroad from Los Angeles to
San Pedro, and gained with it the ex-
elusive control of the shores of the bay,
which they have held and controlled up
to the present time, fixing the rates of
freight and fare at such rates as would
protect the railroad of the Southern Pa
cific to San Francisco.
Before building their road east from
Los Angeles the officials OF the Southern
Pacific company fully considered the
question as to what route was best tor
them to adopt. Mr.. Charles Crocker at
that time stated to prominent citizen
of San Diego that they could not afford
to build their road to San Diego and
then eastward, because it would shorten
the routes of freight and thus draw off
business from their railroad northward.
He said that they would lose by coming
to deep water at San Diego the most
of their freight bound for San
Francisco, and it would 60 by ship from
San Diego northward. They could not
monopolize the harbor of San Diego and
thus prevent the competition of other
roads and the reduction of freight rates,
which they can do at San Pedro. "Our
policy" he said, sis to keep away and
prevent, if possible, the development Of
deep water harbors in Southern Califor-
MIA" And, from that day to the pres
ent, the Southern Pacific Company has
resolutely fought every attempt to build
railroad to San Diego bay. When the
Santa Fe railway system was first built,
and against every opposition made by
the Southern Pacific Company, and the
Santa Fe proposed to put on line OF
steamers for China and Australia, the
Southern Pacific at once agreed to give
the Santa Fe certain valuable conces-
sions over their railroad from Mojave to
San Francisco, and che steamship pro-
iect was given up, and the Santa Fe has
entered into q combination and with.
drawn itself from all competition on this
coast. Yet, with the combined efforts
of both these companies to close San
Diego harbor to commerce, it has at this
time the, greatest tonnage OF foreign
shipping Of any port on this coast save
San Francisco.
A large amount Of the effort to get
congress to appropriate money to San
Pedro is brought about by the use which
10 made of it by real estate men in Los
Angeles, to use such appropriation to