The herald., 1894-01-01
San Francisco Left Behind in
the Race for Supremacy.
A Harbor Which Will Make This
City q Commercial Center.
A city of Brainy Mon with Broad Minds.
The Choicest Place of Residence
in tho World-Peopie who
Do Not Have to Rob.
Isan Francisco Arganaut.l

some notice OF the steady and aggressive
growth OF the country south of Tehach-
api. People of this city who sleep on
10th ears as become men to whom
Providence has smoothed the paths OF
life, do not seem to be aware that there
is growing up in the southern part OF
the state q community which threatens
to leave us far behind in the race OF
progress. If the growth of the country
south of Tehschapi continues at it's
present rate, the twentieth century will
not be far advanced when Los Angeles.
and not San Francisco, will be the com
mercial capital of California.
We have but one advantage that can
not be taken from ua--that is our har-
Dor. But, in the first place, the county
Of Los Angeles Is about to make q harbor
for itself, which will answer every
ommorcial purpose; and second, We are
turning the harbor we have to no
account. Not one of our many million
aires ia putting up dollar to establish
the steamship lines which might be, and
which ought to be, running from San
Francisco to foreign ports.
In every respect, save the harbor,
Los Angeles compares with us to advan-
tage. 1t is the center OF q country of
marvellous fertility and such beauty that
it is the choicest place Of residence in
the world. Our suburbs. Marin, Ala
media and San Matso counties, are good
counties; but, except Alameda, they are
not very productive. Every acre around
Los Angeles yields something which can
be sent to market. The systems of irri-
CATION which have been brought to per-
al
compelled the soil to yield its maximum
increase. The city is railroad center,
and it's lines Of rail, spreading to every
point of the compasr, bring to the City
of the Angels the yield of the best
wheatfelds, the latest orchards, the
most productive vineyards in the United
States. Whether they run to Santa Bar
bara, and in year or two strike San
Luis Obispo, or cross the state to Fresno,
or reach down to San Diego, the tracks
are pretty sure to be presently b1rdened
with long trains of freight cars. There
10 not an empty store in the place, u 4 Il
But neither location nor fertility Of
soft ia the chief factor in building up
great cities and prosperous states. That
ia the work OF man. Some of the most
prosperous seaports and richest coun-
tries have been -.ade prosperous and
rich in defiance OF natural obstacles.
Holland was a swamp when it fell into
the hands OF the house OF Burgundy
Amsterdam was a fishing village 600
years ago, and had apparently no more
future than Sausalito has now. Liver
pool and Glasgow became great seaports
in absolute defiance of nature. The one
had bar which it WAS almost fatal to
cross; the other had a river which
emptied itself at the tide. There never
was seaport more difficult of access
than New Orleans. yet before the war
the ships and steamers landing at the
levees were measured by the mile. 1t
was by dint of human endeavor, and
human energy, and human enterprise
not by any accidental advantage of posi-
tion-that these places became what
they are.
advantage over us. 1t and ite surround
ing country were originally peopled by
the wrong kind OF settlers. 1t filled up
with immigrants from the south-from
Texas, from Louisiana and from Arkan-
sas people not used to work, having
been educated under the slavery blight
and prone to siestas and cocktails.
Since the war, the southern counties of
California have been attracting an en-
tirely different class-people from New
England, New York, Ohio and Illinois;
same Of them, to be sure, with weak
respiratory organs, bat all Of them
energetic and intelligent. If they had
but one lung, they had big
brain and a broad mind. These
people, finding that the climate
suits them, have invited friends with
two lungs to join them, and the steady
flow of the very best class of American
people has proceeded steadily and unin-
terruptedly. These people did not gen
orally 60 to Southern California amino
manendi; but when they got there they
stayed, and the thought of return to
the ports OF the north sends cold chill
down their spine. Having resolved to
stay, they have bestowed on their new
home the qualities which enabled their
0fsfathers to build New York and Bos-
Va. and their elder brothers to create
/Jhicago and develop Ohio.
2 If you visit Los Angeles you do not
find that everybody is trying to pull
every one else down. People are not all
railing at their neighbors and trying to
prove that they are knayes, and cheats,
and fools. When a man makes money
at Ies Angeles the community does not
COr2iAS nO w OtOnh hitl, VI ONoA W u6lU-
onstrste that his father robbed church
, or that his grandmother was sent to the
penitentiary for shoplifting. The Los
Angelefios seem to believe-incredibl
as it may scem-that man may grow
rich without deserving to be hanged.
Those singular people are so forgetful of
their own interests that they do not re-
gard railroads as the natural enemies of
mankind, nor do they proclaim the
belief that every public official is
boodler. By avoiding these tendencies
they get all the railroads they want,
even if they do have to pay pretty high
fares and freights, and they secure the
services of really able men for public
positions.
How it came about 1t is not easy to
see. But certain it is that Seattle, Ia
coma and Los Angeles have all got
brighter men at their head than San
I Francisco. We have bright men here,
but they probably keep in the back
ground through fear of being denounced
as boodlers or hirelings of corporations
II they tried to do anything for the city.
San Francisco should force them to the
Front II 1t has any regard for it's own
2eture. A few cities were mentioned
above which have achieved prosperity
In spite of natural obstacles. 1t would
not be difficult to compile another list
Of places which have decayed to ruin
throuQh the inaYfia of THAR MANILA Not