The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-08
LEASE OF CHINA BASIN
All Parties Concerned Will
Meet and Sign the Docu-
ment To-Day.
RIGHTS OF THE VALLEY ROAD
The Steamer WashtenaW Arrives
With the First Rails for
the Roadbed.

To-day the last of the preliminaries
which precede actual work upon the road
bed of the Valley Railway will be settled
in the office of the Harbor Commission.
The lease of the China Basin will be
brought up in it's final form, and the Har-
Dor Commissioners, the Governor, the
Mayor and the directors Of the new road
will ratify it with their signatures.
The ratification will be an incident in
the progress of the road, unassuming from
it's lack of direct interest, but important in
its results, in so far as it will within ten
wears make San Francisco the terminus OF
the new line.
The first consignment of rails has ar
rived, for the Washtenaw steamed into the
harbor from New York yesterday, bearing
the iron with which the San Joaquin Val
ley will be connected with tidewater
Preliminary surveys of the road have
been run over river and plain and amid the
greatest rejoicing the first shovelful of
earth will soon be lifted from the roadbed
in the city of Stockton. The next few
days will be important ones for the Valley
road and the people who so eagerly await
its completion and hope for it's success.
The lease, which will be signed to-day,
has been under consideration since last
January. During the session of the Legis-
lature it was drawn up and as soon as the
passage of the act, which, for the purpose
of the lease, made Governor Budd and
Mayor Sutro members of the Harbor Com
mission, the document was taken under
earnest consideration by all parties con-
cerned.
its terms have been modified in many
ways since the first draft was submitted.
In his anxiety to make it absolutely GER
tain that the valuable privileges which
were conferred upon the new road should
not pass to the control of any other
corporation, Mayor Sutro substituted a
clause which called for the forfeiture of
the lease if the Valley road ever trans
ferred the title or reiinquished wholly or
in part its contract over China Basin, or
its rights of way. Under this, however,
it was found impossible to bond the road,
for it practically forbid the mortgaging OF
the property, and much discussion was
needed to straighten it out. 1t was finally
compromised by an agreement by the
party of the second part" the Valley
road, not to transfer or assign any right
conferred by the lease, nor the lease itself,
to any other person or corporation, and
that any attempt to do so would amount
to a forfeiture; that it will use the
property leased solely for the terminal pur-
poses, and that the lease shall terminate
at once should the new road come directly
or indirectly wholly or in part, under the
control of any person, company or cor
poration having terminal facilities in San
Francisco Bay" In other words it must
maintain its integrity as a competing road
or forfeit all privileges conferred by the
lease before they shall come into the hands
of others.
Another clause in the document of con-
siderable importance to this City is one
which requires at least fifty miles of the
road to be built and be in operation at the
expiration of ten years from the signing of
the lease, and that one of the termini of
this fifty miles or more shall be upon the
bay of San Francisco and south of an east
and west line drawn through Pinole Point
in Contra Costa County.
This is modification of a resolution
submitted by Harbor Commissioner Cole
which required that 100 miles should be
built in five years, with the same require
ment as to one terminus.
For the present it is probable that the
northern terminus of the road will be at
Stockton, and that from there to San
Francisco line of steamers and lighters
will transport the freight of the road. IN
der the clause just mentioned, however,
San Francisco, through Oaklandi or its