The herald., 1896-04-27
A CONTEMPORARIES ERROR

An evening contemporary which The
Herald regrets to see is inperiling itself
by perversely psrsisting in the advocacy
of the Southern Pacific harbor scheme,
asserted Saturday that Mr.. Kerens, the
president OF the Terminal Railroad COM
pany, had accepted the Southern Pa
cific's offer to share with the latter the
long wharf at Santa Monica and ar
ranged to mako Santa Monica the ter
minus of the Salt Lake railroad that he
Ia interested in the building Of. instead
Of San Pedro. This OF course would
mean, IL true, that the Salt Lake rail-
way people had abandoned hope of a
harbor at San Pedro and had decided to
ally themselves with the Huntington
harbor project. But there is one i'm
portant defect in this tale about Mr.
Kerens' change Of front. 1t is most
perfectly inaccurate. The following tel
egram, published by permission Of its
recipient, shows that Mr.. Kerens is, on
the harbor issue. where he has always
been. for the San Pedro site and against
Huntingtons Santa Monica site. The
telegram reads:
NEW CoMMERCETOwN. OHIO.
April 26. 1885,
T. E. Gibbon, Vice-president Terminal
r. r., Los Angeles, CAL:
Am en- route Washington. Rehearing
tomorrow. Senator White controls sit
uation. The bill cannot pass with his
opposition. Moreover senate will sus-
tain him and he can have San Pedro
substituted.
(Signed r. c. KERENS.
This dispatch certainly does not har-
monize with the theory that Mr.. Kerr
ems has really accepted the Southern
Pacific offer and arranged to remove
the terminus of the Salt Lake road to
Santa Monica" On the contrary, 1t in
dicates briefly but pointedly that he
rejects 1.-The Southern Pacific offer" and
has arranged to help defeat its ma
chinations. He is going to Washing
ton to be on hand at the rehearing of
the harbor question by the senate COM
merce committee tomorrow, so as to as
sist in the promotion of legislation that
will make it unnecessary for railway
companies desiring to reach tide water
on the Los Angeles county coast to
accept Southern Pacific offers.'
Mr.. Kerens is eminently correct
when he says that Senator White con-
trolls the situation, and the bill with the
harbor appropriations recommended by
the commerce committee cannot pass
with the senator's opposition. Never in
the history Of the country has the SEN
ate voted on a matter of public i'm
provements contrary to the wishes Of
the senator in whose part of the state
that improvement was contemplated.
While senator has not always been
able to get what he wants in such cases
he has always been successful in pre-
venting what he does not want. And
1t is entirely probable that, as Mr..
Kerens says, Senator White will be able
to make San Pedro instead of Santa
Monica the beneficiary of the govern
ment appropriation for a deep sea har-
bor. That he will try goes without say
ing. He has most emphatically stated
his'intention of fighting the question out
on the floor Of the senate, and when he
takes up the cudgels in behalf of the
peoples free harbor and against the
con gate proposition Of the Southern
F'acffic, the Huntington contingent in
Washington win find out how little the
mortgage they hold on the commerce
commjttee is worth. Senator White has
splendid cause. and he is powerful
anGhfer; he is thoroughly acquainted
= I'm the merits Of the site for which the
z1on1o e this vicinity have 30 often and
4 0vwwhslninslZ ezusssssd their