The herald., 1896-03-04
ALL PULLING TOGETHER
w. H. Mills Gives His Impress
sions of Los Angeles
STATISTICS HE GATHERED
Our Population is Very Close to the
100000 Mark
The Wonderful Advance and Vast Progress
Made in Recent Years Is Due to .
Unanimity Of Action

W. H. Mills, the land agent for the
Southern Pacific, was in this city about ten
days ago, and when he had returned to the
north, he gave to an Oakland news inter-
viewer the following impressions of his
visit:
"Los Angelos,'' he said, sis beautiful
both in the business portion of the town
and in the residence portion. Shortly after
my arrival there l visited the city water
works. My opinion is that there are stan-
dards by which the population of a town
may be estimated. even more accurately
than by the census re urns. For statistical
purposes, l recently had an observation
made of the number of taps served by the
water companies of Philadelphia and Chi
cago, and found that in those cities there
were about six persons to the tap in Phila-
delphia, and little in excess of that num-
ber in Chicago. The average, however, be-
tween the two cities was about six persons
to the tap. Now here in San Francisco we
have about 43, 700 taps, of which 400 are
vacant. We introduced 1912 new taps in
the year 1895, and on thu lst day of Janu-
airy, 1896, had about 80, 600 taps in use.
The city of Los Angeles, on the day I visit
cd it, had 16,3O3 taps in Use and 176 va
cant. Estimating six persons to the tap,
Los Angeles has population of $4,000.
estimate, and am therefore prepared to
admit that Los Angeles has at least 1000
Inhabitants. At the office of the superin-
tendent of public buildings l found that
permits had been given during the year
1895 for the construction OF buildings,
changes and repairs to the extent of 24OO.
| ascertained that the discrepancy between
the number of taps introt uced into the
mains and the number of building permits
issued was accounted for by the fact that
| changes and reconstruction do not require
new taps; that many taps had been intro
duced into the city when the streets were
macademized and bitumenized TO avoid
the necessity of tearing them up again.
Some of the buildings were upon these old
taps. The Los Angeles water works placed
| 1920 new taps in the mains in the year
| 1895, which is 70S more than was intro
tuced into the mains by the Spring Valley
Water company of San francisco. during
| the same period.
| "lf the basis of estimate of the increase
of population already alluded to is even
approximately correct, the population of
| Los Angeles must have increased from ten
to twelve thousand during the year 1895,
| and my opinion that such an increase has
| taken place is verified by other data--the
school census, the volume of postal matter
| and various other sources of estimate.
| do not believe that the relative population
of the cities of San Francisco and Los An
geles can be determined wholly by the
number of taps being served by the water
| works, but an approximation may be made
| For instance, in San Francisco. l am per-
suaded that there are about SO 900 people
| living in the hotels, boarding houses and
subsisting at restaurants. | think that
San Francisco has at least seven and one.
half persons to each tap in the city. but
do think that Los Angeles has at least
one-third of the population OF San Fran
| cisco.
"Los Angeles is peculiar in one respect
for a California city. Every citizen is pull
ing for the town. The street car conduct
| ors will try to impress the growth and inn
portance Of the place upon passengers.
The same disposition which is observable
| in all growing towns is manifested there.
Citizens claim for Los Angeles everything
that they think is good for it. For it,
lustration, gentleman assured me that
Los Angeles was one of the most cosmo-
politan cities in the United States. He
seemed to think cosmopolitan an excellent
! word and the reputation of bsing cosmo-
politan an evidence of growth and import
| ance; but at the water works inquired
whether or not it was necessars to employ
| linguists, and found there were but two
| languages necessary to be understood to
transact the entire business-Englsh and
| the Spanish. In San Francisco it is neces-
sary to have people employed by the
! water works familiar with all the European
languages.
| ''rhe fact is that Los Angeles is dis
| tinctly an American city. In visiting the
| city and county offices, it was apparent
| that nearly if not quite all the incumbents
were Americans, and l was informed by
one gentleman that the police force was
comprised almost exclusively of American
J born citizens. He declared that there were
but two or three foreign born citizens on
the police force. There may be inaccuracy
in some of these statements, because the
gentleman giving the information may
have thought that the reputation of being
a native rather than a cosmopolitan town
was good for the place. 1t was, however, a
very delightful change to find city whose
Inhabitants are thoroughly united in it's
purpose to build homes and surround them
with the highest and best possible condi-
tons, moral and social. 1t was an agree.
able change to meet dozens of citizens all
OF whom had good word to say for the
town in which they held citizenship and for
the place with whose destinies their own
lot was cast. If we could import more of
that spirit this side of Tehachepi we could
get along very we'll without all the other
attributes of growth which have given to
Southern California such marvellous pros
perity.''