The herald., 1896-05-01
THE HARBOR CONTEST

senator w lllte drew attentlOH 10 d
most significant fact in regard to the
| Los Angeles harbor controversy when,
| in his minority report, referring to the
amendment appropriating s2,9SS00O for
Il breakwater at Santa Monica, he said:
'"Ths item was not placed in the bill
| at the suggestion of either senator from
| representative of the Sixth congressional
| district of that state, wherein the site is
| located. On the contrary, both senators
and representatives objected to the con-
struction of breakwater at the point
named in the bill, and the overwhelming
sentiment of the community prefers an
other location, namely. San Pedro
10 the disinterested senators from
other states the point made by Senator
White in the few words quoted should
appear invincible when taken in con-
nection with the fact that three differ
ent sets of government engineers have
declared in favor of the San Pedro site
and against that of Santa Monica.
The attitude of the majority of the
senate commerce committee has no pre-
cedent in the history of the country
The congress Of the United States is
supposed to be governed in its appro-
priations of money for public improve
ments by the reports of officers of the
government and the opinions of the
congressional representatives of the
state in which the money is to be ex
pended, but without single official ut
terance in favor of the Santa Monica
site or a solitary plea from a senator or
representative of California and with
abundant evidence before them that the
people of this section are overwhelm-
ingly against the project and in favor
of an other that has been officially
commended and repeatedly advocated
by members of congress from
this state, the committees majority
proposes to expend nearly $3,00000O in
the construction of a deep sea harbor
at Santa Monica. The wishes of the
people of this section, the pleas of Cali
fornia's senators and of the representa-
tive from this congressional district and
the official opinions of government ex-
perts detailed for the express purpose
of informing the government as to
which place on the Los Angeles county
coast it would be best to construct
deep sea harbor, do not seem to have a
feathers weight against the wishes of
Mr.. Huntington. A more fragrant in
stance of the insolent domination of a
monopolistic corporation has seldom if
ever been seen in these United States.
The minority report of Senator White
bristles with cogent reasons in behalf
of the harbor at San Pedro and against
the Southern Pacific scheme, and is in
general presentation of the right side
of the case that will be unanswerable.
But the senator from Southern Cali
fornia has only commenced the fight;
before he is through the senate will be
in a better frame of mind to consider
that other Huntington fraud, the Pa
cifc railroads funding bill.
The present status and prospects of
the fight are thus interestingly referred
to in a special to the San Francisco Ex-
aminer of Wednesday:
"The San Pedro and Santa Monica con-
troVersy is expected to come before the
senate For the first time in the history of
the river and harbor bills there is to he a
minority report. Senator White is going
TO carry the fight against Huntington and
the Southern Pacific into the open senate
and the liveliest scene of this congress is
looked for.
1T is generally recognized that the airing
the Santa Monica appropriation will re-
ceive in the senate will cause some scandal,
and senator's who dislike the airing of scan
dals have been trying to persuade the OPP
derstanding. The majority for the Santa
Monica appropria ton was obtained by des-
perate tactics. Senator German was not
present and his PROXY was used by Chair
ress Monroe, but Chairman Frye also acted
as proxy for him when the vote was taken.
Presumably he has authority. but it is a
rare thing to record the vote of absent
senators on an appropriation bill.
Senators say that this is the first minor