The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-01-02
Possibilities

| In round numbers, the amount of cap
ital invested in manufacturing enter
prises in Los Angeles may be estimated
at 81, 100000.
| Necessity ever fathers manufacturing
in all young communities, and therefore
the earliest enterprises of this sort in any
new city are such as will supply the
primary wants of life. A new section soon
wearies of sending away agricultural
products and repurchasing them in man
ufactured form-hence we soon find fac
tories for food products established, CIV
ing us flour mills, preserving and can
ming establishments, ETC., etc. Hand
tools will not longer build a modern city.
Such development requires the estab-
lishment OF manufacturing institutions
| to adequately prepare our building ma
terials, giving us iron foundries, plan
| ing mills, etc.
1t has taken Los Angeles but a score of
years to tranSmute sleeps pasture to
an orange grove, and from an orange
grove to city of over 10000 nhabit-
ants. AS very natural consequence
factories are still very largely of the two
general classes referred to. Before oil
was obtained to serve the purpose of
fuel, local manufactures were at great
disadvantages; but with oil at price
which promises to remain close to the
81 mark per barrel the establishment and
successful operation of many manufac-
turing plants will depend solely upon the
enterprise of capital, the ability and en-
ergy of the management and the adjust
ment of freight rates by the transporta
with ~ q nj, fr ~ tIr
ing centers into debatable territory.
Generally speaking, a manufactured
product is likely to be on par with the
requirements, the refinement and the
taste of the composite individual of the
consuming public who is being catered
for.
From these premises it is justifiable
for Los Angeles to pay itself high COM
pliment for the quality and artistic ex-
cellence of a great many of its products.
These do not suffer by comparison with
like products in much older manufac-
turing centers. Indeed, one of the most
serious questions confronting certain
manufacturers is the importation OF
shoddy goods which challenge competi-
ton exclusively on basis of low price.
AS to the field open to manufacturers.
it is both local and export one. Locally
IL includes all of Southern California as
far north as Bakersfield at which point
freight rates turn badly against this city.
Notwithstanding, in some lines the field
of operation extends as far north as Fres-
no. New Mexico and Arizona naturally
draw upon Los Angeles, and within the
radius thus indicated the city can COM
,,itL or ptIrinp nOintS
On an equal basis.
The export field has virtually no I'm
itation, but. of course, can only be in
vaded by articles for the manufacture of
which Southern California presents es-
pecial opportunity and facility. Mainly,
these may be said to consist of fruit and
vegetable products in a manufactured
state The markets of Mexico, Contra!
and South America, the islands of the
Pacific and the orient are, comparatively
speaking, virgin of endeavor along these
lines, and are, geographically, more ia
vorably situated to San Pedro, the port
CT Los Angeles, than to either San Fran
cisco or Puget Sound.
Taking into consideration these facts
the manufacturing outlook is hopeful
and with the harbor at San Pedro man.
ufacturers will be capable Of indefinite
expansion. Already Los Angeles is
favored with competing lines of trans
continental railroads, new lines are I'M
der contemplation which will open up
new fields and put Los Angeles on a
footing of equality with regard to freight
rates in other territory where today the
foothold is maintained with difficulty.
Lastly the increasing population of
Southern California itself promises the
very best security for the future pros
perity Of our manufacturing interests.