Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-29

he owned a stage line between the two
places in opposition to one which had
been established by Tomlinson. He
took an active part in the building Of
the local railway, and after the COM
pletion Of the little road he confined
his business energies to doing the light
ering work at the harbor, which, as
business grew, he made to yield him
princely revenue. All the men I
have named, and in fact the whole
people of Los Angeles, we're willing to
drop anything at any time and pull
for the good of the section.
The failure Of Jay Cooke g. co. and
the consequent panic had a marked
influence on the future of this city
and on many other cities and things
besides. Among the rest, 1t swept
the Memphis g. Bl Paso railway into
the limbo of things lost upon earth
and temporarily ruined Tom Scott.
The people of Los Angeles were quick
to realize the new conditions and met
them with characteristic promptitude.
At the time of the disappearance OF
Tom Scott and his Texas Pacific rail-
way--for all purposes of Los Angeles
and Southern California they had been
wiped off the map--the Southern Pa
cific railway was meandering leisurely
down the state. What they intended
to do. or where they intended to go,
they kept to themselves. At that time
they had reached. point south near
~. ,f mt ~
All at once they made a proposition
to the people of Los Angeles to build
to this city If the county would give
them Is per cent on their county valu-
alton of $5,OOO,O0O, which meant sub
sidy of S750,000, the railway company
agreeing to take the Los Angeles &
Wilmington railway in part payment.
Then began the tug of war. The
enterprising and far-sighted part OF
the population at once saw the great
advantages of having railway con-
nection with San Francisco and the
rest of the state, and in the special
election which was ordered entered
warmly into the fight for progress.
The railway company sent down Col.
Hyde, a resourceful politician, to su-
perinten1 and vitalize their forces.
That gentleman was acquainted with
all the agencies which at that time
we're SO potent in California politics
and the goose hung high. OF course,
in community so intelligent as that
of Los Angeles, and which then con-
tained so large an element which
could be Influenced" the result could
not be doubtful. The railway and the
good genius of Los Angeles won the
day. The results were the Southern
Pacific began to spend millions on the
construction of the San Fernando tun-
mel. In 1876 we had railway connec-
ton with San Francisco and work
began on the Sunset route. 1t Is
noteworthy fact that, at every stage
of her career since the early '10s, the
people of Los Angeles have always
done the right thing at the right time.
They can truly be said to have been
largely the creators of their own des-
TIMES and to have been the cooper
ators with Providence in developing
one of the most highly gifted and
unique regions on earth. 1t would
probably be difficult today to find an
Angeleno who would confess to having
voted against that life-giving subsidy.
At every stage of her career some
thing has always occurred to help Los
Angeles over hard place. Thus she
was tided over the panic of 1873 by her
agreement with the Southern Pacific,
and over the blue days following the