Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-26
PAST AND PROSPECTIVE GREATNESS OF SAN FRANC
Some Interesting spsouons Concerning csornss For
mer Metropolis at the Golden Gate
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twelve millions OF dollars in bonds in
the city treasury, for which the United
States has agreed to adv, nee the cash.
No matter what kind of a settlement
the insurance companies make, the bus
mess men and property holders of San
Francisco will get from $3.50 900 to
5000, 900, 600 in q lump sum-and then?
And then-why things will he done
past imagining. There is scarcely a
city in the world in which there are not
people who have large property in
terests in the Golden Gate, and who
will hasten to rebuild on their proper
ties from which they have derived
large incomes. There are in New York
such men as d. o. Mills. who Is worth
upwards of $S0,000,O00, and many others
who go away up in the seven figures,
who will spend millions In the good
work. Many Of the large property in
terests of San Francisco are held In
Europe and are In hands capable of
placing them on a good or better foot
ing than before the famous April IS.
The immense reserves of the banks
of San Franclsco-the largest per capita
Of any city in the world-are intact.
The financial strength of the Pacic
coast has been strikingly shown by the
fact that, maugre earthquake, fire and
all. there has not been the slightest
sign of financial instability, from Cape
Mendocino to the Mexican line.
When the real work of reconstruction
begins an era of industrial activity will
start in the Bay City that Will be ac-
companied by development along the
whole coast and will be re-echoed from
Seattle to Los Angeles and San Diego.
When one remembers that the failure
of the Bank of California in September,
1875. was followed by that of nearly
every bank in the state, the stability of
California in all financial lines today
Is something to marvel at. When this
latest cataclysm occurred the whole
Pacific coast was in a condition that
may fairly be called one of boom, but
of healthy and durable boom, founded
upon an unexampled development and
production and without any of the In
stability and prematureness Of, say,
that of the Los Angeles of 1SS6-S7. AS
a result of the changed condition which
twenty years Of strenuous development
have made the boom which character
lied Los Angeles twenty years ago is a
mere bagatele to that which exists
here today and which is just fairly in
its beginning, with every indication of
stability and expansion.
PrODdDlV no Clly Ill lIle WOllu llhti
so many ups and downs as San Fran
cisco. | first saw it July 1. 1872, land
ing on the good ship Sacramento from
Panama, which fatcd vessel on It's next
trip up from that port went down to
Davy Jones' locker off San Geronimo
island. If ever a city was in the dumps
1t was that of the Golden Gate at that
time.
I put UP at the Occidental hotel.
which Charles Nordhoff, in his letter to
the New York Herald, pronounced the
finest hotel on the continent, and which
1 thought deserved the name. The Oc-
cidental, Lick and Cosmopolitan at that
time were the great caravansaries, and
which were known all over the world.
The Grand. which stood opposite the
Palace hotel which latter had then not
been built, corner Of New Montgomery
and Market streets, had just been
opened.
AS probably is the case with every
body who comes to the Pacific coast,
almost the first people came across at
| the Occidental were persons hao
| known in the east. One of them was a
| Pittsburg contractor. He told me that
he had been all over the city and that
there was in it, all told. not enough
building going on TO keep his force OF
men at work three days in the week
The great mercurial burg was in one OF
it's despondent moods, and no people
know how to grumble with more vi
vacity than your business man or man
of leisure of the Golden Gate. At least
that was the case until their noble per-
formances following April Is last, after
which date the names of San Fran
ciscans Of either sex became the
synonym for fortitude and all sorts OF
heroism. The people were at that time
aged in a great fight with the
Southern Pacific, in which the masses
achieved the feat, which they so often
accomplish, of cutting off their noses
to spite their faces. The railway man
ayers wanted Goat island and the peo-
pie were determined that they should
not have it. If the corporation haG
succeeded all it's property, now ir
Oakland, would have been in San Fran.
cisco, and it would have been paying