Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-11

by the council at last settles a
thing which promises well for Los
Angeles city and county. The compile
tion of the magnificent scheme which
will pour the waters of the Owens
river into Los Angeles is pregnant or
untold good to this section. The vol
ume of water available for the new
works will admit of the building UP at
Los Angeles of one of the largest cities
in the world. 1t has been established
beyond peradventure that there are
hundreds of thousands of people-we
should more properly say millions
upon millions of people in the east and
middle west and. we might say the
whole worldwide will no longer sub
NIT to the SHOWS, sleets and chilblalns
A1f harsh climate when they can so
easily foregather to a region which
40 greatly surpasses what Goldsmith
ID his Traveller calls the pleasant land
OF France; land where the orange,
la mon and pomegranate make the days
an unending series of delights" There
is nothing strained in looking for
cA y reaching from the mountains to
tfns sea, and from realizing a dream
of which The Herald can rightly claim
to rave been prophet from away, away
back.
U! here is no reason why the believer
in ,the future of Los Angeles should
the Angelic City. General Winfield
Soon Hancock, who visited Los An
geIes shortly after he was defeated for
the residency In 1880, and who was
tenda red a cordial reception by the city
autfsa rites, in which / had the honor
OF bel ng president of the day, told me
that | n his opinion the Los Angeles
and 81 IN Gabriel valleys were destined
to be the most heavily populated re-
gionsA Of earth.
Agreed With Him
heA the game opinions myself and
was dA lighted to hear the distinguished
guest nut himself on record to that
purport. When General Hancock ex-
pressed opinions TO that effect Los An
geles hi I'd, in the preceding year. only
ten tho usand people by the United
States census of 1880. The United
States q ensus of 1890 showed the COM
Portable little figure of fifty thousand,
to be ca pped by the census Of 1900 by
a little n excess of one hundred thou
sand. 81 i'll doing the climbing act, the
last schi Dol census, corroborated by
other sta tistics, put the figure at two
hundred and twenty-five thousand,
which Isl undoubtedly under the mark
today.
We have made brave beginning on
General Hancock's prophecy. The
"ulany-h eaded multitude" are pouring
In here 10 the measure of the old war
song, "vye're Coming. Father Abra-
ham, 7 hree Hundred Thousand
Strong" With n provision that the
people VIII be here In countless num-
bers, what should be the physical limits
of the metropolis of the southwest?
New clty's Limits
Very properly a committee OF intelli-
,,,EI 1erDe erea1 OTN
that problem Without intending in
any manner to interfere with their
work it is safe to assume that the new
city should be laid out on broad and
generous lines Outside of the business
portions the new and splendid City Of
the Angels should be city Of homes.
II ought to- shock nobody If 1t were
TO embrace Pasadena and San Pedro.
It seems to be about time for the Gre
alton of two new counties, with county
seats at San Fernando and Pomona.
The people have long been working
for a, new county at the latter place
AS long as fifteen years ago The Herald
supported them in their efforts to OBJ
tain a county seat, but owing to Dung-
ling work in the Legislature they failed
to get the needed laws. Whatever the
lines adopted we are certain to nave
a big city under the new regime.
WOIIShlit . SNkItl6oS
The attitude of Brother Wolfskill
was very much like that OF the waiter
in the "Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table" who found three splendid
peaches left over after the guests had
quit the table, and who remarked to
his brother walters, as he appropriated
all of them to himself. there Is just
one apiece for me-" In the old days
there were wont to be awful fights
S, T An0a1ac and III
long before people could realize that
there was enough and to spare for all
who had any claim upon 1t as condi-
tions then existed.
The water question has always been
the overshadowing question, and 1t
has always abounded in litigation since
the organization of the water company.
awav back even before the corporation
was created in 1867. It will scarcely
he believed that William Wolfskill,
who owned, the orange grove ON Whlch
the Arcade depot now stands, at time
when the population of Los Angeles
was only four or five thousand, when
" new conner, starting the vine
yard business. put In petitlon
to the council for water, put in
a counter one, praying that the
applicant's petition should be denied
on the ground that there was only
enough water for his (WolfskilFs)
trees and VlneSJ anu yeI Liot ~ JuS'
what occurred.
1t is. not too much to say that, in
those fine old times, the men who con-
trolled the water company controlled |
the city. They were I. w. Hellman, !
Or. John 8. Griffin and Prudent Beau
dry, with a few others, coming and go
ing as 1t were. The seat of power lay !
in the Farmers and Merchants bank. |
Stephen M. Mott was potential figure
in the several combinations that con-
troIIed the waters of the Los Angeles
river. w. ]. Broderick was one of the
controllers that came in later. Still
later came In Charley Miles and Andy
Ryan. A most potent figure al all
stages was Solomon Lazard.
AS the charter of the water company
only ran for thirty years after the or
iginal incorporation, the owners of the
valuable franchise, toward the later
nneties, made UP their minds to sell
their almost invaluable property to the
city, and they succeeded in carrying
out their program. They correctly
realized that the water of the Los An
geles river should belong only to the
city, and they sold, after herCulean