Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-13
ELECTION TO Be
CALLED THIS WEEK
NEARLY 5000 SIGN FOR CON-
S0LIDATI0N y
San Pedro Petitions Show More Than
Three Times the Number Of Sig
natures Necessary, and An
nexation Is Assured

Not later than next Thursday the
Los Angeles city council will issue a
call for a special election to decide the
question of consolidation between Los
Angeles and San Pedro
Petitions bearing the signatures of
about 5000 voters will be in the hands
of the city clerk tomorrow, but the
names cannot be compared in time for
presentation to the council Monday
morning
1t is the intention of city Attorney
Hewitt to request the council to take
a recess and thus avoid making a de-
lay of an entire week before the coun-
Gil can act upon the petitions. 1t Is
probable that the petitions will come
before the council Wednesday or
Thursday at the latest.
The cause of the delay in getting the
petitions before the council is the de-
sire on the part of the consolidation
commission to obtain such number
of signatures above the legal require
ment that there can be no question
that the lists will contain the legal
number of registered voters.
Up to last night the canvassers had
returned about 1900 names, while the
legal requirement is only $500, but the
commission intends to secure about 500
additional signatures, making the total
approximately 5000.
President Butler said last night that
the commission desired to use every
precaution against the possibility of
any action that might cast doubt
upon the legality of the proceedings,
and that with 5000 signatures there
would be no question that $500 of them
would be those of registered voters
Is Preparing Ordinance
City Attorney Hewitt is having pre-
pared the ordinance covering the pro-
posed election and this will be pre-
sented to the council when the certi-
fled petitions are laid before that body.
San Pedro's list of petitions asking
the city council of Los Angeles to call
the special consolidation election was
brought up yesterday by l.. Hanson,
the leader of the consolidation move
ment in the harbor city, and it was
placed in the hands of City Clerk Le-
lande.
This list will be presented to the
council at the same time the lists of
Los Angeles signatures go to that
body. The San Pedro list contains
about 400 names, or over three times
the required number. AT the charter
election last Monday there were cast
424 votes against the charter and 81
for it, or a total of 511.
Mr. Hanson expressed the belief that
when the question of consolidation
comes to a vote it will carry in San
Pedro with not more than fifty votes
against it. He said that he could
easily have obtained many more sig
natures to the petitions. but that they
were not necessary. Practically all o.
the merchants of San Pedro are II
favor of consolidation, Mr.. Hanson
said but they deemed it inadvisablt
for them, for business reasons, to at
tach their signatures to the petitions
but they said they would sign If theii
names were necessary.
A fact showing the radical change
in the sentiment in favor of consolida-
ton in San Pedro is that one of the
newspapers which has strongly OPP
posed the consolidation plan has an
nounced that henceforth it will advo-
cate consolidation.