Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-03
100000 SUGAR PLANT STARTED
AT coRcoRAN
ELEVATOR DROPS WITH BAND OF
ExcuRsIoNIsTs
Trade Booming Party and San Joaquin
Residents Hear Stirring Speeches
by Leaders In the Enter
prise
NY HUGH K. HARTUNG

BAKERSFIELD, Sept. 2.-Wheh the
Los Angeles excursionists crowded into
an elevator in the Oil Exchange build
ing tonight the cage dropped from the
second floor to the basement. AT tne
same time the heavy supporting cable
crashed through the roof of the car.
None of the passengers were injured,
save for a few bruises, and they made
light of the ulishap.
2 The party under the leadership of
Frank s. Rice. a banker, was on it's
way to inspect the California CLUB
rooms. In the group were I. N. Inskeep,
Harry G.. Wright, L. e. Jones, John
Roster of Los Angeles and F. r. Davis
of Santa Paula, In addition to the opera
tor. Rice stepped back as he was about
to enter the car and escaped the expe-
rience.
The heavy lattice work protected the
passengers from the falling cable.
CoRCORAN, CAL, ST.. Elm the
presence of more than 200 Los Angeles
business men and thousands of Tuiare,
Kings and Kern county visitors, Mayor
Arthur @. Harper of Los Angeles today
laid the cornerstone for the $1,0O0,0OO re-
inforced concrete beet sugar factory
here.
The visitors from the south were up
early to note the ranches and fields.
nC tltlZeHS VI NlStltd, iSo NY thCli
board of trade, greeted the guests and ex-
tended hospltalities.
The train sped on to the existing
sugar factory on the outskirts of Visalia,
where the work of making sugar was
carefully Inspected
Then the twenty-five mile run to Cor
coran, the new town with future, was
made and here the formal Exercises were
conducted.
Mayor Harper Lays Stone
Mayor Harper, in a brief address, spoke
Of the significance of this development
Of new industry in California. which
holds out such great possibilities.
He said the lower San Joaquin valley,
magnificent empire as large as the
state of Illinois, had only been touched
by the hand of the ranchers and fruit
men and now with beet sugar to tempt
the ambitious cultivators, no one could
predict the possibilities.
President II. j. Whitley, head of the
Security Land and Loan company, who
with his associates bought and developed
twenty-five miles of land between Cor
coran, Angola and Waukena, welcomed
the visitors. He said
THE great strength of our company is
that we have many men of influence and
ability who are leaders and power with
in themselves.
ION behalf of the Pacific Sugar cor
poration and the Security Land and Loan
company, it affords me great pleasure to
welcome you here today.
1T is source of great qualification to
us to see so many of the prominent people
and the various boards of trade from all
sparts AZ thea valley. 1t shows that they
are witii--sszS.iir this enterprise This is
development of mutual interest to the
entire San Joaquin Valley. Without CO.
operation 1t is impossible to do things
UndeveIoped Two Years Ago
'It is now little over two years since
/ first came to this section of the valley.
At that time 1t was an endless prairie,
with only few scattered stock ranches
to relieve the dreary monotony, and my
object then was to buy and establish a
large stock ranch.
After carefully investigating the lands
and their possibilities and seeing what
had been done around the neighboring
towns. l made up my mind that with the
vast acreage, the fertility of the soil and
abundance of water, we could at all
events do as we'll as our neighbors, and
after carefully looking over their rich and
productive lands, their fine orchards and
extensive vineyards and their luxuriant
alfalfa fields, Il found they were second to
none.
1--WE concluded that in order to properly
develop this territory we must control
large acreage of land, and we decided to
purchase a strip of territory extending
for twenty-five miles along the line of
the Santa Fe and including the territory
around Corcoran, Waukena and Angola.
ITO. properly improve and settle new
territory takes a large amount of capital
energy and experience. AS most of the
surrounding towns were selling more or
less of their holdings, 1t was necessary
that this capital should come from Los
Angeles and outside places. We believed
at the same time that If we could de-
velop this section of the country, we
would at all events gain for Los Angeles
in return a fair share Of the trade which
had formerly gone to other cities.
$1,5oo,ooo Invested
There has been over million and
a half invested in the purchase and de-
ve1opment of these lands. Thousands of
dollars have been paid out to the sur
rounding towns. This development should
open new era. Hundreds of our friends
have been attracted by the efforts of the
Security Land and Loan, company and
are investing in various places through
out the San Joaquin valley.
During the last two years we have
gone through earthquakes and other
calamites, and here 1 wish to pay a
tribute to those who have so faithfully
stood by us.
''Any achievement of this nature
necessitates untiring energy on the part
of a few. and in order to accomplish
things they must have unbounded
courage.
After unceasing exertion we have at
last Succeeded in putting our company on
velvet and are now paying dividends,
and this. too, before we secured the estab-
lishment of the sugar factory here.
% Nearly two years ago we had in mind
that we had lands adapted to sugar beet
growing. and after testing them we con-
cluded to use our best efforts to locate
a No. 1 plant here. We considered several
outside companies, who were willing to
put in beet sugar factory, but after
careful investigation concluded that our
home people, headed by Nathan Cole, jr.,
and his aole associates. could build and
operate another first-class factory.
II visited the plant of which ours is to
be a duplicate, only larger and more up
to date, located at Lamar, Colo, built by
Mr.. Waite. consulting engineer, who is
also largely interested in the Corcoran
factory
Y