Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-17
WHAT SAN FRANCISCO
THINKS OF HERSELF
From the San Francisco Chronicle

From the San Francisco Chronicle
The street car strike has had the
effect of bringing home to great many
people a realizing sense of conditions
in this city which they never had be-
fore, but which have long been under
stood by all whose experience has given
them a wide outlook upon affairs.
San Francisco must at once return to
normal conditions of business, invest
ment and employment, or cease to exist
as an important commercial center. If
business cannot be carried on in San
Francisco as cheaply as elsewhere we
shall not get the business to do. If we
do not get the business there Will be
no use for our workshops and business
blocks and there will be no work for
the men now employed in our industries
or In the construction of buildings.
Great hotels may flourish by the patron
age of tourists who flock here to view
the site of a once prosperous city ruined
by the vices of its inhabitants, as they
now flock to view the ruins of Nineveh
and Babylon or to gaze over the waters
of the Salt sea which covers the sites
of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The loss of an unknown sum ranging
from 5000 900, 900 upward has destroyed
the financial independence of this city.
We cannot, with our own money, either
restore our buildings or maintain our
industries. We cannot get money from
elsewhere except on conditions: First
and foremost there must be evidence
satisfactory not only to ourselves, but
to the world, that law and not mobs
holds sway in this city; that its public
officials are not only honest but COM
petent and vigorous men of affairs;
that any man may work who chooses
to work at any honest employment un-
less he can be dissuaded by arguments
addressed solely to his reason and not
to his fears that there is public SEN
timent which will drive from our midst
such dastardly thugs as those who the
other day, when employed on steel
frame building, stole their employers
bolts. heated them redhot and hurled
them down on passing street car. 1t
will not be sufficient to attract capital
that life and property can be protected
on our streets by an army, or even by
our local police. Their safety must be
assured by a solid public sentiment.
It may as we'll be understood that we
are facing a grave crisis. The build
ers of flats and dwellings are out OF
business, for they can borrow no more
money. Dozens of the men who have
drawn plans and secured permits Tor
erecting business blocks are rejecting
all bids of contractors and preparing to
stop work when excavation IS com
pleted, because it would be impossible
for the buildings to earn interest on
their cost. The contractors say that
their bids are outrageous, but that with
present prices of labor and material and
the utter uncertainty as to what more
may be extorted they dare not make
them lower. And as matters stand the
work will stop.
That is not to anybody's interest, but
if the rebuilding of the city is to go
on material must be cheaper; wages
must be lower; strikes must stop short;
agitators must find no listeners; there
must be order on the streets; peace
must reign.
And whenever such conditions exist
we shall go forward again.