Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-20
THE TIDELAND SUITS


this county yesterday of the ac-
tions brought in the name of the
attorney general to recover for the use
of the people the tidelands surround
ing San Pedro harbor is the most i'm
portant single step that has ever been
taken in the development of that har-
Dor.
These tidelands aggregate about 1900
acres in extent, and by virtue of their
able the public when they are recov-
cred to control the larger portion Of
the inner harbor as its lines were
finally fixed a few months ago.
Probably no one who has not given
close attention to this matter appreci-
ates the enormous present and poten-
tial value of the property involved in
this litigation. 1t is not too much to
say that within the next five years,
and by the time the Panama canal is
completed, this land will be worth
$4,000 an acre. In fact, its value to
the people cannot be represented in
dollars and cents, for the reason that
without the control Of this land the
public for whose benefit the harbor is
made could not hope to control the
harbor. and the harbor would be
nothing more nor less than an improve
ment made at the expense of the pub
lie for the benefit of private corpora
tions.
At the market price of $4,000 an
acre, however. which the land will
within the next few years be worth
simply as real. estate, a simple calou-
lation discloses that the amount in
volved in this action is about $1S,000,000.
One action is brought to recover from
the Southern Pacific company S4OO feet
of wharf frontage which it now holds
and occupies Immediately in front of
the city OF San Pedro. This frontage
is worth today at least $1,000 per lineal
foot, and the successful prosecution Of
this one action will be the means OF
turning over to the city of San Pedro
property worth over $3,000,000.
All of these lands aggregating the
the successful issue of these actions,
be turned over to the cities of Whining
ton and San Pedro. That these actions
are being brought and maintained at
the expense of the city of Los Angeles,
and any good that may result from
them will be delivered without cost to
the cities of Wilmington and San Pc
dro, should forever set at rest all talk
as to the selfish designs of Los Angeles
upon these cities.
1t is a fact known to every one who
has given the matter any study that
without the Intervention of the city of
Los Angeles and the influence which
its large population has enabled it to
throw into the scale, there would today
be no government harbor worthy of the
name at San Pedro, but whatever ex-
penditure the government might have
made for a harbor would have been
applied for the benefit of the Southern
Pacific company at Santa Monica.
Now comes the city of Los Angeles,
and in it's devotion to the common good
assumes the burden of a contest with
parties wrongfully holding 1900 acres
of the peoples lands, which will when
recovered be an invaluable possession
of other cities.
Surely the corporation claqueurs who
have endeavored to impugn the meth
ods of Los Angeles and its officials in
connection with San Pedro harbor
should, after this exhibition of unself-
ish devotion to public welfare on the
part of Los Angeles and its citizens,
for very shame cease their endeaVors
to prejudice the cause of a free harbor
at San Pedro by unjust aspersions upon
those citizens of Los Angeles who are
engaged in laboring for that great
cause.
The people of Los Angeles and their
harbor commission are to be congrat-
ulated upon the bringing of these ac-
tions, and the fact that Attorney Cen
eral Webb has shown himself } willing
to meet the desires of the people of
Los Angeles and cooperate with them
in this great work may be entere : as a
big item to his credit in his account
with the people of California.
Disinterested persons who have
studied the questions of law involved
in the actions which have just been
brought to recover the tidelands for
the people have no doubt that these
actions, If earnestly prosecuted, will
result in returning to the people every
acre of land surrounding San Pedro
harbor now claimed by private parties
under tideland titles, so called.