Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-23
FREE HARBOR
is CHEERED
CHAMBER OF COMM ERcE GROWS
ENTHUSIASTIC
ALL SPEAKERS PLAINLY TELL
VIEWS
Nearly Five Hundred Gather Around
Table for Eighteenth Annual BAN
quet of Los Angeles Great
Organization
Continued from Page rour,

Continued from Page Tour)
of the principal harbors of the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts.
Nov the great lakes, the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts and the Pacific coast
form the three great harbor zones of
the United States, each with a COM
merce of its own, and each should be
measurably as important as the other.
The Pacific coast in volume of COM
merce is far behind the others now, but
will not be in the years to come. From
q naval standpoint it is strategically
as important as the Atlantic coast to-
day and will continue to be so. We
can then expect in the future to re-
ceive not only our share of future
money, based on actual commerce, but
enough more to equalize at least par
TALLY past expenditures in the three
great harbor zones.
Indeed, considering the entire
amount about 600000,000) appropriated
for river and harbor improvements in
the United States since improvements
were begun we find that notwithstand-
ing the three Pacific coast states have
about SO 1-3 per cent of the sea coast
of the United States and 10 per cent
of the land area they have received
only about per cent of all river and
harbor appropriations.
Must Have Free Harbor
But If we are to get these eleven
millions in the next thirty years we
must have free harbor, /. e., a harbor
in which every man can do business
upon the same terms with every other
man and where the charges, whether
wharfage dues, space rentals or freight
rates, are reasonable. And we cannot
have that condition until the control
of the harbor is taken away from the
little group of money kings in New
York who control 1t today.
cat present under our form of gov
eminent there appears no way of in
surfing a free harbor except through
municipal ownership of wharves with
at least 300 feet of space back of them
in which to do business, and beyond
highways leading away from them.
There should be a municipal railway
reaching out far enough to insure its
being accessible to every railway want
ing to do business at the port. Total
municipal ownership would be the
ideal, but we are not ready for that.
Twenty per cent of the frontage Is
enough to control rates, and the time
Is ripe for acquiring that much. This
frontage must be on the north and
west sides where access Is not cut OF
by great private holdings of land. No
time should be lost in acquiring this
frontage, and If It cannot be bought or
otherwise acquired reasonably, con-
denim 1T.
Municipal Ownership
'It is all well enough to say that the
city trustees have the right to fixe
wharfage rates, and that railroad conn
I missions fix freight rates. But let such
bodies start to fix the rates and they
are at once confronted by the legal ad-
yisors of the corporations with an ar
ray of figures to show that present
rates hardly pay expenses.
.And without municipal ownership
you can't get at the correct figures.
You are always at the mercy of exag-
geration and possible misrepresenta-
ton. But 20 per cent municipal own
ership will give correct figures to base
rates on. Los Angeles, with her tele-
phones, is just how having taste OF
what 1t means to try to fix rates when
the city must depend upon corporations
for figures.
"The little town of Wilmington, with
about 500 Inhabitants is preparing TO
bond itself in the sum Of 100000 for
dredging, for bulk heading and filling,
and for erecting wharves on the only
thirty acres of land not covered with
state tide land patents which Will be
left in the east basin if present harbor
plans are approved.
1.-THE work proposed by Wilmington
is OF very great lInpOItdiCc nv oiily ~
Los Angeles but to all Southern Cali
fornia, as it will develop some 5000 or
1000 feet of frontage with about thirty
acres of land back of 1t, all under the
municipal control of Wilmington. One
hundred thousand dollars will not make
anywhere near all the improvements
necessary, and it should be the bust
ness of this chamber of commerce to
aid the city OF Wilmington In every
possible way, not alone with advice,
sympathy and encouragement but with
hard cash. If you don't help them and
they should get into difficulties from
whatever cause this land and frontage,
of such great value to the city of Los
Angeles, is very apt to fall into the
willing hands of corporations.
1.-THE situation at Wilmington needs
your attention day and night, because
the town is small and it's assessable
property insignificant compared to that
of this city, while the power and IN
f1uence of those opposed to the work
are tremendous Every thousand dol