Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-23
HOLDS LOS. ANGELES
WILL INCREASE BY
LEAPS AND BOUNDS
Guest at the Alexandria Emphasizes
Attractions Southern California
Possesses for Those of Means
and Leisure

A. NJ. McDermott, accompanied by
his wife, is a guest at the Alexandria
and had enough good things to say of
California in general and of Los Ange-
les in particular, in an interesting talk
with The Herald yesterday to entltle
him to life membership in any local
boosters club already in existence
or yet to be born.
Incidentally, MIR. McDermott is the
duplication of an old saw that
nothing succeeds like success" in that
he has enjoyed a remarkably rapid
rise through the various stages of COM
mercialism, from the lowest rung of
the ladder to q quite exalted place
near the top. Twenty years ago Mr..
McDermott was unit among thou
sands of units which go to make up the
telegraph world" in those days haV-
ing been local representative of the
Associated Press in Kansas City. To-
day Mr.. McDermott Is man of con-
siderable means, with interests pos
sessing many lucrative roots, and he
surveys his future through spectacles
| of golden rims and prlsmatic lenses.
| Speaking of California and of Los
| Angeles Mr.. McDermott became fairly
eloquent. II have been coming to Los
Angeles for the past fifteen years" he
| said, land recall when there were not
| more imam OUuUU pursuits ilFAhB hOto.
/ could never figure what there could
be to make great metropolis here.
realized that there were untold re-
sources in the various contiguous val
legs, that you had delightful, equa-
bit all-the-year-'roun climate, with
many attractive seashore possibilities,
but never could anticipate, any more
than anyone else could, what the years
would do for you,
All Obstacles Surmounted
1.-THE only thing 1 can say is that 1t
is your people who have done it all,
surrounding obstacles as they came to
them by going over or around them,
and sometimes straight through them.
And, too, you have pulled together and
are pulling together today.
1.-THE greatest instance Of this kind, l
believe, is what you have done recent
ly in settling the water question, once
and for all. One thing that everyone
demands, and every city with large
dreams must have, is an adequate
supply of absolutely pure water, and
this YOU have arranged for in the most
thorough and far-reaching manner.
but the thing that is making Los
Angeles great and will continue to-
make it great is the fact that it offers
an ideal rendezvous, winter or sum-
mer for the leisure classes of the
world. Ten years ago We had little of
a leisure class In America, but in these
years more fortunes have been made,
more men have passed into the mil
lionaire class and into the hundred
thousand and two hundred thousand
class than hitherto had done so from
the day Columbus discovered America
up to 1897. And today we find thou
sands of Americans who have time and
the means and disposition to play and
enjoy themselves. When they look
around for a playground they Will turn
as naturally to Los Angeles as the
schoolboy turns to the best vacant lot
for his baseball grounds.
81 have travelled very extensively in
the mast two or three years through
Europe, Asia and Africa, but am
frank when I say that nowhere have
found a climate which Is so nearly per-
feet the entire year around. And, haV-
ing satisfied myself on this one very
important point. now that I am ready
to Join the leisure class and play, L
purpose coming to California with my
wife and family and taking up my
residence somewhere in one OF your
valleys. I am we'll acquainted with
those to the north, along the coast and
the San Joaquin valley, to the north
of bakersfield. / shall not be hasty
about making a decision, but when I
do decide it will be to settle in Cali
fornia. ,.
Playground for World
'It is my earnest opinion that when
the rest of America comes to know
| California as ! do and learns to appre-
ciate II, by being able personally to
! compare it with the Fairgrounds of
| other portions of this country and the
Fairgrounds of the old country not
| only will they decide likewise but the
renItation of California and Los An
geles will spread to the old world as
Well and steady stream Of wealth
will set in which succeeding years will
only increase.
'aThen, too, the Panama canal will
| do for the Pacific coast, and for Cali
/ fornia especially, what the great ocean
steapship lines of the Atlantic have
| done for New York city, where great
hordes have piled themselves up, con-
tent to remain in New York and go no
further into the interior.
1.-THE Partisan dressmaker has dis
\ covered that New York is mart for
/ his particular trade, the sculptor, the
frescoer, the weaver of tapestries, in
/ fact every kind of expert craftsman
of the old world who has come across
the Atlantic to New York has piled
up in New York to degree far beyond