Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-23

lars spent now in aiding Wilmington
will save you $4,000 in actual cost of
improvements in the future, besides
tens of thousands of dollars that may
be saved you through a proper regu-
lation of rates.
Harbor Greatest Question
IT realize that this chamber Of COM
merce has many questions of great
importance to deal with-the enter
tainment of tourists, visiting delega-
tions and conventions and the United
States battleship fleet, all of which are
valuable assets, besides aiding and en-
couraging the whole range of agricul-
tural, manufacturing, real estate and
other businesses, but today the one
thing most necessary to your future
growth and prosperity-save only the
Owens river water-is the great harbor
at San Pedro. and at times l fear
some of you have not awakened to the
necessity of speedy, concerted and en-
ergetic action for the proper regulation
of the harbor.
with municipal frontage on San
Pedro harbor Los Angeles will not
need a municipal railway or even a
competing. railway to lower present
freight rates, providing the Los An
geles highway commission builds
first class paved road to the harbor.
BY means of traction engines hauling
many wagons, by automobile trucks
and by trackless trolley trucks or cars
one handling from freight cars to
trucks can be avoided and present
freight rates lowered; or the highway
mill 10 n mighty hlIGfnaSc Ira CklnSq
trolleys are cars or wagons on broad
tires, running with power. from over
head wires. The troleys are long and
flexible and the cars can wander well
over the streets without pulling the
trolley off the wire. Moreover, some of
these wagons carry storage batteries
which permit travelling considerable
distances from trolley line. Such
cars are actually used in Germany,
France and italy today.
Terminal Rates
"Then there are gasoline and COM
bined gasoline-electric cars being de-
veloped in the United States today.
To diverge a little. I have recently
been assured that many members of
the Los Angeles chamber of commerce
are opposed to terminal rates for the
harbor cities-San Pedro, Wilmington
an attitude is hard to understand.
You can no more shift the business
center away from Los Angeles today or
in the future than you can drive the
business center of New York off Man
haitian island. There is no Los An
geles business which will be injured
by terminal rates for San Pedro.
There will be warehouses built there
at an early date, no doubt, but you
H. Ill H.
you are doing at Los Angeles and
more, too, and in addition you will
all have branch businesses at San
Pedro. You cannot expect a big har-
Dor without a big business, and you
cannot build up big business without
terminal rates. The idea that ter
minal rates for San Pedro will injure
any business in Los Angeles seems as
absurd to me as the proposition that
terminal rates at Ninth street and
Santa Fe avenue will hurt business at
First and Broadway.
But coming back to the subject of
a free hartor, after all is said and
done, harbors, s.s indeed all other
American institutions, must be con-
trolled through politics. Our govern
ment is the best in the world, but we
still have many faults to correct and
many inconsistencies to straighten out
In regard to San Pedro one of the
most glazing Inconsistencies arises
from the fact that the city of San
Pedro, with 1900, more or less, voters
has to date almost completely con-
trolled politically harbor built by the
United States at a cost of $4,000 900.
The remaining $4,000, more or less
voters, south Of the Tehachapi, and
north of Escondido, hav- had nothing
to say in its control, although they do
95 per cent or more of the business.
Control o. Beach
"True, Long Beach, with some 5000
voters, has had de facto control of the
east side of the habor, and Whining
ton, with about 1875 voters, controls
nearly one-half of the frontage on the
inner harbor above the turning basin,
but these last two cannot, until fur
Their work is done, have any real con-
troll over the situation, because the
Long Beach portion is absolutely shut
in by property owned by the Salt Lake
Railroad company, and Wilmington
frontage has only a prospective value.
but even If the control of Whining
ton and Long Beach were equal to that
of San Pedro the condition would still
be wrong. Why? Because 1t is ruled
by small minority, which is contrary
to our form of government, and unless
the lessons of history are all wrong
it is situation fraught with grave
dangers. Not that San Pedro citizen
ship is not fully equal to any other
but the principle of minority rule is
wrong.
"This, then, is one OF the problems
before you, and you must solve it
through politics and you must begin
at the bottom. However discouraging
the outlook may seem, you can start
with the encouraging thought that
every man who opposes majority rule
is against American ideals and an en-
envy of republican government.
ST am not a politician. Oh, know
most of you think / am going to add
that / am proud of it, but am not
most emphatically not. Indeed. I am
sorry I must admit the fact, and If 1t
were not that I represent the United
States in an executive, and, at times,
in almost a judicial capacity, 1 would
Lodi