Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-27
SANTA MONICA
sic Oregon ave. Home phone 1874
Ocean Park and Venice
144 Pier ave.
Home phone 40i5: sunset 25st.
MAY CHARGE LOCAL
EXPRESSMEN LICENSE
BEACH TRUSTEES CONSIDER
NEW ORDINANCE
Law Retaliations on Los Angeles Pro-
posed by Official, Who Claims
Drivers of Ocean Park Are
Not Fairly Dealt With
Special 20 The Herald.

Special 20 The Herald.
OCEAN PARK, May 26.-Housekeep-
ers intending to move to or from the
beach, local expressmen and the ex-
pressmen of Los Angeles, are all inter-
ested in a proposition now before the
city trustees regarding expressmen's
licenses.
Trustee Foster wants measure
passed that will be retaliatory upon Los
Angeles, so the expressmen of that city
will be prevented from bringing house,
hold or other goods into the beach ter
ritory for delivery unless they have
taken out an Ocean Park license, and 1t
is proposed to make this as high as the
Los Angeles tax, which is $12 year.
An Ocean Park expressman who went
into Los Angeles with a load of fur
niture for family moving back into
the city was caught and taken before
the Los Angeles police court because he
did not have a Los Angeles license. One
local expressman, +. r. Watson, has
found 1T necessary to take out three
licenses for one wagon. One is the local
license, another is to protect him in
Santa Monica, and the third Is the Los
Angeles license. The three make a tax
upon his wagon of $22 year for doing
business between the three commune
ties.
The local expressmen are sore at the
treatment they receive in Los Angeles,
but they are not agreed that the best
way to get back at Los Angeles is by
levying a tax upon Los Angeles ex-
pressmen attempting to bring goods in
here; rather, some of them think. the
city attorney of Ocean Park should be
instructed to test the constitutionality
of the Los Angeles ordinance.
Plan Fight on Ordinance
Milton Carlson. representing the sew
eral expressmen, thinks this is the
proper thing, and City Attorney Ray
mond 1. Blakeslee is confident that the
attempt of Los Angeles to tax an ex-
pressman for simply taking load of
goods into the city from some point
outside it is analogous to the illegal
attempt of a state to tax interstate
commerce passing through that state.
Apart from all this, it Is found that
the alleged unreasonable restrictions
upon the local express bushes Is hav-
ing a detrimental effect upon the BUSH
ness of the Santa Monia bay communi-
ties. The more difficult 1t Is for people
In the city to get their household goods
moved here the less they are inclined
to come. Expressman Watson says he
has found cases where prospective Gus
toners have elected to go to some other
place for the summer because they
found expressmen unprepared to attend
to them on account of the license re-
strictions.
Another point raised is that the more
the expressmen are taxed the better 1t
makes it for the street railway. which
Is virtually given monopoly OF the
business. At the first blush the Ocean
Park trustees were inclined to tax, in
retaliation, the Los Angeles expressmen
who undertake to move household eff
fects into the place; but now they are
disposed to test the Los Angeles law,
and this is the step most likely to be
taken when the trustees meet again.