Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-06
TRUCE COMES
BY INJUNCTION
OCEAN PARK TRUSTEES VOTE
TO ACCEPT OFFER
BLOWS STRUCK OVER SEWAGE
TAN0LE
Santa Monica Secures Restraining
order--FiIthy Water Backs Over
Ocean Front and Floods
Building
sreciaI to The Herald.

Special to The Herald
OCEAN PARK, June 5.-After the
arrested sewage of Santa Monica had
backed up near the boundary line Of
the cities, flooding the floors of the
First National bank and of the Stamps
g. Stamps billiard hall on Ocean Front
with filthy water and malodorous
slime: when much of the beach was
polluted; after three men had been
fined in the recorders court for as
saults growing out of the bitter con-
troversy, while two members of the
Santa Monica city council narrowly
escaped coming to blows during an
emergency session of that body, an
injunction was secured restraining the
city of Ocean Park from interfering
with the flow of the sewage of Santa
Monica and the board of trustees of
this city at a hurry call meeting to-
night unanimously passed resolution
Offering to accept tentative offer of
settlement made by the mayor and
council of Santa Monica, at the same
time indorsing the single handed ac-
tion of President H. B. Eakins, who
alone plugged the Santa Monica sewer.
1t has been wild day for the bay
communities and every hour of it had
at least one exciting incident. Suits
for damages menace this municipality
on every hand and actions against
President Eakins personally are in
evitable if half the threats made
against him are carried out. The
president In an interview with the
correspondent of The Herald courag-
eously accepts the entire responsibility
for the sensational state Of affairs and
excuses himself for seeming discour-
tesy to his associates on the trustee
board by saying the provocation of
Santa Monica was such as to impel
quick and decisive action.
When his board met tonight Trustee
Griffith would not go the full length
of supporting him to the extent of as
suming by the city the liability for
prospective damage to private prop
erty due to the presidents personal
| action, and it was with this reservation
that he voted for the resolution look
ing to settlement. Trustee MacKinnon
thought Mr.. Eakins should have con-
suited his fellow trustees before plug
ging the sewer, but he declared his
| intention of standing loyalty by him
through thick and thin.
AT the emergency meeting of the
Santa Monica council a bitter personal
| dispute arose between Councilman r.
w. Armstrong, who wanted the sum of
$4,000 paid Ocean Park forthwith. as had
been agreed, and Councilman J. Euclid
Miles, who denounced the action of
Ocean Park and opposed the payment
| of its claim. A personal encounter was
| narrowly averted.
Fight Over Sewer
The first assault at the point where
violence had been done the Santa Mon
| lea sewage system occurred late last
night. T. A. Huff, Main street prop
erty owner, struck c. w. Scott in the
| face and came near knocking him into
the grave-like Aperture made there by
President Eakins' men.
Scott yelled "Policei" and a dozen
officers Of both cities, who had been
| trying to preserve order there, dashed
after Huff. who, in a few bounds, was
| on the Santa Monica side of the line.
He then defied the Ocean Park officers
| to take him without a warrant, and the
Santa Monica officers would not touch
him because the assault had been COM
mitted in Ocean Park.
| Subsequently Huff went voluntarily
| to police headquarters at Venice and
demanded immediate trial. Recorder
| T.ogers was called out of bed. Scott
sought to show that Huff had said he
| hoped Messrs. Fraser and Jones, pro-
prietors of the Horseshoe pier, would
soak" Ocean Park hard for damages.
AS Huff said afterward, 1t looked then
as If the Venice magistrate would
strike him for $26, but he was able
to show he had worked for the Abbot
Kinney company. He was fined So
Some hours later, when Henry Will
dey, a Pier avenue merchant, and Dr.
Oldham, a Los Angeles eye and ear
| specialist, were eating at lunch
counter close to the plugged sewer, a
remark was made about Abbot Kinney
which instantly precipitated violence.
Blow Is Averted
Mr.. Wildey seized long piece of
board and swung 1t over DR.. Oldham's
head. It struck the awning, and blood
shed was thus accidentally prevented.
| officer Ivy separated the men and
escorted them to Recorder Rogers court
| at Venice. They each paid fine of 50.
| Early this morning the sewage that
had been discharging on the strand in
| front of the band stand, between Pier
avenue and Marine street, was diverted
| into an old, corroded, disused pipe that
discharged 1t at the foot Of Pier avenue,
almost underneath the Casino A
stencil peryaded the atmosphere of the
whole neighborhood, driving people
away from nearby restaurants, and the
| sewage polluted the water until surf
bathing was entirely abandoned.
The big Ocean Park bath house was
closed all day, the first time In years,
because the intake pipe at the ocean
| front through which the sea water is
pumped to the heating apparatus and
thence to the bath house was in such
close proximity to the sewer discharge
| that there was danger OF making the
swimming tanks the depository OF
filthy sewage.
When the Santa Monica city council
met it voted to cancel the warrant for
$4,000 in favor of Ocean Park, that
being the amount of the debt of the
one city to the other for the use of its
septic tank The warrant had been
given President Eakins for collection,
and when he presented 1t he found pay
ment stopped because of the protest
against the legality of 1t made by
/ Justice Steele, as citizen. Mr.. Eak-
| ms said he thought himself justified in
| forcing payment in any way he could,
hence his action in plugging the sewer
without consulting his associates.
The council today made an offer to
pay Ocean Park $4,000 cash, leaving 1t
free to take action, without prejudice,
for the recovery of the remainder. This
ocean Park refused, and the Santa
Monica council then went before Judge
/ James in Los Angeles and secured a
/ temporary injunction good for q week,
at the end of which time the Ocean
/ Park trustees would appear before
Judge Bordwell and show cause why
the Injunction should not be made per-
manent.
| Sewer Restored
Armed with this, Street Superintend-
ent Johnson, with a gang of men,
came into Ocean Park and restored the