Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-16
LOS ANGELES ENTERPRISE

in absorbing the seaport cities o
II san Pedro and Wilmington ant
making plans for the construction OF
great free harbor is appreciated D!
sister cities on the coast is made eVl
lent in the following editorial article
published in the San Francisco enron
Gle Saturday:
Los Angeles, by absorbing San
Pedro and Wilmington, has become
q seaport, and while as yet 1t has
no harbor adequate to the needs OF
an important commercial ana IN
dustrial center, when 1t has eX-
pended the $10,000,000 which the peo-
pie of the consolidated city are sure
to vote, it will have harbor whleh
for all industrial and commercial
purposes will be as good as that or
San Francisco.
What effect this will have on real
estate values in old Los Angeles
remains to be seen. If the city
spends the necessary millions TO
create these facilities at the beach,
the commercial and financial center
may gradually shift to the district
of creates commercial and indus
trial activity. That, however, is
nothing to us. 1t is necessary for
the people of this city to under
stand that both to the north and
the south of us there are growing
up seaports which can do all the
important business that can De
done on the western coast of Amer
lea. San Francisco has ceased to
be necessary to anybody put her
own people. The undetermined
question is whether our own people
have the sense to stop fighting each
other, the enterprise to reach out
for a share of the worlds COM
merce and the wisdom to vigorous
ly pull together in order to get 1t.
The Chronicle heartily rejoices in
the enterprise of Los Angeles and
Seattle and the success which is
croWning their efforts. There cam
not be too many great cities on the
Pacific coast for the good of all of
us. 1t especially admires the as
tonishing vigor of the people OF Los
Angeles, who are an honor TO Cali
fornia, as they would be an honor
to any state or any nation. Fol
lowing the example of the vigorous
German cities which have created
great harbors where nature had not
placed them, the people of Los An
geles have determined to make
great harbor out of a great swamp.
and they will get the United States
to protect it by adequate break
waters. These things will be done
and the facilities thus provided will
be utilized.
To do such things requires not
only foresight and energy, but cap
ital and much of it. There is in
the United States abundance OF
capital to improve all the natural
resources of the country, and we in
san Francisco must recognize that,
with all the natural advantages OF
this port and all the capital which
has been drawn here and accumu-
lated here in past years, not only
does capital go to Los Angeles
rather than mere, but our own peo-
pie who have money are looking
with longing eyes to other fields
than this for investment.
They are tired of San Francisco;
tired of its hatreds; tired of the
impotence of its mercantile commu-
nifty, which lost the great trade of
Alaska to Seattle without a strug-
gle, and for which we prophesy Los
Angeles will most vigorously COM
pete: tired of the degradation of
our politics and of the people who
permit it; tired Of the contemplate
pettiness of those who have accu-
snarling of the city press; tired of
the domination of the mob spirit;
tired of the cowardice Of those who
fear it; tired of the success of those
who pander to it; tired of life in q
city which is in unceasing war with
all its public service corporations;
tired of the perennial graft and of
it's impotent prosecution; tired of a
people whose first thought is to
knock the head which rises above
the crowd: tired of the lack of lead
ership tired of the division of eff
fort; tired of a community which
commits it's great affairs to its
small men; tired of the wrangling,
lying and backbiting which never
ceases; tired of all that imparts to
San Francisco that which is char
acteristic of its civic life.
And if that is the way which null
titudes of decent citizens think of
their own city, it is no wonder that
capital and enterprise go to Los
Angeles rather than here. 1t is a
fact, and the sooner we realize 1t
the better, that the reason why
other cities grow faster than we is
that many enterprising men are re-
fusing to put their money where
the people of this city can get at it.
We still have what nature gave
us. 1t Is still in our power to be
the greatest city on the shores of
the Pacific. But IL we are to
achieve such eminence, or even to
retain the lead which we still pos
sess. we must once for all abandon
our personal quarrels with each
other and pull together for the well
fare of the whole city.