Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-10
THOUSANDS SIGN
PETITIONS FOR
CONSOLIDATION
COMMITTEE PREPARES FOR
CAMPAIGN AT MEETING
SAN PEDRO AND WILMINGTON
WILL COOPERATE
Chairman Stoddard Jess Urges Feas-
ibilty of Plan as Business Invest-
ment for City-5onds
Not Issue

MORE than 10000 signatures have
| N been secured to the consolida-
AL tion petitions by the seventy men
working under the direction of John
P. Steele, and the remaining number
will be obtained today. The petitions
will be withdrawn from circulation this
afternoon and turned over for verif1-
cation. Mr.. Steele estimates that they
will contain 1000 to 5000 more names
than are needed to call the election.
| The Los Angeles consolidation conf
mittee prepared for the campaign at
| a meeting yesterday afternoon at
which the following campaign commit
| tee was appointed: A. p. Fleming,
chairman; o. E. Parish, M. p. Snyder,
F. w. Braun, Frank j. Hart, ]. A. An
derson and William d. Stephens Stod-
dard Jess is ex-officio member of
the campaign committee as chairman OF
the consolidation committee.
1.-THE main work of the campaign
committee will be determined in CO.
operation with the San Pedro and Will
mington committees" said Mr.. Fleming
| last night. $50 far as the issue is
| concerned in Los Angeles we can go TO
| the voters with the report of the conf
mittee as platform. 1t has the unani-
nous approval and support of the city
council and of all the organizations
representing the shipping, mercantile
/
united approval of the press of the
city What stronger Endorsement can
| a voter ask? In Los Angeles l am
convinced that it will mainly be mat
ter of getting out the vote.
Not Question of Bonds
'This is decidedly not a question of
| voting bonds to raise taxes; the mat
ter of bonds, which comes after the
question of consolidation, is simply an
| investment at the most of $10,000,000
which will bring In an income that
| will lower taxes, not raise them. In
/ ten years time, at a very conservative
estimate, the harbor on which we may
spend ten millions easily will be con-
/ sidered worth more than thirty mil
lions. 1t will be yielding an income ac-
| cordingly.
In other words the city is presented
with an opportunity to make an invest
ment that will prove wonderfully
profitable. No business man given
the same kind of an opportunity
would neglect to TAX advantage of II.
Further than that the making of
harbor is an imperative outlet for the
trade we can build up here if we have
that outlet. What are you going to do
for instance, with the great power that
will be drawn from the aqueduct II
factories to utilize 1t have no outlet
for their products? The indirect bene-
| fits through building Of harbor will
amount into the hundred millions
| they can hardly be calculated and they
will be distributed among all the peo-
| pie.
"The campaign committees work in
Los Angeles will be mainly to impress
these facts on the voters and to en-
deavor to get out a vote worthy of the
project In addition it will render such
service as may seem advisable to the
committees of the harbor cities"
One Man Gets 1000 Names
The rapidity with which the sigma
lures to the election petitions was Sc
cured surprised even j. P. Steele, who
worked out the system by which the
entire city was canvassed yesterday
| from Garvanza to the Ninety-fourth
precinct. The cavassers averaged 100
names each. One man, Guy 5. Car
ner, secured more than 1000 sigma
lures Mr.. Garner volunteered for the
work and was given the block center
ing around Broadway, between Third
| and Fourth streets. He placed tables
at the city hall steps and also can
yassed the offices and stores nearby.
He has secured additional tables at the
city hall and says he will obtain All
other thousand names today.
The fact that more than the required
number of names will be secured today
makes certain the possibility or calling
the election in July, and the date to he
|
The city council of Los Angeles VIII
receive the petitions and instruct the
city attorney to prepare an ordinance
calling the election. City Attorney
Hewitt will have the ordinance pre-
pared before the council meets and
there will therefore be no delay follow
ing the presentation of the petitions.
Consolidation Only Issue
The elections to be called for con-
tor. - crlf-
dation with San Pedro and Wilmington.
Some of the men approached for sigma
tures ask concerning the plan for
bonds, but this is not involved In the
election asked for. If bonds are voted
under the suggestion made by the con-
solidation commission another election
will be called for that purpose, prob
ably within sixty days after the ac-
| tual consolidation of the three cities.
A feature of the consolidation COM
mittees report which has disarrned
large part of the opposition at San
Pedro is the provision for ordinances
by the consolidated city covering local
| conditions in the harbor section. This
particular problem gave the committees
more trouble than any other phase or
their work. The solution, which Is re-
garded on all sides as happy one.
was finally suggested by ex-Mayor
snyder. The main part of the report
is said to have been drafted by Secre-
tary Fleming, whose study of all
phases of the harbor question as at
torney and secretary of the harbor
commission peculiarly fitted him for
this work. Every statement in the re-
port, however, was most carefully gone
over by the fifteen men composing the
committee, and the report was not
adopted until every member was satis-
fed that it covered the ground corn
prehensively and thoroughly. Tho
concluding section was suggested and
drawn by Joseph Scott.
has been completed and in each event
Work Done in Two Months
The Los Angeles consolidation COM
mittee, on whom the brunt of shaping
up the movement has fallen, effected a
permanent organization April 2. and
hence it's work in this respect has all
been accomplished in two months. The
committee came into being practically
tCentinued Page Twel