Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-18
WHY WE ARE sHAMED

X county of Los Angeles feels
~ proud Of being a citizen of
county which in many ways leads all
other counties of this state and of the
west. Il is a source of justifiable pride
to be a citizen of a county which in
the Judgment of our state board of
equalization is not only the richest
county in the state, but the richest
county in the west.
It is a source of pride to be q citizen
of a county containing within its bor-
ders a city which has broken all rec
ords of municipal growth heretofore
made in the United States, and which
will soon be the metropolis of the Pa
cifc coast.
It is a source of pride to be a citizen
of county having within its borders
such beautiful and progressive cities
as Pasadena, Long Beach, Redondo,
Ocean Park, Santa Monica, Glendale
and others that we could name.
But there is just one thing which
citizen of the imperial county of
Los Angeles not only has no right to
be proud of, but which should and
does bring a blush of shame to his
cheek whenever he thinks of it, and
that is the fact that every user of
the public highways of Southern Cali
fornia can tell when he crosses the
boundary line separating Los Angeles
county from anv adjoining county.
by the inferior character of the high
ways in the county, which is the
richest in the state, and probably pays
more for highway maintenance than all
other counties of Southern California
together.
1t is a notorious and frequently re-
marked fact among the users of auto
mobiles that the farther you get from
the city Of Los Angeles the better the
highways become, and that the mo-
ment you cross the line separating
Los Angeles county from any adjoin-
ing county you find better highway
system than any that Los Angeles
county can boast. just why this is
30 is easily recognized by anyone who
has given attention to the wretohed
failure which the majority of our board
Of supervisors. elected by a disreputa-
BILE political machine, has made in the
handling of a splendid fund voted
nearly two years ago by the citizens
Of Los Angeles county to construct
| hrst-class system of highways. Not
only have the unbusinesslike methods
of the machine politicians composing
the majority of our board Of super
visors, utterly failed to get any results
from the royal provision that our citi-
zens have made for perfect highway
system, but they have from a lack of
business methods as applied to high
way management in the past, failed to
secure anything like a single decent
highway in the county of Los Angeles.
San Diego county some time ago
voted an issue OF twelve hundred thou
sand dollars in bonds, and from the
proceeds of these bonds the county
proposed to obtain 400 miles of first
class highways. And the best part of
it to the citizens of San Diego county
is that these highways are being OBJ
tained very rapidly. Anyone who has
Travelled that portion Of the road be-
tween San Diego and Los Angeles
extending from Escondido to Corona
has had the opportunity of using a
splendid public highway running for
a considerable portion of its length
through a mountainous country where
the houses do not average one for
every mile of the distance. The same
person may go through any portion Of
Los Angeles county SO thickly settled
that the country appears almost like
a village, and will never find one foot
of decent highway over which to
drive his machine.
The Good Government forces have
entitled themselves to the everlasting
gratitude Of the people of the city Of
Los Angeles by turning out Of the
government of this city lot of ma
chine politicians, and replacing them
with honest, able business men who
are making in the government of the
city the same sort of business success
that they have heretofore made of their
own private affairs. The Good Gov
ernment organization, if it shall sue
ceed at the county election in turning
out of Office the Honorable Tus FL
bridge, who is the chosen representa-
tive of the machine in the inefficient
government that it has given this
county. and in replacing him with
good citizen of character and ability
who will give to our county a business
administration, will have performed a
service for the citizens of Los Ange-
les county as great as it has per
formed in the past for the citizens of
Los Angeles.