Year: 1875

Errors and Mistakes Corrected.


1t is an error on the part OF the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
to assume that the journal OF individ-
ual advocating the construction of an
other railroad thereby occupies a posi-
tion antagonistic to their interests. 1t
is also a mistake on the part of the
people Of Wilmington to place all in
the category of enemies who favor
and labor for the building of a railroad
which shall leave the water ut a point
other than Wilmington harbor. In
answer to the position of the South
ern Pacific Railroad Company nothing
need be urged beyond the fact ad-
duced from actual experience in the
East, which is that the greater the
number of railroads the greater the
amount of railroad business. Wecan-
not recollect an instance anywhere in
the United States where one railroad
has been killed or even it's business
seriously injured by the building of
another railroad. On the other hand
numerous instances might be cited to
prove that a competing railroad really
creates business both for itself and the
old road. The construction of the Los
Angeles and Independence Railroad
so far from being an injury to the
Southern Pacific Road and its valley
branches, will in truth greatly increase
its business. Railroads are the load
stone that draw people and business
to a locality, and the greater our rail
road development the more rapid oul
increase of population aud business


The railroad we are now building will


form but one section of the route to ant
from Panamint. The Southern Pa


cific supplies the remainder-by fal


the greater portion. The people o


Wilmington should remember tina


theirs is the only point between Sal


Francisco and San Diego at which i


is possible to construct a safe and re


liable harbor. When, as they ulti


mately will, the railroad compan,


extend their track to Point San Pedr
the harbOr proper-and the harbo


improvements now in progress arr
completed, Wilmington will be th'
only harbor on our coast in which yes
sells may anchor during the prevalence,
of kind of weather which does no


visit us often but which does occa
sionally call. With this harbor ant
the wharf that will be built at Poin
San Pedro, the L. A. & S. p. Railroad
Company will have facilities for the
transhipment of goods which nc
railroad touching the water at an
other point can hope to obtain. Nc
one overlooks the importance of San
Pedro harbor, because all know it to
be the only one we have or can have.
We suspect that this fact is well un-
derstood by the Los Angeles and
Pacific Railroad Company and had
much to do with the selection of the
Salt Works as the place at which
their road will leave the water. 1t
will not prove an expensive or diff
cult undertaking to run a branch
from this road down to San Pedro
harbor, where in weather so rough
that vessels could not lay at the wharf
they would run in and safely discharge
and receive their cargoes. While it is
almost certainty that the Los An
geles and Independence Railroad will
leave the water at Santa Monica, it is
well known that neither Senator JONES
nor any one of his associates believes or
expects that steamers will be able to
lay at their wharf every day in the
year. Sometimes the weather will be
rough and then San Pedro harbor is
the only refuge and her wharf the
only place at which the goods may be
landed. Our other landings will be
plea SAINT places in pleasant weather,
but when the winds are lOosed and
the billows roll our refuge is in our
harbor-San Pedro.