USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume I > Part 44
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That permanent exhibit was amplified until it became the largest of its kind in the country. It now covers the second floor of the Chamber of Commerce Building at 128-130 South Broadway. The offices of the chamber require the entire third floor.
Mr. Wiggins, in addition to being made secretary in 1897, continued to act as superintendent of exhibit. He has been in charge of a compre- hensive Southern California display at every World Exposition for the past quarter of a century. He was father of the idea of a traveling exhibit and the "California on Wheels" train that toured the country was the first display of its kind and the forerunner of many similar ones, the government taking up the idea later and continuing it since.
In point of term of service, Mr. Wiggins outranks all commercial secretaries in the country. He is widely known among Exposition men and is recognized as an authority on exhibits. His career is more remark- able from the fact that he was sent to Southern California in the late '80€
Vol. I-12
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
as a last resort by his physicians. He was too weak to get about alone and his attending physician, after he arrived here, gave him but a few weeks to live. However, with his faithful wife as nurse, he began to recover, and with the recovery came understanding of the possibilities of the salubrious climate of this section. There probably is no more striking individual example of the possibilities of Southern California from the standpoint of health and human development than Mr. Wiggins. In his seventy-first year and in the thirty-first year of service with the chamber, he is as active at the time this book was written as he was a quarter of a century ago.
Industries in the early days of chamber history were of slow and difficult growth. Thirty years ago the chief products of this section were agricultural and horticultural. What at that time was considered an impassable barrier to the development of the city industrially was the lack of fuel. Coal was the chief source of heat and power, and as this had to be brought from considerable distance, manufacturing lagged.
When the chamber was organized thirty-two years ago, a large part of the returns from agriculture and tourists went to pay for manufactured products brought in from the East. It was not for several years that a clearly defined idea of what was needed in manufactured articles for home consumption and in what quantity, was reached. Business men from the beginning were actively advocating the manufacture of beet sugar, the canning of vegetables and fruits, the making of jellies, marmalades, etc., for exportation. Oil was not to be had in commercial quantities for manu- facturing, and coal was worth five times what it cost in the East.
In the ten years prior to 1895, manufacturing enterprises were restless and many plants changed their location. They changed to get nearer the center of distribution, to find cheaper fuel or more advantageous locations in respect to raw materials. This led to a sort of contest between cities wanting industries, and many municipalities were offering bonuses in the shape of land, fuel, subscriptions to stock, and in some cases, actual cash. This apparent necessity of assuming financial obligations to bring new enterprises further complicated the problem of Los Angeles in its indus- trial development plans.
Los Angeles steadfastly refused to encourage enterprises that had to be brought here by means of bonuses. The business men did not want to bring enterprises that were liable to fail in competition with others.
Although conditions were not favorable to the establishment of new industries in the early '90s, quite a number were established which since have developed into the larger enterprises of the city. Sugar factories were encouraged and established.
The manufacturing situation was radically changed by the discovery of oil in the '90s. The first considerable output was about 1894, but the. new discovery was like many others-greeted with incredulity and with con- siderable active opposition. Wells were put down in residence districts and apprehension was felt that the oil industry would destroy Los Angeles as a residence city. Crude oil came into use for fuel and at a considerably cheaper figure than coal.
The introduction of electric power in 1892 gave further stimulus to manufacturing. The first system of long distance transmission of elec- tricity ever attempted was put into operation at Pomona and Ontario by
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the San Antonio Light and Power Company. The succeeding year the Redlands Company constructed its system in the headwaters of the Santa Ana River. These were followed by the Southern California Power Com- pany and the Edison Company, both in Los Angeles County.
With the completion of the aqueduct power plant, the city was able to supply cheap water and power to manufacturing concerns. It is conceded that the present cheap water and cheap power together with the climatic advantages, combined with adequate transportation facilities and desirable living conditions for employes, are conducive to enormous industrial devel- opment in the future.
The canning industry developed, and other smaller industries. But in the government census of 1914, Los Angeles was shown as ranking twenty- sixth in manufactured products while ranked tenth in population.
Government preparations for war really brought the first crystallization of the manufacturing situation in Southern California. The Chamber of Commerce had established an industrial bureau some four years before this period, and systematized active campaigning was done to bring in industries and to encourage those already here. When the Government in 1917 felt the stern pressure of war, it made a survey of every district, through its Resources and Conversion Branch of the War Industries Board. Although the data gathered by the volunteer workers for the Government was confidential, the survey indicated clearly to the business men Southern California's possibilities industrially.
Concrete examples of industrial development of the past few years may be had in the establishment of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding Com- pany's plant. It has launched more than a score of steel ships for the Government. Three years ago the ground on which this plant stands was under water. It is reclaimed tideland owned by the City of Los Angeles, and returns a revenue into the treasury.
The decision of the Goodyear Tire Company to locate their western plant in Los Angeles was actuated by the cheap, unlimited water and power available. It served to emphasize not only that capital recognizes the advantages of Los Angeles as a manufacturing center, but appreciates also that it is strategically located for a world distributing point.
Most of the larger industries of the city today are of quite recent devel- opment. Shipbuilding is but a few years old ; the manufacture of women's and men's garments, in which Los Angeles now excels, also is a recent development ; the canning of fish, which is now a large industry, began on a small scale only a few years ago; and the motion picture industry, which has brought Los Angeles the sobriquet of "motion picture capital of the world," has had its greatest development within the last decade.
The war also brought out the fact that contiguous territory was richer in raw products than had been realized and that the desert country yielded borax, sand for glass, and chemical ores in vast quantities which offer inducements to manufacturers in many lines. Within a few years also have developed by-products of oil, citrus fruit and vegetables. Right now is developing the science of dehydration. It has passed the experi- mental stage and is entering the commercial stage. Southern California naturally will be headquarters for this development, as vast quantities of
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vegetables and fruits are available at all times and large losses will be pre- vented by dehydration plants.
Abstraction of iron from ore without the use of coal is said to be effected commercially, which means that the great iron deposits in River- side County will be available for industries in Los Angeles.
The genesis of the Chamber of Commerce furnishes an interesting story.
It was back in the late summer of 1888 that a few leading business men began to see that the city needed an organization that would represent every ambition of the city. They discussed the plan among themselves, finally agreeing that two things must be avoided-that the organization must not get into politics nor exploit individual enterprises.
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MAIN AND TEMPLE STREETS, OPPOSITE PRESENT POSTOFFICE SITE
The first of several preliminary meetings to organize was held in a building at the corner of Broadway and First Street, which since has been removed to make room for a business block. In the history of the organi- zation it is specifically stated that no one man may take the credit for con- summation of the plan, although Maj. E. W. Jones, the first president, is named with S. B. Lewis and W. E. Hughes. Incidentally, the first presi- dent is still an active member and is among the most faithful of the old guard who for nearly a generation have "gone to the bat" for every sound community proposition that has developed.
Some of the suggestions at the first meetings may well bring a smile today. When the lack of fuel for manufacturing was mentioned, it was suggested that oil might be found in Los Angeles County, which then took in a large part of Southern California. It was also suggested that the people should be taught the fertility of the soil in order that vegetables, butter, cheese and eggs might be produced at home instead of being brought in carloads from the East.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
It was the late Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, who made the motion that brought the chamber into formal existence with an initial membership of twenty-five. He remained a staunch sup- porter throughout his busy life, giving generous support through the columns of his paper. The first officers elected were:
E. W. Jones, president ; W. H. Workman, first vice president ; John L. Redick, treasurer ; Thomas A. Lewis, secretary.
It is interesting to note that in the month after formal organization the chamber started the movement that resulted in the fine harbor Los Angeles claims today. One of the first acts was to invite Senators Hearst and Stan- ford of California to the city to investigate the possibilities of a deep water port for the budding Southern California metropolis.
Although the early days of the chamber were not without difficulties and discouragements, after thirty years the organization may point proudly to its record of achievement. The first community advertising was started within two months after the organization of the chamber, when 10,000 pamphlets descriptive of this section were printed for distribution. These proved so popular that within a few years more than a million pamphlets of various varieties were sent to all interested in all parts of the country. This beginning in community advertising was followed by more preten- tious efforts including the first exhibition train ever sent over the country, exhibits at all world's fairs and other avenues of exploitation, all directly resulting in bringing the population of 50,000 when the chamber was organized to more than 600,000 today.
Incidentally, the sort of population brought are the people who pay more per capita for education than any city in the country, stand high in thrift, lead in percentage of home owners and are in the front rank of con- structive activity in all lines.
Practically every municipal institution that our residents today point to with pride was initiated, fostered and brought to a successful conclusion by the chamber. This applies to the $10,000,000 harbor, the $23,000,000 aqueduct, the $5,000,000 good roads system, in addition to the state work of this section, the stabilization of the citrus industry, the tourist business, the industrial development, the agricultural expansion and the march of municipal progress generally.
A city of superlatives has resulted from the loyal co-operation of its citizenry, led for thirty years by the Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber has had four homes in its thirty years of existence. It was first established in 1888 at the corner of First and Broadway. Two years later the second floor of the Mott market on Main Street between Third and Fourth was occupied by the chamber. As the organization grew, better quarters were secured, and in 1895 the chamber occupied the second floor of the Mason Building at Fourth and Broadway-which was then a two-story structure. In 1903 the present six-story office building at 128-130 South Broadway was begun. The ceremony of laying the cor- nerstone was one of the most elaborate ever held. The ceremonies were under the auspices of the Masons, and a big parade was a feature of the exercises. The chamber now occupies the second and third floors, the offices being on the third floor and the exhibit on the second.
It would be a joy to here set down the names of all the hundreds of
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men who gave of their strength of brain and body throughout the years to the service of their beloved city and the making of it. This is imprac- ticable, however, and perhaps unnecessary, for the purposes of this book. Their names are not lost, for they are preserved in the golden roster of that wonderful body of civic fighting men who have formed the membership of the Chamber of Commerce from its beginning down to this day. Many of them have passed to the great beyond and many more are growing old ; but their places are being filled, as the breaks in the ranks of an army are filled, by men younger and more vigorous who are inspired by the high patriotism and honorable traditions of their predecessors.
The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is and has been more than a mere organization of men for commercial advantage. It is an institution with a soul.
CHAPTER XXX
MODERN LOS ANGELES
It is difficult to speak of what the Los Angeles of today is without being accused of "boasting." Indeed, the most common accusation made against us in the outlands and throughout the world is that we are a people of boasters, here in Los Angeles. And in order to meet these accusations and confute them, to prove that our boasts are well-founded and that they can be substantiated, perhaps the best thing to do is to state a few out- standing facts.
To begin with, we have but to quote from the tables of the census of the United States made this year, to show that Los Angeles is the largest city on the Pacific Coast of America, the tenth city in size in the United States, and the forty-fourth city of the world.
The population of Los Angeles exceeds that of San Francisco, its nearest rival on the Pacific Coast, by 70,000. Seattle ranks third on the Coast, Portland fourth, Oakland fifth, and San Diego sixth.
Since 1910, the date of the last previous census, Los Angeles surpassed all other large cities of the United States in growth-having come from seventeenth place in 1910 to tenth place in 1920.
Its gain in population during the last ten years was nearly five times the average gain for the United States.
The most prosaic things in the world, without a doubt, are figures. And yet the figures showing the growth of Los Angeles during the nearly a century and a half of its existence, from its founding by the illustrious Gobernador, Don Felipe de Neve, down to the present year, constitute a retrospect so fascinating that we are impelled to herewith set the figures down as they stand in history and are vouched for by the records.
Here, then, is the growth of population of Los Angeles from 1781 to the present year :
1781
44
1790
141
1800
315
1810
415
1820
650
1830
730
1840
1,250
1850
1,610
1860
4,399
1870
5,614
1880
11,183
1890
50,395
1900
102,479
1910
319,198
1920
575,480
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SPRING STREET LOOKING SOUTH FROM SECOND STREET, 1899
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
It is a marvelous story that the simple exposition of these figures tell. And the questions on the lips of a stranger would naturally be, how do we account for it ?
The commercial organizations of Los Angeles put forth as an answer that the enormous development of Los Angeles is the logical result of favorite location and enterprising citizenship, and that "Nature fashioned the city for a workshop." But we do not agree with all this.
We have endeavored to demonstrate in this book, and trust that we have successfully done so, that Los Angeles was not really a "favored location" for a city. It seems clear to us that the reason Los Angeles .is where it is, is due to two things. In the first place, Don Felipe de Neve, scanning his instructions from the King of Spain, at the mission of San Gabriel where he was quartered in September, 1871, found that he was to locate the new city a distance of about three leagues from the Mission, toward the sea. There was nothing for him to do but to obey orders. But, if he had been left to himself, it is altogether likely that he would have stopped his march from San Gabriel where he did, anyhow. The day was hot, the trail dusty, and it was no fun marching under those conditions.
So, when Don Felipe and his cavalcade of troopers from Monterey, accompanied by the Indian neophytes and padres from San Gabriel, had marched ten miles westward from the Mission, they were doubtless glad enough to stop and feel that the orders of the king had been fulfilled. The site chosen was by no means exceptional.
We do, however, fully agree with the statement of the commercial organization that the marvelous development of Los Angeles is due to an "enterprising citizenship." And it is also due to an almost perfect climate.
While we cannot endorse the claim that "nature fashioned the city for a workshop," we certainly are strong for the statement that nature fash- ioned it for a playground. It was, after all, the tourist who started Los Angeles on its onward and upward way-the not quite wholly appreciated tourist, and the tourist sometimes maligned. It was the stranger who came and went away boosting Los Angeles in a way a thousand times more effective than the home folks of the town could ever hope to do.
The stranger who came and departed proclaimed it in the outlands that Los Angeles was a lovely place in which to live. And there are always many people in the world who are on the lookout for such a place and who are financially able to live where it pleases them best to live. And they came in ever-increasing numbers,-that kind of people-and when their num- bers were thousands here, their own needs alone created industry and commercial expansion. The newcomers became as enthusiastic and as earnest in their desire to make Los Angeles a great city as were those who had long resided here had been actuated by the same desire.
Mr. Charles Phelps Cushing, a staff writer of Leslie's, recently put the case very well and very truthfully in a recent issue of the publication with which he is connected :
"The Middle West appears to be the chief contributor to the swift growth of population in Los Angeles. Mixing with the people you are amazed to find that, as is the case in New York, the citizens of Los Angeles all appear to have emigrated there from other cities. What Los Angeles accomplished in the way of culture must necessarily be, for a considerable
PACIFIC MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
time, something not distinctively Californian but Middle-western, which is just as well worth while."
This being very true, indeed, there can be no harm in frankly admitting it.
Laying all speculation aside, however, as to the real reason for the marvelous growth of Los Angeles, we can return to the facts and be, perhaps, the better satisfied.
We feel that we have conscientiously recorded the progress of Los Angeles in the previous pages of this book as far as what might be called the "old times" are concerned. And as for the growth of later times, we beg to be permitted to quote a clear, vivid and brief statement from the late Charles Willard who was a painstaking historian in Los Angeles and an ardent lover of the city where he had long resided.
"Los Angeles," said Mr. Willard, "began the twentieth century with a population of 102,479, and the census of 1910 gave a total of 319,198. About 10 per cent of this gain had come through annexation of territory, the rest through direct increase. No American city, not even Chicago in its phenomenal development from 1860 to 1870, could show such rapid growth ; and yet it did not come with a rush in a year or two as it had in the epochs of 'boom,' but was distributed evenly through the whole period with a steady growth of business and a logical advance of realty values. Except for a few months at the end of 1908 and the beginning of 1909, the entire period was prosperous. Clearing house balances which in 1901 were less than a half million a day, by 1911 were nearly three millions a day. Bank deposits increased from $50,000,000 to $125,000,000. Building permits which in the year 1901 totaled $4,300,000, in 1910 had grown to $21,000,000. The census of 1900 gave the total value of the product of Los Angeles factories as $21,000,000 and that of 1910 increased this to $85,000,000. The city now has 85,000 telephones as against 10,000 when this book was written. The business of the postoffice which made a total of $312,524 in 1901, was for the year 1910, $1,476,941. In this decade 75,000 buildings, big and little, were constructed at a total cost of over $130,000,000. That would make a good-sized city by itself."
It is only twelve years since Willard set down those figures, startling enough in themselves, but far more so now when brought up to date and showing that building permits in Los Angeles for the six months of the year, reached an aggregate of $24,197,639, and that the bank clearings for the same six months were $1,909,435,039.
At the time this book is written, there is reckoned to be 2,700 industrial establishments in the City of Los Angeles, the products of which amount to $618,000,000 for the year.
Within a few miles of the city nearly one-fourth of the entire oil supply of the United States is produced. Shipment of lubricants and by-products from this port is greatest of any in the United States. In turn the port receives more lumber for distribution through the Southwest than any other of the nation's waterways.
From sea to mountains are vast orchards, grain fields, cattle ranches, orange groves and truck gardens, furnishing material for the greatest canning industry in the world.
Shipbuilding, meat packing, motion picture making, garment manu-
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
facture, chemical production, tire manufacturing, auto accessory making and kindred industries of Los Angeles command the admiration of all nations.
These industries, fostered by genial climate and contented population, have the further advantage of cheap and abundant water supply, unlimited
CARPETAC
SPRING STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM THIRD STREET, 1900
electrical power at low rates, natural gas and oil fuel, raw materials of many varieties, low cost of factory construction, open shop conditions insuring freedom of labor, fine port facilities, unexcelled transportation, both local and transcontinental, and a growing demand for all Southern California products.
Los Angeles is rapidly assuming high rank as a world trade center. It is strategically located for the great markets of the Orient, Australasia, Central and South America.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Most of the two-thirds of the world's population in the lands bordering the Pacific are more easily reached through Los Angeles harbor than through any other American port. More than two-thirds of the United States is nearer by rail to Los Angeles than to its nearest competitor on the Pacific Coast. Direct steamship lines flying the Los Angeles flag are in operation to the Orient, Philippines and the Straits Settlements.
From Los Angeles harbor to Yokohama is 4,780 miles; to the Philip- pines, 6,535 miles; to Honolulu, 2,228 miles; to Sydney, 6,545 miles ; to the Panama Canal, 2,936 miles; to Valparaiso, 4,795 miles. Los Angeles is a main station on the Sunshine Route around the world. Its storm-free harbor joins the transcontinental railways crossing North America via the southern route which suffers no interruption through storms.
Here, then, we have a pen picture of the modern Los Angeles from a commercial point of view. But this array of figures and statistics would by no means give a stranger in a distant place an idea of what Los Angeles is like today.
And what is it really like? Sometimes we can get a good answer to this question from a visitor. "Were you to soar above Los Angeles today in an airplane," says Cushing, the staff writer of Leslie's, "you would view a city that in area is the largest in the United States. You would see its outstanding features as, first of all, a huge gridiron of wide business and residence streets where thousands of motor cars skim about like great water spiders. Mountains, some of them included within the city limits, circle the northeastern borders of the town. Through the outskirts are scattered many residence suburbs and a score of little motion picture towns, these latter classing as 'factory settlements,' belying the description in appearance, for they are mostly sootless and white. The main section of the city, if viewed from aloft, would appear to lie in a fairly level inland valley invaded from the east and north with foothills. Attached to this big gridiron is a long narrow handle, a dozen miles or more in length, extending southward to connect with the Pacific Coast and the recently acquired municipal harbor. Get down to earth and you find the downtown section of a typical new American city, with the usual assortment of hotels and tall office buildings and a Great White Way wide enough and long enough to compare with its New York namesake-and far better lighted."
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