From the Los Angeles Express,
August 4, 1903

JOINS WITH COUNCIL

Board of Supervisors Appoints a Committee to Consider Merger Proposition
FIVE MEMBERS ARE NAMED
 

Councilmen [William M.] Bowen, [Chauncey Fitch] Skilling and [Owen] McAleer, forming a commitee of consultation, called on the [Los Angeles County] Board of Supervisors this morning and discussed for an hour or more the subject of city and county amalgamation.

The object . . . was to learn if the board . . . was willing to name five members for a committee of ten [for] . . . a thorough investigation of the feasibility of consolidating the city and the county of Los Angeles into one government.

There was no reluctance on the part of the board . . . . Representative and experienced men, such as Walter Haas, attorney and legislator; Assemblyman Fred Hauser, ex-County Auditor Nichols and D.G. Holt, editor of the Santa Monica Outlook, were mentioned and their qualities discussed in a more or less informal manner.

Supervisor [P.J.] Wilson mentioned editor Holt because he believed the county should be represented by ranchers and residents from outlying towns and districts. With the same idea, Supervisor [E.S.] Patterson named H.G. Hubbard of San Fernando, a man of considerable wealth and one who could be depended, he thought, to attend all the meetings.

W.L. Valentine and E.W. Camp also were mentioned.

[E.J.] “Lucky” Baldwin played in poor luck. Somebody suggested the mayor of Arcadia, but he was lost in the shuffle.

[Those finally named were] . . . Walter Haas, D.G. Holt, W.L. Valentine, E.W. Camp and H.G. Hubbard. . . .

[All of the legislators] favored consolidation of the offices of assessor and tax collector, but it was agreed to leave the commitee considerable latitude as to . . . the extent to which the two muncipalities shall be united, whether only two or three offices shall be consolidated or the whole administrative machinery of the city and the county be combined into one.

“In the latter event, of course, the supervisors will succeed the council, which will go out of existence,” remarked Mr. Langdon, “and the aldermen of Greater Los Angeles will run the whole works.”

This sally was taken as a bit of Pickwickian humor and raised a laugh from the members of the City Council. . . .

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From the Los Angeles Express, August 4, 1903

RECEIVES A FATAL BLOW

Frank E. Warren, while working at the bottom of a 110-foot shaft at the Elysian Park water pumping plant, was struck on the head by an iron pulley and instantly killed this morning.

Warren and another man, named Akins, were at work in the shaft, which is being sunk to permit of the setting of pumps to raise water from the river tunnel. The bucket is hoisted from the shaft by means of an engine . . . one of the iron pulleys attached to gin poles over the mouth of the shaft . . . [was] wrenched off. The pulley struck Warren in the head, crushing in his skull.

Warren was about 24 years old and unmarried. He roomed on Second Street near Santa Fe.

From the Los Angeles Express, August 12, 1903
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