| From the Los Angeles Daily Times, November 20, 1906 |
KERN TO BE CHIEF
BY PROMPT ACTION
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Mayor McAleer’s whisky Police Commission is prepared to play its last trump in the municipal game by appointing Edward Kern [as] chief of police.
Kern is just completing his fourth year in the City Council. He represents the Seventh Ward, the bailiwick that contains more saloons than any other.
Kern is a Democrat and a union laborite.
Kern was slated for the place of chief of police under the [Arthur C.] Harper administration. This was one of the trades by which Harper expected to barter himself into office.
The unexpected haste that the McAleer administration is displaying to name Kern chief before the end of the years is the result of the demoralization of the Democratic forces by the
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strong showing made by Dr. [Walter] Lindley.
The Police Board has maintained great secrecy about the selection . . ., but it has been understood for three months that Kern should be named at once if it became evident that the Republicans would elect the next mayor. . . .
Friends of “Billy” Wolf, retiring sheriff, have been making a quiet but strenuous effort to have him named as the new chief, but they were unable to turn the commissioners from Kern. . . .
Prior to his election to the council, Kern was manager of the delivery department of the Los Angeles Ice and Cold Storage Co. He was promoted to this position from a place as driver.
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At one time he was a boss of the Teamsters’ Union, and the walking delegates once proposed him as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor — that was the time that Red Fennessy failed so ludicrously to “deliver the goods.”
For several years Kern drove a stage in Arizona. Then he became a horse trader, and for a time was in the employ of the government.
He went through two Indian campaigns with the regulars under General Lawton.
If a physical qualification were the only one required, Kern would make an ideal chief of police. He is a great, broad-shouldered giant, with a grip like a steel vise.
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Los Angeles Daily Times, November 7, 1906
TENSE THRONG WATCHING “THE TIMES” BULLETINS LAST NIGHT, WILDLY CHEERING NEWS OF GILLETT OR HUGHES
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Throng Watches “Times” Bulletins
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Los Angeles was on tiptoe last night for the election returns.
In their homes, at their clubs, at the theaters, at the headquarters of the various political parties, the interest was equally keen.
Telephone operators of both local companies kept the wires hot with brief bulletins in response to the queries of patrons, and the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies opened branch offices in various parts of the downtown district for the accommodation of subscribers.
The Times bulletins were the magnets for an immense crowd. Knots of people were at the four corners of First Street and Broadway shortly after the polls closed in Los Angeles, eager to know the result.
As darkness fell and the street lamps lighted . . ., the groups had swelled to a jam that impeded travel on the sidewalks.
At 8 o’clock, streetcars and automobiles could hardly make their way through the jostling mob that now had fairly blockaded the streets. . . .
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No city returns were available for several hours, but the difference in time between Los Angeles and the principal cities of the East afforded an opportunity for breaking the long wait by a survey of the situation in New York, Massachusetts and other states where spirited contests were being waged.
From the Times building the returns were flashed by stereopticon onto a screen diagonally across the corner, and as the news shoed the gain of popular candidates, such as Hughes of New York, the crowd let loose mighty cheers.
As returns began to come in from the outside counties of California, the interest grew keener. It was clearly a Gillett crowd, and it yelled lustily in approval of the bulletins showing his lead in different counties.
Upstairs in the Times building, a force of telegraph and telephone operators was engaged in receiving the returns from city, county, state and nation, while a staff of editors prepared the information for ready digestion by the watchers below.
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In the intervals between bulletins, Moore’s Band, stationed on the second floor of the Times building, enlivened the occasion with music, wile the operators of the stereopticon afforded diversion in the display of pictures. . . .
Vehicular traffic was brought to a standstill. . . .
Automobiles honked and pushed their way against the human mass without avail, and their passengers, locked tight in the middle of the street, were compelled to submit to the hold-up, which they did with grace when they were in a position to view the bulletin screen.
The crowd reached its height when the theaters poured their hundreds of amusement seekers into the streets. . . .
Even the clang of the bells of the 12:30 o’clock [street]cars failed to swerve many from he corner, but the 1 o’clock “Owl” carried away practically all but the stragglers.
Many of these latter waited for the whirr of the great presses in the basement of the Times building, announcing the first edition of this morning’s paper, with the latest returns. . . .
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Los Angeles Daily Times, November 21, 1906
COUNCIL SETS ELECTION DAY
Another Annexation Scheme for the Voters
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Within ten minutes after the City Council had formally declared . . . that the “Shoestring Strip” to Wilmington is legally a part of Los Angeles City, an ordinance was adopted calling an election to vote on an annexation project of even greater scope. . . .
The territory . . . is irregular in shape, extending almost directly west of the city limits on a line with Agricultural Park , clear around the westerly and northerly sides of the city to the east and thence extending down to a point in line with the upper end of Downey Avenue.
More than 12,000 people, it is estimated are residing in this great district. Fully 2,000 votes are there. The annexationists, to win, must secure a majority of these as well as a majority of the votes cast in the city.
In the proposed district lie the towns of East Hollywood, Eagle Rock, Colegrove, Prospect Park, Ivanhoe, Tropico, Upper Garvanza, Hermon, Oak Hill, Shorb, Bard’s Station [and] Rose Hill.
Fifteen public schools and many churches are located in the territory, . . . [as well as] the Los Angeles Seminary at Hermon, a school conducted by the Free Methodists, the Industrial Training School for Spanish-Speaking Girls at Prospect Park, conducted by the Methodists, and the Hathaway House at Hermon, or East Highland Park, conducted by the W[illegible] Christian Y.
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Showing the city as it is today [1906], and the vast territory that wants to come in. . . .
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Did the voters approve annexation?
No, they didn’t.
Click here for the story.
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Los Angeles Daily Times, November 21, 1906
Griffith Park Roads
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The Board of Public Works . . . [and] the Board of County Supervisors . . . discussed the project of extending the main road through Griffith Park from the old Ostrich Farm to connect with Cahuenga Pass, and thus give a beautiful scenic drive to Hollywood.
The supervisors are willing to assist in the project, but they wish
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the city engineer’s department to make the surveys, and with the crowded condition of that department, this is considered impracticable.
The two boards, with Chief Engineer Hamlin, will make a tour of inspection of the proposed road next Tuesday.
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More Signal Boxes
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Fifty more police signal boxes are to be purchased and placed at points in outlying districts. This was the
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decision of the Police Commission last night.
The boxes are to be of the same pattern as those now in use.
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Reprimand and Dismissal
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Two police officers were before the Police Commission last night. . . .
A. Mercer pleaded guilty to having left his post before securing permission from his sergeant to do so, and to impertinent remarks to his superior officer.
He made a statement, however, that he had been on duty from 3 o’clock in the morning until 5:40 in the evening and had left only twenty minutes before the proper time.
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He stated that he has served for fourteen years in the department and this was the first time he had been before the commission.
Mercer had been suspended two weeks. He loses this time and was fined $5. He is to be reprimanded by the chief of police and then reinstated.
Frank P. McDivitt was dropped because of his having been drunk while on duty. He was appointed only about a month ago.
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Los Angeles Daily Times, November 21, 1906
Venice Wants People
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VENICE, Nov. 20 — The offer of Abbot Kinney to present $50 in gold coin to the parents of every child born in Venice not having resulted in increasing the permanent population of the beach at a satisfactorily rapid rate, the citizens have called
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a mass meeting for Thursday evening.
At that time an active campaign will be promoted to elevate the strand from the slough of business despond into which it has been gradually slipping during recent days.
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Ways and means of inducing people to come to the beach will be discussed.
Business interests are loud in their clamor for any change that will bring people and business, and the meeting promises to be a serious affair.
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Los Angeles history
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