Council mulls fate of blind City Hall guide

Owens River aqueduct bonds pass

by overwhelming margin

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Only one newspaper, the Evening News, opposed the issue

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A brilliant future is seen for a smoke-free, verdant Los Angeles

Entertainers donate time and talent to help theatrical workers

5,000 retail clerks want Saturday evenings for themselves

Editorial praises virtue of a brave woman

By an overwhelming vote of more than 10 to 1, the citizens of Los Angeles expressed their approval of the Owens River aqueduct project by carrying the election yesterday for a $23 million issue of bonds.

The phenomenal campaign, carried on for 30 days, involving hundreds of meetings and forwarded by all the great civic organizations, resulted in a total vote of 24,198, of which 22,063 were for the bonds, with 2,135 opposed.

It was by far the largest vote ever cast at a special election in this city. . . . it was feared

On the contrary, the far-sighted citizens took no chances, and by 9 o’clock over 12,000 votes were cast.

Then came a lull, but at noon a large industrial vote was polled, and by 2 o’clock the total was 16,648.

Never before, in any election — municipal, state or national — had such a vote been polled so early in the day.

So well had the campaign committee organized that the opposition made practically no effort to defeat the bonds. [But see the cartoon below.]

A hundred automobiles and other conveyances hustled the voters to the polls, and in many cases factories and other establishments closed for a short time to permit employees to go to the polls.

Mayor Harper, though bereaved by the death of his father-in-law, . . . and Secretary H.D. Kennedy kept a telephonic vote-getting agency working at the City Hall all day. . . .

Los Angeles Evening News, June 11, 1907

HANDING AN EXPENSIVE LEMON TO THE TAXPAYER

They are handing you a lemon, Mr. Voter, as you see, of the thickest rind and the sourest quality; it represents a grinding curse upon your earning powers that will haunt you in your sleeping and will curse your waking hours.

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It was a great victory.

Metaphorically speaking, 200,000 inches of water from the snow-capped Sierra flowed into Los Angeles yesterday on a tidal wave of ballots.

And on the crest of the flood stands Los Angeles triumphant.

Her present prosperous, her future assured, this figure, typical of the great city that is and the greater city that is to be, beholds a startling vision.

Beneath the gracious sun of Southern California, she sees spread out before her a vast metropolis, a city beautiful stretching from the old town

Factory wheels hum, and the product from the factories goes out and ever out through that western gateway to the markets of the world.

No pall of smoke hangs over the city, for electricity drives those mighty wheels, electricity generated by the mighty flood brought to the city’s use from the far distant Owens Valley. . . .

Within the city’s boundaries, great parks, their lakes filled to overflowing, provide delightful pleasure spots for the people.

The city itself, from afar, presents the appearance of a great garden, its stately piles rising toward the skies through a luxuriant foliage. . . .

And that is what yesterday’s vote for the Owens River water bonds will mean to Los Angeles.

The victory was decisive. . . . on the streets last evening men who scarcely knew each other stopped to exchange mutual congratulations. . . . The crisis in the city’s affairs had been met and passed triumphantly. Ahead, all was clear sailing.

BLIND GUIDE GIVEN ONE MONTH MORE

After a long discussion yesterday morning concerning the proposed removal of Tom Collins, the blind guide at the City Hall, the [City] Council determined to allow him to hold his position for another month and in the meantime to obtain from the Finance Committee a report on the matter.

It was suggested that he be pensioned, but the city attorney declared that he knew of no way that this could be done.

The case of Tom Collins is unusually pathetic. In his younger days he was a faithful member of the old volunteer fire department and on many occasions risked his life to save people and property.

Then he became an employe of the old water company before the city took over the plant, and it was while he was working for that company that his sight gradually failed.

His work has been for the good of the public for many years, and for this reason the council determined to create the position of City Hall guide and give him the work.

He failed to pass the civil service examination for the position, however, and he was appointed as temporary guide.

Now, because of the requirements of civil service, his position is to be taken from him.

. . . $1,000 . . . was secured as a result of the benefit performance yesterday afternoon at the Burbank [Theater] for the Theatrical Merchants’ Association Relief Fund.

The theater was filled to overflowing, and the audience gave every evidence of enjoyment. The curtain rose at 1 o’clock, and it was still up at dinner time last night.

There were 24 numbers . . . between the opening bright address by Harry Duffield and the swelling muscles and pouter-pigeon front of Al Treloar, the strong man. . . .

The Burbank Theater was represented by Mr. Duffield, Henry Stockbridge and Fay Bainter, Gerald Harcourt, Robert Homans and Miss Anne Cleveland.

The People’s stars were Tracy McDermott and Dorothy Raymond, James P. Lee and Company and James Pierce.

From the Belasco came John Dale Murphy with imitations and a song.

Manager Fischer was represented by Richard Burton and the beauty chorus.

The Orpheum sent down James J. Morton, the

The Bannons, tremendously clever club jugglers they are, came from the Unique.

Manager Baker, of the Grand Opera House, gave the entire Ulrich Company in “Behind the Mask.”

From Manager Banks, of the Empire, came the Gazzettas.

As representing the Californians, Elliott E. Beamer, the basso, was on the program, and Jolly Zeb was present by permission of Stair and Havlin, while the YMCA contributed the Herculean athletes. . . .

Los Angeles Examiner, June 18, 1907

5,000 Clerks Want Saturday Closing

Owing to the fact that one dry-goods store . . . is keeping open for business Saturday evenings, there is a possibility that several other firms may reopen Saturday night.

Five thousand clerks may be affected by this movement, and with the full consent of the managers of the 14 retail dry-goods houses who are in favor of continuing the six o’clock closing, the clerks . . . are appealing to the sentiment of the public.

During the past week every package that has left the

The clerks say their request is . . . an appeal to the public from one of the hardest-working classes of men and women in the city. . . .

This morning the Clerks’ General Committee will send out 100,000 circulars through a distributing agency . . . requesting every man, woman and child to refrain from

The committee has also sent a letter to each manager of the 13 stores now closing at 6 o’clock, thanking them for their consideration during the past and urging them to continue the system now in vogue.

The clerks also request that the customary Saturday afternoon closing during the summer months be put in force again this year.

Glorifies Her Sex

(Editorial)

In the business world, woman does not, as a rule, measure up to man — because of her finer qualities, her dislike to take an unfair advantage of another fellow, to do him first, as that abominable David Harum doctrine puts it.

She cannot ride roughshod over her nature; she is essentially man’s counterpart, physically and mentally. This is not to say that she is his intellectual inferior, but the chief difference in her way of thinking is her indisposition to profit at the expense of another but resorting to subtle trickeries which a callous business world perceives as legitimate.

In this she is man’s opposite.

In the great sacrifices of life, she is far and away man’s superior. He may lead a heroic charge on the battlefield, head a forlorn hope, plunge into a burning building to perform a

It is not in his nature.

These reflections are induced by the death of Mrs. Louis Rohan yesterday, the victim of a gas explosion, to whom blessed respite came after hour of infinite torture, during which the great mother love in the woman triumphed over all physical pain.

Utter self-abnegation marked the closing hours of her life. With her poor body one mass of burns, the agony from which no opiates could entirely relieve, she made no complaints . . .

[The editorial goes on in this vein for several more paragraphs.]