Employed by a Paving Company—The Growth of Los Angeles—Its Land Values—A
Centre for Tourists.
The Uvalde Asphalt Company started a paving company to use up their
products, and, as I was getting very tired of the mines, and also seemed
to have reached the maximum salary that the Company would pay for my
position, I applied for a job on the paving end, where I should have a
pleasanter life and possibly a chance of promotion, besides learning
another side of the work. The head office, however, told me that they
needed me where I was, and therefore could not transfer me; and then put
a green man into the position I had asked for, paying him $125 per
month, while I was only getting $75! I wrote to a number of different
paving companies, and the asphalt trust offered me a place as yard
foreman in Los Angeles at three dollars per day, provided the Uvalde
Company would give me a good letter of recommendation. The Uvalde
Company then made me some vague promises as to the future, but I refused
to stay, and finally they gave me a really very good letter.
So on the 26th October 1902 I left Cline, Texas (where I had worked
seven years and seven months) for California. My people thought me
foolish in leaving a company where I was known, and had made some small
record, and in which I also held a good share, to go to another concern
where I was unknown and had no friends. This may apply to England, where
long service is appreciated, but it does not apply to America. Here a
new man has as good or really a better show than one long in the firm’s
employ; in fact, when I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that I was to
supersede a man who had been sixteen years in the Barber Company, and
who was acting yard foreman till my arrival.
My own experience has been that if a man starts in a concern at a very
low salary, he can never work up past a certain figure. I suppose it is
natural to think—“This man used to work for so much a day, and we have
more than doubled his salary since he has been with us, and he is an
ungrateful hog if he wants more.” And even if they are forced to give
the amount asked for, sooner than lose the man, there is a feeling of
soreness at the man’s ingratitude. People rarely consider that they
cannot get another man to do the same work for the same money. When I
first went to Cline the foreman’s salary was $125 per month, and he had
no office work whatsoever to do. I started as labourer at $1.25 per day
and worked up to twice that rate, or $75 per month, as foreman; at which
figure I was doing not only the foreman’s regular work but most of the
office work as well, yet because I had started at low wages the company
thought I was well paid. When I arrived in Los Angeles and reported for
duty, the general manager took me over the works and introduced me to
the men who were to work under me; then we returned to the office and he
posted me as to my men and duties. The chief engineer (who had been
acting foreman) was, he told me, an old man and trusted employee, whom,
however, he could not use as foreman as he had not the ability to handle
men. The manager said, “As to him, I would like you to try and get along
with him, bearing in mind that he will be angry with you for taking the
position which he thinks should have been his; but if you cannot get
along I shall have to find another place for him.” Of course I know that
in such cases a new foreman has to prove himself to his men before they
will look up to him and readily recognise his authority. I was young,
and the men would begin to take liberties unless I could show them that
“I knew where I was at,” as they said in Texas. Luckily for me, my
opportunity came at once, for I had noticed on going over the plant with
the manager, one improvement that would do away with a lot of
unnecessary work in connection with the screening of the different
grades of gravel and sand. I made my proposal of a change to Mr. Arthur,
the general manager, and he asked the opinion of the chief engineer, who
happened to be near. The latter at once laughed at the idea and said it
was impracticable. I insisted, and said I would stake my job on the
result, and then Mr. Arthur told me to go ahead. I took some of the men
and tore down the screens and rigged one the way I had proposed, and it
turned out the success I had predicted. This was sufficient for all the
men, except the prejudiced engineer, that I knew my business; and they
all seemed friendly disposed with the exception of him and the mixer-man
(the man who had charge of the mixing of the paving material). One day
one of the men said to me, "I guess you are all right, so I want to warn
you to look out for Harry Kern (the engineer) and 'Old George' (the
mixer-man), who are doing all they can against you; the former at the
office and the latter amongst the men." I soon had proof of this, for
one day the cashier (a great friend of Harry’s) came out of the office
and spoke to me most offensively about some reports which he wanted me
to make at once for him. I told him to get back to his office, that I
allowed nobody to boss me in my own yard so long as I was foreman; that
seemed to settle him, and then I took the bull by the horns and went to
see Harry, to whom I talked like a “Dutch uncle.” I told him it could do
him no good if they made it unpleasant enough to make me resign, as he
would never get the job of foreman; that I had not known of the state of
affairs when I came or might have stayed out; but, as I had come, we
must work together in harmony or he would have to go somewhere else. He
took it well, and we afterwards became great friends. Old George, of
course, I had to handle in a different way, so I jumped him on the first
pretext, and, as I expected, he gave me impudence in order to show off
before the other men. I had a monkey wrench in my hand, and I told him
that he would apologise or I would beat him good and plenty and then
fire him. He owned up that he had been hasty, and so we let it go at
that. Old George was one of the best men I had on the place after we got
to understand one another, and after I left the company and came to
Mexico he wanted to come along with me.
Los Angeles is one of the most wonderful towns in the United States, and
the growth is phenomenal. It is essentially a tourist town, being
practically supported by the tourists who come there to spend the
winter, and by men who have retired from business and wish to end their
days in a decent climate. It is estimated to have over 60,000 transient
population. In 1900 the real estate men put up “prophecy boards” all
over the town saying “in 1910 Los Angeles will have a population of
250,000,” and every one laughed at them. In 1907 they scratched out the
“2” and put a “3” over it, as the population was then about 275,000, and
is to-day over 350,000. In 1893 a German bought for $800 a tract of sage
brush and sand in what is now “Boyle Heights,” and went to work at his
trade of carpenter to make a living and pay the taxes. He had grit and
held on, finally selling out for some $200,000. One of our men in the
Barber Yard bought a small cottage for $1400 and within six months was
offered $2000 for it, which I advised him to refuse; judging from the
value of other property in the same neighbourhood, it is worth to-day at
least $8000.
Fortunes have been lost in real estate in Los Angeles, but for the past
eleven years it has been going up by leaps and bounds. Yet all wonder
what keeps it up, as there are practically no manufactures, and though
it is surrounded by orange and lemon orchards, those fruits are taken by
buyers from the east and shipped there direct, so that there are few, if
any, local middlemen. But there is, as I said before, a large influx of
the wealthy class of tourists, and these leave an immense amount of
money in the city. Besides, there are a number of the millionaire class
from the eastern states who winter there. One striking feature is the
great number of small detached cottages, with beautiful gardens, owned
chiefly by the mechanics and labouring men of the city. Los Angeles is
sometimes called the city of cottages. Most of these small five-and
six-roomed cottages, quite up-to-date with all the latest conveniences
and improvements, and costing from $1200 to $2000 each, are being or
have been paid for on the instalment plan. Of course they are sometimes
forfeited, but if one has paid enough to make it worth while, one can
generally sell one’s equity if unwilling or unable to continue the
payments. I knew a labouring man who in this way acquired three houses.
He earned $2.50 per day in our yard as blacksmith, and his wife earned
about the same amount as seamstress; they were childless and were saving
for old age. As soon as they had a house paid for they rented it out,
and with this rent and their savings commenced to buy another one. They
expect, when they have enough houses, to retire and live on their
rentals, looking after their property. As Los Angeles caters for the
tourist trade, one can hire hundreds of houses of all sizes and prices,
completely furnished even to bed and table linen, table and kitchen
ware.
Another thing that strikes the visitor is the street car system,
claimed—and rightly, I think—to be the finest in the world. One can get
a car to any part of the city, or to any of the suburban towns or
seaside resorts (called beaches), at intervals of from three to ten
minutes, according to the importance of the line. There are good roads
out of Los Angeles, and in fact all over California, and the city itself
has very fine asphalt streets. In consequence, the wealthy bring their
automobiles, and also almost every labouring man has his bicycle to take
him to and from his work. At 6 P.M. Spring Street and Broadway are a
sight to see with the streams of bicycles and motor cycles wending their
way homewards. In the evenings, in front of the cheap five and ten cent
theatres (where really good vaudeville entertainments are given), the
library, and the Y.M.C.A. rooms, I have seen bicycles five and six deep
against the curb; it is quite a job to pick out your own amongst the
hundreds of others.
These cheap theatres are a great institution and play to crowded houses
all night long. They tried to start a palm garden theatre where one
could smoke, but it did not turn out a success owing to the chill of the
evening making it unpleasant to sit outside. In the other houses they
prohibit smoking.
During the winter, too, the horse races, which last for a couple of
months, bring lots of people and money to the town, which has also
become quite a centre of boxing. Boating, fishing, and sea bathing are
to be had at any of the numerous beaches about twenty minutes’ car ride
from the centre of the city, so that forms of amusement are plentiful.