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.