Summer Home of Harris Newmark, Santa Monica
In an exceedingly informal manner, at the Westlake Avenue residence of my daughter, Mrs. L. Loeb, my wife and I on the 24th of March, 1908 celebrated our golden wedding anniversary, the occasion being the more unusual because both the nuptials and the silver wedding festivity had occurred in Los Angeles.[47] Our pleasure on that occasion was intensified by the presence of friends with whom, during most of our married life, we had maintained unbroken the most amicable relations.
Many years after spur-track switching charges had been abolished throughout other industrial districts of the United States, the Western railroads continued to assess this charge in Los Angeles, to the extent that, as was estimated, our merchants were paying through this tribute alone an amount not less than $250,000 a year. In August, 1908, however, or shortly after F. P. Gregson became identified with the Associated Jobbers, suit was filed by M. H. Newmark, as President, before the Interstate Commerce Commission; and on May 7th, 1910, a decision was rendered in favor of local shippers. But unfortunately this decision was reversed on July 20th, 1911, by the Commerce Court.[48] Joseph P. Loeb and Edward G. Kuster, young attorneys, handled the case in a manner recognized among men of their profession as being unusually brilliant; while Gregson brought together a mass of valuable facts. This was probably the most notable of all the cases of its kind in the commercial history of Los Angeles. The other directors at the time the suit was brought were: J. O. Koepfli, C. C. Reynolds, F. W. Braun, L. C. Scheller, H. R. Boynton, A. Douglass, D. Wiebers, W. H. Joyce, W. E. Hampton and E. H. Greppin.
Not the least interesting step forward in providing Los Angeles with a harbor was the acquisition of a strip of land known as the Shoe String connecting Los Angeles with San Pedro and Wilmington. This practical idea made possible in 1909 the unhampered consolidation of the three places; and before the beginning of April their various civic bodies had been considering the formation of committees to bring this about. On Saturday, April 3d, the Los Angeles appointees met at the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce for permanent organization. They were William D. Stephens, Mayor of Los Angeles; Stoddard Jess; Homer Hamlin, City Engineer; F. W. Braun; J. A. Anderson, Attorney for the Harbor Commission and ex-member of the Board of Public Works; Leslie R. Hewitt, City Attorney; Frank Simpson; Joseph Scott, President of the Board of Education; M. H. Newmark, President of the Associated Jobbers; J. M. Schneider, President of the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association; A. P. Fleming, Secretary of the Harbor Commission; ex-Mayor M. P. Snyder, H. Jevne, O. E. Farish, President of the Realty Board; and F. J. Hart. Jess was elected President; Fleming, Secretary; and to the admirable manner in which they conducted the campaign, much of the ultimate success of the movement must be attributed. The delegates from San Pedro and Wilmington refused to go on until the Associated Jobbers had pledged themselves to obtain for the harbor districts, after consolidation was effected, the same freight advantages enjoyed by Los Angeles. This promise was given and fulfilled. Various other pledges were outlined in the Committee's report and adopted by the City Council; but many of these assurances have not thus far been carried out by the authorities. Then a vigorous campaign was projected, as a result of which both elections—that of Wilmington and Los Angeles on August 5th, and the other, of San Pedro and Los Angeles, on August 12th—resulted in handsome majorities for consolidation. These substantial victories were fittingly celebrated throughout the consolidated cities; and on February 13th, 1910, the port became officially known as Los Angeles Harbor.
In April, 1906, the one hundred thousand books of the Los Angeles Public Library, then under the administration of Charles F. Lummis, were moved from the City Hall to the Laughlin Building. With the opening of September, 1908, the Library was again moved by the same Librarian, this time to the Hamburger Building.[49]
On the evening of October 11th, 1909, I attended a banquet tendered to President Taft by the City of Los Angeles, at the Shrine Auditorium. Every honor was shown the distinguished guest, and his stay of two or three days was devoted to much sight-seeing, to say nothing of the patriotic efforts of many politicians whose laudable desire was to whisper in the Presidential ear à propos of government employment.
The election of George Alexander as Mayor on November 10th, 1909 was largely responsible for the later success of the Progressive party—with whose Socialistic policies I am not in sympathy. W. C. Mushet, the more acceptable candidate, ran on a ticket endorsed by business-men organized under the chairmanship of M. H. Newmark, while George A. Smith was the Republican candidate. Alexander's campaign was managed by Meyer Lissner, an arrival of 1896 who had a brief experience as a jeweler before he turned his attention to law. He possessed much political sagacity, and was therefore quick to turn the Alexander success to the advantage of Hiram Johnson who was soon elected Governor. George N. Black, who came here a child in 1886, and graduated from the Los Angeles High School, later being President of the California State Realty Confederation and Grand President of the Independent Order B'nai B'rith of this district, directed Smith's campaign.
On January 29th, 1910, the citizens of Los Angeles, under the leadership of Max Meyberg, tendered to D. A. Hamburger (Chairman), Perry W. Weidner, Fred L. Baker, William M. Garland, M. C. Neuner, Dick Ferris and F. J. Zeehandelaar, the committee in charge of the first Aviation Meet here, a banquet at the Alexandria Hotel. The contests had occurred a few days before at Dominguez Field, on a part of the once famous rancho; and to see the aërial antics of the huge man-made birds, as they swiftly ascended and descended, was no less nerve-racking, at least to me, than it was interesting.