CARRYING WATER THROUGH A DESERT 



585 



*the revenues of the water department, 

 'Of which the board has the right of ex- 

 rpenditure. 



Financing the proposition 



In 1905 the people voted $1,500,000 in 

 ibonds to pay for these properties and 

 •carry on the preHminary engineering in- 

 vestigations. When his plans and esti- 

 mates had been approved by a board of 

 consulting engineers of national reputa- 

 'tion, they voted $23,000,000 more to com- 

 plete the project. This was the extent 

 to which the people could bond them- 

 iselves under their charter from the State, 

 .and was a tax of $88 upon every man, 

 woman, and child within the corporate 

 ilimits. They knew also that they would 

 ;be called upon to vote upwards of $6,- 

 500,000 more bonds for the electric-power 

 development as soon as the city, by its 

 igrowth in taxable property, could legally 

 'do so. 



Here, certainly, was not only an en- 

 'during faith in themselves, but a blind 

 •trustfulness in the man who had told 

 them what they must have and how they 

 'Could get it. 



The faith was built largely upon the 

 successful operation of the present water 

 system, the known honesty of the public 

 servants identified with the plant, and the 

 :absolute freedom from all politics which 

 has been maintained in the water depart- 

 ment since the city began the purveying 

 •of its water. 



The confidence that has been given Mr 

 Mulholland and his chief assistant, Mr 

 J. B. Lippincott, formerly United States 

 Government Reclamation Engineer for 

 the Pacific Coast, they have passed on to 

 -the men whom they have assembled about 

 them in the work. 



By the time the preliminary prepara- 

 tions for construction had been com- 

 pleted an efficient organization had been 

 -developed. The line of the aqueduct was 

 .apportioned into 11 divisions, the length 

 ranging from 6 to 23 miles, depending 

 upon the character of the construction. 

 An assistant engineer was placed in 

 ^charge of each of these and given large 

 latitude in the management of its affairs. 



THE QUESTION OF THE CONTRACTS 



When the time came to determine 

 whether the work should be done by con- 

 tractors or under the direct supervision 

 of the city, the aqueduct engineering 

 force stood ready for the latter upon 30 

 days' notice. Mr MulhoUand was anx- 

 ious that the city should do its own work. 

 He contended that this was what he and 

 his assistants had been employed to do, 

 but the Board of Public Works, which 

 has the expenditure of bond moneys, was 

 undecided. 



Bids for the construction of the Jaw- 

 bone Division, comprising 23 miles of the 

 most difficult excavation, were adver- 

 tised. The proposals ranged from 50 to 

 100 per cent higher than the estimates 

 which had been prepared by the city's 

 engineers. The board told Mr Mulhol- 

 land to roll up his sleeves and pitch in. 

 Three weeks after the command was 

 given they were opening the first tunnel 

 portals. This was in November, 1908. 

 Just 12 months later a little over 50 miles 

 of conduit, tunnel, and canal had been 

 dug. In the Jawbone Division the cost 

 was in many instances 50 per cent less 

 than the figure demanded by contractors, 

 and the entire 50 miles required an ex- 

 penditure of between 10 and 12 per cent 

 less than city engineers had estimated. 



At the time the bonds were voted the 

 promise was made that the enterprise 

 would be finished in the summer of 1913. 

 April I the Aqueduct Bureau, basing its 

 estimates upon the work already accom- 

 plished and the daily rate of progress, 

 stated emphatically that Owens River 

 water would be delivered in Los Angeles 

 by May i, 191 2, and at a cost less than 

 the $23,000,000 which the people had 

 provided. How much less they did not 

 pretend to say, but there were intimations 

 that it would be a round $2,000,000. 

 However, June i the flurry in the money 

 market caused the city's New York bank- 

 ers temporarily to stop taking aqueduct 

 bonds until some time in the fall. Con- 

 struction was therefore immediately 

 scaled to meet the new conditions, as the 

 bureau at the time had little more than 

 $800,000 on hand. A popular subscrip- 



