Stephen M. White, chatterbox

Yesterday was a time of troubles. For anyone wondering why their Asus Essentio CM5570 will not light up when they hit the on button...the answer is mechanical not hardware. The two-piece assembly relies upon a microswitch remaining glued in place, which happens to be something it doesn't do well. Superglue is the best fix, but first you have to figure out that is the problem.
With that obstacle overcome I then dove into the formidable Stephen M. White: Californian, citizen, lawyer, senator. His life and his work. A character sketch, by Leroy E. Mosher. Together with his principal public addresses, compiled by Robert Woodland Gates: Times-Mirror Publishing, Los Angeles 1903.
It comes in Two Volumes.



This is useful stuff because it provides the best and thickest descriptions of what specific advantages the harbor at San Pedro held over all challengers, physical and political.  From an engineer's perspective the harbor at San Pedro was half done and secure, sheltered as it was by barrier islands and bottomed with sand and stone that provided excellent anchorages.
But the real reason Senator White and his publisher ally Harrison Otis wanted San Pedro chosen was because it would frustrate C.P. Huntington, whose potential monopoly over rail access to Santa Monica was a theme Senator White would return to endlessly over the course of the hearings. In common with other railroads of the era, Huntington's Southern Pacific Railroad didn't do much to maintain a positive public image:



But this was business at its cutthroat best, so when Huntington spied an opportunity to dominate Santa Monica he took it. First he acquired a right of way that would prevent any other rail access to the beach, then he built a marvelous wharf to handle all of the freight bound for transfer to and from his trains. As a final piece he began a slander campaign against San Pedro arguing that the harbor there was exposed and dangerous. With these pieces in place he returned to Washington to lobby for Federal money to complete the harbor at Santa Monica. He almost won his concession.

Against Huntington and the SP Line were White and Otis, but there was another overwhelming factor that favored San Pedro over Santa Monica: reality. Huntington's option would have been incredibly difficult to build, and expensive to maintain. In the end building an artificial harbor at Santa Monica probably wouldn't have prevented the development of San Pedro. So many railroads and other port facilities were already there that some dredging program would have happened within the decade anyway and Otis had the business community of LA standing firmly behind him.
As things played out San Pedro got the harbor, the harbor got squatters, and Los Angeles got San Pedro and the harbor (in 1909).

Santa Monica got the shoppes and a pretty pier. Progress is like that.