Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1919 — TAFT, CALIFORNIA. [ARTICLE]

TAFT, CALIFORNIA.

(Fred H. Hamilton.) Taft, California is situated in the heart of the richest .oil well country in the world. It is surrounded by small mountains on each side and any time of the day the snow capped peaks can be seen. The Standard Oil Co. has the largest holdings out here and, of course, ffeSjere are smaller concerns. **-*

.The city of Taft has a floating population and at the present time it is about six thousand. The homes here are called shacks. They are all in one story and have from three to eight rooms an them. Gas is very cheap and due to the wonderful weather they have here the year around they do not have to invest in coal. ; There are more automobiles and money here than any other place of its size. The wage scale is very high, the lowest paid i!s $4.00 per day and from that up, well, the sky is the limit. The city puts one in mind of a western movie city. The only thing it lacks is the bar and, of course, the cowboys riding upon their wild horses. They make up for the wildness by the speed they travel in their oars. They have no wonderful highways here, and of course, there is a speed limit, but it is broken every day, every hours and every second. il have visited many of the surrounding villages and they are very similar to Taft. All have lots of monye in circulation and everybody working. Taft is what may be termed a very uncertain city, as you cannot tell when the oil is going to stop flowing and just as soon as lit does the city will be dead. That is why the people do not invest their money in wonderful homes. It surely is a great sight to see a $2000.00 automobile parked in front of a home that does not cost over $300.. The land is all leased and permission must be gotten from the oil company to build upon it. A very small sum is paid for the lease. If a family desires to move from one part of the city to another, they put their house upon wheels and haul it to the new location. The houses are not plastered but a heavy paper is used instead. , If they were sure of the continued flow of oil here this would be one of the leading cdtiies of the west and it would make a wonderful growth over night. It is only forty miles from Bakersfield, one-hundred thirty-dive from Los Angeles and about four hundred from San Francisco.