738 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the early days of California, is still too much so for the best prosperity of 

 the State. It brought upon us the mining stock era, that reign of financial 

 terror from which we are but now recovering, and although some survive 

 it the possessors of fortune and character, too many sank physical, mental, 

 moral, and social wrecks beneath the maelstrom of its financial ruin. And 

 although the devastation of our people, by mining stock deals, is ceasing, 

 we have yet the wheat deals and other forms of speculative gambling, and 

 the products of our State are handled and debased by the men who repre- 

 sent no legitimate form of traffic. . If the vice was confined to this class, 

 the effect upon the masses would not be so disastrous, but the example, and 

 the temptation to acquire sudden wealth, is often too much for the ordinary 

 producer, and turns him into the speculator. 



Throughout many portions of the State there is a decided decay of the 

 rural, and a rise of the urban spirit. From 1870 to 1880, the population 

 of Illinois showed a very marked increase, but the statistics of employ- 

 ment showed the rural population to have declined, and more than the 

 entire aggregate of increase to be due to the increase of city populations. 

 In our own State, there is a constant tendency toward the cities. All our 

 education tends to this direction. Our young men and young women are 

 educated to professional employments, and as few as possible to rural pur- 

 suits. The result is seen in the dilapidated premises, misnamed " farm 

 houses." In all the great valleys of the State, there is scarcely to be seen 

 a comfortable, homelike house. The word "ranch," which has universal 

 application to the farm of California, is not a misnomer. For two hundred 

 miles in the Sacramento, and for three hundred in the San Joaquin Valley, 

 you may travel without seeing a tree planted, to shade a country home. 

 The cooking is done by Chinese, the wife and daughters reside in some 

 distant city, the farmer leads a wretched, bachelor life, surrounded by 

 brutal farm hands, who sleep in straw. The wheat crop of Northern Cali- 

 fornia will bring to the coffers of the wheat growers, this year, $40,000,000 

 in gold coin, but the drunkenness of the harvesting and thrashing crews, 

 the impoverishment of the soil, the defertilization of our great wheat lands, 

 the degradation of the laboring population, the filth and squalor in which 

 they live who produce that wheat, the sweat and the blood, which represents 

 its product, leave no trace upon the gold. Our great land owners have grown 

 rich, but no great people, no great commonwealth, was ever founded upon 

 city occupations and city life. The destruction of the agricultural spirit 

 means the destruction of higher manhood, and higher virtues of manhood. 



"Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 



The new life and new growth of Southern California is due almost 

 entirely to the fact, that large holdings are being broken up, that beautiful 

 homes are succeeding to the "ranch," that ornamental grounds, with or- 

 chard trees and flowers, are taking the place of broad, uninviting, hot 

 plains. 



And with this change of condition, there is observable a change in the 

 character of the people who offer themselves for employment in rural pur- 

 suits. The farm laborers of California have not been treated as they are 

 in older parts of the country. They are required to furnish blankets, and 

 sleep in straw. They are fed in moving hotels, on wheels, under a burning 

 sun. There are no home comforts afforded here to the farm laborer. In 

 the Eastern States, farm laborers are a part of the family; they eat at the 

 table with their employers — they are self-respecting citizens of the repub- 

 lic. Every employment first attracts the character of the people willing 



