State Agricultural Society. 101 



express theirs with u liltlu more show of refinement. These things 

 are a disgrace to the State; and instead of inducing men of capital 

 and means from abroad to como here and Iniild up our nianufac-tur- 

 ing interests, it has the elloct of keei)ing them away. The cry is for 

 employment of the unemployed. And a remedy is asked for. We 

 can give it. Stop the gross, infamous and uncalled for attacks ui)on 

 corporate pro])crty and corporate interests. Stop the attempt to 

 enact laws which in the application of their provisions are tanta- 

 mount to confiscation of property, simply because it belongs to a 

 corijoration. Stop the unnecessary and liljclous attacks that are 

 being made upon capital. Give capital a chance to exjjand, not to 

 contract itself. And every one but a natural born idiot knows full 

 Avell that a menace, a threat, and an intimidation aimed against cap- 

 ital is the motive power that closes its doors against any attempt to 

 induce it to come forth and disburse itself. The attacks during the 

 past few months against capital and corporate property and interests 

 have been the means of i)roventing enteri)rises from being entered 

 into in this State that would have given steady employment, for not 

 less than two years, to not less than ten thousand men. What does 

 capital care? It closes its volume of profit and loss; closes it tight; 

 puts wings on either side, and flying off lights upon some other 

 l)lace; opens its i)ages and setting to work again, we lose what another 

 locality gains. Capital has been doing that for some months. And 

 who are the suflerers? The unemidoyed, whose want of employ- 

 ment is made more secure and certain. Let this war upon capital, 

 and upon individual property and corporate interests be kept up and 

 maintained a little while longer, and the streets of our cities will 

 atlbrd magnificent avenues for grazing cattle. 



It seems to me there is a responsibility ju.st one step in advance of 

 the brutal ruffians of the sand lot. If there is any reason for the cry 

 of hard times, who are responsible but those blatant mischief-makers, 

 who fish in troubled waters and sciueeze the dotish crowd that fol- 

 lows for a livelihood? If public securities seem shaky, is it to be 

 wondered at Avhen the broadcloth, Avhite-shirted conspirators are 

 allowed to cry "confiscate," and those "sans culottes" to yell " hemp" 

 unheeded, and flourish the incendiary's torch unextinguished? Oh, 

 for a new St. Patrick to rid us of these reptiles! 



Great as has been the assistance lent to the hand-maiden Agricul- 

 ture by the tamed giant Steam, let us not Ibrget that much is to be 

 said of those who have taught him hoNV to walk straight, to run 

 hither and thither, to fetch and to carry. 



The farmer all over the world owes mueh to the railroad, but the 

 California farmer, in particular, is indebted to the iron horse, and to 

 those who stable and harness him. Those parallel lines of rails 

 stretching from the mountain ))eak to the sea-shore, arc the unbroken 

 links of a majestic cljain that binds the inner to the ()uter world, 

 that makes the fastnesses and corners of this great State of ours 

 accessible, valuable and near. 



There is here something peculiarly l)()ld and grand in this annihi- 

 lation of the impossible, this overcoming of difliculties, this practical 

 decrease of distance, this connection of the center with the circum- 

 ference. \\ast in extent and geographically diverse as California is, 

 scarcely a locality exists to-day tiiat is not within easy communica- 

 tion by railroad with the metropolis. A network of lines is already 

 spread over the country, and the years are few indeed before the 



