State Agricultural Society. 123 



should like to see some of the waste places of the earth receive them. I 

 confess that my idea of statesmaiishij) rcriuircs us to exclude from us 

 all those who cannot or will not aid us in the proper development 

 of our land. Harsh as may be the rule, it may after all be a politic 

 and just one — they must go out from us because they are not of us. 

 I leave out of account all this idle talk about their religion— the 

 nation whose philosopher, four hundred years before the birth of 

 Christ, announced the golden rule, declared a code of morals as uni- 

 versal and as sacred as our own. It is unnecessary to discuss their 

 dress, at least convenient and economical, with our own, often possess- 

 ing neither convenience nor economy. Their language, barbarous 

 to us and apparently ditficult of acquisition, is at least spoken, and 

 according to my observation, written, almost universally by them. 

 Their food seems to excite contempt and disgust among these accus- 

 tomed to a different diet,and it may not be unprofitable to consider 

 that rice, the main staple of their consumption, the mo.st nutritious 

 of all the grains, is the food of half the human race. It seems to me 

 that none of these things are worthy of a moment's consideration. I 

 do not believe that the effect these men have upon the price of labor 

 is anything approximating what is supposed. 



So'faras I have known, they receive as much for their labor as 

 white men, in proportion to the work done, and I believe that all 

 employers prefer white labor when they can obtain it. I believe 

 to-day that fifty thousand white laborers, in addition to those already 

 here, can find homes or employment here, did they desire it and 

 were willing to comply with the laws regulating the relation of master 

 and servant. One of' those laws is, the servant must work for such 

 wages as his master can pay, and that master should pay such price 

 for labor as not merely supports life, but should be the result of a 

 fair division of profits between the capital and labor invested. How 

 is it to-day? I doubt if the agricultural lands of this State are pay- 

 ing, upon' the scale of this fair division, eight per cent, per annum 

 upon the capital invested. I doubt if they pay six per cent. The 

 dairyman is paying within twenty per cent, as much for wages to-day 

 as he paid fifteen years ago. He sells his products, cheese at about 

 one-half, his butter for less than one-half, the price he then obtained. 

 The railroads bring butter and cheese from New York and the States 

 of the West, from the high-priced lands and cheap white labor, and 

 sell them here at nine cents, and fifteen and twenty cents per pound 

 respectively, to the very workingman whose high wages absolutely 

 forbid competition to the California i)roducer. We send our hides 

 to the East; they are tanned, the leather returned and sold in fair 

 competition with California leather. Boots and shoes made from the 

 hides of California cattle are sold in our markets, I am assured, at a 

 lower rate than those made here by white labor. Here are the freights; 

 two or three commissions; perhaps six months' interest, insurance, 

 and all other incidental expenses added, and still the agricultural 

 and mechanical laborer of the East promises, or threatens, to drive 

 us from the market. Still the workman says, "I cannot live like the 

 Chinaman, nor work for C'hinaman's wages." I hope to (Jod, my 

 friend, that you may be compelled to do neither; but this condition 

 of things is independent of the Chinaman, and one which demands 

 the serious consideration of both employer and employed. You may 

 get rid of the presence of the Chinaman, though not of his competi- 



