STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. ' 209 



from experience, when I say there is no necessity for idleness. There is 

 enough, and more than enough, for every man to do. The honest, indus- 

 trious men of the State — the very bone and sinew of our prosperity — 

 work and endure fatigue here as well as in any climate in the world. 

 Idleness invariahly enervates the system and leads to vice. He who 

 permits an able bodied man to live around him in idleness does the man 

 a positive inj^ny, and is only educating him for the highway and to 

 become a candidate for the gallows or the penitentiary. 1 will have no 

 such men about me, because I do not wish to do any man ati injury. If 

 every man could be made to see the question in this light, the remedy 

 for idleness would be certain, immediate, and complete. Among the 

 Mexican population of this coast there is, no doubt, a trace still existing 

 of the pastoral habits derived through their forefathers from Sj^ain. 

 This kind of life may be more or less copied by Americans and others 

 who find their way out here through Mexico or other Spanish American 

 countries. Buckle, in his History of Civilization in England, says of 

 Spain : '' The low state of agriculture in Spain may be ascribed partly to 

 physical and partly to moral causes. At the head of the former must 

 be placed the heat of the climate and the aridity of the soil. Most of 

 the rivers with which the country is intersected run in deep beds, and 

 are but little available, except in a few favored localities, for purposes of 

 irrigation." Also, " that the vicissitudes of climate, particularly in the 

 central parts, make Spain habitually unhealthy." And he further 

 observes: "Another feature of this singular country is the prevalence 

 of a pastoral life, mainly caused by the difficulty of establishing regular 

 habits of agricultural industry. In most parts of Spain the climate ren- 

 ders it ini})ossible for the laborer to work the whole of the day; and this 

 forced interruption encourages among the people an irregularity and 

 instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avoca- 

 tions of a she])herd rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture." 



Now, Mr. President, whether, from the fact of our living in what was 

 once a Spanish American Territory, and coming in contact with people 

 who'introduced pastoral habits from Spain, those habits are beginning to 

 tell on us, I will not pretend to determine. Certain is it that as a gen- 

 ei'al rule no more enterprising people ever existed than those who have 

 come to California since the discovery of gold. Thej^ have explored 

 nearly every nook and corner of the Pacific slope. No danger has been 

 sufficient to check their explorations. They have brought to light hid- 

 den treasures that have astonished and almost revolutionized the com- 

 merce of the world. Their herculean efforts are literally moving the 

 mountains towards the sea. They have built cities, towns, and villages 

 innumerable, atid been the pioneers of civilization all over the Pacific 

 coast, from Arizona to Cariboo. They have carved States and Territo- 

 ries from the regions of former savage desolation, and made the deserts 

 to bud and blossom as the rose. I have an abidiny; faith in the Ani-lo- 

 Saxon race. I believe they can do and perform wonders, and even with- 

 stand the allurements to idleness of this or any other climate. I speak 

 of them as a class, of course, and believe a noble destiny awaits tliem in 

 the future. 



In regard to the dullness and stagnation in business, whir-h from time 

 to time |)ervade the land, there are many causes and man}' remedies. 

 We sliould ask ourselves : Do we not continue to practice the habits wo 

 assumed in former and flusher times, and thereby live beyond the legiti- 



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