332 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and sent them away. Such a process is suicidal. The wool of our flocks 

 must be wrought into cloth by our own looms. The leather of the tan- 

 neries must be made into boots and shoes here. The cocooneries must 

 be enlarged and the silk-loom introduced. Nothing stands in the way of 

 this but the high price demanded for labor. Nothing else prevents the 

 wheat and barley crop from being quadrupled. Millions more of grapes 

 could be pressed. The fruit orchards could be trebled, the cocooneries 

 multiplied without limit, and the culture of cotton, tobacco and rice 

 could be introduced. The question of cheap labor is therefore vital, and 

 ought to be considered by practical, sagacious men, and I beg leave to 

 suggest that prices, as well as hours of labor, should be regulated, like 

 the price of capital, by the law of supply and demand, and not by arbi- 

 trary, tyrannical combinations of men, to keep up prices and reduce the 

 hours of work, which are only conspiracies against the common good. 

 Will the present generation of Californians live in a mistake and bequeath 

 the mistake to their children, or will they gird themselves to confront 

 prejudice now, and use the means of prosperity which the march of 

 events is placing within their reach ? With such a combination of 

 advantages as we possess, if we fail to become prosperous and powerful, 

 the fault will be our own, and we shall have to make the mortifying con- 

 fession that we were the people for whom God had done everything, and 

 we could do nothing for ourselves. 



THE TEMPORARY AND THE PERMANENT. 



It was the misfortune of California that the men who came here at 

 first, did not come with the idea of making homes and founding a State. 

 Their families and household gods they left behind, intending to seize 

 the prize of wealth and make a quick retreat. They considered them- 

 selves the victims of circumstances. The} 7 built for to-day, fenced for 

 to-day, bought and sold for to-day. All the business and doings of men, 

 customs of society, usages of trade, indeed, all the conditions of men's 

 existence here, bore the stamp of to-day. But we have outgrown tempo- 

 rary as a youth outgi'ows a garment. The time has come when this 

 must be changed or we must retrogade. 



Let us turn back to our early homes in the Atlantic States and con- 

 template their history, as we were taught it in our boyhood, and every 

 where the idea of the permanent displays itself. The pilgrim came, in 

 the Mayflower with his wife and children, to found a new home and a 

 new country. He never thought of returning to Old England. He 

 called it New England, for to him Old England had passed away forever. 

 The Dutch, who sat down upon Manhattan Island, never thought of 

 returning to their old dykes and canals in Holland. The French Hugue- 

 nots could speak and dream of La Belle France, but with no thought of 

 seeing its sunny vineyards and gay city again. All felt that America was 

 their home. They filled it with schools, with trade, with ships. They 

 defended it against savages. They built highwa}'s and bridges. They 

 laid broadly down the pillars of the commonwealth, and upon all their 

 policy, and upon all their conditions of life and business among them, 

 throughout their system is stamped the permanent, and the temporary 

 nowhere appeal's. The Pennsylvania German kept the traditions of the 

 fatherland, but with no expectations of seeing it again. His descend- 

 ants and those of the Philadelphia Quakers now possess the Kej-stone 

 State as a hei-itage from those forefathers. It was the same with the 

 Baltimore Catholic. The Jamestown colonist, through hunger and 



