State Agricultural Society. 207 



of the practical and scientific. We have many advantages in our favor, 

 and some very great disadvantages and embarrassments to contend with. 

 These must all be summed up and fully understood, and then we must 

 prepare ourselves for. successful competition. On this our individual 

 future, and the future of our State, depends. We can and we must achieve 

 success. In this connection I have some practical suggestions to make, 

 which may or may not be worthy of your consideration, and which yo.u 

 will accept or reject, as your greater wisdom and experience may dic- 

 tate. I make them with the hope they may elicit discussion, through 

 which important facts may be evolved and correct theories established. 



Looking to the future of California, nothing strikes me as so impor- 

 tant as the furnishing of employment to all our people. That country 

 is growing rich or poor, advancing or retrograding, not in proportion to 

 the nominal rates of wages allowed its laboring men, but more nearly 

 in proportion to the regularity of their employment. 



While we in California maintain, perhaps, the highest rates of wages 

 of any country under the sun, it is a fact as patent and undeniable as it 

 is lamentable that the average earnings of our working men are not cor- 

 respondingly great, because we have a large idle population, and this, 

 too, in the infancy of all our enterprises, with a broader field open to 

 the laboring man, in farming, mining, manufacturing, and mechanical 

 pursuits, than ever before tempted men to industry. In this there is 

 something radically wrong, which must be radically changed. Hands 

 should not be without labor while the golden harvest invites them to the 

 field. The causes which have led to this condition of things are various, 

 and have grown out of our past and present surroundings. Many old 

 Californians are too restless, and too much occupied with the golden 

 dreams and visions of the past, to settle down to any steady or safe 

 employment. If they would build themselves houses they might at 

 least be surrounded with every comfort. The next most serious hin- 

 drance to our prosperity is the tendency of our people to drift into our 

 large towns and cities. This disposition is not only manifested by the 

 people of California, but of the whole country, and must be regarded as 

 one of the most evil tendencies of the age. One fourth of the popula- 

 tion of this State to-day resides in the City of San Francisco, and one 

 fourth of the balance in the six or seven next largest cities of the State. 

 Rural life is fast losing its charm for our people, who are exchanging 

 their quiet homes and simple habits, the pure air and pleasant scenery of 

 the country, for rented rooms amid the restless contusion of city life. 



This is greatly to be regretted. While a few in cities attain great 

 wealth and opulence, it is to the yeomanry of the country a State must 

 always look for its development and sources of wealth. A busy, thriv- 

 ing country population may maintain large cities in the commercial 

 exchange of its products, but large cities can never maintain the country. 

 Cities, as a rule, absorb more of wealth than they create. The surplus 

 population of our cities must be employed in rnanufactimng and mechan- 

 ical enterprises. This can and should be done, though large cities are 

 by no means the proper places for carrying on manufacturing enter- 

 prises, for the reason it costs the operatives much more to live, which 

 must be added to the cost of the product of their labor, and there are 

 no corresponding advantages. Yet a diversified industry is not only 

 desirable, but necessary to our prosperity. The manufacturer is no less 

 important than the farmcfr. These industries must go hand in hand. 

 That State is in the best condition which most nearly supplies its own 

 wants, and sells its surplus in the most valuable and marketable shape. 



