208 Transactions op the 



There is no more mistaken policy than that which would compel our 

 people to become producers of raw material only. This course would 

 render us large sellers, it is true, but it would also render us equally 

 large buyers, making us dependent upon the fluctuations of foreign 

 markets instead of the stability of our own. The early history of Cali- 

 fornia is sufficient to convince any one of the correctness of these views. 

 Then we produced largely a material which is the standard of all values 

 the world over, but were compelled to rely upon the other States and 

 countries for all the necessaries of life. What was the result? Just 

 what might have been expected. The profits were made by those who 

 furnished the supplies. California gold has built more palaces on the 

 Hudson than on the Sacramento, more mansions in New York and Bos- 

 ton than in San Francisco. We are now, with all our complaints of dry 

 seasons and hard times, gaining in material wealth faster than we were 

 fifteen years ago. The experience of every country which has confined 

 itself to a single industry, however important, has been the same. The 

 history of the Southern States up to the time of the late war furnished 

 a most striking illustration. The people of those States, having control 

 of a soil of unsurpassed richness, and favored by a temperate climate, 

 availing themselves of a cheap servile labor, directed their main atten- 

 tion to growing cotton for export. Their product was in great demand, 

 and they virtually controlled the market. Their exports were enor- 

 mous; but did they increase in wealth and general prosperity? No — 

 not in comparison to other less favored sections maintaining mixed indus- 

 tries. New England, with her sterile soil and bleak hills, far outstripped 

 them in the accumulation of wealth, the average comfort of her people, 

 and the general diffusion of knowledge. It is unnecessary to enlarge 

 upon this point, as it is generally very well understood. It becomes a 

 matter of interest, then, to inquire what progress we are making towards 

 supplying our own wants. In other words, how independent have we 

 become, through our own industries, of the people of other countries? 

 That we have made fair progress in manufacturing, considering the cir- 

 cumstances which have surrounded us, is probably true. We have many 

 manufactui'ing enterprises of which not only those engaged in them, but 

 the State, may well be proud. But should we be content with what we 

 have done? By no means. We now ship away seven or eight million 

 dollars' worth of wool. This wool, manufactured, would sell for twenty 

 millions, at least. Why, when we have idle labor, should not this value 

 be added to it? We export hides, import boots, shoes, and harness. We 

 export timber and import furniture, and yet we have the finest woods 

 for furniture on this coast to be found in the world. We export wheat 

 and import agricultural machinery; and so on through the whole cata- 

 logue, and this, too, in the face of the fact that men are importunate for 

 the opportunity to labor. This is a wrong to the poor, who should be 

 encouraged to add, by their industry, to their own comfort and the 

 wealth of the State. 



Let every effort be made to foster and encourage manufacturing 

 interests of every sort, in every part of the State. Let them have the 

 protection they need to nurse them into lite and full growth. To extend 

 this to them is no less the interest of the farmer and mechanic than the 

 manufacturer, so intimately blended are all these interests. The man 

 who can successfully establish a manufacturing enterprise, however 

 small, is a public benefactor, and should be honored as such. 



These industries have been greatly checked, no doubt, by the differ- 

 ences which have arisen between the employers and the employed 



