80 



CALIFORNIA. 



capacities of those counties would be paralyzed. 

 It is, however, evident that the hydraulic min- 

 ing interest is an important one. It may be 

 said, as regards its annual output, to repre- 

 sent a fixed capital of $100,000,000, and directly 

 and indirectly it affords support to a consider- 

 able population. Even the fanners in the val- 

 ley, who occupy lands on the verge of the min- 

 eral area, owe a portion of their prosperity to 

 these mines, which create a brisk demand for 

 tla-ir produce, and a demand the loss of which 

 would be severely felt. 



The engineers were required to ascertain the 

 extent of the injury, present and prospective, 

 and whether remedial measures were availa- 

 ble. Their reports have shown that the ex- 

 tent and gravity of the damage and menace are 

 far greater than had been commonly supposed ; 

 that it was possible to counteract the ill effects 

 of hydraulic mining by a systematic treatment 

 of the rivers ; that such a systematic treatment 

 of the rivers was necessary in any case, since 

 it would be impossible to meet the exigencies 

 of the situation by merely stopping hydraulic 

 mining. 



The most formidable danger to the low lands 

 is due to the deposit in the mountain-streams 

 and tributaries of enormous quantities of heavy 

 sand, which is being washed down lower every 

 year. The deposit of this sand must continue 

 until the entire Sacramento Valley is covered 

 and destroyed, even though hydraulic mining 

 should be stopped at once, until remedial meas- 

 ures are adopted. In fact, it may be asserted 

 that the stoppage of hydraulic mining in the 

 present stage of the debris evil would produce 

 no alleviation whatever. There is a mass of 

 mining debris now collected in the canons of 

 the mountains sufficient to cover the Sacra- 

 mento Valley completely a couple of feet deep, 

 and this matter will continue to be washed 

 down every winter until the beds of the river 

 are entirely choked, and until the destruction 

 inflicted upon the valley agricultural lands has 

 become past relief or reparation. 



The surveys of the engineers resulted in as- 

 certaining the practicability of remedial meas- 

 ures, but at the same time showed that the sub- 

 ject was too extensive to be dealt with locally. 

 It was particularly insisted on by the engineers 

 that sustained and systematic treatment of the 

 rivers must be undertaken, or that it would be 

 useless to attempt anything. "While, therefore, 

 they held out the encouraging consideration 

 that by such a systematic treatment the condi- 

 tion of the rivers might be made even better 

 than it had ever been, they contended that 

 nothing less comprehensive than the methods 

 they proposed would be adequate. It was 

 estimated by the engineers that the expendi- 

 ture required for the construction of suitable 

 works could not exceed $10,000,000, and that it 

 might not exceed $5,000,000. What was known 

 as the drainage bill was prepared and passed 

 at the previous session of the Legislature. 

 This act levied a benefit assessment upon the 



districts to be aided ; the hydraulic miners 

 were called upon for extra contributions, and 

 a tax of five cents on the hundred dollars was 

 made general throughout the State. 



A large portion of the session of the Legisla- 

 ture was occupied in the discussion of the bill to 

 repeal the act, which, however, was defeated 

 on the first reading in the Assembly. 



The plans of the engineers embrace a sys- 

 tem of levees and cut-offs for the lower course 

 of the Sacramento, and a system of dams for 

 the upper course. It has never been pre- 

 tended that the dams without the levees, or 

 the levees without the dams, would bring about 

 the results aimed at. But the works have only 

 been commenced a short time, and the dams 

 alone have been constructed. No engineer 

 has claimed that the dams were capable by 

 themselves of effecting a cure for the evil at- 

 tacked. On the contrary, all the engineers 

 have agreed that before any real relief can be 

 had, the levees must be made strong enough to 

 carry the flood-waters of the river without 

 giving way. During the past winter no real 

 test of the engineering plans was possible, in- 

 asmuch as they were incomplete. Such a test 

 can not be applied until the lower river has 

 been leveed scientifically and this is not the 

 work of a few months. The brush djims, how- 

 ever, have been so successful in holding back 

 the heavier debris, that the efficiency of that 

 kind of work can not be questioned seriously. 

 The inundation of the Sacramento Valley does 

 not show that the engineers made any mistake, 

 for no steps had been taken to prevent such an 

 inundation. The 'floods found no obstacles 

 but the old and thin and insufficient levees 

 which had been built piecemeal here and there, 

 and as a matter of course they soon overcame 

 those frail barriers. 



The report of the Board of Equalization 

 presented the first trustworthy data for ascer- 

 taining the results of the revenue system put 

 in operation by the new Constitution. Its 

 framers believed that a great deal of property 

 had escaped taxation in the past, and they 

 were determined to make everybody pay in 

 the future. They imagined that this could be 

 done by decreeing it, and so resolute and un- 

 flinching were they in the prosecution of their 

 purpose that they refused to exempt from tax- 

 ation even the shadows of property, but in- 

 sisted that everything which represented prop- 

 erty should be assessed. It happened coinci- 

 dently that there prevailed a belief that land 

 monopoly could be put an end to by taxation, 

 and to this end it was agreed that cultivated 

 and uncultivated land, of the same character 

 and quality, should be assessed at the same 

 rate when in contiguity. The taxation of 

 mortgages, the taxation of credits and stocks, 

 the taxation of uncultivated land at the same 

 rate as cultivated, was to lighten the burden 

 of taxation on the masses by forcing the rich 

 to bear their just share of the general load. 

 How the new system succeeded, the State 



