accorded, the matter herein presented shall receive your very candid con- 

 sideration, and its publication to the world shall receive your unanimous 

 consent. In this way it will become your statement, and with this 

 endorsement of your honorable body, it will be received by those who 

 accord it an examination as authentic. It cannot be your purpose to 

 place it before our own people only, and since it is to go forth to the 

 world, to the more densely populated portions of our common country, 

 from whose borders we are seeking a reinforcement of our population, 

 an augmentation of its industrial capacity, and additions to the capital 

 available for the development of our diversified industries, let us place 

 ourselves at once in the mental attitude of directly addressing those who 

 are unfamiliar with the resources of our State. Let us, if you please, 

 imagine ourselves before an audience of those who desire to change their 

 place of residence, and leave the older and more finished civilizations of 

 our country, for those wherein the conditions of primitiveness still 

 obtain. With the earnest purpose of awakening in their minds an 

 interest in our State, let us be equally earnest in a determination to 

 present the facts fairly and truthfully, so that if any honor us with a 

 change of residence in our favor, the responsibility of disappointing 

 representation will not rest with us. 



At the outset we are impelled by candor to admit that the growth of 

 this commonwealth has not kept pace with the growth of the States 

 lying immediately west of the Mississippi river, nor yet west of the Mis- 

 souri river. Our first immigration was phenomenal. It is estimated 

 that in the first two years after the discovery of gold in California, the 

 alluring opportunity of acquiring great wealth by a sudden turn of for- 

 tune in the way of gold discovery, brought to this State 400,000 people. 

 The stories of the fabulous wealth of our mines attracted a population as 

 if by enchantment. That population came uninfluenced by emigra- 

 tion literature, by maps, pamphlets, by taking descriptions, or by any 

 other method or device of recent times to promote the growth of 

 States. The story of gold discoveries in the way of broad placer fields, 

 open to the world, made a strong appeal to the adventurous spirits of 

 all countries. They came by thousands, and they were impelled to 

 come by the hope of greatly improving their condition ; in fact, this 

 hope is one of the allurements which change the seat of population from 

 one country to another. Populations are moved from the older to the 

 newer portions of the world in the hope of finding an environment more 

 favorable to personal prosperity. In our own country populations have 

 left the well-developed regions for the more sparsely-settled territories in 

 the hope of acquiring property at undeveloped values and thus securing 

 the advantage of the inevitable and coming development. Allured by 

 the hope of sudden wealth, distance could not discourage and hardship 

 could not deter the great tide of incoming population. In a modified 

 way there is a lesson in this ; where actual prosperity exists population 

 comes by the force of an irresistible invitation ; where prosperity is 

 merely promised, immigration can be induced only by argument and 



