346 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



enough every day to equal his wages, and as no one else saw 

 the piece previous to the time when he took it, it is almost 

 impossible to prove theft, even if found upon him. But it is 

 not customary to search laborers when they leave their work, 

 for the honest men would probably not submit to the humilia- 

 tion. In quartz mines the term " knocking down" is given to 

 the system of theft of rich bits of the rocks by the laborers, 

 and it is said that some mines where the rock is very rich, are 

 plundered so extensively that they are far less profitable than 

 those wherein the metal is equally diffused through a wide 

 vein, so that the workmen can find no small pieces worth 

 stealing. To what extent the influence of such dishonesty — 

 the existence of which, as we have said, is recognized in the 

 popular speech — may go, we have no information or estimate ; 

 but we are satisfied that though they may be serious, they are 

 in themselves far from suflncieut to account for the utter dis- 

 trust with which cajDitalists look upon enterprises for the de- 

 veloping of our auriferous wealth. 



I have thus mentioned three theories which, in my view, 

 whether considered each separately or all jointly, are unsatis- 

 factory and insufficient to account for the evil. If there be 

 any other theory I have not heard of it, or it does not occur 

 to me now. I have already si^oken of the greatness of the 

 evil ; it strikes at the very basis of our prosperity as a state, 

 destroys the field of labor, drives our capital away, renders 

 trade unsteady, and contributes to deter immigration and to 

 make our mining population a set of wanderers. 



There is something radically wrong in the financial and in- 

 dustrial condition of that country where the capital is not 

 invested in the main branch of industry. So it is in Cali- 

 fornia. Many important improvements are needed in the 

 mineral regions, but the money cannot be obtained to make 

 them. We send away $40,000,000 annually, because people 

 abroad are not satisfied with the security which we offer, 

 though we would, and could with advantage, pay three times 

 as much interest as it can earn in the Atlantic states or Europe. 



