COMMERCE. 347 



Great numbers of poor men seek employment, but the capital 

 is not here to pay them. The invested capital does not bear a 

 proper proportion to the population and labor. The lack of 

 regular employment makes business unsteady, population un- 

 settled, exposes the state to desertion at every cry of rich dig- 

 gings at Cariboo or Salmon River, and prevents immigration, 

 which we should by this time understand, is one of the great- 

 est sources of wealth and prosperity. It is, or at least, previ- 

 ous to the great rebellion, was a common assertion, that Cali- 

 i fornia was no place for a poor man ; that it was far inferior to 

 the younger states east of the Rocky Mountains, in the proba- 

 bihties of steady employment, and the opportunities of grad- 

 ually acquiring a capital of five or ten thousand dollars, such 

 as a large proportion of those who were poor men in the states 

 in the Mississippi Basin, a score of years ago, have in that in- 

 terval collected together. 



Is this complaint about the insecurity of the gold mines, as 

 a sphere for the investment of capital, true ? If so, why and 

 how ? Is it equally true about the quartz-mining, the placer- 

 mining and ditching ? Certainly it cannot be true in the 

 same manner, for the three branches of industry are very dif- 

 ferent from one another. If it be true, is there a remedy ? 

 These are questions which private enterprise has not solved, 

 and for the solution of which a good government should make 

 some provision. If we can but show how capital can be invested 

 securely here, it will be invested, and population, industry, 

 and the prosperity of residents and the state will swiftly follow. 



§ 244. Assurance. — The assurance of property against fire 

 I on land and against wreck at sea, has come to be an extensive 

 branch of modern business. It is one of the chief channels 

 through which capital runs to the great centres of trade. It 

 is a legitimate, safe, and profitable investment. It is managed 

 on careful principles. All its operations are based on statistics, 

 collected in the course of many years. The premiums are 

 always set at such a figure that according to the ordinary 

 course of human events, the company must realize a profit in 



