46 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



but there is reason to believe that the Chinamen support in- 

 directly a large proportion of the white men in California, and 

 that the larger the number of Chinamen the more white men 

 will be needed and the greater their profit will be. We owe to 

 them nearly all our railroads, all the large irrigation ditches 

 lately built or now in progress, nearly all our reclamation 

 dykes, most of our factories, and many of our wagon roads. 

 Without their help we could not manage our vineyards, our 

 orchards, or our grain harvests. If we could not afford to do 

 without the Chinamen now here, we should not lose anything 

 by having more of them. There is room here for 3,000,000, 

 and we would have had that number if those here had been 

 received properly, and they would indirectly or directly sup- 

 port at least as many white people. But when we are to 

 obtain 2,000,000 whites under our present policy is extremely 

 doubtful. With a population of 4,000,000, ( and Italy with 

 a smaller area has 24,000,000) our farms, our quartz mines, 

 our town lots, our railroads, and all our property, would be 

 vastly increased in value, and thousands of white men who 

 are now barely able to support themselves and maintain their 

 possessions, would then be wealthy. 



Any considerable addition made to the number of indus- 

 trious, skillful, and economical workmen must add to the value 

 of land. The interest of the land-owner in a country where 

 most of the area is the property of the Government, and is 

 offered by it as a gift to poor citizens, must be the interest of 

 the State ; and if it were in conflict with the interest of home- 

 less and landless laborers, then the latter should be sacrificed. 

 The Chinese dig at least $6,000,000 annually, or nearly one- 

 third the gold yield of the State. We could not do without 

 that. They are indispensable in our kitchens. If the China- 

 men were expelled, a thousand white families would break up 

 house-keeping, and never resume it again. Thousands of farm- 

 houses, country hotels, and boarding-houses in the small 

 towns, would be in confusion, if the Chinamen should all 



