ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 55 



this branch of the subject the best efforts of political economy 

 and legislative wisdom are especially called for. 



"To protect alike the interests of capital and labor, to hold 

 the balance of justice even between the rich and the poor, be- 

 tween the large proprietor and the man who has only his garden 

 to cultivate; between powerful corporations and citizens of 

 limited means that depend upon large irrigating canals for their 

 water supply should be the special care of the law-makers of 

 the State. The wealthy and influential classes find little diffi- 

 culty in having their interests protected by legal enactments; 

 but this is no reflection upon our wealthy classes or upon the 

 law-makers. Those who have the sagacity to obtain wealth 

 have also the sagacity to obtain for it all necessary legal protec- 

 tion. They have the means, the time, and the ability to apply 

 to the legislature and to obtain the needed legislation. This is 

 as it should be. A government that fails to protect its enter- 

 prising citizens in their rights and property, is undeserving of 

 the support of a free people. But the highest glory of a State 

 is, that it protects the humblest citizen as completely as it does 

 the most exalted, and holds the rights of the man of limited 

 means as sacred as those of the millionaire. Both classes have 

 a good degree of protection in our State; yet the experience of 

 each succeeding year teaches that legislation for the protection 

 of the masses in their rights is still incomplete. 



"A single individual who has the means may appropriate water 

 sufficient to supply a thousand or ten thousand people. A cor- 

 poration may do the same thing, and the law protects the rights 

 of the corporation or the individual, as it should do. 



"The appropriation and" diversion of water is often attended 

 with large expenditure, that none but individuals or corpora- 

 tions of ample means can afford. When such appropriations 

 are devoted to Furnishing towns and settlements with their 

 needed supply of water, the appropriator becomes a public 

 benefactor. If the water appropriated is used properly, the peo- 

 ple have no reason to complain of a monopoly; but, on the 

 other hand, they have reason to be thankful that the water they 

 had not the means to appropriate is brought within their reach. 

 Here the law has sought to guard the rights of the people, by 



