THE TRUTH ABOUT CALIFORNIA 



countries, it is destined to be the land of the common 

 people. This is true, because, owing to its peculiar cli- 

 matic conditions, it requires less land to sustain a family 

 in generous comfort. For the same reason, cheaper cloth- 

 ing and shelter, as well as less fuel, suffice, while it is pos- 

 sible to realize more perfectly the ideal of producing what 

 is consumed. Moreover, it is a natural field for the ap- 

 plication of associative industry and the growth of the 

 highest social conditions. Indeed, the country has dis- 

 tinctly failed as a land of big things, and achieved its 

 best successes in the opposite direction. Its true and 

 final greatness will consist of the aggregate of small 

 things of small estates, of small enterprises, of small 

 fortunes. Progress towards this end is already well be- 

 gun. It must go on until the last great estate is dis- 

 membered and the last alien serf is returned to the 

 Orient. Upon the ruins of the old system a better civili- 

 zation will arise. It will be the glory of the common 

 people, to whose labor and genius it will owe its exist- 

 ence. Its outreaching and beneficent influence will be 

 felt throughout the world. 



