804 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
CHAPTER IX. 
OTHER BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. 
§ 227. High Wages.—There are two great difficulties in the 
way of the productive industry of California, the high prices 
of labor and the high rates of interest. These may be bless- 
ings to certain classes of individuals, and perhaps even to the 
population generally, but they render it impossible for Califor- 
nia to compete with foreign manufacturers in many branches 
of employment. The great distance of our state from Europe 
and Atlantic ports—San Francisco is about nineteen thousand 
miles from New York, by the route followed by the sailing 
vessels ordinarily—and the high freight on merchandise, is a 
great protection to our home industry, and the Federal tariff 
gives us a further protection on many articles; but neverthe- 
less, a large proportion of the manufactured goods consumed 
here are imported from abroad, and probably will be for many 
years to come. We have no secondary coal in the state, and 
cannot expect to smelt iron ore, or to make cutlery or fine 
articles of hardware. Some cotton is produced on the shores 
ef China and is now shipped to England; perhaps we may at 
some future day be able to import it raw and manufacture it 
here, but of this there is no certainty. We cannot hope to 
obtain much cotton from this side of the Pacific, for the west- 
ern slope of the North American continent is not suited to 
cotton growing. Now coal, iron, and cotton are the raw ma- 
terial for a large share of the most profitable manufactures of 
our age. We shall produce a large quantity of fine wool, and* 
it will in time be spun and woven here with a profit. Lum- 
ber is so bulky that !t c:rnot wall be imported from abroad, 
