452 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
the white and the yellow Chinamen out of the country to- 
gether, and obtain white, permanent Californians in their stead, 
I, for one, shall be heartily in favor of it. ‘California for per- 
manent Californians,” is the proper motto for every faithful 
citizen of this state. We must have a political war; the per- 
manent Californians must conquer the rovers, and compel them 
to settle down or leave. The great question is not whether 
we shall produce much gold or little; it if whether we shall 
have social and industrial order or disorder, which is equiva- 
lent to the question of the permanency or vagrancy of the 
population. I am confident in the belief that the sale of the 
mineral lands would cause a considerable increase of our gold- 
yield; but no matter how great a decrease might ensue, state 
»olicy requires that the sale should be made, in any case. The 
gold now dug does little benefit to California; it slips through, 
like water through a sieve; and serves only to attract the 
vagrants who visit the state merely to despoil it. All the 
money under heaven will not pay for maintaining a system 
under which three-fourths of the people of a large district 
are vagrants, that is, rovers, and where six-sevenths gre men. 
It is not unreasonable to assume, that if the present system 
of mining titles be maintained, there will be very slow change 
for the better in the vagrancy of the miners and the inequality 
of the sexes during the next ten years; and I do not hesitate 
to say that, rather than the present state of affairs should con- 
tinue, the state government should take effective measures to 
put a sudden end to all gold mining in the state, by declaring 
it a felony, and making it punishable by severe penalties, so 
that thereafter the people of California would turn their atten- 
tion to such pursuits as farming, horticulture, and stock-raising, 
which contribute to the lasting profit of the state as well as 
the temporary profit of individuals. 
California may be compared to a maiden who has been reared 
to love the paths of purity and peace, but who has been intro- 
duced of late into a corrupt society, and is now surrounded by 
men who wish to dishonor her—enjoy her for a short time, 
