124 PROCEEDINGS OP THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



our social and into our industrial life. That can be seen to be a little 

 bit out of proportion. 



I knew a section of California that was very rich, where a great many 

 Chinese were brought in— and I speak without feeling and without 

 deniagogisni, because on the farm where I grew up we employed many 

 Chinese. They were very affectionate and I recall, among my child- 

 hood memories, many tender recollections of that class of people; but 

 they are distinctly inferior ; they do the smaller things and they do the 

 humble things. I knew, as I said, one section of this State where those 

 men came in in great quantities, and the result was the boys and girls 

 of that country lived an easy life. They were not trained industrially. 

 They had high-minded notions of their quality and their class, and I 

 look back in sorrow to think of the grand old families that raised up 

 worthless and no-account sons and daughters. Now, we are in an emer- 

 gency. We brought those people in here as we would bring a lame man 

 who has a crutch, and afterwards you can not throw them off in a 

 moment. But when we are discussing a policy that we should enter on 

 permanently, over a long period, we must think of our relations to this 

 world. Now, a man is born here and is confronted with two serious 

 considerations. The first purpose, probably, of a man's life is the pur- 

 suit of happiness, but he must not lose sight of the fact that others are 

 to come after him ; and no act is performed wisely and justly and with 

 perfect honesty that is not done in light of the fact that you are a trus- 

 tee of the future ; and so, in considering whether or not we should enter 

 upon the introduction of a very large element that we can not assimi- 

 late, I think we should think considerably about it. I would rather see 

 this country built upon the basis of being the model community of the 

 world than to see it the richest community. I would rather see it built 

 upon a basis of quality than, of quantity. I look back with a whole lot of 

 regret to my boyhood and find how it has been modified in many cases ; 

 how it has been degraded by the course we have entered upon. The only 

 success that was pictured to us was that of making money, and quantity 

 in all instances was required and demanded in that case. A man had 

 to build a railroad, he had to erect a sawmill, he had to construct a line 

 of steamships ; we had to get the balance of trade right ; we had to get 

 an enlarged standing relation to the nations of the earth ; and the result 

 was that we demanded speed and we enforced speed, and we didn't put 

 any condition upon it, and now we have in this country a powerfully, 

 infinitely lofty structure of commercial enterprise, and we are commenc- 

 ing to realize that we did not build it soundly and we are experiencing 

 the first shocks of a moral earthquake that is just as sure to shake us 

 down to decent levels as the sun is to shine to-morrow; and I would like 

 to have that idea dominant in every one of our laws, the idea that we 

 are going to live to-morrow as well as to-day, and that whatever we do 



