The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-05-23
THE MINNESOTA PIONEER
st. Paul, tillnnssota,
Thursday Morning. May %, 1850.
THE CALIFORNIA MAELsTROM.

eHSCtS upon our tSflitoTN, ouf country,
the whole world, which is novel, grand,
and startling +; and which, If we were
not carried along with it, SO as thereby
. to be less sensible OF the tendency and
progress Of things, would fill us with
Amusement. The whole world, civilized
and savage, is circling around Calitor-
MIA. There is new axis, new cen
fripetal point forming in the monetary
system. There is not farmer, not a
mechanic, not peasant In the remotest
= corner of the globe, whose interests are
not reached and whose fortunes are not
influenced by this new magnetism Of
larizing all things that have value on
earth
If, suddenly. an immense water spout
were seen to arch the heavens, drawing
up the water of Lake Superior and dis
charging it in the Mississippi river, dis
charging that great reservoir, until
Sault ST. Marie should look down a
thousand feet into its awful chasms, the
effect would be as nothing compared
with the draSi upon the wealth, the in
dustrv, and the slowly accumulated cap
ital of the Atlantic side of this CONT
hent, into the basin Of the Pacific be-
yond the Sierra Nevada.
The laws of supply and demand are
disturbed the proportions Of labor and
capital and the relative value of things
rs unsettled and uncertain, and the
means Of production are lost TO US AL
though money is scarce aud interes,
high, prices arc advancing, which is
quite an anomalous fact. We mainly
account for this singular fact thus that
there has been created here, by the
California drain, not merely djSpr0por-
Jon between money and other personal
property, for that IS common evil and
will speedily correct itself; bat an ac-
tuaI loss o. rithdracql, both of money
and OF personal property, and of labor
of all the elements Of wealth but land
and OF all that makes even land a pro-
ductive element of wealth If we look
around us for gram, for cattle, for wag-
ons, for labor, We find them gone-moy-
ing Off In "A mighty current towards the
Pacific, and with them is also swept
away o. least an equal proportion of the
money of the country. In fact, We are
equally impoverished by the subtraction
of wealth from the country, whether in
one form or another, unless it finds
channel back again. We have hereto
fore been enriched by the depletion of
the immigrating wealth and population
Of Europe. Ne are now in our turn
suffering in the same way that Europe
has suffered The West has cast its
bread upon the waters Of the Pacific
If that bread returns, it viii be after
many days but then it will return, or a
part of ii, after many days. 1t may be
driven around Cape Horn, but the laws
of political economy will bring it back,
after much time. How much might its
return be fastened by the immediate
construction of railroad to the Pacific
ocean Open way for the trade of
the Mississippi to supply California with
bread, annihilate the space between us.
c!eave down the Sierra Nevada TO its
base, TO let our supplies through to that
market, and all the wealth and industry
which the West has loaned to the Pa
ciic shore would be loaned at good
interest, and not lost.
Without this, In what form will our
"bread return to u.s." We are not vet
at the bottom Of this revul:on; but we
hope bankruptcy Is not yet beneath us.
Much Of the capital which has been
loaned TO the emigrants for California. |
will be RENTED by those who have bor-
rowed j. although we profess to have
but little faith in the force of pecuniary
obligations resting upon men who are so
far removed and so infatuated by the |
''sacra famcs auri." But then the I
stronger ties of relationship and pater-
nal affection viii prompt many to make .
remittanccs to their families and rela-
lives. Many will return with their dearly
earned dust, while more will "return in |
sorrow to the dust from whence - all |
come. Before much relief comes in this /
way, property, real estate, will be here I
depressed to still lower rate-so de-
pressed as to draw in the speculative |
capital Of the eastern cities, to make in
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