Georgetown weekly news., 1854-10-26
Monopoly VS.. Immigration.

/ 1t is well known that the rates of fare, as
now established between California and the
Atlantic States by the Combination of
Ocean Steamers, is far above handsome
profit, and consequently injurious to Cali
fornia and California immigration. Com
binations are advantageous to community
and to Themselves, only so far as that combi-
nation enables the party thus united, to benz
eft community by good accommodations
and low rates of charges. Wherever ad-
vantage is taken by such union, to bleed
the public to the tune of millions, then we
think it high time for the people to say,
/" thus far shalt thou 60 and no farther"
In the San Francisco Evening Journal
we find the following very sensible editorial
on this subject, giving the effect upon i'm
migration which such enormous charges re-
suit in. Below we extract from the Jour-
nal, which says:
1--WE have noticed in different papers, the
question has been asked, whether orno some
means cannot be devised for inducing emf
grafton hitherward. In the Eastern States
we observe that societies have been organ
lied for the purpose of directing and en-
cOuraging emigration to a certain quarter.
and the happiest results are likely to follow
the movement. There are people enough
in the cold and bleak North and East. who
would gladly emigrate to more genial
cline, were it within their means. The en-
igration society, by means of associated
capital, enables many to move to warmer
climate and more productive soil, who were
previously unable to do 50.
What California now wants is popula-
ton We have everything else that can be
desired; but without population we cannot
improve The State is able to support
twenty times the present population, and
then it would be the best country to live in
and make money that exists in the known
world.
How shall we get the population AS
matters now are, very few families can come
to California from the Eastern States, and
less of the class we most need. We need
mechanics and Intelligent working men of
small means. We have lawyers, doctors and
/ tradesmen enough now We want small
farmers and artisans who compose the mid
die class, and comprise the most Of the in
telligence and nearly all the virtue and mo-
raiity Of every country. And we say it is
impossible for such people to come here. A
man from that class with family of four,
five or six children is not usually worth
more than two or three thousand dollars :;
and no sane man will sell out his house in
the East, to be set down with bis family in
California, and not dollar wherewith to
provide for them.
Our immigrants, then, so long as the pres
ent high price of passage continues, will Ell
ther be those who come and leave their fam
lies behind them, intending to return to
them in year or two or they will be ad-
ventUers without families, or else they will
be tradesmen or professional men. Mer-
chants and lawyers can live in our cities
with their families. In the first place they
have the ability to bring them here, and
when here it is in the power of almost ev-
cry one to live cheap and well But if a
man leaves his little farm in New Y ork and
New England, and comes out here and
works hard, and accumulateS two or three
thousand dollars, he may 90 home to his
wife and children to enjoy it, but he must
not think to bring them out here. If he
does, he will have nothing left by the time
they arrive; and so he puts back with his
dust, and California is little better for his
having been here We have long seen and
felt the want of this population, and while
the opposition was continued on the differ
ent lines Of steamers, there was some en-
couragementfOr for them to come: They could
Get here, some of them, at least without be-
ing stripped of everything. But the COM
bnation will stop them entirely. There
will be none of the most needed population
coming across the isthmus, so long as the
present rates are kept up. The combina-
ton is directly against the welfare of Cali
fornia. And our people here, our mer-
chants ants and others complain that bust
ness is dull. 1t will be dull till the tide of
emigration sets hitherward
1t then behoOves them to break down
the monopoly. The steamer companies have
consplred to break down business in Califor-
MIA. VIII our business men submit to it?
1t would be matter Of policy for them to
start an Independent line, and bring out the
right kind Of families gratis, rather than to
allow themselves to berestricted to the pres
ent limited population.
We shall follow up this subject to-mor-
row, and endeavor to show how great are
the inducements here to emigrants, if emf
grafton was only within their means.
A HERoINE.-Mrs. Jane Elwell, the lady