Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-01-27
A SENSIBLE ARTICLE.

The subjoined extracts are from recent
article in the Sacramento Bee. Those of
our readers who will peruse the article
will be struck with its force, and will
perceive that it applies still more forcibly
to the condition of things in Nevada than
to California:
The truth is, trading, in all its branches,
has been greatly overdone in TINS otate.
The tendency has been to rush into occu-
pations which produce nothing, ana OF
course add nothing to the general wealth.
A large proportion of the populatlon-too
large, by far, for the prosperity OF the
State, occupies the position of middle-men'
those who stand between the producer
and consumer, and seek to make fortunes
by passing to and fro the articles when
are produced by one class and consumed
by another. Every one who has little
money seems to think that the easiest me-
thod Of making living is to open shop
of some sort-a dry goods, vegetable, FRUIT
meat, or liquor shop-and this idea has
been pushed to such an extent that at
least every fourth, or at the farthest fifth
person in the State depends solely upon
barter of some kind for livelihood. Four
or five customers for each one depending
upon the profits of trade for livelihood !
Is it a wonder that trade is dull F?
We do not over-color the picture in the
least. In San Francisco there are 1873
principals who occupy the position OF
ii L. &c N aQfp IN
say, counting the families, that for every
principal engaged in trading there are at
least six persons dependent upon the bust
ness for living, making in that city alone
2O,274 people dependent upon trade such
as dry goods, liquors, groceries, hardware,
provisions, etc. Added to these are 4,370
principals who are lawyers, doctors, hotel
keepers, dray and hackmen, etc., who dl-
rectly and indirectly trade upon the ne
cessities and troubles of the people. The
families of these principals and their en-
ployees, all dependent upon their trade
alone, will swell up total of 26, 2SO per-
sons-which, added to the class first
mentioned, makes 1864 persons in that
city directly dependent upon the business
| OF mluule-lleIl lOI suPPOAI' AHA9S "A1"
out counting those who live by gambling
and various other means by which moth
ing is produced in any shape, we find that
near one-half of the people of San Fran
cisco occupy the position of middle-men.
In this respect every town and city in this
State is an exact reflex of San Francisco.
Is the fact that times are dull to be won
dered at: How can business be prosper
Gus with people who do nothing but
swap jack-knives and shave each others
notes, and who, by following up such
business allow the real wealth of the
country to slip out of it, as it did last year
to the tune of fourteen millions Of dollars
. There are too many sellers
for the buyers, more shops than customers
Dull trade will be the rule so long as the
business of trading is overdone as it is at
present, and has been for the last five
years. The sooner those directly interest
ed in this sort of business open their eyes
to this fact the better for their own in
terest and for the State. We must have
more farmers, more miners, more manu-
facturers, before the class engaged in trad
ing can see their business improved.