The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-06-19
EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA AND
TENAS COMPARED.

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| EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA AND
TEXAS COMPARED.
Some time ago the Memphis Appeal
uublishcd several articles, editorial
and communicated, on the subject oi
,cmigration to California, taking strong
grounds against the popular laila'Y
that |, Is the land of promise to south
ern men ruined by the war. This, OF
course, aroused the wrath of Cnlilor-
mans, and denial and denunciation
rnined hot and furious upon The head
of the editor of the Appeal.
The writer of this, before the war,
spent two years in California, and has
visited that state twice since the COM
pletion of the Pacific railroad, remain
ing there more than three months on
each occasion. His opinion cores
ponds, in the main, with that eX-
pressed by the Appeal. For men with
considerable capital, there is no doi!bt
that California presents fair field Tor
enterprise, but for those whose capital
consists in bone and muscle, no matter
how well they may be fortified by IN
tegrity, industry and energy, emphati-
caIly it is not the place. This was, OF
course, not true of that country at an
early day, when gold, by the mil
lions, was being found in the
ravines and gulches of the Sierra Ne
vada. Then muscle and perseverance
won; and many of the richest men of
California to-day got their first start in
the mines. But those golden days
have passed, aud that precious metal
is now the product of vast capital in
the hands of corporations. In silver
mining, of course, there is no field for
the man OF small means, except ns n
common laboref, ami so overstocked is
the labor market, that the hardest spe-
cies of work ever performed hy man,
that of II miner, il very inade4nately
paid.
As fur agriculture, there is no doubt
that Il great dead of money il made in
that emrloymcnt, hat rs in mining, 1t
reuuirrs IL lDrgc capital to render 1t
profitable, and then il is confined to
n single production-wheat. The pc
ciliarity of the climate is such that
there can be hut little diversity of
crops. From April. to November, the
earth is never refreshed with y show
cr, and hence the production Of those
small crops which go to make the far
mer's home comfortable aud give him
an abundant and varied supply offoot,
are out OF the question, except where
he has the means of opening ditches for
artificial irrigation. In consequence Of
this state of things, agriculture, like
mining, is carried on almost exclusively
by capitalists and corporations. or
course, they give employment to large
mum Der of. .laborors, but the competition
of the multtudinous Chinese, and the
large white immigration, has reduced
wages to the minimum upon which an
able-bodied man, with good appetite,
can maintain himself. one failure of
southern emisIanls TO California, of
course, connot he regarded rs conclu-
sive as to the demerits of the country,
hut the writer of this heard of many
not unlike the following, which we
give upon the authority of Colonel Jack
Hays and other gentleman of standing
and veracity in Oakland and Stockton,
where the facts were well known:
a small colony of practical planters,
with just enough means to bring them
to the state, and enable them to make
the first payment on their land set
tied in 1866 or 1867, in The San Juachin
valley, some fifty or sixty miles south
east OF Stockton. For two consecu-
tive years their wheat crop had failed,
and in the fall of 1870, when we heard
this story, they were reduced almost to
II point of starvation, aud but for the
sympathy which their distressing con.
dition excited, they must have perished.
They were very anxious to return to
Alabama, but their poverty was such
that they were not able to do so.
In San Francisco there is an associa-
ton of benevolent ladies and gentle
men who, without fee or reward, make
it their business to find places for the
unemployed. During our stay in that
city, in 1869 and 1870, we frequently
visited their offices. One large room
was appropriated to men, another to
women, and the attendance from S A.
NJ. to ! p. NJ, was enormous. 1t was
painful in the extreme to observe the
look of detection on the faces of those
who crowded the long benches, ranged
around the vast room devoted to
the men, waiting their turn to
speak with the agent, and to OBJ
serve the look of disappointment
aud hopelessness of those who had
had their unsuccessful interview and
were passing out. A visit to the
wonIen's room was still more painful.
There was touching pathos in the
pale faces and scant clothing of
the poor women and girls ranged
around the rooms, patiently wait
ing their turn to know their fate.
Sooner or later, the writer was told,
these benevolent ladies and gentlemen
found places for most of the women
and girls, who were willingto do house
work, but there were no places for
those who were either unwilling or un-
able to undergo such drudgery. AS for
the men, the agent told the writer that
they were unable to find employment
for not one in ten who applied.
In concluding an article, already
longer than our space justifies, we can
not forbear contrasting the barrenness
of the greater portion of California to
the teeming fertility of Texas. In all
the elements which go TO constitute
country Of prosperous farmers and
manufacturers, and upon the prosperi-
iy Of these classes depends the welfare
of a state, Texas is incomparably SUI
perior. IL is our firm conviction that
there is more productive capacity in
the lands of ten counties, within ra-
dius offifty miles of Dallas, than In the
xrIola cfata of California Here there is